HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
[There
are no noon briefings planned until January 2, 2008.
Developments within the UN system will be posted on this website daily throughout
this period.]
Friday, December
28, 2007
NEW SURVEY FINDS ALARMING MALNUTRITION RATES IN
DARFUR
A joint survey by UN
agencies and the Government of
Sudan has found that the malnutrition rate in Darfur for children under
the age of five has now surpassed the emergency threshold of 15 percent.
The Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has expressed its concern,
pointing out that, in North Darfur specifically, the rate is actually above 20
percent.
The report notes various
contributing factors, including poor feeding practices, inadequate sanitation,
low health coverage, and low coverage of special feeding programmes. OCHA adds
that continued insecurity is also a primary cause.
AFRICAN UNION TO TRANSFER AUTHORITY TO
U.N./A.U. MISSION IN DARFUR
The United Nations/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID)
will formally take over from the African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS) on
31 December 2007.
At full strength, the new mission will be the UN’s
largest peacekeeping operation, with some 20,000 troops and more than 6,000
police and civilian staff.
Some 9,000 uniformed personnel are on the ground now,
including 7,000 troops and 1,200 police serving with the AMIS, which was
established in 2004, as well as UN soldiers and police officers serving as
part of the UN’s heavy and light support packages deployed to support AMIS
over the last year.
The transfer of authority, which is in accordance with
the timeline specified in UN Security Council
resolution 1769 of 31 July 2007, will comprise a signing ceremony between
both parties in the presence of a representative of the Sudanese Government.
In addition, AU troops will exchange their green headgear
for the UN’s blue beret.
The deployment of the UN-AU peacekeeping mission is
complemented by joint efforts on the political front. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s
Special Envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, and the AU Special Envoy for Darfur,
Salim Ahmed Salim, are pursuing a political settlement to the Darfur crisis
through negotiations aimed at a achieving a peace agreement.
SRI
LANKAN REBELS ARE GUILTY OF CHILD ABDUCTION/RECRUITMENT
The Secretary-General’s
latest report
on children and armed conflict in Sri Lanka is available today.
In it, he says that both
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
and the so-called “Karuna faction,” which broke
away from the LTTE, have failed to cease the abduction, recruitment and use of
children.
They have also
failed to release all children associated with their forces and engage in
transparent procedures for release and verification.
The Secretary-General
welcomes the Sri Lankan Government’s efforts to look into allegations of
abduction and recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.
At the same time, however,
he urges the Government to take more active steps to prevent the abduction and
recruitment of children by armed groups and secure the immediate release of
children associated with any armed group in areas it controls.
NEPAL
IS ELIGIBLE FOR PEACEBUILDING FUNDS
The Secretary-General
today declared Nepal eligible to receive assistance from the UN Peacebuilding
Fund (PBF), which was established a year
ago to help countries emerging from conflict consolidate their gains and not
relapse back into war.
The Secretary-General has
instructed his Special Representative, Ian Martin, and the UN Mission in Nepal
(UNMIN) to ensure that PBF funds are
spent on the priority peace process needs that have already been determined by
the UN after consultations with the Government of Nepal, parties to the peace
process, donors and other stakeholders. The funds are expected to be channeled
through an existing mechanism known as the UN Peace Fund for Nepal.
Also on Nepal, the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
reports that
tens of thousands
of displaced Nepalese have returned home to rebuild their lives. The
challenges are daunting, but UNHCR and other agencies are helping them to
ensure that their return is sustainable.
Regarding the
Peacebuilding Fund, to date it has approved grants of $43 million for 21
projects in Burundi and Sierra Leone, the first two countries to be formally
considered by the related UN Peacebuilding Commission.
It has also funded several
emergency projects in Africa, which have supported critical peacebuilding
initiatives such as dialogue in Côte d’Ivoire and mediation efforts in the
Central African Republic. The PBF also agreed to provide Liberia with $15
million over the next two years to fund projects there.
LIBYA
ASSUMES SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY NEXT WEEK
As of today, there are no
Security Council meetings or
consultations scheduled for the rest of the month.
On 1 January,
Libya will assume the Security Council’s rotating Presidency from Italy.
On 3 January,
Libya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Giadalla
Ettalhi, is scheduled to brief the press in the afternoon, following the
Security Council’s consultations on its programme of work for January.
WORLD
FOOD PROGRAMME PRAISES CREATIVE WAYS TO FIGHT HUNGER
The World Food Programme (WFP)
has lauded new, creative efforts in 2007 that galvanized more support to feed
the hungry.
The Internet, with its
immense power and reach, combined with social networking, chalked up many
successes, according to WFP.
Effective initiatives
included “Freerice.com,” a web-based
vocabulary game that has donated 11.5 billion grains of rice to WFP, and “Food-Force.com,”
the world’s first and most popular humanitarian video game, which helps kids
to understand more about hunger.
BAN KI-MOON
APPOINTS NEW UNICEF DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The
Secretary-General today
appointed
Saad Houry as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF). Houry, a native of Lebanon, also has Canadian citizenship.
Since January
2003, Mr. Houry has been the Director of UNICEF’s Division of Policy and
Planning. He is also a member of its Global Management Team, Programme
Management Group, and Audit Committee.
His career with UNICEF
began in 1978. He has served in Jordan, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Yemen,
Syria and Lebanon.
Office of the Spokesperson for the
Secretary-General
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