REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by spokespersons and representatives of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration and the World Meteorological Organization. Spokespersons for the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe were also present, but had no announcements to make.

Secretary-General’s Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian reported that the Secretary-General left yesterday for Washington, D.C., to participate in the Nuclear Security Summit, where he would urge world leaders to create a world free from nuclear weapons. “Nuclear terrorism is one of the greatest threats we face today”, Mr. Ban told reporters at a press conference yesterday in New York. “That is why I have repeatedly urged the Conference on Disarmament to immediately start negotiations on a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and other explosive devices.” The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, who was also the Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, was accompanying Secretary-General Ban in Washington this week.

The Secretary-General had also observed that “with the new START agreement signed last week in Prague, and the upcoming NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty) Review Conference here at the United Nations next month, we can see new momentum towards our ultimate ambition: a world free of nuclear weapons ... In Washington, I will call on all world leaders to come together, perhaps at the United Nations in September, to further advance this essential cause for humankind.”

Ms. Momal-Vanian also drew attention to the opening message the Secretary-General had sent on Monday to the twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, which was being held in Salvador, Brazil, from 12 to 19 April. In it, the Secretary-General had urged all States to ratify and implement the Palermo Convention and its three Protocols. “Organized crime poses a threat to international peace and security like never before”, Mr. Ban had said. The Secretary-General had also expressed concern about the growing impact of organized crime, which he designated “the dark side of globalization”. “When it comes to emerging threats such as cyber-crime, environmental crime and counterfeiting, we must stay one step ahead of the criminals. We must also be more effective in stopping the money flows enabled by corruption and money-laundering”, he had stressed. A high-level segment would be held during the last three days of the Congress (17 to 19 April), which 25 ministers were expected to attend. Ms. Momal-Vanian recalled that the problem of organized crime had been debated in the Security Council several times over the past six months.

Haiti

Ms. Momal-Vanian observed that, as everyone knew, yesterday it had been three months since the earthquake in Haiti. United Nations Spokespersons would be presenting at the briefing today some assessments of both the achievements and the remaining challenges still facing Haiti today. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro had arrived in Haiti for a follow-up mission over the weekend. She had met with President René Préval, and they had discussed challenges facing the country, including education, law enforcement and social and political stability. She had also spent several hours at a camp in downtown Port-au-Prince, where she had met with camp residents, in particular meeting with women, who had complained of sexual abuse in the camps. Indeed, one of the objectives of her visit was to survey United Nations and Haitian Government efforts to protect camp residents, in particular from sexual violence. Speaking to camp residents, the Deputy Secretary-General had assured them of the Secretary-General’s firm resolve to work, along with the Haitian Government and its partners, towards improving their conditions, in particular those of women and children.

Ms. Migiro had also met yesterday with the leadership of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti and leaders of various humanitarian clusters working in the country. She would also visit the town of Leogane, the epicentre of the earthquake, to discuss child protection issues with national representatives, Ms. Momal-Vanian added.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that an enormous amount had been done over the past three months in Haiti: over 3.5 million people had received food assistance; 1.3 million people were receiving daily water distributions; more than 1 million people had received emergency shelter; some 510,000 people had benefited from hygiene kits; and over 500,000 people had been vaccinated against common diseases. To date, 90 per cent of the quake victims had received some form of emergency shelter materials, and it was expected that the United Nations and its partners would reach their goal of providing 1.3 million people with shelter by 1 May, before the rainy season started. They had also undertaken safety assessments of 55,000 buildings, with 40 per cent found to be still usable. Regarding protection of women, 300 tents had been set up as safe havens for women. The United Nations Haiti appeal for $1.4 billion was now 51 per cent funded, having received a further 1 per cent of funds since last week. The appeal covered needs for 12 months.

Regarding the international donors conference, of the $9 billion that had been asked for reconstruction, $5.3 billion had been pledged for delivery in the coming 18 months to begin the first phase of reconstruction, Ms. Byrs said. A news note was available.

Ms. Momal-Vanian announced that this afternoon the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies would hold a press conference on activities and preparation for the rainy season and the hurricane season in Haiti, at 2:30 p.m. in Room III

Christiane Berthiaume of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that at the back of the room were copies of the UNICEF report, “Children of Haiti: Three months after the Earthquake”, which was being launched today. The report looked at progress, gaps and plans in humanitarian action. Three months following the quake, the humanitarian response had been able to avoid the worse case scenario for children. However, much remained to be done, in particular with the arrival of the rainy season. In terms of achievements, there had not been disease outbreaks among children or a rise in the malnutrition rate. UNICEF had undertaken a massive vaccination campaign, which had allowed for 100,000 children to be immunized so far. Schools had reopened in temporary shelters, and UNICEF had provided 3,000 tent schools, as well as school supplies, latrines and potable water.

In its report, UNICEF appealed for children to be included at the very heart of the reconstruction efforts for the country, Ms. Berthiaume added. UNICEF had three key foci for the reconstruction efforts: ensuring that all children could return to school, including the 55 per cent that had not attended school before the earthquake; preventing and curing chronic malnutrition; and ensuring child protection. UNICEF was appealing for $223 million for its programmes in Haiti till the end of the year, and had received $186 million so far.

Melissa Fleming of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that today UNHCR was appealing for $12.5 million to help people living outside of formal camps in Haiti and those who had fled to the Dominican Republic. UNHCR had been supporting the established protection and camp management programmes, sending emergency team members specializing in protection, logistics, registration and profiling to assist the humanitarian effort, and had supplied 100,000 people with shelter materials. In the Dominican Republic, where it was leading the protection response, UNHCR had deployed an emergency team to help Haitians who had been evacuated to that country. UNHCR and its partners now aimed to implement 85 quick impact projects that would target displaced people that had received a lower level of humanitarian assistance thus far than the population living in camps and Port-au-Prince. Of those, 25 projects would focus on the displaced population living near the border with the Dominican Republic. UNHCR would also aim to support Haiti with “non-food” provisions for 60,000 displaced people in the border region and other areas.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that over 500,000 had been vaccinated over the past three months in Haiti as part of the post-disaster vaccination programme. In recent weeks there had been the acquisition and distribution of 937,000 long-lasting insecticide treated bednets to prevent malaria and, during the month of March, medicines that could treat 91,000 people had been delivered to mobile clinics inside the country. In terms of efforts in the health sector going forward, those were concentrated on improving access to quality primary health care for all Haitians, focusing in particular high impact, low cost actions targeting maternal and infant health, including caring for chronic and acute malnutrition. Some needs that were still continuing to be seen included caring for amputees and individuals with other disabilities. That care needed to be increased, and there was currently a lack of specialized care available outside of Port-au-Prince. WHO was also still working to identify sites without health care coverage and other areas where there were health care gaps, for example, with regard to psychosocial care.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that interagency efforts to decongest the Petionville Golf Course site, where some 50,000 people were sheltering, had begun this weekend. Yesterday, just under 300 persons had been transferred to the Corail Cesselesse site, some 11 kilometres north of the capital. The evacuation programme was needed to address both the congestion but also the insecurity of the Golf Course site in the face of the coming rainy season.

Asked about the controversy over reports of children being “spirited away” to the Dominican Republic, Ms. Berthiaume of UNICEF said that there had been some reports of children disappearing from orphanages and crèches. What UNICEF had done was to put in place systematic registration of all children in care. It was an ongoing process that was being carried out with the Ministry of Welfare. Children in camps were also being issued registration cards, and a family tracing and reunification system had been set up. It was not possible currently, however, to confirm that no alarming disappearances had occurred.

Somalia

Mr. Garwood said that at the back of the room was a press note on action WHO had taken to train nurses, doctors and midwives in Mogadishu to treat those affected by the violence in Mogadishu and the surrounding area in Somalia. Since last year, more than 100 Somali health workers had been trained. Mr. Garwood highlighted that there were only some 250 doctors in the country, 860 nurses and just 116 midwives. Those figures should be understood in comparison with a country of comparable size, for example Tunisia, where there were over 13,000 doctors and close to 30,000 nurses. There were only .11 healthcare workers per person in Somalia per 1,000 people, the lowest rate in the region and well below the 0.23 threshold level required to ensure essential health services.

Also on Somalia, Mr. Chauzy noted that IOM was working with UNICEF to carry out an awareness-raising campaign on HIV/AIDS to combat the stigma and prejudice faced by those infected in Somaliland, Puntland and South Central Somalia. It was a two-year programme financed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Asked about whether funds for its programmes were being diverted in the country, Mr. Garwood replied that they had seen no evidence of such a practice. At the moment, WHO was in a major financial crisis with regard to its programmes in the country – for which it had asked for $46 million for 2010 – so much so that staff on the ground reported that life saving activities for health would have to be severely curtailed if funding was not received urgently.

Answering on whether the brain drain had reduced the number of health workers in the country, Mr. Garwood replied that, before the most recent outbreak of violence, there had been reportedly some 300 doctors in the country. So there had been a slight reduction, which was in part due to “brain drain” or emigration, but also to the fact that several doctors had been killed in the violence.

Zambia: Refugee Deportations

Ms. Fleming said that UNHCR was protesting to the Zambian Government over a recent series of expulsions of refugees to Democratic Republic of Congo. A note verbale had been sent today to the Zambian authorities to express alarm at the developments, which had affected some 36 individuals from the Meheba refugee settlement in the country’s northwest. The refugees had been given no explanation regarding the reasons for their deportation or the possibility of challenging the decision under Zambian law. The first six people returned had been sent back in February, and included a pregnant woman. The latest group, comprising 30 people, had been sent back over the weekend, leaving spouses and children at Meheba. The deportations followed a security and police operation at the camp on 24 February, which had brought an end to a protracted demonstration by refugees. During that operation, a refugee woman had been shot and killed and several others injured, and some 150 persons had been arrested. UNHCR shared the Government’s interest in ensuring security and order in the refugee camps; however failure to conform to the laws and regulations of Zambia should be prosecution under national laws and not forcible expulsion.

Responding to questions, Ms. Fleming noted that UNHCR did have people on the ground in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, monitoring the situation of those forcibly returned. The deportees were not from that area, and had expressed an interest in returning to their home regions, so UNHCR was looking into facilitating that return, if it was safe for them to do so.

International Health Review Committee on Response to H1N1 Pandemic

Mr. Hartl of WHO noted that the International Health Review Committee looking into the response to the H1N1 pandemic had met in plenary this morning and had decided that it would create five technical subcommittees to look in depth into five issues. The first three of those subcommittees were now meeting: on capacity and preparedness; on alert and risk assessment; and on response to the pandemic. Those three technical subcommittees would report back to the plenary this afternoon, at 2:30 p.m. The afternoon plenary would be open to the public. Following those reports, the participants would break out again into two more subcommittees: one on International Health Review functions not related to the pandemic; and one on communications in general. Those subcommittees would meet for the rest of the afternoon. The plenary would then reconstitute tomorrow morning in public once again to review what was discussed at the last two subcommittees, including a report for submission.

Asked when the review committee would get back with a response or an outcome, Mr. Hartl said that an interim progress report would be submitted to the WHO Director-General tomorrow, so that Margaret Chan could respond to the World Health Assembly in May. As for the final report, the committee had a six-month time frame; that report would probably need to be finalized by October.

Other

Gaëlle Sévenier of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that the First Conference of Ministers Responsible for Meteorology in Africa had begun yesterday, gathering together some 350 participants, including some 30 ministers. The three first days would be devoted to an experts’ segment, followed by a two-day ministerial segment. At the Friday briefing she would have a press release on the Declaration that was expected to be adopted.

Mr. Chauzy announced that IOM had just published its migration profile on Mali today, which had found that Mali remained essentially a country of emigration, although increasing numbers of irregular migrants appeared to transit through Mali on their way to Europe via the Maghreb countries. The report also underscored a lack of reliable statistics on migration trends in Mali. For example, the number of Malians abroad was estimated at somewhere between 1.5 to 2.6 million. Malians largely migrated within the country, from poor rural zones to the capital, Bamako, or to neighbouring countries such as Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Nigeria and Ghana. Hardcopies of the report would be available in the press room this afternoon.