© PAHO Violence from armed gangs is causing Port-au-Prince residents to flee their homes in droves. Top news of the day | Tuesday: drones, desertification, UNRWA, Haiti UN
Top news of the day at the UN and around the world: The UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross called on countries to immediately develop legally binding regulations on the use of drones, the Deputy Secretary-General said that states were allocating too little money to restore degraded lands, Israeli security forces illegally entered the territory of the UNRWA training center in East Jerusalem, chapter The UN condemned the attack by an armed gang on the commune of Kenscoff, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
Using drones
States must move immediately to develop legally binding regulations governing the use of autonomous weapons systems, including drones. This is stated in a joint address by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Mirjana Spoljaric. According to them, the world is rapidly approaching a dangerous point beyond which a machine will be able to independently select a person as a target. Guterres and Spoljarich noted that technology is developing so quickly that the gap between the capabilities of autonomous weapons and current legal norms is only growing.Countries allocate too little money to restore degraded lands. At the same time, the economic damage from soil degradation is approaching $1 trillion per year. This was stated by UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed at the UN Conference to Combat Desertification, held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Mohammed called on governments to move from individual land restoration projects to comprehensive national plans backed by the necessary funding.
Seizure of UNRWA training center
UN Secretary-General António Guterres strongly condemned the actions of Israeli security forces who today illegally entered the UN Near East Agency’s training center for assistance Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the village of Qalandiya in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli officials later made public statements indicating that the center’s premises had been seized by Israeli authorities. The UN chief said that such actions against UNRWA facilities are completely unacceptable and contrary to Israel’s obligations under international law.
Attack in Haiti
António Guterres condemned the attack by an armed gang on the commune of Kenscoff, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. At least 47 people were killed, including 22 who were reportedly executed on the church grounds where they were hiding. The Secretary-General called on the Haitian authorities to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice, including through the use of specialized judicial units recently established with international support to investigate crimes involving mass casualties.