UAE champions women's role in peacebuilding at UN Security Council
Delivering the UAE's statement, Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Mohamed Abushahab stressed the importance of taking tangible steps to reinforce international peace and security, particularly as the world faces rising levels of violence and instability.
He pushed for a whole-of-society approach, highlighting the importance of including women, youth and community leaders in peace processes. 'When peacebuilding is inclusive, the outcomes are more sustainable and resilient,' Abushahab stated, adding that long-term stability depends on the meaningful participation of all segments of society. He added that peace agreements are 35% more likely to last when women are actively involved in the negotiation process.
Emphasising prevention as the first line of defence, he urged the international community to enhance early warning systems and make better use of underutilised tools like Article 34 of the UN Charter, which allows the Security Council to investigate potential threats to peace before they escalate. Abushahab also spotlighted Security Council Resolution 2686, which is co-authored by the UAE and the UK, as a key source for detecting early signs of conflict, including hate speech, racism and acts of extremism.
Addressing the legal and humanitarian dimensions of conflict, Abushahab reaffirmed the need for strict adherence to international humanitarian law. Violations, he warned, only serve to deepen mistrust and make reconciliation more difficult. He highlighted the role that humanitarian actions, such as opening safe corridors or arranging prisoner exchanges, can play in building confidence between parties to a conflict.
The debate, chaired by Pakistan, comes at a time of heightened global instability. The UAE's statement reiterated that investing in preventive diplomacy is not only a moral imperative but also a necessity, capable of saving lives, lowering long-term costs and fostering enduring peace.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Nour and Remas escaped Israel's bombs – then its starvation policy killed them
Ashraf Abo Salla spent 21 months shielding his 11-year-old daughter Nour from Israeli bombardment, dodging bombs, shelling and snipers. But there was one thing he couldn't protect her from: hunger. Nour died of starvation caused by a brutal Israeli siege. Her father couldn't find food, and the lentils they were given weren't enough to keep her alive. In a Gaza morgue, frail and hollow-eyed, he appeared consumed by guilt, though none of this was his doing. He didn't cry, but his despair and anger were raw as he wrapped Nour's skeletal body, her ribs and wrists clearly visible, in a blue sheet. Her clothes were still on: dirty jeans and a worn black blouse she seemed to have lived and died in. 'They trick us with a handful of lentils, but children need bread too. They need milk,' he told The National, in reference to the aid being distributed, which is given under the constant threat of being killed, by an Israel-US backed foundation. 'She survived on the community kitchens, but those are gone now,' he added, standing in front of a cracked wall where a corner had been broken to make space for black plastic body bags. More than 60,000 Palestinians, among them tens of thousands of children, have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of the war. Despite global outrage, Israel has refused to halt its bombardment, claiming it is targeting Hamas, but in the process it is destroying the lives and futures of hundreds of thousands of people. Starvation is increasingly being used as a weapon of war, according to the UN. In recent weeks, dozens have died of hunger in the besieged coastal enclave, where even fishing is banned. A trickle of aid trucks has entered Gaza in the last few days, but the famine is spreading, and children like Nour are dying every day. Cold marble table Images emerging from Gaza show clinics crowded with starving people. Residents have begun posting their daily struggles on social media: a piece of bread shaped like a fish to trick children into believing it's a real fish; a single piece of fruit shared by a family of six; fava beans eaten like snacks. 'They just see us as images,' said the aunt of 13-year-old Remas Al Burdeene, speaking from a small clinic in Gaza. Remas's life had been hard long before the famine. She lived with a disability in her legs and had endured war after wa r. This week, she died of hunger, too. On a dark, cold marble table, her tiny legs peeked out from under a brown blanket. Nurses arrived to wrap her body in a white burial shroud. Before that, Dalia, her aunt, had covered her with her own blanket and held her one last time. The blanket had a drawing of a dark blue sky. 'No one is doing anything to help us,' the aunt said, her body as thin as Remas's. On Tuesday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) issued an alert over the rise in hunger-related deaths in Gaza, warning that access to food and other essentials has plummeted to unprecedented levels. 'Famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip,' the IPC said in a report. For Dr Khalil Al Dajran, of Al Aqsa Hospital, the worst is yet to come, despite international outrage and even US President Donald Trump acknowledging the starvation crisis and calling for Gaza's children to be fed. 'Today we announced 14 more deaths due to malnutrition, raising the number of starvation deaths to 147, of which 88 are children,' he told The National. 'We fear the number will increase in the coming days,' warned the doctor, who was speaking outside the hospital near a field clinic, as people waited on the pavement for news of loved ones. Meanwhile, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to acknowledge the consequences of his decisions and his army's siege policy. 'There is no starvation in Gaza,' he claimed in a speech.
Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Gaza famine warning as Israel resists ceasefire calls
Gaza is slipping into famine, UN-backed experts warned on Tuesday, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said the death toll in the nearly 22-month war had surpassed 60,000. The health ministry figure excludes deaths from hunger in the Palestinian territory gripped by dire humanitarian conditions made worse by Israel's total blockade of aid from March to May. This week, Israel launched a daily pause in fighting and opened secure routes to enable UN and non-governmental agencies to distribute food on Gaza's devastated streets. Hundreds of truckloads of aid have begun to arrive. But Israeli strikes continued overnight, killing 30 people in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Gaza's civil defence agency and experts warn a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions is imminent. "The worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in the Gaza Strip," said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), a coalition of monitors tasked by the UN to warn of impending crises. The World Food Programme's emergency director, Ross Smith, likened the situation to some of the worst famines of the past century. "This is unlike anything we have seen in this century. It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra," Smith said via video-link from Rome. "We need urgent action now." In a statement released ahead of the IPC report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accused Hamas of distorting casualty figures and accused the group of looting food aid destined for Palestinian civilians. "While the situation in Gaza is difficult and Israel has been working to ensure aid delivery, Hamas benefits from attempting to fuel the perception of a humanitarian crisis," the statement said. "We already allow significant amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza every single day, including food, water and medicine. Unfortunately, Hamas... has been stealing aid from the Gaza population, many times by shooting Palestinians." As late as Sunday, Netanyahu had been insisting there was "no starvation in Gaza" but even his close international ally, US President Donald Trump, has now warned the situation appears to be "real starvation". Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation. Then on Sunday, faced with a mounting international chorus of alarm, Israel began a series of "tactical pauses" while allowed aid trucks to cross two border crossings into Gaza, and Jordanian and Emirati planes to airdrop aid. Shipments have ramped up, but for the IPC this effort will not prove enough unless aid agencies are granted "immediate, unimpeded" humanitarian access. "Failure to act now will result in widespread death in much of the Strip," it said, warning that 16 children under the age of five had died of hunger since July 17. "Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," it said. According to Netanyahu's office, the pause in military operations covers "key populated areas" between 10:00 am (0700 GMT) and 8:00 pm every day. Designated aid convoy routes will be secure from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm. COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry body in charge of civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said more than 200 truckloads of aid were distributed by the UN and aid agencies on Monday. Another 260 trucks were permitted to cross into Gaza to deposit aid at collection points, four UN tankers brought in fuel and 20 pallets of aid were airdropped from Jordanian and Emirati planes, COGAT said. Overnight, however, strikes continued. Gaza's civil defence agency said on Tuesday that Israeli air strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians, including women and children, in the central Nuseirat district. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the strikes were carried out overnight and into the morning and "targeted a number of citizens' homes" in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The local Al-Awda hospital said it had received "the bodies of 30 martyrs, including 14 women and 12 children". An Israeli military spokesman told AFP that he would need more information to enable him to look into the strikes. With aid experts pushing for a ceasefire to enable a large-scale humanitarian operation, Israel's foreign minister addressed reporters in Jerusalem to denounce what he called a "distorted campaign" of international pressure. Gideon Saar told reporters that if Israel was to halt the conflict while Hamas is still in power in Gaza and still holding hostages it would be a "tragedy for both Israelis and Palestinians". "It ain't gonna happen, no matter how much pressure is put on Israel," he said.
Khaleej Times
3 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Watch: UAE aid to Gaza makes up 44% of total global aid, delivered by land, air and sea
In response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, many countries have stepped in to provide the much-needed relief supplies to support millions in the beseiged enclave amid widespread reports of starvation. A UN agency for women said that one million women and girls in Gaza are facing mass starvation, violence and abuse, adding that they face possible choice of starving to death at their shelters or extreme risk of being killed while searching for food and water. The UAE was among the first countries to respond to the crisis, launching Operation Chivalrous Knight 3 on November 5, 2023, under the directives of President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan—well before conditions worsened. The move came ahead of what the UAE's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, later described as a 'critical and unprecedented' humanitarian situation. On March 31, the UAE marked 500 days of continuous humanitarian relief under the operation, delivering over 65,000 tonnes of food, medical, and relief aid—valued at more than US$1.2 billion - through land, sea, and air routes. With its tri-modal delivery system, by land, sea, and air, the initiative has enabled UAE humanitarian aid to constitute 44 per cent of total international aid to Gaza to date, according to UN reports. 'Birds of Goodness' An operation named "Birds of Goodness", was launched on February 29, 2024 by the UAE's Joint Operations Command at the Ministry of Defence to help Gazans, with joint airdrops carried out by the UAE and Egyptian air forces over the northern parts of the strip. The first airdrop, carried out by joint crews from both countries, involved three aircraft that delivered around 36 tonnes of food and medical aid over Jabalia and Beit Lahia. After nearly nine months suspension due to the ongoing war, the operation resumed its work earlier this week, and packages of much-needed relief supplies started to reach the hungry people of Gaza as part of a joint mission with Jordan. The airdrops deploy GPS-guided aid containers, using advanced systems to ensure precision delivery to targeted zones at the appropriate times. Since its launch, the initiative has helped deliver around 3,750 tonnes of food and relief supplies, including essential food items and critical aid that meet the urgent needs of Gaza families. Aid convoys A convoy of Emirati humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Monday through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. It consisted of 38 trucks, including 18 loaded with food supplies, medical aid, and infant formula, and 20 trucks carrying pipes, tanks, and equipment to support the operation of a new water pipeline. On Sunday, another convoy of 25 trucks had entered, carrying water pipes and essential equipment for the pipeline. This brings the total number of trucks transporting materials for the water infrastructure project to 45, with all necessary components now delivered and preparations underway for the project's implementation. Khalifa ship Earlier this month, the UAE's largest aid ship to Gaza, the Khalifa Humanitarian Air Ship, set sail from Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi, carrying a total load of 7,166 tonnes of various food, medical, and relief supplies. In addition to aid deliveries via air, land and sea, the UAE has constructed two field hospitals; one inside Gaza and a floating hospital anchored off the coast of Arish in Egypt. It has also established six water desalination plants with a combined capacity of two million gallons per day, providing clean drinking water to affected communities. This is the UAE's eighth Khalifa humanitarian ship and it carries :
