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HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHEN DUJARRIC, SPOKESPERSON FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON

FRIDAY, 26 FEBRUARY 2016

SECRETARY-GENERAL GREATLY CONCERNED OVER INCREASING BORDER RESTRICTIONS ALONG BALKAN LAND ROUTE

• In a statement issued today, the Spokesman said that the Secretary-General is with great concern the increasing number of border restrictions along the Balkan land route, including in Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
• Such border restrictions are not in line with the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol because individual determination of refugee status and assessment of individual protection needs are not made possible.
• The Secretary-General notes that the number of asylum seekers entering Greece from Turkey continues unabated, and that the border closures are creating a difficult situation in Greece. Meanwhile, Turkey is already hosting in excess of 2.6 million refugees and asylum seekers.
• The Secretary-General is fully aware of the pressures felt by many European countries. However, he calls on all countries to keep their borders open, and to act in a spirit of responsibility sharing and solidarity, including through expanding legal pathways to access asylum.
• The Secretary-General recalls that the vast majority of refugees are hosted by developing countries. There is a real need for responsibility sharing at the global level. This will be one of the key issues in the General Assembly9;s Summit on large movements of refugees and migrants, to be held on 19 September in New York.

U.N. AGENCIES SETUP SUPPORT CENTRES FOR FAMILIES ON FREQUENTLY USED MIGRATION ROUTES IN EUROPE

• The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are joining forces to set up special support centres for children and families along the most frequently used migration routes in Europe.
• Twenty Child and Family Support Hubs, to be known as “Blue Dots,” will provide a safe space for children and their families, vital services, play, protection and counselling in a single location.
• The hubs aim to support vulnerable families on the move, especially the many unaccompanied or separated children at risk of sickness, trauma, violence, exploitation and trafficking.
• The first hubs are now operational or about to open in Greece, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. All 20 will be operational within the next three months.
• The two agencies say that women and children account for two thirds of those crossing to Europe. And last year, more than 90,000 unaccompanied or separated children registered and applied for asylum or were in care in Europe.

SECRETARY-GENERAL TO VISIT EUROPE AND NORTH AFRICA

• The Secretary-General will travel next week to Geneva and Madrid and then on to Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Algeria, including Tindouf, Rabouni and Algiers. On Monday, 29 February, in Geneva, he will address the Human Rights Council on the first day of its 31st session.
• He will also designate the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, led by UN Messenger of Peace Daniel Barenboim, as a United Nations Global Advocate for Cultural Understanding. This orchestra brings together young musicians from Israel, Palestine and several Arab countries.
• Also in Geneva, the Secretary-General will inaugurate the Russian Room at the Palais des Nations with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs. And he will also meet with a number of non-governmental organizations.
• On Tuesday 1 March, the Secretary-General will travel to Madrid, Spain, where he will meet the Foreign Minister. The following day, Wednesday 2 March, the Secretary-General will go to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. On Thursday, 3 March, he will meet with the senior government officials and visit a UN project.
• On Friday, 4 March, he will travel to Nouakchott, Mauritania. There, he will meet the government leaders and deliver a key note speech on peace and security in the Sahel region, and also visit a UN project.
• From Mauritania, he will then travel to Tindouf, Algeria to visit a nearby Sahrawi refugee camp. He will meet the Secretary-General of the Frente Polisario in Rabouni. He will also meet with UN staff working in the area. From there, he will visit the Bir Lahlou team site of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
• Finally, on Sunday 6 March and Monday 7 March, the Secretary-General will be in Algiers to meet senior most government officials. During his visit to Algiers, the Secretary-General is also expected to open the 5^th General Assembly of the Kigali International Conference on the role of security forces in combatting violence against women and girls, and give a speech to university students.

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL CALLS FOR URGENT AND FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT IN RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT APPROACH

• The Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, today at the General Assembly Thematic Panel Debate on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).
• Mr. Eliasson said that 10 years after the adoption of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, individual states and the international community continue to fail in their responsibility to protect.
• He added that we continue to see a number of situations in which people are suffering horrendous abuses. He said that some of them may well constitute genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
• Mr. Eliasson stressed that this is a clear indication that we require an urgent and fundamental shift in how we approach our responsibility to protect in order to fulfil the commitment of 2005.
• He underlined three priorities to help move the responsibility to protect agenda forward – to do better at prevention; respond faster and more decisively; as well as do more in peacebuilding, both financially and politically.

SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SYRIA TO BRIEF SECURITY COUNCIL AHEAD OF EXPECTED CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES

• The Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, will brief the Security Council at 3 p.m. today, just hours in advance of the expected cessation of hostilities that is to go into effect at midnight tonight in that country.
• Mr. de Mistura will then hold a press conference in Geneva immediately after his presentation to the Security Council, in which he has said he would indicate when the political talks might be resumed. The press conference will be broadcast live on .
• Earlier today, the Security Council approved a resolution extending the mandate of the UN office in Guinea-Bissau for twelve months, until the end of February 2017.

U.N. ENVOY IN IRAQ CONDEMNS ATTACK ON MOSQUE IN BAGHDAD

• The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for , Ján Kubiš, strongly condemned the attack on Rasul Al-Azam mosque in Baghdad on Thursday.
• He said that it was an utterly despicable act of wanton savagery against peaceful worshipers, which is clearly intended to incite sectarian violence. He called on the authorities to do everything in their power to bring the criminals who are responsible to account.

SOUTH SUDAN: DEPUTY HUMANITARIAN CHIEF URGES PARTIES TO CONFLICT TO ENSURE PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS

• The Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kyung-wha Kang, concluded today a two-day visit to South Sudan, calling on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and grant safe and unhindered humanitarian access.
• Ms. Kang was part of the Secretary-General’s recent visit to the country. She stayed on and met humanitarian partners and also visited Malakal, following the violence that took place there in the UN Protection of Civilians (PoC) site.
• She said she was outraged by what she saw: civilians who had sought safety in the PoC had been attacked, killed, traumatised and displaced once more, with whole sections of the PoC completely and systematically burnt down and destroyed.
• She added that despite the peace agreement, civilians in the country continued to face destitution, destruction, death and devastation.
• She appealed to the international community to act immediately to avert an even greater tragedy in South Sudan, as humanitarian needs are higher now than ever.
• The UN Mission there () reported that the situation in Pibor has stabilized. However, it warned that insecurity is likely to persist unless a durable political solution is found to solve the leadership crisis within the Murle.
• The Mission further reported that the recent fighting has resulted in the looting of offices by International Non-Governmental Organizations, including Médecins Sans Frontières and Catholic Relief Services and humanitarian actors withdrawing from the area. Some 2,000 civilians have sought protection near the UNMISS base.
• The Mission continues to engage political actors at a number of levels, both on the ground and in the capital, Juba, to help to de-escalate the situation.

U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICE CONCERNED OVER HARASSMENT OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS IN D.R. CONGO

• The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that harassment of civil society organizations continues as democratic space shrinks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - with six members of the LUCHA movement sentenced to two years in prison by the district Court of Goma on Wednesday.
• The activists were arrested on 16 February by the Agence Nationale de Renseignements in Goma, in an apparent bid to prevent their participation in and reduce public support for a “ghost town” day organized across the country by opposition parties and civil society organizations.
• The six activists were convicted for incitement to revolt against the authorities. All hearings took place within seven days. Violations of fair trial proceedings were reported, as the activists were not afforded appropriate time to prepare their defence, and the court refused to look into evidence submitted by defence lawyers.

SWAZILAND: EL NINO-INDUCED DROUGHT LEAVES AT LEAST 300,000 PEOPLE IN NEED OF AID, U.N. WARNS

• The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that an El Niño-induced drought in Swaziland has left at least 300,000 people - a third of the national population - in dire need of assistance, especially of food and water, according to our humanitarian partners.
• The risk of waterborne diseases and malnutrition has also risen, due to the water shortages and poor sanitary conditions. Education has also been affected.
• According to the Government of Swaziland, $80.5 million is required for life-saving programmes and to mitigate the effects of the drought.
• Swaziland is one of several Southern African countries which have been hard-hit by El Niño-related droughts. Others include Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

**The guest at the noon briefing was the Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), Jean-Paul Laborde.**