The 20,000 foreign fighters now in Libya represent “a serious crisis” and “a shocking violation of Libyan sovereignty”, UN Acting Special Representative Stephanie Williams said on Wednesday, during the latest meeting under the country’s political dialogue forum.
There is “a deep sense of worry about the grim realities” of life faced by those living in occupied Palestinian Territory, the UN chief said on Tuesday, pointing to the “diminishing prospects of resolving the conflict” with Israel, that has been with the UN since its creation 75 years ago.
Although the United Nations turned 75 this year, the milestone would be incomplete without recognition of the huge losses endured during the Second World War: the event which led to the creation of the global Organization, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told ambassadors attending a commemorative ceremony in the General Assembly Hall on Tuesday.
Child trafficking is rising in Mali, along with forced labour and forced recruitment by armed groups, due to conflict, insecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.
Almost a quarter of a million people have died in Yemen’s war, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on its website on Tuesday, confirming the huge toll from a conflict that has ravaged Yemen’s economy and created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The report examines MYA projects at a whole-portfolio level, while identifying specific areas for in-depth evaluation. The assessment analyses the relevance of the MYA testing, the logical connection between MYA projects and DPPA’s high level objectives; examines the effectiveness of the MYA portfolio of projects in delivering valued results; and considers questions of cost-efficiency, asking whether the MYA portfolio is applying funds in an efficient way to minimize costs. The assessment articulates a clear ‘value claim’ of the MYA for the first time, which will be helpful in future discussions with our divisions.
Undertaken by an independent consultant, the assessment concludes that the MYA has been able to deliver value-for-money at multiple levels, ensuring good use of resources.
New York, 2 December 2020
President Bollinger,
Dear friends,
I thank Columbia University for hosting this gathering — and I welcome those joining online around the world.
We meet in this unusual way as we enter the last month of this most unusual year.
We are facing a devastating...
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, appealed to Ethiopia on Tuesday for urgent access to 96,000 Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, saying the month-long conflict in Tigray had left them without vital supplies.
The United Nations Secretary-General has called for “renewed determination” to eliminate chemical weapons from the world.
New York, 30 November 2020
I am pleased to join you for the 13th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Later this week, we will also observe the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
I take this issue of disability inclusion extremely...
Commemorating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to explore every opening to “restore hope” for a two-State solution.
[scroll down for Arabic and French versions]
As the United Nations marks its 75th anniversary, the question of Palestine remains distressingly unresolved.
The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated the Palestinian economy and undermined the already fragile humanitarian, economic and political situation in Gaza, further entrenched by crippling...
This Week in DPPA is a brief roundup of political and peacebuilding events and developments at UNHQ and around the world.
Security CouncilSpecial Representative calls for protection of political space in Somalia
Matar: Relative calm in Syria continues to hold
Afghanistan2020 Afghanistan Conference
SyriaSpecial Envoy visits Saudi Arabia
YemenGriffiths: The job of a mediator is to infuse hopeSpecial Envoy Martin Griffiths was this week’s guest in the podcast Awake at Night, hosted by Melissa Flemming, Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications. Mr. Griffiths said a mediator has to bring hope to seemingly hopeless situations, and speaks candidly about his struggles with depression, the mental toll humanitarian work can have, and the importance of empathy when mediating between sides in a conflict. "I'm not from Yemen. It's our conflict because it has such dramatic consequences, not only for the people of Yemen more broadly. But the job of a mediator, I think, is to infuse hope into people, to say there can be a solution to this, to come up with ideas as to how they might resolve their inevitable differences." Read more and listen here |
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ColombiaUN Mission: Colombia should be proud of what it has achieved and of being an example of peacebuilding in the world LibyaSecond round of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum 16 Days of Activism16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls. The campaign runs every year from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day. "Today is International Day to End Violence against Women. and the world is turning orange as a symbol of our commitment to this goal. In times of conflict and in peace, we must combat gender-based violence," Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo tweeted on 25 November.
Multi-Year AppealNew quarterly report
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Contact DPPA at dppa@un.org
Melissa Fleming 00:01
From the United Nations, I'm Melissa Fleming and this is Awake at Night. My guest this week is Martin Griffiths, the Secretary General's Special Envoy for Yemen, a country that has been devastated by civil war, and which is experiencing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises with famine, very little medical care, and now the coronavirus pandemic,...
Melissa Fleming 00:01
From the United Nations. I'm Melissa Fleming and this is Awake at Night. My guest this week is Martin Griffiths, the Secretary General's Special Envoy for Yemen, a country that has been devastated by civil war, and which is experiencing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises with famine, very little medical care. And now the coronavirus pandemic, Martin, this is not an easy job you have...
A young mother has been talking about how she was shunned by her community in Uganda when she returned home after being abducted and forced to fight for rebels as a child soldier.
The Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General (ASRSG) and Head of the United Mission Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Stephanie Williams convened today the second virtual meeting of the second round of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF). Participants continued discussions and provided suggestions on selection modalities for the unified executive authority to implement the preparatory period leading to national elections to be held on December...
Noon Briefing of 24 November 2020
And turning to Yemen, and the issue of the FSO Safer oil tanker, which we have been talking about for some time now. And I can tell you that we have now received an official letter from the de facto Ansar Allah authorities on Saturday indicating their approval for the UN proposal for the planned expert mission to the tanker. This, as you know, has followed several weeks of constructive technical exchanges on the activities that will be...
More than three million people across Syria require assistance through what is likely to be an “incredibly hard” winter, the acting deputy UN Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council on Wednesday, highlighting that those displaced remain “particularly vulnerable”.
Israel’s military operations and prolonged closure of Gaza, has caused economic damage of $16.7 billion between 2007 and 2018, driving the poverty rate up almost fourfold compared to what it might have otherwise been, the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD said in a report published on Wednesday.
Lethal cluster munitions are still being used in old and new conflicts around the world, from Syria to Libya, to Nagorno-Karabakh, a UN-backed civil society report said on Wednesday.
Madam President,
It is an honor for me to address this Council today. The Special Envoy is continuing a set of engagements – he is today in Riyadh – in support of the UN-facilitated political process.
I am pleased to be able to inform the Council that plans are being finalised for the fourth session of the Constitutional Committee Small Body to convene from 30 November to 4 December in Geneva.
This was made possible by the engagement and agreement of the two Syrian Co-Chairs that, in line with the mandate, the Terms of Reference and the Core Rules of Procedure, the Constitutional Committee Small Body will continue in session 4 to discuss the agenda of session 3 on national foundations and principles, and in session 5 will discuss constitutional principles (basic principles of the constitution). The Co-Chairs further agreed on the dates for session 4, COVID-19 situation permitting, and to hold session 5 in January 2021.
The COVID-19 challenges in Geneva are considerable right now, and the Special Envoy is very aware of that. We are very grateful to the Swiss authorities for all they have done and are doing to enable this meeting to move ahead in these extraordinary times. We will be ensuring that the strictest health and safety protocols are followed, and appreciate that the Co-Chairs and Constitutional Committee members have fully committed to the measures that will be in place. We continue monitoring the evolution of the epidemiological situation in Geneva ahead of the meeting.
We all know that the Committee has not yet made the kind of progress we had hoped. But the commitment of the Syrian parties to the package of two meetings and with agreed agendas presents an important opportunity for Committee members to engage in good faith in a businesslike manner to move forward the political process. If these sessions can proceed in a substantive manner and in a spirit of compromise, we believe it would help to build trust and confidence and make some progress. We also look forward to engaging with the Syrian Women’s Advisory Board to benefit from their insights and support for all aspects of the constitutional process.
Madam President,
A constitutional track on its own cannot resolve the crisis, and the Syrian-led committee’s work needs to be accompanied by mutual and reinforcing steps by Syrian and international players on the range of issues contained in resolution 2254.
It is important to note that, while falling short of the nationwide ceasefire called for by resolution 2254, the fragile and relative calm that the Special Envoy has spoken of in recent months continues broadly to hold. That calm however continues to be ever more challenged, raising concerns. This month saw renewed elevated escalation in northwest Syria, with fresh airstrikes, mutual shelling and ground clashes between the Syrian Government and HTS and armed opposition groups, but we also continue to see Russian-Turkish cooperation in the effort to preserve calm and address terrorism. We also saw a spike in violence in the northeast, around the perimeter of “Operation Peace Spring” areas; new levels of turbulence in southwest Syria; Israeli airstrikes; and ongoing ISIL activity in the desert – a reminder of the magnitude of the terrorist challenge still confronting Syria.
On this the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, let me stress to the Council that Syrian women in recent consultations with us have emphasized that peace and security means ending all forms of violence. Syrian women continue to suffer from sexual and gender-based violence, which has been widely documented. Measures put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have increased the prevalence of domestic violence, child-marriage and sexual harassment. Syrian women have at the same time been at the forefront of initiatives to respond to the crisis.
Meanwhile, Syrian women, men and children are suffering profound economic hardship. The Syrian currency is beginning to experience another depreciation, causing a further rise in prices and diminishing purchasing power. In recent months, bread and energy shortages have affected Syrian livelihoods to an unprecedented degree. And as winter looms, families continue to face difficulties in providing home heating and farmers suffer from fuel shortages. COVID-19 remains a major challenge and has exacerbated vulnerabilities in all parts of the country. In this context, it is also paramount that any sanctions avoid aggravating the plight of Syrian civilians.
A particular focus of my engagement remains the plight of detainees, abductees and missing persons. Unfortunately, we have not seen the kind of progress we need on the release of the detained and abducted, and information on the missing. We will continue in every occasion to press for this as a humanitarian imperative and as a vital step towards building confidence. Most urgent is the release at scale of women, children, the sick and elderly, and humanitarian access to places of detention.
The plight of millions of Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons continues to deteriorate. The United Nations supports Syrian refugees whatever their choices and seeks to engage all parties in the effort to enable safe, dignified, well-informed and voluntary returns. Higher numbers are likely only be achieved once the factors that refugees say prevent them from returning are addressed – including personal security, access to livelihoods, basic services and education as well as restitution, rehabilitation and post-conflict reconstruction of housing, land and property. Action on these fronts would help create an enabling environment for such returns, something that is anchored in the tenets of resolution 2254.
Madam President,
Resolution 2254 contains all the elements that are still commonly understood as required for a political solution: respecting the sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity of Syria; a Syrian-led and owned political process, that includes a constitutional process culminating in free, fair and inclusive elections supervised by the United Nations, and that has the meaningful participation of women; a nationwide ceasefire; countering proscribed terrorist groups in compliance with international law; the protection of civilians; unfettered humanitarian access; the release of detainees and abductees and information on the missing; implementing confidence-building measures; conditions for the safe and voluntary returns of refugees and internally displaced persons; and post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation.
However, five years after the resolution, and with the Syrian people inside and outside Syria continuing to suffer deeply, the Special Envoy is taking stock of what has and has not been achieved in the implementation of this mandate. He is consulting widely as he does so, and in the process seeking to identify new or additional ways to move the process forward. He began this stocktaking when he met the now-late Syrian Foreign Minister Moallem, and in contacts with the opposition Syrian Negotiations Commission. He has met senior Turkish officials in Ankara, Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry, and League of Arab States Secretary-General Aboul Gheit in Cairo, and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov as well as other senior officials in Moscow. He met Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif and other senior officials recently in Tehran and is today in Riyadh, where he is meeting Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. During this period, the Special Envoy also engaged by telephone with Jordanian Foreign Minister Safadi and with other senior Arab, American and European officials. He appreciates the counsel and insight of all and seeks their strengthened support for the political process. He will be continuing this engagement in the period ahead with the Syrian parties and international partners. In that process, he will also continue to consult the Women’s Advisory Board and seek the views and insights of a wide range of Syrian civil society interlocutors through ongoing consultations of the Civil Society Support Room.
As that wider exploration continues and deepens, we focus in the meantime on facilitating the Constitutional Committee meeting in Geneva next week. We trust that all members of the Committee will approach the two forthcoming sessions in a spirit of compromise and with a determination to engage seriously. They will have our full support in that regard.
Thank you, Madam President.
Two separate bomb attacks in northern Syria on Tuesday, which reportedly left at least seven civilians dead and many more wounded, have been condemned by the UN.
Two senior UN officials welcomed on Tuesday the war crimes conviction and life sentencing of an armed combatant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
As authorities in Iraq continue to operate “in the eye of multiple storms”, international support remains essential for resolving ongoing political, security, economic and social crises, as well as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Security Council heard on Tuesday.
International donors pledged financial and political support for Afghanistan’s peace process at the 2020 Afghanistan Conference in Geneva on Tuesday, anticipating a sustainable ceasefire that will help the country rebuild and heal after decades of conflict.
