HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
THURSDAY, 5 NOVEMBER 2020
CHIEF EXECUTIVES BOARD
Tomorrow, the Secretary-General will bring together the heads of the UN system organizations in a virtual meeting of the Chief Executives Board. They will reflect on the main characteristics of a post-pandemic world and brainstorm on possible key elements of a Common Agenda report the Secretary-General has been asked to submit to the General Assembly. This follows the adoption of the 21st September 2020 Declaration on the Commemoration of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the United Nations.
The Chief Executives Board members will discuss common approaches to an inclusive, networked multilateralism. They will also deliberate on salient emerging trends, opportunities and challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on the risks for human rights, global economic prospects, deepening inequalities and climate action.
CAMEROON
The Secretary-General is deeply concerned by reports of violence against schools, students and teachers in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon. This took place earlier this week on the 3rd and 4th of November. These reported attacks deprive children of their right to an education. These reports come on the heels of the horrific attack on a school in Kumba, in the South-West Region on October 24th, in which many children were killed and several others wounded.
The Secretary-General stresses the need for accountability of all these acts of violence against children and education facilities and reiterates his call on all armed actors to refrain from attacks against schools and to respect international humanitarian and international human rights law. He further urges the Cameroonian authorities to swiftly investigate all attacks on schools and bring the perpetrators to justice. Attacks on education facilities are a grave violation of children’s rights.
He strongly urges the parties to answer his call for a global ceasefire and reiterates the availability of the UN to support an inclusive dialogue process leading to a resolution of the crisis in the North-West and South West areas of Cameroon.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Cameroon, Matthias Naab, also issued a statement condemning the attacks.
He said these incidents are part of a pattern of violence against education facilities and personnel, as well as kidnapping for ransom of children and teachers in the North-West and South-West.
OCHA
The Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, says this week we have lost six humanitarian workers in targeted violent attacks in Somalia, in two separate incidents in South Sudan, and in Northwest Syria.
This cannot be tolerated, he said in the statement. Attacks directed against humanitarians are a violation of international humanitarian law and an obscene act against people working hard, often in extraordinarily difficult circumstances, to help vulnerable people.
Mr. Lowcock said that those who commit these atrocities must be held to account. Governments must investigate these killings and prosecute the suspects where appropriate. International humanitarian law must be upheld.
SYRIA
Mark Cutts, the Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, said he was deeply concerned by the sharp escalation in violence in Syria’s northwest Idlib Governorate yesterday, in which close to three million women, children and men, over half of whom are internally displaced, remain caught in the crossfire.
Initial reports indicate that at least eight civilians were killed by shelling, including four children and two local aid workers, while at least 13 were also injured. Mr. Cutts condemned the killings in the strongest possible terms and offered his deepest condolences to the families of all those who were killed or injured.
He continues to call on the parties to the conflict to stop the fighting in line with the Secretary-General’s call for a global ceasefire, and to take all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, in accordance with international humanitarian law.
WEST BANK DEMOLITIONS
In the West Bank, the acting Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Yvonne Helle, said that 73 people – more than half of whom were children – were displaced when Israeli authorities demolished their homes earlier this week in the community of Humsa Al Baqi’a.
Ms. Helle reminded all parties that the extensive destruction of property and the forcible transfer of protected people in an occupied territory are grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The humanitarian community stands ready to support all those who have been displaced or otherwise affected and they reiterate their call to Israel to immediately halt these unlawful demolitions.
SECURITY COUNCIL
This morning, the Security Council is holding an open meeting by video conference on Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the meeting, Council members were briefed by the High Representative Valentin Inzko on the latest report from his Office.
Following the meeting, there will be a joint virtual Security Council Stakeout on Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Permanent Representatives of Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom.
This afternoon, Council members will meet again in an open VTC, followed by closed consultations, regarding the Middle East. The High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, is expected to brief Council Members.
COVID-19/U.N. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GROUP
The UN Sustainable Development Group will meet virtually today to assess preliminary results and challenges of working jointly to support 162 countries and territories overcome and recover better from the pandemic.
The group comprises the heads of all UN entities working on sustainable development and focuses on the socio-economic response to the virus.
So far, UN teams have repurposed some $3 billion of existing funding, while mobilizing nearly $2 billion to support national and local efforts to respond immediately to the pandemic.
In the last quarter, the UN teams reached nearly 5 million people through nutrition programmes, with 7 million women receiving maternal health services. UN teams have ensured that nearly 6 million ongoing vaccinations were continued. These results are tracked by an online public COVID-19 data portal.
The Group has vowed to do more, including to boost data collection with authorities to help people who are most in need.
The Chair of the Group is the Deputy Secretary-General, who said that, for the first time, we all recognize it is a development emergency of global proportions. Amina Mohammed added that Governments, communities, and citizens have mobilized accordingly – and our UN teams have as well, stepping up together. She emphasized that much more needs to be done, even faster.
COVID-19/AFRICA
The World Health Organization warned today that the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to key health services in Africa, including with births, vaccinations and malaria treatment.
This could potentially worsen some of the continent’s major health challenges.
FOOD COALITION
The virtual high-level event of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization formally launched the Food Coalition. This is a voluntary multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral alliance set up to support innovative initiatives to ensure global food access, increase the resilience of agri-food systems and put them on a more sustainable course.
The Food Coalition was first suggested by the Government of Italy and more than 30 countries have now already expressed their interest in joining.
FAO warns that the pandemic may add up to 132 million more people to the ranks of the world's undernourished this year, on top of the 690 million hungry people in 2019.
GLOBAL FOOD PRICES
FAO says today that global food prices continued to rise for the fifth consecutive month in October. The index for October, led by cereals, sugar, dairy and vegetable oils, all went up. The Food Price Index averaged 100.9 points in October 2020, up 3.1 per cent from September and 6.0 per cent above its value a year ago.
WORLD TSUNAMI AWARENESS DAY
Today is World Tsunami Awareness Day and this year’s theme is Strengthening Disaster Risk Governance. In a message for the Day, the Secretary-General noted that we live in a multi-hazard world where risk is systemic and embedded in the very fabric of human development. Currently we are struggling with what some describe as a tsunami of death and disease due to the virus.
The Secretary-General says the pandemic preparedness can borrow much from the progress we have made in reducing large-scale loss of life from tsunamis; there are now early warning systems wherever coasts are vulnerable.
NOON BRIEFING GUESTS TOMORROW
Tomorrow, the spokesman will be joined by Luis Carrilho, the UN Police Adviser. He will be joined virtually by Issoufou Yacouba, the Police Commissioner for the UN Peacekeeping force in Mali, as well as the Senior Police Adviser of the UN Interim Security Force in Abyei, Mary Gahonzire.
They will brief reporters on UN Police Week.
