REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the International Labour Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme.

Secretary-General

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, had selected yesterday the nineteen members for the new High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing that would work to mobilize the financing promised for climate change during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last December. The full list of the Group was available in the pressroom.

The Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, was in Chile today to express his solidarity with the people and the Government in the wake of the recent earthquake. He was also expected to visit the city of Concepcion and to meet with Chilean President Michele Bachelet and President-elect Sebastian Pinera, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Conference on Disarmament

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Kazakh Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kanat Saudabayev was currently addressing the Conference on Disarmament. During this week, which had coincided with the Human Rights Council High-Level Summit, the Conference had heard from a number of dignitaries, including from the Republic of Korea, Ireland, Romania and Japan.

To mark International Women’s Day, which will be celebrated on 8 March, the Conference decided to hear a statement from a representative of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom on Tuesday, 9 March said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

International Women’s Day

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that on the occasion of International Women’s Day, an event would be held in the Palais des Nations’ Assembly Hall at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, 8 March during which extracts from a new film by renowned French director Coline Serreau would be screened. This would be followed by a conference with the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei A. Ordzhonikidze, the Permanent Representative of France, Jean-Baptiste Mattéi, and Glaucia Boyer, Gender Adviser for the United Nations Development Programme.

Luisa Ballin of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) presented the new IPU World Map of Women in Politics 2010; along with a study they produced on women in parliaments in 2009 and an appraisal report on whether parliaments were open to women.

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization (ILO) said that the ILO would soon issue a report offering updated figures of the global situation of women and employment, entitled “Women in labour markets: Measuring progress and identifying challenges”. At the occasion of the launch of this report, a roundtable discussion would take place at the ILO on Monday, 8 March at 3 p.m. in Room 2.


Human Rights Council

Claire Kaplun of the the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the Human Rights Council was currently holding a interactive debate with the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights on the thematic reports she had presented earlier this morning.

The Special Rapporteur on the right to food and the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing were expected to present their reports at noon today, said Ms. Kaplun. Both Special Rapporteurs were also expected to give a press conference on Monday.

Yesterday, the President of the Human Rights Council announced that the presentation of the joint study on secret detention was postponed to the June session. This delay would allow for the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism to finalize a compilation on good practices to ensure respect for human rights by intelligence agencies while countering terrorism. Both studies would be presented at the June session, said Ms. Kaplun.

Situation in Chile

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the Chilean Minister of Health had assured the population that medicines would be available in all the disaster areas within the country. The Minister had also indicated that there had been so far no epidemic outbreaks, although he had stressed the need to heighten surveillance, particularly because some areas were still without safe drinking water and garbage was accumulating in the streets.

The Ministry of Health had also ordered the closure of the Felix Bulnes hospital n Santiago due to severe damage. Support provided by the Brazilian Government in the form of an emergency field hospital had replaced and filled the gap in health services there, said Mr. Garwood.

WHO continued to help coordinate the arrival and use of mobile field hospitals within the country, as well as meeting any other needs that the Government might wish to seek, said Mr. Garwood.

Situation in Haiti

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said that there were no major uptakes in terms of new disease cases and no reports of major infectious diseases outbreaks in the areas that were affected by the earthquake. There were still 52 national sentinel surveillance sites operating throughout the country.

Haiti normally had two peaks for malaria, due to its raining seasons, and there was a higher risk for malaria under current conditions in the temporary settlements, as it was difficult to do vector control there, said Mr. Garwood.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that today, WFP’s non-governmental organization partners were distributing new coupons for the second phase of food distribution, which would begin tomorrow in Port-au-Prince. The distribution would include a full food basket of rice, beans Corn Soy Blend (a high nutrient fortified food), vegetable oil and salt. This would go to 300,000 vulnerable families, or approximately 2 million persons in and around Port-au-Prince.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that normally the rainy season started in April and peaked in May, but early-floods were now affecting Les Cayes and the South of Haiti. Haitian President Rene Preval had flown to the southern departments in order to survey the damage caused by the floods over the weekend. More than 4,000 families were reported to have been affected by the floods, 26 persons were reported injured, around 2,300 houses were inundated and 7,100 cattle were killed.

The main crop-planting season was beginning this month, said Ms. Byrs. The harvests of this season normally represented 60 per cent of the national food productions needs. It was urgent to finance the Agricultural Cluster of the Humanitarian Flash Appeal, which was currently funded by only 12 per cent. This was clearly not sufficient and the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development had formed a tripartite taskforce to support a six-week-long Haitian-led food security programme.

Turning to the Shelter Cluster, Ms. Byrs said that its target remained at delivering two tarpaulins per family by 1 May. Additional tarpaulins and tents were expected to arrive in Haiti by the end of March. To date, emergency shelter material had reached nearly 525,000 people, or 41 per cent of those in need. Altogether, 162,981 tarpaulins and 23, 348 tents had been distributed.

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that the thirty-second session of the WMO Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee would take place from 8 to 12 March in Hamilton, Bermuda. During the session, the 26 WMO Member States of the Caribbean region would meet to assess last year’s tropical storm season and discuss upcoming projects. During this year’s session, there would be a Special Session on Haiti to coordinate the help that would be provided to the Haitian Meteorological Service for the upcoming hurricane season, expected to start in early June.

Ms. Sevenier also said that at the reconstruction of the Haitian Meteorological Service would also be addressed at the upcoming WMO Multi-hazard early warning systems workshop for Central America and the Caribbean, which would take place from 22 to 25 March in Costa Rica.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that on Tuesday, 9 March a ceremony in memory of the United Nations System staff members that were killed in the Haiti earthquake and which will be chaired by the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, would be broadcast live from New York in the Assembly Hall. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei A. Ordzhonikidze and the Chargé d’Affaires of the Haitian Mission at Geneva, Jean-Claude Pierre, would also attend the broadcast.

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said that Alfredo Lazarte, Chief, ILO Crisis Team would brief the press on the situation of the employment in Haiti today at 11:30 a.m. in Press Room III.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that on Monday, 8 March at 1:30 p.m., Walter Kaelin, Representative of the Secretary-General of the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons and Michel Forst, Independent Expert of the Human Rights Council on the Situation of Human Rights in Haiti would participate in a panel discussion, entitled: “Next steps for Haiti: Re-building the lives for Haiti’s Internally Displaced Persons”.

Uganda Landslides and Floods

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that on 1 March 2010 landslides had occurred in the Mt. Elgon region in eastern Uganda. A landslide buried three whole villages, of a total of 3,000 inhabitants. 80 persons had been confirmed dead and 300 were still missing. Floods now also affected the area and 2,000 persons were now without shelter in the Butaleja District. More than 10,000 persons might need to be evacuated due to the rains.

At present the disaster area was only accessible by foot or air, due to its remoteness and the soil was not stable enough to allow emergency teams to look for survivors as well as for the use heavy equipment, said Ms. Byrs.

The Government of Uganda was leading the humanitarian response, said Ms. Byrs. Due to the floods, bodies buried by the landslides were now reappearing and floating in the rivers. Cemeteries had also been flooded and coffins were now also floating in the water. The Ugandan Red Cross was currently distributing potable water and food to the population and a mobile clinic has been set up.

Two Inter-Agency Assessment Mission, led by the Government left on 3 March and were expected to report tomorrow, said Ms. Byrs. The Nametsi Health Center was completely buried. The Bududa Hospital and the Bukalasi Health Centre were however still functioning.

Afghanistan

Simon Schorno of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) gave an update of the situation in Marjah, Helmand Province, where the ICRC was concerned that landmines, unexploded devices and improvised landmines were causing a threat to the population. Active hostilities had ended but the population was today unable to really move about and get access to basic services, including health.

An ICRC first-aid post in Marjah, which had had to suspend its activities during the hostilities, was now operational again said Mr. Schorno. However, people could not access the few medical facilities in the area.

The use of improvised mines and makeshift unexploded bombs was running counter to International Humanitarian Law, said Mr. Schorno. The use of those weapons was banned under the Mine Ban Convention and their use was unacceptable. The ICRC called on all parties to take all possible measures to clear the affected areas as soon as possible, to allow the population to return to a semi-normal life.

Polio Mass Immunization Campaign

Rod Curtis of the World Health Organization said that this weekend the Global Polio Eradication Initiative would conduct a mass immunization campaign across 16 African countries, immunizing more than 17 million children under five years old. Within the next ten days, a further three countries would join this efforts, which would bring this number to more than 85 million children.

This campaign would be followed by a further campaign, where the 6 countries that were currently showing active transmissions would conduct another round on 26 March. On 24 April, all 19 countries would again conduct a synchronized campaign immunizing 85 million children, said Mr. Curtis.

These immunization campaigns were in response to an ongoing outbreak that had first spread from Nigeria in 2008, which had spread in two distinct waves. This first wave had already peaked out, as the countries closest to Nigeria had not had any cases for more than six months, said Mr. Curtis. However, the second wave had spread west and as far as Mauritania.

The most recent active countries in terms of cases were Mauritania, Senegal, Liberia and Guinea, said Mr. Curtis. The campaign was largely funded by Rotary International, which had released US$ 30 million. 400,000 volunteers and health workers would take part in it. The size of the campaign would also allow reaching travelling families and would raise immunity to stop the outbreak and to ensure against future outbreaks.

Answering to a journalist’s question on the current polio global figures, Mr. Curtis said that this year they had registered 34 cases globally and that last year they had registered a total of 1,606 cases.

Food Security

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that WFP had unfortunately had to cut in halve the size of school meals for almost 430,000 children in Côte d’Ivoire, due to lack of funds. In addition, WFP had had to cut supplementary feeding for 10,000 malnourished children and cut the family food ration for more than 22,500 children affected by HIV/AIDS. If WFP was unable to secure US$ 6 million in funding soon, it would have to completely cut these rations in April. For many children receiving school feeding, WFP’s ration was their only meal in the day.

Ms. Casella also announced that WFP’s emergency programme in Guatemala had been extended and expanded. Last September, the Government had announced a state of calamity, due to severe food insecurity. At that time, WFP had assisted 100,000 of the most vulnerable people and was now preparing to increase and expand this assistance to feed 235,000 people up to the next harvest, which was expected in September. The weather forecast due to the continuing El-Nino meant that an irregular start to the rainy season was expected.

Answering a journalist’s question on WFP programme in the Democratic People Republic of Korea, Ms. Casella said that it was only 18 per cent funded. The current situation there was quite concerning. In September 2008, WFP had estimated that 6.2 million people were in need of food assistance. WFP was currently only able to feed 1.5 million people and thus they had had to prioritize children, pregnant and lactating mothers, sick and elderly persons. The rations that these persons were getting were also reduced from what WFP would expect to give them. The actual nutritional situation in the country was not known.

Biodiversity

Julie Marks of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said that to mark the International Year of Biodiversity, UNEP would bring key speakers to the bi-weekly press briefings to highlight key issues on biodiversity.

Pavan Sukhdev, Special Adviser and Head of the United Nations Environment Programme Green Economy Initiative, said that the common perception of biodiversity was just about furry animals and pretty species. This was wrong. Biodiversity was the living fabric of this planet and it included ecosystems; the variety of species; the quantum of species as well as genetic diversity. One of the key issues in this International Year of Biodiversity were coral reefs. Due to global warming, coral reefs were bleaching more often and due to the fact that there was more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which was absorbed by the oceans, resulted in ocean acidification. Thus, bleached coral reefs did not regenerate, because of the acidity of the oceans.

500 million people living all the way across Micronesia, the Southeast Asian nations, Madagascar, the west and East coast of Africa across to Latin America and the whole of the Caribbean depended on coral reefs for their lives and their livelihood, as they were eating fish that was born and bred in coral reefs. This represented one-twelfth of the whole of humanity. The potential death of coral reefs was a human problem of the greatest dimensions, which was being ignored, said Mr. Sukhdev. One of the solutions to address this issue was to turn towards green economy, as it was a way of doing business and conducting economic endeavor, which did not deplete natural stocks and did not hurt humanity and resulted in sustainable survival of Earth’s capital and humanity within it.

Road Safety

Jean Rodriguez of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said that the United Nations General Assembly had adopted a resolution this week proclaiming the 2011-2020 period as the Decade of Action for Road Safety. The resolution recognised the role played by United Nations regional commissions in road safety issues and invited the regional commissions to pursue their efforts with other road safety stakeholders to continue to lower the number of deaths and injuries due to road accidents.

Mr. Rodriguez said that UNECE’s Executive Secretary, Jan Kubis, had welcomed this resolution and that the UNECE would pursue their efforts with regard to road safety. They were currently preparing a partnership with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the Turkish authorities to conduct road safety awareness campaigns during the upcoming 2010 FIBA World Championship, which will be held in Turkey from 26 August to 12 September 2010.

Exceptional Rain Event in Australia

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that WMO had received a special climate statement by the Australian National Climate Centre Bureau of Meteorology, announcing that an exceptional rain event affected central Australia, Queensland and far northern New South of Wales. The event began on 22 February and was still ongoing. This event was probably linked to El-Nino, which had started around mid-2009.

Other

Jean Rodriguez of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said that next week Jan Kubis, UNECE Executive Secretary would attend a series of meetings at the US State Department in Washington, D.C., where he would meet with a number of officials responsible for European affairs to discuss possible common actions and cooperation. From 10 to 12 March, Mr. Kubis would be in Parma, Italy to attend the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that health and environment ministers from 53 European countries would meet in Parma, Italy from 10 to 12 March for the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health. The conference was organized by WHO’s Regional Office for Europe and was entitled: “Protecting children’s health in a changing environment”. It was aimed at adopting a declaration that would reinforce the pledges ministers had made five years ago on major environmental risk factors, like inadequate water and sanitation, poor air quality, injuries and physical inactivity and hazardous chemicals, and to increase efforts to address emerging global threats.

Julie Marks of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said that UNEP’s Regional Director for Europe, Christope Bouvier, would be amongst the guest speakers of the Fifth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health. Also, next Friday, 12 March was the season launch of the Indian Premiere League Cricket in Mumbai and UNEP would help them to achieve a climate-neutral league. UNEP Executive Director, Joachim Steiner would also attend the launch of the season.

Ms. Chaib also said that the WHO Malaria Department had produced new guidelines for its Member States on the diagnosis of malaria and on access to medication. A press conference would be organized next week on this subject.