5 August 2017 – In response to the launches of ballistic missiles of possible intercontinental range by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the United Nations Security Council today moved to strengthen sanctions on the Northeast Asian country’s exports.

In a resolution adopted unanimously, the 15-member body strongly condemned the DPRK’s ballistic missile launches on 3 July and 28 July, which the country has stated were of &#8220intercontinental&#8221 range.

The Council reaffirmed previous Council decisions that the DPRK not conduct further launches using ballistic missile technology, nuclear tests, or any other provocation.

The Council moved to significantly strengthen the sanctions on the DPRK, imposing a full ban on the export of coal, iron and iron ore from the DPRK. Previously these items could be exported for livelihood purposes, with a cap on the amount.

The Council also prohibited countries from increasing the total number of work authorizations for DPRK nationals. It banned new joint ventures or cooperative entities with DPRK entities or individuals as well as additional investments in existing joint ventures.

Member States are requested to report to the Security Council, within 90 days of the adoption of this resolution, on concrete measures they have taken to effectively implement this resolution.

The Council also designated several additional individuals for a travel ban and assets freeze, as well as designating entities for an assets freeze.

On the political front, the Council calls for their resumption of the Six-Party Talks and reiterated its support for the commitments set forth in the Joint Statement of 19 September 2005 issued by China, the DPRK, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States.

The commitments included that the goal of the Six-Party Talks is the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner, and that the United States and the DPRK respect each other’s sovereignty and exist together peacefully.

4 August 2017 – With better commodity export prices and an improved international context, the Latin America and the Caribbean region will record a small positive growth rate this year &#8211 with the exception of Venezuela and two Caribbean countries, according to a new report of the UN Latin America commission.

The Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2017 foresees that, after two years of contraction, nearly all countries in the region will experience, on average, 1.1 per cent positive growth rates in 2017 &#8211 except for Venezuela, whose gross domestic product (GDP) is seen falling -7.2 per cent; and Saint Lucia and Suriname, which is forecast to contract -0.2 per cent.

&#8220To resume medium- and long-term growth, countercyclical policies are needed that not only focus on reducing the cycle’s fluctuations, but also on modifying those specific characteristics that negatively influence growth and the productive structure of countries in the region,&#8221 said Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), during a press conference in Santiago where the document was presented.

The UN body’s annual report underscores the importance of macroeconomic policies to invigorate long-term growth and move toward the necessary structural change in the region’s economies.

&#8220This means moving toward countercyclical frameworks for fiscal policy that defend and promote public and private investment. This involves revising fiscal rules so they continue to serve as pro-stability instruments, but also as pro-investment. This fiscal framework must be accompanied by a financial policy aimed at credit stabilization and a monetary policy that supports investment growth and goes beyond instruments such as the interest rate,&#8221 she explained.

Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), presents the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2017. Photo: Carlos Vera/ECLAC

The Economic Survey analyzes policy challenges to stimulate investment and growth, indicating that in the process of achieving indebtedness and fiscal balance equilibrium, public investment must not be neglected. In that sense, separating the handling of investment spending and current spending would help eliminate the bias against investment in processes of public spending adjustments.

It also notes the importance of strengthening increased public revenue through tax structure changes, with the establishment of more direct taxes; fortifying tax administrations; and reducing evasion and avoidance.

According to the report, as in prior years, different growth dynamics are projected among countries and sub-regions.

While the gross domestic product (GDP) of South America is expected to grow 0.6 per cent this year, the economies of Central America and Mexico are seen expanding 2.5 on per cent on average, thanks to an increase in remittances income and improved growth expectations for its main trading partner, the United States. Meanwhile, 1.2 per cent growth is forecast for English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean economies, following a -0.8 per cent contraction in 2016.

According to ECLAC, some positive factors affecting the region’s performance this year include the moderate recovery of the global economy, which will end 2017 with 2.7 per cent growth, three-tenths of a percentage point higher than in 2016; a slight 2.4 per cent international trade volume rebound; and increased price levels for basic products, which are forecast to be 12 per cent higher on average than last year. At the same time, on spending, a narrow improvement in investment and greater dynamism in private consumption are being observed.

Finally, the 2017 regional account balance is expected to remain similar to that of 2016, around -1.9 per cent of GDP, although with improved trade and an increase in exports, which is forecast at 8 per cent for the entire year.

4 August 2017 – Violence in the Kasai provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) appears to be taking on an increasingly disturbing ethnic dimension, a United Nations human rights wing has warned, citing testimonies that Government forces have led ethnicity-based attacks.

“Survivors have spoken of hearing the screams of people being burned alive, of seeing loved ones chased and cut down, of themselves fleeing in terror. Such bloodletting is all the more horrifying because we found indications that people are increasingly being targeted because of their ethnic group,h said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Rafad Al Hussein in a news release from his Office (OHCHR).

“Their accounts should serve as a grave warning to the Government of the DRC to act now to prevent such violence from tipping into wider ethnic cleansing,h he added, calling on the Government to take all necessary measures to fulfil its primary obligation to protect people from all ethnic backgrounds in the greater Kasai area.

The report is based on interviews with 96 people who had fled to neighbouring Angola to escape the violence in Kamonia territory in Kasai.

The UN team was able to confirm that between 12 March and 19 June, some 251 people became the victims of extrajudicial and targeted killings, including 62 children, of which 30 were aged under eight.

Interviewees indicated that local security forces and other officials actively fomented, fueled, and occasionally led, attacks on the basis of ethnicity.

The UN Mission in the DRC has identified at least 80 mass graves in the Kasais.

The fighting between the Kamuina Nsapu militia and the Government began in August 2016. The UN team was able to confirm that another militia, called the Bana Mura, was formed around March/April 2017 by individuals from the Tshokwe, Pende and Tetela ethnic groups. It was allegedly armed and supported by local traditional leaders and security officials, including from the army and the police, to attack the Luba and Lulua communities who are accused of being accomplices of the Kamuina Nsapu.

According to the report, gthe Bana Mura allegedly undertook a campaign aimed at eliminating the entire Luba and Lulua populations in the villages they attacked.h In many of the incidents reported to the team, soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known by its French acronym FARDC, were seen leading groups of Bana Mura militia during attacks on villages.

Given the situation in the Kasais, the report highlights the need for the team of international experts on the situation in the Kasais, established in June by the UN Human Rights Council, to be granted safe and unrestricted access to information, sites and individuals deemed necessary for their work.

This report will be put at the disposal of the international experts, as well as any other judicial institution addressing the human rights situation in the Kasais, in an effort to advance accountability efforts in this regard.

4 August 2017 – In the wake of a severe drought in Somalia that has displaced more than 800,000 people, the United Nations migration and development entities are helping the Horn of Africa country enhance its national drought response capacity.

As part of such efforts, the Government, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) co-organized a four-day training session, which ended 4 August, to build displacement management capacity, focusing on Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM), improved humanitarian coordination and information management, and early recovery.

This was the first-ever CCCM training in Somalia, run by the CCCM Cluster, which was activated in May 2017 to respond to growing displacement in Somalia.

&#8220CCCM Cluster is new in Somalia and I am excited to work with the Government, and other partners working in displacement sites, so that we can improve living conditions and ensure access to services for displaced individuals,&#8221 said Kathryn Ziga, IOM Somalia’s CCCM Cluster Coordinator.

&#8220CCCM activities help ensure that communities have the space to voice their opinions, participate in service delivery and give feedback to humanitarian organizations.&#8221

UNDP is engaged in building a resilient society in Somalia by minimizing human, economic and environmental losses from disasters and humanitarian crises, and by helping the sustainable recovery of people affected by crisis, including those displaced.

This requires mitigating both natural and human-induced hazards, reducing the exposure and vulnerability of at-risk communities, and building the capacity of government and other stakeholders including those from civil society, media, academia, private sector and communities.

The training started with the introduction of key CCCM concepts, the roles and responsibilities of various actors, and community participation and engagement. Participants were trained on engagement with informal settlement managers, communication with communities, plus early recovery and disaster management approaches.

3 August 2017 – Over the past 10 years, the United Nations Standing Police Capacity has filled a critical need in global peace operations by providing them with readily available police expertise, according to the outgoing head of the unit, who says she is proud to have played a part in putting the SPC “on the map,” while also highlighting the need to recruit more women officers to carry out this important work. 

After the Security Council gives the green light to establish a new peace operation, the staff members serving with the SPC provide start-up capability for the police components within those missions. They also assist existing missions with a wide range of expertise, including in transnational organized crime, community-oriented policing and gender advisory services.

The experts serving with the SPC “assist the mission when there is a gap, maybe a key function that needs to be filled,” explained Maria Appelblom, who has served for three years as the Chief of the SPC and is one of the most senior police women in the Organization.

Tasks performed by the unit include helping to start up missions to assisting with elections. Ms. Appelblom noted, for example, that one of her team leaders filled the position of Police Commissioner of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) for seven months.

Chief of the Standing Police Capacity, Maria Appelbom, at the Sierra Leone Police headquarters during an assessment mission in April 2015. Photo: UN/ Won Hyuk Im

Women in Demand

Female police officers serving with the UN serve as role models for the local population and are vital for helping women in host communities feel secure, Ms. Appelblom stated, while underscoring the need for the Organization to recruit more women for these critical functions.

A strong gender advocate, Ms. Appelblom noted that after a woman has been raped she may not feel comfortable talking to another man. “And in some cultures, it is very difficult for a woman to talk to a man in general,” she added. This is one reason why female police officers are so important within UN peace operations.

“One of the global efforts that the [UN] Police Division is working on is to have an increase in female officers. The aim is 20 per cent by 2020,” she noted.

While some people might say there is too much focus on the numbers, Ms. Appelblom feels that it is important “that we focus on the figures as well as other mainstreaming initiatives because there needs to be a critical mass of women in order to actually influence the situation.”

The Swedish national, who completes her assignment with the UN on 4 August, said she intends to remain involved with efforts to encourage the participation of women in peace operations.

“We have a wide range of initiatives in the pipeline where I am still going to be engaged, where we are going to do further research into the obstacles for female officers to join the UN, both on the national and the UN level,” she stated, alluding to the possibility of piloting a mentorship programme.

She added that she wants to push countries, including her own, to send qualified police officers, especially women, to the UN.

Current and former senior police officers that served with UN police including Maria Appelbom, Chief of the Standing Police Capacity (second from left), Ann-Marie Orler, previous UN Police Adviser, Priscilla Makotose, Police Commissioner of UNAMID and Taptun Nasreen, Policy Coordination Officer. Photo: UN/Juergenliemk

Looking back, moving forward

The SPC has helped missions to implement their mandates by working on a host of issues. Ms. Appelblom recalled that the unit has helped with the establishment of police units at the national and local levels to tackle sexual and gender-based violence, and assisted with the recruitment of national police officers, just to name a few of its achievements.

She said she was proud to have her motto realized: “Putting SPC on the map.”

“My greatest achievement is that I’ve been able to enhance the deployments, doing a lot of outreach, making the SPC known,” she said, adding that the requests for the unit’s services are constantly increasing.

Looking toward the future, she hopes that SPC can be a part of the mission “in all of its different phases,” such as peace negotiations, mission start-up, the transition, the drawdown and also working with the country team once the mission has departed.