Wednesday’s Daily Brief: Ebola Public Health Emergency in DR Congo, young peacemakers, defining moment for Sudan, war crimes fugitives, migrant ‘crisis’ in Hungary

UNICEF/Tremeau


A mother cries when she sees the body of her son who died of Ebola, before he is taken for burial at the Ebola Teatment Centre of Butembo, North-Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo (March 2019).


17 July 2019


Health


In today’s Daily Brief: the DR Congo Ebola outbreak is officially declared a Public Health Emergency; UN Youth Envoy briefs Security Council; an ‘exciting and potentially defining’ moment for Sudan, says UN adviser; more cooperation’s needed to secure arrest of war crimes fugitives; and politicizing the migrant ‘crisis’ in Hungary

DR Congo Ebola outbreak now a Public Health Emergency, UN health agency declares


The second worst Ebola outbreak of all time, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was officially declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on Wednesday, with the head of the World Health Organization calling for countries to ‘take notice and redouble our efforts”.


With the first anniversary of the complex outbreak in the volatile eastern part of the country looming, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that it was time to “work together in solidarity with the DRC to end this outbreak and build a better health system”, for its people.

For our full coverage, click here.

‘Young people care about peace’, declares UN Youth Envoy in Security Council chamber



After visiting refugee camps in Jordan, UN-backed schools in Gaza, municipalities in Kosovo and Youth Councils in Denmark, the UN’s Youth Envoy visited the Security Council on Wednesday with a simple message from the field that “young people care about peace”.


However, Jayathma Wickramanayake made clear that “young women and men still suffer from stereotypes, myths and policy panics that harm their agency and affect realizing their full potential for peace”.


Read our full story here.
‘Exciting and potentially defining’ moment for Sudan, with people ‘taking power back’, says top UN Adviser





With Sudan so much at the centre of the whole “volatile” Horn of Africa region, its political fate will have major “implications for a number of other quite vulnerable” neighbouring countries, according to the UN’s Special Adviser on the country.


Nicholas Haysom, was recently in New York, and in an interview with UN News, spoke about how “resolving the Sudanese crisis would generate stability” for the entire region.
Listen to or download the full interview with UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sudan, Nicholas Haysom, on SoundCloud:

It’s time to find and arrest remaining war crimes fugitives – UN prosecutor

More cooperation is needed to secure the arrest of fugitives charged with war crimes such as genocide, said the UN prosecutor for what is known as the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.


Serge Brammertz told Security Council members on Wednesday, that the “first priority” of his office remains to quickly wrap up the trials and appeals of alleged war criminals from the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, and genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, which fall under the Mechanism’s jurisdiction.


With eight people still on the run, he said that “we are not yet receiving the cooperation needed to secure arrests”, although he noted a general lack of national capacity and the difficulties of tracking down international fugitives.

Politicization of migrant ‘crisis’ in Hungary making them scapegoats, rights expert warns



Expressing deep concern over how migration and migrants themselves are being politicized and scapegoated in Hungary, an independent UN human rights expert on Wednesday urged the Government to immediately end its “crisis” approach to the issue.


“Migrants are portrayed as dangerous enemies in both official and public discourses” said Felipe González Morales, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, in a statement released following the end of an official visit.


He called on Hungary to “re-evaluate its current reality in relation to migration, terminate immediately the so-called ‘crisis situation’ and lift relevant restrictive measures.

Listen to or download our audio News in Brief for 17 July on SoundCloud:

Shadows of exclusion, social stigma, darken road to sustainable development


Also, take a listen to or download our interview with Justice Edwin Cameron, appointed by Nelson Mandela as the first openly gay Judge on South Africa’s Constitutional Court, and widely seen as a hero for his fight to end all forms of inequality and exclusion. Audio available here and on SoundCloud.

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https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/07/1042701
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