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 for the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General’s Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was in Gabon yesterday and would be returning to New York today. He will attend the Thirty-First Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which begins in Montego Bay, Jamaica on 4 July. While he is there, the Secretary-General will deliver the message that the international community must act with solidarity in addressing the impact of the sustained economic crisis, particularly on those most vulnerable. In addition to discussing the global economic situation, he will talk to CARICOM leaders about the need to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals and to keep moving forward in dealing with climate change. He will also talk about the United Nations’ support to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake in January 2010 and the security situation in the region.

Director-General’s Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, was meeting this morning with Joseph Deiss, who had been elected as President of the sixty-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly. Mr. Deiss would take over his duties as President on 14 September 2010. From 20 to 22 September Mr. Deiss would preside over the high-level segment of the General Assembly dedicated to the Millennium Development Goals, the MDG Summit.

Genera Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said in Geneva, the Conference on Disarmament would hold its next public plenary at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 6 July.

The forty-sixth session of the International Law Seminar, which is organized by the United Nations Office at Geneva on the occasion of the annual session of the International Law Commission, will take place at the Palais des Nations from 5 to 23 July 2010. The Seminar is open to nationals of Member States of the United Nations and is intended for post-graduate students and young university lecturers specializing in international law, junior government officials and jurists concerned with questions of international law in order to familiarize them with the work of the International Law Commission as well as with the codification and development of international law.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the World Meteorological Organization had asked her to inform journalists that they would be briefed on the latest updates on the El Niño and El Niña, probably next Tuesday.

UN Women

Ms. Momal-Vanian said this afternoon in New York, the General Assembly was scheduled to formally adopt a resolution establishing a new entity called UN Women, which would be the UN entity for gender equality and empowerment of women. This entity would consolidate and receive all the existing mandates and functions of the four current gender entities that existed, which were the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Empowerment of Women, the Division of the Advancement of Women, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. UN Women would be both a normative body, as well as an operational one. It would act as a secretariat and would carry out operational activities including guidance and technical support at the country level. It would be headed by an Under-Secretary-General, and would have its own executive board with members elected through ECOSOC, and it would report annually to the General Assembly through ECOSOC.

World Health Organization

Nyka Alexander of the World Health Organization said today the Chair of the Review Committee of the International Health Regulations, the Committee that was looking at lessons learned from the pandemic and how the international health regulations worked, would be available for the press. Today’s meeting of the Review Committee started at 3 p.m., and it was an open session, and the Chair would be available at the end of the meeting.

Ms. Alexander said WHO would be issuing an information note on suspected acute hemorrhagic fever in the Republic of Congo later today. And finally, there was a meeting of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the UN’s commission on food safety standards, next week from 5 to 9 July. There would be a press conference sometime next week which journalists would be informed about as soon as a time had been agreed upon.

WFP and Niger

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said today WFP was announcing that it would double the size of its operation in Niger to 4.7 million people, in light of the alarming results that had just emerged from a recent nutritional survey there. The survey found that acute malnutrition among children under the age of five had risen to 16.7 per cent, compared to 12.3 per cent during the same month last year. The emergency threshold for acute malnutrition was 15 per cent. The assessment also found out that cases of severe malnutrition among children under the age of five was 3.2 per cent, up from 2.1 per cent. A note with more details was available at the back of the room along with the press release itself. The report also found that children under the age of three were in particular risk. So WFP had decided to increase its current blanket supplementary feeding programme for children, specifically targeting all children under the age of two, across the board. In addition, WFP would provide a special family ration for all the families to prevent that this special nutrition food was split between other family members. There would also be an increase in food assistance to pregnant and lactating mothers. This operation would now be officially classified as an emergency operation, and they hoped to have it scaled up as of August. That would require an extra $ 100 million of funding on top of the current programme that WFP had, which was for approximately $ 140 million.

UNHCR and Somalia

Adrian Edwards of the UN Refugee Agency said despite the continuing deterioration in Somalia’s security and humanitarian environments, the latest data showed that the flow of refugees into most neighbouring countries had decreased considerably in comparison to the same period last year. The numbers of arrivals in Yemen and Kenya which had traditionally borne the brunt of the Somali refugees, were now down sharply. The reasons for this drop were not safer or more stable circumstances. The situation was, in fact, worsening and everyday violence and human rights in Somalia continued to displace thousands of civilians. Due to insecurity and lack of access to many parts of the country, UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations providing aid were facing great difficulties in reaching the millions of needs. It was becoming increasingly dangerous and difficult to flee Somalia. Many displaced civilians were effectively trapped inside the country. There were more details in the briefing notes. In the region, there were now almost 600,000 Somali refugees. After Afghanistan and Iraq, Somalia was generating the largest numbers of refugees from any place in the world.





Other

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said on Thursday, 8 July, the fiftieth executive session of the Trade and Development Board would be held. It would be dedicated to Africa and activities undertaken by UNCTAD in favour of Africa. It would include the presentation of the report of the Secretary-General on this theme, and in the afternoon, there would be a panel discussion on “the financial crisis, macroeconomic policy and the challenge of development in Africa”.

Ms. Sibut-Pinote said on 1 July, and following consultations with multiple stakeholders, UNCTAD had launched the Sustainability Claims Portal. This information tool -- for both consumers and producers -- aims to enhance the accountability and transparency of sustainability claims related to agricultural products and services. There were more details on the UNCTAD website. On other topics, the UNCTAD Secretary-General would participate in the Evian Group’s GARNET Capacity-building workshop on “trade, development and global governance and development: the way forward”. The workshop would be held in Lausanne on 7 July. And finally, UNCTAD had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration said a planned emergency relocation this week involving 263 families from a flood-prone area in Port-au-Prince was halted when armed persons threatened to disrupt the operation. The Haitian Government, IOM and international and non-governmental actors agreed that the health situation of the group was critical and that urgent action was required to prevent a public health crisis. A discussion with the local mayor resulted in a location being found and work began preparing the site. Relocation was supposed to start this week, but due to the threat of violence against staff and family, the operation has been temporarily suspended pending further negotiation.

Mr. Bloch said in Sri Lanka, the Australian Agency for International Development had pledged 3.3 million Australian dollars for three years to support IOM’s efforts to generate sustainable return and socio-economic reintegration of internally displaced people in the north and vulnerable communities affected by landslides in the centre of Sri Lanka.