Press Briefing by Spokesperson for Secretary-General

Briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General.

• Categories: Media / Press Conferences
• Video Length: 00:22:24
• Production Date: 15 December 2020
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: STEPHANE DUJARRIC
• Subject Topical: 75TH ANNIVERSARY; CORONAVIRUS DISEASE - COVID 19; HUMAN DEVELOPMENT; JOURNALISTS; MIGRANTS
• Geographic Subject: CHILE; COLOMBIA; ETHIOPIA; NIGER; PALESTINE; VENEZUELA
• MAMS Id: 2593226
• Parent Id: 2593226

Description

This morning, the Secretary-General listened to the Member States as the General Assembly held a closed session to discuss the follow-up to the declaration on the commemoration of the UN’s 75th anniversary.

In Ethiopia, the UN continues to engage at the highest levels with the Federal Government to work out operational details to guarantee humanitarian access. We are also working to scale up humanitarian assistance in the Tigray region once access is reestablished.

The UN Development Coordination Office announced that Siddharth Chatterjee of India has been appointed as the new Resident Coordinator in China. His appointment follows confirmation from the Host Government, and he will take up his post in the middle of January next year.

In Chile, as the Chilean Congress is discussing an immigration bill, the UN team, led by Resident Coordinator Silvia Rucks, is carrying out advocacy to ensure that the rights of migrants are respected.

The UN welcomes the resumption of the Geneva International Discussions (GID), which had its 51st session in Geneva on 11 December in-person.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHRC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) today said that they are deeply distressed by the death or disappearance at sea of up to 25 refugees and migrants from Venezuela, including children, after their boat capsized on the way to Trinidad and Tobago.

Today, the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayeh, and the Acting Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Lucia Elmi, launched together a $417 million Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) to help 1.8 million vulnerable people over the coming year.

In a note issued yesterday afternoon on Niger, the Secretary-General strongly condemned the attack perpetrated by unidentified gunmen in Niger’s Diffa Region, on Saturday, in which at least 27 people were reportedly killed and some 800 houses burned.

The 2020 Human Development Report was today released by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Today the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, condemned the heightened violence being carried out by non-state armed groups and criminal groups targeting peasants, indigenous and Afro-Colombian people in Colombia. She called on State authorities to take concrete actions to effectively protect the population.

Tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m., there will be a virtual press briefing by the President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Munir Akram. He will brief on the topic: “Responding to COVID-19: What will it take to recover better?”

For further details please see SOURCE below.
Office of the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General