Noon briefing of 16 September 2020

The Secretary-General held his annual press conference at the opening of the 75th Session of the General Assembly.
He noted that the COVID-19 virus is the number one global security threat in our world today, stressing the need for the global ceasefire that he called for in March to become a reality by the end of the year.
The Secretary-General also underlined the need for the international community needs to come together to defeat the virus, calling for the massive expansion of new and existing tools that can respond to new cases and provide vital treatment to suppress transmission and save lives, especially over the next 12 months. A vaccine, he said, must be seen as a global public good, because COVID-19 respects no borders.
His full remarks are available here.

SECURITY COUNCIL
The Security Council held an open videoteleconference this morning on South Sudan.
Briefing Council members, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, David Shearer, said that what is most critical right now is progress on the country’s peace process. He noted that COVID-19 has slowed implementation of the peace agreement, but the pandemic is not entirely to blame, pointing to a reversion to “business as usual” where progress on the peace agreement itself limps along.
Mr. Shearer said that the UN Mission maintains its clear mandate to protect civilians and will intervene if necessary. To ensure its forces are robust, nimble, and proactive, the UN Mission is looking at innovative ways of deploying our troops to overcome the challenging environment.
Also briefing the Council was Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock, who said that nearly 6.5 million people in South Sudan– more than half of the population – faced severe food insecurity at the height of the annual hunger season a few months ago. COVID-19 has made this worse, he said, with another 1.6 million vulnerable people having been pushed to the brink as well.
Mr. Lowcock noted that violence in the country has resulted in hundreds of people being killed, another 157,000 displaced, and the abduction of large numbers of women and children. South Sudan also remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to be an aid worker, with at least 122 aid workers have been killed since 2013.

BRAZIL
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said today that its Rapid Response Facility initiative is supporting firefighting activity in the Pantanal Biosphere Reserve to prevent fires from spreading into the Pantanal Conservation Area World Heritage site. Unprecedented fires are blazing through the Pantanal, threatening numerous endangered species and the highly valuable ecosystem.
The joint initiative of UNESCO and Fauna and Flora International (FFI) have provided funding to strengthen firefighting teams on the ground by providing innovative equipment, such as high-pressure floating pumps developed for irrigation and for fighting forest fires.
UNESCO said that these are highly efficient and particularly suitable in the local context as they can move around on the waterways, accessing hard to reach areas. The use of aircraft to fight fires from the sky will reinforce these efforts.
The Pantanal region is the largest tropical wetland in the world, located mostly within Brazil, but also extending into Bolivia and Paraguay.

COVID-19/SEAFARERS
In a joint statement, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Global Compact, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN Human Rights Office and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) yesterday called on governments to eliminate without delay all obstacles to crew changes of seafarers, calling it a “humanitarian crisis”.
IOM said that despite significant efforts by shipowners’ and seafarers’ organizations and UN bodies, more than 300,000 seafarers are still trapped aboard vessels, anxious to disembark and return home. Another 300,000 are waiting ashore to replace them, facing financial ruin if they can’t go back to work. Fishermen on many commercial fishing vessels face a similar problem.
Among other reasons, this is due to restrictions on travel, embarkation and disembarkation in ports, quarantine measures, reductions in available flights, and limits on the issuing of visas and passports as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

BIODIVERSITY
Despite encouraging progress in several areas, the natural world is suffering badly and getting worse, a new UN report warns.
The UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 report, published by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, is a final report card on progress against the 20 global biodiversity targets agreed in 2010 with a 2020 deadline, and offers lessons learned and best practices for getting on track.
The report comes as the COVID-19 pandemic challenges people to rethink their relationship with nature, and to consider the profound consequences to their own wellbeing and survival that can result from continued biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystems.
The report calls for a shift away from “business as usual” across a range of human activities and outlines eight transitions that recognize the value of biodiversity, the need to restore the ecosystems on which all human activity depends, and the urgency of reducing the negative impacts of such activity.

OZONE LAYER
Today is the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. This year, the Day celebrates 35 years of the Vienna Convention and 35 years of global ozone layer protection.
In his message, the Secretary-General said there are few global agreements as successful as the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer. Under the Convention’s Montreal Protocol, governments, scientists and industry cooperated and have so far replaced 99 per cent of these gases. The ozone layer is now healing, safeguarding human and ecosystem health.
“The ozone treaties stand out as inspiring examples that show that, where political will prevails, there is little limit to what we can achieve in common cause,” he said.
He added that as we look ahead to global recovery from the social and economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we must commit to building stronger and more resilient societies and put our efforts and investments into tackling climate change and protecting nature and the ecosystems that sustain us.