This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.
Negotiated two-State solution still “the only option” for Palestine: Guterres
Resolving the question of Palestine rests on a two-State solution, and “containing the situation is not sufficient,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said today, in commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
Marked annually on 29 November, the General Assembly adopted the resolution calling for the partition of Palestine 70 years ago, and on the anniversary in 1977, declared the annual observance of the Day of Solidarity.
Mr. Guterres called on Palestinian and Israeli leaders to recommit to the establishment of a sovereign and independent state of Palestine.
“I call on all actors, and first and foremost the leadership of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, to take bold steps and restore faith in the promise of Resolution 181, of two states living side-by-side in peace and security, fulfilling the legitimate national aspirations of both peoples, with borders based on the 1967 lines and Jerusalem as the capital of both states – East Jerusalem being the capital of the Palestinian state. It is the only way to achieve the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people."
Malaria control campaign launched to save lived and fight Ebola in the Congo
In response to a spike in Malaria cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), health workers are carrying out a four-day mass drugs treatment campaign in the Northern Kivu province town of Beni.
The campaign, supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is set to reach up to 450,000 people with anti-malarial drugs, and distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets in the area, which is also presently battling a major Ebola outbreak.
Many suspected cases of Ebola have turned out to be malaria, as both have similar early symptoms. For this reason, the anti-malaria campaign is geared toward prevention of malaria transmission at large, as well as curtailing its transmission among Ebola-affected populations, to lessen the burden on already strained Ebola treatment facilities.
North Kivu province has seen approximately 2,000 registered cases of malaria per week as of early September, and was the epicenter of an Ebola outbreak announced in August that has so far led to 236 deaths.
UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria pushes for answers to detained and missing persons
And in Syria, the UN Commission of Inquiry is stressing the need for the Syrian State to account for the fate and whereabouts of detained and missing individuals across the country.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate violations of international law there, stated in a brief advocacy paper today, that many Syrian families learned the fate of their missing relatives for the first time in May.
State entities turned information over to the Government in the same month, indicating that many of those missing had in fact died..
Commission Chair, Paul Pinheiro said that “the release this year of what may amount to thousands or tens of thousands of names of allegedly deceased detainees and/or missing persons is unprecedented.”
Most deaths of individuals in custody are thought to have occurred in detention centres run by Syrian intelligence or military agencies, the commission says.
Natalie Hutchison, UN News.
