EGYPT’S USE OF ‘LETHAL FORCE’ AGAINST MIGRANTS IN SINAI CONDEMNED
Egyptian-Israeli border fence: near here,
asylum-seekers cross into Israel nearly
every night seeking refuge
With dozens of unarmed migrants attempting to enter Israel via the Sinai Desert having been killed since mid-2007 by Egyptian security forces, the top UN human rights official called on the nation’s government to call an end to the “deplorable” use of “lethal force,” the UN News reported (2/3/10)
High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stressed the need for an urgent independent inquiry into the killings of some 60 people – and the wounding and disappearance of dozens more – on the Egyptian side of its Sinai border with Israel since summer 2007, when the two countries agreed to bolster border controls.
“While migrants often lose their lives accidentally while travelling in over-crowded boats, or trying to cross remote land borders, I know of no other country where so many unarmed migrants and asylum-seekers appear to have been deliberately killed in this way by Government forces,” she said.
“It is a deplorable state of affairs, and the sheer number of victims suggests that at least some Egyptian security officials have been operating a shoot-to-kill policy. It is unlikely that so many killings would occur otherwise. Sixty killings can hardly be an accident.”
The latest victim was killed over the weekend, the ninth reported fatal shooting of a foreign migrant in the Sinai during the opening months of 2010. The vast majority of those killed are from sub-Saharan Africa, in particular from Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia. REPORT: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33934&Cr=migrant&Cr1=
UN DEPLORES GADDAFI CALL FOR ANTI-SWISS ‘JIHAD’
A top UN official has condemned as "inadmissible" Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's call for a jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland, the BBC reported (28/2/10). "Such declarations on the part of the head of state are inadmissible in international relations," said Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the UN chief in Geneva.
Col Gaddafi criticised a Swiss vote against the building of minarets and urged Muslims to boycott the country. Libya and Switzerland are embroiled in a long-running diplomatic row.
The dispute dates back to 2008, when one of Mr Gaddafi's sons was arrested in Geneva, accused of assaulting two servants. A Swiss foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on the jihad call.
AUSTRALIA CHANGES ISRAEL VOTE IN UN
Australia softened its traditionally staunch support for Israel in the United Nations but denied this was linked to tensions over Israel's apparent use of forged Australian passports in an assassination in Dubai, The Age reported (1/3/10).
At a vote on Saturday (Melbourne time) in the UN General Assembly - where it has been one of Israel's strongest supporters - Australia abstained from a resolution demanding that Israel and the Hamas authorities in Gaza investigate possible war crimes during Israel's assault on Gaza in 2008.
Three months ago, Australia voted against a similar resolution which sought to endorse the Goldstone Report - a UN- sponsored paper that said there was evidence Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said, ''Our vote on the resolution was neither determined nor influenced by recent events. The Australian government always considers United Nations resolutions on a case-by-case basis and on their merits. Australia abstained on this resolution because, unlike previous resolutions, it did not endorse the Goldstone Report.''
REPORT: http://www.theage.com.au/national/australia-changes-israel-vote-in-un-20100228-pb7m.html SEE ALSO Peace & security
TRAFFIC DEATHS: UN PROCLAIMS DECADE FOR ROAD SAFETY
Half of road fatalities each year are
pedestrians, bicyclists, and people
on motorcycles
The UN General Assembly this week proclaimed the period from 2011 to 2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety to spur national and global efforts to halt or reverse the increasing trend in road traffic deaths and injuries around the world, the UN News reported (2/3/10).
In the resolution adopted on Tuesday, the 192-member body also requested the World Health Organization (WHO), in cooperation with other partners, to prepare a plan of action to guide efforts during the decade, which was called for during the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, in Moscow last year.
“This decade is long overdue,” Dr Etienne Krug, Director of WHO’s Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability, said in New York.
Some 1.3 million people die every year around the world from road traffic crashes, but half of those people are pedestrians, bicyclists, people on motorcycles, or what Dr Krug called “vulnerable road users – people who very often are not even able to afford a car but are the victims of car crashes.”
In addition to the death toll, between 20 and 50 million people sustain non-fatal injuries every year from road traffic accidents, and road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among young people aged between 15 and 44.
According to the Global Status Report on Road Safety, released last June, road traffic injuries remain an important public health problem, particularly for low-income and middle-income countries. The first broad assessment of the road safety situation in 178 countries also showed that significantly more action is needed to make the world’s roads safer.
Dr Krug noted that the report also found that only 15 per cent of countries have the right legislation in place to address some of the key risk factors, which include drunk driving, excessive speed and the non-use of seatbelts and motorcycle helmets. He was confident that the decade “is not just going to be words on paper,” but will be a catalyst to bring together the energy of national and international actors to increase action on road safety, as well as improving road infrastructure, vehicle safety, the behaviour of road users and trauma care.
CHINA SEEKS MORE DIPLOMACY OVER IRAN
China would like to see diplomatic efforts to address concerns over Iran's nuclear program intensify further before considering any increased sanctions. The US, EU and Russia have all voiced support for additional sanctions by the UN Security Council: BBC (2/3/10)/UN Wire.
FEMALE PEACEKEEPERS ARE ROLE MODELS IN LIBERIA
An all-female peacekeeping unit in Liberia has won praise for holding down the peace as well as serving as role models for Liberian women - many of whom have suffered as the victims of severe and systematised sexual assault. In addition to serving as trusted security figures, the Indian women of the unit have assisted local women with health care typically unavailable in Liberia: CNN (2/3/10)/UN Wire.
KARADZIC DEFENDS BOSNIAN SERB ‘HOLY’ CAUSE AT TRIAL
Former leader Radovan Karadzic, 64, has said the Serb cause in the Bosnian war was "just and holy" as he began his defence at his genocide trial at The Hague, the BBC reported (1/3/10).
Mr Karadzic, who led the Bosnian Serbs during the war in the 1990s, said the Serbs acted in self-defence after their peace plans were rejected. He insists he is innocent of all 11 charges from the 1992-95 Bosnian war, including genocide and war crimes.
"I will defend that nation of ours and their cause that is just and holy," Mr Karadzic said in translated comments at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Radovan Karadzic accused Bosnian Muslim forces of killing their own people in Sarajevo in order to engineer a western intervention against Bosnian Serbs, the London Guardian reported (2/3/10) .
On the second day of his opening statement to the tribunal, Mr Karadzic sought to rewrite the historical record on the 44- month siege of Sarajevo – the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare. Bosnian Serb forces encircled the city from 1992 to 1996, shelling it with artillery, mortars and anti-aircraft guns. It is estimated that almost 10,000 people, including more than 1,500 children, were killed. A further 56,000 were wounded.
One of the 11 indictments against Karadzic is for the siege, which he described as a "myth" aimed at drawing NATO into the conflict on the side of Bosnian Muslims.
REPORT: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/02/radovan-karadzic-siege-sarajevo-myth
FORMER BOSNIAN PRESIDENT ARRESTED
Former Bosnian president Ejup Ganic, 63, was arrested in London on Monday, on an extradition warrant from Serbia for alleged war crimes, police said.
The ABC reported (2/3/10) that Belgrade wants to try Dr Ganic, a Muslim member of Bosnia's presidency during the 1992- 95 war, and 18 other former Bosnian officials suspected of involvement in an attack on a Yugoslav army convoy in Sarajevo, as well as alleged incidents at a hospital and military barracks in the Bosnian capital.
Bosnia's inter-ethnic war between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs claimed some 100,000 lives. It left the country split into two semi-autonomous halves - the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serbs' Republika Srpska.
WOMEN AND GIRLS STILL NEED TO BE LIBERATED FROM POVERTY/INJUSTICE
More than a decade after world leaders agreed to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women, their empowerment remains a necessary element in attaining development targets, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said (3/3/10).
“Until women and girls are liberated from poverty and injustice, all our goals – peace, security, sustainable development – stand in jeopardy,” he said to the Commission on the Status of Women, as the UN marked International Women’s Day, observed annually on March 8.
This year is the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 – which remains the most comprehensive global policy framework to achieve the goals of gender equality, development and peace.
World leaders attending the summit in the Chinese capital declared that the full participation by women in all spheres of society, including the decision-making and access to power, are fundamental for development and peace.
REPORT:http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33954&Cr=gender+equality&Cr1=
WOMEN ‘POTENT FORCE FOR CHANGE - WE CAN CHANGE WORLD’ THERESE REIN
Three stories of women who are inspiring because they have made a huge difference to women in situations of great disadvantage were related by business woman Therese Rein, at a UNIFEM International Women’s Day breakfast in Brisbane on Thursday. Ms Rein is the wife of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
She spoke of the work of Australian Dr Catherine Hamlin at the Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia, which she and her late husband, Dr Reginald Hamlin founded, in 1974. Dr Hamlin, now in her nineties, continues her work there. Fistula problems make women outcasts unless treated. The hospital handles 9000 cases a year.
Ms Rein also spoke of another Australian woman, Gemma Sisia, from a NSW sheep farming family, who in northern Tanzania has set up a school in 2002 which educates many children from poor families. Gemma’s aim is to encourage as many children as possible to go on to university, with the possibility of them becoming future leaders. Ms Rein also described the work of a woman doctor, Dr K. Martin, in New Delhi, India, who first went there to help with a cholera outbreak. She had to begin treating patients standing among rubbish and sewage, after negotiating permission to treat them with the slum landlord. She went on to persuade local politicians to put in wells and community toilets.
“What these woman had in common, I think, is that they saw a need; they asked themselves ‘What can I do?’ They took responsibility, they took action: women inspiring and enabling and empowering other women out of poverty through education, through maternal health, through employment, through advocacy,” Ms Rein said.
“They demonstrate that, as we all know, women can be a potent force for change. They demonstrate that women have courage; they demonstrate that women have determination and persistence to see things through year after year; they demonstrate that women are practical and compassionate, and that women can inspire other women – they inspired me when I met them. I think they also show that if we do a powerful amount of believing in ourselves and in each other, we can change the world.”
Earlier Tako Ndiayeis, of the African Section, UNIFEM New York, described the ways in which UNIFEM works in Africa and Asia.
In particular, she spoke of the appallingly heavy and bulky loads of wood women carry up and down hills every day in order to provide their families with food and income. UNIFEM studies had discovered that many women undertake cross-border trading and as such become local entrepreneurs, but they remain “invisible” because no statistics are collected about them and therefore they are not looked after, she said.
They earn a profit from the difference between costs, incorporating rates of exchange, between countries. They have to negotiate customs and check points. Sometimes they avoid paying taxes through prostitution; sometimes their goods are confiscated. Exploitation can occur because they do not have the necessary information when, in some cases, there is no need to pay taxes. UNIFEM is working to support the cross border traders and make them “visible” so they are not regarded as smugglers or prostitutes.
The welcome on Thursday was given by Indigenous singer Aunty Delmae Barton, a Didgera elder. The 1400 audience at Brisbane Convention Centre were joined by Governor Penelope Wensley, Queensland Premier Anna Blyth, Queensland Opposition leader John-Paul Langbroek and Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman. The International Women’s Day toast was given by Lindi Hawkings-Guy, of Women’s legal Aid, Legal Aid Queensland. Ranger and leader Marney O’Dea represented Queensland Guides. Channel 7 News presenter Kay McGrath was MC. The event was organised by May Lamont and the Brisbane UNIFEM Committee.
The expected guest speaker, Dr Rose Evaster-Aderolili, of the African Centre for Gender & Development of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, had been taken ill and hospitalised.
GLOBAL MODEL UN CONFERENCE IN KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, JULY 28/30
Following the success of the 2009 inaugural Global Model United Nations Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, the UN Department of Public Information is to organising the second annual event in Kuala Lumpur on July 28/30 , in partnership with the government of Malaysia, the UN Alliance of Civilizations and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Under the theme ‘Towards an Alliance of Civilizations ‑‑ Bridging Cultures to Achieve Peace and Development’, the conference will bring together the best university-level students participating in Model United Nations programs around the world to simulate the General Assembly. It will focus on how to incorporate intercultural dialogue into government policies and strategies as a means to address issues of global peace and development.
Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information and a strong supporter of Model United Nations student conferences as a forum for educating young people about the organisation’s work, said, “Over the years, many ambassadors to the United Nations and UN officials have told me that they too took part in Model UNs in their cities and towns. It is our hope that participation in the Global Model UN Conference will inspire young people to become ambassadors, to work for the UN or become experts and leaders that we in the UN look to as our partners in the global effort to support peace, development and human rights in countries around the world.” DETAILS: www.un.org/gmun.
The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations was established in 2005 on the initiative of Spain and Turkey, and seeks to build trust and understanding across cultures and communities around the world. Working with its global network of government partners, the alliance promotes policies and initiatives aimed at improving relations among diverse cultural groups through national plans and regional strategies. It also works at the grassroots level, promoting innovative projects in the areas of education, youth, media and migration in order to build trust, reconciliation and mutual respect among diverse communities.
DETAILS: Yvonne Acosta, Chief, Education Outreach Cluster, Outreach Division, Department of Public Information: acostay@un.org; or Bill Yotive, Manager, Global Teaching and Learning Project: yotive@un.org.
ON-LINE COURSE IN NEGOTIATION
The UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) has announced its online course on ‘Bilateral and Multilateral Negotiation: Strategies and Techniques’ (in French), which will take place from April 12 to May 7. This course targets members of the diplomatic community as well as government officials, staff of international and non-governmental organisations, professionals from the private sector and post-graduate students.