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STORY: GA / SYRIA HUMANITARIAN 1
TRT: 2.53
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 25 FEBRUARY 2014, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
25 FEBRUARY 2014, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, dais
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General:
"I call on the Syrian government to authorize more humanitarian staff and partners to work in Syria. It is not credible to cite bureaucratic procedures as reasons for delay when it is the Government itself that controls those procedures.”
4. Wide shot, dais
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
"The Syrian people continue to suffer grievously. The depths of this plan cannot be conveyed through words. The international community, led by this Assembly, must support an immediate end to one of the most tragic human rights and humanitarian crises of put time.”
6. Med shot, General Assembly President John Ashe
7. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:
"An entire generation of young Syrians is being shaped by violence, displacement, and the lack of education and opportunities. Two thirds of the refugee children, and three million more inside Syria, are out of school. Thousands became separated from their families during flight. Child labour is a widespread phenomenon in exile. Children who have seen scenes no child should ever see have been wounded physically or psychologically, and with everyday the fighting drags, these children are at risk of losing their future forever.”
8. Wide shot, dais
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Kyung-Wha Kang, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs:
“It is unacceptable that international humanitarian and human rights law continues to be flagrantly violated by all parties to the conflict. All parties are failing in their responsibility to protect civilians.”
10. Wide shot, dais
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization:
“The steep drop in childhood immunization opened the door for vaccine preventable diseases to return to Syria. And they did, including Polio. The first cases of Polio in Syria since 1999 were reported in October 2013. This marks a significant risk and threat to Syria’s children, but also a huge setback to the global initiative to eradicate Polio.”
12. Pan right, Trusteeship Council
FILE – UNICEF - 29 OCOTBER 2013, DAMASCUS, SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
13. Med shot, UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake administering polio vaccine
14. Med shot, child being vaccinated
FILE – UNICEF - 13 FEBRUARY, 2014, HOMS, SYRIA
15. Various shots, people being evacuated from the city
As the conflict that has inflicted unimaginable suffering on the Syrian people prepares to enter its fourth year, United Nations officials today (25 Feb) stressed the need for a political solution to end the crisis, as well as greater efforts to protect civilians and ensure they receive the assistance they desperately need.
Noting that the scale and severity of humanitarian suffering in Syria is growing daily, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the Syrian Government to authorize more humanitarian staff and partners to work inside the country.
Ban said it was “not credible to cite bureaucratic procedures as reasons for delay when it is the Government itself that controls those procedures.”
Ban also called for an end to the indiscriminate use of barrel bombs and other aerial bombardments of urban centres; safe passage for humanitarian supplies along key routes; and more funds for the humanitarian response inside Syria and for those countries hosting people who have fled.
Briefing via satellite, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said “the Syrian people continue to suffer grievously” and “the depths of this pain cannot be conveyed through words.”
Pillay called on the international community to “support an immediate end to one of the most tragic human rights and humanitarian crises of put time.”
High Commissioner for Refugees Guterres, also speaking via videoconference, noted that five years ago, Syria was the world’s second largest refugee-hosting country. Syrians are now about to replace Afghans as the present biggest refugee population worldwide.
Guterres said “an entire generation of young Syrians is being shaped by violence, displacement, and the lack of education and opportunities.”
He noted that “two thirds of the refugee children, and three million more inside Syria, are out of school. Thousands became separated from their families during flight. Child labour is a widespread phenomenon in exile. Children who have seen scenes no child should ever see have been wounded physically or psychologically, and with everyday the fighting drags, these children are at risk of losing their future forever.”
Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Kyung-wha Kang, one of several senior UN officials who briefed the General Assembly on the humanitarian situation in Syria, cited the need to ensure that civilians are protected and able to receive the assistance they need.
Kang said it was “unacceptable that international humanitarian and human rights law continues to be flagrantly violated by all parties to the conflict.” She added that “all parties are failing in their responsibility to protect civilians.”
Also addressing the GA, Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), said “the steep drop in childhood immunization opened the door for vaccine preventable diseases to return to Syria. And they did, including Polio.”
Chan said the first cases of Polio in Syria since 1999 were reported in October 2013 which marks “a significant risk and threat to Syria’s children, but also a huge setback to the global initiative to eradicate Polio.”
Today’s briefing comes on the heels of the Security Council’s adoption on Saturday of a resolution demanding “rapid, safe and unhindered” humanitarian access for UN agencies and their partners, including across conflict lines and across borders.
Three years of conflict have resulted in well over 100,000 deaths, and more than 680,000 people have been injured. More than 9.3 million people are in need of assistance inside Syria, including at least 6.5 million who are internally displaced. The conflict has also spawned a refugee crisis in which nearly 2.5 million people have are being sheltered in neighbouring countries.
