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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY MICHELE
MONTAS
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
UN
HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Monday,
December 15, 2008
MIDDLE EAST
QUARTET IS MEETING TODAY AT U.N. HEADQUARTERS
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
will be hosting a meeting of the Middle East Quartet this afternoon here at
Headquarters.
Attending will be U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov,
European Union High Representative Javier Solana and European Commissioner
for External Relations Bettina Ferrero-Waldner. As of now, French Foreign
Minister Bernard Kouchner, on behalf of the EU Presidency, and Quartet envoy
Tony Blair are scheduled to participate by video-link.
The focus of the meeting will
be the ongoing political process, including the Annapolis process, as well
as developments in Gaza.
Following the meeting, at
4:00 p.m., there will be a press conference featuring the principals.
And after that, from 4:30 to
6 p.m., the Secretary-General will meet with Quartet members and a number of
Arab Foreign Ministers.
Asked whether the Quartet
simply allows Israel to expand its presence while Palestinian rights are
denied, the Spokeswoman said that the Secretary-General disagrees with such
an assessment and believes that the Quartet is a useful body.
MAIN GAZA POWER
PLANT IS SHUT DOWN
The Office of
the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO)
reports that the Gaza power plant, which supplies a portion of the
territory's needs, has been turned off by the company in charge there. The
decision was taken following the closure of all goods crossings yesterday.
The company in charge says it made the move to avoid damage that might occur
due to frequent switchings on and off, as a result of unreliable supply
routes.
A series of
rolling blackouts has been occurring throughout the Gaza Strip since
yesterday evening - ranging from 12 hours a day in some areas to 4 hours a
day in others.
UNSCO also
reports that 81 truckloads of materials did pass from Israel into Gaza
today, including 20 truckloads for humanitarian aid agencies. Those
contained flour, milk, medicine, and other items for UN agencies and others.
In related news,
imams and rabbis from Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, as
well as many other countries, are currently meeting at the UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to launch new initiatives to
help build peace in the Middle East.
BAN
KI-MOON REGRETS THAT HUMAN RIGHTS RAPPORTEUR WAS DENIED ENTRY INTO ISRAEL
In response to a
question, the Spokeswoman confirmed that, on 13 December, Richard Falk, the
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories occupied since 1967 travelled on an official mission to the
occupied territories.
She said that he
was denied entry to Israel at Ben Gurion Airport, detained for several hours
and expelled the following morning. He was separated from his accompanying
UN staff.
The Special
Rapporteur is duly mandated by the Human Rights Council to monitor and
report on the human rights situation in the OPT, and the Israeli authorities
were notified of his planned visit as per usual practice.
The
Secretary-General regrets that Mr. Falk was denied entry and urges the
Israeli authorities to fully cooperate with the special procedures of the
Human Rights Council, Montas said.
BAN KI-MOON
CHAIRS MEETING OF U.N. FOOD TASK FORCE
The United
Nations Secretary General
chaired the sixth meeting of his High-Level Task Force on the Global
Food Security Crisis on the morning of December 15th 2008
in New York.
The Task Force
agreed on its programme of work for 2009, with a focus on reducing hunger,
promoting food security and intensifying small-scale agriculture in
countries that need – and request – assistance. The Secretary-General also
announced that he has agreed with Prime Minister Zapatero of Spain to
co-chair a high-level meeting on “Food Security for All” in Madrid on 26-27
January 2009 to gather governments, private entities and civil society
groups and examine progress on improvements in food security, define a road
map for the future and tackle hunger more effectively.
The
Secretary-General also welcomed the follow-up to the proposals made by
several heads of government at the "High Level Conference on World Food
Security" in Rome last June to establish a global partnership for
agriculture and food security. He acknowledged the contribution of the G8,
under the presidency of the Government of Japan, to support the evolution of
this partnership.
The
Secretary-General announced that given the high demands on John Holmes in
his role as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator, he has asked David Nabarro to assume the role of Task
Force Coordinator as of 1 January 2009.
The Principal
Hub for the Coordination Secretariat will be in Rome, within the premises of
the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Dr
Nabarro will also continue in his role as Senior UN System Coordinator for
Avian and Human Influenza.
BAN KI-MOON TO
BRIEF SECURITY COUNCIL IN PRIVATE MEETING ON ZIMBABWE
Secretary-General will brief the Security
Council in a private meeting at 2:00
this afternoon on peace and security in Africa. He will discuss the latest
developments in Zimbabwe.
The Council this
morning heard briefings from the chairmen of its subsidiary bodies. Then,
later this afternoon, it intends to hold consultations on the
Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On Saturday, the
Security Council held consultations during which Council members received a
draft resolution on the Middle East. The Council expects to consider that
draft resolution in a formal meeting tomorrow.
THOUSANDS OF
CHOLERA CASES SUSPECTED ALL ACROSS ZIMBABWE
The number of
suspected
cholera cases has risen above 18,000 (18, 413) with 978 deaths reported.
The cholera
outbreak is now affecting nine out of ten provinces in the country and
spilling across borders into South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique. However
50% of the cases are in one suburb of Harare and a further 26% in a town on
the border with South Africa.
The death rate
in Zimbabwe at this point is 5.3 percent of all cases, which WHO
characterizes as high. For the epidemic to be considered under control, the
death rate had to be under 1 per cent.
The main
problems are the lack of adequate clean water, exacerbated by recent
interruptions in the supply, overcrowding, and lack of capacity to dispose
of solid waste and repair sewage blockages in most areas.
A comprehensive
cholera response operation plan has been drawn up by the World Health
Organization and WHO is in the process of procuring and distributing
emergency stocks of supplies to run the centers.
The government
has accepted the plan and has also declared a state of emergency.
SOMALIA CONTACT
GROUP TO MEET TUESDAY IN NEW YORK;
EUROPEAN SHIPS BEGIN HUMANITARIAN ESCORT ROLE
The UN Political
Office on Somalia (UNPOS) has confirmed
that the International Contact Group on Somalia will meet here at UN
Headquarters tomorrow, December 16th. The Secretary-General’s Special
Representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said that US Secretary of
State, Condoleeza Rice, is expected to attend the meeting along with other
ministerial-level officials. He says that the meeting will cover the
political, security and humanitarian situation in Somalia, including
political cooperation, human rights, piracy and reconstruction and
development.
The World Food
Programme (WFP), meanwhile, has
thanked the European Union for providing naval escorts against piracy
for its humanitarian cargoes. The first of the escorted WFP ships is already
en route to Somalia with enough food aid to assist some 50,000 people a
month. The EU force will provide escort vessels to WFP for up to a year.
Somalia’s
humanitarian situation has worsened in the later half of 2008 more than 3
million people in dire need of assistance. WFP this year alone shipped to
Somalia 260,000 tons of food, already three times what it shipped in 2007
and eight time its 2005 shipments.
Asked about a UN
response to India’s arrest of pirates off the coast of Somalia, the
Spokeswoman noted that the Security Council would deal with the issue of
Somalia piracy on Tuesday.
GREAT LAKES
REGION: ENVOY ON GENOCIDE COMPLETES VISIT
Francis Deng,
the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the prevention of genocide, has
returned from a 12-day mission to the Great Lakes region.
In the DR Congo,
Rwanda and Uganda, Deng met with UN and government officials, civil society,
the clergy and victims of large-scale human rights violations. Members of
his delegation also traveled to Burundi for similar meetings, while Deng
himself met with leaders of some of the largest armed groups in eastern DRC.
He says his
office is assessing whether the continued violence and massive human rights
abuses in North Kivu could amount violations of the Genocide Convention.
The UN Mission (MONUC),
meanwhile, says that more than 90% of UN peacekeepers in the DRC are now
deployed across the restive northeastern provinces. The security situation
in those provinces is now calm as some 6200 UN troops patrol North Kivu,
with 1000 troops in Goma alone.
Another 3,500
peacekeepers are dispersed across South Kivu while 3,800 patrol Ituri. The
remaining troops are working in the rest of country, including Kinshasa.
Asked about a
three-nation operation launched against the Lord’s Resistance Army in the
eastern Congo, the Spokeswoman said that the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC)
has not been involved in the planning and implementation of these joint
operations. However, the mission has been supporting the Congolese Armed
Forces (FARDC) with logistics, such as transport, water and food, for the
containment operation which the Congolese Armed Forces were conducting prior
to this new operation by the regional forces. MONUC has also helped
consolidate and widen the airfield at Dungu, which serves as operational
bridgehead for the FARDC and Ugandan troops, she said.
AFGHANISTAN
ENVOY STRONGLY CONDEMNS TALIBAN’S USE OF A CHILD AS SUICIDE BOMBER
The
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for
Afghanistan,
Kai Eide, over the weekend strongly condemned an attack where a young boy
was allegedly used as a suicide bomber against British forces in the
province of Helmand. He said that the killing of three marines by a 13-year
old boy again demonstrates the Taliban's total disrespect for human rights.
Such
unscrupulous use of children cannot be justified under any circumstances,
Eide said. The Taliban and all others who use children in warfare must cease
doing so, and the rights of children in Afghanistan must be fully protected.
HUMAN RIGHTS
COUNCIL WRAPS UP THIRD SESSION OF UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW
The
Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group
concluded its third session in Geneva today.
During this
session, it reviewed the fulfillment of human rights obligations of 16
States.
Those States
were: Botswana, the Bahamas, Burundi, Luxembourg, Barbados, Montenegro, the
United Arab Emirates, Israel, Liechtenstein, Serbia, Turkmenistan, Burkina
Faso, Cape Verde, Colombia, Uzbekistan and Tuvalu.
The Working
Group’s next session will take place from 2 to 13 February 2009. At that
time, the following States’ human rights records will be reviewed: Germany,
Djibouti, Canada, Bangladesh, the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Cameroon,
Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, China, Nigeria, Mexico, Mauritius, Jordan and
Malaysia.
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
DEPUTY
SECRETARY-GENERAL WARNS AGAINST BACKSLIDING ON DEVELOPMENT GOALS:
Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro this
morning addressed the General Assembly during which she said that the global
mobilization behind the Millennium
Development Goals has been inspiring.
But she urges Member
States to not go back on the promises made. “This is a time to come together,”
she said. “We should use every opportunity in 2009 to ensure that these trying
times do not distract us from our commonly shared goals, particularly the goal
of pursuing peace and prosperity for all.”
RELIEF AID STILL
NEEDED IN POST-CYCLONE MYANMAR: A
comprehensive field assessment endorsed today by the Tripartite Core Group (TCG)
on Myanmar shows that relief assistance to the Cyclone Nargis affected people
continues to be urgently needed, even as recovery efforts have commenced. The
‘Periodic Review’ is an overview of the humanitarian relief and early recovery
efforts in the Cyclone-affected areas while also producing sectoral data for use
in the planning of continued assistance. UN Resident and Humanitarian
Coordinator in Myanmar, Bishow Parajuli, highlighted that there are chronic
needs in food, security and nutrition and the international community needs to
increase the support particularly in the western delta. The endorsement of the
first of three such ‘Periodic Reviews’ coincides with the 200-day mark since the
formation of the TCG.
POTATO PRODUCTION
COULD FALTER DURING GLOBAL RECESSION: The
Food and Agriculture Organization warns that
potato production in the developing world could falter as the global
economic slowdown reduces investment, trade and farmers' access to credit. The
threat comes at a time when potatoes have become an important staple food and a
lucrative cash crop in many developing countries. Drawing on the most recent FAO
statistics, the report shows that potato is the world's number one non-cereal
food crop, with total production at a record 325 million tons in 2007, most of
it harvested in developing countries.
*** The guest
at the noon briefing today was Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General’s
Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, who briefed on her
recent trip to Nepal and the Philippines.***
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