Europe

Tensions over vehicle licence plates and anti-smuggling operations, between authorities in Kosovo and Serbia, in recent weeks, may contribute to unravelling “steady but fragile progress made in rebuilding trust among communities” in Kosovo and Serbia. The warning came from Special Representative and head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Zahir Tanin, in a briefing to the Security Council on Friday. “[These events] are of deep concern to me and should be a...

“We have a collective responsibility in maintaining international peace and security. We have a shared responsibility in tackling today’s major challenges and we have a responsibility to individually each uphold the values that unite us,” he said in a pre-recorded message. “For France, this is what this historic period of turbulence that we’re experiencing calls for. We must all rise to the challenge.” Summit for Security Council ‘P5’ Despite recent attacks, the foundations of the...

Looking back over the first four days of the high-level week, the Ireland’s Prime Minister said a series of alarms have sounded in the Hall of the General Assembly: for conflict, for COVID, for climate. “We have heard the alarms. Now we must respond,” said Micheál Martin. “I believe that this is what the General Assembly, our Assembly of Nations, was created to do. Our purpose, our obligation.” For the Irish leader, “the simple fact” is that the world “cannot succeed in addressing...

Cyprus has been divided for more than four decades, and leaders from its Greek and Turkish communities last met in 2019 at an UN-facilitated conference in Berlin. He stressed that there is only one plan: to reach a settlement on the basis of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with political equality, as set out in relevant UN Security Council resolutions and in line with the principles on which the EU is founded. “A settlement that will lead to a functional and viable State, without the...

In his speech to the high-level debate at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that it is time for mankind to grow up and take responsibility for the damage we are inflicting on the planet. The human species, said Mr. Johnson, is nearing the end of the adolescent phase of its evolutionary lifespan. He referred to November’s COP26 UN climate conference, which he is hosting in the Scottish city of Glasgow, as the moment to show that mankind is...

“All of them call for a coordinated response. All of them underline why we need international cooperation. We need to remind ourselves of our collective strength,” she said in a pre-recorded message. Remembering that “the United Nations was born out of crisis”, she said “crises have the potential to increase unity and resolve” and the world “must harness the momentum created and take action.” Ms. Solberg was one of the speakers on the second day of the high-level week of the General...

The President of Estonia, Kersti Kaljulaid, lauded the world’s embrace of online services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, in her high-level General Debate speech at the 76th United Nations General Assembly session. Ms. Kaljulaid said that, although many conversations on digital development have been curtailed, online events have continued to provide solutions and fresh ideas to confront the crisis. “Through the tears we have shed for our lost ones, from the despair and...

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and migration agency IOM, called on Tuesday for an immediate investigation into the deaths of four people near the border between Poland and Belarus, due to causes yet to be determined. In a joint statement, the agencies expressed their condolences to the families of the deceased, all of whose nationalities have yet to be confirmed, although two of the victims were identified as Iraqi nationals who reportedly died of hypothermia. EU-Belarus border crisis...

Migrants are facing “dire conditions” at the European Union-Belarus border, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on Monday. Reports of cross-border pushbacks and lack of adequate asylum access for those seeking international protections, shelter and assistance, were “particularly alarming”, according to the UN agency. Noting that border management is a country’s sovereign prerogative, the Organization called on all States to uphold the rule of law at the borders and...

Former Judge Baltasar Garzón of the Spanish National Court was suspended in 2010 and criminally prosecuted and tried in 2012 for alleged willful abuse of power in two cases of major political significance at the national level. In the first case, Mr. Garzón assumed jurisdiction to investigate enforced disappearances during the Civil War and the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. Trough the second case, called Gürtel, he tried a political corruption scandal during which the former...