In a briefing to the 193-Member Assembly, the UN chief presented his synthesis report, alongside the President of the General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Sam Kutesa. The report is to set the stage for agreement on the new framework at a September 2015 summit.
The Secretary-General also welcomed the outcome produced by the Open Working Group, saying its 17 proposed sustainable development goals and 169 associated targets clearly expressed an agenda aiming at ending poverty, achieving shared prosperity, protecting the planet and leaving no one behind. Water is proposed as the sixth goal of seventeen.
UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY AGREES ON POST-2015 SUMMIT AND NEGOTATIONS MODALITIES
After several weeks of discussions, the UN General Assembly informally agreed on the modalities for the post-2015 process and the organization of the Summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda.
The Summit will be held from 25-27 September in New York and convened as a High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly (GA). According to the GA, the outcome document to be prepared for adoption at the Summit in September 2015 may include the following main components: Declaration; Sustainable Development Goals and targets; Means of Implementation and Global Partnership for Sustainable Development; and follow-up and review. Member States also agreed on a provisional roadmap, which lists eight negotiation session between January and July 2015 and specifying their focus.
According to this roadmap, the Sustainable Development Goals and targets are expected to be discussed in the third session on 23-27 March 2015. The initial draft of the outcome document on the Post-2015 Development Agenda shall be prepared by the Co-facilitators based on discussions held and shall be presented to Member States by May 2015 for the intergovernmental negotiations. The Co-facilitators are now transmitting the informally agreed draft resolution to the President of the General Assembly for further action.
NEWS - December, 2014
US CONGRESS PASSES WATER FOR WORLD ACT
On 16 December, the United States Senate passed the Water for the World Act and received applauds from global and national NGOs and civil society. The bill will help to ensure US support is going to places in need.
Water for the World will help to address the needs of the 2.5 billion people who do not have access to improved sanitation and the 750 million people who still live without improved drinking water. Improving the pre-investment analysis undertaken by USAID and safeguarding existing capacity and coordination across the Federal government is key for the bill.
"Today is monumental for those of us dedicated to providing safe drinking water, toilets and hygiene promotion to the world's poorest people, and even more important for the billions of people who are currently waiting for those services," said Sarina Prabasi, CEO of WaterAid America. Read more
NEWS - December, 2014
ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN ZARAGOZA
2015 is a seminal year with the intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda. In the light of water's role in this agenda, the focus for World Water Day and the year-long campaign is water and sustainable development.
The UN-Water Annual International Zaragoza Conference will kick off the 2015 campaign under the theme: Water and Sustainable Development: From Vision to Action.The three day conference in Zaragoza, Spain will provide a space for dialogue around selected topics relevant to the implementation of the international agenda on water. This is also the last year of the International Decade for Action 'Water for Life' and the conference will touch upon stock taking and lessons learnt.
The focus for the conference is on a practical examination of what the necessary transformations are and how institutional change, technology, capacity development and financing can help develop appropriate joint responses. Participants will look at the essential similarities - learning from each other - and critical regional and country differences. It will draw from practical experience of Member States and stakeholder groups. More information
POST-2015: UN General Assembly President H.E. Mr. Sam Kutesa has announced the preliminary organisational arrangements for a series of High-Level Thematic Debates and a High-Level Event to be convened in the first half of 2015, and finalized dates for several of them.
RESOLUTIONS: UN General Assembly adopts resolution to further efforts to achieve the sustainable development of water resources and invites the President of the General Assembly to convene a high-level interactive dialogue on a comprehensive review of the progress achieved in the implementation of the Water for Life Decade 2005-2015. The High level interactive dialogue is now scheduled for 31 March 2015.
APPOINTMENT: Leo Heller is second Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation to be appointed by the Human Rights Council. Mr. Heller succeeds Catarina de Albuquerque whose mandate ended in 2014.
RECOMMENDED READING
RICHARD CURTIS :Making the SDGs Famous and Popular- The Film Director and Founder of Charity Comic Relief on getting the communication around the SDGs right: "I know how hard sequels can be. Get it right, and you establish a brilliant brand, get even better results; you make Godfather 2, make Terminator 2 – great movies. Get it wrong, misunderstand or undervalue the original, and the legacy swiftly dies."
Tune in on BBC 4 World at One on 2 January 13:00 (GMT) to listen to an interview with the Chair of UN-Water, Michel Jarraud, on the MDG sanitation target and the way forward.
IN PICTURES
Best wishes for an important year for water UN-Water
Address for correspondence UN-Water Technical Advisory Unit 7 bis Avenue de la Paix 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
Photo credits: UN web TV, UN Photo/Ryan Brown, creative commons - Ross Pollack, creative commons - Jaime Gonzales, creative commons - Marite Toledo, creative commons - Marcella Bona
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T he FDLR Pretext Collapses Under the Weight of Documented Plunder Introduction: A Battle That Tells the Truth When Rwandan-backed RDF/M23 forces fought with extraordinary ferocity to seize and hold Rubaya — a remote mining town in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo — the stated justification was security. Kigali's consistent public line has been that its military presence in the DRC is a response to the threat posed by the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group whose leaders include individuals linked to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. This narrative has been accepted, qualified, or left insufficiently challenged by Western governments and multilateral institutions for over a decade. The Battle of Rubaya strips that narrative bare. What unfolded in Rubaya was not a counter-insurgency operation against genocidal remnants. It was a sustained military campaign — reinforced by the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF), prosecuted at sign...
How Paul Kagame Uses Diplomats' "Bury Your Head in the Sand" Strategy as a Green Light to Continue Rwanda's War in the DRC Africa Realities Media | 17 July 2026 The purpose of this article is to expose a deliberate and systematic strategy: Paul Kagame's years-long practice of creating events — diplomatic dinners, RPF party meetings, genocide commemorations, international business forums and RPF Bureau Politique addresses — to which he invites foreign ambassadors and the world's business and political elite for one purpose: to explain, justify, and defend Rwanda's military invasion of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Everybody who follows this region knows the strategy now. The same narrative. The same arguments. The same defiance. At one event he tells the Trump Administration to go to hell. At the next he says those sanctioning him will leave power and he will remain. At the RPF Bureau Politique of 17 July 2026, he tells ambassadors that the on...
ANALYSIS AND INVESTIGATION Introduction: The Myth and the Man Behind the Myth There is a version of Paul Kagame that exists in the conference halls of Davos, in the pages of Western magazines, in private hotel meetings in London, Paris and Washington, and on the sleeves of European football shirts. In this version, Kagame is a visionary. A builder. A disciplined African moderniser. A leader who pulled a broken country from the ashes of genocide and turned it into what admirers often call the “Singapore of Africa”. In this version, Rwanda is clean, efficient, safe, investment-friendly and orderly. Kagame is presented as the African leader the West wants to believe in: controlled, polished, pro-market, security-focused and comfortable in elite Western spaces. Then there is the Rwanda that many Rwandans, exiles, journalists, opposition figures and human rights organisations describe. In this Rwanda, YouTubers and online commentators are jailed for what they say. Critics die in custo...
http://www.inyenyerinews.org/amakuru-2/rwandas-major-john-sengati-assassinated-in-gitarama-rwanda/ Rwanda's Major John Sengati assassinated in Gitarama, Rwanda May 12, 2013 by Rwema IT Webmaster Leave a Comment By: Jennifer Fierberg Rwandans are saddened by the death of Major John Sengati who was assassinated in Gitarama (appx 50km from Kigali) on May 10th, 2013. John Sengati was a retired Major, and ADC to Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa from 1993 to 2001. After Gen Kayumba went to UK to further his studies, Major John Sengati was appointed Commanding Officer (C.O.) of Garrison Force that was in charge of the security to VIPs under the Ministry of Defense. Around 2007, he went to study at Kigali Institute of Technology (KIST) while he was still an active member of the RDF. According to local reports , in 2009 Major Sengati's land was redistributed in Karama to local residents. Around 2010 he was forced to retire from the army, because he was considered to be loyal and ...
The FDLR Myth: How Rwanda Weaponises a Diminished Threat to Justify Occupation Investigation Exposes Contradictions in Rwanda's Security Narrative For over a decade, Rwanda has justified its military presence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo by citing threats from the FDLR, a Hutu militia group linked to the 1994 genocide. But an investigation into FDLR's actual capabilities, Rwanda's military operations, and patterns of violence reveals a narrative that does not match reality. The FDLR threat, whilst real, has been systematically exaggerated and manipulated to justify objectives that have nothing to do with the militia group. Introduction The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) occupies a central position in Rwanda's justification for military intervention in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. For more than two decades, Rwandan authorities have portrayed the militia group as an existential threat requiring sustaine...
Kigali wants Washington to punish Congo too. But a ceasefire that leaves the occupier in place is not peace; it is occupation without noise. African lives are not worth less. African deaths are not normal. Western interests must never become a licence to kill African people. Introduction: A Familiar Complaint On 29 June 2026, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, sat before the cameras of France 24 and declared that his country was “disappointed by the increasingly biased US mediation” in the conflict with the Democratic Republic of Congo. He asked why sanctions had targeted only Rwanda. He called the measures unfair, one-sided and counterproductive. Weeks earlier, President Paul Kagame had told Jeune Afrique that sanctions and threats were insults thrown at Rwanda, and accused Washington of exerting heavy pressure on Rwanda while treating the DRC more delicately. The grievance sounds reasonable until you remember where you have heard it before. Since 2022, the Kr...
This article identifies the central obstacle to accountability for Paul Kagame’s actions in Rwanda and the Great Lakes region: the powerful global network of political leaders, former presidents, diplomats, philanthropists, religious figures, businesspeople, international institutions, sporting organisations, advisers and paid lobbyists that has promoted, legitimised, defended and protected him for three decades. This is a problem-identification article. It asks why Kagame has remained internationally influential and protected despite serious and extensively documented allegations concerning Rwanda’s military actions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, political repression, extraterritorial operations, mineral exploitation and the treatment of political opponents, journalists and critics. The answer is that Kagame has built an international network that gives him political access, diplomatic protection, commercial partnerships, institutional legitimacy, favourable media coverage, ...
In this article, Africa Realities Media uses the term "geopolitical crimes" to describe actions carried out through military power, cross-border intervention, proxy armed groups, political influence, mineral exploitation and international alliances that produce mass killing, displacement, institutional destruction and long-term instability across national borders. Where these actions amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, ARM calls for investigation and prosecution through the International Criminal Court. The first article in this investigation identified the problem: Paul Kagame has built a powerful global network of political friends, institutional allies, commercial partners and paid lobbyists that promotes, defends and protects him internationally. This article examines the consequences of that network: how its combined influence has contributed to international indifference towards Kagame's actions and alleged geopolitical crimes in the Great L...
Kagame’s Global Protection Network: Lobbying, Silence and Western Complicity: From 1990 to 2026. More at: https://www.africarealities. com/2026/07/the-empire-of- kagames-global-friends.html
Dans cet article, Africa Realities Media utilise le terme « crimes géopolitiques » pour désigner les actions menées à travers la puissance militaire, l’intervention transfrontalière, les groupes armés par procuration, l’influence politique, l’exploitation minière et les alliances internationales qui produisent des massacres de masse, des déplacements, la destruction institutionnelle et une instabilité durable au-delà des frontières nationales. Là où ces actions constituent des crimes de guerre, des crimes contre l’humanité ou un génocide, ARM réclame des enquêtes et des poursuites devant la Cour pénale internationale. Le premier article de cette investigation a identifié le problème : Paul Kagame a construit un réseau mondial puissant d’amis politiques, d’alliés institutionnels, de partenaires commerciaux et de lobbyistes rémunérés qui le promeut, le défend et le protège à l’échelle internationale. Cet article examine les conséquences de ce réseau : comment son inf...
Africa Realities Media speaks to Africa and to the developed world. Many abuses facing African people are committed by African states and ruling elites, but they are often protected by international silence, lobbying, public relations, trade interests, migration deals and unequal global accountability. While governments pay lobbyists to present a good image abroad, ordinary African people continue to face violence, hunger, disease, poverty, repression and exclusion. We challenge the normalisation of African suffering and demand equal truth, equal justice and equal protection.
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