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 and representatives of the World Food Programme, the International Organization for Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organization and the International Telecommunication Union.

Committee on the Rights of the Child

Ms. Momal-Vanian said today at 5.30 p.m. the Committee would hold its closing session. During that session, the Committee would present concluding observations on the 10 country reports it had examined during this session which had started on 13 September.

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women would meet from 4 to 22 October. It would examine the reports submitted by the Bahamas, Burkina Faso, the Czech Republic, Malta, Tunisia, Uganda and India. A background release had been distributed last night.

Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Also next week, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would meet for a one-week session from 4 to 8 October, said Ms. Momal-Vanian. The Committee had taken up its work in February 2009 and would not yet examine any reports. Rather, the sessions of the Committee would be primarily dedicated to discussing the Committee’s working methods. A background release had been distributed last night.

DR Congo human rights report

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) would publish today at 3 p.m. the report on the human rights violations that had occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1993 and 2003. The report would be available at 3 p.m. in Press Room 1 and would be downloadable in English and French on the OHCHR website, along with a press release, comments by concerned States, and eight backgrounders.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said there would be no press conference, but a number of OHCHR staff would be available for interviews in English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. The telephone numbers to be used for interview requests were available in the media advisory at the back of the room.

International Days of Older Persons and Non-Violence

Ms. Momal-Vanian said today was the International Day of Older Persons. She added that by 2050 the global population of older persons above the age of 60 would total two billions. The message of the United Nations Secretary-General on this Day was available at the back of the room.

Also available at the back of the room were copies of the Secretary-General’s message on the International Day of Non-Violence. The International Day of Non-Violence was tomorrow, 2 October, and coincided with the birth date of Mahatma Gandhi.

Pakistan

Ms. Momal-Vanian said today at 11.30 a.m. a press conference would take place in Room 3 on the emergency response and recovery operation in Pakistan, conducted by the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme and the United Nations Children's Fund.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) added that representatives of these three organizations had just returned from a field visit to Pakistan. The latest operational brief was available at the back of the room and provided more details on what had been done in Pakistan over the recent weeks.

Ms. Casella said Pakistan entered the third month of the flood emergency. In September, the WFP had completed distributions to 6 million people and in October it would be targeting 7.1 million people for food assistance.

Ms. Casella went on to say that a helicopter used by the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service, the WFP-operated air service for the humanitarian community, had to make a forced landing this morning in Sindh province. The incident took place during a mission aimed at delivering high-energy biscuits to flood-affected populations. The helicopter had 12 passengers on board, but there had been no fatalities. A Pakistani military unit that was near the crash site helped to rescue those inside the helicopter and moved injured passengers to a nearby military hospital. On board were five Russian crew members, four Pakistani passengers, one Sudanese passenger and two Australians. The rescue and recovery operation at the site of the incident was almost concluded, the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan had been informed, and investigations into the incident would be conducted, Ms. Casella affirmed. At present there was no indication explaining the forced landing.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said most of the victims in Kyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab had returned home. However, the Government and aid agencies faced massive challenges in meeting the shelter needs of victims ahead of the upcoming winter. About 20.36 million people were affected by the floods and about 75 per cent of those people were in Sindh and Punjab.

Ms. Pandya said families returning home had to salvage any possessions and replant their fields for winter harvest which was difficult as most had lost their seeds and tools. In Kyber Pakhtunkhwa, winter was fast approaching and the temperatures would be plummeting later this month, while parts of the province often experienced snowfall by early November. The IOM-led cluster of over 70 aid agencies providing shelter was racing to deliver shelter materials and insulation, together with warm clothing, to help to create one "warm room" for every family to survive the winter.

Meanwhile, IOM, its partners, and the Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority had agreed this week on a flexible "early recovery" shelter strategy. This combined "core shelter" reconstruction of damaged and destroyed homes, based on individual family needs, and "transitional shelter" solutions for families who were unable to return to their land. However, implementation required funding and shelter material procurement of an unprecedented scale.

Assessments carried out by cluster partners Oxfam, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank were conducted to gauge Pakistan's capacity to meet its huge demand for construction and shelter materials to implement the strategy. An Oxfam Emergency Market Mapping Analysis looking at the availability and cost of local bamboo and timber for reconstruction and had concluded that prices had risen by 10 to 15 percent, but materials would be available for the next 3 to 4 months.

Ms. Pandya said so far only 31 percent of the US$2 billion PFERP appeal was funded. Although in-kind donations and funding were still coming in, millions of people were not assisted as yet. To present, shelter cluster agencies had helped about 3.15 million people, but this was only about a quarter of all people without shelter protection.

Sri Lanka

Jemini Pandya said IOM had this week taken delivery of a third shipment of corrugated iron sheets donated by India to provide roofing for thousands of displaced families returning to their home areas in northern Sri Lanka. IOM had helped more than 225,000 displaced people to return to their homes from the displacement camps and host families over the past year, but many of these people were still desperately in need of decent housing. IOM had constructed almost 4,640 transitional shelters using timber frames and corrugated iron sheets, but it was in a race against time to build more of these as the monsoon season approached.

Nigeria

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said a joint team of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and OCHA were presently in Nigeria to follow the lead pollution in Zamfare State, Nigeria, where several villages had been polluted. The Experts had taken samples of soil, well water, and pond water, and would spend the next two days working in a mobile laboratory in Anka town to analyze the samples gathered. The team would soon conclude its work and provide a report to Government and authorities in mid- to late October.

Ms. Byrs said the conclusions and recommendations of that report would help improving the response to the current situation. Many decontaminations had already been conducted or continued, but had been slowed down by the raining season.

Experts had concentrated their efforts on Bagega town where they found air mercury levels of 5,000 nanogrammes per cubic meter, while the maximum level stood at 50. Mercury was related to gold extraction processes and created problems of the nervous system and digestive apparatus when inhaled.

Several partners were present, including the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, and Doctors without Borders-Holland, Ms. Byrs said, adding that Doctors without Borders-Holland treated affected children in four clinics.

Green Star Awards

Elisabeth Byrs said Green Cross, OCHA and UNEP searched for candidates for the next Green Star Awards. The Green Star Award, launched in 2008, was rewarded to individuals, organizations, Governments or private enterprises that had demonstrated leadership in reducing the environmental impacts of natural disasters. A press release on this topic was available at the back of the room.

Somalia/Displacement

Melissa Fleming of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said new satellite images illustrated the massive scale of displacement in and around Mogadishu, where thousands of more people were fleeing every week. The satellite images enabled to identify more precisely the number of people concerned and UNHCR had now revised its estimation upwards, from 366,000 to 410,000 people. Twelve-thousand people had fled into the Afgooye corridor in the last four weeks alone.

Ms. Fleming said five minutes of satellite images would be made available on the UNHCR website later today. UNHCR had used satellite technology to know how many people were concerned and provide appropriate assistance. So far, this had been extremely difficult.

People were trying to survive going in and out of Mogadishu, Ms. Fleming said, adding that the Afgooye corridor was fast becoming the capital of Somalia’s displaced persons. Video footage of the situation in the Afgooye corridor was also available and would be sent out today.

Asked about the security situation in the camps, Ms. Fleming said the area was considered relatively safe. While no fighting was taking place in the Afgooye corridor, the difficult security situation made it difficult for UNHCR and its partners to operate in Mogadishu at all.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) added that WFP had been unable to conduct a general food delivery in that area since last November 2009.

DR Congo/Irregular migration

Jemini Pandya said IOM had launched the second phase of an information campaign on the dangers of irregular migration in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The campaign was funded by the Belgian government and used various channels with an aim to reach five million people in Kinshasa and the coastal province of Bas-Congo. Very little data was available on migration from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ms. Pandya said.

New UNHCR policies

Melissa Fleming said UNHCR was revising its policies to protect people prosecuted over sexual orientation or gender identity. It called on States and Governments around the world to support this commitment through improved understanding and recognition of the particular vulnerabilities of these groups.

UNHCR had been aware of this situation, but the need for action had become more acute with the results of a survey conducted among experts, Governments, non-governmental organizations and judiciary professionals. The survey had concluded that people prosecuted over sexual orientation or gender identity were facing dangers, difficulties and discrimination at every stage of displacement. These risks were significant and could not be ignored, Ms. Fleming said, adding that seven countries even imposed the death penalty, while many posed significant problems to such asylum-seekers. It was hoped that the implementation of UNHCR's new policies would help to more easily recognize people prosecuted over sexual orientation or gender identity.

Angola Polio vaccination campaign

Rod Curtis of the World Health Organization announced that national immunization days would be conducted in Angola from today until Sunday and would be repeated at the month. These campaigns were not only critical to stopping Polio in Angola, but also to stopping Polio in all of Africa, with Angola quickly becoming the greatest threat to Polio eradication on the continent.

Mr. Curtis said only three countries in Africa had recorded any cases in the past four months, namely Nigeria, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Democratic Republic of Congo had been infected with Polio across the boarder from Angola. Also, areas in Angola that had previously been free from Polio had been re-infected this year from an expanding outbreak. However, there had not been any case in West Africa since Mali, on 1 May, and the Horn of Africa was officially Polio-free as of July, Mr. Curtis said.

The campaigns would be aiming to reach 5.6 million children with 7 million doses of oral polio vaccine. There was also a need to close existing immunization gaps. Up to 30 per cent of children were missed in campaigns and this had become a real focus for the national immunization days. WHO believed that the outbreak could be rapidly stopped, even by the end of the year, if these gaps were closed.

Marixie Mercado of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said given the upsurge in cases, UNICEF and WHO emphasized that, now more than ever, the key to ending Polio was the full mobilization and commitment of all sectors and all stakeholders at all levels. Particularly important was the engagement by local-level administrative leadership in planning and implementing the campaigns. It was these individuals especially who could see to it that all levels of society were mobilized to reach every child.

Over the next three days and again at the end of the month, UNICEF, WHO and Rotary International were supporting tens of thousands of volunteers, health workers, parents, communities and traditional leaders to go from house to house and village to village to make sure that every child under the age of 5 was reached with a Polio vaccine. The whole world was watching this outbreak because the future of a polio-free Africa was at risk, Ms. Mercado stressed.

Children in Yemen

Marixie Mercado said at the back of the room was a press release from the Yemen country office expressing great concern about the impact of the increased violence in the South of the country on children. Around 2,000 families, which is around 15,000 people, had been displaced by the recent clashes in Al-Hauta town in Shabwah Governorate. UNICEF and its partners were providing immediate assistance to 700 of these most vulnerable displaced families and supporting the preparation for the return to their communities.

Annual UNHCR Executive meeting

Melissa Fleming went on to say that the UNHCR Annual Executive Committee meeting would take place next week in the Palais des Nations. The schedule was available at the back of the room. The Geneva press corps would be able to meet with the High Commissioner at the end of the meeting.

Meeting of ITU Plenipotentiary Conference

Sanjay Acharya of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said the Union’s governing body, the Plenipotentiary Conference comprising 192 Member States, would meet in Guadalajara, Mexico, from 4 to 22 October. The main focus of the Conference, which met every four years, was to make decisions on the strategic plan and the budget for the Union. Elections would take place at the end of next week. ITU had five elected officials, but there were no contestants for the posts of the Secretary-General, the Deputy Secretary-General, and the Director of the Standardization Bureau who entered their second terms of office. The posts of the Directors of the Radiocommunication Bureau and the Telecommunication Development Bureau were up for election. Additionally, elections would be held to the 46-Member ITU Council and the Radio Regulations Boards which had 12 posts. Issues up for discussion during the next three weeks included cybersecurity, strategies to roll out broadband, improving access to information and communication technologies of people with disabilities, and strengthening emergency communications in the wake of natural disasters, Mr. Acharya said.