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 of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Refugee Agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the World Trade Organization, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the International Organization for Migration.

Human Rights Council

Ms. Heuzé said journalists in Geneva had yesterday evening received simultaneously with their colleagues in New York the draft resolution presented by General Assembly President Jan Eliasson on the creation of the Human Rights Council, as well as the texts of the statements made by Mr. Eliasson, the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights. All three statements urged Member States to support the draft and establish the Human Rights Council which would have 47 members and would hold no less than three sessions a year for a total duration of no less than ten weeks. Among other things, the new Council would review on a periodic basis the human rights records of all countries, and it provided for the suspension of members who committed gross and systematic abuses.

Secretary-General’s Mediation Between Gabon and Equatorial Guinea

Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General would be in Geneva on Monday, 27 February to host a mini-summit between President El-Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon and President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea. An information note would be available later today with background information on the territorial dispute between the two countries and the efforts by the Secretary-General to revitalize the mediation efforts to resolve them. The Secretary-General would meet with the two Presidents separately on Monday morning, and would then hold a working lunch with them. There would be a plenary meeting from 3 p.m. to around 4:30 p.m., and then they would speak to journalists at Door 4 to brief the media about the results of the meeting.

Photo opportunities would be set up for the bilateral meetings and the plenary. The timetable would be confirmed on Monday morning.

Secretary-General’s Trips to Qatar and France

Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General was today flying to Doha, Qatar where he would attend the meeting of the High Level Group for the Alliance of Civilizations. The Secretary-General had decided to go in person in order to emphasize his concern over the violent reactions to the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Secretary-General will be in Paris on Tuesday, 28 February where he would deliver remarks at the Ministerial Conference, hosted by French President Jacques Chirac, on innovative sources of financing for development. The Secretary-General would also meet with President Tassos Papadopoulos in order to review the situation in Cyprus and discuss ways of moving forward the process of reuniting Cyprus.

New Document and Geneva Activities

Ms. Heuzé said available in the press room was the embargoed copy of the annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board which would be launched next week in Vienna. It was interesting to look at the figures for 2004 and 2005 to see the evolution of protection region by region. The report was embargoed until 00.01 GMT on 1 March.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was continuing with its session. This afternoon, the Committee would be starting its review of the periodic report of Guatemala. Press releases in English and in French were issued at the end of the consideration of each country report by the Committee.

The Conference on Disarmament had yesterday held a plenary and the press releases on the meeting were available in English and in French. The Conference would be starting its focused thematic discussion on nuclear disarmament on Tuesday, 28 February.

Ms. Heuzé said the United States Mission had asked her to remind journalists that there would be a press conference at 2:30 p.m. today on strengthening WIPO and its development agenda.

Human Rights

Praveen Randhawa of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said High Commissioner Louise Arbour was giving a press conference in Russia today. As soon as the press conference started, she would send out the High Commissioner’s statement to journalists. It would also be placed on the website of the Office.

Ms. Randhawa said the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Martin Scheinin, yesterday concluded a one-week visit to Turkey. His statement on his findings had been sent out yesterday and was also available on the website of the Office.

Joint UN Heads Mission to Great lakes Region

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said the Heads of the WFP, UNICEF and UNHCR were scheduled to embark this weekend on their first joint mission to visit common operations in the Great Lakes region of Africa. They would visit the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi from 25 February to 2 March. It was hoped that their unprecedented mission to this neglected region would help re-focus international attention on the suffering of millions of refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees.

Pakistan

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid said more than four months after the South Asian earthquake, the humanitarian community was cautiously optimistic that the needs of the affected population would be met. The situation remained difficult, but it was not longer critical, and while the rains and snow made it miserable, it was not unmanageable. The major challenge was to prepare the people to stay warm and dry during the winter. More than 500,000 tents had been delivered by the UN; over 3 million iron sheets had been distributed; and over 6 million blankets and quilts had been provided. The UN had also covered the food needs of a million people in the affected area. Two-thirds of the Flash Appeal for Pakistan had been covered and both funding and expenditure were on schedule to meet the relief requirements.

The Flash Appeal would conclude at the end of April, and then the Action Plan for Relief to Recovery would start for a period of 12 months. An information note with more details was available at the back of the room.

Other

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said journalists should have received an invitation to a virtual press conference on the cases of avian influenza in Solaymaniya in Iraq. The press conference would start at 4 p.m.today.

Ms. Chaib said there would also be a press briefing at 2:30 p.m. on 2 March
on mortality assessment, why did counting the dead matter, and how could scientists do it.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the Inter Agency Standing Committee met from 22 to 24 February. The Committee was made up of United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movements. The aim of the meeting was to discuss avian and human influenza and humanitarian action and to contribute to coordinating an inter agency approach to prepare for the humanitarian implications of avian and human influenza. The participants reviewed the level of preparedness of the members and shared their best practices.

Marie Francoise Borel of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said journalists should have received a press release about an appeal for the drought in Ethiopia yesterday. She also introduced a new press officer, Anna Nelson, who would be covering Asia.

Anna Nelson of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies it had been a week since the landslide in the Philippines and the appeal for help. To date, there were 410 survivors, 128 bodies recovered and 19 persons injured. Some 5,350 persons were living in 10 evacuation centers. The official missing count of the Philippine National Red Cross was 1,023.

Ms. Nelson said the Federation had launched an appeal this morning for Timor Leste for 570,000 Swiss francs to support relief and recovery in response to recent storms and flooding in the country.

Aurelia Blin of the World Trade Organization said next week, the Djibouti trade policy review would take place on 27 February and 1 March. The trade policy review body would hold an overview of developments in the international trading environment on 28 February. Director-General Pascal Lamy would be participating in the trade policy review body meeting. He would be in Nigeria on 2 and 3 March.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said Judy Cheng-Hopkins, UNHCR’s new Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, was scheduled to depart on 26 February on a six-day mission to Chad.

Mr. Redmond said UNHCR and the Governments of Ethiopia and Sudan were expected to sign an agreement on 27 February which would set out the legal framework for the repatriation of some 73,000 Sudanese refugees currently in Ethiopia.

UNHCR was urgently appealing to donors for support to continue an emergency airlift of relief supplies from its stockpiles in Jordan to some 60,000 Sahrawi refugee flood victims in camps near Tindouf in western Algeria.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said WFP was able to complete last Sunday its distribution of one month’s rations to the victims of the floods in refugee camps near Tindouf. This was thanks to support from the European Union.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Fund said a mass vaccination campaign against measles and rubella would be held in Azerbaijan starting Monday, 27 February and until 13 March. The campaign would target around 3 million children and young people from the ages of 7 to 23.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said
IOM had concluded a successful regional counter-trafficking conference in Pakistan and at the end of the conference, a unanimous declaration had been adopted which called for a rights-based and gender sensitive approach to tackling the issue. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, a two-day conference organized by IOM and the Bosnia Herzegovina State Coordinator for Anti-Trafficking and Illegal Immigration began yesterday in Sarajevo aimed at strengthening regional cooperation among prosecutors in dealing with human trafficking.

Mr. Chauzy said IOM and NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe (SHAPE) have signed an agreement to increase cooperation in natural disasters, complex emergencies and post conflict environments.