HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY FARHAN HAQ,
DEPUTY SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
MONDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2016
 

ALL MUST BE DONE TO PREVENT RETURN TO VIOLENCE IN COLOMBIA, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL

• Following the result of the plebiscite, the Secretary-General welcomes the public commitment from the Government of Colombia, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) and all of the country’s political forces to continue working to end the armed conflict and build a lasting peace.  After more than five decades of war, the Colombian people deserve no less.
• While political efforts are undertaken to assess the way forward, the Secretary-General believes all must be done to maintain calm and prevent a return to violence.  He commends the parties for their commitment, as expressed by President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC-EP Commander Timoleón Jiménez, to maintain the bilateral cease-fire declared on 29 August.
• The Secretary-General has also instructed his Special Representative, Jean Arnault, to travel to Havana today to continue his consultations with the parties. 
• The Secretary-General acknowledges the tremendous efforts undertaken to overcome the conflict and calls on all concerned to build on that foundation.  He believes strongly that peace can still be achieved, and that the many Colombians who have committed themselves to this goal should not be discouraged.
• The United Nations reiterates its firm support to peace efforts in Colombia.

SECRETARY-GENERAL TRAVELS TO GENEVA

• The Secretary-General arrived in Geneva over the weekend. 
• Today the Secretary-General spoke to journalists in Geneva.  In his opening remarks, he said that he would have hoped for a different result to yesterday’s plebiscite in Colombia, but added that he was encouraged by the commitment expressed by President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC-EP Commander Timoleón Jiménez. To support them, the Secretary-General has urgently dispatched his Special Representative, Jean Arnault, to Havana to continue his consultations.
• Speaking about Aleppo, the Secretary-General strongly condemned the deliberate campaign against civilians and health workers and humanitarian personnel trying to save them.
• Earlier in the day, the Secretary-General spoke to the Executive Committee of the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR.  He highlighted the fact that we are living in a world where the global displacement and refugee crisis has dramatically deteriorated. The Secretary-General told the members of the Executive Committee that the pledge to leave no one behind, which is the basis of the 2030 Agenda, cannot be achieved until millions of refugees and displaced people are lifted out of poverty and misery. He pledged that the United Nations is doing everything possible to mobilize countries in a spirit of solidarity.
• Later today, he will be speaking to students at Geneva’s Graduate School of International Studies.
• Late tonight he will travel to Bern, where tomorrow he will meet with the President of Switzerland, Johann Schneider-Ammann. He will then move on to Strasbourg to attend a climate-related event at the European Parliament. From there, the Secretary-General will go on to Brussels to attend the European Union-hosted Afghan conference.

• The UN Mission in Colombia verified this weekend, on Saturday, the destruction of 620 kg of explosives, detonators, gunpowder, grenades, mines, and bomb making components by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP).
• The destruction was carried out in the Yari plains, Meta department, under the observation of experts and international observers from the UN Mission, according to international safety standards. 

• In a statement issued yesterday, the Secretary-General warmly congratulated India for ratifying and formally joining the Paris Agreement. India’s leadership builds on the continued strong political momentum from Paris for urgent global action on climate change.
• India now joins the 61 other Parties that have deposited their instruments of ratification, which, including India, together account for close to 52 per cent of total global greenhouse emissions. India’s leadership moves the world an important step closer toward the 55 per cent threshold needed for the historic agreement’s entry into force this year.
• After India turned in its instrument of ratification for the Paris Agreement yesterday, the Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, said that there is no better way to commemorate the great Mahatma Gandhi and his legacy of peace for people and planet. The Deputy Secretary-General warmly congratulated India for its seminal decision and for its climate leadership and thanked India for building on and strengthening the momentum that we now see from all corners of the globe.

• Stephen O’ Brien, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, said yesterday that he was deeply alarmed by the ferocious pummeling of eastern Aleppo city, where an estimated 275,000 people are besieged. He said that indiscriminate bombing and shelling continues in a shocking and unrelenting manner, killing and maiming civilians, subjecting them to a level of savagery that no human should have to endure.
• Mr. O’Brien warned that the health care system in eastern Aleppo is all but obliterated and medical facilities are being hit one by one. The health system is on the verge of total collapse with patients being turned away and no medicines available to treat even the most common ailments.
• The Emergency Relief Coordinator reiterated the demand that the parties and those who support them immediately bring about a cessation of all actions that can result in loss of civilian life or damage to essential civilian infrastructure. He also called for a medical evacuation system for eastern Aleppo so that the hundreds of critical cases can receive proper medical care, and for safe, full, regular and unimpeded humanitarian access to eastern Aleppo as obliged under international humanitarian law.

• Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien arrived in Yemen on Sunday to begin his second visit to the country.
• Today, he visited the damaged port in Hudaydah and said that parties to the conflict must ensure the rehabilitation of the port, which is a lifeline to people in Yemen.
• He also met with people in Hudaydah to listen to their concerns and said that the UN and partners must do more to deliver aid in this protracted emergency.

• The UN Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned the detonation of two improvised explosive devices (IED) on civilian vehicles in recent days that killed 19 civilians in Helmand and Badghis provinces.
• Both devices used victim-activated pressure plate triggers, which are illegal and indiscriminate.
• In the first incident, on 29 September ten members of a family were killed while returning from lunch after their vehicle hit an IED placed in a culvert.
• In the second incident, on 30 September, a group of civilians traveling on a tractor hit an IED, killing nine people, eight of whom were women and small children.
• Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, said that the terrible loss of civilian life is intolerable and the use of such IEDs may constitute a war crime.

• The Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Ertharin Cousin, arrived today in Madagascar for a three-day visit, as the country comes to grips with the devastating impact of three years of drought.
• She will visit affected communities and meet with Government officials, including Madagascar’s President, Hery Rajaonarimampianina.
• Some 1.2 million people are food insecure in the south of Madagascar – half of them severely so.

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) continues to monitor hurricane Matthew closely.
• Matthew -- now classified as Category 4 -- is expected to reach Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas today.
• In Haiti, the national authorities expect 20 per cent of the population -- some 2 million people -- to be affected. A United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team has arrived in the country.
• In Jamaica, some 150,000 people could be displaced due to the impact of the hurricane.
• Pre-positioning of relief supplies and emergency resources has started, and an UN team has also arrived to support the national preparedness efforts.

• The Secretary-General today announced the appointment of Hubert Price of the United States as Head of the United Nations Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS).
• Mr. Price brings to this new position more than twenty years of experience in United Nations peacekeeping operations, most recently, as Director of Mission Support in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) from 2010 until 2015, and later as Acting Assistant Secretary-General for the Department of Field Support until June 2016.

• At 1:00 p.m., there will be a press stakeout by Secretary-General candidate Kristalina Georgieva on the 2nd floor General Assembly stakeout area.
• At 5:00 p.m., Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of the Russian Federation, in his capacity as President of the Security Council for the month of October, will brief the press on the Council’s work programme.