REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by Spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Meteorological Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the International Organization for Migration.
Situation in Côte d’Ivoire
Mrs. Heuzé said the situation in Côte d’Ivoire remained of concern to the United Nations’ Secretary-General who had spoken to President Laurent Gbagbo. The President had assured Mr. Annan that he would do his utmost to ensure the return of calm to the capital. The UN Operation in Cote d’Ivoire UNOCI reported that the situation remained tense in the country. The Secretary-General’s Special Representative there, Pierre Schori, met yesterday with leaders of UN humanitarian agencies to look into the impact of the situation on their work and security. The United Nations was providing humanitarian assistance to nearly 1 million persons in Côte d’Ivoire but, as a result of the troubles, humanitarian operations had been suspended this week. President Gbagbo and Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny had called for an end to the demonstrations and urged Ivorians to return to work. Available on the UN website and also in the Documentation Centre was the Secretary-General’s latest report on Côte d’Ivoire which was submitted to the Security Council.
Statements by the Secretary-General
Mrs. Heuzé said available was the Secretary-General’s statement on the situation in Nepal in which he expressed his dismay that before a major demonstration planned for today in Kathmandu, the Government had arrested a large number of political party leaders and other critics. The Secretary-General once again appealed to all sides for calm, the suspension of fighting and the urgent initiation of an inclusive national dialogue.
Also available was the Secretary-General’s statement on the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in which he said he was deeply saddened by the attack. He called upon Palestinians and Israelis to do their utmost to maintain calm at this difficult moment.
Geneva Meetings
Mrs. Heuzé said a background press release on the start of the 2006 session of the Conference on Disarmament was available. The first meeting of the session would be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 24 January.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child was continuing its session at the Palais Wilson. The Committee had no public meetings today and Monday, 23 January, but on Tuesday, 24 January, it would take up the reports of Saudi Arabia and Thailand. Mrs. Heuzé recalled that the Committee was meeting in parallel chambers this session to allow it to get rid of its backlog of country reports.
An expert seminar on indigenous peoples’ permanent sovereignty over natural resources and their relationship to land would be held at the Palais des Nations from 25 to 27 January. Available was the provisional agenda of the seminar.
The World Economic Forum in Davos was starting on Wednesday, 25 January. The Secretary-General would be participating in the Forum. The detailed programme of the Secretary-General would probably be available during the morning of 23 January.
Starting this year, as a decision of the General Assembly, the first International Day commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz camps would be marked on 27 January. The Director would provide details on the ceremony for this commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust in Geneva next week.
The Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Juan Méndez, would be in Geneva next week and the Service could set up interviews with him for interested journalists on 26 and 27 January.
In conclusion, Mrs. Heuzé said that Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, would today host his traditional luncheon with the President and members of the Conseil d’Etat of Geneva in the presence of Ambassador Godet, Permanent Representative of the host country.
Drought in the Horn of Africa
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said concerning the drought in the Horn of Africa, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization, there were 11 million persons on the brink of starvation due to the extensive drought which was affecting Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. OCHA’s regional office for Central and East Africa held a special meeting yesterday with their humanitarian partners in Nairobi to discuss the situation in the Horn of Africa, and especially Kenya. This was the worst drought in Kenya in 22 years. A note to the press was available. The World Food Programme needed $ 44 million to provide food aid for the affected persons in Kenya. In Ethiopia, 1.8 million persons were in need of urgent assistance. Food prices had increased because of the drought. There were around 1.7 million persons who needed urgent food aid in Somalia, and WFP needed $ 46 million for that country. As for Djibouti, 60,000 persons were severely affected by the drought.
Other
Christine McNab of the World Health Organization said concerning Turkey and avian influenza, the number of confirmed cases remained the same at 21, with four deaths.
Ms. McNab said WHO’s Executive Board would be starting on Monday, 23 January. After the Director-General’s opening speech, the Board would be looking at some interesting technical issues, including an update of the South Asia earthquake and flu pandemic preparedness. The provisional agenda would be available on the WHO website.
Muriel Scibilia of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said the fourth conference on tropical timber would continue until 27 January. A press release would be issued at the end of the conference. On Monday, 23 January, a press release would be released on the situation of foreign direct investment in 2005 at the world level. Also on Monday, the latest edition of UNCTAD’s statistics manual for 2005 would be available. At a press conference on Tuesday, 24 January, UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai would launch under embargo the World Economic Situation Prospects Report. Dr. Supachai would be participating in the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Josep Bosch of the World Trade Organization said negotiations for the Doha development agenda would restart at the WTO next week, concentrating on agriculture. Negotiators would be meeting all week. The Director-General Pascal Lamy would on 23 January receive the Commissioner for Regional Policy at the European Commission. On 26 January, he would depart for Davos to participate in the World Economic Forum. He would also have bilateral meetings with trade ministers in Davos.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the security situation in the north of the Central African Republic was deteriorating. If this security situation did not improve, and if money from donor countries did not arrive for the country, a humanitarian crisis would be inevitable. The UN had appealed for $ 27 million, but only 35 per cent of that figure had been met.
Michael Williams of the United Nations Environment Programme said the issue of obsolete ships going to ship scrapping yards was obviously not going to go away. UNEP had received a number of calls about the Clemenceau. The Secretariat of the Basel Convention on Hazardous Waste had issued a short statement, saying that the international legal status of obsolete ships such as the Clemenceau was currently a matter of debate. The issue was whether a ship on its final voyage to the scrapping yards should be regulated by international maritime organizations, by the Basel Convention, or by a combination of the two. The Secretariat of the Convention did not have a mandate to render its own legal judgement on this question, so until Governments reached a final conclusion on the international status of obsolete ships, individual States would need to be guided by their own national laws and policies. Whatever decision Governments ultimately took, UNEP and the Basel Convention Secretariat would remain committed to promoting the principle that obsolete ships must be dismantled in an environmentally sound manner. This issue would next be discussed when the Basel Convention met in Geneva from 3 to 7 April.
Mark Oliver of the World Meteorological Organization said WMO was co-sponsoring the 2006 European Forum. The Forum would be starting on Monday, 23 January in Geneva, and its theme this year was “climatic changes: energy and mobility”. An information note would be issued. Also, WMO’s ozone summary of 2005 was now available on the website.
William Spindler of the UN Refugee Agency said once again, people were dying while trying to reach Yemen aboard smugglers’ boats crossing the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. The latest tragic deaths underscored the urgency of UNHCR’s earlier appeal for action to stem the flow of desperate people who fell prey to smugglers in their flight from Somalia and Ethiopia.
UNHCR welcomed the decision of Egyptian authorities to release all the Sudanese women and children who were still being held in detention since police broke up a demonstration on 30 December. The remaining 194 Sudanese women and children were freed yesterday and the day before, and they were among 2,000 Sudanese who for three months had held a sit-in close to UNHCR’s office in Cairo. In addition, 87 Sudanese men, most of them from Darfur region, were also freed. UNHCR would continue to assess the status of the Sudanese men remaining in detention through a proper in-depth legal assessment to ensure whether they were of concern to UNHCR.
Mr. Spindler said that in Sri Lanka, UNHCR was concerned about the continuing deterioration of the security situation in the country, where violent incidents and attacks were reported almost every day. A trickle of refugees was crossing the Palk Strait to India in small fishing boats, fearing an escalation in the violence.
Ikuko Yamaguchi of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF would be having a press briefing at 3 p.m. on Monday, 23 January, for the global launch of the UNICEF Humanitarian Action Report 2006. Copies of the embargoed report and accompanying press release were available.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said a two-day Pan-European ministerial conference to shape coherent and transparent migration-related polices aimed at improving security, migrant rights and promoting greater economic development and prosperity within the region, would take place on 24-25 January in the Belgian capital, Brussels.
Ms. Pandya said in Mauritania, a group of 48 Bangladeshi migrants who had been left stranded by smuggling networks in the Sahara desert while trying to reach the northern shores of the Mediterranean had been helped by IOM to return home. Every year, thousands of irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia tried to reach the northern shores of the Mediterranean via the Maghreb using smuggling networks. Many found themselves stranded without resources and in need of identification documents and return assistance. Since late 2004, IOM had assisted 221 Bangladeshi and Indian migrants stranded in the deserts of North Africa to return home voluntarily.