Category Archives: United Nations

Iran sanctions: Trump threatens to unilaterally reimpose UN measures

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US to activate controversial ‘snapback’ procedure, which Britain, France and Germany say it doesn’t have the right to do

President Donald Trump has announced that secretary of state Mike Pompeo will activate a controversial mechanism aimed at reimposing UN sanctions on Iran, escalating a row with European allies that has huge repercussions for the Iranian nuclear deal.

Pompeo will travel to New York on Thursday to notify the UN security council that the US is triggering the so-called “snapback” procedure, which Britain, France and Germany say it doesn’t have the right to do.

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At least 55 migrants died off north African coast this week, says UN

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45 people – including five children – died off the coast of Libya, and a further 10 south of Canary Islands

The grim reality of the migration crisis unfolding off the coasts of north Africa has been underlined by two separate tragedies this week in which at least 55 people died.

45 people – including five children – perished when the engine on their boat exploded off Libya, in the country’s deadliest shipwreck this year, the UN said late on Wednesday.

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United Nations in race row after survey lists ‘yellow’ as an option for staff

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The first question on the survey, which asked staff to self-identify, was ‘insane, deeply offensive’ according to one recipient

The United Nations has been accused by some of its staff of racism after it issued a survey that included a question asking how they identify themselves, and offered “yellow” among the possible responses.

The UN Survey on Racism was sent to thousands of staff on Wednesday. An email accompanying the survey said it was being carried out as part of the campaign of the UN secretary general, António Guterres, “to eradicate racism and promote dignity”.

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Donald Trump vows ‘snapback’ over humiliating UN defeat on Iran arms embargo

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President says US will unilaterally reinstate sanctions a day after only two countries voted for prolonging embargo

Donald Trump has vowed to use a contentious provision to unilaterally reinstate UN sanctions on Tehran, following what Iran’s president said was a humiliating defeat for the US in its bid to extend an arms embargo on Tehran.

A day after the UN security council overwhelmingly rejected a US resolution to extend the embargo, Trump said at a news conference at his New Jersey golf club: “We’ll be doing a snapback. You’ll be watching it next week.”

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Beirut explosion: FBI to take part in Lebanon investigation

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US diplomat David Hale calls for a thorough and transparent investigation into the blast

A team of FBI investigators is due to arrive in Lebanon this weekend to take part in the investigation into Beirut’s explosion, a senior US official has said, after visiting the location of the blast.

David Hale, the US undersecretary of state for political affairs, called on Saturday for a thorough and transparent investigation. He said the FBI team was taking part at the invitation of Lebanese authorities in order to figure out what caused the 4 August explosion that killed nearly 180 people and wounded thousands.

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With total control, President Déby is Chad’s greatest threat to stability

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‘President for life’ knows he is protected by France while Chadians die of hunger

Once a year, there is a ranking of the conditions of the world’s nations. It’s like a country’s report card, with health, education and living standards as key indicators. The UN’s Human Development Index tells citizens – and campaigners like me – how well or badly a country is doing.

Since 1990, the year Idriss Déby seized power, ousting his mentor Hissène Habré in a bloody war, Chad – a landlocked former French colony that separates the Sahara in the north from the savannah in the south – has consistently ranked at the bottom of the index, fluctuating between 160 and 187 (out of 189).

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Trump’s top Iran envoy quits as US bids to extend Tehran embargo

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  • Elliott Abrams, key figure in Iran-Contra affair, to take over
  • US intends to bring UN resolution to extend arms embargo

The Trump administration’s lead diplomat on Iran, Brian Hook, has announced his resignation days before the US attempts a high-stakes gambit against Tehran at the United Nations.

Related: Iran's Covid death toll three times higher than admitted, says report

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‘Water is sacred’: 10 visual artists reflect on the human right to water

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The UN declared access to water and sanitation a human right a decade ago, but 785 million people worldwide still have no water close to home

Ten photographs marking the 10th anniversary of access to water and sanitation being declared a human right by the UN have been commissioned from 10 visual artists by the charity WaterAid to show the impact of clean water on people’s lives.

Globally, 785 million people – one in 10 – still lack access to water close to home and 2 billion people – one in four – don’t have a toilet of their own.

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Libyans fear regional war as rival powers vie for control, says envoy

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UN representative has two months to secure ceasefire but warns that risks are rising

The Libyan people are increasingly scared that their future is being taken out of their hands by external actors, and that the risk of a regional war is rising, Stephanie Williams, the acting UN special envoy for Libya, said on Saturday.

Williams said on a visit to London: “The Libyan people are exhausted and scared in equal measure. They are tired of war, and want peace, but they fear this is not in their hands now. They want a solution and a ceasefire. The alternative to a ceasefire and an inclusive political solution is essentially the destruction of their country.

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Kenyan tea workers file UN complaint against Unilever over 2007 ethnic violence

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Attacks following election at centre of ‘most serious known case of human rights abuse suffered by Unilever workers’

A group of 218 Kenyan tea plantation workers have filed a complaint with the UN against Unilever, alleging that the multinational violated international human rights standards by not adequately assisting its employees, who were attacked when ethnic violence broke out following a disputed election in 2007.

The workers say that Unilever, known in the UK for its PG Tips brand, breached its obligation to remediate any human rights abuses to which it has contributed, which is central to the UN’s guiding principles on business and human rights, and which the company has endorsed. They request the UN’s working group on business and human rights to make a declaration to this effect, and to call on the company to provide redress.

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Iran arms sales: US struggles to win support for extension of UN ban

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European nations fear extension of arms sale ban would result in Iran leaving 2015 nuclear deal

The US may be forced to accept a UN code of conduct restricting conventional arms sales to Iran, since it is struggling to win unanimous support at the UN security council for a formal extension of the existing UN ban, which expires in October.

European nations fear a formal extension of the ban would result in Iran leaving the nuclear deal.

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Measles vaccination disruptions due to coronavirus put 80 million children at risk

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The onset of Covid-19 has devastated immunisation programmes, leaving huge numbers of infants unprotected from deadly diseases

Tens of millions of children around the world have been denied life-saving vaccines against measles in both rich and poor countries due to Covid-19 disruptions, with fears of further outbreaks this year.

Since March, routine childhood immunisation services have been disrupted on a scale unseen since the 1970s, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Data collected by Unicef, the Gavi Alliance, WHO and Sabin Vaccine Institute found in May that immunisation programmes had been substantially hindered in at least 68 countries, leaving 80 million children under the age of one unprotected from diseases including measles, tetanus, polio and yellow fever.

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Calls for investigation into mysterious death of Italian UN monitor in Colombia

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  • Doubts over claim that Mario Paciolla, 33, killed himself
  • Mayor of Naples joins calls for truth and justice

The mayor of Naples has joined human rights groups in calling for “truth and justice” following the death of an Italian United Nations volunteer who had been on a peace mission in Colombia.

Mario Paciolla, 33, from Naples, was found dead on 15 July at his home in San Vicente de Caguán, a town in Colombia’s southern jungle long used as a strategic rearguard for rebel groups and drug traffickers.

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Cost of preventing next pandemic ‘equal to just 2% of Covid-19 economic damage’

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World must act now to protect wildlife in order to stop future virus crises, say scientists

The cost of preventing further pandemics over the next decade by protecting wildlife and forests would equate to just 2% of the estimated financial damage caused by Covid-19, according to a new analysis.

Two new viruses a year had spilled from their wildlife hosts into humans over the last century, the researchers said, with the growing destruction of nature meaning the risk today is higher than ever.

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The Guardian view on population growth: a small planet needs big solutions | Editorial

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New research suggests that the global peak may be lower than expected. But the challenges will still be immense

In 1798, Thomas Malthus wrung his hands as he contemplated the growing mass of humanity, warning: “The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race.”

A few years after he wrote that essay, the global population hit 1 billion. Now, thanks to the exponential growth which he described, it is closing in on 8 billion. The scholar’s direst warnings, echoed by others through the years, have not come to pass. But his concerns about the strain on resources have been multiplied by the climate crisis, with greenhouse gas emissions rising, and global heating in turn causing land loss and deterioration.

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‘Open your eyes’: Yemen on brink of famine again, UN agencies warn

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Millions face devastating hunger if relief efforts are not stepped up in a country ravaged by war, locusts and now Covid-19

Yemen is in danger of an imminent return to devastating levels of hunger and food insecurity, according to new analysis released by UN agencies.

The World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Unicef say that the percentage of the population predicted to face acute food insecurity in southern areas of the country will rise from 25% to 40% by the end of the year.

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UN chief slams ‘myths, delusions and falsehoods’ around inequality

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António Guterres uses Mandela lecture to call for radical shake-up of IMF and World Bank in wake of coronavirus pandemic

The UN secretary general will today deliver one of his most stinging speeches to date, attacking the “myths, delusions and falsehoods” around international progress on equality.

In an unusually strongly worded speech, António Guterres urged major reform to the UN security council, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to address systemic inequalities exposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Oil spill from Yemen tanker ‘would be four times worse then Exxon Valdez’ – UN

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Spill from decaying vessel could wreck environment and livelihoods for decades

Time is running out to prevent a disastrous oil spill from a deteriorating tanker loaded with 1.1m barrels of crude that is moored off the coast of Yemen, the UN’s environment chief has said.

Inger Andersen told the UN security council that a spill from the FSO Safer, which has had no maintenance for more than five years, would wreck ecosystems and livelihoods for decades.

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Migrant workers in Qatar face ‘structural racism’ says UN report

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World Cup host heavily criticised over discrimination and ‘coercive conditions’ experienced by labourers from south Asia and Africa

The United Nations has raised “serious concerns of structural racial discrimination against non-nationals” in World Cup host nation Qatar, in a highly critical report to be presented to the UN human rights council this week.

The report, by the UN’s special rapporteur for racism, Tendayi Achiume, is notable for its uncompromising language, saying a “de facto caste system based on national origin” exists in Qatar, “according to which European, North American, Australian and Arab nationalities systematically enjoy greater human rights protections than South Asian and sub-Saharan African nationalities”.

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‘You simply die all over again’: the agony of Srebrenica, 25 years on

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The women who lost loved ones in the massacre of Bosnian Muslims are still burying bodies – and still seeking justice as the guilty walk free

In 2012, Munira Subašić identified the man who had transported her son to his death; a high-level official in Srebrenica’s police department.

Subašić vividly recalls their previous fateful encounter: it was July 1995, and tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims fled Srebrenica as it fell to Bosnian Serb forces led by General Ratko Mladić. Subašić, along with dozens of her family members, sought protection at a battery factory in nearby Potočari, where a Dutch battalion of UN peacekeepers was stationed.

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