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 also heard from spokespersons and representatives from the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Meteorological Organization and the International Organization for Migration. It also heard a statement by the non-governmental organization Terre des Hommes.
Secretary-General's Agenda
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was in Turin today where he was hosting a two-day retreat for senior managers of the United Nations system in Turin. There, he would share his vision for the Organization for 2008 and formulate a plan of action for the year ahead. The meeting would also be a chance to introduce the new members of the United Nations team, many of whom would take their oaths of office next week – among them the new head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the director and deputy director of the Office of Legal Affairs, and the new Controller of the United Nations.
On Sunday, 31 August, the Secretary-General would arrive in Geneva, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier continued. At 12.15 p.m. the Secretary-General would visit UNAIDS headquarters. At 3 p.m. he would address a commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) at the Batiment des Forces Motrices. ACANU journalists could use their badges to attend the ceremony. At 4 p.m., also at the Batiment des Forces Motrices, the Secretary-General would give a joint press conference with Swiss Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger and the Chairman of the IPCC, Dr. Pachauri. Around 5 p.m. the Secretary-General would visit CERN.
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that on Monday, 1 September, at 9.15 a.m., the Secretary-General would attend a signing ceremony for a memorandum of understanding between United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the Iraqi Government, in Building E, third floor, of the Palais des Nations. There would be a photo op. At 10 a.m. the Secretary-General would participate in a fifth anniversary commemoration for the victims of the attack against United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. A note had been sent to journalists regarding the programme for the ceremony. Following the ceremony, the Secretary-General would leave Geneva and travel to Spain. The provisional programme for the Secretary-General's two-day visit had now been e-mailed to journalists and copies were available in the Press Room.
Geneva Activities
Turning to Geneva events, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that next week, Monday through Friday, 1 to 5 September, the Group of Governmental Experts of the High Contracting Parties to the 1980 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects – also known as the Convention on Conventional Weapons – would hold its Fourth 2008 Session at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. At this session, the Group's negotiations on a proposal on cluster munitions would enter a decisive phase. The consolidated Chair's text, which contained different positions expressed so far by delegations during the previous sessions and bilateral consultations, would serve as the basis for the negotiations. The outcome of this session could be a new version of the Chair's text, which would be considered during the Fifth and final session of the Group for 2008, which would be held from 3 to 7 November.
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier also noted that the Conference on Disarmament, which would conclude its third and final part of its 2008 session on 12 September, would hold its next public plenary meeting on Tuesday, 2 September at 10 a.m. Last Tuesday, the President of the Conference, Ambassador German Mundarain Hernandez of Venezuela, had circulated a draft report of the Conference to the General Assembly for 2008. It was thus expected that delegations would comment on that draft at the meeting.
Flooding in Nepal and India
Fadéla Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO), in an update based on information received from WHO's Nepal and India offices this morning, regarding the floods that had struck those two countries over the past few days, said WHO had offered technical assistance to the Health Ministries of India and Nepal to help deal with the situation. WHO had already pre-positioned a number of supplies. In Nepal, it had pre-positioned enough emergency health kits to be able to provide emergency medical assistance for one month to some 120,000 people, to combat cases of diarrhoea, severe diarrhoea or malaria. They also had in place medicines and equipment to treat 30,000 people specifically against malaria for one month. Other emergency medicines were also in place for both countries. No information had been received regarding the possibility or concrete cases of infectious disease outbreaks, but WHO was concerned by the lack of hygiene and sanitary facilities in the two countries, which, coupled with the existence of stagnant flood waters and massive population displacements, could lead to the spread of diseases linked to bad water and hygiene conditions.
Miranda Eels of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said available at the back of the room was a press release on the floods in India and Nepal, which both countries had said were the worst they had seen in 50 years. In Bihar, in India, the floods had affected at least 1.4 million people, and in Nepal the floods had caused distress to around 70,000. The official death toll was still quite low, around 55 people, but that figure was expected to rise over the next few days. In India itself, over 1,000 villages in 13 districts of North Bihar had been affected, causing large-scale displacement. "This is a huge challenge for both the Government and humanitarian organizations", Ms. Eels said. "Our priority is to deliver life-saving supplies and to ensure that women and children receive medicine, food, clean drinking water and access to clean sanitation".
Hurricane Gustav
Ms. Eels said that a press release was also available on the situation in Haiti, where Hurricane Gustav had forced around 6,300 people from their homes. Those were mainly city dwellers, but UNICEF was very concerned because the population of Haiti was already suffering from extreme poverty and soaring food prices were aggravating the situation. UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the partners were working with the Government to ascertain the extent of the damage. The weather had improved in the last few hours, so it was hoped that soon they could get through to do a good assessment of the areas affected.
Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that Hurricane Gustav had begun its trajectory on 25 August in the Caribbean, with Haiti taking the brunt of its force. The number of victims was growing, with the Haitian Authorities now saying that the number of dead could be as high as 59, but she had no confirmation of those numbers yet. The destruction in Port au Prince was less significant than had been expected, owing to very good preparations. Preventive measures launched in this region were beginning to bear fruit. Unfortunately, the deforestation of Haiti also meant that there had been significant damage elsewhere, in the departments of Sud-Est, Sud, Nippes, Ouest, Grand'Anse, Artibonite and Centre. Some 307 houses had been destroyed, but that information was incomplete, pending the results of a UN assessment mission. There were 6,299 persons in shelters.
Hurricane Gustav had also hit the Dominican Republic, where eight people had been killed following a mudslide that buried their home, but, once again, that was a provisional number, Ms. Byrs stressed. Here, too, prevention had played an important role in limiting the damages, with 5,900 people evacuated in time.
A map indicating the Hurricane's path available at the back of the room showed that it was next expected to land on Jamaica, before travelling on to the Cayman Islands and Cuba, Ms. Byrs continued. Preventative measures were being taken.
Georgia
Hélène Caux of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that, as of yesterday, some 2,300 people from villages in the buffer zone between the Georgian town of Gori and the breakaway South Ossetia region had registered in Gori as internally displaced people. Some 800 of those internally displaced were staying in a tented camp, which had been erected earlier this week by UNHCR, working with UNICEF and the World Food Programme. UNHCR had put up 100 family tents and had provided the displaced with mattresses and blankets, and running water and sanitation facilities had been installed in the camp, located on the edge of Gori. Many of the recent arrivals had reached Gori on Tuesday and Wednesday, after being forcibly displaced by militias in villages near the boundary with South Ossetia. Several of the displaced told UNHCR that they had fled fighting earlier this month and had just returned to their homes over the weekend. People talked about militias entering the villages, shooting in the air, harassing the inhabitants and looting their property. There had been no new arrivals on Thursday.
The newly displaced in Gori all had stories of intimidation, including beatings by the militia in buffer zone villages north of Gori. Others had returned to Gori because they felt unsafe when they had arrived back in their villages: they had found their houses damaged and looted, their cattle slaughtered. They had also said they feared the presence of mines, Ms. Caux said. A briefing note was available.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that the situation of displacement in the region remained fluid, as they were seeing returns of displaced persons to Gori and numbers remained hard to obtain. What was clear was that the needs of the tens of thousands of displaced sheltered in hundreds of grim collective centres in Tbilisi were large. And families displaced from South Ossetia and conflict-affected areas were still arriving in the capital. IOM was continuing its daily distribution of non-food items to those in the centres. Another concern for IOM and its partners was that many of the displaced were now living in school buildings, and with the school year beginning in September and the on-coming winter new solutions would have to be found.
In terms of funding, IOM's humanitarian programme for Georgia had received $100,000 from the Slovak Government. Here, Mr. Chauzy recalled that, as part of the UN Flash Appeal, IOM required an initial $1.9 million to provide logistical support, shelter and non-food assistance over the next six months to the displaced in Georgia.
Simon Schorno of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said ICRC action in Georgia and the Russian Federation was ongoing, in particular providing medical assistance, protection and the restoration of family links. In total, in Georgia, ICRC had provided essential household items to over 14,000 people affected by the conflict, including over 12,000 displaced persons, and food had been provided for 12,000. The ICRC continued to receive numerous tracing requests from displaced persons who had lost contact with their loved ones; that was ICRC's priority at the moment. ICRC was also concentrating on accessing the more isolated areas around Gori, to provide assistance to the elderly and disabled who might be stuck there. The security situation remained volatile, with a large presence of weapons, firearms and a substantial number of people trying to return home or on the move and who might feel in danger. ICRC had an office in Gori with some 17 ex-patriot staff, as well as a mobile health unit that had begun visiting surrounding villages on 27 August.
In Tskhinvali, ICRC had registered 89 detainees in the last week. Those detainees were consequently transferred de facto by the South-Ossetian Authorities to the Georgian Authorities on 27 August. The ICRC did not take part in the transfer, but had been informed about it, Mr. Schorno concluded.
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier added that the Security Council had met yesterday evening on this issue, and a press release was available in French and English.
In response to a question, Ms. Caux could not confirm the composition of the militias that were marauding in the region. "There are different groups evolving in the region, in the buffer zone. Some could be from South Ossetia, but I have no confirmation of that. They are moving around in all the villages in the buffer zones. What was really worrying was that people had only just returned to those areas and now they had to move again."
Internally Displaced in Pakistan
Ms. Caux observed that yesterday High Commissioner António Guterres had completed a three-day visit to Pakistan, during which the Government had agreed to review its Afghan repatriation strategy beyond 2009. Both parties had agreed that it would take more time for Afghan refugees to be able to repatriate in a dignified and sustainable way. Both parties had also agreed to appeal for funds for projects to develop refugee-hosting areas in Pakistan – in selected districts in Balochistan and in the North West Frontier Province. During his visit of August 26 to 28, the High Commissioner had met with a number of Pakistani leaders, including Prime Minister Syed Yousef Raza Gilani. More than 1.8 million registered Afghans are living in Pakistan today.
Carla Haddad Mardini of the ICRC, in an update on the recent IDP crisis, said that now close to 200,000 persons had been displaced as a result of the recent armed conflict in Bajaur Agency between Pakistani Government forces and the armed opposition. Some 80 per cent of the displaced were women and children, because most of the men stayed behind in the conflict region. The ICRC and Pakistan Red Crescent had been present for a week in the region, working mainly in the Lower DIR district and Mardan. ICRC's aim was to assist 60,000 persons. At this stage, ICRC was currently working in the 6 of the 23 camps in Lower DIR, providing non-food items and medical consultations. The six camps with an ICRC presence were the largest and most important and those in need of urgent assistance. The camps were not actually camps as such; they were public buildings surrounded by tents. In some cases 5,000 people were staying in a school. All basic necessities were lacking. The Government was providing some assistance, but it was limited, and more would be needed soon if the people stayed in the camps. It was estimated there were now 25,000 people in the 23 camps in Lower DIR.
To date, ICRC had assisted 4,504 persons in Lower DIR, with 568 persons yesterday alone. In Mardan, ICRC had assisted 7,680 with non-food items, assisting 2,560 persons yesterday. ICRC's main concern was the situation in Bajaur Agency, where some people were still stuck. It was a very volatile situation, however, and sporadic fighting in the area made it very difficult to assess what was happening on the ground, Ms. Haddad said.
Human Rights
Yvon Edoumou of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in an update on the incident that had occurred in an IDP camp in southern Sudan on 25 August, said that OHCHR condemned the disproportionate use of force against civilians during the shooting incident at Kalma Camp. The African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur had obtained concrete evidence that 31 people had been killed, among them 7 children, 10 women and 13 men. According to information received, 30 of the victims were killed by gunshot wounds, while one woman had fallen to her death in a ditch, while attempting to flee. The wounded IDPs included 14 children under the age of 17, 19 women and 32 men. The matter was under investigation and further information would be provided as it became available.
Other
Ms. Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) invited journalists to attend the signing ceremony, which would take place on the third floor, above door 40, in E building. They should probably come at around 9 a.m. The memorandum of agreement followed a request by the Iraqi Government in May, so that a group of experts could collaborate with different actors in the country – the Government, the private sector, academia – to undertake an evaluation of Iraq's situation in regard to the areas of science, technology and innovation. That group would then work with the Iraqi Government to formulate strategies to restore Iraq's capacities in these areas. Iraq had been a leader in these areas in the region, but many scientists and thinkers had left the country, and it was estimated that 80 per cent of institutions of higher learning were now dysfunctional. A press release would be issued soon.
Ms. Eels said that later today UNICEF was releasing a study at its country office in Nepal on inter-country adoption and its influence on child protection in Nepal. That study had been undertaken in partnership with the non-governmental organization Terre des Hommes. The report was under embargo until 1 p.m. today.
Claudia Deplazes of Terre des Hommes said that the major study release today called for more child rights and more safeguards for inter-country adoption in Nepal, where improper practices had been detected. The study pointed out that the sale, abduction and trafficking of children took place in an unregulated environment in Nepal. Although inter-country adoption had been suspended since March 2007, today there was big pressure to provide children to Western families and to reopen adoption. The report highlighted 10 key findings and proposed actions to improve inter-country adoption in Nepal, including the adoption of child rights. While UNICEF and Terre des Hommes welcomed Nepal's stated intention of ratifying The Hague Convention on adoption, it was important that legal guarantees be in place when inter-country adoption was reinstated. The report also noted that over 80 per cent of Nepalese children in institutions had relatives, and priority had to be given to family reunification and to finding the biological families. The research also found undue pressure and solicitation of host families to relinquish a child. It was hoped that the study would act as a catalyst to foster greater civil society debate on this issue. A press release and copies of the study were available at the back of the room.
Ms. Gaëlle Sévenier of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recalled that Michel Jarraud, the Secretary-General of WMO, would make an address on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on 31 August at the Batiment des Forces Motrices. The IPCC, created by the WMO and the United Nations Environment Programme at the First World Climate Conference. She also announced that a press release would be sent to journalists on Sunday, on the results of the meeting in Bangladesh being held this week on the issue of the adaptation of agriculture to climate change and food security. She also announced the launch, on 1 September, of a new intervention system by WMO in partnership with the Preparatory Commission of the Organization on the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty which would greatly enhance current capacities to detect whether nuclear tests had been conducted. Essentially, WMO would provide very detailed meteorological data gathered by WMO and its members throughout the world, which would allow the Preparatory Commission to greatly improve its predictions.
Finally, Ms. Sévenier announced that the thirteenth Global Water Congress would be held in Montpellier next week. Key sectors, such as agriculture, energy, tourism and health would be among those most affected by climate change impacts on water resources. WMO called for strong policies that integrated climate change forecasts in the management of water resources to, among others, combat poverty. The Secretary-General of WMO would outline the challenges posed by climate change in the area of water on Monday, 2 September, before the Congress, and would make recommendations on how to address those challenges. A press release would be issued next week.
An WMO Expert then spoke on the 2008 Antarctic ozone hole, noting that the hole was reappearing. This was an annual phenomenon that started in late August and lasted until November or December. A handout available at the back of the room showed that the ozone depletion process had already started. But it was way too early to say if this year would have a large or small hole, which would depend on the weather conditions in the anatarctic stratosphere in the weeks to come. However, it looked as if the size and severity would be somewhere between the record ozone hole in 2006 and the much weaker one seen last year in 2007. An average or a "normal" ozone hole was expected.