REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service at Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Organization for Migration, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the World Meteorological Organization and the Economic Commission for Europe.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian reminded journalists that there would be no briefing on Friday, 10 September because the Palais des Nations would be closed.

The Conference on Disarmament was meeting this morning to discuss its draft annual report which would be presented to the General Assembly. The Conference was concluding the third and last part of its 2010 session on 24 September, the same day that the high-level meeting on disarmament would be convened in New York by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. There would be a press release in English and French issued at the end of the meeting.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child would be holding its fifty-fifth session from 13 September to 1 October at the Palais Wilson. The Committee, working in two chambers simultaneously because of its heavy workload, would be reviewing the reports of 10 countries, namely Guatemala, Angola, Spain, Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Montenegro, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Nicaragua. A background press release would be issued in English and French on 8 September.

The Human Rights Council would be holding its fifteenth regular session from 13 September to 1 October at the Palais des Nations. The Council would open its meeting at 10 a.m. with an update from United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on the latest activities of her Office. A background press release would be issued on 8 September highlighting the interesting reports that would be presented to the Council this session.

There were a number of interesting press conferences coming up, Ms. Momal-Vanian said. This morning, at 11:30 a.m. in press room 1, Ahmed Djoghlaf, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, would brief the press on the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which would be held in Japan from 18 to 29 October 2010. The press conference was being organized by the United Nations Environmental Programme.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, would give a press conference on Tuesday, 14 September at 2 p.m. in press room 1 on her report to the Human Rights Council and her newly launched Working Paper "The Rights and Guarantees of Internally Displaced Children in Armed Conflict". On 13 September, at 12:45 p.m. in Room XXIII, there would be a meeting during which Ms. Coomaraswamy’s document would be discussed.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said there would be a press conference on Monday, 13 September 2010, at 11 a.m. to present the Trade and Development Report 2010 - Employment, Globalization and Development. The report was embargoed until 14/09/10 at 5 p.m. GMT. A media alert had been sent out yesterday, and the documents and related press releases would be put in the press room shortly. UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi would present the report, along with Heiner Flassbeck, Director of the UNCTAD Division for Globalization and Development Strategies. This report would also be discussed at the high-level meeting of the Trade and Development Board, which would meet from 14 to 28 September in Geneva. A number of Ministers would be attending the meeting.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said on the occasion of the tenth anniversary in October of Security Council Resolution 1325, the United Nations Office at Geneva, together with the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces would be organizing a seminar to take a critical look at this landmark Resolution’s implementation and impact. The event was entitled “Women, peace and security: from resolution to action” and would be held on Wednesday, 15 September from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Room XII at the Palais des Nations. The seminar would begin with a keynote speech by Micheline Calmy-Rey, Federal Councillor and Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, which would be followed by a panel discussion. Journalists who were interested in attending the first part of the seminar needed to inscribe and the form was available on the UNOG website. The discussion would take place under the Chatham House Rule and would not be public.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said press kits concerning the upcoming session of the General Assembly, which would be opening on 14 September at Headquarters in New York, were available at the back of the room. From 20 to 22 September, Heads of State and Government would be convening to attend the Summit on the Millennium Development Goals. The President-elect of the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly was Joseph Deiss.

Pakistan

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the situation in Pakistan continued to develop, with the number of people directly affected by the floods reaching close to 21 million. In Sindh province, just under seven million people were affected by the floods. Flood waters continued to move through Sindh’s Dadu district, prompting evacuation warnings and cutting off populations. The new Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos, who replaced John Holmes, today took over her functions and would be visiting Pakistan starting today and until 10 September. She would meet with senior government officials, donors, UN agencies and humanitarian partners before travelling to Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Pakistan Floods Emergency Response Plan remained funded at 64 per cent. Two key sectors remained underfunded; the health sector was only 50 per cent funded and the water and sanitation sector was 30 per cent covered. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Sandra Aviles of the Food and Agricultural Organization said agriculture had been extremely affected by the floods in Pakistan. Approximately 80 per cent of the population in the flood-affected areas depended on agriculture for their livelihood. The devastating monsoon floods had caused damages of unprecedented scale to agriculture and families that relied on that sector as the sole source of food and income. The floods and rains had not only damaged the agricultural crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry, but had also destroyed primary infrastructure and agricultural machinery and equipment. The flood struck at a devastating time for farmers, just prior to the harvest of key standing crops such as rice, maize, vegetables and sugar cane, and the onset of the wheat planting season beginning in September and October. FAO recently led a damage assessment mission across five affected areas in Pakistan, including 39 districts of the total 79 affected districts. Some of the estimates included the fact that 1.3 hectares of standing crops had been damaged; the loss of 0.5 to 0.6 million tons of wheat stock needed for the wheat planting season; and the death of 1.2 million large and small animals and six million poultry. While the extent of the damage could not be completely quantified, and assessments were still ongoing, the direct and future losses were likely to affect millions of people at household level as well as impact national, protective capacity for staple crops such as wheat and rice. FAO in coming days would be distributing emergency live stock packages to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. FAO would also be providing wheat seed, vegetable seed and fertilizers to approximately 190,000 homes across the country under its existing pre-flood emergency programme. FAO had received two million in funding for immediate work out of the 5.7 million that it had appealed for. In the Revised Pakistan Initial Flood Emergency Response, which would be launched in mid-September, the agriculture cluster, which was led by FAO, would be appealing for funding to cover the next 12 months of early recovery needs.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration said the emergency shelter needs were increasing by the day in Sindh and Punjab and shelter agencies were rapidly expanding emergency operations in both of these provinces. The move marked a shift away from Khyber Phaktunkhwa to the north. The number of people in need of emergency shelter was now estimated at 8.75 million and growing as more areas were submerged. The shelter cluster agencies, which were coordinated by IOM, had so far reached about 1.83 million people. That left over 6.92 million people living in extreme conditions without basic shelter. In Sindh’s Dadu district, thousands had been evacuated from the towns of Mehar and Juhi in recent days to some 300 government displacement camps in the district or further south in Jamshoro and Hyderabad districts. Today IOM and local NGO partners would complete the distribution of 2,000 shelter and household kits in the district. Over the weekend, a further 1,000 shelter kits were distributed in Badin district and 5,480 in Thatta district. IOM and partner agencies were now distributing shelter materials in Ghotki, Kashmore, Jacobabad, Shahdad Kot, Larkana, Thatta and Dadu districts. While shelter needs remained vast in Sindh, tens of thousands of families in Punjab were also still living in the open and waiting for help to arrive. Over the weekend this came in the form of 23,345 tents and shelter kits, together with essential household items, which IOM handed over to NGO partners for distribution in Punjab districts. IOM was also ramping up its mass communications programme, which informed flood victims of humanitarian services and prevention measures against water-borne diseases.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said as of 4 September, 4 million persons had received medical treatment for both infectious diseases as well as non-transmissable diseases like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. As of 4 September, almost 5 million persons had undergone medical consultations. In order to fight cases of malaria, which continued to increase, particularly in Balochistan, WHO had sent 40,000 treated bed tents and more than 200,000 tablets to treat malaria. WHO had also worked with other partners to help persons affected by the floods through mobile teams. However, this was not enough and more efforts were necessary. The health sector was only 50 per cent funded.

Marco Jimenez Rodriguez of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF was providing water to 2.5 million people every day. More than 1 million health vaccinations had been so far performed on children and women. This was 50,000 more than last week. Some 2,342 latrines had been created for the use of 47,000 people.

Melissa Fleming of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR issued a press release this morning from Islamabad, which was available at the back of the room, updating journalists on UNHCR’s operations in Pakistan. UNHCR’s Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie arrived in Pakistan today to meet people affected by the floods and to highlight the urgent need for help. Ms. Jolie was visiting as the personal envoy of UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres. More details would be sent to journalists later.

UNICEF Report: Progress for Children, Achieving the MDGs with Equity

Marco Jimenez Rodriguez of the United Nations Children’s Fund said five years from the Millennium Development Goals, there was a growing debate on how to accelerate progress in human development, particularly around the 2000 MDGs Review Process leading to the Millennium Summit in New York at the end of the month. UNICEF was releasing today two publications, including the ninth edition of the UNICEF report monitoring progress towards MDGs, entitled “Progress for children: achieving the MDGs with equity”. This report contained data suggesting that in the global push to achieve the MDGs, millions of the world’s most disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalized children were being left behind. Many developing countries had advanced steadily towards the MDGs, however, regions of sub Saharan Africa and South Asia were the least developed and had fallen behind. This indicated that global aggregates often concealed large disparities and apparent statistical successes masked profound needs. The report was complemented by a UNICEF study on “Narrowing the gaps to meet the goals”. The key findings of the report and the study were that an equity focused approach improved returns on investment, averting many more child and maternal deaths and episodes of stunting than the alternative approach which they had been following so far. The report ended by indicating three strategies that should be used as a tool by countries to accelerate reaching the MDGs within five years, including upgrading selected facilities; overcoming barriers that prevented people from accessing basic services; and the development of local resources.

Burkina Faso

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there had been severe flooding in Burkina Faso since July caused by heavy rains. The number of affected people had reached 105,000. An appeal seeking $ 14.1 million had been launched for six months to sustain life-saving activities. The Central Emergency Revolving Fund had allocated nearly $ 2 million to humanitarian agencies in Burkina Faso for this emergency. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Somalia

Melissa Fleming of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was alarmed by the further deterioration it was seeing in the situation in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. UNHCR’s partners reported that
fighting over the past two weeks between the transitional government and al-Shabaab had cost more than 230 civilian lives with at least 400 people wounded and 23,000 displaced. So far this year over 200,000 civilians were estimated to have fled their homes. People who had been able to reach northern Somalia and neighbouring countries were mostly arriving on foot and by small busses and were traveling without shelter. They told UNHCR staff that the streets of Mogadishu were completely deserted and that people were too afraid to leave their houses. In these dangerous and difficult conditions aid distributions were becoming rare and those who ventured out were risking their lives. Making matters worse was that fleeing Mogadishu had itself become more dangerous and difficult. There were more details in the briefing notes. Overall, almost 68,000 Somalis had fled this year to countries in the region. After Afghanistan and Iraq, Somalia generated the largest number of refugees in the world. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres was in Kenya over the next three days on his annual visit. Kenya hosted one of UNHCR’s major operations.

Other

Claire Nullis of the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday, 14 September at noon in Room III, WMO would be releasing its latest scientific assessment of ozone depletion. This was an assessment that was conducted every four years by WMO, UNEP, NASA and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States. A press release coupled with an executive summary would be released.

Jean Rodriguez of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe said from 12:15 to 1:15 today, UNECE would be hosting a live demonstration of sound devices that could equip “silent cars”, which were electric and hybrid vehicles that did not emit the noises caused by combustion engines. While these vehicles constituted a key contribution to reducing carbon emissions and risking consumer awareness about climate change, they may also prove to be an additional risk for pedestrians and other road users because of their silence. There was a press release at the back of the room with more details about the meeting of the Working Party on Noise, which was convening from 6 to 8 September, to examine the safety risk of silent cars.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said more than 200 participants from approximately 79 countries and eight organizations working on urban search and rescue (USAR) would gather for the first ever global meeting of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) in Kobe, Japan from 14 to 16 September. This meeting, hosted by the Government of Japan and co-organized by OCHA, would commence celebrations of the forthcoming twentieth anniversary of INSARAG and also commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the Great Hanshin earthquake of 15 January 1995. There was a press release with more details in the press release at the back of the room.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said an important meeting was being held on Thursday, 9 September in Bangkok, Thailand to discuss medical devices. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan would be in Bangkok for the meeting. She had copies of the report of WHO on the subject with her for interested journalists. She would send out a press release tomorrow on the subject.

Ms. Chaib said next week, an important report would be issued in Geneva concerning maternal mortality. There would be a press conference on Wednesday, 15 September at 10 a.m. in press room 1. She would send journalists the report and the press releases during the forthcoming week. Also next week, there would be the launch in New York of an advocacy report on sentimentality and development. She offered a briefing by an expert based in Geneva.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration said the IOM Mission in Iraq had just released its bi-annual review of displacement and return. The report showed that food and access to work remained the most pressing needs of families that were forced to flee their homes during the sectarian violence that followed the 2006 Samarra mosque bombing in Iraq. There were more releases in the briefing notes.

Ms. Momal-Vanian, speaking on behalf of Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme who could not attend today, said WFP was launching today the new version of Freerice 2.0, an educative game on the Internet. The game was launched in 2007, and 1.2 million persons played it every month. There were more details in the press release at the back of the room.