REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Office at Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information about Geneva meetings and activities, UN reform, the World Health Assembly, human rights and other issues. Spokespersons for and Representatives of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme, the World Food Programme and the International Organization for Migration participated in the briefing.
Geneva Meetings and Activities
Mrs. Heuzé said the Committee against Torture was today concluding its thirty-fourth session during which it considered reports from Canada, Switzerland, Finland, Albania, Uganda and Bahrain. The Committee was holding a public meeting this morning to adopt its annual report and programme of work for future sessions as well as to release it final conclusions and recommendations on the country reports it had reviewed. As soon as the texts of the conclusions were available, copies would be placed in the press room.
The International Law Commission was continuing with its public and private meetings. Yesterday, the members of the Commission held a working lunch with Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, who told them that an impressive body of work had already been achieved in the field of codification of international law. But, as the world was facing an unprecedented combination of threats and challenges, the collective commitment to the rule of law and to the continuous development of international law remained of utmost importance. He said he knew the international community could rely on the high expertise of the International Law Commission to respond to the call for strengthening the international legal framework and institutions.
The Director said the Committee on the Rights of the Child was continuing its thirty-ninth session which would conclude on 3 June. Today, the Committee was considering a report from Nepal. In the next two weeks, it would review reports from Ecuador, Norway, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Yemen.
UN Reform
Mrs. Heuzé said Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Chief of Staff, Mark Malloch Brown, yesterday delivered an important statement at the United States House of Representatives Committee on International Relations on the reform of the United Nations. Mr. Malloch Brown said the United Nations was under-funded and over-managed. There were some real issues of audit oversight, management accountability, financial disclosure and general performance that the UN urgently needed to get right. Mr. Malloch Brown's statement was available in the press room. She was pointing it out because it was probably the first time that the issue of UN reform was outlined so candidly.
The Director said that at the briefing of Tuesday, 24 May at 10:30 a.m. Shashi Tharoor, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, would be present to brief journalists further about the Secretary-General's UN reform proposals contained in his report "In Larger Freedom" and to answer any questions.
Human Rights
José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said he had just sent journalists a statement by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Philip Alston, who was requesting an invitation from the Government of Uzbekistan to enable him to visit the country on an urgent basis to assess the current situation. The Special Rapporteur called upon the Government to establish an independent commission of inquiry into the incident in Andijan but noted that his visit was also an essential part of an effective and comprehensive response by the Government.
Mr. Díaz said the indications were that the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, would not welcome an international investigation at this time. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour hoped that he could be persuaded to see the interest that the people of Uzbekistan and the international community have in setting the record straight on the recent events in that country.
Mr. Díaz said today was the last day of the session for the Committee against Torture. The conclusions and recommendations of the Committee on the country reports reviewed this session should be released around 1 p.m. today.
In conclusion, Mr. Díaz said the High Commissioner would be sending today to the Secretary-General, probably this afternoon, the Plan of Action he had requested on the overhaul of the Office. He was not sure when the Plan of Action would be made public, but he hoped to have an indication when that could be done early next week.
In response to a question, Mr. Díaz said Mr. Alston had written to the Government of Uzbekistan yesterday.
A journalist said the President of Uzbekistan said that there was no need for an inquiry as diplomats and journalists had already visited Andijan, and wondered if the High Commissioner agreed with this. Mr. Díaz said the High Commissioner felt that that tour [of diplomats and journalists] was not a substitute for a credible, impartial and independent investigation into the events. She hoped that such an inquiry could still take place.
First Quarter Asylum Statistics
Ron Redmond of the High Commissioner for Refugees said UNHCR statistics for the first quarter of 2005 showed that the number of asylum seekers arriving in industrialised countries continued to fall steadily. The quarterly total of 81,900 asylum applications in the 36 industrialized countries was down 13 per cent, compared to the last quarter of 2004, and 17 per cent lower than during the first three months of last year. France remained the top receiving country during the first quarter, with the United States as the second receiving country, followed by the United Kingdom and Germany.
World Health Assembly
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said the World Health Assembly this morning adopted in a plenary a resolution on health action in relation to crises and disasters, with particular emphasis on the South Asian earthquakes and tsunamis of 26 December 2004. Committee A adopted the revised International Health Regulations and the proposed programme budget for 2006-2007 this morning and they would be taken up by the plenary on Monday, 23 May in the morning. Available was the journal which listed all the various issues that the WHA would be taking up today.
Ms. Chaib reminded journalists that the Assembly would be continuing its work on Saturday, 21 May at the Palais des Nations.
Other
Lucie Giraud of the World Trade Organization said there would be a meeting on Belarus: Accession Working Party on Tuesday, 24 May at WTO. On Wednesday, 25 May, there would be a meeting of the Information Technology Products Committee and Small Economies Session. On Thursday, 26 May, there would be a meeting of the General Council, which would be followed by a press conference at 1 p.m. on the appointment of the new Director-General of WTO.
WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi would be meeting with Nicaragua's Foreign Minister and the Czech Republic's Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade on Monday, 23 May, Ms. Giraud said. He would be attending the General Council on Thursday and Friday.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there would be a joint press conference at 11 a.m. on Monday, 23 May, in Room III between OCHA and the United Nations Development Programme on post-tsunami reconstruction, including the situation on the ground and difficulties affecting humanitarian workers. She noted that there would be another press conference by Jan Egeland, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, on Tuesday, 24 May at 11:30 a.m., right after the briefing. Mr. Egeland would be in Geneva to attend some internal meetings on natural catastrophes in preparation for a seminar which he would be attending in Cuba at the end of May and beginning of June on natural catastrophes.
Jean Fabre, Deputy Director in charge of Communications of the United Nations Development Programme in Geneva, said there were daily questions about how the aid was used and distributed to tsunami victims and it was important to outline how the work was carried out, problems affecting it, and the transition between the emergency phase and the reconstruction phase. Speakers at this press conference on 23 May would include persons who were working on the ground and who would be able to give journalists a clear picture of exactly how the work was proceeding on the ground.
Ms. Byrs said that the first hurricane of the season had affected El Salvador yesterday. Tropical Storm Adrian turned into a hurricane, with winds of more than 140 kilometres an hour. Thousands of persons had been evacuated by the Government, although exact figures were not yet available. The first situation report was released yesterday evening. Schools were closed, electricity was cut, and an UNDAC team was on stand-by.
In conclusion, Ms. Byrs said that an emergency appeal for Niger had been launched in Geneva, Niamey and New York yesterday for $ 16,191,000 to combat a severe food crisis for 3.6 million people. The food crisis was compounded by the locust infestation of 2004 and drought. Available at the back of the room was the press release which was issued yesterday.
Ron Redmond of the High Commissioner for Refugees recalled that UNHCR had informed journalists last week about its concern at reports of intimidation of Rwandan asylum seekers in Burundi by the Burundian army. The makeshift transit sites had been rapidly emptying as thousands of Rwandan asylum seekers either went back to Rwanda or hid in neighbouring areas. This week, UNHCR's office in Bujumbura had reported a new influx of Rwandans into Burundi, estimated at between 3,000 and 3,500 persons. UNHCR's concerns for the new arrivals remained the same. The sites on which they were staying had no facilities. Also UNHCR's policies was to move such groups as quickly as possible from borders to safer locations. UNHCR was still requesting authorization to move the asylum seekers to UNHCR transit centres.
In Colombia, Mr. Redmond said some 1,100 persons, mostly Afro-Colombians, had fled seven communities along the Buey river in Colombia's north-western province of Choco, fearing combat between various armed groups operating in the area and the Colombian army. The municipal authorities in the provincial capital Quibdo were providing the internally displaced persons with emergency assistance. UNHCR was launching an emergency campaign with the Registry Office early next week to provide these persons with identity documents so that they could receive further assistance.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said that in West Africa, Mali and Niger were the two countries most affected by the worst invasion of locusts in 15 years and the drought. In both countries, the price of grains was rising and the price of meat was falling. There were also large numbers of persons moving internally in search for work or better living conditions. The cutting of trees for firewood was accelerating the desertification process in this already fragile environment. In Mali, WFP was helping 450,000 of the most vulnerable with food aid, while in Niger, it was helping 400,000 persons. WFP had launched two appeals: for Mali for $ 7.5 million and for Niger for $ 5.5 million. But to date, it had only received $ 823,000 for Mali and nothing for Niger. It had already used $ 2 million from its emergency fund for the two countries, but it needed more contributions.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said an IOM initiative to breathe new life into the tsunami-ravaged principal marketplace in Banda Aceh began this week in the heart of the provincial capital. Local men trained in basic carpentry skills began erecting the first of 240 temporary market stalls which were heavily damaged by the 26 December tsunami.
Ms. Pandya said that in Italy, IOM's Italian-funded Migration for Development in Africa Programme was co-funding an association of Ghanian migrants living in the town of Modena to set up "Ghanacoop", a cooperative created in partnership with the municipality of Modena and a pool of local business active in the importing, storing, processing and marketing of tropical fruits from Ghana. In Albania, the IOM office in Tirana and the Albanian Institute for Public Health had launched a nationwide HIV/AIDS awareness campaign.
The Director said that available was a press release from the Economic Commission for Europe about a forum which would be held in Geneva from 24 to 25 May entitled "After fifteen years of market reforms in transition economies: new challenges and perspectives for the industrial sector".
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