HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY FARHAN HAQ, ACTING DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
WEDNESDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2010 The Secretary-General
spoke to reporters in Seoul in advance of the Group of 20
Summit that is to take place there, saying that he will do his
best to ensure that the leaders of the world’s biggest and
strongest economies build solutions for the poorest and the most
vulnerable people around the world into their plans. He said
that all countries and all peoples have a stake in the
management of the global economy, and the voices of the
vulnerable must be heard. He stressed the need to
keep our promise on the
Millennium Development Goals, which he said were “weapons of
mass construction.” He also highlighted priorities such as
women’s and children’s health, and food and nutrition security,
and argued that we must advance our fight against climate
change. Earlier in the day, the
Secretary-General
met with President Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of Korea,
whom he congratulated on hosting the G20 Seoul Summit. He
further welcomed the Korean Government's initiative to place
development on the G20 agenda. The Secretary-General and the
President agreed that the role of the G20 and the United Nations
are complementary and should be mutually reinforcing. The Secretary-General
also met with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, Kim
Hwang-sik, over a
working lunch. They discussed a wide range of topics on
which the United Nations and the Republic of Korea could
cooperate even more closely, including development and the
Millennium Development Goals.
Asked about the disputes
among G20 members on currency issues, the Spokesperson recalled
that the Secretary-General’s priority at the Summit is to keep
the G20 leaders focused on development and the needs of the
poorest, even as they face a challenging situation in the global
economy. He
noted that the Secretary-General today had called for unity
among the G20 members as they deal with currency issues and
trade imbalances. In response to a
question about whether the Secretary-General’s good offices on
Myanmar have accomplished anything, the Spokesperson said that
the broad support among Member States for the continuation of
the Secretary-General’s good offices and his Special Adviser
speaks for itself. It is disappointing that
over the past year the Government has failed to respond to the
Secretary-General’s and the Special Adviser’s efforts to engage,
Haq said. But the Secretary-General and his Special Adviser
remain continuously engaged with the Myanmar authorities,
including most recently at the highest level around the UN-ASEAN
Summit in Hanoi where the Secretary-General had an
extensive meeting with Prime Minister Thein Sein and
consulted with regional leaders. The meeting of the
Secretary-General’s Group of Friends on Myanmar at the level of
Foreign Ministers during the recent General Assembly remains the
highest-level mechanism dedicated to this issue, and the
Secretary-General’s initiative to convene it is but the latest
example of his successful effort to ensure that Myanmar remains
on the international agenda, the Spokesperson added. As Myanmar moves to the
next phase of its transition, the objectives of democratic
transition, national reconciliation, human rights and
development will become even more relevant. Haq said that it is
in Myanmar’s interest to see the value of active cooperation and
engagement with the UN and for Member States to actively
encourage Myanmar in this regard. Asked about the
situation of people displaced by fighting near the
Myanmar-Thailand border, the Spokesperson said that the UN
Refugee Agency (UNHCR)
has been present at the border, at the town of Mae Sot, and had
been talking to the displaced. Asked about the return of
displaced people from Thailand, he added that UNHCR’s policy is
that all returns must be voluntary. The third informal
meeting on Western Sahara
concluded on Tuesday night in Long Island. At the end of the
two-day talks, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy,
Christopher Ross, read a Communiqué in which he said that
Morocco and the Frente Polisario engaged in broad and frank
discussions of each other’s proposals on Western Sahara in an
atmosphere of mutual respect -- despite the fact that each party
continues to reject the proposal of the other as a basis for
future negotiations. However, he added that
the participants agreed to convene again in December as well as
early next year to pursue the negotiating process through
innovative approaches. Ross also said that for
the first time, the delegations of the two parties and the two
neighboring states joined together to discuss the program of
Confidence Building Measures set forth by the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The parties agreed to
resume family visits by air without delay and to accelerate the
inauguration of family visits by road. The
Security Council held an open meeting this morning, to
discuss the efforts to wind up the work of the Development Fund
for Iraq and the
International Advisory and Monitoring Board for that
country. The Controller, Jun Yamazaki, briefed Council members
on the Secretary-General’s latest
report on the matter, which provides details of the
Monitoring Board’s last meeting, which took place in October in
Amman, Jordan. The Council also
discussed the Development Fund for Iraq in a private meeting. The Council President
also read a press statement on Iraq, in which he said Council
members condemned attacks against religious targets in Iraq. He
said Council members were appalled by and condemned in the
strongest terms the recent spate of terrorist attacks in Iraq,
including today's. The Secretary-General’s
latest report on the implementation of
Security Council resolution 1701, which concerns Lebanon, is
out as a document. In it, the Secretary-General details events
that suggest deterioration in the situation in Lebanon. He
expressed his deep concern at the exchange of fire between the
Lebanese Armed Forces and the Israel Defense Forces that
occurred on 3 August, adding that the Blue Line must be
respected in its entirety. The Secretary-General
deems it a priority to resolve the issue of the continued
occupation by the Israel Defense Forces of the northern part of
Ghajar and the adjacent area north of the Blue Line. The UN
Interim Force in Lebanon,
UNIFIL, stands ready to facilitate such a withdrawal. The Secretary-General is
concerned about the incidents in the reporting period that
impeded the freedom of movement of UNIFIL and endangered UNIFIL
peacekeepers. He also remains deeply concerned by the widespread
proliferation of weapons in Lebanon. In Haiti, the Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the
Government of
Haiti has confirmed that almost 10,000 people have so far
been affected by the cholera outbreak in the country and 643
confirmed dead. OCHA adds that the
figures are expected to continue to rise in the days and weeks
ahead, as cholera has been confirmed in Port-Au-Prince, the
capital. Bad sanitary conditions in many parts of the country,
combined with the flooding and mud created by the recent passage
of Hurricane Tomas, are very likely to accelerate the infection
rate. OCHA also says that
although the case numbers continue to rise, the proportionate
number of deaths continues to fall, indicating that medical
interventions are working. The office also says that its main
priorities are to ensure swift and effective responses in areas
known to be affected and doing everything possible to prevent
the further spread of the disease. Fifteen cholera
treatments centres are now up and running nationwide: seven in
Port-Au-Prince and eight in urban centres outside the capital.
Public and private hospitals around the country have also been
equipped to respond, and assessment teams are determining where
additional treatment centres may be needed, including in rural
areas. Valerie Amos, the UN
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator, has called for an urgent investigation into
allegations of sexual violence and other abuses suffered by
Congolese immigrants during their deportation from Angola. She urged that every
effort be taken to prevent any further abuse. The Office for the
Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs notes that expulsions of
illegal immigrants between Angola and the DRC are recurrent, and
are related to widespread poverty and precarious employment
opportunities. In October 2009, tens of thousands were expelled
in both directions. NEW U.N. REPORT POINTS TO
UNEVEN GLOBAL EMPLOYMENT RECOVERY:
According to new
data from the International Labour Organization (ILO),
employment has been recovering unevenly across many sectors in both
developed and developing countries. In a new
paper, the ILO says that millions more jobs have been lost in
the construction and manufacturing sector in the first quarter of
2010 compared to the same period last year, while the health sector
has seen an increase in employment. SECRETARY-GENERAL RAISED
SETTLEMENT ISSUE WITH ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER:
Asked about Israeli settlement activity in East Jerusalem, the
Spokesperson reiterated the UN’s concerns about such activity and
noted that the Secretary-General had raised the matter in his
meeting on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
Office of the Spokesperson for the
Secretary-General
United Nations, SA-1B15
New York, NY 10017
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