REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which also heard from Spokespersons for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Representatives from the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Global Humanitarian Forum also spoke about activities in connection with the Second Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction, which would be held in Geneva next week.

Secretary-General’s Statements

Ms. Heuzé said that the Secretary-General had congratulated the people of Lebanon and all parties and institutions concerned on the peaceful conduct of the parliamentary elections, and called on all Lebanese to respect the results. Copies of the Secretary-General’s full statement had been placed in the press room in English and French. Also available was a brief statement by the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on the death of President Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, expressing the Secretary-General’s deep sadness at the news.

Human Rights Council

Rolando Gomez of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that this morning the Council was continuing its general debate, begun yesterday, on country situations, with around 30 non-governmental organizations remaining to speak. Later this morning there would be a general debate on human rights bodies and mechanisms, which would give an opportunity for Council President Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi to present some reports on his recent visits to Brazil and Bahrain. In connection with the Brazil visit, the President would announce shortly that President Lula of Brazil would be here next week to address the Council on 15 June at 10 a.m.

This afternoon the Council would begin consideration of the 16 reports adopted at the fourth session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group, by taking up the reports of Germany, Djibouti and Canada. In a schedule change, the follow-up to the Council’s special session on Gaza would not be held on Friday, but would now be held on Monday, 15 June. Mr. Gomez underscored that the report to be presented in connection with the follow-up was just a progress report, not a final report by Justice Goldstone and his team.

International Labour Conference

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization (ILO) said available at the back of the room was a draft work programme for the Conference. Today from 1:30 to 2.45 p.m. there was a lunchtime discussion on work and climate change in room 24, and a new brochure on the subject was available at the back of the room. This afternoon Swiss Federal Councillor Doris Leuthard would be at ILO headquarters starting at 5:45 p.m. to sign a memorandum of understanding between Switzerland and ILO, and at 6 p.m. Ms. Leuthard and ILO Chief Juan Somavia would talk to the press.

Ms. Perthuis announced that tomorrow there would be a press briefing at 2.30 p.m. in Room III on a new ILO report, “Give Girls A Chance”, on the exploitation of girls in child labour, which would be launched in advance of the World Day Against Child Labour (12 June). Copies of the report, as well as a press release and a summary, in French, English and Spanish, would be available tomorrow.

On Thursday, 11 June, there would be another packed day of events. Ms. Perthuis said she was organizing a press conference in the afternoon (t.b.c.) on the report on the situation of workers in the occupied Palestinian territories, with Friederich Buttler, ILO’s Special Envoy to the occupied Palestinian territories and coordinator for the report. There would also be a lunchtime event on globalization organized by the Mission of Norway. Finally, on Friday, 12 June, ILO Director-General Somavia would be in press room 1 at 9 a.m. for a breakfast talk with journalists at the invitation of ACANU.

Global Health Activities

Judith Mandelbaum-Schmid, Senior Communications Adviser with the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced this Saturday there would be an all-star charity football match with Luis Figo, a Stop TB Ambassador, to benefit Luis Figo’s Foundation and the G4 foundation. After the game they would premiere an animated cartoon about tuberculosis featuring the world-famous winger as the main character. The gala match would take place on Saturday, 13 June at 7:15 p.m. at the Stade de Genève at La Praille.

Fadéla Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a virtual press conference with Dr. Keiji Fukuda who would speak on H1N1 flu today at 5 p.m. at WHO headquarters. There was also going to be a press conference on Thursday, 11 June at 2 p.m. on the Global Status Report on Road safety by Etienne Krug, Director of Violence, Injury Prevention and Disability at WHO and Margie Peden, Coordinator for Unintentional Injury Prevention, in press room 1 at the Palais des Nations. The report would be available tomorrow, but was under embargo until its launch on Saturday, 15 June.

Ms. Chaib also noted that Bill Gates was at WHO today where he would meet with WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and with several teams working on H1N1 virus, polio and HIV/AIDS. He would also participate in a meeting with all senior WHO staff to talk more widely on health subjects. The meetings were working meetings, however, and so were not public and there would be no press conference or photo ops.

Desperate Humanitarian Situation in Somalia

William Spindler of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported that thousands of Somalis had fled their homes over the weekend in the wake of some of the heaviest and bloodiest street battles in Mogadishu since 8 May, when the latest round of fighting between government forces and the opposition Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam groups had erupted. UNHCR now estimated that more than 117,000 people had been displaced by the past month’s violence, with more than 200 people killed, most of them civilians, and reports from hospitals indicating that an additional 700 had been wounded in the clashes.

UNHCR was gravely concerned about the violence and the fact that it was further aggravating an already desperate humanitarian situation on the ground, Mr. Spindler said. The majority of the displaced were women and children, and women were particular vulnerable with reports of rape and sexual exploitation during their flight and in places of refuge. Those risks were exacerbated by the limited humanitarian assistance available. Due to the latest escalation, UNHCR had been forced to put on hold the distribution of humanitarian assistance to 30,000 persons in the south-eastern outskirts of Mogadishu.

Update on Situation in North-West Pakistan

Turning to the situation in Pakistan, UNHCR was continuing to look for land in north-west Pakistan to develop more camp sites, Mr. Spindler said. UNHCR field teams reported that more and more people who had been staying with host families, with relatives or in schools were now arriving in camps. UNHCR therefore wanted to scale up its assistance to people staying outside of camps. It was procuring more relief items, but was urgently in need of funds to buy more supplies. UNHCR still required $67 for its operations in Pakistan until the end of the year.

Together with UN-Habitat and other partners, UNHCR was exploring the possibility of providing “shelter kits” for displaced persons staying with host families, to alleviate pressure on host families, and a prototype kit would be launched in rural areas where families had more land or gardens to use the kits. In addition, UNHCR continued to work with UN-Habitat to distribute tents to people staying with host families and more than 3,500 tents had been distributed to date. Tomorrow, UNHCR and a partner agency would start distributing relief items to 138,000 displaced persons staying in schools, host families and rented accommodations in Charssada and Nowshera districts.

“The National Database Authority has so far confirmed registration of almost 1.9 million internally displaced people in an ongoing verification exercise”, Mr. Spindler concluded, noting that thousands of forms still needed to be verified.

Asked for an update on funding, Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the joint humanitarian appeal was 26 per cent funded as of today, with unmet requirements of just over $400 million.

Giving a situation update, Ms. Byrs reported that three new camps had been opened for the newly displaced in Lower Dir, Swat and Buner. Curfew had been lifted to allow all civilians in the area to leave. Security and assessment missions had been completed in some areas, where the hostilities had ceased. The number in host communities was approximately 2.4 million. Altogether, there were now 21 camps. Regarding health issues, current stocks of essential drugs would be depleted by the end of the month and urgent funding was needed to cover the health response for the next six months.

Myanmar Refugees in Thailand

Mr. Spindler said that today and yesterday UNHCR staff had travelled to villages and a cave in northern Thailand to find out more details about a group of Karen people who had fled from Myanmar to Thailand across the Moei River since last Wednesday. Estimates varied from about 2,000 to 6,400 people, and one of the first things UNHCR wanted to do was to ascertain the number of people who were staying in temples and in homes in four villages, as well as in a cave that was only accessible by river and steep climb. From preliminary discussions with some of the new Karen arrivals, some were fleeing fighting between the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which was allied with Government forces, and the rebel Karen National Union, while others were fleeing forced recruitment or forced labour by the government forces.

Chad

Ms. Byrs said that the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) had released nearly $2 million to enable the humanitarian country team in Chad to help some 20,000 refugees who had recently fled violence in the Central African Republic. UNHCR had received some $750,000 to manage a camp for refugees in south-eastern Chad, and the World Food Programme had received $675,000 to feed the refugees for three months. Other agencies receiving funds included the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Population Fund and WHO. The security situation in the Central African Republic had deteriorated dramatically since the end of 2008, and refugee influxes into south-eastern Chad had become increasingly common.

Ms. Byrs noted that this allocation made Chad the eleventh-largest overall recipient of funding from CERF this year.


Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction

Brigitte Léoni of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction led off a presentation by United Nations partners on events at the second Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction, which was being held from 16 to 19 June 2009 at the Geneva International Conference Centre (CICG). More than 1,500 participants from 150 countries had already registered. The central theme of this second Global Platform was “Invest More Today for A More Secure Tomorrow”. With climate change giving rise to more serious and more numerous natural disasters, it was necessary to mobilize to ensure that Governments invested more in prevention. A programme of work was available at the back of the room, and she announced a series of press conferences that would be held in conjunction with the Global Platform.

Gaëlle Sévenier of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) spoke on early warning systems, noting that according to a WMO survey 60 per cent of countries were not adequately equipped to warn their population about catastrophes. A press conference with WMO Director-General Michel Jarraud and the Chief of the Cuban Meteorological Service would be held at CICG on 17 June, at 2.30 p.m. Keith Collins of the Global Humanitarian Forum announced that, as part of the Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, next Thursday, 18 June, a public-private partnership led by his organization would be launched, in conjunction with WMO and major names in international business, called “Weather Info for All” to help Africa deal with climate change. Kofi Annan, the President of the Global Forum, and Michel Jarraud, the Secretary-General of WMO, would be on hand to talk to journalists at 10.30 a.m. at CICG. Also speaking on the events at the Global Forum were Adam Rogers of the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), who talked about UNDP’s commitment to the process of “building back better”; Jonathan Abrahams of Health Action in Crises at WHO, who announced a Thursday meeting to look at safe hospitals and schools; and Pierre Kremer of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), who said ICRC would launch a report on disaster reduction on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

UNCTAD Reports Launch Schedule

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that 25 June UNCTAD was publishing its Economic Development in Africa Report 2009, which focused on ways to strengthen regional economic integration so that Africa could develop more quickly and sustainably. On 16 July, UNCTAD would publish its Least Developed counties Report 2009, which considered the role of the State in ensuring development. On 3 September, the annual Trade and Development Report was due, which this year analysed the measures taken to tackle the immediate effects of the global economic and financial crises and discussed options for resolving them. It would also have a chapter on the opportunities for developing countries to combine the fight against climate change with sustained economic growth and poverty reduction. And, on 8 September, UNCTAD would launch the 2009 Report on UNCTAD Assistance to the Palestinian People, which would highlight the impact of restrictive Israeli measures and the recent devastation of Gaza on the economy in the occupied Palestinian territory.