President Obama's official agenda for the UN Summit will be released sometime on Friday. On Wednesday, at an address at Johns Hopkins School, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Esther Brimmer gave a thematic overview of the issues and messages that the United States will be pushing next week.
SG: Briefing the press today, the SG provided an update on preparations for the upcoming MDG Summit, saying 139 Heads of State are expected to attend and agreement has been reached on the outcome document.
Middle East: the SG condemned the killing of four Israelis today in the West Bank, calling it a “cynical and blatant attempt to undermine the direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations starting tomorrow”.
OCHA: Baroness Valerie Amos (UK), the incoming USG for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, will begin her term on September 6. She replaces Sir John Holmes, also from the UK, whose term ended today
IPCC Review: this morning the InterAcademy Council (IAC) released its independent review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (commissioned by the SG & IPCC Chair in March).
Somalia: this morning the Security Council held an open debate on legal responses to piracy off of the coast of Somalia, in which the SG reported that in the past seven months there have been 139 piracy-related incidents and 30 hijacked ships, while 17 ships and 450 sailors are currently being held at ransom.
DRC: the SG has issued a statement today in response to the rape and assault of at least 154 Congolese civilians during an attack by armed elements of the Mai-Mai and FDLR in eastern DRC earlier this month, expressing his “outrage”, calling on armed groups in the DRC to lay down their weapons and join the peace process and calling on the government of the DRC to investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice. He has decided to immediately dispatch ASG Atul Kh
Pakistan: in today’s GA meeting on Pakistan, the SG called the Pakistani floods a “slow-motion tsunami” and “one of the greatest tests of global solidarity” where needs are only expected to grow beyond the 15-20 million people already directly affected and in need of assistance. To date, nearly 1 million people have received a month’s food ration from the WFP and nearly the same have received emergency shelter and clean water from UNHCR, UNICEF, UNDP, IOM, WHO and others.
