15 November 2014

SHARES News Items Overview: 16 October 2014-15 November 2014

This is our News Items Overview of 16 October 2014-15 November 2014, a summary of recent news relating to shared responsibility.

• The UN Secretary-General called on the international community to step up its efforts, saying: ‘Ebola can be beaten if we work together effectively. We all have a responsibility to act’.
• The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that it is ‘deplorable’ that the UN office responsible for human rights cannot fulfil the dozens of pending requests for advisors and only receives around 3 percent of the UN budget.
• The UNSC called for ‘a common effort’ among governments and institutions to ‘counter ISIL, Al-Nusra Front and all other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al-Qaida’.
• A CIA review reportedly concluded that many of its past attempts to arm foreign forces covertly had a minimal impact on the long-term outcome of a conflict.
• The EU targeted 12 Syrian government ministers, appointed by Assad, with sanctions. The ministers  are said to share ‘responsibility for the regime’s violent repression against the civilian population’.
• The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said on the use of armed drones within law enforcement, that ‘[t]he decreased personal involvement of police officers in the deployment of force raises the question of who is responsible if things go wrong.’
• Bette Dam stressed the importance of recognising shared responsibility between the government of Afghanistan and the international community for the current political and institutional instability.
• The ECtHR found in Sharifi and Others v. Italy and Greece that there were several violations of the ECHR on account of collective expulsion by the Italian authorities of Afghan migrants, who were then deprived of access to the asylum procedure in Greece.
• The Operations Director for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs made a strong plea for burden-sharing on behalf of the neighbouring countries that are affected by the ongoing civil war in Syria.
• On 30 September, representatives of small island developing nations urged the international community for increased collective action to combat the adverse effects of climate change.
• The UNSC condemned the kidnapping and murder by ISIL terrorists of Sunni tribesmen and urged the world to unite in a ‘common effort’ to defeat the group and all other associated armed groups.
• The ECtHR held in Tarakhel v. Switzerland that Switzerland would be in violation of Article 3 ECHR if it would send back the applicants to Italy without obtaining individual guarantees that they could stay together as a family and that the facilities would be adapted to the children’s age.
• The global humanitarian system has reached its limits, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees warned, saying it is our ‘collective responsibility’ to bridge the gap between current funding and actual needs.
• The UNODC Executive Director said that the narcotics problem in Afghanistan remains a major global challenge and shared responsibility.
• China and the US made an ‘ambitious joint plan’ against the growing challenges of climate change with a joint accord to curb carbon emissions.
• The International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime released Guidelines on Methods and Procedures for Ivory Sampling and Laboratory Analysis to combat ‘the trade in illegal ivory through the provision of guidance to support transnational criminal investigations and law enforcement operations’.