UN atom chief urges nuclear stress tests, inspections

The UN nuclear chief called on Monday for national safety tests on all the world's reactors within 18 months, followed by international inspections to help prevent any repeat of Japan's atomic crisis three months ago.

Yukiya Amano, opening a ministerial meeting in Vienna on strengthening safety standards after the Fukushima emergency, said UN experts should be allowed to carry out random safety reviews of nuclear power plants.

His proposals -- aimed at ensuring that nuclear plants can withstand extreme events such as the earthquake and tsunami that crippled Fukushima -- may prove controversial for states which want to keep safety an issue strictly for national authorities.

"Public confidence in the safety of nuclear power has been badly shaken," Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy (IAEA), said in a speech to ministers and regulators from the UN body's 151 member states.

"However, nuclear power will remain important for many countries, so it is imperative that the most stringent safety measures are implemented everywhere."

Amano, a veteran Japanese diplomat, said nuclear safety would remain a national responsibility -- and that governments would have the main task of testing, if only in theory, whether reactor systems could withstand various stresses. But he also made clear he wanted the U.N. agency to play a greater role.

"IAEA review of every one of the world's 440 operating nuclear reactors in just a few years is not a realistic proposition. I therefore propose a system based on random selection," he said.

Japan's crisis has prompted a rethink of energy policy around the world, underlined by Germany's decision to shut down all its reactors by 2022 and an Italian vote to ban nuclear power for decades.

At the June 20-24 meeting, IAEA member nations will begin charting a strategy on boosting global nuclear safety, but differences on how much international action is needed may hamper follow-up efforts, diplomats say.

Russia wants to move towards making the UN agency's safety standards compulsory, but many other countries oppose this.

EXTREME NATURAL HAZARDS

Currently there are no mandatory, international nuclear safety regulations, only IAEA recommendations which national regulators are in charge of enforcing.

Russia's atomic energy chief Sergei Kiriyenko welcomed Amano's proposals, telling the conference that "we are delighted that they are very much in keeping" with Moscow's views.

Japanese officials have come under fire for their handling of the emergency and the authorities have admitted that lax standards and poor oversight contributed to the accident.

Three reactors at the Japanese complex went into meltdown when power and cooling functions failed, causing radiation leakage and forcing the evacuation of some 80,000 people.

"In the light of the Fukushima Daiichi accident, thorough and transparent national risk assessments should be made of all nuclear power plants in the world.

"They should focus on safety margins against extreme natural hazards, such as earthquakes, tsunamis and floods. This could be done within 12 to 18 months."

He gave no details of how such assessments would be carried out. Typically experts speak of "stress tests" which provide for theoretical and practical simulations of how power plant systems would respond to various "stress" events, such as earthquakes.

Amano said these national assessments should be followed by IAEA expert reviews to check operational safety emergency preparedness, and the effectiveness of regulatory systems.

"I propose that countries with nuclear power should agree to systematic, periodic peer reviews by the IAEA," he said.

"The agency could conduct an international safety review of one nuclear power plant in 10 throughout the world over, say, a three-year period."

Read More

Iraq hunting $17 billion missing after US invasion

Iraq's parliament is chasing about $17 billion of Iraqi oil money it says was stolen after the 2003 US-led invasion and has asked the United Nations for help to track it down.

The missing money was shipped to Iraq from the United States to help with reconstruction after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

In a letter to the UN office in Baghdad last month, parliament's Integrity Committee asked for help to find and recover the oil money taken from the Development Fund of Iraq (DFI) in 2004 and lost in the chaos that followed the invasion.

"All indications are that the institutions of the United States of America committed financial corruption by stealing the money of the Iraqi people, which was allocated to develop Iraq, (and) that it was about $17 billion," said the letter sent to the UN with a 50-page report.
The committee called the disappearance of the money a "financial crime" but said UN Security Council resolutions prevent Iraq from making a claim against the United States.

"Our committee decided to send this issue to you ... to look into it and restore the stolen money," said the letter.

UN officials were not immediately available for comment.

SALARIES, PENSIONS

The DFI was established in 2003 at the request of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the US body headed by Paul Bremer that governed Iraq after the invasion. The fund was to be used to pay the salaries and pensions of Iraqi government workers and for reconstruction projects.

In 2004, the administration of former US President George W Bush flew billions of dollars in cash into Iraq. The money came from the sale of Iraqi oil, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food program and seized Iraqi assets.

Last July, an audit report from the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said the US Department of Defense was unable to account properly for $8.7 billion of Iraqi oil and gas money after the 2003 invasion.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Al Jazeera television on Sunday: "No one on the Iraqi side was controlling the work of Paul Bremer at that time. So I think the administration of the United States needs to give the answers for where and how this (money) was being used.

"We do understand that Iraqis are also engaged in such lack of transparency and corruption related to the Paul Bremer time in Iraq," he added.

Osama al-Nujaifi, Iraq's parliament speaker, said a committee was investigating what happened to some $20 billion of DFI money.

"Some of these funds were spent and are documented. But some do not have such documents," he said. "We as a parliament are working together with the Iraqi Board of Supreme Audits and with coordination of SIGIR to know where this money ended up."

The appeal to the United Nations could help Iraq recover its money by putting its case before the international community, said Bahaa al-Araji, the head of the Integrity Committee.

"We cannot sue the Americans. Laws do not allow us to do that. All we want is to get this issue to the UN," Araji said. "If this works, it will open the way for Iraq to restore its stolen money." In 2003, the CPA issued an order granting immunity to US personnel and institutions working in Iraq.

Read More

Gaza unemployment levels 'among worst in world'

 

Gaza's unemployment rate was among the world's highest, at 45.2% in late 2010, the UN has found, as Israel's blockade of the territory enters its fifth year.

Real wages meanwhile fell by more than a third.

Its report says that private businesses have been hardest hit by the continuing ban on virtually all exports.

Israel tightened sanctions on Gaza in 2006 after militants captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The blockade was tightened again a year later when Hamas ousted rival Palestinian organisation Fatah from the territory.

Read More

Blasts kill 20 in Afghan towns

A series of bombs and explosions killed 20 people in Afghanistan's southern and eastern flashpoints yesterday, among them at least eight children and four women, government officials said.

The attacks came as the UN said that May was the deadliest month for civilians in Afghanistan since at least 2007, with 368 deaths and 593 injuries of documented.

In yesterday's deadliest incident, a vehicle hit a mine in Arghandab district of the southern province of Kandahar.

"Today at 10:00am, 15 civilians were killed, including eight children, four women and three men," the ministry said.

The interior ministry said six civilians, including a woman and two children, were wounded by mortar bombs fired at a district police headquarters in the eastern province of Kunar.

In the eastern province of Khost, a suicide bomber yesterday killed three people including the commander of a provincial Afghan police rapid reaction force and wounded 12 others, officials said.
Two policemen were also killed and nine wounded when two successive blasts hit the eastern province of Laghman, in the border with Pakistan.a

Read More

UN summit sets plan to stop HIV child infections

World leaders at a U.N. AIDS summit launched a plan on Thursday to try to eliminate by 2015 most new HIV infections among children, who inherit the condition from already infected mothers.
The campaign was launched as the leaders also agreed on a target of reaching 15 million people with HIV treatment, more than double the number who currently get it, also by 2015.
Both goals were announced just weeks after groundbreaking new data showed that early treatment of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes AIDS, can cut its transmission to a sexual partner by 96 percent.
In 2009, some 370,000 children were born with HIV, or one nearly every minute -- the vast majority of them in 22 countries, almost all in Africa. But providing HIV-positive pregnant women with treatment can reduce the risk of a child being born with the virus to less than 5 percent.
The UNAIDS organization and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which are jointly managing the campaign launched on Thursday, said it would aim to reduce the number of child infections by 90 percent by 2015.
"We believe that by 2015 children everywhere can be born free of HIV and that their mothers can remain healthy," UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe told the launch event, describing the plan as realistic and achievable.
UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Paul De Lay told Reuters the plan was based on providing pregnant women with more information and on more effective use of anti-AIDS drugs.
"BEGINNING OF THE END"
UNAIDS officials said funding from all sources for prevention of mother-child transmission of HIV was currently running at some $500 million a year. They said a total of $2.5 billion more would be needed by 2015 to achieve the campaign's target of eliminating mother-to-child HIV infections.
"Developed countries already do this," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the meeting. "But we cannot rest until this is true for our whole world."
U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Eric Goosby said the United States was contributing an extra $75 million to the campaign. Several private companies and foundations also announced contributions.
Achieving the goal could be "the beginning of the end of the story, because that opens the prospect for an AIDS-free generation," Michel Kazatchkine, head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told Reuters.
Meanwhile, a declaration agreed by the 140-nation U.N. summit commits governments to "the target of working toward 15 million people living with HIV on antiretroviral treatment by 2015."
The declaration is expected to be adopted on Friday at the end of the three-day summit, which was held close to the 30th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS.
Some 6.6 million were receiving antiretroviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries at the end of 2010, according to U.N. figures.
Aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) called the pledge a "critical step," but said governments needed to take "immediate concrete action" to make the target a reality.
"There are 9 million people waiting for HIV treatment today," Tido von Schoen-Angerer of MSF said in a statement. "This whole AIDS summit will have been a farce if we don't see real plans to ramp up treatment so we can get ahead of the wave of new infections."

Read More

South Sudan accuses north of air attack, clashes flare

 South Sudan's army accused the north on Friday of bombing a southern border village and said southern forces were getting ready to defend against a possible ground attack.
The south is preparing to secede on July 9 and fears of fresh fighting between the two long-standing rivals grew after the north seized the contested Abyei region on May 21.
The United Nations said fighting between northern forces and southern-aligned armed groups in the north-run oil state of Southern Kordofan had spread to the tip of the southern Unity state and that tens of thousands may have fled the clashes.
Philip Aguer, spokesman for the south's Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army, said the northern military was trying to occupy areas near the border -- whose exact position is yet to be decided -- in an attempt to control the country's oil fields.
"There has been an air bombardment by northern forces in Unity state, in the morning yesterday and again in the afternoon. Three people were killed in the morning," Aguer said. The three dead were civilians, he said.
"We are expecting not only air attacks but also ground forces. We know their forces are moving from Abyei towards Unity state. ... We are getting ready to defend ourselves. Our forces near the border are on maximum alert and are expecting an attack any time," he added.
A spokesman for the northern army was not immediately available to comment. In previous statements, it blamed southern or southern-aligned forces for provoking fighting in Abyei, Southern Kordofan and elsewhere.
The White House said on Friday night it was "deeply concerned" by the developments in southern Sudan.
"The United States condemns reported acts of violence in Southern Kordofan that target individuals based on their ethnicity and political affiliation," the Obama administration statement said. "We call on the UN to fully investigate these incidents, and we demand that the perpetrators immediately halt these actions and be held accountable for their crimes."
South Sudan voted to secede in a January referendum promised by a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of brutal civil war between the north and south.
That vote went more smoothly and peacefully than many analysts and humanitarian groups predicted, but a lack of agreement between the two sides on questions such as how to share debt and oil revenues has complicated the split.
The secession could see the north lose some 75 percent of Sudan's current 500,000 barrels a day of oil output, the lifeblood of both the northern and southern economies.fighting,area,un,

VOLATILE BORDER

Northern forces have been fighting armed groups in the volatile Southern Kordofan border state since a police station was attacked on Saturday.
Between 30,000 and 40,000 people may have fled fighting in the state capital, Kadugli, alone, the United Nations said on Friday. The town's normal population is estimated at 60,000.
"The fighting has spread to the disputed border area of the northernmost tip of Unity state in southern Sudan," Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, told reporters in Geneva.
Armed checkpoints were set up on the main roads inside and around Kadugli and there had been reports of "large-scale" looting as late as Thursday, she added.
Kouider Zerrouk, spokesman for UNMIS, the local U.N. Mission in Sudan, said separately that MiG and Antonov aircraft bombardments were reported in the state's Umm Dorain, Umm Serdiba, Heiban and Saraf el-Gamos on Thursday, and artillery fire could be heard near Kadugli on Friday.
"The security situation in Kadugli and its environs remains volatile," he said. "Military build-up is continuing in various locations."
Analysts have seen Southern Kordofan as a flashpoint because it is home to thousands of northerners who sided with the south against Khartoum during the last civil war. Northern officials have called last week's clashes an "armed rebellion."
The region also holds the most productive oil fields that will be left in the north after the split.
Former South African President Thabo Mbeki met with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Thursday to discuss Southern Kordofan and Abyei and was scheduled to travel to Juba to meet officials there on Friday, state news agency SUNA said.
Abyei, long a centerpiece of the north-south divide, has been one of the most contentious issues before southern secession. It is used all year by the south-linked Dinka Ngok people and part of the year by northern Misseriya nomads.
Khartoum took control of the area with tanks and troops nearly three weeks ago, following an attack on a convoy of northern soldiers and U.N. peacekeepers that was blamed on southern forces. The move drew an international outcry.
Abyei was "calm but unpredictable" with sporadic shooting in the region's main town, OCHA said on Friday. Some 101,800 people may have fled the fighting there, it added, up from a previous estimate of 96,000.

Read More

Death toll in Haiti's floods, mudslides rises to 23

Overturned furniture covered in mud is seen in a home damaged by severe rainstorms the night before in Port-au-Prince, June 7, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Swoan Parker

The death toll from days of heavy rains that triggered flooding and mudslides in earthquake-ravaged Haiti has climbed to 23.
 The deaths and damage caused by the first major rainfall of the Atlantic hurricane season have raised concerns about the ability of Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, to respond to a major storm as it works to stem an eight-month-old cholera outbreak that has killed about 5,400 people.
Emergency crews cleared rocks, trees and downed power lines from roads in the Haitian capital on Wednesday and aid groups fanned out to further assess the damage.
The rains turned dirt roads in Port-au-Prince into muddy streams, flattened ramshackle homes and flooded tent encampments where hundreds of thousands of homeless survivors of Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake still live.
At least six people were reported missing, said Nadia Louchard, a coordinator with Haiti's Civil Protection Department.
"We are asking the population to be vigilant and to leave areas at risk when it is raining," she added.
The rains eased in Port-au-Prince but weather forecasts showed more precipitation was likely in coming days. Torrential rains also set off flooding in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.
Some Haitians wondered whether the government was adequately prepared to deal with a more powerful storm if one were to hit the impoverished country.

"If these rains can cause so much damage, what would happen if there was a real disaster?" asked Angeline Mauger, 38.

Last year, Haiti escaped a potential disaster when Hurricane Tomas skirted the country, flooding some coastal towns but largely sparing the crowded camps in Port-au-Prince.

Flooding set off by Tomas, however, is believed to have worsened Haiti's cholera outbreak, which started 10 months after the January 2010 earthquake killed more than 300,000 people.

A huge U.N.-led humanitarian operation has helped reduce the fatality rate from the cholera epidemic from peaks last year when dozens of victims were dying every day.
Still, humanitarian workers say flooding is causing fresh outbreaks of the deadly diarrheal disease spread by contaminated water and food.
"We can never say we are fully prepared," said Louchard. "The country has its structural problems. We are just trying to do our best."

Read More

U.N. rights boss calls on Syria to halt "assault"

 The top U.N. human rights official called on Syria on Thursday to halt its "assault on its own people" and said more than 1,100 people may have been killed and up to 10,000 detained since March.

Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged Damascus to allow a fact-finding mission into the country to investigate all allegations, including Syrian state television reports that 120 members of the security forces were killed by armed gangs.
"It is utterly deplorable for any government to attempt to bludgeon its population into submission, using tanks, artillery and snipers," she said in a statement.
"I urge the government to halt this assault on its own people's most fundamental human rights."
More than 1,000 people have been killed in three months of popular unrest in Syria, human rights groups say. On Wednesday, Britain, France, Germany and Portugal handed the U.N. Security Council a draft resolution condemning Syria's crackdown on protesters, despite the risk of a Russia veto.
"We are receiving an increasing number of alarming reports pointing to the Syrian government's continuing efforts to ruthlessly crush civilian protests," said Pillay, a former U.N. war crimes judge.
Local human rights groups estimated that more than 50 protesters were killed during a protest in the city of Hama last Friday. Pillay said it would seem that it was one of the bloodiest days since the uprising began.
She voiced concern at reports of civilians fleeing the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour after what she called threatening statements by government officials.
Syrian troops with tanks have deployed near Jisr al-Shughour, prompting many of its 50,000 people to flee. The government has accused armed bands of killing scores of its security men in the town and has vowed to send in the army.
More than a thousand Syrians have fled across the border into Turkey in the last 24 hours and have taken refuge in a tent camp, the U.N. refugee UNHCR said on Thursday.
On April 29, the U.N. Human Rights Council set up a fact-finding mission to investigate violations in Syria.
Pillay again urged Syria to allow the U.N. human rights investigators into the country to establish the facts. Members of her team are collecting evidence in the region but have yet to receive a greenlight from Damascus.
"So far we have not received any official reply from Syria -- either positive or negative," she said.

Read More

News World news Libya Gaddafi faces new ICC charges for using rape as weapon in conflict

An injured Libyan rebel fighter mourns for his fallen comrade killed by a Grad rocket belonging to forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi at a hospital in Misrata, Libya. Photograph: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters

The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) is likely to add rape to the war crimes charges against Muammar Gaddafi on the back of mounting evidence that sexual attacks on women are being used as a weapon in the Libyan conflict.
Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters at the UN in New York last night there were strong indications that hundreds of women had been raped in the Libyan government clampdown on the popular uprising and that Gaddafi had ordered the violations as a form of punishment.

The prosecutor said there was even evidence that the government had been handing out doses of Viagra to soldiers to encourage sexual attacks. Moreno-Ocampo said rape was a new tactic for the Libyan regime. "That's why we had doubts at the beginning, but now we are more convinced. Apparently, [Gaddafi] decided to punish, using rape."

The move came as Gaddafi's forces responded to Nato's intensified aerial bombardment of Tripoli on Tuesday by launching a heavy attack on rebel positions outside the liberated city of Misrata, unleashing a barrage of Grad rockets and mortars against rebel positions to the east, west and south of Misrata early on Wednesday morning, and followed up with an infantry assault. The Hikma hospital reported at least 10 rebel fighters died and 26 were wounded.

The attack came as Liam Fox, the defence secretary, expressed increasing frustration with the slow progress of the western-led military campaign, forcefully telling fellow Nato ministers at a meeting in Brussels they should contribute more.

Nato said the targets it had struck in and around Tripoli included six command and control centres, two anti-aircraft guns, a radar system and a vehicle storage facility. The worst damage occurred at Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound, where several buildings were destroyed, sending giant plumes of smoke into the sky. Bombing continued on Wednesday morning, but with less intensity.

Gaddafi, who is in hiding in the capital and has rarely been seen or heard from in recent weeks, reacted with fury to the attack, insisting he would fight to the end in an audio broadcast on state television.

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said 31 people – soldiers, guards, and civilians – had been killed and described Nato as "the forces of evil". The casualty figure could not be independently verified.

In an attempt to show Nato had struck non-military targets, government minders on Wednesday morning took journalists to see a "nature reserve", occasionally used by Gaddafi to entertain guests, which had been hit the previous evening.

The missiles had destroyed two trucks, one of them very large, a golf cart, a large tent and several containers, including one that had computer equipment and a paper shredder inside.
Officials were unable to explain what the vehicles were doing on a nature reserve, or why there were windsocks nearby, which appeared to suggest the presence of an airfield.

The surge in the number of attacks on targets in Tripoli, which follows the incorporation of attack helicopters into Nato's mission on the weekend, is a clear attempt to end the military stalemate on the ground and hasten Gaddafi's exit. Nearly four months into the conflict, rebels control large parts of eastern Libya, a string of towns in the western mountains, near the border with Tunisia, as well as Misrata. Opposition fighters there said they had repelled Wednesday's attack by government forces.

"Our will is stronger than theirs," said Sadik Ibrahim Mohammed, an injured rebel fighter. "The Shebab [rebels] have the heart. The Gaddafi soldiers ran away."

But the various frontlines are all still some way from Tripoli, where the regime still has a tight grip on the population. The Libyan government says that the escalated aerial campaign against Gaddafi had gone far beyond the mandate of protecting civilians, a point some critics of the operation outside Libya agree with.
Fox told a meeting of Nato ministers: "I firmly believe that we must intensify our pressure on the regime and it is imperative our military commanders have the assets and capabilities they need to do the job all of us around this table have asked of them: to defeat those regime elements which continue to threaten civilians. Let me be frank. Nato is not just about military hardware. It is also about values. And those values are not an optional extra."

Read More

Obama Backs Ban Ki-Moon's Bid For Second Term As UN Chief

The U.S. President Barack Obama has extended support to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in his bid for a second term of office, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.

"President Obama welcomes United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's announcement that he will run for a second term, and the United States supports his candidacy," it said.

According to the White House, under Ban's stewardship the U.N. performed key role of mediator as well as an arbiter in several vexatious issues all over the globe. A former South Korean Foreign Minister, Ban also broke new ground through steps to recruit more women to the U.N.'s higher echelons. Equally significant was his proposal to slash the U.N. budget by curtailing wasteful expenditure.

The 66-year-old had already won the backing of Britain, China and France. Now with the U.S. too supporting his candidature, his re-election could well become a foregone conclusion.

India had also announced its support to Ban's candidature. Incidentally during the 2007 election, Ban's main rival was the then U.N. diplomat and current Member of India's Parliament Shashi Tharoor.

Ban's current term runs through until December 31.

Read More

Priyanka Vs Rahul on World Environment Day

• 

Priyanka Chopra More Pics

Bollywood actors Priyanka Chopra and Rahul Bose are to compete on the World Environment Day June 5 to motivate people to do their bit to save the mother earth.
The Bollywood stars are facing off in a new video for the ultimate Environment Day Challenge - where they are calling individuals, groups, families and schools, even entire communities.
"And for Priyanka and Rahul, this is where the battle lines get drawn. When registering a green activity on the site, people will have the opportunity to pledge their activity to either one celebrity or the other," said a statement issued by UN here.

Priyanka has pledged to plant a tree for every green activity registered in her name while Rahul has pledged to plant two.
"Whether it's switching from plastic bags to cloth bags, car-pooling with colleagues or organising a tree-planting day, green activities can be big, small, local, international, noisy, quiet ... just as long as they're green," it said.
India for the first time is the global host of United Nations Environment Day this year.
UNEP ( United Nations Environment Programme) has given the theme "Forests: Nature at Your Service" in alignment with the UN International Year of Forests, 2011. The theme celebrates the multitude of services - providing clean air, housing rich biodiversity, supplying water - performed by the world's forests.
In the run-up to June 5, the environment ministry has also planned a group of activities, including "Green Walkathon", in partnership with the Delhi government at India Gate.
The other significant feature will be organisation of "Green Haat", involving about 52 partners to showcase initiatives, of forest dwellers, minor forest produce federations of various states, women self-help groups, NGO partners, highlighting the value added forest products at Dilli Haat between June 1-5.
Biodiversity film festival for disadvantaged children, general public, prisoners, and Air Force officials will be organised in partnership with Centre for Media Studies (CMS) in the capital from June 1-4 at National Science Centre, PVR's Cinemas, Tihar Jail and Subroto Park to raise awareness about environmental issues through films from eminent national and international filmmakers.

Read More

Healing the Wounds: Libya

s: Libya

Latest news:  Libya
Field Blog: CIVIC From the Field: Libya

The Conflict

In February 2011, following a spate of protests in countries around the region, protests broke out in several areas of Libya challenging Col. Muammar Qaddafi's 42-year rule. In late February, as the government's response to these protests turned increasingly violent, the UN Security Council responded by passing Resolution 1970 to impose sanctions on Qaddafi and refer the situation in Libya to the International Criminal Court (ICC). In early March, the UN General Assembly suspended Libya's membership to the Human Rights Council.
On March 17th, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 calling for a no-fly zone to deter the bombardment of civilian targets by government forces. Resolution 1973 marks the first time the Security Council passed a resolution to authorize the use of force with an explicit reference to the responsibility to protect.
An ad hoc coalition composed of the US, France, and the UK began implementing the no-fly zone immediately after the adoption of Resolution 1973. On March 27th, NATO assumed command of the military operation in Libya. NATO follows Resolution 1973 in banning all flights in Libyan airspace, except those for humanitarian and aid purposes, to make sure that civilians and civilian populated areas cannot be subjected to air attack by Qaddafi forces.
The Libyan rebels and pro-Qaddafi forces have both gained and lost territory as NATO's airstrike campaign continues. While pro-Qaddafi forces, armed with better weapons, were initially able to force the Libyan rebels back, increased coordination between the rebels and NATO have led to more effective NATO airstrikes and territorial gains. Britain, France, and Italy have sent military liaison officers to help the rebels organize their nascent forces. The fighting continues, often intensely, in several parts of the country.
Qaddafi's forces have reportedly used cluster munitions and landmines, and have targeted civilian areas and medical facilities. These allegations are documented by both the UN High Commissioner for ,civis,public,Human Rights as well as independent human rights organizations.

CIVIC's Work

CIVIC consistently calls on all parties to the conflict to avoid civilians, including pro-Qaddafi forces, the rebels, militias and NATO.
In the absence of any means by which to evaluate the effectiveness of actions taken in accordance with either Resolution 1973 or 1970, CIVIC calls for the immediate and comprehensive recording of all civilian casualties, followed-up by full investigations as soon as feasible. NATO should develop a civilian casualty tracking, analysis and response mechanism with personnel in both Naples and in Benghazi. In addition to cataloguing all available known data, the cell would also recognize and investigate all allegations of civilian casualties, in anticipation of future development of an amends system. The mechanisms employed should be transparent and open to public scrutiny.
CIVIC traveled to Eastern Libya in April 2011 to work on practical ways the Libyan opposition and NATO can track and investigate civilian harm, and make amends when appropriate. Access to many parts of the country, including Tripoli, is not possible at this time. This work is ongoing.

Read More