UN Gazeti
Wednesday 11 July 2007
Issue No. 229
UN Observances
| 07 July |
International Day of Co-operatives |
| 11 July |
World Population Day |
UN IN KENYA
TOP FORD FOUNDATION OFFICIAL VISITS UN-HABITAT AWARD WINNERS
The President of the Ford Foundation, Susan Berresford last week visited the Nairobi slum of Korogocho, one of the most deprived low income settlements in East Africa, for a first-hand review of a project that recently won a top UN-HABITAT award. Ms. Berresford and the trustees were appraised on the activities of the People United for a New Korogoch whose poverty alleviation work won the 2006 Mashariki Award for innovations in local governance.
The awards programme, established in 2002 by UN-HABITAT with the support of the Ford Foundation, aims to showcase and reward projects in East Africa that address locally felt needs by involving those most in need. The team led by Ms. Beresford was shown an special school with a unit that caters for children with learning disabilities, a library, the community gym and the a dumpsite all designed to improve living conditions.
Other components of the programmes run by People United for a New Korogocho include joint activities with the Kenya National Human Rights Commission, the Sarakasi Trust Young Acrobats Outreach Program, a children's project and the African Population and Health Reseach Centre which conducts demographic surveys in the area.
For more information, visit: http://www.unhabitat.org/
UN IN AFRICA
ATTACKS ON AID WORKERS IN DARFUR THREATENING RELIEF EFFORTS
The United Nations humanitarian chief warned yesterday that increasing attacks on aid workers in Darfur are jeopardizing relief efforts, and called for an immediate end to violence in the strife-torn region of Sudan.
“Every day, more people need our help, yet humanitarian colleagues are under increasing threat from all sides,” said John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.
Despite repeated appeals from UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Darfur, continuing violence and targeting of civilians have displaced nearly 160,000 people so far this year, pushing the total number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to 2.1 million, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
DRUG TRAFFICKING IN GUINEA-BISSAU ALARMS SECURITY COUNCIL
Voicing concern about the “alarming increase in organized crime, drug trafficking and the proliferation of illicit small arms in Guinea-Bissau,” the Security Council yesterday called on the international community to step up its efforts to bolster the security institutions of the small African country.
In a statement read to reporters by Ambassador Wang Guangya of China, which this month holds the Council’s revolving presidency, the 15-member body said it was disturbed by the continuing deterioration of Guinea-Bissau’s socio-economic and financial situation.
The press statement comes as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his most recent report on the activities of the UN Peacebuilding Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS), described organized crime, particularly drug trafficking, as presenting “a new and growing” problem in the country.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
DRC: UN ENVOY DEPLORES MURDER OF POLITICIAN IN VOLATILE EAST
The senior United Nations envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has condemned Monday’s murder of a local politician in the far east of the country, saying it seems to be part of an emerging pattern of assassinations of political and business leaders in that region of the vast nation.
The body of Floribert Bwana Chuy Bin Kositi, the provincial secretary of the Congolese Rally for Democracy political party, was found on Monday in Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, which borders Uganda and Rwanda.
William Lacy Swing, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the DRC, called the killing of Mr. Chuy Bin Kositi an “odious crime” that had occurred as efforts were being stepped up to bring lasting peace to North Kivu, one of the most volatile regions of the country.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN MEETING TO FOCUS ON STRENGTHENING COUNTER-TERRORISM EFFORTS IN WEST AFRICA
Sixteen West African countries are set to meet with donors at a United Nations-hosted meeting today to discuss a more targeted and regional approach to strengthening their ability to fight terrorism both within their borders and across the region.
The day-long meeting in New York will give participants a chance to discuss the challenges faced by countries in putting into practice the various Security Council counter-terrorism resolutions, particularly resolution 1373 (2001) which calls on countries to adopt a series of counter-terrorism measures in their national legislation, and by providers which deliver counter-terrorism related technical assistance.
Organized by the Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee’s Executive Directorate (CTED), the meeting also aims to encourage the implementation of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the General Assembly in September 2006.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN RUSHES AID TO THOUSANDS IN FLOOD-STRICKEN NORTHERN SUDAN
The United Nations is rushing vital emergency supplies – including plastic sheeting, blankets, cooking sets, jerry cans, sleeping mats and mosquito nets – to thousands of people affected by flooding in northern Sudan.
Government efforts to respond to the floods have been bolstered by the Common Pipeline system, which is an operation managed by the UN Joint Logistics Centre with support from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the non-governmental organization (NGO) CARE.
Approximately 1,000 families in Kosti in White Nile state have received relief aid, while supplies have been delivered to 85 households in Geissan in Blue Nile state with assistance from local authorities and the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SOMALIA: UN AGENCIES URGE END TO PIRACY
Piracy off the cost of Somalia is threatening commercial shipping and fishing while impeding the delivery of humanitarian assistance to hundreds of thousands of Somalis, the heads of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) said jointly yesterday in an appeal for action to halt the practice.
Since the collapse of the last national government in the East African country in 1991, delivering supplies by sea has been a logistical and security challenge, with a rise in the frequency of pirate attacks resulting in higher shipping costs and a significant reduction in the number of cargo vessels in the water.
“Close to 80 per cent of WFP’s assistance to Somalia is shipped by sea but, because of piracy, we have seen the availability of ships willing to carry food to the country cut by half,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
SG URGES IMMEDIATE AND EFFECTIVE ACTION TO AID PLIGHT OF MIGRANTS
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday urged immediate and effective action to aid the plight of the world’s 200 million migrants, characterizing the phenomenon of migration as “one of the great global challenges of our century.”
“We can ensure that people move in a way that is safe and legal, and which protects their rights,” Mr. Ban said in his address to the inaugural Global Forum on Migration and Development in Brussels, Belgium.
“We can work to strengthen the positive impact of migration on the development of migrants’ home countries. We can encourage destination countries to promote the success of migrants, both in their original and their adopted homes.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
TOP UN ENVOY CONDEMNS SUICIDE BLAST IN AFGHANISTAN
The senior United Nations envoy to Afghanistan has expressed his outrage over yesterday’s terrorist attack in Uruzgan province resulting in several deaths and injuries, stating that such utter disregard for innocent lives is “staggering” and makes a “mockery” of recent statements indicating concern for the safety of civilians.
“In no culture, no country, and no religion is there any excuse or justification for mass murder,” Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs, said in a statement.
Mr. Koenigs, who is also head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), added that yesterday’s incident underscores UNAMA’s deep concern about the use of suicide attacks.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
LEBANESE-ISRAELI PEACE THREATENED BY REPEATED ATTACKS – SG
Lebanon is mired in a debilitating political crisis, facing continuing attacks aimed at undermining its sovereignty and territorial integrity, which makes it harder to fully implement the Security Council resolution ending last year’s war between Israel and Hizbollah, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says.
In his latest report on the implementation of resolution 1701, Mr. Ban says the ongoing instability within Lebanon is limiting progress and posing “a direct challenge… to the stability of the country as a whole.”
He cites the fighting between Fatah al-Islam militants and Lebanese security forces at a Palestinian refugee camp, the worst internal fighting since the civil war ended in 1990; the series of explosions around Beirut, including that which killed a Lebanese parliamentarian and nine others; a bomb attack last month on a UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) convoy that killed six peacekeepers; and the firing of Katyusha rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
RISING ORGANIZED CRIME IN GUINEA-BISSAU ALARMS SECURITY COUNCIL
Voicing concern about the “alarming increase in organized crime, drug trafficking and the proliferation of illicit small arms in Guinea-Bissau,” the Security Council yesterday called on the international community to step up its efforts to bolster the security institutions of the small African country.
In a statement read to reporters by Ambassador Wang Guangya of China, which this month holds the Council’s revolving presidency, the 15-member body said it was disturbed by the continuing deterioration of Guinea-Bissau’s socio-economic and financial situation.
The press statement comes as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in his most recent report on the activities of the UN Peacebuilding Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS), described organized crime, particularly drug trafficking, as presenting “a new and growing” problem in the country.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
BORDER RESTRICTIONS HURTING GAZA’S ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY, UN OFFICIALS WARN
The continued closure or restrictions of border crossings is threatening the Gaza Strip’s economic sustainability, forcing most factories to close or operate at reduced capacity and depriving farmers of key export income, United Nations relief officials warned yesterday.
“We need to see all crossings at least as operational as they were before 9 June, or risk facing serious social, economic and humanitarian concerns,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said.
Israel has closed or restricted the handful of border crossings with the Gaza Strip since deadly intra-Palestinian violence – which has since subsided – erupted early last month. Some 1.4 million people live within Gaza’s 360-square-kilometre area.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN ENVOY URGES SECURITY COUNCIL TO ACT QUICKLY ON KOSOVO STATUS
The senior United Nations envoy to Kosovo yesterday urged the Security Council to quickly draw up a roadmap for determining the status of the province, which the world body has administered since NATO troops drove out Yugoslav forces amid inter-ethnic fighting in 1999.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative, Joachim Rücker, told the 15-member Council in a closed session that the time had come to provide “a roadmap, a timetable, to assure Kosovo’s two million inhabitants of where they are headed.”
He praised the achievements of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). “Out of a humanitarian crisis, an institutional breakdown, and a complete security vacuum in 1999, UNMIK has put in place very firmly, together with its international and local partners, the foundations for a functioning democracy, a functioning rule of law sector and a functioning market economy,” he said.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
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