Tag Archives: Europe
29 May 2015
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 in Brussels. Around 1,800 had drowned in the Mediterranean this year already, which was a 20-fold increase on 2014. He stressed that ‘Europe has an important role to play and a collective responsibility to act.’ ‘Saving lives should be the top priority’, he said, adding ‘[a]nd while we need to see more effective law enforcement actions against traffickers and smugglers, we also need safer alternatives to dangerous voyages, as well as legal channels such as resettlement, family reunification and work and study visas.’ (more…)
Source: UN News Centre | Ban tells European Parliament to work together to address challenge of migration
Source: UNSG | Statement | Secretary-General's remarks to the European Parliament | Brussels | 27 May 2015
8 February 2015
In December 2014, the United Nations reported that in the previous months hundreds of civilians had been killed in the struggle between armed militias in Libya, and that the acts of the militias might amount to crimes against humanity. It seems like a déjà vu. In February 2011, a popular uprising started in Libya and was brutally repressed by the regime of Colonel Qadhafi, who was eventually charged with committing crimes against humanity. The UN Security Council decided to authorize the use of military force on humanitarian grounds, in order to protect civilians. The ensuing NATO operation, which lasted from March to October 2011, resulted in the fall of the Qadhafi regime and in the establishment of a transitional government, which pledged full respect for human rights and international law. So, what has gone wrong – and what responsibility does the international community carry? (more…)
26 February 2014
On 24 February 2014 Dieder Burkhalter, Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and president of the Swiss Confederation, in a briefing to the UN Security Council, urged that security in Europe cannot be taken for granted, in light of the escalation of violence and political crisis in Ukraine. (more…)
Source: UN News Centre | Head of European security bloc outlines areas for greater collaboration with UN
27 July 2012
As part of U.S. efforts to fight drugs, an elite unit of Ghana’s counternarcotics police is trained by U.S. officials. There are plans to train other counternarcotics police squads in Kenya and Nigeria under the so-called ‘West Africa Cooperative Security Initiative’.
(West) Africa is increasingly seen as ‘the new frontier’ in terms of counternarcotics, since cartels from Latin American are more and more using pooly governed states in Africa to smuggle cocaine into Europe.
Source: New York Times | U.S. Drug War Expands to Africa, a Newer Hub for Cartels
29 March 2012
The European rapporteur charged with investigating the case of 63 African migrants who were “left to die” in the Mediterranean last year has warned those responsible could end up in court. On Wednesday, the Guardian revealed the findings of a damning official report into the fateful voyage, which saw the sub-Saharan refugees drifting in the sea for two weeks while dying of thirst and starvation, even though their boat had been located by European authorities and emergency distress calls had been issued to all other ships in the area. The report blamed a collective set of “human, institutional and legal” failures for the inaction, labelling it a “dark day for Europe” and concluding that large loss of life could have been avoided if the various agencies in the area – NATO, its warships, the Italian coastguard and individual European states – had fulfilled their basic obligations.
Source: The Guardian | Migrant boat disaster: those responsible 'could face legal action'