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 Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
**Security Council
The Secretary-General this morning spoke at the Security Council’s open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.
He said that during his ten years as High Commissioner for Refugees, he saw the tragic results of our failure to protect civilians caught up in conflict, in refugee camps and settlements that he visited all over the world.
The Secretary-General noted that despite our efforts, civilians continue to bear the brunt of conflict around the world.
He said that there are three clear ways to improve the protection of civilians in armed conflict:
First, we must ensure greater respect for international humanitarian and human rights law.
Second, we must step up the protection of humanitarian and medical missions by implementing his predecessor’s recommendations on resolution 2286, which was adopted by the Council last year.
And third, we must do more to prevent forced displacement and find durable solutions for refugees and internally displaced people, he added. His full remarks are online.
Also, as we told you yesterday, the Secretary-General will be leaving this afternoon to attend the G-7 [Group of Seven] meeting in Sicily, and on Saturday, he will participate in the outreach session of the Summit, focusing on “Innovation and Sustainable Development in Africa."
**UNICEF
Related to that, our friends at UNICEF today called on the leaders gathering at the G-7 meeting in Sicily to adopt a six-point agenda to keep refugee and migrant children safe.
The call comes after an update on UNICEF’s child death figures, which shows that 200 children have died on the migration route from North Africa to Italy this year — a rate of more than one child per day.
The six-point agenda urges countries to end detention of children seeking refuge, keep all refugee and migrant children learning and give them access to health care and other quality services, and promote measures to combat discrimination and xenophobia in transit and destination countries.
**Yemen
One month after the High-Level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen, the United Nations thanks the Member [States] who have fully paid their pledges.
Those countries that have fully paid up are Andorra, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Denmark, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, New Zealand, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, Sweden and the United States.
The United Nations also welcomes the additional United States announcement of $77 million for the famine response, as well as the $4.3 million from the European Commission and the $1.2 million from Norway for the cholera response.
As of 23 May, cholera had spread to 19 of Yemen’s 22 governorates, with almost 42,000 of suspected cholera/acute watery diarrhoea cases and 418 associated deaths.
It has been estimated that there will be at least 100,000 new cases in the next six months, but less than half of health facilities are fully functioning. Since 1 May, 1.6 million people have been supported with water/sanitation and hygiene assistance.
The UN has supported the opening of 99 diarrhoea treatment centres and 136 oral rehydration corners by providing medicine and other supplies. We have also developed a plan to combat cholera with a two pronged approach for which $55 million are required.
Also on Yemen, yesterday, the Special Envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, wrapped up a three-day visit yesterday to Sana’a, where he met with political leaders from Ansar’Allah and the General People’s Congress and representatives of other political parties.
His discussions focused on possible agreements to prevent the spread of military activities to Hudeidah and practical ways to ensure the resumption of salaries to all Yemeni civil servants [nation-wide].
During his visit, the Special Envoy also met with members of the Yemeni Women’s Pact for Peace and Security and representatives of civil society organizations, including youth, to discuss current political challenges and security concerns in addition to the economic crisis and the recent outbreak of cholera.
At the end of his visit, he expressed his deep concern regarding the attack on his convoy while traveling from the airport to the UN compound on 22 May. The Envoy said that the incident increased his determination to continue with his efforts to find a negotiated political settlement that serves the best interests of the people of Yemen.
The Special Envoy’s visit to Sana’a follows visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where he met with Government officials as part of his efforts to find a political solution. He also met with senior World Bank officials in order to support the World Bank-UN collaboration to address the growing food insecurity and economic crisis.
**Central African Republic
Our colleagues in the Central African Republic at the peacekeeping Mission report that the situation in Bangassou remains volatile. Today a peacekeeping patrol exchanged fire with anti-Balaka fighters on two separate occasions outside of Bangassou. Five anti-Balaka are reported to be dead and one peacekeeper was slightly injured.
Yesterday, peacekeepers also exchanged fire with some anti-Balaka, who had erected a barricade in the town’s Tokoyo neighbourhood. Two anti-Balaka were killed and one was captured. The Mission also recovered weapons from the scene. Peacekeepers continue to secure key areas of the town and have begun to clear the Tokoyo neighbourhood of people who belong to armed groups.
The UN Mission reiterates its call on the anti-Balaka and all armed groups to unconditionally cease hostilities and engage in dialogue. Our colleagues are actively engaging with civil society, religious and political leaders to reduce tensions and they call on all communities to seek constructive solutions for lasting peace.
**Disaster Risk Reduction
In Mexico, the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction opened yesterday evening in the city of Cancun.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, said that while response to natural disasters has improved in many countries thanks to stronger institutions, better preparedness and improved early warning systems, economic losses continue to escalate, threatening the progress made on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Every year, disasters cost the global economy $520 billion and push 26 million people into poverty. The Deputy Secretary-General emphasized that implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction is essential to reduce mortality, economic losses and damage to infrastructure.
And also, in Cancun, our colleagues from UN-Women and the Office for Disaster Risk Reduction launched a new programme to address gender inequality in risk as research shows that women and girls are more vulnerable and more likely to die in disasters.
The programme will open channels for women’s leadership and participation in disaster risk reduction and resilience building, and will support women’s access to recovery services and products such as micro-insurance, disaster compensation and social protection.
**Democratic Republic of the Congo
The crisis in the Kasais in the DRC has severely disrupted life-saving interventions for children in recent months, putting an estimated 400,000 children at risk of severe acute malnutrition — that is according to UNICEF.
Across the five provinces of Greater Kasai, critical health infrastructure is no longer operational due to the conflict.
UNICEF says $40.2 million for its emergency response [are] needed, stressing that even before the latest wave of violence, the Kasai provinces were among one of the poorest in the country.
**Health
Lastly, delegates at the World Health Assembly in Geneva approved yesterday the Organization’s proposed programme budget, which includes a 3 per cent increase in Member State assessed contributions for 2018–2019.
This approved budget sets out the Organization’s priorities in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. It includes increased investments in the new WHO [Health] Emergencies Programme and combating antimicrobial resistance.
Voluntary contributions have overtaken assessed contributions in providing the majority of WHO’s budget. Assessed contributions had remained largely stable prior to yesterday’s increase.
That is it. Yes, ma'am.
***Questions and Answers
Question: [inaudible]
Spokesman: It is, what they have pledged is $77 million in addition to what they had pledged to at the London conference, so in London, and we can get you the figures, but we basically had asked for $1.1 billion. The countries that I read out are those who have pledged their, who have now paid in full their pledges. The $77 million is in addition to that, and that's for famine in Yemen, but I'll get you what the original chunk was.
Question: And that is just from the US pledging?
Spokesman: That is just from the US, basically saying, in addition to what we've already paid up to meet our pledges, we are giving you an extra $77 million.
Question: Are they the biggest donors from all the other countries?
Spokesman: That, I don’t, I don't have those numbers, but we can check pretty easily.
Question: Yes.
Spokesman: Okay, Matthew.
Question: Sure. Country specific things, but I wanted to ask you something. I just now asked the Secretary‑General about what I had asked you yesterday, about whether his speech at ACABQ can be released and whether his reform proposals will be released. He seemed to, maybe I misunderstood and you can look at the video, but he seemed to think that it had been released so I wanted to ask you, can it be released? Also… Go ahead.
Spokesman: The budget documents for the proposed reform are public documents and those are available and that is basically what he presented, the outline of which he presented to the ACABQ yesterday.
Question: Two questions: Is there a problem with releasing, I'm sure there was a written and about it was off-the-cuff what he said to ACABQ; and, secondly, I've seen and published a document called safety and security pillar model A regarding three ASGs, a mixture of political affairs and peacebuilding, a variety of delegations, and maybe there wasn't time to explain the whole thing, basically the idea is if he is proposing reforms, why aren't these proposals public as they are in most countries…?
Spokesman: Well, I think, first of all, these reforms, especially ones that have to involve, that involve budgetary issues, first have to be approved by the Member States and there is an ongoing discussion on the peace and security architecture, and once things are formally proposed, I'm sure they will be shared. All the budget documents I think are under, I was told, A/72/6, and those are all available in detail.
Question: This chart, I guess what I'm saying, having seen the chart…
Spokesman: I haven't seen the chart, so I…
Question: There was a meeting yesterday, so maybe you can ask them. There seemed to have been a meeting that went to 6:10 yesterday upstairs. Everybody was in it, Mr. Lacroix, Mr. Feltman, you know, the whole team was there, and my understanding is this chart was discussed, so I'm asking you…
Spokesman: What I'm telling you is that whatever meetings may have occurred upstairs on reform between the Secretary‑General and his top aides, those are informal meetings and I have no documents to share from those.
Question: Can you just look at the tape of what he said there?
Spokesman: I did look at the tape. I did, it feels consistent to me.
Question: Well…
Spokesman: Ali?
Question: Thank you, Stéphane. In the past, UN Secretaries‑General used to write letters of leaders of, like G-7, focusing their attention on items on the UN agenda.
Question: Yes.
Spokesman: Has the Secretary‑General…?
Spokesman: As far as I know, there have been no letters sent this year. However, the Secretary‑General will be speaking in the outreach session of the G-7 on Saturday and we will be putting out his remarks on Saturday after he delivers them.
Question: And what is his programme? Who is he meeting in Sicily?
Spokesman: Right now, the discussions on the bilateral are still ongoing and things are fairly fluid, so as soon as we are able to announce the bilaterals we will. And the other members of the outreach, we can give you that list, but that's a public list which is available on the G-7 website, to see the other participants.
Matthew?
Question: So yesterday after you emailed me the UNESCO answer on Cameroon, I asked you some questions in writing, one of which seems very simple, and I am going to forgo country-specific today because it just seems important, I asked you whether a person named David J. Vennett, who identifies himself online as a senior advisor to the Secretary‑General is, in fact, employed by the UN. Can you answer that?
Spokesman: He is a member of the Secretary‑General’s staff.
Question: When he was hired?
Spokesman: He was hired in the last few weeks.
Question: But I guess, so why didn't you just, I mean, I know you have many things to do, but why didn't…
Spokesman: Why didn't I what?
Question: I guess when I email you and say…
Spokesman: I didn't see. I don't know, but I didn't see your e‑mail, so.
Question: Okay, and I also asked you why, like, on the Cameroon answer, there were many people interested in that answer, are there other answers that have been received by your office and didn't…
Spokesman: When we have answers, we share them. I didn't have the UNESCO one I thought I had in my book, and I didn't.
Question: Fine. And the other thing, and maybe you haven’t seen it yet but I'll ask you now. Cristina Gallach spoke yesterday in the General Assembly Hall, so I asked you why was that.
Spokesman: She spoke, I think, at the, she spoke at the graduation of the UN school and she is serving as the chair of the UN school until the end of June.
Thank you.
Question: And, I asked you, was anyone held accountable in the audit, IOS audit?
Spokesman: That is all.
Question: Okay.