REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by Spokespersons for the Economic Commission for Europe, the International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
At the end of the briefing, Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said goodbye to journalists as she was leaving WFP at the end of the week. Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier thanked her for her professionalism and cooperation over many years and journalists also expressed their thanks.
Geneva Activities
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Conference on Disarmament held a plenary meeting on Monday, 26 May, the first under the Presidency of the United Kingdom. A press release with a summary of the statements made during the meeting was available in the press room. The next plenary of the Conference will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 3 June.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child is today considering the initial report of Serbia at the Palais Wilson. On Thursday, 29 May, it will review the second periodic report of Sierra Leone. The Committee will conclude its forty-eighth session on 6 June when it will issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports which it has considered during the session.
The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers will be commemorated at a ceremony organized at the Palais des Nations on Thursday, 29 May under the theme of “sixty years of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations”. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei A. Ordzhonikidze, will open the commemoration, which will be in two parts. The first part at 3 p.m. will consist of a wreath-laying and flag-raising ceremony at the United Nations Memorial in the Ariana Park. If it is raining as previewed, the flag-raising ceremony will be held in the hall in front of the Council Chamber. The second part of the event will take the form of a round-table discussion, which will be held in the Council Chamber from 4 to 6 p.m. A note to correspondents with more details is available.
Mr. Ordzhonikidze will this afternoon at 5 p.m. meet with Danuta Hubner, the European Commissioner for Regional Policy. Among the topics of discussion will be the collaboration between the United Nations and regional organizations. Ms. Hubner served as the Executive Secretary-General of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in 2000 and 2001. While at the Palais, Ms. Hubner will also deliver a lecture organized by the UNECE.
Charlotte Griffiths of UNECE said Ms. Hubner will deliver an open lecture from 3 to 5 p.m. in Room VIII today on “The EU as a vehicle for European development: are there lessons for other countries and regions?” This is part of the UNECE’s regional consultations on financing for development. Ms. Hubner will be available in Room VIII for questions from journalists both immediately before and after the lecture.
ILO International Labour Conference
Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said the ninety-seventh International Labour Conference will start on Wednesday, 28 May at the Palais and will conclude on 13 June. During that period, 4,000 delegates representing Governments and unions will discuss numerous issues, including a debate on the promotion of rural employment for poverty reduction, in light of the food crisis. Around 90 per cent of the world’s labourers work in the rural sector. Everyday, the ILO will send to journalists a list of the day’s events. There will be a press conference at 3 p.m. in press room 1 by Kari Tapiola, Executive Director of the ILO, on the agenda of the International Labour Conference and the main issues before it.
Other
Charlotte Griffiths of the Economic Commission for Europe said a new UNECE Protocol which will ease international road freight and further improve good governance in road transport by allowing the use of electronic consignment notes was signed today by eight countries at the Palais des Nations. The Protocol is an Additional Protocol to the UNECE Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road. A press release with more details was available.
Ms. Griffiths said also available were two press releases and a programme on an international conference on “international cooperation on energy efficiency: working together for a low-carbon economy” which will be held at the Palais des Nations on Wednesday, 28 May. The documents had more details.
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said WHO is organizing three interesting press conferences this week. The first will be at 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday, 28 May on “a few outcomes of the World Health Assembly”, which concluded its work on Saturday, 24 May. Speaking will be Ala Alwan, Assistant Director-General for noncommunicable diseases and mental health, and Elil Renganathan, Executive Secretary of the Secretariat on public health, innovation and intellectual property.
Ms. Chaib said World No Tobacco Day was commemorated on 31 May. This year, the theme was “Break the tobacco marketing net”. On Friday, 30 May, at 11:30 a.m., there will be a press conference by Douglas Bettcher, Director of the Tobacco Free Initiative, and Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, Senior Public Health Consultant.
Ms. Chaib said a new joint report detailing the latest global figures on access to HIV prevention, treatment and care will be released next week. A press conference to talk about the report will be held on Monday, 2 June at 11:30 a.m. in Room III by Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO; Pascal Villeneuve, Associate Director of UNICEF in Geneva, and Elhadj As Sy, Director of the Partnerships and External Relations Department at UNAIDS.
Michael Klaus of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF’s Regional Director for East Asia and Pacific has been in Myanmar since Saturday, 24 May and welcomes the Government’s decision to grant full access to international aid workers to every part of the affected areas in Myanmar. UNICEF now plans to rapidly move forward with mapping and serving the children and women in the severely affected areas. A news note with more details was available.
Mr. Klaus said UNICEF over the weekend had a first assessment mission to Sichuan in China to gather information on the scope of the psycho-social stress which children were suffering from in this area. This team consisted of three UNICEF protection officers and two experts on emotional stress and drama counselling contracted in the country. On Thursday, a big shipment will leave the UNICEF supply centre in Copenhagen. Almost 100 tonnes of emergency supplies, mainly health material, will arrive in China on Friday and will be immediately distributed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Mr. Klaus said UNICEF South Africa has joined forces with the cities of Johannesburg, Ekhuruleni and Tshwane, areas hardest hit by the violence in South Africa, to provide emergency relief supplies to meet immediate needs of vulnerable women and children. A press release with more details is available.
In conclusion, Mr. Klaus said “The State of Africa’s Children 2008” report will be launched at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama, Japan on 28 May at 3:30 p.m. Japan time. Launching the report will be UNICEF’s Executive Director and the Presidents of Tanzania and Liberia. A media advisory is available.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in Myanmar, of 2.4 million persons affected by Cyclone Nargis, around 1 million persons have been reached with some kind of relief support to date. These were only estimates, and did not include the aid distributed by the Government. On logistics, between 10 and 15 flights daily arrived in Myanmar. The air-bridge flights from Bangkok to Yangon were underway. Some 153 international flights have arrived in Yangon as of 26 May. Bridges on the road to Labutta are in bad condition and passable only for maximum 12 tons trucks. OCHA hoped that the World Food Programme helicopters which the Government has accepted can start working as quickly as possible.
Ms. Byrs said following outbreak of conflict in Abyei in Sudan, around 50,000 persons had fled southwards. Following the initial assessment, the most pressing needs were food, shelter, water and health. The start of the rainy season brought additional threats of malaria and other diseases for the vulnerable displaced population, especially children.
Jennifer Pagonis of the World Health Organization said in southern Chad, in a race against the start of the rainy season in June, UNHCR has started transferring around 9,500 newly arrived refugees from the Central African Republic to a new camp in southern Chad. Some 1,600 refugees in two convoys were moved since last Friday, 24 May, and 15-truck convoys will now run every two days until the rains turn the roads impassable.
Ms. Pagonis said UNHCR welcomed a decision by Colombia's Constitutional Court, which ruled that displaced women are particularly vulnerable and ordered the Government to create 13 programmes for their protection, and prioritize them for access to emergency humanitarian assistance. The Court also ordered direct protection for 600 displaced women and asked the country's attorney-general to investigate several cases of sexual and gender-based violence.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said thousands of foreigners fleeing South Africa in the aftermath of the ongoing xenophobic attacks were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, prior to and after arrival in their home countries, with IOM receiving constant requests for voluntary return assistance from many different nationalities. In Myanmar, as IOM deployed more medical teams to the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy region, donations of medical supplies and equipment were arriving in Thailand for onward shipment to Yangon, through the UN’s newly opened Bangkok logistics hub. And in Costa Rica, as Costa Rican passports continued to be a prized commodity on the black market because many countries do not require its holders to acquire an entry visa, IOM and the country’s immigration authorities were this week training 40 officials on secure passport handling and issuance.
Marcal Izard of the International Committee of the Red Cross said today, the President of ICRC, Jakob Kellenberger, will launch ICRC’s annual report 2007. There will be a press conference at ICRC Headquarters at 2:30 p.m. today.