HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2016
 
IN FAILING TO INCLUDE WOMEN AND GIRLS IN PEACE PROCESSES, WE ARE FAILING THE WORLD, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL

• The Secretary-General addressed the Security Council’s debate on Women, Peace and Security today, noting that despite progress, the situation remains far from equitable, with many atrocities that continue to be committed against women and girls, including by UN peacekeepers, and continued political exclusion of women, including in peace negotiations on Syria or Yemen.
• He urged the Council members to hold all UN peace operations accountable for putting women and girls at the centre of their work, as well as to listen to civil society, and particularly women’s groups, in all deliberations on conflict prevention and peacebuilding. 
• He also urged them to make sure that there are funds available for these activities, by earmarking a minimum of 15 per cent of funding on peace and security to programmes that address the needs of women and girls.
• In failing to include women and girls in peacemaking and peacebuilding processes, we are not only failing women and girls, we are failing the world, the Secretary-General said.
• He added that this agenda is not an optional extra or a favour to women and girls but fundamental to building sustainable peace and ending conflicts.

• The Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, today concluded a three-day visit to Sana’a, where he held meetings with several representatives of the General People’s Congress, Ansarallah, Yemeni activists and foreign diplomats. The Special Envoy presented the Houthi-General People’s Congress delegation with a written roadmap that addresses security and political arrangements. The delegation agreed to respond to the proposal in the coming days. The Special Envoy stressed that all parties must cooperate fully and swiftly to support political alternatives to secure lasting peace guided by a conviction that violence is never a viable solution, and he urged the parties to agree to an extension of the Cessation of Hostilities. 
• The Special Envoy visited the site of the funeral hall attack that took place three weeks ago and met representatives of the families of the victims. He noted the urgent need to open up Yemeni airspace to commercial aircraft and to evacuate the injured for treatment.
• Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) is increasingly concerned about deteriorating food security and growing rates of child malnutrition in Yemen, particularly in hard-to-reach areas. A senior WFP team recently visited impoverished neighbourhoods and spoke to families and local authorities in Hajjah and Hodeidah, where people are struggling to meet daily food needs.

• The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights continues to receive reports of extrajudicial killings and summary executions by Da’esh, among other crimes, against civilians, including children and women, as Iraqi Government forces close in on Mosul. The Human Rights Office also continues to receive information that reinforces the belief that Da’esh is deliberately using civilians as human shields.
• The Human Rights Office also repeats its call on Government forces and their allies to ensure their fighters do not take revenge on any of the civilians who escape from areas under Da’esh control and treat all suspected Da’esh fighters they capture in accordance with international humanitarian law.
• Meanwhile, UNFPA Iraq has stepped up its response and delivered reproductive health services to women and girls in Iraq. Since the start of military operations to liberate Mosul from Da’esh on 17 October, UNFPA provided more than 1,000 reproductive health consultations, while six internally displaced women have also delivered babies in the UNFPA-supported Primary Health Centre in Qayyarah. That facility is the only child-birth facility in Qayyarah.
• The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that almost 9,000 people are internally displaced as a result of the Mosul military operation. The majority of displaced people so far are sheltering in host communities. All families who have fled the fighting are reported to be in a vulnerable condition and requiring assistance.
• The UN is concerned over reports of displaced families being forcibly evicted in Kirkuk Governorate, following an attack on Kirkuk by Da’esh on 21-22 October. The UN has received reports that displaced families living in private quarters in Kirkuk were forcibly evicted.
• Humanitarian partners are concerned for the safety of civilians in Rutba in west-Anbar, close to the Jordanian border. Military operations in the area continue, following an attack by ISIL militants over the weekend, and the area is not accessible for humanitarian partners due to insecurity. The number of civilian casualties is unknown and no displacement or movement from the area has been reported so far.

• The UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reports that the situation in Bangui is normalising but remains tense, following yesterday’s civil unrest that resulted in four civilians killed and nine wounded. The Mission updates that five peacekeepers were also injured. MINUSCA is working with the Central African authorities to support investigations into the circumstances of these incidents. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, met yesterday with President Touadéra and Prime Minister Sarandji. They agreed to reinforce coordination between the Peacekeeping Mission and national security forces.
• Overnight, the Mission continued to dismantle barricades in the first, fifth and eighth districts in Bangui. MINUSCA continues to patrol actively and maintains a visible posture in hotspots and along the city’s key roads, including the road to the international airport, as part of its mandate to protect civilians.

• The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, today warned that rising ethnic rhetoric, hate speech and incitement to violence against certain ethnic groups is highly dangerous and could result in mass atrocities if not reined in by community and political leaders at the highest levels.
• High Commissioner Zeid urged President Salva Kiir and all leaders with influence to urgently and unambiguously condemn the incitement to violence and to take urgent measures to defuse the tensions.

• Yesterday, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, wrapped up his visit to Western Sahara, Morocco and Algeria. Mr. Ladsous met with Moroccan authorities in Rabat and with Polisario authorities in Rabouni. He then visited MINURSO's Headquarters in Laayoune and did an overflight of Guerguerat in the south.
• Mr. Ladsous arrived in Paris today where he will participate in a ministerial conference on peacekeeping in Francophone countries. 

• With two months remaining in 2016, at least 3,740 refugees and migrants have lost their lives while crossing the Mediterranean this year according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). 
• This year is on pace to have the most lives lost in the Mediterranean, despite a large drop in the number of people who have attempted the crossing.

• The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said today that the first voluntary returns of six refugee families returning to Myanmar from Thailand began today.
• There are currently more than 100,000 Myanmar refugees living in Thailand.
• The new pilot programme is supported by the Governments of both countries. While the initial numbers of people returning are modest, the Refugee Agency says the aim is to pave the way towards a process of returns that might eventually resolve one of Asia’s longest-running refugee situations.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that the one million cholera vaccines that the Global Taskforce on Cholera Control had decided to send to Haiti on 10 October have arrived.
• Vaccination is expected to start early in the week of 31 October, or even the day before, in affected departments of Haiti, Sud and Grand Anse. 
• The objective of the campaign is to reduce the burden of cholera cases on health care facilities in departments affected by Hurricane Matthew and prevent cholera’s further spread.

• The Secretary-General today has welcomed the selection of Manfred Nowak to lead a new Global Study on detained children. These children, who are deprived of liberty, often remain invisible and forgotten.
• The General Assembly, in resolution 69/15, invited the Secretary-General to commission such a study, which will include good practices and recommendations for action to effectively realize all relevant rights of the child.
• Mr. Nowak, who previously was the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, will lead the UN Task Force to support the global study.

• The Secretary-General will be speaking at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs tomorrow afternoon  at 2 pm on the topic “Turmoil, Transition and Opportunity: the United Nations in a Changing World”.

• Botswana has become the 132nd UN Member State to pay its regular budget dues in full.