SECRETARY-GENERAL/TRAVELS
Today, at the G20 Summit in Bali, the Secretary-General spoke at the Food and Energy Crises session. He told G20 members that without coordinated action, this year’s crisis of affordability may become next year’s global food shortage. He underscored that the Black Sea Grain Initiative, and the agreement to facilitate the supplies of Russian fertilizers - including ammonia - to global markets, are essential, and underscored that the UN is working nonstop to resolve all issues to renew the Initiative.
The Secretary-General also reiterated his call for an SDG Stimulus to provide countries in the global south with adequate liquidity, through a wider reallocation of Special Drawing Rights, concessional financing to Middle Income Countries in distress, and effective mechanisms of debt relief and restructuring. “We need unity, solidarity and multilateral solutions to address the food and energy crises, and to eliminate the trust deficit that is undermining global action across the board,” he said.
In the afternoon, the Secretary-General met with the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, and he also attended the welcome dinner for all leaders. And tomorrow, he will take part in the Working Session on Digital Transformation and in the leaders’ visit to a mangrove forest.
BLACK SEA GRAIN INITIATIVE
The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, today is in Istanbul, Türkiye, where he visited the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC), the implementation body of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. He met with the Russian, Turkish and Ukrainian delegations at the JCC, as well as with the UN team.
Mr. Griffiths thanked all sides for their hard work, dedication and commitment to the Initiative and discussed areas of improvement in the implementation of the agreement. He also visited the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Istanbul and met staff there.
UKRAINE
Today, Matilda Bogner, the head of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said that over the past several months, the Monitoring Mission interviewed 159 prisoners of war held by the Russian Federation, and 175 prisoners of war held by Ukraine.
Speaking of former Ukrainian prisoners of war who had been in the hands of the Russian Federation, Ms. Bogner said that the vast majority of those the Mission interviewed said that during their internment they had been tortured and ill-treated.
Regarding the treatment of prisoners of war interned by the Government of Ukraine, Ms. Bogner said that the Mission received credible allegations of summary executions of persons hors de combat and several cases of torture and ill-treatment, reportedly committed by members of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Ms. Bogner emphasized the fundamental obligation of states to treat all prisoners of war humanely from the moment they were captured until their release and repatriation, and to allocate sufficient resources to ensure implementation of this obligation.
LIBYA
The Special Representative for Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily, briefed the Security Council by VTC this morning. He said that in the next weeks and months, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya(UNSMIL) will meet with key institutional players to move towards organizing free and fair elections.
The Special Representative said that he has pursued consultations with Libyan stakeholders from all regions of the country, which he had initiated upon arriving in Tripoli in mid-October. He has also encouraged them to engage in dialogue with each other inside Libya, which would send a clear message to the population that they are serious about resolving their differences.
Mr. Bathily added that there is an increasing recognition that some institutional players are actively hindering progress towards elections.
Mr. Bathily said that the human rights situation in the country remains alarming. UNSMIL continues to document enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and ill-treatment in detention facilities across the country.
On a positive humanitarian note, he recognized a 57 per cent decrease in the number of displaced persons in Libya since 2020.
HAITI
In Port-au-Prince, the UN and the government are currently launching a $145 million appeal to continue supporting the cholera response, as well as the broader humanitarian response in the country.
At the beginning of October, new cholera cases were detected in Haiti after more than three and a half years without a case of the disease. In recent days, there has been an increase in the number and geographical spread of suspected cases. According to figures from the Ministry of Health released last night, there were 8,700 suspected and 800 confirmed cases. So far 161 people have died from the disease.
It is the most vulnerable people, particularly, women, children, the elderly and disabled who have been hit hardest by the outbreak. They were already severely impacted by a lack of access to health, food and clean water, malnutrition, poverty and displacement caused by insecurity, as well as ongoing gang violence.
The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Ulrika Richardson, reiterated that cholera is a preventable and treatable disease and that the UN and its partners have worked since Day 1 of the outbreak alongside the Ministry of Health. She added that cholera is one of many challenges in Haiti and that the funds raised would also tackle other urgent humanitarian needs as well as more deep-rooted structural problems, including human rights violations. She appealed to the international community to increase its support to the response in order to help save more lives and reach the shared goal of a cholera-free Haiti.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
The office of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, has published a new report on the impact of conflict on boys and girls in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The report states that, despite a decrease in the overall number of violations against children documented by the UN, the numbers remain high, particularly in Ituri and North Kivu. The reporting period is from April 2020 through March of this year.
On a positive note, the report states that at least 3,900 children were separated from armed groups during the reporting period. Ms. Gamba calls on all armed groups to release children from their ranks immediately.
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) facilitated the reopening of a school in the Ouandja-Kotto sub-prefecture, in the Haute-Kotto prefecture. The Mission deployed peacekeepers in this area to deter armed groups and to help restore socio-economic activities.
As part of its child protection work, the mission continued its efforts to sensitize local actors on the prevention of child recruitment by armed groups. They also provided school supplies, in addition to launching a community violence reduction project aimed at building schools and creating temporary jobs for young people.
Elsewhere in the country, in Sibut, in the Kémo prefecture, peacekeepers installed approximately one hundred solar-powered streetlights throughout the city. This project contributed to enhanced security at nighttime.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
The World Food Programme (WFP) today warned that a combination of extreme weather patterns, a slow recovery from the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and ripple effects of the war in Ukraine, are pushing millions of people in Latin America and the Caribbean into deeper levels of food insecurity. Currently nearly 10.6 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean are facing food insecurity, up from 8.7 million in January this year.
In the wake of the three devastating hurricanes - Fiona, Ian and Julia - in September and October causing heavy rain, flooding and mudslides, WFP said that it is providing emergency food to 800,000 people impacted in the region, as well as logistical and technical support to governments and partners.
Looking beyond the immediate response, WFP is strengthening the resilience of communities helping them adapt to the changing climate. In the first half of 2022, WFP assisted more than 630,000 people through activities such as restoring land and forests, introducing more climate-resilient practices, asset creation and income generation and providing access to climate insurance.
As the COP 27 countinues, WFP is calling for investment in building community resilience so that vulnerable people are able to withstand shocks better.
***The guests at the Noon Briefing were Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, along with Ib Petersen, Deputy Director for Management at the UN Population Fund, and John Wilmoth, Director of the Population Division in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. They spoke to reporters on the Day of 8 Billion.
