Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary‑General.
**Secretary-General’s Travels
The Secretary‑General spoke to the sixth annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-UN Summit, of which he is a co-chair, in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar today. He told the leaders that the United Nations is striving to address the multiple crises the world is currently facing while keeping its eyes on the longer term challenges, such as climate change. The Secretary‑General said that discrimination against minorities and violence against women remain serious challenges in the region. But he noted that the United Nations stands ready to work with ASEAN to strengthen national capacities to promote human rights.
The Secretary‑General then spoke at a press conference. In his remarks, he expressed his concern that historical tensions and competing territorial claims in the region could hold the region back. He said that he was encouraged by recent steps to enhance dialogue and hoped that this will prevent any needless escalation.
He added that in Myanmar, the process of democratization is at a defining moment. An inclusive and transparent election next year will be crucial for the country’s future.
And he expressed his concern about the Rohingya population, who face discrimination and violence, and encouraged the leaders of Myanmar to uphold human rights, take a strong stance against incitement and ensure humanitarian access to Rohingya living in vulnerable conditions.
The Secretary‑General added that the world needs to do even more to address the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. He added that the rate of new cases is showing encouraging signs of slowing in some of the hardest hit parts of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. We have his remarks in our office.
**Climate Change
In a statement we issued last night, the Secretary‑General commended the joint announcement by China and the United States of their post-2020 action on climate change as an important contribution to the new climate agreement to be reached next year in Paris.
The Secretary‑General thanked President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama for their personal commitment to work together to remove any impediments to reaching an agreement in Paris.
He said that the leadership demonstrated by these two countries will give the international community an unprecedented chance to succeed at reaching a meaningful, universal agreement in 2015.
The Secretary‑General urged all countries — especially all major economies — to follow China and the United States lead and announce ambitious post-2020 targets as soon as possible, but no later than the first quarter of 2015. The full statement is available online and in our office.
**Middle East
You will have seen the statement we issued yesterday afternoon, which expressed the Secretary-General’s concern about the upsurge in violence and killings over the past few days in Israel and the West Bank. Violence only deepens distrust, while making more distant the prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Secretary‑General calls on all sides to do everything they possibly can to avoid further exacerbating an already tense environment. His thoughts are with the families of the victims.
**Ebola
The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, briefed the Security Council this morning on the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), saying that we are no longer seeing signs that security could seriously deteriorate in the country, heavily affected by Ebola.
However, he said it would be appropriate to defer consideration of the drawdown of UN troops and police, until the Ebola crisis is over. We have his remarks in our office.
Meanwhile, Dr. David Nabarro, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Ebola, gave this morning a briefing to non-governmental organizations, here at Headquarters.
He expressed his admiration for those working on the front lines of the outbreak and stressed the major role they are playing in awareness-raising, fundraising and making a difference on the ground. The event has been webcast and is available at webtv.un.org.
And tomorrow, Dr. Nabarro and the Head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, Anthony Banbury, will brief the General Assembly on Ebola, and they will then be my guests at the noon briefing.
**Security Council
Before meeting on Liberia this morning, the Security Council passed a resolution on piracy off the coast of Somalia.
This afternoon, the Council will hold an open meeting on Ukraine and will be briefed by Acting Assistant Secretary-General for the Department of Political Affairs, Jens Toyberg-Frandzen, and by representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Following that meeting, the Council will hold consultations on Lebanon. It will be briefed by Derek Plumbly, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, and he is expected to speak to reporters at the stakeout after that meeting.
**Afghanistan
Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan rose 7 per cent this year compared to 2013, from 209,000 hectares last year to 224,000 hectares now. That’s according to the Afghanistan Opium Survey, released today by the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Meanwhile, opium production may potentially increase by 17 per cent, with yields estimated to reach 6,400 tons in 2014 compared to the previous year’s total of 5,500 tons.
These increases come after record highs were recorded in 2013, when cultivation rose 36 per cent and production by almost a half since 2012.
The Executive Director of the Office on Drugs and Crime, Yury Fedotov, said that Afghanistan’s narcotics problem remained a global challenge and a shared responsibility. He said that we cannot afford to see the long-term stability of Afghanistan and the wider region derailed by the threat of opiates.
**Indoor Air Pollution
The World Health Organization (WHO) released today its recommendations on indoor air pollution.
These recommendations highlight the dangers of burning fuels like unprocessed coal and kerosene in the home, and set targets for reducing emissions of health-damaging pollutants from domestic cook stoves, space heaters and fuel-based lamps.
An estimated 4.3 million people worldwide die every year from household air pollution emitted by rudimentary biomass and coal cook stoves. Millions also die each year from strokes, heart and pulmonary diseases, including pneumonia and lung cancer, caused by household air pollution.
The World Health Organization stresses the need for a rapid scale-up in access to cleaner and more modern cooking and heating appliances, as well as lamps, especially in developing country homes.
More on indoor air pollution is available on the Organization’s website.
That’s it for me. Are there any questions?
**Questions and Answers
Question: When Mr. León met with…
Deputy Spokesman: Microphone, please.
Question: Bernardino León met yesterday with the leader of the National Congress in Libya, Mr. Abu Sahmein, and there was a press conference, and the Deputy President of the General National Congress said in his remarks, in the press conference, that Mr. León had met with us as a recognition of the National Congress. It was… he said also that he endorses the sentence published by the Constitutional Court, which is annulling the elections of June and in fact recognizing the older elections. So what is the comment of the Secretary?
Deputy Spokesman: The reaction is that we would deny that. Mr. León did meet with him as one of the many personalities he’s meeting with. It did not confer any specific recognition to the Congress, and of course, we continue to work with the elected Government and with the wider population of personalities trying to bring a variety of stakeholders in Libya together, and see what we can do again to restore the democratic and constitutional framework of the country. Yes, Anna.
Question: Thank you, Farhan. I wanted to ask you about the Government sponsored sterilization campaign in India. As a result of that quite recently, 11 women died, and more than 70 are hospitalized and in critical condition. While some countries do this as a measure of population control, and for India unfortunately this shocking procedure, this shocking phenomenon is not new, and it suddenly echoes with the heavy sterilization campaigns in the 1970s during Indira Gandhi period where her son, Sanjay, was responsible for countless procedures and countless deaths as a result. Is the UN going to react somehow to this? Because for goodness sakes, these are not cats and dogs that are being neutered we’re talking about. These are people. And there might be other measures to be taken to help those people. And also, on another note, usually when people speak of sterilizations, we know for men, it’s vasectomy; for women, it’s tubal ligation. Well, in men’s case, it’s just a local little procedure. For women’s case, it’s a huge surgery, very complicated. But unfortunately, for some reason in Syria, they perform that only on women. Isn’t this gender discrimination in your opinion? Thank you.
Deputy Spokesman: These are actually complex medical issues. Ultimately I think these are questions to be better addressed by the World Health Organization. We’ve seen these worrying reports out of India. We would need to get further details of course before we could comment but ultimately, wherever these medical practices occur in the world, we want to make sure that all the authorities take the appropriate care to make sure that they are conducted in as safe and as sanitary a way as possible. That’s the basic ground point. In terms of whether anything was done wrong at this stage, I believe this is a question that the authorities in India themselves are looking into and we’ll need to see what information they have, but any further comment would need to come from our colleagues in the World Health Organization, particularly on your latter question about the associated health risks with the different types of operations.
Question: Can I say something else? Somehow I believe these are not just medical issues. These are direct attack on human rights and gender equality. Thank you.
Deputy Spokesman: Well, I appreciate your point and certainly we want to make sure that when Governments pursue policies, including policies on family planning, that they make sure to respect the rights of all the population, including the rights of women and that goes for the entire range of family planning and contraceptive services. Yes?
Question: This is another WHO question. The Catholic Church in Kenya is encouraging women not to receive a WHO tetanus vaccine, the allegation being that it has a sterilizing agent within it. Can the SG vouch for the WHO tetanus initiative there and address these concerns?
Deputy Spokesman: Yes, in fact, I would just refer you — there’s now a joint statement out from the World Health Organization and from UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund] responding to these allegations. The World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund express their deep concern about the misinformation circulating in the media on the quality of the tetanus toxoid vaccine in Kenya. These grave allegations are not backed up by evidence, and risk negatively impacting national immunization programmes for children and women. It goes on to say that WHO and UNICEF confirm that the vaccines are safe and are procured from a pre-qualified manufacturer. The safety is assured through a three-pronged global testing system, and the vaccine has reached more than 130 million women, with at least two doses in 52 countries. There’s more in a press release, if you’re interested. Yes.
Question: I want to ask about a couple of things the Secretary‑General has said in Myanmar, but first I was sort of expecting some kind of an update from UNAMID [African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur] on what it’s doing to update its press release on the alleged rapes in Tabit. The reason I ask is that a range of political parties in Sudan have said that UNAMID they believe is not credible. They’ve planned a peaceful protest in front of the European Union Mission or Embassy in Khartoum and saying the EU has found the UNAMID has become a spokesman for the Sudanese Government. What’s been done in the last 24 hours or since your last update to actually act on this?
Deputy Spokesman: There’s nothing much in the way of an update to say beyond what I said yesterday. Obviously, the UNAMID team has made very clear that the findings were inconclusive and need further investigation. UNAMID remains committed to this, and it will revert with any additional findings that might shed light on these allegations.
Question: Can you understand why people would want to know if they’ve done any investigation in the last 24 hours, given that there are protests in Khartoum against UNAMID?
Deputy Spokesman: We’re very much appreciative of that fact and UNAMID is continuing with its work. If they have further concrete details beyond those we’ve already shared we’ll express those to that point.
Question: I notice that the Secretary‑General in his press conference there was asked about the Rohingya, and it was a lengthy answer, but the one thing I didn’t understand is he seemed to say that it’s entirely up… from the UN’s perspective, it’s entirely up to the Government who’s eligible for citizenship, but if they’re eligible, they should be treated equally with others. I wanted to know: Does the UN have any view? What if the Government said all Rohingya are not eligible? Or is the condition on eligibility being not identifying yourself as a Rohingya. Is that acceptable? What does it mean?
Deputy Spokesman: What he actually said, of course he said, “I’m urging the human rights and human dignity of people in Rakhine should be respected.” He went on to say, “Whoever is eligible to be given citizenship, I think they should be given citizenship equal to Myanmar people, without any discrimination.” Then for those people who may not meet the criteria, it is important that their human rights and human dignity must be fully protected. And by the way, he did add he’ll be meeting with President Thein Sein tomorrow, and he’ll take up the issue with him. If there’s anything further from the readout of that meeting we’ll share it at that point.
Question: On Myanmar. I notice… I guess it was an inaudible question about freedom of expression but recently a journalist Aung Naing was killed while in military custody and it’s given rise to a lot of commentary from press freedom groups. Is the Secretary‑General aware of that case? What does he think it means for the current status of freedom of the press in Myanmar?
Deputy Spokesman: He is informed and as you know what he did say is that as the political reform process continues, he said, “I have been asking the leaders to fully guarantee the freedom of expression, the freedom of assembly, is the basic principle of human rights enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.” So he will continue to try and push for guarantees of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly in the country. Yes, Matthew?
Question: Farhan, I was a little late, so maybe you commented on this. But there are reports that NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] confirms Russian troops are entering into Ukraine. Is this something the UN is aware of?
Deputy Spokesman: I don’t have any comment on the NATO comments, but one thing I did mention is the Security Council is holding an open meeting on Ukraine this afternoon. They’ll receive a briefing by Jens Toyberg-Frandzen, the Assistant Secretary-General in the Department of Political Affairs. Yes, Abdul Hamid.
Question: Thank you, Farhan. In fact, Amnesty International this morning issued a statement saying the destruction of communities on the Gaza border by the Egyptian Army is not a solution to the insurgency in Sinai. I mean, the UN kept silent on that destruction of those communities, who have been there for thousands of years. On the other hand, the Rafah Crossing with Egypt had been totally closed for the last four weeks. The prices went up 400 per cent in terms of energy. There are shortages of food items, medicine because of the closure of the Rafah Crossing with Egypt. There are many people who want to leave, students, sick people, foreigners, yet the UN remains silent. As much as we welcome the UN criticism when they criticize Israel for the closure of its crossing with Gaza, but they’re being silent about Egypt.
Deputy Spokesman: I’ve been saying repeatedly, in fact, just yesterday I said that we want, we continue to urge for the opening of all transit points to commercial traffic, and that’s as true for the crossing points through Egypt as it is for Israel. Similarly yesterday, I made clear as Stéphane Dujarric has made clear over the past weeks that whatever security operations are conducted in the region have to take account of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Yes?
Question: Sure, I wanted to ask, one is real world, and one is sort of UN rules. There’s… Armenia saying that Azerbaijan has shot down a helicopter belonging to Nagorno Karabakh Government. Azerbaijan has said that they’ve shot down a helicopter; this would be the first incident since 1994 — given the potential volatility of that, is UN aware of that? Is there anyone within DPA that is aware of that? I know there is the Minsk process… Can the UN confirm that and what do they think about it?
Deputy Spokesman: I don’t have any confirmation for you. We need some facts and details, but there’s no confirmation we have at present. Yes, in the back.
Question: Thank you. Given the swelling number of refugees from Iraq and Syria, UNHCR [Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] yesterday called on Western nations to support with resettlement. Does the SG support these comments?
Deputy Spokesman: Yes, he does. He’s been also calling for countries, particularly those outside the region, to provide more assistance for the settlement of the refugees coming from Iraq and Syria. As you know, there have been many countries such as Lebanon who have faced an extremely large burden of refugees. In Lebanon, it’s equivalent to about a quarter of the population in the country itself. So we want to see other countries take up more of the burden if possible, and the Secretary‑General has been pushing for that.
Question: Just a follow-up. Obviously, last year, the UN tried to implement a programme in Europe that wasn’t signed up to by certain European nations, like the UK and France — a couple of others. Can the SG push for them to sign up to that programme?
Deputy Spokesman: Well, in terms of the actual programmes, this is something I believe that is in the hands of the High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. António Guterres, but, yes, the Secretary‑General is encouraging countries to do as much as they can to allow for greater entry of refugees and migrants. Yes?
Question: There was just a stakeout by Matthew Nimetz about the name issue, the FYROM [the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia] name issue. I ended up, I guess I wonder… I know that the Secretary‑General said there’s a five-year rule for UN officials, and one of the logics behind it was that it benefits decision-making to have people shuffled and sort of working on a new issue so I wanted to know it seems it doesn’t apply to that position. What positions does it not apply to — any of the sort of special advisers or personal advisers? If so, how does that fit in with the rationale of having the five-year rule for actual UN staff members?
Deputy Spokesman: There is a five-year rule that we try to honour as much as is possible. There are times when, because of specific circumstances, in other words specific processes where one person has a particular expertise that’s not easily transferable, that it might be a little bit longer. But as a general rule, the idea is throughout the system everyone tries to do that.
Question: Does the UN, who appoints Mr. Nimetz, think there’s being progress made on this issue of the FYROM name?
Deputy Spokesman: I’d leave you to the comments Mr. Nimetz made mere minutes ago. Have a good afternoon, everyone.