HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC​,
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
MONDAY, 9 AUGUST 2021

CLIMATE
Early this morning, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its latest climate report. The Secretary-General said that this report is a “code red for humanity” with irrefutable evidence that emissions from fossil fuels are choking our planet and putting billions of people at risk.
He warned that we are at imminent risk of hitting 1.5 degrees in the near future and he underscored that the only way to prevent exceeding this threshold is by urgently stepping up our efforts and pursuing the most ambitious path.
“We owe this to the entire human family, especially the poorest and most vulnerable communities and nations that are the hardest hit despite being least responsible for today’s climate emergency,” he said.
The Secretary-General added that the report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels before they destroy our planet. He added that if governments, the private sector and civil society combine forces now, we can still avert climate catastrophe, but noted there is no time for delay and no room for excuses.

SOUTH SUDAN
As a small yet significant example of how climate change hits the most vulnerable communities. In South Sudan, the acting Humanitarian Coordinator, Arafat Jamal, says that aid workers and the Government are helping people affected by early seasonal flooding.
He said that climate change is disrupting normal weather patterns and intensifying the impact of flooding.
Some 90,000 people are believed to have been affected by heavy rains which inundated homes and agricultural fields.
The Humanitarian Coordinator visited Jonglei, where more than 70,000 people have been impacted affected by flooding, many of them for the second time since May. Community leaders and representatives of women’s groups stressed to him the urgent need for food, shelter, cooking utensils, medicines and, of course, access to clean water.

MARITIME SECURITY
This morning, the Chef de Cabinet, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, spoke to Security Council members at the high-level open debate on ‘Enhancing Maritime Security: A case for international cooperation.’
She said that maritime security is being undermined at alarming levels – from challenges around contested boundaries to the depletion of natural resources and armed attacks at sea.
These threats impact people in every country in the world – coastal and landlocked alike, she said, and underscored that this calls for a truly global and integrated response that addresses the root causes of the challenges we face. This includes poverty, a lack of alternative livelihoods, insecurity and weak governance infrastructures.
Ms. Viotti called on countries to commit to the full and effective implementation of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea. She highlighted the UN’s work with impoverished coastal communities to develop new opportunities for decent and sustainable work.

AFGHANISTAN
Turning to Afghanistan, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, today expressed his extreme concern at the deteriorating situation in the country. More than 1,000 people have been killed or injured due to indiscriminate attacks against civilians in Helmand, Kandahar and Herat provinces in the last month alone.
In a statement, Mr. Griffiths echoed calls by the Secretary-General and members of the Security Council strongly condemning attacks against civilians and he called for a ceasefire. He reminded all parties to the conflict of their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, including their responsibility to protect civilians and ensure access for humanitarian organizations to reach people in need.
Mr. Griffiths underscored that fighting across the country, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people since 2009 when UN reporting began, needs to stop. People have suffered enough, he said.
As an example of the brutal nature and scale of violence in Afghanistan, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today said that, in the last 72 hours, 20 children have been killed and 130 injured in Kandahar province alone.
UNICEF said that it is shocked by the rapid escalation of grave violations against children in Afghanistan, and that the atrocities are growing higher by the day.

MALI
Our colleagues in Mali at the UN Mission there strongly condemn the barbaric attacks against civilians that took place yesterday near the town of Ouatagouna and other nearby localities – in the area in Mali that also border Niger and Burkina Faso.
According to our colleagues in the field, members of an unidentified armed group are responsible for this act. Local sources tell the Mission that the provisional toll could be more than 50 dead and several injured.
These deliberate attacks against civilian populations constitute serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law. 
Arrangements are underway for the deployment by the peacekeeping mission of a field mission to secure the scene, as well as the intensification of patrols in the affected areas in coordination with the Malian Defense and Security Forces. The UN Mission will also assist in the opening of a human rights investigation in order to determine the circumstances in which these atrocities were committed and to help identify the responsibilities to help the Malian authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.
A full statement was issued by the Mission.

ETHIOPIA
Moving on to Ethiopia, the World Food Programme (WFP) today said that, despite numerous challenges, it has delivered food to more than a million people in the north-west and parts of southern Tigray in June and July in a second round of distributions.
However, severe shortages of food, cash, fuel and functioning telecommunications equipment mean that WFP has only reached half of the people it planned to assist, including communities on the verge of famine. 
More than 175 trucks arrived in the Tigray region, via the Abala corridor, during the first week of August. An additional 90 trucks are expected to arrive in the coming days in the region.
But with 5.2 million people in the region in need of humanitarian food assistance, which is about 90 per cent of Tigray’s total population, the World Food Programme and its partners require at least 100 trucks to be arriving daily to meet the needs. 
Also, UNICEF’s Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, said in a statement that the agency is extremely alarmed by the reported killing of over 200 people, including more than 100 children, in attacks on displaced families sheltering at a health facility and a school in Afar region, and that took place on Thursday, August 5th. She warned that the intensification of fighting in Afar and other areas neighbouring Tigray, is disastrous for children.
Ms. Fore noted that UNICEF estimates a 10-fold increase in the number of children who will suffer from life-threatening malnutrition in Tigray over the next 12 months.

MYANMAR
On Myanmar, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, will speak to you on the record tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.
Also on Myanmar, our colleagues there tell us that forced labour remains a new challenge, according to a recent new study by the UN Office for Project Services.
In the first major study on the prevalence of forced labour in Myanmar since 2015, it found that one in six workers in low-skilled employment are in a situation of forced labour.
The study found that, despite progress having been made in increasing workers’ rights, 91 per cent of workers interviewed had no formal contract and 93 per cent had no access to social security.

SECRETARY-GENERAL/NAGASAKI
At the Nagasaki Peace Memorial this morning, the Secretary-General, in a message that was delivered by his High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, said he continues to be humbled by the selfless acts of the hibakusha, telling them that their courage in the face of immense human tragedy is a beacon of hope for humanity. As you know, the hikbakusha survived that atomic attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
In his message, he said that the efforts by hibakusha have helped to build a powerful movement against nuclear arms, a global movement.
Mr. Guterres reaffirmed the United Nations’ full support to ensuring that their voices are heard by the world’s people, especially by younger generations.
He noted that, for more than three quarters of a century after the destruction of Nagasaki, we continue to dwell in the shadow of the mushroom cloud.
The Secretary-General welcomed two recent developments: the commitment by the US and the Russian Federation to engage in arms control dialogue, and the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Together, he stressed, we must prevent the tragedy of what happened in Nagasaki on August 9th from ever occurring again.

CHINA/COVID-19
A quick COVID update for you from China, this time, where our UN team, led by Resident Coordinator Siddharth Chatterjee, is supporting authorities’ response to the pandemic.
Since the start of the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has provided technical support and has supported the vaccine development and roll-out. WHO continues to support prequalification work on vaccines and is working with health authorities on vaccine communications.
The UN team is also working on communications on preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Chinese authorities have recently pledged $100 million to the COVAX Facility and, over the next four months, will have donated more than 100 million doses towards equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for lower-income countries.

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Lastly, today is the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. In his message for the Day, the Secretary-General noted that indigenous peoples around the world continue to face overwhelming marginalization, discrimination and exclusion.
The Secretary-General pointed out that in recent months, the world has again been exposed to just some of the horror faced by indigenous communities at the hands of colonizers. He noted that some nations have begun to address this heinous legacy through apologies, truth and reconciliation efforts, and legislative and constitutional reforms.
But much needs to be done, he stressed. The Secretary-General emphasized that we need a new social contract – one that restores and honours the rights, dignity and freedoms of those who have been deprived of so much for so long.
The Secretary-General said that there is no excuse for denying the world’s 476 million indigenous peoples’ self-determination and meaningful participation in decision-making.