Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
**Secretary-General’s Travels
Good afternoon. The Secretary‑General of these United Nations is in Rome, and in a few minutes, he will have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, to be followed by a joint press stakeout. We will share those remarks with you.
Earlier in the day, at the Palazzo Madama, which houses the Italian Senate, the Secretary‑General delivered remarks on multilateral solutions to global challenges, during a special session organized by the President of the Senate and the President of the Chamber of Deputies. He reiterated his disappointment with the outcome of COP25 [25th Conference of Parties] and called for climate ambition to remain at the top of the international agenda in the crucial, next crucial 12 months.
On Libya, the Secretary‑General expressed his frustration that the arms embargo is not respected and that a ceasefire and a political solution led by the Libyan themselves is needed, he said.
Turning to the issue of refugees and migrants, he called for more support and solidarity for the Mediterranean countries that receive them like Greece and Italy.
Following the session, the Secretary‑General participated in an official lunch offered by Italian President Sergio Mattarella, with the participation of Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio.
In the afternoon, the Secretary‑General had an additional meeting with the leaders of the Rome‑based food agencies and also met with leaders of the community of Sant’ Egidio, to discuss their work, notably their assistance programmes for refugees and migrants. He met some of the migrants who are being assisted by Sant’ Egidio.
Tomorrow, he will travel to Brindisi to mark the twenty‑fifth anniversary of the UN Global Service Centre, the logistics base which provides support to peacekeeping and political missions around the world.
**Migrants
Today is International Migrants Day. In a video message to the observance, the Secretary‑General stressed that migrants are integral members of society, contributing to mutual understanding and sustainable development in communities of both origin and destination. He also highlighted how a safe, orderly and regular migration is in the interest of all and that national priorities on migration are best achieved through international cooperation. All migrants are entitled to equal protection of all their human rights, he added.
The 2019 edition of the International Migrants Day focuses on the stories of social cohesion, which are as varied and unique as each of the 272 million migrants living new lives and building new communities in every corner of the globe.
**Middle East
Nickolay Mladenov, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, briefed the Security Council this morning and said that, unfortunately, violence has continued in the region. Meanwhile, inflammatory actions and rhetoric [have] also continued. He added that no steps were taken during the reporting period to “cease all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” as demanded in resolution 2234 (2016). His remarks were shared with you, and I think that open debate is still ongoing.
**Syria
Turning to Syria, a couple of notes to share with you, Najat Rochdi, the Senior Humanitarian Adviser to the Special Envoy for Syria, today condemned the recent intensification of hostilities in north‑west Syria, in particular aerial bombardments and the reported use of barrel bombs that killed civilians, including women and children. Despite the repeated assurances that warring parties only strike legitimate military targets, attacks on health‑care and education facilities are continuing. Ms. Rochdi called for immediate de‑escalation and urges all parties to respect their obligations under international law, including the obligation to ensure the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Counter‑terrorism operations cannot override responsibility to protect civilians. Ms. Rochdi emphasized that civilians and civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times and that sustained, unimpeded and safe humanitarian access to civilians in need must be guaranteed in order to allow the United Nations and its humanitarian partners to continue to carry out their critical work across Syria.
**Yemen
Turning to Yemen, the members of the Redeployment Coordination Committee concerning Hudaydah will hold their seventh joint meeting today and tomorrow, aboard the UN‑flagged vessel and that meeting will take place in international waters. The Chair of the Coordination Committee, Lieutenant General [Abhijit] Guha, will facilitate discussions on the implementation of the Hudaydah Agreement and further steps to enhance the ceasefire in Hudaydah. The meeting will also discuss improving humanitarian access throughout the Hudaydah Governorate.
Meanwhile, Yemen remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, but one of the most effective despite the non‑permissive operating environment. This year, the UN and other humanitarian organizations are reaching 12 million people across the country, making it the world’s largest aid operation. Some 24.1 million people — that’s 80 per cent of the population of Yemen — need some form of humanitarian assistance. At least 5.1 million people in 75 hard‑to‑reach districts have been cut off from humanitarian assistance by restrictions imposed by authorities. An estimated 3.3 million people remain internally displaced across the country. Nearly half a million have been displaced this year alone. An estimated 7.4 million people need nutrition assistance, of whom 3.2 million people require treatment for acute malnutrition.
**Aswan Forum
Assistant Secretary-General [for Peacebuilding Support] Oscar Fernandez Taranco spoke on behalf of the Deputy Secretary‑General at the Peacebuilding Commission this morning and discussed her participation in last week’s Aswan Forum which took place in Egypt. In the remarks, he said that the Forum had served as a useful platform for addressing the root causes of crisis in Africa, recognizing the commitment of African States towards sustaining peace and development, and championing African‑led solutions. The outcomes of Aswan will feed into our thinking in New York, Mr. Taranco has said, as we pursue integrated responses on the ground, with sustainable development at the centre.
**Sudan
The World Food Programme (WFP) today announced what it calls a significant breakthrough in humanitarian access by providing 10,000 people with food in Yabus, in a town in Sudan’s southern Blue Nile State. In Yabus, the WFP Executive Director, David Beasley, witnessed the first food distribution in nearly a decade. Parts of southern Blue Nile State have been inaccessible to UN agencies and other groups since conflict began there and in South Kordofan in 2011.
Following months of negotiations, in October, Mr. Beasley supported a humanitarian confidence‑building visit to Kauda in South Kordofan, the first visit by the UN to the area in nearly a decade. It was after this visit that commitments were made to allow for UN inter‑agency humanitarian access to the conflict‑affected areas of Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
**United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
From our colleagues at UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund], their Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, said today that children and young people from around the world have taken to the streets recently to demand their rights, calling for a fairer world for everyone, everywhere. She noted that it is therefore a heartbreaking irony that, in standing up for their fundamental rights, many children and adolescents are simultaneously having their rights taken away from them, [with] many young protestors being behind bars, injured or even killed.
Ms. Fore said that children’s rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, including in peaceful protest, are enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, calling on Member States to ensure that children can exercise this right in a safe and peaceful manner.
**Breast Cancer
Just a last note: earlier today, the World Health Organization (WHO) prequalified its first biosimilar medicine in a move that could make this expensive, life‑saving treatment more affordable and available to women globally. The medicine, called Trastuzumab, is a monoclonal antibody and was included in the WHO’s Essential Medicines List in 2015 as treatment for about 20 per cent of breast cancers.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women; 2.1 million women contracted breast cancer in 2018. Six hundred thirty thousand of them died, many because of late diagnosis and lack of access to affordable treatment. Khalas. And today’s inter… is Arabic Language Day so… yes, sir?
**Questions and Answers
Question: Thank you, Stéph. For the Secretary‑General, while he is in Rome, I haven’t heard anything about his visit to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) headquarters, which is a major UN organ. Is there any reason for that, that he’s not…?
Spokesman: I think, as I said, he is meeting… he met with the heads of all three food agencies. So, he’s met… you know, and he went… last time — I think he was in Rome about a year ago — he went to FAO. He’s also been to WFP. The visit is not one centred… it’s not a UN visit. It’s a bilateral visit and then the… for Rome, and then the hook is also to visit the logistics base in Brindisi to mark the twenty‑fifth anniversary of the creation of that base. But as I said, he met with the leadership of all three food agencies.
Question: Okay. My second question is about the sheer disappointment about the outcome of the COP25. Would the Secretary‑General consider that it might be time to work directly with major cities around the world on environmental programmes…?
Spokesman: I mean, I think that… we have come to that realization quite a few years ago. If you remember, Michael Bloomberg was named the Special Envoy for the Secretary‑General by Mr. Ban [Ki-moon] to deal with cities and climate. This Secretary‑General has engaged actively with mayors, notably at a recent meeting of the C40 group in Copenhagen. We are very aware that the driver for climate change for adaptation and mitigation is very much centred in urban areas.
Question: Is there any substitute for Michael Bloomberg since he resigned on 11 November?
Spokesman: We named… not as a direct substitute, but we named a new climate envoy, Mark Carney, who is currently, for some few weeks more, the [Governor] of the Bank of England, who has served in various capacities in Canada and who will be assisting the Secretary‑General to work especially with the private sector and with finance on climate issues. Edie and then…
Question: Two questions. A follow‑up on the basic failure of COP25 to move the issue of addressing climate change forward in a significant way. What is the Secretary‑General planning to do between now and the Glasgow meeting next year?
Spokesman: The continue… the Secretary‑General will continue to deliver both publicly and privately his message to political leaders to find consensus for even greater ambition than is listed in the Paris Agreement, in order to meet the necessary targets. He will also continue, and the UN will continue, to work with cities, with the private sector, with youth groups. No group, no stone will be left unturned. But at the end, the COP process, right, the negotiating process, is one that is the responsibility of Member States. So, we have other sectors who have moved ‑ business sectors, municipal sectors, subnational governments. What we need is greater ambition from the political leaders but, most critically, an ability to find and to reach consensus.
Question: My second question on my favourite topic: escalators.
Spokesman: Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. [Laughter.] I’m trying to see if I can find the key to turn them back on, but that has been denied from me.
Question: I am told by diplomats that the United States has paid about 85 per cent of its $674 million assessment for the regular budget for 2019. Can you confirm that that is the case? And can you also then tell me why the escalators aren’t turned on?
Spokesman: The… [laughs]. I think… you know, we… we’ll… we may want to put some champagne on ice that, of course, you will all buy… [Laughter]… for when we get to turn on the escalators again. And, hopefully, we can look forward to that in the new year, and we can have kind of a launching party like they sail… put ships at sea. [Laughter.] The US has paid, which covers part of the previous year and this year, I think, more than $460 million, and that’s in the last few weeks, and we’ve already talked… we’ve talked about that. There remains a balance for… of about $491 million. We’re continuing to be in discussions with the United States, and we had very good discussions with them, as with other Member States, who still owe money for this year.
Question: Is that $491 million that’s owed for a number of years? Because I understood that… that for 2019, basically 85 per cent of… which… which is 570‑something million dollars has been paid for 2019.
Spokesman: Those are the numbers that I have. There are discussions that can still be going on in terms of where the money goes. But that’s the number that I have to share with you. Joe and then Alan.
Question: Yeah, just a quick follow‑up on that, and then I have another question. In the UN’s calculations of what the US owes, is this purely for the regular budget, or are you also talking about the peacekeeping budget?
Spokesman: I’m talking about the regular budget.
Question: Okay. My other question is, again, on COP25, one of the sticking points was reportedly this… what they call a loss and damages liability proposal by countries that claim to have been very dir… adversely impacted by climate change. Now, turned out to be a major issue, and I was wondering whether the Secretary‑General has any view on the merits of that proposal.
Spokesman: Look, I’m not going to go into the details of the views on specific proposals. These are Member State‑led negotiations and… as they should be and they’re mandated to be. What is clear is there will need to be some sort of mechanism and financial compensation for damages, and this is also what the Green Climate Fund comes into in terms of mitigation. Those are all issues that have to be addressed, because what is clear is that those countries who are right now probably suffering the most from the impact of a changing and a more violent climate are not those who are most responsible for it.
Question: But this would… this proposal would be for damages above and beyond monies that have already been discussed about adaptation, mitigation, the Green Fund that you alluded to, so this is on top of that. And the Secretary‑General has spoken out about keeping… or moving up and making more ambitious each country’s targets for dealing with greenhouse gas. So, why wouldn’t he have any comment on this fairly fundamental issue that has blocked progress in negotiations?
Spokesman: What I’m say… what we’re not commenting on is whatever specific proposals were coming out. This and many others are issues that Member States will have to find consensus on. Alan?
Question: Thank you, Stéph. The press office of the news agency Sputnik is reporting that the employees of Sputnik Estonia are threatened by the authorities of Estonia by criminal prosecution unless they stop work for the head office of Sputnik Estonia, Russia’s Rossiya Segodnya agency. So, as a justification for such a threat, they mentioned the sanctions which were imposed in 2014 regarding Ukraine, but Sputnik agency is not in any list of EU sanctions as far as I know, so…
Spokesman: It’s the first I heard of it. Let me look into it and we’ll give you some comment.
Question: In general, does such an action correspond with the…?
Spokesman: I don’t have enough details on the action. So, let me get back to you on that. Yes, ma’am, and then Carla. Sorry.
Question: Regarding the list of companies that do business with… in the illegal settlement, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, is it going to be released?
Spokesman: That’s an issue to be addressed to the High Comm… the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Yes, Carla?
Question: Thank you, Stéphane. The UN has humanitarian programmes in North Korea, but evidently, the sanctions are preventing the UN programmes from being effective. And according to the UN definition of genocide, three of the effects of the sanctions — destruction of the economy and preventing of births, and there’s a third — are reaching that point where they can be described as genocidal. You mentioned the Secretary‑General warned the Security Council. Could you be more specific about what he did warn…?
Spokesman: I mean, I… the… his statement to the Security Council on the impact of sanctions, on humanitarian… was a public document, so you could refer back and look back at his remarks. And his position on that has not changed. Yes?
Question: Is there any more information on the Russian‑Chinese draft to lift some…?
Spokesman: That is a question to be addressed to the Chinese and Russian Permanent Missions. Yes, ma’am, in the back.
Question: Hi, this is Samira Sadeque with Inter Press Service. Does the Secretary‑General’s office have any statement on the current crisis unfolding in India with the Citizenship Amendment Bill and the new emergency ban on mass gatherings in Delhi?
Spokesman: Sure, I mean, I would refer… I answered that question, I think, at length yesterday. I would refer you to what I said yesterday. Thank you, all, and have a… I keep wish… want to wish you happy weekend, but we still have a couple of days together. [Laughter.]