António Guterres calls for massive international support for Somalia
He General secretary The United Nations called on Tuesday in Mogadishu for massive international support for Somalia due to the humanitarian, security and development difficulties faced by the African nation
In a joint meeting with the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, António Guterres recalled that this country is suffering its worst drought for the fifth consecutive year, that its inhabitants suffer the consequences of climate change despite their little contribution to this phenomenon and that almost five Millions of Somalis suffer from high levels of food insecurity.
Guterres called on the international donor community to increase their support and urgently fund the 2023 Humanitarian Response Plan for Somalia, which currently only received 15% of the budgeted funds.
The head of the UN pointed out that the Somali people deserve the solidarity of the international community to avoid malnutrition and displacement and so that they can start a new process of stability and development in the country.
Banning Afghan women from working with the UN is illegal
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (ONE MA) today reiterated his strong condemnation of the decision taken by the de facto Taliban authorities to prohibit Afghan women from working for the UN.
The UN agency in that country recalled that the ban is illegal under international law, including the Charter of the Organization, and that for this reason it cannot abide by it.
Likewise, it stresses that the veto intends to force the UN to choose between remaining and providing support to the Afghan people in the current conditions and respecting the norms and principles that the Organization has the duty to defend.
“It should be clear that any negative consequence of this crisis for the Afghan people will be the responsibility of the de facto authorities”, says the Mission.
The special representative of the Secretary General for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, Roza Otunbayeva, has begun a review period of the Mission’s operations that will last until May 5.
With few exceptions, all Afghan UN personnel have been ordered not to go to the UNAMA offices.
The UK must ensure the protection of minor asylum seekers
A group of UN human rights experts today called on the UK
to guarantee the protection of all asylum-seeking children and to end the practice of housing unaccompanied minors in hotels.
The three special rapporteurs expressed their deep concern over the news that unaccompanied minor asylum seekers “are disappearing and are at high risk of being trafficked into the UK.”
Similarly, they stated that the decision to place these children in hotels “leaves them out of the UK child protection system and is discriminatory.”
The experts underlined the urgent need to locate missing minors and offer them reception and protection conditions that respect human rights, without any discrimination based on nationality, immigration status, race, ethnicity or gender.
According to the reports of the rapporteurs, of the 4,600 children staying in six hotels since June 2021, 440 disappeared and 220 remained unaccounted for until January 23, 2023, most of whom are Albanian nationals.
Global economic growth will go from 2.8% in 2023 to 3% in 2024
The International Monetary Fund announced today that the growth in world production forecast for this year will be 2.8%, one tenth less than that indicated in the World Economic Outlook report released in January, when the agency predicted a 2. 9%, and that will increase to 3% in 2024.
The Fund’s chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, stressed that the global economy continues to recover “from the unprecedented upheavals” of the past three years, and that “recent banking tensions” have increased uncertainty.
“We hope that the growth of the world economy fall from 3.4% last year to 2.8% in 2023, before rising to 3% in 2024, virtually unchanged from our January forecasts. Advanced economies are expected to experience a particularly pronounced slowdown in growth, from 2.7% in 2022 to 1.3% in 2023,” he stated.
Gourinchas pointed out that world inflation will decrease from 8.7% in 2022 to 7% in 2023 as a result of the fall in the prices of raw materials and that the Fund’s forecasts are based on the assumption that the recent financial tensions will remain under control.
