October 01, 2022 No comments
Burkina Faso: UN chief condemns any attempt to seize power by the force of arms
INTERNATIONAL, 1 October 2022, Peace and Security - The UN Secretary-General expressed on Saturday his deep concern regarding the unfolding developments in Burkina Faso, where according to media reports, a group of military officers overthrew the man who had seized power in a coup only nine months earlier. Allegedly, Capt. Ibrahim Traore appeared on Friday on national television announcing that Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who overthrew the country's democratically elected president in January, had been removed from power “after failing to end the terrorist violence” that has forced 2 million people to flee their homes. In a statement published by his spokesperson, António Guterres strongly condemned “any attempt to seize power by the force of arms” and called on all actors to “refrain...
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October 01, 2022 No comments
Delivering justice for abused child brides in The Comoros
INTERNATIONAL, 1 October 2022, Women - Around thirty per cent of girls in The Comoros become child brides, and they make up the vast majority of sexual violence cases reported across the African country. Tackling this scourge was the theme of a recent UN event held during the opening session of the General Assembly, at which senior officials called for measures to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable for their crimes. “I followed him into the house. I didn’t know he was going to rape me.” At just 13 years old, Mariama (not her real name) was sexually assaulted by a neighbour when she returned home from school: Nine months later, still a child herself, she became a mother. “At 16, I have a daughter who...
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October 01, 2022 No comments
On International Day of Older Persons, UN chief highlights their ‘remarkable resilience’
INTERNATIONAL, 1 October 2022, Human Rights - Secretary-General António Guterres drew attention on Saturday, the International Day of Older Persons, to the “resilience of the more than one billion older women and men” in a rapidly changing world. “The past years have witnessed dramatic upheavals – and older people often found themselves at the epicenter of crises,” he said in a video message, adding that they are vulnerable to “a range of challenges”, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the worsening climate crisis, proliferating conflicts, and growing poverty. “Yet in the face of these threats, older people have inspired us with their remarkable resilience”. Unleashing potential By 2030, 1.4 billion people will be at least 60 years old. “Our task as societies and as the global community is to address the challenges of...
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September 30, 2022 No comments
Russia vetoes Security Council resolution condemning attempted annexation of Ukraine regions
INTERNATIONAL, 30 September 2022, Peace and Security - Russia on Friday vetoed a Security Council resolution which described its attempts to unlawfully annex four regions of Ukraine earlier in the day with a formal ceremony in Moscow, as “a threat to international peace and security”, demanding that the decision be immediately and unconditionally reversed. The draft resolution, circulated by the United States and Albania, was supported by ten of the fifteen members of the Council, with Russia voting against it. Four members abstained, Brazil, China, Gabon and India. The draft described the so-called referendums held by Russia in the four regions of Ukraine which Moscow now regards as sovereign territory – Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya – as illegal and an attempt to modify Ukraine’s internationally recognized...
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September 30, 2022 No comments
Yemen: Put the people first, Guterres urges, with extended and expanded truce
INTERNATIONAL, 30 September 2022, Peace and Security - Yemen’s warring parties who have sustained a nationwide truce for the past six months, need to prioritize the “needs and aspirations” of the people, by both extending and expanding it, beyond Sunday’s imminent deadline, the UN chief has said. In a statement on Friday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said it was time for Government forces and their allies, together with Houthi rebels and their international backers, to “choose peace for good.” The hiatus since 2 April, has been twice renewed, providing the longest period of relative calm since the beginning of the intensified conflict, in 2015, Mr. Guterres said. In a statement calling for the truce to be expanded earlier this month, the Security Council said casualties were down 60 per cent since...
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