UN Daily News Issue DH/6705 Thursday, 31 July 2014

Transcription

1 For updates and alerts, visit UN NEWS CENTRE at UN Daily News Issue DH/6705 Thursday, In the headlines: UN, US announce Gaza parties agree to 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire Food insecurity in South Sudan set to deepen as funds dry up, warns UN agency UN, civil aviation partners set up task force to reduce risks of flying over conflict zones Iraq: Amid rising insecurity, UN official urges unimpeded access to desperate civilians At UN-backed summit, least developed countries urge enhanced partnerships, aid commitments Greater local-level autonomy in Viet Nam would be litmus test for religious freedom UN expert UN, US announce Gaza parties agree to 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire 31 July - All parties have agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire in the conflict in the Gaza Strip, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and United States Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Thursday, culminating the latest diplomatic push to end the deadly violence that has gripped the tiny enclave for nearly a month. Reading a statement at Headquarters in New York, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters that Mr. Ban and Mr. Kerry had announced that the UN Representative in Jerusalem, Special Coordinator Robert Serry, has received assurances that all parties have agreed to an unconditional humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. This humanitarian ceasefire will commence at 8 am local time on Friday, August 1, It will last for a period of 72 hours unless extended. During this time, the forces on the ground will remain in place, said Mr. Dujarric. Smoke and flames rise from Gaza's electricity distribution company plant after it was hit by Israeli strikes in the Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip. UN Photo/Shareef Sarhan We urge all parties to act with restraint until this humanitarian ceasefire begins, and to fully abide by their commitments during the ceasefire. The spokesperson went on to say that the pause is critical to giving innocent civilians a much-needed reprieve from violence. During this period, civilians in Gaza will receive urgently needed humanitarian relief, and have the opportunity to carry out vital functions, including burying the dead, taking care of the injured, and restocking food supplies. Overdue repairs on essential water and energy infrastructure could also continue during this period. Israeli and Palestinian delegations will immediately be going to Cairo for negotiations with the Government of Egypt, at the invitation of Egypt, aimed at reaching a durable ceasefire, he said, adding that the parties will be able to raise all issues of concern in these negotiations. We thank key regional stakeholders for their vital support of this process, and count on a continued collaborative international effort to assist Egypt and the parties reach a durable ceasefire as soon as possible, Mr. Dujarric added. News of the ceasefire comes as UN relief officials urged the parties to protect civilians amid the ongoing conflict, which has For information media - not an official record

2 UN Daily News resulted in thousands of casualties and caused widespread displacement and destruction. The reality of Gaza today is that no place is safe, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said in her briefing to the Security Council on the latest situation. We have all watched in horror the desperation of children, of civilians as they have come under attack, she added, speaking via videoconference from Trinidad and Tobago. Under international humanitarian law, the Government of Israel, Hamas and other militant groups must distinguish between military objectives and civilian objects and between combatants and civilians. They must also avoid harming civilians or civilian objects, and protect them from the effects of military operations. Nearly four weeks of conflict have left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead and 6,000 injured, Ms. Amos reported. Over 80 per cent of those killed have been civilians; 251 children. Israel has faced rocket fire, and the hostilities have resulted in the deaths of 3 civilians and 56 soldiers, with dozens injured. She noted that the current crisis in Gaza takes place against the backdrop of decades of instability, poverty and vulnerability resulting from repeated outbreaks of hostilities and the ongoing blockade on land, air and sea. Over 80 per cent of Gaza s population of 1.8 million more than half of them children under the age of 18 were already dependent on humanitarian aid before the outbreak of hostilities. Up to 440,000 people in Gaza are now displaced, almost 24 per cent of the population. Over 240,000 are being hosted in schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), while others are seeking refuge wherever they can; in government buildings, hospital grounds or with families and friends. People flee to areas they believe are safe from attack. But these areas are becoming harder to find, said Ms. Amos, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. So, they come to United Nations facilities for protection when their homes and neighbourhoods come under fire more than 240,000 people. But over 103 UN facilities have come under attack including an UNWRA school hosting over 3,300 displaced yesterday, she stated. The parties to the conflict have an obligation an absolute obligation to protect civilians from direct or indiscriminate attacks. Under international law, United Nations operations, personnel and premises, must remain inviolable, and parties to the conflict should protect humanitarian workers. There can be no justification for failing to do so. Ms. Amos said the relief effort is stretched, with ongoing fighting and insecurity hampering the ability of UN agencies to move around and making it difficult to sustain the delivery of assistance to people in need. Until a longer-term ceasefire is agreed, we need more humanitarian pauses to enable us to reach those in need. Pauses must be daily, predictable, and adequate in length so that humanitarian staff can dispatch relief to those in need, rescue the injured, recover the dead and allow civilians some reprieve so that they can restock and resupply their homes. We urgently need the Government of Israel, Hamas and other militant groups to comply with their international legal obligations, including international humanitarian and human rights law. Each party must be held accountable to international standards; not the standards of the other party, Ms. Amos added. Briefing the Council from Gaza City, UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl said the most difficult challenge facing the Agency today is the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians it is currently hosting. We are doing everything possible to provide the displaced with minimum needs food, mattresses and blankets but we are now into the fourth week of mass displacement in facilities unequipped to shelter large numbers for such a duration, he told the Council via teleconference.

3 UN Daily News Conditions are increasingly dire in the shelters, he continued. There is no water for personal hygiene, very few showers and latrines are totally inadequate. Disease outbreak is beginning, with skin infections, scabies and others. There are thousands of pregnant women in our schools, deliveries are precarious and we are sheltering newborns in these appalling conditions. Our ability to mitigate this situation is of course heavily restricted by ongoing hostilities. Stating that the current reality on the ground is not sustainable, Mr. Krähenbühl renewed his call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to be agreed by the parties. Food insecurity in South Sudan set to deepen as funds dry up, warns UN agency 31 July - The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned today that food insecurity continues to deepen in South Sudan as funding for life-saving assistance dwindles. The numbers of people facing crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity in South Sudan is projected to reach 3.9 million by August 2014 as funds dry up. Photo: FAO/C. Spencer livelihood kits. The funding shortfall is hampering efforts to provide farmers, fishers and pastoralists in the country with emergency livelihood kits, which contain crop and vegetable seeds, fishing equipment and livestock treatment kits and vaccines for veterinary support, aggravating the risk of famine in some areas, FAO noted in a news release. The agency has so far received $42 million of the $108 million it has appealed for as part of the revised Crisis Response Plan for Contributions received to date have been used to reach more than 205,000 vulnerable households over 1.2 million people with the FAO said it is delivering emergency livelihood support at a pace 10 times faster than last year. It has delivered, spent or committed all of the funds it has received, and resources have now run out. An additional $66 million is urgently needed to further expand the agency s support. An additional 2 million people, or 345,000 vulnerable households, can be supported if we receive additional funding, said Jeff Tschirley of FAO s Emergency and Rehabilitation Division. We must not wait for the current very critical situation to deepen or for a famine to be declared because by then we know that it will be too late for many. We need to act today to save lives and livelihoods. The FAO Representative in South Sudan and the UN s Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator there, Sue Lautze, underlined the importance of the emergency livelihood kits for the country, where up to 95 per cent of the population depends on farming, fishing or herding to meet their food and income needs. The distribution of the kits provides the means for fishers to fish, farmers to plant and pastoralists to keep their herds healthy, which in turn puts milk, vegetables, meat and fish on the table, and that s been keeping a lot of people alive right now, she said. In May, some 3.5 million people almost one in three South Sudanese were facing crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity, and the number is expected to increase to 3.9 million (34 per cent of the total population) during June through August More than 1.5 million people have fled their homes since conflict broke out in the country in mid-december and the situation has been further exacerbated by the onset of the rainy season in June. Meanwhile, violent clashes continue to be reported in some areas despite the signing of a cessation of hostilities agreement in May. The best means to prevent famine in South Sudan is for the guns to fall silent, said Ms. Lautze. Continued violence is the single most important factor in transforming a risk of famine into a reality.

4 UN Daily News Together, UN agencies and partners have received only 50 per cent of the total $1.8 billion requested under the Crisis Response Plan for 2014 to carry out urgent humanitarian interventions in the country. UN, civil aviation partners set up task force to reduce risks of flying over conflict zones 31 July - In the wake of the recent downing of a passenger plane over eastern Ukraine, the United Nations and its partners have set up a task force to reduce the risks of civilian planes flying over conflict areas and ensure that the right information reaches the right people at the right time. Aircraft on runway. Photo: World Bank/Arne Hoel (file) The decision came at a special meeting convened earlier this week in Montreal, Canada by the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), along with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Airports Council International (ACI) and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO). The meeting was triggered by the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on 17 July as it was traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, resulting in the death of 298 passengers. The downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 is unacceptable. Our organizations wish to convey our deepest condolences to the families of the passengers and crew who lost their lives in this tragic event, the participants said in a joint statement issued after Tuesday s meeting. While aviation is the safest form of transport, the MH17 incident has raised troubling concerns with respect to civilian aircraft operating to, from and over conflict zones. The meeting stressed the need for accurate and timely information and intelligence that might affect the safety of passengers and crew, while recognizing that this is a highly complex and politically sensitive endeavour that involves not only civil aviation regulations and procedures but also national security and intelligence gathering activities. The task force, composed of State and industry experts, will address the civil aviation and national security aspects of the challenge of ensuring that the right information reaches the right people at the right time, according to the statement. It was also decided at the meeting that ICAO will convene a high-level safety conference with all of its 191 member countries in February In addition, the industry has called for ICAO to address fail-safe channels for essential threat information to be made available to civil aviation authorities and industry. A UN specialized agency that was created in 1944, ICAO works with the 191 signatory States of the Convention on International Civil Aviation and global industry and aviation groups to develop international Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) which are then used by States when they develop their legally-binding national civil aviation regulations. Working in collaboration with States, the agency has set over 10,000 standards, covering issues such as air traffic services, operation of flights, environmental protection and air safety. These issues will continue to garner significant attention given that the global air transport network is projected to double in size by According to ICAO, the number of flights, currently 30 million annually, will grow to 60 million, while the total annual passengers served will rise to 6 billion from today s 3 billion. That poses a significant challenge, says Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu of Nigeria, the President of the ICAO Governing Council, noting the imperative to do everything possible to help ensure the safety of flights. In an interview with the UN News Centre, Dr. Aliu said that a common misconception about ICAO is that the agency is responsible for determining air routes and deciding whether or not they are safe.

5 UN Daily News Once the routes are designed, of course in collaboration with the industry, it is the responsibility and the obligation of the State through which the route passes to undertake risk assessment, to regulate the operation on the route and to either decide to close the route or keep it open, he explained. Especially in areas of conflict, States have the responsibility to assess the particular risks arising from the conflict and then make a decision on when and how to close the routes, he added. When incidents do happen, as in eastern Ukraine, ICAO can be called on to assist with investigating. In the wake of this month s tragedy, accident investigation experts from ICAO went to the country to assist their Ukrainian counterparts with the official accident investigation into the loss of the Malaysia Airlines flight. Dr. Aliu explained that the sole objective of the investigation, which is not led by ICAO, is to identify the cause of an accident and to help prevent future accidents from happening. What we do, upon request, is to assist the process, ensure that the investigation is done in line with the relevant provisions of our Convention and to provide guidance to the States in ensuring that it s done, he said, adding the presence of ICAO adds credibility to the process. Iraq: Amid rising insecurity, UN official urges unimpeded access to desperate civilians 31 July - A senior UN official in Iraq expressed concern today over rising levels of violence and instability across the crisis-torn country and its impact on the lives of civilians. Immediate, safe and unhindered access is now needed, said Jacqueline Badcock, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq. We urgently need to deliver lifesaving assistance and restore basic services to conflictaffected communities, as well as new and existing IDPs (internally displaced persons) and refugees, irrespective of their religion, ethnicity or affiliation. The local mosque in a norther district of Iraq where many displaced Arab families have fled. Photo: UNHCR/K. Brooks In recent weeks, the Islamic State (IS) and associated armed groups have taken control of several cities and regions in northern Iraq. They are accused of gross human rights violations, some of which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, including targeting and killing civilians. According to the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), more than 500,000 people have been displaced since June, bringing the total this year to 1.4 million, including more than 230,000 Syrian refugees. Between January and June this year, 5,500 people have been killed and 12,000 injured. Almost 900 people have been killed in July alone. Civilians must be guaranteed that they can leave areas affected by the violence in dignity and safety with their right to access humanitarian assistance respected, Ms. Badcock said. Many have fled to Kurdish-controlled areas of the south while others remain trapped in active conflict zones and in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. In many cases, basic services have been targeted, including health facilities, water supplies and power grids, creating additional, unnecessary suffering to the civilian population. The UN and humanitarian partners are ready to assist, but to do so all parties to the conflict must agree to stop the hostilities and guarantee the safe and unimpeded access to humanitarian staff and goods to communities in needs, she added.

6 UN Daily News At UN-backed summit, least developed countries urge enhanced partnerships, aid commitments Ministerial Conference on New Partnerships for the Development of Productive Capacities in LDCs, comes to an end in Cotonou, Benin. Photo: UN- OHRLLS 31 July - At the closing today of a conference in Cotonou, Benin, ministers, senior Government officials and United Nations representatives called on donor countries to fulfil their commitments and go even further, allocating at least 50 percent of their overseas development assistance (ODA) and aid for trade disbursement, to the world s least developed countries (LDCs). Many least developed countries, despite being rich in human and natural resources, have been trapped in a low level of equilibrium, said UN High Representative for LDCs, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. In a press release from his office, Gyan Chandra Acharya added that enhancing productive capacities, improving infrastructure and promoting inclusive growth are essential to eradicating poverty and ensuring a prosperous future for the world s most vulnerable. Over the course of the four-day conference, delegates raised serious concerns over a drop in aid to the LDCs and discussed proposals to enhance the ability of poor countries to overcome structural constraints, especially in the UN post-2015 development agenda. They agreed that a greater level of global support through aid, market access and investment would assist in the increased production of goods and services and improve trade performance. This will also help them build better resilience. As we prepare to embark upon the post-2015 development agenda, we have heard a clarion call from all the participants for priority focus on these issues in the LDCs, Mr. Acharya said. Participants also called for a greater use of modern technology to leapfrog some of the traditional development stages including through a planned technology bank with regional centres. They also highlighted the principle of shared responsibilities and the need for greater collaborating among Government, the private sector and civil society. The meeting also saw the launch of several initiatives including the South-South global assets and technology exchange platform as well as the UN Decade on Sustainable Energy for All. The latter will provide an opportunity for LDCs to seek new partnerships in the energy sector to improve their ability to trade and produce goods, Mr. Acharya said. The least developed countries represent the poorest and weakest segment of the international community, 48 countries in total. In 2011 a conference of least developed countries and their partners adopted a comprehensive and result-oriented 10- year Istanbul Programme of Action which set an ambitious overarching agenda of enabling half the number of LDCs to meet the criteria for graduation from the least developed category by 2020.

7 UN Daily News Greater local-level autonomy in Viet Nam would be litmus test for religious freedom UN expert 31 July - During his recent visit to Viet Nam, the United Nations independent expert on religious freedom, Heiner Bielefeldt, stressed the need for religious communities in the country to be able to operate also outside of the officially established channels for religious practice. Wrapping up a 10-day visit, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief expressed his concerns and hopes regarding the current situation in Viet Nam, where the right of religious communities to independently operate is often restricted and unsafe. He noted that there are many serious violations of freedom of religion or belief, in particular affecting independent religious groups from Buddhist and Protestant communities, and activists within the Catholic Church. Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Heiner Bielefeldt. UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras Granting autonomy for religious communities to function independently would be a litmus test for the development of freedom of religion or belief in Viet Nam, Mr. Bielefeldt said. He expressed appreciation towards the Government`s effort to improve freedom of religion or belief via legal instruments. However, he also underlined the need for long-lasting improvement. Official registration status with the Government is no guarantee that freedom of religion or belief is fully respected, Mr. Bielefeldt said. In this respect, Mr. Bielefeld particularly underlined the need for the new Government legislations on religious affairs to extend existing norms and practices to everyone s right of freedom of religion or belief. Freedom of religion or belief has the status of universal human rights to be respected prior to, and independent of, any particular acts of administrative approval, he stressed. During his recent visit to the country, which began on 21 July and ended today, the Special Rapporteur met with various Government officials and local authorities to discuss issues related to his mandate. In his effort to meet recognized and unrecognized religious or belief communities and civil society organisations, however, Mr. Bielefeldt encountered many people under heavy surveillance by the police. I received credible information that some individuals with whom I wanted to meet had been under heavy surveillance, warned, intimidated, harassed or prevented from travelling by the police, he noted. Mr. Bielefeldt is currently working on his conclusions and recommendations report regarding the current situation of freedom of religion or belief in Viet Nam, which will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in The UN Daily News is prepared at UN Headquarters in New York by the News Services Section of the News and Media Division, Department of Public Information (DPI)