The statement was released on Saturday by Volker Perthes, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan and Head of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS).
Mr. Perthes was responding to the outbreak of armed clashes between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in many parts of the capital Khartoum and other areas outside the capital, on Saturday morning.
According to media reports, the RSF claimed that it had taken control of Khartoum international airport, Merowe airport, al-Obeid airport and the presidential palace.
The RSF, an independent Sudanese military force, grew out of the Janjaweed militia, formerly active in the Darfur region of the country. The organization has been involved in talks aimed at a transition from the current military rule, which has existed since a coup in 2021, to a civilian government.
The integration of the RSF into the armed forces has been one of the issues under discussion, as part of UN-backed political agreement reached in February, following months of negotiations.
However, in a Security Councilbriefing on 20 March, Mr. Perthes warned of rising tensions between the Sudanese Army and the RSF in recent weeks, and called for de-escalation.
In his statement, Mr. Perthes reached out to both parties asking them for an immediate cessation of fighting, to ensure the safety of the Sudanese people and to spare the country from further violence.
‘More violence will only make things worse’
Concern over the fighting was raised on Saturday by Martin Griffiths, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.
In a Tweet, Mr. Griffiths said that more violence would only makes things worse for the nearly 16 million people, around a third of the population, in need of humanitarian aid.
In an update on the humanitarian situation in Sudan, released on 13 April, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), noted that humanitarian needs across Sudan are at an all-time high, with conflict one of the four most significant risks, alongside natural disasters, disease outbreaks, and economic deterioration.
A toddler’s dress, and a five-year-old’s dress and sweater. Washed, cleaned, but still stained with blood.
These are the personal items that Immaculée Songa donated to “Stories of Survival and Remembrance - A call to action for genocide prevention,” currently on show at UN Headquarters, along with a photo album, showing her daughters, Raissa and Clarisse, laughing and smiling.
“The items in this exhibition are very important to me, because they remind us of the lives, the experiences of our people who are gone, who are no longer here. It’s up to us to talk about them and tell their stories, and how their lives were taken away.
Six years ago, I returned to Rwanda to search for my family’s remains. In a mass grave, I recognized the dresses my daughters wore at the last moment of their lives. The clothes were stuck to their bodies. They were all I had left of my children. So, I took them.
I first displayed my daughters’ clothes at the Illinois Holocaust Museum in the United States, in order to tell their story. Even though they were washed, you can see the blood stains, and you can imagine how they died.
Don’t let my daughters be forgotten
We talk about millions of Rwandans, Tutsis killed during the genocide, and we seem to forget the individuals. This exhibition is here so that we remember the history of each individual.
If I could speak to my daughters, I would tell them that I have not forgotten them, I love them very much and I have spoken about them a lot, because they had an atrocious death that they did not deserve.
I am a mother who did not perish, a woman who cries a lot. I tell myself that God saved me for a reason, to give me the strength to talk about my daughters, and to make sure they are not forgotten.
UN News/Florence Westergard
Garments worn by Immaculée Songa’s daughters, Clarisse and Raissa, are on display at the UN exhibition “Stories of Survival and Remembrance – A Call to Action for Genocide Prevention”
The facts don’t lie
We have a responsibility to tell the world that injustice exists, that people are dying because of injustice, and that the genocide in Rwanda was planned and executed by very clever people who recruited militants and convinced them to kill. The responsibility to prevent genocides lies with governments, those in positions of influence, and the United Nations.
On our side, we also play our part. For example, we organize commemorations and education days to explain to the public what can happen if people are not careful. Because genocide can be prevented.
There are several phases of genocide, and the last phase is denial. Today, all over the world, people are denying genocides. They have been given platforms, they write books, and say that genocide did not happen.
The facts don’t lie. So, if people see the facts, when they see my children’s clothes, there is no mistake. People said children were killed, and now they see that it’s true.
To ensure that the genocide is not repeated, we must engage everyone. We must go to the schools, and teach peace. When I talk to students, I can see them change. It makes a difference.
Before the genocide, 95 per cent of the population were not educated, and it was very easy to convince them to kill. I think that, if people have access to the education they need, they will advocate for peace.”
UN Photo/Loey Felipe
The exhibition “Stories of Survival and Remembrance – A Call to Action for Genocide Prevention” opens at UN Headquarters in New York.
The objects in the exhibition – clothes, toys, photographs, letters, recipes and other seemingly ordinary objects – survived the Holocaust, genocide and other atrocious crimes in Cambodia, Srebrenica (Bosnia Herzegovina) and Rwanda.
The exhibition is being held during the year of the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
It was inaugurated a few days before the celebration of the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda, in the UN General Assembly Hall on Friday, April 14.
Only 55 percent of people across the Pacific Islands have access to basic drinking water and just 30 percent have sanitation services – the lowest rate in the world. Photo Credit: UN Samoa
Opinion by Simona Marinescu (apia, samoa)
Inter Press Service
APIA, Samoa, Apr 14 (IPS) – Water is life. No other definition captures quite so aptly what this essential element means for our lives, livelihoods and the natural environment.
Although it is considered both a renewable and a non-renewable resource, water is becoming scarce and is expected to reach a critical point by 2040.
Out of the total volume of water present on earth, 97.5% is saline- coming from the seas and oceans, while only 2.5% is freshwater, of which only 0.3% is present in liquid form on the surface, including in rivers, lakes, swamps, reservoirs, creeks, and streams.
Due to irresponsible usage, including pollution from agriculture and the construction of dams, liquid freshwater on the surface of the earth is rapidly diminishing. We are the only known planet to have consistent, stable bodies of liquid water on its surface, yet we are not doing enough to preserve and provide access to all people everywhere to this critical source of life.
According to the 2021 UN Water report, in 2020, around 2 billion people (26% of the global population) lacked safely managed drinking water services and around 3.6 billion people lacked safely managed sanitation.
Some 2.3 billion people live in countries facing water stress of whom 733 million are in high and critically water-scarce environments.
Credit: UN Samoa
Samoa’s connected crises
In Samoa and other Pacific Small Island Developing States, access to clean water represents a huge challenge. Although these islands enjoy abundant rainfall – 2 to 4 times the average global annual precipitation, poor waste management systems and lack of adequate infrastructure means that the availability of clean water is severely limited.
Only 55 percent of people across the Pacific Islands have access to basic drinking water, and just 30 percent have sanitation services—the lowest rate in the world.
According to a joint study by the National University of Samoa, the Ministry of Natural Resources and other partners, water sources tested contained a high concentration of minerals, toxic pesticides, microplastics and bacteria such as e-coli, which increases the rate of water-borne diseases and poses significant health risks.
For our UN country team in Samoa, improving water quality is a central, cross-cutting priority which not only protects communities and helps prevent disease, but also feeds into our broader efforts to address the Triple Planetary Crisis of climate disruption, nature loss and pollution.
The use of the Triple Planetary Crisis framework provides a valuable basis for the measurement of losses and damages which countries like Samoa experience due to climate change and pollution including deterioration of water ecosystem services.
With this in mind, we have engaged extensively with communities and partners across Samoa over the past six months to develop the Vai O Le Ola (Water of Life) Report.
Launched ahead of the UN Water Conference in New York (22-24 March), the report draws on insights from these consultations to set out a response to the Triple Planetary Crisis and propose integrated approaches of restoring the quality and resilience of Samoa’s water system.
An integrated path forward
From rivers, mangrove swamps, lakes, wetlands, territorial waters, and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) – water represents a major part of the environment system which supports the livelihoods for over 200,000 people in Samoa and also forms a significant part of Samoan cultural identity. Improving the quality of this critical source of life must begin with the integration of all relevant policies and strategies on climate change, ocean management, socio-economic development, waste management, and biodiversity conservation into one overarching framework.
Targeted interventions including the Vai O Le Ola Trust Fund and Knowledge Crowdsourcing Platform, and programmes on Innovative Climate and Nature Financing, Social Entrepreneurship for Climate Resilience, Community Access to Clean Energy, Zero Plastic Waste, are central to the Triple Planetary Crisis Response Plan in Samoa and across the Pacific.
Nature-based Watershed Management is another key initiative outlined in the Vai O Le Ola report which will support agro-forestry, reforestation and invasive species management, flood management and biodiversity conservation linked to water systems.
On the legislative side as well, new opportunities to strengthen environmental protection and conservation are emerging. Last year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution recognizing for the first-time access to a clean, safe, and sustainable environment including water as a fundamental human right.
With the adoption of this resolution, global attention on the legal rights of ecosystems and natural resources has significantly increased.
In 2022, Ecuador was the first country in the world to recognize and implement the “rights of nature” followed by Colombia which established legal personality for the Atrato River in recognition of the biocultural rights of indigenous communities.
In Samoa, the National Human Rights Institution is already discussing how the right to a clean, safe and sustainable environment will be operationalized into law.
As an ‘ocean state’, water is a defining feature of Samoa’s national wealth and people’s way of living – known as ‘Fa’a Samoa.’ To find long lasting solutions to water scarcity and pollution across Samoa and other Pacific Islands, we must therefore look not only towards science, technology and innovation, but also to the centuries of wisdom and experience of the communities who live here.
We must recognize that for the people of Samoa, as Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa explains below, their waters are a source of life as well as a source of beauty.
Simona Marinescu, PhD, is UN Resident Coordinator in Samoa, Cook Island, Nieu, and Tokelau. Editorial support by UNDCO.
Source: UNDCO
The Development Coordination Office (DCO) manages and oversees the Resident Coordinator system and serves as secretariat of the UN Sustainable Development Group. Its objective is to support the capacity, effectiveness and efficiency of Resident Coordinators and the UN development system as a whole in support of national efforts for sustainable development.
DCO is based in New York, with regional teams in Addis Ababa, Amman, Bangkok, Istanbul and Panama, supporting 130 Resident Coordinators and 132 Resident Coordinator’s offices covering 162 countries and territories.
Currently, there are four African countries that operate capital punishment for being gay. These are Mauritania, Niger, Somalia and South Sudan. Credit: Dai Kurokawa/EPA
Opinion by Stephanie Musho (nairobi)
Inter Press Service
NAIROBI, Apr 14 (IPS) – Imagine your government enacted a law where you and all people of your race or economic status were imprisoned for extended periods, with some facing the death penalty, simply for existing. In Uganda, sexual and gender minorities are facing this possibility should President Yoweri Museveni sign into law a recently passed Anti-Homosexuality Bill that discriminates against people based on their sexual orientation.
This comes almost a decade after a similar law dubbed ‘Kill the Gays’, was repealed on procedural grounds. For years, the issue of LGBTQ+ rights in the country has been a game of psychological and emotional ping-pong where every so often the worst fears come close to becoming a reality with the enactment and repeal of these laws. Consider the renewed anguish that members of the LGBTQ+ community now face with the alarming possibilities that this draconian Bill seeks to make law.
Under this legislative proposal, homosexual ‘conduct’ by adults is not recognized as consensual. This would essentially categorize LGBTQ+ persons with sex offenders including rapists. Additionally, persons who simply identify as LGBTQ+ would face a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. The Bill also seeks, among other things, to punish the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ – that extends to family members and allies including the staff of human rights organizations.
The Bill seeks to introduce the offence of ‘aggravated homosexuality’ where offenders would be subjected to mandatory HIV testing to ascertain the status of the offender. If found to be HIV positive or is a serial offender, could face the death penalty. Not only is this discrimination on sexual orientation, but discrimination based on health status. This is illegal, immoral and unethical.
Despite the last execution happening in 2005, Uganda still maintains the laws and structures to carry out execution orders. Currently, there are four African countries that operate capital punishment for being gay. These are Mauritania, Niger, Somalia and South Sudan.
These homophobic ideologies have also gained traction in West Africa, where Ghana’s parliament is also considering an anti-gay proposed law officially known as the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021. If passed, LGBTQ+ persons face between three to five years imprisonment.
Marrying a person that has had gender reassignment surgery would be outlawed and so would cross-dressing. The government could also force ‘’corrective surgery’’ for intersex persons. Additionally, advocates and allies of the LGBTQ+ community could face jail time for offering their support and protection to sexual and gender minorities.
Since the introduction of these Bills, the LGBTQ+ community and allies in Uganda and Ghana have been the subject of numerous hate crimes including harassment and intimidation, arbitrary arrests and assaults. Just recently, a senior ranking government official in Uganda declared that gay people should not be treated in state-owned public health facilities.
In Kenya, a Member of Parliament, Peter Kaluma, has recently submitted to the Speaker of the National Assembly an anti-homosexuality proposed law through the Family Protection Bill. The homophobic Bill has similarities with the ones in Uganda and Ghana. It criminalizes homosexuality and its promotion.
Additionally, the Bill seeks to limit the rights to assembly, demonstration, association, expression, belief, privacy, and employment in child care institutions in respect of homosexuality convicts and those engaged in LGBTQ behavior. If the Bill goes through, LGBTQ+ persons in Kenya will also be unable to adopt children and found families. Worth noting is that the Bill also seeks to ban sexual health & rights, and sexual education.
This came shortly after the Supreme Court in Constitutional Petition 16 of 2019 ruled that the government’s refusal to register an organization of persons within the LGBTQI+ community amounts to violation of the freedom of association and freedom from discrimination. Mr. Kaluma compares the natural act of two consenting adults deciding to love each other, ‘a vice that will destroy the society’. He even likened it to bestiality. Other leaders have been vocal against LGBTQ+ rights including the President – William Ruto, who is heavily influenced by religion.
This opposition extends to the wider ambit of sexual and reproductive health rights. Here there is a coordinated attack on bodily autonomy and choice, driven majorly by foreign organizations. There also remains steadfast opposition within the gender and reproductive justice movement, particularly in Kenya.
It is a fallacy to claim to be an organization working on sexual and reproductive health and/or rights but draw the line at access to contraceptives and comprehensive sexuality education for adolescents; or at access to safe abortion. Similarly, it is logically impossible to be a human rights organization but take issue with LGBTQ+ rights. The underpinning principles and values of human rights stipulate that they are interdependent. The absence of one right negates the fulfillment of another.
Uganda, Ghana and Kenya all have obligations under international human rights law. These are legally binding and not merely suggestive. By allowing the progression of these anti-LGBTQ+ laws, these governments will have violated the human rights of their own people. These include freedom from torture and cruel punishment, freedom from discrimination, freedom of expression, the right to privacy and all other rights that pertain to the security of person.
One might argue that the homophobic wave in Africa is quickly spreading because LGBTQ+ rights are un-African. The opposite is true. In pre-colonial Uganda, the King of the Buganda Kingdom, Kabaka Mwanga II, was an openly bisexual man. He did not face any resistance until the advent of the white Christian missionaries.
Many other African cultures had women husbands where same-sex marriage was allowed. There are 19 African countries where homosexuality is legal. Does it then mean that these countries are less African than the rest? The criminalization of gay rights in Africa is in fact another detrimental product of colonialism on the continent.
Additionally, religious dogma is often advanced to curtail human rights. Despite whichever faith we subscribe to, none is underpinned on hate and intolerance. It is therefore ironic that the proponents of such like legislative proposals are seeking to legalize targeted violence and killings on people not because they have done harm, but merely because they are different.
Regional and international human rights mechanisms must therefore be ready and willing to hold these three African states accountable to their international legal obligations should the proposed homophobic laws pass in the respective jurisdictions.
Member states of the United Nations and other multilateral organizations must follow through with sanctions that are targeted at government officials including the legislators that introduce the inhumane Bills. African states must no longer hide under the principle of sovereignty to claw back on human rights in justifying the mistreatment and deaths of human beings.
Stephanie Musho is a human rights lawyer and a Senior Fellow with the Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship.
There is an urgency for the loss and damage fund to become a reality as many developing countries are impacted due to climate change. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS
by Busani Bafana (bulawayo)
Inter Press Service
BULAWAYO, Apr 14 (IPS) – In March 2023, more than 600 people died in Malawi after Tropical Cyclone Freddy dumped heavy rain, flooding the southern part of the country, displacing over half a million people, and damaging property and livelihoods.
The Malawi calamity is a stark example of “loss and damage” – the negative impacts of human-caused climate change that is affecting many parts of Africa.
Last November, COP 27 achieved a historic agreement to establish a dedicated Fund for damage, and the growing negative impacts of climate change highlight the urgency of financial support to address loss and damage for vulnerable countries.
Climate finance now
Malawi, like many developing countries, neither has the capability nor the capacity to defend itself against climate change events such as floods and droughts that are increasingly experienced across the African continent.
The need for climate action in tackling loss and damage is articulated in Article 8 of the Paris Agreement, which recognizes the “importance of averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage” associated with the adverse effects of climate change.
Loss and damage have taken centre stage in all UN climate discussions for more than 30 years, championed by the Pacific island state of Vanuatu, itself threatened by climate change. Recently Vanuatu led a global campaign for the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on states’ legal obligation for climate action and making them liable for climate failures.
Nearly 200 countries meeting at the annual Conference of the Parties to the IPCC in Sharm El Sheikh last November agreed to establish a “loss and damage” fund to help poor countries, many suffering adverse weather events. The establishment of the Fund comes after spirited resistance by developed countries on taking responsibility for causing climate change through their historic carbon emissions.
Africa has suffered the brunt of climate change impacts even though it contributes a minuscule amount to global carbon emissions. From tropical cyclones in Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar, flooding in Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa to devastating drought in the Horn of Africa.
Pakistan’s climate minister Sherry Rehman, whose country was hit by heavy floods that killed more than 1,000 people and damaged property worth billions of dollars, described the decision to establish the Loss and Damage fund as a “down payment on climate justice”.
However, climate justice may be denied than delayed for many vulnerable countries like Pakistan and Malawi, given divisions on the operationalization of the new funding arrangements for Loss and Damage and the associated fund – key issues that formed the agenda of the first meeting of the Transitional Committee.
The Transitional Committee established at COP27 comprises 10 members from developed countries and 14 members from developing countries. It met in Luxor, Egypt from 26-29 March 2023 to ‘present recommendations on the institutional arrangements, modalities, structure, governance, and terms of reference for the Loss and Damage fund’.
Furthermore, the Committee discussed the elements of the new funding arrangements; and identified and expanded sources of funding. In addition, the coordination and complementarity with existing funding arrangements on climate change formed the agenda of the meeting.
While the initial meeting has been described as successful, there were no agreements on the key questions as to who will finance the fund and who qualifies for the funding under the fund. However, Mohamed Nasr, Egypt’s lead climate negotiator, told an online media briefing that there was agreement on a road map to establish the fund, at least by COP28, to be held in the United Arab Emirates in November 2023. Nasr was optimistic, stating:
“Will it be created? I hope so and assume so, and this is what we are working towards.”
Nasr further explained that there was a movement forward in the understanding of how to deal with these contentious issues by the next Meeting of the Transitional Committee. Not much to go with but Nasr noted that:
“By the next meeting, there will be another stocktake of what we agreed to do … I hope it will deliver in UAE”
The Transitional Committee should tackle three issues on Loss and Damage funding key before COP28, which include what type of fund, the boundaries of the fund and where the money will come from, experts from the World Resources Institute (WRI) argue in a commentary.
“The fund and funding arrangements need to ensure their ability to help vulnerable countries which are experiencing the brunt of climate impacts,” Preety Bhandari and five other authors in an insight paper on finance.
“They must consider the continuum between loss and damage and adaptation and how funding can also enhance future adaptive capacity,” the experts said, noting that loss and damage was intrinsically linked to adaptation, with increased adaptation leading to less loss and damage.
Asked if the meeting had a clear understanding and achieved what it had set to do, Nasr said:
“I would say it partially happened because the meeting has a lot of different topics for decision. What we want to achieve is already agreed upon among the parties, be it on funding arrangement, be it on complementarity, be it on the resources of the Fund … we moved forward on the understanding of how we are going to deal with them between now and the next Transitional Committee meeting.”
Counting loss and damage
Loss and Damage, according to the climate talks, refers to costs being incurred from climate-fuelled impacts such as droughts, floods, extreme heat, rising sea levels and cyclones.
UN chief António Guterres described loss and damage as a “fundamental question of climate justice, international solidarity and trust” during the 2022 UN General Assembly, stating that “polluters must pay” because “vulnerable countries need meaningful action”.
Scientist and director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Saleemul Huq, says the agreement to set up the Loss And Damage Fund was a major breakthrough for the vulnerable developing countries who had been demanding it for many years highlighting that Parties to the UNFCCC have now agreed to find ways to provide funding to the victims of human-induced climate change who are suffering losses and damages.
Huq is confident that if all countries proceed in good faith, the Fund – which is based on shared responsibility and voluntary contributions – could become formalized and operational at COP28 in Dubai in November 2023.
“We will need to find innovative sources of funding for Loss and Damage such as making the polluting companies (not countries) pay from the exorbitant profits they are making from their pollution,” Huq said to IPS.
Research by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) shows a big financial gap for adaptation. The 2022 Adaptation Gap Report indicates that international adaptation finance flows to developing countries are five to ten times below estimated needs and will need over USD 300 billion per year by 2030.
“It is important that a Loss and Damage Fund tackles the gaps that current climate finance institutions such as the Green Climate Fund do not fill,” the UNEP notes, highlighting that combined adaptation and mitigation finance flows in 2020 fell at least USD 17 billion short of the US$100 billion pledged to developing countries at COP19 in Copenhagen,
UNEP said for the fund to be effective, the root cause of climate change must be tackled – and that involves reducing emissions and finding more resources for mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage.
While the deliberations continue on the arrangement of loss and damage and, more critically, the financing of a deliberate Fund, communities in vulnerable countries like Malawi do not have tomorrow; they have lost today, and the damage they have suffered is not undoable.
Speaking from Ndjamena, Pierre Honnorat, director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Chad, said that as the country moves into the lean season in-between harvests, food assistance could grind to a complete halt.
“Chad is surrounded by countries with crises and hosting some 600,000 refugees from Sudan, Niger, Cameroon and Central African Republic. It’s one of the biggest caseloads in Africa. And the number kept rising with the recent conflict in the communities in Sudan,” Mr. Honnorat told reporters in Geneva.
An additional 300,000 people in need of aid are internally displaced Chadians.
Complex crisis, chronic underfunding
WFP said that after fleeing conflict and violence, refugees, internally displaced people and their host communities face growing food insecurity and malnutrition, high food prices and the destructive effects of climate change. In the second half of 2022, the country saw the most devastating floods in 30 years.
Mr. Honnorat flagged that last year, some 90 per cent of refugees in Chad did not receive adequate food assistance and rations had to be cut in half.
He warned that “2023 is another very difficult year, whereby we have absolutely no funding from May onwards for the refugees and the displaced people.”
Food assistance coming to a halt
WFP has already reduced its support in April and will only be able to serve just over 270,000 refugees this month.
To avoid food assistance coming to a complete halt and to “put food on the table of all crisis-affected populations” in Chad, WFP urgently needs additional funding of $142.7 million for the coming six months.
Hunger compounding vulnerabilities
Mr. Honnorat called on donors to help the Government of Chad “in their efforts to host so many refugees with so many crises at the same time”, while emphasizing the upcoming “very difficult” lean season.
WFP projects that nearly 1.9 million people will be in severe food insecurity from June to August 2023, while more than 1.3 million children will suffer from acute malnutrition.
According to the UN agency, other disastrous impacts of the crisis could include a rise in child labour, under-aged marriage and recruitment into armed groups.
UNHCR appeal
Echoing the call for urgent action, Matthew Saltmarsh from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, also appealed to the international community to help tackle the crisis.
“For our part of the appeal, we’re looking to raise $172.5 million to provide protection and relief assistance to the one million forcibly displaced people and their hosts”, he said, adding that UNHCR’s appeal was, for now, only 15 per cent funded.
Development solutions
Speaking about longer-term solutions to the crisis, including development interventions, Mr. Honnorat highlighted a new project which WFP was running together with UNHCR and the Chadian agriculture ministry, to promote empowerment and self-reliance among the displaced by enabling them to become farmers and live off the land.
“We have just rehabilitated 1,600 hectares of land, which have already produced 2,900 tonnes of food”, he said, stressing that the return on investment of the operation is “fantastic” and that most importantly, 16 villages now no longer require assistance.
Mr. Honnorat went on to underscore that in his 33 years at WFP, he had rarely seen development projects as “solid” as in Chad and praised the efforts of the Government in favour of the refugees, including ongoing work on a new asylum law, which should be finalized soon.
“Nearly 900 conflict-related detainees are being released by the parties in Yemen starting today, Friday, and over the course of three days,” the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen said in a statement.
“This release operation comes at a time of hope for Yemen as a reminder that constructive dialogue and mutual compromises are powerful tools capable of achieving great outcomes,” Mr. Grundberg’s office added.
Swiss connection
The development is in line with an agreement reached by the Supervisory Committee on the Detainees’ Exchange Agreement, which announced the initiative at UN Geneva in March.
Facilitated by Special Envoy Grundberg and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the agreement involves the freeing of 887 conflict-related detainees, held over the course of more than eight years of clashes between Yemen’s Government and Houthi opposition fighters that are widely believed to have killed thousands and created what the UN has described as the worst humanitarian emergency in the world.
“More releases” are planned once Yemen’s warring parties meet in May, according to the Special Envoy’s Office, which noted that the Red Cross is managing the release operation which includes flights between six airports in Yemen and Saudi Arabia to repatriate all prisoners.
Ramadan cheer
“Today, hundreds of Yemeni families get to celebrate Eid with their loved ones because the parties negotiated and reached an agreement. I hope this spirit is reflected in ongoing efforts to advance a comprehensive political solution,” said Special Envoy Grundberg.
After highlighting that “thousands more families are still waiting to be reunited with their loved ones”, the UN official expressed hope that the warring parties would “build on the success of this operation to fulfill the commitment they made to the Yemeni people” in talks in Sweden in 2018, “to release all conflict-related detainees and bring this suffering to an end”.
Apart from carrying out prisoner exchanges, the two other main components of the Stockholm Agreement – endorsed by the UN Security Council under resolution 2451 (2018) – covered an agreement on the city of Hudaydah; the ports of Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Issa, and “a statement of understanding” on the city of Taiz.
In his statement, Special Envoy Grundberg also urged the parties “to immediately and unconditionally release all arbitrarily detained individuals and to adhere to international legal standards” regarding detention and fair trials.
The 2023 funding appeal is the largest for the Caribbean country since the devastating 2010 earthquake and more than double the amount requested last year.
The UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) said the number of Haitians who require aid to survive doubled over the past five years to 5.2 million, and the aim is to reach 60 per cent, or 3.2 million people.
‘A critical time’
The full 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan, which will be launched on 19 April, comes at “a critical time”, said Ulrika Richardson, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti.
“With the situation in the country rapidly deteriorating, this year’s plan will address the most immediate humanitarian and protection needs while strengthening people’s and institution’s resilience to natural shocks,” she said.
“At the same time, what the people of Haiti desperately want is peace and security, and we should all support efforts to that end.”
Climate of fear
A key driver of the crisis is gang violence, which continues to spread across the country, OCHA said. An estimated 80 per cent of the metropolitan area of the capital, Port-au-Prince, is either under the control or the influence of gangs.
“There is a constant climate of fear, especially in Port-au-Prince,” Ms. Richardson said. “Haitians put their lives at risk simply by trying to go to work, feed their families, or take their children to school.”
Armed violence disproportionately impacts women and girls, but boys are also affected, OCHA reported.
Rape, including gang rape, and other forms of sexual violence, is being used to terrorize the population, including children as young as age 10, the UN agency said. Meanwhile, many gangs also recruit children into their ranks.
Meanwhile, thousands more girls and boys have been subjected to grave violations amid ongoing conflict in the region, UNICEF added, underscoring the need to protect children in Nigeria.
As recently as 7 April, some 80 children were abducted by militants in the Tsafe Local Government Area in Zamfara state, the UN agency said, citing local media.
Children still suffering
The so-called “Chibok girls” were kidnapped on the night of 14 April 2014, sparking worldwide condemnation and concern.
Cristian Munduate, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, said the “nightmare” continues today as many children are still being kidnapped, forcibly recruited, killed and injured.
“We cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering of Nigeria’s children. We must do everything in our power to ensure they grow up in safety, with access to education and the opportunity to fulfill their potential,” he said.
Education under fire
Since 2014, there have been over 2,400 verified incidents of grave violations affecting 6,800 children in northeast Nigeria, UNICEF reported.
The most common concern recruitment by armed groups, followed by abductions, and killing and maiming.
The conflict has had an alarming impact on education, and UNICEF warned that the repercussions will likely affect generations.
Between 2009 and 2022, roughly 2,295 teachers were reportedly killed in attacks, and more than 19,000 were displaced, according to the Teachers’ Registration Council of Nigeria (TCN).
Additionally, more than 1,500 schools closed, and 910 were destroyed, due to insecurity.
Appeal to the parties
UNICEF has welcomed the Government’s signing of an agency-supported protocol on the handover of children encountered in the course of armed conflict, as well as its commitment to invest more than $314 million towards a financing plan on school safety.
The handover protocol, signed last September, aims to prevent or reduce the detention of children encountered by military and security forces.
Under the agreement, children allegedly associated with armed groups will be transferred to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Social Development within a period of seven days.
UNICEF called on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law and human rights law, and to protect the rights and well-being of children.
“We are together to mourn the more than one million children, women, and men who perished in 100 days of horror 29 years ago,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
“We pay tribute to the resilience of the survivors [and] recognize the journey of the Rwandan people towards healing, restoration, and reconciliation. And we remember – with shame – the failure of the international community. The failure to listen and the failure to act.”
In April 1994, decades-long intercommunal tensions and clashes unfolded before the world’s eyes into genocide, as Hutu leaders led a deadly campaign against the Tutsi. The bloodshed unfolded, despite the presence of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda and despite the General Assembly’s unanimous adoption of the Genocide Convention in 1948, which defines genocide as a crime under international law.
“The killings did not start spontaneously,” Mr. Guterres said. “They were carefully planned long in advance and executed deliberately and systematically; it was premeditated murder in broad daylight.”
A generation since the genocide, “we must never forget the dangers posed by the fragility of civility in all societies; it precedes and promotes violence”, he cautioned.
‘Megaphones of hate’ grow bigger today
The hate and propaganda that paved the path to genocide in Rwanda was broadcast on TV, printed in newspapers, and blasted over radio, he said.
“Today, the megaphones of hate are even bigger,” he said, noting that across the internet, incitement to violence, vicious lies and conspiracies, genocide denial and distortion, and the demonization of “the other”, proliferate with little to no checks.
Calling for stronger guardrails, clearer responsibilities, and greater transparency in the digital world, he said the launch of the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech provides a framework for support to countries to counter this scourge while respecting freedom of expression and opinion.
“Together, let us stand firm against rising intolerance,” he added. “Let us truly honour the memory of all Rwandans who perished by building a future of dignity, security, justice, and human rights for all.”
Rwandan genocide was ‘not an accident’
General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi said the genocide was not an accident, but rather, it stemmed from years of fomenting a racist ideology and waging a campaign aimed at the systematic destruction of a population. As it was carried out, the world was silent.
“We were silent despite repeated and unmistakable early warnings about the preparation of genocide,” he said. “To this unconscionable inaction, we must say ‘never again’.”
With strength and determination, the people of Rwanda have rebuilt their nation from the ashes of devastation. Today, the success of these endeavours is seen everywhere, he said, pointing to gender parity in the lower house of Parliament, the vibrancy of Rwandan innovation, the resilience of its economy, and in the strength of its health care system.
“Importantly, Rwanda has invested in its young people, opening opportunities for those under 20 years old – who represent half of its dynamic population,” he said. “Rwandans have built a nation that looks towards a better future. May we in the General Assembly do the same.”
‘They killed my entire family’
The Assembly also heard from genocide survivors, who shared their harrowing stories.
Ahead of the event, Henriette Mutegwaraba, 50, a survivor who now lives in the United States, met with UN News to discuss how she survived and healed, and how hate speech today strikes a haunting echo of the genocide in Rwanda.
“Every time I talk about it, I cry,” she said. “They raped women. They opened pregnant women; opened their wombs with a knife. They put people in septic holes alive. They killed our animals. They destroyed our homes. They killed my entire family, my mom, my four siblings.”
During the 1994 genocide against Tutsi, “the whole world turned a blind eye”, she said. “They knew. Nobody came to help us. Nobody came to us. I hope that this will never happen to anybody in this world. I hope that the UN can come up with a way to respond quickly.”
‘Genocide can happen anywhere’
Nobody is immune to what happened to Rwanda in 1994, she said, emphasizing that there is so much propaganda happening in the United States and people are not paying attention and the country is very divided.
Ms. Mutegwaraba elaborated on this current issue in her book By Any Means Necessary. Indeed, she said she had felt the same fear on 6 January 2021 during the attack on the United States capitol that she did in April 1994.
“Genocide can happen anywhere,” she said. “Do we see the signs? Yes, we see the signs. Do we pretend that it doesn’t affect us or our world? Yes, we do. My message is this: wake up. Something’s happening. It’s all about propaganda.”
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