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Tag: Stephane Dujarric

  • Guterres saddened by lack of life in Serum Institute hearth: UN Spokesperson

    Image Source : UN Guterres saddened by lack of life in Serum Institute hearth: UN Spokesperson
     UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is saddened by the lack of life in a hearth on the Serum Institute of India facility in Pune and hopes that the incident is absolutely investigated, his spokesperson has mentioned.

    Five males died after a hearth broke out in a five-storeyed under-construction constructing within the Serum Institute of India’s Manjari premises in Pune on Thursday, police mentioned.

    The Manjari facility is the place the Covishield vaccines used within the nationwide inoculation drive towards the pandemic are made. The constructing the place hearth broke out is one km from the Covishield vaccine manufacturing unit.

    We, clearly, are saddened by the lack of life and ship our condolences to the households impacted, and we hope the hearth is absolutely investigated, Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, mentioned on the day by day press briefing on Thursday.

    Dujarric was responding to a query on whether or not the UN chief has a touch upon the hearth on the Serum Institute, which is producing COVID-19 vaccines in India. Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla mentioned that the Covishield vaccine manufacturing won’t be hit as a result of hearth.

    “I would like to reassure all governments & the public that there would be no loss of #COVISHIELD production due to multiple production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies at @SerumInstIndia,” Poonawalla tweeted on Thursday.

    Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar mentioned the state authorities has ordered a probe into the hearth.
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  • UN reaffirms people’s right to demonstrrate peacefully

    People have a right to demonstrate peacefully and authorities should let them do so, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said on the farmers’ protests in India.

    India has called the remarks by foreign leaders on protests by farmers as “ill-informed” and “unwarranted” as the matter pertained to the internal affairs of a democratic country. As to the question of India, what I would say to you is what I’ve said to others when raising these issues is that people have a right to demonstrate peacefully, and authorities need to let them do so,” Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, said on Friday.

    Reacting to the comments by the foreign leaders, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Tuesday said, “We have seen some ill-informed comments relating to farmers in India. Such comments are unwarranted, especially when pertaining to the internal affairs of a democratic country.”

    In a terse message, the ministry further added that “it is also best that diplomatic conversations are not misrepresented for political purposes.”

    On Friday, India summoned Canadian High Commissioner and told him that the comments made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and others in his Cabinet on the farmers’ protest constituted an “unacceptable interference” in the country’s internal affairs and these actions, if continued, will have a “seriously damaging” impact on the bilateral ties.

    Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and several other states have been protesting for the last nine days at the borders of Delhi against three farm laws. Dubbing these laws as “anti-farmer”, these farmers claim that the newly enacted legislation would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporations.

  • UN Continues To Face Cash Crisis, Could Close The Year With Greater Arrears Than In 2019

    United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric during a press conference on Wednesday, November 11 said that the global organisation is experiencing a severe shortage of funds. He further added that it may be left with greater outstanding contributions by the end of 2020 as compared to 2019.

    Earlier in October, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had informed that the organisation is going through a severe budget crisis. He also put in a few measures to help the crisis, which included restricting the travel of staff, limiting heating and air-conditioning services and adjusting hiring practices to curtail spending. 

    In a media statement last month, Guterres had warned that the global organisation won’t be able to pay its bills and salaries if debtor nations don’t cough up their unpaid dues. He had further informed the UN budget committee that the organisation is facing a “severe financial crisis”, outlining a budget of $2.87 billion next year.

    Though the countries are likely to pay a large portion of the dues by the end of the year, unpaid dues stand at $1.3 billion which is an alarming amount. The UN Secretary-General further termed the deficit to be the deepest in the decade. In such a situation, the UN risks exhausting peacekeeping cash reserves.According to figures provided by the US mission to the UN, the country owes $381 million from prior budgets and $674 million for the regular budget. US also owe an additional $2.6 billion for active peacekeeping missions. One of the reasons behind such huge debts is the fiscal years of the US and the UN. The United Nations runs its budget on a calendar year while the US fiscal year begins in October.