REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the UN Refugee Agency.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said today was Human Rights Day and it was being commemorated in an event taking place right now in Room XX, hosted by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. The theme this year for Human Rights Day was “Human Rights Defenders Acting to End Discrimination”, and there would be five human rights defenders in the event to participate in a panel engaged in issues such as people suffering from Down’s Syndrome and Autism, sexual orientation, the situation of black women in Europe, access to information and the prevention of sexual exploitation and child abuse. They came from Austria, Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and the occupied Palestinian territories (Gaza). The event would conclude at 12:30 p.m.

On Monday, 13 December, there would be an ILO press conference to launch under embargo the "Global Wage Report – Wage policies in times of crisis" 2010/11 edition. It was embargoed until 4 p.m. GMT on Wednesday, 15 December 2010. The speakers were Manuela Tomei, Director of the Conditions of Work and Employment Programme (TRAVAIL) of the ILO; and Patrick Belser, Labour Economist at TRAVAIL.

The fifteenth session of the Geneva Discussions would be held on Thursday, 16 December. Towards the end of the day, probably starting 5:30 p.m., there would be as usual three briefings by the three-co-Chairs of the Discussions and by the delegations of Georgia and Russia.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the World Trade Organization Spokesperson was unable to be at the briefing today but copies of the schedule of meetings at WTO for next week and the schedule of the ILO Director-General were available in the press room.

World Health Organization

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said available at the back of the room was a note for the press on health-care associated infections. It was based on a new study published today in The Lancet on this subject which concluded that health-care associated infections were more common in developing countries.

At 11:30 p.m. today, WHO’s Representative to Somalia would brief journalists about the situation in that country.

Mr. Garwood said the World Malaria Report 2010 would be launched in a press conference on Tuesday, 14 December. Dr. Margaret Chan, the Director-General of WHO, would launch the report.

Haiti

Aphaluck Bhatiasevi of the World Health Organization said regarding the cholera update in Haiti, according to the Ministry of Public Health’s figures reported as of 4 December, there was a total of 93,222 cases, and 2,120 deaths. The case fatality rate in hospital was 3.3 per cent. WHO was working on estimates with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and they expected to see 400,000 cases in the first 12 months, with half of them occurring in the first three months of the outbreak. Currently there were 105 cholera treatment units, with a capacity of 1,222 beds and 56 cholera treatment centres with a capacity of 4,681 beds and 71 WHO staff working in the field in nine locations around the country.

Responding to questions, Ms. Bhatiasevi said the situation on the ground in Haiti was very sensitive and it was extremely difficult to get information. The information they got was collected from the ground and sent up by the units to the department level and then to the national level, and then there was a consolidation of that information. Their information was not only based on information from the Ministry of Health but also from non-governmental organizations and other partners. They had heard that it was difficult for some people to reach the health facilities because of the security situation on the ground. The calculation on the number of estimated cases was made to plan a response to the situation and to see what would be required. As they had seen from figures last week, overall, there had been a decrease in the number of fatalities.

Jemeni Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said IOM was leading the camp management cluster in Haiti, which also involved keeping track of the number of people who were internally displaced and in the camps. They had recorded an important fall in the number of people living in the camps since the 12 January earthquake. It had decreased significantly over the past month from an estimated 1.5 million individuals in July to 1.35 million displaced persons in September, to now an estimated 1.050 million in November. This was a decrease of 31 per cent over a five-month period. The decrease was even more dramatic in semi-urban and rural areas.
The population in the remaining 1,199 settlements was now heading below one million people. The intensity of the rainy season had made it unbearable for many to remain in tents. Fears of cholera due to poor sanitation hygiene had also persuaded many people to seek alternative housing solutions outside of the camps. An estimated 100,000 displaced people had been re-housed in transitional shelters.

In response to a question on the origins of the cholera outbreak in Haiti, Ms. Bhatiasevi said WHO was looking into this matter seriously and it was concerned about this. There had been several studies conducted. The studies that had been conducted had pointed out a number of issues, but there were a number of areas that needed to be addressed.

A journalist said that the epidemiologist who had conducted the research for the Haitian Government, funded by the Government of France, had said he could not verify on the location because the septic tanks where there was suspicion had been removed from the peacekeeping camp. The journalist asked if samples had been taken before the septic tanks had been removed.

Ms. Momal-Vanian, responding to the question, said that she could try and get information on that very specific point. The Mission had conducted a number of tests from waters inside the military camp, between the camp and the river, and the river itself, and all their results had proven negative. At this point the Mission said there was no conclusive evidence. However, they were taking this report by the epidemiologist and all other reports very seriously, and were ready to contribute to any further investigation. What they were saying at the moment was that they could neither accept nor dismiss these findings. But they were taking the report very seriously and remained very receptive to any investigation on this issue.

Asked if there was any information that any of the peacekeepers suffered from cholera, Ms. Momal-Vanian said she would have to seek confirmation from her colleagues on the ground in New York on this. As far as she knew, there had been no indication that peacekeepers had contracted the disease.

Sri Lanka

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said heavy rainfall had been continuing in several parts of Sri Lanka since 10 November, with a total of 105,974 persons affected by floods and landslides. Some roads were interrupted, cutting off assistance to populations in the five northern districts. As of 8 December, the sluice gates of several reservoirs were opened in view of exceptionally high levels of water, the highest recorded in the last 11 years. Of special concern was the situation in the Northern Province where unprecedented rains had caused extensive flooding during the last week, affecting 94,883 persons across five districts. Conditions of some zones of Menik Farm camp, where the total population now stood at approximately 20,000 persons, had deteriorated. With the rising flood waters, the risk of dengue prevailed and the health authorities had taken measures to fog the mosquito breeding sites. There was more information in the briefing notes.

UNHCR

Andrej Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was closely following the situation in Côte d’Ivoire, which had already led some 2,000 Ivorians, mostly women and children, to seek safety in neighbouring Liberia and Guinea. To date, an estimated 1,700 people had crossed into Nimba country, north-eastern Liberia. Another 200 arrived exhausted in Guinea’s Nzerekore region after having waked for two days. The refugees told UNHCR their movement was precautionary, prompted by fears of instability and violence as the political deadlock persisted. UNHCR teams were currently visiting the refugees in both countries. They were scattered in isolated and poor border villages, hosted by local communities which had been generously sharing their resources. UNHCR teams were touring the borer areas to register the new arrivals and assess their conditions in order to respond to their most pressing needs. The Ivorian asylum seekers were in good physical condition but they urgently needed food and shelter to ease the pressure on the local communities hosting them. They also needed clean drinking water, clothing and basic cooking and hygiene items.

Mr. Mahecic said UNHCR was urging European Union Member States and FRONTEX as the EU’s external border agency to ensure that asylum in Europe was not being threatened in the drive for tighter policing of the continent’s external borders. UNHCR’s concern was that in its effort to stem illegal migration, Europe should not forget that those seeking to enter the EU were people who needed international protection and were at risk of their own lives. Evidence of how difficult it had become for people seeking protection in Europe could be seen in the data on arrivals by sea in the central Mediterranean. Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta had all seen drastic reductions in arrivals by sea over the past year or two, almost certainly a result of tighter border controls, joint patrols and push-backs at sea. UNHCR estimated that some 8,800 people arrived by sea in the first 10 months of this year, compared to 32,000 in the same period in 2009. The stemming of sea arrivals was not solving the problem, but shifting it elsewhere. This could be seen in the corresponding sharp rise that had been seen in overland arrivals in the Evros region of Greece. Evros recorded 38,992 arrivals in the first 10 months of this year compared to 7,574 in the same period in 2009. UNHCR had consistently stated its concerns about the humanitarian situation for new arrivals in Greece and the need for EU support to Greece in bringing its asylum system up to standard.

In response to a question, Mr. Mahecic said that among those who had been arriving in Italy, 75 per cent of all arrivals had submitted asylum claims, and out of those, more than 50 per cent had been recognized as refugees.

Pakistan

Ms. Byrs of OCHA said Pakistan was at a transition point: it was still in need of emergency humanitarian assistance for up to 4 million persons, but it was also time to prepare for reconstruction and early recovery support. However, they lacked donations to the reconstruction and early recover support sector. The community restoration sector had only received 3 per cent of the necessary funds and the water and sanitation cluster had only received 29 per cent of overall requirements. The onset of winter was also a key concern for the flood-affected persons in the far north of the country and efforts to pre-position food, shelter materials, medicines and other basic necessities before snow blocked road access continued.

Ms. Pandya of IOM said IOM was expanding its one room shelter project to support the construction of an initial 25,000 one room shelters in Pakistan’s flood-affected provinces of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Shelter remained a priority need four months after the flood, and the winter weather had already arrived. There had been a very slow response to the emergency shelter appeal and they were very long way to covering their total needs.

Colombia

Ms. Pandya of IOM said more Colombian families had now received the title deeds to their lands thanks to a land formalization strategy supported by IOM. Today, 240 families in Chaparral in the centre-west department of Tolima would be formally handed their title deeds at a ceremony. The region, one of the most affected by the violent presence of guerrilla groups and in recent years by paramilitary group, had witnessed gross human rights violations with large numbers of murder victims, kidnappings, disappearances and forced displacement. There were more details in the briefing notes.