UN Gazeti
Wednesday 10 September 2008
Issue No. 280
UN Observances
| 16 September |
International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer |
| 21 September |
International Peace Day |
| 1 October |
World Habitat Day |
UN IN AFRICA
DSG CALLS FOR PRACTICAL IDEAS IN FIGHT AGAINST HIV/AIDS IN AFRICA
Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro yesterday urged HIV/AIDS experts to focus their efforts on studies leading to practical conclusions that directly contribute to the fight against the lethal disease in Africa, at a United Nations-sponsored academic seminar.
Ms. Migiro noted that the pandemic is eroding the gains in economic development across the continent, where some 1.6 million died from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in 2007 alone and over 22 million are living with HIV.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
DEADLY VIRUS THREATENING LIVESTOCK IN MOROCCO, WARNS UN AGENCY
A deadly viral disease is threatening to kill millions of sheep and goats in Morocco, endangering the local economy and neighbouring countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned yesterday.
FAO is helping Morocco deal with the outbreak of peste des petits ruminants (PPR), which is a highly contagious disease among domestic goats and sheep and transmitted through close contact.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
TOP UN OFFICIAL IN SUDAN HAILS PROGRESS IN DISARMAMENT PROCESS
The top United Nations envoy to Sudan yesterday praised the progress made in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process in the war-torn country, the most complex and largest operation of its type in the world.
Speaking in the capital Khartoum, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi – the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan – saluted the moves made towards achieving the key benchmarks of the DDR programme.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNICEF BOOSTS EFFORTS TO TACKLE DEADLY CHOLERA EPIDEMIC IN GUINEA-BISSAU
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has stepped up its efforts to control an especially virulent outbreak of cholera in Guinea-Bissau, where at least 96 people have died since mid-May and almost 300 new cases were reported in just two days last week.
The agency, which was been working with officials from the national health ministry since the outbreak began, has drafted staff from neighbouring Guinea to assist its existing cholera crisis team, according to an update issued by UNICEF on Friday.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
FOOD SECURITY IN DROUGHT-STRICKEN ETHIOPIA AT ALARMING LEVELS, WARNS UN
The food security situation in Ethiopia has deteriorated to alarming levels in the wake of drought conditions throughout much of the Horn of Africa country, and relief agencies are grappling with shortages of supplies, the United Nations warned on Monday.
Some 4.6 million people in Ethiopia are need of food aid due to a combination of drought and high food prices, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
KIGALI MEETING FOCUSES ON HELPING WORLD’S POOREST STATES BOOST INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY
Representatives of governments, United Nations agencies, financial institutions and donors have assembled in Kigali to discuss how to help the world’s least developed countries (LDCs) to build up their capacity in the fields of trade and industrial development.
The two-day workshop that began on Monday in the Rwandan capital is organized by the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in close collaboration with the World Trade Organization (WTO).
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN ACADEMIC SEMINAR TO PROVIDE IDEAS TO HALT HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC IN AFRICA
The United Nations University (UNU) plans to hold a one-day HIV/AIDS seminar tomorrow, aimed at helping international academic institutions conduct research that could lead to halting the epidemic’s devastating trail across Africa.
“As you know an estimated 25 million people on Monday in Africa are infected by HIV/AIDS,” said David Sahn, International Professor of Economics at Cornell University.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN PEACEKEEPERS PREVENT REBEL ADVANCES IN VOLATILE NORTH KIVU
United Nations peacekeepers on Monday stepped up their efforts to prevent a militia operating in the far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from taking a key town in North Kivu province, the scene of renewed deadly fighting between Government forces and rebels.
Blue helmets fired warning shots this morning to armed militiamen from the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) in the vicinity of the town of Nyanzale, according to a press release from the UN mission to the DRC, known as MONUC.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN AROUND THE WORLD
PRACTICAL STEPS NEEDED TO HELP VICTIMS OF TERRORISM, SG SAYS
United Nations Member States must take practical steps to implement their commitments to promote and protect the rights of terrorism victims so that they can help create a global culture against the scourge, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a historic forum yesterday.
Speaking at UN Headquarters in New York before the Secretary-General’s Symposium on Supporting Victims of Terrorism, the first event of its kind, Mr. Ban stressed that terrorism is a global phenomenon, capable of striking at any ethnic, religious or national group.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG VOICES ALARM AT INCREASED VIOLENCE IN NORTHERN SRI LANKA
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday expressed deep concern over escalating violence in northern Sri Lanka and the humanitarian impact of the clashes on civilians.
The South Asian nation’s Government has requested that United Nations relief workers relocate from areas witnessing conflict. In a statement, Mr. Ban “reminds all concerned of their responsibility to take active steps to ensure the safety and freedom of movement of civilians, allowing humanitarian organizations to do their work in safety, as well as to reach persons affected by the fighting who need humanitarian assistance.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
MINIMAL PROGRESS SO FAR IN BOLSTERING LEBANON’S BORDERS, UN REPORT FINDS
Progress in fortifying Lebanon’s border with Syria has been minimal, the independent United Nations team assessing the monitoring of the boundary said in a new report made public yesterday.
The new study is based on the second mission in July of the Lebanon Independent Border Assessment Team (LIBAT), set up in April 2007 in response to a request from the Security Council.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UNOCHA PREPARES TO LAUNCH APPEAL TO FUND HURRICANE RELIEF EFFORTS IN HAITI
United Nations humanitarian officials are preparing to launch an appeal to help fund relief efforts in Haiti, one of several Caribbean countries reeling from the impact of four deadly hurricanes in less than a month.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes announced yesterday that an appeal is being finalized because the combined effects of the disasters – hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna and now Ike have struck the region since mid-August – has overwhelmed the capacity of local countries’ rescue and relief efforts
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
TOP UN ENVOY TO IRAQ HOLDS TALKS WITH SENIOR OFFICIALS IN NEIGHBOURING IRAN
The top United Nations representative in Iraq is visiting Tehran yesterday for consultations with senior officials in the Iranian Government as part of his efforts to promote regional dialogue.
Staffan de Mistura, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq, is scheduled to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, according to a UN spokesperson.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
SG APPROVES $10 MILLION FROM UN PEACEBUILDING FUND FOR NEPAL
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has approved $10 million in assistance to Nepal from the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, established two years ago to help countries emerging from conflict consolidate their gains and avoid slipping back into bloodshed.
After Mr. Ban declared Nepal – which is rebuilding after the curtain fell in 2006 on its civil war which claimed over 13,000 lives – eligible for aid last December, nearly two dozen UN agencies and other partners reviewed how the world body can help tackle challenges that lie ahead.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
CALMER WEATHER HAS LED TO RISE IN HUMAN SMUGGLING ACROSS GULF OF ADEN
The United Nations refugee agency said the number of people crossing from the Horn of Africa to Yemen in August was three times the number of arrivals for the same month last year, as smuggling resumed earlier than usual due to calmer weather in the Gulf of Aden.
A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said 59 boats brought more than 1,700 people to the coasts of Yemen last month.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
UN-BACKED PROBE OF ILLEGAL ARMED GROUPS IN GUATEMALA ISSUES FIRST REPORT
The independent body set up with United Nations help to investigate the activities of illegal armed groups in Guatemala has presented its first report, finding that clandestine criminal elements have become “encrusted” in State institutions in the Central American country.
The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, known by its Spanish initials as CICIG, said that while the Government had started “an important effort” to clean out the security forces and public prosecution office, too few successful prosecutions have so far been made against criminal elements.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
CHILDREN BECOMING INCREASINGLY VULNERABLE IN CONFLICT SITUATIONS
The changing nature of warfare around the world has meant that more and more children are being used in conflict situations, a senior United Nations child advocate said yesterday, urging that greater action be taken to protect the rights of young people.
“The main challenge we face for children and armed conflict lies in the changing nature of warfare where civilian life is far less protected,” Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, told the Human Rights Council yesterday in Geneva.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
THAI PRINCESS BECOMES GOODWILL AMBASSADOR FOR UNIFEM
Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol of Thailand has joined the United Nations “Say No to Violence against Women” at a ceremony to mark her designation as a Goodwill Ambassador in Thailand for the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
Princess Bajrakitiyabha – a doctoral graduate in law from Cornell University and an Assistant Public Prosecutor in Thailand – handed out “Say No” cards at the ceremony in Bangkok on Friday, attended by ministers, senior Government officials, dignitaries and representatives from civil society.
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
NEW UN RIGHTS CHIEF STRESSES NEED TO TACKLE DISCRIMINATION, PREVENT GENOCIDE
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Monday stressed the need to address discrimination and inequality, and to do more to prevent genocide, in her first major speech since taking up her new post.
“Genocide is the ultimate form of discrimination,” Navanethem Pillay told delegates at the opening of the ninth session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. “We must all do everything in our power to prevent it.”
For more information, visit: http://www.un.org/news
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