UN Dispatch

In Davos today, the Secretary-General met with the President of Switzerland and Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, as well as  the Prime Ministers of Kenya, Denmark, and Brazil.  Asked about the Secretary-General’s message in Davos, the Spokesperson said that he would stress the importance of social justice and equality, in these times of economic crisis.

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today outlined a series of actions he believes the global community must take over the next five years to build “the future we want.” In a speech to the General Assembly last September Mr. Ban presented five imperatives – or generational opportunities – that must be addressed to ensure a better future for the world’s people.

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The Security Council will be briefed tomorrow morning by Ian Martin, head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, and Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on post-conflict Libya. In the afternoon, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Yemen, Jamal Benomar, will brief the Security Council on his recent trip to Yemen, including an update on the situation on the ground in Yemen after President Ali Abdullah Saleh left the country on Sunday, bound for the US to receive medical treatment.

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced deep concern over continuing tensions along the border between Sudan and South Sudan, as well as the current crisis over oil, saying that the situation represented a worrying deterioration in the relationship between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the top United Nations envoy in South Sudan stressed today that the best way to protect civilians in the strife-torn state of Jonglei is through military deterrence and urged the Government to deploy more troops and police in the area to patrol buffer zones between rival communities and defuse tensions.

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The Secretary-General will travel to Switzerland next week, where he will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos. The SG will engage with a number of private sector leaders and will speak at the WEF sessions on Ending Energy Poverty and on the Rio+20 sustainable development summit.

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The United Nations must respond as the demands for justice around the world grow, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling for ushering in a new era of respect for the rule of law. In September, the UN will convene a high-level meeting on the rule of law – the first event of its kind and the first time, since 2005, that these issues will be discussed by top leaders.

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ôte d’Ivoire remains in great need of humanitarian assistance nine months after the end of the bloody post-election violence that displaced tens of thousands of people, Catherine Bragg, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs said today, urging donors to continue their generosity to the West African country throughout this year. Ms. Bragg also stressed that the country’s 2012-2015 National Development Plan, which will soon be adopted by the Government, should also serve as an avenue for alleviating the humanitarian crisis.

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The United Nations has received a formal request from the Arab League to start training observers monitoring the crackdown in Syria, Arab media reported Tuesday, quoting UN sources. The training is to be conducted by staff from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, according to Dubai-based broadcaster Al Arabiya.

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The Secretary-General is in Lebanon today. Tomorrow he will also visit the United Arab Emirates, where he will convene his High Level Group on Sustainable Energy for All and attend the World Future Energy Summit.

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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged investors today to lend their support to sustainable development initiatives to deal with climate change and provide efficient energy solutions around the world. “In these times of austerity and economic uncertainty, public sector efforts alone will not be sufficient,” Mr. Ban said in his message to participants at the Investor Summit in New York.

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