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Attacks on kindergartens and schools have been a sad reality for children in eastern Ukraine over the last eight years, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Friday. Since the beginning of the conflict, more than 750 schools have been damaged.
Despite some signs of progress in ending the political, economic and humanitarian crisis that has worsened across Haiti since the assassination of its president last year, the situation there remains “fraught and highly polarized”, the UN envoy to the country told the Security Council on Friday.
Thousands of Eritrean refugees sheltering at a camp in the Ethiopian Afar region, have fled following a deadly attack on the facility earlier this month, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.
With tensions continuing to mount over the Ukraine crisis, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday that he still believed military conflict in Europe “will not happen” – although if it did, “it would be catastrophic”.
Amid competing narratives of events unfolding swiftly in and around Ukraine - one detailing the withdrawal of Russian troops from the borders and another proclaiming that an attack is imminent – the UN political affairs chief called on Thursday for the parties to make meaningful progress on implementation of the 2015 Minsk agreements, as she briefed the Security Council.
Reported incidents of violence against civilians fell by around 42 per cent in 2021 compared with the previous year, according to a new report released by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on Thursday.
Mr. President,
I last briefed this Council on the situation in Ukraine as it relates to the implementation of the Minsk Agreements on 11 February 2021.
At that time, I drew attention to the fragile security situation that prevailed despite the nominal ceasefire in place.
Today, a year since that briefing, tensions in and around Ukraine are running higher than at any point since 2014. Speculation and accusations around a potential military conflict are rife. Whatever one believes about the prospect of such a confrontation, the reality is that the current situation is extremely dangerous.
The issues underpinning the current crisis are complex and longstanding. They tie together the eight-year conflict in eastern Ukraine with the larger issues relating to the European security architecture.
Although seemingly intractable, given the stakes involved for our collective security and European stability, these issues can and must be solved through diplomacy and the full use of the many available regional and other mechanisms and frameworks. We support all such efforts, including through the Secretary-General’s good offices.
Mr. President,
Regrettably, there has been little, if any, meaningful progress in the implementation of the various provisions of the Minsk Agreements. Despite repeated efforts, the talks both in the Normandy Four format and the discussions led by the Trilateral Contact Group remain deadlocked. We welcome the efforts of France and Germany to host the recent N4 discussions to break the current impasse and hope that these will continue.
The Minsk Agreements remain the only framework endorsed by this Council, in resolution 2202, for a negotiated, peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. In this regard, we note with concern the reports of fresh ceasefire violations across the contact line over the past several hours. If verified, these must not be allowed to escalate further. We call on all sides to exercise maximum restraint at this time.
We also call on all concerned to refrain from any unilateral measures that may go against the letter and spirit of the Minsk Agreements, or undermine their implementation and result in further tensions including related to the certain areas of Luhansk and Donetsk.
We commend the important work of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Council will hear shortly from Ambassador Mikko Kinnunen, Special Representative of the OSCE’s Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine, and Ambassador Halit Cevik, Chief Monitor of the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission. It is essential that we support their work, particularly at this critical time.
The Special Monitoring Mission, which carries out its crucial functions despite considerable challenges, must enjoy safe and secure conditions.
Mr. President,
On 14 February, the Secretary-General expressed his deep worry regarding a potential military conflict in Europe.
He reminded the international community that the price of human suffering, destruction and damage to European and global security is too high to contemplate.
The Secretary-General has remained fully engaged with key actors, including the governments of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and has reiterated the same unambiguous message:
There is no alternative to diplomacy.
It is incumbent on all Member States to fully respect the key principles of the United Nations Charter, to settle disputes by peaceful means and to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
In this regard, let me restate the commitment of the United Nations to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders as called for in General Assembly resolutions.
The recent diplomatic contacts, including between Heads of State, are welcome. But more needs to be done, urgently, including tangible, verifiable steps on the ground and an end to inflammatory rhetoric to defuse tensions.
Mr. President,
As we have done throughout eight years of the conflict, the United Nations continues to stand with the people of Ukraine. The UN Country Team in Ukraine remains fully operational. Our humanitarian colleagues are committed to providing assistance in accordance with the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, humanity and independence.
This includes, for example, three humanitarian convoys that delivered over 140 metric tons of life-saving assistance across the contact line since the start of 2022, benefiting thousands of people in need.
It is imperative that safe and unimpeded access by humanitarian actors is respected by all sides, under any circumstances.
Amid the current tensions, we should not lose sight of the existing dire humanitarian needs impacting 2.9 million people, with the majority living in non-Government controlled areas of eastern Ukraine.
Donor support has allowed us to provide aid to over 1.5 million people during the first nine months of 2021 – the highest level since 2017. This critical achievement must be sustained amid the increasing severity of humanitarian needs.
Early and adequate funding of the $190 million 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan is needed to continue to meet the urgent needs of 1.8 million vulnerable people, including over one million in government-controlled areas and 750,000 in non-government-controlled areas.
Mr. President,
For the war-wary people of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, the impact of COVID-19 on top of the conflict has caused even more grave disruption and suffering.
Millions of people who prior to the pandemic could still maintain family and community connectivity, have been unable to travel freely across the contact line due to COVID-19 related restrictions.
As a consequence of their increased isolation and abrupt loss of access to basic services and livelihoods, the needs of this already vulnerable population have been exacerbated.
At the same time, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) continues to document civilian casualties and the impact of hostilities, monitor freedom of movement, and receive and report on allegations of human rights violations.
Despite the persistent tensions, last year saw the lowest number of civilian casualties documented by OHCHR since the beginning of the conflict. Overall adherence to the ceasefire has been an important factor in this trend. It must continue.
Mr. President,
Over 14,000 people have already lost their lives in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
As the Secretary-General said this week, we simply cannot accept even the possibility of a new conflict in Ukraine. Indeed, we are facing a test.
The world is looking to the collective security mechanisms in Europe but also to this Council to help ensure that the only skirmishes will be diplomatic.
We cannot afford to fail.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Conflict prevention, counter-terrorism and support to Afghanistan, top the list of issues on which the UN and the Collective Security Treaty Organization – a Eurasian regional grouping comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation and Tajikistan – should bolster their cooperation, Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Wednesday.
Recent attacks on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia indicate how the conflict in Yemen risks spiralling out of control, the chief UN mediator for the country told the Security Council on Tuesday, as he called for “serious efforts” to be made by Yemeni parties, the region and the international community, to end the fighting, now in its seventh year.
Somalia’s leaders must put aside their differences and urgently conclude a credible election process, the UN’s senior official in the country told the Security Council on Tuesday, noting that national elections are now more than a year behind schedule and women’s representation remains significantly off-track.
Amid increasing tension over Ukraine between Russia and Western countries of the NATO alliance, the UN Secretary-General declared on Monday that “there is no alternative to diplomacy.”
As Timor-Leste prepares to choose a new president in March, Roy Trivedy, the senior UN official in the country, explains the Organization’s role in securing the vote for all citizens across the small island nation, which gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, and expresses his hopes for safe, inclusive, and transparent elections.
More than 600 family members of ISIL fighters have been repatriated from Syria to Kazakhstan over the last three years, as part of an initiative to rehabilitate women and children from the country. One formerly radicalized wife who married a member of the terrorist group, has been speaking to UN News about her regrets, and her hopes for a better future.
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The UN chief is “following closely” the latest political crisis unfolding in Libya, which threatens to return the country to a stand-off position between two rival authorities, following the failure to hold presidential elections in December.
Although internal conflict erupted within the world’s youngest country after independence in 2011, Radio Miraya, the news service launched by the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan in 2005, has stuck fast to its original mandate of trying to bring the country together, becoming the most popular and trusted source of information in the country to this day.
UN human rights experts have warned of increased political violence and polarization between communities across the world’s youngest country, South Sudan, following a fact-finding visit there this week.
Hybrid press briefing by the Deputy Secretary-General to discuss her recent trip to Ethiopia, held on February 11, 2022...
New York, 11 February 2022
Today, only one in three science and engineering researchers in the world is a woman.
Structural and societal barriers prevent women and girls from entering and advancing in science.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further increased gender inequalities, from school closures to a rise...
More than 30 years after the UN Compensation Commission (UNCC) was created to ensure restitution for Kuwait following the Iraqi invasion of 1990, the reparations body announced on Wednesday that it had processed its final claim, amounting to $52.4 billion in total.
On the last day of a five-day trip to Ethiopia, the Deputy Secretary-General said the East African nation is in “a much better place” to resolve the conflict that erupted 15 months ago in Tigray.
The global fight against the shadowy, ever-morphing threat posed by the ISIL terrorist group - known officially as Da’esh - and its affiliates, remains a “long-term game” for which there are “no quick fixes,” the UN counter-terrorism chief told the Security Council on Wednesday.
From survivors of rape to young women entrepreneurs, the UN Deputy Secretary-General has spent the week meeting some of those whose lives have been upended by conflict in Ethiopia, but also hearing stories of hope that point towards the “indispensable” value of a return to lasting peace across the African nation.
President Weah,
President Vila Nova,
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
I am delighted to be here today, with my colleague Achim Steiner.
I am grateful to the Deputy Secretary-General for her opening message.
I would particularly like to thank President Weah of Liberia and President Vila Nova of São Tomé and Príncipe, who have highlighted important advances in the pursuit of sustaining peace.
Excellencies,
Violent conflicts have become more complex, regionalized, fragmented and protracted. Civilians bear the brunt, and women and girls do so disproportionately.
Geopolitical tensions are undermining trust and our ability to respond to challenges collectively.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing risks. Alongside the climate emergency and increasing technological disruption, the virus has altered and magnified the challenge of prevention.
Yet at a global level we spend much more energy and resources on managing conflicts than on preventing them. As the Secretary-General told the General Assembly as he presented his priorities for 2022 recently, we need to review our priorities and resources across the peace continuum and strengthen our investment in conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
Excellencies,
Since its creation in 2004, the UNDP-DPPA Joint Programme has engaged with national partners, UN Resident Coordinators and Country Teams, to do precisely this: invest in prevention and peacebuilding.
Considered groundbreaking when it started, the Joint Programme today deploys over 120 Peace and Development Advisers (PDAs), including 40 national peace and development officers, across 70 countries.
Last year, over 80% of our PDAs supported COVID-19 responses. This is in recognition of the profound impact the pandemic could have on social cohesion and sustainable development.
And PDAs continue working with national stakeholders to strengthen national mechanisms, structures and capacities for inclusive dialogue, social cohesion and reconciliation.
There are several areas to highlight.
First, PDAs are working to enhance women’s participation in political processes and wider youth involvement in peacebuilding.
In Kenya, the PDA worked to support the establishment of a Women Mediation Network to enhance women’s political leadership and contribution to sustaining peace. The network is now part of the wider African Women Leaders’ Network.
In Tunisia, our team conducted a series of innovative consultations using various digital platforms. These dialogues allowed young people from around the country to express their aspirations and discuss existing barriers to youth participation in public life.
Second, PDAs are also exploring new initiatives to address hate speech and disinformation, which have risen dramatically during the pandemic, fueling distrust and conflict.
In Sri Lanka, the PDA team is supporting UNDP and UNICEF in working with the Ministry of Mass Media to enhance national capacity to monitor and counter hate speech and explore partnerships with social media companies.
In Côte d’Ivoire, during the 2020 electoral period, the PDA teamed up with a social media company to facilitate training for Ivoirian women activists, bloggers and influencers on countering hate speech. The group successfully disseminated counter narratives and ensured that videos and text containing harmful content were taken down.
And finally, in a number of climate-stressed regions, PDAs are working to include climate-related risks in peacebuilding programming.
In the South Pacific, the PDA team supports a project with governments and the Pacific Islands Forum, funded by the Peacebuilding Fund, to help scale local solutions in the face of sea-level rise and extreme weather.
Excellencies,
PDAs are natural bridges between the UN’s Peace and Security Pillar and the Development System. These talented women and men show through their daily work that lasting peace, social and economic development and people’s right to have a say in the matters that concern them are inextricably linked.
Important work is underway in many countries. However, we need to multiply our efforts and continue to deepen our partnerships. With your engagement, I am convinced the Joint Programme can provide even better support to Member States in preventing conflicts and sustaining peace.
Thank you.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday that he is encouraged by the recent engagement between senior Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) must ensure civilian protection in the wake of recent deadly raids on camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.
United Nations Security Council sanctions are no longer the “blunt instrument” they once were, having transformed since the 1990s into “a vital tool” that minimizes negative consequences for civilians, and States that are not directly being targeted.
Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to address the Security Council on this important topic.
Sanctions remain a vital Charter-based tool available to the Council to ensure the maintenance of international peace and security. As stressed when the Council last met to discuss this topic, they are not an end in themselves. To be effective, sanctions should be part of a comprehensive political strategy, working in tandem with political dialogue, mediation, peacekeeping and special political missions.
There are currently 14 Council sanctions regimes. They support conflict resolution in Libya, Mali, South Sudan and Yemen. They aim to deter unconstitutional changes of government in Guinea Bissau.
They curb the illicit exploitation of natural resources that fund the activities of armed groups in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.
They constrain the proliferation activities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Al-Qaida and their affiliates.
UN sanctions are no longer the blunt instrument they once were. Since the 1990s, they have undergone considerable changes to minimize their possible adverse consequences on civilian populations and third States.
The most applied targeted measures include standardized humanitarian and other exemptions. In the case of arms embargoes, exemptions are routinely granted for the import of non-lethal equipment necessary for humanitarian actors to operate in conflict zones.
In the case of travel bans, exemptions are routinely provided for medical or religious reasons or to participate in peace processes. Exemptions to assets freezes allow payment for food, utilities or medicines.
Moreover, the Security Council has instituted standing humanitarian exemptions in the Somalia and Afghanistan regimes, as well as case-by-case humanitarian exemption systems in the Libya, Yemen and DPRK regimes.
The 1718 Committee, which oversees sanctions on the DPRK, has approved 85 of the one hundred exemption requests received since 2017. The Committee has also granted multiple timeline extensions in recognition of the logistical challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent years, the Council and its sanctions committees have increasingly sought to obtain first‑hand information on possible adverse consequences for civilian populations and third States.
They have done so through regular briefings by OCHA and by the Secretary-General’s Special Representatives for Children and Armed Conflict and for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. Sanctions Committee Chairs also regularly travel to countries under sanctions, and the Committees frequently meet with country as well as neighboring officials.
Sanctions are continually adjusted in response to changes on the ground, with due regard for the impact on civilian populations. In recent years, the Council terminated the Eritrea sanctions and significantly narrowed down the scope of the arms embargo on the Central African Republic.
On the other hand, in response to a new serious threat to peace and security in Somalia, the Council imposed in 2019 a ban on Improvised Explosive Device components.
I should also note that in the last decade, only one Member State has reported facing “special economic problems” arising from Council sanctions.
Mr. President,
The last decade has also shown that sanctions can do more than limit the influx of arms and ammunition or the financing of armed groups in conflict-based situations.
Almost all the sanctions regimes supporting conflict resolution now include designation, or listing criteria intended to uphold international humanitarian law or international human rights law.
They have served as leverage to bring about positive outcomes for people at risk. For example, the prospect of sanctions has opened the space for child protection actors to negotiate the release of children by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Importantly, more than 50 individuals and entities have been designated, or put on sanctions lists, by the Council or its committees for involvement in conflict-related sexual violence, the use of children in armed conflict, migrant trafficking, attacks on humanitarian workers, and obstruction of delivery of humanitarian assistance, among other international humanitarian law criteria.
They include Sultan Zabin, the director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Sanaa, Yemen, for torture and sexual violence in conflict; and Ahmed Ag Albachar, self-proclaimed “president of the humanitarian commission” of the Kidal region in Mali, for obstructing the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
The imposition of sanctions solely for such acts is a relatively recent and welcome step. Its use sends an unmistakeable signal about the Council’s commitment to ensure accountability for violations and abuses of international humanitarian or human rights law.
Mr. President,
The evolution from comprehensive to targeted sanctions marked a sea change in this area of the Council’s work. But there are still some concerns about unintended consequences or adverse effects of Council sanctions.
De-risking policies and over-compliance are probably two of the most important problems facing humanitarian actors. Financial actors and other service providers may impose additional conditions, increase their costs, or simply refuse to provide the requested goods and services, thereby inhibiting the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
The continued difficulty in reviving the banking channel for humanitarian transfers to the DPRK, since its collapse in 2017, is a prime example of such challenges.
These difficulties can be compounded when financial actors and other service providers are obliged to comply with multiple sanctions regimes, as well as counterterrorism and anti-money laundering regulations across the globe.
In trying to abide by a wide range of applicable measures, these actors sometimes adopt an overly broad interpretation of what is required by sanctions regimes, often in contradiction with the interpretation of humanitarian actors.
Mr. President,
More can be done to reduce the possible adverse consequences of sanctions.
The humanitarian community, and much of the world, warmly welcomed resolution 2615 (2021), which carves out a humanitarian exemption to the sanctions regime on Afghanistan. Similar standing exemptions in other sanctions regimes could go a long way to respond to the critical needs of civilian populations.
Various Council resolutions make it clear that sanctions are “not intended to have adverse humanitarian consequences for the civilian populations”. Other resolutions require that Member States ensure that their implementation measures comply with their obligations under international law, including humanitarian and human rights laws, as applicable. It is extremely important to recall these provisions at every opportunity.
Member States can further minimize the burden of additional due diligence and reporting requirements on humanitarian actors by keeping their domestic legislation as close as possible to Security Council language.
Additionally, the continued monitoring by sanctions committees of the possible humanitarian impact of sanctions is vital. Their groups of experts may assist by gathering information about the possible unintended impact of sanctions on humanitarian activities, as appropriate.
It is also essential to increase cooperation with humanitarian actors and the private sector. The UN Inter-Agency Working Group established in 2014 has helped promote better understanding and a system-wide approach to sanctions.
My Department, through the Security Council Affairs Division, has launched other initiatives, including training, to build capacities and increase synergies among these key constituencies.
Lastly, allow me to touch briefly on the role of the Ombudsperson. Its establishment in 2009 introduced a more robust due process mechanism available to individuals or entities seeking to be removed from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant/Da’esh and Al-Qaida sanctions list.
Providing fair and clear procedures to all other designated entities and individuals would render the sanctions tool even more effective.
Thank you, Mr. President.
New York, 6 February 2022
Female genital mutilation is an abhorrent human rights violation that causes profound and permanent harm to women and girls around the world.
Every year, over 4 million girls are at risk of this extreme form of violence. Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on health services and put even more girls in jeopardy.
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UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and partners are rushing life-saving aid to more than 20,000 refugees after they fled clashes in Ethiopia’s Benishangul Gumuz region, bordering Sudan and South Sudan.
Insecurity in Burkina Faso, particularly in the region bordering Côte d’Ivoire, is pushing more people to seek safety both within and outside the country, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported on Friday.
The qualities of fair play and solidarity that characterize the Olympics must shine throughout the games and beyond, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video message to the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, on Friday.
Peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have stepped up their presence in the area around a camp for displaced people in Ituri province following a deadly attack this week, the United Nations said on Thursday.
The grinding conflict in eastern Ukraine is increasingly affecting the mental health of boys and girls, causing nightmares, social isolation and panic attacks, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported.
New York, 4 February 2022
On the International Day of Human Fraternity, we reflect on the importance of cultural and religious understanding, and mutual respect.
I am grateful to religious leaders across the world who are joining hands to promote dialogue and interfaith harmony.
...Following an attack by United States Special Forces in northwestern Syria that culminated in the death of the leader of the ISIL terrorist network, the deputy UN Spokesperson on Thursday expressed concern over reported civilian casualties, but welcomed any move contributing to the group’s defeat.
