REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for and Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency, the Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Trade Centre and the International Organization for Migration.
Secretary-General Saddened by Death of Boris Yeltsin
Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General issued a statement yesterday in which he said he was saddened to learn of the death of Boris Yeltsin, the first democratically elected President of the Russian Federation. The Secretary-General said President Yeltsin would be remembered for the critical role he played in advancing political and economic reforms in Russia, as well as in fostering rapprochement between East and West.
Secretary-General in Qatar and Syria
Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General was in Doha, Qatar yesterday where he opened the Seventh Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade. In his speech, the Secretary-General said that the Forum focused on three key issues that the United Nations was working for in the region, as well as worldwide. Many studies had illustrated the ways in which democratic governance established greater institutional certainty, which, in turn, allowed businesses to have greater confidence in a country’s economic outlook. The positive relationship between free trade and development was also well established. With the ease of travel, shipping and communications that the modern world provided, the benefits of trade had become more evident than ever. That was why it was so essential that there be a successful conclusion to the Doha Round of trade talks. As for the relationship between democracy and free trade, it had long been the case that exchanges of goods often become inseparable from exchanges of ideas. Moreover, the growing links among societies through trade gave each a stake in the overall political stability and well being of others.
The Secretary-General said democracy was also intrinsically valuable on its own terms, regardless of its positive effect on trade and development. The word “democracy” did not appear in the UN Charter, leading some to argue that the Organization had no role in promoting it. He said they might be right about the letters, but wrong about the spirit. The UN Charter was suffused with the quest for human dignity in all its aspects, and the Organization had a long history of working to realize every person’s democratic rights. Less than two months ago, the United Nations received the 100th request for UN electoral assistance. Over the past 15 years, the United Nations had become the world’s largest provider of democracy assistance. It had become expert in helping countries emerging from conflicts to build democratic institutions, such as parliaments and electoral commissions. And it supported efforts to strengthen judicial systems, local authorities and civil society. The full text of the Secretary-General’s speech in English and in French was available.
Today, the Secretary-General was in Syria where he was now meeting with the Syrian President. He would then meet with the Syrian Vice President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. At 4 p.m. local Syrian time, the Secretary-General would speak to journalists in Damascus. He would have a stopover in Europe tonight and would fly back to New York tomorrow.
Somalia
Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General was gravely concerned about the continuing heavy fighting in Mogadishu, which has reportedly killed more than 250 persons and forced more than 320,000 from their homes in the past six days alone. He called on all the parties to immediately cease all hostilities and to facilitate access for the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance.
Florian Westphal of the International Committee of the Red Cross said ICRC remained concerned about the current situation in Mogadishu and continued its activities to help those who had fallen victim to the situation. ICRC supported a number of hospitals and other medical structures in Mogadishu which reported that they had received more than 300 persons wounded over the weekend, the majority of them civilians. These medical structures were still working with the medical supplies which ICRC was able to provide them with a couple of weeks ago. Hundreds of thousands had left the city after being displaced by the fighting. ICRC had been able to help a considerable number of them by providing drinking water to around 50,000 on a daily basis by water trucks. ICRC had also provided essential household items to 115,000 persons so far. The evaluation of their needs was ongoing. There were also reports of about 1,000 cases of watery diarrhoea in Mogadishu a week and ICRC’s partners of the Red Crescent Society were running five dehydration centres in the city with material provided by ICRC to try to deal with this problem. An ICRC bulletin with more details was available.
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF was very worried about the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Somalia. It was increasingly difficult to provide medicines, food and other aid to vulnerable civilians because of the fighting. UNICEF was doing everything within its capacity to distribute emergency aid to the displaced persons but it was very difficult. Many of the roads were blocked. In past days, at least 200 persons had been killed in the fighting and 400 wounded in Mogadishu. There were around 4,000 displaced persons near to the border with Kenya. UNICEF had stocked large numbers of cholera and rehydration kits to help in case of an emergency.
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization, speaking about the cases of acute watery diarrhoea, said there were cases not only in Mogadishu but in other parts of Somalia. There were 12,429 cases according to the latest information, including 414 deaths. These figures covered the period from the end of 2006 up to today so they were not necessarily new cases. WHO was very concerned about the state of water and sanitation supplies in Somalia. WHO had four cholera kits in Nairobi and had experts on environmental health, water and sanitation who had also arrived in Nairobi. They would be sent to Somalia as soon as the security situation allowed it.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said WFP was trying to distribute food in Afgooye where there were more than 30,000 displaced persons. At one point, a truck carrying food supplies was turned back. There had also been a problem with the Federal Transitional Government which had demanded the inspection of WFP food aid before distribution. She hoped the situation had now been resolved after meetings with Government representatives. The situation was very worrying. WFP was waiting for the instructions to be given to the checkpoints so that WFP’s trucks could reach the displaced in Afgooye.
Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR and its partners in the Somali region of Afgooye were distributing urgent aid supplies to thousands of people fleeing the fighting in Mogadishu. UNHCR’s latest figures on displacement estimated that at least 321,000 people had fled the capital since the beginning of February, and the exodus continued. The road linking the area to the capital had reopened yesterday and was filled with a continuous flow of displaced people. The scene was one of growing chaos. Afgooye was jammed with more than 41,000 displaced Somalis and the hungry and thirsty crowds were becoming increasingly difficult to control, making aid distribution very difficult. Many of the displaced still lacked food and there was a severe water shortage.
In response to a question on the closing of the Kenyan border with Somalia, Ms. Pagonis said UNHCR recognized that Kenyans had legitimate security concerns about some of the Somali people coming across the border, but it still believed that people fleeing from persecution and violence had the right to sanctuary.
Geneva Activities
Ms. Heuzé said the new Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Lee Sung-joo, had yesterday presented his credentials to Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva. A press release was available in English and in French.
The Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was this morning concluding its review of the initial report of Egypt. The Committee was meeting from 23 to 27 April at the Palais Wilson.
Human Rights
Yvon Edoumou of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq would be issuing its latest human rights report on 25 April. There would be a press conference at 11 a.m. local time in Baghdad to release the report.
High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour was today starting her mission to Central Asia. She was in Kyrgyzstan today and tomorrow, the first leg of her four-country mission to the Central Asian region.
The Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Leandro Despouy, had just concluded a mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and had released his preliminary observations and recommendations. He called on the Government to invest more funds to reform the justice system so that judges, lawyers and other law professionals could work with more independence. He had copies of the statement with him.
Other
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said a meeting on options for increasing the access of developing countries to H5N1 and other potential pandemic vaccines would be held on Wednesday, 25 April at WHO. In recent months, a number of developing countries had signalled their request to stockpile adequate amounts of H5N1 vaccine. The provisional agenda of the meeting was available in the press room. The meeting was open to journalists and there would be a press conference at the end of the day.
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said available was an embargoed press release on how malaria control was essential to save African children’s lives. It said that on Africa Malaria Day, 25 April, UNICEF called for greater efforts to combat one of the biggest killers of children in Africa.
Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said the dangerous voyage across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen claimed a further 18 lives on 20 April, adding to the horrific death toll at the hands of ruthless smugglers. The latest incidents happened during the voyage of a smuggling boat and a transport vessel carrying a total of 150 people.
Ms. Pagonis said UNHCR was considering relocating several of the administrative and support functions it currently carried out at its Geneva headquarters to a new centre outside Switzerland. The aim was to ensure that services were located where they were most efficient and cost-effective. No final decision had been taken and none was expected until May 2007.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme recalled that Madagascar had been hit in March and April by a series of cyclones, and it was already one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. There were still 20,000 persons living in the north west of Madagascar who were cut off after the roads to their villages were destroyed. WFP last Friday started to distribute food to these persons by helicopter. The operation would continue for four weeks. These inhabitants had survived so far on whatever supplies they had left that had not been destroyed.
Ms. Berthiaume reminded journalists that Charles Vincent, WFP country director in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, would speak about the fate of hundreds of thousands of newly displaced people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at noon on Friday, 27 April.
Jean-Michel Jakobowicz of the Economic Commission for Europe said the sixtieth anniversary session of the UNECE would be held at the Palais des Nations from 25 to 27 April. On 25 April in the afternoon, a book on the history and future of the Commission written by Yves Berthelot, the former Executive Secretary of UNECE, and Paul Rayment would be launched. The exhibition on Gunnar Myrdal, the first Executive Secretary of the Commission, would also be opened. The six panels started on 26 April. The meetings and panels were open to the press and public. At 11 a.m. on Thursday, there would be a debate on cooperation, stability and prosperity in the ECE region. Participating in the debate as the keynote speaker was Sergei Lavrov, Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, and a number of other Ministers. At 1 p.m., there would be a stakeout with the Russian Foreign Minister.
Gianluca Sambucini of UNECE said the UNECE’s Energy Efficiency 21 Project since 1991 had been supporting different activities to promote energy efficiency in transitional economies. In the last two years, it had also been trying to facilitate access to financing. Under its mandate, one of the largest funds for financing environmentally sound energy technology in Europe had been successfully raised by SwissRe. Available was a press release with more details.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Sergei Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, would help inaugurate OCHA’s renovated Emergency Relief Coordination Centre which had taken place thanks to a donation from the Russian Federation. The Centre aimed to provide for close collaboration between internal and external actors involved in a major relief coordination effort and would also have the capacity to serve as an OCHA Situation Centre providing daily updates on humanitarian activities worldwide. John Holmes, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, would also be attending the ceremony on Thursday, as would Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of UNOG, and Kasidis Rochanakorn, the Director of OCHA in Geneva. [It was later announced that the ceremony was cancelled].
Jean Fabre of the United Nations Development Programme said that when there was an increased demand for any product, the producer usually gained more money, this did not work with agricultural products and although there was an increased demand for such products, the producers were receiving less and less revenue. There were 2.5 billion persons who depended on revenue from agricultural products and many Governments were also dependent on such revenue in order to finance their development projects.
Catherine Sibut-Pinot of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said in order to deal with this situation of reduced revenue for agricultural products and base products, experts from four international organizations, including UNDP and UNCTAD, were launching a global initiative. They would meet in Brasilia from 7 to 11 May to debate this issue and discuss a strategy to bring back an equilibrium to the situation. There would be a press conference on Friday, 27 April at 2:30 p.m. on this subject.
Samar Shamoon of the World Intellectual Property Organization said Thursday, 26 April, was the seventh World Intellectual Property Day and it was an opportunity to raise public awareness about the importance of intellectual property in everyday life and the contribution that inventors and artists made. She would be happy to set up interviews for interested journalists. A press kit would be available.
Natalie Domeisen of the International Trade Centre said ITC’s new Executive Director Patricia Francis would be speaking to journalists immediately after the briefing to present information about ITC's annual meeting (25-27 April). ITC was the agency that dealt with developing the business sector in developing countries. It was a technical cooperation agency of UNCTAD and WTO.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said a comprehensive IOM mapping of HIV and AIDS service availability for internally displaced people in seven districts in northern Uganda has revealed that people are facing significant difficulties in accessing assistance such as counselling, treatment and support. IOM was working closely with the Government of Uganda district authorities to support the improvement of HIV and AIDS coordination at the district level. In Ukraine, IOM and three leading mobile phone operators will sign an agreement tomorrow which paves the way for a partnership in efforts to counter human trafficking. In Uruguay, a three-day meeting sponsored by the IOM office in Uruguay is bringing together officials from six countries in the region to discuss ways to increase cooperation to fight human trafficking and child pornography. In Yemen, some 25 Yemeni officials and representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are meeting today and tomorrow in Sana'a with IOM and UNICEF representatives to discuss best practices to identify, assist and reintegrate children who have fallen prey to trafficking networks. This will be followed by three-days training on 28, 29, and 30 April for Yemeni health professionals who are involved in providing direct assistance to former victims of trafficking.