HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC

SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES

FRIDAY, 26 JUNE 2020

 
UN CHARTER DAY
This morning, the Secretary-General did take part in the virtual General Assembly Commemoration of the Signing of the UN Charter. In his remarks, he recalled that the delegates in San Francisco in 1945 also lived through a global pandemic, depression and war, and they seized their opportunity to plant the seeds of something better and new. The Secretary-General said that today, we must do the same as we live in world mired in pandemic, torn by discrimination, endangered by climate change and scarred by poverty, inequality and war. We need to reimagine multilateralism, give it teeth to function as the founders intended, and ensure that effective global governance is a reality when it is needed. The Secretary-General also paid tribute to the service and sacrifice of thousands of United Nations peacekeepers, staff and others who, across the world and across the years, have given their lives while advancing the causes and values of the UN. The Charter’s vision stands the test of time and its values will continue to carry us forward, he said. 
 
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL
The Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed opened the virtual Recover Better Together Action Forum. In her remarks, she stressed that the COVID-19 pandemic has made the promises of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals more relevant and vital than ever. She added that the Sustainable Development Group has developed a global framework that is guiding our socio-economic response in countries and the whole UN family is implementing it on the ground in full emergency mode to save lives and livelihoods. Ms. Mohammed noted that the crisis is a stark reminder that any recovery that fails to address the causes of our present vulnerabilities condemns us to more acute crises in the future. During the event UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka announced a new COVID-19 gender monitor. A new civil society data platform led by the global south thinktank CEPEI was also launched during the event. Both can be found on the “Recover Better Fund” portal: un.org/recoverbetter. 
 
SYRIA
The fourth Brussels conference on Supporting Syria and the Region – which is the main high-level pledging event for the Syrian crisis - will take place virtually on Tuesday, June 30th. The event is hosted by the European Union and co-chaired by the UN. The Secretary-General will be represented at the meeting by the Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock, accompanied by his Special Envoy Geir Pedersen. Heads of UN agencies will also participate. A press conference is scheduled to be held at 12:30 Brussels time, 6:30 a.m. in New York, with the pledges made to be announced later in the afternoon.
 
Ahead of this conference, the World Food Programme today said that Syrians face an unprecedented hunger crisis, with the prices of basic foods reaching levels unseen even at the height of the nine-year conflict and millions of people being deeper into poverty. WFP estimates that 9.3 million Syrians are now food insecure – with an increase of 1.4 million in just the last six months alone.  Food prices are 20 [per cent] (sould have read -times) higher than their pre-crisis levels.  Families have been forced to adopt desperate measures from cutting meals, to reducing portions to selling assets and going deeper into debt. In order to help, the World Foof Program urgently requires $200 million to continue to provide food assistance in Syria until the end of the year. Unless new funding is available by August, WFP will be forced to drastically cut rations as well as the number of people reached with food as of October of this year. 
 
YEMEN
The UN Children’s Fund warned in a new report that millions of children could be pushed to the brink of starvation due to huge shortfalls in humanitarian aid funding amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, entitled “Yemen five years on: Children, conflict and COVID-19,” warns that as the country’s devastated health system and infrastructure struggle to cope with coronavirus, the already dire situation for children is likely to deteriorate considerably.  UNICEF warns that, unless it receives $54.5 million for health and nutrition services, nearly 24,000 children with severe acute malnutrition will be at increased risk of dying. UNICEF is appealing for $461 million in total for the humanitarian response in Yemen, with an additional $53 million for the COVID-19 response alone. So far, the COVID response is only ten per cent funded and the humanitarian appeal is 39 per cent funded. Much more is available online.
 
MALI
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said today that 580 civilians have been killed so far this year in central Mali in violent clashes between the Peulh and Dogon. Ms. Bachelet added that members of the Malian Defence Forces and Security Forces sent to the area to counter community-based violence and armed groups have themselves been involved in human rights violations, mostly targeting members of the Peulh community. She called on Malian authorities to investigate all alleged human rights violations and abuses and to ensure proper accountability. This is the only way to reverse this trend of continuing violence, she said.
 
DRC  
Yesterday, the Ebola outbreak in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was declared over. Dr. Tedros, the head of WHO, emphasized how challenging it has been to fight this outbreak, but also that we came out of it with valuable lessons, and valuable tools. The world is now better-equipped to respond to Ebola. A vaccine has been licensed, and effective treatments have been identified. 
 
And yesterday afternoon, in the Security Council, Leila Zerrougui, the head of the Peacekeeping Mission in the country, said that with support from the UN mission, the government has made efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19 as well as to alleviate the socio-economic burden placed on the population by movement restrictions, border closures, and other measures to deal with the pandemic. She also briefed Council members on the latest political developments in the DRC.  
 
BRAZIL
In Brazil, the UN Migration Agency and UNICEF are providing migrant children with educational materials so they can learn remotely during the pandemic. Almost 4,000 children from Bolivia, Venezuela and Haiti have received these materials in Portuguese and in their native languages to help promote their integration into Brazilian society.
 
ARGENTINA
The UN team, led by Resident Coordinator Roberto Valent, has released a report on the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of COVID-19.  These are new challenges for Argentina, a country previously affected by major structural problems that led to inequality. The new report shows that the economy will further contract by up to 8.2 per cent in 2020 if the pandemic is kept under control, and up to 10 per cent if there is a second outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.  While Argentina is among the top 50 countries with very high human development and has the capacity to produce food for 400 million people, the number of people receiving food assistance has jumped from eight to 11 million people since the start of the pandemic. By the end of this year, the number of children living in poverty could rise to nearly 60 per cent, with up to 850,000 people losing jobs, according to UNICEF and the ILO. The UN team in Argentina is working with authorities to address the health emergency and boost previously existing social protection schemes to help prevent people from falling into poverty. The UN has built 12 emergency hospital units and a COVID-19 unit dedicated to research and health interventions. The UN has also been supporting education and food assistance programmes to help the most vulnerable people, with a focus on children, youth, migrants and refugees. 
 
SOUTH SUDAN
In South Sudan, the peacekeeping Mission, together with UN-trained internally displaced people in Bentiu, in Unity state, has produced masks which are being distributed in the local community.  In Bor, in Jonglei state, the Mission trained social workers and activists, who are part of an organization called the Women Empowerment Center and People’s Care Agency, on COVID-19 prevention to spread the message to people in Bor and nearby villages. 
 
SUDAN
In Darfur, the joint UN – African Union Mission is implementing a project in several rural communities to help more than 6,000 people in Central Darfur state. This project includes the distribution of soap and dissemination of reading materials on COVID-19, as well as briefings from the Ministry of Health on their protocols during the pandemic, focus group discussions, and the sharing of experiences from other countries which have gone through similar health experiences. 
 
UNICEF
UNICEF said today that despite unprecedented transport and logistical constraints caused by COVID-19, it continues to deliver life-saving supplies to support countries’ responses to the pandemic 
So far this year, UNICEF has shipped key personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies to over 100 countries.  These include 7.5 million surgical masks, 2.8 million N95 respirators, nearly 10 million gloves, over 830,000 surgical gowns, and nearly 600,000 face shields. 
UNICEF noted that limited availability of commercial flights has also taken a heavy toll on shipments of supplies for regular programmes. To address vaccine shipment challenges, UNICEF is appealing to governments, the private sector, the airline industry and others to provide solutions for freight space at an affordable cost for life-saving vaccines. 
 
CERF
Mark Lowcock, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, will allocate up to $140 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund to put programmes in place to help people ahead of anticipated humanitarian disasters. These funds will be used over the next 18 months, starting with $15 million in Somalia, which is facing a projected increase of humanitarian needs due to food insecurity resulting from the desert locusts, flooding and the pandemic. For Mr. Lowcock, interventions undertaken before the full impact of a disaster are critical and can help save lives, mitigate suffering and lower the cost of responding to humanitarian consequences of shocks after the fact. 
 
INTERNATIONAL DAYS
In a message to mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Secretary-General stressed that torture diminishes everyone and everything that it touches, including torturers and the systems and States where it occurs.  He added that torturers must never be allowed to get away with their crimes, and systems that enable torture should be dismantled or transformed.  For the Secretary-General, victims and survivors and their families must be empowered and assisted in seeking justice for their ordeal.   
And today is also the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. In his message, the Secretary-General said that this year’s theme, “Better Knowledge for Better Care”, speaks to the need to build solutions based on facts and shared responsibility. 
Both messages are available online.  
 
UNTSO 
The spokesman has been asked a number of times today about a very disturbing video that has been circulating on the web.  
The spokesman says that we are shocked and deeply disturbed by what is seen on the video. The behavior seen in it is abhorrent and goes against everything that we stand for and having been working to achieve in terms of fighting misconduct by UN staff. We became aware of the video a little bit more than two days ago and our colleagues in the Office of Internal Oversight Services, OIOS, were immediately activated. Their investigation I know is moving very quickly. We know the location of the incident with the identification of individuals in the video, who are likely assigned to the UN Truce Supervision Organization, is close to being completed. We expect the process to be concluded very quickly and intend to take prompt appropriate action.  
 
For its part, UNTSO has also issued a statement adding that the Mission stands committed to the UN’s zero-tolerance policy against any kind of misconduct, including sexual exploitation and abuse, and reminds its personnel of their obligations to the UN Code of Conduct. 
 
As part of the UN's commitment to transparency, the UN will provide updates on the  conclusion of the investigation and any further action.