Page 12 - United Nations

UN summit: Scientists warn nations not to repeat past mistakes on nature

Scientists around the world are warning governments who will be gathering in Montreal this week for the United Nations biodiversity summit to not repeat past mistakes and are urging officials to avoid trade-offs between people and conservation needs in a report Monday. The study published in the One Earth Journal found that even though there has been an increase in investment in conservation over the last three decades governments have not succeeded in bending the curve on biodiversity decline. The conference known as COP15, which begins Tuesday, hopes to set the goals for the world for the next decade to help conserve the planet's biodiversity and stem the loss of nature. So far the world has failed to meet goals set at previous meetings. The scientists proposed six areas for action for delegates working toward what's known as the global biodiversity framework. They include greater involvement of local communities and addressing both direct causes of nature decline such as the ...

A global plastics treaty is coming; Everything about it yet to be decided

Plastics industry groups have called for a focus on recycling

Around 28 million Afghans will need humanitarian assistance in 2023: UN

A UN agency stated that Afghanistan continues to face one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with 28.3 million people expected to require aid in the upcoming year

UN human rights chief condemns new Myanmar death sentences to crush Oppn

Myanmar's military-installed government has sentenced more critics to death, bringing the total to 139, and is using capital punishment as a tool to crush opposition, the UN high commissioner for human rights said Friday. High Commissioner Volker Trk said at least seven university students were sentenced to death behind closed doors on Wednesday, and there are reports that as many as four more youth activists were sentenced on Thursday. The military continues to hold proceedings in secretive courts in violation of basic principles of fair trial and contrary to core judicial guarantees of independence and impartiality, Trk said in a statement. Military courts have consistently failed to uphold any degree of transparency contrary to the most basic due process or fair trial guarantees. The military seized power in February last year, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The army's action was met with widespread peaceful protests that were quashed with lethal force, ...

We don't need to be told what to do on democracy: India's envoy at UN

India does not need to be told what to do on democracy, the country's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, who assumed Presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of December, said here on Thursday. India on Thursday assumed Presidency of the 15-nation UN Security Council for the month of December, during which it will host signature events on countering terrorism and reformed multilateralism. The Presidency will bring the curtains down on India's two-year tenure as elected non-permanent member of the powerful UN organ. Kamboj, India's first woman Permanent Representative to the UN, will sit in the President's seat at the horse-shoe table. On the first day of India's presidency, she addressed reporters in the UN headquarters on the monthly programme of work. Responding to a question on democracy and freedom of press in India, she said "to that I would like to say that, we don't need to be told what to do on democracy. "India is perhaps the most anci

Nearly $600mn of investments pitched to accelerate progress toward SDGs: UN

Colombia, Eswatini and Malawi have pitched nearly $600 million worth of high-impact, investment-ready projects at the SDG Investment Fair

Iraq Christians were victims of Islamic State war crimes, says UN

Evidence collected in Iraq strengthens preliminary findings that Islamic State extremists committed crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Christian community after it seized about a third of the country in 2014, a UN investigative team said in a report circulated on Thursday. The report to the UN Security Council said crimes included forcibly transferring and persecuting Christians, seizing their property, engaging in sexual violence, enslavement and other inhumane acts, such as forced conversions and destruction of cultural and religious sites. In addition, the team said it has identified leaders and prominent members of the Islamic State extremist group who participated in the attack and takeover of three predominantly Christian towns in the Nineveh plains north of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, in July and August 2014 -- Hamdaniyah, Karamlays and Bartella. It also started collecting evidence on crimes committed against the Christian community in Mosul. Islamic .

Lebanese PM calls on UN to help secure safe return of Syrian refugees

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the UN should help authorities in his country to secure a safe return for Syrian refugees to their homeland

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit to Ruchira Kamboj: Indian women head top UN bodies

In the nearly seven decades between Pandit and Kamboj, Indian women have held top diplomatic positions

UN votes to press countries to stop terrorists from getting nuclear weapons

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Wednesday to keep pressing all countries to implement a resolution aimed at keeping nuclear, chemical and biological weapons out of the hands of terrorists, black marketeers and others. The council resolution approved by a 15-0 vote extends the mandate of the committee monitoring implementation of the 2004 resolution on the threat of non-state actors obtaining or trafficking weapons of mass destruction for 10 years until Nov. 30, 2032. It also continues support for the committee's group of experts. The resolution calls on the committee and the 193 U.N. member nations to take into account the use by non-government groups and individuals of rapid advances in science and technology to spread the use of these banned weapons. The council says in the resolution that it is gravely concerned at the threat of terrorism and the risk that non-state actors may acquire, develop, traffic in or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, including by ..

Australia's Great Barrier Reef should be placed on 'in danger' list: UN

The Unesco released its long-awaited report on the reef following a 10-day visit in March, calling for ambitious, rapid and sustained action to protect it

UN asks China to 'guarantee right to demonstrate' amid Covid protests

The large-scale protests in China were apparently sparked by an apartment block fire in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang province, which killed at least 10 people

UN chief calls for action in 3 areas to save biological weapons' disaster

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for action in three areas to prevent the disaster of biological weapons

Mahatma Gandhi's bust to be inaugurated at UNHQ during India's presidency

A bust of Mahatma Gandhi will be inaugurated as a gift from India to the United Nations during India's Presidency of the Security Council next month, the first sculpture of the Mahatma to be installed at the world body's headquarters here. The bust, made by renowned Indian sculptor Padma Shree awardee Ram Sutar, who has also designed the 'Statue of Unity' in Gujarat, will be inaugurated on December 14 during External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's visit to the UN for India's Presidency of the Council for the month. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj told PTI in an exclusive interview here that the bust will be placed in the expansive North Lawns of the UN headquarters. The bust, a gift from India, will be the first Gandhi sculpture that will be installed in the UN headquarters, which proudly displays gifts and artifacts from around the world. Notable works of art at the UNHQ include a section of the Berlin wall donated by Germany, Soviet sculpture

UN warns 500,000 more people will need humanitarian aid in South Sudan

Some 9.4 million people in South Sudan will need humanitarian assistance and protection services next year, half a million more than the current number, the United Nations said in a report Friday. According to the 2023 South Sudan Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) report, more people will face food insecurity in 2023. Currently, nearly a third of 12.4 million people living in South Sudan are facing severe food insecurity. Humanitarian conditions have been worsened by endemic violence, conflict, access constraints, operational interference, public health challenges and climate change effects such as flooding and drought, the report said. The need for assistance will be greatest in counties in the Upper Nile and Western Equatoria States that have been facing conflict. Something has to change in South Sudan because the number of people in need continues to rise every year and the resources continue to decrease, said Sara Beysolow Nyanti, the Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, in

UN committee calls for probe into Xinjiang Uyghur human rights violations

the Committee urged the State party to immediately cease all intimidation and reprisals against Uyghur and other ethnic Muslim communities, the diaspora and those who speak out in their defence

China may not pay for climate change despite being 'biggest annual emitter'

Chinese policymakers do not agree with the suggestion that China should be considered a developed nation; according to Chinese policymakers, China continues to have extreme poverty in the country

Iran in a 'full-fledged human rights crisis,' says UN rights chief Turk

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Chief Volker Turk on Thursday said that a "full-fledged" crisis is underway in Iran amid a crackdown on protesters.He said that Iran is in a "full-fledged human rights crisis" as authorities clamp down on anti-regime dissidents, reported CNN.The Islamic Republic has been gripped by a wave of anti-government protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman detained by the morality police in September allegedly for not wearing her hijab properly.Turk called for "independent, impartial and transparent investigative processes" into violations of human rights in Iran during a special session of the UN Human Rights Council, reported CNN.Authorities have unleashed a deadly crackdown on demonstrators, with reports of forced detentions and physical abuse being used to target the country's Kurdish minority group.In a recent CNN investigation, covert testimony revealed sexual violence against protesters, ...

Efforts to sanction 26/11 perpetrators blocked for political reasons: India

India has said its efforts to sanction perpetrators and facilitators of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks have been blocked in the past for political reasons, enabling those responsible to walk free and organise further cross-border assaults against the country. India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, said terrorism continues to pose a "grave threat" to international peace and security, as ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliated and inspired groups, particularly in Asia and Africa, continue to operate and target civilians and security forces. "Lest we forget, in November 2008, 10 terrorists entered the city of Mumbai through sea route from Pakistan, ravaging the city for 4 days, killing 166 people, including 26 foreign nationals, she said in her remarks to the UN Security Council Joint Briefing by the Chairs of the 1267/1373/1540 Committees to the Security Council. "Our efforts to sanction the perpetrators and facilitators of these terror attacks were blocked in th

UN's human rights body considers new scrutiny of Iran amid protests

Germany's foreign minister appealed on Thursday for greater scrutiny of Iran ahead of a special session by the UN's top human rights body devoted to the Islamic Republic's bloody crackdown on protesters. All our efforts go to the people who demand their rights with courage and dignity, Annalena Baerbock, the foreign minister, said in a statement. For these demands alone, they are killed by the hundreds, arrested by the thousands, and oppressed by the millions. The Human Rights Council was set to debate and vote on a proposal, presented by Germany and Iceland and backed by dozens of other countries, to set up a team of independent investigators to monitor human rights in Iran as protests continue. The protests were trigged by the death in mid-September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died while being held by the morality police for violating a strictly enforced Islamic dress code. The session in Geneva is the latest international effort to put pressure on Iran over its crackdown, w