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This morning, the Secretary-General spoke at the start of a five-day meeting with the 129 UN Resident Coordinators who are leading the UN’s response and recovery efforts on the COVID-19 pandemic around the world.
This is the third global gathering of Resident Coordinators and, of course, the first one to be fully online due to the pandemic.
The Secretary-General said he counts on them to fully mobilize their partners and UN country teams to support Governments in ensuring equitable access to the COVID-19 tests, treatments, and – very soon, hopefully – vaccines, which are a global good and must be available to all, everywhere.
Mr. Guterres noted that the pandemic has revealed profound fragilities, with inequalities growing, the climate emergency worsening and hatred spreading.
He said that recovering better from the pandemic and bolstering action for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development must be two sides of the same coin.
During the coming days, the Resident Coordinators will discuss how to set the set the stage for a more sustainable recovery, including how to protect jobs and bolster social protection and basic services.
 
SECURITY COUNCIL/DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Here, in the Security Council, addressing the Council by videoconference, Leila Zerrougui, the head of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, began by highlighting political tensions in the country, which led to yesterday’s announcement by President Felix Tshisekedi that the coalition uniting Cap for Change (CACH) and the Front Commun pour le Congo (FCC) had ended.
The DRC cannot afford a serious institutional crisis, Ms. Zerrougui told Council members. It needs stable and functioning institutions that get back to work as quickly as possible and focus on national economic recovery, as well as stabilization in the eastern part of the country, ahead of the general elections scheduled for 2023.
The Special Representative said that the Security Council can play an important role to encourage a negotiated resolution between the two forces that favours lasting solutions, prioritizing the interests of the Congolese people over short-term political objectives that risk further increasing tensions. 

LIBYA
The Acting Special Representative for Libya, Stephanie Williams, hosted on Saturday a virtual meeting to inform the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum participants of the results of their voting processes over the previous days and to discuss the way forward.
She reaffirmed the UN Mission’s commitment to and respect for the decisions of the Forum members taken during their recent in-person meetings in Tunisia, according to which decisions should be reached on a consensual basis.
Ms. Williams announced that a virtual session will be held in the coming days to discuss the next steps based on the productive suggestions presented by many of the Dialogue Forum members during the weekend session.

YEMEN
Our acting Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Laurent Bukera, has said that a 3 December artillery shelling in Hudaydah City was “yet another senseless attack” that killed and injured many civilians. He shared our deepest condolences with the families of those who had been killed and wish those injured a full and quick recovery.
That attack was the second one causing multiple civilian deaths and injuries in Hudaydah within a week and the third across Yemen. Hostilities in the Hudaydah Governorate have escalated in recent months, with 49 fatalities and injuries recorded across the governorate in November and 74 fatalities and injuries recorded in October.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
The UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) reports that electoral materials including 12,000 ballot boxes, 4,200 kits and 12,000 voting booths have arrived in Bangui. This is part of a batch of electoral equipment provided by South Africa in collaboration with the UN mission and the UN Development Programme, and that is to support a democratic process in the Central African Republic.
Voter cards for the prefectures of Bamingui-Bogoran and Vakaga that were procured by the Central African Government were also delivered.
Over 1.8 million people have registered to vote in the 27 December elections and 46.6 per cent of them are women.
The Mission’s Deputy Special Representative, Denise Brown, was at the airport, along with other dignitaries, to receive the materials, and described the arrival of the voter cards as a critical marker of the “positive evolution of the election preparation process.”
On Monday, the Special Representative and Head of the MIssion, Mankeur Ndiaye, and G5 group members – who are friends of the Central African Republic – started a series of meetings with all 17 candidates for the presidential election to discuss the electoral process, including the international community’s support to the elections.

CENTRAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE FUND
Tomorrow, the Secretary-General will open the annual High-Level Pledging Conference of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).
This event will be convened by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It will highlight CERF’s achievements in 2020 and pledging announcements for 2021.
There will also be a discussion on how to collectively increase the level of the Fund towards the $1 billion target endorsed by the General Assembly in 2016.
The event will bring together senior representatives from the UN Member States and Observers, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, foundations and the private sector.
Since its establishment, CERF has provided nearly $7 billion for life-saving support for humanitarian action that has helped hundreds of millions of people across more than 100 countries and territories. This, of course, would not have been possible without generous and consistent donor support.

AFGHANISTAN/VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS
A report released today by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the UN Human Rights Office warns that Afghan women and girls are being failed by the country’s justice system, with their access to justice for crimes of violence remaining tenuous. UNAMA found that only half of the reported crimes reached a primary court, with perpetrators convicted in around 40 per cent of all documented cases. Other issues raised in the report include the problematic handling of rape cases and ongoing detention of women for “running away”.
Throughout the global campaign for 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence, from 25 November to 10 December, the United Nations in Afghanistan is calling for an increased effort to prevent and redress violence against women and girls. This is particularly important in the context of the outbreak of COVID-19, with the ongoing monitoring by UNAMA suggesting that violence against women and girls has increased, as difficulties for victims in reporting crimes and accessing safety and justice have also increased.

COUNTER-TERRORISM
Two events to flag related to the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism:
First, this morning, the Office held an event to launch the ‘International Hub on Behavioural Insights to Counter Terrorism’, inaugurated today as a Programme Office in Doha in Qatar.
Vladimir Voronkov, the Head of the Office, said that through insights from cognitive psychology, behavioural economics and social sciences, the Hub will study how humans think, decide and take action. It will help his Office understand why and how people become radicalized to violence and where they can intervene most effectively to halt the radicalization process.
Mr. Voronkov, and the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Ghada Waly will sign a joint Plan of Action to strengthen internal collaboration on counterterrorism and preventing violent extremism.

INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION DAY
Today marks something that we rarely do these days and that is International Civil Aviation Day.
In a message, the Secretary-General noted that this year’s observance of the Day falls as COVID-19 has severed international connections by air, cutting off businesses from clients, keeping tourists from destinations, and disproportionately affecting the vulnerable.
The Secretary-General stresses that countries must act urgently to sustain their air transport sectors in the face of the many COVID-related challenges.
Yet, they must do so with climate in mind, he added. He urged the entire sector to commit to net zero by 2050 and develop a strategy in alignment with the Paris Agreement well ahead of next year’s climate conference.

CHILDREN/COVID-19
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today launched an appeal for a record high $2.5 billion in emergency funding to help nearly 40 million children in the Middle East and North Africa next year.
UNICEF says this region is home to the highest number of children in need in the world and this is largely due to man-made crises, such as armed conflicts, poverty and economic stagnation.
The new appeal seeks to reach children with critical humanitarian aid and to continue responding to massive needs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The response to the crises in Yemen, Syria and Sudan make up the lion’s share of the appeal.
Last year, UNICEF’s appeal received only half the required funds.
 
U.N. POPULATION FUND/HUMANITARIAN APPEAL
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) today launched its largest ever humanitarian appeal, at a total of $818 million. Next year, UNFPA aims to reach 54 million women, girls and young people in 68 countries with critical assistance, including sexual and reproductive health care and services to prevent gender-based violence and support survivors.
UNFPA noted that the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic felt by women and girls in humanitarian crises has become increasingly evident. The agency warns that lifesaving sexual and reproductive health services are being interrupted, gender-based violence is skyrocketing, and the need for psychosocial support is rising.