International Day of Biodiversity & other topics - Daily Briefing (22 May 2019)

Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Daily Press Briefing:

- Trip Announcement
- Middle East
- Moncef Kartas
- Yemen
- Libya
- Sudan
- Malaria
- Biodiversity
- International Labour Organization
- Stakeout
TRIP ANNOUNCEMENT
On Monday, the Secretary-General will arrive in Austria for a long-scheduled visit to the attend events to mark the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Vienna International Centre, the home of a number of United Nations organizations. 
He will express his congratulations and thanks to the Vienna-based parts of the United Nations system for their work and call for a renewed commitment to multilateralism and the values of the United Nations Charter.  
On 28 May, the Secretary-General will attend the annual meeting of the R20, an organization that brings together leaders from the world of politics, business and the private sectors focused on fighting climate change. The R20 was founded in 2011 by the former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Citing his recent trip to the South Pacific, the Secretary-General will highlight the need for urgent climate action, including by subnational governments, business and civil society leaders. He will appeal for leaders to bring more concrete and ambitions plans to his climate summit in New York in September.
The Secretary-General will then travel to Aachen in Germany, from 29-30 May to receive the International Charlemagne Prize, an honor which has been awarded annually since 1950 for efforts made in the service of European unification.
As part of the two-day event, the Secretary-General will deliver a key note address. He will also meet and engage in a conversation with students at the Aachen University and will also take part in a number of public events at the Charlemagne Prize Open Air Festival. 
The Secretary-General will be back in New York on 3 June.

MIDDLE EAST
Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, briefed the Security Council by videoconference today on the situation in the region, noting that earlier this month, we witnessed the most intense fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad [in] Gaza since 2014. The Special Coordinator said the escalation was part of a pattern – the closer we get to consolidating an understanding that would relieve the pressure on the people in Gaza and reduce the risk of rocket fire towards Israeli communities across the border, an incident like the last one would appear to undermine our careful and painstaking efforts.
He welcomed Israel’s decision to lift the ban on a fishing zone in Gaza and the reopening of the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings, and also welcomed the renewed commitment by the Palestinian government to engage constructively on addressing the situation in Gaza. Mr. Mladenov reiterated the Secretary-General’s condemnation on the launching of rockets from Gaza and also called on Israel to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from using lethal force against protesters.
The UN Commissioner-General for the Relief and Works Agency, Pierre Krähenbühl, also briefed the Council on Gaza, and he thanked countries who helped UNRWA successfully overcome an unprecedented deficit last year of $446 million. And he drew the Council’s attention to the increasingly desperate situation faced by the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip - of which at least 1.3 million are Palestine refugees.