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Tag: United Nations

  • Israel’s FM Calls UN Decision To ‘Blacklist’ Israel’s Military ‘Shameful’ | World News

    TEL AVIV: Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz slammed the UN Secretary General’s decision to include the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) in a blacklist of countries and entities that harm children during conflict, saying Israel rejects this move “with disgust” and calling it “shameful .” Katz pointed out that the decision to include the IDF on the list is entirely up to the UN Secretary General and is “further evidence of his hostility towards Israel and his deliberate disregard, and not for the first time, of the Hamas attack on October 7 and Israel’s right to self-defence. This is the same UN Secretary General who chose to ignore Hamas’ sex crimes, despite the report written on the subject by UN Special Representative Patten.”

    “The Secretary-General’s report regarding Israel and the Palestinians is based on unverified and distorted data, part of an industry of distorted and biased reports by organizations such as OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), which just recently reduced the number of children and women killed in the war in Gaza by half in one day without any explanation and relies on data from the Ministry of Health of Hamas. Israel will expose these distortions of these reports to the world,” said Katz.

    “The IDF is the most moral army in the world – and no fictitious report will change that,” he declared, adding that the move will have “consequences” for Israel’s relations with the UN.

  • UN chief Antonio Guterres praises India’s G20 presidency

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Wednesday praised India’s Presidency of the G20 Summit and underlined that New Delhi did its greatest to have the voice of the Global South represented and put the event agenda on the centre of debate throughout its year-long management of the grouping.

    Guterres made the remarks at a press convention right here in response to a query by PTI on the simply concluded G20 Summit and the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration adopted by consensus beneath the Indian presidency.

    “I’d like to say and I believe I should pay tribute to the Indian presidency. The Indian presidency did its best in order to have the South’s voice represented and did its best to put the development agenda in the center of the discussions of the G20,” he stated.

    “Of course, the conclusions are what they are. They depend on what countries are ready to accept. But I think that effort needs to be underlined,” he stated.

    Guterres, who travelled to Delhi to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit on September 9 and 10 within the Indian capital, stated that the “simple fact that there being a consensus” on adopting the declaration implies that there was a compromise and “compromise is something that is essential in present days.”

    Earlier, in his remarks on the press convention forward of the UN General Assembly session that begins right here subsequent week, Guterres stated that his attraction to world leaders coming to the UN headquarters for the high-level session might be clear that this isn’t a time for posturing or positioning and this isn’t a time for indifference or indecision.

    “This is a time to come together for real, practical solutions. It is time for compromise for a better tomorrow. Politics is compromise. Diplomacy is compromise. Effective leadership is compromise. If we want a future of peace and prosperity based on equity and solidarity, leaders have a special responsibility to achieve compromise in designing our common future for our common good. Next week here in New York is the place to start,” he stated.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted leaders of the world’s greatest economies, together with US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov amongst others, for the G20 Leaders’ Summit on September 9 and 10 in New Delhi.

    As G20 President, India pulled off an enormous diplomatic win with the adoption of the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration on the summit, overcoming main variations on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

    Edited By:

    Sudeep Lavania

    Published On:

    Sep 13, 2023

  • Putin, Kim Jong traded letters as Russia seeks munitions from North Korea: US

    The White House on Wednesday stated that it has new intelligence that reveals Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean chief Kim Jong Un have swapped letters as Russia appears to be like to North Korea for munitions for the warfare in Ukraine.

    National Security Council spokesman John Kirby detailed the most recent discovering simply weeks after the White House stated that it had decided that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, throughout a latest go to to Pyongyang, referred to as on North Korean officers to extend the sale of munitions to Moscow for its Ukraine warfare.

    Kirby stated that Russia is in search of extra artillery shells and different primary supplies to shore up its defence industrial base.

    He added that the letters had been “more at the surface level” however that Russian and North Korean talks on a weapons sale had been advancing. The leaders exchanged letters following Shoigu’s go to, he stated.

    “Following Shoigu’s visit another group of Russian officials travelled to Pyongyang for follow-on discussions about potential arms deals between the DPRK and Russia,” Kirby stated, utilizing the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

    Kirby declined to element how U.S. officers had gathered the intelligence.

    Shortly earlier than the White House unveiled the brand new details about North Korea and Russia’s weapon talks, North Korea launched a ballistic missile towards its jap waters, in line with South Korea’s navy. The missile check got here simply hours after the U.S. flew at the very least one long-range bomber to the Korean Peninsula in a present of drive towards the North.

    The Biden administration has repeatedly made the case that the Kremlin has change into reliant on North Korea, in addition to Iran, for the arms it must battle its warfare towards Ukraine. North Korea and Iran are largely remoted on the worldwide stage for his or her nuclear applications and human rights data.

    In March, the White House stated it had gathered intelligence that confirmed that Russia was seeking to dealer a food-for-arms cope with North Korea, during which Moscow would offer the North with wanted meals and different commodities in return for munitions from Pyongyang.

    Late final 12 months, the White House stated it had decided that the Wagner Group, a personal Russian navy firm, had taken supply of an arms cargo from North Korea to assist bolster its forces combating in Ukraine on behalf of Russia.

    Both North Korea and Russia have beforehand denied the US allegations about weapons. North Korea, nevertheless, has sided with Russia over the warfare in Ukraine, insisting that the “hegemonic policy” of the U.S.-led West has compelled Moscow to take navy motion to guard its safety pursuits.

    At the United Nations on Wednesday, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Japan urged North Korea to halt arms negotiations with Russia.

    Any Russian-North Korean arms offers would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, backed by Russia, that prohibit all nations from shopping for or acquiring any arms from the North, the 4 nations stated in a joint assertion.

    “This sends the wrong message to aspiring proliferators that if you sell Russia arms, Russia will even enable your pursuit of nuclear weapons,” in line with the assertion that was learn by US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who was flanked by diplomats from the three different nations.

    President Donald Trump traded letters with Kim throughout his administration in an unsuccessful bid to encourage the North Korean chief to desert his nuclear weapons program.

    Published On:

    Aug 31, 2023

  • UN rights chief seeks to ascertain presence in China and India

    By Reuters: The U.N. human rights chief known as on Monday for better help for his workplace as he seeks to develop its work by establishing a first-time presence on the earth’s two most populous international locations India and China, whose rights information are drawing extra scrutiny.

    The U.N. human rights workplace, established after World War Two, is current in 95 international locations and its chief performs a key function in calling out suspected abusers in addition to working with international locations in query to result in change.

    Volker Turk, who took over as excessive commissioner in late 2022, used his opening speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday to induce better cooperation and singled out states corresponding to Syria, Iran, Israel and Russia that ought to do extra.

    “We would now like to scale up engagement,” he informed the Geneva council on the opening of its four-week session, saying the world was at a “critical juncture” 75 years after adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

    “I also believe that it is important for us to establish a presence for the first time in China and India.”

    There was no instant response to a request for remark from China or India’s diplomatic mission in Geneva. Setting up in China would possibly show tough for Turk’s workplace.

    Also Read: Explained: How China is slowly dropping its place because the world’s manufacturing facility

    Negotiations went on for years to clear the best way for a 2022 journey there by his predecessor, Michelle Bachelet, spurred partly by considerations about Beijing’s therapy of Uyghur Muslims. China denies any abuses. The U.S. stated it’s monitoring an increase in rights abuses in India by officers. New Delhi has stated it values human rights.

    A U.N. rights spokesperson added that Turk had mentioned the concept of the 2 new workplaces throughout conferences with governments however didn’t elaborate on their response. More broadly, Turk had voiced concern a couple of “strangulation of civil society in several countries”, with out naming them.

    Turk stated he want to double his workplace’s funds to step up international monitoring though this will likely show difficult provided that many international locations oppose additional scrutiny on sovereignty grounds.

    While human rights comprise one of many 4 United Nations “pillars”, alongside peace and safety, the rule of regulation and improvement, it will get simply 4% of the final funds. Turk additionally known as on the United States to behave urgently on racial discrimination and to ratify six human rights treaties, together with one on baby rights.

    Also Read: ‘Progress made’, says Chinese President Xi Jinping as he meets US state secretary Antony Blinken

  • Greek coast guard defends actions as over 500 migrants heading for Europe feared useless in wreck

    By Associated Press: The Greek coast guard on Friday (native time) defended its response to a ship that went down off the nation’s south coast and left greater than 500 migrants presumed drowned. Criticism mounted over Europe’s yearslong failure to stop such tragedies.

    Patrol boats and a helicopter spent a 3rd day scouring the realm of the Mediterranean Sea the place the packed fishing vessel capsized early on Wednesday, in what the UN migration company mentioned may very well be the second deadliest migrant shipwreck recorded. The deadliest occurred when a vessel capsized off the coast of Libya en path to Italy in April 2015, killing an estimated 1,100 folks.

    Greek coast guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou mentioned that each coast guard and personal ships repeatedly provided by radio and loudspeaker to assist the vessel on Wednesday whereas it was in worldwide waters, additionally heading from Libya to Italy, however they have been rejected.

    Alexiou argued that any effort to tow the overcrowded trawler or transfer a whole bunch of unwilling folks onto close by ships would have been too harmful.

    ALSO READ | British man killed by lightning strike whereas paddleboarding in Greece

    “Îåou will have a disturbance, and the people will surge, which, unfortunately, is what happened in the end,” Alexiou advised state-run ERT TV. “You will have caused the accident.”

    Alexiou additionally mentioned that, after accepting meals from a service provider ship, the trawler’s passengers rejected a rope bringing extra from a second service provider ship “because they thought the whole process was a way for us to take them to Greece”.

    Greek authorities despatched the primary ship, the tanker Lucky Sailor, to offer the migrants meals and water. The firm managing the tanker mentioned on Friday that the folks on board “were very hesitant to receive any assistance, and at any attempt of approach the boat started to manoeuvre away”.

    Eastern Mediterranean Maritime Limited mentioned in an announcement that the folks on the trawler have been ultimately persuaded to simply accept provides.

    Experts mentioned maritime legislation obligated Greek authorities to try a rescue.

    ALSO READ | PM Mitsotakis’ conservatives win Greece elections, however absolute majority eludes

    They undoubtedly “had a duty to start rescue procedures” given the situation of the vessel, mentioned Professor Erik R¸sæg of the University of Oslo’s Institute of Private Law. He mentioned a refusal of help could be overruled if deemed unreasonable, because it appeared to have been on Wednesday.

    Flavio Di Giacomo of the Mediterranean workplace of the UN migration company International Organisation for Migration (IOM) tweeted that each one migrant boats must be thought of harmful and rescued instantly as a result of “even when they appear to have no problems, in a few minutes they can sink”.

    Rescuers pulled 104 survivors from the water and later recovered 78 our bodies however haven’t situated any extra since late Wednesday. The Greek coast guard mentioned the search-and-rescue operation would proceed past the usual 72 hours.

    The UN’s migration and refugee companies issued a joint assertion calling well timed maritime search and rescues “a legal and humanitarian imperative” and calling for “urgent and decisive action to prevent further deaths at sea”.

    A bunch of non-governmental organisations, together with Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders, mentioned the EU ought to “stop seeing solutions solely in the dismantling” of smuggling networks, and arrange state-led search-and-rescue operations within the Mediterranean.

    “The Greek government had specific responsibilities toward every passenger on the vessel, which was clearly in distress,” Adriana Tidona of Amnesty International mentioned. “This is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions, all the more so because it was entirely preventable.”

    Greece and different southern EU nations, which generally are the primary locations for Europe-bound asylum-seekers travelling by sea, have toughened border safety measures lately, extending partitions and intensifying maritime patrols.

    “This is a European problem. I think it’s time for Europe to be able, in solidarity, to define an effective migration policy for these kinds of situations not to happen again,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres mentioned throughout a information convention at UN headquarters in New York late on Thursday.

    ALSO READ | Italian forces storm, safe Turkish ship after ‘unlawful migrants’ try hijack

    The EU’s govt fee says the 27-nation bloc is near an settlement on how member nations can share duty in caring for migrants and refugees who undertake the harmful journey throughout the Mediterranean.

    A judicial investigation can also be underway into the causes of the sinking. Greek officers say the vessel capsized minutes after it misplaced energy, speculating that panic among the many passengers might have precipitated the boat to record and roll over.

    Most of the survivors have been being moved on Friday from a storage hangar on the southern port of Kalamata, the place family members additionally gathered to search for family members, to migrant shelters close to Athens.

    Abdo Sheikhi, a Kurdish Syrian residing in Germany, travelled to Kalamata to search out out what occurred to 5 relations who have been on the boat.

    On Friday, he found that solely his youthful brother Ali and one other relative had survived. He managed to talk on the telephone to Ali, who had been moved to the camp close to Athens.

    “(Ali) told me he jumped (off the) ship while the others could not jump,” Sheikhi mentioned. “They were scared. They were holding on to the boat as it swayed.”

    Nine folks — all males from Egypt, ranging in age from 20 to 40 — have been arrested and detained and charged on Friday of individuals smuggling and collaborating in a felony enterprise. Twenty-seven of the survivors stay hospitalised, well being officers mentioned. The smuggling suspects are because of seem in court docket on June 19 (Monday).

    The IOM has estimated the boat carried as many as 750 folks, and UN human rights workplace spokesman Jeremy Laurence mentioned the lacking included “large numbers of women and children”.

    The survivors have been all boys and males from Egypt, Pakistan, Syria and the Palestinian territories. Alexiou, citing survivor accounts, mentioned passengers within the maintain of the fishing boat included girls and youngsters however that the variety of lacking, believed to be within the a whole bunch, nonetheless remained unclear.

    Officials at a state-run morgue exterior Athens photographed the faces of the victims and gathered DNA samples to start out the identification course of.

    Late Friday, Greece’s coast guard mentioned a navy helicopter situated a sailboat with migrants off southwestern Greece after being alerted by Italian authorities. It mentioned three service provider ships had reached the vessel, which reported no bother and was heading for Italy. ERT TV mentioned about 60 folks have been believed to be on board.

    ALSO READ | British PM Rishi Sunak confirms plans to accommodate unlawful migrants on ships

  • UN-designated gangster Amarpreet Singh Samar shot lifeless at wedding ceremony ceremony in Canada

    Indian-origin Amarpreet Singh Samar was among the many many excessive 10 gangsters on the United Nations designated document. Samar was shot lifeless at a wedding venue in Canada’s Vancouver metropolis. 

    As per native newspapers, Samar was on the dance flooring when an individual walked contained within the venue, requested the DJ to pause the music and shot him lifeless. Reports suggest it was a targeted killing by one in every of many rival gangs. 

  • China objects to India’s proposal to blacklist Jaish-e Mohammed chief Abdul Rauf Azhar at UN

    By Press Trust of India: China has objected to a proposal by India to blacklist senior Pakistan-based Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM) terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar on the United Nations Security Council.

    Brother of JeM chief Masood Azhar, Abdul Rauf, born in 1974 in Pakistan, has been involved in planning and executing fairly just a few terror strikes in India along with the hijacking of Indian Airlines aircraft IC814 in 1999, the assault on the Parliament in 2001 and the specializing in of the IAF base in Pathankot in 2016.

    It is found that China objected to the proposal from India in order so as to add Abdul Rauf of the JeM to the UN Security Council’s 1267 ISIL and Al Qaida Sanctions guidelines.

    Rauf Azhar was sanctioned by the US in December 2010.

    In August closing 12 months, China, a eternal, veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, had put a keep on the proposal by India and the US to designate Rauf Azhar as a world terrorist and matter him to belongings freeze, journey ban and arms embargo.

    ALSO READ | Imran Khan’s arrest ‘inside matter’ of Pakistan: Rishi Sunak tells UK parliament

    Beijing, an all-weather good pal of Islamabad, had closing 12 months put holds on proposals to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists Hafiz Talah Saeed, Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Shahid Mahmood and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terrorist Sajid Mir under the Al Qaeda Sanctions regime.

    In June closing 12 months, China put a keep on a joint proposal by India and the US to designate Abdul Rehman Makki, the deputy chief of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba under the 1267 sanctions committee.

    In January this 12 months however, Makki, the top of the political affairs wing of JuD/LeT and the brother-in-law of LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, was designated a world terrorist by the UN after China lifted its keep on the joint India-US proposal to blacklist him, paving the best way through which for the Security Council’s Al Qaeda sanctions committee to guidelines him by the use of consensus.

    During India’s Presidency of the UN Security Council in December 2022, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar referred to as out Pakistan and China in his remarks to the Council briefing on ‘Global Counterterrorism Approach: Challenges and Way Forward’, saying the “contemporary epicentre of terrorism” stays very loads full of life and “evidence-backed proposals” to blacklist terrorists under sanctions regimes are positioned on keep with out assigning sufficient motive.

    ALSO READ | President Joe Biden to host PM Modi for official state go to to US on June 22, says White House

  • Imran Khan’s arrest: UN official stresses need to make sure that political figures in Pak are dealt with fairly

    By Press Trust of India: A excessive UN official on Tuesday pressured the need to ensure all political figures in Pakistan are dealt with fairly and that due course of is adopted, hours after former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested from court docket docket premises in a graft case.

    “Regarding that, you are aware of our concerns of making sure that all of the political figures in Pakistan are treated fairly and of course that due process is followed. So we will monitor this process as it goes on to make sure that our concerns are being addressed,” said Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

    Haq was responding to a question on Khan’s arrest and the next protests which have engulfed the nation.

    ALSO READ | Imran Khan supporters steal peacocks from Lahore Corps Commander’s house amid protest

    Khan was current course of a biometric course of on the Islamabad High Court when the paramilitary Rangers broke open the glass window and arrested him.

    The arrest of the 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman comes a day after the extremely efficient Pakistan Army accused him of levelling baseless allegations in the direction of a senior officer of the spy firm ISI.

    As the knowledge of Khan’s arrest unfold, big protests broke out in quite a lot of cities all through Pakistan. Protesters at quite a lot of places turned violent and burned police cars and damaged public property.

    ALSO READ | Pakistan in chaos after Imran Khan’s ‘licensed’ arrest, supporters storm Army headquarters | Top components

  • Imran Khan’s arrest: UN official stresses wish to be certain that political figures in Pak are dealt with fairly

    By Press Trust of India: A excessive UN official on Tuesday pressured the need to ensure all political figures in Pakistan are dealt with fairly and that due course of is adopted, hours after former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested from court docket docket premises in a graft case.

    “Regarding that, you are aware of our concerns of making sure that all of the political figures in Pakistan are treated fairly and of course that due process is followed. So we will monitor this process as it goes on to make sure that our concerns are being addressed,” said Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

    Haq was responding to a question on Khan’s arrest and the next protests which have engulfed the nation.

    ALSO READ | Imran Khan supporters steal peacocks from Lahore Corps Commander’s dwelling amid protest

    Khan was current course of a biometric course of on the Islamabad High Court when the paramilitary Rangers broke open the glass window and arrested him.

    The arrest of the 70-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman comes a day after the extremely efficient Pakistan Army accused him of levelling baseless allegations in the direction of a senior officer of the spy firm ISI.

    As the data of Khan’s arrest unfold, big protests broke out in plenty of cities all through Pakistan. Protesters at plenty of places turned violent and burned police vehicles and damaged public property.

    ALSO READ | Pakistan in chaos after Imran Khan’s ‘licensed’ arrest, supporters storm Army headquarters | Top components

  • RFA : Stop detaining and imprisoning journalists for doing their jobs: UN chief on World Press Freedom Day

    By Press Trust of India: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged the worldwide group to “speak with one voice” and identify for stopping the detention and imprisonment of journalists for doing their jobs, as he sounded an alarm that freedom of the press is beneath assault in every nook of the world. Guterres underscored that “all our freedom” is set by press freedom.

    “Freedom of the press is the foundation of democracy and justice,” he talked about in his video message ahead of World Press Freedom Day 2023. World Press Freedom Day is seen yearly on May 3.

    “On this and every World Press Freedom Day, the world must speak with one voice – Stop the threats and attacks. Stop detaining and imprisoning journalists for doing their jobs. Stop the lies and disinformation. Stop targeting truth and truth-tellers,” Guterres talked about throughout the message telecast throughout the UN General Assembly Hall proper right here at a specific event organised by UNESCO. Guterres voiced concern that in every nook of the world, freedom of the press is beneath assault.

    “Truth is threatened by disinformation and hate speech, on the lookout for to blur the strains between fact and fiction, between science and conspiracy,” he said. He noted that at least 67 media workers were killed in 2022, an “unbelievable” 50 per cent increase over the previous years and nearly three-quarters of women journalists have experienced violence online and one in four have been threatened physically.

    “Journalists and media workers are directly targeted on and offline as they carry out their vital work. They are routinely harassed, intimidated, detained and imprisoned,” he said.

    The UN chief also added that the increased concentration of the media industry into the hands of a few, the financial collapse of scores of independent news organisations and the increase of national laws and regulations that stifle journalists are further expanding censorship and threatening freedom of expression.

    The event organised by UNESCO marks 30 years since the UN General Assembly’s decision proclaiming an international day for press freedom. This year’s theme for the Day is ‘Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a driver for all other human rights’.

    UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said hundreds of journalists globally have been attacked and imprisoned “just because they are doing their work. It is unacceptable.” She added that the level of impunity of crimes against journalists sends a “frightening” message and stressed that the security of journalists is a matter for society as a whole.

    Delivering the keynote address, Chairman and Publisher of The New York Times A.G. Sulzberger said that when the free press erodes in a society, “democratic erosion almost always follows.”

    He said all over the world, autocrats and those who aspire to join their ranks have used censorship, media repression and attacks on journalists to consolidate power. “That’s because gaining control of information is essential to gaining control of everything else.”

    He added that in countries where press freedoms were strong, including the United States, journalists now face systematic campaigns to undermine their credibility, followed by attacks on the legal protections that safeguard their work. In countries where press freedoms were already weak, journalists now face surging levels of violence, detention and harassment, he said, adding that more journalists are being killed today for their work and the number of imprisoned journalists has reached a grim new record.

    “Spin a globe and you’ll find examples of these trends. In China, journalists are surveilled, intimidated and jailedâ€æIn Egypt, the government has used security services to buy up outlets and block uncooperative news sitesâ€æIn India, authorities have raided newsrooms and treated journalists essentially as terrorists,” Sulzberger said.

    Referring to the situation in Russia, he said journalists who “dare to even acknowledge the war in Ukraine face long prison terms.”

    He called for the release of The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, “who remains in Russian custody for sham charges.” Gershkovich was detained in March this 12 months by Russian security corporations and is being held on an allegation of espionage.