The Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, said today that ordinary people are paying a terrible price for the failure of the international community to agree steps to resolve the political crisis in Syria. She said in Davos, Switzerland, that aid efforts are not enough as the number of people in acute need continues to rise.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
The UN Assistance Mission for Afghanistan has released a report saying that torture remains a serious concern in numerous detention centres across Afghanistan. The Mission found that more than half of 635 conflict-related detainees whom it interviewed experienced ill treatment and torture, particularly in 34 locations of the Afghan National Police and the National Directorate of Security.
The Secretary-General is in California today, where he will speak at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He is expected to call for progress on nuclear disarmament and to encourage the nuclear-armed States to come up with a bold set of measures to promote transparency about their nuclear arsenals.
The Secretary-General has appointed Ahmad Alhindawi of Jordan as his Envoy on Youth. He has also appointed Carl Alexandre of the United States as his Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, replacing Kevin Kennedy, who served in that position from April 2010 until December last year.
The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today expressed deep shock at the two attacks at the University of Aleppo, which killed more than 80 people, most of them students. She said it was truly shocking and distressing to see so many young people dedicated to pursuing their education in the midst of strife lose their lives to senseless violence.
The UN refugee agency said today that clashes in northern and central Mali have resulted in new population displacement — both within Mali and into neighbouring countries.
The Secretary-General is following with concern developments regarding the announced plans for Israeli settlement construction in the so-called E1 area, on which he expressed his grave disappointment in his statement of 2 December. He notes that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, and repeats his call that any such settlement plans for E-1 must be rescinded.
The UN refugee agency says that severe winter conditions across Syria and the wider region have brought new difficulties for refugees and other displaced people. There has been no let-up in the number of people fleeing the violence in Syria and there are now more than 600,000 people either registered as refugees or being assisted as such.
The Deputy Secretary-General will travel to Washington, D.C., for meetings with senior officials at the World Bank on Friday. The purpose of the visit is to discuss further collaboration between the United Nations and the World Bank, and he will hold meetings with Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, and take part in a round-table discussion.
The Joint Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, will meet at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva on Friday with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and United States Deputy Secretary of State William Burns. That meeting is aimed at furthering their discussions to arrive at a political solution to the crisis in Syria.