UN
At UN, India reiterates 2-state solution on Palestinian issue
Chairing a meeting at UNSC on the "Middle East Peace Process", including on the Palestinian question, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla called on all parties to the conflict to respect the ceasefire and refrain from acts that could exacerbate tensions and worsen the security situation reported Times of India.
Shringla chaired four meetings of the Security Council on Monday, a day before the end of India's presidency of the Council. Officials said India successfully steered discussions during its presidency on Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria, Yemen, and the Middle East Peace Process.
In the discussions on the Palestine issue, Shringla reiterated India’s "long standing and firm commitment" to the establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine, within secure, recognized and mutually agreed borders, living side by side with Israel in peace and security.
Also read: What's happening with Afghanistan evacuations?
"We're concerned by recent escalation in Gaza Strip, which once again underscores the fragility of ceasefire and urgent need for addressing the underlying causes that have triggered the escalation," said Shringla.
"I reaffirm India’s call for regular & predictable transfer of aid & other essential items to Gaza to ease humanitarian situation & facilitate early reconstruction, as well as for appropriate use of such aid," he added.
The foreign secretary also noted that early commencement of direct peace negotiations was the best opportunity to resolve all final status issues and achieve a ‘two-state’ solution. He said the decision by Israel to increase number of work permits to Palestinians will help strengthen both economies.
Also read: India ready to deal with any terrorism flowing out of Afghanistan: Top General
Shringla also chaired a meeting on Mali sanctions resolution that strongly condemned the activities in Mali and the Sahel region of ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida-linked terrorist organizations such as Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), IS in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), and Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).
Bangladesh seeks UN steps to prevent another humanitarian catastrophe in S Asian region
Bangladesh on Tuesday called upon the United Nations to take concrete steps to prevent another humanitarian catastrophe in the South Asian region.
Bangladesh thinks an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned inclusive political dialogue anchored on national sovereignty and territorial integrity is essential for establishing and sustaining peace in Afghanistan.
Md. Mustafizur Rahman, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Office at Geneva shared Bangladesh's position at the 31st Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council on the ongoing human rights situation in Afghanistan.
Mentioning an unstable Afghanistan as a serious threat to regional and global peace and security, Ambassador Rahman said Bangladesh wants to see Afghanistan as a peaceful, stable, prosperous, responsible and contributing member of the global community.
Read: Dhaka calls for lasting peace as OIC stands by commitment to Afghanistan
He reiterated Bangladesh's commitment to contribute to the reconstruction and socio-economic development of Afghanistan as a brotherly and friendly country.
The Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council was convened at the request of 104 UN member states, including the countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the European Union.
At the end of the Session, a resolution entitled "Strengthening the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic Afghanistan" was adopted by consensus.
UN official says Afghan supplies low, seeks help
A top World Health Organisation official says the agency only has "a few days left of supplies" for Afghanistan and wants help to ferry in 10 or 12 planeloads of equipment and medicine for its beleaguered people.
Dr Rick Brennan heads the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region that includes Afghanistan. He said from Cairo that the UN health agency is negotiating with the US and other countries to help efforts to replenish strained stockpiles.
"We estimate we've only got a few days left of supplies," Brennan said, alluding to a distribution centre in Dubai that has what is needed. "We have 500 metric tonnes ready to go, but we haven't got any way of getting them into the country right now."
READ: When the music stops: Afghan ‘happy place’ falls silent
The US and other authorities have encouraged the WHO and partners to look to other Afghan airports than Kabul's, which is facing a crush of thousands of people trying to get out of Afghanistan after a Taliban takeover, Rick said.
He said those authorities "have suggested that it'll be too difficult a logistics exercise and security exercise to bring supplies into Kabul," where teams would be required to unload planes and allow trucks to carry out the supplies – which could complicate the evacuations.
Needed supplies include emergency kits and essential medicines for the treatment of chronic diseases, like diabetes, the WHO said.
READ: Afghan woman gives birth on US evacuation flight
"We're cautiously optimistic that we might need to get something done in the coming days," Rick said, before adding: "We need a consistent humanitarian air bridge into the country ASAP."
‘Code red’: UN scientists warn of worsening global warming
Earth is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent, according to a report released Monday that the United Nations called a “code red for humanity.”
“It’s just guaranteed that it’s going to get worse,” said report co-author Linda Mearns, a senior climate scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research. “Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.”
Read: Californians endure intense weekend of wildfire fears
But scientists also eased back a bit on the likelihood of the absolute worst climate catastrophes.
The authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which calls climate change clearly human-caused and “unequivocal” and “an established fact,” makes more precise and warmer forecasts for the 21st century than it did last time it was issued in 2013.
Each of five scenarios for the future, based on how much carbon emissions are cut, passes the more stringent of two thresholds set in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. World leaders agreed then to try to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above levels in the late 19th century because problems mount quickly after that. The world has already warmed nearly 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since then.
Under each scenario, the report said, the world will cross the 1.5-degree-Celsius warming mark in the 2030s, earlier than some past predictions. Warming has ramped up in recent years, data shows.
“Our report shows that we need to be prepared for going into that level of warming in the coming decades. But we can avoid further levels of warming by acting on greenhouse gas emissions,” said report co-chair Valerie Masson-Delmotte, a climate scientist at France’s Laboratory of Climate and Environment Sciences at the University of Paris-Saclay.
In three scenarios, the world will also likely exceed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times — the less stringent Paris goal — with far worse heat waves, droughts and flood-inducing downpours unless there are deep emissions cuts, the report said.
“This report tells us that recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid and intensifying, unprecedented in thousands of years,” said IPCC Vice Chair Ko Barrett, senior climate adviser for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Read: Wildfires rampage in Greek forests, cut large island in half
With crucial international climate negotiations coming up in Scotland in November, world leaders said the report is causing them to try harder to cut carbon pollution. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called it “a stark reminder.”
The 3,000-plus-page report from 234 scientists said warming is already accelerating sea level rise and worsening extremes such as heat waves, droughts, floods and storms. Tropical cyclones are getting stronger and wetter, while Arctic sea ice is dwindling in the summer and permafrost is thawing. All of these trends will get worse, the report said.
For example, the kind of heat wave that used to happen only once every 50 years now happens once a decade, and if the world warms another degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), it will happen twice every seven years, the report said.
As the planet warms, places will get hit more not just by extreme weather but by multiple climate disasters at once, the report said. That’s like what’s now happening in the Western U.S., where heat waves, drought and wildfires compound the damage, Mearns said. Extreme heat is also driving massive fires in Greece and Turkey.
Some harm from climate change — dwindling ice sheets, rising sea levels and changes in the oceans as they lose oxygen and become more acidic — is “irreversible for centuries to millennia,” the report said.
The world is “locked in” to 15 to 30 centimeters (6 to 12 inches) of sea level rise by mid-century, said report co-author Bob Kopp of Rutgers University.
Scientists have issued this message for more than three decades, but the world hasn’t listened, said United Nations Environment Program Executive Director Inger Andersen.
For the first time, the report offers an interactive atlas for people to see what has happened and may happen to where they live.
Nearly all of the warming that has happened on Earth can be blamed on emissions of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. At most, natural forces or simple randomness can explain one- or two-tenths of a degree of warming, the report said.
The report described five different future scenarios based on how much the world reduces carbon emissions. They are: a future with incredibly large and quick pollution cuts; another with intense pollution cuts but not quite as massive; a scenario with moderate emission cuts; a fourth scenario where current plans to make small pollution reductions continue; and a fifth possible future involving continued increases in carbon pollution.
In five previous reports, the world was on that final hottest path, often nicknamed “business as usual.” But this time, the world is somewhere between the moderate path and the small pollution reductions scenario because of progress to curb climate change, said report co-author Claudia Tebaldi, a scientist at the U.S. Pacific Northwest National Lab.
While calling the report “a code red for humanity,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres kept a sliver of hope that world leaders could still somehow prevent 1.5 degrees of warming, which he said is “perilously close.”
Alok Sharma, the president of the upcoming climate negotiations in Scotland, urged leaders to do more so they can “credibly say that we have kept 1.5 degrees alive.”
“Anything we can do to limit, to slow down, is going to pay off,” Tebaldi said. “And if we cannot get to 1.5, it’s probably going to be painful, but it’s better not to give up.”
In the report’s worst-case scenario, the world could be around 3.3 degrees Celsius (5.9 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than now by the end of the century. But that scenario looks increasingly unlikely, said report co-author and climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, climate change director of the Breakthrough Institute.
“We are a lot less likely to get lucky and end up with less warming than we thought,” Hausfather said. “At the same time, the odds of ending up in a much worse place than we expected if we do reduce our emissions are notably lower.”
The report also said ultra-catastrophic disasters — commonly called “tipping points,” like ice sheet collapses and the abrupt slowdown of ocean currents — are “low likelihood” but cannot be ruled out. The much talked-about shutdown of Atlantic ocean currents, which would trigger massive weather shifts, is something that’s unlikely to happen in this century, Kopp said.
A “major advance” in the understanding of how fast the world warms with each ton of carbon dioxide emitted allowed scientists to be far more precise in the scenarios in this report, Mason-Delmotte said.
In a new move, scientists emphasized how cutting airborne levels of methane — a powerful but short-lived gas that has soared to record levels — could help curb short-term warming. Lots of methane the atmosphere comes from leaks of natural gas, a major power source. Livestock also produces large amounts of the gas, a good chunk of it in cattle burps.
More than 100 countries have made informal pledges to achieve “net zero” human-caused carbon dioxide emissions sometime around mid-century, which will be a key part of the negotiations in Scotland. The report said those commitments are essential.
“It is still possible to forestall many of the most dire impacts,” Barrett said.
Dhaka seeks UN role in Afghanistan to avert people’s sufferings
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen on Monday said the United Nations should step up efforts at this critical juncture in Afghanistan as Bangladesh does not want to see people in Afghanistan suffer anymore.
"While we welcome peace talks involving important players, I think, the United Nations as a neutral broker should step up (efforts) at this critical juncture," he said adding that Bangladesh wants to see a fellow South Asian State, a fellow member of SAARC and its people remain free from any sufferings.
Bangladesh thinks the strengthening of democratic institutions, including endogenous ones and unimpeded socio-economic development in Afghanistan – with the active participation of the international community – remain important.
Also read: ASEAN countries urged to help expedite Rohingya repatriation efforts
"The daunting task ahead is to build an efficient public service delivery system suitable for the Afghan people given the geography and ethnic divide and millennium old, decentralized structure," said the Foreign Secretary.
2 charged in plot to harm or kill Myanmar ambassador to UN
Two Myanmar citizens were arrested on charges alleging that they conspired to oust Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, who opposes the military junta that seized power earlier this year, by injuring — or even killing — him.
Phyo Hein Htut and Ye Hein Zaw plotted to seriously injure or kill Myanmar’s ambassador in an attack that was to take place on American soil, U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a release Friday.
Read: UN takes no action on order against Myanmar on Rohingyas
According to court documents in White Plains federal court, a Thailand arms dealer who sells weapons to the Myanmar military hired the pair to hurt the ambassador to try to force him to step down. If that didn’t work, the ambassador was to be killed, authorities said.
Myanmar’s military overthrew the country’s civilian government in February. Myanmar’s currently recognized U.N. ambassador, Kyaw Moe Tun, staunchly opposed the ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In a speech to the General Assembly in late February, Tun called for “the strongest possible action from the international community” to restore democracy.
Myanmar’s military has tried to remove Tun from his post, but the 193-member General Assembly is responsible for accrediting diplomats and has not taken action at the military’s urging.
There was no immediate response to a phone call and email to Myanmar’s U.N. Mission seeking comment.
Read: UN calls for return to democracy in Myanmar, end to violence
The plot to maim or kill Tun was to be carried out in Westchester County, where the ambassador lives, according to two criminal complaints.
Htut last month was contacted by the arms dealer, who wanted to pay several thousand dollars for Htut to carry out the attack, the complaints said. Htut received a $2,000 advance on July 23, it added.
After the FBI learned of the plot on Tuesday, it arranged to interview Htut on Wednesday, when Htut described the plan, which included initially tampering with the ambassador’s tires to cause an accident, the complaint said. It said Htut received $4,000 in payments to carry out the attack and was to be paid another $1,000 once it was finished.
In a complaint against Zaw, authorities said Zaw admitted after his arrest that he sent the $4,000 to Htut.
Htut, 28, and Zaw, 20, are each charged with conspiracy to assault and make a violent attack upon a foreign official, which carries a maximum sentence upon conviction of five years in prison.
At an initial appearance in White Plains federal court Friday, Htut consented to detention. Zaw awaited an initial appearance.
Messages seeking comment from their lawyers were not immediately returned.
Human trafficking: UN to act responding to voices of victims
The United Nations says it is committed to listening and responding to the voices of victims and survivors of human trafficking ensuring their rights and dignity.
"The UN is committed to amplifying their stories and learning from them in the fight to prevent and put an end to this terrible crime," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The UN chief made the remarks in a message marking the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons “Victims’ Voices Lead the Way” that falls on July 30.
In the midst of a global pandemic, Guterres said, accompanied by rising inequalities and economic devastation, the voices of human trafficking survivors and victims risk being drowned out. But listening to their stories is more crucial than ever as the Covid-19 crisis increases fragilities and drives up desperation, he said.
Also read: All stakeholders must join hands for combating human trafficking: Webinar
As many as 124 million more people have been pushed into extreme poverty by the pandemic, leaving many millions vulnerable to trafficking.
Children are at great and growing risk as they represent one-third of victims globally, a share that has tripled in the last 15 years.
"Half of victims in low-income countries are children, most of whom are trafficked for forced labour. Criminals everywhere are using technology to identify, control and exploit vulnerable people. Children are increasingly targeted through online platforms for sexual exploitation, forced marriage and other forms of abuse," said the UN chief.
Trafficking in women and girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation continues to be one of the most widespread and abhorrent forms of human trafficking, he said. "Migrants account for more than half of those trafficked in most regions."
The UN chief said governments must take urgent steps to strengthen prevention, support victims and bring perpetrators to justice.
Also read: Bangladeshi returnee from Mauritius files human trafficking case against recruiting agency
This includes implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.
"Our efforts must be guided by survivors of trafficking," he said, adding that their contribution is essential to address risk factors and patterns, and to identify and protect victims and ensure their access to justice and recovery, while holding their exploiters accountable.
Women’s groups call for UN peacekeeping force in Afghanistan
Women’s rights supporters and faith leaders are calling for a United Nations peacekeeping force for Afghanistan to protect hard-won gains for women over the last two decades as American and NATO forces complete their pullout from the war-torn country and a Taliban offensive gains control over more territory.
Under the Taliban, women were not allowed to go to school, work outside the home or leave their house without a male escort. And though they still face many challenges in the country’s male-dominated society, Afghan women have increasingly stepped into powerful positions in numerous fields — and many fear the departure of international troops and a Taliban takeover could take away their gains.
In a May 14 letter obtained by The Associated Press, 140 civil society and faith leaders from the U.S., Afghanistan and other countries “dedicated to the education and rights of women in Afghanistan” asked U.S. President Joe Biden to call for a U.N. peacekeeping force “to ensure that the cost of U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan is not paid for in the lives of schoolgirls.”
Also read: Taliban surge in north Afghanistan sends thousands fleeing
The letter also asked the U.S. to increase humanitarian and development aid to Afghanistan “as an important security strategy” to strengthen women and girls and religious minorities like the Hazaras. Three bombings at a high school in a Hazara neighborhood in Kabul on May 8 killed nearly 100 people, all of them Hazara and most of them young girls just leaving class.
The signatories blamed the Trump administration for failing to honor a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in 2000 demanding equal participation for women in activities promoting global peace “by refusing to insist that women were part of the peace talks” with the Taliban.
Sakena Yacoobi, founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning which runs schools across 16 provinces, is quoted in the letter as saying: “For 20 years the West told the women of Afghanistan they are free. Free to learn, to grow, to be a human being independent of men’s expectations of who they are.”
Also read: US to keep about 650 troops in Afghanistan after withdrawal
“What the Taliban did in the 1990s was bad enough,” she said. “What will they do now, with a generation of women taught to expect freedom? It will be one of the greatest crimes against humanity in history. Help us save them. Please. Help us save who we can.”
Among the signatories of the letter were Yacoobi; feminist activist and writer Gloria Steinem; former U.N. deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch Brown who now heads the Open Society Institute; Filmmaker and philanthropist Abigail Disney; former UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy; Betty Reardon, the International Institute on Peace Education’s founding director emeritus; The Rev. Dr. Chloe Breyer, executive director of The Interfaith Center of New York; Masuda Sultan, co-founder of Women for Afghan Women; and Nasir Ahmad Kayhan, UNESCO program manager in Afghanistan.
In April the Taliban promised that women “can serve their society in the education, business, health and social fields while maintaining correct Islamic hijab.” It promised girls would have the right to choose their own husbands, but offered few other details and didn’t guarantee women could participate in politics or have freedom to move unaccompanied by a male relative.
Deborah Lyons, the U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan, told the Security Council on June 22 that “preserving the rights of women remains a paramount concern and must not be used as a bargaining chip at the negotiating table.”
In a follow-up letter on July 12 to U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a wider international group expressed deep concern “for the lives and well-being of the people of Afghanistan, especially women and girls now under great threat” and called for a U.N. peacekeeping mission to deploy to Afghanistan “as soon as practically possible.”
The signatories said they are convinced the 2000 Security Council resolution obliges U.N. member states “to protect women in such circumstances.”
The United Nations has a political mission in Afghanistan. A U.N. peacekeeping mission would have to be approved by the Security Council, where the five permanent members -- the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France -- have veto power.
The letter to the U.S. ambassador said similar messages were being sent to other U.N. ambassadors from citizens in their countries asking for a peacekeeping operation. It asked Thomas-Greenfield to “take action toward the initiation of a peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan.”
A U.S. mission spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the call for a U.N. peacekeeping force, instead stressing Thursday that the Biden administration will continue to support Afghan forces and U.S. “diplomatic, humanitarian and economic engagement in the region.”
“We are putting our full weight behind diplomatic efforts to reach a peace agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government,” said the spokesperson, who could not be named, adding the U.S. remains the largest aid donor to Afghanistan and continues to support the U.N. political mission known as UNAMA.
UN Human Rights Council adopts resolution to end Rohingya crisis
The UN Human Rights Council has unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a solution to the Rohingya crisis.
Since the massive influx of the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar into Bangladesh in August 2017, this is the first time that any resolution on the issue was adopted in the UN without a vote, due to the intense diplomatic efforts made by the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh in Geneva.
Read: FM seeks clear roadmap from UN for Rohingya repatriation
The resolution on the 'Human Rights Situation of Rohingya Muslims and other Minorities in Myanmar' was unanimously adopted on Monday at the ongoing 47th session of the Human Rights Council.
The adoption of the resolution by consensus is a big milestone for Bangladesh, said the Bangladesh Mission in Geneva on Tuesday.
Earlier, at the initiative of Bangladesh, all member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) presented the draft before the Council.
In the context of the existing political situation in Myanmar, there had been strong divergences and differences among the UN member states on various elements of the text from the outset.
After tough and lengthy negotiations at several phases, the resolution was adopted by the Council.
Read: Int'l community's stronger role sought for Rohingya repatriation
Myanmar: UN expert calls for emergency coalition to end junta's 'reign of terror'
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, Wednesday called for the urgent formation of an "Emergency Coalition for the People of Myanmar" to stop what he described as the military junta's "reign of terror."
The international community is failing the people of Myanmar, he said.
Addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Andrews said it was time to end "the failure of those outside of Myanmar to take measures that could help end this nightmare."
Andrews highlighted the extreme human rights abuses committed by the junta, which he described as "crimes against humanity."
"The junta's military forces have murdered approximately 900 people, forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands, tortured many, including torturing people in custody to death, disappeared untold numbers, and arbitrarily detained nearly 6,000," Andrews said.
Also read: In Myanmar, the military and police declare war on medics
Despite its brutality, he added, "The junta has failed to take control of the country after launching its February coup. The junta captured many levers of state power, the purse strings of Myanmar's treasury and the administrative offices, but it has not – not even close – taken control of the nation and its people."
"The people of Myanmar roundly view the junta as illegitimate and, indeed, a terrorist scourge set loose upon them. Now, more than ever, we must summon the courage of the people of Myanmar and choose the path of meaningful and sustained action," Andrews said.
Andrews' call for an Emergency Coalition for the People of Myanmar would include "nations willing to stand with the people of Myanmar through meaningful, coordinated action."
The UN expert said a coalition of nations that are willing to work together on strong action to pressure the junta was necessary considering the paralysis that has followed the consensus decision making that has plagued the international response to date.
"The UN Security Council, Human Rights Council and General Assembly have offered statements and resolutions but the people of Myanmar need immediate action," he told the Council in Geneva.
Also read: Washington announces further sanctions against Myanmar army personnel and enablers
Andrews said, "The Emergency Coalition should significantly reduce the revenue that the junta needs to continue its reign of terror by coordinated tough targeted sanctions, including against Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise."
"Also, it will have to outlaw the export of arms to the Myanmar military, as called for in last month's General Assembly resolution; pursue universal jurisdiction cases and coordinate investigations against Myanmar's senior security officials," he added.
READ: UK announces sanctions on companies linked to Myanmar’s military regime
"The Emergency Coalition should dramatically increase humanitarian aid by working with the National Unity Government to use non-junta channels to assure that aid goes directly to the people of Myanmar. Also, it will have to work together to deny any claims of legitimacy that the junta may try to assert, such as the false claim that they are recognised by the UN " Andrews said.