Friday, June 11, 2010

BAN KI-MOON SAYS "AFRICA IS THE WINNER" AT
WORLD CUP OPENING

• 
  
  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is in South Africa today, where he has
  been attending the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony and the opening match
  at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg with President Jacob Zuma of
  South Africa and President Sepp Blatter of FIFA.
   

• The Secretary-General regards
  this World Cup tournament as a major landmark for the people of Africa,
  and he was thrilled to be able to experience the exuberance of the
  opening ceremony and match. 
   

• He arrived overnight from
  Cameroon, where he met with President Paul Biya and
  
  addressed the Parliament, telling them in a speech that we already
  know who is the winner of the World Cup. As he
  
  told reporters afterward, “Africa is the winner. It is a moment of
  pride for Africa. This is a symbol of achievement for Africa, let alone
  South Africa themselves.”
   

• The Secretary-General will
  continue his latest tour of Africa tomorrow, when he flies to Benin. He
  will also be visiting Sierra Leone before returning to New York.
   

• Asked whether the
  Secretary-General would meet with former President Nelson Mandela,
  following the death of his great-granddaughter, the Spokesperson said
  that no meeting was planned and that the Secretary-General’s thoughts
  were with former President Mandela at this tragic time. The Spokesperson
  later added that the Secretary-General sent a personal letter to Mr.
  Mandela as soon as he heard the news.

BAN K-MOON CALLS FOR CALM AFTER RENEWED VIOLENCE
REPORTED IN KYRGYZSTAN

• 
  
  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is deeply
  
  concerned about reports of renewed violence and several deaths in
  Osh, Kyrgyzstan. He calls for calm to be restored and urges all involved
  to show the utmost restraint to prevent further losses of life.
   

• The Secretary-General reiterates
  the need to respect the rule of law and to resolve issues peacefully
  through dialogue. He urges the Interim Government to pay particular
  attention to inter-ethnic relations in the country and to take measures
  to ensure the peaceful coexistence of all citizens in Kyrgyzstan.
   

• The Special Representative of the
  Secretary-General, Mr. Miroslav Jenca, was in Osh last Sunday and will
  continue his efforts to ensure the peace and stability of Kyrgyzstan.
  

SECURITY COUNCIL TO HEAR ON I.C.C. INVESTIGATIONS IN
DARFUR

• This afternoon at 3:00 p.m., the
  
  Security Council will hold an open meeting, followed by a closed
  meeting, to discuss the
  
  Secretary-General’s recent reports on
  
  Sudan.
  
  Luis Moreno Ocampo, the Prosecutor of the
  
  International Criminal Court, will brief Council members on the
  status of his investigation into the situation in
  
  Darfur.
   

• After that, the Council will
  hold consultations on the situation between Djibouti and Eritrea. The
  Secretary-General issued a statement earlier this week on the agreement
  reached between those two countries.

U.N. ENVOY IN AFGHANISTAN COMPLETES VISIT TO HEART
PROVINCE

• The
  
  Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan,
  
  Staffan de Mistura, today concluded a one and half day visit in the
  province of Herat, in the west of
  
  Afghanistan.
   

• He
  
  said that he looked forward to increasingly see the capacity and
  reach of the Government of Afghanistan meet the demands of its people,
  improving their daily lives and assuming ownership of their own future.
   

• He met
  officials in the province, and also paid respect to the Islamic
  tradition of Afghanistan by visiting some of the symbols of Islamic
  culture reconstructed with the support of the Aga Khan Trust for
  Culture: the Citadel and blue mosque in the centre of Herat city.

 U.N.
REFUGEE AGENCY SEEKS FURTHER INFORMATION ON SOMALI ASYLUM-SEEKER BOAT
SINKING

• The
  
  Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
  was saddened to learn this week of the deaths of nine
  
  Somali asylum-seekers off the coast of Mozambique on 30 May. They
  were part of a larger group of 77 Somali nationals trying to reach
  Mozambique by boat – 41 of whom were forced into the water.
   

• The incident occurred off the coast
  of northeastern Mozambique. UNHCR has sent a team to the area to seek
  further information.
   

• UNHCR warns that an increasing
  numbers of
  
  Somalis are fleeing violence at home by sea. Since January of this
  year, close to 2,000 Somali men have arrived by boat in northeastern
  Mozambique.

 GENERAL
ASSEMBLY TO HOLD HEARINGS ON MDGs AHEAD OF
SEPTEMBER SUMMIT

• On Monday and Tuesday, the
  
  General Assembly is holding informal interactive hearings on the
  
  Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with representatives of civil
  society and the private sector. The special two-day session is part of
  the official preparatory process for the
  
  September Summit on the MDGs.
   

• The speakers – representing
  NGOs, business and local authorities – will present their views on how
  to accelerate progress on the MDGs and also comment on the draft outcome
  document for the Summit.

 CLOSE
TO $15 MILLION SOUGHT TO HELP WITH GUATEMALA STORM AFTERMATH

• The
  
  UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), along
  with the Government of Guatemala and non-governmental organization
  partners today issued an appeal for humanitarian assistance to survivors
  of Tropical Storm Agatha. 
   

• The UN system and its partners
  are seeking close to $15 million for six months to provide aid such as
  food, health care and supplies, shelter, water and sanitation,
  agricultural assistance, early recovery and education. A grant from the
  Central Emergency Response Fund is currently being processed.
   

• Tropical Storm Agatha, the first
  tropical storm of the 2010 Pacific hurricane season, made landfall on
  the Pacific coast of Guatemala on 29 May – with more than 426
  millimeters of rain in a short period of time – affecting 21 of the 22
  departments of the country, the heaviest rain since 1948.
   

• Almost two hundred people have
  died, several hundred are injured or missing and almost 100,000 are
  living in shelters. Numerous bridges and roads were severely damaged,
  leaving many affected communities isolated.

 UN
HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF PRAISES COLOMBIAN COURT DECISION ON ENFORCED
DISAPPEARANCES

• The
  
  UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,
  
  Navi Pillay, on Friday welcomed a historic decision to sentence a
  senior Colombian army officer for human rights violations in a case of
  enforced disappearances in the aftermath of the 1985 hostage-taking at
  the Palace of Justice in Bogotá.
   

• “I commend the Colombian
  judiciary for its decision, which is an important step in the fight
  against impunity, and urge the Colombian Government to support and
  respect the decision. I also urge the Government to take all necessary
  steps to continue ensuring the security of Judge María Stella Jara, who
  is facing numerous threats,” Pillay said.
   

• On Wednesday, Judge Jara
  sentenced Colonel Luis Alfonso Plazas Vega to 30 years in prison for the
  disappearance of 11 people in November 1985, after Colombian military
  forces stormed the Supreme Court building where members of the M-19
  guerrilla group were holding hundreds of hostages. Over 100 people,
  including more than 60 civilians, died during the military intervention.
  
   

• The High Commissioner emphasized
  that, under international human rights law, “no exceptional
  circumstances whatsoever – including a state of war, or threat of war,
  internal political instability or any other public emergency – may be
  invoked as justification for enforced disappearance.”

 BONN
CLIMATE TALKS MAKE PROGRESS ON FLESHING OUT SPECIFICS OF GLOBAL CLIMATE
CHANGE REGIME

• Two weeks of Bonn UN Climate
  Change Talks have made important progress towards concluding what was
  left incomplete at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in
  2009,
  
  according to the
  
  United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
   

• The outcome is set to be
  presented at the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún (COP 16) at the
  end of this year.
   

• “A big step forward is now
  possible at Cancún, in the form of a full package of operational
  measures that will allow countries to take faster, stronger action
  across all areas of climate change,” said
  
  Yvo de Boer, the UNFCCC’s Executive Secretary.
   

• Progress was made at the meeting
  in fleshing out the specifics of how a climate regime can work in
  practice. The Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under
  the Convention undertook detailed discussions on reducing greenhouse
  gases, adapting to the inevitable effects of climate change, the
  transfer of clean technology, reducing emissions from deforestation and
  capacity building, along with finance and institutional arrangements.
   

• The chair of the negotiating
  group tasked to develop a long-term response to climate change tabled a
  text that seeks to address the wider interests of all Parties, and was
  requested by Parties to compile a revised version by the next
  negotiating session in August.

 OTHER
ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

UNITED NATIONS IN CONTACT WITH
PARTIES ON SHAPE OF FLOTILLA INQUIRY: Asked
about discussions concerning an inquiry into the 31 May flotilla incident,
the Spokesperson said that the United Nations continued to be in touch with
various parties about the shape of that inquiry, noting recent discussions
between

Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs

B. Lynn Pascoe and Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman. Haq
reiterated that the

Secretary-General believes that credible international involvement is
vital for any inquiry to be in line with the request made in the

Security Council’s recent

Presidential Statement.

 

NO FORMAL NOTIFICATION RECEIVED
ON CHANGE IN IRAN’S NUCLEAR COOPERATION: Asked
about reports that Iran might modify its cooperation with the

International Atomic Energy Agency  (IAEA) the Spokesperson said that
the IAEA had not commented and had not received any formal notification of a
change. He recalled that, in his recent

statement, the

Secretary-General once more emphasized the need for Iran to cooperate
with the IAEA and comply with the

Security Council’s resolutions.

 

 

THE WEEK AHEAD AT THE UNITED NATIONS[1]
 

 

Saturday, 12 June

 

The Secretary-General will leave
Johannesburg, South Africa, for Cotonou, Benin.

 

Monday, 14 June

 

The Secretary-General will leave
Cotonou, Benin, for Freetown, Sierra Leone.

 

The UN Security Council is meeting
on Sudan, UNFICYP and Iraq/Kuwait.

 

The Administrator of the UN
Development Programme, Helen Clark, will take part in a high-level meeting
in Hanoi, Vietnam, to review progress of the Delivering as One initiative in
all eight pilot countries.

 

On Monday and Tuesday, the General
Assembly is holding informal interactive hearings on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) with representatives of civil society and the
private sector. The special two-day session is part of the official
preparatory process for the September Summit on the MDGs. The speakers –
representing NGOs, business and local authorities – will present their views
on how to accelerate progress on the MDGs and also comment on the draft
outcome document for the Summit.

 

At 10:15 a.m., in the Dag
Hammarskjold Library Auditorium at UN Headquarters, there will be a press
conference by the NGO "Watchlist" on Children and Armed Conflict.
Participants include the Director of Watchlist on Children and Armed
Conflict, Ms. Eva Smets, and the Special Representative of the
Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy.

 

At 11:00 a.m., in the Dag
Hammarskjold Library Auditorium at UN Headquarters, there will be a press
conference by the Swiss Mission on the launch of the Small Arms Survey
Yearbook 2010: Gangs, Groups, and Guns. Participants include Ambassador
Jurg Lauber, Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament,
Switzerland; Mr. Eric Berman, Managing Director of the Small Arms Survey
(Moderator); and Dr. Jennifer Hazen, Senior Reserarcher of the Small Arms
Survey.

 

At 12:00 p.m, the Executive Director
of the United Nations Global Compact Office, Georg Kell, will be the guest
at the Spokesperson’s Noon Briefing and will speak about the upcoming 2010
Leaders Summit in New York City. He will also introduce the Global Compact
Annual Review 10^th Anniversary Edition.

 

The Deputy Secretary-General will be
on official travel to Hanoi (14-16 June), where she will attend the
high-level segment of the High-level Tripartite Conference on "Delivering as
One: Lessons from Country-led Evaluations and Way Forward".  The Conference
will provide an opportunity to review achievements and challenges related to
the Delivering as One approach. She will also have bilateral meetings with
Ministers who will be participating in the Conference. 

 

Tuesday, 15 June

The Secretary-General will leave Freetown,
Sierra Leone, for New York.

 

The UN Security Council is meeting
on the Middle East.

 

Ahead of the Thursday launch of the
UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) “What Will It Take to Achieve The
Millennium Development Goals? An International Assessment,” UNDP will
hold an embargoed briefing and breakfast discussion on the report. It will
be presented by UNDP’s Director of Policy and Assistant Secretary-General
Olav Kjorven at 9:30 a.m. at the UNDP FF building, at 304 E 45th Street, New
York, NY. Based on a review of 50 country studies, this report presents
evidence of what has worked to achieve progress on the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), and outlines the steps needed to achieve the MDGs
by 2015.

 

Wednesday, 16 June
 

The Secretary-General will arrive in New York.

 

The UN Security Council is holding an open debate on
children and armed conflict, at which Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign
Relations, Amb. Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, will preside. At 11:30 a.m.,
she plans to appear at the stakeout alongside the Secretary-General’s
Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika
Coomaraswamy, to make some remarks to the press on this issue.

 

At 12:00 p.m., the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Ms.
Radhika Coomaraswamy, and the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, Ms. Hilde
Johnson, will be the guests at the Spokesperson’s Noon Briefing and will
speak about the recent release of Nepalese girls by Maoists.

 

Thursday, 17 June
 

The Administrator of the UN
Development Programme, Helen Clark, will be the guest at the Spokesperson’s
Noon Briefing, where she will launch “What Will It Take to Achieve The
Millennium Development Goals? An International Assessment.” Based on a
review of 50 country studies, this report presents evidence of what has
worked to achieve progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and
outlines the steps needed to achieve the MDGs by 2015.

 

The Deputy Secretary-General will be
on official travel to Bangkok (17-18 June), where she will chair the meeting
of the Regional Coordination Mechanism in the Asia Pacific Region.  The
meeting will address, among other things, coherent UN system support for
achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), coping with climate
change and the impact of financial and economic crises.  She will pay a
courtesy visit to Thailand’s Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, and hold a
townhall meeting with ESCAP staff to discuss the Secretary-General’s
priorities including the MDGs.

 

Friday, 18 June
 

The UN Security Council is holding a
debate on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and
the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.