Category Archives: United Nations

We lost faith in joint efforts to halt wars. Result? Ask Syria…

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Once the great powers worked together. Now nationalist strongmen dominate the agenda

Suggestions that the war in Syria is winding down must sound like a sick joke to the people of Ras al-Ain. Their village, in north-western Idlib province, was targeted in an air raid last week. Five residents were killed, including three children, and at least 20 others were injured.

A local man, Hussein al-Sheikh, described to Al Jazeera reporter Farah Najjar how a building collapsed as the children ran for cover: “I was standing near the front door watching the kids play. Suddenly we heard another explosion... It was a difficult scene to watch. I can’t express what I saw.”

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Nearly all countries agree to stem flow of plastic waste into poor nations

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US reportedly opposed deal, which follows concerns that villages in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia had ‘turned into dumpsites’

Almost all the world’s countries have agreed on a deal aimed at restricting shipments of hard-to-recycle plastic waste to poorer countries, the United Nations announced on Friday.

Exporting countries – including the US – now will have to obtain consent from countries receiving contaminated, mixed or unrecyclable plastic waste. Currently, the US and other countries can send lower-quality plastic waste to private entities in developing countries without getting approval from their governments.

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Iran nuclear deal: what has Tehran said and what happens next?

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Hassan Rouhani’s move to alter commitments amid crippling US sanctions outlined

Iran has suspended commitments it made under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions on the country in exchange for limits on Tehran’s nuclear programme. The deal was reached after years of negotiations.

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Mali gives top job to UN executive accused of ‘tolerating harassment’

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Michel Sidibé faced pressure to stand down following criticism of his handling of sexual assault allegations in his team

A senior UN official accused of “tolerating harassment and abuse of authority” has been appointed health minister in Mali.

Michel Sidibé faced pressure to stand down from his position as head of UNAids following criticism over his handling of a sexual assault allegation made against one of his deputies.

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Human society under urgent threat from loss of Earth’s natural life

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Scientists reveal 1 million species at risk of extinction in damning UN report

Human society is in jeopardy from the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems, the world’s leading scientists have warned, as they announced the results of the most thorough planetary health check ever undertaken.

From coral reefs flickering out beneath the oceans to rainforests desiccating into savannahs, nature is being destroyed at a rate tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10m years, according to the UN global assessment report.

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Climate crisis is about to put humanity at risk, UN scientists warn

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‘We are in trouble if we don’t act,’ say experts, with up to 1m species at risk of annihilation

The world’s leading scientists will warn the planet’s life-support systems are approaching a danger zone for humanity when they release the results of the most comprehensive study of life on Earth ever undertaken.

Up to 1m species are at risk of annihilation, many within decades, according to a leaked draft of the global assessment report, which has been compiled over three years by the UN’s leading research body on nature.

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UN calls for Julian Assange’s release from UK high-security jail

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UN experts say British government is breaching WikiLeaks publisher’s human rights

UN experts have called for Julian Assange to be released from prison and criticised the British government for breaching his human rights.

The WikiLeaks publisher was jailed for 50 weeks on Wednesday for breaking bail conditions imposed seven years earlier by seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

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Trump UN human rights snub will buoy repressive regimes, top Democrat warns

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  • Bob Menendez condemns administration in letter to Pompeo
  • State department has not responded to UN’s official complaints

The Trump administration’s refusal to engage with UN human rights monitors risks undermining standards around the world and will embolden repressive regimes such as China and Russia, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee has charged.

Related: Trump withdraws from UN arms treaty as NRA crowd cheers in delight

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Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar is no democrat – UN envoy

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Ghassan Salamé makes strongest attack yet on military leader hoping to seize power

The UN envoy for Libya has made his strongest attack yet on the military strongman Khalifa Haftar as his forces intensify their assault on the capital, Tripoli.

In comments in Paris, where the French president, Emmanuel Macron, is seen as Europe’s biggest supporter of Haftar’s attempt to control Libya after eight years of chaos that followed the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi, Ghassan Salamé said Haftar was no democrat and had little support in Tripoli.

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Trump withdraws from UN arms treaty as NRA crowd cheers in delight

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  • Democrats condemn Trump’s ‘myopic’ decision to withdraw
  • President at NRA summit vows to defend second amendment

Donald Trump has announced that the US will withdraw its support for a United Nations treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar global arms trade.

Addressing the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Indianapolis, the president said he would revoke America’s status as a signatory of the arms trade treaty regulating conventional weapons including small arms, battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships.

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‘Outrage is justified’: David Attenborough backs school climate strikers

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Exclusive: broadcaster says older generations have done terrible things and should listen to young

The outrage of the students striking from school over climate change inaction is “certainly justified”, according to Sir David Attenborough, who said older generations had done terrible damage to the planet.

In an interview with the former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, the broadcaster and naturalist dismissed critics of the widely praised global movement of school strikes as cynics.

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Nearly 170m under-10s unvaccinated against measles worldwide

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Figure includes half a million in UK, as Unicef warns the disease could ‘spread like wildfire’

Nearly 170 million children in the world under the age of 10, including half a million in the UK and 2.5 million in the US, are unprotected from measles in the face of growing outbreaks of the disease, Unicef is warning.

More than 21 million children a year are not vaccinated against one of the most infectious organisms in existence, says the UN body. Between 2010 and 2017, an estimated 169 million children missed the first of the recommended two-dose regime.

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UN waters down rape resolution to appease US’s hardline abortion stance

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Measure on sexual violence in conflict passes after Trump administration threatened to veto document over references to reproductive health

The UN has backed a resolution on combatting rape in conflict but excluded references in the text to sexual and reproductive health, after vehement opposition from the US.

The resolution passed by the security council on Tuesday after a three-hour debate and a weekend of fierce negotiations on the language among member states that threatened to derail the process.

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US threatens to veto UN resolution on rape as weapon of war, officials say

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Exclusive: US warns it will reject measure over language on sexual health in latest example of hardline abortion stance

The US is threatening to veto a United Nations resolution on combatting the use of rape as a weapon of war because of its language on reproductive and sexual health, according to a senior UN official and European diplomats.

The German mission hopes the resolution will be adopted at a special UN security council session on Tuesday on sexual violence in conflict.

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Tunisia holds UN Libya arms trafficking expert in jail

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UN says arrest and detention of Moncef Kartas violates diplomatic immunity

A UN-appointed expert on breaches of the Libyan arms embargo has been arrested and kept in a Tunisian jail for nearly a month.

Moncef Kartas, a Tunisian-German dual national, was arrested on 26 March. He is one of six UN experts appointed to investigate breaches of the UN-imposed embargo on arms to Libya first introduced in 2011. The UN says his detention is a violation of his diplomatic immunity.

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Measles cases up 300% worldwide in 2019, says WHO

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Data for first three months adds to concerns over impact of anti-vaccination campaigns

Measles cases worldwide rose by 300% during the first three months of 2019 compared with the same period last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, amid growing concerns over the impact of anti-vaccination campaigns, particularly spread through social media.

Measles, which is highly contagious, can be entirely prevented with a two-dose vaccine, but for some time the WHO has been warning about declining global vaccination rates.

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Palestinians eye Israel’s election: ‘People could make peace … the problem is politicians’

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Palestinians hoped for change, but a lurch to the right in Israel’s elections has only brought despair

For as long as she can remember, Mary Giacaman, a Christian Palestinian, has watched the outcome of the Israeli election on TV. “But not this year,” she explained. “It was too depressing, and anyway I knew what would happen.”

This Holy Week, the 56-year-old Catholic will be attending mass each morning as usual at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity across the square from her olive wood carved souvenir shop; she will spend a festive Easter day with her sons, daughters and six grandchildren. If nothing else, it will be a welcome distraction from a “very bad” election result, which saw a decisive victory for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Europe split over how to respond to Haftar assault on Tripoli

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France blocked draft EU resolution condemning warlord and calling for his retreat from Libyan capital

European divisions over how to respond to General Khalifa Haftar’s violent assault on the Libyan capital, Tripoli, have been exposed after France blocked a draft EU resolution that would have condemned him and called for him to retreat.

France, a supporter of the warlord over the past two years, blocked the draft despite new UN figures showing 56 reported dead, hundreds injured and more than 6,000 displaced by the fighting.

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What does the battle for Tripoli mean for Libya and the region?

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Khalifa Haftar is leading an advance on the capital, with far-ranging consequences

Libya is on the brink of an all-out civil war that will upend years of diplomatic efforts to reconcile two rival armed political factions. An advance led by Khalifa Haftar, the warlord from the east of the country, has diplomats scrambling and the UN appealing in vain for a truce. The French government, the European power closest to Haftar, insists it had no prior warning of his assault, which is now less than 20km from the capital, Tripoli. The outcome could shape not just the politics of Libya, but also the security of the Mediterranean, and the relevance of democracy across the Middle East and north Africa.

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Battle for Tripoli escalates as fighting nears Libyan capital

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Fighting rages between UN-backed Tripoli government and self-styled Libyan National Army

The battle for Tripoli escalated on Sunday as a military assault on the city by the eastern Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar led to 21 deaths and nearly 90 injuries, and international calls for calm were ignored.

As the fighting neared the capital, the UN issued a plea for a temporary ceasefire to allow the wounded to be evacuated. Hours earlier, the US announced it was withdrawing some of its troops from the country, citing deteriorating “security conditions on the ground”. India also withdrew a group of its peacekeepers, saying the situation in Libya had suddenly worsened.

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