Noon Briefings

The Secretary-General accepts the broad findings of an external review’s report which found that the United Nations “failed to respond meaningfully” to claims of sexual abuse of children by foreign troops in the Central African Republic.  He vows to urgently review the report’s recommendations and act quickly.

The Secretary-General welcomes the start of the Yemen peace talks today in Switzerland.  He believes that peaceful and inclusive dialogue is the only way to end the suffering and rebuild confidence, trust and mutual respect amongst the Yemeni people following months of civil war and thousands of lives lost.

In Paris at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties talks on climate change, the Secretary-General called discussions the most complicated and difficult that he had ever attended.  He urged negotiators to go beyond national interests, stating “good global solutions will help good local solutions."

In a message to mark Human Rights Day today, the Secretary-General spoke of the millions of refugees and internally displaced people running from war, violence and injustice.  He urged the international community to not close, but open doors and guaranteed the right of all to seek asylum, without discrimination.

The Secretary-General spoke at the commemoration in Finland of the sixtieth anniversary of the country’s United Nations membership and welcomed its steps to prevent social exclusion, foster understanding across cultures and religions, and promote human rights.  He also visited an asylum seekers’ centre near the capital.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Central Africa updated the Security Council, saying Boko Haram remained a critical threat to regional stability, peace and security, piracy cases in the Gulf of Guinea had increased and tensions were mounting as several countries entered electoral cycles.

The Secretary-General, opening the high-level session of the twenty-first Conference of the Parties (COP21) just outside of Paris, told ministers and negotiators representing 196 parties that their task was to translate this historic call for action into a durable, credible and fair climate agreement.

The UN refugee agency says that recent fighting in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria region between local groups and the army has displaced more than 4,000 people into a remote region of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.  UNHCR has registered almost 3,500 newly arrived refugees in areas near the border.

At the Paris Climate Change Conference, new international partnerships were unveiled.  They include early warning systems for more than 50 of the least developed countries and small island States, as well as access to insurance for more than 400 million people in the most vulnerable countries.

Welcoming an announcement by the Government of Thailand that it has granted statehood to more than 18,000 people in the last three years, the United Nations refugee agency says this marks an important further step in the global campaign to end statelessness by 2024.