HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
FRIDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2017
 
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL TO TAKE PART IN U.N. CLIMATE CHANGE TALKS IN FIJI

• Tomorrow, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed will depart New York for Fiji to participate in the preliminary meeting to the 23rd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• The Deputy Secretary-General will deliver keynote addresses to the non-state actors partnership day on 16 October and to the opening of the Pre-Conference of Parties on 17 October. She will hold bilateral meetings with senior level officials from the participating countries, the business community, civil society and the United Nations Country Team.
• The Deputy Secretary-General will return to New York next Wednesday.

• The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has been responding to urgent humanitarian needs in and around the Libyan city of Sabratha, the site of three weeks of fierce fighting, since last Friday. 3,000 Libyan families have been displaced and more than 10,000 refugees and migrants are stranded and in need of urgent assistance. The most pressing needs for those displaced or returning include temporary shelter, basic aid items and medical support. Today, UNHCR is delivering aid kits to local authorities coordinating the response for the internally displaced people. The agency has also sent trucks with emergency assistance including sleeping bags, hygiene kits, food and blankets to respond to immediate needs.
• Meanwhile, the World Food Programme has started providing vital food assistance to displaced families. With the help of Libyan partners, the agency is delivering enough food this week to feed 1,500 people who have been severely impacted by fighting.
• The High Commissioner for Human Rights , Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, visited Libya this week for a visit focused on arbitrary detention, torture and other grave violations.

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that, as of yesterday, there were over 820,000 suspected cholera cases and over 2,150 associated deaths in Yemen since 27 April 2017.  This is the largest single-year cholera outbreak ever on record.  The outbreak has spread to 92 per cent of Yemen’s districts.
• This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) chartered two flights to Sana’a, carrying more than 43 tons of essential medicines and medical supplies.
• Humanitarians have reached more than 2.2 million people with essential medicines and kits, including providing some 600,000 people with medicines for non-communicable diseases.
• WHO and UNICEF are also supporting local health authorities in all governorates in a polio vaccination campaign aiming to reach 5.3 million children under 5 years of age.

• Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Ursula Mueller today wrapped up a three-day visit to Ukraine, where she saw first-hand the conflict on both sides of the so-called contact line.
• She stressed the urgent need for humanitarian funding to help millions of civilians during the coming winter months.
• In a UN-supported center for the internally displaced in the country’s east, Ms. Mueller met with elderly men and women, who she said wish for peace and to be able to return to their homes. She also met with the leaders of Donetsk and Luhansk and called for increased cooperation in the areas of humanitarian and development, as well as for sustained access for aid workers to all parts of eastern Ukraine.
• In the capital, Kyiv, she discussed the challenging situation that 1.6 million uprooted Ukrainians faced with the Deputy Minister of Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons.
• The UN-coordinated $204 million Humanitarian Response Plan remains severely underfunded, with just over one-quarter of the funds needed having been received.

• The UN Migration Agency has named Ukrainian singer and winner of last year’s Eurovision Song Contest, Jamala, as its Goodwill Ambassador focusing on counter-trafficking.
• “We greatly appreciate Jamala’s involvement in our campaign aimed at prevention of modern slavery. We believe that her engagement in trafficking prevention will help save many lives,” the agency said in a statement.

• In an incident in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 15 September, 37 asylum-seekers from Burundi and one soldier of the Congolese Army were killed after days of tension, with 117 asylum-seekers, six soldiers, and four officers of the Police nationale congolaise (PNC) were also injured in the protest that took place in Kamanyola, South Kivu province.
• After the incident, the nearby base of the UN Mission (MONUSCO) provided physical protection to asylum seekers under threat from the local population. It also provided medical assistance, as well as food and shelter to the Burundians. MONUSCO has since called on the authorities of the DRC to conduct a thorough investigation into this incident and hold those who may have violated the law to account.
• The Mission has also conducted two internal inquiries into MONUSCO’s actions before, during and after the incident, including on the reactions of its Force. The Secretariat is following up with the Troop Contributing Country whose soldiers are based in Kamanyola.
• The Mission is also reviewing its procedures related to such incidents, including its support to the Congolese Army and Police, its approach in protecting civilians, and its guidance and training to its Force regarding response to violent incidents.

• The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights today welcomed the decision by the Nigerian authorities to start the trials of Boko Haram suspects, many of whom have been in prolonged pre-trial detention, including some since 2009.
• However, given the large number of people, around 2,300, who are due to be tried over the coming weeks the High Commissioner’s Office says it has serious concerns that the conduct of the proceedings may deny the defendants the right to a fair trial and an effective defence. The Office also said that the lack of transparency regarding the trials is worrying.
• The Office stresses that the Government must ensure the right of all defendants to legal representation and that the trials adhere to international human rights norms and standards.

• Yesterday, the first-ever roadmap to combat animal tuberculosis, or bovine TB, and its transmission to humans, referred to as zoonotic TB, was launched in Guadalajara, Mexico.
• Four partners in health – the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organisation for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease – have joined forces to address the major health and economic impact of this disease.
• WHO estimates that over 140,000 people fall ill and more than 12,000 people lose their lives each year to zoonotic TB, mostly in the African and the South-East Asian regions.
• Bovine TB is most often communicated to humans through food consumption, usually non-heat-treated dairy products or raw or improperly cooked meat from diseased animals. Direct transmission from infected animals or animal products to people can also occur.

• The UN Human Rights Office today said they are deeply concerned by a wave of arrests in Azerbaijan, Egypt and Indonesia of more than 180 people who are perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
• The Office says that many of these people have reportedly been mistreated by law enforcement, allegedly including electric shocks, beatings and other forms of humiliation in Azerbaijan and intrusive physical “examinations” in Egypt.
• The Office stresses that arresting or detaining people based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity is by definition arbitrary and violates international law.

• Today is the International Day for Disaster Reduction.
• This year’s theme is “Home Safe Home: Reducing Exposure, Reducing Displacement” and seeks to raise awareness about effective actions and policies to reduce exposure to disaster risk at the community level, thereby contributing to saving homes and livelihoods.

GHANAIAN SOLDIER APPOINTED AS HEAD OF U.N. DISENGAGEMENT OBSERVER FORCE

• The Secretary-General is appointing Major General Francis Vib-Sanziri of Ghana as the Head of Mission and Force Commander of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
• Major General Vib-Sanziri succeeds Major General Jai Shanker Menon of India, who completed his assignment on 30 September 2017. The Secretary-General is grateful to Major General Menon for his dedicated leadership of UNDOF.
• Major General Vib-Sanziri has had a distinguished military career at both national and international levels, and he also possesses extensive peacekeeping experience, having served in many UN missions.

JAMAICA BECOMES 136TH U.N. MEMBER STATE TO PAY FULL DUES

• Jamaica has paid its 2017 regular budget dues, making it the 136th Member State to have done so.