HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY FARHAN HAQ,
DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
FRIDAY, 11 NOVEMBER 2016
 
SECRETARY-GENERAL TO ATTEND U.N. CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE IN MOROCCO BEFORE FRANCE VISIT

• The Secretary-General will depart New York late on the evening of Sunday, 13 November, arriving in Marrakech, Morocco, on the afternoon of Monday, 14 November.
• On the morning of Tuesday, 15 November, the Secretary-General will take part in the opening of the high-level segment of the Climate Change Conference, known as COP22. This will also serve as the first meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement.
• The following day, Wednesday, 16 November, he will take part in the Summit of African Heads of State and Government hosted by His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco.
• While in Marrakech, the Secretary-General will also participate in events on topics including economic diversification and climate finance. He will also meet with world leaders and civil society representatives on the margins of COP22.
• On Thursday, 17 November, the Secretary-General will travel from Marrakech to Paris, where he will meet with President Francois Hollande and Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. He will also visit the headquarters of UNESCO, where he will meet with Director-General Irina Bokova and staff members.
• The Secretary-General will return to New York on Friday, 18 November.

• On Monday, 14 November, the Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, will depart New York for Washington, D.C., where he will have bilateral meetings and give a lecture at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.The following day, he will chair the UNFIP Advisory Board meeting and the joint session of the UNFIP-UN Foundation Board of Directors.
• On 16 November, he will travel to Brussels, Belgium, to participate in the Brussels Conference for the Central African Republic and meet with senior European Union officials.
• The next day, the Deputy Secretary-General will travel to Geneva where, on 18 November, he will meet with Heads of UN agencies located in Geneva, the diplomatic community, NGOs and the Swiss authorities.He will also address the students and faculty of the University of Geneva.
• The Deputy Secretary-General will return to New York over the weekend.

• The Secretary-General delivered remarks at the closing of the 11th meeting of Heads of United Nations Police Components.
• He thanked blue helmets around the world for protecting civilians and making communities safer; saying that the 13,500 men and women serving under the UNPOL banner embody the spirit of the United Nations Charter.
• The Secretary-General noted the increase in the number of women police officers and encourage further efforts in that regard.
• He pointed out that by conferring responsibilities to host-State police, UN police have allowed peacekeepers to successfully exit in Timor-Leste and Sierra Leone.

• The UN mission in Afghanistan an attack against civilians in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
• At least four civilians were killed and 128 others injured after a vehicle filled with heavy explosives detonated near the German Consulate in Mazar.19 women and 38 children were among those injured.
• The Taliban has taken responsibility for the attack, calling it revenge for recent air strikes in Kunduz.

• The UN is concerned by the ongoing hostilities in Aleppo city. Indiscriminate shelling reportedly continues to cause displacement in western Aleppo, with 15,000 internally displaced people registered in recent days.
• The eastern part of the city remains inaccessible to humanitarian workers, where an estimated 275,000 people remain trapped under horrific conditions. Food and health stocks are running dangerously low in the city. The UN has not been able to reach the eastern part of the city since July.
• The United Nations urges all parties to the conflict to uphold their obligations, to put an end to indiscriminate bombing and shelling, to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, and to enable urgent humanitarian life-saving assistance, as required under international humanitarian and human rights law.
• The Human Rights Office also says that the battle for Mosul is leading to the displacement of civilians from Iraq into Syria. It has received reports that Iraqi civilians from rural areas around Mosul City have been arriving in the Syrian governorates of Raqqa, Deir Ezzour and al-Hassakeh. They reportedly left, after the Iraqi Security Forces and allied armed groups captured the areas, fearing they would be seen as affiliated to Da’esh.
• In light of the announcement of possible ground operations by Kurdish and other forces, and the conduct of regular airstrikes by the US-led Coalition, the Human Rights Office is concerned that Da’esh tactics already employed in Manbij in August that endanger the civilian population may be adopted in Raqqa and surrounding areas. Those would include taking civilians hostage and planting improvised explosive devices in civilian houses and residential neighbourhoods.

• The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has called for immediate action to ensure that the rights and the needs of victims and survivors of atrocities in Iraq are met – including, crucially, the need for justice, truth and reconciliation.
• Da’esh appears to be continuing to carry out killings based on decisions of its self-appointed ‘courts’. On Tuesday, Da’esh reportedly shot and killed 40 civilians in Mosul city after accusing them of ‘treason and collaboration’ with the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF).
• Since 27 October, Da’esh has been relocating abducted women, including Yezidi women, into Mosul city and into Tel Afar town. Some of these women were reportedly “distributed” to the group’s fighters while others have been told they will be used to accompany Da’esh convoys. And there are more reports of Da’esh forcing villagers to leave their homes, include one incident around 24 October when it ordered some 2,000 families out of al-Shura sub-district.

• Adama Dieng, the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, has visited South Sudan in response to growing concern about reports of targeted ethnic violence against multiple ethnic groups.
• While in the country, Mr. Dieng met with UN officials, senior Government officials, civil society groups, religious leaders and community members. He visited a protection of civilian site in Juba and travelled to Yei to meet with members of the community and government there.
• He expressed his dismay that what he had seen and heard confirmed his concerns of the strong risk of violence escalating along ethnic lines, with the potential for genocide.
• Mr. Dieng noted that the media, including social media, is being used to spread hatred and encourage ethnic polarization.
• He said that he is particularly concerned by the involvement of the youth of this country in this dangerous spread of hatred and hostility, as they are particularly susceptible to divisions within society.

• The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel has wrapped up a two-day visit to Banjul, the capital of the Gambia to consult on the electoral process there and on how the United Nations can support the country’s people.
• While in the Gambia, Mohamed Ibn Chambas met with the members of the Inter-Party Committee, civil society representatives, diplomats and development partners.
• Speaking to the press, he reiterated calls by the UN and other partners on the Government to conduct an independent investigation into the deaths in custody of Ebrima Solo Krummah and Solo Sandeng.
• The Special Representative also emphasized that the UN is appealing for the holding of a transparent presidential election, stressing the importance of a level playing field as a key precondition.
• He noted that political parties and the presidential candidates have a responsibility to defend not only the interests of their own party and supporters, but also to safeguard the unity of the whole nation.

• A report issued yesterday on measles by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and partners finds that despite a 79% worldwide decrease in measles deaths between 2000 and 2015, nearly 400 children still die from the disease every day and progress has been uneven.
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan account for half of the unvaccinated infants and 75% of measles deaths.

• < > released a new report today entitled ‘One is Too Many: Ending Child Deaths from Pneumonia and Diarrhoea’.Pneumonia and diarrhoea together kill 1.4 million children each year, mostly in lower and middle-income countries.
• Pneumonia in particular remains the leading infectious killer of children under five, claiming the lives of nearly a million children in 2015 – more than malaria, TB, measles, and AIDS combined.
• Approximately half of all childhood pneumonia deaths are linked to air pollution, a fact UNICEF said world leaders should keep in mind during ongoing climate change talks at COP22.

 
*** The guest at the noon briefing was the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Mr. Wu Hongbo, who briefed journalists on the Global Sustainable Transport Conference.