UN
UN adopts Dhaka's flagship resolution on Culture of Peace
The United Nations has unanimously adopted Bangladesh’s flagship resolution on the ‘Culture of Peace’.
The Permanent Representative (PR) of Bangladesh to the UN, Ambassador Rabab Fatima, introduced the resolution in the General Assembly on Thursday.
Ambassador Fatima said that "the resolution this year assumes greater relevance and urgency as they continue to grapple with the unprecedented, multifaceted challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic".
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The resolution was first adopted on 13th September 1999, during the first tenure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Since then, Bangladesh has been facilitating this resolution in the Assembly every year and also convening a high-level forum on the Culture of Peace at the Assembly.
Armed man outside UN arrested after standoff, lockdown
The United Nations headquarters in New York City was locked down for several hours Thursday after a man was seen pacing outside one of its main gates with a loaded shotgun, holding it under his chin at times, police said.
The man, who appeared to be in his 60s, was taken into custody without incident at around 1:40 p.m., about three hours after police said he was first spotted outside a U.N. security checkpoint on Manhattan’s First Avenue. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation, NYPD Chief of Special Operations Harry Wedin said.
The gun was loaded with one shotgun shell, Wedin said. The man also had a bag with him and gave police documents, included medical papers, that he said he wanted delivered to the U.N., Wedin said.
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U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that “as part of the negotiations with NYPD, the man said he wanted to first give some papers to the UN."
“Our Security officers took possession of the papers," Dujarric said. “As soon as the man surrendered, we returned the papers to the NYPD. The papers appeared to be of a medical nature, nothing related to the U.N."
The gates on the fence that rings the U.N. complex were closed, and the man didn’t appear to be trying to breach the security perimeter. Police said there was no danger to the public. Wedin said the man never pointed the gun at officers and did not threaten to harm them.
NYPD First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker said there was no evidence of a link to terrorism. There was no note in the man's papers, Tucker said, but detectives were looking into names and notations on the documents for clues to his behavior.
“Essentially, he wanted the U.N. to receive his documents, which is ultimately what we agreed to do — provide those documents to the U.N. — and he said if we could do that, he would put the gun down, which is exactly what happened," Tucker told reporters outside U.N. headquarters.
Tucker said the man was visiting from Florida and walked to the U.N. from the Millennium Hotel, a few blocks away near Times Square, where he'd been staying since Wednesday.
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Tucker said the bomb squad swept the hotel, the man's room and a pickup truck connected to him that was parked outside the hotel and found no outstanding threats.
Tucker said criminal charges were pending. He did not identify the man by name, but said he didn't have a criminal record.
People inside U.N. headquarters were initially told to shelter in place, but were later allowed to move about the complex and come and go from other entrances. The U.N. General Assembly and Security Council were both in session Thursday. A 911 call reporting the man to police was placed from inside the U.N. building, Tucker said.
“We thank the NYPD for their quick response to the incident and we remain in contact with them as they conduct their investigation,” U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.
Dujarric said earlier there was “zero indication” the man was a current or former U.N. employee.
India Accords High Priority To Combating Human Trafficking: Minister At UN
New York: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra on Tuesday (local time) said that India accords high priority to combating human trafficking and that the Indian government is making continuous efforts to prevent and counter-trafficking in persons, NDTV reports..
Delivering India's statement at a high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the appraisal of the UN Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, MoS Mishra said, "India recognizes that human trafficking is a serious crime and accords high priority to combating trafficking. The Government of India is making continuous and concerted efforts to prevent and counter-trafficking in persons."
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He said that India's anti-trafficking legislative framework is based on the bedrock of Article 23 of the Constitution of India. "With the amendment of our Criminal Law in 2013, trafficking has been defined comprehensively and provisions have been made for stringent punishment for traffickers."
At the United Nations, Mr Mishra also recalled how in 2019, India's National Investigation Agency Act of 2008 was amended whereby the NIA has been authorized to investigate cases of human trafficking. "A number of schemes focusing on rescue, rehabilitation and repatriation of victims of trafficking have been instituted by the Government of India which address specific areas which are victim-centric."
He said stated that the Government of India in association with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), had initiated a multi-year project training for Law Enforcement Officers on human trafficking.
Explaining how the central government in India supports State Governments to strengthen the institutional mechanism to combat Human Trafficking, the minister said that a national level communication platform - Crime Multi-Agency Centre (Cri-MAC) has been launched by the Indian government to facilitate the dissemination of information about significant crimes, including human trafficking cases across the country.
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"Apart from having ratified the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime and its protocols, India has signed the SAARC Convention on Prevention and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution and has also signed bilateral Memoranda of Understanding for Prevention of Human Trafficking with several countries," MoS Mishra added.
"India is determined in combating the scourge of human trafficking and remains committed to extending cooperation to all Member States in preventing and countering human trafficking," the minister concluded.
UN resolution on Rohingyas a pressure on Myanmar: FM
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday said the adoption of a resolution at the United Nations (UN) by consensus for the first time on the “situation of human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar” has a political value and it has a pressure on that particular country.
“It’s a great day for us. We’re very happy,” he told reporters after attending a programme at Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS).
Dr Momen said the countries which used to create barriers like Russia and China also want solutions to the Rohingya crisis and he had discussion with Russia while China has taken some initiatives.
“They (Rohingyas) must go back to their country for a better future. All countries want a peaceful solution to the Rohingya issue,” he said.
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As fundamental issues regarding the Rohingya crisis were not included in the resolution in June, Bangladesh decided to abstain. “We strongly made our position clear explaining why we abstained at that time,” Dr Momen said.
He said restoration of democracy in Myanmar was highlighted but the return of Rohingyas was not mentioned. “We said resolution will be meaningless if you don’t talk about the Rohingyas.”
Responding to a question, the Foreign Minister said the General Assembly resolution is not a mandatory one while the Security Council resolution is a mandatory one. “We’re yet to see any resolution passed by the UNSC. We’re hopeful that in the future we can see progress there, too.”
“The adoption of the Rohingya resolution, for the first time by consensus, demonstrates the international community’s strong resolve to end this crisis,” said Ambassador Rabab Fatima, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations during the adoption of the resolution on Wednesday.
The resolution was jointly tabled by the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the European Union (EU).
In the resolution, the member states commended Bangladesh for its generosity in hosting the Rohingyas, and for providing humanitarian assistance to them and also for including them in the national COVID-19 vaccination drive.
UN investigator: Crimes against humanity under Myanmar junta
The head of the U.N. body investigating the most serious crimes in Myanmar said Friday that preliminary evidence collected since the military seized power on Feb. 1 shows a widespread and systematic attack on civilians “amounting to crimes against humanity.”
Nicholas Koumjian told U.N. reporters that the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, which he heads, has received over 200,000 communications since the army takeover and has collected over 1.5 million items of evidence that are being analyzed “so that one day those most responsible for the serious international crimes in Myanmar will be brought to account.”
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In determining that the crimes against civilians appear to be widespread and systematic, he said investigators saw patterns of violence -- a measured response by security forces to demonstrations in the first six weeks or so after the military takeover followed by “an uptick in violence and much more violent methods used to suppress the demonstrators.”
“This was happening in different places at the same time, indicating to us it would be logical to conclude this was from a central policy,” Koumjian said. “And, also, we saw that particular groups were targeted, especially for arrests and detentions that appear to be without due process of law. And this includes, of course, journalists, medical workers and political opponents.”
Myanmar for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. As the generals loosened their grip, culminating in Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s rise to leadership in 2015 elections, the international community responded by lifting most sanctions and pouring investment into the country.
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The Feb. 1 military takeover followed November elections which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won overwhelmingly and the military rejects as fraudulent. Since the takeover, Myanmar has been wracked by unrest, with peaceful demonstrations against the ruling generals morphing first into a low-level insurgency in many urban areas after security forces used deadly force and then into more serious combat in rural areas, especially in border regions where ethnic minority militias have been engaging in heavy clashes with government troops.
Christine Schraner Burgener told The Associated Press shortly before her 3 ½ year term as the U.N. special envoy for Myanmar ended on Oct. 31 that “civil war” has spread throughout the country.
The U.N. investigative body was established by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council in September 2018 with a mandate to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence of the most serious international crimes and violations of international law committed in Myanmar.
Koumjian, an American lawyer who served as an international prosecutor of serious crimes committed in Cambodia, East Timor and Bosnia, was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as its head in 2019 with instructions to prepare files that can facilitate criminal prosecutions in national, regional or international tribunals to prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
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Koumjian said his team has been collecting evidence from a wide variety of sources including individuals, organizations, businesses and governments, and the evidence includes photographs, videos, testimonies and social media posts “that could be relevant to show that crimes happened and who is responsible for those crimes.”
The investigative body has received information from social media companies, which he wouldn't name except for Facebook because it had made its cooperation public.
“We began engaging with Facebook as soon as we were created in 2019, and they have been meeting with us regularly,” Koumjian said. “We have received some, but certainly not all, that we have requested. We continue to negotiate with them and actually I am hopeful that we are going to receive more information.”
He said the Human Rights Council specifically instructed the investigators to cooperate with the International Criminal Court's probe into crimes committed against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority and the case at the International Court of Justice brought by Gambia on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya.
“So we are sharing documents with those proceedings,” Koumjian said.
The court actions stem from the Myanmar military’s harsh counterinsurgency campaign against the Rohingya in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes.
Koujian said: “All we’re doing is collecting evidence of the very worst violence, hopefully sending a message to perpetrators: `If you commit this, you run the risk that you will be held to account.’”
UN for investigating, prosecuting crimes against journalists, media workers
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged Member States and the international community to stand in solidarity with journalists around the world and to demonstrate the political will needed to investigate and prosecute crimes against journalists and media workers with the full force of the law.
"Today, on the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, we commemorate the legacy and achievements of journalists killed in the line of duty, and call for justice for crimes committed against them," he said in a message marking the day on Tuesday.
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Last year, according to UNESCO, 62 journalists around the world were killed just for doing their jobs.
Many lost their lives while covering conflict. But in recent years, the number of media workers killed outside conflict zones has risen, said the UN chief.
"In many countries, simply investigating corruption, trafficking, human rights violations or environmental issues puts journalists’ lives at risk," he said.
Impunity for killing journalists is extremely high. According to UNESCO, almost 9 out of 10 cases go unpunished.
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And journalists face countless other threats – ranging from kidnapping, torture and arbitrary detention to disinformation campaigns and harassment, particularly in the digital sphere. Women journalists are at particular risk of online violence, Guterres said.
Crimes against journalists have an enormous impact on society as a whole, because they prevent people from making informed decisions, he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the shadow pandemic of misinformation, has demonstrated that access to facts and science is literally a matter of life and death.
"When access to information is threatened, it sends a disturbing message that undermines democracy and the rule of law," said the UN chief.
Adaptation prog can help 10m more vulnerable people in Asia-Pacific: UN
Climate-related hazards are intensifying in the Asia-Pacific, disproportionately affecting vulnerable rural communities, says a new global report.
Policymakers must prioritise climate resilience and adaptation measures to protect rural communities from losing economic advancements, according to a new report released Monday by the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
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The Building Climate Resilience in the Asia Pacific Region report reviews the key results and lessons learned from the IFAD-supported Adaptation for Smallholder Agricultural Programme (ASAP) which ran from 2012 to 2017 and invested $305 million in targeted rural development projects that needed support in adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change on rural communities.
The ASAP programme made significant progress in the region, supporting more than 510,000 small-scale farming households to adapt to climate change in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal and Vietnam.
The report highlights the diverse, effective, and innovative approaches that IFAD has developed in cooperation with rural communities to adapt to and mitigate the detrimental effects of climate change on rural people's lives and livelihoods.
It analyses approaches and actions that were successful and can be "scaled up" in the region, providing a solid foundation for the new phase of the programme called the Enhanced Adaptation for Smallholder Agricultural Programme (ASAP+), potentially channelling an additional $500 million in climate finance to support the climate resilience of 10 million vulnerable people, particularly women and youth.
"Small-scale producers often know what they need to be more resilient to the effects of climate change, we can support them by helping them to access the appropriate finance and technology," said Kisa Mfalila, IFAD's regional climate and environment specialist for Asia-Pacific.
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"The report confirms that farmers have developed many successful adaptation techniques over time. We need to act fast to draw upon local knowledge," she added.
There will also be a live event at the IFAD Pavilion at COP26 Wednesday that includes a virtual field trip to Bangladesh to discover what steps small-scale farmers are taking to adapt to climate change.
Accompanied by documentary filmmaker Qasa Alom, the audience will virtually travel to the country to meet and interact with farmers who are participants of IFAD-supported projects, to discuss their climate challenges and how they and their rural communities are adapting.
The report suggests acting fast, using technology to speed assessment of climate change risks and impacts, and drawing upon the experience, knowledge, and creativity of local people.
Smallholder farmers have developed many successful adaptation techniques – these must be identified, refined, rolled out and financed adequately and quickly, it says.
Also, the IFAD report calls for using public-private partnerships to add value to and speed up the uptake of solutions created by local people.
Public sector initiatives should be combined with efforts from private sector players, providing inputs and machinery, advisory services, technology solutions and market access to be able to market more profitable products, it says.
Successful adaptations will be spontaneously adopted in rural communities as long as constraints are removed and finance is available.
Smallholder farmers quickly adopt production enhancing innovations if supportive policy frameworks are in place and if public institutions and the private sector provide adequate finance and advisory services.
Information and communication technology platforms introduced to support climate-resilient initiatives also protect against other adverse events, including pandemic disruption: technology platforms can help bring together suppliers, producers, buyers, and other stakeholders to facilitate their exchanges and to make farmers and food chains less exposed to external shocks like the Covid-19 pandemic, the IFAD report says.
Technology platforms help attract young people to enter the food and farming sector, enhancing the rural economy, it adds.
COP26 begins with a mission to unite world
The 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) began on Monday at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow with a mission to unite the world to tackle climate change and its adverse impacts.
The United Kingdom is hosting this year’s COP26 event where world leaders have gathered with the aim of securing global net zero carbon emissions by mid-century and keeping global warming below 1.5ºC.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the President of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), joined the event with other world leaders.
On her arrival at the programme venue, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed her.
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Hasina arrived in Scotland on Sunday (Oct 31) to attend the conference dubbed the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties. Her daughter Saima Wazed Hossain, Thematic Ambassador of CVF, is also accompanying her.
Hasina will deliver her speech after the inauguration ceremony of COP26.
The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany in 1995, and was dubbed COP1.
At COPs, nations come together to assess global progress towards tackling climate change.
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The COP26 climate summit comes six years after the Paris Agreement was signed by over 190 countries to limit the rise of global temperatures to well below 2C with a view of reaching 1.5C. According to the UN, global temperatures are currently set to rise to 2.7C.
Scientists are clear that emissions must halve by 2030 to keep the aims made in Paris within reach.
BGMEA seeks UN support for smooth, sustainable LDC graduation
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has sought all-out cooperation and support of the United Nations for a smooth and sustainable graduation of Bangladesh from LDC to a developing country.
UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Mia Seppo on Tuesday met BGMEA President Faruque Hassan at BGMEA office and discussed the issues of mutual interest.
They had discussions on various issues including challenges of Bangladesh’s LDC graduation and the areas where the country needs to focus on for smooth graduation and sustainable development.
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They also discussed the importance of policy reforms and research to explore strategies to keep the RMG industry competitive in the post-LDC era.
Their talks covered how the RMG sector could make more contribution to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Bangladesh.
Greenhouse gas levels hit new record, cuts fall short: UN
Greenhouse gas concentrations hit a new record high last year and increased at a faster rate than the annual average for the last decade despite a temporary reduction during pandemic lockdowns, the World Meteorological Organization said in a report published Monday.
The news came as the United Nations climate office warned that the world remains off target for meeting its goal of cutting emissions as part of international efforts to curb global warming.
Both announcements came days before the start of a U.N. climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Many environmental activists, policymakers and scientists say the Oct. 31-Nov. 12 event, known as COP26 for short, marks an important and even crucial opportunity for concrete commitments to the targets set out in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
“The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin contains a stark, scientific message for climate change negotiators at COP26,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said of his agency’s annual report on heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. “At the current rate of increase in greenhouse gas concentrations, we will see a temperature increase by the end of this century far in excess of the Paris agreement targets of 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius (2.7-3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.”
According to the report, concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide were all above levels in the pre-industrial era before 1750, when human activities “started disrupting Earth’s natural equilibrium.”
The report draws on information collected by a network that monitors the amount of greenhouse gases that remain in the atmosphere after some quantities are absorbed by oceans and the biosphere.
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In its report, the Geneva-based agency also pointed to signs of a worrying new development: Parts of the Amazon rainforest have gone from being a carbon “sink” that sucks carbon dioxide from the air to a source of CO2 due to deforestation and reduced humidity in the region, it said.
“One of the striking messages from our report is that the Amazonian region, which used to be a sink of carbon, has become a source of carbon dioxide,” Taalas said. “And that’s because of deforestation. It’s because of changes of the global local climate, especially. We have less humidity and less rainfall.”
Oksana Tarasova, chief of WMO’s atmospheric and environment research division, said the results showing the Amazon going from sink to source were a first, but he noted they were from a specific southeastern portion of the Amazon, not the entire rainforest.
The U.N. climate office said separately Monday that its assessment of the formal commitments made by countries that signed up to the Paris accord suggests the world could reduce its emissions by 83-88% by 2050 compared with 2019.
More worryingly, emissions in 2030 are projected to be 16% higher than in 2010, based on formal pledges so far.
“Such an increase, unless changed quickly, may lead to a temperature rise of about 2.7C (4.9F) by the end of the century,” the U.N. said.
Experts argued that emissions must halve by 2030 compared with 2010 levels and essentially hit zero by mid-century, if the Paris goal of capping global warming at 2C, ideally no more than 1.5C, is to be achieved.
“Overshooting the temperature goals will lead to a destabilized world and endless suffering, especially among those who have contributed the least to the GHG emissions in the atmosphere,” said Patricia Espinosa, who heads the U.N. climate office.
“We are nowhere near where science says we should be,” she added.
Alok Sharma, who will preside over the U.N. talks in Glasgow, said progress had been made since the Paris deal was struck in 2015, when projections of existing emissions cuts pointed to warming of up to 4C.
The global average concentration of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, hit a new high of 413.2 parts per million last year, according to the WMO report. The 2020 increase was higher than the annual average over the last decade despite a 5.6% drop in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels due to COVID-19 restrictions, WMO said.
Taalas said a level above 400 parts per million – which was breached in 2015 -- “has major negative repercussions for our daily lives and well-being, for the state of our planet and for the future of our children and grandchildren.”
READ: Greenhouse gas emission hits record high: WMO
Human-incurred carbon dioxide emissions, which result mostly from burning fossil fuels like oil and gas or from cement production, amount to about two-thirds of the warming effect on the climate. WMO said overall, an economic retreat last year because of the pandemic “did not have any discernible impact on the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases and their growth rates, although there was a temporary decline in new emissions.