REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration. Christine Chanet, the Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee, and the Committee’s Rapporteur, Ivan Shearer, also attended the briefing to speak about the Committee’s session which concluded today.
Geneva Activities
Ms. Heuzé noted that today the Economic and Social Council would suspend its 2006 substantive session. ECOSOC had held a number of special segments during the course of its session, including a high-level segment on employment, a humanitarian affairs segment, and a segment on coordination of United Nations agencies, which this year focused on the reforms undertaken by the Secretary-General. A press release on the session would be available later today.
The Human Rights Committee today also concluded the work of its eighty-seventh session, Ms. Heuzé said, during which it considered the reports of the Central African Republic, the United States and the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. The Chairperson of the Committee, Christine Chanet, would hold a press conference on the session at 11 a.m. in the same room.
The Working Group on Indigenous Populations would hold its twenty-fourth session in Geneva from 31 July to 4 August, on the theme of the use of indigenous lands by non-indigenous authorities, persons or groups for military purposes. In that connection, Ms. Heuzé drew attention to the cultural festivities and other events arranged to mark the annual observance of the International Day of the World's Indigenous People, on Thursday, 3 August. Welcoming remarks would be offered by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, to be followed by a message delivered on behalf of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, and a statement by the Chairperson of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, Miguel Alfonso Martínez. The commemoration would be held in the Park Ariana from 9.15 a.m. to 11 a.m. in front of the Armillary Sphere. An information note with further details was available.
Ms. Heuzé said the Conference on Disarmament would begin the third and last part of its 2006 session, from 31 July to 15 September, next week, under the Presidency of Senegal. The next plenary of the Conference would meet on Thursday, 3 August, at 10 a.m. Also next week the Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination will meet in Geneva from 31 July to 18 August. It will consider reports of Estonia, Yemen, South Africa, Oman, Mongolia, Denmark, Norway and Ukraine. A background release was distributed yesterday and was available in the press room.
Ms. Heuzé observed that 1 August was a national holiday in Switzerland and was also an official holiday at the United Nations Office at Geneva. There would therefore be no briefing next Tuesday, and the next regular briefing would be held on Friday, 4 August.
The Situation in the Middle East
Ms. Heuzé stressed that the United Nations remained committed to certain fundamental principles that it considered essential and therefore called for both the immediate cessation of hostilities and safe access to those persons gravely affected by the crisis. The United Nations has forwarded appeals to the parties to grant safe passage -- so called humanitarian corridors --. As everyone was probably aware from media reports, on Wednesday the first United Nations relief convoy left Beyrouth and had arrived in the southern port city of Tyre. It was a start and it was hoped by the whole international humanitarian community that access would finally be opened up throughout the areas affected inside Lebanon to the people most affected by the ongoing conflict.
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the first relief convoy that had made it through to the affected populations had contained emergency health kits that were sufficient for the sanitary and health concerns of approximately 50,000 persons for 3 months. She had no official confirmation, but it was hoped that another convoy would leave today for southern Lebanon, and one on Sunday. While WHO was concerned about the humanitarian situation in the south of the country, it was also concerned about the situation of some 125,000 displaced persons that had sought refuge in public buildings, such as schools, notably in Beirut, but also around the country. WHO was strengthening its presence in the country by sending three experts starting today: a nutritionist; a water and sanitation expert; and an expert charged with monitoring the situation of newborns, infants and mothers in the areas where large groups were taking refuge.
On funding, Ms. Chaib said WHO’s part of the appeal had been $ 32.4 million for the next three months, and it had received promises of 300,000 euro from Italy and Ireland; $ 600,000 from Sweden; 750,000 Canadian dollars from Canada; 500,000 euro from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO); and 1 million euro from the Central Emergency Revolving Fund (CERF).
Patrick McCormick of the United Nations Children’s Fund said concerning the first convoy, UNICEF hoped that this signalled the beginning of uninterrupted and widespread access for the distribution of supplies aimed at children in southern Lebanon, which was the hardest hit part of the country. At the moment, access was very limited compared to the size of the emergency. UNICEF was very worried about increasing numbers of displaced persons, 50 per cent of whom were children. They were increasing daily. The 800,000 figure now represented 20 per cent of the population. UNICEF was very concerned about their physical and mental health due to the rapidly deteriorating conditions in which they were living. UNICEF knew that nearly 600 schools in Lebanon, and there were probably many more, were currently being used as shelters for the displaced. The numbers of people in those schools ranged from 100 to 1,200. The chief worry was hygiene and sanitation, less so was water as it was being trucked daily to many schools. Increasing cases of diarrhoea, especially among children, were worrisome, as well as giving the close proximity of living conditions and the heat, the increasing likelihood of infectious diseases breaking out. One of UNICEF’s major problems apart from health was treating families, especially children, who had endured traumatic events. On funding so far, on the UNICEF appeal for $ 23.8 million, it had received $ 7.9 million, about 30 per cent.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said that two WFP convoys had departed this morning, one to Jezzine and the other to Sidon in south Lebanon. The 8-truck convoy for Jezzine was carrying 90 metric tons of WFP wheat flour, 15 tons of canned meat and critical supplies such blankets and shelter materials from Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF). The 10-truck convoy for Sidon was carrying 18 tons of food including six truckloads from UNRWA for Palestinian refugees in camps. The convoys also included critical medical and shelter materials being delivered on behalf of UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF and WHO. More convoys were planned for the following days and if all went well, WFP hoped to be able to send off two convoys daily starting next week. WFP was also starting a humanitarian cargo airlift. The first delivery from the UN humanitarian depot in Brindisi included 20 temporary warehouses and five generators for WFP. The aircraft would land in the Syrian town of Latakkia, from where supplies would be transported overland to Al-Arida, a Syrian border post that was WFP’s loading hub for all UN humanitarian supplies to be transported by road into Lebanon on UN-escorted convoys. Another flight is planned for tomorrow.
Against WFP’s appeal, the first contributions made to WFP were 90 metric tons of wheat flour from Lebanon. Many governments had given strong indications of commitments to WFP’s operation including Australia, Belgium, Denmark, the European Commission, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.
Ms. Heuzé noted that there was probably a large number of old persons, disabled and other persons who did not want to leave their homes in the southern part of Lebanon. The United Nations was urging an immediate cessation of hostilities to allow these people to choose either to leave their homes or to stay. Ms. Berthiaume added that many people did not have the money to get away from the villages that were being attacked, and many of the people who stayed did not have the capacity to leave. She said that UN agencies did not have access to these villages to be able to assess the situation and evaluate their needs.
Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR had been waiting in Syria for the green light to send its convoys into Lebanon with 500 tons of emergency relief supplies for 200,000 needy people. It now seemed that UNHCR humanitarian items would get access to the country through the UN coordination system early next week. UNHCR was exploring land, sea and air routes to get greater quantities of relief supplies into Lebanon, and it was setting up a supply base in Larnaca, Cyprus, and was examining using the port of Mersin in southern Turkey to ship supplies to Beirut. Meanwhile, UNHCR was buying and distributing relief items locally in Lebanon while waiting for the supplies from Syria to arrive. UNHCR was sending a shipment of clothing down to Siddon in the joint convoy with WFP and others. With regards to the displaced people, the pressure on facilities and the local populations was increasing daily and in the overcrowded shelters, sanitation was a real problem. UNHCR’s emergency team in Lebanon had been strengthened with the arrival in Beirut on Thursday of five further members coming by convoy from Syria. And more were expected. In Syria, there were more than 100,000 displaced Lebanese.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said an IOM assessment team was expected to leave Beirut tomorrow for southern Lebanon both to evaluate the needs of internally displaced people and to collect as man stranded foreigners as it could for evacuation. The IOM team would leave by bus which would allow it to pick up the stranded migrants and take them back to Beirut. IOM had an excellent response for its appeal for the evacuation of the stranded migrants – the European Commission had give 11 million euro and the United States Government had given another $ 1 million. This had allowed IOM to rapidly scale up its operation. Yesterday, IOM had assisted 70 Ghanaians and 283 Bangladeshis by evacuating them from Lebanon to Syria. Today, IOM was moving another 300 Sri Lankans to Syria. They would be taken to a reception centre before being flown home. Another 250 Filipinos and 150 Ethiopians would also be evacuated from Lebanon tomorrow. Their movement would bring the number of stranded migrants that IOM had evacuated since the end of last week to more than 2,000. IOM expected to be able to evacuate a similar number next week.
Asked about the varying figures on the displaced persons, Ms. Heuzé said it was very difficult to calculate the exact number of displaced persons in Lebanon. From various sources, the estimate today was that there were between 700,000 and 800,000 displaced persons.
Human Rights Committee
Christine Chanet, Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee, said that the Committee last week had reviewed the reports of the United States and the Central African Republic on the implementation of their obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as, exceptionally, the report on the human rights situation in Kosovo by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. The Committee had issued its conclusions and observations on those reports yesterday, and they were available to the public today.
Responding to questions concerning the United States report, Ms. Chanet noted that the Covenant covered a wide range of issues, and they had tried to cover them all, but the Committee had concentrated in particular on the issue of human rights violations in the context of counter-terrorism measures. The Committee had welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which held that the Geneva Conventions were applicable to all enemy combatants, and that the ramifications of that decision were at the heart of the Committee's concerns with regard to that country.
Ivan Shearer, Committee Rapporteur, added that the an important difference of opinion between the United States and the Committee was that the United States took the view that the Covenant applied only to its territory, whereas the Committee held that Covenant obligations extended to any place where persons were under the physical control of a State party, including, in this case, Guantanamo Bay, Iraq or Afghanistan. Secondarily, the United States held that during times of armed conflict only the law of armed conflict applied, whereas for the Committee human rights law and international humanitarian law – sometimes called the law of armed conflict – applied together and that it was only in the rare case of conflict between those two systems that the international humanitarian law prevailed.
Ms. Chanet commented that it was important to note that the Committee, on the basis, among others, of International Court of Justice opinions, had made a strong case that its interpretation of the Covenant – in this case, that it covered all places where persons were under the State parties physical control – prevailed, and that the Committee alone had the right to interpret the terms of the Covenant.
Responding to a journalist who quoted the United States response to the Committee's concluding observations saying that the Committee was losing perspective and credibility when it spent more time criticizing the United States than countries with no civil and political rights, and that the Committee's recommendations were extremely disappointing, Ms. Chanet observed that the United States had received the same treatment as was accorded to other countries. They may have been expecting something else.