REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also addressed by Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General’s Trip to Switzerland

Ms. Heuzé said Secretary-General Kofi Annan was arriving in Switzerland later this afternoon. On Saturday, 18 November, he would be going to Saint Gallen where he would receive the Max Schmidheiny Foundation Freedom Prize, which was presented to individuals and institutions that had made special contributions to the maintenance and development of open societies. He would also be delivering a speech on biotechnology and human security. The text of the statement was available in the press room. It was embargoed until 3 p.m. Geneva time on Saturday.

On Monday, 20 November, the Secretary-General would inaugurate the new UNAIDS building next to WHO and would address the opening of the Sixth Review Conference of the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention. At UNAIDS, there would only be a photo opportunity and photographers were asked to be there between 8 and 8:30 a.m. Photographers wishing to attend should sign up with UNAIDS. The Secretary-General would address the BWC conference at 10 a.m. In the afternoon, he would receive a prize from the Geneva Foundation. He would have other meetings on Monday, including on the Cypriot issue, but details would be available on Monday morning. Press releases from the Max Schmidheiny Foundation and the Geneva Foundation were available at the back of the room.

The Secretary-General would give a press conference to say goodbye to the Geneva press either on Monday afternoon or on Tuesday, 21 November. As soon as the exact time was settled, it would be announced. [It was later announced that the press conference would take place on Tuesday, 21 November at 10 a.m. in room III.]

Ms. Heuzé said yesterday in Addis Ababa, the Secretary-General had been co-chairing a series of high-level meetings throughout the day with the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konaré, to move the international community and Sudan forward on ways to protect the people of Darfur. The Secretary-General told reporters that everyone in attendance realised that they needed to come out with something concrete that would help put a credible force on the ground that could help displaced persons, assist in implementing the Abuja agreement and allow the humanitarian workers to do their work. He noted that: even if you can deploy troops, the solution lies in a political agreement.

“A hybrid operation is also agreed in principle, pending clarification of the size of the force … The peacekeeping force will have a predominantly African character … Backstopping and command and control structures will be provided by the UN”, a communique released after the meetings said. The UN release on the results of the meeting was available in the press room.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Heuzé said the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Committee against Torture would release their final observations and recommendations on the reports which they had considered at their ongoing sessions on Friday, 24 November.

François Rivasseau, Permanent Representative of France to the Conference on Disarmament and President of the Third Review Conference of the States Parties to the Conventional Weapons Convention, would speak to journalists at 1:15 p.m. today on the outcome of the Third Review Conference.

Also, the Cluster Munition Coalition would speak at 3:15 p.m. today on the sidelines of the CCW Review Conference.

The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador de Alba of Mexico, would speak to journalists sometime next week before the resumed second session and the third session of the Council started on 27 November. As soon as the exact date and time had been agreed upon, journalists would be informed.

Ms. Heuzé said there would be a roundtable and discussion on the UN World Report on Violence against Children on Monday 20 November, in Room XX. Speaking among others would be Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the Independent Expert who put together the UN study. The roundtable and discussion were being held on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the official launch of the World Report on Violence against Children.

Floods in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said
it was feared that the heavy rains affecting the Horn of Africa could continue for the next two or three weeks. The rains were causing heavy flooding which had affected Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. Between 1.5 million and 1.8 million persons had been affected by the floods in the three countries. Factors controlling the floods included the heaviness of the seasonal rains which were continuing longer than usual; and the fact that the soil was so hard from the prolonged drought so it was difficult for it to absorb the water. The situation was serious and the humanitarian situation risked becoming more complicated. It was affecting persons in the three countries who were already in a precarious food security situation because of the drought. Demands for emergency aid from the Central Revolving Emergency Fund for the three countries had been or were being made. OCHA had sent two members of an UNDAC team to Kenya and Ethiopia. A joint UN-Red Cross-Kenyan Government mission had yesterday embarked on a trip in Kenya to the affected areas. In Kenya, the situation of a dam on the Tana River in the northeast of the country was about to collapse and had to be opened, but the authorities were worried about how to warn the inhabitants who would be affected by this opening. Concerning the health situation, it was feared that water-borne diseases might spread. The affected populations in the three countries needed water purification tablets, mosquito nets and shelter equipment. Most roads were flooded so access to the affected populations was also problematic. No comprehensive figures were available yet on the number of deaths or missing persons.

Michael Bociurkiw of the United Nations Children’s Fund said tens of thousands of persons in Eastern Africa had fled their homes and many had died as a result of the flooding in recent weeks. Somalia in particular had been severely affected, along with Ethiopia and Kenya. In central and southern Somalia, the country’s two main rivers had burst their banks, triggering fresh floods. UNICEF like others was facing several operational constraints while trying to mount the humanitarian response to the floods. Roads and bridges had been swept away. The areas affected in Somalia were amongst the most vulnerable in the country and had also been facing insecurity problems. In north-eastern Kenya, the heavily populated Dadaab camp for displaced people had been practically cut off by flooding and the health situation was worrying. UNICEF’s main concern with regards to health in all the affected areas was the spread of water-borne diseases. UNICEF and its partners were working to provide safe water in the flood-affected regions. He noted that the crisis had significantly worsened in the last week, posing a major challenge in the prevention of diarrhoea, pneumonia, malaria and measles outbreaks. Many children were already malnourished as a result of the 2005-2006 drought, and feeding programmes had been seriously disrupted by the flooding.

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said the floods had affected about 100,000 refugees in the Dadaab camps. Because of the flooding, WFP had started distributing seven-day rations of food to the hardest hit Ifo camp. It continued to rain last night in the Dadaab region but no flooding was reported. Distribution of food had started yesterday only after the water level had receded and it was limited to one-week rations in case new floods swept away the food. WFP was seeking to airlift 190 tons of high-energy biscuits to Kenya as emergency food for the 100,000 refugees as well as 100,000 Kenyans affected by the floods. The forecast was for the rains to continue. WFP was also carrying out aerial assessments to check on the extent of the damage. In Ethiopia, WFP was working hard to reach the population in the isolated area of Somali region. They were still trapped because of the poor road conditions. A total of 145,000 persons were reported to be affected in two districts in that region. WFP was helping with the logistics and it was looking to transport urgent non-food items.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR will this weekend begin airlifting emergency supplies for thousands of refugees made homeless by massive flooding in Kenya’s Dadaab region after heavy rains swept across the low-lying camps four days ago, wrecking homes and uprooting more than 78,000 refugees. The initial delivery was critical since there was desperate need for plastic tarpaulins to help refugees reconstruct their shelters. If roads in the region remained impassable, UNHCR expected to mount further flights next week to get more emergency supplies into Dadaab.

Human Rights

José Luis Díaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said attacks against civilians in south-eastern Chad were continuing, along with deadly inter-communal clashes. High Commissioner Louise Arbour was issuing a statement saying, “I am deeply concerned that the horrendous violence that has been wracking Darfur is affecting Chad. Action must be taken immediately to stop a full-blown human rights crisis in south-eastern Chad”. On the state of emergency in Chad, the High Commissioner urged authorities to abide by their obligations to respect fundamental human rights and freedoms during this period, which she hoped would be as short as possible. The High Commissioner’s statement was available in the press room.

Mr. Díaz said the High Commissioner would be visiting Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory from 19 to 24 November. This first visit as High Commissioner would give Ms. Arbour an opportunity to examine developments on the ground first-hand and discuss the situation with people affected by the violence, authorities, civil society and non-governmental organizations and UN partners. The High Commissioner had told the Human Rights Council on 15 November that, “My primary concern will be to emphasize the obligation to protect civilians during armed confrontation, and the entitlement of all, Palestinians and Israelis alike, to live free from fear, free from want, free from harm.” The OHCHR had a presence in Gaza and another office in the West Bank. The High Commissioner would explore ways of supporting existing activities and identify additional means to improve the protection of human rights in the area.

Chad and Sudan

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said available was a press release on the trip by Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordination, to West Darfur. Mr. Egeland noted that this was his fourth visit to Darfur and that he had never before seen such a bad security situation. He deplored the fact that the violence being committed by various groups had seriously interrupted aid work. Mr. Egeland would be returning from Africa through Geneva and would give a press conference but the exact date was not yet settled, probably 29 November in the morning.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said displacement was continuing along the volatile Chad-Sudan border, with recent refugee arrivals from Darfur as well as thousands of Chadians being forced to flee ongoing violence. This morning, UNHCR staff in eastern Chad began moving the first of some 1,500 newly-arrived Darfur refugees away from the Sudanese border to the UNHCR camp in Kounoungou near the Chadian town of Guereda. These Darfurians fled a bloody attack on 29 October on Jebel Moon in West Darfur.

Meanwhile, UNHCR was still receiving reports of bloody attacks on villages in south-eastern Chad near the border with Darfur. UNHCR had so far received reports of 23 villages being attacked since 4 November, and at least 20 others had been abandoned by residents who feared attacks were imminent. Since the latest round of violence began on 4 November, UNHCR estimated that at least 12,000 Chadians had fled their villages. Information from survivors of the recent attacks south of Goz Beida showed a pattern over the past 12 days in which villages were surrounded by armed men, some in military uniforms, on horses and camels. In some cases, the attackers also used rocket propelled grenades. Villages were burned to the ground and inhabitants were gunned down while trying to flee.

New Reports on HIV/AIDS and Health in Africa

Beth Magne-Watts of UNAIDS said the UNAIDS/WHO AIDS epidemic update 2006 would be launched on Tuesday, 21 November at 11:30 a.m. in Room III. Speaking at the launch would be UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot as well as Kevin De Cock, Director, Department of HIV at WHO and Karen Stanecki, a UNAIDS Senior Epidemiologist. Available in the press room was the embargoed report as well as a media advisory and fact sheets in a number of languages.

Iain Simpson of the World Health Organization said two new reports were being launched next week. On Monday, 20 November, the African Regional Health Report would be launched. The report looked at how Africa was developing solutions for fighting disease and improving health. And on Wednesday, 22 November,
a report on newborns in Africa would be launched. It focused on the more than one million newborns who died every year in Africa and identified countries making remarkable progress to save newborn lives. The embargoed reports and related press releases were available in the press room.

Other

Catherine Sibut-Pinot of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development reminded journalists of the press conference at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon by Lakshmi Puri, Director of UNCTAD’s Division on International Trade in Goods and Services and Commodities, on universal access to services. An information note on the subject was available.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was deeply concerned about the fate of a Chinese Uighur asylum seeker in Kazakhstan who disappeared in Almaty on 23 October and had not been seen or heard of since. UNHCR had asked the Government to investigate the circumstances of his disappearance.

Anoush der Boghossian of the World Trade Organization said there were meetings of the Goods Council on 20 November and of the Dispute Settlement Body on 21 November. Meetings on Colombia: Trade Policy Review Body would be held on 22 and 24 November. Director-General Pascal Lamy would meet with the Australian Trade Minister and others on 20 November, and then from 21 to 23 November, he would be in Montevideo, Uruguay where he would be participating in the twentieth anniversary celebrations of the Uruguay Round.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said in Somalia, IOM continued to conduct in-depth interviews in the Somali town of Bossasso in Puntland to help stranded undocumented Ethiopian migrants wanting to return home and to identify those who were at risk of being trafficked to the Middle East and Europe for the purpose of labour exploitation. In Myanmar, six IOM Malaria control clinics, covering a population of nearly 500,000, that offered free diagnosis and treatment of malaria and advice on HIV prevention to low-income migrants and host communities in Mon State, had secured funding from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC).

Mr. Chauzy said in Honduras, Grupo Elektra, Latin America 's leading specialty retailer and financial services company, had joined IOM and the Honduran Government to provide assistance to irregular migrants returned by air from the United States.