REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Office, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Programme, the World Food Programme and the International Organization for Migration.
Eritrea and Ethiopia
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Kofi Annan had decided to send the Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Department, Jean-Marie Guehenno, and the United Nations Military Advisor, General Randir Kumar Mehta, to Ethiopia and Eritrea as soon as practicable to review and assess the situation on the ground and to see what steps could be taken to improve the situation. The United Nations, meanwhile, conveyed to the Eritrean authorities that it could not accept the request for staff of certain nationalities of the United Nations mission to leave the country. Both the Secretary-General, and the Security Council in a presidential statement, demanded that Eritrea reverse its decision, which was inconsistent with the fundamental principle of the universality of the peacekeeping operation representing the whole of the international community.
The statements by the Secretary-General and the Security Council were available in the press room.
Darfur
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General was gravely concerned by the worsening situation in Darfur. The United Nations Mission in Sudan was reporting banditry, looting, inter-tribal fighting, clashes allegedly between Sudan Liberation Movement rebels and tribes, attacks on civilians - destroying wells which were essential to their livelihood, and forcing thousands more people to leave their homes in addition to the two million already displaced - and a further increase in the number of attacks and robberies committed against humanitarian workers. The Secretary-General once again called on all parties to respect their agreements and the provisions of international humanitarian law. He also urged them to make serious efforts to reach a political settlement in the Abuja peace talks before the end of the year. The Secretary-General urged the Security Council and the donor community to give close attention to the situation in Darfur, and to do everything possible to assist and strengthen the African Union Mission deployed on the ground.
Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General has congratulated the General Assembly for its adoption of the Optional Protocol to the General Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel. He said the new protocol expanded the legal protection of all United Nations operations, from emergency humanitarian assistance to peace-keeping. The Secretary-General also urged all countries to move forward to finalize the text of a comprehensive convention dealing with terrorism, saying that everyone must do their part to forge a coordinated response against terrorism.
The statement of the Secretary-General and the documents concerning the Optional Protocol were available in the press room.
Human Rights Day
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said concerning Human Rights Day, which was commemorated on 10 December, the Secretary-General, in his message to mark the occasion, called for renewed commitment to ending torture around the world. Noting a disturbing trend of countries claiming exceptions to the prohibition on torture, he said torture could never be an instrument to fight terror, for torture was an instrument of terror. The Secretary-General added that the fear of terrorists could never justify adopting their methods, and he called on all States which had not yet done so to ratify the Convention against Torture.
The messages of the Secretary-General and of Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour on Human Rights Day were in the press room.
An exhibition organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of works of art by torture victims was on show at the Palais des Nations from 8 to 30 December, also as part of the commemoration of Human Rights Day. It was entitled “Healing the Wounds of Torture”.
José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said journalists had received the statement of High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on the occasion of Human Rights Day. Both her statement and the message by the Secretary-General focused on the need to reaffirm the absolute prohibition of torture. There was also a statement by 33 independent human rights experts who also reaffirmed the absolute prohibition of torture and expressed alarm “at attempts by many States to circumvent provisions of international human rights law by giving new names to old practices”. They said that more and more frequently, human rights were being portrayed as an obstacle to government efforts to guarantee security. The statement was in the press room.
New Humanitarian Emblem
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General was delighted to learn of the decision by the signatory countries of the Geneva Conventions to adopt a non-denominational humanitarian emblem, the Red Crystal, in addition to the Red Cross and Red Crescent. In a statement by his Spokesperson, the Secretary-General hoped that this would open the way for societies that were not yet formally part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, such as the Israeli Magen David Adom (Red Shield of David) to be admitted as full members. He also hoped that the Palestinian Red Crescent Society would in due course be admitted to membership. In this connection, the Secretary-General welcomed last week’s agreement on operational arrangements between these two societies.
The statement was available in the press room.
Geneva Activities
Concerning the agenda of Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Mr. Ordzhonikidze would inaugurate on Monday, 9 December, at 9:30 a.m. the twelfth General Assembly of the Students’ League of Nations at the Palais des Nations. The Director-General would fly to Helsinky on 14 December where he would represent the Secretary-General and deliver his message at a ceremony marking the fiftieth anniversary of Finland joining the United Nations.
The third meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their destruction was today concluding at the Palais des Nations.
The fifty-eighth session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission had concluded its work yesterday, and the round-up press release was available in the press room in English and in French.
The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families would be meeting from 12 to 16 December at the Palais Wilson. The meetings of the Committee were public.
A note to correspondents had been issued on the renewal of accreditation for correspondents for 2006. It was available in English and in French.
In conclusion, Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that a press conference would be held at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, 12 December in Room III on cooperation in the humanitarian field between the European Commission and the United Nations. Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, would participate in the press conference.
Human Rights
José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said he had put at the back of the room copies of an interesting publication that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was putting out in advance of the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong. The publication aimed to provoke discussion on the human rights implications of general exception clauses in WTO agreements.
Other
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said the Director-General of WHO, Lee Jong-Wook, and the WHO Regional Director, Hussein Gezairy, would visit Pakistan on 11 and 12 December. They would view progress made in healthcare delivery to survivors two months after the earthquake, show support for achievements made and highlight the need for continued action throughout the winter. They would check what had already been done, and what still needed to be done. They would also meet with the President of Pakistan and other senior officials. Much had been accomplished in delivering aid to survivors. However, while initial health needs associated with treating injuries were being met, new health risks such as acute respiratory infections were emerging as a result of increasingly cold weather and lack of shelter. Key public health problems were injuries, acute respiratory infections and acute watery diarrhoea.
Concerning avian influenza, Mrs. Chaib there was a new case in Thailand, a five-year-old boy who had died of the virus. This raised to five the number of cases of avian influenza in Thailand since the beginning of 2005. Since the beginning of the crisis, there had been 22 cases in Thailand, including 14 deaths.
In conclusion, Mrs. Chaib said that an important meeting was being held in Bangkok to discuss a WHO report “Ecosystems and Human well-being: Health Synthesis”. A press release and copies of the report were available. The report underlined that ecosystem services were absolutely vital to preventing disease and sustaining good health.
Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum of WHO said this was the first comprehensive look by WHO at the interactions between ecosystem changes and human health. The report gave serious cause for concern. The report concluded that about 60 per cent of the ecosystem services, the benefits that ecosystems provided to humans, were being degraded or used unsustainably, and these had significant implications for human health. The central message of the report was that the world was degrading its natural defenses, in many cases without putting up new defenses. Health considerations should be concluded when decisions were being made about the way that the natural environment was being used, whether it was the building of dams, or taking decisions affecting the global climate. The world could not continue to pretend that human health was separate from the health from the natural ecosystems. The report also urged that defenses against environmental risks had to be stepped up.
Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Office said journalists should have received a note to correspondents concerning a meeting which would be held at the Palais from 12 to 14 December on the scrapping of ships. Representatives of a number of UN agencies which were interested in health at the work place and also in the environment would discuss this issue. The meeting was closed.
Ms. Perthuis reminded journalists that at 11:30 a.m. this morning in Room III, there would be a press conference to launch the fourth edition of the Key Indicators of the Labour Market. A press conference about the report was available.
Jennifer Pagonis of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees said that the armed conflict in Colombia was badly affecting the country’s one million indigenous people and UNHCR was concerned that entire communities could disappear after being forced to flee their traditional territories. According to a recent report of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, more than 19,000 indigenous men, women and children were forced to flee their homes and territories since the start of this year. The report said many of Colombia’s more than 80 indigenous groups were also at risk. In October, hundreds of Qechwa people fled fighting in the southern department of Putumayo, some of them taking refuge in neighbouring Ecuador. The situation in Putumayo remained extremely worrisome, with fresh fighting and more displacement of indigenous people reported this week. While there were more than two million internally displaced persons in Colombia, and while forced displacement was always a very difficult experience, it was doubly catastrophic for indigenous communities. UNHCR worked to protect the rights of displaced people in Colombia and was especially concerned about the fate of indigenous groups.
Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF’s flagship publication “The State of the World’s Children 2006” would be launched in London on 14 December. On 13 December, he would put copies of the embargoed report in French, English, Russian and Spanish in the press room, as well as copies of the summary.
Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said the population of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo was living in a beautiful spot of the world, but the civilians continued to suffer under the most horrible attacks from militia groups and a general situation of lawlessness. Presently, the Congolese army was running a six-week military operation in the east which aimed to oust militias which had been destabilizing the region for years. The army was supported by the UN peacekeeping mission MONUC. It was impossible at the moment to know the exact number of the displaced, but some estimated that it was more than 75,000 persons. The military operation was launched on 12 November. WFP considered that the food needs for civilians might stretch way beyond the period of the military operation. Eastern Congo suffered from regular cycles of violence that were followed by massive displacements, and it was never possible to say when and how intensive these displacements might be, but WFP had to be able to act rapidly once they occurred. That was why it was critical that WFP continued to receive funding in order to ensure that sufficient contingency stocks were available when the needs arose. Right now, WFP needed some $ 20 million to run its operation in eastern Congo until next June.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said that in Pakistan, with roads now open to the Upper Neelum Valley allowing for shelter material to be delivered by trucks, IOM was shifting its focus to the Lower Neelum Valley which was still in need of assistance. With more snow and rain expected in the next few days, the situation was becoming ever more desperate for the villagers who had no proper shelter.
Mr. Chauzy said in the United States, more than 50 men, women and children had applied for IOM assistance under a pilot programme launched in Washington for victims of trafficking in the United States. The pilot programme provided rapid case-by-case comprehensive return, reintegration, or family reunification assistance to victims of trafficking in the United States. The United States Government estimated that between 14,500 and 17,500 persons were trafficked every year into the United States.
At the beginning of the briefing, Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier welcomed the group of Palestinian journalists who were attending the briefing today. They were participating in a programme organized by DPI in New York and today was their last day in Geneva. She hoped that they had enjoyed their visit.