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 World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the
UN Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration, the International Telecommunications Union and the World Trade Organization.
Secretary-General Welcomes Conclusion of Signing Conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warmly welcomed the conclusion of the signing conference of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, held in Oslo from 3 to 4 December. The conference brought out 94 signatures and 4 ratifications. Secretary-General Ban hailed the Convention as a step forward in international efforts to protect civilians and control the spread of deadly weapons. He paid tribute to the broad-based coalition of States, international organizations and civil society groups that had made this Convention a reality, further strengthening international humanitarian law. The Secretary-General’s statement was available in the press room.
Secretary-General and Myanmar
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban would today convene and chair a meeting of the Group of Friends of Myanmar to discuss current developments in the country and ongoing efforts in the context of his good offices mandate. Available was a press release in the press room.
Third Internet Governance Forum
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Third Internet Governance Forum was ongoing in Hyderabad, India, and would conclude on Saturday, 6 December. Some 1,200 persons representing governments, the private sector, civil society, the Internet community, international organizations and the media came together to discuss how to make the web accessible to the largest number of people possible while guaranteeing that cyberspace remained safe, secure and reflective of the diversity of the world’s people. The Forum opened with a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the attacks on Mumbai. The theme of the Forum was “Internet for All”, with workshops addressing such topics as expanding Internet access, including for persons with disabilities; promoting cybersecurity and child protection; and the future of the Internet. Press releases with more details were available in the press room.
Geneva Activities
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier reminded journalists that the Palais des Nations was closed on Monday, 8 December for the Eid al Adha.
As mentioned at the last briefing, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the second edition of the Geneva Lecture Series, a joint UNOG/UNITAR initiative to address global challenges, would be held at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 10 December at the Assembly Hall. Sergei Orgzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, would open the lecture. The keynote speakers were Nobel Prize laureates Shirin Ebadi and Wole Soyinka and the theme was “are human rights universal?” During the lecture, there would also be an intervention by Prince Albert II of Monaco and closing remarks by Carlos Lopes, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNITAR. A note to correspondents with the complete programme for the lecture was available.
Commemorative Session of Human Rights Council
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Human Rights Council would hold a commemorative session on Friday, 12 December on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Secretary-General would participate in the high-level segment of the session, which would be held in the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room (Salle XX). The meeting would open at 10 a.m.
On Salle XX, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the United Nations Office at Geneva was once again confirming that the ceiling sculpture in the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room had not suffered structural or other damage of any kind. She and a group of journalists had visited the room on 3 December to see for themselves that the ceiling sculpture was intact.
Susan Curran, Chief of the Communication Section at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said Human Rights Day (10 December) would be commemorated in Geneva this year on 12 December in a commemorative session held by the Human Rights Council to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The work of the Working Group of the Universal Periodic Review would be suspended for the day. Secretary-General Ban and a dozen Ministers and Secretaries of State would participate in the high-level segment starting 3 p.m. A general debate with the participation of Member States and civil society would be held during the morning meeting starting 10 a.m. In addition, there would be presentations by two groups of children, one group would read articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the other would perform as a choir.
A significant commemorative project had been undertaken by OHCHR to mark the 60 years of the Universal Declaration, Ms. Curran said. There had been a year-long public information campaign in this sixtieth anniversary year of the Universal Declaration, led by the Secretary-General. Many parts of the wider UN family had participated in this year-long campaign. OHCHR had taken the lead in producing public relation material, and there had been activities all around the world. A lot of material would be put on the website of OHCHR in the coming days and weeks about how this sixtieth anniversary had been marked all over the world. The Universal Declaration had gone into space. In the Central America region, there had been interactive websites and video and multi media projects undertaken. Some wonderful books had been published around the world. All sorts of events and activities had taken place, and had been increasing in the past few weeks and days. A lot of them would be featured on the website.
Ms. Curran said the major project of OHCHR had produced films, a book and posters. The project had the title “Stories on human rights by filmmakers, writers and artists”. Twenty-one short three-minute films had been directed by renown film directors from all around the world on six themes which together captured all the principles in the Universal Declaration. These films were being made available all around the world and they would be the centre piece for a number of events to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Declaration on 10 December. There was also a book which included interviews with the directors and photos taken during the making of the films. In addition, there were stories in the book by five Nobel writers on the theme of human rights. The book was on sale. The third element of the project was some posters designed in a competition across 20 countries amongst university-level design and arts students. An information kit was also available with information about the Universal Declaration and the project and other aspects of Human Rights Day.
Last week, the winners of the 2008 United Nations prize in the field of human rights, were announced by the President of the General Assembly and they would be awarded their prizes on 10 December in the General Assembly, Ms. Curran said.
Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said copies of the press kit were at the back of the room in English and in French. There would be a press statement quoting the High Commissioner issued later today.
Cholera in Zimbabwe
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary- General has discussed the situation in Zimbabwe with President Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa during a telephone call. They talked about the humanitarian situation, and the Secretary General stressed the need for the United Nations and other partners to respond urgently to the needs of the population and stop the cholera epidemic from spreading. President Motlanthe and the Secretary-General also discussed the political situation and the South African Development Community’s mediation in the power-sharing negotiations.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there were so far 12,700 suspected cases of cholera and 575 deaths in Zimbabwe. There were cases in nine of the 10 provinces of Zimbabwe, so it was now a national epidemic. The United Nations was increasing its efforts to try to stop this outbreak. Harare remained the most affected area. She wanted to point out that the cases in the update were cases reported to medical centres around the country, but of course this did not portray the full picture. There were two clusters, the health cluster led by the World Health Organization and the water and sanitation cluster led by the United Nations Children’s Fund. There was a new logistical problem, a shortage of fuel, as well as a shortage of trained staff and volunteers to help with the sanitation campaigns. The UN agencies would be issuing a supplement to the Consolidated Appeal section for Zimbabwe for 2009 which was for $ 550 million in light of the epidemic. The needs of Zimbabwe were enormous, including building latrines, disinfecting water, distribution of clean drinking water etc.
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said this epidemic was Zimbabwe’s worst since 1992. Cholera affected Zimbabwe annually, but not at this scale. WHO knew the details of the situation in Harare and the two other big cities worst affected, but not what was happening in the countryside. There were 6,448 suspected cases of cholera in Harare and 179 deaths. In Beitbridge, there were 3,090 cases and 83 deaths, and in Mudzi, there were 1,234 cases and 57 deaths. The huge spread of the epidemic was due to a number of factors, including the lack of water, the lack of sanitation, the weakness of the health infrastructure and the shortage of health workers. There had been a clearly ascending trend of new suspected cases since 20 November.
Ms. Chaib said WHO was airlifting emergency stocks of supplies from Dubai and mobilizing additional drugs and supplies from South Africa. On 25 November, WHO delivered five tons of medical supplies that could treat up to 50,000 people for three months for basic conditions. Three Diarrhoeal Disease Kits capable of treating 300 severe cases and 1,200 moderate cases were delivered on 1 December. Additional supplies for treating 500 severe cases and 2,000 moderate cases arrived on 4 December. WHO was working with other health partners. However these supplies were still a fraction of the needs of the country. WHO was appealing for $ 2 million for three months, but this was just an initial estimate.
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said the situation in Zimbabwe was very worrying for UNICEF with this unprecedented epidemic, which was becoming increasingly difficult to control. Harare continued to suffer from serious shortage of water. Available was an update on UNICEF’s latest activities on the ground, in cooperation with other UN and non-governmental organization partners. Some 42 of the 62 regions of Zimbabwe were now affected by the epidemic. UNICEF had made available a one-month supply of chemicals for the treatment of water and was distributing 360,000 litres of drinking water daily. The situation of the population in Zimbabwe was already vulnerable, especially women and children. Aid had to arrive quickly to these vulnerable sectors. UNICEF had appealed for $ 9 million, but it had not received anything. Last week alone, in its work against the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe, UNICEF had spent $ 5 million.
In response to a question, Ms. Byrs said there were no plans to issue a Flash Appeal for Zimbabwe. It was a matter of semantics. When there was a Consolidated Appeal for a country, and there was a new emergency in that country, they carried out a series of new humanitarian programmes and the costs were supplemented to the original Consolidated Appeal. But they were not called a Flash Appeal.
Other
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said next week, the “intergovernmental meeting on pandemic influenza preparedness, sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccinations and other benefits” would be held from 8 to 13 December in the building of the International Labour Organization. Hundreds of delegates were expected. In 2007 the sixtieth World Health Assembly requested the Director-General to identify and propose frameworks and mechanisms which aimed to ensure fair and equitable sharing of influenza viruses, vaccines and other benefits in support of public health. The intergovernmental meeting met in Geneva in November 2007 and there was an open-ended working group meeting in April 2008 in Geneva. This meeting was a further step in the process of resolving the issue of sharing viruses and the resulting benefits. The media contact for this meeting was Gregory Härtl.
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said available at the back of a room for the use of the press was a film on the situation of children in Uganda after 20 years of conflict.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that in Dungu area, Oriental Province in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than 83,000 persons had become displaced as a result of consistent attacks by the Lord’s Resistance Army since mid-September, and around 6,000 persons had taken refuge in Sudan. Humanitarian actors were slowly returning to the region. There was a note with more details at the back of the room.
Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said there was something in the briefing note on the Democratic Republic of the Congo about a mission to the Rutshuru area and an update on the displacement there. They had not had access to that area for some time. UNHCR had been able to visit for the first time three former makeshift IDP sites which had been emptied, in addition to the three UNHCR-run IDP sites in that area that were forcefully emptied and
destroyed some weeks ago. With the latest findings, the total number of
IDPs who could not be accounted for in the area had surpassed 90,000.
In the Oriental Province region, local authorities in Kisangani told UNHCR they had identified some 2,000 IDPs who fled recent attacks of the Lord’s Resistance Army. The group fled the town of Dungu in the Haut Uele area. They were now staying with host families, while many more were in schools and other public buildings in
several locations in the province. The authorities had also confirmed the presence of some 2,000 displaced persons from Dungu at Isiro, north-west of Bunia in Ituri
region. Another 11,000 IDPs were reported at Niangara, 120 km from Isiro
and 215 km from Dungu. More displaced persons, some 10,000, were located
at Banda on the route to South Sudan. Some 25,000 IDPs had also found
shelter in the village of Ngedu, some 45 kilometers from Dungu.
Mr. Redmond said UNHCR’s Deputy High Commissioner L. Craig Johnstone was scheduled to discuss the humanitarian response to climate-induced displacement on Monday at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland. Mr. Johnstone was
scheduled to chair a panel discussion organised by UNHCR, IOM and the
United Nations University titled “Climate change, migration and forced
displacement: The new humanitarian frontier?” The aim was to raise awareness of the humanitarian dimensions of climate change.
Mr. Redmond said High Commissioner Antonio Guterres would host the second annual “High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges” next week. More than 40 governments were expected to participate in the meeting which this year would focus on the search for solutions for millions of people caught in the limbo of so-called “protracted refugee situations.”
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM had partnered with an international consortium led by the Scientific Institute of the German Medical Association to implement a three-year research project on the mobility of health professionals into, within and outside of the European Union. In Afghanistan, IOM yesterday completed the first and second phases of its assistance to the Afghan Independent Election Commission to register voters in 23 of the country's 34 provinces for the upcoming 2009 and 2010 elections.
Sanjay Acharya of the International Telecommunications Union said ITU World Radicommunication Seminar would open on Monday, 8 December. During the week, participants would address the international regulations on the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and satellite orbits as well as technical and operational aspects of ITU Radio Regulations. These were revised by the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2007. Around 500 participants were expected to attend the seminar, which would be held at the International Geneva Conference Centre.
Janaina Borgese of the World Trade Organization said the agriculture and industrial goods mediators were expected to publish provisions to their draft negotiating texts, probably during the weekend. Consultations were still going on about a possible meeting later this month in Geneva on the Doha negotiations. The Director-General was likely to decide only after the mediators had issued their texts.
Daniel Pruzin, President of the ACANU, told journalists that those who were interested in attending the working dinner with the Secretary-General Ban on Friday, 12 December had to sign up.