REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information about the Secretary-General's statement on the avalanches in Jammu and Kashmir; the annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2004, the second PrepCom for the World Summit of the Information Society, the activities of the Director-General, Geneva activities and press conferences, extreme winter conditions in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, as well as polio and other issues. Spokespersons and Representatives of the World Food Programme, the High Commissioner for Refugees, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the Economic Commission for Europe, the World Trade Organization, and the International Organization for Migration participated in the briefing.
Secretary-General's Statement on the Avalanches in Jammu and Kashmir
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that available in the press room were copies of a statement issued by the Secretary-General in which he said he was saddened to learn of the loss of life and damage to property in Jammu and Kashmir due to avalanches and heavy snows over the past two weeks.
Annual Report of International Narcotics Control Board for 2004
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that available in the Documentation Centre were copies of the embargoed annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2004, the press kit and other documents related to it. The report would be launched at a press conference at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, 1 March in Vienna. The report and all the other documents were embargoed until 1 a.m. Geneva time on Wednesday, 2 March. The report had a special focus on the importance of moving away from a simple balanced approach to drug abuse and urged Member States to integrate their supply and demand reduction policies.
Second Preparatory Committee for the World Summit on the Information Society
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the first part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) which had taken place in Geneva in 2003 had asked the Secretary-General to create two Working Groups on Internet Governance and on Financing Mechanisms to help reach a consensus on these two contentious issues at the second part of the Summit which would be held in Tunis in November 2005. The reports of both Working Groups had been discussed at the second Preparatory Committee for WSIS which was today concluding its session. At 11:30 a.m. today, just after the briefing, there would be a press conference on the conclusion of the PrepCom which would be addressed by Mr. Y. Utsumi, ITU Secretary-General and Secretary-General of the Summit, Mr. J. Karklins, Chairman of the PrepCom and the Tunisian Minister of Technology and Communications, Mr. M. Ouaili.
Activities of the Director-General of UNOG
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, would today be meeting with representatives of Latin American and Caribbean countries to discuss issues of common interest. This came within efforts by UNOG to support and facilitate the work of the diplomatic community in Geneva. The Director-General also planned to hold meetings with representatives of other regions.
Mr. Ordzhonikidze would be participating at 10 a.m. on Monday, 28 February in a ceremony to honour staff members who had faithfully served the Organization during the past 25 or 30 years. The ceremony would be held in the Assembly Hall and journalists were cordially invited to attend. Also on Monday, the Director-General would be holding a meeting with the heads of UN agencies based in Geneva.
Geneva Activities
Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was this morning considering the situation in New Zealand under its early warning measure and urgent action procedure. This afternoon, it would start its consideration of a periodic report from Nigeria. (It was later announced that in agreement with Nigeria, consideration of the report would be postponed until the Committee's August session). On 28 February in the afternoon, and 1 March in the morning, the Committee would hold a thematic discussion on the prevention of genocide.
Available in the press room was a note to correspondents concerning the press conference by Peter Hansen, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, which would be held at noon on Monday, 28 February in Room III. Mr. Hansen and the other speakers would also be available for individual interviews and the note explained how journalists could arrange them through the Information Service.
Extreme Winter Conditions in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran
Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said that in Afghanistan, there were still tens of thousands of people who were struggling against the extreme cold. Yesterday, WFP had managed to access one of the worst affected areas by road and had delivered 25 tons of food. Distribution of the food aid started today to help some 4,000 people in urgent need of food. In areas which were inaccessible by road because of the snow, WFP had been preparing airdrops in collaboration with the Government and the United States-led coalition. Yesterday, 20 tons of food were dropped during the first airdrop. There would be another airdrop today. Access had been the main problem over the past few weeks.
Mr. Pluess said that this was the harshest winter in Afghanistan in many years and people also needed medicine and blankets. According to the United Nations in Afghanistan, more than 211 persons had died from the cold, mostly children. WFP like other agencies was very aware of the high risks of flooding once the snow thawed and it had already pre-positioned food in critical areas.
Ron Redmond of the High Commissioner for Refugees said that more than 40,000 families in Afghanistan, about 200,000 persons, had received additional assistance from UNHCR to help them to cope with the unusually harsh winter conditions. The winter aid effort had focused on particularly vulnerable people among those Afghans who had recently returned to their country. In Kabul, UNHCR was assisting the efforts of the Ministry of Refugees to provide shelter to people living in open-air settlements. UNHCR had carried out repair and winterization work on one of the government buildings which the families were moved into. It was also providing sanitation assistance as well as access to health care through its mobile health clinics.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that a new situation report on the rains and snowfall in Pakistan was available. The death toll stood at 486 persons, and many villages remained cut off by avalanches and landslides. The Government had not asked for international aid, but welcomed bilateral and multilateral aid which was coming in. Some 140,000 persons remained isolated in the north of Pakistan and many roads were closed.
Mr. Redmond said that UNHCR was sending relief items to the victims of the earthquake in central Iran that killed hundreds and left thousands homeless on Tuesday. UNHCR was donating family-size tents and 1,500 blankets to the Iranian authorities. Thousands had been left homeless, and with unusually harsh winter conditions in the region, tents and blankets were essential for immediate relief.
Polio
David Heyman, Representative of the Director-General of the World Health Organization for polio eradiation, said that today, a 22-nation synchronized immunization campaign to reach 100 million children in Africa was starting. This was as a result of the events which happened last year when polio was exported from Nigeria to a total of 14 countries, including Saudi Arabia and most recently Ethiopia. Polio eradication was no longer an issue of technical questions. Now the problem was making sure that the environment was right to get those polio drops to the children. For example, polio vaccination had been stopped in Côte d'Ivoire last November because of the internal conflict. A joint mission of UNICEF, WHO and Rotary International had travelled to the north of Côte d'Ivoire to meet with the Forces Nouvelle just recently and had been able to ensure, along with the Minister of Health, that the campaign would be able to start today in the country. There was also fatigue at all levels of the Governments because polio eradication had been going on for a long time, and it took constant renewal of spirit among top-level officials. Finally, money was an important issue. This campaign was costing an additional $ 150 million which was not planned for, so money was still being mobilized.
Bruce Aylward, WHO Coordinator of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, said that Ethiopia had become the fourteenth country to be re-infected with polio as a result of an imported polio virus. The virus had entered Sudan, and had spread to Khartoum, Port Sudan, and then towards the Ethiopian border. The Ethiopian Government had held two rounds of immunization campaigns along the border. What happened next was that on Wednesday, it had been reported that there was at least one confirmed case in the northwest of the country in Tigray. The Ministry of Health had deployed a team to go to the area and it reported this morning that its members had seen a first case and were looking at a second suspected case. The Government would also be preparing a full nation-wide campaign. The good news was that Tigray had one of the highest coverage areas of polio vaccination in Ethiopia and the low season was now starting, so the prospects for further spread if immediate action was taken were rather low.
Edward Hoeckstra, Senior Health Advisor at the United Nations Children's Fund, said that everyone realized how difficult the situation was in conflict areas. Côte d'Ivoire and Sudan were two such areas where the vaccination campaigns were possible now. UNICEF had always been on the front line in countries in conflict areas or in emergency situations. It was well prepared to go into these areas. It was aware of the security threats and tried to reduce them as much as possible. UNICEF worked with community leaders to overcome these issues. It was quite optimistic that major progress would be made, although it realized that the situation was very challenging.
Other
Jean-Michel Jakobowicz of the Economic Commission for Europe said that the ECE's sixtieth annual session would be concluding today and there would be a press release available later in the day. Also, available was a press release on the ratification by the European Community of the Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. The second meeting of the Parties to the Convention would be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan on 25 May.
Josep Bosch of the World Trade Organization said that on Monday, 28 February, there would be meetings on the Dispute Settlement Negotiations, of the Cotton Subcommittee, of the General Council and of the Dispute Settlement Body. On Friday, 4 March, the Trade-Related Investment Measures Committee would be meeting. WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi would be attending a meeting of Ministers of Trade in Kenya from 2 to 4 March.
Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said that WFP had been responding to ever-increasing numbers of refugees who had fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi because of unrest, violence and banditry. Today, WFP was providing food for some 50,000 refugees in Rwanda. The problem was that unless there was a bigger commitment from the international community, food rations would have to be cut by 30 per cent by early March. A previous study had already shown that the present harvest would probably be very poor because of the poor rainfall and the number of refugees and Rwandans who needed food aid was expected to increase dramatically in coming months.
Ron Redmond of the High Commissioner for Refugees reminded journalists that at 3 p.m. this afternoon, the Assistant High Commissioner Wendy Chamberlin would be briefing journalists in Room III on her recent mission to southern Sudan. She would also take questions on any other topics. High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers had departed yesterday and Ms. Chamberlin had assumed interim responsibility for UNHCR until a new High Commissioner was appointed.
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that the meeting on the International Health Regulations would probably conclude at the end of the day tomorrow, Saturday, 26 February. She would contact journalists if she could set up a briefing on the results of the meeting on Monday, 28 January. Contentious issues included the list of diseases which should be included in the International Health Regulations and whether biological weapons should be addressed. All the countries agreed that they wanted WHO to continue to be the leading agency on health issues.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said that in Sri Lanka, an IOM public information campaign warning people affected by the tsunami of the very real dangers of human trafficking was taking place in camps for internally displaced persons throughout the country. And in Turkey, 1,500 Turkish law enforcement officers and trainees had completed an IOM counter-trafficking information and awareness orientation course in Ankara on 24 February.
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