UPDATE: UN Women For Peace Annual Luncheon - numerous celebrities and socialites gathered for the annual UN Women for Peace luncheon. The event was held in the breathtaking Delegates dining room at the UN in celebration of International Women’s Day. Uma Pemmaraju acted as the master of ceremony. The Co-Chairs were Muna Rihani Al- Nasser, Deidre Imus and Sheikha Paula Al Sabah and Cindy McCain. Since its founding in 2008, the foundation has provided social, cultural, educational and empowerment programs as well as scholarships to benefit underprivileged women to study at the University for Peace. After the luncheon, attendees marched from the UN Headquarters to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at 47th and First

UN Women For Peace Annual Luncheon: "Trudie Styler and Dina Habib Powell were honored at this year’s event. Styler received the organization’s 2014 Humanitarian Award and Dina Habib Powell accepted the 2014 Achievement Award. The Committee of Honor attendees included Kim Cattrall, Naomi Campbell, Monique Coleman, Rosemary DiCarlo, Rula Jebreal, Lakskmi Puri, Kelly Rutherford and Aldijana Sisic."



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UPDATE: SIERRA LEONE: From the ashes of war, seeds of peace | What was once the biggest United Nations peacekeeping operation in the world winds down this month, and the most extraordinary part of this historic development is that international troops are not the only ones departing the country — nationals from the once war-ravaged nation are donning blue helmets as they deploy to serve with the UN in other troubled parts of the world. Sierra Leone used to be synonymous with brutality. The savage, decade-long war there was marked by appalling atrocities against civilians. Shocked into action, the world responded by backing a series of United Nations peacekeeping and peace operations. In the process, the international community paved the way for breakthroughs that will resonate far beyond Sierra Leone for years to come. We must give full credit where it is due: the peace I witnessed at the closing ceremony in Freetown this month is first and foremost an accomplishment of the Sierra Leonean people, who showed tremendous resolve to heal and rebuild. The UN is proud to have supported them — and we thank them for proving our value. Sierra Leone saw many UN “firsts”, hosting the UN’s first multi-dimensional peacekeeping operation with political, security, humanitarian and national recovery mandates. The UN Peacebuilding Commission made its first-ever visit to Sierra Leone. Our final mission there was led by the first senior UN official heading a unified political and development presence. The United Nations was proud to help set up the Special Court for Sierra Leone — making it the first country in Africa to establish, with UN participation, a tribunal on its own territory to address the most serious international crimes. When the Special Court closed last year, it was the first of the UN and UN-backed tribunals to successfully complete its mandate. The Special Court’s sentencing of former Liberian president Charles Taylor was the first conviction of a former head of state since Nuremberg — sending a stern warning that even top leaders must pay for their crimes. Other trials saw first-ever convictions for attacks against UN peacekeepers, forced marriage as a crime against humanity, and the use of child soldiers. These breakthrough accomplishments added to a solid record of achievements. UN blue helmets disarmed more than 75,000 ex-fighters, including hundreds of child soldiers, and destroyed more than 42,000 weapons and 1.2 million rounds of ammunition. The UN assisted more than half a million Sierra Leonean refugees and internally displaced persons to return home and supported training for thousands of local police. The UN helped the government to combat illicit diamond mining that fuelled the conflict, and to establish control over the affected areas. With the UN’s help, Sierra Leone’s citizens voted in successive free and fair elections for the first time in their history. The UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office helped Sierra Leone to consolidate progress, addressing tensions that could have caused a relapse into conflict while strengthening institutions and promoting human rights. It helped the government to bolster the political process, emphasizing dialogue and tolerance, and further strengthened the national police, even supporting the establishment of the first Transnational Organized Crime Unit in West Africa. - The Jakarta Post

From the ashes of war, seeds of peace | The Jakarta Post: "Our final mission is departing Sierra Leone but a United Nations country team will remain until long-term development takes root, supporting good governance, quality education, health services and other essential conditions for progress.

Other countries now mired in fighting, divided by hatred and wounded by atrocities, can draw hope from Sierra Leone. Its resilient people have given peacekeeping their greatest possible vote of confidence by sending troops to serve where the UN flag flies today. They understand that national goodwill backed by international support can enable even the most devastated areas to enjoy lasting peace. "



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UPDATE: Russia stares down UN pressure on Ukraine."The Russians are not showing any sign that they are listening to us," said the French envoy, Gerard Araud, warning the crisis was worsening by the day. British UN envoy Mark Lyall Grant said there had been no "softening of Russia's position" despite widespread consensus the referendum was illegal. "It is clear that a free and fair referendum cannot be organised when Crimea is controlled by Russian troops," he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin's threat to invade Ukraine after a wave of deadly protests toppled a pro-Kremlin regime last month has set off the most explosive crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War. US President Barack Obama and his European allies are urging Russia to call its troops in Crimea back to their barracks and launch immediate negotiations with the new Ukrainian leadership, which Putin claims took power in an "unconstitutional coup". Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Putin in a televised meeting Monday that proposals he had received from US Secretary of State John Kerry "do not suit us very much" and were "framed as if there exists a conflict between Russia and Ukraine". View galleryCrisis in Ukraine A girl holds a drawing during an anti-war rally in the Crimean village of Eskisaray, outside Simfero … In a surprise move, he said Russia had prepared its own solution to the crisis, but did not say when it would be unveiled. Lavrov said Washington was basing its diplomacy on a recognition of Ukraine's new leaders but that Russia still considered the ousted Viktor Yanukovych the legitimate president. Yanukovych, who fled Ukraine as three months of protests against him turned increasingly bloody, was due to give a statement Tuesday in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, his first public appearance since a feisty press conference on February 28 at which he insisted he was still Ukraine's president. - Putin backs Crimea referendum - Putin added new urgency to the standoff Sunday by saying he fully backed the actions being taken by Crimea's new rulers -- in power since an end-of-February seizure of the government by pro-Kremlin gunmen. The Kremlin said Putin stressed "the steps undertaken by the legitimate authorities of Crimea are based on the norms of international law" -- a comment strongly hinting that Moscow was ready to annex Crimea after handing the peninsula to Ukraine as a "gift" in 1954, when it was part of the Soviet Union. US ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt told reporters in Kiev on Monday that Washington "is not prepared to recognise any result of the so-called referendum". The public vote will ask the peninsula's mainly ethnic-Russian population to choose between swearing allegiance to Moscow and declaring greater autonomy from Kiev while remaining part of Ukraine. Ukraine's interim Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya said that if Crimea's leaders "want more rights and authority, then we are ready to do this". The country's interim Defence Minister Igor Tenyukh meanwhile said the nation's army -- already on full combat alert -- had launched training exercises aimed at evaluating how the heavily outnumbered force could resist an offensive from its nuclear-armed neighbour. - World Bank aid pledge - The diplomatic wrangling continued as Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk prepared to fly to the United States to meet Obama and address the Security Council. His first meeting with the US leader on Wednesday should add credibility to his untested government and give Ukraine a chance to iron out the details of crucial aid for its struggling economy. Ukraine says it needs about $35 billion through 2015 to stay afloat after Russia froze a $15-billion bailout it promised Yanukovych as his reward for rejecting a European Union trade deal in November -- the initial spark for the protests. The White House said Obama would discuss an economic support package that has already seen Washington pledge more than $1 billion and the European Union 11 billion euros ($15 billion) over two years. And World Bank president Jim Yong Kim said the bank was prepared to offer $3 billion in aid "to undertake the reforms badly needed to put the economy on a path to sustainability". In a separate development, NATO announced it would deploy reconnaissance flights over Poland and Romania to monitor the crisis in Ukraine. - Yahoo News

Russia stares down UN pressure on Ukraine - Yahoo News: "At a Security Council meeting that France's UN ambassador described as "a call to Russia not to go down this road", Western countries' pleas to cancel the Sunday referendum -- called by Crimea's self-appointed leaders to decide whether the peninsula should join Russia -- fell on deaf ears, diplomats said."



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