By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 13 2024 – This week has seen noteworthy steps from the international community to put an end to the ongoing hostilities in the Gaza Strip since the latest war between Hamas and Israel began in October last year.

This week began with the international community converging at a global conference, “Call for Action: Urgent Humanitarian Response for Gaza.” King Abdullah II of Jordan, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres organized the conference, which took place in Amman, Jordan, on June 10.

Heads of states and governments and heads of international humanitarian and relief organizations were invited to participate in this conference to determine the course of action needed to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza and recovery efforts for the end of the conflict. Three core issues were the focus of discussion through working groups: increasing humanitarian assistance to Gaza, cementing the conditions for a ceasefire, and supporting early recovery efforts.

The conference demonstrated the international community’s solidarity with the civilians of Palestine who have suffered from the military campaign, along with the humanitarian workers who have risked their lives. The humanitarian situation in Gaza, unfortunately, only continues to deteriorate, especially as basic needs such as food, shelter and sanitation have been repeatedly compromised and experts have warned of disease and famine outbreaks. The healthcare system has been overwhelmed with the intake of patients requiring urgent care, with the shortage of fuel and medical supplies, and with many hospitals losing functionality as a result.

“The horror must stop. It is high time for a ceasefire along with the unconditional release of hostages. I welcome the peace initiative recently outlined by President Biden and urge all parties to seize this opportunity and come to an agreement. And I call on all parties to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law,” Guterres said in his statement on Tuesday.

According to Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, over 2.5 billion USD will be needed to provide aid to Gaza from April to December 2024. Speaking at the conference, Griffiths also added that preliminary recovery planning was underway with the United Nations Country Team, along with partners such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). He shared that the working group emphasized UNRWA’s importance in the recovery period, particularly in addressing education, health, and psychosocial support.

“Acting on the outcomes of this conference,” Griffiths said, “It is our solemn task, I suggest, to harness some of that humanity, meet our responsibilities, and finally bring an end to the travesty that has brought such misery to the people of Gaza. I ask for your support in all the follow-up actions that have been identified.”

The international community’s attention to the humanitarian situation in Gaza has led to repeated calls for action to take concrete measures. Earlier this week, the Security Council adopted the United States-drafted resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. The resolution also breaks down the approach into three phases, emphasizing the need for a permanent end to the hostilities, which would be achieved through the exchange of hostages in Gaza and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the region. The resolution was adopted nearly unanimously, with only one abstention in the vote (Russia).

Riyad Al Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, noted that the resolution was a step in the right direction and was welcomed by the Palestinian leadership, also calling out Israel to take the steps to implement the resolution. “We want to see the end of this onslaught against our people,” said Mansour. “We will continue pursuing justice and accountability through international legal mechanisms, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC).”

Israel’s representative, Reut Shapir Ben Nafalty, said that the state’s objectives have always been to ensure the return of all the hostages and to stop Hamas, as well as “ensure that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel in the future.”

“We will continue until all of the hostages are returned and until Hamas’ military and governing capabilities are dismantled,” she said.

As pressure mounts for both sides of the conflict to accept the terms of the ceasefire, the humanitarian situation only continues to put immense strain on aid workers and on impacted civilians. Since October 7, 192 UNRWA staff have been killed. As fighting escalates, organizations such as the World Food Programme announced that they will pause their operations in the floating dock established to provide aid to Gaza until a UN security review can be conducted.

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By Isaiah Esipisu
BONN, Jun 13 2024 – As the technical session of the global climate negotiations enters the final stretch in Bonn, Germany, climate activists from Africa have expressed fears that negotiators from the developed world are dragging their feet in a way to avoid paying their fair share to tackle the climate crisis.

“I think we will be unfair to the snail if we say that the Bonn talks have all along moved at a snail pace,” quipped Mohammed Adow, the Director, Power Shift Africa.

“Ideally, there will be no climate action anywhere without climate finance. Yet what we have seen is that developed countries are frustrating the process, blocking the UAE annual dialogues, which were agreed upon last year in Dubai, to focus on the delivery of finance so as to give confidence to developing countries to implement climate actions,” said Adow.

According to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) dialogue was created to focus on climate finance in relation to implementing the first Global Stoke Take (GST-1) outcomes, with the rationale of serving as a follow up mechanism dedicated to climate finance, ensuring response to and/or monitoring of, as may be appropriate and necessary, all climate finance items under the GST

The two-week Bonn technical session of Subsidiary Bodies (SB60) was expected to develop an infrastructure for the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG), a climate change funding mechanism to raise the floor of climate finance for developing countries above the current $100 billion annual target.

In 2009, during the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) of the UNFCCC in Copenhagen, developed countries agreed that by 2020, they would collectively mobilize $100 billion per year to support priorities for developing countries in terms of adaptation to climate crisis, loss and damage, just energy transition and climate change mitigation.

When parties endorsed the Paris Agreement at COP 21 in 2015, they found it wise to set up the NCQG, which has to be implemented at the forthcoming COP 29, whose agenda has to be set at the SB60 in Bonn, providing scientific and technological advice, thereby shaping negotiations in Azerbaijan.

However, activists feel that the agenda being set in Bonn is likely to undermine key outcomes of previous negotiations, especially on climate finance.

“We came to Bonn with renewed hope that the NCQG discussions will be honest and frank with all parties committed to seeing that the finance mechanism will be based on the priorities and needs of developing countries and support country-driven strategies, with a focus on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Adaptation Plans (NAPs),” said Memory Zonde-Kachambwa, the Executive Director, FEMNET.

“Seeing the devastation climate change is causing in our countries in terms of floods, storms, and droughts, among other calamities, it was our hope that the rich countries would be eager and willing to indicate the Quantum as per Article 9.5 of the Paris Agreement so as to allow developing countries to plan their climate action,” she said.

So far, negotiators from the North have been pushing for collective “mobilization of financial resources,” which African activists believe is merely the privatization of climate finance within NCQG, thus surrendering poor countries to climate-debt speculators and further impoverishing countries clutching onto debt.

Also in the spotlight was the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), where the activists feel that the means of implementation is being vehemently fought by the parties from developed countries.

“Adaptation must be funded from public resources and must not be seen as a business opportunity open to private sector players,” said Dr. Augustine Njamnshi, an environmental policy and governance law expert and the Executive Secretary of the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access. “Without clear indications on the means of implementation, GGA is an empty shell and it is not fit-for-purpose.”

According to Ambassador Ali Mohammed, the incoming Chair for the African Group of Negotiators (AGN), the SB60 is an opportunity to rebuild trust in the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.

“That trust can only be rebuilt if we come out of Bonn with a quantum that adequately covers the needs of the continent,” he said, noting that the figure Africa is asking for, which is to be part of the agenda for COP29, is USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2030.

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By Yasmine Sherif
NEW YORK, Jun 13 2024 (IPS-Partners)

Few will disagree with the nearly universal concern that we – the human family – are once more faced with an era of darkness. An era whose burdens are mainly carried on the tiny shoulders of crises-affected children and adolescents, their teachers and families, all left furthest behind.

Two years ago, Save the Children issued a report estimating that 468 million children were living in, or fleeing from, conflict zones. The past two years have only increased this figure with new conflicts, climate disasters and forced displacement. The light of hope enshrined in international law, including human rights law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is slowly dying. The light of hope to arise from protracted crises and sudden disasters through an education is fading further away for millions upon millions of young people.

In the Middle East, schoolyards are turned into graveyards for Palestinian children and their teachers, others deeply traumatized, maimed or orphaned. In Sudan, 18 million children are out of school, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, 9 out of 10 children cannot read and understand a simple text by age 10. In Afghanistan, a generation of adolescent girls are prohibited from attending school beyond the 6th grade.

In Latin America, children and their families flee instability in Venezuela, disrupting their education. In Haiti, children cannot attend school and live in constant fear of brutal attacks by armed gangs. As we highlight in this month’s high-level interview with Bruno Maes, UNICEF Representative in Haiti: “The instability in Haiti continues to undermine education. Frequent disruptions in educational services have posed significant challenges in accessing schools.”

In Myanmar, the Rohingya continue to be persecuted, while the refugees across the border cannot attend the public education system. And in Europe, war rages on in Ukraine, pushing Ukrainian children into harms’ way rather than into the safety of schools.

The distance between ‘the haves and the have-nots’ continues to grow larger. According to the World Economic Forum: “The inequality gap is widening, with more than two-thirds (69%) of global wealth held by developed nations, while less than a third can be found in the developing world.”

And while millions of young people in the Global North celebrate graduations this month at high schools, colleges and universities, a quarter of a billion children and adolescents across crisis-impacted countries in the Global South are not even able to access early childhood development and the basic 12 years of education.

The darkness is creeping into every corner of our society. Still, rather than raging against the dying light, as the writer and poet Thomas Dylan once urged us to do, we sink deeper into a dark abyss by spending resources on destructive wars – rather than on the enlightenment and hope of education.

We seem bent on extinguishing the light of justice, peace and security for all – with an emphasis on all. For, as Martin Luther King Jr. said: “It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.”

We must “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” Indeed, we must rekindle the light whose rays illuminate and transform. If not, what is the alternative?

Yasmine Sherif is Executive Director Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

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By Jake Johnson
NEW YORK, Jun 13 2024 – A United Nations commission tasked with conducting an in-depth investigation of Israeli military actions in the occupied Palestinian territories has concluded that Israel’s government is responsible for multiple war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, including “extermination,” torture, forcible transfer, and the use of starvation as a weapon of warfare.

The U.N. inquiry began on October 7, the day of a deadly Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes during their attack on Israel, including the deliberate killing and torture of civilians.

Israel’s massive military response—launched hours after the Hamas-led attack—has caused “immense numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza and widespread destruction of civilian objects and infrastructure,” outcomes that “were the inevitable result of a strategy undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding the principles of distinction, proportionality and adequate,” the U.N. commission said Wednesday.

“The intentional use of heavy weapons with large destructive capacity in densely populated areas constitutes an intentional and direct attack on the civilian population,” the commission added. Many of the weapons Israel has used in Gaza were supplied by the United States.

The new report also points to public statements by top Israeli officials as evidence that Israel’s goal in Gaza was to inflict “widespread destruction” and kill a “large number of civilians.” The U.N. panel specifically cited Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s October announcement of a “total siege” on the Gaza Strip that would prevent the entry of water, fuel, food, and other necessities.

The International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor has applied for arrest warrants for Gallant and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over war crimes committed in Gaza.

Navi Pillay, the chair of the U.N. commission, said in a statement Wednesday that “Israel must immediately stop its military operations and attacks in Gaza, including the assault on Rafah, which has cost the lives of hundreds of civilians and again displaced hundreds of thousands of people to unsafe locations without basic services and humanitarian assistance.

“Hamas and Palestinian armed groups must immediately cease rocket attacks and release all hostages,” Pillay added. “The taking of hostages constitutes a war crime.”

The commission’s findings come less than a week after U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres informed the Israeli government that it was added to an annual “list of shame” that condemns nations for killing and wounding children in wars.

Children have suffered horrific physical and psychological impacts from Israel’s eight-month assault on Gaza, which has killed around 15,000 children. Earlier this year, the U.N. Children’s Fund estimated that around 1,000 kids in Gaza had lost one or both of their legs as a result of Israeli attacks.

Dozens of children were among the more than 270 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces over the weekend during a raid on Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. The military operation resulted in the freeing of four Israeli hostages, but the U.N. Human Rights Office said Tuesday that “the manner in which the raid was conducted in such a densely populated area seriously calls into question whether the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precaution—as set out under the laws of war—were respected by the Israeli forces.”

Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said Tuesday that Israeli forces have killed more than 800 people in Gaza and wounded more than 2,400 since the beginning of June.

“How can the killing of more than 800 people in a single week, including small children, plus the maiming of hundreds more, be considered a military operation adhering to international humanitarian law?” asked Brice de le Vingne, the head of MSF’s emergency unit. “We can no longer accept the statement that Israel is taking ‘all precautions’—this is just propaganda.”

“Since October (and certainly before), the dehumanization of Palestinians has been a hallmark of this war,” de le Vingne added. “Catch-all phrases like ‘war is ugly’ act as blinders to the fact that children too young to walk are being dismembered, eviscerated, and killed.”

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

Source: Common Dreams

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By External Source
NEW YORK, Jun 13 2024 (IPS-Partners)

Today, people across the globe mark a tragic milestone for human rights, children’s rights and girls’ rights: 1,000 days since girls were banned from attending secondary school in Afghanistan. To commemorate and reflect on this unacceptable milestone, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), as global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, is launching the second phase of its compelling #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign.

The campaign features inspiring artwork, poetry, cartoons and more from some of the world’s leading artists, along with powerful, moving quotes from Afghan girls denied their right to education, but who hang on to the hope that their right will be restored.

The first phase of the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign was launched by the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, ECW Executive Director, Yasmine Sherif, and ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi, the former captain of the Afghan Girls’ Robotics Team, in August 2023. Since the launch, the campaign has been viewed and supported by millions worldwide.

This second phase is already rallying additional global leaders and prominent supporters, including bestselling authors, Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner) and Christina Lamb (I Am Malala); ECW Global Champion and Al-Jazeera TV Principal Presenter, Folly Bah Thibault; UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett; Global Citizen Co-Founder Mick Sheldrick; 2023 Global Citizen Prize winner and founder of LEARN Afghanistan, Pashtana Durrani; and many more, including several leading Afghan women activists.

“The world must unite behind Afghan girls. The denial of the right to a quality education is an abomination and a violation of the UN Charter, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and fundamental human rights. Through the global #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign, people everywhere can stand up for human rights and stand up for gender-justice by sharing these stories of courage, hope and resilience,” said The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, UN Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group.

“As a global community, we must reignite our global efforts to ensure that every adolescent girl can exercise her right to an education. Gender discrimination is unacceptable and will only hurt the already war-torn Afghanistan and her long-suffering people. Girls’ right to an education is a fundamental right as outlined in international human rights law. For the people of Afghanistan – men, women, girls and boys – adolescent girls’ education is essential to rebuild Afghanistan and ensure that every Afghan enjoys the universal right to an education,” said ECW Executive Director Yasmine Sherif.

“Girls in Afghanistan are strong and resilient, and they refuse to give up their hopes and dreams. One thousand days without access to education is a severe injustice for Afghan girls, whose determination should be met with opportunities, not obstacles. Every day that passes, more and more girls find themselves forced into marriage due to lack of prospects for the future. This must stop,” said ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi. “The world must hear the voices of Afghan girls who are only asking for one thing: their most basic right to education to be fulfilled. With access to education, Afghan girls can contribute to building our country and be positive changemakers for our communities. All Afghan girls deserve an equal opportunity to learn and thrive, and it is our undeniable duty to fight for their right to education and their future.”

Approximately 80% of school-aged Afghan girls and young women are out of school, and nearly 30% of girls in Afghanistan have never entered primary education, according to UNESCO.

With the bans on girls’ secondary and tertiary education, decades’ worth of education and development gains have been wiped out. Between 2001 and 2018, enrollment increased tenfold across all education levels, from 1 million in 2001 to 10 million in 2018. By August 2021, 4 out of 10 students in primary school were girls. Along with these jumps came social and economic growth, and other improvements that benefited vast swaths of Afghan society.

The change in leadership sent seismic waves across all aspects of the Afghan economy and society. Today, 23.7 million people – over half the population – require urgent humanitarian support, 6.3 million people are displaced, and basic human rights are under fire. Girls and boys are at grave risk of gender-based violence, child labour, early marriage and other human rights abuses. Despite the urgent needs of the $3 billion total humanitarian response funding ask, only $221 million has been received to date, according to UNOCHA.

Since ECW launched its investments in Afghanistan in 2017, the Fund has invested US$88.8 million, reaching more than 230,000 children with quality, holistic education support. ECW’s multi-year investments focus on community-based learning that reaches girls and boys through a variety of activities such as the provision of teaching and learning materials, teacher training, and mental health and psychosocial support.

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By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, Jun 13 2024 – The global community is marking a tragic milestone for human rights, children’s rights, and girls’ rights, as it has been 1,000 days since girls were banned from attending secondary school in Afghanistan. The ban has wiped out decades’ worth of education and development gains, as approximately 80 percent of school-aged Afghan girls and young women are out of school.

“As a global community, we must reignite our global efforts to ensure that every adolescent girl can exercise her right to an education. Gender discrimination is unacceptable and will only hurt the already war-torn Afghanistan and her long-suffering people. Girls’ right to an education is a fundamental right as outlined in international human rights law,” said Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Executive Director Yasmine Sherif.

“For the people of Afghanistan—men, women, girls and boys—adolescent girls’ education is essential to rebuild Afghanistan and ensure that every Afghan enjoys the universal right to an education.”

Yasmine Sherif, ECW Executive Director. Credit: ECW

Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner. Credit: ECW

It has been a thousand days since Afghan girls were allowed to attend secondary school. Mehnaz Akber Aziz, CEO of Children’s Global Network Pakistan, says, “This is very concerning for us Pakistanis, as neighbors and stakeholders. How can a nation progress with 50 percent of its population deprived of education? Afghanistan’s prosperity depends on equitable opportunities for all its population, both boys and girls.”

To commemorate and reflect on this unacceptable milestone, ECW, the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, has launched the second phase of its compelling #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign.

The campaign features inspiring artwork, poetry, cartoons and more from some of the world’s leading artists, along with powerful, moving quotes from Afghan girls denied their right to education but who hang on to the hope that their right will be restored.

“Girls in Afghanistan are strong and resilient, and they refuse to give up their hopes and dreams. One thousand days without access to education is a severe injustice for Afghan girls, whose determination should be met with opportunities, not obstacles. Every day that passes, more and more girls find themselves forced into marriage due to lack of prospects for the future. This must stop,” said ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi.

Faruqi stressed that the world “must hear the voices of Afghan girls who are only asking for one thing: their most basic right to education to be fulfilled. With access to education, Afghan girls can contribute to building our country and be positive changemakers for our communities. All Afghan girls deserve an equal opportunity to learn and thrive, and it is our undeniable duty to fight for their right to education and their future.”

The gender apartheid in Afghanistan, which denies girls and women their right to education, appalled Antara Ganguli, director of the UN Girls’ Education Initiative. “We stand in solidarity with the Afghan women and girls who are fighting for their fundamental human rights. The international community must do more to end this injustice and ensure all children in Afghanistan can access inclusive, safe and gender-equal education.”

In August 2023, Gordon Brown, the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, Sherif, and Faruqi, the former captain of the Afghan Girls’ Robotics Team, launched the first phase of the #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign. Millions of people around the world have viewed and supported the campaign since its launch.

“The world must unite behind Afghan girls. The denial of the right to a quality education is an abomination and a violation of the UN Charter, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and fundamental human rights. Through the global #AfghanGirlsVoices campaign, people everywhere can stand up for human rights and stand up for gender justice by sharing these stories of courage, hope and resilience,” said Brown, who is also Chair of the ECW High-Level Steering Group.

ECW Global Champion and author of I Am Malala, Christina Lamb. Credit: ECW

Ahmed Hussen, Minister of International Development, Canada. Credit: ECW

This second phase is already rallying additional global leaders and prominent supporters, including bestselling authors such as Khaled Hosseini, who wrote The Kite Runner; ECW Global Champion Christina Lamb of the I Am Malala and co-founder of Malala Fund; Ziauddin Yousafzai, ECW Global Champion and Al-Jazeera TV principal presenter; Folly Bah Thibault, Global Citizen Co-Founder; Mick Sheldrick, 2023 Global Citizen Prize winner and founder of LEARN Afghanistan; Pashtana Durrani, UN Girls’ Education Initiative Director; Antara Ganguli; and many more; including several leading Afghan women activists.

Afghan lawyer and women’s rights activist, Benafsha Efaf Amiri, says education is a fundamental right for all girls and women. The denial of education for Afghan girls violates their human rights and will only harm the progress and future of the nation for generations to come.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, said, “Together, we must all advocate for the right to education for every girl in Afghanistan. Education is not only a human right that cannot wait for them, but it is also a powerful catalyst for a better, more equitable and prosperous world.”

Ahmed Hussein, Minister of International Development in Canada, emphasized that, “Canada stands with all Afghan girls’ right to education. Denying access to education impacts the ability of women and girls to exercise their fundamental human rights and reach their full potential. The consequences of this ban will resonate for generations and must be reversed.”

The situation is already dire. Nearly 30 percent of girls in Afghanistan have never entered primary education and the light of hope to arise from protracted crises and sudden disasters through education is fading further away for Afghan girls and young women.

ECW is urging the global community to respond with speed to preserve gains that are eroding every day the ban stands. Significant gains are at stake. For instance, enrollment increased tenfold across all education levels, from 1 million in 2001 to 10 million in 2018. By August 2021, 4 out of 10 students in Afghanistan’s primary school were girls.

Along with these jumps came social and economic growth and other improvements that benefited vast swaths of Afghan society. The change in leadership sent seismic waves across all aspects of the Afghan economy and society. Today, 23.7 million people—over half the population—require urgent humanitarian support, 6.3 million people are displaced, and basic human rights are under fire.

Girls and boys are at grave risk of gender-based violence, child labour, early marriage and other human rights abuses. Despite the urgent needs of the USD 3 billion total humanitarian response funding request, only USD 221 million has been received to date, according to UNOCHA.

Since ECW launched its investments in Afghanistan in 2017, the fund has invested USD 88.8 million, reaching more than 230,000 children with quality, holistic education support. ECW’s multi-year investments focus on community-based learning that reaches girls and boys through a variety of activities such as the provision of teaching and learning materials, teacher training, and mental health and psychosocial support.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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