UN Gazeti
Wednesday 08 August 2007
Issue No. 233
UN Observances
| 09 August |
International Day of the World’s Indigenous People |
| 12 August |
International Youth Day |
| 23 August |
International day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition |
UN IN KENYA
EASTERN AFRICA REGIONAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE (EARMUN) CLOSES
The Eastern Africa Regional Model United Nations (EARMUN) which opened its doors on 31 July 2007 closed officially on Friday 3 August 2007. The closing remarks were given by the Director of United Nations Information Centre, (UNIC Nairobi) Mr. Eric Falt.
The conference brought together over 200 delegates from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (with an additional delegation from UNA Norway). This year’s conference was a joint venture between The United Nations Youth Association of Kenya (UNYA), Youth of United Nations Association of Tanzania (YUNA), and United Nations Association of Uganda (UNAU).
EARMUN is a follow-up of the African Regional Model United Nations (ARMUN), organized by The World Federation of the United Nations Associations (WFUNA) at Stellenbosch, South Africa in September 2005.
For more information, visit: http://www.unicnairobi.org/
KENYA AMONG THE BENEFICIARY’S OF THE UN EMERGENCY FUND PROVIDES
The top United Nations humanitarian official on 1 August 2007 announced a grant of $40 million from the world body’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to provide life-saving support in 16 so-called forgotten crises around the world. “These grants will provide vital funding for people caught up in some of the world’s most neglected humanitarian crises,” said John Holmes, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and manager of the CERF. “By filling gaps in the international response we aim to ensure that assistance will reach those most in need.”
“These grants will provide vital funding for people caught up in some of the world’s most neglected humanitarian crises,” said John Holmes, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and manager of the CERF. “By filling gaps in the international response we aim to ensure that assistance will reach those most in need.”
For more information, visit: http://www.unicnairobi.org/
UN IN AFRICA
UN ‘HITTING THE TARGET’ TOWARDS DEPLOYMENT OF HYBRID PEACE FORCE IN DARFUR
The United Nations is on target to deploy a mainly African hybrid peace force in the war-wracked Sudanese region of Darfur on schedule, but needs more offers from countries on critical capacities such as aviation and ground transport, a senior UN peacekeeping official said yesterday.
Jane Holl Lute, acting head of the new Department of Field Support, told reporters that “we are hitting the target of a predominantly African force,” outlined in last week’s Security Council resolution authorizing the creation of the hybrid operation, to be known as UNAMID.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
TOP UN ENVOY CALLS FOR OPPOSITION GROUPS TO JOIN RECONCILIATION DEBATE
The United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Somalia François Lonsény Fall yesterday called on the war-ravaged East African nation’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to invite opposition groups to join the reconciliation meeting currently under way in the capital Mogadishu.
“We would like to see the stakeholders who renounce violence inside and outside the country take part in this process,” Mr. Fall said in an address to the National Reconciliation Congress.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN EXPERT REPORTS GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS BY ALL SIDES IN DARFUR
All parties to the Darfur conflict continue to carry out “gross violations” of human rights, including killings, disappearances, torture and sexual violence, an independent United Nations rights expert has reported after wrapping up her latest visit to Sudan.
Sima Samar, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Sudan, yesterday called for greater action to protect civilians in violence-wracked Darfur from breaches of international law.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
FLEEING CHADIANS SHOULD BE CLASSED AS REFUGEES, SAYS JOINT UN-SUDANESE REPORT
A joint report by the United Nations refugee agency and its Sudanese Government counterpart has recommended that the estimated 30,000 Chadians who have fled to neighbouring Darfur to escape a worsening security situation in their homeland be classified as refugees.
But the report also warned that anyone in that group who is an active or former combatant in the clashes in Chad should not be granted refugee status, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis said yesterday.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNICEF-BACKED PROGRAMME PROVIDES EGYPTIANS WITH CLEANER WATER
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation have joined forces to bolster access to improved water services for Egyptians in rural and urban areas.
Only a handful of 4,500 villages in Egypt have adequate waste water disposal systems or municipal solid waste management.
In many areas, the quality of water is undermined due to the dumping of inadequately treated domestic, agricultural and industrial wastes in waterways. As a result, water availability is reduced, Egyptians’ health is negatively impacted and ultimately the country’s economy suffers.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN MOBILIZES PROVINCIAL TOWN TO SUPPORT PEACE ACCORD IN CÔTE D’IVOIRE
Continuing its provincial forums in Côte d’Ivoire, the United Nations this weekend mobilized the inhabitants of Touba, the Bafing regional capital, to support the peace accord to reunite the West African country that has been split between the Government-controlled south and the Forces Nouvelles-held north since 2002.
As with their compatriots elsewhere, the future of the country resides in their own hands, UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) spokesman Hamadoun Touré told an overflow crowd at the meeting, the first such event since last week’s “flame of peace” ceremony at which President Laurent Gbagbo and Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, the Forces Nouvelles leader, set fire to stockpiled weapons to officially launch the disarmament process.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SIERRA LEONE: UN WORKSHOP FOR POLICE OFFICERS FOCUSES ON GENDER, HUMAN RIGHTS
The United Nations in collaboration with Sierra Leone’s Government on 3rd July 2007. concluded a three-day workshop for national police officers covering gender issues, human rights, mediation and other topics aimed at ensuring next week’s parliamentary and presidential elections are free of violence in the formerly war-torn West African nation.
The workshop, which began on Wednesday, was attended by 40 female and 10 male mid-level police officers from the Republic of Sierra Leone Police (SLP) and also focused on such issues as crowd control, security and electoral laws ahead of the 11 August polls, the second since the country emerged in 2002 from a brutal decade-long civil war.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
STRONG SECURITY COUNCIL CONSENSUS TO HAVE EXPANDED UN ROLE IN IRAQ
There is strong consensus within the Security Council on an expanded United Nations role in Iraq, the world organization’s top political officer said yesterday, although he said security constraints imposed by the continuing conflict in the country would mean only a small increase in UN staff there.
“There was really quite a unanimous agreement in the Council itself on what the role of the UN should be,” Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe said after briefing the 15-member body, which was discussing a new resolution for the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG CONCERNED BY DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF SOUTH ASIA FLOODS
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed his deep sadness at the hundreds of lives lost and the millions affected by the recent floods in South Asia, and reaffirmed the readiness of the United Nations to assist the victims.
Mr. Ban “extends his condolences to the families of those who perished,” according to a statement issued by his spokesperson. “He is also concerned by the economic devastation faced by the survivors.”
The Secretary-General commended the “prompt and effective response” to the flooding by the affected countries – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN WARNS OF CRACKDOWN ON CRIMINAL ACTS IN TIMOR-LESTE
With sporadic fighting, rock throwing and tyre burning breaking out in Timor-Leste after the announcement of a new government, the top United Nations envoy in the small South-East Asian country warned yesterday that any political party supporters engaging in acts of violence would be treated as criminals and swiftly dealt with.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative Atul Khare met with the Secretary-General of the former ruling party Fretilin, Mari Alkatiri and, as in his meetings with other political leaders throughout the entire electoral process, requested his support in keeping the situation calm.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
JANUARY AND APRIL TEMPERATURES LIKELY WARMEST MONTHS EVER RECORDED
Global land surface temperatures for January and April will likely be ranked as the warmest since records began in 1880, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported yesterday, adding that it is working with its partners to set up a multi-hazard early warning system to tackle the extremes brought on by climate change, such as violent storms, floods and heatwaves.
“Weather and climate are marked by record extremes in many regions across the world since January 2007,” WMO said in its update, noting that global temperatures were 1.89°C warmer than average for January and 1.37°C warmer than average for April.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
CLIMATE CHANGE COULD INTENSIFY HUNGER RISK IN DEVELOPING WORLD
Climate change could lead to potential food shortages and increase the risk of hunger in developing countries, the head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said yesterday.
However, industrialized countries could see an increase in their crop yields, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said in a speech in Chennai, India.
“Crop yield potential is likely to increase at higher latitudes for global average temperature increases of up to 1 to 3°C depending on the crop, and then decrease beyond that,” he said.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UKRAINE AGREES TO ENFORCE SENTENCES IMPOSED BY UN WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL
Ukraine yesterday became the 12th European country to agree to enforce a sentence imposed by the United Nations war crimes tribunal that was set up to deal with the worst crimes committed during the Balkan wars in the 1990s.
Anyone convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and given a jail term can now serve that sentence in a Ukrainian prison after an agreement was signed in The Hague, where the Tribunal is based.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
FLOOD RELIEF EFFORTS IN SOUTH ASIA ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ TEST FOR AID AGENCIES
As monsoon rains continue to pound South Asia, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that the sheer size and scale of the resulting floods, as well as the massive numbers of people affected, poses an “unprecedented challenge” for governments and aid agencies in their relief efforts.
The UN estimates that some 20 million people are believed to be affected in India, Nepal and Bangladesh in what is being described as the “worst flooding in living memory.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
For more information on the United Nations and its activities, please visit the main U.N website at www.un.org or the U.N Kenya website at www.un-kenya.org |
