REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by spokespersons for the World Trade Organization, the International Labour Office, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency, and the International Organization for Migration.

Mr. Fawzi started the briefing by asking journalists and spokespersons to try to keep the briefings limited to one hour. They had been overrunning to longer than an hour and a half and it was just digging into everyone’s time. He suggested that if spokespersons had prepared notes or press releases, copies of which were available at the back of the room, there was no need for them to read them out. Journalists raised points, including that radio and television media needed sound and pictures; some suggested that releases about upcoming meetings did not need to be read out in full; others said that if briefing notes were sent out shortly before the briefing, it might be possible for journalists to have a chance to read them, and that way they could ask good questions.

Director-General’s Activities

Mr. Fawzi said he would like to share with journalists the activities of Acting Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Michael Møller. Mr. Møller was in Yerevan, where he was representing the Secretary-General at the memorial. He would be signing the condolence book with the following message: “On this solemn anniversary, the United Nations expresses its deep sympathies and condolences to all the victims and survivors of the tragic events of 1915 and to their families. The United Nations stands determined to honour and remember the victims and to continue to ensure that such tragedies are not repeated.” Mr. Møller had arrived in Yerevan last night and would be returning to Geneva this evening.

In response to a question on whether the United Nations recognized this as genocide, Mr. Fawzi said the message referred to the “tragic events of 1915” and United Nations documents used such language. The United Nations fully appreciated and understood the importance that the Armenian nation and others around the world attached to the commemoration of the centenary of these tragic events. Commemorating and remembering these tragic events would continue to deepen the historical understanding of what happened to strengthen the collective determination to prevent atrocities and crimes of this nature from happening in the future.

Syria

Mr. Fawzi said the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Syria would be briefing the Security Council today. This story would be covered by New York but the Information Service would try, if possible, to make available copies of his statement as soon as it was delivered. [Mr. Fawzi later learned that the Special Envoy would be briefing the Security Council in closed consultations, therefore his remarks would not be made public by UNIS.]

The invitations for the Geneva Consultations had gone out a couple of days ago to as many stakeholders as possible, primarily Syrian and also regional and international players. The consultations would start at the Palais des Nations in the first week of May for four to six weeks. These would be separate consultations with each delegation at mostly ambassadorial and expert level, taking stock of where they think we are now, almost three years after the Geneva communique was approved.

Asked if Daesh or Nusrat Al Islam would be invited, Mr. Fawzi said that they were listed as terrorist organizations, so the answer was no. However, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General and his team were in contact with those who had relationships with them, those who could communicate with them.

Yemen

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said civilian casualties had continued to mount in Yemen over the past few days. The total number of civilians killed between 26 March and 22 April was now estimated to be 551, including 31 women and around 100 children. These were just civilian casualties. There were other much higher casualty figures, including military figures. Another 1,185 civilians had been injured, including 35 women and 67 children. Also, at least 64 public buildings had been either partially or completely destroyed as a result of the armed conflict. OHCHR had recorded a number of airstrikes that had hit military and civilian positions in Sana’a, Ibb, Hajja and Taiz, resulting in the killing of 58 civilians, including seven children. This included an incident on the morning of 22 April after the official end of the coalition’s operation “decisive storm” in Ibb governorate, where 40 civilians were killed, including seven children, and 70 civilians were reported injured after air strikes hit a bridge twice. Civilians gathering to help those injured by the first strike were reportedly hit by the second. Also on 20 April, at least 20 civilians were killed and 120 injured, including women and children, as a result of an airstrike in Faj Attan, an area in Sana’a city. This also resulted in damage to the many United Nations offices in the neighbourhood, including IOM, UNDP, UNPFA, FAO and OHCHR. There were no United Nations casualties. Violence had persisted across southern governorates due to street battles between groups supporting members of the popular committee affiliated with the Houthis and local armed groups in Abyan, Dhale, Aden and Lahj. In Abyan governorate, on 21 April, at least 14 civilians were killed and another 14 injured due to indiscriminate shooting. OHCHR had reports of the killing of a child in Dali by a sniper and four civilians emerging from a mosque in Aden. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Jens Laerke of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said he wished to draw attention to the statement sent out late yesterday afternoon from the Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, which contained a lot of information. He just needed to clarify one point which had raised questions. The statement said that while they were mostly concerned about the infrastructure, health facilities, schools and so on that had been targeted during this campaign in Yemen, affecting millions of civilians, and the United Nations and humanitarian partners had not been spared, in Sanaa, offices of several United Nations agencies and partner organizations had been damaged by explosions on 21 April, forcing at least one partner to suspend operations. To give details on that incident, explosions had shattered windows in the offices of UNDP, OCHA and the Department of Safety and Security. The partner whose facilities were also affected and subsequently suspended was Action Contre La Faim.

Elisabeth Byrs of the World Food Programme (WFP) said WFP, despite the violence, the difficulties and the security problems continued its work with its 185 national staff on the ground in Yemen risking their lives to distribute food. However, the violence and security situation was limiting its operations. Despite this, since 15 April, WFP had provided emergency food assistance to 19,471 conflict-affected people, including only 8,700 persons in Aden. In the coming months, WFP was planning to increase its operations and was planning, from May to July, to provide emergency food assistance to 2.5 million conflict-affected people throughout the country. WFP and its local partners were facing major challenges distributing food assistance given the intensity of the fighting and ongoing airstrikes. The lack of fuel in the country was also hampering the ability of WFP to respond. Without urgent replenishment of fuel stocks, WFP would soon be unable to provide emergency food assistance or to extend its operations as this shortage affected the transport of the food by trucks and affected the ability of families to cook the food. Food prices had increased, affecting vulnerable families. Before the fighting, there had been 10.6 million food insecure people, but this had increased by 13 per cent and 12 million people were now food insecure.

Ms. Byrs said WFP’s ability to respond to the widespread humanitarian needs in Yemen was severely constrained due to the insecurity in the country. There was an urgent need for humanitarian space to enable food assistance distribution to conflict affected civilians. The lack of fuel, including the restriction on importation, was affecting WFP’s operational ability to provide food assistance and challenged the beneficiary population’s ability to cook the food. There was an urgent need to allow the importation of humanitarian fuel. WFP was also concerned about the safety and the well-being of its national Yemeni staff and their families during this conflict and stressful time.

Tarik Jasarevic of the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday WHO had sent journalists the infographic on the casualties. There were different figures. WHO’s figures reflected figures received from health facilities across Yemen. On fuel, this was a big issue for the health system because remaining hospitals were struggling not only with the shortage of medicines but also fuel shortages, which meant lack of electricity. WHO and the Ministry of Public Health and Population estimated that approximately $ 750,000 was needed every month to provide sufficient fuel to cover 100 ambulances and major hospitals in affected governorates as well as mobile teams. WHO had provided 16,000 litres of diesel to help a sector in Hodeida governorate and also 2,000 litres of fuel to maintain emergency health operations, including ambulances and hospitals in Taiz governorate. It was also providing chlorine tablets and emergency supplies to health facilities in different governorates. A situation report with more details would be available later in the day.

Christophe Boulierac of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said he had new information today on child victims of the violence in Yemen covering the period from 26 March to 20 April. At least 115 children had been killed and 172 maimed. UNICEF believed that these were conservative figures and that the total number could be higher as a process of verification was ongoing. Sixty four of those children were killed during the aerial bombing and 26 were killed by mines and explosive devices. Seventy one children had died in the north of Yemen and 44 in the south of the country. UNICEF also confirmed that at least 140 children had been recruited by armed groups in Yemen, 30 schools had been damaged or occupied by the warring parties and 23 hospitals had been attacked. They were now at the beginning of the fifth week since the violence started. Children of Yemen were already vulnerable before the fighting and they became even more vulnerable since March 26. UNICEF demanded that urgent actions were taken to end grave violations against children, including their recruitment and use by armed groups. Parties to the conflict must meet their obligations under international law. All parties to the conflict must protect children at all times, must not target or use hospitals, and must stop immediately the recruitment of children.

In response to a question on who was recruiting the children, Mr. Boulierac said they were still investigating but it seemed that all the armed groups were recruiting child soldiers. They were not able to provide more exact figures on child soldiers, but the scale was believed to be quite high.

Asked if these attacks were war crimes, Mr. Colville said that would take further investigation to confirm. The High Commissioner called in previous statements for any incident involving the death of civilians to be investigated and that was a fundamental principle.

Asked if the situation remained as serious, after Saudi Arabia announced the end of its air strikes then apparently had continued them, Mr. Colville said initially after the end of operation “decisive storm” was announced, the number of air strikes had dropped, but they had seemed to pick up again yesterday. Also, street fighting continued in a number of locations. He could not say where this was all heading, but there was clearly plenty of violence still taking place in Yemen.

In response to questions on importing fuel and medicines, Mr. Jasarevic said that WHO had purchased local fuel to provide to the hospitals and ambulances. The biggest problem that they had right now was not to get medicines in the country, but to get medicines where WHO had them inside the country to other places where they were needed as this needed fuel and also because of the security situation.

Ms. Byrs, answering the same question, said WFP had contingency fuel storage inside Yemen covering about two weeks. WFP was in charge of the logistical cluster and provided humanitarian fuel to other partners. Very soon, WFP would need to import additional humanitarian fuel. WFP was very concerned about its local staff but so far it had no indication that WFP staff was being targeted. When necessary, the local staff was moved to other villages where the situation was better.

In response to a question, Mr. Laerke said that the incident on 21 April had not been categorized as an attack on a United Nations facility, it was categorized as an incident involving United Nations agencies and partner organizations whose facilities were damaged by explosions on that day. The United Nations called on all parties to the conflict to adhere to international law, which stated that humanitarian facilities were protected and that civilians should be protected.

High Commissioner/Incitement of Hatred in Tabloids in the United Kingdom

Mr. Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein today urged the authorities in the United Kingdom, media, and regulatory bodies to take steps to curb incitement to hatred by British tabloid newspapers, in line with the country’s obligations under national and international law. The High Commissioner also called on all European countries to take a firmer line on racism and xenophobia which he said “under the guise of freedom of expression, are being allowed to feed a vicious cycle of vilification, intolerance and politicization of migrants, as well as of marginalized European minorities such as the Roma. This is not only sapping compassion for the thousands of people fleeing conflict, human rights violations and economic deprivation who are drowning in the Mediterranean. The nasty underbelly of racism that is characterizing the migration debate in an increasing number of EU countries, has skewed the EU response to the crisis, which as we see in the results of the EU Council deliberations yesterday focuses on deterrence and on preventing movement at all costs, risks making the crisis even worse, and could sadly result in further massive loss of life.”

Mr. Colville said an article by a Sun columnist on 17 April began with the words “Show me pictures of coffins, show me bodies floating in water, play violins and show me skinny people looking sad. I still don't care.” Elsewhere in the article, the columnist described migrants as “a plague of feral humans,” compared them to “a novovirus” and said some British towns were “festering sores, plagued by swarms of migrants and asylum seekers shelling out benefits like Monopoly money.” The Sun columnist also advocated using gunboats to stop migrants, threatening them with violence, and said “drilling a few holes in the bottom of anything suspiciously resembling a boat would be a good idea too.” In language very similar to that employed by Rwanda’s Kangura newspaper and Radio Mille Collines during the run up to the 1994 genocide, the columnist said “make no mistake, these migrants are like cockroaches.” Leading figures in both Rwandan media organizations were later convicted by an international tribunal of public incitement to commit genocide. On Monday, a British NGO, the Society of Black Lawyers, reported the Sun to the United Kingdom’s Metropolitan Police and requested the matter be investigated under the 1986 Public Order Act to see whether the article amounted to incitement to racial hatred.

High Commissioner Zeid urged the authorities in the United Kingdom to take the complaint seriously, and to closely examine the broader issue of incitement to hatred by the tabloid press and other sectors of society. “This vicious verbal assault on migrants and asylum seekers in the UK tabloid press has continued unchallenged under the law for far too long. I am an unswerving advocate of freedom of expression, which is guaranteed under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), but it is not absolute. Article 20 of the same Covenant says ‘Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.’” The High Commissioner noted that Article 20 of the ICCPR, as well as elements relating to hate speech in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination* (both of which have been ratified by the U.K., as well as by all other EU countries), were rooted in the desire to outlaw the type of anti-Semitic and other racially based hate speech used by the Nazi media during the 1930s. “The Nazi media described people their masters wanted to eliminate as rats and cockroaches. This type of language is clearly inflammatory and unacceptable, especially in a national newspaper. The Sun’s editors took an editorial decision to publish this article, and – if it is found in breach of the law – should be held responsible along with the author.”

High Commissioner Zeid noted that the Sun article was simply one of the more extreme examples of thousands of anti-foreigner articles that have appeared in tabloids in the United Kingdom over the past two decades. “To give just one glimpse of the scale of the problem, back in 2003 the Daily Express ran 22 negative front pages stories about asylum seekers and refugees in a single 31-day period. Asylum seekers and migrants have, day after day, for years on end, been linked to rape, murder, diseases such as HIV and TB, theft, and almost every conceivable crime and misdemeanour imaginable in front-page articles and two-page spreads, in cartoons, editorials, even on the sports pages of almost all the UK’s national tabloid newspapers,” he said. “Many of these stories have been grossly distorted and some have been outright fabrications. Elsewhere in Europe, as well as in other countries, there has been a similar process of demonization taking place, but usually led by extremist political parties or demagogues rather than extremist media.” There were more details in the briefing notes.

In response to a question, Mr. Colville said hundreds of thousands of people had signed an online petition calling for the Sun to fire the journalist. The issue here was more about the editorial policy of the newspaper, and not only the Sun but other newspapers in the United Kingdom as well.

Answering another question on whether there were precedents in the United Kingdom of journalists or newspaper being prosecuted for incitement, Mr. Colville said he was not aware of any in the United Kingdom but there had been such prosecutions in other countries, often to do with Holocaust issues, and in Rwanda after the genocide. It was very clear in international law that there were limits to freedom of expression and it was reflected in European laws as well. Obviously, where to draw the line was the difficult issue, but OHCHR believed that line had been crossed in the tabloids in the United Kingdom.

OHCHR/Libya

Mr. Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said there had been successive horrific incidents in the past week in Libya that illustrated the severity of the human rights situation. OHCHR had been shocked by the appalling loss of life in the Mediterranean following the reported deaths of several hundred individuals seeking to escape the violence in Libya. Many of those fleeing Libya were migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in an extremely vulnerable situation in Libya. Amidst the violence and breakdown in law and order, they were at risk of killings, torture, abduction, and physical assault. Detention of such individuals in Libya was also widespread and prolonged. Following visits to a number of detention centres, the human rights division of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) had reported conditions of grave concern including chronic overcrowding, poor sanitation, health care, and insufficient food. The division also received consistent reports of physical or verbal mistreatment, labour exploitation, sexual violence, and confiscation of identity documents. As well as the push factor from the own countries, there was also an extreme push factor to get out of Libya.

Mr. Colville said also this week reports were received of the death of several members of the Al-Harir Al-Mansouri family in Derna, Libya by individuals affiliated with the so-called Islamic State in Libya. It was reported that armed men attacked the family’s residence after Ibrahim Al-Harir al-Mansouri resisted arrest. Three members of the family were publicly hanged in the city. OHCHR understood that the public nature of these murders was intended to send a message to those challenging the so-called Islamic State in Libya.

Earlier in the week, a group affiliated with the so-called Islamic State in Libya released a video showing the execution of at least 28 Christians in two separate incidents in Libya. OHCHR condemned the brutal killings of these individuals who were understood to be mostly Ethiopian nationals and who appeared to have been targeted on the basis of their religion. In February of this year the High Commissioner condemned the beheading of 21 mostly Egyptian Coptic Christians, and further urged Libyans to unite against extremists launching attacks based on religious, ethnic, national, racial, or political grounds and OHCHR reiterated that call today.

OHCHR also urged all parties in Libya involved in the ongoing dialogue talks facilitated by the United Nations to redouble their efforts to reach an agreement as soon as possible, so as to begin the process of rebuilding institutions that would ensure the rule of law and the protection of human rights for all those residing in Libya, both nationals, minorities and migrants passing through.

OHCHR/Guatemala

Mr. Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said OHCHR welcomed the decision by the President of Guatemala, Otto Pérez Molina, to extend the mandate of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala. This was a clear message of the State’s commitment to investigate, prosecute and dismantle criminal organizations and to strengthen the rule of law. Although there were important links between impunity from acts committed in the past and criminal organizations working presently, CICIG was not involved in the investigation or prosecution of human rights violations committed during the internal armed conflict, including the case against former Head of State Efraín Ríos Montt, who faced charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. His retrial was still pending.

Mediterranean Crossings

Adrian Edwards of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said this month’s incidents on the Mediterranean, and the more than 1,700 deaths and almost 40,000 crossings they had seen so far in 2015, were symptoms of an enormous and intensifying tragedy that was playing out on Europe’s southern frontiers. The boat crossings were not just a migrant phenomenon, they were a refugee one too – half of those who crossed the Mediterranean in 2014 were people seeking refuge from wars and persecution. For refugees fleeing war, there had to be some alternative to having to cross the Mediterranean in smugglers boats. With the measures announced in Luxembourg and Brussels this week, UNHCR believed that they were an important first step towards collective European action, which was the only approach that could work for a problem of such a large and transnational nature. UNHCR looked forward to working closely with the European Union and its Member States in building on some of the measures that had been announced. UNHCR welcomed the tripling of funding for joint maritime operations and the assurances given at the summit press conference that this would mean an operation with similar capacity, resources and scope to the Mare Nostrum operation.

It was crucial that everyone’s focus was on saving lives, including in the Libyan search and rescue area, which was where most of the distress calls tended to come from. Regarding other measures that had been announced this week, there clearly needed to be further elaboration of what these would mean for resettlement and relocation, and facilitating of access to international protection in Europe through other legal channels. UNHCR’s experience was that without realistic and substantial alternative channels for people to reach safety, the much-needed increase in international efforts to crack down on smugglers and traffickers was unlikely to be effective. Engagement with third countries would need to go beyond financing programmes and strengthening law enforcement capacity. Efforts still needed to be made to address the root causes pushing people to flee, and to support Governments in truly protecting refugees and others more effectively, ensuring full respect for human rights.

As the European Union institutions and its Member States moved towards the implementation of these measures, and the Commission worked on the development of a European Agenda for Migration, UNHCR would be urging that the range of measures proposed be expanded further, and that a holistic plan which put the principles of humanity, solidarity and respect for human rights at the forefront was adopted. Ultimately, the test would be whether they would see a reduction in lives lost, effective access to protection in Europe without having to cross the Mediterranean, and an effective common European Asylum System, which truly lived up to its commitments of solidarity and responsibility shared. UNHCR was stepping up its own response to this crisis and they stood ready to work collaboratively with their European partners.

Leonard Doyle of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said IOM welcomed the outcomes of the special European Council summit, primarily because it put saving lives at the heart of the strategy. IOM really saw the decision to focus on saving lives at sea, which was reiterated a number of times in the European Union Council statement, as a reflection of a new thinking at the European level, which IOM had been calling for from the outset. IOM was also glad to see the European Union specify IOM as a strategic partner in the management of the migration issue. Today, IOM was proposing to the European Union a number of additional steps to improve the governance of migratory flows towards Europe. IOM was looking at the European Union to develop a bolder agenda on this point. IOM was proposing the establishment of a migrant response and resource mechanism which would have immediate effect along the migratory route in key countries in sub-Saharan countries. This would provide a comprehensive range of services that would help identify those in need of help cancelling referral assistance, including voluntary returns for those persons to return home. IOM also believed that the successful reintegration of return migrants was essential for those who left and found themselves stymied down the path towards coming to Europe. At the end of the day, they had spent a lot of money and they needed to be helped to return to their communities of origin and ensure that they did not simply just head around again, having failed in one attempt and potentially become a victim of this appalling situation that they were seeing. IOM was also looking for more comprehensive approaches that would enable proper labour migration, in other words matching labour supply and labour demands, so that those seeking to work in Europe could have visas to allow them to come in for the harvesting season and return. In that way, the money that they would earn, instead of going to a smuggler, would simply be part of their travel, and benefitting their families, rather than the situation that they were seeing at the moment in that people were effectively forced into this situation and then tragically drowning in the Mediterranean.

IOM’s count of the people who had died so far under IOM’s missing persons’ project was that over 1,000 new deaths had occurred since 1 April. IOM was now looking for the European Union to restore properly the saving lives mission as they had promised to do. The tripling of the budget was welcomed and the expansion of Trident was of course welcome, but IOM also noted that Trident operated within the maritime 30 mile limit.

In response to a question on whether the European Council had dealt with the issue of resettlement, Mr. Edwards said UNHCR did think progress had been made this week in the sense that there was now a collective approach to be built on as a first step, with relocation, with resettlement. There had to be some other alternative to getting on these boats. At the moment, there was none.

Mr. Doyle said it was clear that there had been a rethink at the European level. It was clear that the decision to end Mare Nostrum had been looked at again, not so much in name. There was also recognition that saving lives had to be the priority. That was not the language used last October. Border security was of course there, migration management and resettlement was of course a huge priority.

In response to a question, Mr. Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that while the expansion of the search and rescue operation was very welcome, they agreed that it had to be back at least to the level of Mare Nostrum and they needed more clarity on the terms of reference for it. Also, unless more was done in the regions of origin and in the countries of transit, it was unlikely to work.

Immunisation in Sierra Leone, Iraq and Syria

Mr. Jasarevic said a press release had been sent on the really good news from Sierra Leone. Today started a four-day operation to provide essential health services and immunization for children under five in Sierra Leone. They hoped to be able to reach 1.5 million children, together with partners from UNICEF and the Ministry of Health of Sierra Leone. Mass immunization campaigns were suspended in Sierra Leone from October to March because of the Ebola outbreak, and this time around, there would be five essential life-saving interventions targeting pregnant women and children under five, including vitamin A supplementation tablet, deworming tablets, nutritional assessment of children, default tracing to vaccinate children who missed routine immunisation, and elimination of mother to child transmission. They also hoped to have measles and polio vaccinations in Sierra Leone in May and July.

Christophe Boulierac of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said for the first time since the start of the Ebola outbreak, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone were conducting major nationwide immunisation campaigns to protect millions of children against preventable but potentially deadly diseases. As World Immunisation Week was marked from April 24 to 30, the three countries most affected by Ebola aimed to vaccinate more than three million children against diseases such as measles and polio in UNICEF-supported campaigns that involved the provision of vaccines and the training and deployment of thousands of immunization teams. Mr. Boulierac reminded that measles were particularly contagious among children. On average, a case of Ebola resulted in two new infections, while one measles case could generate up to 18 new cases among susceptible persons. The most effective means of avoiding large measles of outbreak was the resumption of immunisation services.

Mr. Boulierac said in Syria, a ten-day measles immunisation campaign was underway to protect children from this deadly disease. Launched on 19 April, the campaign targeted children between six months and five years of age. Vaccination would be provided in 1,209 health centres, and nearly 6,000 health staff and mobile teams were participating in the campaign. By the end of 2014, 594 children had been diagnosed with measles. Of these, almost half had not been immunized. Since the conflict began in 2011, immunization rates across the country had fallen from 99 per cent to just 52 per cent due to severe damage to health infrastructure – nearly one third of the country’s health centres were either damaged or destroyed. UNICEF estimated that over 230,000 children in hard-to-reach areas across the country would likely miss out due to the ongoing conflict.

Geneva Activities

Mr. Fawzi said the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers would be concluding its twenty-second session this afternoon after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Kyrgyzstan, Peru and Uganda.

The Committee against Torture was this morning meeting with non-governmental organizations, and this afternoon would be concluding its consideration of the report of Romania.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination would start its eighty-sixth session on Monday, 27 April, during which it would consider the reports of France, Guatemala, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sudan, Germany and Denmark. A background press release had been sent out yesterday.

Mr. Fawzi said UNOG would be represented at the upcoming Geneva book fair, which would be held from 29 April to 3 May at Palexpo. On display, UNOG would have its book “Recipes for Peace, Rights and Well-being”. There were some copies of the book at the back of the room.

Melissa Begag of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said a briefing on today’s agricultural negotiations informal meeting would be held at 4 p.m. [later changed to 3 p.m.] in press room 1. On Sunday, 26 April, Seychelles would officially become the World Trade Organization’s one hundred and sixty-first member. Seychelles applied for membership in May 1995. A meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee would take place on Monday, 27 April in the morning, and there would be a briefing in WTO’s room A either at 1 p.m. or 5 p.m. depending on how long the meeting continued. A Trade and Environment Event would take place on Tuesday, 28 April on 20 years of building pathways to sustainable development; opening remarks would be made by WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo and the United Nations Environment Programme’s Executive Director, Achim Steiner. A series of regular committee meetings would take place throughout the week. She invited journalists to take a look at the agenda, copies of which were available at the back of the room.

Hans von Rohland of the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Monday, 27 April, ILO would be holding a briefing at 11 a.m. in press room 1 to launch a new report on the enormous disparity in access to healthcare between urban and rural areas around the world. This was an ILO study on 174 countries. Today marked another sad event, the second anniversary of the death of many workers after the collapse of the clothes factory in Bangladesh. ILO had sent out a release on measures taken following that disaster to improve the working conditions in this sector in Bangladesh, and what challenges remained to be tackled. There would be a press briefing held in Dhaka with ILO experts, and ILO could arrange for interviews with them if requested.

Other

Mr. Edwards said UNHCR would be sending out High Commissioner Antonio Guterres’ statement to the Security Council today. On Monday, 27 April at 10 a.m. in press room 1, there would be a briefing on the situation in the Central African Republic, one of the most forgotten and overlooked humanitarian crises anywhere.

Mr. Doyle said a number of journalists had asked for interviews with IOM’s Director-General William Lacy Swing. He was travelling in Asia but would be back next week and IOM would be happy to arrange something for the press when he came back.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: …http://bit.ly/unog240415