REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Health Organization and the International Organization for Migration.
Djibouti/Somalia
Tarik Jasarevic of the World Health Organization (WHO) said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Djibouti was reporting an outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) in the capital, where in the first two weeks of November 127 new cases were registered. In 2010 the country had reported more than 2,000 cases of AWD, but this year 5,000 cases had already been seen, explained Jasarevic. However, not all cases are detected so it was difficult to calculate exact figures, though work was being done to improve the collection of information in this regard. Two deaths have been registered since October.
It was believed the spread of AWD was being facilitated by the challenging overall situation in the Horn of Africa, he continued, as recurring drought in both Djibouti and neighbouring countries was weakening the population and making it more vulnerable. Other factors conducive to the spread of diarrhoeal diseases include insufficient hygiene and sanitation, recent rainfalls contaminating limited and unsafe water supplies and ongoing conflict and displacement, he explained.
A diarrhoea treatment centre in the main Djibouti referral hospital could treat up to 40 patients a day, he said, and 300 patients have so far been treated and discharged. A second centre would open in a few days and each regional hospital also has a unit or ward available. He further outlined how prevention and contingency planning from the WHO and MOH are already having an impact, including training for health workers, pre-positioning oral rehydration salts and essential medicines, chlorinating and monitoring water supplies. The WHO has also provided five emergency diarrhoea cholera kits which would arrive shortly, he said.
Tarik Jasarevic of WHO said that in South Central Somalia a total of almost 54,000 cases of AWD had been reported, resulting in 795 deaths. In the same period, 10,540 cases of measles were reported, with 217 cases of attributable deaths.
Kenya
Tarik Jasarevic of WHO said the outbreak of AWD in the Dadaab refugee camps was also on an upward trend. The first cholera case was reported on 25 August in a new arrival, with 17 cases reported in September and 18 in October. Initial cases were found in new arrivals, he added, though local transmission has been confirmed. All five camps are now affected, though no reports have been received from outside the camps.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) gave details of an IOM-commissioned mapping study which had shown that 85 per cent of Somali refugees and host pastoralist communities are using more than 1,200 km of unofficial border routes to reach help at the Dadaab camp, with only 10 per cent of the official routes along the main road from Harar to Garissa cited as being used.
The information gathered from this study was important in assisting those making the journey, she explained, and showed a lack of water provisions, medical facilities, rest points or security monitoring centres, leaving refugees and pastoralists at the mercy of unscrupulous guides who extort large amounts of money for guidance services.
Recommendations from the survey are therefore the establishment of water points along the official tracks to address dehydration, active and passive disease surveillance during and after the migration process to curb the spread of disease in accompanying livestock and the establishment of a police task force in partnership with host communities, she said. In the face of rising tension between host pastoralist communities and refugees over scant water resources, she also explained that the establishment of an early warning system to mitigate the impact of drought on shared water resources was thought appropriate.
Climate change
Adrian Edwards for the UNHCR announced that the High Commissioner for Refugees would address the Security Council on the state of displacement globally tomorrow (23 November). According to UNHCR data, 43.7 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced. This number did not include people who are stateless, which may be up to 12 million or more. The focus of the High Commissioner’s address was expected to be the relationship between climate change and displacement, where drought, famine, desertification and mass population movement could all lead to insecurity and conflict, Mr. Edwards continued, and sea-level rises in low-lying states could also have an impact on citizenship. The full text of the statement would be posted on the UNHCR website following the address.
Geneva activities
Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would examine the report of Cameroon today, and tomorrow begin consideration of the report of Argentina. Argentina wa the last country in the programme of the session. The concluding observations on the five countries examined (Estonia, Israel, Turkmenistan, Cameroon, and Argentina) would be announced on Friday, 2 December.
The Committee against Torture this afternoon held consultations on a draft general comment on the issue of the rights of victims of torture to obtain redress before its closing session on Friday morning at the Palais Wilson, and a press conference Friday afternoon at the Palais des Nations in Room III. The reports considered in this session were Morocco, Djibouti, Paraguay, Germany, Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, Belarus and Madagascar.
Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said tomorrow (23 November) would see the launch of the 2011 Review of Maritime Transport which, this year, looked at the role of developing Asian nations in the expansion of maritime freight services. A press release would be released early tomorrow, she said.
She went on to mention a conference happening next week (29-30 November) organized jointly with the EnergyPact Foundation, which would offer both public and private actors an innovative platform for discussion at a critical juncture when developing and developed countries struggle to mitigate climate change and look for ways to develop green and sustainable economies.
On the first day in the afternoon there would be a technical discussion on nuclear energy, following which UNCTAD would present the Technology and Innovation Report 2011: Powering Development with Renewable Energy Technologies, she added.
The second day of the meeting (30 November) would look at the role of countries in the South, notably the emergent economies in the transition to a green economy, and how to not only offer better energy sources, but also create employment.
Following this, a special UNCTAD/ EnergyPact session on 1 December would examine the way in which the challenges of climate change could be met in a sustainable manner by focusing on developing countries and, in particular, the dynamics of South-South cooperation, she added.
Adrian Edwards for the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reminded journalists that non-accredited colleagues who wished to attend the UNHCR’s ministerial meeting on December 7-8 should have completed accreditation arrangements by December 1. The request for early paperwork was to gauge the need for a media centre and what facilities might be needed, he said. Full details of the conference were available at www.unhcr.org/ministerial-media
Rio+20
Ms. Momal-Vanian also highlighted the launch of Rio+20: The Future We Want in New York this afternoon (22 November) at 16:00 Geneva time. This would begin a global conversation on the kind of world we want in 20 years from now and how we are going to achieve that vision, she said. More details would be found on the website www.un.org/sustainablefuture. The idea would be to collect inputs from all over the world on the sort of world we want and would look for suggestions on food, cities, water, resilience to disaster and other issues, which would be presented at the Rio+20 conference next year.
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For use of the information media; not an official record