REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing which was also attended by the Spokespersons for the Human Rights Council, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, World Health Organization, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and International Organization for Migration.

Central African Republic

Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that although the security situation in Bangui appeared to have improved in recent days, OHCHR was alarmed at the increasing tensions among religious communities in the Central African Republic.

Retaliatory attacks between Christians and Muslim communities were reported to have taken place in numerous locations in the capital over the past few days, resulting in several casualties. Serious human rights violations were being committed on religious grounds, as well as the looting and destruction of property. One mosque was reported to have been burnt and another one destroyed in Bangui earlier this week.

The situation was also tense in several towns, including Bouca, Bossangoa and Bozoum, where a vicious cycle of attacks and reprisals continues. According to information received, 27 Muslims were killed by self-defence militias, known as anti-Balaka, in the village of Bohong, some 75km from Bouar, on Thursday.

Meanwhile the number of people known to have been killed in Bangui since December 5 has reached more than 500. That figure was expected to increase, as more bodies were collected. OHCHR condemned any attack on places of worship and on religious freedom, and urged all communities to exercise restraint.

While OHCHR welcomed the fact that religious leaders had been calling for calm and reconciliation between Muslims and Christians, it urged them to redouble their efforts to contain rising intolerance and inter-communal violence. OHCHR asked the authorities to take urgent measures to facilitate dialogue among communities and to hold accountable those responsible for human rights violations.

Marixie Mercado, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said UNICEF was expecting the largest airlift of humanitarian supplies since the violence broke out in Bangui last week and a plane carrying 77 metric tons of UNICEF emergency supplies was scheduled to land in Bangui around 3.30 p.m. today. The plane was carrying blankets, soap, jerry cans, medicine, water purification supplies, plastic sheeting health and midwifery kits, for immediate distribution to up to 37,500 people. The supplies are intended for the most vulnerable children and families and for UNICEF partners so they could provide emergency care to those injured in the recent violence.

Since the beginning of the crisis almost a year ago UNICEF had chartered six cargo airlifts to Bangui. A further 100 metric tons of life saving medicine and equipment was expected in Bangui next week.

Adrian Edwards for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said they were seeing a further deterioration in the situation in Central African Republic. In the capital Bangui the fighting and sectarian violence of the past week had displaced an estimated 159,000 people, with 450 killings reported there and 160 in other parts of the country according to the National Red Cross and Danish Refugee Council. Those reports were mainly coming from locations in north-western Central African Republic.

At the airport in Bangui, there were 38,000 people, currently without latrines or washing facilities and with no shelter from the rains or sun. Conditions there and elsewhere were deteriorating. A further 12,000 people were currently at the Saint Joseph Mukassa church in Bangui. The church had just one water point. Local youth have dug latrines and UNHCR had provided plastic sheeting to allow some level of privacy and spaces where people could wash. However, people there urgently needed food, shelter, soap and other basic aid. Among them were 460 people needing medical attention. That includes 101 pregnant women and there had been three births so far which had been unattended.

At the airport, UNHCR had provided tents to its partner Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which was running a medical clinic. Aid was also going to other relief agencies, and UNHCR was working with fellow United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations to scale up humanitarian operations across Central African Republic. So far help had reached relatively small numbers - 3,500 families so far in Bangui and another 3,000 helped in Bossangoa – and much more was going to be needed. UNHCR appealed once again to all parties to let humanitarian help through, and to protect civilians. There were frequent reports of indiscriminate attacks against civilians, recruitment of child soldiers, sexual and gender-based violence, looting and destruction of property.

Indicative of the current turmoil inside Central African Republic was a rise over the last week in people fleeing to neighbouring countries. The Democratic Republic of the Congo had received close to 1,800 refugees mainly from Bangui, including 1,457 into Zongo and more than 300 in Libenge.

Those in Libenge had to walk for several days with their children to reach villages facing Libenge, from where they used boats to cross the Oubangui river. Many arrived exhausted from the 200 km walk across through forest. With the new arrivals, there are now around 47,000 Central African Republic refugees in Democratic Republic of the Congo. UNHCR was relocating the new refugees to two camps – one at Mole camp (Zongo) and another at Boyabo camp (Libenge).

The Republic of the Congo (ROC) was also registering new arrivals from the prefecture of Lobaye in Central African Republic. Some of the refugees told UNHCR staff that more people were on their way. Since March, over 10,500 Central African Republic nationals had sought refuge in Republic of the Congo. In all, the crisis in CAR had driven more than 70,000 into surrounding countries over the past year.

Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that even before the latest upsurge in violence the health situation in the Central African Republic was already precarious. A health assessment was carried out by the Ministry of Health and partners between June and August, before the latest fighting. The assessment revealed that there was a shortage of medical supplies due to insecurity, that health workers were leaving health facilities and fleeing insecurity and health facilities had been looted by armed groups. More than 50 per cent of health units had been vandalized and looted.




Even before the conflict there was very weak surveillance in a context of poor living conditions. Mr. Jasarevic reminded the media that the Central African Republic was among countries with the worst health indicators in the world. Life expectancy was 47 years and mortality indicators were also among the worse in the world, with the infant mortality rate being 173 per 1,000. He could provide more statistics if needed.

In many zones nutritional centres had been closed or were not functioning normally. There were pockets of severe malnutrition such as in Sangha-Mbaéré and Lobaye areas.

Despite the security constraints WHO was scaling up its response, with partners. Since the beginning of the year medicine for 200,000 people was distributed to operational agencies and non-governmental organizations providing health services. WHO already had offices in Bouar and Kaga Bandoro and was trying to open offices in Bambari. All that had been done despite the lack of funding, Mr. Jasarevic. WHO had only received 35 per cent of the funding it needed, while the health sector in general only had 49 per cent of its required funding. WHO needed US$5.4 million to support coordination, emergency health care and re-establishment of health basic services and emergency disease early warning systems. The priorities for now were trauma care, surgery for persons with injuries and restoration of basic and emergency health services.

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service Geneva, read out a statement for the World Food Programme (WFP) who was unable to be represented at today’s briefing. Ms. Momal-Vanian said that since the outbreak of violence last week, WFP had been ready since day one to respond to the crisis. As of 12 December, WFP had distributed 325 metric tonnes of food to 68,400 people in Bangui. It had been on standby with loaded trucks to provide food to displaced persons at the airport since the first day and yesterday received clearance from authorities to carry out food distribution. WFP responded immediately and was currently near the airport providing food to 40,000 people. The French army was assisting in providing safe passage for beneficiaries at the airport distribution site.

In Bossangoa WFP was currently assisting displaced persons at three sites. WFP activities were halted for four days to due violence last week and the WFP staff had to seek refuge in the BINUCA compound. WFP had already carried out distributions to 1,400 people and 5,600 people in two sites before the violence broke out on 5 December. Emergency distributions resumed on 9 December and distributions had currently been completed in one of the sites.

Since end of November, WFP had assisted 14,000 people with 200 metric tonnes of food in Bossangoa. In total, over 35,000 people had been assisted this year in Bossangoa. Countrywide, in 2013, WFP had assisted 479,400 people countrywide, of which over 175,000 were IDPs.

In response to follow-up questions from journalists about displaced persons, Mr. Edwards said that there were half a million of people displaced in total. He added that accessibility had been a problem for many months because of the insecurity around the country, and authority in charge of the rule of law was practically non-existent in many places. The needs were massive and with frequent reports of various human rights violations the need to get access was a great concern. Ms. Mercado added that in addition to the known displaced persons there were tens of thousands of people who had been hiding in the bush for months with little or no assistance, although it was impossible to get a precise figure on people in the bush.

Answering a question about the timeframe for the Commission of Inquiry established following the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2127 on the Central African Republic, Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service, said that the Security Council asked the United Nations Secretary-General to establish the Commission of Inquiry rapidly for an initial period of one year, and the Secretary-General was to report to the Council six months after the adoption of the resolution and again in one year.

Ms. Shamdasani added that OHCHR had three human rights officers on the ground and another had arrived yesterday, their arrival had been delayed by the security situation, but now they were on the ground they would be able to help respond to the humanitarian situation more closely.

Syria

Marixie Mercado, for the United Nations Children’s Programme (UNICEF) announced the launch of a new publication titled ‘Syria Crisis: Education Interrupted – global action to rescue the schooling of a generation’. Ms. Mercado said that decline in education for Syrian children had been the sharpest and most rapid in the history of the region, according to a new paper published today. “Education Interrupted” highlighted that since 2011 nearly three million children from Syria had been forced to quit their education as fighting had destroyed classrooms, left children too terrified to go to school, or seen families flee the country. Progress achieved over decades had been reversed in under three years.

The paper was the first attempt to quantify the full extent of the staggering decline in education in a country where primary school attendance rates stood at 97 per cent before the conflict began in 2011, Ms. Mercado said.

More than 1,000 days of bloodshed in Syria had seen millions of children lose their education, schools and teachers. At best, children were getting sporadic education. At worst, they dropped out of schools and were forced to work to support their families. Inside Syria, one in every five schools could not be used because they had been damaged, destroyed or were sheltering internally displaced persons. In countries hosting Syrian refugees, between 500,000- 600,000 Syrian refugee children were out of school. The worst affected areas inside Syria were those where fierce violence was taking place – including A-Raqqa, Idlib, Aleppo, Deir Ezzour, Hama, Dara’a and Rural Damascus. In some of those areas attendance rates had plummeted to as low as six per cent.

Syria was a regional leader in education enrolment before the conflict, yet in less than three years the sharpest regression in education of anywhere in the region occurred with dire consequences for the future.

The paper details some of the factors that have contributed to the rapid emptying of classrooms, said Ms. Mercado. Inside Syria, intensifying violence, large population displacement, the killing and flight of teachers and the destruction and misuse of schools had all made learning more difficult for children. Many parents reported that they had no option but to keep their children at home rather than risk sending them to school.

In neighbouring countries different language and dialect, different curricula, limited or no learning spaces, physical safety, poverty, and community tensions were keeping children away from classes. Meanwhile, children and teachers from host communities were faced with over-crowded classrooms and increased pressure on education systems.

The paper also set out critical actions that – if taken now – could reverse the slide, said Ms. Mercado. Those included: Protection of education infrastructure inside Syria – including ending the use of schools for military purposes, declaring schools as zones of peace, and holding accountable those parties to the conflict who violate the protection of schools. Doubling of international investment for education in host countries to expand and improve learning spaces, recruit additional teachers and slash the costs of getting children into classrooms. Innovative approaches to overcome education needs of Syrian refugee children through such as transferrable certification for refugee students. Scaling up proven models such as home-based learning, non-formal learning centres and child-friendly spaces that provide psychosocial support for children.

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service Geneva, read out a statement for the World Food Programme (WFP) which could not be represented at today’s briefing. As Syrians faced a harsh winter amid civil war for a third consecutive year, WFP had begun distributing close to 10,000 litres of fuel to internally displaced families living in ten shelters in Damascus. The fuel was used in stoves for both cooking and heating. Further distribution of fuel is planned for an additional 35 shelters in Homs, Hama and Rural Damascus in the next few days.

Over the last few days, WFP had continued to send food to civilians suffering in hard-to-reach areas. The United Nations food agency delivered 3,000 family food rations – enough to feed 15,000 people for one month – on 10 and 12 December through two joint interagency cross-line missions to Khan Shaykhoon in Idlib Governorate. The area saw intense fighting through all of last year and could not be reached.

Elsewhere, food distributions were underway despite bitter weather. WFP’s plans to provide food to four million people this month across Syria were on track. But humanitarian needs and food insecurity were growing as the conflict exhausted the most vulnerable Syrians.

A press release had more details, including on airlifts of food from Erbil, Iraq, to Qamishly in northeast Syria, and on WFP activities in Lebanon and Jordan, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

International Conference on Syria

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service Geneva, responded to a question about the “Geneva II” peace conference scheduled for 22 January and whether it would be held at the Palais des Nations or in Montreux. Ms. Momal-Vanian said she could not confirm the details yet, but the question of whether the conference would be held at the Palais des Nations or in Montreux or elsewhere was a simple logistical issue that had no political implications; it was an issue due to the availability of hotel rooms.

Ms. Momal-Vanian added that whether the conference took place at the Palais des Nations, Montreux or elsewhere, what was important was that it led to negotiations between the Syrian parties. The negotiations that follow the Ministerial Conference of 22 January would be held at the Palais des Nation in Geneva.

Ukraine

Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said OHCHR was following closely the events in central Kiev and warned against the risk of further escalation, violence and polarisation. It was particularly concerned at reports of the use of excessive force by riot police and violent acts by some demonstrators.

OHCHR called upon the authorities to conduct a thorough, prompt, independent and impartial investigation into all the violent incidents of the past two weeks. Holding perpetrators of human rights violations and violence accountable, regardless of their status, was essential in times of social unrest and would help restore calm.

The Government must take all necessary measures to ensure that human rights safeguards were upheld during arrest and detention and to avoid unlawful or arbitrary detentions. State authorities must also ensure that detainees were not subjected to torture or any other form of ill-treatment. All those injured must have prompt access to medical care and victims should be able to seek redress.

Ukraine was bound by international conventions guaranteeing the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. OHCHR called on all parties involved to exercise restraint to create the conditions for the free expression of opinions.

OHCHR joined calls made by the United Nations Secretary General and other international officials for a meaningful dialogue between all parties to find a negotiated solution.

Death Penalty in Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), responding to a question by a journalist, said OHCHR was aware of the execution of Chang Song-thaek in Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and had followed with concern the news of his arrest and apparent execution. That underscored the arbitrary nature of the system in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the absence of transparency and due process that was required for the rule of law. Whatever Chang Song-thaek had been accused of, the United Nations upheld the need for fair trials and opposed the use of the death penalty in any circumstance, especially when there were serious concerns about whether fair trial standards were followed.

Bangladesh

Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), responded to a question about executions in Bangladesh. Ms. Shamdasani said that regarding Mr. Abdul Quader Mollah in Bangladesh, OHCHR issued a press release asking for an eleventh-hour stay of his execution, which was granted, but unfortunately the execution took place last night. Now OHCHR was calling for restraint from all sides to avoid further political instability, and was encourage a meaningful dialogue to resolve the situation.

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service, said that yesterday the spokesperson for the Secretary-General had reiterated his views on the death penalty, emphasizing that the United Nations opposed the death penalty in all circumstances. The Secretary-General had called the Prime Minister of Bangladesh to express his strong concern about the prevailing situation in the country, particularly the widespread violence that had left dozens of people dead in the last two months. The Secretary-General urged the Prime Minister to resolve differences over the upcoming parliamentary elections through dialogue.

Geneva activities

Rolando Gomez for the Human Rights Council (HRC) announced that the Human Rights Council would hold a meeting on Monday 16 December to elect its Bureau for 2014. Member States of the Council would appoint a new President, from the African group, to replace the current President, Remigiusz Achilles Henczel, from Poland whose term ends on 31 December 2013. The Human Rights Council would also select members to serve as the Vice Presidents, from each of the four regional groups. Mr. Gomez reminded journalists that last month, on 12 November, the General Assembly elected 14 Member States to the Council to fill the vacancies to be left at the end of the year, and so the Council would have a new membership composition starting on 1 January. A press release would be issued on Monday with details of the appointments.


Jens Laerke for the Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced a press conference to take place on Monday 16 at 11.45 a.m. in Room III with Valerie Amos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Jasmine Whitbread, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children to launch the humanitarian strategies and requirements for 2014 (previously known as the CAP – Consolidated Appeals Process). The launch included strategic response plans and requirements covering 17 affected countries, including Syria and the surrounding region.

Jens Laerke for the Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also announced a press conference for Tuesday 17 December directly after the briefing at 11.30 a.m. in Press Room III on the humanitarian situation in Haiti and response plan 2014. Peter de Clercq (Netherlands), Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, United Nations Resident Coordinator, Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Representative and Johan Peleman Head of the OCHA office in Haiti, would be speaking.

The representatives of the International Labour Organization and the International Organization for Migration attended the briefing but did not speak.
The webcast for this briefing is available here: webtv.un.org/media.