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 attended by spokespersons for and representatives of the World Health Organization, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Food Programme.

Secretary-General’s Statements

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had yesterday congratulated the women and men of Afghanistan on the holding of Presidential and Provincial Council elections. By exercising their Constitutional right to vote, the Afghan people had demonstrated again their desire for stability and development in their country. The Secretary-General had commended the Independent Election Commission, and all other Afghan institutions and international stakeholders supporting the electoral process for organizing the elections in an extremely challenging environment. The Secretary-General’s statement was available in the press room.

Geneva Activities

Turning to Geneva, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination would this morning conclude its consideration of the report of Chad, which it had begun yesterday afternoon. At the end of its session, next Friday, 28 August, the Committee would present its concluding observations on the reports of Peru, the United Arab Emirates, Poland, China, Greece, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Chile, the Philippines, Ethiopia and Chad, which it had reviewed at this session.

The Third Meeting of Experts from States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) would be held from 24 to 28 August 2009 at the Palais des Nations to look at ways of enhancing international cooperation, assistance and exchange in biological sciences and technology for peaceful purposes, and promoting capacity-building in the fields of disease surveillance, detection, diagnosis, and containment of infectious diseases. The Meeting of Experts would be chaired by Ambassador Marius Grinius of Canada, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier added. A background press release was available in the press room.

H1N1 Flu Pandemic

Gregg Hartl of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that from now on the global epidemiological update on the H1N1 flu virus would be put out on Friday mornings on the WHO website.

Paul Garwood of WHO announced that WHO, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) were launching a call to action in response to the H1N1 pandemic 2009, which aimed to prepare and protect all communities – particularly those with weaker health systems and more vulnerable populations – from the impacts of the disease. They had seen that that virus had spread to all regions of the world – to countries such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Iraq, India, Sri Lanka; and even Zimbabwe had reported cases. The call to action was important because the spread of the disease was inevitable and they needed a joint coordinated effort between all those partners to respond best, in particular in poor countries; where health systems were weak; where there were certain groups at high risk, including pregnant women, and people with underlying chronic medical conditions. The call to action called for a range of straightforward, practical measures that countries health ministries could take, in particular in those countries that might have limited access to antivirals and eventually to vaccines. Those measures included to identify populations at increased risk of disease and death; to reduce death by treating acute respiratory illness and pneumonia; to reduce the spread of disease; to continue critical services and plan for the worst; and to plan and coordinate efforts.

Tamman Aloudat, a Senior Officer of Public Health in Emergencies at IFRC, said that the call to action, released on 17 August, was an attempt to enforce cooperation. They could not tackle the pandemic without it. WHO had shared the document with their offices. As of yesterday, IFRC had shared it with all national Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. While many had been doing a lot of work on preparedness and response to the pandemic so far, the call to action would enable them to prioritize the most relevant actions as of the information they had today and to call for partners and actors at the country level to work together. While vaccination was the most effective way to prevent the pandemic, they did not know yet how the virus or the pandemic would evolve and they did not know yet where and how much vaccine would be available. Both vaccines and antivirals were therefore just part of a larger intervention. Finally, the call to action would help to empower people at the local and community level to protect themselves.

Clarifying the dates, Mr. Garwood, said the call to action had been disseminated to partners and local bureaux on 17 August, but was only being made public today.

Responding to a query about the situation of the pandemic in Africa, Mr. Garwood reported that there had been cases found in some 20 African countries. There had been a total of 1,469 cases reported in Africa so far, the vast majority in South Africa.

Situation in Yemen

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that UNICEF was gravely concerned about the deteriorating situation in Yemen and the impact of the current crisis on women and children, following the escalating violence in the north of the country. According to UNICEF’s representative on the ground, more than 100,000 people had been touched by the conflict, the majority of them children. UNICEF was particularly concerned about the health situation of those concerned, and there was a need to ensure access, which was currently difficult. The situation was likely to further aggravate the already precarious situation of children living in Yemen. United Nations agencies and partners had undertaken an assessment mission, and were working with the Government to assist those touched by the conflict. UNICEF had already begun distributing water filters, jerry cans and hygiene kits, as well as 300,000 water purification tablets. A news note was available.

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it was estimated that the fighting around Sa’ada City had displaced some 35,000 people in the past two weeks alone. According to those fleeing, the situation appeared to be critical in Sa’ada City and further north in Addahar district, as well as in El Sufyan in the neighbouring Amran Governorate. The roads to the Sa’ada Governorate were blocked and there was no access to the conflict areas by air. Since 2004, clashes between Al Houthi rebels and government troops had affected an estimated 120,000 people. Al-Talh camp, one of four camps for internally displaced persons in Sa’ada City, was receiving a steady influx of displaced, including 5,250 displaced persons who had fled their last week from one of the nearby camps, which had become a battleground in the conflict. UNHCR was asking donors for an additional $5 million to be able to respond to this latest emergency. Since 2007, UNHCR had been supporting some 100,000 people affected by the fighting in the north.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that WFP was planning to increase its food assistance to 150,000 people in Yemen affected by the fighting, up from 95,000 who had received assistance last month. Today WFP had begun distributing a full one-month ration of food to 10,000 people, and last week WFP had begun distributions of high energy biscuits to 7,000. WFP had begun an airlift of 40 metric tons of high energy biscuits from its depot in Dubai and another airlift would be made in the coming days. There were not a lot of funds for the programme: last month WFP had had to cut rations to internally displaced persons in half, and current stocks would only last for two weeks. WFP was appealing to donors for $220 million in funds for the rest of 2009.

Responding to a question, Ms. Taveau confirmed that there would be a United Nations Flash Appeal for humanitarian assistance next week.

Mr. Garwood said that WHO, after conducting assessments, had identified that many internally displaced families were reporting cases of diarrhoea and skin rashes, as well as quite a few cases of malaria. Although the assessment mission found that the area was safe in general, lack of water and sanitation was a concern. WHO had donated two trauma kits, sufficient for 200 surgical interventions for trauma injuries and an additional 4 more would be delivered within the coming days. WHO had also received $230,000 from the Central Emergency Response Fund for a project to provide emergency care for internally displaced persons in the area.

Other

Mr. Mahecic said the details of the story were still sketchy, but UNHCR staff in Italy had been able to meet five Eritreans – allegedly the only survivors from a boat that had set out from Libya over 20 days ago – and UNHCR was shocked by their accounts. The five had reported that they had been stranded at sea without fuel, water or food. According to them, around 80 people, mostly from Eritrea, had boarded a small boat in Tripoli in an attempt to reach Italy. After three days at sea, the boat had run out of fuel and a few days later the water and food had run out as well. As passengers died, the survivors threw them into the sea. The five reported being passed by many vessels without any assistance being offered, and UNHCR was very concerned that the hardening of government policies towards boat people had had the effect of discouraging ship masters from honouring their maritime obligations.

Ms. Taveau said that next week UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman would travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo for a five-day trip. She would visit Kinshasa and North Kivu and would meet with families, child victims of sexual violence, as well as families whose children had been taken by armed groups, and families displaced by the recent fighting. She would also meet with members of Government, as well as representatives of United Nations agencies on the ground and non-governmental organizations, to look at what national and regional responses could be put in place to protect children and their families.