Source: United Nations (Video News)
Noon Briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
-Briefings
-Biodiversity
-UNRWA
-Occupied Palestinian territory
-Security Council
-Lebanon/Israel
-Lebanon
-Financial contribution
-Ukraine
-Democratic Republic of the Congo
-Sudan
-International Day of Care and Support
BRIEFINGS
Tomorrow, you will have a heavy day. We’ve asked Amy Pope, the head of the International Organization for Migration who is currently in Sudan to brief you. She will be here at 11 a.m. vie videoconference from Port Sudan to brief you on her ongoing trip. At noon you will have to deal with me. Then at 1 p.m., there will be a briefing here by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel and that Commission includes Navid Pillay, Miloon Kothari and Chris Sidoti. Then at 2:00 p.m., Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 will be here live in person in this very room.
BIODIVERISTY
This morning, the Secretary-General is in Cali, in Colombia, where he is attending the high-level segment of the 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16). In his remarks, he highlighted that nature is life, and yet we are waging a war against it, a war where there can be no winner. He is in fact about to deliver those remarks and he is expected to warn that no country, rich or poor, is immune to the devastation inflicted by climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and pollution, adding that these environmental crises are intertwined, they know no borders.
The Secretary-General noted that when the Framework was adopted two years ago in Montreal, the world made bold commitments to living in harmony with nature by mid-century. He said that we must now turn these promises into acts.
This morning, he had a series of bilaterals. He met with Leslie Voltaire, the President of the Transitional Presidential Council of Haiti. They agreed on the need to expedite the political transition towards holding elections. In the meeting, the Secretary-General appealed to Haitian stakeholders to set aside their differences and work together for Haiti’s peace and security.
This afternoon, the Secretary-General will engage in discussions with indigenous people and local communities, as well as representatives of civil society, including youth and women.
And I think he just met with Gustavo Petro, the President of Colombia. Tomorrow, on the sidelines he will speak at an event on plastic pollution organized by the UN Environment Programme. He will also speak to journalists at a press conference before heading out of Cali and coming back to New York.
UNRWA
You saw that last night we issued a statement in the Secretary-General’s name in which he expressed his deep concern at the adoption yesterday by the Israeli Knesset of two laws concerning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, better known to all of us as UNRWA, and the laws which, if implemented, would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as mandated by the General Assembly of these United Nations.
The Secretary-General emphasized that UNRWA is the principal means by which essential assistance is supplied to Palestine refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. There is no alternative to UNRWA.
He calls on Israel to act consistently with its obligations under the Charter of the UN and its other obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and those concerning the privileges and immunities of the United Nations. National legislation cannot alter those obligations. He is bringing this matter to the attention of the General Assembly and will keep the Assembly closely informed on the situation as it develops.
Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, added that these bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza, where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell. He said that these bills increase the suffering of the Palestinians and are nothing less than collective punishment. Mr. Lazzarini also sent a letter to the President of the General Assembly to express those concerns in detail.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=29%20October%202024