Noon briefing of 23 March 2012

• On Friday, the Secretary-General is leaving Singapore for the Republic of Korea to attend the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul and to hold a range of bilateral meetings there.
• In Singapore, he had meetings with the President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and also met other Government Ministers.
• He delivered the inaugural Fullerton Lecture for the Asia branch of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
• The Secretary-General said geopolitical developments in the past year had shown there was a reshaping of the political landscape for the 21st century and perhaps even a readjustment of the power politics within the broader United Nations.
• He also spoke about developments in Syria and the Democratic People9;s Republic of Korea and Myanmar. He said he would visit Myanmar soon, most probably next month.

• In response to a question on the situation in Mali, the Deputy Spokesperson said that, in a statement issued on Thursday, the Secretary-General had strongly condemned the rebellion by elements of the Malian armed forces who had announced the dissolution of government institutions and the suspension of the Constitution.
• Del Buey added that the Secretary-General had called on those responsible to refrain from any actions that could increase violence and further destabilize the country.
• He also said that the Secretary-General had called for the immediate restoration of constitutional rule in Mali.
• The Deputy Spokesperson also noted that the United Nations had several people on the ground following the situation, including the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Said Djinnit.

• Valerie Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator has just completed a four country visit to Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand to discuss with governments and their national disaster response agencies recent experiences in disaster management.
• Both Thailand and Cambodia were affected last year by the Southeast Asia floods and Ms Amos says the international community can learn from their experiences.
• Ms. Amos was encouraged by the response of the national authorities in Cambodia and Thailand and she has asked if the United Nations can be part of their lessons learned process so that the international humanitarian system can improve its support in future large scale disasters.
• She also highlighted the leading role Indonesia and Singapore have played as strong supporters of ASEAN in disaster management.
• During her tour, Ms. Amos met senior ASEAN officials and visited the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA) in Jakarta, Indonesia where she highlighted the importance of UN and ASEAN cooperation in responding to disasters.

• The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has unveiled plans to address the urgent health, educational and other needs of tens of thousands of Syrian children being sheltered in surrounding countries.
• UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Maria Calivis has pointed out that children had not been spared the violence sweeping Syria over the past year.
• The UN says that at least 500 Syrian children have been killed in the violence thus far, while hundreds more have been injured, put in detention or abused. Schools have closed and health centres have shut down or become too dangerous for families to reach.
• Of the 30,000 registered refugees who have fled Syria for Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, a large proportion is women and children.
• In order to meet the critical needs of this growing population and in addition to its work on behalf of children inside Syria itself, UNICEF is mobilizing its resources, with particular focus on education, child protection, and water and sanitation.
• To carry out these activities, UNICEF is appealing for $7.4 million in funding.

U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF WARNS AGAINST HARASSING HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS IN SRI LANKA

• On Friday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, warned that there must be no reprisals against Sri Lankan rights defenders following yesterday’s adoption of a resolution on Sri Lanka by the Human Rights Council in Geneva, calling on Sri Lanka to take “credible” steps to ensure accountability for alleged serious violations committed in 2009 during the final stages of the conflict between the Government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and to ensure accountability.
• Navi Pillay said that during this session of the Council, there has been an unprecedented and totally unacceptable level of threats, harassment and intimidation directed at Sri Lankan activists who had travelled to Geneva to take part in the debate.
• The High Commissioner is calling on the Government to ensure the protection of human rights defenders, to publicly disassociate itself from such statements, and to clearly uphold the right of Sri Lankan citizens to freely engage in international debate of this kind.

• On Friday, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) launched a high-level commission to improve access to essential but overlooked health supplies that could save the lives of millions of women and children every year.
• The UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children is part of the Secretary-General’s “Every Woman Every Child” movement to support the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
• The Commission will advocate at the highest levels to build consensus around priority actions for increasing availability, affordability, accessibility and rational use of essential commodities for women’s and children’s health.
• An initial list of 12 essential, overlooked commodities in four categories (newborn health, child health, maternal health and reproductive health) will be considered by the Commission in order to understand the main barriers that prevent access to many medicines and health products.
• Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will serve as founding co-chairs of the new body.

• Further to the announcement of 2 and 8 March 2012 on senior appointments, the Secretary-General has selected Mr. Carlos Lopes of Guinea Bissau as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
• He succeeds Abdoulie Janneh, to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for his dedication and commitment to the Organization and his leadership of ECA at a critical juncture of its work in the region.
• Mr. Lopes brings to the position more than 24 years of experience at the United Nations, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative in Brazil and Zimbabwe.
• Mr. Lopes, a practitioner and academic, strategist and socio-economist has vast experience in capacity building and technical cooperation in the African continent. He belongs to several African academic networks.
• Mr. Lopes intends to focus on building consensus among the various stakeholders to ensure that UNECA is a key player in the economic and social development agenda for Africa. Mr. Lopes is currently serving as the Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and Director of the United Nations System Staff College.
• The Secretary-General will continue to make additional announcements in the coming weeks on other senior positions as the relevant selection processes are being completed.