Paris Peace Forum & other topics - Daily Briefing (8 November 2019)

Noon briefing by Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Highlights:
- SG Paris
- Syria
- Yemen
- South Sudan Humanitarian
- UNOCT
- Italy
- WHO
- Venezuela
SG PARIS
The Secretary-General will be travelling to Paris where on Monday 11 November he will address the Paris Peace Forum. The Forum, in its second year, intends to generate innovative and cooperative solutions to improve global governance and foster peace.
In his remarks, he is expected to emphasize the importance of multilateralism to solve today’s challenges and foster sustainable development. He will also call on the international community to use the UN’ 75th anniversary as an opportunity to renew its commitment to collective action.
Following his presentation at the forum, the Secretary-General is scheduled to have a bilateral with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
On Tuesday, he will deliver remarks at UNESCO, ahead of its General Conference. He will highlight UNESCO’s important role to promote multilateralism and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. In this context, he will also put a particular emphasis on the role of youth as key partners and agents of change.

SYRIA
The Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, briefed the press in Geneva earlier today on the work of the Constitutional Committee and its Small Body and he said he had witnessed very positive discussions and lots of courage from all parties to genuinely listened to each other.
Now, he said, the groups are going back to their constituencies to reflect on proposals that have been made. They will reconvene in Geneva in two weeks, on 25 November.
The Special Envoy said the success of this first meeting was in the ability for the participants to discuss very difficult subjects respectfully, and he hoped that they will continue to do so in the next meeting. He told the press that they would have been surprised at how much the parties agreed upon.
Mr. Pedersen added that the UN continues to call for a ceasefire and all the other issues, such as detainees, to be solved.
Full Highlights: