SECRETARY-GENERAL
On Thursday evening, the Secretary-General will travel to the United Kingdom to attend the 2021 G7 Summit that is being held in Cornwall, where he will participate in a number of working sessions.
His overriding message to the G7 will be that we need a quantum leap in our capacity to address the challenges that we face today, notably the COVID-19 pandemic and of course climate change.
On COVID-19, he will push for a global vaccination plan that should lead us to doubling vaccine production and the equitable distribution of the vaccine to ensure that everyone, everywhere has access.
The Secretary-General will also advocate for more ambitious and concrete commitments from G7 members on public financing of the fight against climate change. Namely, he will ask them to deliver on the goal to provide $100 billion a year through the doubling of their aggregate public climate finance commitments for the period 2021-2025 and to come forward with new and more ambitious individual public finance commitments. He will also call on G7 leaders to increase the share of climate finance allocated to adaptation and resilience to at least 50 per cent of climate finance given worsening impact of climate change we are seeing across the developing world.
NICARAGUA
I’ve been asked about the latest development on Nicaragua and I can tell you that the Secretary-General is very concerned by the recent arrests and detentions, as well as the invalidation of candidacies of opposition leaders in Nicaragua. These developments can seriously undermine the public’s confidence in the democratic process ahead of the November general elections.
The Secretary-General reiterates his call for a broad-based agreement on measures towards credible, participatory, and inclusive elections in November.
He also calls on the authorities to fully respect Nicaragua’s international human rights obligations and also calls on the authorities to release the political leaders and restitute their political rights.
VENEZUELAN REFUGEES
The UN Refugee Agency today warned that the onset of winter, compounded by the devastating effects of the pandemic, poses a direct threat to the health and livelihoods of Venezuelan refugees and migrants.
Nearly two million Venezuelan refugees and migrants have settled in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. As temperatures drop, Venezuelans face increasing poverty, evictions and protection risks.
Ahead of an International Donors’ Conference for refugees and migrants from Venezuela, hosted by Canada on 17 June, UNHCR is calling on countries to pledge support. The Regional Response Plan for refugees and migrants from Venezuela remains critically underfunded.
AFGHANISTAN
We strongly condemn the heinous attack on the Halo Trust NGO that took place in Baghlan-e-Markazi district in northern Afghanistan. That attack killed 10 people and injured 16 others. The Halo Trust has a strong global partnership with the UN in operations to clear landmines and other explosives and to better the lives of vulnerable people.
We send heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased, and we wish for a speedy and full recovery to the injured. We further call for a full investigation to ensure that those responsible for this horrendous attack are held accountable and brought to justice.
The United Nations is committed to staying and delivering in Afghanistan. Aid workers – particularly women – are facing increased attacks and harassment as they go about their work. Between January and April this year, 11 aid workers were killed, 27 injured and 36 abducted.
Our humanitarian colleagues warn that interference with humanitarian activities escalated in 2020, with a 140 per cent increase in incidents compared to 2019. This escalating trend continues in 2021.
Parties to the conflict in Afghanistan are strongly urged to protect civilians, aid workers and civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, in compliance with international humanitarian law.
PAKISTAN
The Humanitarian Response Plan was launched today at a joint event hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations team in Pakistan. The Plan calls for $332 million for a range of activities, including food security, livelihood assistance, primary health services, support for women’s health and education as well as shelter for displaced people.
The Plan seeks to mobilize support and assistance for the most vulnerable 4.3 million people in the country who have faced problems that include extreme weather events and of course the pandemic.
The Plan also highlights the generosity and compassion shown by Pakistan in hosting more than three million Afghan nationals, including 1.4 million registered refugees.
MYANMAR
The UN country team says that today remains very concerned over continued efforts to undermine the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press through systematic imposition of restrictive policies and practices since the military took over the Government on 1 February.
At least 92 journalists have been arrested, 56 of them are still being detained.
On May 12th, one journalist was found guilty and jailed for three years, and on June 2nd, two journalists were sentenced to two years in prison.
Our colleagues in Myanmar urge the military to release all people detained arbitrarily, including journalists. They stress that freedom of expression is the cornerstone of any democracy and must be protected.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
The UN Peacekeeping Mission says that yesterday, two international judges and one international prosecutor were sworn-in to the Special Criminal Court in Bangui. This is an important step in the functioning of the Court. The Pre-Trial Chamber and one Trial Chamber panel are now complete and the court can begin hearing cases in 2021.
The UN Mission continues to provide support for the full operationalization of the Special Criminal Court, to help end the culture of impunity and to promote national reconciliation in the country, as part of its mandate.
ETHIOPIA
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that in Tigray, incidents of denial of humanitarian movement, interrogation, assault and detention of humanitarian workers at military checkpoints continues to be reported. Looting and confiscation of humanitarian assets and supplies by the parties to the conflict have also been reported.
Several areas in the region remain inaccessible. Of the accessible areas, the situation is dire, including dysfunctional water systems and limited or no health facilities.
Levels of food insecurity and malnutrition are at alarming levels. Preliminary field reports from Axum and Adwa in the Central Zone indicate visible signs of starvation among internally displaced people. In a community in the North-Western Zone of Tigray, aid workers noted a severe need for food, after the burning or looting of harvests. It’s hard to imagine people burning and looting harvest.
Our humanitarian colleagues warn that partners received worrying information that the Government has instructed to proceed with relocating internally displaced people to their areas of origin.
Despite challenges, humanitarian partners are continuing to scale up the response as quickly as possible. More than 560,000 people were reached with food assistance just last week, bringing the number of people reached since late March to more than 3.3 million, and with the target having been 5.2 million people. We still need to reach a lot of people.
We continue to call for safe, unimpeded and sustained access to scale up the humanitarian response to help all people in need. More funding is urgently needed for operations.
VIET NAM
Our country team led by the Resident Coordinator Kamal Malhotra, is stepping up its financial and technical support to the Government’s COVID-19 response.
Yesterday, UNICEF delivered more than 170 refrigerators to safely store vaccines. To date, Viet Nam has received nearly 2.5 million doses from COVAX, in addition to more than 400,000 doses procured by the Government through other means.
Viet Nam began its vaccination campaign four months ago, targeting frontline health and community workers in the first priority group. More than 1.3 million doses have been administered so far in the country.
NOON BRIEFING GUESTS TOMORROW
Tomorrow we will welcome the UN Global Compact Executive Director, Sanda Ojiambo, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Carbon Disclosure Project, Paul Simpson. They will brief you on new research from the Science Based Targets initiative, a body enabling businesses to set ambitious emissions reduction targets, that reveals that none of the G7’s leading stock indexes are currently aligned with a 1.5°C or 2°C pathway and calls on the largest listed G7 companies to urgently increase climate action.
