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 World Health Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, had appointed yesterday Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, an international leader on strategies to address global climate change, as the new head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, replacing Yvo de Boer. The appointment had been made after consultations with the Bureau to the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention.

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was meeting this week in private to adopt its concluding observations and recommendations on the country reports it had considered at the current session, namely: Afghanistan, Argentina, Colombia, Kazakhstan and Mauritius.

World Health Assembly

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the World Health Assembly was in its second day today. Committee A was holding this morning discussions on public health innovation and intellectual property. This would be followed by discussions on the health-related Millennium Development Goals and infant and young children nutrition.

This afternoon around 4:00 p.m., Committee A would address the health conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said Ms. Chaib. Time permitting, Committee A would turn later this evening to the issues of food safety and the harmful use of alcohol, said Ms. Chaib.

Also this afternoon two invited speakers would address the plenary, said Ms. Chaib. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia, would address the plenary at around 2:00 p.m., followed by Ray Chambers, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria.

Further, tomorrow at 10 a.m., a press briefing on H1N1 would take place in Press Room I with Harvey Fineberg, Chair of the H1N1 Review Committee, said Ms. Chaib.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that on the occasion of the World Health Assembly this week, the Governments of Portugal and Spain, had organised a lunch seminar titled “Health of Migrants, The Way Forward” on 17 May, which was supported by WHO and IOM.

Mr. Bloch said the seminar had briefed approximately 80 Member States and other stakeholders on the outcomes of the March 2010 Global Consultation on Migrant Health, convened by WHO and IOM and hosted by the Ministry of Health and Social Policy of the Government of Spain.

Situation in Haiti

Christiane Berthiaume of the United Nations Children's Fund said that following confirmed cases of diphtheria in Port-au-Prince last week, the Haitian Ministry of Health, supported by the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organisation and the Haitian Red Cross, had undertaken an emergency vaccination campaign, which had started Saturday in Camp Batimat, in the district of Cite Soleil.


Around 2,000 persons who had been exposed to the positive cases had been targeted in the vaccination effort, with more than 80 vaccinators deployed for the operation, said Ms. Berthiaume. The aim of this emergency vaccination was to ensure that anyone who might have come into contact with infected persons was provided with immediate protection.

Since February, some 888,000 persons living in camps for the displaced had been vaccinated against diphtheria, including more than 220,000 children under the age of eight. Ms. Berthiaume said the current vaccination effort was continuing a campaign that had been underway prior to January’s earthquake, following an outbreak of diphtheria in late 2009. The vaccination campaign would enter a second phases next month targeting those living outside the camp areas.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that a major new push had been initiated to identify the needs of more than 2 million Haitians living in displacement camps following the January 12 earthquake.

In its role as lead agency in the Haiti emergency response’s Camp Coordination and Camp Management cluster, IOM had established a new camp management operation team, funded by the European Union’s humanitarian arm ECHO, which would reach out to local authorities and community leaders to improve the flow of information between affected populations and humanitarian actors, said Mr. Bloch.

The first step was to establish close relationships with the mayors of seven communes in the larger Port-au-Prince area, as well as Haiti’s civil protection department – the government-appointed agency in charge of camp coordination. Mr. Bloch said the team would also forge ties with local community leaders, and hold commune-wide meetings with non-governmental organisations to improve coordination on a municipal level.

IOM’s goal was to draw a clear picture of each commune and to establish priorities in order to better meet specific beneficiary needs, said Mr. Bloch.

In related news, 50,000 mosquito nets had just been delivered to Haiti and were being distributed by the Health Cluster and other non-governmental organisations partners ahead of the intensifying rains, said Mr. Bloch.

Zimbabwe/ Floods

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM had dedicated 693 permanent housing units last week, which had been built in partnership with the Civil Protection Unit of the Government of Zimbabwe, for victims of floods in the Country’s eastern, Chipinge District.

Nearly 700 families from four flood prone communities including Nyerere, Masimbe, Gumira and Muchayiyana, had each received a two-roomed house at an official handover ceremony last week, said Mr. Bloch.

Regional Conference on Migration

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM’s Deputy Director General, Ambassador Laura Thompson was in Tapachula, Mexico, this week, along with officials from the 11 countries that make up the Regional Conference on Migration, to participate in the annual meeting of the Regional Conference that was taking place there. Tapachula was a gateway for Central Americans migrating to Mexico and the United States.

At the four-day meeting, beginning today, vice ministers of foreign affairs and interior, and senior migration officials, would exchange information, share experiences and best practices, and carry out consultations to promote regional cooperation on migration issues, said Mr. Bloch.

Global Earth Temperature

Gaëlle Sévenier of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a WMO member, had issued a press release, saying the combined April 2010 global land and ocean average surface temperature had been the warmest on record with 14.5°C, which was 0.76°C above that of the 20th century’s average.

Additionally, last month’s average ocean surface temperature had also been the warmest on record for any April, and the global land surface had been the third warmest on record, said Ms. Sévenier. The most prominent warmth had been recorded in Canada, Alaska, the eastern United Sates, Australia, South Asia, northern Africa and northern Russia. Cooler-than-normal places had included Mongolia, Argentina, far eastern Russia, the western contiguous United Stats and most of China.

Further, El Nino had weakened in April but was expected to continue through June said Ms. Sévenier.

Press Conferences

This afternoon at 3 p.m., Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Francis Gurry, Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, Colin Archer, Secretary-General of the International Peace Bureau, Sylvie Mottard, Senior Programme Officer, United Nations Environment Programme and Guy Mettan, President of the Geneva State Council would hold a joint press conference in Press Room III to present the activities that would take place in Geneva during the International Weekend on 5 and 6 June, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Tomorrow at 11 a.m., the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Supachai Panitchpakdi and Anne Miroux, Director, Division on Technology and Logistics, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development would hold a press conference in Press Room III to present the 2010 Technology and Innovation Report, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.