UN: Lack of accountability for killing of UN staff and others Humanitarian aid The UN Secretary-General said the killing of workers in the Gaza Strip was “totally unacceptable”. Antonio Guterres He gave this information in a detailed interview given to Reuters on Wednesday.
Guterres also said establishing a U.N. peacekeeping force would not be the “best solution” for Haiti, where armed gangs have taken over much of the capital and spread into surrounding areas, fueling a humanitarian crisis with mass displacement, sexual violence and widespread hunger.
Ahead of the annual meeting of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly later this month, Guterres described the past year as “very difficult, very difficult.”
That has been overshadowed by the ongoing war in Gaza, which began just two weeks after the leaders left New York following last year’s gathering, when Palestinian Hamas militants infiltrated across the border into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage, according to Israeli figures.
Describing Israel’s retaliatory measures against Hamas in Gaza – where local health officials say nearly 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began – Guterres said there have been “very dramatic violations of international humanitarian law and a complete lack of effective protection of civilians.”
“What is happening in Gaza is completely unacceptable,” he said.
The Israeli military says it takes steps to minimise the risk of harm to civilians and that at least a third of Palestinians killed in Gaza have been militants. It accuses Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, which Hamas denies.
Nearly 300 humanitarian aid workers have also been killed during the conflict, more than two-thirds of them UN staff, according to the United Nations. Guterres said there must be effective investigation and accountability for their deaths.
“We have courts, but we see that the decisions of the courts are not respected, and this kind of uncertainty of accountability is totally unacceptable and needs to be seriously addressed,” Guterres said.
The United Nations’ top court International Court of Justice – Said in July that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements is illegal and must be withdrawn. The 193-member UN General Assembly is expected to vote on a draft resolution next week, giving Israel a six-month deadline to do so.
Guterres said he had not spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who has long accused the UN of being anti-Israel – since Hamas’ deadly attack in Israel on October 7 last year. The two met in person at the UN a year ago and Guterres said he would meet with Netanyahu again if he asked.
“I haven’t spoken to him because he didn’t pick up my phone calls, but I have no reason not to talk to him,” Guterres said. “So if he comes to New York and asks to meet me, I would be very happy to meet him.”
When asked whether Netanyahu planned to meet Guterres on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said Netanyahu’s schedule had not yet been finalised.
Haiti ‘scandal’
Guterres described the current state of the world as “chaotic.” He said the conflict in Gaza and Russia’s war in Ukraine are “stuck and there is no peaceful solution in sight.”
When asked about Western allegations that North Korea and Iran are now supplying arms to Russia, Guterres said: “Any escalation of the war in Ukraine is an extremely dramatic development.”
Iran has rejected the Western accusations, while North Korea has denied the allegations against it. UN sanctions inspectors said in April that missile debris shot down over the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on January 2 belonged to a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile.
In Haiti, the UN-backed international force has been slow to deploy – after Haiti asked for help in 2022 – and it lacks funding. The United States wants the UN Security Council to ask the UN for a plan to turn the force into a UN peacekeeping operation.
“I don’t think peacekeeping is the best solution in a situation like this… Peacekeeping means keeping the peace, and that’s not the case in Haiti,” Guterres said. “I find it a shame that it has been so difficult to find funding for such a dramatic situation.”
The Trump Threat
Guterres’ first five-year term as secretary-general coincides with the US presidency of Donald Trump, who cut funding to the international body after calling it weak and inefficient. Trump is the Republican presidential nominee again and will face Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election.
When Guterres was asked if the world body had any contingency plans for a possible second Trump administration, he said: “We stand ready to work under all circumstances to defend the (UN’s founding) Charter and the values of the United Nations.”
During his first term Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, an international pact to fight climate change, and Trump’s campaign said he would do so again if he wins in November. The US is currently a full participant in the agreement after President Joe Biden rejoined it in 2021.
“It will survive. But, of course, it will probably survive severely weakened,” Guterres said of a possible Trump administration second exit from the deal. Guterres has long pushed for stronger action to fight climate change.
With abortion rights being a major topic in the U.S. election, Guterres said the U.S. voice at the United Nations is “obviously very important” when it comes to women’s sexual and reproductive rights, as well as health.
During Trump’s presidency, the U.S. opposed long-accepted international language on women’s sexual and reproductive rights and health in United Nations resolutions because it worried it would promote abortion rights.
Trump also cut funding to the United Nations Population Fund in 2017 because his administration said it “supports, or participates in the management of, a program of forced abortion or involuntary sterilization.” The UN said that was a false assumption.
Guterres also said establishing a U.N. peacekeeping force would not be the “best solution” for Haiti, where armed gangs have taken over much of the capital and spread into surrounding areas, fueling a humanitarian crisis with mass displacement, sexual violence and widespread hunger.
Ahead of the annual meeting of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly later this month, Guterres described the past year as “very difficult, very difficult.”
That has been overshadowed by the ongoing war in Gaza, which began just two weeks after the leaders left New York following last year’s gathering, when Palestinian Hamas militants infiltrated across the border into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage, according to Israeli figures.
Describing Israel’s retaliatory measures against Hamas in Gaza – where local health officials say nearly 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began – Guterres said there have been “very dramatic violations of international humanitarian law and a complete lack of effective protection of civilians.”
“What is happening in Gaza is completely unacceptable,” he said.
The Israeli military says it takes steps to minimise the risk of harm to civilians and that at least a third of Palestinians killed in Gaza have been militants. It accuses Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, which Hamas denies.
Nearly 300 humanitarian aid workers have also been killed during the conflict, more than two-thirds of them UN staff, according to the United Nations. Guterres said there must be effective investigation and accountability for their deaths.
“We have courts, but we see that the decisions of the courts are not respected, and this kind of uncertainty of accountability is totally unacceptable and needs to be seriously addressed,” Guterres said.
The United Nations’ top court International Court of Justice – Said in July that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements is illegal and must be withdrawn. The 193-member UN General Assembly is expected to vote on a draft resolution next week, giving Israel a six-month deadline to do so.
Guterres said he had not spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who has long accused the UN of being anti-Israel – since Hamas’ deadly attack in Israel on October 7 last year. The two met in person at the UN a year ago and Guterres said he would meet with Netanyahu again if he asked.
“I haven’t spoken to him because he didn’t pick up my phone calls, but I have no reason not to talk to him,” Guterres said. “So if he comes to New York and asks to meet me, I would be very happy to meet him.”
When asked whether Netanyahu planned to meet Guterres on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said Netanyahu’s schedule had not yet been finalised.
Haiti ‘scandal’
Guterres described the current state of the world as “chaotic.” He said the conflict in Gaza and Russia’s war in Ukraine are “stuck and there is no peaceful solution in sight.”
When asked about Western allegations that North Korea and Iran are now supplying arms to Russia, Guterres said: “Any escalation of the war in Ukraine is an extremely dramatic development.”
Iran has rejected the Western accusations, while North Korea has denied the allegations against it. UN sanctions inspectors said in April that missile debris shot down over the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on January 2 belonged to a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile.
In Haiti, the UN-backed international force has been slow to deploy – after Haiti asked for help in 2022 – and it lacks funding. The United States wants the UN Security Council to ask the UN for a plan to turn the force into a UN peacekeeping operation.
“I don’t think peacekeeping is the best solution in a situation like this… Peacekeeping means keeping the peace, and that’s not the case in Haiti,” Guterres said. “I find it a shame that it has been so difficult to find funding for such a dramatic situation.”
The Trump Threat
Guterres’ first five-year term as secretary-general coincides with the US presidency of Donald Trump, who cut funding to the international body after calling it weak and inefficient. Trump is the Republican presidential nominee again and will face Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election.
When Guterres was asked if the world body had any contingency plans for a possible second Trump administration, he said: “We stand ready to work under all circumstances to defend the (UN’s founding) Charter and the values of the United Nations.”
During his first term Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement, an international pact to fight climate change, and Trump’s campaign said he would do so again if he wins in November. The US is currently a full participant in the agreement after President Joe Biden rejoined it in 2021.
“It will survive. But, of course, it will probably survive severely weakened,” Guterres said of a possible Trump administration second exit from the deal. Guterres has long pushed for stronger action to fight climate change.
With abortion rights being a major topic in the U.S. election, Guterres said the U.S. voice at the United Nations is “obviously very important” when it comes to women’s sexual and reproductive rights, as well as health.
During Trump’s presidency, the U.S. opposed long-accepted international language on women’s sexual and reproductive rights and health in United Nations resolutions because it worried it would promote abortion rights.
Trump also cut funding to the United Nations Population Fund in 2017 because his administration said it “supports, or participates in the management of, a program of forced abortion or involuntary sterilization.” The UN said that was a false assumption.
