15 September 2014

SHARES News Items Overview: 16 August 2014-15 September 2014

This is our News Items Overview of 16 August 2014-15 September 2014, a summary of recent news relating to shared responsibility.

• Ban Ki-moon welcomed the destruction of Syria’s declared chemical weapons material, saying this ‘marks a significant achievement in the international community’s efforts to eliminate the chemical weapons programme’ following the US-Russian framework agreement. He commended the member states that provided crucial support, as well as the UN-OPCW Joint Mission.
• Expressing its ‘gravest concern’ that parts of Iraq and Syria are under the control of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front, the Security Council placed six individuals affiliated with the terrorist groups on its Al-Qaida sanctions list and threatened measures against those who finance, recruit or supply weapons.
• The outcome document of the third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), under ‘Oceans and Seas’, at para. 58(m) provides: ‘we strongly support action to urge cooperation from the international community in implementing shared responsibilities under Regional Fisheries Management Organisations and Arrangements, to enable SIDS to benefit from and sustainably manage straddling and highly migratory fish stocks covered by those RFMOs’.
• German Foreign Minister Steinmeier said that Berlin had a shared responsibility to support the Kurdish forces in their war against the Islamic State (IS), adding that Europe cannot be indifferent to their advance.
• Voicing grave concern over the reported access to and seizure of oilfields and pipelines in Syria and Iraq by the ISIL and Jabhat Al-Nusra, the Security Council emphasised that any engagement in direct or indirect trade of oil from Syria and Iraq involving terrorist groups, constitutes financial support for terrorists.
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, condemned the appalling and horrific crimes against humanity being committed daily in Iraq by the ISIL and associated armed groups, saying that ‘the international community must take all necessary measures and spare no effort to protect members of ethnic and religious communities’.
• Reportedly, in a regional power struggle set off by Arab Spring revolts, Egypt and The United Arab Emirates have launched two series of airstrikes against Islamist-allied militias in a bid for control over Tripoli, Libya.
• The number of people killed in Syria is double the number documented a year ago, Navi Pillay announced, criticising the international community for its failure to stop the ‘killers, destroyers and torturers’ that have torn the country apart. She also castigated the Security Council for failing to take action to stop the violence.
• Britain is reportedly to spearhead a 10,000-strong NATO joint expeditionary force, aimed at bolstering the West’s capabilities in response to Russia’s recent actions in Ukraine.
• President Obama announced that nine NATO allies have agreed to join the US in order to form a coalition to fight the IS in Iraq and Syria.
• Foreign Ministers of the Arab League vowed to take all necessary measures to combat the IS group while agreeing to cooperate with all international and regional efforts.
• Ban Ki-moon vowed to mobilise the UN in every possible way to respond to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and issued an ‘international rescue call’ for a massive surge in assistance.
• The UN Secretary-General voiced his alarm at the announcement by Israeli authorities to declare nearly 1,000 acres of land in Bethlehem as so-called ‘state land’. He called on Israel to ‘heed the calls of the international community’ to refrain from settlement activity and abide by its commitments under international law and the Quartet Road Map.