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Tents and makeshift shelters at an IDP camp in Yemen. Years of conflict has left millions at crisis levels of hunger, with some facing starvation due to COVID. “This fight…is far, far, far from over,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley, briefing the Security Council during a virtual debate on conflict-induced hunger. Credit: UNICEF/Alessio Romenzi

By Gabriela Bucher *
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 2021 (IPS)

In 1941, the people of Greece were facing a horrific winter. The Axis powers had plundered local supplies and introduced an extortionate tax on Greek citizens. Allied forces imposed a cruel blockade, cutting off imports. Prices skyrocketed. Hundreds of thousands of civilians perished.

I have been invited to address you today as the Executive Director of Oxfam International, an expression of people power that was first launched to stand with the people of Greece to demand their most basic of rights – the right to food – in the midst of conflict.

I am horrified that we are forced to confront the same basic injustice that gave birth to our founding nearly 80 years ago. Indeed, as we witness blockades cutting off food and fuel to Yemen, millions going hungry in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and Syria, we should all be horrified.

Three years ago, when this Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2417, we heard an unequivocal condemnation of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. We heard a recognition that peace and security in an armed conflict means the presence of food as much as the absence of gunfire.

But the promise of 2417 being kept?

Many of the countries that were at risk of famine from conflict in 2017 are still at risk. And now, more countries have joined them.

Overall, at least 88 million people are suffering through acute hunger in countries where conflict and insecurity stalks. Women and girls are disproportionally affected, too often eating last and eating least.

People in these areas are not starving; they are being starved. It makes little difference to the hungry whether they are being starved by deliberate action or the callous negligence of conflict parties or the international community. An international community whose most powerful states too often drive starvation with a plentiful supply of weapons.

In conflict-ridden South Sudan FAO has distributed fishing kits to local communities. Credit: FAO

A’eshah Yahya Dahish is from Yemen. When her village was bombed, she was forced to flee. A’eshah had dreamed of becoming a midwife, but in an economy under attack from all sides, it takes all the energy she has just to survive. n Her two-year-old brother Maydan depends on her, but all she can afford to feed him is a few crumbs in water. Maydan is so malnourished that A’eshah believes any exposure to Covid-19 will be fatal.

Tesfay Getachew, a farmer in Tigray regional state in Ethiopia, has faced blackouts, market and bank closures that have devastated millions, but felt he could rely on the food he grew to feed his family. Last November, his village was shelled and his crops were set on fire, leaving his family with nothing.

Housseina is from the Central African Republic. The country has seen a deadly spike in violence over recent months that has led to insecurity on roads, meaning that food isn’t getting to markets. Food prices have skyrocketed by 240% in some areas. Housseina’s home and fields were destroyed in the fighting.

With support from Oxfam, she replanted her crops – only to see them destroyed again in the recent fighting. “My pain was immense,” she said. “I don’t know how to feed my family. We ate almost exclusively the vegetables that I grow.”

Women like Housseina want you to live up to your basic promise to keep their families safe. She and her fellow farmers are more than capable of producing enough to feed their families, but they cannot do so in the face of violence.

Women in conflict face impossible choices – to travel to market and risk crossing checkpoints, or to watch their families go hungry? To harvest their crops and risk being attacked, or to stay and face starvation?

Sometimes they have no choice. Sahar, three, and her sister Hanan, eight, were displaced by the conflict in Yemen, and forced to marry because their parents said they could not feed them.

I am here to amplify their call to the Security Council to make good on its unanimous agreement to break the vicious cycle of conflict and food insecurity. How?

First, the Council should deepen its work on this topic with a clear commitment for action. It should agree on depoliticized criteria facilitating the regular, mandatory reporting on situations where there is a risk of conflict induced famine or food insecurity. It should undertake quarterly reviews of action on the white papers considered under the early warning system.

Second, the Council must take genuine action to support the Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire. Urgently. Ensuring humanitarian access. Ensuring the inclusion of women from the beginning of the process. It took 4 months for this Council to support the initial call for a ceasefire. People on the edge of starvation do not have the time to wait another year for action.

Third, the Council should apply the principles they have endorsed in the abstract to the particular situations on its agenda. It should impartially condemn the starvation of civilians as a weapon of war, the targeting of critical food infrastructure, and all restrictions on humanitarian access. It should also take any opportunity to create meaningful accountability for starvation crimes. Today, there is near-global impunity.

Fourth, it should endorse – and its Members should lead – the effort to fulfil the global appeal for $5.5 billion to meet additional needs to avert famine, most especially in light of Covid-19. To be most effective this aid must flow as directly and urgently as possible to local organizations, especially women-led and women’s rights organizations, which are on the front line in addressing hunger.

And fifth, it should endorse a People’s Vaccine for Covid-19 that is free and accessible to all. Ending this pandemic will not end hunger, but we won’t end hunger if we cannot end this pandemic. Rich nations must unlock global supply constraints and help get the vaccine to all who need it.

Our failure to address hunger before the Covid crisis, and the rampant inequality and climate change which has so often triggered conflict, has left us scrambling to avert famine across the globe.

Let us also be clear: Starvation is a symptom of a deeper problem. The growing crisis of starvation is taking place in a world where eight of the biggest food and drink companies paid out over $18 billion to shareholders last year.

Those dividends alone are more than 3 times what we are asking for in aid today to avert catastrophe. There is not a lack of food, there is a lack of equality.

There is an unnerving consistency in what people living through hunger and conflict around the world tell us they want. They want peace. But what does peace mean to them?

Peace is not just the absence of war but the ability to live in dignity and flourish. It means a job. A return home. Stable, affordable food prices. If the Security Council aims to foster peace in their name, it should be no less expansive in its perspective and its actions.

* An address before the USUN-hosted Security Council Open Debate on Conflict & Hunger, on March 11.

 

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The post Peace & Security in Armed Conflicts Mean Presence of Food & Absence of Gunfire appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The author is Executive Director at Oxfam International

The post Peace & Security in Armed Conflicts Mean Presence of Food & Absence of Gunfire appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Dschiwitt! In diesen Tagen hört man den Ruf der Bachstelze wieder, der Frühling kann nicht mehr weit sein. Wer da vor lauter Vorfreude ein Twerking-Tänzchen hinlegt, ist nicht allein: Der Vogel wackelt mit.

In der Villa Wolfensberg thronte die Familie Erb einst hoch über Winterthur ZH. Doch mit dem Tod des Unternehmers Hugo Erb folgte der tiefe Fall.

SMS-ben kap értesítést a regisztrálók egy része az oltás új időpontjáról. Az ok, hogy több jelentkezőt regisztráltak az egyes oltópontok rendszerébe, mint amennyi vakcina jelenleg rendelkezésre áll.

María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés was only the fourth woman in the 76-year history of the United Nations to be elected President of the General Assembly, the UN’s main deliberative and policy-making body. She was the Foreign Minister of Ecuador. She is being congratulated by the outgoing President Miroslav Lajčák, (centre) and the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres. September 2018. Credit: UN / Loey Felipe

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 2021 (IPS)

The United Nations says the highest levels of political power remain the furthest from achieving gender parity in an increasingly male-dominated power structure worldwide.

Women serve as Heads of State or Government in only 23 countries (10 women Heads of State and 13 women Heads of Government out of 193 UN member states), while 119 countries have never had a woman leader.

At the current rate, says a new report by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, parity at the pinnacle of power will not be reached for another 130 years. (based on calculations of UN-Women data, as of 1 November 2020).

But this triggers the question: Does this also apply to the United Nations, which has never had a woman as Secretary-General, while only four women have been elected to lead the General Assembly– over a period of 76 years.?

Available research demonstrates that women’s and men’s education, political experience and ages upon entering executive office are similar.

Gendered perceptions that executive offices should be filled by men, and not on the basis of credentials, account for women’s severe underrepresentation at this level., according to the report which will go before the annual sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), March 15-26.
https://undocs.org/E/CN.6/2021/3

The CSW, described as the principal global intergovernmental body, exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women, is a functional Commission of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Speaking on International Women’s Day March 8, Guterres singled out the progress made on gender parity under his administration.

“Overall, we in the United Nations are on a positive trajectory towards gender parity. Two decades after the General Assembly’s first deadline, we are finally making progress across the entire United Nations system. We achieved the goal of 50-50 gender parity amongst my Senior leadership, two years ahead of my commitment,” he said.

In the Secretariat, the proportion of women in the professional categories and above has increased to over 41 per cent from 37 per cent in 2017 – a steady annual increase. “This shows that our strategy works”.

In the Secretariat’s field operations, the gender balance is 31 percent women and 69 percent men.

Guterres also said: “We are taking steps to identify qualified women candidates to replace many of the 3,000 international staff who are retiring in the next eight years, the majority of whom are men. This includes measures to develop staff and build internal talent pipelines.”

There have been only three previous women General Assembly Presidents or PGAs as they are known. In 1953, India’s Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, pictured at UN Headquarters alongside the then Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, was elected as the 8th and first woman President. Credit: UN / Albert Fox

Gender equality is a question of power. “We live in a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture and male-dominated power structures. This has inevitably affected the institutional culture of the United Nations, and of diplomacy as a whole”, he declared.

But does that male-dominated power structure reach out to the office of the UN Secretary-General?

Ian Richards, a former president of the UN staff coordinating committee, told IPS there have been varied reactions from UN staff to the Secretary-General’s gender parity policy, particularly when it comes to downsizing in peacekeeping operations.

“However, this year many staff have been asking us if the Secretary-General plans to apply the gender parity policy to his own position, which up to now has only been filled by men. We don’t know how to answer them on this as it is outside our mandate,” said Richards.

“The Secretary-General may wish to address this question directly,” he added.

Barbara Adams, chair of the board of Global Policy Forum, told IPS: “It’s a relief to see that the Secretary-General is no longer equating gender parity with gender equality. As we know overcoming structural or institutional discrimination of any and all kinds extends to measures beyond individual appointments.”

The recognition of importance and impact of power dynamics is welcome, but “taking” power in the present setup is a bit of a contradiction in terms, she argued.

Perhaps the quote of Simone de Beauvoir would be of interest, said Adams, a former Associate Director of the Quaker United Nations Office in New York (1981–1988).

Considered one of the most pre-eminent French existentialist philosophers and writers, Simone de Beauvoir, once famously remarked: “The point is not for women simply to take power out of men’s hands, since that wouldn’t change anything about the world. It’s a question precisely of destroying that notion of power”.

  

The post Women Will Not Reach Parity at the Pinnacle of Power for Another 130 Years, Predicts UN appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The UK on Thursday (11 March) bowed to pressure from businesses by again delaying customs checks on imports from the EU and elsewhere by six months, to January 2022.

Az orosz Szövetségi Biztonsági Szolgálat (FSZB) őrizetbe vett egy iskola elleni fegyveres támadás előkészítésével gyanúsított tizenévest Penzában.

Az FSZB közleménye szerint a 16 éves fiútól egy vadászfegyvert, kommunikációs eszközöket és robbanószerkezetek házi előállításához való útmutatást foglaltak le. Az orosz Nyomozó Bizottság (SZK) szerint a gyanúsított, aki ellenséges érzelmeket táplált az osztálytársaival szemben, áprilisban szándékozott végrehajtani a terrortámadást. Az őrizetbe vett tanuló elismerte, hogy meg akarta gyilkolni az osztálytársait és mindenki mást is, aki közbelépett volna. A fiúnak az iskolával egyébként nem voltak konfliktusai és bűnügyi nyilvántartásban sem szerepelt.

Az FSZB legutóbb január 21-én fogott el két 16 éves fiút a Moszkvához közeli Ljuberci járásban azzal a gyanúval, hogy iskola elleni fegyveres támadásra készültek. A kamaszokat, akik korábban szintén nem kerültek a biztonsági szervek látóterébe, az internetes kommunikációjuk alapján szűrték ki. A kamaszoktól két “lőfegyvernek látszó”, házi készítésű tárgyat, kilenc petárdát, fémlövedékeket, taktikai kesztyűt, fekete palástot, maszkot és egy Natural selection (természetes kiválasztódás) feliratú pólót foglaltak le.

Korábban december 9-én Tukában történt hasonló eset: ott az FSZB egy 18 éves fiataltól egy lefűrészelt csövű vadászfegyvert és iskolák elleni támadásokról szóló anyagokat foglalt le. Krasznojarszkban egy bíróság ugyanezen a napon elrendelte egy őrizetben lévő fiatal pszichiátriai kényszerkezelését. A Krasznojraszki terület Minuszinszk településéről származó fiút szeptemberben vette őrizetbe az FSZB azzal a gyanúval, hogy egy iskolai tanévnyitó ünnepségen készült támadást végrehajtani. Az akkori, a készülő pokolgépes támadás helyszínének megnevezését kerülő beszámoló szerint mintegy száz embert szándékozott megölni.

Tavaly szeptember elején az FSZB 13 olyan fiatalt fogott el, aki tanintézmények, forgalmas helyszínek és rendvédelmi szervek épületei ellen készült fegyveres támadásokat végrehajtani Oroszország több régiójában. Az szolgálat nem ismertette akkor az őrizetbe vettek korát és indítékait sem, csak annyit, hogy 11-en közülük egy zárt közösségimédia-csoport tagjai.

A tömeggyilkosságokat a gyanúsítottak robbanószerkezetekkel, gyújtókeverékekkel, valamint lő- és hidegfegyverekkel készültek végrehajtani. Az interneten hasonló támadások elkövetésére buzdítottak másokat is. A gyanúsítottaktól lefoglaltak négy, roncsoló elemekkel megtöltött, házi készítésű pokolgépet, ilyenek elkészítéséhez szükséges anyagokat és útmutatásokat, valamint támadási terveket tartalmazó naplókat, kommunikációs eszközöket és fegyvereket.

Orosz hírügynökségek szerint az FSZB ezt megelőzően csak 2020-ban nyolc, iskolák elleni támadást hiúsított meg Kosztromában, Sznyezsinszkben, Szaratovban, Kercsben, Szahalin szigetén, Krasznojarszkban, Tyumeny megyében és Volgográdban. Valamennyi gyanúsított fiatalabb volt 20 évesnél.

Nyikolaj Patrusev, az orosz biztonsági tanács titkára tavaly áprilisban kijelentette, hogy a fiatalok körében emiatt “fokozott érdeklődés” alakul ki a “schoolshooting” (iskolai lövöldözés) és a Columbine iránt. A tisztségviselő, aki korábban az orosz Szövetségi Biztonsági Szolgálat igazgatója is volt, ezzel a Colorado állambeli Columbine középiskolájában 1999. április 21-én történt ámokfutásra utalt, amikor két tizenéves lőfegyverrel, kézigránátokkal és plasztikbombákkal 13 embert ölt meg, majd öngyilkosságot követett el. A legsúlyosabb ilyen oroszországi támadás az Ukrajnától elcsatolt Krím-félszigeten, Kercs városában történt, ahol a 18 éves Vlagyiszlav Roszljakov 2018 októberében egy műszaki iskolában 15 tanulót és öt felnőttet ölt meg, majd önmagával is végzett.

The post Iskola elleni fegyveres támadást hiúsított meg Penzában az FSZB appeared first on .

Bei den zwei Landtagswahlen sowohl in Baden-Württemberg als auch in Rheinland-Pfalz am kommenden Sonntag, könnte der Skandal um die Beschaffung von Gesichtsmasken den deutschen Christdemokraten (CDU) zum Verhängnis werden.

La maire de Zurich Corine Mauch veut se représenter en 2022. «Je prends toujours autant de plaisir à faire ce travail passionnant et j’ai beaucoup d’énergie pour cela», a indiqué vendredi la sexagénaire socialiste, interrogée par le Tages-Anzeiger.

US-Präsident Joe Biden macht den Vereinigten Staaten in seiner ersten grossen Ansprache seit seiner Amtseinführung Hoffnung. Die Corona-Pandemie zu besiegen, sei zwar noch ein langer Weg, aber: «Es gibt Hoffnung und Licht.»

Health authorities in Denmark, Norway and Iceland on Thursday (11 March) suspended the use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine following reports of the formation of blood clots in some people who had been vaccinated. Austria earlier stopped using a batch of...

Tizenkettedik életévét be nem töltött gyermekek sérelmére elkövetett szexuális erőszak bűntette és személyi szabadság megsértése miatt emelt vádat a Veszprém Megyei Főügyészség egy férfival szemben, aki a felügyeletére bízott fiúgyermekekkel fajtalankodott.

A főügyészség azt közölte, hogy a 42 éves férfi, aki rokonságban áll az egyik sértett családjával, rábeszélte a gyermeket, hogy aludjon nála. A fiú egy barátját is magával hívta a férfi lakására, aki előbb vacsorával kínálta őket és játszott velük, majd a ház bejárati ajtaját kulcsra zárva, fajtalanságra akarta rábírni a gyermekeket, azzal fenyegetőzve, hogy amíg azt nem teszik meg, nem mehetnek sehová. A rémült sértetteket végül szexuális cselekményekre kényszerítette, majd a gyermekeket még azzal is megfenyegette, hogy megöli őket, ha a történteket bárkinek elmondják. A sértettek a házból másnap kora reggel tudtak elszökni, miután észrevették, hogy a férfi kiment az udvarra.

Az ügyészség a letartóztatásban lévő elkövetővel szemben fegyházbüntetés kiszabására és a közügyek gyakorlásától történő eltiltására tett indítványt a Veszprémi Törvényszéknek azzal, hogy a bíróság a vádlottat végleges hatállyal tiltsa el minden olyan foglalkozástól, illetve tevékenységtől, melynél tizennyolcadik életévét be nem töltött gyermek nevelését, felügyeletét, gondozását, gyógykezelését végezné, vagy kiskorúval hatalmi, befolyási viszonyba kerülne.

The post A felügyeletére bízott rokon kisfiúkkal fajtalankodott, vádat emeltek ellene appeared first on .

Neuseeland erinnert: In Christchurch findet am Freitag eine Gedenkfeier für die Opfer des rechtsextremen Anschlags auf zwei Moscheen vor zwei Jahren statt.

Erfolgreiches Börsendebut für den südkoreanischen Onlinehändler Coupang in New York: Der Eröffnungskurs an der Wall Street lag am Donnerstag (Ortszeit) mit 61,50 Dollar mehr als 81 Prozent über dem Ausgabepreis.

RKI meldet 252 weitere Todesfälle - Inzidenz bei 72,4.

Americas

US Air Force “Orange Flag” and “Black Flag” exercises this week tested mission planning with cross-domain data gathering, the Air Force said. The exercises involved the Air Force Test Center’s 412nd Test Wing, headquartered at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and the 53rd Wing of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, in achieving what the Air Force terms All-Domain Command and Control.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approved a request to extend the deployment of National Guard members in the Capitol through late May, the Department of Defense announced. Per a statement from Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, about 2,300 National Guard personnel will continue to support the mission, a reduction of about half of the current support force in the Capitol. On Monday a national security task force released a report, which said the US Capitol Police were “inadequately trained” to deal with the violent mob attack of Jan. 6.

Middle East & Africa

The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR) warned that the withdrawal of US contractors in May will have an enormous impact on the combat capabilities of the Afghan military. John Sopko says the Afghans rely on the Americans to carry out 100 percent of the maintenance work on the C-130 and Black Hawk helicopters. Without those contractors, those aircraft could only fly for a few months after their departure. He added that the departures “will negatively impact Afghan security forces, threaten the Afghan state and imperil own national security interests if Afghanistan should further destabilize.”

Europe

Denmark’s first F-35, L-001, has flown this week. The jet will be delivered to the Royal Danish Air Force in April and will be flown to Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, later this year for pilot and maintainer training. Lockheed Martin says the Danish Air Force will bring its F-35s back home in 2023 and be based at Royal Danish Air Force’s Fighter Wing Skrydstrup.

Asia-Pacific

Japanese media revealed that eight Japanese companies are participating in the development of the F-X fighter. The main contractor will be Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. IHI Corporation will develop the engine, Subaru and Kawasaki Heavy Industries will build the airframe, Mitsubishi Electric will take the electronic warfare system portion while Toshiba, Fujitsu and NEC will design the avionics and radar.

The Philippine Navy chief told Philippine News Agency (PNA) that his service will be acquiring only one battery of the Indian-made BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missile. One battery consists of three systems, Vice Adm. Giovanni Carlo Bacordo was quoted as saying. Each system has its own launcher with 2 to three missiles each. He added that the purchase is still awaiting approval from by the Commander-in-Chief.

Today’s Video

Watch: F-X Japanese 6th Generation Fighter Jet

Mintegy négyszáz doboz adózatlan cigarettát találtak a vámosok egy kamionban chipses zacskókba rejtve – közölte a Nemzeti Adó- és Vámhivatal (NAV).

Azt írták, hogy a pénzügyőrök az M1-es autópálya komáromi szakaszán egy Romániából Angliába tartó teherautót ellenőriztek, amikor ráakadtak a több mint félmillió forint értékű cigarettára. A cigaretta chipses zacskókból és a csomagokból került elő – tudatták, hozzátéve: a teherautó raktere mintegy ötszáz doboz sört is rejtett, aminek eredetét a sofőr nem tudta igazolni.

A NAV munkatársai a dohányterméket, valamint a sört lefoglalták, és jövedéki törvénysértés miatt eljárást indítottak – áll a közleményben.

The post Adózatlan cigarettát találtak a vámosok egy teherautón chipses zacskókba rejtve appeared first on .

The Tanzanian authorities have not published data on coronavirus infections or deaths for many months.

Dieter Bohlen war 19 Jahre lang fester Bestandteil der «DSDS»-Jury. Die Sendung ohne Bohlen? Für viele unvorstellbar. Jetzt wird deutlich: RTL wollte den Poptitan nicht mehr in der Show.

A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent.