The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) “does not constitute a public health emergency of international concern”, according to a statement issued on Friday by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Top news on Friday included: a call for respect for human rights in Sudan’s protests; the 25th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda; five years since the Chibok girls were abducted in Nigeria; the UN chief condemning a deadly terrorist attack in Pakistan; continued fighting in Libya’s capital; and an update on Colombia’s peace process.
“Miraculously I had no machete marks” a survivor of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda told a solemn United Nations event in New York on Friday, 25 years on, to remember the systematic killing of more than one million people, over less than three months.
Sudan’s military has an “overarching duty” to refrain from using violence against protesters and ensure that their human rights are protected amid concerns of a further escalation, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Friday.
On Thursday, the Security Council looked at the key role played by women in the UN’s peacekeeping operations. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange could be exposed to “serious human rights violations”, following his arrest in the United Kingdom, according a UN independent human rights expert. Fighting continues to escalate in Tripoli, Libya, and in Idlib, Syria, and 10,000 conflict-affected people were forcibly relocated in Nigeria and are in dire need of humanitarian aid.
UN chief António Guterres said on Thursday that the “democratic aspirations of the Sudanese people” need to be realized through “an appropriate and inclusive transition process”, following the overthrow and arrest of President Omar al-Bashir by order of the country’s new military governing council.
Pointing to climate change, inequalities and other serious challenges, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told a forum on Thursday Development that “the clock is ticking” down, to making the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Women’s rights, voices and participation must be at “the centre of peacekeeping decision-making”, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday, describing them as “central to sustainable solutions” to challenges facing the Organization worldwide.
Independent UN rights experts on Thursday said the arrest of Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange by police in the United Kingdom, after the Ecuadorian Government decided to stop granting him asylum in their London embassy, exposed him to “the risk of serious human rights violations”, if extradited to the United States.
Speaking to reporters outside the Security Council in New York on Wednesday night, UN chief António Guterres said there was still time for a “bloody battle for Tripoli” to be avoided, despite the continuing fighting in and around the Libyan capital.
