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 Meteorological Organization, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the World Health Organisation, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the transcript of the press conference the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, had given yesterday in New York has been sent out this morning.

During the press conference, the Secretary-General, who had just come back from Istanbul where he had participated in the Conference on Somalia, presented the outcome of this conference and touched on the issue of nuclear non-proliferation, in particular the current Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference and the conclusions of the investigation on the sinking of the Republic of Korea naval ship in the Korean Peninsula; subjects that raised a lot of questions by journalists, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

The Secretary-General also announced a series of upcoming travels he would undertake to Brazil and several African countries, said Ms. Momal-Vanian He would be in Brazil later this week to attend the Third Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations. From there he would go to Malawi and to Uganda. In Kampala, Uganda, the Secretary-General was convening the first Review Conference of the International Criminal Court, in which he would participate on 31 May.

Finally, the Secretary-General would end his trip with the Africa-France Summit in Nice to which he was invited by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Mr. Ban also noted that he would return twice to Africa later in June, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Committee on the Rights of the Child

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on the Rights of the Child was opening today a three-week long session, during which it would consider ten country reports. The countries that would be examined during this session were Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Grenada, Guatemala, Japan, Nigeria, Serbia and Tunisia.

On Wednesday the Committee would consider the reports of Serbia and Nigeria. On Tuesday and Friday it would consider the reports of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Japan, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Human Rights Council

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Human Rights Council would hold an open-ended informal meeting on the review of the Council tomorrow at 10 a.m. in Room XX. The meeting was public and open to the media.

Humanitarian Funding Review

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that ahead of this July’s 2010 Humanitarian Funding mid-term review, John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, had already met with donors to discuss the funding of the 2010 appeals.

In 2010, 20 consolidated appeals had been launched, calling for just over US$ 10 billion, said Ms. Byrs. Thus far, US$ 3.7 billion had been contributed, representing 36 per cent of overall requirements.

At a time when the humanitarian community had been deeply concerned about the impact of the 2009 financial crisis, contributions were slowly coming in, said Ms. Byrs. However, it was important that this trend be accelerated. Of the 20 appeals, 14 were currently funded below 40 per cent of requirements – such as Yemen, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Guatemala and West Africa appeals. The West Africa appeal was funded by 24 per cent, Yemen by 28 per cent, Uganda by 25 per cent, the Democratic Republic of the Congo by 29 per cent and the Central African Republic by 35 per cent.

Excluding the Haiti appeal, the total contributions in the first 2010 quarter for other emergencies had generally been somewhat lower than in previous years; amounting to only 33 per cent. The 2009 percentage, at the same stage, had been of 37 per cent and in 2008, just before Cyclone Nargis, of 51 per cent, said Ms. Byrs. Counting the Haiti Appeal, the total contributions reached 36 per cent.

Ms. Byrs said that John Holmes had also just concluded a visit to Chad and was now heading for his fifth mission to Sudan, where he would stay from the 26 to 20 May, to assess the humanitarian situation there and especially in the Darfour.

Displaced Iraqis

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that 48 families had recently returned to Iraq from Iran, after nearly twenty years of displacement. The majority of the families had fled Iraq during the 1991 war. The families returned with almost no resources and settled in the Baghdad Governorate.

IOM had learned of the returnee families through its monitoring teams which operate in all 18 governorate of Iraq, said Mr. Chauzy. The monitors determined that the returnee families were in urgent need of basic household items to make conditions in their temporary shelters bearable. In order to meet these needs as rapidly as possible, IOM had arranged for a distribution of non-food items in coordination with partners on the ground.

Mr. Chauzy said the families also lacked proper identification cards because they had been away from Iraq for so long, thus making it difficult to receive services from the government. IOM had referred the returnee families to the non-governmental organisation Relief International, which would assist the families with getting their official identification and ration cards, as well as other legal issues.

Mr. Chauzy said IOM was planning continued assistance to these families over the coming months as well as to any additional returning families.

Further, an IOM programme in Jordan was currently providing psychosocial support to thousands of Iraqi children and teenagers who had fled to Jordan to escape violence in Iraq, said Mr. Chauzy.

The programme was funded by the Australian Government and was carried out in partnership with the Jordanian Ministry of Education, the United Nations Children's Fund, national and international non-governmental organisations and aimed to improve the mental wellbeing of traumatized children, said Mr. Chauzy.

An assessment on the psychosocial needs of Iraqis displaced in Jordan and Lebanon that had been carried out by IOM and partners in 2008 had revealed high levels of emotional and psychological distress among Iraqis in both countries, said Mr. Chauzy. 21 per cent of the refugee sample in Jordan and 34 per cent in Lebanon had experienced direct violent attacks, including witnessing assassinations of relatives and friends, torture, rape or kidnappings.

Sri Lanka/Floods

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM and partners were delivering tents, tarpaulins and other relief items to thousands of people affected by ongoing flooding, rain and landslides in 13 of Sri Lanka’s 25 districts.

According to Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Centre, over half a million people or 100,000 families had been directly affected by the floods and at least 15,000 persons had been displaced, said Mr. Chauzy.

Niger/Migrants

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that two transit centres in the northern Niger region of Agadez continued to provide much needed humanitarian assistance to migrants from West and Central Africa stranded on their way to Europe or who had been turned back or forcibly returned from neighbouring Libya and Algeria.

The centres provided often desperate and destitute migrants with temporary lodging, food, clothing items and hygiene kits as well as basic health care services as well as counselling on the dangers of irregular migration, said Mr. Chauzy.

World Congress on Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change

Brigitte Leoni of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said that they were launching a new campaign, called “Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready”, aimed at involving city leaders and local governments to commit towards investing in disaster risk reduction measures.

The campaign would be launched this coming Sunday from Bonn where the first World Congress on Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change would be taking place, said Ms. Leoni. A press conference on the subject would be held this Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Palais des Nations. Present would be Margareta Wahlström, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Ms. Leoni said another press conference would be organized in Bonn on Sunday, 30 May at 5.30 p.m. with the mayors of Mexico City, Mexico; Saint Louis, Senegal; Bonn, Germany; Larreynaja Malpaisillo, Nicaragua; Karlstad, Sweden and Albay, the Philippines.

World No Tobacco Day

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that Monday, 31 May would be World No Tobacco Day 2010. This year’s theme was “Gender and Tobacco”. The emphasis would be on marketing to women and looking at how the tobacco industry targets women.

A press conference would be held on the subject this Friday, 28 May at 11:30 a.m. with Douglas Bettcher, Director, Tobacco Free Initiative, World Health Organization.

Geneva Lectures

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the fourth edition of the Geneva Lectures Series, a joint United Nations Institute for Training and Research and United Nations Office at Geneva initiative, would be held on Wednesday, 26 May, at 4:30 p.m. in the Assembly Hall.

The speaker for this edition would be Jane Goodall, United Nations Messenger for Peace and Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, who would speak under the theme of “Nature’s wake-up call: Why we must heed the warning”, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Screening of « Sergio »

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the movie Sergio, based on Samantha Power’s book Chasing the Flame depicting the life of Sergio Vieira de Mello, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights would be screened next Tuesday from 1.00 to 3.00 p.m., in Room XVIII.

The screening would be open to the public and opening remarks would be made by remarks Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Antonio Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Samantha Power herself, currently Director for Multilateral Affairs at the US National Security Council, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Press Conferences

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said that the High-level Task Force towards the Global Framework for Climate Services would hold a press conference tomorrow in Press Room I at noon. Present would be Jan Egeland of Norway and Mahmoud Abu-Zeid of Egypt, Co-chairs of the High Level Task Force.