REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by spokespersons for the Human Rights Council, World Health Organisation, World Meteorological Organization, United Nations Refugee Agency, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and International Organization for Migration.

United Nations Secretary-General

The United Nations Secretary-General was travelling to Madrid, Spain, to participate in the commemoration of the 60^th anniversary of Spain’s joining the United Nations, on 29 October at the Royal Palace. Mr. Ban would meet King Felipe VI, the Prime Minister and other senior officials, and would address the press together with the Foreign Minister.

On Wednesday, 28 October, the Secretary-General was expected to deliver a keynote address at the closing session of the Madrid +10 Conference on the theme of Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism. While in Madrid, Mr. Ban would address the students at Carlos III University, the members of the United Nations Global Compact, and the civil society at the Caixa Forum.

Mr. Fawzi added that nearly 20,000 persons had visited the Palais des Nations on Saturday, 24 October, and that on the occasion of its seventieth birthday, the United Nations had turned the world blue: not only the Jet d’Eau and the Palais des Nations, but also the Pyramids of Giza and the Great Wall of China had turned blue. Those and other images were available on the United Nations Flickr account: http://j.mp/UNBluePhotos

Geneva activities

The Secretary-General was scheduled to arrive in Geneva on Friday, 30 October.
Mr. Ban would meet with the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, on the afternoon of Saturday, 31 October. Following the meeting, Mr. Ban and Mr. Maurer would issue a joint press statement - the first joint statement between the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. A joint press stakeout would be organized after the meeting at the Palais des Nations, said Mr. Fawzi.

The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva was returning from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, today 27 October, where he had attended the Annual Summit on the Global Agenda 2015, the world’s largest brainstorming event that brought together the most relevant thought leaders of the World Economic Forum’s network of Global Agenda Councils.

Mr. Fawzi announced that on Monday, 2 November, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the United Nations Office at Geneva would co-host a one-day symposium to examine how the CERN’s model could be used as a possible template for global cooperation.

The Human Rights Committee was now concluding the consideration of a report by Iraq, said Mr. Fawzi, and this afternoon would take up the last report scheduled for the session, that of Benin. So far, the Committee had considered the reports of Greece, San Marino, Austria, Suriname and the Republic of Korea.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women began a four-week session on Monday 26 October. It was considering one country report every day this week, starting today with Russia, which would be followed by Portugal, Liberia and Slovenia.

Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council, reminded the media that President Abbas of Palestine would address the Council at 12 noon tomorrow, 28 October. The meeting would also feature remarks by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. There would be no statements from the floor and no interactive dialogue. President Abbas would not be speaking to the press, said Mr. Gomez.

A statement on the media details for the visit of President Abbas would be issued shortly, said Mr. Fawzi, noting that prominent members of the President’s entourage, including the Foreign Minister al-Maliki, may be available to talk to the press.

Mr. Gomez also said that on Wednesday, 28 October, the United Nations General Assembly would elect 18 members to fill the vacant seats in the Human Rights Council for a period of three years, beginning on 1^st January 2016. This meeting would be webcast live at 10 a.m. (New York time).

Next week, the Human Rights Council would start its 23^rd session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group to review the human rights records of 14 States. A detailed background press release would be issued later this week.

Christian Lindmeier, for World Health Organisation (WHO), announced the launch of the first global estimates of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection in people under the age of 50 tomorrow, 28 October. A highly infectious and incurable virus, HSV-1 impacted an alarming proportion of the world’s population. It caused “cold sores” and was also an important cause of genital herpes. The press conference would take place at 2 p.m. today, 27 October in Press Room 1.

WHO would also launch its Global Tuberculosis Report 2015 tomorrow, 28 October in Washington D.C., said Mr. Lindmeier. Details for remote access to the launch ceremony had been distributed. Individual interviews could be arranged before the event under embargo.

Cholera in Syria and Iraq

Mr. Lindmeier then briefed on the cholera outbreak in Iraq and suspected case in Syria, and said that as of 22 October, laboratory tests had confirmed 1,942 cases and two deaths in 15 out of 18 governorates in Iraq. On 31 October, WHO would begin, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, the oral cholera vaccine treatment, and would use 510,000 of the global stock pile to ensure that 255,000 internally displaced persons and refugees in the affected areas would receive two doses. While this number of vaccines was not enough to vaccinate everyone, it should however be a strategic vaccination to block the path of the disease and prevent further outbreaks, said Mr. Lindmeier.

In addition, 15 inter-agency diarrhoeal disease kits and 600,000 chlorine tablets had been distributed in these areas, 48 national health staff had been trained in cholera and laboratory procedures, and a team of international experts have been deployed to assist the Iraqi’s Ministry of Health.

Regarding Syria, WHO had received reports of a suspected cholera case in rural Aleppo, northern Syria, involving a 5-year-old boy, who had died before an appropriate stool sample could be taken for confirmative testing. The child had been tested with a rapid-diagnostic case which had tested positive. However, this testing method was known to give false positives in the past and as such couldn’t be considered accurate. The focal points in Aleppo were currently gathering information to investigate any new potential cases. WHO was printing a further 50,000 information brochures for Syria, and the health sector and WHO were on alert. They had stepped up preparedness measures to respond to cases of cholera, conducting active disease surveillance in all health facilities, training health workers on cholera treatment and stool sample collection, while inter-agency diarrhoeal disease kits had been placed in strategic locations. Health education was ongoing and the water network in this area was said to be chlorinated, which would hinder the spread of vibrio cholerae.

Weather and climate extremes, weather 2050

Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said that the WMO Committee would examine whether Hurricane Patricia had set a new Western hemisphere record for intensity. The WMO hosted the Weather and Climate Extremes website, the weather equivalent of the Guinness Book of Records, and an authoritative source of reference on extreme weather conditions.
Ms. Nullis recalled that Hurricane Patricia, a category-five tropical cyclone, had made landfall in a sparsely populated area on the Southwest Mexican coast on 24 October. Luckily, the hurricane had weakened quickly as it had hit the mountains and the number of casualties and damage was much lower than expected. Ms. Nullis stressed that the Mexican authorities had launched an unprecedented and successful emergency response operation and played a key role in preventing the situation getting worse.
Currently, Hurricane Wilma of 2005 held the strength record in the Western Hemisphere, and globally the strongest cyclone ever recorded was Typhoon Tip, which had barrelled through the Northwest Pacific Ocean in 1979.
Ms. Nullis said that, in advance of the United Nations climate change conference in December 2015 in Paris, WMO was launching climate change videos from its acclaimed Weather 2050 series. Produced with weather presenters from around the world, the videos feature a typical daily weather forecast and weather report for the year 2050, based on climate change scenarios and climate change science. The 27 videos were produced in different languages and would be running throughout the month of November; several videos would focus on the impact of climate change on World Heritage sites.

The first video would be broadcast on Monday, 2 November. The broadcasting schedule and the videos could be accessed here.

Displacement in Yemen increases four-fold since May 2015: 2.3 million persons forced to flee their homes

Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that despite the ongoing conflict and a deepening humanitarian crisis, almost 70,000 refugees, asylum seekers and migrants primarily from Ethiopia and Somalia had arrived by boat in Yemen so far this year. UNHCR and its partners were providing food, shelter and medical care in the Mayfa’a reception centre for those arriving on the Golf of Adan coast. For those arriving along the Red Sea coast, reception facilities had been suspended after an attack had destroyed a village hosting new arrivals in Bab el Mandab, and last week, the remaining reception installation had been looted. Two partner staff working in the transit centre had been killed in the attack.

Travel to Yemen was particularly perilous to people coming from the Horn of Africa: since the beginning of this year, there had been 88 recorded deaths at sea between the Horn of Africa and Yemen, said Mr. Edwards. Most of the movements to Yemen had shifted to the Arabian Sea coast, where people believed the situation was calmer: 10,000 persons had arrived here in September, and another 10,000 had arrived so far in October. While some were Somali refugees who had previously fled Yemen, the majority were Ethiopian migrants for whom Yemen was a transit stop on a journey in search of better opportunities.

Yemen was still seeing a continuous rise in the number of internally displaced persons, which had now reached a record high of 2.3 million people, up from 545,000 in mid-May. UNHCR had provided emergency relief to nearly 150,000 people since the end of March. Access to the affected populations remained a key concern, as many of those in need of assistance were in cut-off areas and UNHCR continued to monitor the situation of the displaced. The conflict raged in the country, with the civilian population bearing its brunt. Mr. Edwards reiterated the call on all parties to protect the lives and rights of civilians, and said that UNHCR had increased its social assistance and protection services to the ever-increasing number of vulnerable refugees.

Mr. Edwards recalled that today, Yemen was host to more than 264,000 refugees, of which 250,000 were Somali. At the same time, over 121,000 people had fled to the surrounding region.

Further information in the briefing note.

Asked where Ethiopian migrants arriving to Yemen were heading, Mr. Edwards said that the country had for a long time been a transit route from Horn of Africa and that this dynamic had shifted in recent years. The migratory population was often moving to the North and to the countries in the Gulf in search for work opportunities.

On the latest displacement figures in Syria, Mr. Edwards referred the journalists to the report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs issued on 24 October. UNHCR operated with figures of 7.6 million displaced, and over 4 million of refugees in surrounding countries, he said.

Rupert Colville, for Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that according to their information, the conflict in Yemen had caused an estimated 2,615 civilian deaths, between 26 March and 26 October. Another 5,193 civilians had been injured. Of those, 814 civilians had been allegedly killed in attacks by the Houthis and their allies, while 1,641 civilians had reportedly been killed due to air strikes.

Violence against refugee women a concern in Australian offshore processing facilities in Nauru

Mr. Colville then briefed on the violence against women, particularly asylum seekers and refugees, in Nauru, calling upon Australia and Nauru to urgently provide a decent option for Abyan, a Somali refugee who had allegedly been raped in Nauru in July, and was now 15 weeks pregnant as a result. OHCHR was concerned about reports that the Nauru police had failed to take action against alleged perpetrators of violence against women, particularly when the victims had been asylum seekers and refugees.

OHCHR was aware of a growing number of sexual assault and rape allegations since Australia had restarted its policy of transferring asylum seekers to Nauru for processing in 2012, and was very disturbed by this trend, and the impunity for such serious crimes. It was a matter of particular concern that asylum-seeker and refugee women, who had allegedly been raped or sexually assaulted, were left in unsafe conditions, given their own vulnerable status and the close proximity of their attackers, and tended to be stigmatized by the population and by members of the Nauru police force.

Asked whether Australia took any responsibility for those incidents and whether there had been any change in the position since the arrival of the new prime minister, Mr. Colville said that refugees and asylum seekers in Nauru were those who attempted to reach Australia by boats, so Australia was obviously involved. This was known as offshore processing and one of the biggest issues was solutions for refugees: Nauru had close to 10,000 inhabitants, with more than 600 asylum seekers and 500 recognized refugees living in the community. There were no solutions for the recognized refugees and this was a result of the Australian policy on offshore processing.

Referring to the situation of Abyan, Mr. Colville stressed that there were no solutions for her in Nauru, as abortions there were illegal except in life-saving circumstances; there was no clause for the termination of a pregnancy resulting from a rape. Abyan had gone to Australia, but an abortion was not performed and she was returned to Nauru. The issue was unresolved and would not be resolved in Nauru, stressed Mr. Colville.

Responding to the question related to the improvement of conditions in the offshore facilities, Mr. Colville said that Nauru had been making some welcome changes, including turning the refugee processing centres into open centres and announcing that all asylum requests would be processed within a week of application. Those who had spoken with asylum seekers reported that they seemed broken, without hope, many cried and many said they preferred death to living under the tent for a prolonged period of time, in a place they did not know. They did not understand why they were stuck in Nauru while other people on the same boats were in Australia. There were no reports on child abuse in the offshore processing facilities, but the trend of sexual abuse of refugee and asylum-seeking women was worrying.

Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that UNHCR had long-standing concerns about the transfer of people to offshore processing centres by Australia and shared concerns about allegations of abuse and assaults against asylum seekers and refugees who had been transferred to both Nauru and the regional processing centre in Papua New Guinea.

Earthquake death toll in Afghanistan and Pakistan approaching 300

Christian Lindmeier, for World Health Organisation (WHO), said that a 7.5 (7.7 in some areas) magnitude earthquake had hit in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in an area where an estimated 866,000 people lived. In Afghanistan, Jalalabad was one of the areas badly hit with a report of 119 injuries and nine deaths so far. Figures from health facilities in the area reported 300 injured and 21 deaths as of the morning, 27 October. In Pakistan over 1,500 people had been injured and 180 deaths have been reported. The causality figures from both countries were constantly changing as reports came in from the more rural and difficult to access areas.

WHO's priority was to assist the health authorities in both countries to provide assistance to the people in need. WHO was concerned about the increasing health needs beyond just the immediate traumas, including waterborne diseases, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A and E, acute respiratory infections, post-traumatic stress disorder, infected wounds, malaria, and dengue fever. The recurrence of other vaccine preventable diseases such as measles and tetanus was also a concern as well as the potential discontinuation of medicines for chronic diseases. WHO was closely monitoring the situation and conducting health assessments together with the Ministry of Health.

Joel Millman, for the International Organization of Migration (IOM), said their staff on the ground reported that the death toll was approaching 300. IOM’s office in Faizabad, in Badakhshan’s capital was damaged, but all staff appeared to be safe.
Richard Danziger, the Afghanistan Chief of Mission who had just returned from one of the villages struck by the earthquake, said that 30 per cent of that village had been destroyed.

Additional information available in the IOM briefing note.

Every day, ten migrants die crossing the Mediterranean

Mr. Millman said that deaths in the Mediterranean continued, with 3,257 fatalities registered so far, approaching the level of mortality that had occurred in 2014. Migrants had been dying at a rate of ten people per day on this route. In the past three weeks alone, 270 migrants had died in shipwrecks and accidents in the Mediterranean.

Further information on shipwrecks off Libya, Greece was available in the press briefing note.

A journalist noted that with ten deaths a day, the European plan to rescue the migrants was not working, and Mr. Millman said that this was a tragic situation which reflected a very long terms trend exacerbated by extraordinary number of conflict that were occurring at the same time, all of them on the horizon of Europe. The position of IOM
was not to say that this was a failure of Europe but a failure of the world community. Every week there was a new effort that was a step forward and IOM welcomed each of those.

Responding to the question on how many boat were seized in this period in the Mediterranean sea, Mr. Millman said that the information that IOM had referred to the number of migrants who had arrived to the shores, and directed the journalist to Frontex that had the information on boat seizures.

Asked about whether the number of boats leaving North Africa diminished, Mr. Millman said that big boats as seen this summer were no longer there, but IOM continued to hear about bodies being washed up on the coasts. For example, yesterday, 29 to 45 bodies had washed up on the coast of Libya, which might have come from one of the two boats that had left about the same time a few days ago. IOM was aware of survivors of one of those boats coming into Italy with people arriving safely. There were no information how robust traffic was compared to earlier this year. There were also reports of Libya chasing people smugglers away, but it was not certain how this had affected the trafick across the sea.

Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), added that there had not been a reduction of the number of people moving across the Mediterranean. So far over 179,000 people had made the Mediterranean crossing in October, the highest one yet in a single month.

Mr. Millman said that there was a slight reduction in the number of crossings from Libya, mainly because the flow of Syrians – of whom 40,000 had crossed into Europe from Libya last year – had largely moved to Turkey. On the other hand, there was an increase in the number of other nationalities crossing the sea. Other nations that IOM tracked migrants figure arriving in Europe are more than ever. In 2014, there was more traffic in the Mediterranean, but slightly less from Libya.

Asked why there were no Yemenis turning up as refugees in Europe and whether routes could get established with the prolongation of the conflict, Mr. Millman said that the explanation might be that there were places where people could go by land, for example Saudi Arabia.