REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Meteorological Organization, the World Economic Forum, the World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the International Organization for Migration.
Human Rights Council
Ms. Heuzé said that this morning the Council would complete its interactive discussion on the reports presented to it yesterday afternoon, namely, that of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Miloon Kothari; the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Vernor Munoz Villalobos; the report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie; and the Special Rapporteur on the protection and promotion of human rights while countering terrorism, Martin Scheinin. Today, the Council would examine the reports of six country-specific mandates. This morning it would hear from the Independent Expert appointed by the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Ghanim Alnajjar; the Personal Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Cuba, Christine Chanet; and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, John Dugard. This afternoon presenting reports before the Council would be the Special Representative on the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia, Yash Ghai; the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haïti, Louis Joinet; and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Vitit Muntarbhorn.
Following journalists’ requests, Ms. Heuzé said that they would try and organize press conferences with the Special Rapporteurs on the situation in Sudan, Somalia and Cuba.
José-Luis Diaz, of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, informed journalists that Martin Scheinin, the Special Rapporteur on the protection and promotion of human rights while countering terrorism, would unfortunately have to reschedule the press briefing planned for this afternoon, and he would inform journalists of the new time as soon as one could be arranged.
Other
Fadéla Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the first meeting of the WHO Influenza Pandemic Task Force had completed its work yesterday. All were invited to participate in a virtual press briefing presented by David Heymann, the WHO special representative ad interim on Avian Flu, which would take place today at 2 p.m. A media advisory had been sent to journalists yesterday with technical details.
Muriel Scibilia of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) recalled that for the moment UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi did not want to give comments or interviews on his plans for the immediate future. Regarding Latin America and Spain, an agreement would be signed between UNCTAD and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain on 28 September at 9.50 a.m., which event would be open to journalists. Following the signing, the Minister would address the Trade and Development Board on the issue of the Spanish trade cooperation policy.
Ms. Scibilia drew attention to the fifty-third session of the Trade and Development Board, which would be held from 27 September to 10 October at the Palais des Nations. During the first week, the Board would review its Post-Doha work programme and the issues of particular concern to developing countries, with interventions from Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organization, and Secretary-General Supachai, at tomorrow's morning meeting. A high-level political dialogue at the ministerial level was being held in conjunction with the plenary on the three focal themes of globalization in the service of development, national strategies for development and United Nations reform. A full list of participants would be made available in the press room as soon as confirmations were received.
President Kagame of Rwanda would also address the Trade and Development Board during its current session to present the Guide to Investing in Rwanda. In that context, Ms. Scibilia invited all journalists to a cocktail on 3 October in honour of the Rwandan President. Details would be forthcoming.
Ms. Heuzé said that there was a good chance that next week the United Nations consultation to mediate a conflict between Gabon and Equatorial Guinea would be held between 1 and 4 October, which would entail the presence of the Presidents of those countries. She would confirm details on Friday. As the morning of 4 October was also the day the Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory would address the Human Rights Council, she counselled journalists to plan ahead.
Mark Oliver of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), introducing the latest update on the El Niño phenomenon, said that climate patterns over the equatorial pacific over the past few months had developed a notable tendency towards El Niño conditions. There was general agreement that the development of a weak to moderate basin-wide El Niño was now likely and that such an event would persist into early 2007. It was a very initial outlook; the situation would become clearer in the coming months. Copies of the update were available at the back of the room.
Laura Altinger of the World Economic Forum said the Forum was tomorrow launching its Global Competitiveness Report, 2006-2007, which ranked the economies of 125 countries. She drew attention to a change in methodology from previous years – from a Growth Competitiveness Index to a Global one. Rankings were drawn from a combination of publicly available hard data and the results of the Executive Opinion Survey conducted by the Forum together with its partner institutes in the countries covered. For the first time Switzerland had reached number one in the rankings, reflecting the country's sound institutional environment, excellent infrastructure and efficient markets, while the United States had dropped from number one to number six, owing to its large macroeconomic imbalances. Notably, Russia had fallen from fifty-third to sixty-second in the rankings, given serious misgivings concerning the administration of justice there, and China had fallen six places to 52, owing to structural weaknesses, and low penetration rates for the latest technologies, among others. A press kit was available in the back of the room in French, English and Spanish. The material was no longer under embargo, as was stated in the release.
Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that the increasing number of Somali refugees pouring into Kenya were threatening to exhaust WFP food stocks there within a few weeks. There were now 240,000 registered refugees in Kenya and if the influx continued at this rate there would be 50,000 new arrivals by the end of the year. Unless WFP received fresh funds immediately, it would be forced to cut rations in the camps in November by 12 per cent. Refugees in Kenya were confined to camps, were not able to work, and were not able to plant their own food, so they were completely reliant on WFP distributions for food, and levels of malnutrition in the camps were already above emergency levels. To continue to feed the 240,000 refugees WFP needed $8.2 million immediately.
In the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the situation was so critical that WFP had had to contract commercial airlines to airlift 1.5 tons of food to feed at least 8,800 in the Manono, Kindu, South Kivu, and North Katanga provinces. In Kindu the lack of food had caused many nutritional centres to close down. Mr. Pluess said press releases on Somalia and the DRC would be available this afternoon.
William Spindler of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR's Annual Consultations with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) would begin at the Palais tomorrow, followed next week by the yearly meeting of its 70-nation governing body, the Executive Committee. The NGO consultations this week would bring together representatives of at least 179 NGO partners from 85 countries and would focus on four broad themes: durable solutions for refugees; UN reform; Executive Committee Conclusions; and the asylum-migration nexus. The session would open with an address on Wednesday by UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, Judy Cheng-Hopkins, and close on Friday with remarks from High Commissioner António Guterres. The first day of the Executive Committee session, next Monday, would hear an address from the High Commissioner in the morning and would be held in the Assembly Hall. The meetings would then move on Tuesday to Salle XVII for the rest of the week. The High Commissioner would hold a briefing in Room III around midday on Friday, 6 October.
Michael Bociurkiw of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) wished to draw attention once again to the difficult situation kids were facing in Lebanon. The big problem remained unexploded ordnance (UXO), mostly as a result of cluster bombs, which were literally ticking time bombs for the children of Lebanon. Cluster bomblets were extremely dangerous as they could be set off simply by vibrations and could scatter up to a 600-metre radius and they were more lethal than landmines. To date, 14 had been killed, of which 2 were children, and 90 had been injured, 32 of them children. To protect children from UXO, UNICEF was developing television and radio spots targeting children, as well as a water bottle awareness campaign, in which they affixed safety messages on the water bottles.
On Thursday, Mr. Bociurkiw said, UNICEF would be launching a landmark report on water and sanitation called "Progress for Children". It was a comprehensive report that tracked progress region-by-region and country-by-country towards the implementation of United Nations Millennium Goal 7, target 10, on access to safe drinking water. A press briefing for the launch was planned for Thursday at 2 p.m. Details would be confirmed to journalists via e-mail.
Journalists were reminded that the World Intellectual Property Organization Assemblies opened yesterday and would continue till 3 October. For further information they should contact Samar Shamoon at 022 338 8161.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that, according to the IOM report entitled “Migration, Human Smuggling and Trafficking from Nigeria to Europe”, despite the transition to democratic rule, poverty, crime, corruption and violence were fundamental factors in driving people to emigrate from Nigeria, with young women particularly vulnerable to trafficking for sexual exploitation. Although women were increasingly becoming aware that they would be working in the sex business when offered jobs in Europe, they were often unaware of the circumstances that awaited them. Most of the women incurred debts of anywhere between $40,000 and $100,000 to traffickers in their bid to reach Europe. Although half of the several hundreds of thousands of Nigerians in Europe lived in the United Kingdom, Italy was host to the second-largest group of Nigerians and was the most important destination for Nigerian victims of trafficking.