REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Unit of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information about new statements by the Secretary-General on Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Iraq and the Middle East; Geneva activities; and other issues. Spokespersons for the Economic Commission for Europe, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the International Organization for Migration, the World Food Programme, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Intellectual Property Organization participated in the briefing.

New Statements by the Secretary-General

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General had issued a number of new statements, copies of which were available in the press room. In a statement on Zimbabwe, the Secretary-General was increasingly concerned by the human rights and humanitarian impact of the recent demolitions of what the Government of Zimbabwe has called illegal settlements. He appointed on 20 June Anna Tibaijuka, the Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), as his Special Envoy and asked her to visit the country and investigate the situation. Ms. Tibaijuka visited the country and, with the cooperation of the Government of Zimbabwe, conducted an exhaustive examination. The Secretary-General would be receiving her report in the coming days and would study its contents to determine the next steps for the United Nations. The report would be made public after the Government of Zimbabwe had received an advance copy.

In a statement on Indonesia, the Secretary-General warmly welcomed the agreement in principle reached yesterday between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement, intended to bring peace after nearly thirty years of conflict in the province. He looked forward to the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on 15 August 2005 and hoped this breakthrough heralded a new and brighter future for the people of Aceh.

Concerning the situation in Iraq, the Secretary-General continued to be dismayed by the unrelenting wave of suicide bombings in that country that had killed large numbers of civilians.

The Secretary-General also expressed his alarm at the renewed violence between Israel and the Palestinians in the past fortnight. There was a pressing need to put a stop to such actions. The Secretary-General strongly believed that at this critical moment a glimmer of a better future with two States living side-by-side in peace still existed. It was therefore essential that all committed to a negotiated settlement remained focused on this goal.




Geneva Activities

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Human Rights Committee was continuing its work at the Palais Wilson, and would be reviewing today and tomorrow the last of the country reports which it would consider this session, the initial report of Thailand.

The Social Forum, one of the initiatives of the Sub-Comission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, would take place on 21 and 22 July in Salle XVII. This would be the third time the Forum was held, the other two times were in 2002 and 2004. The theme this year was ‘Poverty and economic growth: challenges to human rights’. Copies of the provisional agenda of the Forum were available at the back of the room.

The twenty-third session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations started its work at the Palais des Nations yesterday. The theme of the session was "Indigenous peoples and the international and domestic protection of traditional knowledge". The Cultural Event for the International Day of the World's Indigenous People would be held on 21 July at the Palais des Nations. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, would participate in the event. A note to correspondents would be available shortly.

The Director-General was back in Geneva after having attended the 6th Coordination Meeting of Senior Managers in Nairobi on 14 and 15 July. A number of reports were adopted at this meeting which was organized by the Department for the General Assembly and Conference Management. Mr. Ordzhonikidze addressed the opening and closing sessions of the meeting.

Mr. Ordzhonikidze would today be addressing a Seminar on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights - An Evolution, which was being organized by the World Federation of United Nations Associations in cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The three-day seminar was being held in Salle XIX.

In conclusion, Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said a number of press conference would be held this week, including one by the Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee, Christine Chanet, at 11 a.m. on Thursday, 21 July; and by Jan Egeland, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, at 11:30 a.m. on Friday 22 July. She also reminded journalists that the new High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, would give his first press briefing at the Palais since his appointment at 3 p.m. on Thursday, 21 July.

Other

Jean Michel Jakobowicz of the Economic Commission for Europe said there would be a press conference at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 21 July, in Salle III on the launch of the second 2005 Economic Survey of Europe. There would be a number of speakers, led by Abdur Chowdhury, Director of the UNECE Economic Analysis Division.

Brigitte Leoni of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said that during this hurricane season, ISDR noted that Mexico had made excellent preparations for Hurricane Emily. Preparation and prevention were the best ways to reduce the material damage and human loss caused by hurricanes. In Mexico, the authorities were evacuating residents from the areas where Emily was expected to hit later today. The typhoon season was also starting. Typhoon Haitang had already battered Taiwan and China was evacuating more than half a million residents in preparation for the typhoon which was expected to make landfall later today.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said in Liberia, IOM was continuing to provide registration and transportation assistance to vulnerable internally displaced persons who were living in camps and who wished to return to their places of origin. To date, IOM had registered more than 16,000 vulnerable internally displaced persons. In Indonesia, the first temporary school funded by UNICEF and built by IOM opened in Aceh yesterday, marking the first day of the school year. A fast-track UNICEF/IOM school-building programme across Aceh and North Sumatra would construct 200 temporary schools in the coming months.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said available at the back of the room was a joint UNHCR/WFP press release in which they warned that continued food ration cuts were forcing Burundian and Congolese refugees in western Tanzania to take part in activities that put them at risk in an effort to ward off hunger. UNHCR and WFP were especially concerned about the rising trend of sexual exploitation and violence against refugee women outside the camps. Since September 2004, poor funding of WFP's operations to assist the 400,000 refugees living in the western part of Tanzania had forced the agency to cut food rations. Unless an additional $ 5 million was pledged directly, ration reductions would continue through December 2005.

Concerning the situation in Niger, Ms. Berthiaume said funds to help the victims of hunger in Niger were slowly increasing. The city of Geneva had decided to donate 50,000 Swiss francs following the press conference by Jean Ziegler, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the right to food. A press release on this was also available at the back of the room. A French non-governmental organization was also providing help. The first airlift would start this weekend to transport 40 tons of millet and 28 tons of vegetable oil.

Marie-Helene Verney of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees said an increasing number of Liberian refugees in Côte d'Ivoire were choosing to return home under UNHCR's voluntary repatriation programme to Liberia. They cited improved security conditions in their homeland as the main deciding factor. Some 5,100 refugees had already returned to eastern Liberia over the past four weeks. There were still 47,000 Liberian refugees in Côte d'Ivoire.

In Bangladesh, Ms. Verney said UNHCR, the European Commission and diplomats from five donor countries had completed an emergency mission to Teknaf in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh to see for themselves the plight of more than 6,000 Myanmarese from the Rohingya ethnic group who were living in extremely risky and deplorably squalid conditions. The Government and local authorities consider the group as illegal immigrants and say they should return to Myanmar.

Samar Shamoon of the World Intellectual Property Organization said that from 20 to 22 July, the third session of the intersessional inter-governmental meeting on the development agenda for WIPO would be meeting. This would be the third and last session before the General Assembly. Available was the agenda of this meeting and the last press update on this issue which provided a list of the proposals under discussion.

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