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 and Representatives of the Human Rights Council, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the World Meteorological Organization, the International Labour Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, the World Health Organization, the UN Children's Fund and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Sudan

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the situation in Abyei town and further south up to Agok had been rather calm since 29 May, and some men had even returned to Agok. The humanitarian response in the south was currently focusing on the identification of displaced people’s shelter areas; their urgent humanitarian needs were being met and food and non-food items were being provided. The number of people displaced from the Abyei area had risen to an estimated 60,000, but the rainy season and the chronic shortage of fuel across Southern Sudan hampered humanitarian operations.

The Humanitarian Country Team Juba satellite had agreed to an inter-agency Central Emergency Response Fund request. Meanwhile, the Southern Sudan component of the 2011 UN and Partners Humanitarian Work Plan was only 31 per cent funded, with $178 million of the requested $577 million secured by yesterday.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said that before the fighting began WFP had been supporting 62,000 people. Now, it had set up a response-base and begun distributing food assistance to 6,000 newly displaced people. WFP was particularly concerned about the destruction of livelihoods; now was the height of the planting season, and if people could not plant they would need food assistance and other humanitarian assistance for a prolonged period of time. If unrest continued and people could not return home and continue planting, the number of people in need of food assistance could rise to about 100,000. Also, WFP was calling on all parties to respect UN properties and allow unhindered movement of food assistance to vulnerable communities.

Adrian Edwards of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that UNHCR was concerned about the risk of wider civilian displacement in the area south of Abyei in Sudan. A field visit there late last week had found the town virtually emptied of its normal population of 50-55,000 inhabitants. Large numbers of fighters had been present on the streets and pilfering had openly been going on, with people apparently organizing batches of stolen belongings. The UN team making this visit had seen a stream of civilians heading south towards and past Agok. A number of villages between Agok and Abyei were burning. Many people feared that Agok itself might soon be attacked.

Thus far 31,256 displaced people had been registered in Warrap State and 27,961 in Agok itself - which was part of the Abyei area. OHCHR had also seen smaller numbers of displaced in neighbouring states to the southwest of Abyei. Currently, assessment teams were working to reach areas that had been cut off due to insecurity and heavy rains. In Agok, displaced people had told OHCHR that many people had gone into hiding in the bush to avoid being caught in the fighting. OHCHR was seeing a number of cases in which families had been split during the fighting. As of late yesterday looting and sporadic shooting was continuing. Colleagues had witnessed trucks carrying looted goods leaving Abyei.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that IOM was continuing with its emergency assistance to thousands of internally displaced persons who had fled the violence in the contested region of Abyei in Sudan. Up to yesterday, IOM had registered 30,642 internally displaced persons, most of them women, children and the elderly. Reports of a further 30,000 internally displaced persons in need of registration were being followed up by IOM through the deployment of mobile registration teams. IOM had already put in place 44 tracking staff in Turalie, Wunrok and Mayon Abun in Warrap State, south of Abyei, where the majority of internally displaced persons were concentrated and where IOM and humanitarian partners were providing emergency relief. Another two tracking teams are stationed in Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Unity State to cover displacement there, with internally displaced persons found sheltering in makeshift camps in Abienoum in Unity State. A small number have fled to Aweil East and Wau, in Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal. The tracking system had resulted in the identification of missing and separated children as well as unaccompanied minors.

IOM staff on the ground said that the internally displaced persons were in urgent need of shelter, food and sanitation facilities. Most of them had fled Abyei without any belongings. Several cases of severe dehydration and hunger were now being observed, particularly among children. The onset of the rainy season has complicated the situation as many roads have become impassable.
IOM is distributing non-food items to the displaced as part of an emergency assistance programme, including supplementing the plastic sheeting provided so that emergency shelters can be constructed.

So far, 60 per cent of all registered displaced have already received non-food item assistance, with the remaining group expected to receive assistance within a week, despite the heavy rains and fuel shortages caused by the blockage of commercial transports between North and South Sudan. An IOM convoy of 13 trucks was leaving Juba today, 31 May, with 140 drums of fuel to support humanitarian organizations hit by fuel shortages at Aweil, Wau and Wunrok.

Tarik Jasarevic of the World Health Organization said that no major health events and outbreaks had been reported and disease trends were being monitored closely. Drug levels and emergency supplies across the facilities were still at acceptable levels. WHO had donated 500 litres of diesel to the emergency team of the State Ministry of Health to ensure that the emergency response continued over the next week. WHO had also given the State Ministry of Health Abyei a trauma kit for 100 trauma patients. The State Ministry of Health of Warrap State was heading the health emergency operations and the task group was chaired by the Director of Primary Health Care, with technical support from WHO.

The WHO emergency unit was finalizing a strategy for the emergency operation over the next 6 months. The strategy and action plan would address key areas such as immediate life-saving health services and essential primary health care services for internally displaced persons and the host community, as well as preventing excess mortality and morbidity in the affected population through prevention and control of communicable disease outbreaks.

Doctors without Borders Switzerland had provided two mobile clinics covering the area of high concentration of internally displaced persons in Turalei, and the medical team of Doctors without Borders had re-opened its activities in Agok. In addition, GOAL was providing a mobile clinic in Turalei, as well as two vaccination teams which offered nutrition screening and ANC. The Health Cluster for North and South Sudan was 23 per cent funded for 2011, with $35.9 million of the requested $158.4 million received.

Simon Ingram, Communications Officer with UNICEF Sudan, responding to a question, said that recent days had seen an uncoordinated population movement through perilous terrain with the population being driven from Abyei and the area around Abyei towards the south. It had been difficult to locate these groups and they were carrying very few possessions, making them very vulnerable. There was currently an urgent operation involving many agencies and international NGOs to reach these people and provide them with life-saving service.

Libya

Ms. Pandya said that another boat had left Benghazi for Misrata last night to evacuate the remaining group of stranded migrants and as many war-wounded and civilians as possible. The 2-3 day mission, which was funded by the American Government, would also carry humanitarian food and non-food aid into Misrata. On board would be a joint IOM-UN assessment team which would gauge the humanitarian needs in Misrata. The Misrata mission followed the return of IOM international staff to Tripoli. This presence would facilitate additional help to stranded migrants and provide humanitarian assistance on a wider scale in the country.

Ms. Casella said that the WFP had sent 500 tons of food on the ship. This was composed of 400 tons of wheat flour, 60 tons of pulses, 30 tons of vegetable oil and ten tons of high energy biscuits, bringing to about 125,000 the number of people who would be fed with food sent to Misrata. In Eastern Libya, WFP had now reached more than 250,000 people with food assistance, mostly internally displaced persons, while it had reached close to 29,000 people in the West. However, WFP had been unable to reach some regions due to insecurity and severe fuel shortages.
The WFP telecommunication unit had been working in Benghazi to provide data and voice services to the humanitarian community and was preparing to establish communication for the UN common premises in Tripoli. The UN Humanitarian Air Service had been carrying out flights into Libya for the humanitarian community. However, it may be forced to discontinue its services for humanitarian workers due to severe underfunding, unless it receives about $3 million worth of funds.

Central America

Rupert Colville of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the OHCHR was extremely concerned about an apparent new trend of targeting public prosecutors in Central America, apparently by organized crime groups. Over the past week, public prosecutors had been murdered in both Guatemala and Honduras in the course of their duties, amid growing insecurity and violence in both countries.

On 24 May in Guatemala, Allan Stwolinsky, a local auxiliary prosecutor in Coban (Department of Alta Verapaz) had been found decapitated in a plastic bag in front of the governor's house. Both the Attorney-General and the Minister of the Interior blamed the murder on the Mexican drug cartel “Los Zetas” and had linked it to the seizure of 453 kilograms of cocaine, which had been coordinated by the auxiliary prosecutor. This killing had taken place in the aftermath of the brutal massacre of 27 land workers in Peten, allegedly also by “Los Zetas”. OHCHR had expressed its support to the Attorney-General and expressed concern about the possible intention of “Los Zetas” to spread terror among the inhabitants of Coban and undermine the Attorney-General's efforts to combat crime and impunity.

In Honduras, on 28 May, Raul Reyes Carbajal, a public prosecutor in the city of San Pedro Sula, had been gunned down by several armed men who shot at him from another vehicle as he was driving home from work. According to eyewitness reports, after Mr. Reyes had been hit in his car, he had lost control and crashed into a bus. His attackers then got out of their vehicle and shot him again, to make sure he was dead. The Criminal Investigation Police discarded theft as a motive. Mr. Reyes had been coordinator of the Regional Public Prosecutor's Office in Puerto Cortes for one month, and had previously been coordinator of the Special Unit against Organised Crime. The killing came at a time when the Human Rights Unit of the Public Prosecutor's office in San Pedro Sula had decided to investigate the killings of seven youth, reportedly linked to gangs, during a police operation a few days earlier.

The increasing vulnerability of human rights defenders in both countries had been of extreme concern. In Guatemala, in 2010 alone, 250 human rights defenders had been victims of attacks and eight had been killed. In Honduras, OHCHR had also been increasingly concerned about the situation of human rights defenders, journalists and members and activists of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Georgia

With regard to the anti-Government protests in Tbilisi (Georgia) last week, where it appeared there had been disproportionate use of force by police to disperse protestors, Mr. Colville said that OHCHR fully supported the call by the Georgian Public Defender for a comprehensive, effective and impartial investigation into the actions of the police. The OHCHR stressed that according to international law, the use of force should be exercised to the minimum necessary and in line with the principles of necessity and proportionality. Attacks on physical integrity involving all sides should be promptly and duly investigated.

The OHCHR understood that the Ombudsman had compiled a list of 162 people detained in the aftermath of the protests and that many of them had injuries of various sorts sustained in the dispersal of the protests. The OHCHR stressed that individuals who had been arrested and detained should be afforded their rights in accordance with international human rights standards. In particular they must receive adequate medical treatment, be free from torture and ill-treatment, know the reasons for their arrests and be able to exercise fully their right to legal counsel and the right to challenge the lawfulness of the arrest and detention.

Somalia

Mr. Jasarevic said that as a result of renewed violence in Mogadishu the number of weapon-related casualties treated at the capital’s three main hospitals had reached a new peak last week. The WHO was extremely concerned about the increase in the numbers of casualties among children under five years old. Of the 1,590 weapon-related injuries reported in May alone, 735 cases or 46 per cent were children under the age of five, as reported by three main hospitals. In comparison, in April only 3.5 per cent of violence-related injuries had been children under five. The reason for the high number of casualties among children may be that the densely-populated area of Bakara market in Mogadishu has been the scene of heavy fighting since March.

In response to the sudden increase in wounded children, WHO had trained 50 doctors and nurses from two main hospitals in Mogadishu (Banadir and Keysaney) in how to treat burns and chest injuries in children. In addition to these capacity building efforts, WHO had supported Banadir Hospital with a trauma kit (containing enough supplies to treat 100 severely wounded people) and two operating theatre kits (each kit contains an operating table, operating lights, surgical instruments and medical supplies).

Since the beginning of 2011, over 3,900 war-wounded people had been admitted to the three main hospitals within Mogadishu. Fighting in Somali’s capital was mainly street-based, resulting in a very high price being paid by the civilian population in the ongoing conflict. Overstretched health workers were struggling to treat the large number of war-wounded patients. In many cases, they lacked proper equipment and means to cover all cases.

The funding for the Health Cluster for Somalia for 2011 was only 16 per cent, with $ 9.4 million received of $58.8 million requested.

Yemen

Ms. Casella said that the WFP had resumed food assistance to conflict-affected people in Saada this week, following suspension in March due to the deteriorating security situation. In addition to resuming assistance to the 300,000 people already assisted, WFP and Islamic Relief had now helped an additional 116,000 people who had previously been cut off from food assistance. At the beginning of the year, the WFP had started a programme assisting 1.8 million people with emergency safety net seasonal feeding between May and October.

Ms. Casella said that Yemen was one of the most food-insecure countries in the world, with 32 per cent of the country suffering from food insecurity, more than one in two children being malnourished and with the third highest number of underweight children in the world.

Mr. Colville said that an OHCHR news release on the situation in Yemen was available from the back of the room.

WMO Congress

Clare Nullis of the World Meteorological Organization said that the WMO Congress would finish its three-week session on Friday, 3 June and was still continuing its discussions on priority areas, including the Global Framework for Climate Services. A press release would be issued and a press conference could be arranged with Secretary-General Michel Jarraud at the end of discussions on Friday.

WMO’s preferred option would be to organize a press conference with Mr. Jarraud and the newly elected President Mr. David Grimes on Monday, 6 June at the start of the Executive Council meeting.

100th International Labour Conference

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said that the 100th International Labour Conference, to be opened by the President of Finland tomorrow, would see the participation of some 8,000 participants, including numerous Heads of States.

There would be a press conference on the annual report on the situation of workers in the Occupied Arab Territories at noon on Friday, 3 June.

The Permanent Mission of France had organised a side-event with those G-20 Ministers participating in the Conference for Tuesday, 14 May.

In addition, Michael Cichon would give a press conference on social protection and there might be a press briefing with ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.

Human Rights Committees and Council

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on the Rights of the Child had opened its session yesterday and elected Jean Zermatten of Switzerland as its Chairman. Today, the Committee examined the report of the Czech Republic, before reviewing the reports of Bahrain and Cambodia tomorrow and on Friday, respectively.

The Committee against Torture would this Friday conclude its session and present its concluding observations on the eight countries examined since 9 May.

Cédric Sapey of the Human Rights Council said that the clustered interactive dialogue with special procedures on the rights of migrants, the right to education and cultural rights would probably start around 11 a.m. This would be followed by the clustered interactive dialogue with special procedures on foreign debt at around 3 p.m. this afternoon.

Other

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions would give a press conference at 1 p.m. in Room III today, to be followed by a press conference with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises at 2 p.m., also in Room III. Later today, at 3.30 p.m. in Press Room 1, there would be a zoom-in on Europe’s forests on the eve of World Environment Day.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Conference on Disarmament would reconvene in public on Wednesday, 1 June at 10 a.m. under the presidency of Colombia.

Gregory Härtl of the World Health Organization invited journalists to an event at noon at WHO’s premises which marked World No Tobacco Day.

Mr. Härtl said that the International Agency for Research on Cancer would give a virtual press conference on the outcome of its evaluation of mobile phones’ electromagnetic fields at 6 p.m. tonight, to be followed by a face-to-face briefing in Lyon at 7 p.m.

Mr. Sapey said that the Commission of Enquiry which had investigated human rights violations in Libya would present its report on Monday 6 June, but the document was expected to be issued tomorrow. An email would be sent to journalists and a press release would probably be published when the report became available.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that the publication entitled “Price formation in financialized commodity markets: The role of information” would be presented in Room III at noon today, but was embargoed until Sunday, 5 June at 5 p.m. GMT. A German summary of the study would also be made available.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Press Briefing on Friday, 3 June may be brought forward to 10.15 a.m. (subject to confirmation).