Noon Briefings

The Joint Special Envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, announced today that the Action Group for Syria will convene at the ministerial level this Saturday, 30 June, in Geneva. Also, today, Deputy Joint Special Envoy Jean-Marie Guéhenno told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that, at the moment, all sides appear not to believe in the possibility of a political solution.

The Secretary-General told the General Assembly’s thematic debate on drugs and crime today that drugs and crime threatened one of our most important goals: to ensure sustainable development around the world. We have the Secretary-General’s speech in my Office and online.

The Secretary-General presented his latest report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict to the Security Council, in an open meeting this morning. He said that too many people are dying, in too many places. Sometimes they are caught in the crossfire; frequently they are targeted. He detailed attacks on civilians in places ranging from Afghanistan to Somalia.

This morning, the Secretary-General met with representatives of the People's Summit in Rio de Janeiro. He said that civil society has helped to promote greater corporate social responsibility, and added that the road doesn't end in Rio, but in many ways starts there.

This morning in Rio de Janeiro, the Secretary-General met with representatives of civil society and then attended a side event on energy, gender and economic growth. And at that event, he noted that women still suffer terrible exclusion in too many parts of the world, with energy poverty taking an especially heavy toll on women.

The Secretary-General opened the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro this morning. He said that Rio+20 represents not an end but a beginning. He added that progress on sustainable development since the Earth Summit 20 years ago, also held in Rio, has been too slow and that bold words and good intentions have not been enough.

Tomorrow is World Refugee Day. And there are nearly 44 million refugees and internally displaced people around the world. The Office of the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, provides assistance to many of them and today's guest is Khaled Hosseini, Goodwill Envoy for the Office. And he is here to brief you on his work with the Refugee Agency in Afghanistan, in particular.

The Secretary-General left this morning for the G-20 meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico. This afternoon, he will participate in the first plenary session on “The Global Economy and Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth”, and he is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with a number of leaders.

The Secretary-General will travel on Monday, 18 June, to Los Cabos, Mexico to participate in the G-20 leaders’ meeting, and on Tuesday he will travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20.

Seven United Nations Agencies, along with a number of international charities, have signed a statement today that marks the fifth year since the start of the blockade in Gaza. The agencies say that more than 1.6 million people have been under blockade, with more than half of them children. The signatories called for an end to the blockade now.