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 on the upcoming World Summit at Headquarters in New York, Geneva activities, developments concerning polio, the Gaza withdrawal and other issues. Spokespersons and representatives of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children's Fund, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration participated in the briefing.

World Summit in New York 14-16 September

Mrs. Heuzé said preparations were ongoing for the sixtieth session of the General Assembly which would open today in New York. Member States were still negotiating the draft outcome document of the World Summit which would be held at Headquarters from 14 to 16 September. Progress had been made in the areas of development, terrorism and management reform. Differences still existed in other areas, especially the section on disarmament and non-proliferation. The draft outcome document as issued on 6 September was available in the press room and once it was ready, copies would be made immediately available in the press room. The press kit contained a number of documents on the General Assembly session and the World Summit. Among other things, it included a provisional list of the Heads of State and Government who would take the floor at the Summit.

Geneva Activities

Mrs. Heuzé said 16 September marked the International Day of the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. Copies of the Secretary-General's message on this occasion were available in the press room. The World Meteorological Organization had been planning to hold a press conference for the Ozone Day on 15 September, but this would have to be delayed because some information they were expecting would not be available until the end of the month. There would be a press release put out on 15 September.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child had started its fortieth session at the Palais Wilson yesterday. The Committee would today be reviewing the periodic report of Australia. It would also look at the situation of child rights in Algeria on Wednesday, 14 September, and in Uganda on Thursday, 15 October. On Friday, 16 September, the Committee would hold a day of general discussion on the subject of "children without parental care".

The Working Group on a draft legally binding normative instrument for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance was continuing its work in public in Room XXI.

Starting 19 September, journalists would have to undergo accreditation procedure for the Prep Com for the second part of the World Summit on the Information Society. She recalled that the first part had been held in Geneva in December 2003 and the second part would be held in Tunisia in November 2005. The Prep Com would meet in Geneva from19 to 30 September in rooms XX, XXII and XXIII.

In conclusion, Ms. Heuzé said those following disarmament issues would be interested to know that a conference would be held in New York from 21 to 23 September on facilitating the entry in force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Bank Treaty. As of 9 September 2005, 175 States had signed the Treaty and 123 had ratified it. Of the 44 States that needed to have ratified it to enter into force, 41 had signed the Treaty and 33 had ratified it.

Polio Developments

Bruce Aylward, Coordinator for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, said as journalists knew, the Initiative was this year tackling two types of problems: long-standing challenges in India, Pakistan and Nigeria; and battling some wildfires in countries that became re-infected mainly by importation of viruses which mainly originated in Nigeria. The most public of those had been the challenge in Indonesia where there had been a big outbreak which was only now coming under control. The second big challenge had been the outbreak in Yemen with more than 400 cases. About one week ago, there had been confirmation of the further spread of polio in Ethiopia, and it had been moving towards the Somali border. As a result, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative had decided to launch a campaign across eight countries of the Horn of Africa and Yemen between the end of September and December this year. Today, there had been confirmation of a polio case in Mogadishu, Somalia. Somalia had been one of the greater success of the eradication programme. The Initiative had carried out five polio campaigns in Somalia this year despite the absence of the disease. The confirmed case of polio now reaffirmed that there had been regular exposure in Somalia to the virus, probably from Yemen. This confirmed case made the continuation of the series of polio immunization campaigns even more urgent. The rapid and large-scale response was largely possible due to the $ 25 million grant provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There were further details in the press release at the back of the room in English and in French.

In response to a question, Mr. Aylward said Somalia was the nineteenth country which had been re-infected with polio viruses in the last 24 months. Of those nineteen countries, there was confirmation from seventeen of them that the viruses had originated in northern Nigeria. The small outbreak in Angola had originated with a virus from India, and it was still not known where the virus from Somalia had originated.

Gaza Withdrawal

Matthias Burchard of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said UNRWA welcomed the historic withdrawal of Israel's settlers and the military after 38 years of occupation of the Gaza strip. Subsequently, all internal roads, many which had been closed for the last five years, had been opened. Also many enclaves isolated under prolonged curfews for years now had freedom of movement. The southern border had been handed over to Egyptian personnel which would hopefully lead to the first Palestinian-controlled border crossing to the outside world. This was a great opportunity. However, the economic impact of the Israeli withdrawal would, according to the World Bank, be minimal. Much would depend on the further development of the enabling economic environment. International funding would be essential. UNRWA had been closely cooperating with the Palestinian authorities, the Quartet team led by James Wolfensohn and its sister UN agencies to prepare the crucial next phase, both for the Gaza strip and the West Bank. The objectives were four-fold: to maximize economic opportunities, to restore physical assets, to improve living conditions, particularly in the refugee camps, and to meet the continuing humanitarian emergency needs, especially in the Gaza strip.

Mr. Burchard said that contrasting with the positive momentum in Gaza was the continuing closure in the West Bank and the increasingly perilous consequences of the barrier. UNRWA would be focusing in Gaza now on trying to create direct higher jobs,
provide enterprise loans to businesses and start up training, camp development, environmental health infrastructure projects, rebuild homes and carry out shelter rehabilitation in the refugee camps, provide increased vocational education, and by building new schools.

Human Rights

José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Asma Jahangir, would be visiting France from 19 to 29 September 2005 at the invitation of the Government. She would be preparing a report on her visit for the Commission on Human Rights or whatever other body had been created next year. A press release was available.

Asked if the visit was mainly to look into the issue of the prohibition of religious symbols in French schools, Mr. Díaz said that would probably be one of the issues on her list, but there were also other subjects she would discuss with the Government and others.

Other

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children's Fund recalled that there will be a press conference on 14 September at 2 p.m. in press room 1 by the UNICEF Representative for Uganda to update journalists on the humanitarian situation of children and women in northern Uganda's conflict-affected districts. The situation in northern Uganda remained extremely precarious with 6 million displaced persons. Many children were abducted, but were sometimes returned safely thanks to the joint operations between UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration and other partners.

Brigitte Leoni of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said the organizers of the Third International Conference on Early Warning, which would be held in Bonn, Germany from 27 to 29 March 2006, had launched a call for submission of early warning projects in disaster-prone areas around the world. A limited number of projects would be presented at the meeting, but all promising proposals would be collated in a portfolio of projects. A press release was available in English at the back of the room.

Ron Redmond of the High Commissioner for Refugees said UNHCR had finally managed to establish contact with the leaders of some 2,000 refugees from the Central African Republic presently stranded by flooding in 12 locations around the village of Bekam in southern Chad. Since the village was completely inaccessible by road, five refugee representatives and some local officials from Bekam had travelled by canoe and on foot over the weekend to meet with UNHCR officials in Bedoumia. This was the first time that there had been direct contact with this group of refugees since they had crossed over to southern Chad from the Central African Republic three weeks ago because of the deteriorating security situation. Relocation of the 2,000 refugees was going to be extremely difficult and might require the use of canoes.

Mr. Redmond said UNHCR staff in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were currently preparing a preliminary overall assessment of a group of 131 southern Thai Muslims after completing initial interviews with the group at an immigration centre in north-east Malaysia last Friday. The group were still being held at the Tanah Merah immigration centre. Malaysia was cooperating fully with UNHCR.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said WFP was worried about the increase in the cases of malnutrition in southern Sudan. WFP's partners on the group were reporting a sharp increase in cases of malnutrition in Wau in Bahr el Ghazal region. The displaced persons in Wau were receiving food supplements, but the malnutrition was being caused by diarrhoea and malaria. She recalled that there had been a very serious famine in Bahr el Ghazal in 1998. The situation in southern Sudan must not be allowed to deteriorate like it had done in Niger. WFP had launched an appeal at the start of the year for $302 million to help 3.2 million persons in southern Sudan, but the appeal had only been funded by 26 per cent. There were also problems with security.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said more than 194,325 people (38,865 households) had been provided with emergency assistance since a Zimbabwean Government crackdown on informal settlements across the country, which began in late May and formally ended on 28 July. The operation had left hundreds of thousands of people without homes and livelihoods. IOM had provided food and non-food items such as shelter, soap and blankets are part of a coordinated humanitarian response with the UN.

Mr. Chauzy said a two-day workshop on raising awareness of human trafficking in Syria, co-hosted by the Ministry of Interior of Syria and IOM, would be ending today. Although trafficking in persons was not considered to be a major problem in Syria, the Government was taking steps to address the issue in line with international law and best practices.

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