Tag Archives: Mali
23 May 2014
On 16 May, the United Nations and the European Union entered into an agreement to finance the restoration of the cultural heritage in Timbuktu, which was destroyed by armed groups after clashes in 2012 between the Malian Government forces and Tuareg rebels. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will coordinate the restoration project and train local personnel in order to ensure enduring preservation. The EU will contribute to the restoration by providing 500,000 euros. The heritage project will be directed in collaboration with the Malian Ministry of Culture, Higher Education and Scientific Research. The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) will provide logistical aid. (more…)
Source: UN News Centre | Mali: UN, European Union team up to restore Timbuktu’s cultural heritage
5 March 2014
While the US military involvement in Africa, Niger in particular, seeks to combat Islamist militants, the government does not want to put a lot of soldiers and money into the African region. Therefore, the Obama administration focuses their involvement on training and advising African troops, and providing assistance to European allies that have forces in the region as well. Part of the US mission in Niger is to train African troops to conduct combat patrols and how to foil terrorist ambushes, however, the US also helped organise a medical clinic in a nearby village. The US has spent USD 33 million in the past two years on building Niger’s counterterrorism abilities and providing equipment. Additionally, the US mission also focuses on assisting its European allies in the region, for example, the US has provided intelligence to France, which has soldiers in Mali. (more…)
Source: The New York Times | U.S. Takes Training Role in Africa as Threats Grow and Budgets Shrink
24 January 2014
Noting that ‘terrorists and other armed groups’ appear to have gained the ability to operate in northern Mali, the United Nations Security Council called in a Presidential Statement on all member states to support the full deployment of UN peacekeepers in the country. It stressed the importance of achieving without further delays the complete operational deployment of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali to stabilise key population centres and protect civilians. However, the Council also noted that the primary responsibility for securing the country rests with the government.
The Mission is to ‘continue to support the re-establishment of State authority throughout the country and the promotion of the rule of law and promotion of human rights,’ the Presidential statement added.
Source: UN News Centre | Mali: with terrorists regrouping, Security Council urges full deployment of ‘blue helmets’
20 December 2013
© Getty Images, BBC
Much has been said and done in recent decades to explore and exploit extraterritorial applicability of human rights. Whether in court cases or scholarly works, the debate has usually revolved around the concept of “jurisdiction”, as used in human rights treaties to demarcate their applicability. Jurisdiction, first and foremost, functions as a threshold for applicability of human rights treaties. Many opinions have been heard on the criteria that should be met before a state has jurisdiction and whether jurisdiction should form a high or low threshold. Without wanting to dwell on this issue too much, suffice it to say that international legal discourse has moved towards an understanding of jurisdiction as based on factual control exercised by a state over people. As explained by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the 2011 Al-Skeini case this factual control can either be exercised in the form of effective control over territory or in the form of authority and control over people. In this blog, I submit that an important function of jurisdiction that is yet to be further explored is its role in the allocation of human rights obligations. (more…)
5 November 2013
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the decision of the government of the Netherlands to make a ‘major contribution’ to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) by supplying personnel and equipment. The Netherlands committed four armed helicopters, other critical assets, and circa 380 military, police and civilian personnel.
In April 2013, the Security Council approved a 12,600-strong MINUSMA, authorising the blue helmets ‘to use all necessary means’ to carry out security-related stabilisation tasks, protect civilians, UN staff and cultural artifacts and create the conditions for provision of humanitarian aid. MINUSMA’s core task is to support the political process in Mali, in close coordination with the Economic Community of West African States and the African Union.
Ban Ki-moon reiterated his call to member states for further assistance to the MINUSMA.
Source: United Nations | Secretary-General | Ban Ki-moon | Latest Statements | New York, 1 November 2013 - Statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on MINUSMA
