REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by Spokespersons for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Economic Commission for Europe, the UN Refugee Agency, and the International Organization for Migration.

Human Rights Council – Special Session

Ms. Heuzé announced that the special session of the Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in Palestine and the other occupied Arab territories would be held on Wednesday, 5 July, from 3 to 6 p.m., in the Assembly Hall. Responding to a request from a journalist for further clarification as to the expectations for the special session, Ms. Heuzé said that the Bureau would meet tomorrow morning and no further details would be available before then. She could not prejudge what sort of outcome was expected. She could say that it would be held largely on the same basis as the regular session, except that the speeches will be largely extemporaneous. A note verbale that had been sent to Missions on the special session was available at the back of the room.

Activities of the Secretary-General

Ms. Heuzé said that the Secretary-General was continuing his visit in Africa. After visiting Gambia, he had gone to Sierra Leone. Today he was in Liberia and after that he would head on to Cote d’Ivoire. He would also make an official visit to Italy and would participate at the G-8 meeting in Saint Petersburg.

Geneva activities

Ms. Heuzé recalled that the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) opened its 2006 substantive session yesterday. In that connection, Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown had held a press conference yesterday and copies of the principal addresses made to the Council had also been made available.

Ms. Heuzé drew attention to the General Assembly round table on international migration and development, chaired by Ali Hachani, the Vice-President of the 61st session of the General Assembly and ECOSOC President, that would be held this afternoon in Conference Room XX. Ministers and other high-level participants would be present, including the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Migration Peter Sutherland, the Director-General of the ILO, Juan Somavia, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Supachai Panitchpakdi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres. For those journalists wishing to arrange meetings with ministers, they could contact Olav Huslid at 022 917 1328.

Ms. Heuzé also called journalists’ attention to the Annual Expert-Level Meeting between the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the United Nations and Partner Organizations in the “Tripartite-Plus” format to discuss “Intercommunity Relations in Post-Conflict Environments: Learning to live together”. The session would be held at the Palais des Nations on 4 and 5 July. On 4 July, experts would meet in the Council Chamber, and on 5 July a high-level directors meeting would be held under the chairmanship of the UNOG Director-General. The Meeting would likely issue a final outcome document, which would be made available tomorrow afternoon.

Ms. Heuzé said another important consultation was taking place today – the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel on System-wide Coherence – in which Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown would be participating, as he had yesterday, and which was being held at the Hotel Intercontinental.

Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Matthias Burchard of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), responding to a journalist, said that he did not have precise information on the situation on health, the supply of medicines and so on. There were no reports at present that crucial medicines were out of stock. Where they had problems were the power failures, and the lack of diesel fuel to run generators, and all the consequences that had for operating hospitals and clinics throughout the Gaza Strip.

UNWRA welcomed the recent easing of the total blockage of the Gaza Strip by the Israel Defense Forces. That had averted, for now, a possible humanitarian catastrophe. However, there were absolutely no stored quantities anymore in the Gaza Strip and there was still a huge backlog of supplies to be delivered. UNWRA alone had 8,000 tons of food, or some 410 containers, waiting in the Israeli port of Ashdod because since 4 June Israel was not allowing containers to enter Gaza. UNRWA was at present providing food aid in Gaza to nearly 900,000 persons out of a population of about 1.4 million. UNRWA, in its emergency employment creation programme, had established 56,000 three-month jobs in Gaza and 24,000 one-month jobs in the West bank. Despite military operations the 13,600 UNRWA staff in the West Bank and Gaza were working tirelessly to provide relief and assistance. All their operations in education, health, social and emergency services were continuing. However, UNRWA remained particularly concerned about the water situation, as access remained sporadic throughout the Strip, and chlorine supplies for purifying water would run out in 15 days. Electricity supply also remained erratic and sewage was becoming widespread in the streets, with children playing in it, and presented a looming health crisis. UNRWA urged the international community to be forthcoming in funding the Emergency Appeal for the occupied Palestinian territories. At present their appeal of $170 million was only covered with pledges of 51 per cent.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that, according to information from their office in the field, the Ministry of Health of Palestine had stores of essential drugs for public health clinics for two months, and for hospitals for one month. WHO was monitoring the situation with other United Nations partners, and they were offering their support to the health authorities in order to maintain public health. WHO was also facilitating the search for solutions to the lack of fuel, as urgently requested by the Ministry of Health. Fuel was important for generators, but also to store vaccines. The Ministry of Health provided health services for 60 per cent of the population.

Mr. Burchard of UNRWA said that, to complement that information, the European Union had tasked the European Commission with setting up a temporary international mechanism that would focus essentially on the health sector. At least supplies to health centres, as he understood it, had been secured. The problem was with salaries in the health sector.

Ms. Chaib said that WHO was also helping the Ministry of Health to establish a list of drugs for quick procurement inside or outside of the region. More medicines would be urgently needed if the crisis continued. WHO would, with other partners, purchase those drugs locally or in other countries.

Responding to a question, Ms. Chaib stressed that the crisis was not new. For many, many weeks they had been talking about the fact that some drugs were missing in the occupied Palestinian territories. But the essential ones were there. They had drugs to run their clinics and hospitals for a few weeks. The problem was not only how to get the drugs in, but to be able to have people – doctors and nurses – able to get to their work. WHO was also working with the European Commission to find an intermediate solution so as to pay the salaries of health workers. There had been a financial crisis ever since Hamas had come to power. For months now the salaries of thousands of health workers had not been paid and that created additional problems, like absenteeism.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that a month ago UNICEF had issued a public warning about the deteriorating situation, in particular, of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip. That situation had not improved. With regard to the new blockage, apart from essential medicines, vaccines had to be kept refrigerated and thus had to have 24 hour-a-day electricity. That was a very big problem in Gaza, which was very hot and which only had electricity for 3 to 8 hours a day. For the time being, the vaccines were safe. The problem was that there was only fuel available for one week, so that the situation remained extremely precarious. The other new thing was that at the UNICEF summer camps 50 per cent of the children had not shown up, especially in the south, in Haifa, and around Gaza City itself. That showed the level of concern on the part of the parents. UNICEF had a lot of prepositioned supplies within the Gaza Strip.

Responding to a question, Mr. Personnaz confirmed that they were not yet witnessing increases in malnutrition and diseases among the children. It was too early to say that. It was also too early to do a survey, given the present circumstances. But psychological staff noted that the rate of bedwetting had increased by 15 to 20 per cent among children under six. That showed the fear and lack of sleep, and that the sonic booms were having a direct impact on the children. There was a high level of fear among children and parents. UNICEF did have new counselling centres: they had 15 centres in Gaza Strip where they provided counselling to children and their parents. Most people, however, were afraid to leave their homes. UNICEF also had toll free hotlines for people to ask for support.

José-Luis Diaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that OHCHR, as everyone knew, was not a humanitarian aid organization, so they were not providing any humanitarian assistance. However, he could recall how the United Nations human rights system had responded. The response of the Human Rights Council had called a special session on the question. OHCHR itself would just recall what they had said all along, and what they had always said, which was to call on Israel to abide by its international obligations – its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law – to protect civilians and not to engage in disproportionate use of force, to refrain from targeting civilian infrastructure, in particular those that are essential for health and sanitation. That had been OHCHR’s consistent position and they underlined it and recalled it now.

Mr. Personnaz, responding to a question on what United Nations agencies could do, faced with the Israeli authorities, the answer was, that they could not stop negotiating. And the main subject of those discussions was access – access to humanitiarian aid, to staff, and to supplies. That was the primary discussion that went on from 1 January to 31 December. That was something that all United Nations agencies did, and principally the United Nations coordinators present on the ground.

Mr. Diaz, responding to a query on what the High Commissioner could do in the face of such a deteriorating human rights situation, said that the High Commissioner had specifically mentioned the situation in her address the Human Rights Council and the Council was holding a special session on the issue at which the High Commissioner would also take part.

Infectious Disease Focus at G-8 Summit

Ms. Chaib of the World Health Organization said that copies of a joint statement by the four key health policy and financing organizations – the World Health Organization, the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization – outlining their expectations for the upcoming G-8 meeting in St. Petersburg were available at the back of the room. The meeting, to be held from 15 to 17 July, would consider fighting infectious diseases as one of three issues on its agenda. The G-8 leaders commitment to public health was very important. Just to give one concrete illustration of that was the fact that more than half of the $4 billion of polio funding from the international community since 1985 had been given by the G-8 countries. The commitment of the G-8 leaders to reaching as close as possible to universal access to AIDS treatment by 2010 was also of great interest to the four organizations. Another important consideration was the development by the G-8 countries of national plans to tackle pandemic influenza, as well as to support global preparations to do so. Anders Nordström, acting Director-General of WHO, would be attending the G-8 Summit to talk about the engagement of the developed countries to combat infectious diseases including tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS, vaccine-preventable disease, avian flu preparedness and polio.

Finally, Ms. Chaib confirmed for the record that WHO would announce today the fortieth death owing to the avian flu, H5N1, in Indonesia. A five-year-old child had died of the virus. More details would be available later today.

Other

Mr. Personnaz of UNICEF said that he had distributed an update on the humanitarian situation in the Horn of Africa, where a severe drought for over two years now had had a disastrous effect, in particular, on children. The document examined the situation in the five countries affected. At present there was rain, and that presented the eternal public relations conundrum: how to put across the problem of drought when everything was now green. But the fact that the region was now green did not mean that the humanitarian needs had disappeared. The situation was still quite alarming in three of the countries of the region – in the north of Kenya, the south of Somalia and in the south-west of Ethiopia. Indeed, it had rained so much that now there were also health problems linked to non-potable water – diarrhoea and dysentery. UNICEF had received 53 per cent of the funds to cover their three appeals for the needs of the region, or $58 million. UNICEF still urgently required $43 million, in particular for Ethiopia and Somalia. Just to give a statistic: an estimated 200,000 children under the age of five, out of a total population 1 million children, suffered from acute malnutrition. And the rains that had just fallen were not going to be able to turn that situation around quickly.

Jean-Michel Jakobowicz of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) said that there would be a press conference on Monday, 10 July, at the Palais des Nations, in Room III, at 11.30 a.m., on the results of the United Nations Inquiry Commission into the Bystroe Canal project. The Bystroe Canal, constructed by the Ukraine on the Danube Delta, threatened to have grave negative environmental consequences for Romania. The two countries concerned were both signatories of the UNECE Convention on the Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context. The decision of the Commission would be rendered at the conference on Monday at 11.30, but that information was embargoed until 2 p.m., when the President of the Inquiry Commission would formally transmit the decision to the Ukraine and Romania. A press release was available at the back of the room.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) announced that the 2006 Nansen Refugee Award would go to Dr. Akio Kanai, a Japanese optometrist who for over more than two decades had improved the quality of life of over 100,000 uprooted people around the world by testing their eyes and providing them with spectacles. The Nansen Refugee Award was given annually to individuals or organizations that have distinguished themselves in work on behalf of refugees. As the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, had remarked, the gift of sight was precious and restoring it made a huge difference in individual lives, making learning possible for children and adults and pulling them back from the fringes of marginalization. A press release was available at the back of the room.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that a study carried out by IOM in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad had discovered disturbing evidence of human trafficking and concluded that the region was at risk of greater numbers of human trafficking unless efforts were made to raise awareness of the problem among the public and authorities. The research found that Kaliningrad, separated from Russia by Lithuania and Latvia, was a source, transit and destination point for human trafficking. The most common forms were of women, especially minors, trafficked for sexual exploitation and trafficking for forced labour. The trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation to countries abroad was largely to European Union countries, particularly to Poland, Germany, Turkey and Greece. Women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation in Kaliningrad itself came from the enclave as well as from other regions of Russia and abroad, including CIS countries such as Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Moldova. The reports recommendations included carrying out information campaigns targeting the public, at-risk groups and authorities as well as providing training for law enforcement agencies, government officials and trades unions and conducting further research to determine the scale of the problem. Interaction with destination countries, the developing of a plan of action and the introduction of regulations to counter human trafficking were also seen as key to handling the issue.

In Timor-Leste, Mr. Chauzy said, despite an easing of the political situation there, the humanitarian needs remained considerable, especially among the most vulnerable populations. A press release was available at the back of the room.