HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
MONDAY, 21 NOVEMBER 2016
 
SECRETARY-GENERAL WELCOMES HOLDING OF ELECTIONS IN HAITI

• In a statement issued today, the Secretary-General welcomed the holding of elections in Haiti on 20 November. He salutes the people of Haiti for having peacefully expressed their democratic right to vote. He commends the Haitian institutions, in particular the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) and the Haitian National Police, for their leadership and professionalism during and in the lead up to the polls. He also welcomes the role of Haitian institutions in ensuring an environment conductive to the holding of these elections.
• The Secretary-General stresses that this electoral process is crucial to ending the current governance vacuum in Haiti. He urges all parties involved, in particular presidential candidates and political party leaders, to show the utmost statesmanship at this critical time for the country. He calls on them to reject and discourage all forms of violence and intimidation and place the national interest above any other consideration. He urges all actors to await the results proclaimed by the CEP and only use legal channels for any eventual challenges.
• The Secretary-General reaffirms the commitment of the United Nations to extend its full support to the Haitian people in the fulfilment of their democratic aspirations.

• In a statement issued today, the Secretary-General condemned today’s attack in Kabul targeting civilians gathered for worship. The suicide bombing at a mosque where Shia Muslims had gathered follows two similar attacks last month.
• Attacks deliberately targeting civilians exercising their right to freely practice their religion are clear violations of fundamental human rights and international humanitarian law.
• The Secretary-General extends his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured.  He expresses his solidarity with the people and Government of Afghanistan and calls for those responsible for these attacks to be brought to justice.
• The UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also condemned the attack which killed at least 32 civilians and injured more than 50 others, many of them children.
• A suicide attacker detonated an improvised explosive device at the Baqer-ul Ulom mosque, killing and maiming worshipers from the Shia Muslim community.
• The attack follows two similar incidents last month against Shia congregations that claimed at least 29 civilian lives.
• In a statement, the Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan, Pernille Kardel, called the attack appalling and expressed revulsion at this latest effort by extremists to stoke sectarian violence.  

• The Secretary-General spoke today at an event to mark the International Day to End Violence against Women and Girls.
• Noting that this will be his last observance of the Day as Secretary-General, he expressed his gratitude for the global activism towards ending the scourge, adding that he will continue his efforts after his term ends.
• The Secretary-General said that ending violence against women and girls is truly a matter of life and death, noting that he has tried to put the full UN machinery behind our efforts to rid the world of it.
• At long last, he said, we are seeing a growing global recognition that violence against women and girls is a human rights violation, public health pandemic and serious obstacle to sustainable development.
• Yet he stressed there is still much more we can and must do to turn this awareness into meaningful prevention and action, calling for stepped up funding by governments, the private sector, philanthropies and concerned citizens.

• Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien told the Security Council today that what has been unleashed on civilians in Aleppo and other parts of Syria this past week is yet another low in an unrelenting inhuman onslaught, and it is as heart-breaking as it is not inevitable.
• Regrettably, he said, over the last week, we have seen an intense unleashing of military aggression in Aleppo and the surrounding rural area with truly devastating consequences for civilians. Reports of a high tempo of airstrikes and shelling across non-State armed group-held areas of Aleppo city reportedly by Syrian Government forces began again on 15 November. He added that the Russian Federation has repeatedly asserted that its air force and airstrikes have resumed only in Idlib and Homs, and not over Eastern Aleppo.
• In parallel, Mr. O’Brien said, more than 350 mortars and rockets have been reportedly launched by non-State armed groups indiscriminately into western Aleppo since 1 November, killing over 60 people, including women and children, and injuring more than 350 more.

• In a statement issued yesterday, the Secretary-General condemned the reported intense air assault over the last several days that has killed and maimed scores of Syrian civilians, including children, and left eastern Aleppo without functioning hospitals. He also condemned the indiscriminate shelling that has been reported in areas of Aleppo governorate and the western parts of Aleppo city, including strikes on schools said to have killed a number of children.
• The Secretary-General reminds all parties to the conflict that targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime. He calls on all sides to immediately cease any such attacks. Those responsible for these and other atrocities in Syria, whoever and wherever they are, must one day be brought to account. The Secretary-General also calls on all the parties to ensure freedom of movement of civilians and immediate unhindered access to humanitarian assistance.
• Staffan de Mistura, the Special Envoy for Syria, met yesterday in Damascus with Foreign Minister Walid al Mouallem, and told reporters afterward that he was outraged by the news of hospitals being heavily bombed by aerial attacks in Aleppo. Noting that the Foreign Minister had denied that Syrian aerial attacks had struck any hospitals, Mr. de Mistura suggested that the United Nations be allowed to send a verification team to examine the damage done to hospitals in both east and west Aleppo. He added that the United Nations still do not have agreement from the Syrian Government on the four-point humanitarian plan that it has presented.

• The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that as of yesterday, the UN has registered more than 68,500 people as displaced by the military operations to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul. This is a jump from nearly 60,000 people just three days earlier.
• A health assessment carried out in Zelikan Camp, north-east of Mosul, showed the urgent and widespread need for psychosocial assistance among displaced families, with nearly three-quarters of those interviewed expressing a strong level of distress.
• From 14 to 20 November, psychosocial support has been provided to over 1,000 women and over 160 men affected by the Mosul conflict. Nearly 1,200 boys and nearly 1,100 girls received psychological first aid in child-friendly spaces.

• The UN mission in Libya (UNSMIL) today deplored the outbreak of tribal violence in the city of Sabha that resulted in at least 20 people killed and over 50 injured.
• The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Martin Kobler, commended the efforts by community leaders to reach a ceasefire and put an end to the violence.
• The UN mission appeals to national and local authorities to prevent further escalation.

• UNICEF, the UN Population Fund, UN Women and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Turkey today jointly expressed their deep concern over a draft bill in Turkey that may lead to some type of amnesty for child abuse perpetrators on the condition that the perpetrator marries the victim.
• They said that, if adopted in its current form, the draft bill would weaken Turkey’s ability to combat sexual abuse and child marriage.
• The Bill would create a perception of impunity in favour of perpetrators of such child rights violations, and it would increase the risk for further victimization of the child if she marries the perpetrator of the sexual abuse.
• The joint statement noted that Turkey is a State party to both the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
• It emphasized that any forms of sexual violence against children are crimes which should be punished as such, adding that in all cases the best interest of the child should prevail.

• In Mali, voters were called to the polls for the first time since the presidential elections in August 2013 to elect members of local and municipal councils. The UN peacekeeping mission in the country, MINUSMA, reports that overall the elections took place in a relatively peaceful environment in localities where they were able to proceed. Some security incidents and obstructions to the elections were reported in some municipalities, particularly in the northern and central regions of the country. Five members of the Malian Defence and Security Forces were killed in an attack by armed assailants near Bambara Maoude in the Timbuktu region.
• In a statement issued on the eve of the elections on Saturday, the Secretary-General had called for the Malian government to pursue a constructive dialogue with all stakeholders to defuse tensions that may arise before and after the polls and to ensure that the holding of the elections does not compromise the progress made so far in the implementation of the peace agreement.

• Ahead of World Aids Day, on 1 December, a new report by UNAIDS launched today in Namibia shows that 18.2 million people are now on antiretroviral therapy.
• If these efforts are sustained and increased, the world will be on track to achieve the target of 30 million people on treatment by 2020.
• The report shows that people are particularly vulnerable to HIV at certain points in their lives and calls for a life-cycle approach to find solutions for everyone at every stage of life.

• The Secretary-General has designated Cihan Sultanoðlu as UN Commissioner-General for the Organization’s participation in Expo 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan.
• Ms. Sultanoðlu is Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).