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Posts Tagged ‘United Nations’
First World Humanitarian Day remembers 260 aid workers killed in past year
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Jesuit Refugee Service/USA joins the United Nations and other organizations around the world in recognizing the first World Humanitarian Day.
Established by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 2008, August 19, 2009 is the first World Humanitarian Day. The designation of the Day is a way to increase public understanding of humanitarian assistance activities worldwide. The Day also aims to honor humanitarian workers who have lost their lives or been injured in the course of their work.
Why August 19?
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Humanitarian chief condemns violence against aid workers
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009The top United Nations humanitarian official yesterday deplored the growing number of attacks against aid workers, while highlighting that the effects of natural and man-made disasters on people’s lives would become more devastating.
John Holmes, Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that he was increasingly horrified by the attacks on humanitarian workers, who he noted gave their energies and lives to helping others and were often treated with hostility, suspicion and violence in return.
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UN: Haitian children suffering a ‘modern form of slavery’
Thursday, June 11th, 2009A U.N. human rights expert says Haiti is suffering a “modern form of slavery” in the widespread use of children as house laborers.
The Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, its causes and consequences, Gulnara Shahinian, expressed deep concern yesterday over the highly exploitative nature of the ‘restavek’ system in Haiti, which she considers to be a modern form of slavery.
Children in Gonaives. (UN Photo/Logan Abassi)
At the end of her visit to Haiti, Ms. Shahinian emphasized her deep concern at the restavek system, which deprives children of their family environment and violates their most basic rights such as the rights to education, health, and food as well as subjecting them to multiple forms of abuse including economic exploitation, sexual violence and corporal punishment, violating their fundamental right to protection from all forms of violence. Many have been reported as trafficked within the country and outside the country.
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UN human rights chief urges Sri Lanka war probe
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009“The images of terrified and emaciated women, men and children fleeing the battle zone ought to be etched in our collective memory. They must spur us into action,” Navi Pillay said in a message to the Human Rights Council’s special session on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.
“An independent and credible international investigation into recent events should be dispatched to ascertain the occurrence, nature and scale of violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as specific responsibilities,” she said.
Investigating human rights abuses allegedly committed against civilians by both the government of Sri Lanka and Tamil rebels will help the country transition into a new future, the United Nations human rights chief stated.
“There are strong reasons to believe that both sides have grossly disregarded the fundamental principle of the inviolability of civilians,” Pillay said.
Voice of America reports that
The U.N. Human Rights Council has begun a special session on the human-rights situation in Sri Lanka. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights opened the session by calling for an international investigation into alleged war crimes by the government and vanquished Tamil Tiger rebels.
Sri Lanka rebuffs UN leader
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Ban Ki-moon in the Manik Farm Camp. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)
Sri Lanka has rejected a call by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to lift restrictions on aid delivery and unhindered access by humanitarian groups to overcrowded displacement camps. The Secretary General ’s hurriedly planned visit to Sri Lanka Saturday was designed to keep the spotlight on the plight of the several hundred thousand civilians displaced by the recently-concluded civil war there.
UN chief visits civilians displaced in Sri Lanka
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon greets one of the internally displaced persons at the health clinic in the Manik Farm Camp in Vavuniya. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)
“I saw for myself the circumstances in which the survivors find themselves, and the suffering they have experienced,” Mr. Ban told a news conference later in the day, following his visit to Menik Farm.
Speaking about his visit to Menik Farm, he said that many of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) that he met with had lost family members, many were sick or injured, and most had lost their homes, belongings and livelihoods. Some even gave him letters, telling him how hard life is in the camps.
While the Government is doing its utmost, it lacks resources, he stated. “There is a wide gap between what is needed and what is available.”
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U.N. chief to visit Sri Lanka
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today that he will visit Sri Lanka later this week, in part to get a first-hand look at the situation on the ground after the Government declared that its military operation against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has ended.
The May 22 – 23 visit would be to respond to the urgent need to heal the wounds of a war that has alienated the communities in the country for almost three decades, Mr. Ban told a news conference in Geneva.
“The task now facing the people of Sri Lanka is immense and requires all hands,” he said, stressing the need for progress in three critical areas: immediate humanitarian relief; reintegration and reconstruction; and a sustainable and equitable political solution. Progress on all three of these fronts must move forward in parallel – and it must begin now, he stated.
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U.N. launches airlift to Sri Lanka
Monday, April 27th, 2009
Refugees stream towards Mullivaikkal.
The giant Boeing 747 cargo plane, the first of two scheduled flights to deliver more than 200 tons of UNHCR tents, landed in Colombo at 10:45 a.m. local time. The family tents will be used in the north of the country to help shelter thousands of people uprooted in recent fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels.
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U.S. ‘deeply concerned’ about Sri Lanka
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009Susan E. Rice, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, speaking at the United Nations yesterday after a briefing about the situation in Sri Lanka:
We had an extensive, and I think very helpful elaboration by Mr. Nambiar of the situation on the ground, his diplomatic efforts, and then the Ambassador of Sri Lanka shared his government’s perspective. I spoke on behalf of the United States to underscore just how grave we view this situation. It is dire and we are deeply concerned. We condemn the action by the LTTE to hold thousands of innocent civilians hostage in this so-called safe zone. We think that it is absolutely imperative that both sides cease the fighting and the heavy shelling that is putting many thousands of civilians in immediate danger.
