The Commission of Inquiry dealing with human rights violations in Syria issued its latest report today, in which it says that civilians continue to pay the price for the failure to negotiate an end to this conflict. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost and more than 6 million Syrians have fled their homes.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
Briefing the Security Council today, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Liberia, Karin Landgren, said that as that country celebrated 10 years of uninterrupted peace, a sense of a unified nationhood was still a work in progress and small-scale outbreaks of violence were still routine.
The UN refugee agency said today it is increasingly worried about the safety of civilians in the Central African Republic after its staff reported widespread lawlessness during a field trip to the north of the country. They found seven villages burned to the ground and deserted — and an eighth village partially burned — with villagers hiding in the bush.
The Secretary-General is attending the opening sessions of the G-20 Summit in Saint Petersburg after a day of meetings with a range of leaders and officials. At the working dinner the Secretary-General briefed world leaders on developments in Syria.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today that the food security situation remains dire in the Sahel. It appealed to the international community to increase funding for aid to the most vulnerable farmers and herders. The agency said about 11 million people in the Sahel are still severely food insecure.
The Secretary-General today held a telephone call with Dr. Åke Sellström, head of the United Nations mission to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria, who briefed him on the next stages of the investigation process. All preparations for classifying the samples are progressing well, and transfer of the samples to laboratories will begin tomorrow.
The Secretary-General met today with Angela Kane, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, who briefed him on the current status of the investigation into the use of chemical weapons in Syria, reporting that the mission will be able to transmit its conclusions to the Secretary-General when it receives the results of the laboratory analysis of its samples.
The Secretary-General cut short his visit to Europe to return to New York last night with the aim of reaching out to Member States and he started that today, with the permanent members of the Security Council. He gave an overview of the work that has been done by the chemical weapons inspection team, which arrived in Damascus on 18 August.
The Secretary-General said today that the chemical weapons investigation team in Syria will continue its activities in the country until Friday and will leave Syria by Saturday morning. He expects to be briefed by the team after they come out of Syria. For that reason, he would cut short his visit to Austria, and is on his way back to New York.
Speaking about Syria today, the Secretary-General said the use of chemical weapons by anyone, for any reasons, under any circumstances, would be an atrocious violation of international law. It is essential to establish the facts and a UN investigation team is now on the ground to do just that. It needs time to do its job.