HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
TUESDAY, 22 NOVEMBER 2016
 
SECRETARY-GENERAL TO SPEAK TO YOUNG DIPLOMATS IN UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, ATTEND U.N. TRANSPORT CONFERENCE IN TURKMENISTAN

• The Secretary-General will depart New York on Thursday, 24 November for Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.
• On Friday, 25 November, the Secretary-General will meet with H.E. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and speak to and engage in a discussion with young diplomats at the Emirates Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi.
• On that afternoon, the Secretary-General will travel to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, where on Saturday, 26 November he will open and, with H.E. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the President of Turkmenistan, convene the first-ever UN Global Sustainable Transport Conference.  The Conference is an important contribution to advancing the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• The Secretary-General will also have a separate bilateral meeting with President Berdimuhamedov, speak at the opening of the new United Nations House in Ashgabat and visit the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia.  He will also take part in an event on the rolling out of the SDGs in Turkmenistan. 
• The Secretary-General will return to New York on Sunday, 27 November.

• The Secretary-General spoke this morning at the Security Council’s open meeting on water, peace and security.
• He said that access to water can exacerbate communal tensions, pointing to how competition for scarce water resources has contributed to tensions in Darfur and Afghanistan.
• The Secretary-General said that armed conflicts themselves can affect access to clean water, for example through the deliberate destruction of water facilities.
• We have also seen warring parties seek to control dams and dikes, he said, citing how control over strategic dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers has been at the centre of military operations carried out by ISIL in Syria and in Iraq.
• The Secretary-General said that despite these serious challenges, we must also recognize the potential for cooperation around shared water resources, which the UN has actively promoted.

• While the intensive talks on Cyprus in Mont Pèlerin, Switzerland did not achieve the desired outcome, the Secretary-General is confident that the two leaders will rise above the current challenges in this process.
• He is also hopeful that they will continue to work tirelessly, as they have so far, towards reaching a settlement within 2016 for the benefit of all Cypriots. The United Nations, and the Secretary-General personally, will continue to support these efforts.

• Today, an inter-agency UN-Red Cross-Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy deployed to the hard-to-reach area of Rastan in northern rural Homs to deliver food, water and other supplies to 107,500 people in Rastan and nearby villages.
• This is the first cross-line inter-agency convoy in November and the fourth inter-agency delivery to the area this year. Rastan was last reached on 27 July.
• While we welcome the convoy to Rastan today, it is worrying that no inter-agency convoy had been able to deploy until this late in November. The result is that we are once again unlikely to reach more than a small portion of those for whom we receive formal approval to access – due to deliberate restrictions, needless administrative hurdles as well as insecurity.
• The UN continues to call for safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access to all in need in Syria, particularly those living in hard-to-reach and besieged areas.

• Over one month into Mosul military operations, more than 68,000 Iraqis are currently displaced from Mosul and adjacent districts, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
• Over the past four days, the agency says, total displacement has increased by more than 8,300 individuals. As fighting is progressing inside the city limits of Mosul, more individuals have been displaced from inside the sub-district of Mosul.
• The majority of the displaced are from Mosul district, and most of them, almost 98 per cent of the displaced, are currently residing within the Ninewa governorate.

• In a statement issued yesterday evening, the Acting Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, Ghassan Khalil, said the UN is concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Ganfouda area of Benghazi due to the increased hostilities in the past week. He stressed that civilians must be allowed to leave the insecurity in safety and dignity without delay.
• The UN calls on the parties to ensure the protection of civilians and to allow the safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access to Ganfouda district immediately to provide life-saving assistance to people in need.

• The UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) has called for the end of clashes that started yesterday in Bria between two armed groups. Some 5,000 displaced civilians as well as local authorities and humanitarian organisations have taken refuge in MINUSCA's premises. The UN mission stresses that the armed groups will be held accountable for the violence, in particular against civilian populations.
• Yesterday, a UN base was targeted by fighters of the FPRC before peacekeepers fired back. The UN mission warns against these attacks against its personnel and its facilities and notes that the UN will respond appropriately to any hostile act. The peacekeeping mission has taken measures to protect civilians and peacekeepers are patrolling in Bria. The Mission is pursuing mediation efforts together with local and religious authorities. UN agencies are planning a humanitarian response.

• The United Nations Country Team and the UN Mission in Colombia are concerned about violent actions, including recent killings, targeting social leaders in several conflict-affected areas. The UN team understands the fears voiced by affected social organizations and their call for urgent action to prevent the escalation of violence, which undermines confidence in a stable and lasting peace, ahead of the expected signing of the Final Agreement between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP).
• The UN in Colombia stresses that the Final Peace Agreement provides for the implementation of several measures to ensure security for social organizations’ leaders and human rights defenders, as well as security for political action. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is currently verifying areas where recent killings took place. The entire UN system in Colombia asserts its commitment to protect the civilian population, within the framework of their respective mandates, and to provide continued support to build peace and respond to the expectations of all Colombians, particularly in the conflict-affected territories.

• The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said today that they are concerned that two weeks after their detention, two Gambian journalists continue to be held incommunicado, with no access to family members or lawyers. Momodou Sabally, the head of the Gambia Radio and Television Services and Bakary Fatty, a reporter for the same organisation, have been arbitrarily detained by the National Intelligence Agency in Banjul since 8 November with no charges laid against them. A number of other people also remain in incommunicado detention.
• The Human Rights Office notes that incommunicado detention without charge is a clear violation of the Gambian constitution and of the country’s international human rights obligations. They stress that, in the run up to the presidential elections of 1 December, it is particularly crucial that the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association are fully respected. The Human Rights Office calls on the Government to release all those who are being detained for their exercise of these rights.

• The Secretary-General today announced the appointment of Lieutenant General Carlos Humberto Loitey of Uruguay as the Military Adviser for Peacekeeping Operations.
• Lieutenant General Loitey succeeds Lieutenant General Maqsood Ahmed of Pakistan. The Secretary-General is very grateful for Lieutenant General Ahmed’s tireless efforts, hard work and dedication to strengthen the effectiveness and performance of UN military components operating in increasingly challenging and complex peacekeeping environments.
• Lieutenant General Loitey brings with him over 40 years of military experience.