Noon briefing of 23 September 2010

SECRETARY-GENERAL OPENS GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION WITH WARNING OF A NEW POLITICS OF POLARIZATION

• The Secretary-General opened the 65^th high-level session of the General Assembly this morning, warning that we are seeing a new politics of polarization at work. Amid such uncertainty and so much confusion of purpose, he said, we naturally seek a moral compass.
  

• He said that the soul of global governance involves taking a collective stand, principled and pragmatic, against forces that would divide us. And that is why the United Nations remains the indispensable global institution for the 21^st century.
  

• The Secretary-General said that the just-concluded Millennium Development Goals Summit showed our collective determination. World leaders came together with concrete national plans to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Our challenge, he said, is to deliver on this promise, to turn hopes into realities.
  

• He highlighted security challenges that the United Nations faces, noting that, during the coming year, the United Nations will be critical to keeping a larger peace as north and south Sudan decide their future. The High-Level Meeting on Sudan this Friday will help chart that path, he said.
  

• The Secretary-General asserted that, in all we do, human rights are at the core. There can be no peace without justice. No nation, large or small, can violate the rights of its citizens with impunity.

SECURITY COUNCIL HOLDS SUMMIT ON PREVENTING CONFLICT AND BUILDING PEACE

• This afternoon, the leaders of the Security Council Member States will hold a summit meeting at the Council on preventing and ending conflict and building peace.
  

• The Secretary-General will address that meeting and detail the mediation, peacekeeping and peace-building work of the United Nations. And he will detail steps to strengthen the UN’s work in building and maintaining peace.
  

• The steps specified by the Secretary-General are: to move beyond the idea of a clear, orderly sequence or continuum of peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding; to provide patience, resources and long-term commitment; to further develop the peacebuilding architecture; and to expand our work on prevention, in particular to improve our ability to read the warning signs and trigger early action.

MINI-SUMMIT ON SOMALIA FOCUSES PEACE AND STABILITY

• As a reminder, the Secretary-General will be chairing a Mini-Summit this afternoon to focus on peace and stability in Somalia, at a critical time for the future of the country.
  

• More than 30 Governments and regional organizations are expected to attend, including eight Heads of State. The principal speakers are the Secretary-General, President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed of Somalia, and Jean Ping, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission. The meeting reflects the very high priority the Secretary-General has placed on helping Somalia.
  

• A communiqué will be issued at the end of that Mini-Summit.
  

• Participants will take stock of progress on the strategy that the Secretary-General set forth in 2008 and the need to move forward on the ground in critical areas, including: ending divisions within the Somali transitional institutions and advancing the Djibouti peace process; bolstering security on the ground through stepped up support to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali security institutions; and furthering the fight against piracy.

W.H.O. SAYS A MASSIVE HEALTH RELIEF EFFORT UNDERWAY IN PAKISTAN

• The World Health Organization (WHO) says a massive health relief effort is underway in the flood-affected parts of Pakistan, where nearly six million people have been treated for health conditions since the floods began in late July.
  

• But WHO says there are urgent needs to prevent further health crises or food insecurity caused by large-scale damage to crops and agricultural land.
  

• WHO's Representative to Pakistan, Dr Guido Sabatinelli, says that "increasing cases of communicable diseases, like diarrhoea and malaria, fears about children being malnourished, the massive disruption to healthcare, crop systems and rising food insecurity are the main health threats facing Pakistan's flood-affected people".

REPORT ON D.R. CONGO HUMAN RIGHTS, RESPONSES TO BE PUBLISHED ON 1 OCTOBER

• Asked about Burundi's reported objections to a UN human rights report concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Spokesperson replied that the High Commissioner for Human Rights has made it clear that all concerned countries have until 30 September to submit their comments. Nesirky added that those comments will be published alongside the report on 1 October.
  

• In response to a related question, the Spokesperson said that the Secretary-General has publicly said that both he and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda agree on the importance of Rwanda's role in UN peacekeeping, especially in the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur. "The Secretary-General strongly hopes that Rwanda will keep up the excellent work it is doing in UN peacekeeping," Nesirky said.

I.A.E.A. HOSTS EXPERTS TO DISCUSS CANCER CRISIS IN DEVELOPING WORLD

• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is hosting leading cancer experts from around the world this week to discuss the growing cancer crisis in the developing world.
  

• Cancer is on the increase globally. The disease now kills nearly eight million people a year – more than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined - with around 75 percent of these deaths occurring in developing countries.
  

• Despite rapidly increasing numbers of new cases, the resources needed to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease are severely limited or nonexistent.

* The guest today was Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.