July 19, 2019 No comments
Top UN sustainable development forum closes with galvanized effort toward ‘empowerment, inclusiveness and equality’
INTERNATIONAL, 19 July 2019, SDGs - In closing the High-level Segment of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on Friday, President Inga Rhonda King assured participants that the session had contributed significantly to advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. By “increasing awareness and galvanizing efforts towards empowerment, inclusiveness and equality”, the entire ECOSOCsystem has worked “to address gaps and challenges, provide integrated policy recommendations, and review progress”, which are all “at the heart of the 2030 Agenda”, she said. Ms. King pointed out that the High-level Segment also included the ministerial segment of the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF), which she referred to as “the premier global forum for follow-up and review of sustainable development”. “I am confident that our deliberations on the theme during this cycle have...
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July 19, 2019 No comments
‘Indiscriminate blasts’ in civilian areas ‘must stop’, UN mission in Afghanistan stresses
INTERNATIONAL, 19 July 2019, Peace and Security - The “deliberate targeting of educational facilities” during armed conflict is “a war crime”, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Friday after a bomb detonated near the entrance to Kabul University, in the country’s capital. The University “was [the] intentional focus of attack”, UNAMA tweeted, saying that blast killed at least “eight civilians” and wounded 33 others. News sources cited Kabul Police Chief Spokesperson, Ferdous Faramarz, in reporting that two vehicles caught fire after the blast, while police defused a second bomb near the explosion site. Although no group has claimed responsibility for the Kabul bombing, UNAMA said that Taliban militants had claimed an attack in Kandahar, also on Friday, carried out against the National Afghan Police (ANP). Blasts in a residential area liked caused “major civilian harm”, UNAMA said. “Initial findings show scores of...
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July 19, 2019 No comments
First men on the moon ‘came in peace’ to UN Headquarters ‘for all mankind’
INTERNATIONAL, 19 July 2019, Culture and Education - As the world remembers Saturday’s 50th anniversary of the “giant leap for mankind” made by all those involved in the pioneering Apollo 11 space programme, we take a look back at the visit made by astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, to UN Headquarters in New York, just a few weeks after their historic mission. It was a sunny day on 13 August, 1969, when the first men to land on the moon appeared in the main plaza of the UN General Assembly building, welcomed by the Secretary General at the time, U Thant, as “three great pioneers” on behalf of the entire human race. Standing on a special outdoor podium, notably lacking any women in the front row,...
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July 19, 2019 No comments
‘Firmly united’ Security Council can bolster Colombia’s efforts to secure lasting peace, says UN envoy
INTERNATIONAL, 19 July 2019, Peace and Security - The Colombian peace process is an outstanding example of how much support the United Nations can provide when the Security Council is ‘firmly united’, a senior UN envoy said on Friday, calling for the 15-member body’s continued commitment as the country works to overcome secure lasting peace. Briefing the Council just days after its members returned from the South American country, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, the Head of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, said that “as you heard repeatedly during the visit, the Council's steadfast and unified support has been critical to these achievements, and the Colombian people and institutions are deeply grateful to the Security Council.” A historic 2016 peace deal between the Colombian Government and Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) guerrillas brought the western hemisphere's longest-running conflict to an end. Yet Mr....
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July 19, 2019 No comments
Zimbabwe: Droughts leave millions food insecure, UN food agency scales up assistance
INTERNATIONAL, 19 July 2019, Humanitarian Aid - Severe drought has rendered more than a third of rural households in Zimbabwe – or around 3.5 million people – dangerously food insecure, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) revealed on Friday. Citing the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee’s recently concluded Rural Livelihood Assessment, WFPSpokesperson Herve Verhoosel, said that the situation was likely to last from now until September with a further deterioration into December that will widen the impact to more than 4.7 million people. Moreover, WFP said that the hunger period will peak at the height of the lean season, from January through March 2020, when 59 per cent of rural households, or over 5.5 million people, will be food insecure. “Given the scale and scope of the food insecurity in Zimbabwe”, Mr. Verhoosel said “WFP is planning to scale...
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