HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
FRIDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2024
Summit of the Future Action Days
This afternoon, at 1pm, the Summit of the Future Action days will kick off with a youth-led event.
Felipe Paullier, the Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs, will lead the opening ceremony under the theme #Youthlead the future.
At 2pm, the Secretary-General will take part in a dialogue with youth advocates. This will also take place in the General Assembly Hall and you will be able to watch the conversation live on UN Webtv.
The action days, which are convened by the Secretary-General, will continue tomorrow. The Secretary-General will address Saturday’s opening session at 9 a.m, tomorrow.
Tomorrow’s programme will focus on three priority themes – digital and technology, peace and security, and sustainable development and financing.
There will also be a dedicated focus throughout the day on future generations.
The action days bring together representatives from Member States, civil society, the private sector, academia, youth, and more. The full list of events and side events is available on the webpage of the Summit of the Future.
On Sunday morning, at 8:30 a.m., the Summit of the Future will kick off, also in the General Assembly Hall.
The Spokesperson’s office Week Ahead is being finalized and will be sent later this afternoon. It will be updated regularly online on our page.
There will be no noon briefings this weekend, but the spokesperson’s office will be staffed.
Lebanon
We are very concerned at the heightened escalation across the Blue Line, including the deadly strike we saw on Beirut today. We urge all parties to de-escalate immediately. All must exercise maximum restraint.
We also urge the parties to immediately return to the cessation of hostilities and to fully implement Security Council resolution 1701.
The region is on the brink of a catastrophe. All efforts should focus on finding a diplomatic solution.
Our Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeannine Hennis-Plasschaert, has been insistently conveying these messages to her interlocutors in Lebanon and Israel.
And this afternoon, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, and our High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, will brief the Security Council in an open meeting on developments in Lebanon. They will convey similar messages. Those remarks will be shared with you.
Meanwhile, on the peacekeeping front, our blue helmets at UNIFIL peacekeepers continue to implement their mandate in, obviously, extremely challenging conditions, working to help avert further escalation and return to a cessation of hostilities.
The head of the UN peacekeeping mission there, Force Commander General Aroldo Lázaro, has been in constant communication with the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Israel Defense Forces to help avoid any miscalculations along the Blue Line and to support humanitarian access in southern Lebanon. As you will recall, and as you know, tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon, and tens of thousands of people in northern Israel have been forced to be displaced due to the ongoing violence.
Occupied Palestinian Territory
Turning to the situation in Gaza, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that Palestinians already displaced in the Strip are at risk of having to move again as the rainy season approaches, which is expected to bring flooding and high tides.
OCHA says that many of those displaced by hostilities in Gaza are sheltering along the Mediterranean coast, where Israeli-issued evacuation orders have instructed them to go. Several municipalities in Gaza have also warned of the risks, with some advising people sheltering in low-lying areas to leave and seek out safer places due to the danger of flooding. Displaced people in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah have been warned to move to higher ground and stay away from the shore, as high tides could cause their tents to drift, among other risks.
UNRWA, for its part, warns that people in Gaza are sheltering in open spaces with no sewage network or rainwater drainage systems. The agency says that as reptiles, rodents and insects spread, its teams are spraying pesticides and removing waste to protect families from diseases.
Meanwhile, OCHA also reports that water, sanitation and hygiene operations in northern Gaza have been forced to drastically reduce their operating hours to prevent shutdowns.
Our partners working on the response say it continues to be extremely difficult to get fuel to the north, with deliveries often delayed or rejected at checkpoints.
In addition to fuel shortages and the ongoing electricity outages that stall pumps, the current water crisis in Gaza has been worsened by damage to water infrastructure, the absence of safety to make repairs, and a lack of spare parts and chlorine.
To address the critical lack of clean water in Gaza, UNICEF says it is providing 15 litres of water per person per day for nearly 900,000 people, ensuring that part of their water needs are met for a duration of three months.
Syria
This morning, Geir Pedersen, the Special Envoy for Syria, briefed Council members on the political front.
He told the Council that he will be meeting next week with Syrian and Arab officials, as well as senior officials from other states and donor countries. His message to all is that we need to move the UN-facilitated political process forward.
On the humanitarian front, Ramesh Rajasingham, the Director of Coordination of OCHA, said that for the first time earlier this month, they were able to carry out a cross-line assessment mission to Al-Kisrah district, in Deir Ez-Zor – where more than 85 per cent of the population needs humanitarian aid. We continue to try to find ways to further improve the sustainability and efficiency of access to this area and others.
Venezuela
the Secretary-General spoke by phone this morning to President Nicolás Maduro, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. In the phone call with the Secretary-General, they discussed the political situation in Venezuela. The Secretary-General expressed concern over reports of post-elections violence and allegations of human rights violations. He stressed the need to resolve any political dispute peacefully, through genuine and inclusive dialogue. The Secretary-General also took note of the positions of the Venezuelan President regarding the situation.
Ukraine
Moving to Ukraine, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that attacks continue to impact civilians and civilian infrastructure in front-line regions across the country. Local authorities say that attacks in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson and the Sumy regions caused dozens of civilian casualties and damaged homes, schools and a hospital.
As intense hostilities continue we, along with our humanitarian partners, continue to provide support to impacted communities. In Kharkiv, they provided food and drinks to affected men, women and children and helped cover shattered windows.
Over the past week, humanitarian partners also assisted 1,500 evacuees from the Donetsk Region and 1,000 from the Kharkiv Region at transit centres, providing hot meals, hygiene items, cash assistance, and medical, psychological as well as legal support.
According to a new report released by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, between 22 March and 31 August this year, nine large-scale waves of attacks targeted the power system in 20 regions of the country, damaging key energy infrastructure and causing widespread disruptions to electricity, water, heating and public services.
UN humanitarian colleagues note that this is particularly worrying as the winter season approaches.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the head of the UN’s Peace Operations department, is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and he is concluding his visit to that country.
After wrapping up meetings in Kinshasa - which we told you about earlier this week – Mr. Lacroix headed to the country’s east, where peacekeepers continue to implement the Mission’s mandate in challenging conditions. In Goma, he engaged with provincial authorities on the security situation, including with the military governor of North Kivu, Peter Cirimwami Nkuba. Mr. Lacroix also met the force commander of the regional force led by the Southern African Development Community, Major General Monwabisi Dyakopu. During the meeting, he noted the positive spirit of collaboration and encouraged further coordination in support of the ceasefire.
During a meeting with the head of the Ad-Hoc Verification Mechanism, Lieutenant General João Nassone, Mr. Lacroix reiterated MONUSCO’s support to the mechanism, in order to achieve the implementation of the ceasefire agreement reached under the Luanda process.
Additionally, Mr. Lacroix visited Sake yesterday to meet with UN peacekeepers before heading to Ituri province.
He will be back in the city of New York tomorrow.
Somalia
The Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya, has allocated $3 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund for an urgent response to displacement in the country.
This funding will support our and our partners’ work to address immediate needs, especially in food security, protection, and shelter, reaching about 50,000 displaced people in conflict-affected areas of Galmudug and Jubaland.
Our humanitarian colleagues tell us that since the beginning of the year, an estimated 150,000 people have been displaced by renewed clan conflict and ongoing military operations. This has intensified existing vulnerabilities and further worsened humanitarian needs.
The humanitarian community in Somalia is mobilized, but limited resources are hampering response efforts.
The 2024 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for Somalia, which asks for $1.6 billion to meet the needs of 5.2 million human beings, is only 37 per cent funded, with $589 million in the bank. We thank those who have given and we ask those who haven’t to do so.
Viet Nam
Turning to Viet Nam, we have an update on the ongoing response to Typhoon Yagi, which made landfall earlier this month, killing more than 290 people and damaging 237,000 homes. Some three million people in total have been affected.
Joyce Msuya, our Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator, allocated $2 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to kickstart the humanitarian response in support of the Vietnamese Government's own efforts.
The funding will go to the International Organization for Migration, the UN Development Programme, and the UN Children’s Fund [UNICEF] to meet immediate needs in the most impacted areas of Yen Bai and Lao Cai.
The CERF-funded response will focus on emergency shelter and water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance, and concentrating on communities with high levels of pre-existing vulnerabilities.
Haiti
Today, the UN designated expert on Human Rights in Haiti, William O'Neill, concluded his visit to the country.
In a press conference in Port-au-Prince, he said the human rights situation in Haiti is bleak. It is necessary, he said, to make the State accountable to fight corruption and bad governance, which continues to plunge the country into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. On the other hand, he added, it is crucial to stifle the gangs by giving the Multinational Security Support Mission the means to effectively support the Haitian National Police, as well as to implement the other measures provided for by the Security Council, including the sanctions regime and the targeted arms embargo.
Mr. O’Neill described his visits to the south of the country. In the towns of Les Cayes and Jérémie, he said he saw that areas previously spared from gang violence are now directly impacted, with galloping inflation, lack of basic goods, and flows of internally displaced people further increasing the vulnerability of the population, particularly for children and women. The human rights and humanitarian consequences are dramatic, he said.
International Day of Peace
Tomorrow is the International Day of Peace. This year’s theme is “Cultivating a Culture of Peace”. In his message, the Secretary-General says that everywhere we look, peace is under attack. From Gaza, to Sudan, to Ukraine and beyond we see civilians in the firing line. Cultivating a culture of peace, he says, means replacing division, disempowerment, and despair with justice, equality and hope for all.
The UN Peacekeeping Department will mark this Day by harnessing the power of street art. Tomorrow, in partnership with the New York-based non-profit organization called “Street Art for Mankind,” the acclaimed American street artist “Detour” will create a live art installation outside our UN headquarters. The project will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the public contributing their ideas on canvas on how to cultivate a culture of peace.
World Cleanup Day
Today is World Cleanup Day.
It is a reminder that poor waste management is intrinsically linked to pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change - the triple planetary crisis.
