REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN Refugee Agency, the Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the World Meteorological Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Secretary-General/Burundi

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier, said the Secretary-General’s latest report on the United Nations Integrated Office in Burundi was available. In it, the Secretary-General said that much had been achieved in Burundi in a short time but that the situation remained fragile. He added that the coming year would be crucial for Burundi, as the country must be assisted to ensure that the gains achieved so far were consolidated before, during and after the 2010 elections. In light of this, the Secretary-General recommended that the mandate of the Office in the country be renewed for an additional year when it expired on 31 December 2009. The report was available on the UN website.

Secretary-General/CEDAW

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General yesterday celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). He said that the Convention would underpin the work of the new United Nations gender equality entity that the General Assembly had decided to establish. The Secretary-General urged Member States to get this new entity up and running quickly. He also urged the entire UN system to support the full implementation of the Convention and called on those few countries that had not ratified the Convention to do so.

Somalia

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General had condemned the suicide attack at a graduation ceremony of medical students in Mogadishu. At least 15 Somalis had lost their lives, among them three Cabinet ministers of the Transitional Federal Government, graduating students and journalists. Another government minister had been severely wounded in this attack. The Secretary-General sent his deepest sympathies to the families of the victims as well as to the government and the people of Somalia. He said this attack could only strengthen the determination of the Somali government and people and their partners to persist in their efforts to fight terrorism. It underlined how urgent it had become for the international community to accelerate its delivery of pledged support to Somali security institutions as well as to the African Union Mission in Somalia. Copies of the Secretary-General’s statement were in the press room.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the situation in Somalia underlined how urgent it had become for the international community to help Somalia, especially by providing humanitarian aid. Yesterday the 2010 Humanitarian Appeal for Somalia was launched in Nairobi. It was part of the Consolidated Appeals Process which was launched on 30 November. The appeal sought an estimated $ 689 million. The year 2010 would not only mark 18 years of conflict for Somalia, but would also herald the first generation of Somali children who would come of age without ever having lived through a single year of peace. Some 3.64 million Somalis were in need of emergency assistance or livelihood support. That was nearly half of the population. Currently, 1 in 5 children under the age of 5 were acutely malnourished, while 1 in 20 were severely malnourished. It was really important for the international community to engage and help Somalia’s increasingly acute humanitarian needs.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said WHO was saddened by the attack that killed a number of persons in Mogadishu, including the Somali Minister of Health, Dr. Qamr Aden Ali, and other members of the Somali Government. This was a tragic blow to public health in Somalia, since the Minister had been working closely with WHO to improve health services for Somalis who had been suffering from a humanitarian crisis for many years. What was also sad was that the attack was carried out at the graduation ceremony of medical students. Medical students spent many years studying before their graduation and WHO had been involved in the training of these students. WHO would continue to support efforts to help with the situation of health care in Somalia. One in five children suffered from malnutrition in Somalia and there were many problems with infectious diseases in the country. Maternal mortality rates were among the highest in the world. Mortality rates for children under five were also very high. WHO would continue to work with the Somalia authorities. WHO was involved in vaccination projects in Somalia for children under the age of five, in partnership with UNICEF and the Red Cross. WHO also helped with the training of surgeons in Somalia. WHO was concerned that the attack would hamper the efforts of the international community to improve the health status of millions of Somalis. This WHO statement would be sent to journalists today.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said the UNICEF Representative in Somalia would be in Geneva on 16 December and a briefing would be arranged with her about the situation and the latest developments in Somalia.

WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2009

Ms. Chaib of WHO said the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2009 would be launched next week. The report was the second in a series of annual reports by WHO that tracked the extent of the global tobacco epidemic and measures to stop it. The report would be launched in Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday, 9 December. There would be a press briefing for journalists in Geneva on Monday, 7 December at 2 p.m. in press room 1. The embargoed report could be accessed online starting this afternoon.

Ms. Chaib said available at the back of the room was a press release about WHO launching a new tobacco control effort in Africa. The focus of the programme would be on strengthening countries’ ability to implement the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Tobacco use in Africa was more than a health problem, it was a development problem too. Tobacco bred poverty, killing people in their most productive years. It consumed family and health-care budgets. Also money spent on tobacco products was money not spent on such essentials as education, food and medicine.

Rwanda

Ms. Taveau of UNICEF said she had put at the back of the room a news note and a background note on Rwanda in which UNICEF congratulated the country, which yesterday was declared to be the first landmine free country in the world by the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World. Rwanda’s Ministry of Defence launched a comprehensive demining programme in the late 1990s, with the support of several governments and development partners, including UNICEF. This programme involved not only demining activities, but a huge awareness raising campaign to reach the entire population, including school children around the world.

Sri Lanka

Andrej Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was encouraged by the Sri Lankan Government’s long-awaited decision this week to allow increased freedom of movement for some 135,000 internally displaced people remaining in 20 closed camps in Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna and Trincomalee in the north of the country. UNHCR field staff reported that over 7,000 internally displaced persons from the Menik Farm camps in Vavuniya and another 25 people from the camp in Trincomalee left the sites the first day the new policy of the Sri Lankan government came into force. UNHCR teams were in the process of assessing the number of internally displaced persons exercising their new freedom of movement over the past few days and reported that people continued to leave the camps. Generally, internally displaced persons who wished to leave the camps were provided with a pass issued by the local authorities. Many people left their belongings in the camps, which was an indication that they intended to return to the camps. While authorities said there was no time limitation to the freedom of movement, there were reports that internally displaced persons would only be allowed to stay away from the camps up to ten days. UNHCR hoped that this new freedom of movement continued and that the internally displaced persons were fully informed of the process.

Other

Mr. Mahecic of UNHCR said that in light of the rapidly deteriorating condition of Ms. Aminatou Haidar of Laayoune, on hunger strike at the airport in Lanzerote since 16 November, the High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres appealed on the basis of UNHCR’s good offices and on strictly humanitarian grounds, to the governments of the two States directly concerned, Spain and Morocco, to consider any measure that could facilitate her movement and end the current impasse.

Jean Rodriguez of the Economic Commissioner for Europe said a press release was available about the launch of the Drin Dialogue by representatives of the ministries responsible for water management in Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro, the Lake Skadar/Shkoder Commission, the Lake Ohrid Committee and stakeholders from the Prespa Lake Basin, who met on 1 December in Podgorica, Montenegro. Facilitated by UNECE and the Global Water Partnership-Mediterranean using the platform of the UNECE Water Convention, the Drink Dialogue was a structured consultation process that aimed to develop a shared vision among the riparian countries and stakeholders for the sustainable management of the Drin Basin.

Mr. Rodriguez said on Thursday, 10 December the UNECE study on housing in Belarus would be launched in Minsk.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said on Tuesday, 8 December, UNCTAD would launch its annual study on shipping transport. Each year, the study targeted a certain region, and this year it was on Africa. Also the expert meeting on transport and trade facilitation would be held from 8 to 10 December in Geneva.

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said as of today, WMO was made up of 189 Member States, after Timor-Leste joined it.

There would be a WMO press conference on Tuesday, 8 December at 12:15 p.m. on the WMO declaration on the climate situation in 2009. The declaration would be launched in Copenhagen at the same time. A media advisory was available with all the details.

Samar Shamoon of the World Intellectual Property Organization said the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore would be meeting next week. This was the first meeting since the Committee received a new mandate to launch negotiations to ensure the effective protection of traditional knowledge, genetic resources and traditional cultural expressions. Any journalists looking for more information or wishing to set up interviews could contact her. A background release would be issued.