REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the United Nations Environmental Programme, the Economic Commission for Europe, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the United Nations Population Fund, the GAVI Alliance, and the World Meteorological Organization.

Secretary-General/World Summit on Food Security/Copenhagen Conference

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would be in Rome from 15 to 17 November to open the World Summit on Food Security, which aimed to promote broad-based action on food security. In view of the close relation between food security and climate change, the Secretary-General would urge Member States to advance the agendas on both these issues.

The Secretary-General has welcomed the invitation issued by Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen of Denmark for Heads of State and Government to attend the closing days of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen.
He strongly encouraged all Heads of State and Government to attend this summit level gathering on 17 and 18 December. The Secretary-General said he believed that direct Heads of State and Government involvement was essential for governments to reach agreement on the core issues at the heart of a global climate change deal. The Secretary-General believed it was essential to maintain political momentum at the highest level and from all sectors of society, and was optimistic that an ambitious, fair and effective climate deal could be reached in Copenhagen.

Isabelle Valentiny of the United Nations Environmental Programme said she had put a document at the back of the room with more information on the train to Copenhagen project. More than 400 climate change negotiators, business leaders and environmental activists would travel together on board the Climate Express train in Copenhagen in a call for world leaders to agree to a fair, ambitious and binding deal to address climate change when they met at the UN climate summit in Denmark. The train would leave Brussels on 5 December at 9 a.m. and would arrive in Copenhagen at 10 p.m.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee against Torture was this morning concluding its consideration of the fifth periodic report of Spain. This was the last country report that the Committee would take up this session, and it would release its concluding observations and recommendations on that report and the reports of Yemen, Slovakia, El Salvador, Azerbaijan, Colombia and the Republic of Moldova, which it considered during the session, before it concludes the session on Friday, 20 November. On Monday, 16 November, the Committee would hold a meeting on follow-up to articles 19 and 22 on the presentation of reports by States parties and on individual complaints.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was meeting in private today and most of next week, and would issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, Poland, Madagascar and the Republic of Korea on Friday, 20 November before its concluded the session.

Director-General of UNOG/First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, would represent the Secretary-General at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, which would be held in Moscow from 19 to 20 November.

Jean Rodriguez of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe said Jan Kubis, the Executive Secretary of the UNECE, would represent the five UN regional commissions at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety next week. Available was a press release on the conference. Some 1.3 million people perished in road crashes each year worldwide, in addition to up to 50 million who were injured and often disabled. Road crashes were the first killer of young people aged 15 to 29, and the second killer of children aged 5 to 14 years. The conference hoped to raise the alarm at a senior political level so that countries launched action plans to fight this phenomenon as studies showed that action plans could have a direct impact on the situation.

El Salvador

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that El Salvador on 8 November was lashed by torrential rainfall that caused massive flooding and triggered landslides in the wake of Hurricane Ida and a low pressure system off the Pacific Ocean coast. At least 140 persons were reported to have died and about 60 had been reported missing. About 123 shelters had been established and were currently accommodating around 13,773 people. About 1,835 homes were affected and 200 destroyed. OCHA had released a cash grant of $ 50,000 to support efforts of the Government to provide emergency relief to thousands of people affected by the Hurricane. A flash appeal was being prepared for El Salvador.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM was providing assistance to victims of the recent floods in El Salvador in close coordination with El Salvador’s Civil Protection Agency and other government partners, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations. More than 14,000 persons were presently sheltered in some 130 collective centres in schools, community halls and other public buildings. The most urgent needs in the collective centres included drinking water, water and sanitation facilities, beds, cooking utensils and construction materials. A flash appeal for El Salvador would be issued next week.

Chad

Ms. Byrs of OCHA said serious acts of banditry in eastern Chad over the last two weeks were jeopardizing the continuity of humanitarian operations. Over the last two weeks, an ICRC international staffer was kidnapped and a national staffer working for the NGO Solidarite was killed. To date, five non-governmental organizations and the ICRC had temporarily suspended their activities in the east of Chad. This suspension would affect at least 37,000 people. Humanitarian actors were in contact with national and local authorities in order to improve the protection and the safety of civilians and humanitarian staff. There was an urgent need to reinforce the capacities of the Government and MINURCAT to address the new security challenges. In 2008, 110 security incidents affecting humanitarians had been recorded in eastern Chad. Since the beginning of the year, around 190 banditry attacks affecting humanitarians had been recorded, almost doubling the figure.

Yemen

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said available was a statement by UNICEF’s Regional Director for the Middle East, Sigrid Kaag, in which she said that UNICEF was deeply concerned about the escalation of the conflict in northern Yemen. Fighting had now spilled into Saudi Arabia, reportedly causing 240 villages to be evacuated and more than 50 schools to be closed. The total number of people displaced by the conflict since 2004 had gone up to more than 175,000, from an estimated 150,000 only a few weeks ago. During the past three months, children affected by the conflict in the north had seen all their basic rights violated, with the lack of safe water, nutrition and hygiene exerting a heavy toll on their health and threatening their very survival, a situation that would only get worse with the coming winter. UNICEF urged all parties to ensure that children were protected from violence and that they received the assistance they needed.

Andrej Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said more and more Yemeni civilians were fleeing embattled Sa’ada province in northern Yemen as the fighting between government troops and Al Houti forces entered the fourth month. They were seeking shelter in camps and with host families in the neighbouring southern provinces of Hajjah and Amran. Over the past few days, some 150 new families (approximately 800-900 people) had been arriving every day at Al Mazrak camp in Hajjah province. This was a significant increase over the 20 to 30 families per day in the previous weeks. The camp had now exceeded its capacity with nearly 10,000 internally displaced people living there. The latest sudden influx was adding more pressure on an already dire situation, and overcrowding in the camp was becoming a major concern. Three or four families now shared a tent normally meant for one. Janet Lim, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, who was in Yemen reviewing operations there, yesterday visited Al Mazrak camp. A number of internally displaced persons told her over-crowding was a major concern and that they did not have enough tents, mattresses or latrines. While improvement of the living conditions in the camp remained a priority, UNHCR was also ready to assist local authorities and NGOs in speeding up the construction of Al Mazrak II camp.
An estimated 175,000 people have been affected by the conflict in Yemen since 2004, including those displaced by the latest crisis.

Dorothea Krimitsas of the International Committee of the Red Cross said ICRC was concerned about the worsening plight of civilians as the conflict extended along the Yemeni-Saudi border and intensified in the north of the country. ICRC called on all parties to fulfill their obligations under international humanitarian law and urged them to take all necessary precautions to spare the civilian population and to allow unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid and to allow medical personnel to bring life saving assistance. All persons detained in connection with the conflict must be treated humanely and ICRC stood ready to visit any such persons and to provide other services in its capacity as a neutral and impartial humanitarian organization. The steady influx of internally displaced persons had prompted ICRC, together with the Yemeni Red Crescent Society, to set up another camp in an area close to the Saudi border. Over the past months, ICRC and the Yemeni Red Crescent Society had provided aid of various kinds for around 140,000 people. However, it was becoming more and more difficult to provide or obtain healthcare and to deliver humanitarian aid in general.

H1N1

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said they had no specific announcement but were present in case there were questions on H1N1.

Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization said as usual there would be an epi-update today, early in the afternoon. Also if anyone had any questions following the virtual press briefing yesterday on WHO’s updated treatment guidelines, he would be happy to respond to them.

In response to a question on adverse events from the H1N1 vaccine, Mr. Hartl said they appeared to happen slightly less frequently that they did with usual vaccines, and the great majority of them were very mild. WHO continued to believe that the benefits of vaccination far outweighed the side effects when they did happen.

Mr. Hartl said WHO had another research meeting taking place in Geneva next week from 17 to 20 November on a research agenda for H1N1. There would be a press briefing on the outcome of the meeting.

Other

Mr. Rodriguez of UNECE said next week, the Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity Production from Coal and Other Fossil Fuels would meet on 16 and 17 November in Geneva, and the Committee on Sustainable Energy would meet from 18 to 20 November. On 18 November, the Committee would hold an Energy Security Dialogue: Impact of the Financial Crisis on Energy Industries.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said a number of workshops would be held next week on the third floor of the E building. Next week was dedicated at the global level to the issue of entrepreneurship, part of the Kauffman initiative. There would be a number of different exhibitions and workshops. They aimed to show how entrepreneurship could nourish development in developing countries. There was documentation available in press room 1.

Anne Wittenberg of the United Nations Population Fund said UNFPA would be launching its State of the World Population Report on Wednesday, 18 November at 10:30 a.m. at the Palais des Nations in Room III. This year’s report was about population, gender and climate change.

Ms. Taveau of UNICEF said the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, Hilde Johnson, on a visit of east Africa, said last night in Juba, Sudan that it was time to put an end to the humanitarian emergency affecting 1.5 million persons in South Sudan, who were facing a food crisis which was aggravated by a drought and insecurity. Ms. Johnson called on international donors to increase their aid to face this crisis. Ms. Johnson would today be in Turkana region in the north of Kenya, another region severely affected by drought.

Ms. Taveau said UNICEF would launch a special edition of the State of the World’s Children to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This would be done at noon on Thursday, 19 November in Room III. A media advisory was available at the back of the room.

Kerstin Reisdorf of the GAVI Alliance said she was here today to present a call to action from Health Ministers from 30 countries. These Ministers were going to meet next week in Hanoi at a big GAVI meeting, called the GAVI Alliance Partners’ Forum. Some 400 participants would be gathering in Hanoi from 18 to 20 November. On the occasion of this meeting, the Health Ministers wanted to draw the world’s attention to the challenges they faced in improving their people’s health, and especially in reducing child mortality. Since immunization was one of the most cost-effective interventions, they urged donors to keep up the momentum that had been created over the last 10 years.

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said next week, the Fifteenth Commission for Atmospheric Sciences would be held in the Republic of Korea. There would be a press release on Monday, 16 November. Also for their agenda, WMO would be organizing a press briefing on El Nino.

Nalini Basavaraj of the United Nations Environmental Programme said there would be a press conference at 11:30 a.m. today, right after the briefing, on the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Basel Convention. The speakers would brief journalists on the twentieth anniversary event which would take place on 17 November in Basel.