REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the meeting which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Human Rights Council, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Labour Organization, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination would this morning be concluding its consideration of the report of Turkmenistan. Next week, starting Tuesday afternoon, the Committee would be taking up the reports of the Lao Democratic People’s Republic, Qatar, Jordan and Italy. The Committee would be meeting in private from Friday, 24 February to Friday, 2 March, when it would issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports which it had reviewed during the session before closing the session.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) would meet in private until the end of its session next Friday, when its final observations would be made public.

The Conference on Disarmament yesterday heard an address by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan. The Conference would meet on Tuesday, 28 April starting 10 a.m. to hear statements by ministers and other dignitaries from Kazakhstan, Jordan, Iran, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, Japan and the Republic of Korea. The Conference would probably be meeting on Wednesday, 29 February in the afternoon to hear from other dignitaries, but that was still to be confirmed.

As the Information Service had done in the past, when there were many different events happening at the same time as would be the case next week, a summary of the different events would be sent to journalists at the end of the day to help journalists plan for the week. There had already been the briefing by the President of the Human Rights Council this morning, who had talked about the upcoming session of the Council starting 27 February.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said as for press conferences next week, the only ones confirmed at this point were by Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, in Salle III at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, 27 February, and by Angelino Garzon, Vice-President of Colombia, at 4:45 p.m. on the same day. Stakeouts were also expected at the exit of Salle XX where the Council would be meeting.

Human Rights Council

Rolando Gomez of the Human Rights Council, in response to a question, said High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay would address the Council several times, beginning on Monday, 27 February in the morning when she would give one of the three opening statements, along with the President of the General Assembly and the President of the Council. Ms. Dupuy Lasserre, the President of the Council, who gave a press conference this morning, would open the meeting at 10 a.m. on Monday. The High Commissioner’s annual update, during which she would provide an overview of the activities of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2011, would be presented on Friday, 2 March, and it would be followed by an interactive discussion with her. The High Commissioner’s statement would be available on Wednesday, 29 February to give delegations time to prepare for the interactive dialogue. There would be a number of thematic reports which the High Commissioner would present during the course of the four-week meeting.

Mr. Gomez said Ms. Dupuy Lasserre announced this morning that on Tuesday, 28 February, the Council would hold an urgent debate in Syria, taking place sometime in the late morning. The Human Rights Council Bureau was meeting now to discuss the modalities of this urgent debate and the exact time, the scenario and other details. He would send out information on the debate later in the day. This debate would affect to some degree the High-level Segment list, and he would also send the updated list of the High-level Segment.

In response to another question, Mr. Gomez said the Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Mr. Pinheiro, was available for individual interviews, but would not be holding a press conference until after the presentation of the report, which was scheduled to take place on 12 March in the afternoon.

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Ravina Shamdasani of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said she had two items today, one of them on the European Court of Human Rights judgment that was issued yesterday on migrants, and the other on Togo.

On the European Court of Human Rights judgement, OHCHR welcomed the judgment issued yesterday, which ruled that it was a violation of human rights for a State to collectively expel migrants who were intercepted on the high seas. This case reaffirmed the human rights of all migrants at sea. The Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Hirsi Jamaa and others v. Italy concerned 13 Eritrean and 11 Somali migrants who were picked up in 2009 by Italian Customs and Coastguard vessels outside Italian territorial waters, 35 nautical miles south of Lampedusa, transferred to Italian military vessels and taken directly to Tripoli to be handed over to Libyan authorities. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had submitted a legal brief in this case, arguing that the prohibition of collective expulsion in international law also applied when a State intercepted migrants outside of its own territorial waters. The United Nations Refugee Agency also intervened in the case. The Court confirmed this position, ruling that the transfer of the applicants to Libya under the conditions at the time violated the prohibition of torture because it exposed the applicants to the risk of arbitrary return to their countries of origin. The Court also ruled that the transfer violated the prohibition of collective expulsion of foreign nationals.

Ms. Shamdasani said OHCHR called on all States to recognize and respect the fundamental rights of all migrants, guaranteed by international law, regardless of their immigration status or other status. OHCHR had long expressed alarm at the interception and collective expulsion of migrants, often risking their lives on the high seas, without the opportunity for an individual examination of their cases. OHCHR urged States to avoid making migration policies based on assumptions about the motivations of migrants which were based on their country of nationality or of departure, their gender, age or their ethnicity, and instead to put in place procedures premised on the protection of the human rights of all migrants. OHCHR also welcomed discussions about the revision of Italian immigration policies in light of this judgment by the European Court.

On Togo, Ms. Shamdasani said OHCHR welcomed the release of the report by the national human rights commission of Togo (Commission Nationale des Droits de l’Homme) into allegations of torture committed against individuals detained in connection with the alleged coup d’etat in the country in 2009. The report had found that the prisoners were subject to physical and moral violence of an inhuman and degrading nature, and recommended appropriate action against the perpetrators, reparation for victims and institutional reform of the Agence Nationale de Renseignement, which was the national intelligence agency. OHCHR noted the Government’s commitment to implementing the recommendations of this report and encouraged them to take all necessary measures to ensure justice and reparation for the victims and to prevent such acts from occurring in the future. Detention facilities should be subject to transparent judicial monitoring. OHCHR also called on the Government to continue to guarantee the independence of the national human rights commission and to ensure that human rights defenders were able to carry out their work without intimidation.

Mali

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in Mali, humanitarian actors faced three challenges: the insecurity, the food insecurity and the drought. The violent clashes between the army and the Tuareg rebellion of the Mouvement National de Libération de l’Azawad in the north of Mali, which had been taking place since 17 January, were causing massive population displacement. It was estimated that 63,000 persons were internally displaced in Mali, and now with the violence in the north, Tuareg families were fleeing to neighbouring countries. This situation was very worrying for humanitarian actors, especially because of the difficult logistical issues that had to be dealt with in Mali as the country was big and they needed planes to transport the aid. For example in Kidal region, there were 11,000 displaced persons who were in a critical situation, and cases of diarrhea had already been noted among them. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Malian Red Cross were distributing urgent aid to affected persons, but it was not enough. The United Nations was preparing assessment missions to Niono (Segou), Niafounke (Tombouctou) and Gao. Access to displaced persons was a priority and it would add to the work of humanitarian actors who were also responding to the effects of the drought. Three million Malians were now facing a serious situation of food insecurity.

Adrian Edwards of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said UNHCR had issued an appeal yesterday for $ 35.6 million to respond to the growing humanitarian crisis surrounding the new rebel insurgency that broke out in northern Mali on 17 January. An estimated 130,000 people had been uprooted within and outside Mali since the resumption of clashes between the Malian army and Tuareg rebels of the Mouvement National de Libération de l’Azawad. In the surrounding countries, the largest influx had so far been recorded in Niger with 28,858 arrivals. In Mauritania, 22,958 Malian refugees had been registered so far. Another 17,499 Malian refugees had found refuge in Burkina Faso. There were reports of smaller numbers of people arriving in Algeria, Togo and Guinea. More daily arrivals were being recorded in the neighboring countries as attacks continued throughout northern Mali, where an estimated 60,000 Malians were also internally displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance.

Mr. Edwards said the appeals aimed at covering the needs of 85,000 uprooted people until July 2012. The funds would be used by UNHCR to provide emergency assistance to the displaced in Mali and neighbouring countries. UNHCR would establish camps further away from the Mali border in all three countries to allow refugees to receive help in safer locations. The majority of the uprooted were ethnic Tuaregs from rural areas. There were also ethnic Songhai, Moor and Fulani. They were currently hosted in remote and arid border villages that were affected both by food crisis, a severe drought, and the general insecurity in the Sahel region. Refugees were in desperate need of adequate shelter. They also needed food, water and sanitation, healthcare and education. In addition, they needed basic household items such as sleeping mats, mosquito nets, blankets and kitchen sets. So far, UNHCR had delivered tents and other essential relief items to Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania to cover the needs of a total of 22,000 people. In Mauritania UNHCR had, in addition, purchased food for 20,000 refugees and had started relocating refugees to the Mbera camp, a former site they were rehabilitating in response to the ongoing influx. In Niger and Burkina Faso, sites had been identified to relocate refugees away from the border as soon as possible.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Mr. Edwards of UNHCR said UNHCR was closely following the situation of a group of around 25 nationals of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who were arrested in China in February. UNHCR had not had access to this group and had learned about them about a week ago from media in the Republic of Korea. UNHCR had been in communication with the Chinese authorities on this group and had called on the Chinese Government to uphold the non-refoulement principle. UNHCR was encouraging all parties concerned to find a viable humanitarian solution in the best interests of these individuals and to ensure their safety. UNHCR reaffirmed its commitment to continue to work with all parties on this issue.

Migration

Chris Lom of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said IOM and Gallup had just published a report called “the Many Faces of Migration”, based on interviews with about 750,000 persons around the world. The report outlined some of the broad trends in migration, which was becoming more visible world wide.

Frank Laczko, Head of Migration Research at IOM, said that concerning international migration, IOM was able to say that there were 214 million migrants and they could provide estimates on the scale of remittances, but they could not really say much about what it was like to be a migrant and what the living and working conditions were like. Also, IOM usually did not collect much information on who was planning to migrate and why they were planning to migrate. What IOM had done with Gallup was to publish a first preliminary report to try to highlight the fact that there was now a very interesting potential new source of data on international migration, which could be found in the Gallup World Poll. The poll had been carried out across 150 countries around the world and provided recent information about the situation of migrants around the world. It described who was planning to migrate and where and also who was returning because of the economic crisis.

Neli Esipova, Director of Research, Global Migration and Regional Director, Gallup World Poll, said Gallup started the poll in 2005 across 150 countries. Since that time, it had been measuring the lives of people in different aspects, including migrants and potential migrants. Based on their analysis, it looked like about 630 million adults would like to migrate permanently to another country. The number had been 700 million before the economic crisis, but it had gone down. For some people this would always be just a dream. About 48 million adults actually planned to migrate in the next 12 months, and 19 million had already started some preparations for this.

Concerning environmental migration, Ms. Esipova said they found that about 500 million adults around the world said that they might need to move from areas where they lived, either to another area in their country or abroad, in the next five years, because of environmental problems. Three tops countries affected were Chad, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Lom of IOM said in Colombia, IOM was launching a large information management system, which would essentially track the very diverse challenges facing Colombia in the post conflict period, including data on people demobilized from illegal armed groups, their victims, the entire reparations process associated with the peace process and so on. The project had taken five years to develop and was funded by USAID and implemented by IOM and the Colombian Ministry of Justice.

There was also information in the briefing notes about the shelter needs of earthquake victims in the Central Philippines, and a story on the role of the Indonesian police in the treatment of mainly Middle Eastern and Sri Lankan asylum seekers who transit Indonesia illegally on route to Australia. The police in Jakarta were holding a major conference which was trying to establish a protocol to handle these people.

Other

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said there would be a press conference at noon on Tuesday, 28 February by a delegation from Qatar, which was led by the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar. UNCTAD XIII would be held in Doha from 21 to 26 April and this Ministry was in charge of preparations on the ground.

Hans van Rohland of the International Labour Organization (ILO) said available at the back of the room was a press release about an ILO study on workplace inequalities in Europe. Journalists should have received the release yesterday by email along with the report.

Mr. von Rohland said on 1 March, ILO would release the report of the Commission on the Application of Norms, and for the first time, the report would include a study which gave a human face to globalization and covered progress and challenges in the application of the fundamental norms; it also covered freedom of unions, forced labour, child labour, and discrimination.

Ankai Xu of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Monday, 27 February, there would be an informal meeting of the Trade Facilitation Negotiation Group. On Tuesday, 28 February, there would be the International Property TRIPS Council meeting, which could possibly continue on Wednesday. On Wednesday, 29 February, there would be a Trade and Development Committee meeting, and on Thursday, 1 March, there would be the market access meeting of the Negotiation Group.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy would be in Brussels on 29 February to speak about Europe in the Global Economy. He would also be attending the meeting of the Committee on International Trade of the European Parliament, and would hold bilateral meetings.