REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the International Labour Office, the United Nations Environmental Programme, the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Meteorological Organization, the World Food Programme and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Heuzé said the Conference on Disarmament yesterday opened its 2007 session under the Presidency of Ambassador Glaudine Mtshali of South Africa. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his message to the Conference which was read out by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, expressed his sincere hope that this year’s meeting of the Conference will make significant progress on the disarmament agenda.

The first part of the 2007 will conclude on 30 March. The second part of the session will take place from 14 May to 29 June, and the third part from 30 July to 14 September. After South Africa, the Presidency of the Conference will also be held in 2007 by Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland and Syria. The next plenary of the Conference will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 24 January instead of Thursday as usual.

Ms. Heuzé said the Committee on the Rights of the Child had yesterday been scheduled to consider in public the second periodic report of the Marshal Islands, but in the absence of a delegation, it decided to hold a technical review of the report in private instead. Today, the Committee is also meeting behind closed doors and tomorrow, it will take up the second periodic report of Suriname.

Ms. Heuzé said in accordance with General Assembly resolution 60/7 of 1 November 2005, the United Nations Office at Geneva will mark the annual observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, in a ceremony to be held in the Salle des Assemblées at the Palais des Nations from 4:30 p.m. to 6:10 p.m. on Monday, 29 January 2007. In keeping with the theme of “Remembrance and Beyond”, the observance will aim to raise awareness among today’s youth about the Holocaust in order to help prevent future acts of genocide. The annual observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust is an opportunity to reaffirm our collective commitment to ending all forms of discrimination.

The programme for the observance will include a video message from the Secretary-General, followed by remarks of Mr. Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Ambassador Itzhak Levanon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Office at Geneva, and Mrs. Ruth Fayon, a Holocaust survivor, as well as a keynote speech by Professor Irwin Cotler, Holocaust scholar. Youngsters from the International Auschwitz Committee will also speak of their experiences as guides at the Auschwitz Museum. A live video link with United Nations Headquarters will be established to allow participants in Geneva to hear the lecture to be delivered in New York by Ms. Simone Veil, President of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah. A note to correspondents is available.

Statement by Secretary-General

Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General has expressed his grave concern at the excessive use of force resulting in the loss of life in clashes in Guinea. He expressed his condolences to the aggrieved families and to the people of Guinea as a whole. He strongly urged the Government to carry out investigations into the killings with a view to bringing those responsible to justice, including members of the security forces, and to take the necessary measures to ensure the safety of all citizens throughout the country. The Secretary-General also called on the Government of Guinea to exercise maximum restraint on its security forces, and urged the parties to engage in dialogue in order to find a peaceful resolution to the dispute.

The Secretary-General met yesterday with the representatives of UN funds and programmes to follow up on his announcement last Friday to call for an extensive review of their operations. As Chairman of the Chief Executives Board for Coordination, he has decided to propose that the first review should focus on operations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The Board of Auditors will be requested, through the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, to undertake an overall risk assessment and audit of operations of the United Nations and its Funds and Programmes in countries where issues of hard currency transactions, independence of staff hiring and access to reviewing local projects, are pertinent. As the issues concern not only the United Nations, its Funds and Programmes, but also the specialized agencies, the Secretary-General intends to also seek the cooperation of the Panel of External Auditors, to provide their inputs on system-wide aspects of the same set of issues to be reviewed by the Board of Auditors. It is anticipated that the resulting report from the Panel of Auditors will be available to the General Assembly at its sixty-second session.

Other

Hans Von Rohland of the International Labour Office said ILO’s Global Employment Trends 2007 report is available at the back of the room, embargoed until 2300 GMT Wednesday, 24 January. The report notes that the number of people unemployed worldwide remains at an historic high in 2006 despite strong global economic growth. There will be a press conference at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, 24 January, also embargoed, in Room III.

Michael Williams of the United Nations Environment Programme said today at 1 p.m. in Berlin, UNEP is launching its report on the post-conflict assessment of the Lebanese environment following last summer’s conflict.

Mr. Williams said UNEP yesterday sent out a press advisory from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which will be adopting and launching the fourth assessment report in Paris on 2 February.

UNEP is working with the World Glacier Monitoring Service on a report on the world’s glaciers which will be launched on Monday, 29 January, Mr. Williams said.

Ian Simpson of the World Health Organization said the Executive Board of WHO is going on this week and the beginning of next week. A press release was sent out yesterday as well as the opening speech of the Director-General. Today, the Board will be discussing Polio, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Avian Flu.

Mr. Simpson said Director-General Margaret Chan will be going to Thailand from 31 January to 2 February to take part in a conference. This will also be an official visit by Dr. Chan to Thailand.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, OCHA’s independent humanitarian news service, has released a new documentary about the suffering of the Somali population resulting of a year marked by severe droughts and floods, and recently, the emergence of a new conflict. Copies of the documentary, “Somalia: A State of need” are available at the back of the room as well as a press release.

Ms. Byrs said concerning the floods in Bolivia, major rivers such as Rio Grande and Pilcomayo have overflowed and as a result, seven of the nine departments comprising Bolivia have been affected. In the remaining two departments, preventive evacuation has already begun. The Bolivian Government has declared a state of emergency, as flooding has caused landslides and road obstructions, cutting off some rural communities. The United Nations is sending in food and providing logistical support to approximately 8,000 Bolivian families – or 40,000 people – affected by severe floods and landslides, although the Bolivian Government has not requested international aid. Bolivia’s rainy season extends from November to March, and the El Niño phenomenon is at the root of the especially harsh rain and resulting floods. The Bolivian National Meteorological Service forecasts continued heavy rains until the end of February.

Brigitte Leoni of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said on Monday, 29 January, at 11 a.m., Prof. Debarati Guha-Sapir, Director of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters in Belgium, will speak to journalists about 2006 disaster statistics.

Jean Fabre of the United Nations Development Programme said on Wednesday, 24 January, UNDP will hold a ceremony to appoint a new goodwill ambassador for the fight against poverty, Didier Drogba, a football player from Côte d’Ivoire who plays for Chelsea Club. Journalists are welcome to attend.

Catherine Sibut-Pinot of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said a training session for African Francophone countries on negotiating international investment agreements will be held from 24 January to 3 February. Available at the back of the room are a number of documents with further details. There will be 29 participants from 21 African Francophone countries.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Programme said UNICEF and the Council of Europe are today signing a Joint Declaration to strengthen their partnership to maximize results for children. They will agree to cooperate to improve the lives of children. A press release with details is available.

Mr. Personnaz reminded journalists that Pierrette Vu Thi, UNICEF’s Deputy Director Office of Emergency Programmes in Geneva, will speak to journalists on Monday, 29 January 2007 at 11:45 a.m. in press room 1 on the launch of UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action Report 2007. It will mostly be launching appeals for “forgotten” humanitarian crises involving children. The embargoed copies of the report will be available on Friday, 26 January.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said that early this morning in Baghdad, 17 male Palestinians accommodated in a building rented by UNHCR through the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration were taken away by men in Iraqi police uniforms and in police vehicles. Witnesses said that the policemen entered the apartments of the Palestinians by force at 5 a.m. local Baghdad time, breaking doors and windows and leaving the place a mess. UNHCR is very concerned and is seeking information on the whereabouts of the Palestinians. There are an estimated 15,000 Palestinians remaining in Baghdad, about half of the estimated 30,000 Palestinians living there in 2003. The remaining Palestinians have been increasingly targeted.

Mr. Redmond said in Colombia, a fire on Saturday night destroyed the premises of one of UNHCR’s key partners in Colombia, the Cartagena-based and internationally recognised League of Displaced Women. The organization, which has received frequent threats for its work on behalf of thousands of women and children displaced by violence in Colombia’s Atlantic Coast region, said the fire was a result of an arson attack. UNHCR will do everything it can to help the organization overcome this crisis. It will offer more funds for the rebuilding of the centre whose construction UNHCR had helped finance in 2004.

Mr. Redmond said in Algeria today, nutrition and food management specialists from UNHCR and the World Food Programme will start a 12-day mission to the Sahrawi refugee camps in western Algeria to assess the dire food situation and the nutritional status of the refugee camps in view of a recent disruption in the food pipeline.