REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information on new statements by the Secretary-General on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and on Nepal; Geneva activities, Hurricane Katrina and other issues. Spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the High Commissioner for Refugees, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Organization for Migration and the European Organization for Nuclear Research participated in the briefing.
New Statements by the Secretary-General
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Kofi Annan had returned to New York from London where he had attended the two-day replenishment meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In remarks at a reception on the occasion of the meeting, the Secretary-General urged the world to join together to fight against these three diseases that claimed millions of lives every year. He said so far, the main donors to the Global Fund had been Governments, but the United Nations was also looking to other stakeholders to take ownership and support the Fund. He said the Global Fund had firmly established itself as one of the leading financial mechanisms in the global fight against these three diseases. The replenishment process was crucial to ensuring that the Fund's long-term stability and planning were assured. Mr. Annan said the fight for global health was crucial, for it covered all three reinforcing sides of the triangle that represented their collective mission -- development, security and human rights. The Secretary-General's statement to the replenishment meeting was available in the press room.
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier recalled that at a press conference in Geneva yesterday on the "Diplomat for a day" event, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, had announced that as part of the celebrations of the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations, there would be a concert at the Geneva Arena on 8 October in which the Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour and other international artists would perform, in support of the fight against malaria.
The Secretary-General, in a statement on Nepal, said he had taken note of the appeal addressed to him by a large number of non-governmental and civil society representatives in Nepal requesting his good offices to help find a peaceful solution to the conflict there. He said the appeal reflected the deep desire of the people of Nepal to see an urgent end to the conflict that had brought them profound suffering. The Secretary-General had made known to all interested parties his availability to help in the search for a solution. The Secretary-General earnestly hoped that all sides in Nepal would take all measures which would lead to peace talks and the lasting peace that the people of Nepal craved and deserved.
Geneva Activities
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Conference on Disarmament was today holding a plenary meeting at 10 a.m. There was only one speaker on the list, the Russian Federation.
At 11 a.m. this morning at the Palais Wilson, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, would be participating in the inauguration of a photo exhibition entitled “We the peoples…families and development”. Copies of the Director-General's remarks on this occasion would be available shortly.
A seminar would be held today from 1:15 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Council Chamber on reviving disarmament. The seminar, which was being organized by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, would be addressed by Dr. Hans Blix, Chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission. Mr. Ordzhonikidze would offer opening remarks, as would Patricia Lewis, Director of UNIDIR. At the request of journalists, Dr. Blix had agreed to meet with the media at 6:15 p.m. this afternoon at his hotel. Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier asked journalists who were interested in attending the afternoon meeting to provide her with their names.
In conclusion, Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development would be holding a briefing at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, 7 September on the impact of non-tariff barriers on trade in developing countries.
Hurricane Katrina
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that following the destruction left by Hurricane Katrina, a UN coordination team was in Washington consulting with Government officials on how best the United Nations could complement the United States' own emergency efforts. Two UN inter-agency teams of seven persons each would also be sent to Texas and Georgia. The Government of the United States had accepted the United Nations offer of help.
Florian Westphal of the International Committee of the Red Cross said that as of 7:30 a.m. this morning, the Red Cross Family Links website, which was designed to enable people in the disaster area affected by Katrina to resume contacts with their families and friends, had received 94,000 entries, compared to 65,000 entries yesterday morning, which indicated that there was still a lot of demand for this service. A considerable number of Red Crosses from around the world had offered support, including financial support, to the American Red Cross which was trying to deal with this disaster.
Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children's Fund, responding to a question, said UNICEF would be represented in the two UN inter-agency teams. UNICEF would specifically look at the children's psycho-trauma effect, and it would also look at the situation of schools. The whole city of New Orleans would not be functioning for around six months so the whole school education system would have to be re-thought.
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said WHO was working with the UN inter-agency team. WHO had a regional office for the Americas based in Washington and it would be taking the lead to help the United States authorities.
Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said WFP would also be adding staff to the UN inter-agency teams. The type of support which WFP could provide would be on the logistical side.
Ron Redmond of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said UNHCR had offered the expertise of its emergency teams and two of its staff would be going to the United States to liase with the UN coordination teams. UNHCR obviously had experience in working with mass displacement on an emergency scale.
Floods in China
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said China was also suffering from flooding and landslides caused by typhoon Talim which had killed at least 82 people, left 28 missing and triggered the evacuation of 1.62 million people. More than 15 million Chinese had been affected by this natural disaster. Some 62,000 houses had collapsed, 171,000 houses had been damaged and hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops had been affected or lost. The direct economic loss was estimated at $ 1.33 billion. China had not requested international assistance to date.
Human Rights
José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said High Commissioner Louise Arbour would be in Argentina today to take part in a regional conference on women in the area. One meeting in particular would assess progress in Argentina since the World Conference on Women in Beijing 10 years ago.
In relation to Beijing and China, from where the High Commissioner had just returned, Mr. Díaz said he wanted to give correspondents a heads up: the Committee on the Rights of the Child would be taking up the situation in China at its forthcoming meeting. China would come before the Committee on 19 and 20 September. This would be the first time that Hong Kong and Macao would be included in the review of the situation in China concerning children's rights.
Mr. Díaz said the High Commissioner would be going from Argentina to New York in time for the World Summit taking place from 14 to 16 September.
Asked to explain why the High Commissioner had said she was optimistic about the situation in China after her visit, Mr. Díaz said the High Commissioner had made extensive comments at the end of her trip about her assessment of the situation and they were available in the press room. Her guarded optimism could be attributed to the fact that China was in the process of establishing the legal infrastructure to allow it to create conditions so that it would be in a position to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Everyone knew that the situation of human rights in China was delicate. She had also discussed issues like the application of the death penalty and the administrative detention system known as "re-education through labour", which were of concern to her and the Office.
Other
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization reminded journalists that at 11:30 a.m. this morning in press room 1, Dr. Pascal Ringwald, Medical Officer, Roll Back Malaria, WHO, would brief journalists about the latest news on anti-malarial medicines and the risk that they could lose their potency. A press release on this issue would also be available. Ms. Chaib said she had also placed at the back of the room copies of the programme of a meeting on the late health effects from radiation based on knowledge gained from the 60 years of experience in Japan. The meeting would be held at WHO on Friday, 9 September from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The meeting was being sponsored by WHO and Nagasaki University.
Cathy Jewel of the World Intellectual Property Organization said there would be two press briefings on Wednesday, 7 September. The first would start at 9:30 a.m. with Francis Gurry who would be talking about the international patent systems and the second would start at 10:30 a.m. and would discuss the international trademark system.
Ron Redmond of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that according to the second quarter asylum statistics for industrialized countries, the number of asylum applications in industrialized countries had continued to fall during the first half of 2005, maintaining the sharp downward trend that began in 2002. Overall, the number of asylum seekers arriving in all 36 industralized countries fell by 18 per cent, compared to the same period last year. France was the top receiving country. The United States was so far the next largest receiving country in 2005. The statistics at the back of the room were very detailed.
Mr. Redmond said UNHCR was appalled that yet another group of at least 45 Somalis and Ethiopians had died at sea last week while crossing the Gulf of Aden in an attempt to reach Yemen aboard smuggler boats from Somalia. The dead persons were reportedly aboard four boats carrying up to 400 Africans that had sailed from north-eastern Somalia. Some 50 people made it to shore and were being taken to an UNHCR reception centre. The remaining persons on board had not been found but it was possible that they had managed to make it abroad but had decided not to seek the help of UNHCR. This was the latest of many such tragic incidents off the coast of Yemen.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that the IOM Quick Impact Projections Programme in Afghanistan had received an additional $ 32 million in funding from the United States Agency for International Development, raising the funding ceiling for the programme to $ 64.5 million. The programme, which was funded entirely by USAID, carried out infrastructure, education, media, health and environmental projects throughout Afghanistan. In Iraq, as part of a UN and civil society response to help survivors of the disaster at the al-Aemma Bridge in Baghdad last week, IOM had contributed $ 50,000 to help fund relief work.
James Gillies of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) said there would be a media briefing on Monday, 12 September at 10:15 a.m. at CERN in the Globe of Science and Innovation. This was the 28-metre high wooden building being constructed across the road from CERN which would become a visitors centre for the laboratory. There was a media note with more details at the back of the room.
PB050906E