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Tag: UN

  • UN sues for increased peace, diplomacy in Nigeria

    UN sues for increased peace, diplomacy in Nigeria

    The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, has called for a surge in diplomacy for peace and for a new emphasis on preventing conflicts in Nigeria and the world in general.

    Guterres made the call in a statement made available by the National Information Officer of the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Nigeria, Oluseyi Soremekun.

    The Secretary General was quoted as saying this in a message to the Lagos Model United Nations (LMUN) 2017 organised by the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in collaboration with UNIC Lagos.

    Guterres’ message was delivered by UNIC Lagos Knowledge Management Assistant, Ms Bolanle Olumekor.

    The LMUN with the theme, “Innovation, Development, and Diversity for Global Sustainability” was attended by 200 delegates from 14 Universities in Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

    “We are also working to improve living conditions everywhere through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

    “All parents want a better life for their children.  All religions value peace.  All communities thrive when they value diversity.

    “Today people around the world are inter-connected.  Conflict, environmental destruction, poverty and injustice affect everyone.  We have to work in common cause for our common humanity,” Guterres said.

    He urged the delegates to follow the UN social media accounts and stay fully engaged in their communities.

    “Together, let us create a more compassionate, inclusive and peaceful world,” he said.

    Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama in a message noted that the LMUN was “essential in preparing our minds on the need to achieve global peace and prosperity through your simulation of global actions by modelling the UN through your Committees.”

    The Minister explained that simulation in communication skills, diplomacy, public speaking, resolution writing, international law and politics as well as trade relations would assist in understanding the overall objectives of the UN.

    He said that it would also assist in understanding its rules of procedure and its modus operandi, adding that the future of Nigeria and the world rested in the ability of the delegates to succeed in reinventing the wheel positively.

    He said that this was also “to actively challenge old traditions and models that do not necessarily translate into this era, to explore the ways they can marshal the amount of time spent with technology for good”.

    The Dean, Faculty of Law of UNILAG, Prof Ayodele Atsenuwa, thanked the UNIC and other partners for ensuring the success of the event.

    Atsenuwa emphasised the commitment of the student-organisers for their drive.

    The Secretary General of the LMUN, Mr Aliu Gabriel, in his message, urged delegates during committee sessions to foster innovative ideas towards addressing some of the prevailing issues around the world.

  • Why nuclear weapons should be banned – Nigeria’s UN envoy

    Why nuclear weapons should be banned – Nigeria’s UN envoy

    Prof. Tijjani Bande, Nigeria’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the UN said nuclear weapons should be banned because they cause more crises than promote peace among countries.

    Bande told a news conference at the UN that nuclear weapons now create instability globally rather than deterrence, the excuse most nuclear powers gave.

    The UN on Friday adopted the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty in a majority vote by 122 countries leading towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons, while 60 countries boycotted.

    With the adoption of the nuclear treaty, nuclear weapons now joined all other weapons of mass destruction, which have already been prohibited.

    Nigeria, together with Ireland, Austria, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa played a leadership role in bringing forward the UN resolution convening the Diplomatic Conference that negotiated the ground-breaking treaty.

    Bande said it was sad that “there are countries that still have nuclear weapons and refuse to give them up”, pointing out that the resources expended on maintaining nuclear weapons could better be channeled to other development projects.

    According to him, those regions with nuclear weapons have continued to be unstable, citing India and Pakistan and Israel and its neighbours.

    “Pakistan has a very terrible relationship with its neighbor. Literally, India and Pakistan used to be one country, and the instability of the situation is that these are two nuclear neighbours.

    “So what advantage in the relationship strategically do they have? Nothing; they are just spending the money on nuclear weapons.

    “A lot of people are poor in India, a lot of people are poor in Pakistan, and everyday people are killed in low-level warfare but they are nuclear States,” he said.

    According to him, Israel also has nuclear weapon while Iran is reportedly trying to acquire one in what seems to be a sad reminder of dangerous arms race among countries.

    “So the larger question really is: there is something that makes people crazy about wanting to have latest weapons in nuclear but of what use then are they?

    “With all the provocations, would Israel use nuclear weapons in its own neighbourhood?

    “So these are the questions but when you ask these questions, people say ‘oh, my neighbour has’. He has and he can’t eat them.

    “You are trying to have, you can’t eat it, you can’t even use it. So the whole issue then is that there is a sense of competition.

    “These are like toys; the ‘big boys’ have them, I must also have them. But we are dealing with human lives, ”
    he added.

    Bande, however, warned that while countries that possessed nuclear weapons could not even use them deliberately, accidents could happen.

    The Nigerian envoy alluded to the recent nuclear weapons concerns over North Korea, saying deterrence via the threat of the use of nuclear weapons had failed.

    “In classrooms and politics, we are told they (nuclear weapons) are ‘deterrence’, I do not think that this deterrence has worked; these just are theories.

    “If there were no nuclear weapons and no threat felt by North Korea, it’s possible that the regime would not have started its efforts to produce these weapons,” he stated.

    122 nation states voted in favour of the adoption of a legally binding instrument – a treaty for the prohibition of nuclear weapons at the UN conference, while one respectively voted ‘no’ and ‘abstention’.

    Netherlands voted against while Singapore abstained as well as all the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council, a fewer other countries and Japan that was the victim of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    The text adopted on Friday represented the successful outcome of the first multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations in 20 years.

    State Parties to the Treaty are expected to have the signing ceremonies at the UN headquarters in September, at the sidelines of the High-level UN General Assembly, and subsequently ratify it.

  • Family, associates, UN to pay last respects to Osotimehin 

    Family and friends of the former Health Minister Dr Babatunde Oshotimehin have concluded arrangements on how to pay their last respect to the deceased.

    The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) would also play a significant role for befitting last rites for Osotimehin, who was the head of the organisation until his demise.

    In a statement yesterday by Niyi Ojuolape, who was Osotimehin’s Special Assistant, the events for the celebration of the life of the former minister will will take place variously in London, Abuja and Ibadan from  10th – 21st July.

    It commences with the Babatunde Osotimehin Lecture organised by the UNFPA at the Family Planning Summit on 10 July 2017, 5:00 – 6:00pm at County Hall (Next to the Marriott Hotel) London while the funeral service is on 21 July by 11:00am at the All Souls Church, Old Bodija, Ibadan, Oyo State,

  • Suicide bombers kill two in Niger – UN

    Suicide bombers kill two in Niger – UN

    The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said suicide bombers on Wednesday killed two people and wounded 11 others at a camp in Niger housing thousands of people who have fled Boko Haram violence.

    UNHCR said two women entered the camp in Kabelawa, around 50 km north of the border with Nigeria, and joined a group of young people before detonating suicide belts just before midnight on Wednesday.

    “The explosion killed two young inhabitants of the camp, a male and a female, as well as the two women. 11 others were injured, two seriously,” Reuters quoted the UN agency as saying in a statement.

    Boko Haram launches frequent cross-border raids from its strongholds in northeastern Nigeria in its bid to carve out an Islamic caliphate, though most recent suicide attacks have targeted towns in northern Cameroon.

    The group’s eight-year insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people in the Lake Chad region and displaced 2.7 million.

     

  • Demand for Qatar to close down al-Jazeera ‘unacceptable’ – UN

    Demand for Qatar to close down al-Jazeera ‘unacceptable’ – UN

    The UN says the demand by Saudi Arabia and three other Arab nations for Qatar to close down its al-Jazeera TV channel is an “unacceptable attack” on the right to freedoms of expression and opinion.

    Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a boycott on Qatar on June 5, accusing it of backing militants, then issued an ultimatum, including demands it shut down a Turkish military base in Doha, shutting Al Jazeera and curbing ties with Iran.

    UN High Commissioner is “extremely concerned by the demand that Qatar close down the Al Jazeera network, as well as other affiliated media outlets”, his spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing.

    Al Jazeera

    “Whether or not you watch it, like it, or agree with its editorial standpoints, Al Jazeera’s Arabic and English channels are legitimate, and have many millions of viewers.

    “The demand that they be summarily closed down is, in our view, an unacceptable attack on the right to freedom of expression and opinion,” Colville said.

    NAN reports that on June 24, the four Arab states handed the country a list of 13 demands, including some likely to infuriate Doha and exacerbate the region’s worst crisis in decades.

    Some of the key demands include shut down the Al Jazeera media network and its affiliates, halt the development of a Turkish military base in the country and reduce diplomatic ties with Iran.

    Others are cut ties to extremist organisations, stop interfering in the four countries’ affairs, stop the practice of giving Qatari nationality to citizens of the four countries.

  • Nigeria backs nuclear weapons-free world

    Nigeria has voiced its support to the non-proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction mass (WMD), saying a world free of nuclear weapons is the ideal society it envisaged.

    Prof. Tijjani Bande, Nigeria’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the UN, delivered this position in his statement at the Security Council Open Debate on Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

    The Nigerian envoy said: “I wish to reaffirm Nigeria’s commitment to the ideal of a nuclear-free world.

    “We regard the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery as a grave threat to our collective security.

    “This indeed is a global challenge that requires concerted and sustained effort on the part of the international community, including the Security Council.

    “In recent times, the risk of non-state actors, including terrorists acquiring, developing, manufacturing and using nuclear, chemical and biological weapons remains a serious threat to global peace and security.

    “Terrorists and their sponsors have shown the intent and, at least in the case of chemical weapons, some capability to develop and acquire weapons of mass destruction and to use them.”

    According to him, Nigeria believes that the establishment of nuclear weapons-free zones across the world is a potent tool to prevent the vertical and horizontal proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

    He said Nigeria would continue to support efforts to establish nuclear weapons-free zones in parts of the world where they currently do not exist.

    He added that “we want to reiterate our commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In spite of its many known challenges and imperfections, we regard the NPT as the cornerstone of global non-proliferation regime.”

    He warned that no country was immuned to the dangers posed by nuclear weapons, saying “it was essential that we all remain committed to globally agreed ideals contained in the NPT and other relevant instruments.”

    According to him, while Nigeria recognises the right of any party to pursue a peaceful nuclear programme, this must be pursued within the ambit of the NPT and other relevant international instruments.

    “We stress that efforts aimed at nuclear non-proliferation should tally with simultaneous efforts aimed at nuclear disarmament.

    “Nigeria is concerned about the slow pace of progress toward nuclear disarmament and the lack of progress by the Nuclear-Weapon States to accomplish the task of total elimination of their nuclear stockpiles.

    “We call on the Nuclear-Weapon States to fulfil their multilateral legal obligations on nuclear disarmament.

    “Nigeria wishes to stress that resolution 1540 (2004) and its effective implementation remains key component of the global architecture for countering the danger posed by the threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

    Bande said Nigeria was convinced that the establishment of effective precautionary measures and systems to address potential nuclear, chemical or biological proliferation was a collective responsibility incumbent upon all Member States, adding that “we must all take the lead.”

    The envoy restated Nigeria’s conviction of the validity of multilateral diplomacy in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation, saying “we must remain especially vigilant to issues that may threaten international peace and security.

    “We shall, therefore, continue to advocate for multilateralism as the core platform for negotiations in the area of disarmament and non-proliferation,” he said.

    He also warned that the emergence of extremist groups had introduced a sense of urgency in the need for the international community to take stock of the implementation of resolution 1540 and close the gaps that could be exploited by such groups to obtain and use weapons of mass destruction.

    He said it was incontrovertible that no state was immuned to the threat and consequences of WMD attack by terrorists and other non-state actors.

    “This should serve as a clarion call for us to vigorously confront one of the key security challenges of our time,” the Nigerian envoy stressed.

  • 5m children susceptible to water-borne diseases in Lake Chad – UNICEF

    5m children susceptible to water-borne diseases in Lake Chad – UNICEF

    The UN warned on Friday that no fewer than 5.6 million children across the Lake Chad basin are susceptible to deadly water-borne diseases such as cholera and hepatitis E as the rainy season hits a region already reeling from Boko Haram’s insurgency.

    UNICEF in a statement, said the 5.6 million children in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, many of whom have been uprooted by violence and live in host communities or refugee camps, are facing the disease threat as the rains arrive.

    The aid agency said flooding and muddy roads are expected to limit aid access to remote areas, where hunger is growing and the food is lacking, while the insecurity has made it hard to deliver supplies and ensure clean water is available ahead of the rains.

    “The rains will further complicate what is already a dire humanitarian situation, as millions of children made vulnerable by conflict are now facing the potential spread of opportunistic diseases,” Marie Poirier of UNICEF said in a statement.

    “Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene conditions can lead to cholera and hepatitis E.

    “Staving off disease is our top priority.”

    Cholera, which spreads through contaminated food and water, causes diarrhoea and vomiting, leaving small children especially vulnerable to death from dehydration, whereas liver disease Hepatitis E is particularly deadly for pregnant women.

    Also, the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said in Niger’s Diffa region, which has been hit by the conflict and hosts about 250,000 uprooted Nigeriens and Nigerian refugees, an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed at least 33 pregnant women so far this year.

    “To curb this type of outbreak, we know that our best asset at the moment is … water and sanitation activities ” said Víctor Illanes of the MSF.

    “When the deficiencies are so high and the space to be covered is as large as Diffa, it is difficult for these activities to have an impact in the short term,” he added.

    Boko Haram’s campaign to create an Islamic state is in its eighth year with little sign of ending.

    It has claimed more than 20,000 lives and uprooted 2.7 million people across Lake Chad.

    No fewer than five million people in northeast Nigeria need food aid, and about 1.5 million are believed to be on the brink of famine, yet the UN in this June, had to cut emergency food supplies for 400,000 people due to a lack of funding.

  • South Sudan: UN chief warns leaders to end civil war

    South Sudan: UN chief warns leaders to end civil war

    UN Secretary-General António Guterres says South Sudan’s leaders must end the civil war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

    Guterres, who made the remarks when he visited South Sudanese refugees in Uganda on the sidelines of the ‘Solidarity Summit’ to raise 2.2 billion dollars for the refugees emergency, urged the world to show solidarity.

    “It is time for the war to end. It is time for all the leaders of South Sudan to understand that they need to stop this war.

    “Peace in South Sudan is a must for these people to be able to have a future,” the Secretary-General said.

    The UN chief expressed gratitude for the efforts made by the Heads of State of the region, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union and by the UN to help create the conditions for peace to be re-established.

    “At the same time, I cannot forget that twelve years ago I was here, in June, in this same place.

    “I was marking World Refugee Day with South Sudanese refugees that were singing with joy because they were going back home soon,” Guterres, who was then UN High Commissioner for Refugees, regretted.

    He said he had later accompanied many of the refugees across the border with the hope that the their new country would live in peace.

    “Unfortunately, that had not been the case. South Sudan’s leaders ‘do not deserve the people of their country,” Guterres said, stressing that the South Sudanese people have been suffering enormously “in an endless war”.

    He lauded Uganda’s hosting almost one million South Sudanese refugees “as sisters and brothers and sharing with them their land and everything they have.”

    He urged the international community to show solidarity with those that had fled their homes, as well as with the Ugandan Government and people.

    “In a world where so many people are selfishly closing their doors, closing their borders, not allowing refugees to come, this example deserves praise and admiration from the whole international community,” Guterres said.

    The UN chief visited the Imvepi Refugee Reception Centre in the Arua district of northern Uganda, the first stop for many South Sudanese refugees once they crossed the border into Uganda.

    The camp, which opened in February this year, is already filling up, hosting some 120,000 refugees, mostly women and children, fleeing violence and instability in the neighbouring country.

    In just the past year, the overall refugee population in Uganda has more than doubled from 500,000 to more than 1.25 million, making the East African country host to the world’s fastest growing refugee emergency.

    The UN chief pointed out that at the ‘Solidarity Summit’ on Friday, the international community would have the opportunity to express its solidarity, “responding to our appeal for massive financial support, both for humanitarian aid for the refugees”.

    “But also for the investments necessary for the education system, the health system, the infrastructure, the [local] environment, to be able to cope with this enormous challenge”.

    The ‘Solidarity Summit,’ which opened on Thursday in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, and is expected to wrap up on Friday.

    It was co-hosted by Uganda and the UN to rally international support for refugees and host communities in the form of donations, investments and innovative programmes.

  • Migrants send home $445bn in 2016, says UN report

    Migrants send home $445bn in 2016, says UN report

    Global migrant workers sent back to their home countries 445 billion dollars in 2016, lifting millions out of poverty, a report released by a UN agency has said.

    The report, titled Sending Money Home: Contributing to the SDGs, One Family at a Time and published on Wednesday, said currently about 200 million migrants, by sending money home, have supported some 800 million family members globally.

    Women now comprise about half of all remittance senders, and it is believed that this trend can help advance gender equality and women’s empowerment through financial independence and better employment opportunities.

    The report, by the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development, said that remittance flows have grown over the last decade at an average rate of 4.2 per cent annually, from 296 billion dollars in 2007 to 445 billion dollars in 2016.

    The top 10 sending countries account for almost half of annual flows, led by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Russia.

    Up to 80 per cent of remittances are received by 23 countries, led by China, India, the Philippines, Mexico and Pakistan.

    As to the remittance transfer method, cash-to-cash remains the most common form, while mobile phone networks, internet-based tools and digital money in various forms present a potentially transformative force for sending and receiving money.

    The report also pointed out that the most important objective going forward should be to leverage the potential development impact on the receiving side by providing remittance-receiving families better opportunities to use their money productively.

  • Immigration rescues 134 children from traffickers in Oyo

    Immigration rescues 134 children from traffickers in Oyo

    The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) in Oyo State says it rescued 134 children, who were victims of child trafficking between and May.

    An Assistant Comptroller at the command, Mr Folusho Akintola, disclosed this while fielding questions from newsmen after a stakeholders’ conference organised by the Justice, Development and Peace Commission in Ibadan on Tuesday.

    The conference was organised to mark the 2017 UN World Day against Child Labour, celebrated annually on June 12.

    The theme was the “Impact of Conflicts and Disasters on Child Labour”.

    Akintola said that of the rescued children, 117 were reunited with their families, and six repatriated, while 38 traffickers and 107 end users were arrested during the period.

    According to him, 11 victims and four traffickers were sent to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other related Matters (NAPTIP).

    Akintola attributed the cause of child trafficking in the country to parental negligence.

    “We all know the evils of child labour and human trafficking. Poor parenting is mostly responsible.

    “Parents negligent led to moral decadence that are common with children nowadays,” he said.

    However, Mrs Omotayo Mala-Adebayo, the Head, Women Development and Child Rights Programme, Ibadan, said that conflicts in the homes were the root cause of child trafficking and labour.

    According to her, conflicts within the home give rise to violation of child rights and child abandonment, which is a form of child trafficking and labour.

    “Child labour and trafficking is not restricted to just poverty; parental separation is a menace we need to eradicate because the resultant effect of that is child abandonment and labour.

    “This exposes children to the twin evil called child trafficking and labour which the end result is exploitation of children, and exploitation of children of children is a gross violation of the rights of children,” she said.

    She therefore appealed to government at all levels to implement the child rights laws to stop menace of child labour and trafficking.

    The Director of JDPC, Rev. Fr. Ezekiel Owoeye, called on parents to take seriously their God-given responsibility to protect and nurture their children in the interest of the future.

    “Roaming the streets, begging and becoming breadwinners of their families are some of the child rights abuse we see in our society today; a great number of children are deprived of their inalienable rights.

    “As a result, our society is at a great risk, we mortgage our future badly if we don’t protect and invest in our children’s future,” he said.