Philippines

On Saturday, 11 November, United Nations Secretary‑General António Guterres left New York for Manila, to participate in the 2017 Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Today is World Diabetes Day, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is highlighting women’s right to a healthy future.  The agency says there are some 422 million people living with diabetes, 205 million of whom are women.  More than half are in the Western Pacific and South-east Asia regions.

This week is Antibiotic Awareness Week, and it kicks off today under the theme “Learn how to handle antibiotics with care”.  The development of resistance is a big issue, and more information about can be found on the the World Health Organization’s website.

Marking World Day against the Death Penalty, the Secretary-General said that the barbaric practice had no place in the twenty-first century and called on countries who continued to use it to stop executions.  He also praised progress made, noting some 170 countries had either abolished or stopped using the death penalty.

At its 67th meeting, on 3 August 2017, the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, in connection with the examination of the fourth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in the Philippines (document S/2017/294), covering the period from 1 December 2012 to 31 December 2016, agreed to convey the following messages through a public statement by the Chair of the Working Group:

The World Food Programme (WFP) reports that the Central African Republic counts among the world’s most forgotten crises, receiving ever-shrinking humanitarian funding.  With half its people needing humanitarian aid and more than 2 million hungry, WFP’s humanitarian response plan for 2017 is only 7 per cent financed.

The new Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations, Teodoro Lopez Locsin, Jr., presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

NEW YORK, 19 January (Office for Disarmament Affairs) — The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific has launched a project to assist the Philippines in strengthening its national capacity to control transfers of small arms and light weapons, with a view to preventing their illicit trade and diversion.