Noon Briefings

The Secretary-General received the report of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations today and said his office would lead implementation of the report’s recommendations, with the close participation of all key departments.

The Secretary-General is on his way back to New York from Geneva, where earlier today he met with representatives of the Government of Yemen.  He said that the other parties to consultations on Yemen were on their way to Geneva and warned that the country’s very existence hangs in the balance.

The Secretary-General is in Uzbekistan, where he met today with President Islam Karimov and where he told reporters that the United Nations stands ready to assist the country in promoting fundamental freedoms and providing opportunities for public participation.

Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Central Africa Abdoulaye Bathily briefed the Security Council on the situation in Central Africa, saying that while it remained marked by pre-electoral tensions, worsening economic conditions and the activities of Boko Haram and the Lord’s Resistance Army, it was necessary to start looking ahead to the stabilization phase to secure military gains.

The Security Council heard a briefing on Darfur today from Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet, who said the security situation remained very serious, with continued need for substantial humanitarian assistance and limited progress in the peace process.

The Secretary-General was today in Tajikistan, where he took part in the opening of the High-Level International Conference on the International Decade “Water for Life”, highlighting water’s multifaceted importance in the sustainable development goals.

Member States this morning received the Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict, which says that 2014 saw unprecedented challenges for the protection of tens of millions of children growing up in countries impacted by conflict.

Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman briefed the Security Council on the situation in Ukraine, saying that while it remained tenuous in the east, there were grounds for hope, including that the ceasefire continued to largely hold, the number and pace of casualties had slowed and that the process was under way to set up measures to implement the Minsk Agreements.

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria met today, in Istanbul, with the President and members of the political committee of the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces, with both parties agreeing on the urgency of finding a political solution to the conflict and of an immediate halt of the killing and targeting of civilians.

In light of recent allegations of sexual abuse against children in the Central African Republic by foreign troops not under the authority of the United Nations, the Secretary-General will set up an external independent review to examine the UN system's handling of these allegations.