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 also heard from the Spokespersons for the International Organization for Migration, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Secretary-General in Davos and Zurich
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General yesterday addressed the plenary discussion at the World Economic Forum on the subject “A New Mindset for the United Nations”. The Secretary-General had stated that during his years in office, he had tried to change the mindset that saw international relations as nothing more than relations between States, and the United Nations as little more than a trade union for Governments. He said his objective had been to persuade both the Member States and his colleagues in the Secretariat that the United Nations needed to engage not only with Governments, but with people. He took part in a workshop on “Taking Action to End Hunger” and held a number of bilateral meetings, among them with Nigerian President Obasanjo and President Musharraf of Pakistan. The remarks of the Secretary-General to the plenary were available.
Today, the Secretary-General was in Zurich where he would be meeting with survivors from Auschwitz and with young people to mark the first International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
International Day of Commemoration
Geneva would also commemorate the International Day of Commemoration, Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said. Today, 27 January, was the date of the liberation of the death camps of Auschwitz, and that was why it was chosen as the International Day of Commemoration. A ceremony would be held at the Palais des Nations at 3:45 p.m. today in Room XIX in the presence of Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the Office; Itzhak Levanon, the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Office at Geneva; and Tom Luke, a former UN staff member and a survivor of the Holocaust.
At 4:30 p.m., the commemoration ceremony being held at Headquarters in New York would be transmitted live in Room XIX.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization of Migration said available was a press release issued today in Geneva and New York which noted that more than 125,000 Holocaust survivors and other victims of National Socialism had been given compensation payments through two IOM programmes.
Geneva Activities
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Rights of the Child was concluding its winter session today and its final observations and conclusions on the reports of Switzerland, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Peru, Ghana, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Trinidad and Tobago, Hungary, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia and Thailand would be released later this afternoon.
The Conference on Disarmament had held a public plenary yesterday, and a press release on the proceedings was available. The next plenary would be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 31 January.
The Working Group on the draft declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples would meet from 30 January to 3 February at the Palais des Nations. The meetings of the Working Group were public and documentation on its work was available at the back of the room.
In conclusion, Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier reminded journalists that the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction press conference in which the official figures of the 2005 disasters would be released would be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, 30 January in press room 1.
Question
A journalist asked why the World Health Organization had not sent representatives to the briefing today and last Tuesday, even though the avian flu was still a major issue and although they had promised an update on the situation in Turkey last week. In response, Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that Christine McNab had informed the briefing through the Information Service on Tuesday that because of WHO’s Executive Board and the absence of Fadela Chaib in Turkey, they could not spare anyone to come to the briefing but that she and Iain Simpson would be happy to respond to queries on the phone. The journalist said that last week, Christine had promised a briefing by a WHO expert depending on the results on the tests from Turkey, but although she had checked, she had not been able to find out the results on Turkey and there had been now word on the promised briefing. She wished to put her comments on the record.
Human Rights
José Luis Díaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said OHCHR was today issuing a report on the human rights situation in Sudan in the latter half of 2005. The report noted that efforts to improve the human rights situation in Sudan had fallen short of commitments made following the signing of a peace accord a year ago. For example, in the wake of the accord the Government laid the foundation for a strong institutional human rights framework, adopting an Interim National Constitution that made international human rights treaties an integral part of its Bill of Rights, and ending emergency law in most states, among other measures. In Darfur, the Government established commissions of inquiry and special courts that had the potential to deal with officials responsible for war-related crimes. But efforts to improve the situation on the ground had fallen short of aspirations, according to the report. This was particularly true in Darfur where the CPA, the interim constitution, and other positive political measures were overshadowed by an ineffective judiciary, an ongoing conflict, and widespread human rights abuses. The report went on to say that, for example in Khartoum, allegations of torture at the hands of the National Security, Military Intelligence and police officials had been reported. The absence of fair trial guarantees as well as inhuman detention conditions were of serious concern. The report was available on the website and a press release had also been issued.
Asked if the report noted how the lack of improvement in the human rights situation could be affecting the repatriation of refugees and displaced persons to Southern Sudan, Mr. Díaz said the report did not deal with that directly. However, as the report concluded that the human rights situation was definitely not improving, obviously this did not bode well for repatriation and would not encourage people to return, especially to places like Darfur where conflict continued.
In response to a question on reported CIA questioning of terrorism suspects in Europe and whether the OHCHR or the Commission on Human Rights' thematic mechanisms were concerned or had taken any action, Mr. Díaz said that concerning thematic rapporteurs, the Special Rapporteur on how measures taken to combat terrorism affected human rights was looking into related issues. The Special Rapporteur on torture had also carried out inquiries on this issue. Both would be issuing reports. A number of special mechanisms were already preparing a report on the detention centre in Guantánamo Bay, even though they had been denied access to those premises. Journalists would also have seen the statement on the general issue of counterterrorism and human rights by the High Commissioner.
Asked how this issue would be dealt with by the Commission Mr. Díaz said that how the Commission would hold its, possibly last, session this year was still uncertain, so he would not hazard to guess how the panel would deal with the reports of the mechanisms.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said OCHA and the European Union would be convening a ministerial conference on the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Brussels on 13 February on the occasion of the launch of that country’s Humanitarian Action Plan. She recalled in the 2006 consolidated humanitarian appeals, the appeal for the Democratic Republic of the Congo was the second largest after that for Sudan, standing at $ 1.1 billion. The meeting would be chaired by Jan Egeland, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid. The conference was being hosted by Karel de Gucht, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belgium. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1,200 people died in silence every day and violence and conflict continued to shatter the lives of millions of Congolese. More than 3.8 million persons had died in the country over the last six years.
Pakistan
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the situation in Pakistan after the October earthquake remained difficult but not critical. The rain and snow made the life of the victims of the earthquake difficult but not unmanageable. There had been fears that there would be large population movements or that there would be problems with epidemics, but neither had materialized so far. Health-wise, coughing and respiratory infections were widespread, and there were also many cases of diarrhoea and scabies. But health workers were able to address the needs of the patients. Female doctors and female health workers were in short supply. The main challenge was to keep the people warm and dry. On the money side, OCHA had received $ 343 million so far, covering 62 per cent of the appeal of $ 550 million.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said the last few weeks of intermittent rain and snow had not resulted in a large-scale movement of survivors in Pakistan's quake zone and many had decided to stay at their high-elevation homes by setting up temporary shelters with corrugated galvanized iron sheets. Despite harsh weather conditions with temperatures falling to subzero levels below 5000 feet during the nights and snow blanketing the land above 7,000 feet, shelters provided by IOM were giving hope to people refusing to leave their lands. IOM continued to advance its shelter winterization programme to the areas below 5,000 feet around Balakot.
Other
Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said a successor agreement to the 1994 International Tropical Timber Agreement was almost ready. This afternoon, approval would probably be given to the agreement. There were discussions ongoing now on some points which remained. There would be a plenary meeting at 3 p.m. in Room XX and journalists were invited to attend. A press release would be put out once the agreement was finalized.
Aurelia Blin of the World Trade Organization said there were a number of meetings being held at WTO next week, including the rules negotiations concerning regional trade agreements which would be held on 30 January and 3 February. Israel’s trade policy review would be held on 1 and 3 February and the dispute settlement body would meeting on 2 February. Concerning Director-General Pascal Lamy, he would be in Chile on 30 January to participate in the international seminar “Humanizing Globalization”. He would be in Peru on 31 January and 1 February; and in Argentina on 2 February.
Marie-Helene Verney of the UN Refugee Agency said some 1,000 refugees from the Central African Republic, mainly women and children, had arrived in southern Chad since late December, fleeing what they called rebel attacks on the northern part of the country. Joint UNHCR and Chadian border monitoring missions had verified the presence of the refugees and the new arrivals were registered last week. Refugees were still crossing from the Central African Republic to Chad in small groups. There were now more than 43,000 refugees from the Central African Republic in Chad, most of whom came in 2003. UNHCR was also taking care of 200,000 refugees from Darfur in eastern Chad. In Egypt, UNHCR had completed interviews with 183 Sudanese detainees and had advised the Egyptian Government that 14 were persons of concern who should be released immediately. In Uganda, UNHCR had moved more than 1,100 Congolese refugees who had arrived in Uganda last week after fleeing fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to two refugee settlements at a safe distance from the border.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM was organizing a two-day conference in Rwanda to discuss the role IT can play in facilitating the transfer of skills and expertise from qualified expatriates from the Great Lakes region. The meeting, which began on 31 January in Butare, was part of IOM's MIDA Great Lakes programme, which sought to encourage expatriates from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda living in Belgium with a legal status to take a more active role in the development of their home country.
Mr. Chauzy said in Ecuador, the IOM office in Quito was providing advice and financial support to the recently created Inter-institutional Commission tasked with the drafting of a National Plan to "Combat Human Trafficking and Other Forms of Sexual and Labour Exploitation" in Ecuador.
Annick Bouvier of the International Committee of the Red Cross said a press conference would be held at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 1 February, by Pierre Krahenbuhl, ICRC’s Director of Operations, on his recent visit to Colombia and ICRC’s action for conflict victims in the country. The press conference would be held at the auditorium of ICRC Headquarters.