REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief, Press and External Relations Section, United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons of the Human Rights Council, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the International Organization for Migration.
United Nations Secretary-General and UNOG Director-General
Mr. LeBlanc said that the Secretary-General would be traveling to Gaza City today, where he would be visiting a girls’ school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and he would also participate in a meeting of the Gaza Central School Parliament. He would visit a reconstruction project and hold a town hall meeting with UN staff working in Gaza. He would also travel to the Palestinian city of Rawabi, in the West Bank, and while in Ramallah he would meet with President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. He would receive the Grand Cordon of the State Palestine and attend Iftar with the two leaders.
UNOG Director-General Michael Møller would be delivering the Secretary-General’s message at the Annual Security Review Conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), in Vienna. The speech would be made available to the press.
Humanitarian overview – mid-year status
Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), presented the Global Humanitarian Overview, a mid-year status report. He said that it was an update of the very worrying picture of the funding of humanitarian appeals across the world. The overall number of people in need of assistance globally had soared to a record 130 million since the appeal had been launched in December 2016. The global appeal targeted 95.4 million of the most vulnerable among all the crisis-affected people, up from 86.6 million back in December. The funding requirements had also risen from 19.7 billion to 21.6 billion today, which was a record. So far, the donors had provided 5.5 billion dollars in funding, which left a gap of 16.1 billion halfway through the year.
Stephen O’Brien, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, had said: “The generosity of our donors is not in dispute. Each year, they give more.” The 2016 appeals had received the highest amount ever, at mid-year. Nonetheless, the UN was facing a massive funding gap due to the unrelenting, exponential growth of humanitarian need. For instance, Fiji had suffered cyclone Winston, Ecuador had been hit by a devastating earthquake, the El Niño phenomenon had led to droughts in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, while crises in Central African Republic, Iraq, South Sudan and Syria required large-scale efforts and funding year after year. Also, the unprecedented forced displacement, standing at 65 million people globally, was stretching the capacities of the humanitarian organizations and the donors who were supporting them. More information was available at http://www.unocha.org/stateofaid/
In response to questions, Mr. Laerke said the UN was pushing an agenda for humanity and was asking for funding to be able to deliver on that agenda. The current update was a mid-year status update. He also said that around 80 per cent of humanitarian assistance went to conflict-affected people. Protracted conflicts such as the ones in Central African Republic, South Sudan and Syria were very expensive, as delivering aid to those areas was expensive because of security measures that needed to be taken. Mr. Laerke also said that even though donations were increasing, the growth of humanitarian needs was steeper, creating a funding gap.
Realizing that, the Secretary-General had called the World Humanitarian Summit, which had taken place in May and had looked at those issues from different angles. The question was not only how to increase the funding, but also how to get from a reactive stance to the ability to reduce the needs in the first place instead. He underlined that it was a complex undertaking, as we were looking at the fallout of phenomena such as El Niño, exacerbated by man-made climate change, and of conflicts. There had been many ideas, initiatives, and commitments from the participants present at the WHS in Istanbul on how to bring this forward. Many of these issues were currently being discussed in New York at the ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment, bringing Member States of the UN together to look at how to turn the Istanbul commitments into action plans. It was necessary to get existing donors to give more, bring new donors on board, but also bring in a contribution from other sectors of society such as the private sector, who may have services they could provide free of charge.
Green Star Awards
Mr. Laerke said that together with Green Cross International, an environmental NGO, and with the United Nations Environment Programme, OCHA was calling for nominations to the bi-annual Green Star Awards. The awards celebrated outstanding efforts to address the environmental and humanitarian impacts of disaster and conflicts. Emergencies including industrial accidents, extreme weather events, and protracted crises could have severe impacts on the environment, human health, and livelihoods, all at the same time. There awards recognized individuals, organizations, Governments, and companies that demonstrated achievements in raising awareness, building capacity, and effectively responding to such crises.
The nominations would be open until the end of January 2017 and the winners would be announced in June 2017, at the Environmental Emergencies Forum in Nairobi, Kenya.
The awards were being held every two years. The winners of the previous edition had been: Ambatovy, a private company from Madagascar, CEDRE (Centre of Documentation, Research, and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution), an association of public and private organizations from France, and the Women’s Refugee Commission, a non-profit organization from the USA.
Syria
Mr. Laerke said that on 27 June an inter-agency convoy had delivered assistance to the hard-to-reach town of Qudsaya in rural Damascus. The convoy had contained food, nutrition, health, water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, for some 30,000 people. This had been the second convoy to Qudsaya in 2016; the first one had taken place in May.
Since the beginning of 2016, the UN had been able to reach almost 57 per cent of people in besieged areas and 12 per cent of people in hard-to-reach areas through inter-agency operations. Further assistance had also been provided to hard-to-reach areas through cross-border activities.
In response to a question on access to the two besieged locations that had not been reached yet, as mentioned the previous week by Humanitarian Access task force chair Jan Egeland, Mr. Laerke said that from the operational side, they still had not been reached.
Mr. LeBlanc said that UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura would be briefing the Security Council on 29 June from New York. He also said that on 27 June the Secretary-General had announced the appointment of Yacoub El Hillo as his Deputy Special Representative in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). He would also serve as the UN Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He would succeed Antonio Vigilante of Italy. Mr. El Hillo has been UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria since August 2013. His replacement had not yet been announced. In response to a question on why Mr. El Hillo was being moved at this critical moment of the humanitarian crisis in Syria, Mr. LeBlanc said that movements were normal in any organization. He added that the United Nations was extremely thankful to Mr. El Hillo for his great work over the past years and for achieving progress in recent months in getting greater humanitarian access and providing aid to the people in need throughout Syria.
Mediterranean arrivals
Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that there was a new update on Mediterranean arrivals and fatalities. In the week of 19 to 26 June, 7,200 arrivals in Italy had been registered. Some 1,200 more people had been rescued today in the straits between Libya and Sicily. In addition to dozens of small rubber dinghies, a boat carrying 300 to 400 people had been reported in the latest rescue event. Larger crafts were being used again.
In response to a question, Mr. Millman said there was more activity in 2016 than in past years from Egypt but Libya was still the main country of departure on the central Mediterranean route. Migrants kept coming mostly from central Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Horn of Africa region, with no sign yet of the nationalities who had been using the Turkey to Greece route. The emergence of Comoros Islanders was new, and they were coming in large numbers. According to IOM’s Chief of Mission in Yemen, Yemen Air used to be the link between Comoros and Europe. Because of the violence in Yemen, however, Comoros Islanders were now more present on the boats leaving from Egypt. Mr. Millman also underscored the danger of the overcrowded rubber dinghies.
Mr. Millman also said that IOM’s Director-General William Lacy Swing would hold a press conference in the first floor lobby of the CICG (17, rue de Varembé) on 30 June at 3 p.m., with Ambassador Ma of China. The press conference would focus on China joining IOM, which would bring the Organization’s membership up to 165 countries once China’s membership was ratified by the General Council of IOM. There would also be a probable announcement that IOM was joining the United Nations.
In response to questions, Mr. Millman said that the vast majority of IOM members had wanted to keep things intact, but within the UN family. IOM members had started out by asking IOM to explore what joining the UN would mean, and to come back with a report and a resolution. Almost all the members had greenlighted it. Any concerns had to do with issues such as staffing, budgeting, and were being resolved in IOM’s Council this week. Then, the decision would be made by a vote of all IOM members. In September, there would be a vote in the General Assembly. Since IOM’s overlap with the General Assembly was considerable, if IOM membership was in favour of the decision, the vast majority of the General Assembly should support it too.
In response to another question, Mr. Millman said that IOM would not be giving up its independence and its model would remain intact. There were several well-known precedents of organizations that had followed this path. The move would help stall the urge to reinvent the wheel and build an entirely new immigration agency within the UN, from scratch. He also said there would be no change in mandate and the main changes would concern some staffing positions in New York and in Geneva. There would not be any change in name.
Geneva activities
The Conference on Disarmament, was holding its first public plenary under the Presidency of Poland today at 10 a.m., following the end of the Presidency of Peru on 26 June. The CD would hold a second plenary session on 30 June at 10 a.m. It was the last week of the second part of the CD’s 2016 session, which would come to an end on 1 July.
The Human Rights Committee, which was pursuing this week its 117th session at the Palais Wilson, would complete the review this morning of the report of Ecuador, started on 27 June. This afternoon, the Committee would begin the review of the report of Burkina Faso. During the current session, which would last until 15 July, the Committee would also review the report of Argentina.
Human Rights Council and related press conferences
Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council, updated the press on the Council’s activities. This morning the Council had continued its general debate on racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia, which would conclude around 11 a.m. It would be followed by an interactive discussion with the Independent expert on the Central African Republic, Marie-Thérèse Keita Bocoum. Celestine Nzala, representing the NGO Network for Human Rights in the Central African Republic, would participate in the interactive discussion. That would be followed by the presentation of a report of the Independent expert on Cote d’Ivoire, Mohammed Ayat, followed by a statement from the concerned country and an interactive discussion.
At 2.50 p.m. today the Council would hear a statement from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, Guillaume Long. From 3.30 to 6 p.m. would take place a panel discussion on the use of sport and the Olympic ideal to promote human rights for all. The discussion would be opened by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. It would focus on the role of sport in promoting human rights. The panellists would include Paralympic gold medallists and an Olympic silver medallist.
On 29 June, several country situations would be addressed by the Human Rights Council, starting with Ukraine at 9.30 a.m. The Council would hear an oral update from Ivan Simonovic, Assistant-Secretary-General and Head of the OHCHR office in New York. He would present an update on Ukraine, based largely on the report that had been made public earlier in June. It would be followed by an interactive discussion and a statement from the concerned country. Subsequently would take place the presentation of a report on Burundi, which was already available online. The presentation would cover the period from April 2015 to the present, and would be followed by an interactive discussion with the State concerned.
Closer to 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. on 29 June a joint statement would be read out by the High Commissioner, presenting two country situations. The first would be on Myanmar, focusing particularly on the situation of human rights for the Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar. That report had been published a week ago. The second would focus on the situation of human rights in Sri Lanka. A conference paper had been made public this morning, outlining the main elements of that oral update.
On 30 June and 1 July 35 resolutions would be addressed. The adoption of the resolutions would start on 30 June around 3 p.m., would run into the evening, and would continue all day on 1 July.
The Special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Mutuma Ruteere, would hold a press conference on 28 June at 12.30 p.m. in Press Room 1. He would introduce his reports presented at the 32nd session of the Human Rights Council: his main thematic report on xenophobia and its conceptualization, trends and manifestations, especially in the context of an acute migration crisis xenophobia; the second on combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other such practices and the third report on his visit to Greece carried in May 2015.
United Nations International Conference in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Mr. LeBlanc announced the United Nations International Conference in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace on 29 and 30 June, to be held at the Palais des Nations in Room XVII. The opening session would take place on 29 June in presence of Michael Møller, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Ambassador Fodé Seck, Chair of the UN Palestinian Rights Committee, and Nabil Shaath, former Palestinian chief negotiator, member of the Fatah Central Committee. The Conference would bring together representatives of at least 52 Governments, six international organizations, five UN agencies and 36 NGOs.
The Palestinian delegation would hold a press conference on 29 June at 1.30 p.m. in Press Room 1. The speakers would be Ambassador Fodé Seck, Chair of the UN Palestinian Rights Committee, Ambassador Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN in New York, Mohammed Shtayyeh, Senior Advisor to President Abbas on negotiations, and Nabil Shaath, former Palestinian chief negotiator, member of the Fatah Central Committee.
In response to a question, Mr. LeBlanc said that the conference had been organized in Geneva in the past.
Other announcements
Mr. LeBlanc said that today at 10 a.m. New York time, the election of five new non-permanent members of the Security Council would take place in the General Assembly.
He also said that on 30 June, at 3 p.m. New York time, the General Assembly would be reviewing the UN Global Counter-Terrorism strategy. The Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly would be addressing Member States on the occasion of the fifth Review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, on the 10th anniversary of the Strategy. The review, scheduled for 30 June and 1 July, would examine the report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the Strategy over the past decade.
Mr. LeBlanc also mentioned the e-Commerce caravan, organized by the International Trade Centre. It would be at the Palais des Nations at Door 6 on 30 June and on the Place des Nations on 1 July, and would bring together entrepreneurs from countries such as Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal and Syria, to showcase their products.
The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog280616