REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard statements from Spokespersons and representatives for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Trade Organization, and the International Organization for Migration.

Rome Summit on the World Food Crisis

Ms. Heuzé said that the Rome Summit had concluded yesterday with a final declaration. As they were still finalizing some of the details, the final text of the Rome Declaration was not available yet, but copies would be placed in the press room as soon as it was ready.

Following the Summit, the Secretary-General had expressed his satisfaction that the Rome Conference had been "the success that it needed to be", and that a number of important financial pledges had been announced – not just to come to the immediate aid of those populations who were in need of urgent food assistance, but also to contribute towards the medium- and long-term goals set out in the strategic framework which the Secretary-General had presented to the assembled delegates on Tuesday.

In this connection, Ms. Heuzé recalled that there would be a press conference at 2 p.m. today with the new Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier de Schutter, who would talk not only about how his vision for the mandate, but would comment on the Rome Summit, which he had participated in. That press conference would be held at 2 p.m. in press room 1.

Situation in Zimbabwe

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reiterated OCHA's concern in view of the decision by the Zimbabwean Authorities to restrict the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) – ordering NGOs in different parts of the country to suspend their operations, partially or totally. NGOs were key implementing partners of United Nations agencies, and curtailing their operations affected the implementation of United Nations programmes in Zimbabwe. Aid programmes affected included school feeding programmes and those for orphans and vulnerable children. OCHA said these restrictions went against fundamental humanitarian principles, recalling that humanitarian agencies were guided by principles of neutrality and impartiality, and their mandate was to alleviate the suffering of people in distress.

Ms. Byrs recalled that the humanitarian operations carried out by the United Nations and its NGO partners benefited 4 million Zimbabweans, or over one third of the population, and that over half the population in Zimbabwe (56.1 per cent) lived on less than $1 day. According to CARE, suspension of its operation alone would immediately affect 500,000 persons.

An added concern, Ms. Byrs underscored, was that, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) there had been poor rainfall and a lack of seeds so that this year's harvest would be worse than in 2007.

Rupert Colville, of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), noted that, in the margins of the Rome Summit, the High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour had expressed her deep concern about emerging news that the Zimbabwe Government might have ordered a halt to food distributions by some international aid agencies until after the presidential elections. "If true", Ms. Arbour had said "this would be an unconscionable act. To deprive people of food because of an election would be an extraordinary perversion of democracy, and a serious breach of international human rights law."

Today, the conditional tense for those statements by the High Commissioner could be removed, Mr. Colville commented. This was an unconscionable act, and to deprive people of food because of an election was an extraordinary perversion of democracy.

In response to a question about reported restrictions on human rights organizations and NGOs in the lead up to the elections, as well as on humanitarian ones, Mr. Colville said that he had no new information. However, in the past, OHCHR had drawn attention to threats, intimidation, abuse and violence against election monitors, as well as human rights defenders and other representatives of civil society in the country. So, clearly, there remained a concern.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said UNICEF was very concerned about the situation, by the decision by the Zimbabwean Authorities and by the impact it could have on children. Zimbabwe’s children were already suffering on multiple fronts. To see their situation further deteriorate through stopping aid workers from delivering relief to those in need was unacceptable. It meant that more than 185,000 children would not get the support they needed – in education, health care and nutrition. To see their suffering increase as a result of the current political tension, through violence or displacement or being unable to receive the aid that was planned and paid for, was a violation of child rights and contrary to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Zimbabwe’s children were currently already suffering an orphan emergency and economic crisis, Ms. Taveau recalled. One in four children was orphaned and their plight was worsened by an official inflation of 160,000 per cent. In response, in 2007 UNICEF had responded to the crisis by reaching more than 2.5million Zimbabwean children and women with programmes in HIV, health and nutrition, child protection, education, water and sanitation, and child rights.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) added that IOM's rather extensive programme to help internally displaced persons and mobile vulnerable populations in Zimbabwe was also being badly affected. IOM largely used NGO partners to implement their programmes. There was only one province in Zimbabwe where they directly implemented themselves.

Child Rights Committee Concludes Session

Mr. Colville noted that today the Committee on the Rights of the Child – which was running a bit late – was concluding its forty-eighth session, and would make public its concluding observations on the reports of Georgia, Bulgaria, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Serbia, Sierra Leone, the Philippines and Eritrea, later today. The concluding observations on the two reports by the United States under the Convention's two Optional Protocols (on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography) were already available, and copies had been placed at the back of the room. There was an embargo on those reports until 1 p.m.

97th International Labour Conference

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization (ILO) said that ILO was about to enter on the third week of its annual Conference. The work of the Commissions was now completed. On Monday, the Commissions would submit their reports, and the plenary of the ILO Conference would open. ILO Director-General Juan Somavia would address the plenary for the first time. On Tuesday, the President of Panama would address the plenary at 10 a.m. Wednesday, there would be a high-level discussion on the world food crisis, and its social and labour dimension. On Thursday, 12 June, they would observe the International Day against Child Labour, which this year was being organized under the theme "Education: the right response to child labour". Available at the back of the room were information materials on the International Day.

Ms. Perthuis invited journalists today to a lunchtime side event organized by the Danish Mission on the subject "flexicurity for decent work", which would be held in Room XXIV from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Flexicurity was a Danish work model, which the Danish Ambassador would be presenting with a number of experts, as a possible model for other countries.

Peter Auer of the International Labour Organization explained that flexicurity was simply an effective organization of the labour market. It provided for good labour statistics: low unemployment, high levels of employment of normally underemployed sectors – such as youth and older persons, low poverty, and greater equality of salaries. The system began with a rights-based approach to employment, which saw individuals as rights holders with a right to social and other benefits. It was not necessarily transferable to all other countries. The system carried a high cost in terms of social services. An information flyer with the programme for the discussion was available at the back of the room.

New Africa Environmental Atlas

Kristin Ebbesen of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said that on 10 June the UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner would launch a new atlas on the environment in Africa at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment being held in Johannesburg. The atlas spoke volumes about environmental changes that had taken place in Africa, comparing hundreds of images from 30 years ago with those of today. The photos clearly showed the impact of human activities on Africa in terms of deforestation and desertification. The French version of the Atlas would be launched on 10 June here at the Palais at 12 p.m. in Room III by Pascal Peduzzi, Head of Early Warning Unit at UNEP. Copies of the Atlas would be available.

Other

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR was recommending to States to end refugee status for Sierra Leoneans who had fled their country during the decade-long civil war that had started in 1991, since the root causes of the refugee problem had ceased to exist. There had been fundamental and durable changes since peace had been declared in January 2002. The cessation would take effect at the end of this year on 31 December 2008, following consultations with the Governments of the main countries of asylum and Sierra Leone. During the height of the conflict as many as 2 million of Sierra Leone's 6 million citizens had been displaced with nearly 500,000 fleeing to Liberia and Guinea. Today there were around 43,000 refugees from Sierra Leone who continued to live in exile, mainly in neighbouring countries.

In a statement on recent violence against children in Haiti, Ms. Taveau said UNICEF condemned the numerous crimes of all sorts perpetrated against children and adolescents in Haiti in recent weeks. The number of kidnappings in particular had spiked considerably, with at least 50 children having been kidnapped since the first of the year, more than half of them girls, most of whom had been killed. "Nothing could justify such crimes; the fact that they were committed in total impunity is unacceptable", UNICEF's representative in Haiti had lamented. Those comments came following the recent murder of a 16-year-old girl who had been kidnapped, as well as the torture and rape of other victims. On Wednesday, thousands of people had marched in protest in Port au Prince, calling for their perpetrators of these crime to be brought to justice. The statement by UNICEF's Haiti representative was available in the back of the room.

Also available was a press release on the joint UNICEF/UNPD campaign to stem the illegal flow and use of small arms in Jamaica, which had led to numerous victims, many of them children. Over the last five years, 300 children in Jamaica had been killed by firearms, Ms. Taveau added.

In an update on the situation in China, Ms. Taveau said that the earthquake in Szechuan had badly damaged more than 10,000 schools, 7,000 of which had been totally destroyed. Thousands of children were affected by the destruction of their schools, and if schools had reopened in tents and other sites, the situation remained very difficult. A press release was available.

In an update on the situation in South Africa in the wake of the violence against foreigners there, Ms. Pandya said IOM had received an official request from Ethiopia and Ghana to help return some of their nationals who wished to go back home, but who had no money, papers or belongings. In addition, Burundi, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique had also approached IOM on the same issue. IOM estimated that that would represent helping a group of about 2,000 people for now. IOM was increasing its initial appeal for this crisis, issued last week, from $350,000 to $1 million, which would provide emergency assistance to the displaced and also provide humanitarian return assistance to this initial group of 2,000 people. A press release was available.

Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced the WTO schedule for next week. On Monday, and Wednesday, 9 and 11 June, starting at 9.30 a.m. the United States was scheduled to undergo its trade policy review. Also on Monday, Director-General Pascal Lamy would be meeting with the Prime Minister of Lesotho, Pakalitha Mosisili, and Mr. Hoard Bamsey, Australia's Special Envoy on Climate Change.