REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Office at Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from spokespersons and representatives from World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the International Committee of the Red Cross. At the start of the briefing, Richard Kozul-Wright, representative of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, presented the World Economic and Social Survey, 2008, which was being launched in Geneva.

Secretary-General's Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General had been in Japan yesterday, where he had met with the Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. Following the meeting, Mr. Ban told the press that they he and Prime Minister Fukuda had had an excellent discussion on the major challenges the world faced. He had expressed his appreciation to the Prime Minister for his strong personal leadership and tireless efforts to make the coming G-8 Summit in Toyako a great success. The Secretary-General felt that that meeting would be a major milestone in their common effort to mobilize international action on such challenges as climate change, the food crisis and the Millennium Development Goals. He added that, during the discussion, they had paid particular attention to Africa, given Japan’s longstanding effort to turn it into “a continent of hope”. He had particularly appreciated the welcome news that Japan was going to send the Self-Defence Forces to the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) and also establish a peacekeeping training centre with the necessary financial support.

Also yesterday, Secretary-General Ban had announced the appointment of Alain Le Roy of France as Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said. Mr. Le Roy would replace Jean-Marie Guéhenno. A bio of Mr. Le Roy was available in the Press Room.

In another appointment, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the African Union Chairperson had named Djibril Yipènè Bassolé of Burkina Faso as Joint African Union-United Nations Chief Mediator for Darfur, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier announced. A bio was available in the Press Room.

Director-General’s Agenda

Turning to Geneva, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that this morning the Director-General would co-chair the opening session of the general meeting on cooperation between the United Nations system and the League of Arab States. The meeting, which would last from 1 to 3 July, was part of regular consultations between the secretariats of various entities of the two organizations to review areas of cooperation between them.

At 3 p.m., in the Council Chamber, the Director-General would open the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research Conference “Celebrating the Fortieth Anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)”. The NPT was the only legally binding international treaty on nuclear disarmament and the cornerstone of the global non-proliferation regime. The programme for that meeting was available in the Press Room, as well as the statement of the Secretary-General on this topic, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier added.

World Economic and Social Survey, 2008

Richard Kozul-Wright, representative of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, presented the World Economic and Social Survey, 2008, which this year was on the theme “Overcoming Economic Insecurity”. It was a broad ranging report which looked at a set of interrelated themes that impacted on the security of people’s lives in different parts of the world: macroeconomic and financial shocks; natural disasters; conflict and post-conflict societies; and poverty and insecurity. There was no doubt that they were living in a time of increased threats and vulnerabilities – bank runs, rising commodity prices, rising energy costs, mortgage defaults – had all been a major factor in terms of the perceptions of the troubles that people faced in the global economy. Those were compounded by problems of climate change and problems of conflict. At a superficial level, the report emphasized that this situation was somewhat surprising, as macroeconomic performance had been fairly strong in recent years – growth had been reasonably solid, economic volatility had been declining, price inflation had been under control. At the same time, globalization, market deregulation and rising inequality had been linked very intimately in many people’s perceptions to a growing anxiety about the direction in which the world economy had been going. In many parts of the world those threats were compounded by climate change, catastrophic natural disasters, civil conflicts and violence.

“The central message from the report is that while these problems have multiple causes, the fixation over the course of the last two decades with the idea of a self-regulating market and the notion that States and State regulation are part of the problem rather than a part of the solution has contributed to the growing sense of economic security that most people find,” Mr. Kozul-Wright underscored. What was needed now was a shift in policy emphasis towards more integrated and active policy initiatives with a much stronger focus on productive investment as a key to assuring a degree of stability and security in people’s lives and a much closer attention to rebuilding the social contract which has been frayed across the board in developing and developed countries alike. Lower investment and more volatile investment had been the consequences of the last two-and-a-half decades of deregulation, privatisation and liberalization. And it had not been good for the economic security of most people, with developing countries suffering the most.

“The question on many people’s minds is whether they can have a global New Deal in the twenty-first century to match the New Deal that was required to bring about a degree of security in the second half of the twentieth century”, Mr. Kozul-Wright concluded. The basic policy message in this report was the need for an alternative and a more active economic policy agenda – one that much more successfully integrated economic and social policies. The essential emphasis of policy in the last couple of decades had been targeted social policies, particularly for the poor, and universal economic policies that were generalized for everybody – everybody should liberalize, deregulate, privatise, stabilize. What they were saying was “That’s not worked, and at the very least you should think about reversing that”. Finally, the report contained a series of recommendations to provide a stronger multilateral system.

Copies of the report, an overview brochure, and three press releases were available in the press room.

Zimbabwe

In response to a question on the United Nations stance on the recent elections, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier referred to the statement issued by Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro yesterday before the African Union Summit meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh. In her statement, the Deputy Secretary-General had called on participants to stand by the people of Zimbabwe, who were facing a grave crisis. Noting that, regrettably, the elections had gone ahead last Friday despite calls made by the international community, including the Security Council, to suspend the vote, she considered this was a “moment of truth for regional leaders”. In a communiqué from Japan, the Secretary-General had expressed his support for the views expressed by the President of the Security Council, who had regretted the decision by the Government of Zimbabwe to go ahead with the run-off elections.

Codex Alimentarius Commission

Dick Thompson of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the thirty-first session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission had opened yesterday, and it would continue through Friday. There were 123 countries represented, as well as a large number of non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders observing. Daily updates of activities would be provided on the following day, via e-mail or on the website (www.codexalimentarius.net/web/index_en.jsp). A wrap-up briefing on the session would be held on Friday, at a time and location to be announced.

Responding to questions, a WHO Expert said that yesterday the Codex Alimentarius had adopted a number of new standards, including for maximum levels of aflatoxins in some nuts; a code of hygienic practices for powdered formula for infants; and a standard for foods for special dietary use for person intolerant to gluten. On today’s agenda were documents on seafood products and how to deal with compounds for which there were no scientifically based maximum acceptable limits. Responding to a question, the Expert noted that the standards adopted were voluntary for the States parties, but they became mandatory via World Trade Organization rules if the products were traded.

Situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Alessia Barbezat of the World Food Programme (WFP) said WFP was happy to announce that it had finally reached an agreement with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea that paved the way for a rapid expansion of its food assistance in the country. In 2006, WFP had had to reduce the amount of food assistance delivered to the country to a minimum, reaching just 1.2 million people. With the agreement, that number was now expected to reach more than 5 million. Following the signing of the agreement, a first United States ship had arrived in Sunday in the port of Nampo carrying 37,000 tons of wheat, the first instalment of a United States food aid pledge of up to 500,000 metric tons. Moreover, the accord would allow WFP to send 50 more international aid workers to the country to oversee and monitor delivery of the food to make sure it reached hungry people most in need. WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations were currently assessing the extent of needs throughout North Korea, with results expected mid-July. A press release was available.

Other

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said, as France was taking up the European Union Presidency today for a six-month period, UNHCR had made some recommendations. UNHCR hoped in particular that France would take the lead in making sure that migration management measures were not at the expense of refugee protection. UNHCR also urged France to take forward the discussion of refugee resettlement at EU level, with a view to engaging more member States in resettlement and making more resettlement places available in the European Union. A press release was available.

Miranda Eeles of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in an update on Ethiopia, said that last night a massive airlift of ready-to-use therapeutic food had arrived in Addis Ababa as part of UNICEF's response to meet the urgent needs of severely malnourished children in drought-affected areas of Ethiopia. The supplies would be dispatched to regional health bureaus and non-governmental organizations for distribution to severely malnourished children. Some 18,800 children per month for the next three months were expected to benefit from those provisions. A press release was available at the back of the room.

Ms. Eeles also reported that in a few hours young people from the G-8 countries and the developing world would open the fourth annual Junior 8 Summit in Chitose City, Japan, with an agenda that paralleled the G-8 itself. The delegates were 39 young people, 4 from each of the G-8 counties plus 1 from each of UNICEF's 7 regions. They would get together for a week to discuss three main themes: climate change; global health (child survival, infectious diseases and HIV/AIDs); and poverty and development with a particular focus on Africa. The young people would then produce a communiqué laying out their recommendations to the G-8 leaders, to be released on 7 July. A media advisory and press release were available.

Carla Hadad of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that ICRC would shortly be issuing a report on Sri Lanka, which noted an increasing violence in the country in recent months, with more attacks targeting civilians in different parts of Sri Lanka. Over the past three months, at least 80 civilians were killed in indiscriminate attacks on public transport and heavily crowded places. Tensions linked to provincial elections had also exacerbated the situation in the east of the country, killing nine people in a bomb blast in Ampara. ICRC had continued to receive numerous allegations that civilians had been directly targeted and had been victims of killings, beatings, arrests and disappearances. ICRC deplored the current situation and urged all those involved in the conflict to distinguish between civilians and those taking a direct part in hostilities. The current situation had also led to a growing number of arrests, and ICRC was continuing to visit persons detained under the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government forces to monitor their conditions and treatment. Copies of the report was available at the back of the room.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reminded journalists that later today the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, would be holding a press conference on his five-day mission to Afghanistan, at 12.30 p.m. in Room III.