Defence minister agrees to help in one of most dangerous missions undertaken by the UN
British troops will be deployed in Mali next year to join in the world’s deadliest peacekeeping operation, the Ministry of Defence has announced.
The 250-strong force will provide a long-range reconnaissance capability for the United Nations deployment in the troubled African country which has struggled to decisively counter Islamic militants, armed separatists and traffickers.
Continue reading...As Trump funding drought continues, UN figures show billions more will be needed to meet global target on maternal mortality
The cost of preventing women from dying in childbirth is projected to increase sixfold by 2030, requiring billions of dollars to achieve global targets, according to the UN.
The estimate was released by the UN population fund (UNFPA) on Thursday, offering a snapshot of the scale of the challenge the agency has set itself to end preventable maternal deaths by 2030.
Continue reading...Eliminating hunger by 2030 is an immense challenge, say heads of UN agencies
More than 820 million people worldwide are still going hungry, according to a UN report that says reaching the target of zero hunger by 2030 is “an immense challenge”.
The number of people with not enough to eat has risen for the third year in a row as the population increases, after a decade when real progress was made. The underlying trend is stabilisation, when global agencies had hoped it would fall.
Continue reading...Agency blames war, inequality and complacency for 20 million children missing immunisation
A dangerous stagnation in vaccination rates is putting children at risk of preventable diseases around the world, the UN children’s agency has warned, blaming conflict, inequality and complacency.
One in 10 children, totalling 20 million globally, missed out on basic immunisation against the life-threatening infections of measles, diphtheria and tetanus last year, says Unicef.
Continue reading...Human rights commission votes to ‘get the facts’ on three years of bloodshed claiming an estimated 20,000 lives
The human rights body of the United Nations has agreed to begin investigating President Rodrigo Duterte’s violent war on drugs in the Philippines amid accusations of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and crimes against humanity.
A resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights council on Thursday, which passed narrowly by four votes, authorised the United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, to examine evidence of thousands of deaths at the hands of the police and so called “death squads”. She will present her report in a year.
Continue reading...Aid worker Peter Dalglish, 62, sentenced for abusing two boys, aged 12 and 14
A former United Nations official has been jailed for sexually abusing children in Nepal after a trial that underscored the country’s growing appeal for foreign paedophiles.
Peter John Dalglish, 62, a high-profile humanitarian worker from Canada, was sentenced on Monday to two separate terms of nine years and seven years after being convicted last month.
Continue reading...In 2015, the international community – led by the US and the UK – finally decided to take Bosco Ntaganda to the international criminal court to face justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ntaganda, known as “The Terminator”, became one of the most feared, powerful and brutal warlords in DRC since Rwanda, backed by Uganda, reinvaded DRC in 1998.
Related: DRC warlord 'the Terminator' convicted of war crimes
Continue reading...Tehran defiant in face of condemnation by European signatories to joint comprehensive plan of action
The Iran nuclear deal was put on life support on Sunday after Iran took a further step to breach its rules by taking its low-enriched uranium limit over the agreed threshold.
It was the second Iranian breach of the agreement in a matter of weeks, although Iran took only a relatively modest step by increasing enrichment from the agreed 3.7% level – enough to generate to civil nuclear power – to 5%, still well below the 20% threshold that is seen as putting Iran on course to developing a nuclear bomb.
Continue reading...Developing countries must prepare now for profound impact, disaster representative says
Climate crisis disasters are happening at the rate of one a week, though most draw little international attention and work is urgently needed to prepare developing countries for the profound impacts, the UN has warned.
Catastrophes such as cyclones Idai and Kenneth in Mozambique and the drought afflicting India make headlines around the world. But large numbers of “lower impact events” that are causing death, displacement and suffering are occurring much faster than predicted, said Mami Mizutori, the UN secretary-general’s special representative on disaster risk reduction. “This is not about the future, this is about today.”
Continue reading...World Population Day will mark a global crisis – one that is best tackled by more access to birth control, particularly in Africa
President Magufuli pulled off an intriguing feat last year when, in a single speech, he managed to affront just about every liberal cause on the planet. The Tanzanian leader told a public rally not to listen to advice from foreigners on contraception because it had “sinister motives”. For good measure, he accused women who use birth control of being “lazy” – it was their duty to have large numbers of children.
By any standards, these were outrageous remarks – and worrying ones, for they indicate there has been a deep and potentially catastrophic failure by the west in promoting a measure on which the future health of our planet depends: limiting numbers of our species. Until this basic task is achieved, virtually every measure we take to tackle global heating will be negated by the energy demands of the extra billions we have added to global populations, say campaigners.
Continue reading...Abdul Aziz Muhamat delivers a plea for urgent action to the Human Rights Council
Since Abdul Aziz Muhamat left Manus Island for the last time, he has climbed a mountain in his new home of Switzerland, and then returned to advocating for the resettlement of the hundreds of men and women he left behind.
The Sudanese refugee spent more than six years in Australia’s offshore processing and detention system in Papua New Guinea, before he was granted residency in the European nation earlier this month.
Continue reading...Relatives say more than 30 people stuck at sea told to go home or lose food and water
More than 30 migrants from Bangladesh who were trapped on a merchant ship off Tunisia for three weeks have been sent back to their home country against their will, according to relatives.
They were among 75 migrants rescued on 31 May by the Maridive 601, an Egyptian tugboat that services offshore oil platforms, only to spend the next 20 days at sea near the Tunisian coast.
Continue reading...Right to life is likely to be undermined alongside the rule of law, special rapporteur says
The world is increasingly at risk of “climate apartheid”, where the rich pay to escape heat and hunger caused by the escalating climate crisis while the rest of the world suffers, a report from a UN human rights expert has said.
Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said the impacts of global heating are likely to undermine not only basic rights to life, water, food, and housing for hundreds of millions of people, but also democracy and the rule of law.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has dismissed a United Nations request for the FBI to investigate the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, suggesting it would jeopardise American weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.
Related: 'We are coming to get you': recordings reveal Saudi plan for Khashoggi murder
Continue reading...Poet, dancer and a reggae singer were among those displaying their skills in Sicily
A teenage poet from Nigeria, a reggae singer from Sierra Leona and a Colombian dancer were among those competing in Sicily this weekend in a UN-backed talent show aimed at reshaping the narrative around migrants.
Refugees Got Talent, the first event of its kind to be held on an international level, featured dozens of people seeking shelter from war-torn countries, as well as victims of human trafficking. This weekend, 13 finalists showed off their skills in Catania, performing songs, music, art and theatre in front of a judging panel that included the British actor Douglas Booth.
Continue reading...Democrat finds Kelly Craft’s ‘staggering time’ away from her current post as ambassador to Canada ‘very troubling’
The Trump administration’s nominee to be the next US envoy to the United Nations has come under congressional scrutiny for absenteeism after spending more than half her time as ambassador to Canada away from her post.
Kelly Craft was asked why she spent more than 300 days outside Canada since she took the position in Ottawa in October 2017. In one two-month period between March and May in 2018, Craft was absent from her post 45 out of 54 days, according to Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee.
Continue reading...Canada resettled 28,100 refugees last year, overtaking the US for the first time since the 1980 Refugee Act, UN report found
Canada took in more refugees than any other country in the world in 2018, according to a United Nations report, knocking the US from its position as global leader in resettling people fleeing war, persecution and conflict.
Canada resettled 28,1000 refugees in 2018, overtaking the US for the first time since the 1980 Refugee Act, said the report from the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday.
Continue reading...The UN report into October’s murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul is the fullest account yet of events and as horrifying as one would expect. Agnes Callamard, the special rapporteur, describes a “deliberate, premeditated execution”; secretly recorded conversations before his visit discussed the arrival of the “sacrificial animal” and dismemberment of a body. She concludes that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia should be investigated because there is “credible evidence” that he and other senior officials are liable for the killing – a conclusion also reached by the CIA – despite the kingdom’s insistence that it was a rogue operation.
No reminder should be needed of the brutality of the killing of Khashoggi, a widely respected journalist living in Washington. Even Saudi Arabia’s business and diplomatic allies blanched, or at least felt obliged to put some distance between themselves and the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. The kingdom, after repeated lies about what happened, announced that it would try 11 suspects for his murder.
Continue reading...Mohammed bin Salman should be investigated over journalist’s murder, says report
The crown prince of Saudi Arabia should be investigated over the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi because there is “credible evidence” that he and other senior officials are liable for the killing, according to a damning and forensic UN report.
In an excoriating 100-page analysis published on Wednesday of what happened to Khashoggi last October, Agnes Callamard, the UN’s special rapporteur, says the death of the journalist was “an international crime”.
Continue reading...One in every 108 people were displaced in 2018, yet offers of resettlement were half level of previous year
The number of people forced to flee their homes across the world has exceeded 70 million for the first time since records began, the UN’s refugee agency has warned.
About 70.8 million – one in every 108 people worldwide – were displaced in 2018. This includes people who were forced to flee their homes last year, as well as people who have been unable to return home for years.
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