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 for the World Health Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Labour Organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Game-changing results of new trial on HIV prevention

Dr. Cate Hankins, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, said a new trial, funded by the United States National Institutes of Health, showed that if an HIV-positive person adhered to an effective antiretroviral therapy regimen the risk of transmitting the virus to their uninfected sexual partner could be reduced by 96 per cent. This was a first-ever and game-changing result, underscored Dr. Hankins.

The trial had enrolled more than 1,700 sero-discordant couples (one partner who is HIV-positive and one who is HIV-negative) from nine countries in Africa, Asia, the United States and Latin America. Only people living with HIV with a CD4 cell count of between 350 and 550, thus not yet eligible for treatment for their own health according to latest WHO guidelines, had been enrolled in the study. The reduction of sexual transmission of HIV had been so significant that the trial was stopped 3-4 years ahead of schedule.

The results of this new trial were a game-changer for couples, who could now think about a longer hope horizon and family planning. UNAIDS expected that the availability of treatment for prevention would not only empower people to get tested for HIV, but also to disclose their HIV status, discuss HIV prevention options with their partners and access essential HIV services, said Dr. Hankins.

World Health Assembly

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that, contrary to the information provided in last week’s media alert, Bill Gates would address the World Health Assembly from 12 noon to 12.30 p.m. on Tuesday 17 May, and would then give a press conference in Press Room III until 1 p.m. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan would also briefly address the press on that occasion before attending the opening of the meeting on the Fukushima incident (from 12.30 p.m. to 2 p.m. in Room XII, open to journalists).

Several WHO Press Officers would be based at the Palais during the World Health Assembly, including Ms. Chaib, who would work from Office A. 631. All contacts were in the list sent last week, a media alert had been sent out and journalists would be given an advance copy of Ms. Chan’s address to the World Health Assembly (to be checked against delivery).

World Meteorological Congress

Clare Nullis of the World Meteorological Organization said that the World Meteorological Congress, which meets every four years, opened 16 May until 3 June at the CICG. The Congress would be opened by outgoing WMO President Alexander Bedritskiy and WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. Jan Egeland, Co-chairman of a High-level Taskforce which had just launched its report on how to improve climate services and help countries adapt to climate adaptation, would present the report at 2.30 p.m. on Monday, 16 May.

There would be a High-Level Segment attended by Heads of State/Government and Ministers, on Monday and Tuesday, 16 and 17 May. The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, would speak at 3 p.m. on Monday. She would be followed by a number of other Ministers.

The Congress would consider WMO’s strategic plan, budget and future priorities for 2012-2015. It would appoint its Secretary-General and elect the President and Vice-Presidents and other members of the Executive Council. France has nominated Mr. Jarraud as Secretary-General for a third term of office, the maximum allowed by Congress, while Turkey had announced Mehmet Çaðlar, Director-General of the Turkish State Meteorological Service and Permanent Representative of Turkey to the WMO, as candidate. The proposed regular budget for 2012–2015 included regular resources (assessed contributions) of CHF 276 million, which represented zero growth from the 2008-2011 four-year financial period.

Ms. Nullis said the priorities which would be discussed included the proposed Global Framework for Climate Services, proposals to improve observation and information systems, to strengthen Disaster Risk Reduction activities, and to reinforce the Aeronautical Meteorological Services program in the light of increasing demands from the aviation industry. Full details were available on www.wmo.int

There would also be several side events, including on the Global Framework for Climate Services and observation and information systems. Another side event would be on satellites and space weather hazards on Tuesday 17 May, featuring the directors of the National Meteorological Hydrological Services of the United States, China and the United Kingdom, and of the International Civil Aviation Authority.

The Congress plenaries and working Committees were open to journalists. Contrary to what had been announced earlier, ACANU accreditation would be sufficient to gain access. A press release had been sent out this morning and WMO would be issuing regular press releases.

Middle East

Rupert Colville of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Office had been receiving reports of an escalation in the human rights violations in a number of countries in the Middle East, where the governments appeared to be continuing to deal with protests through increased repression and use of lethal force, rather than through dialogue, negotiation and real reforms.

Syria

Mr. Colville said that OHCHR had been receiving reports from human rights sources about the shelling of the Bab Amr district of Homs on Wednesday. In addition, it had received reports that many Syrian opposition leaders and activists had been arrested throughout the country. Reports of non-governmental organizations suggest that somewhere between 700 and 850 people had been killed since the start of the protests on 15 March and thousands of other people had reportedly been arrested. OHCHR could not verify these numbers for sure, but believed they were likely to be close to reality. These were extremely worrying reports and OHCHR urged the Government to exercise restraint, cease the use of force and of mass arrests to silence opponents.

With regards to the fact-finding mission to Syria, Mr. Colville said OHCHR had been in contact with the Syrian Government, both orally in Geneva and through a written approach to the Government in Damascus, seeking their full cooperation on the Human Rights Council-mandated fact-finding mission to assess the situation in Syria. Meanwhile, OHCHR was preparing for this high-level mission, which would be headed by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Kyung-wha Kang, and should be ready to deploy as soon as it was granted access. The mission planned to go both to Syria itself and to neighbouring countries. The Secretary-General had also called President Assad and urged him to cooperate with the OHCHR mission.

Yemen

Mr. Colville said that OHCHR had been following with great concern the reports of more human rights violations and continued killings in Yemen. While its staff had been working to get independent verification of the precise facts, the situation had been very difficult to assess from a distance. This was why OHCHR has been seeking access into the country, and just on Thursday it had received written confirmation from the Permanent Mission of Yemen in Geneva welcoming OHCHR's visit. They had suggested a visit at the end of June, but OHCHR stood ready to deploy urgently so that its human rights officers could independently assess the situation.

Bahrain

Mr. Colville said that OHCHR continued to receive reports indicating that the hundreds of individuals, including medical professionals, politicians and human rights defenders arrested in connection with the protest movement, were being denied their fundamental legal rights to due process. OHCHR had worrying reports of severe torture and that so far, four detainees had died while in custody.

OHCHR reiterated its call to Bahraini authorities for prompt, impartial and transparent investigations into these allegations of grave human rights violations. It was deeply concerned about the reported scale of arbitrary detention and of the trials of civilians before military courts, leading to life imprisonment and death sentences.

Côte d'Ivoire

Mr. Colville said that the human rights division of the UN Mission in Côte d’Ivoire had been visiting detention facilities to monitor the treatment of pro-Gbagbo individuals who were arrested last month along with the former president. They were monitoring the situation of detainees in Pergola, Bouake, Korhogo, Odienne and Bouna. Difficult conditions of detention had been observed during a visit this week to Bouna, where seven individuals (including Mr. Gbagbo’s son and the president of the former ruling party) were being detained. Security was very lax so that FRCI elements had been able to enter the facility and threaten the detainees.

The human rights division of the UN Mission in Côte d’Ivoire had so far been granted access only to those who were in detention in Bouake, where the conditions of detention were also of concern, and in Bouna, in the northeast of the country. OHCHR was discussing ways to gain free access to all those arrested in relation to the post-electoral crisis.

100th edition of the International Labour Conference

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said that sexual harassment at work was a serious problem which affected not only women, but also men. While sexual harassment was decreasing in some countries, the impact of the economic crisis on this phenomenon was being felt. A report dealing with sexual discrimination -- along with elimination of forced labour, abolition of child labour and union liberties -- would be published shortly to follow up on the ILO declaration on fundamental principles and rights.

Ms. Perthuis said that at the 100th edition of the International Labour Conference, starting on 1 June, there would be special sessions in addition to the regular work on such issues such as the situation of workers in the Occupied Arab Territories and child labour. There would be five high-level discussions, notably one on youth employment on 9 June, and it was hoped that a convention protecting the rights of domestic workers would be adopted. A technical background briefing would probably be held ahead of the conference, probably in the week commencing 23 May.

Confirmed participants included the Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority, the President of Finland (on 1 June), IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn (on 13 June) and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the President of Indonesia, the President of Tanzania and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (all on 14 June). A press release was at the back of the room and a more detailed programme would follow next week.

Fresh account from survivor of boat fleeing Libya

Melissa Fleming of the UN Refugee Agency said that UNHCR staff had yesterday morning met with three Oromo Ethiopian men who told UNHCR that they were among only nine survivors from a boat carrying 72 people that set out from Tripoli on 25 March. One of them said that their 12 metre boat destined for Europe had been packed to a point that there was barely standing room. The boat ran out of fuel, water and food and drifted for more than two weeks before reaching a beach in Libya.

The refugee said that military vessels had twice passed their boat without stopping, and that a military helicopter had dropped food and water onto the boat at some point during the journey. The first boat had refused their request to board. The second only took photos. The man was not able to identify where the vessels came from. He said that they paid smugglers USD 800 to make the journey. The passengers were expected to operate the boat on their own.

According to the refugee, when water ran out, people drank sea water and their own urine and ate toothpaste. One by one people started to die. The survivor said that they waited for a day or two before dropping the bodies into the sea. There had been 20 women and two small children on board. A woman with a two-year-old boy died three days before he died. The refugee described the anguish of the boy after his mother’s death.

After arrival on a beach near Zliten, between Tripoli and the Tunisian border, a woman died on the beach from exhaustion. The remaining 10 men walked to the town of Zliten where they were arrested by the Libyan police. They were taken to a hospital and then to a prison where they were given some water, milk and dates. After two days another survivor died.

After begging jail staff to take the remaining survivors back to hospital, they were taken to a hospital in al-Khums city. Doctors and nurses were said to have given the group water and told them to leave. They were returned to the prison and then taken to Twesha jail near Tripoli. Finally, Ethiopian friends in Tripoli paid the prison USD 900 to release the men. UNHCR was now providing them with assistance in Tunisia, said Ms. Fleming.

IOM carries out air evacuations from Chad-Libyan border as increasing number of migrants require medical care

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that IOM had this week begun an air evacuation of thousands of migrants who had fled the conflict in Libya and who were now stranded in remote areas in Northern Chad. More than 1,500 migrants had been flown from the northern Chadian town of Faya to Abéché or the Chadian capital, N’Djamena this week.

Recent arrivals of large numbers of migrants in Faya had led to a bottle-neck of nearly 4,000 stranded migrants in this small desert community in need of urgent assistance. An IOM transit centre in the town had a capacity to accommodate and assist about 900 people although at the very least that capacity needed to be doubled. Air evacuation priority had been given to sick migrants who were not able to travel by road to ensure timely and appropriate medical care in N’Djamena.

About 350 migrants were currently receiving treatment at Faya district hospital, which normally had an in-patient capacity of 45 patients. With the hospital severely over-crowded, patients were lying under trees or in tents. Many were on bed frames without mattresses, the IOM team in Faya reported. Since the start of the Libyan crisis, more than 23,500 migrants, mainly Chadians, had arrived in the northern Chadian towns of Faya and Kalait after a dangerous and gruelling journey across the Sahara on heavily over-loaded open trucks with minimal food and water for up to 25 days.

IOM staff in Faya reported that although many of the migrants were in remarkably good shape considering their ordeal, there were large numbers suffering from severe dehydration, problems related to irregular or no food intake, upper and lower respiratory illnesses due to exposure to dusty and sandy environmental conditions, while others were so physically exhausted that they could walk without assistance.

The remoteness of Faya and Kalait was one of the biggest challenges facing IOM in providing assistance to migrants fleeing Libya. IOM was currently helping a group of 276 migrants whose trailer truck broke down 350 kilometers north-west of Faya in the mountainous Tibesti region. The group had finally arrived in Faya on Thursday, although one of the migrants had died on the journey.

Last week, IOM staff en route to Kalait helped 115 migrants left stranded on the sand dunes for five days when their truck had broken down. Without water and with minimal food supplies, they had been dependent on their survival in extremely high desert temperatures on whatever the few passers-by could spare them. All the migrants had been taken in trucks to final destinations elsewhere in Chad as part of an IOM road evacuation from Kalait. However, journeys lasted between three to four days along routes that were primarily sand and very challenging.

So far, IOM has evacuated 9,004 migrants by road and air from Faya and Kalait to N’Djamena, Abéché, Bol and Mao in Chad. Nearly 770,000 migrants and Libyans had fled into Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Niger, Tunisia and Sudan or crossed the Mediterranean to reach Italy and Malta since the start of the Libyan crisis in mid-February.


More than 3 million Colombians live abroad, IOM migration profile finds

Ms. Pandya said the press briefing note included a migration profile for Colombia, available on http://www.oim.org.co/Publicaciones/tabid/74/smid/522/ArticleID/461/reftab/37/t/Perfil-Migratorio-de-Colombia-2010/language/es-CO/Default.aspx.

Eastern Africa Displaced Population Report and Eastern Africa drought

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said OCHA's “Displaced Populations Report” showed that some 5.5 million people had been displaced in ten eastern African countries as at the beginning of April, either as refugees or as internally displaced persons. The main drivers for displacement remained internal armed conflicts and natural disasters such as floods and current drought conditions in the eastern African region. More than 50,000 people had been displaced in Somalia alone by the drought in March 2011.

The drought had plunged about 8.8 million people into an acute food and livelihood crisis, notably in Ethiopia, where 3.2 million people were now in need of humanitarian assistance, up from 2.8 million. Those most vulnerable and suffering most from the drought were people living in agro-pastoral areas.

The USD 1.3 billion humanitarian requirements -- expressed in the four appeals/resource requirement documents for Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia -- were only 43 per cent funded.

Forthcoming Press Conferences

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the 2011 World Health Statistics Report would be launched today at 2 p.m. in Press Room I and Margareta Wahlstrom, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, would give a press conference at 12.30 p.m. today in Room 15 of the CICG.

On Monday, 16 May Allegra Baiocchi, the Chief of the Policy Planning and Analysis Section at OCHA's Policy Development and Studies Branch, would give a press conference on a study entitled “To stay and deliver: Good practice for humanitarians in complex security environments”, to be held at 12 p.m. in Press Room I.

Other

Corinne Momal-Vanian said that by finishing its review of the report of Russia yesterday the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had concluded the public examination of the five reports submitted to it. The Committee was now meeting in closed meetings until the end of the session on Friday 20 May, when it would make public its concluding observations on the reports.

The Committee against Torture, for its part, had examined the reports of Slovenia and Kuwait this week, and would examine the reports of Ghana, Turkmenistan, Finland, Mauritius and Monaco next week. The report of Ireland would be considered the week after, before the Committee concluded its session on Friday, 3 June.

The Conference on Disarmament would resume its work next week and a public meeting was scheduled for the morning of Tuesday, 17 May. In accordance with normal procedure, UNOG Director-General Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, whom Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had nominated as Secretary-General of the Conference, would need to be endorsed by the Conference.

The Director-General would also address the opening session of the World Health Assembly on Monday 16 May and read out a message of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the World Summit on the Information Society Forum on Monday morning.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Director-General continued to meet with heads of agencies. Mr. Tokayev had already met WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, UNECE Executive Secretary Jan Kubis, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres and UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, as well as other high-level representatives. Today, Mr. Tokayev would meet with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey to discuss the Swiss-UN cooperation and thank Switzerland for the services it offers as host country.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said WFP spokesperson Emilia Casella would be absent until 30 May and correspondents should contact Jane Howard, Frances Kennedy or Gregory Barrow at WFP Headquarters in Rome until then (contact details available from the Information Service).