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 of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Haiti

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the United Nations and its partners continued to step up their operations in Haiti. Medication stocks were being restocked, more medical experts were arriving and OCHA was working with local authorities to bury the bodies of diseased persons as safely as possible. So far, 40 per cent of the people around the Artibonite River had received rehydration salt and water purification tablets, but it remained a matter of priority to provide cholera treatment centres with products to treat victims, support the Health Ministry in its public information campaign, disseminate the water purification tablets and rehydration salts on a large scale, and ensure that enough experts were available in the Artibonite region. More information was available in the note at the back of the room.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said the Ministry of Public Health and Population in Haiti had reported late yesterday that some 4,649 people had contracted cholera and that within that group 305 people had died in four parts of the country. Since the onset of the outbreak, the WHO had distributed more than 64,000 sachets of oral rehydration salts, capable of treating 20,000 moderate cases of cholera, more than 3,500 liters of intravenous fluids, capable of treating 3,500 severe cases, and more than 180,000 bottles of antibiotics. The WHO expected that intravenous fluids for 5,000 severe cases and further materials for the treatment of diarrhea and cholera would arrive in Haiti in the next couple of days and weeks. The WHO feared that even more cases could be reported, Mr. Garwood said, underscoring that intensive measures were ongoing to inform the population about health issues and urge people with symptoms who may feel unwell to seek medical care as quickly as possible.

Marixie Mercado of the United Nations Children's Fund said that in addition to medical supplies and chlorine to treat water, UNICEF's focus was on raising awareness of hygiene safety -- not just in Artibonite, but also in the camps in and around Port-au-Prince -- and on preparing for the eventuality of cholera hitting the camps. Over the last days, tens of thousands of children had been reached with messages in and around IDP camps in Port-au-Prince, Ms. Mercado said. She added that UNICEF was working very hard on an emergency plan for Port-au-Prince. That plan would include developing cholera treatment centers in the capital as well.

Asked about the role of a Nepalese unit of United Nations peacekeepers as an alleged source or factor in the spread of cholera, Mr. Garwood said there was no evidence that military facilities had been the source of the outbreak. The actual source had not been discovered as yet but, as some cases may have been existent in Haiti many decades ago, the possibility lay that cases may have been dormant in the country and had just reappeared.

Pakistan

Ms. Byrs underscored the need for more contributions to the Pakistan funding appeal. The appeal was USD 1.9 billion, of which USD 759 million had been received, meaning that still about USD 1.1 billion were needed and that the appeal was funded to only 39 per cent. Several key sectors remained clearly underfinanced. Some key sectors such as food security, health and camp coordination and management were seriously underfunded. Camp coordination and camp management was funded to 34 per cent, food security to 42 per cent and the health sector only to 29 per cent. Humanitarian assistance, notably in the Sindh province, where 7,200,000 people remained affected by the floods, was vital ahead of the winter. The water has withdrawn from some places, but it might take more than six months before flatter areas dried up. One million people were living with temporary shelter or in camps in Sindh, but the humanitarian aid pipeline was being restricted due to a lack of contributions, notably in the food sector. The humanitarian response in Sindh must be stepped up, Ms. Byrs said, and she stressed that this was very difficult given the lack of mobilization and funding. More information was available in the note at the back of the room.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration said three months after the onset of Pakistan's worst floods on record many victims had returned to their towns and villages, but many of the poorest remained without adequate shelter and with little prospect of rebuilding their livelihoods. According to estimates of the Pakistani National Disaster Management Authority more than 1.7 million houses were destroyed or damaged by the floods. The 70 agencies of the IOM-led Shelter Cluster had delivered emergency shelter to 543,131 families or around 3.8 million people so far. But an estimated 7 million people had yet to be reached. Unmet shelter needs were particularly high in Sindh province, where the flood waters had only recently begun to recede. In some areas, such as Dadu district, some people were still trapped by stagnant pools that had yet to drain. According to the Government, nearly a million homes had been damaged or destroyed in the province. IOM had been scaling up the distribution of shelter and other essential aid items through its provincial hubs in Sukkur and Hyderabad, but the needs still far outstripped the capacity of the Government and aid agencies on the ground to deliver. In Punjab, where around half a million of homes had been destroyed or damaged, most people had returned to their places of origin. IOM and its cluster partners had provided thousands of families there with non-food relief items, including tarpaulins, blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans. At the same time, IOM had launched a pilot early recovery programme in Sindh and Punjab, helping flood victims to rebuild their homes. The scheme aimed to provide families with one-room shelters using locally procured materials and traditional construction methods. As the waters were receding and people were returning home, IOM was also ramping up its activities in the field of mass communications and health. Its mass communications programme informed flood victims about the availability of relief services and how to access them, and helped aid agencies to disseminate crucial humanitarian information. In the field of health, IOM had also set up four clinics in Punjab and Sindh that had treated over 10,000 patients since they had opened in September. Most of these people had been treated for acute respiratory infections, gastroenteritis and suspected malaria. IOM's Pakistan Emergency Flood Response has appealed for US$ 114 million and to date had confirmed funding of US$ 33.7 million from donors.

Paul Garwood said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan was leaving Pakistan today. Ms. Chan had been in the country for the previous three days, visiting health facilities in different parts of the country, meeting with health authorities as well as Pakistan’s president regarding response and recovery efforts and the continuing health needs. The WHO Director-General had launched a polio programme in northern Pakistan, visited diarrhoea treatment and nutrition centers in Sindh province, and conducted a range of other activities. Mr. Garwood also said that since the floods more than 7 million had been treated. The main conditions had been acute respiratory infections, suspected malaria, acute diarrhoea and skin diseases. Concerns also related to dengue fever and new cases of polio were appearing in some parts of the flood-affected country. In response to the concerns around diarrhoeal diseases and cholera, more than 60 diarrhea treatment centers had been established across the flood-affected areas, Mr. Garwood said.

Adrian Edwards of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said three months after floods hit Pakistan, UNHCR believed tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of people would have to remain in camps throughout the winter. This was because of persistent standing waters in parts of Sindh and Balochistan. Those hardest hit by the flooding – people affected by extreme poverty, loss of livelihoods and other vulnerabilities – might need camp accommodation even longer. Earlier in the emergency, the expectation had been that camps would be short-lived and that people would return to their areas of origin with their tents to rebuild. But today, while significant return had taken place, large tracts of Sindh and Balochistan remained under 3-4 feet of water. Local authorities were looking into how stagnant water could be pumped from villages, but this would be a massive undertaking and was likely to take time. Over the past few weeks, UNHCR had increased camp management activities in Sindh and Balochistan. This was driven in part by the secondary displacement of thousands of people camped out in schools and other public buildings, who left these places only to find that they could not return and that roads were impassable. In addition, the sheer scale of the emergency had meant that thousands of people were late in receiving even basic assistance. Shelter, household items, food and clean drinking water remained the biggest needs and, as winter approached, UNHCR was increasingly being asked to provide more blankets and quilts, Mr. Edwards said.

Kenya: Mother-to-Baby Pack for Preventing HIV

Ms. Mercado said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake would launch a mother-to-baby pack for preventing HIV transmission from mother to infant this morning in Kenya, together with the Government and other partners. The pack was designed especially for women who were hardest to reach. The pack bundled all the necessary drugs for a full course of treatment and was packaged and colour-coded in such a way as to make it easy for health workers to explain how to take the medicines at home.

Globally, more than a thousand infants were infected with HIV every day through mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy, labour and delivery or breastfeeding, Ms. Mercado said. In Kenya alone, 22,000 infants were estimated to be infected with HIV via vertical transmission each year. Without any intervention, up to half of these children would die before their second birthday. Services to prevent mother-to-child transmission could cut the risk of transmission from 1 in 3 to just 1 in 20. In the first phase of the project, around 30,000 packs would be distributed in Kenya, Lesotho, Zambia and Cameroon, between now and the middle of next year. Each pack cost around 70 dollars, Ms. Mercado said. She added that a press release and a briefing note were sent out and available at the back of the room.

IOM Study Analyzes Indonesian Migration to Asia, Middle East

Mr. Bloch said IOM Indonesia today launched a report entitled “Labour Migration From Indonesia: An Overview of Indonesian Migration to Selected Destinations in Asia and the Middle East”. The report addressed the conditions experienced by Indonesian labour migrants in four destination countries - Malaysia, Singapore, Kuwait and Bahrain – and included recommendations for future action in Indonesia and destination countries.

Most Indonesian labour migrants were women working in the domestic or service sectors. They were concentrated in Southeast and East Asia and the Middle East, in particular Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. International labour migration was a major development driver for the Indonesian economy, with registered remittances amounting to some US$ 6 billion annually. But, according to the report, Indonesia's labour migrants remain inadequately protected by the law and existing practices. This left them vulnerable to violence, exploitation, sexual abuse, human trafficking and various other forms of abuse.

IOM Supports Health Care System in Former Sri Lankan Conflict Areas

Mr. Bloch said since May 2009, IOM, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, has provided primary health care services to more than 206,000 internally displaced people in northern Sri Lanka, mainly in IDP camps in Vavuniya's Menik Farms. More information was available in the note at the back of the room.

Hundreds of Somalis continue to flee into Kenya

Adrian Edwards of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said UNHCR was alarmed by a fast deteriorating humanitarian situation at the northern part of the Kenya-Somali border. This week had seen hundreds of Somalis continuing to flee clashes between Al-Shabaab and Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa, a militia group allied to the transitional Somali Government, in the Somali border town of Beled Hawo. As of yesterday, more than 7,100 refugees were squatting at Border Point One, some 500 meters from the Kenya Somali border. These were mostly women, children and the elderly. Their security and health conditions were deteriorating by the hour. Some had been camping out in the open at Border Point One since 17 October when the fighting broke out.

Yesterday, one of the trucks belonging to a UNHCR partner agency, Islamic Relief Worldwide, had been shot at while delivering supplies to refugees at Border Point One, resulting in humanitarian activities having to be suspended. This morning UNHCR resumed distribution of relief supplies after the Kenyan authorities had provided security at the site. UNHCR was also carrying out rapid health screening so that the sick could get some immediate treatment. Shelter remained a big concern as it had been raining for days in the region. Yesterday, UNHCR deployed more staff to Mandera. Should clashes resume in Beled Hawo, UNHCR's concern was that many lives would be at risk with so many refugees in such proximity of fighting. UNHCR urged the Kenyan authorities to allow relocation of these people as soon as possible.

UNHCR ends Congolese returns from Zambia, reopens Burundi axis

Mr. Edwards said UNHCR was this week closing the last remaining camps for Congolese refugees in Zambia following the departure on Wednesday of the final repatriation convoy for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The closure of the two camps, Kala and Mwange, was a landmark for UNHCR in that it marked the end of its Congolese voluntary repatriation programme from Zambia. Repatriations of Congolese refugees from all other neighbouring countries were continuing.

Wednesday’s convoy had left Kala camp carrying 131 refugees, the last of 47,000 UNHCR had helped to return to DRC over the past four years. Most of those on board headed for Katanga province in southwestern DRC, where UNHCR and its partners implemented projects helping reintegration, mainly through skills-training and the provision of micro-credit schemes. The last convoy from Mwange camp left a month ago.

Some 2,000 other refugees, who had not wanted to return, had been transferred to the Meheba settlement in Zambia's northwest. Unlike Kala and Mwange camps, Meheba had a lot more land, allowing refugees to grow crops and become self-reliant. UNHCR would facilitate the repatriation of those who eventually opted to return to the DRC on an individual basis. The 15,000 people presently living at the Meheba settlement came from Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda, Mr. Edwards said.

Civil war in the DRC had left more than five million dead and had forced millions into displacement between 1998 and 2004. Of those Congolese who had become refugees in surrounding countries, tens of thousands had found shelter in Zambia. At the height of the crisis in 2004, Zambia had hosted some 66,000 Congolese in five camps. In another country that has hosted Congolese, Burundi, UNHCR had yesterday resumed organized repatriations after a more than three-year suspension. The returns had been halted in mid-2007 because of fighting in DRC’s South Kivu province.

Geneva Activities

Corinne Momal-Vanian said that to celebrate the 100th session of the Human Rights Committee, which would conclude today, the Committee was holding meetings and discussions with human rights experts all day before concluding the session towards the end of the day. The Committee’s concluding observations on the five countries examined during this session would be made available and a roundup release would be issued at the end of the day.

The Committee against Torture, for its part, would start its three-week session on Monday. During this session, the Committee would examine the reports submitted by Ethiopia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mongolia, Ecuador and Cambodia. A background release had been disseminated yesterday.

Also, on Monday next week the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would start its three-week session, during which it would review the reports of the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Uruguay. A background release on the session was available in the Press Room, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

On Tuesday 2 November at 9.45 a.m. a press conference would be held on the 10th meeting of the State Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. The speakers were Mr. Gazmend Turdiu, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania and President-designate of this tenth meeting, Mr. Kerry Brinkert, the Director of the Implementation Support Unit of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, and Ms. Tamar Gabelnick, the Treaty Implementation Director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

Also on Tuesday, at 11.30 a.m., a presentation under embargo of the 2010 Human Development Report would be given by the United Nations Development Programme. Emma Samman, Consultant at the Human Development Report Office, would be speaking, Ms. Momal-Vanian said.

Valerie Amos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, would give a press conference on the humanitarian situation in the world on the same day at 2.30 p.m.

Following that, around 3 p.m., Deputy Secretary-General of the International Civil Defence Organization would brief journalists on the organization’s activities.

Human Rights Agenda

Claire Kaplun of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Working Group tasked with the review of the Human Rights Council would conclude its first session today at 6 p.m. A compilation of the suggestions made during the week would be distributed to the Geneva press corps, probably by email this afternoon.

Ms. Kaplun went on to say that the ninth session of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review would be held from 1 to 12 November, examining sixteen countries. Journalists would receive information and useful links on a daily basis, Ms. Kaplun said. The review of the United States was scheduled for the morning of Friday 5 November. Ms. Momal-Vanian added that a press release on the topic had been sent out yesterday.

UNCTAD Agenda

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development would meet from 1-4 November in Room XXV. The 43 State Parties of this Forum would attempt to link mining and minerals and metals extraction activities to sustainable development, notably in terms of the environment and wealth redistribution.

On Thursday 4 November at 11.30 a.m. in Room I, UNCTAD's investment specialists would also present the joint OECD-WTO-UNCTAD report on investment measures by G-20 countries, particularly with regards to their potentially protectionist character. By way of a reminder, Ms. Sibut-Pinote said these three organizations had been tasked to monitor any potential increase in protectionist measures in trade and investment policies by G-20 Member States. The report was embargoed until Thursday, 4 November, 3 p.m. Geneva time.

WTO Agenda

Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization invited journalists to a full-day workshop on Tuesday 2 November in Room CR at the WTO. The workshop, entitled “Recent Analyses of the Doha Round”, included a series of presentations by the OECD and several universities on the recent work of various institutions and on studies aimed at evaluating how trade policies could change in the event of a completed Doha Round. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy would also speak at the closing session of this workshop, organized jointly by the World Bank, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development and the World Trade Organization.

Several other meetings would also take place next week at the WTO, Ms. Borges said, indicating that further information was available at the back of the room and in the Press Room. Highlights included the meetings of the Rules Negotiating Group and the two Trade Policy Review Body meetings on Belize and Sri Lanka. Ms. Borges also said that Mr. Lamy would attend the African Union’s conference of Ministers of trade in Rwanda on Monday 1 November.