HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STÉPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
FRIDAY, 1 DECEMBER 2017
 
ON WORLD AIDS DAY, SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES RENEWED COMMITMENT TO MAKE EPIDEMIC ‘A THING OF THE PAST’

• Today is World AIDS Day.
• In his message for the Day, the Secretary-General praised the progress made on ending the epidemic and said the world is on track to provide access to HIV treatment to 30 million people by 2020.
• However, he said some parts of the world are lagging behind, with women and girls in Africa being most at risk, and he called for a renewed commitment to make AIDS a thing of the past.

• This evening, the Deputy Secretary-General will depart New York for Cairo, to hold consultations with senior Egyptian Government Officials and the United Nations Country Team in Egypt.
• On Monday, she will proceed to Frankfurt to attend a meeting of the G20 Eminent Persons Group.
• The Deputy Secretary-General will return to New York on 4 December.

• The Secretary-General is appointing Colin Stewart of Canada as his Special Representative for Western Sahara and Head of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO.
• Mr. Stewart succeeds Kim Bolduc of Canada.  The Secretary-General is grateful to Ms. Bolduc for her strong leadership and perseverance over the course of her tenure.
• Mr. Stewart brings to the position demonstrated management and leadership, with more than 25 years of experience in peace and security and international affairs. Most recently, he served as Deputy Head and Chief of Staff of the United Nations Office to the African Union in Addis Ababa. He has also held appointments in a number of UN field missions.

• With some 136 million people around the world in need of aid and protection due to conflicts, natural disasters, epidemics and displacement, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today issued an appeal for a record amount of $22.5 billion.
• These funds aim to reach 91 million of the world’s most vulnerable people in 2018 with food, shelter, healthcare, and other basic assistance.
• The countries this appeal targets includes Afghanistan, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Haiti, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
• Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said that aid workers can only respond to the growing needs with the generous support of donors.
• He emphasized that investing in coordinated response plans is a sound choice, which helps to deliver tangible and measurable results and has a proven track record of success.

• In Geneva, the UN Migration Agency launched its World Migration Report 2018. The publication seeks to shed light on complex issues around migration including labour migration and remittances, smuggling and human trafficking, integration and irregular migration.
• On Monday the preparatory meeting of the Intergovernmental Conference to adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration will begin in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

• The Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, today released a paper on the 12 Living Intra-Syrian Essential Principles, which was distributed to the delegations in parallel meetings yesterday.
• Over several rounds of talks, the Special Envoy periodically identified commonalities emerging from his separate consultations with the government and the opposition. These included 12 points of commonalities regarding the end-state of Syria, which were last shared with the parties in a version offered for their consideration by the Special Envoy during the fourth round of the talks.
• Yesterday, when the Special Envoy presented the document to both delegations, he underscored that these remain living, and thus subject to further discussion, development, modification and updating by the Special Envoy to strengthen commonalities in negotiations.  Mr. de Mistura has requested the delegations to further reflect and offer their reactions on the living principles and to engage on baskets 2 (on the constitutional schedule and process) and 3 (elections) in talks next week.

• The Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Ursula Mueller, concluded her four-day visit to Turkey today. During her visit, she met with senior Government officials and humanitarian partners to discuss the achievements and challenges of the cross-border operation for Syria. She also commended the ongoing partnership between the Government of Turkey and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
• While in Gaziantep, Ms. Mueller met with authorities and humanitarian partners to discuss cross-border operations in the response to the Syria humanitarian crisis. She thanked the people and Government of Turkey for doing so much to assist people in need and for their support for renewal of the resolution. Turkey hosts over 3.2 million refugees within its borders, and facilitates delivery of critical humanitarian assistance through cross-border operations.

• The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said today that the number of refugees fleeing militia violence in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and arriving in Zambia has crossed the 12,000 mark – with more than 8,400 arrivals in the last three months. 80 per cent of the refugees are women and children, driven out by the extreme brutality of rampaging militias, with reports of civilians being killed, women being raped, private property looted and houses torched.
• Kenani Transit Centre, which currently hosts over 8,000 refugees, is filled to maximum capacity. Zambia has made more land available for a new site but UNHCR and its partners urgently need resources to develop the new site and for refugees to receive life-saving assistance.