Aerial view Cern - Photo Cern
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research) will start running Large Hadron Collider (LHC) beams again in March, until November, but at a higher beam energy, 4 TeV, which is 0.5 TeV higher than last year, the group announced Monday 13 February.
The higher speed will allow more experiments to be run before the LHC is shut down for 20 months to prepare it to operate at yet higher speeds.
“By the time the LHC goes into its first long stop at the end of this year, we will either know that a Higgs particle exists or have ruled out the existence of a Standard Model Higgs,” Research Director Sergio Bertolucci says. “Either would be a major advance in our exploration of nature, bringing us closer to understanding how the fundamental particles acquire their mass, and marking the beginning of a new chapter in particle physics.”
Cern, in a statement issued Monday 13 February, says “The LHC’s excellent performance in 2010 and 2011 has brought tantalising hints of new physics, notably narrowing the range of masses available to the Higgs particle to a window of just 16 GeV. Within this window, both the Atlas and CMS experiments have seen hints that a Higgs might exist in the mass range 124-126 GeV. However, to turn those hints into a discovery, or to rule out the Standard Model Higgs particle altogether, requires one more year’s worth of data. When the LHC’s technical stop takes place at the end of this year it will prepare for running at full design energy, around 7 TeV per beam.
“When we started operating the LHC for physics in 2010, we chose the lowest safe beam energy consistent with the physics we wanted to do,” says Steve Myers, Cern’s director for accelerators and technology. “Two good years of operational experience with beam and many additional measurements made during 2011 give us the confidence to safely move up a notch, and thereby extend the physics reach of the experiments before we go into the LHC’s first long shutdown.”
The decision is part of a broader strategy to “optimize LHC running to deliver the maximum possible amount of data in 2012 before the LHC goes into a long shutdown to prepare for higher energy running. The data target for 2012 is 15 inverse femtobarns for Atlas and CMS, three times higher than in 2011. Bunch spacing in the LHC will remain at 50 nanoseconds,” the group says in its statement.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Global Fund, which disburses monies from other organizations to fight Aids, malaria and tuberculosis, is celebrating its 10th birthday this week with a special gift: the Bill Gates Foundation, which gave $650 million during the Fund’s first decade, has just announced it is giving an additional $750m.
The news, announced by Gates at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, came a day after the Global Fund announced that Columbian Gabriel Jaramillo has been appointed general manager, a new position “intended to oversee a process of transformation as it accelerates the fight against the three pandemics by focusing on its management of risk and grants.” Jaramillo is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Sovereign Bank and he has more than 35 years in executive positions in the financial industry.
The gift is larger than the promised cash, for it is helping breath new life into an organization that went on the defense last year after corruption, which the Fund itself had uncovered and was investigating, was brought into the limelight by US media, notably the Associated Press, which is owned by US newspapers and is widely distributed there.
Jaramillo, although in a new position, replaces Michel Kazatchkine, executive director, who announced his retirement this week. The new general manager reports to the board and has full executive responsibility for the Global Fund.
Gates, in Davos, praised the group’s track record and commitment to improved oversight, noting that problems with misuse of funds happens if you’re doing business in Africa.
His remarks refer to changes that are the result of a 2011 review by what is called the High-Level, Independent Panel assigned to look at financial controls and oversights. It was headed by former US Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt and Botswana’s former President Festus Mogae. The board in November approved a “transformation” plan “to address the findings of the Panel, along with a new, ambitious, four-year strategy and decided to appoint a General Manager to oversee this transformation”.
The panel “recommended changes to risk-management, governance and oversight to ensure the institution manages donor resources as efficiently and safely as possible”, the Fund says in a statement.
The Guardian notes in its report on the changing of the guard that “the shock of the corruption revelations, which were pounced on by the US right, and the subsequent loss of confidence in the Fund – which led some donors to suspend payments – was an alarm call. . . What has happened now is a result of a determination that the Fund must not fail. An overhaul is underway, to ensure not just transparency but greater efficiency.”
Social and legal problems could be future snag for “continuous time”
ITU week-long meeting in Geneva debated the leap second and other telecommunications issues 16-20 January 2012 (photo: ©2012 ITU)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – One of the most pressing questions in Geneva in the past week, to read world media, has been that of the death sentence or its commute for the leap second, which has been used since 1972.
Officials from 150 countries, meeting at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) this week debated whether or not to end the practice, which not everyone agrees is necessary. Thursday 19 January the group agreed not to agree for now, and to review the state of the leap second in 2015.
For those who are not close clock watchers, the leap second is a second that is added to clocks every year or so to keep them synchronized with the rising and setting sun, a complex task that requires reporting from hundreds of stations around the world. They are added at a rate that totals about one minute every 91 years. Nature today explains it as a measure “that keeps atomic clocks in step with Earth’s rotation and the position of the Sun in the sky.”
Nature concludes that “participants reached a state of confusion, rather than consensus, so the decision about the leap-second’s fate has been deferred to 2015. ”
The decision to “to defer the development of a continuous time standard in order to address the concerns of countries that use the current system of the leap second in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)” was made, according to a statement issued by the ITU that puts a happier spin on the vote, “to ensure that all the technical options have been fully addressed in further studies related to the issue.”
Specifically, suppressing the leap second would make continuous time scale available for “modern electronic navigation and computerized systems to operate with and eliminate the need for specialized ad hoc time systems,” says the ITU, but this could have “social and legal consequences when the accumulated difference between UT1 – Earth rotation time – would reach a perceivable level (2 to 3 minutes in 2100 and about 30 minutes in 2700).”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay 6 January told Yemen’s lawmakers that they must not go ahead with a proposed amnesty law that would protect those who commit war crimes. Her office has recently sent a team to Yemen to study the situation there and prepare a report on the country, where protests have grown in recent months.
“I have been closely following the events in Yemen, particularly the very contentious debate about an amnesty law to be presented to Parliament shortly,” the high commissioner said. “International law and the UN policy are clear on the matter: amnesties are not permissible if they prevent the prosecution of individuals who may be criminally responsible for international crimes including war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and gross violations of human rights.”
“Based on information we have gathered, there is reason to believe that some of these crimes were committed in Yemen during the period for which an amnesty is under consideration. Such an amnesty would be in violation of Yemen’s international human rights obligations.”
photo, Jared Bloch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – International organization employees are being alerted that traffic could be a problem in the area around the United Nations Palais and the World Trade Organization Thursday to Saturday, when the WTO holds a Ministerial meeting at the CICG, the Geneva conference centre.
The area around the centre will be cordoned off and access to the Parking des Nations will be limited.
Staff at UN agencies are being asked to use public transport.
Officially, there are no advisories about possible disturbances, but agencies have been alerted that the police presence will be heavy and flyers are circulating and media are received messages about possible meetings 15 December by a group calling itself “Occupy OMC” at the intersection of Avenue de France and Rue de Varembé and at 20:00 at the Rue des Savoises. Another demonstration is being announced for 17 December in the same area.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Malaria cases worldwide fell by 25 percent in the past decade and by 33 percent worldwide thanks to better prevention but threatened shortfalls in funding from governments could slow the fight against the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports. Its World malaria report 2011, published 13 December, shows malaria rates falling in all parts of the world, but the disease is far from eradicated.
“In 2010, there were an estimated 216 million cases of malaria in 106 endemic countries and territories in the world. An estimated 81 percent percent of these cases and 91 percent of deaths occurred in the WHO African Region. Globally, 86 percent of the victims were children under 5 years of age.”
The disease is entirely preventable and treatable, notes the WHO, which makes the number of deaths from it, 655,000 in 2010, “disconcertingly high” even though it was 38,000 fewer than the year before.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Four bodies were found and other people are known to have drowned, says the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Geneva, after the Moroccan Royal Navy guard rescued 53 people from a boat that sank off the coast near Dar Kabdani.
The vessel was carrying more than 60 people and included several pregnant women and children under age 10. UNHCR staff identified two of the bodies, a Congolese woman and her daughter, both of whom were registered refugees.
The rescue was just one of several in the region last week, reports the UNHCR. “The Libyan coast guard has reported that up to four hundred people were rescued from boats off the Libyan coast in recent days. It now seems that migrants and refugees are once again attempting to use Libya as a transit route to Europe. In years gone past it was rare to see boats attempting to make the perilous crossing during the winter.”
Two sailing boats with about 80 people of different nationalities, mostly Afghans, were rescued by the Italian coastguard on Monday after a week at sea. The boats had left from Greece. The people on board were dehydrated and had no food and water left.
A boat with 44 people, many reportedly Somali, that left from the Libyan coast over the weekend was rescued by the Maltese Armed Forces overnight.
Hillary Clinton, human rights address, UN in Geneva, 6 December 2011
Update 06:00, transcript available GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have surprised more than one person in her audience at the United Nations Palais in Geneva Tuesday evening when her speech on human rights focused, not on the hot topic of Syria, but on a group whose rights rarely get this level of government attention: the gay community, worldwide.
She outlined steps the US is taking to redress wrongs against what she referred to as the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community: LGBT persons.
The Department of State, she said, is launching the Secretary’s Global Equality Fund, contributing more than $3 million to the “public-private partnership initiative to advance the human rights of LGBT people”.
The State Department will seek partnership commitments from donor governments, corporations, and foundations.
She also noted that the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) will use the Global Equality Fund to support:
- programmes that document violations of the human rights of LGBT individuals, provide legal assistance
- advocates to provide emergency assistance to NGOs and human rights defenders who face threats from governments or societies
- “public dialogue” that enhances public awareness, such as inclusive civic education and cultural activities
The new initiatives complement existing programmes, the State Department says in a fact sheet issued Tuesday evening. Since 2010, it has provided emergency assistance to over 40 LGBT advocates in 11 countries throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, for example.
Clinton gets standing ovation from the crowd
Clinton receives a standing ovation from the packed room
Clinton, dressed simply in a dark violet-blue suit, arrived on time and delivered her speech in a brightly lit and fully packed Assembly Hall.
She looked quite small in the large room, but her firm voice and 30 minute speech, given without pause or hesitation, held her audience.
She was given a standing ovation at the end of her speech.
Clinton’s address was given at the UN to commemorate Human Rights Day 2011 (10 December).
Her initial tribute to the history of human rights and the UN led her into a long introduction where she kept the focus of her talk a surprise. She described an “invisible minority”, harassed, beaten and killed around the world, “one of the remaining human rights challenges of our times”: the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
She described this as a “sensitive issue for many people”, an issue on her agenda, a difficult but urgent matter that must be addressed.
Gay and human rights are the same, Clinton tells packed room in Geneva
Gay rights and human rights are the same, Clinton told the crowd, even if the Universal Declaration of 1948 didn’t specifically mention the LGBT community: being an LGTB person doesn’t make you less human.
Clinton plans to meet with Syrian opposition representatives in Geneva
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, is about to come to town, but not just for a conference and a chat with the press: her Tuesday-Wednesday stopover includes major appearances at three Geneva international organization events.
The US State department has announced she will also be meeting with seven exiled opponents of Syria’s Bashar Assad regime, who are coming from various areas in Europe. It is the second such meeting, following one in August.
Clinton is in Bonn Monday 5 December for the International Conference for Afghanistan, the first high-level meeting on the future of the country that is hosted by Afghanistan itself.
Tuesday she flies first to Lithuania, then to Geneva where she will deliver remarks commemorating International Human Rights Day, which is 10 December. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay’s office notes that “It has been a year like no other for human rights. Human rights activism has never been more topical or more vital. And through the transforming power of social media, ordinary people have become human rights activists.”
One country where social media have not been able to penetrate government forces as easily is Syria. The US has taken an increasingly strong stance on Syria amid reported human rights abuses.
Syria Monday ignored a deadline set by the Arab League to allow observers in as it echoed a UN Human Rights Council declaration last week that condemned “gross and systematic” violations by Syrian forces.
Clinton 7 December will address a UNHCR ministerial event commemorating the 60th and 50th anniversaries of the Refugee and Statelessness conventions. It is the largest-ever event at this level to focus on refugee and statelessness issues, says UNHCR, with ministers from more than 70 nations. The meeting will be hosted by UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. Former Finnish President and Nobel Peace Laureate Martti Ahtisaari is the keynote speaker.
Secretary Clinton will “also deliver the US national statement at the Biological and Toxin Weapons (BWC) Review Conference [in The Netherlands], where we hope to revitalize international efforts against biological threats,” the US Mission said Monday evening in a press release.
She ends her trip with an address to a ministerial conference on Internet freedom, in The Hague.
The visits follow several high-profile US remarks at UN organization meetings in Geneva in recent days, including those by Ambassador to the World Trade Organization Michael Punke on China’s Transitional Review of the Protocol of Accession to the WTO: “China seems to be embracing state capitalism more strongly each year, rather than continuing to move toward the economic reform goals that originally drove its pursuit of WTO membership. This is a troubling development, and the United States urges the Chinese government to reconsider the path it is on.”
Swiss photographer Michael Grob on his work with Cambodian landmine victims: "Unlike in Afghanistan which is still in a state of war, we had to learn to adjust to the reality of such an amount of mines still being in Cambodian soil so long after the fighting has stopped. It was at times very difficult for me to deal with the impression left by the very high number of mine inflicted casualties - especially those of injured children. The work of the UN in Cambodia is, in my eyes, of utmost importance. It is for some communities the only opportunity for some kind of future. The situation touched me deeply and profoundly...my work for the United Nations mine action - as insignificant as it might be in the bigger picture - shall go on as long as needed." (©2011 Michael Grob)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Efforts to get rid of landmines are making good progress in many countries and funding is being maintained despite government budget constraints, a key meeting in Cambodia that closed 2 December shows. But work remains, with 4,000 new victims of landmines each year: six people died in Pursat Province, Cambodia, which hosted the meeting, Thursday 1 December when their truck triggered a mine.
The 11th meeting of the States Parties, the 158 nations that are part of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention finished in Phnom Penh with several strong commitments.
The Netherlands stated that “despite cuts in other areas, the government remains convinced of this matter” and it will maintain its €15 million annual contribution to demining and victim assistance.
Austria is increasing its 2012 funding slightly, to €1.9 million.
Cambodia funding stepped up
Austria announced its first contributions to demining and victim assistance in Cambodia, totaling €400,000. New Zealand, too, will contribute to a demining project in northeastern Cambodia: more than US$ 1 million in 2012.
Burundi bright spot
Cheering news came from Burundi, which says it has completed demining, a full three years ahead of the deadline to which it was committed. It is the 19th country to be declared mine-free.
Myanmar told the landmine ban meeting in Cambodia at the end of November that it is carefully considering the matter (Photo, ©2011, AP Mine Ban Convention)
The meeting, with 1,000 delegates taking part, marked progress in a number of areas and made media headlines over the first-ever participation by Myanmar, as an observer.
The isolated nation has been making commitments to reform, and at the land-mine ban meeting it said that “thorough study of the treaty will be continued”.
Its actions will be watched closely; it is one of three countries, along with Qaddafi’s Libya and Israel, who have been accused of laying mines in 2011.
“Convincing evidence” Syria is using mines
There is also “convincing evidence”, the group says, that Syria has used mines this year.
Tuvalu and South Sudan took their seats as the Convention’s newest adherents. Finland announced that it is on the verge of becoming the 159th to join the Convention.
Fifteen States that have not yet joined the Convention attended as observers, “signaling their openness to engage in a discussion on the devastating impact of anti-personnel mines”, a meeting press release states. The US is one of these and it reported that it is continuing to review its landmine policy.
Other signs of progress reported by the meeting: “Turkey reported the destruction of all stockpiled anti-personnel mines: 3 million mines. Burundi and Nigeria declared completion of their mine clearance obligations. Guinea Bissau, Jordan and Uganda announced that they will complete their demining programmes in coming months.”
A major and often under-funded part of the States’ commitments is helping survivors. Meeting host Cambodia, one of the most affected countries, says it is “assessing its national action plan on disability with a view to preparing a revised plan in 2012.”
Britain, Germany fail to meet commitments to demine
Germany is one of four countries with new reports of mine contamination that are falling far behind on their commitments to demine.
The town of Koblenz, Germany is the site this weekend of a massive project to defuse a bomb with 3,000 tons of explosives left over from the second world war; 45,000 people are being evacuated from their homes to allow the army and experts to get rid of it. The bomb became apparent this year due to lower water levels in the Rhine, reports NPR.
Britain has failed to clear any mines in the Falklands for the second year in a row.
“The UK has consistently failed to meet their clearance obligations under the treaty, and now have to clear more than 110 mined areas across over 7km2 in less than seven years,” the group notes.
Landmarks get red lights as Aids Day
Global prevention, treatment and funding at a turning point
Women in Eritrea learn about Aids (photo ©2011 The Global Fund / Didier Ruef )
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Red lights are shining today on several world landmarks, including the Empire State Building and Stock Exchange in New York and the Sydney Opera House in Australia, to mark World Aids Day. The day has been noted officially since 1988, making it 23 years since we woke up to the reality that action on a massive scale was needed to stop the killer disease.
Funding was organized over the years, treatment and prevention research were stepped up, and patients began to find help. The World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva says that HIV infections fell by 15 percent in the past decade and Aids-related deaths fell by 22 percent.
The improvements came about largely because of better access to treatment and drugs, but just as hope has been growing, the global economic crises of the past three years are threatening to bite into that progress, the WHO and the Geneva-based Global Fund note.
And a number of groups remain at risk: teenage girls, drug users, men who have sex with men and babies born to women with HIV.
On the bright side, there is clear progress, says the WHO:
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Myanmar’s cautious approach to joining the nations of the world in political arenas is being given a very public boost this week by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to the country 30 November, the first by a US leader in more than 50 years. The former Burma (still called that by some countries, notably Britain) has remained closed to the outside world, but reforms are starting to open the door.
Among significant moves, Myanmar this week took part for the first time ever in an Ottawa Convention meeting, addressing the States Parties annual review of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (also called the Ottawa Convention). The Geneva-based Convention is meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Myanmar is suspected of being one of only three countries to have recently laid landmines; the other two are Libya and Israel. The Convention is keen to pull Myanmar into the fold, with 158 countries now party to the Convention, which entered into force in 1999. Of these, 153 say they no longer have stockpiles of the weapons.
Clinton’s visit will allow her to assess reforms in Myanmar first-hand, she has said. “The historic two-day visit comes in the wake of concessions by the new government of President Thein Sein,” notes CNN. “His government freed dozens of political prisoners last month following the earlier release of Nobel Peace Laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Clinton is meeting the long-time opponent of the military regime Wednesday.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Four years of negotiations to pass a new international treaty covering the production of cluster munitions have ended with the US-led proposal failing to convince a majority of other nations at the UN negotiations in Geneva late Friday 26 November. The Fourth Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), also known as the Inhumane Weapons Convention, rejected the proposal that would have allowed production to continue, but with stringent regulations.
The new law would have existed alongside the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), which entered into force 1 August 2010. Opponents, including the International Red Cross (ICRC), have argued that this legal situation would set a dangerous precedent.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions has been signed by 114 countries and “prohibits all use, stockpiling, production and transfer of Cluster Munitions”.
Notably absent from the Convention are countries that are major producers of them, although France, Germany, The Netherlands, the UK and Switzerland have at some point produced them and have adopted the convention. Swissinfo, part of the Swiss public broadcasting system, reported late Saturday that “Switzerland said the talks were characterized by diverging views on the proper balance between humanitarian and military interests” but that it “welcomed the fact that negotiations had not resulted in an accord that was ‘questionable from a humanitarian or international law perspective’.”
Ed. note: The Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor provides detailed reports for every year on individual countries.
Transition period or outright ban debate
Branislav Kapetanovic, spokesperson for the Cluster Munition Coalition and a cluster bomb survivor, at the Geneva negotiations that ended 25 November (photo: CMC / Gemima Harvey)
The fight in the end came down to proponents of a total ban versus those who support regulations for cluster munitions production that would lead to a gradual reduction of the weapons. Thirty-five countries have produced them, including the US, which was backed in its proposal by China, India, Israel, and Russia.
The opposition was led by Austria, Norway, Mexico with support from the European Parliament and a large number of international organizations, including the International Red Cross (ICRC).
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The ICRC (International Red Cross) in Geneva and the Libyan Red Cross have begun a three-week radio campaign in Libya to warn the population of the danger of explosive remnants of war. The programme is being launched a day after the Landmine Monitor Report 2011 cautioned that landmine detection work will need to be stepped up in Libya in the wake of several months of fighting.
The ICRC said in Geneva 24 November that billboards, posters and leaflets will back up the campaign, with four radio stations broadcasting the information six times a day.
“The danger exists in different places in Libya, but the campaign is primarily addressing people who are gradually returning to their homes in Sirte and Bani Walid. The heavy fighting which took place until last month left the two cities seriously contaminated by such devices,” the ICRC says in a statement. “The threat to civilians in these urban areas, mainly from small unexploded weapons such as grenades, rockets and mortar shells, is severe,’ says Jennifer Reeves, an ICRC delegate. ‘In Sirte in the past week alone, two children playing with one of these devices and a young man cleaning his damaged house were badly injured. Many people are unaware of the dangers posed by ordnance which may explode at the slightest touch.’ Dozens of civilians have been killed or maimed in the country in similar circumstances in the past month.’”
The ICRC says it has removed some 1,400 unexploded devices in some of the areas worst affected by the hostilities, including Ajdabiya, Misrata and the Nefusa mountains. It has also trained over 140 Libyan Red Crescent volunteers to raise awareness of the threat among the local population.
Uganda landmine survivors met in March 2012 (photo ©2011 Landmine Monitor / D Osman)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – There is some good news on the landmine front, the “Landmine & Cluster Munitions Monitor 2011″ (full report online), issued 23 November reports, but it is dampened by news that three countries laid landmines this year, with two of them, Israel and Libya confirmed.
Myanmar is the third suspect, and four non-state armed groups laid mines as well.
Record ordnance cleared
On the brighter side:
- at least 200km2 of mined areas were cleared by 45 mine action programs in 2010, the highest annual total ever recorded by the Monitor; 198km2 in 2009, the previous record, and 160 km2 in 2008
- more than 388,000 antipersonnel mines and over 27,000 anti-vehicle mines were destroyed during this clearance
- programmes in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Croatia, Iraq, and Sri Lanka together accounted for more than 80% of recorded clearance
- an additional 460km2 of former battle area was reportedly cleared, destroying in the process more than 1.2 million items of unexploded ordnance; largest totals: Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Lao PDR.
Eighty percent of the world’s nation, 158 countries, have now joined the Landmine Ban Treaty. Donor contributions for mine action rose to $637 million, a record high, with 31 countries contributing. Five main mine action donors—the US, European Commission, Japan, Norway, and Canada—accounted for 64% of all funding.
Eighty-seven states have completed the destruction of their stockpiles, including Iraq, who was added to the list in June 2011.
5% increase in new victims
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – An ICRC (International Red Cross) official has told news agency Reuters that its staff has visited Seif al-Islam Qaddafi in Zintan, in western Libya, where he is being held. The ICRC limited its comments to the fact he appears to be in good health, noting that he is one of 8,500 people detained in Libya that the humanitarian group has visited since fighting began there early in 2011.
Al-Islam Qaddafi was widely considered to be in line to take over the Qaddafi regime before it lost its hold on power in Libya.
South Sudan reception centre, UNHCR refugee camp, November 2011
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Friday 11 November was a day of rising fears internationally that tensions are building along the Sudan-South Sudan border after a series of bombs were dropped just inside South Sudan’s Unity state, hitting a refugee camp. Several Geneva-based humanitarian groups expressed their growing concern Friday.
And then late Friday came some good news from New York, that the newly-formed Republic of South Sudan has made banning anti-personnel mines one of its first multilateral commitments.
It became an independent state 9 July 2011, but fighting and accusations have continued between the two countries.
South Sudan “deposited its notification of succession to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, or Ottawa Convention today at the United Nations headquarters in New York, becoming the 158th state to agree to be legally bound by this landmark humanitarian instrument,” the AP Mine Ban Convention office in Geneva said in a statement Friday night.
The news was a bright spot in the otherwise gloomy reports of the bombs and world reactions to them. Authorities in South Sudan blamed Sudan for the bombardment of a refugee camp in the oil-rich border state of Unity, according to UPI.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for “an independent, thorough and credible investigation to establish the precise circumstances of this aerial bombing.” She said in a statement late Friday that “The camp at Yida, which is close to the border with Sudan, is housing thousands of civilians, including women and children.” She added that “while the number of casualties is not yet clear, I understand that five or six bombs were dropped on the camp, and that at least one fell close to a school.” Pillay says that if “it is established that an international crime or serious human rights violation has been committed, then those responsible should be brought to justice.”
The UNHRC, the High Commissioner for Refugees office in Geneva deplored the bombings, noting at its weekly briefing Friday that there were reports earlier in the week of bombings in New Guffa Village in Upper Nile state, in addition to Thursday’s bombings in Unity state.
“Several bombs dropped by an aircraft in the Yida area impacted a temporary camp that shelters over 20,000 refugees who have recently fled violence in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan’s Southern Kordofan State.
Two of the bombs fell within the Yida camp, including one close to the school. Fortunately there were no casualties in the camp and we are verifying the situation of surrounding communities. UNHCR had been readying new refugee sites away from the border when the incident occurred in Yida yesterday. We had hoped to begin the relocation of refugees but our efforts have so far been hampered by heavy rains which have made the road to the camp impassable.”
The significance of the measure taken by South Sudan was noted by the Convention’s leadership. “ndmine contamination in South Sudan is a grave problem for reconstruction and development, and impedes agricultural activities,” said H.E. Gazmend Turdiu, the Convention’s President. “By joining the Convention, South Sudan is making a commitment to clear mines on its territory, to assist landmine survivors and to never, under any circumstances, use anti-personnel mines.”
The Internal Displacement Centre (IDMC) in Geneva also voiced its concern Friday, noting that each side has been blaming the other for escalating violence. The US Wednesday condemned Sudan for air attacks in recent days, with State Department spokesperson Mark Toner saying, “The provocative aerial bombardments near the border increase the potential of direct confrontation between Sudan and South Sudan.”
The IDMC said Friday in a statement that
“The government of Sudan has accused South Sudan of supporting rebels on the northern side of the border, in the states of South Kordofan, where fighting has been ongoing since June, and in Blue Nile which has seen fighting since September. On 5 November, Sudan submitted a complaint against South Sudan to the UN Security Council, accusing it of providing rebels with “anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles as well as with ammunition, landmines and mortars”. Sudan has imposed restrictions on humanitarian access to South Kordofan and Blue Nile citing security concerns, including the presence of landmines and the movements of rebel groups. Humanitarian organisations estimate that over 200,000 people have either been displaced or severely affected by the conflict in South Kordofan. The UN estimates that 28,500 Sudanese from Blue Nile have fled to Ethiopia and that 19,500 others have taken shelter among communities along the border.”
South Sudan, for its part, says the IDMC, denies supporting the rebels. It “has repeatedly accused Sudan of supporting rebels on its side, in Upper Nile and Unity states. The most recent fighting in Unity state took place on 29 October, after the rebel SSLA (South Sudan Liberation Army) warned the UN and humanitarian organizations to leave the area for their own safety. This put at risk displaced communities who depend on aid for survival, and troops with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMiss) were deployed to help local authorities deal with the aftermath of the attacks and to monitor the situation. In addition to ongoing internal displacement within Unity state, the UN has reported more than 20,000 people fleeing into the state from South Kordofan in Sudan. Humanitarian aid organizations are concerned that “the number of people arriving to Unity might double before the end of the year if fighting continues in South Kordofan.”
Landmines in South Sudan are the result of over 20 years of civil war and the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Centre in South Sudan reports that, “all 10 states of the newly-formed country have reported mine-related injuries and deaths. Contamination in 306 villages varies in size, from an item that may take an hour or so to destroy, to entire minefields which could take up to a year or more to address.” The AP Mine Ban Convention says that as of September 2011, “a total of 3,210 injuries and 1,263 deaths had been reported in the country. Since 2005, over 25,000 landmines have been destroyed. To date over 2,700 landmine survivors have received support.”
South Sudan, as a party to the Convention, will now have the right to ask other signatory states for help.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The number of deaths in Syria as a result of the crackdown on protests has reached 3,500, the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva says. Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a press briefing that 60 deaths have been recorded since the Syrian government reportedly said at the start of November
The OHCHR office headed by Navi Pillay has called on Syria a number of times to end the brutality and allow an independent commission to investigate the situation in the country.
Tuesday Shamdasani said
“Since Syria signed the peace plan sponsored by the League of Arab States last week, more than 60 people are reported to have been killed by military and security forces, including at least 19 on the Sunday that marked Eid al-Adha.
“While the Syrian government announced the release of 553 detainees on Saturday on the occasion of Eid, tens of thousands remain in detention and dozens continue to be arbitrarily arrested everyday. Syrian troops continue to use tanks and heavy weaponry to mount attacks on residential areas in the city of Homs. The situation in the neighbourhood of Baba Amr has been particularly appalling. According to information the UN human rights office has received, the neighbourhood has remained under siege for seven days, with residents deprived of food, water and medical supplies.”
The WHO board call for reform points to "WHO's unique mandate as the directing and coordinating authority for work in international health"; here, part of a 2009 WHO report on the health problems linked to the high number of road accidents in Africa
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The World Health Organization, based in Geneva, late Friday 4 November, approved a number of resolutions to reform the health body at the most basic levels.
The crucial question of how to improve funding was set aside for two months until the next general meeting of the executive board. The WHO, in a statement issued Friday night, states that the board will then review “a proposed mechanism to increase predictability and flexibility of financing for the organization”.
Two key changes agreed to in the special board meeting on WHO reform that just drew to a close in Geneva will be to establish a contingency fund for emergency work and to clarify roles and responsibilities “between the three levels of the WHO – country offices, regional offices and headquarters – to create a tightly networked, leaner and streamlined organization”.
The WHO has repeatedly faced under-funding for a number of reasons including the high percentage, in its budget, of “voluntary donations” and in the past, criticism from the US government which withheld funding. That relationship has been on a better footing for several years, and in September 2011 the US and the WHO agreed to strengthen the relationship.
The board also agreed to set up a mechanism for independent evaluation and to:
- develop criteria for priority-setting of its work in global public health
- engage “an increasing number of public health actors, including foundations, civil society organizations, partnerships and the private sector. The Board felt strongly that in any opportunity for engagement, WHO’s independence and integrity must be protected from undue influence by those with vested interests.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Syria has reportedly become the fourth nation to lay down new landmines in 2011, according to ICBL, the Nobel Peace Prize International Coalition to Ban Landmines, which has strongly condemned the development.
Reports have been surfacing, starting the last weekend in October, that Syria has put down antipersonnel land mines along its border with Lebanon, near the city of Hom, one of the sites of recent protests. A Syrian official was quoted, ICBL reports, as saying the mines were to deter arms smugglers, but there is suspicion they are being laid to discourage people from fleeing the fighting and heading over the border.
Syria is not one of the 157 countries that have joined the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.
The three other countries who have laid down mines this year are Burma/Myanmar, Israel and Libya under the Qaddafi regime.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The UN refugee organization, UNHCR, says supplies from several organizations, including its own, are now flowing into the region in Turkey hit by an earthquake 10 days ago. The UNHCR says that government officials now say 600 people died and 4,000 are injured as a result of the earthquake. “The city of Van alone, near the epi-centre, has a population of some 400,000 people and many homes have been reduced to rubble or rendered unusable,” says the Geneva-based group.
The city’s population includes some 2,000 refugees and asylum seekers were living in the area when the quake struck, most of them citizens of Iran or Afghanistan.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Three staff members died and two others were injured when a suicide bomb went off at the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) head office in Kandahar, Afghanistan about 08:00 Monday morning 31 October.The Geneva-based agency says the functioning of its office in Kandahar has been seriously disrupted.
The agency has “facilitated the return of millions of refugees” since it began working in the country in 1980, it says.
“‘This is a tragedy for UNHCR and for the families of the dead and wounded. It also underscores the great risks for humanitarian workers in
Afghanistan,” says High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres. “I am hugely saddened. All of us at UNHCR stand in solidarity with
the families of those who have died or been injured.”
The UNHCR was still trying to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the attack, it said Monday afternoon.
This article is republished with permission from IP Watch
By William New
Revised EPO Patent For Conventional Broccoli Has Public Interest Ramifications
To patent or not to patent, the great broccoli question
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A patent for a conventionally bred form of the common household vegetable broccoli appears to be on its way to acceptance by the European Patent Office following a change to the patent by the company filing it, according to sources. The decision not to revoke the patent, which has been the subject of protests and now calls for action in national courts, could clear the way for hundreds of other vegetable patents to follow, a source said.
In a rather legal format, the EPO announced on 25 October that an oral hearing in the so-called “broccoli” case had been cancelled, which observers say clears the way for approval of the patent in question. The cancellation of hearing came from the removal of objection by competing companies to the patent filer.
The move calls into question the bounds of patentability on plants and animals, after the EPO appeal board last year rejected patents on conventional breeding such as occurs in nature. The European Patent Office Enlarged Board of Appeal was asked to review the patentability of a grant on broccoli, and another patent on a tomato. The patented broccoli and tomato plants were not genetically modified, but rather simply bred conventionally as farmers have done for ages, according to sources.
Plant varieties are not patentable and are protected under a sui generis system at the International Union for the Protection of Plant Varieties (UPOV).
The board in December 2010 decided that “essentially biological processes for the production of plants (or animals)” are excluded from patentability (IPW, Biodiversity/Genetic Resources/Biotech,10 December 2010).
The broccoli and tomato cases, one patented by Plant Bioscience Ltd. (EP 1069819) and the other by the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture (EP 1211926), had been brought before the EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal after France-based seed cooperative Limagrain Group, Swiss biotech company Syngenta, and multinational food company Unilever filed complaints, respectively. Plant Bioscience already markets in the United Kingdom a “new variety” of broccoli made from conventional breeding methods.
WHO headquarters in Geneva
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The World Health Organization in Geneva confirmed Friday 28 October that staff cuts of some 300 posts, announced in May, will go ahead: 167 of these are fixed posts and the rest mainly short-term contracts at this point.
But more job cuts and rumours spread by Swiss-based media of staff being shifted to Africa are just that: false alarms, says Christy Feig, spokeswoman. Feig says the rumours appear to be based on misunderstandings of numbers announced earlier in the year coupled with confusion over the role of a special “reform” session of the executive council of the WHO 1-5 November in Geneva. The two are separate.
The confusion over numbers probably arose from one journalist inadvertently counting some of the same numbers twice, then other numbers being wrongly added by yet other journalists, the WHO has determined after trying to get to the bottom of unfounded rumours that up to 1,000 staff were being moved to Africa.
The job cuts are part of the cyclical financial problems of WHO, whose funding has long been a problem for the group. Only about 25 percent of the UN agency’s budget coming from must-pay “assessed contributions” from member states and the other 75 percent from voluntary contributions. The WHO knows where about 40 percent of its funding will come from at the start of each two-year budget period, and its programme planning is necessarily done separately from budgeting, given the large gap.
The ongoing global economic crisis, with a resulting drop in voluntary contributions, and the Swiss franc’s high exchange rate, lie behind the UN organization’s staff cuts, from 2,400 to 2,100 in Geneva by the end of this year. There is no talk of moving staff to other countries for either of those reasons, Feig says. There was some discussion earlier this year among one unit that works in Africa about possibly moving some staff to Africa to be closer to field operations, but the decision was made not to move any of the 65 members of its staff.
Staff moves, but for operational rather than financial reasons, are a small part of the large agenda the special meeting next week will cover. The meeting is devoted to reviewing the need for reform of the WHO in a number of areas. Feig points out that the health body was founded in 1948 and the executive committee agreed in May that the time is ripe to review “how the landscape has changed,” she says. “Do we need to refocus programme priorities” in light of these changes and how does the WHO recognize the many other groups working in the field of global health. “How do we give these other groups in put, how do we make sure more voices are heard?”
The reform discussions will also look at managerial and human resources issues, she says, with some calls for more transparency and accountability. The WHO would like to see the 40 percent known funding “driven up to 70 percent”, in part because the current funding situation probably drives the health body to rely too much on short-term contracts. Next week’s meeting will consider how the WHO can best provide more core long-term expertise. One part of this could include moving some staff into the field, but for now the option is hypothetical, part of a larger debate – and in any event not an option before the 2013-14 budget.
The WHO is running a budget deficit of some $330 million out of an annual budget of $2.2 billion.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The United Nations Wednesday called for concerted action to provide sustainable health, food and other basic services to the world’s growing population. The UN is gearing up for a number of activities to mark the day planet Earth will have 7 billion people, officially 31 October. We will have 10 billion by the end of the 21st century, the UN projects. But given the falling fertility rates in developed and a number of developing countries, notably China, the world’s population will then begin to fall, according to the UNFPA. The world’s population at the start of the 19th century was 1 billion.
The selection of the day on which we cross the magic 7 billion line is fairly arbitrary.
UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, “7 Billion Actions”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The massive flooding that has affected large areas of Pakistan for months is straining humanitarian agencies budgets, stretched thin by falling donor contributions as economies weaken. Care International Thursday issued a plea for more funding despite the economic situation, for a particularly vulnerable group, pregnant women.
The Geneva group notes that “of the more than five million people currently affected by the floods in Sindh, approximately 143,750 of them are pregnant women. Of these, 15 percent—or 21,562 women—will need medical treatment for obstetric complications.” The aid group says that women and children need a range of services, from family planning to the prevention and treatment of sexual violence, clean delivery services, and emergency obstetric and newborn care.
Care notes that to date only 22 percent of the promised funding for the emergency in Pakistan has come through, and the situation is desperate:
”Privacy’ is a serious health issue for women, particularly pregnant and lactating women. ‘They are trapped, exposed on the roadside, and there are no private latrines, [Dr Malik Umair, Senior Health Advisor] Umair says.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The US Mission in Geneva has confirmed State Department news Wednesday that an American interagency team will meet with representatives from the North Korean government 24-25 in Geneva to review the Asia country’s willingness to begin nuclear disarmament.
The meeting, with First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan leading the Korean group, follows several de-nuclearization meetings in recent months, between the US and North Korea, as well as the two Koreas.
The US says of the upcoming meeting that the “delegations will continue discussions to determine if North Korea is prepared to implement its obligations under UN Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874 and its commitments under the 2005 Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks, including concrete steps toward denuclearization.”
Peter Maurer, from Swiss diplomacy to Int. Red Cross(photo ©2011 Swiss EDA/DFAE)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Jakob Kellenberger, 67, who has headed the ICRC (International Red Cross) since 2000 will be leaving, to be replaced by Swiss diplomat Peter Maurer, 55, currently head of the Swiss Foreign Affairs Department. The ICRC confirmed the news late Wednesday. Maurer will step into his new role in July 2012.
Maurer has headed the Foreign Affairs Department since January 2010. He was previously Switzerland’s ambassador and head of mission to the UN in New York.
He spoke at a conference in Bern Tuesday about his frustration with double standards in handling the Arab Spring.
Kellenberger, who also comes from the Swiss diplomatic corps, was born in Appenzell in 1944. He became a well-known figure in European diplomatic circles as the chief negotiator of Switzerland’s bilateral agreements, hammered out one by one, with the European Union, from 1994 to 1998.
The ICRC has been in the news this week for its role in the prisoner exchange between Palestine and Israel as well as its role in obtaining the release of a 10-year-old girl kidnapped in Colombia, presumably by terrorists.
Tunisians fleeing Libya early in 2011: the Arab Spring events were not the driving force behind the growing number of asylum seekers in 2011 (photo, UNHCR)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The number of asylum seekers worldwide increased by 17 percent, the UN refugee group UNHCR announced Tuesday. Applications to industrialized countries numbered 198,300 from 1 January to 30 June 2011, with “most claimants coming from countries with longstanding displacement situations.”
The figures are part of report issued 18 October by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office, “Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, First Half 2011″. The group notes that applications usually peak in the second half of a year and it expects that the final tally may be the highest in eight years: 420,000.
The report does not show how many applications translate into the granting of asylum, in other words refugee status.
The floodgates have not been opened by the Arab Spring events, with neighbouring countries accepting most of the refugees who have fled conflict in northern Africa. Rather,
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The kidnapping of a 10-year-old girl in Colombia three weeks ago outraged the country and when Nohora Valentina Munoz was released near the Venezuelan border Monday evening 17 October, the country’s president gave effusive thanks to the Geneva-based International Red Cross (ICRC), which negotiated the child’s freedom.
She and her mother were kidnapped 29 September, en route to the girl’s school. Her mother, the wife of Jorge Enrique Munoz, mayor of the town of Fortul in Arauca, was released the morning of the kidnapping.
It is not clear who took the pair, nor have any of the conditions for the child’s release been given. The ICRC in Geneva does not release details of such negotiations in which it is involved.
El Tempo (Spa) newspaper, which has covered the case heavily reported earlier that 1,800 police set up several search and rescue operations for the girl but that these were called off at the request of the ICRC, in order to allow negotiations to begin.
