REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Office at Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for and Representatives of the World Meteorological Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Climate Change Conference in Bali
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the 13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) opened yesterday in Bali, Indonesia. More than 10,000 participants from 187 countries were taking part in the two-week session, which aimed at negotiating a possible successor to the Treaty and its Kyoto Protocol. Addressing the meeting, Framework Convention Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer told the participants that it was essential that they reach agreement on a number of climate change-related issues. These included managing the Kyoto Protocol’s Adaptation Fund so that it could begin financing real adaptation projects; extending the mandate of the UNFCCC’s Expert Group on Technology Transfer, which facilitated access by developing countries to clean technologies; and reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would be attending next week’s high-level segment.
New Statements by the Secretary-General
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General’s statement yesterday to the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was available in the press room. Also available was the message of the Secretary-General on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Ottawa Convention.
Agenda of the Director-General of UNOG
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, would address the opening session of the 23rd General Assembly of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO) on 5 December at 10 a.m. The CONGO General Assembly would be taking place from 5 to 7 December at the Geneva International Conference Centre. In his statement, the Director-General would speak about the valuable contribution that NGOs make to the work of the United Nations across the three pillars of the Organization's work - security, development and human rights - and elaborate on how to strengthen the collaboration between the United Nations and NGOs. Other speakers at the opening ceremony would include the President of CONGO, Renata Bloem, the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, Blaise Godet, the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kyung-wha Kang, and the Geneva State Council's Delegate for Relations with International Geneva, Laurent Walpen.
A seminar entitled “Nuclear Weapons: Governance and Accountability” would be organized on 6 December in the Council Chamber by the United Nations Office at Geneva and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. The fifth in the series of joint events, the seminar followed on previous debates hosted by the two entities on different aspects of security sector governance. This year’s edition would analyze the nexus between domestic and international governance of nuclear weapons, examine the limits on political control and oversight of nuclear weapons, and explore the links between the good domestic governance of nuclear weapons and the effectiveness of multilateral non-proliferation regimes. The Director-General of UNOG would be addressing the seminar.
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said also on 6 December, Mr. Ordzhonikidze would address participants in an event organized by the Geneva Welcome Centre to mark the Fête de l'Escalade. It was expected that around 500 people from Permanent Missions, international organizations in Geneva and local authorities would take part in the commemoration, which would take place at La Pastorale. The Director-General would speak about the lessons of the Escalade, which may inspire and motivate the entire international community in its work for a more peaceful, prosperous and fair world. Other speakers at the event would include the Mayor of Geneva, Patrice Mugny, the President of the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, Laurent Moutinot, and the Permanent Representative of Switzerland, Blaise Godet. Journalists were welcome to attend.
World Meteorological Organization and Climate Change
Paul Garwood of the World Meteorological Organization said senior officials from WMO had been discussing in Bali the need for adaptation measures for climate change as the UN Conference on Climate Change opened. WMO was issuing a press release today on how increased investment was needed in climate predictions, monitoring and scientific research for adaptation to climate change.
Jerry Lengoasa, Assistant Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jerod’s statement to the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali would be raising some issues key to WMO, including the science-based need for information, particularly from policy makers and decision makers. Up until now, the International Panel on Climate Change had issued four assessment reports which had shown unequivocally that climate change was occurring and that indeed it might be closely linked to human activity. As the policy makers met in Bali, it was quite clear that continuous monitoring and scientific research for developing adaptation measures were needed in order to respond to the natural and economic risks associated with climate change and this would continue to be a key focus for WMO and its Member States. WMO’s primary call to all those gathered in Bali and to the high-level session next week was that it was important for them to invest in programmes that mitigated against the effect of climate change, and to strengthen the existing methods that could help populations and the public and private sectors adapt to issues such as water scarcity, extreme weather and climate events, and other natural hazards which could be made worse by climate change.
Mr. Garwood said that WMO would be issuing a statement on the status of the global climate 2007 on Thursday, 13 December. An embargoed copy would be released the day before and there would be a press conference in Geneva to coincide with the launch of the statement in Bali.
Mr. Garwood said the first international symposium on public weather services was concluding on 5 December. More than 100 people were attending it and there would be a press release issued.
In conclusion, Mr. Garwood said that WMO Secretary-General Michel Jerod would attend next week’s Noble Peace Prize ceremony awarding the prize to the International Panel on Climate Change.
Human Rights
Praveen Randhawa of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour commenced her three-day visit to Brazil on 3 Decedember in the Federal capital, Brasilia. She met with President Lula and Federal representatives of the Government, legislature and judiciary as well as non-governmental organizations.
The High Commissioner would be holding a press conference, on the occasion of Human Rights Day, on 10 December at 1:15 p.m. in Room III.
Ms. Randhawa said the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Martin Scheinin, had been invited by the Government of the United States to attend and observe military commission hearings scheduled to commence on 5 December 2007 at Guantanamo Bay. It was expected that the Special Rapporteur would have the opportunity to observe an evidentiary hearing regarding the case of United States v. Hamdan. Mr. Hamdan, a Yemeni national, was captured in Afghanistan during hostilities in 2001. He had been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 and had been charged under the Military Commissions Act with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. The Special Rapporteur’s mission report on the United States was expected to be presented and considered by the resumed sixth session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 12 December. Mr. Scheinin would also be available to brief journalists on the report at 3 p.m. in Room III on the same day.
Ms. Randhawa said a press release was issued yesterday on the signing between the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Government of Senegal in Dakar of a Memorandum of Understand establishing a regional office for West Africa. Deputy High Commissioner, Kyung-wha Kang, and Foreign Minister, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, respectively signed the agreement on behalf of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Senegalese Government. The Regional Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for West Africa, which would be based in Dakar, was mandated to foster relations with governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, and United Nations partners, in order to formulate and implement strategies and programmes designed to support the promotion and the protection of human rights in the 15 Member States of the Economic Community of the West African States (ECOWAS).
Other
Andrej Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was concerned about the deteriorating security situation in eastern Chad after fighting over the past 10 days between various rebel forces and the Government had limited its access to some refugee camps and left refugees and displaced people feeling extremely insecure. The volatile situation had also prompted an increase in banditry. UNHCR continued to monitor the security situation very closely.
Mr. Mahecic said UNHCR would hold its annual Pledging Conference on 11 December and would present to donor countries its 2008 annual budget of $ 1.096 billion, up from $ 1.06 billion in 2007, to help millions of refugees, displaced and stateless persons around the world. In addition to its regular budget, UNCHR would also launch a number of supplementary appeals for emergency and special programmes for an estimated total of $ 480 million, bringing UNHCR’s total expected budget in 2008 to more than $ 1.57 billion. In January 2008, UNHCR expected to launch supplementary appeals for programmes including the Iraq situation, relief operations in Darfur, the Somali situation, repatriation and reintegration of Sudanese and Mauritanian refugees, IDP programmes in Chad, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Colombia.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Mahecic said that hundreds of frightened Congolese had been streaming into a makeshift site near Goma, fleeing the latest conflict in North Kivu province in the east of the country. In Sudan, tribal rows sparked by cattle thefts in the eastern region of South Sudan had forced UNHCR to temporarily suspend the repatriation of Sudanese refugees, mainly from Kenya, to the area.
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said available was a press release at the back of the room on the visit by Joan Laporta, the President of Futbol Club Barcelona, to visit UNICEF programmes in Swaziland. FC Barcelona was one of UNICEF’s partners and through its Foundation had donated 1.5 million Euros to UNICEF in Swaziland. He would visit some of the projects made available by the Foundation’s donation, including a rural clinic to see the AIDS/HIV Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission programme in action, a school in a severely drought affected area to see the school’s improved water and sanitation facilities, and a Neighbourhood Care Point, a home away from home for AIDS orphans and vulnerable children. More details were available in the press release.
Ms. Taveau said on 10 December, UNICEF would be issuing a document which provided statistics on children, diseases affecting them, and other figures which would be helpful to journalists. The document was embargoed until 10 December, and a briefing under embargo would be held on Friday, 7 December.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said OCHA’s press agency, the Integration Regional Information Network (IRIN), was working with UN-HABITAT on an initiative on the humanitarian impact of urbanization. Available at the back of the room was a press release with more information about the initiative, a book, as well as a dvd film entitled “slum survivors”. There were more than 1 billion people living in slums worldwide. One million of them lived in the Kenyan slum of Kibera and the film told the stories of six people who lived there.
Ms. Byrs reminded journalists that the UN’s Humanitarian Appeal 2008 would be launched on Monday, 10 December. On Friday, 7 December, embargoed documents regarding the Appeal would be made available to journalists, and the Appeal would be launched at 9 a.m. on 10 December in Room XIX. Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, would brief journalists at 3:30 p.m. on 10 December. The Work Plan for Sudan would be launched on 11 December.
Catherine Sibut-Pinolt of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said the conference on “Biofuels: an option for a less carbon-intensive economy” was starting this afternoon in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and would continue until 5 December. Key issues were climate change as a development challenge, overview of the global biofuels market, relevant trade and sustainable development aspects of the biofuels market and certifying biofuels. The conference would conclude with recommendations on what impact would biofuels had on development strategies and how could UNCTAD support developing countries in the formulation of national biofuels strategies? The conference was a pre-event for the UNCTAD XII, UNCTAD’s Ministerial conference, which was held every four years, and which would be held in Ghana from 20 to 25 April 2008. Available was an UNCTAD News issue on the UNCTAD XII.
Ms. Sibut-Pinolt said that UNCTAD would issue on 7 December a study on maritime transport in 2007. There would be no briefing, but interviews could be set up for journalists who were interested.
At the end of the briefing, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the World Food Programme wanted her to remind journalists that on 5 December at 11:30 a.m., there would be a press conference by Daly Balgasmi, Director of WFP in Geneva, in press room 1 on his recent missions to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.