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 the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.
Algeria
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Kemal Derviº had been in Algeria yesterday, where he had met with families of the victims of Tuesday’s bomb attack on the UN offices and visited those who were injured. At present, 11 UN staff were known to have died, while five were still missing. Efforts to recover and identify bodies was continuing. Mr. Derviº, who was sent to Algiers by the Secretary-General to represent the entire UN family, had said, “I am here to offer my support to the families of those killed in the attacks, and to send to the people of Algeria a strong message of solidarity from the United Nations.” He had emphasized that the United Nations work in Algeria would continue. He had said that it was sad to see the impact of the attack on his colleagues, adding, “The victims are not soldiers who signed up for battle, but people, mostly Algerians, who are working for peace, development and to alleviate human suffering.” A press release on Mr. Derviº’s visit was available in the press room.
Jennifer Pagonis of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that at UNHCR’s Geneva headquarters yesterday, staff had observed a minute of silence in memory of their two colleagues who had been killed in the bomb attack, both of them Algerian nationals and both of them drivers. One staff member had also been seriously wounded while others had sustained minor injuries. A support team from Geneva had urgently been dispatched to Algiers on Wednesday to assist the staff and families of those killed. UNHCR was currently assessing how to best continue its operations in Algeria where it assisted Sahrawi refugees from the Western Sahara in five refugee camps in Tindouf. UNHCR had around 40 staff working in Algeria, 14 of whom were in Algiers at the time of the blast.
Ms. Pagonis said that it had been a particularly black time for UNHCR, with three drivers killed in the line of duty in the space of a week. In southern Chad late last week, a driver who was a Chadian national, had been shot dead in his vehicle in unexplained circumstances on a route normally considered to be safe. Ms. Pagonis said that UNHCR’s drivers were a vital part of UNHCR’s frontline humanitarian staff and it was very troubling that three of them had lost their lives in such violent circumstances within a period of a week.
Human Rights Council
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Human Rights Council would this morning conclude its discussion on the assessment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan before taking action on draft resolutions and decisions and concluding its resumed sixth session. In total, the Council had before it 14 draft decisions and resolutions for its consideration. Among the drafts scheduled to be acted on today were those on Sudan, Myanmar and the elimination of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief. The complete list of these drafts was included in today’s Order of the Day, as well as in the informal note distributed to correspondents yesterday. It was also made available in the press room along with the actual texts of the drafts.
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier recalled that the President of the Council, Ambassador Doru Romulus Costea of Romania, would have a press conference in Room III at 1:15 p.m. today.
Other
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) introduced a new publication, entitled “Climate Change and Children”, that discussed the effects of climate change on children’s health and development and was timed to coincide with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali. The report underlined that the three biggest killers of children under the age of five – respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases and malaria – were closely linked to environmental factors. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly one-quarter of all deaths were attributable to environmental factors, rising to more than one-third of deaths among children under the age of 14. WHO predicted that deaths from asthma, a common chronic disease among children, could increase by nearly 20 per cent by 2016. The goal of UNICEF and its partners was to reduce environmental risks to child survival, and to protect and educate children, while enhancing capacities to respond to the needs of children in the event of humanitarian crises linked to climate change.
Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that a joint team of eight experts from the United Nations and the European Commission was being sent to the Republic of Korea (ROK) today to undertake a rapid assessment mission following major oil spill there last week. Ms. Byrs recalled that on Friday, 7 December, a crane-carrying barge had slammed into the Hong Kong-registered tanker “Hebei Spirit”, as a result of which three of five containers on the tanker had been punctured, releasing roughly 10,500 metric tons of crude oil into the sea. This was the worst oil spill in the country’s history. A day later, oil had started hitting beaches on the scenic coastline 100 km south of Seoul. The Government of ROK had declared a “state of disaster” and, on 13 December, had requested international assistance from the United Nations Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment UNI and the European Commission Monitoring and Information Centre.
Ms. Byrs said that Tropical Storm Olga, now a tropical depression, had so far claimed the lives of 14 people, including 11 in the Dominican Republic. Some 35,280 persons had been evacuated, 3,727 were in shelters, 6,763 houses had been damaged, 36 destroyed and 76 communities were isolated. Large search and rescue operations and evacuations had been carried out in the North and Northeast of the country. United Nations agencies present in the country, as well as the OCHA Regional Office in Panama, were collaborating with the authorities to respond to the emergency.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme (WFP) added that WFP was today launching an appeal for $4 million to provide aid to 55,000 victims of the Olga and a previous tropical storm in the Dominican Republic.
Ms. Pagonis of UNHCR said that the deadly drama of migrants and refugees dying at seas as they attempted to cross waterways around the world was underscored last week by a number of tragedies, which had resulted in more than 200 people dead or missing after separate incidents off Turkey, the Canary Islands and Yemen. Last Saturday, 51 people had drowned when a boat carrying irregular migrants from Turkey to Greece had sunk in rough weather off the Turkish coast. Last weekend, the Spanish media had reported that up to 90 migrants were missing at sea after two separate incidents. In Yemen, UNHCR staff reported 31 people drowned or missing between 5 and 12 December. This week in Geneva, a two-day UNHCR-organized dialogue among over 200 participants, representing governments, NGOs and experts, had voiced support for a more coherent, comprehensive and integrated approach to ensure the protection of refugees among migrants now on the move worldwide. A session of the dialogue had been devoted to rescue at sea. More information was available in the briefing note.
Ms. Pagonis said that three research studies had been conducted over the last few months to gain a better understanding of the situation of Iraqi refugees in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. The studies had looked at their living conditions, the very precarious existence of people as their savings ran out, the number of children working, and other details concerning the circumstances of the refugees. The report would be released on UNHCR’s website later in the day. A fuller report would be released in early January after the Center for Disease in the United States provided analysis for the trauma and depression sections of the survey.
Ms. Pagonis said that High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres had arrived yesterday evening in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at the start of a five-day mission. Today, he was expected to fly to Goma, in the conflict-torn eastern North Kivu province, where there had been massive displacement of populations.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that International Migrants’ Day would be observed on 18 December. A press release, embargoed until 00:01 GMT that day was available at the back of the room. The message of the Day was that the successful management of global labour could best be achieved through the implementation of comprehensive and cooperative policies that ensured protection of the rights of migrants. Labour mobility was a key feature of globalization with a significant impact on the global economy. Migrant workers made significant contributions to the economic growth and prosperity of both their countries of origin and host countries.