The Secretary-General has appointed Sigrid Kaag of the Netherlands as Special Coordinator of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-United Nations joint mission to eliminate the chemical weapons programme of the Syrian Arab Republic. The appointment was made in close consultation with OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
On Sunday, a UNAMID convoy was attacked in West Darfur, killing three peacekeepers and wounding another; on Friday, a UNAMID military observer was killed in an attack in North Darfur. The Secretary-General said that these attacks were unacceptable and called on the Government of Sudan to bring those responsible to justice.
The Secretary-General congratulated the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for being awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize today. He noted that, later today, the Security Council is expected to approve a first-of-its-kind OPCW-UN joint mission in Syria following the landmark work of the UN chemical weapons investigation mission.
Attending a summit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders and the United Nations, the Secretary-General highlighted points of partnerships and said the Organization needed ASEAN’s dynamism to set new standards for equitable growth and sustainable development in the region and beyond.
The Deputy Secretary-General will deliver the Sorensen Lecture at the Council on Foreign Relations this afternoon, and he intends to talk about the recent plenary session of the General Assembly and what was achieved there. That lecture will be webcast on the Council of Foreign Relations website.
Arriving in Hungary, the Secretary-General attended the Budapest Water Summit where he informed attendees that by 2030 nearly half the world would be facing water scarcity. He called for full engagement of all stakeholders, in particular the business world, towards guaranteeing a water-secure world. He also met with Hungary’s President and Prime Minister.
The 15 members of the Security Council are in Kampala, Uganda, today, as part of their visit to the Great Lakes region of Africa. And about now, they are meeting President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. Earlier today, they were in Rwanda, where they met President Paul Kagame in Kigali. The delegation will arrive later today in Addis Ababa, and that will be the last leg of the visit.
The 15 members of the Security Council are expected to arrive later today in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the first leg of a five-day visit to the Great Lakes region of Africa. The delegation stopped in Brussels, where it met with the Political and Security Committee of the European Union.
At a major meeting on international migration, the Secretary-General offered condolences to the many African migrants who died in the Mediterranean after their ship sank. Stressing that the incident emphasized the issue’s importance, he said that the international community should take the tragedy as “another spur to action”.
The Security Council, in a presidential statement today, stressed that the magnitude of the humanitarian tragedy in Syria requires prompt action for the safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance in the whole country. It urged immediate steps to expand relief operations and lift bureaucratic obstacles.