REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization, the World Food Programme, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organisation and the International Organization for Migration.

Conference on Disarmament

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that next week would be the last of the Conference on Disarmament’s first session of 2010. A plenary meeting was planned for Tuesday, 23 March. This Tuesday, the Ambassador of Belgium, Alex van Meeuwen, who would preside the Conference until the start of the next session in June, said that the six Presidents of the Conference, the so-called P6, would hold consultations on the programme of work with Member States during the inter-sessional period.

Human Rights Council

Claire Kaplun of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that during the last three days the Council had considered the outcomes of the Universal Periodic Reviews on the countries that had been reviewed last December. This morning the Council was considering the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review on Brunei Darussalam, Costa Rica and Equatorial Guinea. This would be followed by Ethiopia this afternoon.

Ms. Kaplun said that the deadline for the tabling of resolutions had expired yesterday evening and that the drafts were now available on the Extranet. Action would be taken on the resolutions on Thursday and Friday of next week.

Also, next Monday, 22 March, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, would present her report under item 7 (Human rights situation in Palestine and the occupied Arab territories).

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that Sunday, 21 March would be the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Secretary-General’s message was available in the Press Room.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights would hold an event to observe this day, today at the Palais des Nations in Room XXI from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. The event would be opened by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navy Pillay, which would be followed by the screening of the short movie Colour Blind, said Ms. Momal-Vanian. This year’s theme for the observance was “Disqualify racism”, to draw attention to the interface between racism and sports.

Next Monday, 22 March, the film Invictus would be screened at 1 p.m. in Room XIX. The High Commissioner for Human Rights would also participate in this event, along with the Permanent Representative of South Africa, Jerry Matjila, and the Permanent Representative of the United Stats of America, Betty King, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Journée Internationale de la Francophonie

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that in order to mark the Journée Internationale de la Francophonie (20 March), the United Nations Office at Geneva and the International Organization of la Francophonie would hold a roundtable discussion on “multilingualism in international organizations: challenges of diversity” on Wednesday, 24 March from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Room XII at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Mohamed Siad Doualeh, Permanent Representative of Djibouti to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva and President of the Group of Francophone Ambassadors, and Libère Bararunyeretse, Permanent Observer of the International Organization of la Francophonie to the United Nations Office in Geneva, would deliver remarks, and a general debate with participants would follow the roundtable discussion, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Haiti

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization, giving a brief update on the health situation in Haiti, said that there were no increasing trends in disease outbreaks in the country, particularly in Port-au-Prince. This was due to the ongoing strong vaccination campaign. About 400,000 adults and children had now been immunized, mainly in displacement camps in the capital. The immunization campaign was expected to be completed by mid-April and was being extended to other areas of the country.

Disease surveillance was also increasingly stronger, said Mr. Garwood. 52 sentinel sites had been established in and around Port-au–Prince, detecting between 3,500 to 4,000 people each week with various diseases on a list of 19 that they were actively searching for. This list included malaria, acute respiratory infections and diarrhea. Acute respiratory infections tended to be the major cause of consultations amongst adults and children at the moment, followed by malaria and acute watery diarrhea.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM had launched this morning a one-year long programme, called Assisted Patient Discharge, Transfer and Return Programme. Funded by USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, the programme would help decongest crowded hospitals by helping patients, who were medically ready, to leave hospital for home or to link them with emergency shelter, social support, and ongoing health care services.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the Revised Humanitarian Appeal for Haiti was still 49 per cent funded. This number had remained stagnant for some time now. Pledges had been made up to US$ 36 million, but these pledges should be transformed into cash as soon as possible, in order to finance all the ongoing humanitarian programmes.

Ms. Sevenier also said that WMO’s multi-hazard early warning systems workshop for Central America and the Caribbean would take place from 22 to 25 March in Costa Rica. The reconstruction of the Haitian Meteorological Service would also be addressed during the workshop, as well as on how to ensure accessibility to meteorological and hydrological information during the upcoming rainy and hurricane season.

Funding of Humanitarian Aid

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that they were now in the fifth month since the launch of the 2010 Humanitarian Appeal. Currently, the five less-financed humanitarian crises were: Uganda which was 1 per cent funded; West Africa 3 per cent funded; Zimbabwe 3 per cent funded; Central African Republic 4 per cent funded; and Chad 4 per cent funded.

Madagascar/Tropical Storm

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that, according to the National Office for Disaster and Risk Management of Madagascar, Tropical Storm Hubert, which had hit Madagascar on 10 March 2010, has caused 54 deaths, affected 98,000 persons and made 40,000 persons homeless. The assessment of the situation was still ongoing. The United Nations Children’s Fund had already carried out an aerial assessment.

The United Nations, its partners on the ground and the authorities had started, together with the Red Cross of Madagascar, to deliver support to around 30,000 persons. Several districts were not accessible because of damaged roads. Blankets, food, mosquito nets have already been distributed. UNICEF has dispatched water and sanitation kits and the World Food Programme has assisted 2,000 affected persons with rations for 3 days, which had already been pre-positioned in advance in various places.

This was the first major Tropical Storm hitting Madagascar during the current hurricane season, said Ms. Byrs. Meteorologists were expecting several other major Tropical Storms to hit Madagascar, before the end of the season this April.

Pakistan/IDPs

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the displaced population in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan continued to face a difficult situation. Over 3 million people from North West Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas had been displaced by the 2009 conflict. Some 1.95 million had now returned to their places of origin, mainly in North West Frontier Province, and 1.21 million remained displaced, according to the provincial government.

Mr. Chauzy said that IOM this month had distributed over 4,500 toolkits, containing tools and construction material, to allow returning families to repair their damaged houses. Additional kits would be distributed in the coming months.

Bolivia/Floods

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization (IOM) for Migration said that with funding from the United Nations' Central Emergency Response Fund, IOM was providing emergency assistance to some 1,500 families, out of the 45,000 families that had been affected by recent floods and landslides in Bolivia. Partnering with IOM in Bolivia were Save the Children and OXFAM.

H1N1

Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that they would issue a disease outbreak news update today, as usual. Also, the next meeting of the Review Committee would take place on 12 to 14 April at WHO Headquarters.

Answering to a journalist’s question on the spread of H1N1 in Africa, Mr. Hartl said that WHO was working closely together with African Member States and that it was expected that at least 10 to 15 African countries would get vaccines for 2 to 10 per cent of their population in the coming weeks. WHO was doing its best to limit the effects of H1N1 on the African continent. Among the countries that would receive vaccines were Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Togo, Kenya, Namibia and South Africa.

Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on a Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products would continue all throughout the weekend at the Centre International des Conférences de Genève (CICG).

Agenda of Upcoming Events

Ms. Momal-Vanian announced that the International Labour Organization would hold a press conference today at 11:30 a.m. on the impact of the economic crisis on the sectors with Eric Zeballos, Expert, International Labour Organization Sectorial Activities Programme.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that the Global Commodities Forum would start on Monday, 22 March at 10 a.m. in Room XXVI. A press conference on the Forum would be held on Tuesday, 23 March at 2:30 p.m. in Press Room III with Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Mr. Martin Abbott, Chief Executive, London Metal Exchange and Makiko Nissanke, Professor, University of London. On Monday, 22 March at 2:45 p.m. in Room IX Professor Nissanke would also present her book called: “Commodities Governance and Economic Development under Globalization”.

Member States experts would also participate in a meeting on commodities and development on 24 and 25 March, said Ms. Sibut-Pinote. On 29 March there would also be a Joint Symposium on International Investment and Alternative Dispute Resolution, in Lexington, Virginia, organized by the Washington and Lee University School of Law’s Frances Lewis Law Center, together with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization (WTO) presenting next week’s WTO schedule, said that senior officials would be in Geneva for a stocktaking exercise which would take place throughout the week. The Trade Negotiations Committee would meet on Monday, 22 March, during which each Chairs of the negotiating groups would present their reports and the Director-General Pascal Lamy would also present his report as Chair of the Committee. Another Trade Negotiating Committee meeting would also take place on Friday, 26 March.

Other bodies meeting next week would be the Balance-of-Payments Restrictions Committee, the Goods Council, the Technical Barriers to Trade Committee, the Rules of Origin Committee and Croatia’s Trade Policy Review, said Ms. Borges. The following week WTO would present its figures for world trade in 2009 and the prospects for 2010.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said that Josette Sheeran, World Food Programme Executive Director would be in Geneva next week. A breakfast briefing on the global challenges in hunger in 2010 would be organized on Thursday, 25 March at 9 a.m. in Press Room I.

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that World Meteorological day would be celebrated on Tuesday, 23 March under the theme of: “60 years of service for your safety and well-being” as it would also mark the WMO’s sixtieth anniversary. The event would start at 3:30 p.m. at WMO Headquarters. At 4:30 an exhibition of painting inspired by satellite imagery would be opened, followed at 5 p.m. by the official reception.

Julie Marks of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said that World Water Day would be celebrated on Monday, 22 March. The theme for this year was “Clean Water for a Healthy World”. The flagship celebration would take place at the United Nations Office at Nairobi, where a three-day event hosted by UNEP, UN-HABITAT, the Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation and the Government of Kenya, would take place, bringing together policy makers, scientists and other leading figures. To mark the release of the UN Water Statement a High-Level Panel would convene in Nairobi on Monday afternoon. The outcomes of the Panel would be broadcast to the UN General Assembly’s World Water Day event.

Also on Monday UNEP would release a report on Water Quality Solutions and one on Waste Water Management, said Ms. Marks. The Convention on Biological Diversity would also release a report on Water, Wetlands and Forests, produced jointly with the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

Further, on Tuesday, 23 March, the International Environment House, the University for Peace, the Business Humanitarian Forum and the International Chamber of Commerce of Switzerland would hold a workshop for businesses on their response to climate change, said Ms. Marks.