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 of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Spokespersons from the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme were also present.


Economic and Social Council

Ms. Heuzé said that the Economic and Social Council would hold a debate this morning on economic and environmental questions. This afternoon, the Council would address a number of subjects, with a concentration on women's issues: mainstreaming a gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system; women and development; and the advancement of women.

Tomorrow morning, among subjects before the Council for consideration, Ms. Heuzé highlighted that it would discuss the report of the Secretary-General on international cooperation in the field of informatics (E/2007/59). The Council would debate the issue of information technology in the service of development, and would also, in that connection, consider the report of the Information and Communication Technologies Task Force. In the afternoon, the Council would review a wide variety of social questions, and hear presentations of related reports, on issues including social development; crime prevention and criminal justice; narcotic drugs; refugees; and indigenous issues.

Ms. Heuzé recalled that the Council would conclude the work of its 2007 substantive session this Friday, 27 July. A press briefing could be organized with the President of ECOSOC, Ambassador Dalius Čekuolis of Lithuania, on Friday, time to be confirmed.

Human Rights Committee

Ms. Heuzé said that the Human Rights Committee was this morning resuming its second reading of a revised General Comment on article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the right to a fair trial and equality before the courts and tribunals. [At the end of the morning's meeting, the Committee adopted its revised General Comment (32) on article 14. Press releases on the morning's meeting, in English and French, will be available this afternoon.]

Ms. Heuzé recalled that, on the last day of its present session, Friday, 27 July, the Human Rights Committee would issue its concluding observations on the reports of States parties which it had considered during the course of the session – Zambia, Sudan, and the Czech Republic – as well as on the situation in Grenada, which the Committee had reviewed in private in the absence of a report. Rafael Rivas Posada, the Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee would hold a briefing on the results of the Committee's ninetieth session on Friday, 27 July at 11.30 a.m. in Room III.


Foreign Minister of Spain Visits UNOG

Ms. Heuzé said that today Spain’s Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos was paying an official visit to the United Nations Office at Geneva, to check on progress of the renovations to Room XX, which was being funded by Spain and was to serve as the future home of the Human Rights Council. The celebrated Catalan painter, Miguel Barceló, had been engaged to paint murals for the dome of the room. Mr. Moratinos would then open a meeting of the ONUART Foundation. Spain's Foreign Minister would also meet with UNOG Director-General Sergei Ordzhonikidze. An informal encounter with journalists and photo-op would be organized at door 14 starting at 11.30 a.m.

Appeal for Somali Situation

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said UNHCR had launched an appeal on Monday for $48 million to fund badly needed assistance for Somali refugees fleeing renewed conflict in Somalia, as well as for displaced persons inside Somalia, until the end of next year. It was estimated that the number of Somalis in the region who would receive assistance under the appeal would rise to 478,000 by the end of 2008, as compared with 312,000 Somalis who were currently receiving UNHCR assistance throughout the region. That estimated increase in those receiving aid was partly owing to an expected improved access to internally displaced persons, but also a calculated rise in the number of those displaced – by 28,000 persons from now till the end of 2008. A press release was available.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that UNICEF was particularly concerned about the new outbreak of violence in the capital, Mogadishu, a few days ago. The closing of the Bakara market, the most important market in Somalia, had stoked fears that already difficult access would become even more so, and thus the conditions for distributing food would become even more difficult. The fighting by combatants in Mogadishu in April had left hundreds of dead and had wounded and displaced thousands more, the majority of whom had still not been able to return to the Capital. Among the displaced, hundreds of women and children and vulnerable people were living in deplorable conditions without access to food, sanitation, clean drinking water, shelter or health care. It was estimated that some 10,000 additional people had fled Mogadishu following the fighting that had broken out a few days ago.

In terms of what UNICEF was doing, Ms. Taveau said UNICEF was continuing to distribute water, food and medicines; it was continuing its chlorination programme; and next week, a UNICEF team, in tandem with a team from the United Nations Development Programme, would launch a mine risk awareness campaign. It was worth underscoring that, while UNICEF and its partners continued to provide assistance, the work of the humanitarian personnel on the ground had been severely restricted owing to the blockage of the roads and the insecurity.

Humanitarian Situation in Central African Republic

Jessica Barry of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who had just returned from a three-week mission to the Central African Republic last night, was concerned about the humanitarian situation there. One of the things that ICRC wished to stress was that – although there was a lot of interest in refugees crossing the border from Darfur, and the situation along the border with Chad and Sudan – ICRC was convinced that there was a situation within the Central African Republic itself which was of concern and deserved attention. ICRC had recently opened a new sub-delegation in the centre of the country, in addition to the sub-delegation in Paoua, in the northwest, which had been open for a year now. ICRC was doing quite a lot of distributions of non-food items, such as blankets and household items, for the displaced, as well as providing agricultural tools for farmers.

In the northwest, where the rebellion had been ongoing for more than a year now, with sporadic fighting between Government forces and rebel groups, Ms. Barry said that there were whole villages that were empty, with houses burnt down. People had fled into the bush. People were living in extremely poor conditions, in straw shelters they had constructed next to their fields. What was so troubling was that it was not just those working the fields, but whole families that had been displaced, with their children, and they were facing the prospect of continuing in the straw huts for years. Indeed, some had already been living in this way for over a year, and it was taking its toll on children's health.

Responding to a question, Ms. Barry said that it was very hard to speculate on how many had been displaced in the Central African Republic. The estimates varied widely, from 50,000 to 200,000. What she could say was that ICRC was focusing its aid distributions on a population of about 100,000.