Category: Legal Rights

GENAVA — The 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council overwhelmingly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It voted Friday to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate violations of human rights and international humanitarian law resulting from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

The U.N. Human Rights Council adopted the resolution by a vote of 32 in favor, 13 abstentions and two against. Only Russia and Eritrea voted no to condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In an indication of how isolated Russia has become, even stalwart allies — China, Cuba, and Venezuela — chose to abstain rather than stand shoulder to shoulder with Moscow in rejecting the resolution.

While Belarus is not a member of the council, it took the floor in defense of its Russian ally. Belarus Counselor Andrei Taranda also took the occasion to deflect criticism against his country’s alliance with Moscow.

“A number of Western countries condemned Belarus for, as they put it, supporting the aggression against Ukraine. But let us be honest with ourselves. Who is fueling the flames of conflict in Ukraine? Unlike the co-sponsors of the resolution, Belarus is not sending weapons or mercenaries to the conflict zone. And there are no Belarusian soldiers on Ukrainian soil,” said Taranda, speaking through an interpreter.

The claim that no Belarusian soldiers are in Ukraine cannot be independently confirmed.

Conversely, Taranda said, Poland reportedly already has let 200 mercenaries into Ukraine, without citing evidence of this claim.

The Belarusian statement had little traction in the council. Country after country from all regions of the world — Europe, Africa, Asia, South America — rose to condemn Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

Ambassador Sheba Crocker, U.S. representative to the U.N. and other international organizations in Geneva, said Russia must be held to account for its senseless, premeditated and unprovoked military attack on Ukraine.

“With millions of civilian lives at stake, Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian alike — as Russian troops open fire on the streets of Kyiv, as they drop bombs on residential buildings in populated areas, as they shell kindergarten students in their schools — Russia must be held to account by this council,” Crocker said.

The Human Rights Council resolution calls on the commission of inquiry to investigate all alleged violations and abuses of human rights stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It charges the commission to collect, analyze, and safeguard all evidence to be used in any future legal proceedings that may result from its probe.

Source: Voice of America

World Wildlife Day has been declared to celebrate the beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora and to raise people’s awareness of the benefits of their conservation. It also reminds us of the urgent need to step up efforts to protect wildlife against criminals and human-induced reduction of species, which have wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts.

The Earth is home to countless species, too many to even attempt counting, of fauna and flora. Historically, we have depended on the constant interplay and interlinkages between all elements of the biosphere for all our needs: the air we breathe, the food we eat, the energy we use, and the materials we need for all purposes.

International days are occasions to educate the public on issues of concern, mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and celebrate and reinforce the achievements of humanity. In view of this, assessing the status of wildlife in Eritrea on the occasion of World Wildlife Day is imperative.

Globally, managing wildlife and its habitat involves people and organizations in a range of ways. History reveals that in Africa ever since the existence of humans, conservation of natural resources was considered part of their culture. In those days there was no overexploitation of the natural resources of the environment. They practiced subsistence farming, and people only took what they could consume. Hence, Africans coexisted with their ecosystem in harmony for centuries without destroying their environment.

However, with the era of colonization and industrialization, things started to change. The natural ecosystem that had existed began to take a new shape and much of Africa’s forests and wildlife began to be destroyed for different purposes. Overexploitation of the environment and natural resources jeopardized biodiversity. Consequently, the sense of ownership and conservation was lost. Hence, a lot of wild animals were killed and poaching became a common phenomenon. Nowadays, the illegal appropriation of wildlife is moving at an alarming rate and conservationists believe that unless mitigation measures are taken, nearly a quarter of all the species are likely to become extinct in the coming decades.

Wildlife in Eritrea was not exceptional to the fate of wildlife in other countries of Africa. Similar disasters were seen in Eritrea during the colonial era and the war of independence. In pre-colonial Eritrea, 30% of the land was covered with forest and there were many wild animals. Upon independence, which came after colonization and successive wars, forestation was reduced to below 2%. As a consequence of this, the overall number and species of wild animals in Eritrea has diminished significantly. And some disappeared altogether. Deforestation was intensified and a number of precious wildlife species became extinct. These include Rhinoceros, Giraffe, Hippopotamus and Gravy Zebra while other remaining wildlife species were at the brink of extinction when Eritrea gained its independence.

Nonetheless, after Eritrea’s independence and the subsequent peace, security and stability in the country, the government and people of Eritrea have given due attention to the conservation of wildlife.

To reverse the adverse environmental situation and eventually recover the status of wildlife, relentless endeavors continue to be made and promising achievements have been attained. The commitment of the government to promote conservation is demonstrated through its public awareness campaigns and capacity building and institutional arrangements for the conservation of wildlife. The intervention has shown promising results in the variety of species, their distribution and the population of wildlife. A report from Forestry and Wildlife Authority shows that the number of wildlife in Eritrea is increasing significantly. The revival of globally endangered species of wildlife (IUCN Red lists) such as African Elephant (Loxodonta africana), African Wild Ass (Equus Africanus), Nubian Ibex (Capra ibex nubiana) and Eritrean Gazelle (Eudorcas tilonura) in the soil of Eritrea is evident.

The theme for this year’s World Wildlife Day, which is celebrated on 3 March, is ‘Safeguarding Key Species for Ecosystem Restoration.’

The Government and people of Eritrea work to restore degraded ecosystems and promote the recovery of wildlife, in general, and endangered and vulnerable species, in particular. We should remember that we are holding biodiversity in trust, and we, therefore, have the moral obligation to ensure the continued existence of wildlife that we should pass on to future generations.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

GENEVA — The U.N. Human Rights Council has overwhelmingly approved a request to hold an urgent debate later this week on the crisis in Ukraine stemming from the Russian invasion of that country.

The proposal was approved by 29 countries in the 47-member council. Thirteen countries abstained and five – China, Cuba, Eritrea, Russia and Venezuela, voted against the proposal.

The vote took place after an impassioned plea by Yevheniia Filipenko, Ukrainian ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva. She called on the Council to hold Russia accountable for what she called an unprovoked, unjustified attack on her country.

In just four days, she said the toll of destruction in Ukraine has become devastating. She said 352 people, including 16 children, have been killed, and some 1,700 people have been wounded, including 160 children. She said Russian bombing of civilian infrastructure, roads and bridges has left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity and water and cut off communities.

“Russian forces attempt to sow panic among the population by specifically targeting kindergartens and orphanages, hospitals, and mobile medical aid brigades, thus committing acts that may amount to war crimes. And Ukraine has filed the case against Russia in the International Court of Justice to bring Russia to account,” said Filipenko.

The Russian ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, accused Ukraine of committing multiple atrocities against people living in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk and Lukansk regions. He speaks through an interpreter.

Gatilov said, ”Before us we have nothing other than the usual attempt of Kyiv to distract attention, the attention of the international community away from what they have been doing for nearly eight years now, which is the targeted destruction of completely innocent people in Donetsk and Lukansk—women, children and the elderly.”

Since 2014, more than 14,000 people in Donetsk and Luhansk have been killed in fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces. Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the two rebel republics a week ago.

Western governments condemned this action. They said Putin’s decision to send so-called peacekeepers to safeguard the sovereignty and independence of this separatist region was a pretext to invade Ukraine.

The Human Rights Council opened a five-week session Monday. It has decided to hold the urgent debate on the “situation of human rights in Ukraine stemming from the Russian aggression” on Thursday.

This follows a three-day high-level segment with the participation of heads of state and other dignitaries from more than 140 countries.

Source: Voice of America

Decreasing the usage of plastic and increasing its recycling is the aim of a resolution being presented at a United Nations Environment Program conference that opens Monday in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. According to the UNEP, 300,000 tons of plastic are produced yearly, and only 10 percent recycled, contributing to environmental pollution that, according to the UNEP, is reaching critical levels.

On the Dandora dumping site in Nairobi, visitors can see a hilly landscape full of decades of garbage and plastics generated from the city. People are sifting through the smelly waste with their bare hands, looking for something to sell or eat.

On this particular day, the site gets a visit from Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, along with the UNEP assembly president, Espen Barth Eide. They are inspecting piles of blue and transparent plastics that are baking in the sun. According to the UNEP, only 10 percent of global plastic production is recycled, while the rest risks polluting the environment. The UNEP says plastics even enter the human body. Espen Barth Eide took a blood test.

“We found nano plastic traces and also phthalates, a chemical product that we use to soften plastic, in my blood, and I don’t think my blood is unique and I think this is true for all of us on the planet,” said Eide.

The UNEP is looking for a solution to the issue of increased plastic waste collection, preventing it from ending up in nature or on dumping sites.

Twenty-year-old Isaac is a garbage picker on the Dandora dumping site. He collects a lot of plastic here for selling, like bottles, known here as chupas.

“Even bottles, chupas of soda. These plastic papers and plastic chupas like water, Omo, yogurt, all of it,” he said.

The UNEP’s Andersen says a lot more plastic will have to be collected for recycling purposes to keep the environment clean.

“We understand we need plastic. We take it from the belly of the Earth with hydrocarbon, said Andersen. “We make it into plastic. But once it is in the economy, let us not put it back into the environment; let us keep it in the economy.”

At a recycling plant in Nairobi, plastic waste is turned into polythene bags and bricks which are offered on the market. It can be seen as a sign that the process has started, but for the UNEP, it must be accelerated for a cleaner world.

Source: Voice OF America