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 also attended by Spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the International Telecommunications Union, the World Trade Organization, the International Organization for Migration and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Human Rights Council
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Human Rights Council would hold a Special Session on the situation of human rights in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo today starting 3 p.m. in Salle XVII. The Special Session was called by France on behalf of Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. A number of non-members of the Council also joined the request. So far, 16 Council members and 23 non-members had signed the request of the Special Session. This was the third Special Session that the Human Rights Council was holding this year.
The third session of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Working Group would be held in Geneva from 1 to 15 December during which 16 States would have their human rights records examined, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said. These countries were Botswana, Bahamas, Burundi, Luxembourg, Barbados, Montenegro, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Liechtenstein, Serbia, Turkmenistan, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Colombia, Uzbekistan and Tuvalu. The meeting would take place in Salle XIX.
Background press releases were available in the press room.
Committee on Rights of Migrant Workers
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families would today conclude its ninth session, which was held this week at the Palais Wilson. The Committee would issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the report of El-Salvador, which was reviewed during the session, later in the day.
Meeting of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Meeting of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention for 2008 would be held from 1 to 5 December. The meeting, which was being chaired by Ambassador Georgi Avramchev of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, would develop and consolidate the work of the Meeting of Experts (18-22 August) in order to promote common understanding and effective action on two specific topics: national, regional and international measures to improve biosafety and biosecurity, including laboratory safety and security of pathogens and toxins; and oversight, education, awareness raising and adoption and/or development of codes of conduct with the aim of preventing misuse in the context of advances in bioscience and biotechnology research with the potential of use for purposes prohibited by the Convention. A background press release was available in the press room.
Activities of the Director-General
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, would deliver on 1 December to the Meeting of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention for 2008 the message of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The background press release was available in the press room.
On 2 December, the Director-General would be in The Hague where he would represent Secretary-General Ban at the Thirteenth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Olusegun Obasanjo, would be returning to the region this weekend to resume talks with the Congolese Government, the CNDP [Congrès national pour la défense du people] rebel group and other key actors. He was expected to visit Kinshasa on Saturday and Goma on Sunday, with other regional stops along the way.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said South Lubero region was partly accessible since 24 November and a gradual redeployment of humanitarian workers was being carried out. MERLIN and MSG non-governmental organizations were now present in South Lubero. OCHA would open a humanitarian antenna in Lubero. However, inaccessibility in Binza area and some parts of South Lubero may hamper supply to the Therapeutic Nutritional Centres, with a risk, of an increase of cases of malnutrition in these areas. An assessment of the cholera situation in South Lubero was ongoing after suspected cases of cholera were reported. As for measles, there were 138 measles cases in Masisi health zone. A vaccination campaign was envisaged by governmental health authorities and partners. There were other details in her notes.
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said thousands of civilians had fled North Kivu into Uganda in recent days to get away from renewed fighting and brutal attacks against their villages in North Kivu by armed groups. In Ishasha, a border city in Uganda, it was worrying that the displaced persons brought with them diseases, as cases of cholera had been reported. Water and sanitation were UNICEF’s priority. Along with MSF, UNICEF was distributing clean water in Ishasha and in Kosoro district. UNICEF had also deployed to Ishasha personnel specialized in questions related to child protection, in coordination with partners, to try to identify and register children separated from their families and to provide help to any who had been victims of violence. A measles vaccination campaign was continuing in North Kivu, targeting 4,300 children. In Rutshuru, 85 per cent of schools remained closed and 150,000 children could not return to school. On 4 December at 1 p.m., a new UNICEF film would be screened at the Palais des Nations, drawing attention to the plight of Ugandan children. Journalists were invited.
William Spindler of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was starting this morning the first voluntary transfers of displaced Congolese civilians from the Kibati camps in the northern outskirts of Goma. UNHCR vehicles would transfer the first group of people with special needs to Mugunga 1 camp, one of four existing cites for internally displaced people. Today’s voluntary transfer was the first in a series of planned movements that would run through the weekend. By the beginning of next week, they planned to have moved 1,000 people away from Kibati. Tens of thousands of displaced Congolese civilians were in a precarious situation in the Kibati camps as the warring parties remained in close proximity.
Mr. Spindler said thousands of Congolese refugees had fled to Uganda over the last two days. UNHCR staff in Ishasha, Uganda, reported that since Tuesday afternoon, an estimated 13,000 Congolese refugees had crossed the border from the Rutshuru district in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including 10,000 on Thursday alone. The new arrivals brought the number of civilians who had fled into Uganda since August to 22,000. UNHCR’s emergency response team in Ishasha had been trying to arrange transportation of the refugees to another settlement, some 350 kilometres to the east. The new arrivals told UNHCR they were fleeing new fighting in Rutshuru, and said they had witnessed appalling atrocities when the villages were attacked. Uganda now hosted more than 150,000 refugees, including more than 50,000 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Cholera in Zimbabwe
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 39 districts were now affected by the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe. According to yesterday’s daily update, the total number of cholera cases had increased to 9,463, including 389 deaths. There was an alarming regional dimension developing, as cases of cholera had now been reported in Botswana and South Africa. The respective Ministries of Health in these countries and in Zimbabwe were working with the World Health Organization to undertake coordination efforts. Zimbabwe’s health service system had rapidly deteriorated. There was a lack of adequate water supply and a lack of capacity to dispose of solid waste and repair sewer blockages, which would continue to contribute to the escalation and spread of the outbreak. Hygiene promotion, distribution of basic hygiene kits, supply of water, and construction of emergency latrines were the activities carried out by the water and sanitation partners. There were no new cases reported in Beitbridge so they believed the humanitarian response in that city had been effective. There were more details in the notes.
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said available was a UNICEF update on the cholera crisis in Zimbabwe, including two maps showing the spread of the epidemic in just one week, from 20 November to 27 November. The update also listed UNICEF’s actions to respond to this crisis. UNICEF had more than 50 persons working only on the cholera crisis. Water and sanitation were crucial and UNICEF was working with its partners and the Government to deal with this. UNICEF and its partners as part of the UN Consolidated Appeal had requested $ 9 million for the water and sanitation sector and hoped it would be forthcoming to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in Zimbabwe.
Fadela Chaib said WHO and its health cluster partners were monitoring and responding to the outbreaks and supporting cholera treatment centres in 26 districts.
WHO had presented a comprehensive cholera response plan at the health cluster meeting on 25 November 2008 during which a number of gaps were identified in the detection, assessment, organization of response, case management and surveillance and information management. In response to these gaps, WHO was airlifting emergency stocks of supplies from its warehouse in Dubai and mobilizing additional drugs and supplies. WHO and its partners were working on deployment of a full outbreak investigation and response team, including logisticians, epidemiologists, social mobilization, media management and water/sanitation specialists.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM was continuing to work in coordination with UN agencies and local authorities to urgently combat a rapidly spreading outbreak of cholera, which has thus far claimed hundreds of lives. With the entire country now affected by the outbreak, and with floods anticipated with the rainy season now in swing, the cholera crisis could deepen. The total number of suspected cholera cases stood at 9,463 with 389 deaths. In Beitbridge, on the border with South Africa, there were 2,917 suspected cholera cases with 76 deaths, while Harare had seen 4,697 suspected cases and 108 deaths. There continued to be an urgent need for drugs, intravenous fluids, Oral Rehydration Salts, antibiotics and cholera beds. IOM was appealing for $ 655,000 to respond to the rapid rise in cholera cases while continuing to monitor the situation, providing hospital referrals when necessary, and deploying and supporting nurses at Cholera Treatment Centres. In addition, IOM was providing drugs, medical supplies, and non- food items such as clothing and gumboots to health staff working at the centres.
Anna Schaaf of the International Committee of the Red Cross said ICRC was supporting eight health structures in Zimbabwe to cope with the influx of sick people. The lack of safe water was the main issue, including in the clinics. ICRC since the outbreak of cholera had been distributing medicines to the hospitals, and had been drilling bore holes and supplying clean drinking water by trucking in water. ICRC was also giving food incentives to the health workers in these clinics.
Human Rights
Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said there were two press releases at the back of the room. There was the statement of the High Commissioner on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, leading up to the Human Rights Council’s Special Session today. The other one was on a new report on arbitrary detention and arrests in Sudan. On Sudan, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) was today issuing a new report on arbitrary arrest and detention committed by national security, military and police in north, south and some parts of central Sudan. It did not cover Darfur. Arbitrary arrest and detention were widespread in many parts of Sudan, and were often linked to further serious human rights violations, including torture and other forms of ill-treatment, says the report. The report concludec that intelligence and security services, police, and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), as well as the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in the South, had all committed violations of Sudanese and international law in the form of arbitrary arrests of civilians, in the length and manner of their detention, and in the physical treatment of detainees. The report said that in Khartoum and other parts of Northern Sudan, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) systematically used arbitrary arrest and detention against political dissidents. Human rights defenders and Darfurians living in the Khartoum area were also subjected to heightened risks of detention. Such detention could typically be accompanied by additional serious human rights violations such as incommunicado detention, ill-treatment, torture or detention in unofficial places. The NISS had reportedly been responsible for a large number of cases involving ill-treatment and torture which were used to intimidate detainees, to punish them, to extract information or to force them to incriminate themselves or others. In some cases death threats were made against detainees prior to their release to prevent them from speaking out about the abuses they suffered in detention.
Mr. Colville said outside the scope of this report, but very current, there were three human rights defenders who were arbitrarily arrested and detained earlier this week. They had now all been released. Two out of three were subjected to severe beating and other forms of ill-treatment which amounted to torture. The reason for the detention seemed to have been their work as human rights defenders.
The military also arbitrarily detained civilians, both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, in violation of international and Sudanese law, Mr. Colville said. The report and the press release provided a lot of details. Both were available. Police in the north and the south, particularly in the south, sometimes arrested family members in order to punish suspects or to try to recapture suspects. The report cited cases of women and children detained as a means of forcing their families to pay compensation in civil disputes, or in relation to dowry payments. For example, a 17-year old girl was sentenced to one year in jail in Yei for leaving her husband, and a 16-year old Dinka girl was jailed for two months in Bor for running away from a forced marriage.
Global Aerosol Pollution
Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said the new international scientific review Aerosol Pollution Impact on Precipitation was being released today.
An information note was available at the back of the room in English and in French.
Len Barrie of the World Meteorological Organization said this was a scientific assessment that was commissioned jointly by WMO and the International Union for Geophysics and Geodesy. The outcome of this review would foster a better understanding of how aerosols - suspended particulate matter in the atmosphere – affected rain and snow formation. This was so they could better include them in models so that they could forecast weather and predict future climate; and also to have better understanding of the influence of human activity on the water supply.
There were many recommendations, including on how to help extend the weather forecast accuracy out from two to three days to more than a week, and to reduce the uncertainty in regional climate predictions by better utilizing what was known about aerosol impact on rain and snow formation. A second recommendation was information to improve understanding on the effects of mega cities on rain regimes down wind and on severe storms that popped up around mega cities.
Other
Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said unfortunately there would not be a press conference at 3 p.m. on Monday, 1 December with the Trade Ministers of Mali, Benin and Chad before the multi-stakeholder meeting on cotton which the Secretary-General of UNCTAD was organizing on 2 December. However, if journalists came to Salle XXVI where the multi-stakeholder meeting on cotton would be held on 2 December, at the end of the day, the Ministers would be available to speak to journalists, but not in the format of a press conference.
Sanjay Acharya of the International Telecommunications Union said ITU had published its annual report, Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2008: Six Degrees of Sharing, and copies of the report and the executive summary were available at the back of the room. The 2008 report focused on the theme of sharing infrastructure as a means of lowering the costs of network rollout. This was particularly in view of the deepening global financial crisis, which could make it more difficult for investors to obtain financing for continuing network development. Sharing strategies was seen as conducive to infrastructure development in the telecommunications /ICT sector as it helped reduce costs.
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said WHO published a monthly bulletin. For the past few months, they had been choosing a theme that was interesting to WHO and to journalists and had been issuing a note on it. For the December issue of the bulletin, they had chosen an article on HIV/AIDS and how it affected the young and adolescents in Haiti. A note was available at the back of the room.
Ms. Chaib said 1 December was World AIDS Day. She had brought invitations to an event that would be held on 1 December at WHO at 10 a.m. where the 2008 Nobel Laureate for Medicine Francoise Barre Sinoussi, would meet with WHO staff in the lobby. At 11 a.m., in the new WHO/UNAIDS building, Ms. Barre Sinoussi would participate in a scientific discussion on where research on AIDS stood 25 years after its discovery.
Ms. Chaib said that on 4 December at 4 p.m., there would be a teleconference on measles. A press release was available. And on 10 December, WHO would issue a report entitled “The World Report on Child Injury Prevention”. The main launch was in Viet Nam and another would be held in London. WHO would hold an embargoed briefing on 4 December at 11 a.m. in press room 1.
Joel Schaefer of the World Health Organization said the Lancet would publish on 1 December the results of a study on medicine prices, availability, and affordability in 36 developing and middle-income countries. An embargoed press release was available at the back of the room. The paper results confirmed an alarming lack of availability in the public sector of medicines. The lead author of the study was available for questions.
Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization said that there was a meeting of the agriculture negotiating group at 10:30 a.m. this morning. At 3 p.m. today, there would be a meeting of the industrial goods negotiating group. Over the next few days, the Director-General would continue his consultations with members, working closely with the mediators to define the next steps concerning the Doha negotiations. The Director-General would be in Qatar for the International Conference for Financing on Development on 29 November. He would speak at the opening plenary and would participate in the panel discussion, and would hold bilateral meetings with the Emir of Qatar and the Korean Prime Minister and other attendants. On the Doha negotiations, there would be meetings of the trade facilitation group from 1 to 3 December and meetings on intellectual property negotiations on 1 December. There would also be several meetings of the regular services bodies.
William Spindler of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR welcomed the European Union’s willingness to resettle more refugees from Iraq. There were more details in the press release at the back of the room.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said a press conference would be held at 2 p.m. today for the launch of the World Migration Report. The report was embargoed until 2 December, one minute after midnight.