ARCHIVES
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE
SPOKESPERSON’S NOON BRIEFING
BY EDUARDO DEL BUEY, DEPUTY
SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON
FRIDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2011
SECRETARY-GENERAL
TRAVELING TO PACIFIC
- The Secretary-General is en route to the Pacific to attend
the Summit meeting of the Pacific Islands
Forum (PIF) in Auckland,
New Zealand.
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- The Secretary-General is scheduled to arrive in Australia on
Friday evening and meet with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign
Minister Kevin Rudd and brief them on his current UN initiatives in the
areas of international security and climate change, as well as on the
discussions he had with world leaders in Paris on Thursday at the
International Conference for the Support of the New Libya.
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- He will then visit Honiara,
the capital of the Solomon
Islands, on Saturday, where he will
meet with Prime Minister Danny Philip.
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- Next, he heads to the Republic of Kiribati,
where he will speak to local communities of this low-lying island affected
by rising sea-levels. He is also expected to meet with President Anote Tong.
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- In New Zealand,
the Secretary-General will meet with leaders of PIF Member States,
including New Zealand
Prime Minister John Key, as well as Foreign Minister Murray McCully.
- Thereafter, the Secretary-General will return to Australia.
During his stay, he will address students at the University of Sydney
and visit a training facility for international peacekeepers in the
nation’s capital.
PALMER REPORT ON
FLOTILLA RECEIVED
- Asked about the report of the independent
Panel of Inquiry on the May 2010 Flotilla incident, the Deputy
Spokesperson said that the report had been received by the Office of the
Secretary-General. He added that it would be issued shortly along with a
statement by the Secretary-General.
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- Asked about the Secretary-General’s
reaction to the report, Del Buey said this was a
report by the Commissioners and that he could not comment further about
the document until it was received officially by the Secretary-General who
was right now traveling.
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- Asked about the meaning of proceeding with
this report for the relations between Israel
and Turkey,
the Deputy Spokesperson said that the objective of the United Nations in
general was to encourage different parties to come together and find
common ground for discussion.
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- Asked about the legality of the maritime
blockage on Gaza, Del
Buey said it was a long standing position of the
United Nations that the blockade be lifted and that established routes be
used to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.
HAITI: U.N. INVESTIGATING ABUSE ALLEGATIONS
- Asked about allegations of misconduct by
Uruguayan peacekeepers in Haiti,
the Deputy Spokesperson said that the United Nations takes allegations of
misconduct very seriously.
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- He added that the UN Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
had launched an internal investigation to shed light on a case of abuse by
members of its military personnel in Port-Salut.
He also said the case was being followed very closely from New York.
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- De Buey said
that if the responsibility for such acts was established, MINUSTAH would
demand that appropriate sanctions be taken against those who committed
these acts. He recalled that it is the responsibility of the troop
contributing country to investigate these cases and to take the
appropriate disciplinary measures.
FRENCH DIPLOMAT NAMED NEW U.N. PEACEKEEPING CHIEF
- The Secretary-General has appointed Hervé
Ladsous of France as
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. Mr. Ladsous
will replace Alain Le Roy.
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- The Secretary-General is grateful for Mr. Le Roy’s dedicated
service to the United Nations and for his able leadership of the
Department of Peacekeeping Operations during a very challenging
period.
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- As a seasoned diplomat, Mr. Ladsous
brings to the position an extensive experience in the diplomatic field
acquired during his service in a variety of countries. He also brings to
the position an acute political judgement,
strong crisis-management capacities, especially in the area of
peacekeeping, a profound understanding of the challenges facing the United
Nations.
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- Asked about the recruitment process for
this appointment, the Deputy Spokesperson said that this had been an open
and professional process. He noted that there had been candidates from a
number of Member States and that the selection was made on the basis on
competence.
U.N. HUMANITARIAN TEAM
TO RE-ESTABLISH PRESENCE IN LIBYAN CAPITAL
- The UN Humanitarian
Coordinator for Libya
arrived in the capital, Tripoli,
yesterday with an inter-agency team to re-establish the UN’s presence there.
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- Panos Moumtzis
said that the humanitarian situation remains fragile, stressing that it is
critical to ensure an immediate and effective UN presence on the ground to
assist vulnerable people who have been affected by the conflict and by the
disruption of services.
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- His team will help respond to water shortages in Tripoli and in the
surrounding areas.
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- For its part, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has delivered an additional
500,000 litres of bottled water, enough for
24,000 people, to the capital.
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- An additional three million litres
is expected to arrive this weekend to cover 85,000 people for at least on
week.
U.N. REFUGEE AGENCY
CONCERNED BY POOR HEALTH OF SOMALIS ARRIVING IN ETHIOPIA
- On the Horn of Africa, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that it
is very concerned about
the increasingly poor health of Somalis recently arriving in Ethiopia.
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- Nearly one-fifth of all children at the Kobe camp are suffering from severe
acute malnutrition, while high rates are also being reported at other
sites.
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- An inter-agency task force has agreed to increase food
distribution points in the camps, to open additional nutritional feeding centres, and to ensure that malnourished refugees
receive supplementary food.
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- In Kenya,
the new school term begins on Monday, 5 September, with 40,000 children at
the Dadaab refugee camp preparing to go to
school, many for the first time.
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- The influx of more than 150,000 new refugees from Somalia
this year – half of whom are children – has added to the already pressing
needs at the camp, the Agency says.
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- Currently, there is only one teacher for every 100 pupils for
the 156,000 school-age children at Dadaab, the
world’s largest refugee complex.
BOLIVIA: TOP U.N. RIGHTS OFFICIAL WELCOMES CONVICTION OF SENIOR OFFICIALS
FOR SERIOUS CRIMES
- The High Commissioner for Human Rights
today welcomed
a historic decision by Bolivia’s
top court to convict two former ministers and five senior military
officers for their involvement in the deaths of dozens of people during
anti-government demonstrations in 2003.
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- Nearly 70 people died and more than 400 were injured when
soldiers repeatedly fired on crowds demonstrating against a government
plan to build a gas pipeline near the Bolivian capital, La Paz.
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- Navi Pillay
today described the convictions by the Bolivian Supreme Court as a very
healthy trend towards combating long-standing impunity in Latin America.
THE WEEK AHEAD AT THE UNITED NATIONS
3 - 9 SEPTEMBER 2011
(This document is for planning
purposes and is subject to change.)
Saturday, 3 September
Today, the Secretary-General will meet with the Prime
Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard.
Sunday, 4 September
Today, the Secretary-General will meet with the Prime
Minister of Solomon Islands, Danny Philip, as well as the President of
Kiribati, Anote Tong.
Monday, 5 September
Today, United Nations Headquarters in New York is closed for Labour
Day.
Today, the Secretary-General will plant Mangrove Trees with
the President of Kiribati, Mr. Anote Tong, he will further observe the High Tide and visit Bike
Ni Kora Village to witness effects of Climate Change.
The Secretary-General will later leave for New Zealand.
Today, the United Nations Independent Expert in the field of
cultural rights, Farida Shaheed,
will launch her first official mission to Morocco to assess efforts by the
authorities to promote and protect cultural rights, and to identify best practices
and obstacles to their realization.
Tuesday, 6 September
Today, the Secretary-General will give a lecture at Auckland University
in New Zealand.
At 12:30 p.m., in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium,
there will be a press conference on the Conference of States Parties to the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Participants will be;
Ambassador Mårten Grunditz,
Permanent Representative of Sweden to the United Nations, Maria Larsson, Minister
for Children and the Elderly Ministry of Health and Social Affairs of Sweden,
and Ronald Clive McCallum, Chairman of Committee on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities.
Today, the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) will launch the Trade and Development Report of 2011 with
the focus "Post-crisis policy challenges in the world economy.”
Today, the second regular session of the 2011 Executive
Board of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP),
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and United Nations Office for Project
Services (UNOPS) begins in Conference Room 3 of the North Lawn Building (NLB).
It ends on 9 September.
Wednesday, 7
September
Today, the Secretary-General will attend the Pacific Islands
Forum in New Zealand.
Today, the Fourth Session of the Conference of States
Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities begins in New York. It will end 9
September.
At 10:00 a.m., the Security Council will be briefed on the
1737 Committee (relating to the
Islamic Republic of Iran), followed by consultations on Cyprus.
At 1:15 p.m., there will be a briefing on “Can we make a
green future a reality? It can be done,” co-organized by the Permanent Mission
of Slovakia and NGO Sustainability, in the Economic and Social Council Chamber
(NLB).
Thursday, 8 September
Today is International Literacy Day.
Today, the Secretary-General will address the University of Sydney
on Australia
and the 21st Century United Nations.
At 11:00 a.m., in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium,
Joseph Deiss, President of the sixty-fifth session of
the General Assembly, will hold his last press conference.
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At 12:30 p.m., in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium,
there will be a press conference by Noam Shalit
sponsored by the Israeli Mission to the United Nations.
This afternoon, the Security Council will hold consultations
on Sudan and South Sudan.
Friday, 9 September
At 10:00 a.m., the General Assembly will hold a
commemoration of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in the General Assembly Hall,
beginning at 10:00 a.m. Speakers at the event include the President of
the General Assembly, Joseph Deiss; the Deputy
Secretary-General, Asha-Rose Migiro;
and the Permanent Representative of the United States, Ambassador Susan E.
Rice. Interfaith leaders will also participate in the commemoration.
At 1:15 p.m., there will be a briefing on the International
Atomic Energy Agency’s 2011 Scientific Forum with the theme, “Water matters:
Making a difference with nuclear techniques,” in Conference Room C (NLB).
Office of the Spokesperson for the
Secretary-General
United Nations, SA-1B15
New York, NY 10017
Tel. 212-963-7162
Fax. 212-963-7055
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