HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING
BY
MICHELE MONTAS, SPOKESPERSON FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
UN
HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
During
August, the Spokesperson's noon briefings will take place on Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays.
Developments
within the UN system will be posted on the website daily during this time.
Thursday,
August 27, 2009
IRAQ: U.N.
ENVOY PAYS TRIBUTE TO ABDUL AZIZ AL-HAKIM
Ad Melkert, the
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq,
extended his deepest condolences to the family of Abdul Aziz Al Hakim as
well as to the Iraqi people.
Melkert said that with the
death of Abdul Aziz Al Hakim, "Iraq lost an important leader at a critical
juncture." He said that Hakim played an important role in helping Iraq
stabilize and chart a path from conflict to reconciliation and the United
Nations appreciates the support that he had extended to it over the past few
years.
SECURITY
COUNCIL EXTENDS MANDATE OF LEBANON MISSION, RECEIVES BRIEFING ON IRAQ FUND
The
Security Council voted unanimously today to extend the mandate of the UN
Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
by twelve months.
The Council then went into consultations to receive a
briefing on the Secretary-General’s latest
report on the Development Fund for Iraq. Council members were briefed by
UN Controller Jun Yamazaki. Afterwards, in a press statement, Council
members expressed some concern that more steps needed to be taken to improve
the internal controls of the Fund and that Iraq needs to be given greater
control over its resources.
On Wednesday evening, the Security Council President,
Ambassador John Sawers of the United Kingdom, issued a
press statement, saying that Council members condemned in the strongest
terms the terrorist attack that took place on Tuesday in Kandahar,
Afghanistan. Council members underlined the need to bring those responsible
to justice.
U.N. FINDS
DESTROYED HEALTH FACILITIES IN NORTHWEST PAKISTAN
The UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan, Martin
Mogwanja, recently led a UN inter-agency mission to assess the situation in
Pakistan’s Swat District. The mission met district authorities and
representatives of national and international non-governmental
organizations. It decided that early recovery had to start as soon as
possible.
The mission found that public sector infrastructure and
facilities, such as telecommunications, electricity, water supply systems,
schools and health facilities are functional but dilapidated.
According to the World Health Organization’s Assistant
Director-General, Dr. Eric Laroche, “The good news is more than 1.5 million
people have gone back to their area of origin…The bad news in a sense is
that many of the health facilities and resources have been depleted, looted
and destroyed in these areas.”
There is also a need for food aid, according to the
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as Swat’s
population has lost over 85 percent of the last harvest’s crops.
NEW GUIDELINES
TO HELP PROTECT CHILDREN AGAINST H.I.V., UNINTENDED PREGNANCY & SEXUAL ABUSE
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) and its partners have developed new
guidelines for sexuality education. The goal of the guidelines is to
give educators the tools to teach children how to protect themselves from
coercion, abuse and exploitation, unintended pregnancy and sexually
transmitted infections, including HIV.
According to UNESCO, reducing HIV infection in young
people and improving their sexual and reproductive health require effective
education programmes, which are still not available in many parts of the
world.
According to UNAIDS and the World Health Organization,
more than five million young people are living with HIV worldwide, and 45
percent of all new infections occur among young people between the ages of
15 and 24.
H1N1 FLU
DETECTED IN TURKEYS AT CHILEAN FARMS
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)
reports that an H1N1 virus has been detected in turkeys in Chile. This
virus is identical to the H1N1 virus that is currently circulating among
human populations and is raising concerns for poultry farms around the
world.
However, this virus does not pose any immediate threat
to human health and FAO reports that turkey meat will continue to be sold
commercially following veterinary inspection and hygienic processing.
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