HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY FARHAN HAQ,

DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

FRIDAY, 14 NOVEMBER 2014

SECRETARY-GENERAL ARRIVES IN AUSTRALIA FOR G20 SUMMIT

• The Secretary-General has arrived in Brisbane, Australia, where over the weekend, he will participate in plenary sessions of the Group of 20 Summit and will hold bilateral meetings with many of the leaders attending the event.

U.N. IRAQ ENVOY WELCOMES BUDGET AGREEMENT REACHED IN ERBIL

• The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, welcomed the agreement that was reached in Erbil yesterday between the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government on the budget. He called the agreement a very important first step towards a comprehensive, fair and constitutional solution to all outstanding issues.  
• The agreement will allow public sector employees in the Governorates of Erbil, Dahuk and Suleimaniyah to begin receiving their salaries. It will also allow the Kurdistan Regional Government to resume its contribution to the Federal budget at a time of national crisis.
• In a statement we issued yesterday afternoon, the Secretary-General welcomed the agreement and encouraged the Federal and Regional authorities to build on this important first step and to solve all remaining outstanding issues within the framework of the Constitution. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) stands ready, within its mandate, to continue supporting this process.

REPORT BY U.N.-BACKED COMMISSION UNVEILS DA’ESH’S USE OF TERROR TO SUBJUGATE SYRIANS

• The UN commission of inquiry dealing with Syria has documented shocking accounts of the Da’esh armed group’s use of terror to subjugate Syrians living in its areas of control, as well as the use of extreme violence against both civilians and captured fighters, in new report.
• Based on over 300 first-hand victim and witness accounts, the report provides a unique insight from Syrian men, women and children who fled or who are living in Da’esh-controlled areas.
• The report says that executions, amputations and lashings in public spaces have become a regular occurrence. The display of mutilated bodies has only further terrorised and traumatised Syrians, children in particular.
  Da’esh has sought to exclude Syrian women and girls from public life. Women have been killed, often by stoning, for unapproved contact with the opposite sex. Children have also been the victims, perpetrators and witnesses of Da’esh executions.
• Among the commission of inquiry’s recommendations is a call to engage international accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court, to hold individuals, including Da’esh commanders, responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

HEAD OF JOINT AFRICAN UNION-U.N. DARFUR MISSION DISCUSSES RAPE ALLEGATIONS WITH SUDANESE PRESIDENT

• The Acting Joint Special Representative of the African Union-United Nations Mission (UNAMID), Abiodun Bashua, was in Khartoum today for a meeting with the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the allegations of rape in Thabit.
• The Acting Joint Special Representative stressed the urgent need for UNAMID to gain independent access to Thabit to follow-up on its preliminary mission to the area on 9 November.
• At the same time, the Mission continues its efforts to shed further light on the reports of alleged rape and to receive unfettered access to potential witnesses and victims so that they can conduct a thorough investigation.
• The Mission says it is also concerned by reports in the media about the alleged detention of villagers in Thabit and is seeking to verify them.

MALAYSIAN APPEALS COURT DEEMS LAW ANTI-TRANSGENDER UNCONSTITUTIONAL, IN MOVE WELCOMED BY U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE

• The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights today welcomed last week’s judgment by Malaysia’s Court of Appeal declaring a law in the state of Negeri Sembilan unconstitutional.
• That law criminalized Muslim transgender women for wearing women’s clothes or presenting themselves as women with fines and up to six months’ imprisonment.
• The Appeals Court found that the law infringes the constitutionally guaranteed rights to live with dignity, to work, to equality before the law and equal protection of the law, to freedom from discrimination, to freedom of movement and to freedom of expression.
• There is more information on this available online.

FUNDING SHORTAGES TO FORCE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME TO SLASH FOOD RATIONS FOR SOMALI, SOUTH SUDANESE REFUGEES IN KENYA

• The World Food Programme (WFP) says it will have to reduce food rations to around half a million refugees, mainly from Somalia and South Sudan, living in the Dadaab and Kakuma camps in northern Kenya, as a result of insufficient funding.
• WFP says that it has done everything it could to avoid reducing rations but will have to cut them by 50 percent, starting tomorrow, as it struggles to raise US$38 million to cover its refugee operation for the next six months, including US$15.5 million urgently required to address food needs through January 2015.

NUMBER OF ERITREAN ASYLUM-SEEKERS IN EUROPE TRIPLES – U.N. REFUGEE AGENCY

• The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that the number of asylum-seekers in Europe from Eritrea has nearly tripled during the first ten months of 2014, and the number of Eritrean refugees has also increased sharply in Ethiopia and Sudan.
• So far this year, nearly 37,000 Eritreans have sought refuge in Europe, compared to almost 13,000 during the same period last year. 

SIERRA LEONE: U.N. CHILDREN’S FUND OPENS 10 NEW COMMUNITY CENTERS TO ADDRESS EBOLA

• Ten new Ebola Community Care Centers are due to open this week in Sierra Leone’s Bombali district as part of a new drive to bring Ebola care closer to communities.
  Built by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the tented centers will boost the number of beds in Bombali, one of the districts worst hit by the current Ebola outbreak which has killed more than 1,000 people in Sierra Leone since May.
• UNICEF is planning to build around 30 more centers in neighbouring districts in the coming weeks.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION CAUTIONS STALLED PROGRESS ON MEASLES ELIMINATION

• The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that progress towards eliminating measles has stalled and that the 2015 targets will not be met.
• The number of deaths from measles increased from an estimated 122,000 in 2012 to 145,700 in 2013.
• The increase in the disease is in large part due to outbreaks in China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria.
• However, sizeable outbreaks were also reported in other parts of the world, including in the Eastern Mediterranean region in countries such as Georgia, Turkey and Ukraine, where weak health systems and conflict and population displacement have hampered vaccination efforts.
• The World Health Organization says that renewed high-level political commitment is needed to reverse this trend.

MARKING WORLD DIABETES DAY, SECRETARY-GENERAL SPOTLIGHTS THREAT POSED BY NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES

• As the world copes with influenza, Ebola and other infectious diseases, the Secretary-General says that World Diabetes Day reminds us that non-communicable diseases pose an even greater threat to human health.
• Affecting more than 350 million people in the world, diabetes is often misunderstood as a disease associated with affluent lifestyles when it is a growing problem in developing countries.
• Fortunately, the Secretary-General says, there are many cost-effective and feasible ways to address diabetes and other non-communicable diseases.
• This year’s World Diabetes Day focuses on healthy eating as an important component of both preventing and treating diabetes.

***The guests at the noon briefing were John Ging, Operations Director for the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; Afshan Khan of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF); and Mabingue Ngom of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). They briefed reporters on their recent visit to Mali.