The Secretary-General spoke at the General Assembly high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS this morning, stressing that enormous progress had been made, and recalling that Millennium Development Goal 6 of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS had been met. However, he warned that AIDS was far from over.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
UNHCR says an estimated 50,000 people have fled their homes in south-east Niger since last Friday following a series of attacks by Boko Haram insurgents on the town of Bosso in the troubled Diffa region. The agency says the attacks occurred on Friday, Sunday and Monday, and that the situation in Bosso is unclear.
The Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, and the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, have both welcomed an agreement by the Yemeni parties to release all children that are prisoners. Mr. Ahmed said the unconditional release was agreed by the parties.
The Secretary-General, at the French ministerial conference meeting on the Middle East peace process in Paris, said that although a two-State solution was the only viable option for a sustainable peace, meaningful negotiations required leadership on both sides to reach an historic compromise, and the political will to implement it.
In a Security Council open debate today, the Secretary-General stressed that sexual violence in conflict was used as a deliberate strategy to shred the fabric of society. He urged the international community to continue speaking up for the women, girls, men and boys whose bodies for too long were considered the spoils of war.
Outraged by yesterday’s terrorist attacks in Gao, Mali, against the United Nations, where preliminary reports state one peacekeeper from China was killed and a dozen personnel injured, the Secretary-General reiterated that such acts of terrorism against those working to restore stability and peace to Mali was inexcusable.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the execution of three men by authorities in Gaza today. They were carried out without the approval of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as required under Palestinian law, effectively denying these men the right to seek pardon or commute their sentence.
The United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, has begun delivering emergency relief aid to families who recently escaped the besieged Iraqi city of Falluja. The first of five UNHCR airlifts of emergency items arrived today from Jordan to support up to 50,000 people.
A joint United Nations-International Committee of the Red Cross-Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy delivered much-needed humanitarian assistance to the hard-to-reach area of Houle in Homs, Syria, where 71,000 people received food, nutrition, hygiene kits and educational materials.
The Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan has strongly condemned the killing of a Slovakian nun and medical doctor on 15 May while on a humanitarian mission. Similarly, the acting Humanitarian Coordinator in the Central African Republic condemned the killing of a Médecins Sans Frontières staff member on 18 April.