HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
MONDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 2018
 
“EASTERN GHOUTA CANNOT WAIT, IT IS HIGH TIME TO STOP THIS HELL ON EARTH”, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL

• In remarks to the Human Rights Council in Geneva today, the Secretary-General welcomed the Security Council’s adoption of a resolution demanding a cessation of hostilities throughout Syria for at least 30 days. But he added that Security Council resolutions are only meaningful if they are effectively implemented, and he expects the resolution to be immediately implemented and sustained, particularly to ensure the immediate, safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and services, the evacuation of the critically sick and the wounded and the alleviation of the suffering of the Syrian people. The United Nations is ready to do its part.
• The Secretary-General reiterated that eastern Ghouta cannot wait and that it is high time to stop this hell on earth. He reminded all parties of their absolute obligation and international humanitarian and human rights law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure at all times.  
• He also told the Human Rights Council that, in his experience, the Rohingya are one of the most discriminated against populations in the world – and that was even before the crisis of the past year. The Secretary-General called on the Myanmar Government to ensure unfettered humanitarian access in Rakhine State, and he appealed to the international community to support those who have fled to Bangladesh.
• Before leaving Geneva, the Secretary-General spoke to the Conference on Disarmament and said he welcomed its decision ten days ago to take forward its substantive work. He added that he believed the Conference is off to its best start in nearly two decades, and he looks forward to building on this new momentum. 

• Over the last 48 hours, military operations continued to be reported in besieged eastern Ghouta in Syria, resulting in the deaths of at least 30 people, including women and children. Attacks on Damascus from eastern Ghouta also continue.
• Yesterday, a Syrian Arab Red Crescent warehouse in the Damascus suburbs was reportedly struck by shelling.
• Since 19 February, escalating hostilities have resulted in 500 deaths and some 1,500 injuries in eastern Ghouta. A total of 24 health facilities in eastern Ghouta were reportedly impacted by shelling and airstrikes, in addition to three humanitarian sites. During the same period, attacks on Damascus city and the Governorate resulted in 14 deaths and 214 injuries.
• The United Nations has mobilised and is ready to immediately support life-saving aid convoys to several areas in eastern Ghouta as soon as conditions allow, as well as hundreds of medical evacuations. In addition, the United Nations is ready to access other besieged and hard-to-reach areas in Syria.
• The United Nations calls on all parties to facilitate unconditional, unimpeded, sustained access to all people in need throughout the country, and to take all measures to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and medical facilities, as required by international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

• Earlier today, the Secretary-General sent a message to staff to underscore his commitment to encourage and enable staff to call out sexual harassment in the workplace, and to support victims and witnesses.
• The “Speak up” helpline will be operational tomorrow. Open 24 hours a day, the helpline will be a resource for UN Secretariat personnel to speak confidentially with an impartial and trained individual who can provide information on protection, support and reporting mechanisms. The goal is to attend to the needs of personnel, and to empower them to make informed decisions on action, if they so choose.
• To improve and centralize the Secretariat’s response capacity, the Investigations Division of the Office of Internal Oversight Services will, with immediate effect, take responsibility for investigating all complaints of sexual harassment, and implement a streamlined, fast-tracked procedure to receive, process and address complaints.
• A specialized team focusing on the investigation of sexual harassment is being created, and additional investigators are under recruitment. Particular attention will be given to increasing the number of female investigators.
• In his message to colleagues, the Secretary-General reiterated his commitment to zero tolerance of sexual harassment, and underlined that harassment of any type is antithetical to the principles for which we stand as an Organization.
• As members of a standard-setting institution, he said, we must all be committed to fostering an inclusive environment in which every person is valued and respected. A harmonious, safe and civil workplace is key to delivering on our mandates for the people we serve, he told the staff.

• Over the weekend, the UN Mission in South Sudan said it had recalled a unit of police officers from Wau and confined them to barracks after a preliminary investigation into allegations of sexual exploitation.
• On 8 February, a complaint was received alleging that members of the Ghanaian Formed Police Unit were engaging in sexual activity with women living at the UN Protection of Civilians site in Wau. An investigation was immediately launched by the Office of Internal Oversight Services. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, David Shearer, was briefed on the preliminary investigation on the morning of 22 February. An immediate decision was made to remove the 46-member police unit from their duty stations that afternoon. The unit was fully withdrawn from the Wau base to Juba over the next two days.
• The information received indicates that some members of the FPU allegedly engaged in transactional sex. The UN Mission has a zero tolerance, no excuses, and no second chances approach to sexual exploitation and abuse. The priority is to put the victims’ rights and dignity first and ensure that there is transparency and accountability for such actions. That is why the Mission has taken immediate action to protect and support potential victims and witnesses in this case while a full investigation is carried out.
• Ghana’s Police Headquarters issued a statement over the weekend indicating its fullest cooperation and support to the investigation.

• Three UN agencies warned today that more than 7 million people in South Sudan - almost two-thirds of the population - could become severely food insecure in the coming months without sustained humanitarian assistance and access. If this happens, it will be the highest ever number of food insecure people in South Sudan. The period of greatest risk will be the lean season, between May and July. Particularly at risk are 155,000 people, including 29,000 children, who could suffer from the most extreme levels of hunger.
• In January, 5.3 million people, or nearly half of the population, were already struggling to find enough food each day and were in "crisis" or "emergency" levels of food insecurity. This represents a 40 per cent increase in the number of severely food insecure people compared to January 2017.
• Improved access and a massive humanitarian response succeeded in containing and averting famine last year. Despite this, the food insecurity outlook has never been so dire as it is now. The agencies warn that progress made to prevent people from dying of hunger could be undone, and more people than ever could be pushed into severe hunger and famine-like conditions.

• This morning, the Security Council met on Burundi. Michel Kafando, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy, said that the political situation remained tense and was characterized by some measures to restrict freedom, as only the majority party and allied political groups could freely conduct political activities. He added that the economic situation was not improving in this political context. Mr. Kafando warned that such an environment can’t be conducive to the organisation of credible elections. He added that the security situation was improving, although human rights violations continued to be reported, and that the humanitarian situation remained of concern.
• While the Secretary-General has expressed some concern in relation to the Burundian government’s decision to reform the constitution, Mr. Kafando said that this must be understood in the spirit of seeking consensus around such a critical issue for Burundi’s future. He added that dialogue remained indispensable.

• The Assistant-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Ursula Mueller, arrived in Chad today for a two-day visit to see first-hand the humanitarian situation in the country and the efforts of the humanitarian community to respond in a context of chronic underfunding, multiple humanitarian crises and development challenges.
• Ms. Mueller is expected to meet with Chadian authorities, humanitarian and development partners as well as impacted populations. She will visit the Lac region tomorrow to see for herself the humanitarian consequences of the Lake Chad Basin crisis in Chad. Her visit aims to generate greater international visibility and donor support for humanitarian needs in Chad where a third of the population - 4.4 million people -  needs humanitarian assistance in 2018.
• Before travelling to Chad, Ms. Mueller wrapped up her visit to Cameroon where she called on the international community and the Government to step up support for humanitarian action in the country. She said that Cameroon is the country most impacted by the regional extension of the Boko Haram conflict. In 2017, there were over 60 suicide attacks in the Far North representing a 50 per cent increase compared to 2016. Some 3.3 million people need urgent humanitarian assistance. In the Far North, one out of every three people is facing crisis and emergency levels of food insecurity. But Cameroon’s Humanitarian Response Plan has only received 5 per cent of the US $305 million required to respond to the most urgent humanitarian needs.

• In a statement, the Secretary-General strongly condemned the attacks perpetrated on 23 February in Mogadishu, which claimed the lives of many civilians and injured many others.
• He sent his profound condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of Somalia, and commended the response of the Somali security forces and the African Union Mission, AMISOM.

• The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is closely monitoring the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that struck Papua New Guinea’s Southern Highlands in the early morning hours, today, local time.
• Humanitarian partners are in close contact with national authorities.
• The United Nations stands ready to support any Government-led response should it be required.

• In response to a question on digital files, the Spokesman said that the project “Digitization: Turning Seven Decades of the United Nations Work into Open Knowledge” was initiated to preserve parliamentary documents by digitizing them into a media neutral and searchable form, store them electronically and make them available to users. It is a collaboration between the Department of Public Information and the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management. The objective is to ensure that the rich history of the United Nations is available to everyone around the globe and the Digitization Project is vital to sharing this knowledge with the world. 
• Overall, since the beginning of the project, over 70,000 documents, amounting to more than 1.2 million pages, have been digitized and are being made available to the public. Around 3 million such historical documents from the Dag Hammarskjöld Library's collection were identified as particularly important, including hundreds of thousands in urgent need of digitization due to their physical fragility. These are related to the work of the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council from 1945 to 1993.
• In September 2013, the Government of Qatar generously committed to $5 million to the project, disbursed in annual contributions and used to pay salary, staff and other costs. At the end of June 2018, the funding will come to an end. We are very grateful to the Government of Qatar for its support. The Government of Qatar has fully met its funding commitments to the project.  DGACM is working with the Department of Management on addressing the situation of the impacted staff in line with Human Resources rules and policies.

• Grenada and Mauritius have paid their regular budget dues in full, bringing the Honour Roll to 62 Member States.