REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information about human rights and other meetings in Geneva and New York, the polio outbreak in Yemen, and other issues. Spokespersons for and Representatives of the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the International Labour Office, the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund and the International Organization for Migration participated in the briefing.

Ms. Heuzé reminded journalists that there would be the regular briefing on Tuesday, 3 May, followed by a round table on the freedom of the press at 11:30 a.m. to mark World Press Freedom Day. Thursday, 5 May was a day off at the United Nations Office at Geneva, but Friday, 6 May was a regular working day and there would be a briefing as usual.

Human Rights and Other Meetings in Geneva and New York

Mrs. Heuzé said the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would this afternoon be concluding its consideration of the initial report of China which it started on Wednesday afternoon. The press release would be issued after 6 p.m. this afternoon as the Information Service now issued one release per country. The press release on the initial report of Zambia was issued on Wednesday, 27 April. Next week the Committee would be taking up reports from Serbia and Montenegro and from Norway. The Committee, which was meeting at the Palais des Nations, would be concluding its three-week session on 13 May.

The Committee against Torture would be holding its thirty-fourth session from 2 to 20 May at the Palais Wilson. Its first meeting would be held at 10:30 a.m. on Monday. During its session, the Committee would be examining reports from Togo, Canada, Switzerland, Finland, Albania, Uganda and Bahrain. The background press release was already available in English and in French.

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families would this afternoon be concluding its week-long second session which was being held at the Palais Wilson. A roundup would be issued later in the day. The Committee was not yet considering reports from States parties but was working on its methods of work.

In New York, the 2005 Review Conference of the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons would be held from 2 to 27 May. The press kit in English was available earlier this week, but the kit in French was now available and copies had been placed at the back of the room. Copies of the background press release were also available. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, who was also the Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, would be in New York next week to attend the first week of the Review Conference.

Copies of the summary of the Secretary-General's 21 March report on UN reform "In Larger Freedom" were available in the press room to facilitate the work of journalists on this subject, as the reform would continue to be an ongoing topic over the coming months.

In conclusion, the Director said the International Law Commission would be starting the first part of its fifty-seventh session in Geneva on 2 May. The opening plenary on Monday morning would be public, and then the rest of the meetings of the Commission would be held behind closed doors as usual. She recalled that the Commission was made up of 34 members who were elected for a period of five years. Available at the back of the room was the provisional agenda of the Commission as well as a list of the Commission's members.

Human Rights

José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said he had sent to journalists a release on the deployment of a first group of human rights monitors in Nepal which would take place early next month. There would be eight monitors and support staff going to the country where they would join OHCHR staff already there, bringing the total to 12. These staffers would lead the way for the deployment of a larger contingent in the coming weeks and months. This was the result of the agreement signed between the Office and the Government of Nepal on 11 April. It was welcomed by the Commission on Human Rights in a decision on 20 April. The OHCHR operation would be headed by Mr. Ian Martin who has more than 30 years of experience in human rights in the international field, both in the NGO community - among other things, he was the Secretary-General of Amnesty International - and the United Nations - among other assignments, he was head of the human rights field operation in Rwanda and Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor. A press release with more biographical details on Mr. Martin would be available.

Mr. Díaz said the Special Rapporteur on religious tolerance, Asma Jahangir, would be visiting Sri Lanka from 2 to 12 May. And the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights defenders, Hina Jilani, would be visiting Nigeria from 3 to 12 May.

Polio Outbreak in Yemen

David Heyman, Representative of the Director-General of the World Health Organization for Polio Eradication, recalled that last week, WHO had announced that there were four confirmed cases of polio in Yemen. This week, there was a confirmation of 18 new cases, bringing the total number of cases to 22 in five governorates throughout the country. So this was now a major epidemic of polio in Yemen. This epidemic would cost the polio partnership, which was made up of Rotary, UNICEF, WHO and CDC from Atlanta, about $ 4 million for three vaccination rounds which needed to be carried out. This was the first polio identified in Yemen since 1996. It was an outbreak of type 1 polio virus. He recalled that type 2 polio had disappeared and type 3 was appearing only in very localized areas in Africa and in India. Type 1 was the one currently spreading throughout Africa and into Saudi Arabia. WHO and its partners were using the monovalent oral polio vaccine type 1 (mOPV1) where it could be used because it gave children better protection after just one dose, and after two or three doses they were 100 per cent protected. WHO was very confident that this vaccine would help vanish polio.

In response to a question, Dr. Heyman said there were two ways that people travelled around in the Middle East and Africa, for pilgrimages and guest workers. It would never be possible to tell which way this virus came into Yemen.

Other

Prudence Smith of the World Health Organization said concerning the "Roll back Malaria" partnership, there would be a press conference at 2:30 p.m. on 3 May at the Palais des Nations to launch the first World Malaria Report. It would be concurrently launched in Cairo and New York and would provide up-do-date information on the situation of malaria globally for the first time. She recalled that 90 per cent of the malaria burden lay in Africa, but there were also cases of malaria worldwide. The press conference and the report were embargoed until 6 p.m. on 3 May.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said next week, from 4 to 6 May, an international conference would be held in Thailand on what WHO had done in the aftermath of the tsunami and what lessons had been learned to help deal with future crises. There would be a media advisory available later in the day. The Director-General of WHO would be attending the conference.

Carine Richard-Van Maele of the World Meteorological Organization said that the Technical Conference on Meteorological and Environmental Instruments and Methods of Observation would be held in Bucharest, Romania from 4 to 7 May. This was the biggest meeting between producers of instruments for observation and those using these instruments and it was organized every two years by WMO. There would be a press release issued on this meeting next Monday.

Helen Wood, the Director of the Group on Earth Observation Secretariat, recalled that the GEO was the new inter-governmental group formed at the Brussels Summit in February and it was establishing its headquarters at WMO in Geneva. The first meeting of the group would take place on 3 and 4 May. Governmental Representatives from nearly 60 countries and the European Commission, as well as Representatives of some 40 international and inter-governmental organizations would be attending this first meeting to work together in the critical area of earth monitoring and earth observing systems. "The goal is to develop a system of systems in which we cooperate on our investments to meet critical needs", Ms. Wood said.

Peter Colohan, Executive Office of GEO, said journalists who were interested in setting up appointments could contact him at 0041-22-730 8505.

Jean Fabre of the United Nations Development Programme said last week his colleague from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had proposed a briefing on the backstage of the reconstruction process following the tsunami disaster which was a pretty complex project. He suggested that this briefing be held on 23 May at 11 a.m. It would be attended by persons coming from each country with up-to-date information on exactly what was happening with the reconstruction process.

Corinne Perthius of the International Labour Office said that the ILO would be launching a comprehensive new report on global forced labour on 11 May "A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour". Copies of the embargoed report would be available starting Monday, 2 May. All information on the report was embargoed until 3 p.m. GMT on Wednesday, 11 May. There would also be an embargoed press conference held on Tuesday, 10 May right after the briefing. A media advisory was available at the back of the room.

Lucie Giraud of the World Trade Organization said there would be a briefing at 2 p.m. this afternoon on the negotiations on non-agricultural products. Also today, the Director-General was meeting with the Minister of Trade and Industry of Paraguay. Next week, WTO would be closed on 5 and 6 May.

Cathy Jewel of the World Intellectual Property Organization said an international seminar on intellectual property and development would be held on 2 and 3 May. It was open and journalists were welcome to attend. Also, the WIPO Programme and Budget Committee was still meeting and would wrap up its deliberations later this afternoon.

Erica Meltzer of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said there would be a press release available later in the day on a meeting which was held in Brazil last week about the creation of an international centre on the creative industries like film and other artistic areas. This was a joint Brazilian-UNCTAD project. Also, today was the end of the conference on olive oil and a new agreement on olive oil would be adopted at the end of this morning. The text as adopted would be available in the press room later in the day.

Ron Redmond of the High Commissioner for Refugees said UNHCR had this morning announced that the winner of the 2005 Nansen Refugee Award was Marguerite Barankitse, known as the "Angel of Burundi". Over the last 12 years, Ms. Barankitse had helped more than 10,000 children of all ethnic origins affected by civil war in Burundi and other conflicts in the region.

Mr. Redmond said the number of refugees fleeing general insecurity in Togo after the election results were announced last Tuesday continued to rise. A total of 5,754 refugees were reported to have arrived in neighbouring Benin, while more than 600 arrivals had been recorded in Ghana on Togo's western border. UNHCR was urging Togolese politicians to find a peaceful resolution to the current crisis and to avoid triggering a humanitarian emergency.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said that in Djibouti, 30,000 persons were threatened by the drought after three years of insufficient rains. These included more than 6,000 children who suffered from malnutrition and needed food aid. WFP was launching an appeal for $ 2.5 million for these 30,000 persons for the next six months. WFP was already providing food aid to 53,000 persons in Djibouti who were mostly refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia as well as Djiboutian children.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children's Fund said UNICEF joined UNHCR's call to Togolese politicians to find a peaceful resolution to ensure that the situation did not deteriorate rapidly. He had received an update on the situation in Lome this morning. It was still very tense, the capital was cut in half. In one half, there was a lot of violence, and in the other half where UNICEF and other aid offices were situated, the situation was calm. It was difficult to know what was happening around the country. Among the 5,754 refugees who had arrived in Benin were 40 unaccompanied children between the ages of three to five years. UNICEF and the Red Cross of Benin were caring for these children.

Mr. Personnaz said he had placed an information note at the end of the room on the situation in southwestern Colombia where intense fighting between FARC guerrillas and the Colombian army had triggered the displacement of more than, 6,000 persons, more than half of them children. In response, a joint UN mission had been sent to coordinate and provide humanitarian assistance to the affected communities, especially children, women and elderly persons.

In conclusion, Mr. Personnaz said that today was the last day in office for Carol Bellamy as Executive Director of UNICEF. Ann M. Veneman would be taking up her duties as Executive Director on Monday, 2 May. She planned to spend her first two months familiarizing herself with UNICEF.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that IOM Cambodia was planning to use family support to combat human trafficking in a high-risk area close to the Thai border where up to 80 per cent of the population were displaced, migrants or returned refugees. IOM research had shown that migration from that area had been a major factor in the recruitment of people who were subsequently trafficked into prostitution, slave labour or begging in Thailand.

Ms. Pandya said in Haiti, IOM was providing support to the Ministry of Public Works following a fatal flood in the Solino neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince. IOM had responded immediately through its Haiti Transition Initiative.

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