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22 NOV 2024 · UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini today (13 Nov) said the objective of the campaign to delegitimize the agency “is to strip the Palestinian from the refugee statue,” and “to undermine and to bury once for all the two-state solution.”
Talking to journalists in New York after briefing the General Assembly’s Fourth Committee, Lazzarini said, “we are experiencing the darkest moment for the agency in 75 years,” stressing that UNRWA staff, premises, and operation, have been under “attack.”
He said, “in addition of that, there have been intense and aggressive campaign of disinformation reaching out of a donor capital to delegitimize the agency. And the latest development has been the adoption of the Knesset bill.”
Lazzarini said, “UNRWA is a casualty of this war. Let's do no mistake. The intention to undermine the agency are politically motivated. They have nothing to do with breaches of neutrality.”
He said, “if you get rid of an agency like ours, what will happen once we have a cease fire? What will bring back the hundreds of thousands of girls and boys currently living into rubble, into a learning environment? Only a functioning state can provide this education. I know that when it comes to primary health, the same questions are being asked.”
The Commissioner-General vowed that UNRWA will continue operating “until the day we cannot operate anymore.”
He said, “our determination is not to give in to our mandate to deliver services, and we will deliver such services until we are forced to stop these services. When will it be? I hope never. Now, what will happen after the 90 days, I do not have a straight answer. I think very few of us know. If we have a no contact policy in a place like Gaza, that means we will not be able to deconflict or coordinate any of our movement. So, it will make our operation extraordinarily challenging.”
Asked about the right of return of Palestinian Refugees, Lazzarini said it is “a political right which needs to be addressed in a political solution. So UNRWA as an agency has absolutely nothing to do with this question.”
On 28 October, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, voted in favour of legislation targeting UNRWA, which could effectively bring its operations in the occupied Palestinian territories to a halt.
243 staff have been killed so far in Gaza since the beginning of the war.
Palestinian Ambassador, Riyad Mansour, Israeli Ambassador, Danny Danon, and Lebanese Ambassador, delivered speeches at UNSC Moot.
UN Security Council members urged increased humanitarian aid for Gaza, as the death toll surpasses 43,000 and displacement reaches catastrophic levels.
MPs speak with reporters on Parliament Hill as they convene for the daily question period in the House of Commons. Minister Karina Gould (government House leader) comments on the ongoing debate over a Conservative privilege motion that continues to stall work in the House of Commons. Now nearing its two month mark, the debate stems from a House order concerning the production of government documents related to the now-defunct Sustainable Development Technology Canada.
NDP MPs Blake Desjarlais, Leah Gazan, Minister Steve MacKinnon (labour) and Liberal MP Yvan Baker face questions on calls for Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault to resign over Boissonnault’s shifting claims regarding his family’s Indigenous ancestry.
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15 NOV 2024 · Online forum on the War and occupation of Lebanon on remembrance day to end wars on these traditional, occupied, ancestral, and unceded national homelands of the Coast Salish peoples – specifically the sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations.
Moderator:
Imtiaz Popat: Activist, journalist, filmmaker, founder of Coalition Against Bigotry-Pacific.
Guests:
Ghinwa Yassine: Labanese Canadian anti-disciplinary artist, based on the unceded Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-waututh people.
Her work includes film, installation, performance, sound, text, and sculpture, text, and is concerned with the body as a site where personal and collective memory manifest.
Hadani Ditmars: Lebanese Canadian author, journalist, and photographer Hadani Ditmars has reported from Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, and Iraq, often examining the human costs of sectarian strife as well as cultural resistance to war, occupation and embargo.
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9 NOV 2024 · Occupied Palestinian Territory
In Gaza city the UN along with our partners, are providing services to tens of thousands of people, including those displaced over the past four weeks from besieged North Gaza.
Yesterday, one of the UN’s local partners was able to collect solid waste that has piled up along Tareq Bin Zeyad street. In multiple locations, partners are providing mental health and psychosocial support sessions, including for people newly displaced from North Gaza Governorate.
However, what the humanitarian community is able to deliver falls far short of the massive needs in Gaza. Once again, OCHA calls for rapid, unimpeded humanitarian relief into and across the Strip.
International humanitarian law demands that civilians have access to the essentials they need to survive: food, shelter, medical care and other critical assistance. Humanitarian also stress that civilians in the north and across Gaza must be protected.
And turning to the West Bank, OCHA reports that multiple operations by Israeli forces in the north this week included air strikes and other lethal war-like tactics, which appear to exceed law enforcement standards. According to initial information, eight Palestinians were killed and four others injured during Tuesday’s operations in Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarm.
Meanwhile, OCHA says that from 29 October to 4 November, Israeli settlers carried out 35 attacks against Palestinians that caused casualties or property damage, including to olive trees that were vandalized.
Since 1 October, OCHA has documented 177 settler incidents directly related to the olive harvest in 73 communities across the West Bank, most of which caused casualties or property damage.
Operations by Israeli forces and movement restrictions have made access to health care across the West Bank increasingly challenging since October of last year, particularly in refugee camps and Area C.
The UN and its partners, are responding by scaling up support to communities, including by providing more than 36,000 primary health-care consultations across refugee camps and through mobile health clinics in Area C last month.
The UN Population Fund is also supporting mobile health teams, but funding shortfalls are a growing problem.
UNFPA warns that without renewed funding, 96 Palestinians communities could lose out on these important services next year.
Gaza/IPC report
According to an alert issued by the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee, there is a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas within the northern Gaza Strip.
The alert further underscored that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is extremely grave and rapidly deteriorating, as we have just detailed. Immediate action, within days not weeks, is required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or who have influence on its conduct, to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation.
So, this is what I have on this, the full report is now online and available and includes of course a lot more details.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon...
Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister and minister of finance, speaks with reporters on Parliament Hill after chairing the first meeting of the revived Cabinet Committee on Canada-U.S. Relations. She is joined by Mélanie Joly, the minister of foreign affairs.
The Prime Minister’s Office announced it would re-establish the committee in the wake of Donald Trump securing a second term as president of the United States.
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8 NOV 2024 · MPs speak with reporters on Parliament Hill as they convene for the daily question period in the House of Commons. Ministers Steven Guilbeault (environment), Marci Ien (women and gender equality) and Sean Fraser (housing) as well as Liberal MPs Rob Oliphant, Ben Carr, Adam van Koeverden, Salma Zahid, Sean Casey, Chris Bittle and Yvan Baker comment on the election of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States and the impact it may have on Canada-U.S. relations
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7 NOV 2024 · Vice President Kamala Harris said her heart is "full of resolve" after losing the presidential election to former President Donald Trump.
"My heart is full today -- full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, full of love for our country, and full of resolve," Harris said Wednesday at her alma mater, Howard University, in Washington, D.C.
"The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for. But ... the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up," Harris said.
#kamalaharris #politics #news #fypage #fyp #election2024 #election
FOX 9 is your source for breaking news, live events, investigations, politics, entertainment, business news and local stories from Minneapolis-St. Paul, the greater Twin Cities metro, Greater Minnesota, western Wisconsin and across the nation. FOX 9 is the Official Home of the Minnesota Vikings and proud partner of University of Minnesota Golden Gophers AthleticsMedia Stakeout by Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, accompanied by guest Mia Schem, on the situation in the Middle East ahead of the informal meeting of the General Assembly.
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1 NOV 2024 · Torture & Inhuman Treatment - Special Rapporteur | Press Conference | United Nations
Hybrid briefing by Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Sudan & South Sudan - UN Chief's Briefing | United Nations
"Madam President, Excellencies,
I thank the Council for the opportunity to discuss the utter humanitarian catastrophe engulfing Sudan.
Eighteen months have passed since brutal fighting erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces.
The suffering is growing by the day, with almost 25 million people now requiring assistance.
The people of Sudan are living through a nightmare of violence — with thousands of civilians killed, and countless others facing unspeakable atrocities, including widespread rape and sexual assaults.
In recent days, we have heard shocking reports of mass killings and sexual violence in villages in Aj Jazirah State in the east of the country.
Gaza: time is slipping away as has turned the strip into abyss - Briefing | United Nations
Briefing the Security Council, the United Nations Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag today (16 Sep) called for an immediate ceasefire and unconditional release of all hostages as well as unrestricted humanitarian access. She said, “time is slipping away as a man-made humanitarian crisis has turned Gaza into the abyss.”
Kaag said “the continued lack of effective protection for civilians in Gaza is unconscionable” and stressed that “the infrastructure that civilians rely on must be protected and their essential needs met.”
The humanitarian official said, “the outbreak of polio is also a stark reminder of the desolate conditions of life in the Gaza Strip. Given the ongoing hostilities, the lack of a proper enabling environment, effective deconfliction, and timely implementation of commitments made, the UN and partners remain constrained in their ability to address this catastrophic situation.”
Francesca Albanese : "Gaza is now a wasteland of rubble, garbage and human remains"
Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, presented her latest report to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 30 October 2024.
The Special Rapporteur is part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Comprising the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, Special Procedures is the general name of the Council's independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
The Human Rights Council is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly.
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19 OCT 2024 · Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon speech & UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, addresses reporters ahead of the critical Security Council meeting on the Middle East, focusing on the Palestinian issue. Watch as Danon outlines Israel’s stance and key topics expected to be discussed in this high-stakes session. Stay tuned for the Security Council meeting that follows, covering the region.
Transcribed
18 OCT 2024
Transcribed
11 OCT 2024 · Violence against Women and Girls - Press conference by Special rapporteur
Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem said, “Violence against women and girls in sport is a serious, systemic and systematic human rights issue that demands immediate attention at all levels.”
Addressing reporters today (8 Oct) on Violence against Women and Girls in sport, Alsalem explored the forms, causes and consequences of violence against women and girls in sports, including sexual violence, coercion, gender pay gap, gender stereotypes, patriarchal structures, abusive coaches, and the general absence of robust policies and mechanisms to address abuses and protect victims.
She said, “Women and girls in sport face multiple forms of violence - and I outlined them in the report - economic forms of violence, physical, psychological, coercive control, online violence and also for children, girls, they face neglect, particularly in some sports such as gymnastics.”
She also said, “The report also describes the most common perpetrators of violence and their accomplices, which include state and non-state actors. So, I speak about coaches, professional colleagues, family members, managers, spectators, policy makers. And I assert within that conversation that states can also be considered complicit when they fail to prevent, prosecute and sanction acts of violence against women and girls in sport.”
She continued, “Their ability to play sports in condition of safety, dignity and fairness has been further eroded by the intrusion of males who identify as female in female only sports categories and spaces.”
She concluded, “Impunity fosters the culture of silence and injustice, and that is brought about in part by the autonomous regulatory frameworks of sports organizations that we have, which non sufficiently incorporated human rights lens or framework in the work, and they tend to prioritize reputation and winning over justice and accountability to victims.”
The Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council are independent human rights experts with mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective.
Liberals on Poilievre’s stance on Iran, Conservative privilege motion
Ministers and Liberal MPs speak with reporters on Parliament Hill as the federal party holds its weekly caucus meeting. Ministers Mélanie Joly (foreign affairs), Rob Oliphant (parliamentary secretary to foreign affairs minister) as well as MPs Fayçal El-Khoury and Ben Carr comment on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s support for a pre-emptive Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Joly, Oliphant and El-Khoury also face questions on the federal government’s efforts to evacuate Canadian citizens from Lebanon.
Additionally, Joly urges Canadians in Florida to follow the evacuation orders of U.S. authorities as Hurricane Milton approaches the state’s coast.
Karina Gould (government House leader), François-Philippe Champagne (innovation), Jean-Yves Duclos (public services) and El-Khoury comment on negotiations with the Bloc Québécois to reach an agreement to ensure the survival of the minority Liberal government.
Gould, Champagne, Duclos and Francis Drouin also discuss the Conservative privilege motion on obtaining government documents pertaining to Sustainable Development Technology Canada.
Champagne, Duclos also comment on the Senate’s study of Bill C-282, the Bloc Québécois private member’s bill on supply management. The Bloc has made support of the government contingent upon the passage of this bill.
Pascale St-Onge (heritage), Randy Boissonnault (employment), Marc Miller (immigration), Steven Guilbeault (environment), Sean Casey, Yvan Baker, Anthony Housefather and Carr also respond to questions on topics ranging from changes to the CBC’s mandate, the government’s response to Jasper wildfire recovery effort and the rise in antisemitism.
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11 OCT 2024 · Middle East situation: UN Chief's Media Stakeout
Secretary-General António Guterres today (8 Oct) told journalists the United Nations Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA) “more than ever is indispensable” and “irreplaceable” and said he had “written directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express profound concern about draft legislation that could prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Such a measure, the Secretary-General said, “would suffocate efforts to ease human suffering and tensions in Gaza, and indeed, the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory,” and would be a “catastrophe in what is already an unmitigated disaster.”
Guterres said the legislation “would likely deal a terrible blow to the international humanitarian response in Gaza,” and “would effectively end coordination to protect UN convoys, offices and shelters serving hundreds of thousands of people.” Gaza’s 660,000 children, he said, “would lose the only entity that is able to re-start education, risking the fate of an entire generation.”
If approved, Guterres stressed, “such legislation would be diametrically opposed to the UN Charter and in violation of Israel’s obligations under international law.”
The Secretary-General said in Gaza’s north, “we are witnessing a clear intensification of military operations by Israel. Residential areas have been attacked. Hospitals ordered to evacuate. And electricity cut off – with no fuel or commercial goods allowed in.”
Around 400,000 people, he added, “are being pressed yet again to move south to an area that is overcrowded, polluted and lacking the basics for survival.”
Guterres said, “there is something fundamentally wrong in the way this war is being conducted. Ordering civilians to evacuate does not keep them safe if they have no safe place to go and no shelter, food, medicine or water. No place is safe in Gaza, and no one is safe. International law is unambiguous: civilians everywhere must be respected and protected – and their essential needs must be met, including through humanitarian assistance.”
He said, “the conflict in the Middle East is getting worse by the hour -- and our warnings about the horrific impacts of escalation keep coming to pass. Every air strike, every missile launch, every rocket fired, pushes peace further out of reach and makes the suffering even worse for the millions of civilians caught in the middle. That is why we cannot and will not give up on our calls for an immediate ceasefire both in Gaza and Lebanon, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages, and immediate lifesaving aid to all those who desperately need it.”
PM Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre attend commemorative event on anniversary of Oct. 7 attack
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre deliver remarks at a commemorative event with the Jewish community. The event comes at the one-year anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas against Israel.
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This a series of conversations around government policy and our rights. We are trying to report information to listeners about what is happening with government and communities
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| Author | Michael Clogs |
| Organization | Depictions Media |
| Categories | Politics |
| Website | depictions.media |
| michael@depictionsmedia.com |
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