March 2023 – Page 11 – Career Meaning

UN delegates reach historic agreement on protecting marine biodiversity in international waters

“This action is a victory for multilateralism and for global efforts to counter the destructive trends facing ocean health, now and for generations to come,” said the UN chief in a statement issued by his Spokesperson late Saturday evening just hours after the deal was struck at UN Headquarters in New York, where tough negotiations…

Ground-breaking exhibit on slavery gives new generation ‘hope for humanity’

With myriad objects casting a new light on some of the darkest pages of history, Slavery: Ten True Stories of Dutch Colonial Slavery has been brought to the UN by Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum. “It’s baffling to me that there are a lot of countries still apologizing for slavery,” Daniela Paredes,18, from Cancun, Mexico, told UN News…

Haiti: Surge in gun trafficking fuels spike in gang violence

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, Haiti’s criminal markets: mapping trends in firearms and drug trafficking, warns that a recent increase in arms seizures alongside intelligence and law enforcement reporting, suggests trafficking of weapons is on the rise. ‘Volatile situation’ “By providing a rapid assessment of illicit firearms and drug trafficking, this…

Changing lives in The Gambia: A UN Resident Coordinator Blog

When my mandate began, in 2018, it was not long after the end of the dictatorship [The two-decade rule of Yahya Jammeh]. The new Government was already embracing several reforms simultaneously, reviewing the constitution, the judiciary, and the security sector, and the UN had allocated funds for peacebuilding. Women working in a rice field, The…

Myanmar: Tatmadaw army’s ‘scorched earth’ policy in spotlight

“Continuous” violence, including the killing, arbitrary arrest, torture and enforced disappearance of opponents in Myanmar between 1 February 2022 and 31 January 2023, have left the country’s people desperate for outside help, OHCHR’s James Rodehaver said, unveiling the Office’s latest report on the crisis. “Despite all the challenges that they face, so far there has…

‘The time has come to do justice for the least developed countries,’ says UN chief Guterres

“Countries with the least need support the most. And you need it now. You represent one in eight people on earth. But your countries are trapped in vicious cycles that make development difficult, if not impossible,” Mr. Guterres told the Summit of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), in Doha, Qatar Today’s Summit of Heads of State…

Occupation ‘eating away’ at Israeli, Palestinian societies: Türk

“I urge decision-makers and people on all sides to give effect to the recommendations of our reports and to step back from the precipice to which increasing extremism and violence have led,” said Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), after presenting the Council with his latest annual report on the situation.…

Musicians promote ‘empathy, fraternity, solidarity’ between Israelis and Palestinians

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, appointed by the UN Secretary-General in 2016 as a United Nations Global Advocate for Cultural Understanding, recently played their first concert at UN headquarters in New York, at a special event organized to demonstrate that when people listen to each other, both musically and in other ways, great results can be…

Sudan: New effort needed to restore civilian rule, transition to democracy

During an update to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the UN rights chief highlighted the death on Tuesday of a 17-year-old demonstrator, shot dead by a police officer in the Sharq Alnil area of Khartoum, “one of 125 people to die since protests began over 16 months ago, one in five of whom have…

Newly announced prison terms in Belarus signal ‘ongoing repression’

“The prison sentences delivered today in Belarus against four human rights defenders, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, are deeply troubling and indicative of the ongoing repression in the country,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, OHCHR. UN human rights chief Volker Türk has called for an end to the…