UN
HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Friday,  February 5, 2010
 

GENERAL ASSEMBLY RECEIVES BAN KI-MOON'S REPORT ON FOLLOW-UP TO INQUIRY INTO
GAZA CONFLICT 

• Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has now issued his
  
  report following up on
  General
  Assembly resolution 64/10 .
   

• His report contains inputs received from the
  Israeli and Palestinian sides on the efforts which they have undertaken
  so far to investigate allegations of violations of international
  humanitarian and human rights law during the Gaza Conflict.  It also
  contains a summary of the consultations conducted by the Government of
  Switzerland regarding the reconvening of a Conference of the High
  Contracting Parties. 
   

• In all cases, it is clear that the processes which
  have been initiated are still ongoing.  As such, no determination can be
  made on the implementation of the resolution.
   

• As he states in the report, the Secretary-General
  believes that international humanitarian law needs to be fully respected
  and civilians must be protected in all situations and circumstances. It
  is his hope that resolution 64/10 has served to encourage investigations
  by the Government of Israel and the Palestinian side that are
  independent, credible and in conformity with international standards.
   

• The Spokesperson noted that in the document
  submitted by the Secretary-General to the General Assembly on the
  Goldstone report, only the first three pages are written by the
  Secretary-General and the Secretariat.
   

• The remainder of the document consists of annexes
  containing information provided, respectively, by the Government of
  Israel, the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine and the Permanent
  Mission of Switzerland.
   

• Asked to evaluate the
  Israeli and Palestinian responses, the Spokesperson said that it is
  clear that in all cases, the processes initiated by the Israeli and the
  Palestinian sides remain ongoing.
   

• Asked why the report did
  not analyze the replies, Nesirky said that the Secretary-General
  conformed to the request of the General Assembly. The Secretary-General,
  he noted, had not been requested to express his views on the responses
  received.
   

• The Secretary-General
  asked the parties on 3 December 2009 for their responses. The
  Secretary-General duly reported to the General Assembly what he has
  received from the Israelis and from the Palestinian side.  The
  instruction received by the Secretary-General was to report on the
  implementation of resolution 64/10. 
   

• Asked about future
  action on the report, Nesirky said that, in accordance with operative
  paragraph 6 of that resolution, the Secretary-General was requested to
  report to the General Assembly “with a view to considering further
  action, if necessary, by the relevant United Nations organs and
  bodies.”  Therefore, decisions on further action, if any, remain with
  the General Assembly. 
   

• In response to criticism
  about the nature of the UN response, the Spokesperson asserted that the
  Secretary-General remains personally moved by plight of all civilians
  harmed during the Gaza Conflict.  He was at the forefront, Nesirky said,
  of the efforts to stop the fighting in Gaza.  He was the first
  international leader to visit after the fighting and express his
  solidarity with victims on both sides of the conflict.  He has
  consistently called for credible domestic investigations, and did so
  again in this report. 
   

• Looking forward, he
  added, the Secretary-General is firmly leading the advocacy and planning
  for the rebuilding of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
   

• The Spokesperson noted
  that the report said that the Secretary-General remains deeply affected
  by the widespread death, destruction and suffering in the Gaza Strip, as
  well as moved by the plight of civilians in southern Israel who have
  been subject to indiscriminate rocket and mortar fire.
   

• In the report, the
  Secretary-General said, “I believe that, as a matter of principle,
  international humanitarian law needs to be fully respected and civilians
  must be protected in all situations and circumstances. Accordingly, on
  several occasions, I have called upon all of the parties to carry out
  credible domestic investigations into the conduct of the Gaza conflict.
  I hope that such steps will be taken wherever there are credible
  allegations of human rights abuses.”
   

• He added, “It is my
  sincere hope that General Assembly resolution 64/10 has served to
  encourage investigations by the Government of Israel and the Palestinian
  side that are independent, credible and in conformity with international
  standards.”
   

• The Secretary-General
  noted from the materials received that the processes initiated by the
  Government of Israel and the Government of Switzerland are ongoing, and
  that the Palestinian side initiated its process on 25 January 2010. As
  such, he concluded, “no determination can be made on the implementation
  of the resolution by the parties concerned.”

 

HAITI:
SPECIAL ENVOY BILL CLINTON VISITS PORT-AU-PRINCE 

• President Clinton, the Secretary-General’s Special
  Envoy for Haiti, landed in Haiti a few hours ago and just met with UN
  staff, and was briefed about the current situation on the ground. He
  will also meet with Haitian leaders and visit the Gheiskio Clinic and a
  camp for displaced persons.
   

• The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
  Affairs (OCHA) says that
  
  shelter remains an urgent need. The focus is on providing emergency
  shelter assistance closer to home or in smaller camp settings to reduce
  displacements and dislocation.
   

• Sanitation is also a significant concern,
  especially at temporary shelter sites. Some 7,000 latrines and 25,000
  portable toilets are needed. 
   

• As of last night, 1.6 million people have
  
  received food assistance since the earthquake in and around
  Port-au-Prince, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).  In the
  past five days, through the fixed distribution points system, a total of
  620,000 people have received food assistance.
   

• Concerning children, UNICEF says some 23
  large-sized tents have been installed in Port-au-Prince to give children
  a place to seek refuge and play. As for education, families are wary of
  sending children to school, because they fear that another earthquake
  could strike. UNICEF is working with the Government to distribute
  messages to Haitians encouraging them to send their children back to
  schools. 
   

• Anne Veneman, the head of UNICEF
  
  was in Haiti. She said there was an alarming number of children
  separated from their families and called for investing in education.
  Only about 50 per cent of Haiti’s children are enrolled in school and
  around 90 per cent of the schools in and around Port-au-Prince have been
  damaged or destroyed.)
   

• Meanwhile, the UN Development Fund and Benfica Club
  (Portugal)
  
  announced that proceeds from the “Match Against Poverty” which
  totaled 767,000 dollars will be transferred to the cash-for-work
  programme in Haiti. The charity match played January 25th in Lisbon
  featured more than 60 international football players hailing from teams
  across the world, including the Benfica team and UNDP Goodwill
  Ambassador Zinedine Zidane.
   

• In Haiti, nearly 32,000 men and women are working
  in the
  
  cash-for-work initiative, which is helping Haitians restart life in
  their own communities. As of today $9,700,000 have been pledged for the
  programme. More than $5,000,000 have been received and another
  $10,7000,000 are yet to be received.
   

• Next week, on 12 February, the World Food Programme
  will host a high level meeting at its Headquarters in Rome, on
  agricultural development, food security and nutrition in Haiti. That
  meeting will kick off of the agriculture component of the Haiti
  redevelopment plan.

 

U.N.
MISSION URGES CALM AS VIOLENCE MARS COTE D’IVOIRE ELECTORAL PROCESS 

• The Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI)
  has issued a statement in which it deplored recent violent incidents in
  two towns in the western part of the country.
   

• The Mission says that the incidents in Katiola and
  Divo appear to be connected to tensions around the registration of
  voters for the much-delayed presidential election. It has appealed to
  all parties and voters to exercise restraint.
   

• This is vital, the Mission says, if we are to
  preserve and consolidate the achievements made so far in the electoral
  process.

 

YEMEN:
“DRAMATIC” FUNDING SHORTAGE THREATENS RELIEF WORK 

• The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)
  says that it is facing a dramatic funding situation in Yemen and may be
  forced to scale down its operations there if it does not receive fresh
  contributions very soon.
   

• UNHCR's part of the 2010 UN
  consolidated appeal for Yemen amounts to $35.6 million, but so far, it
  has received less than three per cent of the needed funds. The dire
  funding situation is seriously diminishing its capacity to register and
  document refugees and internally displaced people, to monitor their
  situation and to address their needs.
   

• The lack of funding will very soon
  have a direct impact on the Agency’s work to protect and assist some
  250,000 displaced people and more than 170,000 refugees in Yemen.

 

FACTS/
FIGURES ON SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE BY PEACEKEEPERS TO BE PUBLISHED
QUARTERLY 

• The Departments of Peacekeeping Operations, (DPKO),
  and Field Support, (DFS), will, from now, be issuing quarterly press
  releases to make public updated statistics regarding SEA cases.
   

• This is part of efforts by the United Nations to
  improve transparency on the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse
  involving peacekeeping personnel.
   

• The statistics will be updated simultaneously on
  the
  
  Conduct and Discipline website (http://cdu.unlb.org/). 

 

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

SECRETARY-GENERAL
DEPLORES LATEST VIOLENCE IN IRAQ AND PAKISTAN:
Asked about recent violent attacks in Pakistan, the Spokesperson said that
the Secretary-General deplores them, as well as those that have taken place
in Iraq. In both cases, he said, the Secretary-General was deeply concerned
by the casualties and the indiscriminate nature of the attacks.
 

TOMORROW IS INTERNATIONAL DAY
AGAINST FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION/ CUTTING:
Tomorrow is

International Day Against Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting. The UN
Population Fund says that while there’s been progress in reducing the
incidence of such mutilation in several countries, there are still three
million girls who continue to be at risk each year. The Fund says success in
reducing the incidence has come as a result of culturally sensitive
engagement with local communities but the practice persists because it’s
sustained by social perceptions – and those perceptions can, and must,
change.

We have more on this in a release in my
office and on the Population Fund’s website.

 

NEW U.N-TRAINED CHADIAN
TROOPS WILL HELP PROTECT REFUGEES ALONG SUDAN BORDER: The
UN Mission in Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT)
has completed the training of an additional 127 Chadian officers from the
Détachement Intégré de Sécurité (DIS), which is tasked with protecting
refugees along the Sudanese border. Organized in partnership with the
Chadian Coordination of Support for the deployment of international force in
eastern Chad (CONAF), the recently completed training for Chadian security
forces is the fifth of its kind by the UN.  The training lasted eight weeks
and focused on policing concepts including advanced weapons, shooting and
driving. The Mission says that the DIS also received 84 new vehicles to
improve its mobility.
 

SRI LANKA SHOULD PROBE
ALLEGED RIGHTS ABUSES: Asked about
investigations into potential human rights violations in Sri Lanka, the
Spokesperson recalled that the Secretary-General had called on the
Government there to investigate and was also considering the possibility of
setting up a Commission of Experts on the matter.

 

THE WEEK AHEAD AT THE UNITED NATIONS

 

Saturday, 6 February

 

Today
is the International Day Against Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting.

 

Sunday, 7 February

 

There
are no major events scheduled for today.

 

Monday, 8 February

 

At
12:00 p.m., in Dag Hammarskjőld Library Auditorium, the representatives from
the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) will join the
noon briefing by video teleconference.

 

Starting today and until 18 February, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right
to education, Vernor Muñoz, will visit Mexico.

 

Tuesday, 9 February

 

At
12:00 p.m., there will be a joint press conference on Sexual Violence in
Conflict. Panelists include the Deputy Secretary-General, Mr. Alain Le Roy,
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, and Margot Wallström,
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Violence against Women.

 

Wednesday, 10 February

 

The
Security Council will hold consultations on United Nations peacekeeping
operations.

 

At
9:30 a.m., the Secretary-General will sign his senior managers’ compacts for
the year 2010 at a signing ceremony in Conference Room B in the Temporary
North Lawn Building. Senior managers at Headquarters will be physically
present, while those away from Headquarters will participate via
videoconference. 

 

At
12:30 p.m., in Dag Hammarskjőld Library Auditorium, Veerle Vandweerd,
Director of the Environment and Energy Group of the United Nations
Development Programme, will provide a briefing to journalists, accompanied
by Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity
and Tran Triet, Director, Phu My Lepironia Project, International Crane
Foundation.

 

From
10 a.m. to 12 p.m., UNESCO will hold a special event on “Education Under
Attack: A Call to Action” with a keynote address by Radhika Coomaraswamy,
the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed
Conflict.

 

At
1:15 p.m., the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) will hold a press conference about the launch of their
new publication, “Education Under Attack” in Dag Hammarskjőld Library
Auditorium.

 

At 6
p.m., the Secretary-General will launch the International Year of
Biodiversity for North America, at the American Museum of Natural History.

 

Thursday, 11 February

 

This
morning, the Security Council will hear a briefing and hold consultations on
UNAMID. It will also hold consultation on its 1718 Committee.

 

At
12:00 p.m., representatives from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in
Haiti (MINUSTAH) will join the noon briefing by video teleconference.

 

Friday, 12 February

 

At 9:30 a.m., the Security Council will hold an open
debate on UN peacekeeping operations: transition and exit strategies.