15 June 2015

SHARES News Items Overview: 16 May 2015-15 June 2015

This is our News Items Overview of 16 May 2015-15 June 2015, a summary of recent news relating to shared responsibility.

• The Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime stressed the cross-border nature of migrant smuggling, saying: ‘Our responses [must be] integrated and inclusive, uniting countries of origin, transit and destination, based on the principle of shared responsibility.’
• Responding to reports suggesting that Indonesian and Malaysian authorities have pushed back boats carrying numerous migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection said ‘[i]nstead of competing to avoid responsibility, it is key for States to share the responsibility to disembark these people immediately’.
• The UN Secretary-General emphasised the importance of addressing the challenge of migration, in the Mediterranean and in Southeast Asia, in his speech to the European Parliament. He stressed that ‘Europe has an important role to play and a collective responsibility to act.’
• The President of the UNGA said that to achieve the UNAIDS Fast-Track Targets – which seek to eradicate the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030 – will require ‘increased resources and investment, global solidarity, [and] shared responsibility‘.
• Ban Ki-moon visited Central Asia ‘to support and promote a common response to the many cross-border challenges the region faces, including environmental issues, water … and trans-boundary crime’. On the post-2015 development agenda, he said: ‘This will be a universal agenda with responsibilities for all countries – developed and developing.’