Philippe Lazzarini | |
---|---|
Commissioner-General of UNRWA | |
Assumed office 18 March 2020 | |
Secretary-General | António Guterres |
Preceded by | Pierre Krähenbühl |
Personal details | |
Born | 1964 (age 59–60) |
Spouse | Antonia Mulvey |
Children | 4 |
Education | University of Neuchâtel (BA) University of Lausanne (MBA) |
Occupation | Humanitarian |
Philippe Lazzarini (born 1964) is a Swiss-Italian humanitarian who has been serving as Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) since 2020. [1]
Lazzarini holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne and a Bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Neuchâtel.
Lazzarini started his international career in 1989 when he joined the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and served as delegate in multiple duty stations,including Southern Sudan,Lebanon,Jordan and Gaza. Lazzarini then led the ICRC operations in Bosnia,Angola,and Rwanda. He served as Deputy Head of the ICRC Communications Department. In September 1999,Lazzarini joined the Union Bancaire Privée bank in Geneva as head of the Marketing Department where he worked on corporate social responsibility and the bank's ethical investment agenda.
In 2003,Lazzarini joined the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as Area Coordinator in Mossul,Iraq. He then served as Head of Office for OCHA in Angola,Somalia,and the occupied Palestinian territory. In 2010,he became the Deputy Director of the Coordination and Response Division for OCHA in its headquarters in New York. In 2013,he was appointed, [2] under the leadership of Nicholas Kay,as the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General,UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Somalia. On 24 April 2015,United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced [3] the Lazzarini's appointment as his Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon,where he also served as Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative,succeeding Ross Mountain;in this capacity,he worked under the leadership of successive Special Coordinators Sigrid Kaag (2015-2017),Pernille Dahler Kardel (2017-2019) and Ján Kubiš (2019-2020).
In 2020,UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced Lazzarini's appointment as new Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). [4]
In 2023,Lazzarini criticized the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. [5] [6] He described the Gaza Strip as a "graveyard of a population trapped between war,siege and deprivation",saying that "we will not be able to say we did not know. History will ask why the world did not have the courage to act decisively and stop this hell on Earth." [7] On 9 February 2024,Lazzarini said that Israel blocked food for 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza. [8]
Since the war in Gaza began in October 2023,Philippe Lazzarini sent two letters to the United Nations General Assembly President on 7 December 2023 and 22 February 2024. He briefed the United Security Council on the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip and attacks against UNRWA on 30 October 2023 and 17 April 2024. On 4 March 2024,he addressed the UN General Assembly.
Lazzarini is married and has four children.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fled or were expelled during the Nakba,the 1948 Palestine War,and subsequent conflicts,as well as their descendants,including legally adopted children. As of 2019,more than 5.6 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA as refugees.
Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine,and their descendants,who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–1949 Palestine war and the Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refugees live in or near 68 Palestinian refugee camps across Jordan,Lebanon,Syria,the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 2019 more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations.
Camps are set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan,Lebanon,Syria,the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA,who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War or in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967,and their patrilineal descendants. There are 68 Palestinian refugee camps,58 official and 10 unofficial,ten of which were established after the Six-Day War while the others were established in 1948 to 1950s.
Peter Hansen,a Danish national,was commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from 1996 to 2005.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is a United Nations (UN) body established in December 1991 by the General Assembly to strengthen the international response to complex emergencies and natural disasters. It is the successor to the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator (UNDRO).
Pierre Krähenbühl is director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),the organization’s second-highest-ranking position,a role he began in April 2024. He previously served as ICRC’s Director of Operations from 2002 to early 2014.
Issues relating to the State of Palestine and aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict occupy continuous debates,resolutions,and resources at the United Nations. Since its founding in 1948,the United Nations Security Council,as of January 2010,has adopted 79 resolutions directly related to the Arab–Israeli conflict.
Jalazone is a Palestinian refugee camp in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate,located 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) north of Ramallah and adjacent to the village of Jifna to the north,Deir Dibwan to the east,Bir Zeit to the west and the Beit El Israeli settlement to the southeast.
The al-Fakhura school incident was an Israeli military strike that took place during the Gaza War on 6 January 2009 near a United Nations-run school in the Jabalia Camp in the Gaza Strip. According to the UN and several non-governmental organizations (NGOs),more than 40 people were killed. Israel reported the death toll as nine Hamas militants and three noncombatants with senior IDF officers stating that the death toll published by Hamas was "grossly exaggerated". Israel stated it fired on the school in response to militant gunfire believed to be coming from al-Fakhura. A UN inquiry said that there was no firing from within the school and there were no explosives within the school,but could not establish if militants fired from the vicinity of the school.
John Ging,an Irish national,was appointed as Director of the Operational Division at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in New York in February 2011. He oversaw the management of all OCHA field operations worldwide. On behalf of the Emergency Relief Coordinator,he was the day-to-day focal point for supporting Humanitarian Coordinators. Ging was also the lead adviser to the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs on operational decision-making.
Ross Stewart Mountain has spent most of his career in the service of the United Nations working on humanitarian,recovery,development and peacekeeping operations in Asia,Africa,the Middle East,the Caribbean,and the Pacific as well as assignments based in Geneva,Switzerland promoting non-governmental action and managing UN humanitarian operations.
The Hamas–UNRWA Holocaust dispute erupted on 31 August 2009 following a perception in the Gaza Strip that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) planned to include a course on human rights that speaks about the Holocaust in the eighth-grade curriculum of preparatory schools it runs in the territory. The militant Islamic movement Hamas,which partially controls the Gaza Strip,protested,calling the Holocaust "a lie made up by the Zionists" and demanding the removal of the offending content from the curriculum. Some officials of the United Nations agency initially responded by denying that it teaches the subject of the Holocaust in its schools or that it plans to teach it in its new curriculum. This denial drew criticism from various groups and individuals.
Filippo Grandi is an Italian diplomat and United Nations official,currently serving as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He previously served as Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and United Nations Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan.
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) is an inter-agency forum of United Nations and non-UN humanitarian partners founded in 1991 to strengthen humanitarian assistance. The overall objective of the IASC is to improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance to affected populations. The Committee was established following UN General Assembly Resolution 46/182 and resolution 48/57 confirmed that it should be the primary method for inter-agency coordination. The committee is chaired by the Emergency Relief Coordinator.
The 2014 Israeli shelling of UNRWA Gaza shelters were seven shellings at UNRWA facilities in the Gaza Strip which took place between 21 July and 3 August 2014 during the Israeli-Gaza conflict. The incidents were the result of artillery,mortar or aerial missile fire which struck on or near the UNRWA facilities being used as shelters for Palestinians,and as a result at least 44 civilians,including 10 UN staff,died. During the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict,many Palestinians fled their homes after warnings by Israel or due to air strikes or fighting in the area. An estimated 290,000 people took shelter in UNRWA schools.
Ugochi (Ugo) Daniels is the IOM's Deputy Director General of Operations,taking office on September 1,2021.
Internally displaced persons in Syria are more than half the people fleeing the Syrian Civil War moved only within Syria itself. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that 7 million persons in Syria are internally displaced or in need of humanitarian assistance,as of 2017. Most live in houses,often badly damaged by the war. Due to security concerns,poor access to areas of need and unpredictability,humanitarian efforts were directed at emergency aid. The complexity of administrative procedures and limited capacity of NGOs permitted to operate in Syria are also cited as challenges to assistance.
Italy has yet to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state,partly due to a desire to await the outcome of the currently stalled negotiations,and partly because the majority of European Union countries do not recognize it either. Nevertheless,Italy firmly backs the creation of the State of Palestine in accordance with the two-state solution. It also helps to fund UNRWA,which assists Palestinian refugees. Both nations are a part of the Union for the Mediterranean.
In early 2024,Israel made a series of allegations against United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA),including that a number of its Gaza Strip staff had participated in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel,and that hundreds of them were members of militant groups. The allegations led to aid cuts to the organization,most of which were later reversed with the exception of the United States,the organization's largest donor,after inquiries found the membership claims to be unsubstantiated. The claims of participation in the attacks are being investigated,some already dismissed for lack of evidence. UNRWA,which for decades had faced Israeli allegations surrounding its neutrality,is the largest relief organization in the Gaza Strip that is undergoing a humanitarian crisis and famine during the Israel-Hamas war.
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