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 International Labour Organization, World Health Organization, United Nations Children Fund, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, World Meteorological Organization, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, International Organization for Migration, and United Nations Refugee Agency.

United Nations Secretary-General

Mr. Ban was in Saudi Arabia where he was attending the opening of the Fourth Summit of Arab and South American countries, said Mr. Fawzi. The Secretary-General would hold talks with a number of Saudi officials on a range of issues, including on Yemen, Syria, the Middle East, and the preparations for the Climate Change Summit in Paris (COP 21), in which the Gulf Countries and Saudi Arabia had an important role to play.

Asked whether the dates for Yemen talks would be agreed during this visit, Mr. Fawzi said that those dates were still not confirmed. Yemen, and other issues, would be the subject of discussion with Saudi officials.

Mr. Fawzi also said that Staffan de Mistura, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Syria, was briefing the Security Council today, 10 November. Mr. de Mistura was in Washington on 9 November where he had met with John Kerry, United States Secretary of State.

Geneva Activities

The Committee against Torture started its work on 9 November and would continue with Liechtenstein today, 10 November. The Committee would consider a report by Azerbaijan on 11 November and a report by Austria on 12 November. China, Denmark and Jordan would present their reports next.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was today considering a report by Madagascar, to be followed by the report of Timor-Leste on 11 November, and Slovakia on 12 November. That would be the last report for the session which was concluding on 20 November.

A high-level meeting on “Libyan Women’s Minimum Agenda for Peace” was taking place in Geneva on 10 November, organized by the United Nations Office at Geneva, United Nations Women, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, and the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It aimed at ensuring the support of the international community for the agenda for peace. The Libyan women involved in the setting of the peace agenda would address the media at a press conference today, 10 November at 3 p.m. in Room III.

Mr. Fawzi announced that the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) would launch its flagship Intellectual Property Report 2015: “Breakthrough Innovation and Economic Growth” at a press conference on Wednesday, 11 November at 11 a.m., in Press Room 1. Francis Gurry, Director General, WIPO, and Carsten Fink, WIPO Chief Economist, would speak.

The Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review Working Group was reviewing the human rights record of Georgia today, 10 November, and this afternoon would adopt its reports for Saint Lucia, Oman and Myanmar, for which reviews had taken place last week.

The Human Rights Council was scheduled to hold a special meeting this Thursday, 12 November, at 3 p.m., to hear an address by President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, said Mr. Fawzi.

Rupert Colville, for Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that Scott Campbell, Chief of the Central and West Africa Section, would brief the media on Burundi’s worsening humanitarian situation in a press conference today, 10 November at 2 p.m. in Press Room 1.

Asked whether the Human Rights Council would hold a special session on the human rights situation in Burundi, Mr. Colville said that there were some indications that the session would take place, but this had not yet been agreed by Member States.

Fadela Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), announced a press briefing tomorrow, 11 November, on the health situation in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, with WHO country representatives.

Hans von Rohland, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), announced a press briefing on Monday 16 November, 10 a.m. in Press Room 1, concerning the new edition of ILO's Key Indicators of the Labour Market.

The next El Niño Update would be issued at a press conference on Monday, 16 November at 3 p.m. in Room III, in the presence of the World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

OHCHR urges Egypt to stop using military justice to prosecute civilians

Mr. Colville, OHCHR, briefed journalists on the evolving situation in Egypt concerning the arrest of independent journalist Hossam Bahgat. Mr. Bahgat had been arrested Sunday and interrogated for eight hours without legal counsel after being summoned to a military intelligence building. OHCHR was concerned about this violation of the right to freedom of expression and called on Egypt to not only release Mr. Bahgat but to stop using military justice for the prosecution of civilians. Mr. Bahgat's case is but one in a series of independent journalists who have been arrested and prosecuted by a military tribunal as opposed to a jury of their peers. OHCHR was increasingly concerned about the use by Egypt of military courts which did not meet the requirements of independence as judges were subject to their superior’s orders, stressed Mr. Colville.

A journalist noted that a news agency had been denied registration in Latvia and inquired about the position of OHCHR on freedom of expression in this and other countries in the region. Mr. Colville invited the journalist to contact the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression on this particular issue.

Megh and Chapala: double whammy of twin cyclones unprecedented in the Gulf of Aden

Claire Nullis, for World Meteorological Organization (WMO), briefed about cyclonic storm Megh and its landfall in Yemen, saying that the storm had gained momentum at sea, but had weakened quickly upon encountering the mountainous coastal terrain of Yemen. Winds of 90 to 100 kilometres per hour had caused some damage, along with storm surges and coastal flooding, but as with Chapala, it was the rain that was likely to be the main problem. Megh came less than a week after Chapala hit landfall, said Ms. Nullis, stressing that such a double whammy of twin cyclones was unprecedented in the Gulf of Aden. The Yemen meteorological service was issuing regular warnings and updates to alert people of the dangers.

Jens Laerke, for Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that on 8 November, cyclone Megh had passed over the Yemeni island of Socotra, where the damage and humanitarian needs were currently being assessed. Initial reports suggested six people died and 60 had been injured, with the storm causing significant damage. Megh had damaged the infrastructure, power stations, and most notably the hospital, which was caring for those affected by Chapala. Further information in OCHA Flash Update.

Asked about the impact of Megh in Somalia and the Horn of Africa, Ms. Nullis explained that there were no observation stations in those parts of Somalia and it was therefore difficult to assess the damage. A journalist asked about another cyclone brewing in South Asia, and Ms. Nullis said that India had reported a depression in Tamil Nadu, which seemed to be weakening, and there were no indications about another potential threat to Yemen.

90 per cent of target population in Iraq vaccinated against cholera

Fadela Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the first round of the vaccination campaign had been completed this week in Iraq, and that 90 per cent of the target population of 255,000 had been vaccinated. The second round should take place at the beginning of December.

WHO urges countries in the African Meningitis Belt to introduce meningitis A vaccine into regular immunization programmes

Dr. Marie-Pierre Preziosi, Medical Officer, Initiative for Vaccine Research, World Health Organization (WHO), briefed about the Meningitis Vaccine Project. The project, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, had been developed in the 1990s as a response to a century of meningitis epidemics afflicting 450 million people in 26 countries in the so-called African Meningitis Belt, Sub-Saharan Africa. The project was very successful in developing a new meningococcal A conjugate vaccine which had been rolled out in 16 countries. Seventy per cent of the population aged 1 to 29 had been vaccinated and the disease was nearly eliminated from those countries, said Dr. Preziosi. In order to avoid resurgence of the disease, WHO was urging the 16 countries of the Meningitis Belt to include the vaccine in their routine vaccination programmes.

Answering questions, Dr. Preziosi said that the inclusion of this vaccine into routine immunization programme was feasible as the vaccine was very cheap and was much in demand because the population feared this disease. The ten remaining countries in the Belt would introduce the vaccine by 2016, as foreseen by the original roll out plan.

Asked about the outbreak of meningitis in Niger, Dr. Preziosi said that over the decades, 80 to 90 per cent of meningitis cases in the Belt had been caused by meningitis A, and this was not the case in the recent outbreak in Niger. Vaccine for other strains were not available today and WHO had started a programme in 2008 to develop an affordable conjugate vaccine for other strains of meningitis. It was hoped that the vaccine would start trials in January and would be available for use within five years.

11 million children at risk of hunger and disease as a result of El Niño

Christophe Boulierac for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that three weeks before the 21st United Nations Climate Conference, UNICEF would like to remind that children’s lives were at stake as El Niño strengthened. An estimated 11 million children were at risk from hunger, disease and lack of water in Eastern and Southern Africa as a result of strengthening El Niño, which was also causing droughts and floods in parts of Asia, the Pacific and Latin America. El Niño could lead to significant increase in diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, diarrhea and cholera, which were major killers of children in the world. Among the countries worst affected by El Niño were Somalia, where more than three million children were in need of support amid crop failures and food shortage; Ethiopia, which suffered its worst drought in the last 30 years with more than eight million people food insecure and 350,000 children in need of nutrition support; and others.

Further information on the impact of El Niño was available in this press briefing note.

UNICEF supports development of child-friendly justice system in Libya

As conflict in Libya continued, UNICEF was stepping up efforts to better protect children, said Mr. Boulierac, including through training for 38 social workers on the promotion of justice for children. This was part of the programme to support Libya in developing a justice system that responded to children’s needs and was in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Libya had ratified. Mr. Boulierac explained the need to follow up children in contact with law, given the high level of violence among children, which was a result of their own exposure to violence since 2011. Another priority in Libya was psychosocial support to help the children cope with the horrors inflicted by armed conflict, added Mr. Boulierac, noting that in Tripoli and Benghazi alone, 270,000 children required psychosocial support on account of their exposure to violence related to the armed conflict. According to the United Nations, 2.5 million Libyans – 40 per cent of whom were children – were in need of protection assistance, he concluded.

800,000 refugees and migrants arrived to Europe by sea so far in 2015

Joel Millman, for the International Organization of Migration (IOM), said that the arrivals to Europe by sea approached 800,000 through the first week of November - nearly four times the total for all 2014. On those routes 3,455 people died in 2015. An estimated 17,600 migrants and refugees had crossed into Greece from Friday 6 November to Sunday 8 November, where the death toll continued to rise. Eight bodies had been recovered off Lesbos and Agathonisi during the weekend, including a body of a toddler boy. For more data on arrivals and fatalities in the Mediterranean please see IOM press release.

Mr. Millman welcomed the Valetta Summit to Improve Cross-Continental Cooperation starting in Malta tomorrow, 11 November, between the European Union and the African Union officials. Press release on the Valetta Summit accessible here.

A journalist who just returned from Greece spoke about the atrocious situation in reception centres in Greece, from which the United Nations agencies were largely absent. The relief and assistance to refugees there was being principally provided by private and voluntary effort, she said. Mr. Millman said that IOM focused its activities in Italy and Libya, and on improving reception sites in the Balkans where a network of winterized containers was being developed in preparation of the arrival of people from Greece.

Mr. Boulierac said that UNICEF was aware about this situation on the Greek islands. He reminded of the work of in Syria and the region, and in the Balkans, and explained that a mission had been dispatched to Greece to assess the national response and to find out how UNICEF could help improve it. UNICEF was not only concerned about the situation of children and families on the Greek islands but also about the situation of children left behind in Greece, who were very vulnerable as they were out of money and could not continue their journey. It was very important to also pay attention to the children who had arrived to their destination– Germany, Sweden and others – and make sure that their vulnerabilities were minimized and that they were protected from exploitation.

Asked whether a pressure was being put on Greek authorities to open the land routes and so avoid the perils of sea journey, Mr. Millman said that putting a pressure on Member States was not a general practice in IOM, while Leo Dobbs of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR was in contact with the Greek government, and was working on scaling up its response. Mr. Millman urged everyone to closely watch the European Union – African Union Summit on Migration on Malta tomorrow, 11 November, during which the issue of land routes would be discussed, among others.

A journalist asked how many children had arrived to Europe this year and Mr. Boulierac said that figures collected in different countries were not always available and reliable, and that UNICEF had noticed an increase in the number of children arriving to the Balkans from Greece, where approximately one in three persons arriving to Gevgelija, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, was a child. Mr. Millman said that according to Italian authorities, so far this year 140,000 persons had entered the country by sea and one-fifth of those were minors; it was not known how many children were among the 3,000 persons who arrived in Spain.

Number of Malian refugees in Niger reaches new high despite war's end

Leo Dobbs, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), briefed the media on Malian refugees in Niger, where 45,000 had arrived since the conflict had erupted in 2012. Thousands had fled eastern Mali in recent weeks despite the signing of the Algiers Accord. People were fleeing because of lawlessness, extortion, food shortages, inter-tribal rivalry, fighting between herders and farmers, and a power vacuum in the absence of a strong government and military presence in the east, reported Mr. Dobbs.

Additional information in the press briefing note here.

Asked about the real situation in the area, Mr. Dobbs said that it was a combination of lack of administration, insufficient security, conflicts between peasants and farmers, and tribal issues, and it seemed that people crossing the border were planning to stay for a while in Niger. Returns were ongoing, said Mr. Dobbs with 900 repatriated this year, but this was surpassed by the number of new refugees that had arrived in the last two months.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog101115