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 the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.
Human Rights Council Elections
Ms. Heuzé said the General Assembly yesterday elected 14 countries to serve on the United Nations Human Rights Council. Angola, Bolivia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Qatar, Slovenia, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy were elected. Some of these countries – South Africa, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Netherlands – were actually being elected to their second term after winning a seat during the inaugural elections of the Council last year, when the body was established to replace the Commission on Human Rights. As part of the Council’s formation, some members won three-year terms and others were given one-year terms and allowed to run for re-election again this year. Under Council rules, members served three-year terms and could not run for re-election after two consecutive terms. Those elected yesterday would serve three-year terms on the 47-member body.
Ms. Heuzé said the regular fifth session of the Council would be held as planned from 11 to 18 June. The President of the Council, Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, would be briefing journalists closer to the opening date on the main issues before the Council.
Geneva Meetings
Ms. Heuzé said the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, was today inaugurating the Azerbaijan Room at the Palais des Nations, together with the First Lady of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ms. Mehriban Aliyeva. A press release would be issued.
The Committee against Torture was today concluding its session and releasing its observations and recommendations on the reports of Denmark, Luxembourg, Italy, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Japan and Poland which it considered during the session.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was also today issuing its observations and recommendations on the reports of Nepal, Hungary, the Netherlands (Antilles), Finland and Latvia which it reviewed during the session.
The conclusions and the roundup press releases would be available this afternoon.
Ms. Heuzé said the Committee on the Rights of the Child would meet at the Palais Wilson in Geneva from 21 May to 8 June to review the promotion and protection of children's rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Slovakia, Maldives, Uruguay, and Kazakhstan. The Committee would also consider the situation in Sudan, Guatemala, Ukraine and Bangladesh with regard to the promotion and protection of children's rights under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. In addition, it would review efforts made by Guatemala with regard to its implementation of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, in the presence of a delegation from Guatemala, and would undertake technical reviews (in closed session) of the initial reports of Monaco, Norway, Sweden regarding how those countries were fulfilling their obligations under that Protocol.
The Conference on Disarmament was holding its next plenary on Tuesday, 22 May.
Sudan
Ms. Heuzé said Jan Eiliasson, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Darfur, had concluded his third trip to Darfur and had returned to New York. He would give a press conference there today to speak about his trip, and interested journalists could follow it on the webcast of the UN website at 6 p.m. Geneva time.
Yvon Edoumou of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights called today for an immediate and independent investigation into the involvement of Sudanese security forces in attacks on villages near Nyala, South Darfur, that had left over 100 people dead and thousands displaced since January of this year. The report documented violence between two ethnic groups in that area which had been fighting over land. However, the human rights officers had found out that the Sudanese security forces were taking side with one of these groups against the other. These were the Rizeigat Abbala and Tarjum groups.
Mr. Edoumou said the report, and a press release, which were available at the back of the room, detailed the involvement of Border Intelligence Guards in attacks by the Rizeigat Abbala on the Tarjum starting on 6 January. Witness testimony about the attacks was extremely consistent, according to the report compiled by human rights officers. In all instances, witnesses described hundreds of heavily armed attackers, many of whom were identified as Border Intelligence personnel. Most of the attackers were dressed in green or beige khaki uniforms and accompanied by machine gun-equipped Border Intelligence vehicles. During all the incidents, attackers fired indiscriminately from the outskirts of the settlements with heavy machine guns and rocket propelled grenades before entering the settlements and shooting men found inside. They then systematically looted items of value, particularly livestock. In most cases, they also burned large sections of the settlements.
Mr. Edoumou said the Office of the High Commissioner had made a number of recommendations in the report, including calling on the Government to launch an independent investigation and to prevent its security forces from participating in such attacks.
Human Rights
Yvon Edoumou of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Indpendent Expert on the human rights situation in Haiti, Louis Joinet, would be conducting his tenth mission to Haiti starting Monday, 21 May. He would carry out a 10-day mission to Haiti to assist the authorities in implementing various human rights obligations. He would be meeting with Government officials, senior officials of the judiciary system, United Nations officials and representatives of civil society.
The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Jorge Bustamante, was today concluding a mission to the United States. He would hold a press conference in Washington this afternoon to speak about his preliminary findings. During his mission, Mr. Bustamante travelled to a number of cities including New York, California, New Jersey and Washington.
Mr. Edoumou said High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour was continuing her visit to the Great Lakes region. This morning, she was in Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and would travel to Burundi on Saturday, 19 May.
Ms. Heuzé said the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) has issued its April human rights report. It said that a large number of serious human rights violations were found especially in the eastern Kasai Province.
Government troops were also found to have summarily executed civilians and to have engaged in other egregious human rights abuses. The report was available in the Documentation Centre.
World Health Assembly
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that at the World Health Assembly today, Committee A would start discussing a report on evidence-based strategies and interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm. A number of countries had presented a draft resolution on this issue on 16 May, and today, Sweden and New Zealand had presented another draft resolution on the same subject, which was a bit more detailed. The report and the two draft resolutions were available in the press room. There were also a number of technical briefings taking place today and more details were available in her notes at the back of the room.
The World Health Statistics 2007 had just been released, Ms. Chaib said. They were the most complete set of health statistics from WHO’s 193 Member States.
Other
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, WFP was finding it impossible to help two thirds of the people it was hoping to assist, especially now during the lean season when all reserves had been finished and the new harvest had not come in. WFP had had to cut some rations this month because of lack of funds and was only going to be able to feed 400,000 out the 700,000 persons it should reach. The funding situation was precarious for the rest of the year and other ration cuts were expected. WFP had issued an appeal for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for 2007-2008 for
$ 102.2 million, but had only received $ 23 million.
In the occupied Palestinian territories, Ms. Berthiaume said WFP was worried about the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip which could have disastrous humanitarian consequences for the population. It was very difficult for WFP to move now in Gaza as WFP employees were forced to stay at home because of the fighting. Seven out of 10 inhabitants of Gaza suffered from food insecurity. WFP had the food stocks in place, but was waiting for the security situation to calm down to enable it to distribute the food. WFP was helping 265,000 persons in Gaza, or 60 per cent of the non-refugee population of Gaza.
In Somalia, Ms. Berthiaume said WFP had started a new round of distribution of food aid to 122,000 persons in Mogadishu, but it was very concerned about the return of acts of piracy. WFP called on the Somali authorities to do all possible to control these acts of piracy before they stopped the delivery of food aid. Pirates had seized five boats this year, including two last week. There had also been other unsuccessful attacks.
Ms. Berthiaume said in Sri Lanka, WFP was very worried about the deterioration of the humanitarian situation. There was a big population of internally displaced people which had moved several times, and which WFP was having difficulty reaching because of the insecurity.
Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR regretted the violent incidents and the loss of life in Jungle Pir Alizai refugee camp in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Wednesday which reportedly led to the deaths of three Afghan refugees. It appealed to all parties for a peaceful and negotiated resolution of disagreements ahead of the scheduled closure of the camp next month.
Ms. Pagonis said some 8,500 Burundian refugees who fled their country in 1972 were to be resettled in the United States this year and the first batch of 88 flew from Kibondo camp in western Tanzania this morning to the Kenyan capital Nairobi en route to their new United States homes.
High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres was scheduled to start a four-day mission to Nepal and Bhutan on Tuesday, 22 May, to discuss one of the most protracted refugee situations in Asia and the need for comprehensive solutions. Ms. Pagonis said some 108,000 refugees, originating from Bhutan, had been living in seven camps in eastern Nepal since the early 1990s.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said further to what UNHCR said about the Burundian refugees in Tanzania, an IOM charter flight transporting a first group of 43 Burundian refugees accepted for resettlement in the United States had left Tanzania for Nairobi, on its way to the United States. The refugees, who fled ethic strife in Burundi some 30 years ago, were part of a much larger group of some 8,500 Burundian refugees who were likely to be resettled to the United States over the next two years.
Mr. Chauzy said in Ghana, IOM and its partners had this week reunited another group of 25 trafficked children with their families. IOM Director-General Brunson McKinley earlier this week addressed the thirty-fourth session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad, saying that despite policy constraints and challenges, migration was a huge potential contributor to economic growth and social development. Mr. Chauzy quoted the Director-General as saying that there remained a need for a broad and coherent global strategy to better match demand with supply in the field of labour mobility in safe, humane and orderly ways.
Ms. Heuzé said there would be two press conferences organized by UNICEF next week. The first, on the situation of children in Zimbabwe, would be held at noon on Tuesday, 22 May by James Elder, Chief of Communications for UNICEF in Zimbabwe, and Roeland Monasch, Deputy Representative for UNICEF in Zimbabwe. The second, on Iraqi Children, would be held at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 23 May by Roger Wright, UNICEF Special Representative for Iraq.