REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Telecommunication Union and the International Organization for Migration.

Human Rights Council

Ms. Heuzé said journalists who stayed at the Palais until midnight last night heard Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba of Mexico, the President of the Human Rights Council, announce that an agreement had been reached on a final text which encompassed all institutional arrangements for the Council, including a Code of Conduct. The final version of the Presidential text was available in the press room and would be sent electronically to journalists. The Council would meet starting 11 a.m. this morning in an organizational session to elect its new Bureau and then to take action on the compromise text as well as other issues relating to the institution-building of the Council. A short press release including the President’s comments last night had been issued, and this morning, Member States were expected to take the floor to react to the text. Ambassador de Alba would speak to journalists later in the day, probably not before 1 p.m. or 1:30 p.m. His press conference would be held in Room III, a good occasion to inaugurate the newly renovated room which now had state-of-the-art equipment, especially for radio journalists. [It was later announced that the Council would reconvene at 3 p.m.]

José-Luis Diaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that the High Commissioner welcomed the agreement reached by the Council last night and will address the Council later today.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Heuzé said available in the press room was a press release about the Preparatory Committee for the first Conference of the High Contracting Parties to Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War, annexed to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), which held a one-day meeting on 18 June at the Palais. The Preparatory Committee agreed on a set of procedural and substantive recommendations on how they envisaged the faithful and practical implementation of the Protocol in the most effective manner. In particular, on the three main issues which constituted the bulk of the work of the PrepCom, the States Parties agreed on how best to put into operation a national reporting mechanism and establish a database on explosive remnants of war, to exchange information, and to cooperate and assist each other, including through the holding of annual conferences. The press release was available with more details.

Ms. Heuzé said the Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission would be holding its sixty-third session from 20 to 22 June 2007 at the Palais to discuss various issues relating to the work of the Compensation Commission including reports of the Executive Secretary on the activities of the secretariat since the last session in February 2007, on the distribution by Governments and international organizations of payments to successful claimants, the transparency of the distribution process, the return of undistributed funds, and on corrections of awards pursuant to article 41 of the provisional rules for claims procedure. A background press release was available with more details, and there would be a briefing and a roundup press release at the end of the meeting.

New York Activities

Ms. Heuzé said today in New York the World Economic and Social Survey 2007 would be launched by Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs José Antonio Ocampo. The Survey analysed the implications of population ageing for social and economic development around the world, while recognizing that it offered challenges and opportunities. It was expected that copies would be available later in Geneva.

Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General had made a number of statements in the past few days, including one in which he welcomed the agreement in Dar es Salaam on 17 June between the President of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, and the leader of the PALIPEHUTU-FNL, Agathon Rwasa, concerning the implementation of the Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement.
On the Middle East, the Secretary-General strongly deplored the rocket attack on the Northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona that was launched from Southern Lebanon last Sunday. Mr. Ban Ki-moon also met on Sunday for a working luncheon with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, with whom he discussed recent developments in Gaza, Lebanon and the wider Middle East. He told reporters at a press encounter with the Prime Minister that the deteriorating situation in Gaza and in the region had been a source of great concern, as was what he described as “the failure of the national unity government in Palestine”. The Secretary-General said that he knew that Israel had legitimate concerns over security, but he mentioned at the same time the United Nations’ humanitarian concerns, with some 80 percent of Palestinians requiring UN assistance. He urged all the parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint, and to resolve all the pending issues through peaceful means and through dialogue.

Human Rights

Mr. Diaz said the he would be sending out today a statement from the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Leandro Despouy, reiterating his call on the Government of Iraq to halt the application of the death penalty.

Responding to a journalist's question on the fate of Sigma Huda, UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, Mr. Diaz said that OHCHR had again asked the Bangladeshi authorities for information. She was apparently being prosecuted in a corruption case in Bangladesh. OHCHR was still awaiting for an official response, despite repeated requests to the authorities for more information and clarification on the case, and to determine whether that should be preventing her from fulfilling her duties as Special Rapporteur. Special Rapporteurs were covered under the UN Convention on Privileges and Immunities, which contained provisions on the work of experts on mission. Special Rapporteurs were covered by those provisions while carrying out their duties as rapporteurs. It was hard to make a definite determination on this case because the UN had not had any reply to the information it had requested. Asked whether a Code of Conduct [such as that discussed at the Human Rights Council] might have helped clarify matters in the present case, both Mr. Diaz and Ms. Heuze said that, given the information available it was impossible to know if there was a link between her official duties and the case or not. Responding to another question, Mr. Diaz said there was no way to oblige the Bangladeshi Authorities to respond to OHCHR's request for clarification. Asked whether OHCHR could bring the case of the Special Rapporteur before the Human Rights Council, he replied perhaps member countries could bring it to the floor, but not OHCHR.

Occupied Palestinian Territories

Ms. Heuzé said the operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza had returned to the levels from before the current round of fighting. UNRWA had been forced to suspend temporarily all but its emergency health and food programmes following the killing of two of its workers last week. The security situation was improving, but threats remained to staff on the ground.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that a grave humanitarian crisis was developing in the Gaza Strip, following the closing of crossing points, which effectively blocked all commercial traffic to the area. Stocks of basic goods were quickly diminishing, and would probably be completely used up during the next two weeks. That situation was creating panic among the population, which was beginning to hoard basic goods such as flour, sugar, vegetable oil and other supplies, leading to spiralling prices. In particular, flour prices had risen 40 per cent over the past few days. Bakeries only had three or four days of flour left. The most vulnerable groups – women, children and the sick – were obviously the most seriously affected. WFP had 10 trucks transporting 290 tons of food supplies currently en route for Gaza. The convoy should reach Gaza by noon today, if they were all allowed to cross the checkpoints. WFP also feared that its operations in the area might be jeopardized by people driven to desperation by the situation. She recalled that, over the past weekend, a warehouse containing WFP food aid had been looted by armed militants and some 25 metric tons of food and equipment worth US$16,000 had been stolen.

Ms. Berthiaume observed that, even before the crisis started, 80 per cent of the population, or some 275,000 persons, in the Gaza Strip were dependent on WFP food aid.

World Refugee Day

Ms. Heuzé recalled that tomorrow, 20 June was World Refugee Day. In a message on that occasion, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon underscored that in the past year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other UN agencies had expanded their assistance to 23 countries with a total population of nearly 20 million internally displaced people.

William Spindler of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that, as it did annually for World Refugee Day, UNHCR had issued its annual statistics report, "2006 Global Trends" yesterday. The main finding was that the five-year downward trend in the number of refugees worldwide had been reversed, largely as a result of the crisis in Iraq. At the moment, there were 2.2 million Iraqi refugees. A press release was available, and an electronic version of the report could be accessed on the UNHCR website (www.unhcr.org).

Mr. Spindler said that High Commissioner Guterres was in southern Sudan ahead of World Refugee Day, seeing for himself the difficult conditions that refugees faced on return to their countries for origin. On Monday, the High Commissioner joined a convoy of returning refugees from northern Uganda and travelled with them in a truck for the two-hour journey across the border of southern Sudan. Later today he would travel to Juba, the main hub of UNHCR operations in southern Sudan. On Wednesday, Mr. Guterres will take part in World Refugee Day celebrations in Juba, before flying to Nairobi.

Other

Catherine Sibut-Pinot of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said an ad hoc expert meeting would be held today to discuss the potential impact of a forthcoming “second generation” of biofuel technologies. The meeting was titled “Biofuels: trade and development implications of present and emerging technologies". Advocates believed that biofuels could promote rural development, provide new markets for agricultural products, enhance energy security and reduce global warming. But critics argued that rapid development of biofuels without careful management might adversely affect food security and worsen deforestation. There was a press release available with more details, and she would be happy set up appointments with some experts for interested journalists.

Michael Williams of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced the launch on Friday of the assessment report on the impact of the Sudanese conflicts on the environment of Sudan, the latest in a series of reports on conflict situations and the environment. The report looked at issues including refugees, climate change, biodiversity, and at all the environmental impacts on the conflict, and how the conflict was shaping the environment. Copies of the report would be available on Thursday afternoon, under embargo. A press conference for the launch would be held by UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner, on Friday, 22 June, at 12 p.m. in Room III.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said a two-day experts meeting on electromagnetic fields and public health had opened yesterday at WHO. For several decades consumers had become concerned about the health impacts of exposure to extremely low frequency fields. For some 30 years now, WHO and partners had been researching that question. A fact sheet was available in French and English.

Ms. Chaib also announced the launch of a WHO Global Response Plan 2007-2008 to combat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. A press conference for the launch would be held by Mario Raviglione, Director of WHO's STOP TB Department, and Paul Nunn, Coordinator for the Department of TB/HIV and Drug Resistance, on Thursday, 21 June at 2 p.m in Room III

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said available was a statement by UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman on recent attacks on aid workers issue on Saturday, 16 June. The Executive Director was deeply concerned about the number of deadly attacks on aid workers that had occurred over recent weeks, whether it was in the Central African Republic ,where a logistics specialist working for Doctors without Borders had been killed last Monday, in Lebanon, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or in the occupied Palestinian territory, where two UNRWA staff had been killed a couple of days ago.

Ms. Taveau recalled that the 2007 HIV/AIDS Implementers' Meeting, which UNICEF had sponsored in partnership with the Rwandan Government and other organizations and agencies of the UN system, had opened on Saturday, 16 June, in Kigali, Rwanda. The theme of this year's meeting, "Scaling Up Through Partnerships", recognized the rapid expansion of HIV/AIDS programmes worldwide. Together, implementers would exchange lessons learned on building the capacity of local prevention, treatment and care programmes, maintaining quality control and coordinating efforts, as well as discuss future directions for HIV/AIDS programmes. Addressing the Meeting, Doreen Mulenga, acting chief of HIV and AIDS at UNICEF, had observed that an AIDS-free generation could be a reality; they knew what worked – what remained was for them to use that knowledge.

Finally, Ms. Taveau updated journalists on the visit of UNICEF roving Ambassador Lucy Liu to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A press release was available.

Mr. Sanjay Acharya of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced the joint European Broadcasting Union/ITU Meeting on "Competitive Platforms for the Delivery of Digital Content", to be held on Thursday, 21 and Friday, 22 June at EBU headquarters in Geneva. The meeting would gather high-level experts to identify key trends and address new technological and policy challenges in the digital content delivery environment. A media advisory was available.

Mr. Acharya said journalists were also invited to attend the signing of an agreement between ITU with ICO Global Communications and the Commonwealth Business Council to utilize satellite communications for improved global response in the face of natural disasters. ITU Secretary-General, Hamadoun Touré, said the partnership was an important milestone towards ITU's global effort to save human life. The signing would take place tomorrow, 20 June, at 11 a.m. at ITU headquarters. An advance press release was available, under embargo until tomorrow at 11 a.m.

Mr. Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that, almost two years after the Helsinki peace accord had been signed, Acehnese civilians continued to suffer a high rate of combat trauma, according to a study of conflict-related trauma and depression carried out by IOM and Harvard researchers. The assessment, which evaluated the mental health needs of people affected by the 29-year conflict, found that 35 per cent of individuals in 14 high-conflict districts in Aceh ranked high for symptoms of depression, 10 per cent for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and 39 per cent for anxiety. The report showed that many civilians in Aceh were in urgent need of specialized mental health care, and concluded that the traumatized portion of Aceh's population could be possible triggers for further violence if left untreated. A press release was available.