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 also attended by Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Environmental Programme and the International Labour Organization.

Secretary-General Launches High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday launched a High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability that would be co-chaired by President Tarja Halonen of Finland and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa. The Panel would address the question of how to lift people out of poverty while respecting and preserving the climate and natural systems that sustained the world. The members of the panel included some of the world’s leading thinkers and policy makers from government, business and civil society. The Secretary-General said he expected the Panel not only to think big, but also to come up with practical answers that addressed the institutional and financial arrangements that would be needed to put such a new blueprint into practice. The Panel would report by the end of 2011, next year, in time to feed into key intergovernmental processes -- including the UN Conference on Sustainable Development that would take place in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 and the annual conferences of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

High-Level Meeting on Disarmament

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General would be convening a high-level meeting on disarmament in New York on 24 September. This would provide a unique opportunity to discuss how to revitalize the work of the Conference on Disarmament and build consensus on the broader challengers of disarmament, including moving forward on a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty. The meeting would be open to all States parties and not just members of the Conference on Disarmament.

Secretary-General and Afghanistan

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General and his Special Representative for Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, had strongly condemned the assassination of 10 humanitarian workers in the province of Badakhshan in the north of Afghanistan. Secretary-General Ban said he was “shocked and horrified” by the murder of the 10 health humanitarian actors. He condemned this grave crime.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was continuing its session at the Palais Wilson. This morning, it would conclude the report of Romania, and this afternoon and tomorrow morning, it would review the report of Australia. The reports of France and Slovenia would also be taken up this week.

The Conference on Disarmament was today holding the first public plenary in the third and last part of its 2010 session which would conclude on 24 September. There were two speakers on today’s list, Japan and Cuba.

WHO Briefing on Pandemic Influenza H1N1

Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, would address a virtual press briefing today at 3 p.m. The subject would be H1N1. Dr. Keiji Fukuda, Special Adviser on Pandemic Influenza, would come to the press room after the virtual briefing to respond to any remaining questions. The media advisory which was distributed said the briefing came following a meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee.

In response to a question, Mr. Hartl said the Emergency Committee had made its recommendations which were now being finalized by the Director-General. They would then be sent to the national focal points of the 184 Member States of WHO. The recommendations and decisions would be made public at the 3 o’clock briefing. They could only be made public after the national focal points were advised first.

Panel of Inquiry on the Flotilla Incident

Claire Kaplun of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said as journalists knew, the President of the Human Rights Council had appointed the three members of the Panel of Inquiry on the flotilla incident of 31 May, and the team had started their work yesterday, supported by members of the OHCHR secretariat and three external consultants. They were organizing their work plan and would be holding consultations this week and next week in Geneva, including with the concerned countries, and would then fly to the Middle East. A press briefing was being organized for next week.

Asked if the panel had visas, Ms. Kaplun said the contacts with the concerned countries would be held this week, and she hoped that they would have a response about visas and such by next week.

Secretary-Secretary’s Statement on International Youth Day

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the International Youth Day was commemorated on 12 August. The Secretary-General’s statement on this day was available. This year, the International Youth Day would also launch the International Year of Youth.

Pakistan

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the UN Secretary-General has said he was extremely concerned about the humanitarian impact of the floods in Pakistan. He said the scale of this disaster rivaled that of the earthquake in October 2005, but this time the geographic range was much greater. He had sent his special envoy, Jean-Maurice Ripert, who was in Pakistan right now working with the authorities to assess needs and mobilize aid. The United Nations on the ground was working to supplement the efforts of the Government and local and international non-governmental organizations to provide immediate relief -- food, clean drinking water, shelter and health materials.

Secretary-General Ban said the local Emergency Relief Fund and the Central Emergency Response Fund had already made resources available for the agencies and organizations in the front line. They would soon issue an Emergency Response Plan and an appeal for several hundred million dollars to respond to immediate needs. But he stressed that they must also give thought to medium and longer-term assistance. This would be a major and protracted task.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the Appeal for the Emergency Response Plan for Pakistan would be launched in New York on Wednesday, 11 August by John Holmes, the Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, and by representatives of the Government of Pakistan. The UN relief agencies were concentrating on the six million persons in direct need of humanitarian assistance. Of those six million persons, four million were in Punjab. According to preliminary assessments, more than 600,000 hectares were submerged under water, their harvests destroyed. This was worrying because Punjab was the breadbasket of Pakistan. Prices were increasing, which would continue to cause problems. A seven-person OCHA team was on the ground and had started a rapid evaluation process, especially in Punjab and the south of Sindh provinces. A centre of humanitarian coordination had been established in Islamabad, and a virtual centre of operations had been activated. According to initial estimates, more than 290,000 homes had been damaged or destroyed in the floods. Priority needs included providing shelter to more than 2 million persons. These were still very preliminary estimations as the real extent of the destruction would be available only after the waters had receded. This was not expected for a while as it would continue to rain in the upcoming days and monsoons would continue for one month. All barrages were on alert. There was some difficulty in delivering the food to the affected communities, and all kinds of transportation were being used, including donkeys and mules, on foot and other ways. They were having trouble reaching a few very isolated communities who were trapped by flood water. Available at the back of the room was a list of the humanitarian assistance received so far, totaling more than $ 44 million in funds that had been received, and up to $ 91 million in pledges. They were now waiting for the launch of the Emergency Response Plan in New York.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said the weather conditions improved slightly yesterday, allowing WFP to get its helicopters off the ground for the first time in three days to help the affected people in Pakistan. Bad weather had grounded the helicopters throughout the weekend. Essentially, this meant that 600,000 people had been cut off by flooding in the upper Swat valley. The helicopter operations continued yesterday and this morning. So far, WFP had been able to reach nearly 340,000 persons with a one-month food ration in the worst parts of the affected areas. The situation still remained very difficult. As OCHA had just said, they were now targeting up to 6 million persons who needed food assistance as a result of the floods. Some would need assistance for a short period only, but they were expecting that around two million persons would likely need help for at least three months. The cost of the WFP portion of the Response Plan, which would be launched in more detail tomorrow, was anticipated to be around $ 150 million for the food and logistics support operation. WFP was also scaling up its assistance to flood-affected communities.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said WHO was coordinating the international health response in support of the Government of Pakistan through the Health Cluster mechanism. Supporting the Government of Pakistan, WHO was coordinating the work of UN agencies and non-governmental organizations working in the health sector. They were treating tens of thousands of people through mobile and fixed health facilities in affected areas throughout the country. Since 31 July, health cluster partners had carried out 200,000 patient consultations, out of which over 5,000 cases were for diarrhea. WHO has supplied diarrhea kits to district health departments to deal with any outbreak. So far, WHO had provided 129 Emergency Health Kits, 144 cholera kits, 3 surgical supply kits, 1,500 Hygiene Kits and 750 anti snake venom injections. These kits would cover the needs of around 800,000 people for one month. Despite the international response and the aid in the health sector that had already been delivered, it was insufficient in dealing with all the health problems in the affected regions. One of the main challenges was access to safe water. The three leading diseases reported so far were acute diarrhea, scabies and acute respiratory tract infections.
So far there were reports that at least 44 health facilities had been partially damaged or destroyed. However, assessments were continuing and the picture might change in the coming days.

Marco Jimenez of the United Nations Children’s Fund said so far approximately 14 million persons had been affected by the floods, of which approximately 6 million were children. In Khyber Pakthunkkhwa, intermittent rain continued to hamper assistance efforts in the field. Rescue operations by the Government had concluded. In Punjab, several distorts had been affected by the floods, with loss of lives and property. Assessments were still underway and rescue operations continued. The authorities had set up 170 relief camps for the benefit of 22,000 people. Sindh was preparing for the arrival of the flood waters. The needs remained to be shelter, drinking water, sanitation facilities and food and medicines. Despite the relief aid being delivered to the people, there were still enormous needs and in comparison they were still only covering this need at a very limited extent. Relief operations had to be massively scaled up. In terms of health, UNICEF was delivering oral rehydration salts for some 2.1 million children. It was also supporting the health authorities in a measles vaccination campaign, a new risk, in addition to the risks of diarrhea and cholera which were mentioned last week. More than 18,000 people in remote areas had so far received medical treatment. In terms of water, more than 830,000 people were now receiving clean water through the restoration of tube wells and water tankers. Hygiene kits had been distributed so far for the benefit of 140,000 people.

Andrej Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said Pakistan’s flooding was testing the limits of the country’s emergency response capacity, as well as that of UNHCR and other UN and international agencies to respond. UNHCR staff in Pakistan said the situation was among the most difficult they had faced. Thousands of villages and towns in low-lying areas had not seen flooding on this scale in generations. Across the country, Pakistan’s Federal Flood Commission put the number of homes destroyed or damaged at more than 300,000, with more than 14,000 cattle having perished and 2.6 million acres of crop land under water. So far some 1,600 people have been killed, but many millions of Pakistanis and Afghan refugees had been affected by the flooding. UNHCR’s main relief work had been in the north where flooding had been most severe. Normally UNHCR’s work there was geared towards Afghan refugees and conflict displaced Pakistanis, but in this instance they were working equally for all affected communities, both Pakistan and Afghan. Currently some routes were blocked, and in several places they were contending with difficult security conditions. Of the 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees, 1.4 million resided in the worst hit areas. Many people were now without shelter and had lost their food, livestock and all their possessions. UNHCR has been working in coordination with the Government, UN agencies and charities on the ground to respond to the crisis and meet the needs for food, shelter, medicine and water. Although UNHCR had the benefit of a presence in Pakistan’s Khyber Pashtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces dating back more than 32 years, meeting the demands of this crisis was a massive challenge. So far UNHCR had provided more than 41,000 plastic tarpaulins, 14,500 family tents, 70,000 blankets, 40,000 sleeping mats, 14,800 kitchen sets, 26,600 jerry cans, 18,600 plastic buckets, 17,700 mosquito nets and 13.3 tons of soap. On Monday UNHCR sent 1,000 tents to southern Sindh Province, where floodwaters were still rising. Today, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, they were dispatching 300 tents and family kits to Utmanzai, 500 tents and 1,000 family kits to Upper Dir, 193 tents, family kits and plastic tarpaulins to Khazana, 300 tents, family kits and plastic tarpaulins to Azakahel and 75 of each to Khursan. UNHCR would be part of the emergency appeal which would be launched tomorrow in New York.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization of Migration said the situation in Pakistan was continually changing as the waters moved from north to south, and access to the affected areas continued to be a major issue. Concerning IOM operational activities over the weekend and finishing up yesterday, IOM completed a distribution of 500 tents donated by the UK Department for International Development and airlifted into Islamabad's Chaklala Airbase by the Royal Airforce on Saturday night. IOM trucks driving through heavy rain on flood-damaged roads delivered the first of the tents to destitute families in Gubella village in Charsadda district within 12 hours of their arrival in Pakistan. Half the tents were trucked to Charsadda, the other half to equally hard-hit Nowshera district, together with 500 buckets and kitchen sets donated by IOM. IOM expected to take delivery of and distribute another 1,000 tents and 4,100 shelter kits donated by the UK Department for International Development today. Later this week IOM would take delivery of a further 24,000 buckets and 48,600 blankets donated by the UK Department for International Development.

Mr. Bloch said the Emergency Shelter Cluster of aid agencies working with the Government to deliver emergency shelter and other non-food relief items to the displaced said that they expected the number of displaced families to rise from an estimated 250,000 to 300,000. The cost of providing them with tents, shelter kits using plastic or tin sheet, and other non-food relief items such as buckets, jerry cans, kitchen sets and blankets could reach $ 105 million, according to the group, which comprised 41 local and international agencies, including the UN and the Red Cross / Red Crescent, and was coordinated by IOM.

UNEP and Cleaning Up Oil Spills in the Niger Delta

Mike Cowing of the United Nations Environmental Programme said he was here to update journalists on what UNEP was doing in the Niger Delta regarding the clean up of oil spills. UNEP was invited by the Government of Nigeria in 2007 to undertake a comprehensive environmental assessment of the causes and the impacts of oil spills within part of the Niger Delta, within an area referred to as Ogoniland. UNEP was ask to do this because the powers that be saw that addressing the environmental problems relating to the oil spill and the impact on public health would have a peace dividend in the Niger Delta, which was a very troubled part of West Africa. UNEP started work in Ogoniland in October 2009, mobilizing a very large international team, establishing an office in Port Harcourt, and recruiting a number of local experts. Presently UNEP had a team of more than 100 persons, national and international staff, working on this assessment in Ogoniland. UNEP was examining the environment in the area to see how many oil spills there actually were, of which there were several hundred oil spills. UNEP was taking soil, sediment, water, plant tissue and animal tissue samples for laboratory analysis so that they could determine comprehensively for the first time what was the true impact of the oil spills on the health of the people and the environment of the Niger Delta. This was the largest such scientific investigation undertaken by UNEP, and possibly by any entity globally. They were collecting thousands of samples for analysis and carrying out detailed three dimensional monitoring and modeling in terms of how much pollution was in the soil, what the impact on agriculture and fisheries had been, and the impact on forestry and public health through the ingestion of contaminated water, food stock and inhalation of contaminated air through the burning of hydrocarbons. UNEP would complete this assessment by December 2010 including their recommendations on how Ogoniland and the Niger Delta could be cleaned up. The oil spills in the Niger Delta had probably been continuing for nine years, but had not received the kind of attention like that received by the spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico situation was an operational accident. What was happening in the Niger Delta was a very different situation. This was a proliferation of oil spills through criminal activities, through the theft of oil by sabotaging the oil wells and also sabotaging the main pressurized supply lines. Only around 10 per cent of the oil spills by number and by volume actually related to equipment failure. UNEP was working with the Nigerian authorities, the Federal Government, the State Governments, the Navy and others. The UNEP position was clear. It was not appropriate to start talking about an environmental clean up until such time as the root causes of the spills were addressed. UNEP was working in a high security environment. There was a very high level of criminality, hostage taking, kidnapping and violent armed crime. However, UNEP still had 40 to 50 staff working in the field every day. Over the past 9 months, its work had been incident free, despite facing challenges and threats.

In response to a question, Mr. Cowing said the report would be holistic in nature. They would be discussing what they saw as the root causes of the problems. They would be talking about good governance, transparency, accountability, corruption and malpractices.

ILO Report on Impact of Global economic Crisis on Youth

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said on Thursday, 12 August, to mark the International Youth Day, ILO would launch the fourth edition of the Global Employment Trends for Youth 2010, a special issue dealing with the impact of the global economic crisis on youth. There would be a press conference on Wednesday, 11 August at 11 a.m. in press room 1.

UNHCR and Eritrean Refugees in Ethiopia

Andrej Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was encouraged by last week’s decision of the Ethiopian authorities to significantly relax movement restrictions for Eritrean refugees through the introduction of a so called ‘out-of-camp’ scheme. This new policy essentially allowed Eritrean refugees to live outside camps and in any part of the country, provided that they were able to sustain themselves financially or had a close or distant relative or a friend in Ethiopia who committed to supporting them. This change in policy was a result of discussions between UNHCR and the Ethiopian Government focused on enabling Eritrean refugees to live outside camp settings. UNHCR welcomed the new policy, as it officially introduced a new approach for hosting refugees in Ethiopia. Besides allowing refugees to live in urban settings, it also improved their access to services and helps build bridges with host communities. It was UNHCR’s hope that this decision would eventually expand to include refugees from other countries as well. Many Somali and other refugees already lived in Ethiopian towns and cities with the knowledge of the authorities. Today, Ethiopia hosted some 138,000 refugees including Somalis, Eritreans and Sudanese. More than 36,000 Eritrean refugees lived in three camps and two community centres that were planned to be converted into refugee camps.



Zimbabwe

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said Zimbabwe was in an extremely bad situation in the past few years, and was very badly hit during the time of the high food price crisis. WFP, during the pre-harvest season in the early part of 2009, had 5.3 million people that it was feeding in Zimbabwe. But over the past year, that figure had been reduced to just over 1 million persons per month. This was due to a notable improvement in the agricultural situation and the crops in Zimbabwe. There was a joint press release from WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization. It highlighted that there had been a 20 per cent increase in the planting area for maize, which was quite significant. This would help many people in Zimbabwe. However, they would still have a shortfall in Zimbabwe, and there were still high prices affecting the poorest people in the country, who would not be able to purchase the food that had been harvested. WFP was anticipating that in the next pre-harvest season in the early part of 2011, WFP was expecting to have to provide food assistance to 1.6 million people during the lean season.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration said IOM had just released the 2009 Country Profile for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, highlighting the need for increase border management practices and also the declining immigration rate. There were more details in the report on the IOM website.