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UN / SYRIA POLITICAL HUMANITARIAN
STORY: UN / SYRIA POLITICAL HUMANITARIAN
TRT: 05:04
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 25 JANUARY 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UN Headquarters, exterior
25 JANUARY 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir O. Pedersen, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria:
"As we move into 2023, the Syrian people remain trapped in a profound humanitarian, political, military, security, economic and human rights crisis of great complexity and almost unimaginable scale. Syrians remain deeply divided over their future. Despite our best efforts, no substantive progress is being made to build a common political vision for that future via a genuine political process."
4. Med shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir O. Pedersen, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria:
" To this end, I continue to engage the Syrian parties to the conflict. I will return to Damascus in February for meetings with Syrian Foreign Minister Mekdad and the Government-nominated Co-Chair of the Constitutional Committee Kuzbari. I saw the President of the Syrian Negotiations Commission Jamous and the SNC-nominated Co-Chair of the Constitutional Committee al-Bahra in Geneva earlier this week. I am in parallel engaging widely with key international players."
6. Pan right, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir O. Pedersen, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria:
"The scale of needs inside Syria is at the worst level since the conflict began – with record poverty, record food insecurity, basic services breaking down, and a burgeoning economic crisis. Needs in displacement camps remain the most urgent. Meanwhile, infrastructure remains on the brink, with frequent power outages against a backdrop of dwindling fuel supplies, with knock-on effects across society."
8. Close-up, Permanent Representative of Syria
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir O. Pedersen, United Nations Special Envoy for Syria:
"I look forward to progress in establishing a missing persons’ institution, as recommended by the Secretary General, created as a pathway able to offer tangible progress on this aspect of the file. Meanwhile, we continue to remind our interlocutors at every opportunity that arbitrary detainees must be released, and substantive steps taken to ensure the protection and rights of detainees."
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Ghada Eltahir Mudawi, Officer in Charge, Operations and Advocacy Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:
“For many families, this is their twelfth winter in displacement. Some have been uprooted multiple times, while others have lived in the same tents for more than a decade. In this dire context, humanitarian efforts to help face and adapt to the winter in north-west Syria remain 78 percent under-funded. Throughout Syria, the response for winterization is equally poorly funded at 29 percent. With available resources 1.4 million individuals only have been reached as of the end of December, leaving 2.8 million vulnerable people without adequate emergency shelter or NFIs to protect against harsh winter conditions.”
12. Med shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ghada Eltahir Mudawi, Officer in Charge, Operations and Advocacy Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:
“I call for strong support to the cholera response to continue, including funding to health facilities as several of them in north-west Syria have closed in recent weeks due to funding cuts. Adequate investment needs also to be done in water and sanitation to address the root causes of the outbreak.”
14. Med shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Ghada Eltahir Mudawi, Officer in Charge, Operations and Advocacy Division, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs:
“Humanitarian relief to civilians in need should be allowed and facilitated through all available routes, in line with International Humanitarian Law. However, I want to be clear that a six-month extension poses challenges to our operations and funding and disruptions to humanitarian logistics and procurement.”
16. Wide, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bassam Sabbagh, Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations:
“As the immediate and unconditional lifting of the measures of economic terrorism and collective punishment imposed on the Syrian people is needed. As well as improving the humanitarian situation by addressing the humanitarian needs of Syrians fairly and without discrimination. Donors should fulfill the commitments they made to the humanitarian response plan, increasing and expanding early recovery project in quantity and quality.”
18. Wide shot, Security Council
The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Geir O. Pedersen, told the Security Council that the scale of needs inside Syria is “at the worst level since the conflict began”.
Addressing the Security Council today (25 Jan) in New York, Pedersen said, “As we move into 2023, the Syrian people remain trapped in a profound humanitarian, political, military, security, economic and human rights crisis of great complexity and almost unimaginable scale.”
He continued, “Syrians remain deeply divided over their future. Despite our best efforts, no substantive progress is being made to build a common political vision for that future via a genuine political process.”
Pedersen told the Security Council, “I continue to engage the Syrian parties to the conflict. I will return to Damascus in February for meetings with Syrian Foreign Minister Mekdad and the Government-nominated Co-Chair of the Constitutional Committee Kuzbari. I saw the President of the Syrian Negotiations Commission Jamous and the SNC-nominated Co-Chair of the Constitutional Committee al-Bahra in Geneva earlier this week.”
According to Pedersen, needs in displacement camps remain the most urgent.
Due to this situation, he added, “infrastructure remains on the brink, with frequent power outages against a backdrop of dwindling fuel supplies, with knock-on effects across society."
He also noted, “I look forward to progress in establishing a missing persons’ institution, as recommended by the Secretary General, created as a pathway able to offer tangible progress on this aspect of the file.”
Ghada Eltahir Mudawi delivered remarks on behalf of the UN Humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths.
Mudawi, Officer in Charge from Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said, “For many families, this is their twelfth winter in displacement. Some have been uprooted multiple times, while others have lived in the same tents for more than a decade.”
She continued, “In this dire context, humanitarian efforts to help face and adapt to the winter in north-west Syria remain 78 percent under-funded. Throughout Syria, the response for winterization is equally poorly funded at 29 percent. With available resources 1.4 million individuals only have been reached as of the end of December, leaving 2.8 million vulnerable people without adequate emergency shelter or NFIs to protect against harsh winter conditions.”
Two million doses of Oral Cholera Vaccines have arrived in Syria and 1.7 million in north-west Syria.
She said, “Adequate investment needs also to be done in water and sanitation to address the root causes of the outbreak.”
Also talking at the Security Council, Bassam Sabbagh, Syrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said, “The immediate and unconditional lifting of the measures of economic terrorism and collective punishment imposed on the Syrian people is needed.”
He continued, “Donors should fulfill the commitments they made to the humanitarian response plan, increasing and expanding early recovery project in quantity and quality.”
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