CAIRO — Egypt’s Coptic Church says a fire at a Cairo church Sunday killed at least 41 people and injured at least 14 others.
The Church, citing health officials for the casualty toll, said the blaze ripped through the Abu Sefein church in densely populated neighborhood of Imbaba.
The cause of the blaze was not immediately known. Police said an initial investigation blamed an electrical short-circuit.
The statement said the fire broke out while congregation was underway Sunday morning.
Coptic Christians make up about 10% of Egypt’s primarily Muslim population.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. The following is AP’s previous story
A fire at a Coptic Christian church in the Egyptian capital on Sunday killed at least one person and injured 55 others, authorities said.
The blaze ripped through the church in Cairo’s densely populated neighborhood of Imbaba. It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze. An initial investigation blamed an electric short-circuit, police said.
Fifteen firefighting vehicles were dispatched to the scene to put out the flames while ambulances ferried the casualties to nearby hospitals.
The Health Ministry said ambulances have transferred at least 55 injured to hospitals and ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel-Ghafar said at least one person was killed.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi spoke by phone with the Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to offer his condolences, the president’s office said.
Copts comprise about 10% of Egypt’s primarily Muslim population.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — An undersea earthquake shook part of eastern Indonesia on Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 5.7-magnitude quake struck about 158 kilometers (98 miles) off Laikit village in North Sulawesi province. It said the quake was centered about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) beneath the sea.
The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency, which put the quake at 5.9-magnitude and 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) depth, said the quake was unlikely to trigger a tsunami.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 270 million people, is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines that arcs the Pacific.
In February, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, the same magnitude earthquake also killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.
A line of women carry rocks in the hands and on their heads as they descend to a gully on the side of a hill in southern Haiti. They are bringing the rocks so their community can build barriers which will slow down the flow of water across this verdant valley and protect the land, which is so important to this rural farming community, from erosion.
The team of workers building the barriers is made up of women and men from vulnerable communities in one of three departments across Haiti’s southern peninsula which were hit by a destructive 7.2 magnitude earthquake on 14 August, 2021.
More than 2,200 people died in the disaster and over 137,000 homes were destroyed or damaged, as well as hospitals, schools and key transport infrastructure, including roads and bridges.
Just down the valley, another team of around 36 people is working hard at clearing the road. They are being paid some 500 Haitian gourdes (around $5) for a 4-5 hour day and will spend 20 days working to improve their community.
Support for vulnerable people
“The money I earn helps me to pay for food, school and other household needs,” says Tesse Medgune. “Many families lost their livelihood because of the earthquake so this helps us to survive.”
The rehabilitation work on the side of the hill and valley road is supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) and is part of a Haitian government effort to improve the resilience of vulnerable people who are threatened by natural disasters. Many of these people are also receive support to improve food production activities and their nutrition.
There are 16 similar teams in in this immediate area and many more across the southern peninsula of Haiti where the earthquake caused most damage.
“The money people have earned is important in the short-term to get them through the difficult post-earthquake period,” says WFP’s Sophia Toussaint, ‘but it’s also crucial to their longer-term future. Protecting the hillside stops soil erosion and means farmers are less likely to lose their crops in a natural disaster; having a good road allows produce to be more easily sent to market” she adds. “It also means that aid can be delivered more effectively, and people can get to hospital if there is another earthquake.”
Jerry Chandler is the Director General of Haiti’s Civil Protection agency. “We have worked closely with our international partners, including the UN, to ensure that our disaster response is more robust. So, we are planning for the eventuality of another disaster happening but also ensuring that the impact is lessened.”
A year on from the earthquake, the United Nations continues to support communities throughout the three most affected departments: Grand Anse, Nippes and Sud. Some 26,200 people fled their uninhabitable homes, and the majority were accommodated in 85 temporary displacement sites.
A majority have now returned home including Roslaine Jeantine and her three sons. The roof of her small home in the commune of Laurent just outside the city of Les Cayes, collapsed in the earthquake injuring the leg of her oldest son. However, the walls remained in place, and she was encouraged to return home with the support of a roof building kit provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
“I sold my goat to pay for two carpenters to install my new roof,” says Ms. Jeantine. “I still feel panicked when I hear a loud noise, thinking it could be another earthquake, but I know that this roof is well made and will protect me and my family from bad weather.”
IOM has distributed around 100 kits in Laurent, which include everything a family needs to build a roof; wood, tin sheets, nails and more. In total, some 500 have been distributed across the earthquake-affected area to the most vulnerable families.
“These roofs are important not just because they provide shelter,” says IOM’ s Jean Gardy Saint Juste, “they also empower families to make their own decisions about how to repair their houses and thus rebuild their lives. In this sense they are creating their own resilience to future disasters with a little support from IOM.”
As houses are rebuilt roof by roof, and roads repaired stone by stone, UN agencies are still working in the three departments, providing much needed services, but also creating space for communities to make decisions about how best to protect themselves when the next disaster strikes.
JERUSALEM — A gunman opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday, wounding eight Israelis in a suspected Palestinian attack that came a week after violence flared up between Israel and militants in Gaza, police and medics said.
Two of the victims were in serious condition, according to Israeli hospitals treating them. The shooting occurred as the bus waited in a parking lot near the Western Wall, which is considered the holiest site where Jews can pray.
Israeli police said forces were dispatched to the scene to begin investigations. Israeli security forces also pushed into the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan pursuing the suspected attacker.
The attack in Jerusalem followed a tense week between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Last weekend, Israeli aircraft unleashed an offensive in the Gaza Strip targeting the militant group Islamic Jihad and setting off three days of fierce cross-border fighting. Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets during the flare-up to avenge the airstrikes, which killed two of its commanders and other militants. Israel said the attack was meant to thwart threats from the group to respond to the arrest of one of its officials in the occupied West Bank.
Forty-nine Palestinians, including 17 children and 14 militants, were killed, and several hundred were injured in the fighting, which ended with an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire. No Israeli was killed or seriously injured.
The Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, stayed on the sidelines.
A day after the cease-fire halted the worst round of Gaza fighting in more than a year, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants and wounded dozens in a shootout that erupted during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
“When the earthquake struck, I had no idea what it was as I had never experienced something so loud and dramatic before. I thought it was an act of God and I was terrified.
My whole house was shaking so I rushed outside with my daughter to see what was going on, and I realized it was a tremor from beneath the earth. Then part of my house collapsed, and large cracks appeared in its cinder block walls.
The community came together
We were lucky, because no-one in my family was injured, but I knew many neighbours who died. The community, which is rural and made up of farmers and people buying and selling goods, came together and we helped each other. We saved many children by digging them from beneath the rubble.
I think the earthquake made us stronger as a community and that helped us when we moved into this temporary camp in Devirel on the edge of the city of Les Cayes, just five days after we fled from our home.
Life here is very tough. We live, in twos and threes, in small shelters made from plastic sheeting. It is hot because there are no trees here and when it rains it is very muddy. There is not much to eat, but we continue to look after each other and share the small amount of food that we have.
UN support
When we arrived, we received a lot of support from the United Nations*. We received a hygiene kit and were able to use a bathroom which had been built for us. I received some cash payments so I could afford to carry on sending my daughter to school and at one point she received free school meals.
My aunt also received some financial assistance as she is disabled and particularly vulnerable. I’m very grateful for this support.
Sometimes, I can earn money by helping to harvest a neighbour’s crops, but it’s difficult to find work, so I have to live on very little. It’s difficult to change one’s life if you don’t have the financial means to do so. I would like to return to my home with my daughter, but I’m too scared to do that before I repair it. So, I will try and save some money to make the repairs.
One year after the earthquake, I am still optimistic for the future; I know I can rely on myself and my community for a better life.”
*A range of UN agencies provided support to Plaisimond Milaure and her neighbours, including cash transfers for vulnerable and disabled people as well as to support the schooling of kids (International Organization for Migration, IOM) hygiene kits (IOM and UNFPA) bathroom facilities (UNICEF) and school meals, World Food Programme, WFP. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) coordinated the UN’s post-earthquake response.
After the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) reviewed the US’ racial justice record, the UN human rights office issued a statement in which CERD Expert and Country Rapporteur Faith Dikeledi Pansy Tlakula recounted her observation that the country’s firearm homicide rate had increased, especially amongst black men and in impoverished communities.
While acknowledging the measures that had been taken to address gun violence, Ms. Tlakula had wondered what was being done to address its “disparate impact” on racial and ethnic minorities as well as indigenous peoples.
UN News/Shirin Yaseen
Anti-racism protesters in Brooklyn, New York, demonstrate demanding justice for the killing of African American, George Floyd.
Lacking federal coordination
Amidst a significant rise in hate crimes against ethnic minorities, the Committee had welcomed recent US legislation, such as the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, but questioned why the country has yet to institutionalize a coordinating mechanism, like a national human rights institution.
Ms. Tlakula said that the Committee had repeatedly expressed concern over its lack of such a mechanism, and asked what measures had been adopted to create a permanent and effective coordinating mechanism at the federal level.
The Committee had noted that the US was aware of its recommendations on establishing a national human rights institute and that it would take them under consideration to the extent that they could be enforced under the presidency of Joe Biden.
Police reform
The Committee had also pointed out that the country was ensuring accountability surrounding the use of force, noting that the Department of Homeland Security had enforced strict standards of conduct for police officers.
Moreover, a department-wide use of force policy, which stressed respect for human life, was released in 2018, and updated in 2021.
And police training has been provided in de-escalation, use of force, and border fence patrols.
The US Office of Civil Rights and Liberties also investigated cases of excessive use of force and tracked these through an online dashboard, with over 600 such incidents logged so far this year.
Recommendation implementation
In her concluding remarks, Ms. Tlakula had told the Committee that uncomfortable conversations and concrete measures and actions were necessary “to lay the scourge of racism to rest”.
She had also expressed hope that the country would continue to hold consultations with civil society, maintaining that they would lead to progress in implementing the Committee’s recommendations.
US delegation responds
The US Ambassador to the Human Rights Council and head of the delegation, Michèle Taylor, had acknowledged that the US needed to do better on eliminating racial discrimination, and was “deeply committed” to using all levers at its disposal to do so.
The US State Department’s Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice and delegation co-leader, Desirée Cormier Smith, had said that the country shared the Committee’s vision for sustained efforts to eliminate racial discrimination. She also expressed sadness that ethnic and racial minority groups still needed to fight for the freedoms enjoyed by the white population.
Administrative points
The Committee will issue its concluding observations on the report of the United States after the session concludes on 30 August.
Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, and webcasts here.
Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not paid for their work.
This will be the first shipment of humanitarian food assistance under the Black Sea Grain Initiative signed last month by Ukraine, Russia and Türkiye.
WFP said the development marks “another important step in efforts to reintegrate Ukrainian food into global markets and get it to countries worst affected by the global food crisis through both commercial and humanitarian avenues.”
The MV Brave Commander is expected to berth shortly at Yuzhny, located on the Black Sea.
Supporting drought response
The ship departed the Turkish capital, Istanbul, on Wednesday after clearing inspection by the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC), the mechanism that supports implementation of the UN-brokered agreement on resuming grain exports from Ukraine.
The JCC will monitor the movement of commercial vessels transporting grain, foodstuffs and fertilizer from Yuzhny and two other key Ukrainian ports: Odesa and Chornomorsk.
WFP has purchased the wheat for its operations in Ethiopia, supporting drought response in the Horn of Africa where the threat of famine looms.
The UN agency recently warned of the dire food security situation across the region, following four consecutive failed rainy seasons.
The Horn of Africa is just one of many areas around the world where the near complete halt of Ukrainian grain and food on the global market has made life even harder for the families already struggling with rising hunger.
A record 345 million people in 82 countries are now facing acute food insecurity, WFP said. Up to 50 million in 45 countries are at risk of being pushed into famine without humanitarian support.
UNOCHA/Levent Kulu
The M/V Fulmar S, the first commercial emtpy grain vessel from Istanbul to Ukraine under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, awaits JCC authorized movement, pending inspection.
Off to a good start
The Brave Commander will discharge the wheat in Djibouti after clearing the JCC protocols in Istanbul on the outbound trip.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed on 22 July and so far, 12 vessels have been authorized to depart the Ukrainian ports, the senior UN official at the JCC told journalists this week.
Frederick Kenney, UN Interim Coordinator, said while there is still much work ahead, “we are off with a very good start”.
Food and energy prices have increased to their highest levels in decades. And 62 new food billionaires have been created. Credit: Bigstock.
by Baher Kamal (madrid)
Inter Press Service
MADRID, Aug 12 (IPS) – While often too quickly attributing -quasi exclusively- the world unprecedented hunger tragedy to the current proxy war in Ukraine, other major causes remain hidden in plain sight.
Like the legend of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the modern ones are a mix of combined causes: inequality; speculation; indebtedness, and the crushing impacts of climate emergency.
1. Inequality
Further to IPS article: Inequality Kills One Person Every Four Seconds, explaining how deadly inequality is and how it contributes to the deaths of at least 21,300 people each day—or one person every four seconds.
Here are some of the major findings of is May 2022 report Profiting from Pain, elaborated by this global movement of people working together with more than 4,100 partner organisations, allies, and communities in over 90 countries:
Billionaires have seen their fortunes increase as much in 24 months as they did in 23 years. Those in the food and energy sectors have seen their fortunes increase by a billion dollars every two days. Food and energy prices have increased to their highest levels in decades. And 62 new food billionaires have been created.
The combined crises of COVID-19, rising inequality, and rising food prices could push as many as 263 million people into extreme poverty in 2022. This is the equivalent of one million people every 33 hours. At the same time a new billionaire has been minted on average every 30 hours during the pandemic.
2. Speculation
Speculation is the likely engine moving the world’s markets, which is driven by the dominating neoliberal economy.
COVID-19 hit a world that was already deeply unequal, adds Oxfam. Decades of neoliberal economic policies have ripped away public services into private ownership and have encouraged the move toward massive concentration of corporate power and tax avoidance on a huge scale.
“These policies have worked to deliberately erode workers’ rights and reduce tax rates for corporations and the rich. They have also opened up the environment to levels of exploitation far beyond what our planet can bear.”
As COVID-19 spread, Central Banks injected trillions of dollars into economies worldwide, aiming to keep the world economy afloat, the report goes on. This was essential because it prevented a total economic collapse.
“Nevertheless, in turn, it dramatically drove up the price of assets, and with this the net worth of billionaires and the asset-owning classes. An enormous increase in billionaire wealth has been the direct by-product of this cash injection.”
The monopolies of food, energy, pharmaceutical, and technology
On top of soaring billionaire wealth, during the pandemic there has also been a profits bonanza in the food, energy, pharmaceutical, and technology sectors, says Oxfam, adding that corporate monopolies are particularly prevalent in these sectors, and billionaires who own large stakes in companies within them have seen their wealth balloon even more.
“Meanwhile, excessive corporate profit and power are contributing to price rises; in the USA, for instance, it is estimated that expanding corporate profits are responsible for 60% of increases in inflation.”
“While blanket energy subsidies may help in the short term, in the longer term they drive inequality, further exacerbate the climate crisis, and do not soften the immediate blow of the cost-of-living increase as much as targeted cash transfers do,” said the report’s author George Gray Molina.
The report shows that “energy subsidies disproportionately benefit wealthier people, with more than half of the benefits of a universal energy subsidy favouring the richest 20% of the population.”
Record profits: 100 billion dollars in just 3 months
“As the war in Ukraine continues to rage, skyrocketing energy prices are compounding an existential cost-of-living crisis for hundreds of millions of people,” on 3 August 2022 warned the UN Secretary-General’s Global Crisis Response Group (GCRG) on Food, Energy and Finance.
Despite this alarming situation, major oil and gas companies recently reported record profits, which UN chief António Guterres called “immoral.”
“The combined profits of the largest energy companies in the first quarter of this year are close to $100 billion. I urge governments to tax these excessive profits, and use the funds to support the most vulnerable people through these difficult times,” he said.
An article produced as part of: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting specifies that low-income countries and households suffer the most from high debt levels, experts warn.
External debt is the portion of a country’s debt that is borrowed from foreign lenders through commercial banks, governments, or international financial institutions, they explain.
4. Climate catastrophe
The world’s dangerous climate emergency did not start with the war in Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
In fact, it began long decades ago and has been the focus of the world’s scientific community, whose strong and loud alerts did not have the required echo in the so many successive, highly expensive summits and meetings.
One of the harsh consequences of the human-made climate catastrophe is drought. In fact, drought is now pervasive in all regions, including the most industrialised ones, leading to a great loss of harvests, thus less food supplies, mounting markets’ speculation.
All this in addition to the dominating profit-making system of intensive farming, industrial mono-cultures, distribution chains, forest depletion for more farming, livestocks for meat business, etc.
At the invitation of the Government, Michelle Bachelet will visit Bangladesh from Sunday, 14 August, in the first-ever official trip by a UN Human Rights chief to the country.
There, she will visit camps housing Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, as well as high-level officials, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed and other ministers, and the National Human Rights Commission along with representatives of civil society organizations.
Lives ‘hanging in the balance’
Back in 2017, violent attacks in Myanmar triggered an estimated 745,000 Rohingya, including more than 400,000 children, to flee to Bangladesh.
In June, Ms. Bachelet pointed out that the military continues to “use hostile and derogatory language to threaten and marginalize” the mostly-Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine state – hundreds of thousands of whom were forced to flee – “and to implement strict discriminatory limitations on their movement”.
The lives and future of Myanmar’s people are “hanging in the balance,” she said, adding that it was “disappointing” that international efforts to rein in the military’s recklessly violent approach, have been largely ineffective”.
UN expert to visit Cambodia
Meanwhile, on Monday, UN-appointed human rights expert, Vitit Muntarbhorn, will make his first official visit to Cambodia.
Over the course of two weeks, he will assess the human rights situation in the country along with the government’s efforts toward creating an environment for all to enjoy them – including political and civil rights and economic, social and cultural rights following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I look forward to meeting a wide range of stakeholders, including government representatives, human rights defenders and other relevant stakeholders,” he said.
Press freedom increasingly under threat
The UN Special Rapporteur’s visit comes amidst growing restrictions on civic space and press freedoms in the country.
According to a report by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), journalists are being increasingly subjected to various forms of harassment, pressure, and violence.
In it, OHCHR in Cambodia outlined the country’s increasing lack of freedoms, including for the press and of expression by examining the legal framework; the state of media ownership; and specific challenges faced by women media workers.
The independent rights expert’s visit is at the invitation of the government. He will hold meetings with national and local government officials and international and local civil society representatives across the country.
Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. Their positions are honorary and the experts are not paid for their work.
“The future is immensely bleak for Afghans if more is not done by the international community to ensure the Taliban changes its modus operandi and complies with its human rights obligations,” they said in a statement.
The experts recalled that following the Taliban takeover last August, they had appealed for the international community to take “stringent actions” to protect Afghans from violations such as arbitrary detention, summary executions, internal displacement, and unlawful restrictions on their human rights.
Failure to deliver
“One year later, we reiterate this call,” they said. “Despite making numerous commitments to uphold human rights, the Taliban have not only failed to deliver on their promises, they have also reversed much of the progress made in the past two decades”.
Moreover, the humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan, which has already caused immeasurable harm to millions, shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, it is predicted to worsen, they added, partly due to the interruption of international assistance and the freezing of Afghan assets abroad.
Women receive food rations at a food distribution site in Herat, Afghanistan.
Attack on women and girls
The experts said the Taliban have committed a “plethora” of human rights violations, with the virtual erasure of women and girls from society, as well as their systematic oppression, being particularly egregious.
“Nowhere else in the world has there been as wide-spread, systematic and all-encompassing an attack on the rights of women and girls – every aspect of their lives is being restricted under the guise of morality and through the instrumentalization of religion. Discrimination and violence cannot be justified on any ground”.
Regrettably, there is little indication that the human rights situation is turning a corner, they said.
No confidence
“Indeed, the daily reports of violence – including extra-judicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, heightened risks of exploitation faced by women and girls including for the purposes of child and forced marriage, and a breakdown in the rule of law – gives us no confidence that the Taliban has any intention of making good on its pledge to respect human rights.”
Citizens now have no means for redress as the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has been abolished, along with other independent oversight mechanism and institutions.
The administration of justice has also been compromised. The applicable law is unclear, and judges and other officials have been replaced, which has especially affected women.
Peace prospects dim
The experts pointed to other violations, such as the curtailing of press freedom, and the rise in attacks on religious and ethnic minorities, some of which were claimed by the ISIL-KP terrorist group. They also and highlighted how journalists, activists, academics and artists have either left the country, quit their work, or gone into hiding.
Furthermore, in the absence of an inclusive and representative government, prospects for long-lasting peace, reconciliation and stability will remain minimal.
“The de facto authorities seek international recognition and legitimacy. Regrettably, theycontinue to abuse almost all human rights standards while refusing to offer even a modicum of respect for ordinary Afghans, in particular women and girls,” said the experts.
Most recently, the Taliban appeared to have been harbouring the leader of Al Qaeda. Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed last week in a US drone strike, which the experts said also raises concerns of a violation of international law.
“Until it demonstrates significant steps towards respecting human rights, including by immediately reopening girls’ secondary schools and restoring their access to a quality education, they should not be on a path to recognition.”
A family drinks tea at home in Herat, Afghanistan.
Action by the authorities
In addition to honouring their international obligations, the experts have called for the Taliban to fully implement human rights standards, including respecting the rights of women and girls to education, employment and participation in public life.
The de facto authorities should immediately open all secondary schools for girls, and lift restrictions on women’s mobility, attire, employment and participation. The rights of minority communities must also be upheld.
The Taliban are also urged to “respect the general amnesty and immediately stop all reprisals against members of the former government’s security forces, other officials and civil society, especially human rights defenders, including women”.
Furthermore, human rights monitors and humanitarians should be allowed free, unhindered access throughout the country, including to sensitive locations such as detention facilities.
They also called for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, bar associations, and other relevant unions, to immediately be reinstated and allowed to operate freely and independently.
International appeal
The experts also outlined steps the international community should take.
They include insuring civilians have equitable access to humanitarian aid, and supporting ongoing initiatives by Afghan women towards a strategy to promote the rights of women and girls, with clear benchmarks and expectations.
Countries are also urged to maintain and/or adopt sustained and robust humanitarian exemptions within sanctions regimes to ensure compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law.
“Such measures should be fit for purpose, ensure that sanctions measures do not interfere with protected humanitarian action under international law, and function to remediate the current humanitarian crises and to prevent sanctions from continuing to exacerbate the humanitarian human rights crises being faced by the Afghan people,” they said.
Role of UN experts
The 20 experts who issued the statement were all appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.
These independent experts receive their mandates from the Council and operate in their individual capacity. They are neither UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
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