By INPS Africa Bureau
NAIROBI | NEW YORK (IDN) – The idea of “greening the blue helmets” has become an accepted need and operational requirement for all UN peacekeeping missions, claims a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) based in Nairobi.
Peacekeeping operations, it says, account for over 56% of the UN system’s total climate footprint as demonstrated by the greenhouse gas emissions inventory undertaken by UN Department of Field Support (DFS) in 2008.
NEW YORK (INPS | IDN) – The United Nations peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous has warned that, despite considerable progress, the peace process in Mali remains fragile, and stressed the need to urgently address political, security and humanitarian challenges.
Since the last consultations in October 2015, efforts by Malian authorities, parties signatory to the agreement, international mediators and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali MINUSMA had helped reinforce the dialogue between the Government and the movements, Ladsous, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told the Security Council on January 11.
BERLIN (INPS | IDN) – In an unprecedented bid, U.S. President Barack Obama plans to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the United Nations Secretary-General and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has got wind of the plan, is determined to lead the effort in thwarting the bid, reports the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, cited by The Jerusalem Post.
While Ban’s second term as the UN Secretary-General ends on December 31, Obama’s finishes in January 2017. The U.S. Presidential election is due on November 8, 2016.
NEW YORK | ASTANA – As co-chair, along with Japan, of the Conference to facilitate entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), Kazakhstan has condemned North Korea’s hydrogen bomb test on January 6 and declared “such actions” of DPRK as “unacceptable” and “in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013) and 2094 (2013)”.
In a statement, the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “Kazakhstan believes the actions of DPRK seriously undermine the international community’s efforts along the path of nuclear disarmament and strengthening the non-proliferation regime and global security in general, as well as the efforts of the majority of the countries in the world to ensure the early entry into force of the CTBT.“
Kazakhstan, as a country whose people have directly experienced the deadly effects of nuclear weapons, voluntarily renounced the possession of a nuclear arsenal and initiated the adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution proclaiming August 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests, the statement added.
“We stand for the complete ban on nuclear tests in the world,” declared the statement, and call upon North Korea to abandon nuclear weapon ambitions and resume negotiations in the six-party format involving China, Russia, the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan.
The United Nations condemned on January 6 the underground nuclear test announced by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling it “deeply troubling” and the UN Security Council vowing to immediately begin considering the “significant measures” it had vowed to take in the event of another nuclear test by the country.
NEW YORK (INPS) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian territories is resigning due to Israel’s failure to grant him access to the areas he is tasked with monitoring, according to the UN News Service.
“Unfortunately, my efforts to help improve the lives of Palestinian victims of violations under the Israeli occupation have been frustrated every step of the way,” Makarim Wibisono said of his resignation, which he submitted to the President of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council on January 4, to become effective as of March 31.
By Ramesh Jaura | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis
BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Seretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s successor will not be elected by a secret ballot by the 193 member states of the United Nations. But the General Assembly and the Security Council presidents have agreed on a selection process that might mark a watershed.
According to the UN Charter, the Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly following the recommendation of the Security Council. The format agreed by the General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft and the President of the Security Council Samantha Power does not axe the powers exercised particularly by the Council.
By J Nastranis | IDN-InDepthNews Report
NEW YORK (IDN) – Nearly one-and-a-half years ago, the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein’s predecessor, Navi Pillay, expressed profound regret that Japan had not provided effective redress to Korean victims of wartime sexual slavery leading back to the end of the Second World War.
The agreement reached on December 28 after protracted negotiations between Japan and South Korea – with support by UN human rights experts – seeks to redress the international community has been asking for. According to UN News, the accord reportedly involves an official apology from Japan and a promised payment of $8.3 million for the victims.
NEW YORK (INPS) – The United Nations tribunal set up 21 years ago to judge those guilty for the genocide in Rwanda of more than 800,000 people – overwhelmingly Tutsi, and also moderate Hutu, Twa and others – formally closed on December 31 after delivering 45 judgments as part of the Organization’s efforts to stamp out impunity for crimes against humanity.
It became the first international tribunal to issue a judgement against a Head of Government since the Nuremburg and Tokyo Tribunals just after the Second World War, when it condemned former Interim Government Prime Minister Jean Kambanda to life imprisonment in 1998. Read in Japanese
By Jamshed Baruah | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis
BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – An open-ended working group of the United Nations General Assembly for achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world is, along with the Sustainable Development Goals, an important agenda item that the year 2015 has bequeathed to 2016.
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