Category: UN INSIDER

Analysis by J Nasranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – An Indian national, Siddharth Chatterjee, is a new star on the horizon at the United Nations, nearly nine years after Shashi Tharoor announced his departure from the UN in the aftermath of finishing second in the 2006 elections for the Secretary-General to Ban Ki-moon.

Tharoor, meanwhile an eminent political leader in India, left the world body after having served for 29 years in different categories. Until 2007, he was a career official at the United Nations, rising to the rank of Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information in 2001.

NEW YORK (IDN | UN News Service) – The United Nations envoy for Liberia has stressed the need for long-term, robust engagement by stakeholders, particularly the Security Council, towards a sustainable peace in the West African country.

Briefing the Council on August 25, Farid Zarif, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), said many Liberians are concerned about the prospect of the Mission’s withdrawal and potential lack of UN support during the October 2017 presidential and legislative elections.

Viewpoint by Shervin Taheran*

This article appears in cooperation with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), as part of the initiative ‘Youth for CTBTO’. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the CTBTO. – Editor

WASHINGTON. D.C. (IDN) – Following mass protests against Soviet nuclear weapons testing in Kazakhstan on August 29, 1991, the Kremlin was forced to close the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, where over 460 nuclear tests were conducted, and declare a moratorium on nuclear testing. This, in turn, opened the way for the United States to halt testing and for negotiations on a global, verifiable Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which were concluded in 1996.

NEW YORK (IDN) – A distinguished Dutch General has been tasked with probing into the response of the UN mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to the violence that erupted in the country’s capital Juba in July 2016.

A statement issued by the office of the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the appointment of Major General (retired) Patrick Cammaert of the Netherlands on August 23 to lead an independent special investigation.

He will review reports of incidents of attacks on civilians and cases of sexual violence that occurred within or in the vicinity of the UN House Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites in Juba.

Interview with Stephen O’Brien by Africa Renewal’s Franck Kuwonu

Stephen O’Brien is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator. In May 2016 in Istanbul, Turkey, he oversaw the first-ever global humanitarian summit where representatives of 173 countries as well as NGOs, the private sector and civil society, met to chart a new path for global humanitarian assistance.

Question: What is your overall assessment of the humanitarian summit? Did the UN achieve its goals?

Answer: It really was a gathering with high energy and it exceeded all expectations; it delivered concrete outcomes. I am delighted that it has enabled us to secure the political will to move forward.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Ahead of the third straw poll – an upcoming game of musical chairs – on August 29, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has made public his preference for a woman to replace him as the head of the United Nations.

“It’s high time now” for a female Secretary-General after eight men at the helm of the world organization in over 70 years, said Ban whose second term comes to an end on December 31, 2016.

“We have many distinguished and eminent women leaders in national governments or other organizations or even business communities, political communities, and cultural and every aspect of our life,” he said in an Associated Press interview on August 11. “There’s no reason why not in the United Nations.”

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – For the seventh year in succession, the world would commemorate on August 29 the International Day against Nuclear Tests, which would coincide with the 25th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test site the central Asian republic inherited from the Soviet Union in the aftermath of its breakup.

The ATOM Project initiated a global moment of silence on that day to honour all victims of nuclear weapons testing. Kazakhstan suffered more than 450 Soviet nuclear weapons tests at the Semipalatinsk site beginning August 29, 1949 and ending on that date in 1991 when the country’s first and current President Nursultan Nazarbayev, responding to a civil society campaign, shut down the site.

By Ronald Joshua

GENEVA (IDN) – The United Nations human rights chief has voiced concern over serious human rights violations in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia early August, and urged the Government to ensure access for independent observers to affected areas.

At least 97 people were killed and hundreds more injured when Ethiopian security forces fired live bullets at peaceful protesters across Oromia region and in parts of Amhara over the weekend of August 6-8, according to credible sources who spoke to Amnesty International.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – As the ancient proverb goes, “there is many a slip between the cup and the lip”, but if Somalia – often described as a ‘failed state’ – abides by the postponed timeline for this year’s parliamentary and presidential elections, the United Nations would have reason to record success in a long-winded process.

The United Nations Security Council’s 15 members in their meeting on August 19 adopted the Presidential Statement applauding the progress under way for the last four years, and underscored “the need to maintain the momentum towards democratic governance, with an inclusive, transparent and credible electoral process in 2016 as a stepping stone to universal suffrage elections in 2020”.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which manages the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) on behalf of the UN Secretary-General, estimates that this year, there will be a $50 million shortfall on the annual $450 million funding target.

“I am very concerned that this could force the Fund to significantly reduce allocations for underfunded emergencies in the future,” the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O’Brien, has said, and appealed to all UN Member States, regional organizations and private citizens “to scale up their support to CERF and enable us to save more lives”.