UN Resolution Calls All Nations To Take Quick Actions Against Ebola

The Security Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on all nations to take quick action and provide urgent assistance to those affected by the current Ebola outbreak.
Only twice before has the Council met to discuss the security implications of a public health issue. Both times the focus was on the AIDS epidemic.

Today's (18 Sept) resolution also calls on UN member states to provide deployable medical capacities, including field hospitals, medical expertise, as well as airlift and aero-medical capacities.
In Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, increases in demand for Ebola Treatment Centre beds are continuing to outstrip capacity.
According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, the total number of cases in West Africa is over 5,500 with more than 2,500 deaths.
Speaking to the members of the Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "no single government can manage the crisis on its own. The United Nations cannot do it alone. This unprecedented situation requires unprecedented steps to save lives and safeguard peace security."

He stressed "therefore, I have decided to establish a UN emergency health mission, combining the World Health Organization's strategic perspective with a very strong logistics and operational capability."

Ban explained that the international mission, to be known as the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER, will have five priorities: stopping the outbreak, treating the infected, ensuring essential services, preserving stability and preventing further outbreaks.

He noted that the mission's effectiveness will depend crucially on support from the international community.

He also said "one week from today, we will gather at the highest level to mobilize political will to meet this extraordinary challenge. We cannot afford delays. The penalty for inaction is high."

The UN envoy for Ebola Dr. David Nabarro said "to get ahead of the outbreak, the level of response needs to be about twenty times greater than it is at the moment."

He explained that calculation was based on assessing the rate which it is extending, but also recognizing that any scale up takes between one and two months to put in place.

Nabarro underlined "I'm convinced that if it is properly organized the massive scale up can happen in the coming weeks and in fact will achieve the rapid ending of the outbreak."

Also speaking to the members of the Security Council, World Health Organization's Director-General Margaret Chan noted that WHO had successfully managed many big outbreaks in recent years.

She added "but this Ebola event is different, very different. This is likely the greatest peacetime challenge that the United Nations and its agencies have ever faced. None of us experienced in containing outbreaks has ever seen, in our lifetimes, an emergency on this scale, with this degree of suffering, and with this magnitude of cascading consequences."

Chan pointed out "this is not just an outbreak. This is not just a public health crisis. This is a social crisis, a humanitarian crisis, an economic crisis, and a threat to national security well beyond the outbreak zones."

Speaking via teleconference from Liberia's capital Monrovia, Jackson Naimah of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said "we do not have the capacity to respond to this crisis on its own. If the international community does not stand up, we will be wiped out. We need your help. We need it now."

US ambassador and president of the Security Council for the month of September Samantha Power noted that the resolution had 130 co-sponsors. The most co-sponsors ever for any Security Council resolution in the history of the United Nations.

She said "this is a degree of unanimity and unity that we rarely see. But if today's resolution is not followed by action on a scale and scope commensurate to the virus, this resolution would be sided years from now as evidence that we raised hopes that we didn't deliver on."

Power also said "knowing what we know now that about the exponential spread of this deadly virus we will have no excuse if we still fail to come together to do what is needed."

SHOTLIST:
18 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY

Exterior United Nations headquarters
Security Council Members voting
Security Council
Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council
Screen and Security Council chamber
David Nabarro
Margaret Chan
Security Council

SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations:
"No single government can manage the crisis on its own. The United Nations cannot do it alone. This unprecedented situation requires unprecedented steps to save lives and safeguard peace security. Therefore, I have decided to establish a UN emergency health mission, combining the World Health Organization's strategic perspective with a very strong logistics and operational capability."

SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations:
"One week from today, we will gather at the highest level to mobilize political will to meet this extraordinary challenge. We cannot afford delays. The penalty for inaction is high."

SOUNDBITE (English) David Nabarro, UN System Senior Coordinator for Ebola:
"I estimate that to get ahead of the outbreak, the level of response needs to be about 20 times greater than it is at the moment. That's the calculation based on assessing the rate which is extending, but also recognizing that any scale up takes between one and two months to put in place."

SOUNDBITE (English) David Nabarro, UN System Senior Coordinator for Ebola:
"I'm convinced that if it is properly organized the massive scale up can happen in the coming weeks and in fact will achieve the rapid ending of the outbreak."

SOUNDBITE (English) Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General:
"WHO has successfully managed many big outbreaks in recent years. But this Ebola event is different, very different. This is likely the greatest peacetime challenge that the United Nations and its agencies have ever faced. None of us experienced in containing outbreaks has ever seen, in our lifetimes, an emergency on this scale, with this degree of suffering, and with this magnitude of cascading consequences. This is not just an outbreak. This is not just a public health crisis. This is a social crisis, a humanitarian crisis, an economic crisis, and a threat to national security well beyond the outbreak zones."

SOUNDBITE (English) Jackson K.P. Naimah, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF):
"We do not have the capacity to respond to this crisis on its own. If the international community does not stand up, we will be wiped out. We need your help. We need it now."

SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, current President of the Security Council and Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
"Today's resolution has 130 co-sponsors. The most co-sponsors ever for any Security Council resolution in the history of the United Nations. That means that 2,176 resolutions came before this one and had fewer co-sponsors. This is a degree of unanimity and unity that we rarely see. But if today's resolution is not followed by action on a scale and scope commensurate to the virus, this resolution would be sided years from now as evidence that we raised hopes that we didn't deliver on. Knowing what we know now that about the exponential spread of this deadly virus we will have no excuse if we still fail to come together to do what is needed."

DURATION: 04:09