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UN Daily News
Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Issue DH/6762
In the headlines:
• ‘Clock is ticking’ for Gaza; pledges for aid,
• Briefing General Assembly, UN rights expert urges
• South Sudan: UN Mission transfers internally
• DR Congo: Ban deplores expulsion of UN rights
• As Ebola response accelerates, UN health agency
• General Assembly elects 15 members to UN Human
reconstruction must be honoured – Ban
displaced persons to protection sites
prepares for arrival of trial vaccines
•
dual fight against torture, corruption
officer
Rights Council
Syria: UN convoy crosses lines to reach children
fleeing besieged Kobane
‘Clock is ticking’ for Gaza; pledges for aid, reconstruction must
be honoured – Ban
21 October - On the heels of last week’s visit to Gaza, United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council today that promises made at a recent donor
conference on rebuilding the war-ravaged enclave must “quickly materialize” into concrete
assistance on the ground, especially as winter approaches.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left)
addresses the Security Council meeting
on the situation in the Middle East,
including the Palestinian question.
Security Council President for the month
of October, María Cristina Perceval of
Argentina, is at right. UN Photo/Rick
Bajornas
“Nothing could have prepared me for what I witnessed in Gaza. I saw mile after mile of
wholesale destruction,” Mr. Ban recalled as he briefed the 15-member body on his first visit
to Gaza since this past summer’s conflict.
The Strip, along with Jerusalem, Ramallah and southern Israel, was one of the stops on his
recent trip through North Africa and the Middle East, which also included visits to Tunisia,
Libya, and Egypt, where in Cairo he attended an international donor’s conference on
reconstruction in Gaza.
Today he commended donors’ efforts, which he said “surpassed expectations,” with pledges from some 50 countries
amounting to $5.4 billion.
As it stands now, more than 100,000 residents of Gaza remain homeless with over 50,000 still sheltering in UN run school
buildings. Many still lack access to the municipal water network. Blackouts of up to 18 hours per day are common.
“The clock is ticking. $414 million is immediately needed for humanitarian relief, $1.2 billion for early recovery needs and
$2.4 billion for reconstruction efforts,” Mr. Ban said.
While in Gaza, the Secretary-General visited a UN-supervised school in the Jabalia refugee camp, which was shelled during
the hostilities.
“I met a young man whose brothers and sisters perished in the blasts. He is now confined to a wheelchair having lost his
legs,” he recalled.
For information media not an official record
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21 October 2014
He also called for a thorough investigation into incidents where UN facilities sustained hits and many innocent people were
killed. An independent Board of Inquiry has been set up to look into the most serious of cases, as well as instances in which
weaponry was found on UN premises.
“Israelis also suffered during the conflict. I travelled to a kibbutz where I met the grieving family of a four-year-old child
named Daniel who was killed by a Hamas rocket – another innocent victim of this mindless conflict,” said Mr. Ban.
He reiterated that firing rockets is unacceptable, because they have brought nothing but suffering. During his visit, the UN
chief said he also visited a tunnel built by militants to launch attacks.
“I fully understand the security threat to Israel from rockets above and tunnels below. At the same time, the scale of the
destruction in Gaza has left deep questions about proportionality.”
Despite the harsh reality on the ground, the Secretary-General said he left Gaza with a measure of hope. During his time
there, the first supplies of urgently needed construction materials entered Gaza under a mechanism brokered by his Special
Coordinator. He also welcomed the offer by Turkey of a ship to serve as a temporary power plant.
Palestinians too are forging ahead through an intra-Palestinian reconciliation agreement followed by a historic meeting in
Gaza of the Cabinet of the Government of National Consensus, said the Secretary-General. This government must be united
so that it can effectively manage Gaza’s borders and resume trade between Gaza and the West Bank.
During his visit, Mr. Ban met Palestinian Prime Minister Hamdallah and his Cabinet in Ramallah and Deputy Prime
Minister Abu Amr and several Ministers in Gaza to further underscore UN support for a unified Palestinian leadership.
The Secretary-General also reiterated his deep concerns about plans to construct residential housing units in occupied East
Jerusalem, adding that “international law is clear: settlement activity is illegal” and urging the Israeli Government to reverse
these activities.
Mr. Ban said he also met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who personally assurance him of his
Government’s commitment to refrain from changing policies with respect to the Holy Sites.
But the Secretary-General remains concerned about the mounting numbers of attacks by settlers and others as well as Israeli
plans to “relocate” some 7,000 Palestinian Bedouins, the majority of whom are refugees, from their current locations in the
central West Bank.
Just like at the donor conference in Egypt, Mr. Ban urged that the cycle of build and destroy must end. The international
community “cannot be expected to pick up the pieces of another war and then pick up the bill.”
The planned resumption of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and the Palestinians, under Egyptian auspices in Cairo was
a welcomed step, the UN chief said, commending steps by Israel to ease restrictions on movement and trade in the West
Bank and Gaza.
But there will not be hope for long-term stability in Gaza without addressing the underlying causes of the conflict: an end to
the occupation that has grinded on for nearly half a century, a full lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip and effectively
addressing Israel’s legitimate security concerns.
Ultimately, long-term stability requires a comprehensive peace agreement leading to a viable and independent Palestinian
state, said Mr. Ban.
On Syria, the Secretary-General reiterated his call on all parties to protect civilians in the town of Kobane. In addition to the
“barbarity” of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or Daesh, the Syrian Government continues to indiscriminately
attack populated areas, including with barrel bombs.
The long-term strategic objective in Syria remains a political solution based on the Geneva Communiqué, he told the
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21 October 2014
Security Council, emphasizing that a purely military response to the vicious new threat posed by Daesh could ultimately
contribute to the radicalization of other Sunni armed groups and spark a cycle of renewed violence.
On Lebanon, the Secretary-General said he was troubled by a dangerous escalation since the August attacks by Daesh and
Nusra Front on Arsal, the latest fighting earlier this month between the Nusra Front and Hizbollah outside the town of Brital.
He welcomed efforts by Prime Minister Salam and Lebanese leaders to uphold national unity and called on Lebanese parties
to demonstrate flexibility to open the way for the election of a President.
South Sudan: UN Mission transfers internally displaced persons
to protection sites
21 October - The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has opened new sites
for about 28,000 internally displaced persons adjacent to its bases in three state capitals to
improve living conditions of civilians who have been uprooted by the recent conflict, a
senior UN official said in Juba today.
Food Distribution to Internally Displaced
in South Sudan. UN Photo/JC McIlwaine
Speaking to the press today Derk Segaar, head of UN Resident's Coordinators Office
Relief, Reintegration and Protection (RRP), said the new sites have been constructed in
Juba, Malakal and Bor.
Overall, UNMISS is protecting more than 100,000 civilians on its bases throughout the
country.
“When we first opened our gates, we expected it to be a temporary solution,” said Mr. Segaar. “The situation has become
prolonged and we are looking for solutions to make it more bearable.”
“Still, in our view, it is a temporary solution that we hope to reverse when stability returns so that people can go home. It
was also very much a measure of last resort that I don't think it is a good situation for anybody to be confined in these small
spaces for a prolonged period of time,” he added.
The living conditions are better, though the sites are still “improvised, temporary and not a great place to live.” he said,
noting that 11,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) had been moved from the mission’s base in Tomping, Juba, to a new
protection site near the mission’s headquarters. The process to move the remaining 3,000 people in Tomping would start
tomorrow, he added.
Another site had been completed at the mission’s base in the Jonglei State capital Bor, where only 3,000 people remained. In
the Upper Nile State capital Malakal, 14,000 IDPs had moved to a new site the mission was expanding to accommodate the
remaining 4,000 people.
But the situation is especially bad in the Unity State capital of Bentiu, where the area for the IDP camps was completely
submerged following heavy rainfall earlier this week.
“In Bentiu, the situation is dire,” said Mr. Segaar. “The site is continuously flooded. We have worked with partners to
provide drainage so that people can live in a more dignified way than they are doing.”
He added that partners were also working on a dry season plan to improve conditions for 50,000 IDPs seeking shelter at the
UNMISS base in Bentiu. UN agencies will continue to drain water using pumps and excavators to alleviate the unacceptable
living conditions facing most of the site's population.
“Outside the base, it is dry. Inside, it’s flooded, but people choose to remain here,” he said. “Clearly it’s a security issue.”
But the mission would not force out anyone seeking shelter on its bases, he assured. But at the same time, it is vital to
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21 October 2014
encourage people in stable areas to return home or move to other places where they could feel safe.
Asked about foreign nationals seeking shelter at the mission’s bases, Mr. Segaar stressed that the mission’s role was “to
protect civilians, not only protect South Sudanese citizens.”
“I meet with people at the protection sites daily and I don’t know a single person who is keen to stay in these conditions,” he
said. “If individuals decide that they feel unsafe for any reason, the mission is committed to providing protection.”
South Sudan’s Government has been at war with rebel groups since 15 December, when a clash between troops loyal to
President Salva Kiir and those loyal to former Vice-President Riek Machar snowballed into full-scale fighting.
As Ebola response accelerates, UN health agency prepares for
arrival of trial vaccines
21 October - Amid positive developments in the global fight against Ebola, including a
growing response to the Secretary-General’s appeals for the more funding to tackle the
outbreak, the United Nations health agency today announced the expected delivery of Ebola
candidate vaccines, as the UN system continues to ramps up efforts to quell the spread of
the deadly virus.
World Health Organization (WHO) spokeswoman, Fadéla Chaib, told a press briefing in
Geneva earlier today that the agency is expecting the arrival of a Canadian shipment of
Ebola candidate vaccines to arrive in Geneva on 22 October where they would be kept
refrigerated at the city’s Cantonal Hospital.
The delivery of the vaccines is the next step in a process initiated by the WHO in late
September when it organized an expert consultation featuring more than 70 experts to
assess the status of work to test and eventually license two candidate Ebola vaccines.
In early October 2014, with the help of
the US Navy, a new mobile laboratory
opened at Island Clinic, one of the WHOsupported Ebola Treatment Units (ETU)
in Monrovia, Liberia. Photo: WHO/R.
Sørenson
“The overarching objective was to take stock of the many efforts currently under way to rapidly evaluate Ebola vaccines for
safety and efficacy. The next step is to make these vaccines available as soon as possible – and in sufficient quantities – to
protect critical frontline workers and to make a difference in the epidemic’s future evolution,” the WHO explained in a
statement which added that the “ultimate goal” was to have “a fully tested and licensed product that can be scaled up for use
in mass vaccination campaigns.”
The announcement of the arrival of the candidate vaccines follows the UN agency’s recent confirmation that both Nigeria
and Senegal are now free of Ebola virus transmission, after 42 days without a single case – a fact the WHO celebrated as “a
spectacular success story.”
Nevertheless, Ms. Chaib stated that the three remaining affected countries – Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone – were
“certainly underreporting” the scope of their epidemics, but that it remained “impossible to tell to which degree.”
Responding to questions from reporters, the spokesperson also acknowledged “perceptions of delays” in the WHO’s
response, adding that the agency would conduct “in due time a thorough review of its response.” Right now, she continued,
the focus remained on fighting the disease and minimizing its impact on the West African population.
Also addressing the press briefing was a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Christophe
Boulierac, who drew renewed attention to the plight of Ebola survivors who struggle with stigmatization, isolation and
psycho-social stress despite overcoming the disease.
Mr. Boulierac explained that even though Ebola survivors were no longer contagious and had developed immunity from the
virus, many were kept at a distance by their communities, noting that in one instance the daughter of a survivor was not
allowed to play with children.
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21 October 2014
The spokesperson told journalists that despite the stigma, a UNICEF-backed centre in Liberia had identified and trained 20
survivors to help at care centres throughout the country.
The fact that the survivors are no longer afraid of catching the virus and the fact that they had overcome their own sufferings
and could relate to the current patients placed them in a unique position to provide care, especially to children, concluded
Mr. Boulierac.
Meanwhile, in a statement released by the UN spokesperson in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the
uptick in the financing of the Ebola Multi-Partner Trust Fund which forms part of the monetary groundwork for the global
Ebola response as well as the wider UN response.
The Secretary-General established the Fund to provide “a flexible, accountable, strategic and transparent platform to finance
critical unfunded priorities and help reduce the rate of Ebola transmission,” the statement said, explaining that it would help
provide a range of materials, including trained medical personnel, mobile laboratories, vehicles, helicopters, protective
equipment, and medevac capacities.
Mr. Ban noted that the total amount of commitments and pledges now stood at $50 million and urged all countries who had
already contributed “to consider what more they can do, and those who have yet to contribute to do so as a matter of
urgency.” The Organization had initially set the target of $100 million to be reached by the end of October.
“Ebola is a major global problem that demands a massive and immediate global response,” he added.
Syria: UN convoy crosses lines to reach children fleeing
besieged Kobane
21 October - Trucks carrying lifesaving supplies for Syrian children have managed to cross
over the battle line in Aleppo for the first time in months, a spokesperson for the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today in what was described as a “small but
significant breakthrough” in the UN agency’s efforts to help children displaced by the
fighting in Kobane.
A UN truck with humanitarian supplies
at the Turkish side of the border awaiting
green light to cross to the Syrian side, in
March 2014. Photo: OCHA
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, UNICEF spokesperson, Christophe Boulierac, explained
that five trucks departing from the Government-controlled city of Aleppo succeeded in
reaching the suburb of Afrin, a small district due north, where thousands of children fleeing
the fighting in Kobane have taken refuge. The trucks were carrying a number of supplies
including hygiene kits, blankets, water and high energy biscuits and would be distributed by
volunteer teams from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
The conflict in Syria, which began in March 2011, has led to well over 150,000 deaths, and more than 680,000 people have
been injured. It has also spawned a refugee crisis in which some 2.5 million people are being sheltered in neighbouring
countries. At least 10.8 million people are in need of assistance inside Syria, including at least 6.5 million who are internally
displaced.
At the same time, the civil war has fractured amid the introduction of a number of militant groups vying for control of
Syria’s cities, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), whose ongoing siege of the Syrian border town of
Kobane has added to the humanitarian crisis of displaced persons and refugees.
Mr. Boulierac told journalists that the convoy’s arrival in Afrin was a “significant” step for UNICEF as the city had not
received any assistance for at least 12 months, noting that the children there had been “among the hardest to reach due to the
conflict.” In addition, he pointed out that the UN agency would be joining a UN convoy taking similar assistance to Afrin
and other towns in north-western Syria which had been beyond the reach of humanitarian aid for as long as six months.
The spokesperson cautioned, however, that UNICEF needed similar convoys to reach other children throughout the country
and adding that that would be increasingly difficult if the agency’s budget shortfall were not addressed immediately.
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UNICEF has only received 50 per cent of the funds it requested and still requires some $94 million by the end of the year in
order to maintain humanitarian operations in the country. Without the injection of funding, warned Mr. Boulierac, the
agency risked reducing or “completely bringing to a halt” some of the assistance it was giving to the 5 million children in
need inside the country.
Briefing General Assembly, UN rights expert urges dual fight
against torture, corruption
21 October - The incidences of torture and ill-treatment around the world have not been
diminishing and the need for effective prevention is “as great as it ever has been,” a United
Nations human rights expert said today as he urged Member States to do more to tackle
domestic corruption in order to prevent such episodes of abuses.
From left: Chairperson of the UN
Subcommittee on the Prevention of
Torture (SPT), Malcolm Evans; the
Chairperson of the UN Committee
against Torture Claudio Grossman and
Special Rapporteur Juan Méndez hold
press conference. UN Photo/Loey Felipe
“There is a clear connection between torture, ill-treatment and corrupt practices,” the
chairperson of the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT), Malcolm Evans
said as he presented the SPT’s annual report to the General Assembly’s main body dealing
with social, humanitarian and cultural issues (Third Committee) in New York.
“Effective torture prevention must tackle corrupt practices too,” he added.
The Subcommittee was established in 2002 and has a mandate to visit all places where
persons may be deprived of their liberty, including police stations, prisons (military and civilian), detention centres, and
mental health and social care institutions while ensuring that States are in compliance with their obligations as delineated
under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.
In its report, however, the Subcommittee notes that its preventive work appeared to be getting more challenging, particularly
in those States with higher levels of corruption where torture and ill-treatment were less likely to be discovered.
“States have very clear Convention commitments, yet we have experienced increasing delays in being provided with the
information and facilities which are necessary to undertake visits efficiently and, for the first, time, we found it necessary to
suspend one of our full visits, to Azerbaijan, due to repeated problems in securing immediate and unimpeded access to
places of detention,” Mr. Evans continued.
Although he welcomed the increase in the number if States to have ratified the Optional Protocol – now at 74 – Mr. Evans
also highlighted the burdensome lack of resources in the UN Human Rights Office which constrained the Subcommittee to
only three full visits during 2013 and three others this year.
“Frankly, this number of visits is far too few too enable the SPT to properly fulfil its mandate,” he said. “At this pace, States
will receive a full regular visit only once in 25 years.”
According to the Chairperson, the Optional Protocol is not “just a source of abstract legal obligations” but establishes a set
of practical tools, in the form of independent national preventive mechanisms which work in tandem with the SPT and with
the States Parties to take effective measures aimed at making torture and ill-treatment less likely, if not inexistent.
Despite Mr. Evans’ cautious outlook, he did welcome the newly launched Convention against Torture Initiative (CTI)
spearheaded by Chile, Denmark, Ghana, Indonesia and Morocco and voiced hope that it would prompt other countries to
ratify the Optional Protocol as well.
The CTI, in fact, has as its stated goal the ambition to identify challenges to State ratification of the Optional Protocol and
delineate a way past these obstacles.
The Third Committee also heard from Claudio Grossman, the Chairperson of the UN Committee against Torture, who
stressed that the issue of State intimidation and reprisals against citizens reporting torture and ill-treatment was a matter of
serious concern.
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21 October 2014
“The ability of individuals to complain against their own States for violations by the States themselves embodies and
important and crucial step toward realizing human dignity,” Mr. Grossman said.
“We all need, now, to commit ourselves to the full implementation of all the obligations set out in the Convention.”
DR Congo: Ban deplores expulsion of UN rights officer
21 October - Secretary -General Ban Ki-moon has condemned last week’s decision by the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to expel from the country its top United Nations
human rights official, saying that doing so can “only be harmful for the country’s progress”
and urged the Government to reconsider its position.
“By impeding the United Nations human rights work, the Government is failing to uphold
its obligations. Doing so can only be harmful for the country’s progress,” said Mr. Ban,
according to astatementreleased by the Secretary-General’s spokesperson today.
Respect for human rights is “absolutely essential” for long-term peace and stability in the
DRC, Mr. Ban added, expressing deep concern for recent threats made against other staff of
the Joint Office, in connection with their human rights work.
Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR) Director in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
Scott Campbell. UN Photo/Sylvain Liechti
The decision to declare Scott Campbell, the director of the UN Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO), persona non grata,
or “unwelcome person”, was initially made public by the Ministry of the Interior on Thursday, a day after the release of a
UN report detailing serious human rights violations by Congolese security forces, for which the Ministry is responsible.
The decision was officially confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, despite a concerted effort by Martin
Kobler, the Head of the UN mission in DRC (MONUSCO), which compiled the report jointly with the UN Human Rights
Office (OHCHR), to persuade the Government to reconsider its decision.
The UN chief today recalled how the Congolese people have suffered grave human rights violations. The Joint Office has,
over the years, helped to document those crimes as it sought to promote and protect their rights, while strengthening justice
and accountability.
In keeping with the Human Rights Up Front Initiative – which seeks to prevent genocide and human rights violations– the
Secretary-General reiterated that UN staff “must never be threatened or sanctioned for doing their work”. Their work in the
country is based on the United Nations Charter and, in this instance, mandated by the Security Council.
Expressing his full confidence in Mr. Campbell, the UN chief urged the Government of the DRC to reconsider its position
on the expulsion and to take urgent action to address the threats against other staff.
On Sunday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, also condemned the decision to order
his top official in the country to leave within 48 hours and called for the threats against other human rights staff to end.
“Not only has my highly experienced and respected representative in DRC, Scott Campbell, been told to leave, but two other
staff working in his team have been seriously threatened in recent days. This is unacceptable,” declared Mr. Zeid inpress
release.
"With these acts of intimidation and reprisal, the Congolese authorities risk setting back years of strenuous efforts by UN
human rights staff and some sectors of the Congolese authorities to assist victims of human rights violations and strengthen
the rule of law," Mr. Zeid added.
According to the UN human rights office (OHCHR), Mr. Campbell left the DRC on Friday for long planned holidays.
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21 October 2014
General Assembly elects 15 members to UN Human Rights
Council
21 October - The General Assembly today elected 15 countries to serve on the United
Nations Human Rights Council for a period of three years beginning on 1 January 2015.
In one round of secret balloting at UN Headquarters in New York, the Assembly elected
Albania, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Ghana, Latvia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Paraguay, Portugal
and Qatar.
Bolivia, Botswana, Congo, India and Indonesia, whose terms were due to expire at the end
of this year, were re-elected today.
A delegate casts his country's ballot in the
election of members for the Human
Rights Council. UN Photo/Evan
Schneider
Members of the Council serve for a period of three years and are not eligible for immediate
re-election after serving two consecutive terms.
The distribution of seats for the current election was as follows: 4 seats allotted to the African States Group; 4 for the AsiaPacific Group; 2 for the Eastern European Group; 3 for the Latin American and Caribbean Group; and 2 for the Western
European and Other States Group.
The Councils’ outgoing members are: Austria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chile, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Kuwait, Peru
Philippines and Romania.
Created by the Assembly in 2006, the 47-member Council, is an inter-governmental body within the UN system responsible
for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human
rights violations and make recommendations on them.
All of its members are elected by the world body’s General Assembly, and it has the ability to discuss all thematic human
rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year. It meets at the UN Office at Geneva.
Those elected today will be joining in the following States who will remain on the Council: Algeria (2016); Argentina
(2015); Brazil (2015); China (2016); Côte d’Ivoire (2015); Cuba (2016); Estonia (2015); Ethiopia (2015); France (2016);
Gabon (2015); Germany (2015); Ireland (2015); Japan (2015); Kazakhstan (2015); Kenya (2015): Maldives (2016): Mexico
(2016): Montenegro (2015); Morocco (2016); Namibia (2016); Pakistan (2015); Republic of Korea (2015); Russia (2016);
Saud Arabia (2016); Sierra Leone (2015); South Africa (2016); the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (2016); United
Arab Emirates (2015); United Kingdom (2016); United States (2015); Venezuela (2015); and Viet Nam (2016).
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)