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 Economic Commission for Europe, the World Meteorological Organization, the World Health Organization, the High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the International Organization for Migration.

Killing of Aid Workers in Somalia and Afghanistan

Ms. Heuzé said the killing of two aid workers in Somalia and one aid worker in Afghanistan in the last few days was of extreme concern to the United Nations system. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had condemned the killings and said he was deeply distressed. He called upon all parties to respect the neutral and impartial status of humanitarian staff. His statement was available in the press room. Also available was a release by the United Nations Children’s Fund in which it strongly condemned the killing of a UNICEF Somali staff member in Somalia.

Global Financial Crisis

Ms. Heuzé said another issue which was of concern to the United Nations system was the global financial crisis. The Secretary-General had just attended the Summit of the Francophonie in Quebec City, where he met with a number of leaders with whom he discussed the international financial crisis and its serious impact on all nations, particularly the poorest among them. The Secretary-General intended to make the financial crisis and its possible impact on all nations and on all UN development initiatives, including the Millennium Development Goals, the main focus of the planned meeting of the UN System’s Chief Executive Board. That meeting was due to take place in New York on Friday.

Among those who would be attending the meeting was the Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Juan Somavia, who said yesterday that the global financial crisis could increase world unemployment by an estimated 20 million people, from 190 million in 2007 to 210 million in late 2009.

Available were the remarks by the Secretary-General on this issue as well as a press release on the measures announced yesterday by the President of the General Assembly to create a Working Group to discuss setting up a more viable global financial system for all countries, including developing countries.

New Reports by the Secretary-General on Iran and Myanmar

Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General had released two new reports on the situation of human rights in Iran and Myanmar. In the report on Iran, the Secretary-General noted some concerns over the rights of women and of minorities, as well as on the death penalty, including juvenile executions and stoning. The Secretary-General encouraged Iran to continue to revise national laws, particularly the new Penal Code and juvenile justice laws, to ensure compliance with international human rights standards and prevent discriminatory practices against women and ethnic and religious minorities.

In the report on Myanmar, the Secretary-General stressed that it remained a source of frustration that meaningful steps had yet to be taken by the Myanmar Government in response to the concerns and expectations of the United Nations and the international community in the context of the good offices process. Underlining that the future of Myanmar ultimately rested with the Government and its people, the Secretary-General reiterated that the role of the United Nations was to ascertain the positions of all parties and facilitate their efforts to work together through dialogue towards a mutually acceptable process of national reconciliation and democratization, in full respect for Myanmar’s sovereignty and in accordance with the expectations of the international community. Adding that there was no alternative to dialogue to ensure that all stakeholders could contribute to the future of their country, the Secretary-General stressed that the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners would be key for the resumption of an enhanced, all-inclusive substantive and time-bound dialogue.

The reports of the Secretary-General were available.

Human Rights

Ms. Heuzé said the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was meeting from 20 October to 7 November at the Palais des Nations. Today, the Committee would be considering the periodic report of Belgium in Chamber A. It had been scheduled to review the periodic report of Cameroon in Chamber B, but at the request of that country, the review would be postponed to a future session. Tomorrow, the Committee would be considering the periodic reports of Canada and Ecuador, on Thursday Uruguay and Kyrgyzstan, and on Friday Slovenia and Mongolia. As usual, the Information Service would be issuing press releases on the meetings.

The Human Rights Committee was meeting at the Palais Wilson from 13 to 31 October, Ms. Heuzé said. Today, the Committee would be concluding its review of the periodic report of Spain. It would meet behind closed doors for most of the rest of the week to consider its concluding observations and recommendations on country reports already reviewed during the session and to consider individual communications.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Heuzé said there would be a press conference today at 11:30 a.m. in Room III of the UN Global Compact Office after a meeting held in Geneva on 20 and 21 October on “Caring for the Climate, First Meeting of Signatories”. The press conference would talk about a report which was under embargo until this afternoon. Embargoed copies of the report were available in the press room.

The sixty-sixth session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission was meeting on 21 and 22 October. This was one of the last few meetings of the Governing Council. A background press release had been issued yesterday and a concluding release would be issued tomorrow afternoon.

In conclusion, Ms. Heuzé said an exhibition organized by Colombia on the fight against drugs would be inaugurated this afternoon at the Palais des Nations. This morning, the Vice President of Colombia and Ms. Calmy-Rey would be visiting the exhibition privately. The Vice President of Colombia would be present at the inauguration at 6 p.m. this afternoon.

International Forest Week

Charlotte Griffiths of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe said the European Forest Week was taking place in Rome and Brussels and all around Europe this week. A press release had been issued at the end of last week. The European Forest Week was organized jointly by the European Union, the Food and Agricultural Organization, UNECE and the Ministerial Conference on Protection of Forests in Europe. The key themes were forests and climate change, forests and energy and forests and water. At the FAO Headquarters in Rome today, the plenary session would focus on forests and climate change, and would highlight issues such as the role of wood products in climate change mitigation and how Europe’s forests continuously absorbed and stored harmful green house gases. Tomorrow afternoon, there would also be an event on the management of forest fires in Europe.

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said available was a WMO fact sheet on forest fires. According to the recent fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, wildland fires were likely to increase in both frequency and intensity. WMO and National Meteorological and Hydrological Services of its Members provided weather and climate data that were vital for the prevention, mitigation and monitoring of such fires and continued to enhance operational weather systems for fire danger rating. WMO was developing operational guidelines for fire weather agrometeorology which would be available by 2009. More details were available in the fact sheet.

Draft Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said she had asked her colleague Brenda Abrar Milani, who was following the meeting on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on a protocol on illicit trade in tobacco products, to update journalists on the meetings which started yesterday at the Geneva International Conference Centre and would end on Saturday, 25 October.

Brenda Abrar Milani said the general debate in the meeting took up the issue of proposals on the Chairperson’s text of the draft protocol. The text was long and complicated, but there was a general will from all States to take the draft text as the basis for negotiations this week.

In response to a question, Ms. Abrar Milani said that they were trying to organize a press conference to be held on Friday, 24 October to tell journalists how the negotiations on the draft protocol had gone. It was estimated that $ 50 billion were lost in revenue annually around the world because of this illicit trade.

Refugees in Yemen

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR’s office in Yemen was seeking clarification from the Government following recent statements by the Interior Ministry that Eritreans and Ethiopians would be denied entry to the country. The statements coincided with the resumption of smuggling of people across the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa - primarily Somalis, but also Ethiopians, Eritreans
and other nationalities. Yemen, a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, granted prima facie refugee status to Somalis and had until now
also allowed non-Somali arrivals to seek asylum if they declared a wish
to do so. While recognising the generosity already shown by Yemen to refugees and
asylum seekers, UNHCR was seeking clarification from the government on any
changes in policy. UNHCR urged that Yemen maintain its international commitments under the 1951 Convention, including access to asylum procedures for all of those in need of international protection.

World Food Programme in Democratic Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said that events in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had been beginning to gain more attention recently. It was a pretty shifting picture. Since the resumption of fighting in the east of the country, at least 100,000 persons had been displaced, and as many as 850,000 persons were now believed to be displaced in north Kivu alone. WFP had a team there and would hold a more in-depth briefing on the situation on Friday, 25 October. This was also an opportunity for WFP’s new office director in Geneva, Charles Vincent, to meet with journalists. He had just arrived from Congo. He had also served in Afghanistan and Haiti.

Ms. Casella said in Sri Lanka, WFP was trying to continue to bring into the Vanni truck convoys. Late last Friday, WFP ultimately had a successful 50-truck convoy carrying 750 tons of food arrive in the Vanni to help an estimated 230,000 internally displaced persons. This was an area which had been cut off for a while and WFP, along with other UN agencies, had had to take out their staff from that area. The UN had received renewed assurances from all parties that future convoys would be able to pass through that area and receive urgently needed food.

Ms. Casella recalled that on 23 October, WFP would lose its Canadian naval escort for its ships. The Dutch navy had now come through and it was expected to take up the naval escort for WFP as of 23 October.

Floods in Kenya

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there were floods in the north east and the north west of Kenya. In the north east in Mandera district, 6,000 persons had been displaced by the flash floods which occurred on 14 October when the River Daua burst its banks, and there were at least three persons killed. Sixteen persons remained missing. As a result of the floods, at least seven wells were submerged, three schools closed, 350 toilets submerged and 1 kilometer of water pipeline washed away. OCHA was worried about contaminated water sources and disease outbreak which threatened the 150,000 residents of Mandera. It was urgent to ensure the distribution of water purification tablets and to repair the destruction of the water sources. The recent flood related displacement had exacerbated inter-clan tensions.

In the north west of Kenya, in Turkana district, more than 7,500 persons were affected by the floods. The food security of this community depended on their agricultural sector, and there were major concerns for the harvest because of the floods. The primary urgent needs in Turkana had been provided by the Kenyan Red Cross, UNICEF which worked with the Kenyan Red Cross, and the Kenyan Government.

Ms. Byrs said urgent needs for north east and north west Kenya included food supplies for one month, rapid construction of latrines, water purification tablets, tents, covers, mosquito nets and repairing the water supply system.

International Organization for Migration

Jean Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said the four hurricanes and tropical storms that hit Haiti in late August and early September destroyed nearly one third of the seaport town of Gonaives, including the city's primary water system. Working with the state water authority, IOM's Programme de Revitalisation et de Promotion de l'Entente et de la Paix, funded by the United States Agency for International Development, had restored the system and begun distributing water to 50,000 residents. The restoration of the Gonaives water system was just one in a series of projects being undertaken by IOM to help Haitians recover from these natural disasters. IOM, with funding from various international donors, has been providing non-food items to thousands of people affected and living in shelters.

Mr. Chauzy said the UN Regional Thematic Working Group on International Migration, including Human Trafficking, yesterday launched a major new report identifying migration trends in 16 Asian countries and assessing their socio-economic impact. There were more details in his notes.