UNITED NATIONS, Mr 13 (APP):Despite a UN Security Council demand to institute a 30-day ceasefire across Syria, airstrikes, shelling and ground offensives have intensified in Eastern Ghouta, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reported Monday, warning that the conflict is entering its eighth year with the “grimmest” reality on the ground.
A country known for its ancient civilization and with a people known for their richness of diversity, “Syria is bleeding inside and out”, the UN chief told the 15-member body in his briefing on the implementation of Security Council resolution 2401unanimously adopted on 24 February.
Along with a 30-day ceasefire, the resolution calls for delivering aid, evacuating the sick and wounded, lifting sieges, accelerating humanitarian mine action, and protecting civilians and infrastructure.
“Let me highlight just one stark fact on this grimmest of anniversaries: In 2017, more children were killed in Syria than during any other year since the war began,” he said.
According to UN data, the conflict has produced more than 5.6 million Syrian refugees and 6.1 million internally displaced people, with more than 13 million people inside the country requiring humanitarian assistance, including nearly six million children.
However, violence continues in Eastern Ghouta and beyond, including in Afrin, parts of Idlib and into Damascus and its suburbs, Mr. Guterres said, warning that in Eastern Ghouta, airstrikes, shelling and ground offensives have even intensified and claimed many hundreds of civilian lives, some even saying more than 1,000 were killed.
He reported that none of the Council’s directives have been implemented: the provision of humanitarian aid and services has not been safe, unimpeded or sustained; no sieges have been lifted and not one critically sick or wounded person has yet been evacuated.
All parties involved should be reminded that even efforts to combat terrorist groups identified by the Council do not supersede these humanitarian obligations.
Guterres noted, however, that in some areas, like Deir ez-Zour and Douma, the conflict is diminishing in intensity.
A ceasefire between the Government and Jaish al Islam forces in Douma is largely holding, he said, noting that their meeting took place yesterday and today, and there has been progress on civilian evacuations and humanitarian aid.
Guterres’ oral report detailed latest efforts of his Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to bring about a political solution to the conflict and UN activities to address the humanitarian crisis.
On Thursday, this conflict will enter its eighth year. I refuse to lose my hope to see Syria rising from the ashes, he said, “To see a united, democratic Syria able to avoid fragmentation and sectarianism with its sovereignty and territorial integrity respected and to see a Syrian people able to freely decide their future and choose their political leadership.”

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 13 (APP):The United Nations body dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment opened its annual session on Monday hearing calls to help women, especially those in rural communities, secure an end to the male-dominated power dynamic that has long marginalized their participation and muted their voices.
Across the world, women are telling their stories and provoking important and necessary conversations “in villages and cities; in boardrooms and bedrooms; in the streets and in the corridors of power,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said while opening the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62).
From ‘MeToo’ to ˜Time’s Up’ and ˜The Time is Now’ women and girls are calling out abusive behaviour and discriminatory attitudes, he added.
Under the Commission’s theme “Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls”, the UN chief observed that although a marginalized group, they were often the backbone of their families and communities, managing land and resources.
Guterres said that supporting these women is essential to fulfilling our global pledge to eradicate poverty and to create a safer, more sustainable world on a healthy planet – 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Guterres painted a picture of a male-dominated world with a male-dominated culture in which centuries of patriarchy and discrimination have left a damaging legacy.
Calling it the greatest human rights challenge of our time, he said progress for women and girls means changing the unequal power dynamics that underpin discrimination and violence.
Discrimination against women damages communities, organizations, companies, economies and societies, he continued. That is why all men should support women’s rights and gender equality. And that is why I consider myself a proud feminist.
The President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Marie Chatardova pointed to the Commission, as a critical instrument to strengthen the global normative framework for women’s empowerment and the promotion of gender equality.
The body is also as a key driver of ECOSOC’s work, with the Commission’s outcomes as bolstering the 2030 Agenda’s implementation and that of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which seek to end poverty and ensure prosperity for all on a healthy planet.
Noting that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is a theme that cuts across all the goals, Ms. Chatardova said the Commission’s focus on rural women and girls was both timely and well-aligned with the 2030 Agenda.
According to the ECOSOC President, inclusion is a key element in all efforts.
Noting that the Commission has long provided a roadmap for the UN’s work in women’s empowerment and gender equality, she announced a special Council session in May to build sustainable, inclusive and resilient societies.
For his part, the President of the UN General Assembly, Miroslav Lajcak, noted that past challenges were approached without a gender perspective, which has had a particularly damaging effect on rural women.
Lajcak underscored that this needs to stop, and that women must be taken into account in all actions, from access to water to closing pay gaps.
Drawing attention to rural women as a major source of innovation, he explained that their empowerment would benefit everyone.
These kinds of women do not need our help, in finding solutions, he stated. What they need is our support, in turning their ideas into reality.
Calling gender equality an urgent priority, Lajcak he encouraged the Commission to carry on with its important work until every woman, sitting in this room today has the same rights, and the same opportunities, as the man sitting beside her.
Thank you for continuing your calls. Let’s make them stronger than ever,he concluded.
It speaks to our commitment to fight some of the biggest challenges of our time: poverty, inequality, intersectionality and an end to violence and discrimination against women and girls, no matter where they live, or how they live, so that we leave no one behind, she stated.
Calling it a tipping point moment, the UN Women chief urged the forum to seize the opportunity to secure and accelerate progress, build consensus and share best practices to serve the poorest of the poor.
It has never been so urgent to hold leaders accountable for their promises for accelerating progress on the SDGs, she said. An unprecedented hunger for change in women’s lives was being seen around the world, as well as a growing recognition that when women banded together, they can make demands that bite.
Women are fighting to take steps that change their lives, and they are refusing to accept the practices that have normalized gender inequality, sexual misconduct, exclusion and discrimination across all walks of life, she argued.
She urged everyone to unite around the common cause, as set out in the principles of equality in the UN Charter, to make this a moment of real acceleration, change and accountability.
The chair, Geraldine Byrne Nason, said the current session is a key moment on the path to ending discrimination against women and girls once and for all. Indeed, time is up on women taking second place around the world, she said, challenging the Commission to do more and do better.
CSW functions under ECOSOC, acting as the UN organ promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. CSW62 runs until 23 March.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 12 (APP):The World Health Organization (WHO), a U.N. agency, has launched new guidelines on the role that tobacco product regulations can play in saving lives by reducing the demand for tobacco and tobacco products, estimated to kill over seven million people annually.
The new guide together with an accompanying publication would help governments to do much more to implement regulations and address the exploitation of tobacco product regulations, WHO said.
The tobacco industry had enjoyed years of little or no regulation, mainly due to the complexity of tobacco product regulation and lack of appropriate guidance in this area, Douglas Bettcher, the Director of the WHO Department for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases, said in a statement.
“Tobacco product regulation is an under-utilized tool which has a critical role to play in reducing tobacco use and these new tools provide a useful resource to countries to either introduce or improve existing tobacco product regulation provisions and end the tobacco industry’s reign,” he added.
The guide, titled Tobacco product regulation: Building laboratory testing capacity, provides practical and stepwise approaches to implementing tobacco testing relevant to a wide range of countries, especially those with inadequate resources to establish testing facilities.
It also provides regulators and policymakers with comprehensible information on how to test tobacco products, what products to test, and how to use testing data in a meaningful manner to support regulation.
The guidelines will also assist in the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control “ a global treaty combatting the tobacco epidemic“ through strengthening tobacco product regulation capacity in WHO member States.
“Failure to regulate is a missed opportunity as tobacco product regulation, in the context of comprehensive control is a valuable tool that complements other tried and tested tobacco control interventions, such as raising taxes, and ensuring smoke-free environments,” he explained.
According to Vinayak Prasad, the head of the Tobacco Free Initiative at WHO, most countries hesitate to implement policies, due in part to the highly technical nature of such policy interventions and the difficulties in translating science into regulation.
The accompanying publication, Case studies for regulatory approaches to tobacco products “ Menthol in tobacco products, includes practical steps as well as policy options countries can employ to make regulations more effective, such as the regulators’ enforcement of a total ban on the use of flavours in tobacco products such as menthol.
The guidance document and the accompanying publication were launched at the 2018 World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Cape Town, South Africa.