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5 December 2013
Speaking at the launch of the Fourth Replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), United States Secretary of State John Kerry called on global health partners to embrace all available tools to defeat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, saying that shared responsibility was the only way to succeed.
The Fourth Replenishment launch, entitled: ‘No Time to Lose: Sharing the Responsibility to Save Lives’ is convening leaders in global health in Washington to consider joint action and to secure sustained funding for the next three years to support programmes that prevent, treat and care for people with AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Also, Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund, said in his closing remarks at the meeting: ‘The 21st century ideals that led to the founding of the Global Fund are now stronger than ever: partnership, shared responsibility, and mutual accountability. In many ways, this is a replenishment of hope. It is a lifting up of the human spirit.’
Source: The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria | Replenishment Partners Talk Shared Responsibility
Source: The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria | Global Fund Donors Pledge US$12 Billion
4 December 2013
A Danish cargo vessel is due to load Syria’s chemical arms stockpile and transfer it to a US ship in early January 2014. The plan, which has not yet been finalised, has been drawn up by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The Guardian reports that it is not yet clear whether the transfer between the two ships of about 500 tonnes of lethal chemicals, including nerve agents, will be done at sea or when both vessels are docked, and that both options have serious challenges. So far, no Mediterranean port has agreed to host the transfer on land.
Source: The Guardian | Syria's chemical weapons to be shipped in delicate US-Danish operation
29 November 2013
Afghan President, Hamid Karzai angered about NATO drone strikes which had killed civilians in southern Afghanistan, lashed out at US allies. President Karzai stated, ‘[t]his attack shows that American forces do not respect the lives and security of the people of Afghanistan (…) For years, our people are being killed and their houses are being destroyed under the pretext of the war on terror.’ The drone strike in question killed at least one child and wounded two women.
This attack comes at a delicate time when negotiations between President Karzai and the United States regarding a bilateral security agreement are becoming more strained. The security agreement provides for a 10 year long presence of the American military in Afghanistan, and if President Karzai does not sign the agreement NATO troops will be completely withdrawn from Afghanistan. However, President Karzai wants new conditions to be added to the agreement, such as an immediate ban on raids of Afghan homes, before he will sign the agreement. President Karzai stated, ‘[f]or as long as such arbitrary acts and oppression of foreign forces continue, the security agreement with the United States will not be signed.’
Source: The New York Times | Afghan Leader Lashes Out at U.S. Allies After NATO Drone Strike
29 November 2013
At its 19th meeting, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, established a new international mechanism to deal with the impacts of climate-related loss and damage. The mechanism, named the Warsaw international mechanism for loss and damage, is to ‘address loss and damage associated with impacts of climate change, including extreme events and slow onset events, in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.’ The decision by which the mechanism was established acknowledges ‘that loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change includes, and in some cases involves more than, that which can be reduced by adaptation.’
Many richer governments, including the United States and the European Union, had opposed a new mechanism for loss and damage under the Convention, unwilling to open the door to potential claims for compensation based on their historical responsibility for global warming, but eventually agreed in return for weak language on financial assistance.
The organisation and governance of the executive committee of the Warsaw international mechanism is to be finalised at the 20th Conference of the Parties in December 2014.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation | UN 'loss and damage mechanism' born amid rising climate costs
Source: The New York Times | Deals at Climate Meeting Advance Global Effort
Source: Decision -/CP.19 | Warsaw international mechanism for loss and damage associated with climate change impacts (advance unedited version)
26 November 2013
Citing mounting human rights abuses, sexual violence and other ‘horrors’, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson called on the international community for immediate action to halt the rapidly deteriorating situation in conflict-wracked Central African Republic (CAR). ‘It is critical for the international community and this Council to act now’, Eliasson told the UN Security Council, proposing that a UN peacekeeping mission eventually replace the current African-led International Support Mission in the CAR.
‘We face a profoundly important test of international solidarity and of our responsibility to prevent atrocities (…) The situation requires prompt and decisive action’ he said, also stressing that humanitarian needs are escalating, while funding is woefully short, with a 195 million dollar appeal less than half funded.
He noted that the African Union and the Economic Community of Central Africa States both agree that there is an urgent need for the international community to act, and that a UN peacekeeping operation with a robust mandate will be eventually required.
Source: United Nations | Secratary-General | Ban Ki-moon | Deputy Secretary-General: Statements | New York, 25 November 2013 - Deputy Secretary-General's Briefing to the Security Council on the Situation in the Central African Republic