Noon briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and by Reem Abaza, Spokesperson for the President of the 74th Session of the General Assembly.
Highlights:
Secretary-General
– Humanitarian Response to COVID-19
– Media Freedom
– WHO – Cyber Attacks
– Security Council
– UNHCR
– Lebanon
– Haiti
-Myanmar
– Côte d’Ivoire
– Afghanistan
– Mozambique
– Somalia
– Yemen
– International Day of Multilateralism
– Launch of “Rise for All” Initiative
SECRETARY-GENERAL
This morning, the Secretary-General spoke at the WHO launch to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to new COVID-19 tools.
Also taking part in the event were Dr. Tedros, President Macron of France, the President of South Africa, the Chancellor of Germany, the Head of the EU Commission, as well as many other world leaders as well as health partners.
In his remarks, the Secretary-General stressed that human health is the quintessential global public good.
He said we face a global pandemic like no other. In an interconnected world, none of us is safe until all of us are safe.
The Secretary-General stressed that the world needs the development, production and equitable delivery of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, therapeutics and diagnostics tools.
But, he said, this must be a vaccine and treatment that are affordable, safe, effective, easily-administered and universally available – for everyone, everywhere.
The Secretary-General expressed confidence that this can be done, saying he knows we can put people first.
Mr. Guterres called for this to be one of the vital lesson of this pandemic: the need for new urgency in support of global public goods and universal health care coverage.
HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE TO COVID-19
Aid groups – large and small – are supporting the world’s most vulnerable people in the fight against COVID-19.
Humanitarian organizations – including UN agencies, the Red Cross and others – are carrying out efforts ranging from working to build global supply chains and air bridges to delivering masks and medical equipment to communicating life-saving messages from cars and bicycles.
Lockdowns, curfews and restrictions on movements of personnel and cargo are impacting the humanitarian response, but aid workers are determined to continue their life-saving work to continue to help some 117 million people around the world.
To support the humanitarian response by all, the UN is urging access by fast-tracking of health and aid workers and also supplies at borders and within country.
The humanitarian system urgently needs funding to continue to fight the virus while maintaining critical pre-existing programmes. The $2 billion COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan, which, as you’ll recall, the Secretary-General launched a month ago, has received so far $697 million.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=24%20April%202020