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.
At least 50 people, including women and children, were killed in an attack on Tuesday night at a site for internally displaced people in Savo, Ituri Province, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN said on Wednesday.
Following reports on Wednesday of civilian casualties during airstrikes on the Iraqi city of Ninewa, the UN Assistance Mission (UNAMI) reiterated that Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity “must be respected at all times”.
Minister Haavisto (Finland)
Minister Çavuşoğlu (Turkey)
First, thank you to Finland and Turkey for hosting today’s event and for your leadership as co-chairs of the Group of Friends. I am delighted to join you to reflect on the past decade of focused attention on mediation.
Since 2001, the General Assembly has, through its four resolutions on mediation, provided the United Nations and other mediation actors with a strong normative and practical framework. These resolutions represent a collective recognition by Member States of the primacy of political solutions, and of the criticality of inclusive approaches to ending conflict.
Over the years, we have seen significant advances in the field of mediation. But we also have seen the complexity of the international, regional, and local environments within which we engage also grow.
While the number of conflicts around the world has increased, the number of peace processes or agreements has not kept pace. Meanwhile, human suffering has endured and expanded.
Geopolitical divisions, and the increased regionalization and fragmentation of conflicts, have challenged our traditional tools of conflict resolution.
A perceived failure of governance exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and rising scepticism about the multilateral system, have undermined trust and collaboration.
Technological disruption – including malicious use of social media and the rise in hate speech – fuels conflict and further complicates the work of mediators.
Libya aptly illustrates the challenges of bringing peace to a conflict where external actors are involved. But it also illustrates the benefits of an agreed international position – such as we saw in the Berlin Process - for talks to proceed at a national level.
The UN-brokered intra-Libyan dialogue did successfully reach agreement on a nationwide ceasefire and political roadmap – although, as you know, the latter is now under great pressure.
Greater unity amongst major powers and regional actors is still needed in a number of other processes – notably Syria and Yemen.
Ministers, Excellencies,
The UN’s partnerships with Member States, regional and subregional organisations, and civil society are vital to our collective efforts and effectiveness. When the UN and its partners speak with one voice, we are better able to encourage conflict parties to pursue a negotiated solution.
In Africa, for example, where we have acted jointly with the African Union and regional economic communities, we have seen real impact.
In Somalia last April, after the decision to delay elections led to clashes in Mogadishu, joint efforts by the UN, AU, IGAD and EU helped to prevent further escalation and encouraged a resumption of dialogue.
In Côte d’Ivoire, coordinated messaging as part of preventive multi-track diplomacy by the UN, AU and ECOWAS helped to de-escalate tensions around the October 2020 presidential elections.
Across the globe, we seek similar partnerships.
The Core Group in Haiti, for example, chaired by the UN Special Representative and comprising several Member States, the EU, and the Organization of American States, has played a critical facilitation role in helping to manage crises over the years.
At a more technical level, my Department has supported Member States and Resident Coordinators on dialogue and inclusive consultation mechanisms, including around elections in Honduras, Bolivia and Ecuador.
In December 2021, our Innovation Cell, together with the Resident Coordinator, worked with Bolivia’s Vice-Presidency to engage some 200 Bolivians in digital consultations on trust-building and on participants’ hopes for the country’s future.
In Mozambique, we provide technical support to local-level interfaith peacebuilding efforts as part of our partnerships with civil society and private peacemaking organizations.
Ministers, Excellencies,
Let me turn to one of our most significant priorities to effective mediation: the issue of inclusion.
Over recent years, there has been a clear – and welcome – increase in understanding and expectation around women’s meaningful participation, as well as that of youth and other traditionally marginalized groups. At the same time, power politics and entrenched patriarchal attitudes have continued to stymie our work.
Indeed, operating in the context of a global backlash against women’s rights, including shrinking civic space and targeted attacks against women peacebuilders, has added new complexity to the work of mediators in securing inclusive processes.
Nevertheless, recognizing that inclusion is a strategic imperative to the success of mediation, we have taken several steps to integrate it into our work:
First, the Secretary-General has led in appointing women leaders. In late 2020, these efforts led to gender parity being achieved across all Heads and Deputy Heads of UN Peace Operations.
Second, we have pursued innovative direct participation models, such as independent and civil society delegations that prioritize women’s participation, as we saw in the Libya Political Dialogue Forum and Syria Constitutional Committee.
And in Sudan, the UN Mission successfully advocated for gender observers to participate in peace talks.
Third, all our Envoys are engaging in regular consultations with women’s groups. In places like Iraq, Myanmar, Syria and Yemen, we have created women’s advisory boards to ensure that their perspectives inform our work. In Libya, Yemen and other contexts, digital platforms have been used to expand our engagement with hard-to-reach communities.
Fourth, we support local women peacemakers, including through partnerships with civil society and women mediator networks. In 2020, for example, we supported several FemWise deployments.
Finally, recognizing that young women – who so often are at the head of peace movements – face additional barriers to their political participation, we have scaled up the Peacebuilding Fund’s Gender and Youth Promotion Initiative – from $2.7 million in 2016 to a record $51.5 million in 2021.
Ministers, Excellencies,
Looking ahead, our mediation practices will inform and be informed by the New Agenda for Peace, which the Secretary-General has committed to developing as part of Our Common Agenda. Here we have several challenging issues to address:
First, we need to consider how we adapt to the polarised geopolitical environment and build the international support that mediation efforts need to bear fruit. If we cannot ensure consistent regional and international unity, how can we forge alignment in specific peace processes?
Second, seizing opportunity requires us to be ready to support a broad range of mediation activities. The Security Council will, of course, mandate new peace efforts, and the Secretary-General and his representatives will continue to offer good offices.
But we must also be ready to quickly and flexibly lend our support to promising initiatives by individual Member States – such as Norway’s efforts in Venezuela– and by regional organisations, ad-hoc coalitions of states, and local mediation actors.
This Group of Friends will be a vital platform as we identify and tailor support to these formats for mediation and in the efforts to ensure unity of action across them.
Finally, we must continue to prepare for new threats and adapt to the changing environment in which conflicts take place.
In his remarks to the General Assembly on his priorities for 2022, the Secretary-General warned of a five-alarm global fire, where the climate crisis, lawlessness in digital space, and lack of peace and security are amongst the most pressing concerns of the day.
In DPPA we have already been preparing for this reality, focusing efforts to ensure climate security and digital technologies form part of our conflict prevention efforts, and to better understand the opportunities and challenges they bring to peace – as drivers of conflict, and as entry points for collaboration, and inclusion.
Ministers, Excellencies, Friends,
The support from this Group of Friends to our work over the past decade has been invaluable. As we move forward and further develop our mediation practices, we look forward to continuing our collaboration.
I thank you.
The launch of a possible intermediate-range ballistic missile by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) drew condemnation from UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday.
Following a verdict in the case of the brutal murder of two its experts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) nearly five years ago, the UN on Tuesday urged authorities to uphold their moratorium on the death penalty.
The United Nations’ Secretary-General on Tuesday made the “strongest possible appeal” for all parties in Ethiopia to immediately end the fighting in Tigray and other areas, in the spirit of the General Assembly’s Olympic Truce which began just a few days ago.
Season 2 | Episode 22 Available | She Stands For Peace | Click here: https://unoau.unmissions.org/podcast-series-she-stands-peace
