REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Human Rights Council, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the World Meteorological Organization, and the World Health Organization.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families this morning was concluding its review of the second periodic report of Mexico. The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations on the report would be released on Friday, 8 April, the last day of the Committee’s session.

Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, would be participating in the ceremony to mark the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda to be held on Thursday, 7 April 2011 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Room XIX at the Palais des Nations. The Director-General, the Permanent Representative of Rwanda and others would be addressing the ceremony.

Also on Thursday, Mr. Ordzhonikidze would be signing a memorandum of understanding between the United Nations Office at Geneva and the French Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN) related to training for UN security guards.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had ordered UN flags to fly at half mast on Wednesday 6 April in memory of United Nations peacekeepers and staff who had lost their lives in recent days in Haiti, Côte d’Ivoire, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Yemen

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said OHCHR was very alarmed by reports of disproportionate and excessive use of force again in Yemen. This included use of machine guns apparently against peaceful protesters yesterday in Taez. That led to at least 15 deaths and dozens of serious injuries. This took the total reported death toll since the protests began in Yemen around 55 days ago to more than 100 people, and this was probably a conservative estimate. OHCHR called on the Government of Yemen to immediately cease the use of force against people exercising the right to peaceful protest and to fulfill its earlier commitment to establish a commission of inquiry into allegations of killings and abuse by Government forces. These included the incidents of 18 March where more than 45 people were reportedly killed in Sanaa as well as yesterday’s violent suppression of protests in Taez. There were also worrying reports of detention, harassment and expulsion of human rights defenders and journalists in Yemen. OHCHR also called on the Government of Yemen to halt the targeting of minorities, particularly a marginalized group commonly referred to as the Akhtam. OHCHR called on the Government to heed the calls for human rights reforms in the country and urged a meaningful dialogue between the Government and the opposition towards a peaceful agreement to find a way forward and stop the killings.

Côte d’Ivoire

Mr. Colville of OHCHR said the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ivan Simonovic, head of the New York OHCHR office, had arrived in Abidjan on Sunday, 3 April to evaluate the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in the country. In Abidjan, OHCHR was extremely concerned about the situation of the civilians. It was a large city with millions of civilians and heavy weapons were being used inside this densely populated urban area, reportedly leading to dozens of deaths in recent days. Yesterday, the Assistant Secretary-General flew to Duekoue along with Valerie Amos, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, to link up with a UN human rights team already on the ground looking at the reported mass killings that took place there last week. They hoped to learn more about precisely what went on there when he returned. At this point, it appeared that several hundred civilians were killed in at least two separate incidents, and many others may have been killed in direct fighting between armed militias. The Human Rights Council had set up a commission of inquiry for Côte d’Ivoire and they would of course inevitably be looking into the killings in Duekoue and elsewhere and OHCHR stood ready to help the commission of inquiry in any way possible.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM had deployed staff to Duekoue to help register and assist up to 25,000 internally displaced persons who had sought refuge in and around a Catholic mission and who were in dire need of food, water, shelter, medical and sanitation assistance. The current overcrowded and unsanitary conditions had led to an outbreak of diarrhoeal diseases and skin infections among the displaced. Some of the persons were injured and needed medical assistance. In an effort to reduce overcrowding in the mission and church, IOM was working with the local authorities and humanitarian partners to identify new safe sites for the displaced. IOM had learnt that some 400 people who had fled Duekoue last week had found refuge in another Catholic mission in the town of Zouan Housien, near the Liberian border. They were part of a much larger group of some 4,000 displaced persons on their way to the nearby town of Guiglo, where displaced persons continued to arrive to escape threats of violence and retaliation. IOM had received a desperate request for assistance from a group of some 3,000 Malian migrants, including many women and children, who had been living for the past 10 days in the basement and the halls of the Malian Embassy in Abidjan. The Director General of IOM, William Lacy Swing, this morning urged the warring parties not to target civilians and migrant workers and to ensure their protection and safety. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the humanitarian situation in Abidjan was alarming. Explosions could be heard this morning starting 5:20 a.m. from almost everywhere in Abidjan. Most of the hospitals were not functioning in Abidjan. There was a shortage of oxygen. Thousands of people were stranded in their homes, many without water or electricity. Public services were not functioning and dead bodies had been on the streets for several days because ambulances were fired on when they tried to enter Abidjan. The international airport was closed. Access to the civilian population in Abidjan was impossible because of the fighting. OCHA reiterated the need for the warring parties to protect the civilians. Valerie Amos, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, had visited Duekoue yesterday where she had visited the Catholic mission and the internally displaced persons who had sought refuge there. She also visited a Protestant church where 1,000 persons had sought refuge. Ms. Amos had spoken with the humanitarian actors and with the internally displaced persons.

Libya

Ms. Byrs of OCHA said the Flash Appeal for Libya had been updated from $ 160 million to $ 310.8 million. The first appeal for $ 160 million had received $ 113 million (70 per cent) in funding towards its original requirements. There were more details in the briefing notes. Responding to a question, Ms. Byrs said it was now estimated that up to 1,505,830 people may be affected by the conflict and require some form of humanitarian aid. Once more information was known about the situation in Libya, it would be possible to revise the Flash Appeal.

Marixie Mercado of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF’s regional security officer was part of the security assessment in Libya now, and UNICEF child protection and water/sanitation and hygiene officers were part of the inter-agency assessment team leaving for Libya today. From Benghazi, the most critical needs reported were for medical staff, and for surgery related medical equipment. Needs for the internally displaced also included shelter and hygiene items. UNICEF was currently distributing emergency health kits (60,000 people) through one of their partners in Benghazi, the International Medical Corps, and they would be distributing hygiene kits over the next days. UNICEF anticipated a significant need for psychosocial support to children and women, and together with Save the Children, they were training trainers who would be deployed inside Libya as soon as conditions permit. On the Egyptian and Tunisian borders, they had seen a significant increase in the numbers of children and women at the Egyptian and Tunisian border crossings in the past days. On the Egyptian side, the number of children at Salloum border crossing had trebled to 450 on April 2, from just 147 on 29 March. The number of women had doubled, from 146 to 300, including 20 pregnant women. On the Tunisian side, there were 650 children at Shousha and UAE camps, up from 335 on 31 March. There were also over 2,700 people who were not willing to go back to their countries of origin from Somalia, Eritrea, Iraq, and the occupied Palestinian territory. On funding – as of yesterday, UNICEF had only received 20 per cent of their $ 13 million appeal.

Mr. Chauzy of IOM said IOM had launched an appeal last Friday as it had no more money for its evacuation and repatriation operations. Promises of funds had not materialized yet. IOM urged donor countries to support its work.

Responding to a question, Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General was in Libya, including in the eastern part, and he had reported back to the Security Council yesterday.

Human Rights Council/Libya

Cedric Sapey of the Human Rights Council said the three high-level experts appointed to the independent and international commission of inquiry established by the Human Rights Council to investigate abuses during the ongoing political unrest in Libya were in Geneva and would hold a press conference at 9:45 a.m. on Friday, 8 April in Salle III.



Other

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said the third session of the multi-year expert meeting on services, development and trade: the regulatory and institutional dimension would be meeting in Geneva from 6 to 8 April in Geneva. These services included production and provision of energy services, financial services, communication and telecommunications services and transport services. The objective of the meeting was to assist developing countries, especially African countries and least developed countries, as well as countries with economies in transition, in establishing regulatory and institutional frameworks and cooperative mechanisms to support the strengthening of their domestic services capacity and its efficiency, competitiveness and export capabilities. A media alert and the programme of the session would be sent to journalists later this afternoon.

Ms. Sibut-Pinote said the fifty-second executive session of UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Board would be held from 11 to 12 April 2011 in Geneva. The session would adopt the themes for the Thirteenth Conference on Trade and Development to be held in 2012 in Qatar.

Brigitte Leoni of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said ISDR would be holding a press conference on Thursday, 7 April 2011, at 10 a.m. in press room 1 on
the initial disaster risk reduction lessons learned from the Tohoku earthquake and
30 days before the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction (10-13 May). Helena Molin Valdes, Deputy Director of UNISDR, would be speaking.

Claire Nullis of the World Meteorological Organization said the embargo on the press release on the record stratospheric ozone loss in the Arctic in the spring of 2011 had been broken and journalists were now free to use it.

Mr. Chauzy of IOM said that the threat of imminent eviction loomed over some 166,000 displaced persons living in camps in Haiti, according to the findings of a comprehensive report published by IOM. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said Thursday, 7 April was World Health Day. This afternoon at 2 p.m. in Salle III, there would be press conference on the launch of the WHO policy package to combat drug resistance. The press conference was under embargo until 00h1 on 7 April local time.

Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization said there would be an additional update on the WHO website today reiterating that for anyone outside Japan, there was currently no health risk from the radiation that was occurring as a result of the leakage from the nuclear power plant. Tomorrow, WHO would probably be putting out some new “questions and answers” on food safety issues.