REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from the Spokespersons for the World Health Organisation, the International Labour Office, the World Trade Organization, the World Food Programme, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General

While travelling in Africa, the Secretary-General yesterday welcomed the permanent cease-fire declared by ETA. He urged that this commitment be honoured, thus ending the violence which has caused so much suffering over so many years. The statement was available in the press room.

As you know, the Secretary-General has ended his visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo with a visit to Kisangani. He travelled to Libreville, Gabon, to meet with the President. Journalists may remember that recently the Secretary-General had a meeting in Geneva with the Presidents of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and announced at that time that he would be meeting with them again in Africa to continue the negotiations on the territorial dispute between the two countries.

Conference on Disarmament

The Conference on Disarmament held on Thursday its plenary session, during which the U.K. Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office made a statement. A press release was available. The last plenary meeting of the present session will take place next Thursday, 30 March.

Commission on Human Rights

José Luis Diaz, speaking for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the resumption of the session is expected to take place on Monday 27 March at 3 p.m. There would be statements from the outgoing Chairperson, the incoming Chairperson, and from High Commissioner Louise Arbour. There could also be statements from the five regional groups, as well as from an NGO representative. The session would be wrapped up after discussing the contributions that the Commission had made to the struggle for human rights, and how the Council would continue that work. The meeting could continue until Tuesday morning, but that would end the Commission’s session.

Ms. Heuzé invited journalists to participate in a press conference on Monday morning at 11 a.m. in room III by Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch of Austria, for the European Union Presidency, who would brief on the 62nd session of the Commission on Human Rights.

Responding to questions on why the meeting would run into Tuesday and on what that depended, and where the elections for the members of the Council would be held and when the results would be known, Mr. Diaz said that, as the members of the General Assembly would elect the members, this would take place in New York on 9 May. Most probably the meeting would last only until Monday evening, unless the membership decided otherwise. The Commission had to adopt a resolution wrapping up, adopting the report, and saying it was over, and this could take a little bit of time.

On another question on procedures of election of Council members, Mr. Diaz said he would have to seek clarification on this, as he had not yet seen any outlines on this. Responding to a question on whether this was the Commission’s “swan song”, Mr. Diaz said he thought that all should be forward looking. Even if there had been some criticism of the architecture of the new Council, it had the seeds to be a really strong international human rights institution that could be a worthy heir of the Commission. The latter had been criticised a lot, but none should forget that it had made a very important contribution to setting up the whole international human rights framework, establishing the system of special procedures and special rapporteurs, of looking at country situations, and coming to the aid of victims of human rights abuses in many parts of the world. This legacy would be examined with the aim of creating a stronger human rights institution.

Responding to a question noting that Ms. Arbour had wished for this last session of the Commission to put the work of the body on the historical record, and asking whether this was going to happen and whether she would be prominent in outlining the high points of the Commission, which had done some good things, Mr. Diaz said that the Commission had done some very important work in human rights. Ms. Arbour would be laying out some of the high points, and some of the things that were less well-known but were just as important in the fight for human rights, as would be other speakers. The Commission had always been a forum where civil society had been able to take part, and a representative of the NGOs would also be speaking on the historical role of the Commission.

Answering a question on how the work of the Special Rapporteurs would be dealt with, and whether press conferences would be organized for these last to present their work and reports, and what was going to happen, Mr. Diaz said all the substantive work of the Commission would be transferred to the Council. The Special Rapporteurs would be presenting their work to the Council. Next week’s press briefing by Mr. Manfred Novak, Special Rapporteur on Torture, had been requested by Mr. Novak himself. Should other Special Rapporteurs wish to present their reports to the press, they were free to do so, and this would be facilitated.

On whether a smooth change was expected, and whether a contingency plan had been envisaged, as the Council had a different perspective and mission, Mr. Diaz said it was up to the Member States, as they were the ones who would decide. The expectation was that it would go smoothly. The work would be transferred to the Council, and everybody was very conscious that there should not be a gap in this work. On a final question on whether this manner of ending the Commission could not be done in a more dignified manner, as the rapid wind-up could be seen as a form of punishment for the Commission, Mr. Diaz said that this was an opinion with which he did not agree. Discussions and negotiations had gone on for a long time, and all were aware of the important role played by the Commission. The Council had been created by almost unanimous agreement by the international community, and would continue the work of the Commission.

Ms. Heuzé said that an op-ed piece by Secretary-General Kofi Annan which had already been published in a number of international newspapers would be made available in the press room in all six official languages.

Disaster response exercise

A press release would be available later in the day on a simulation exercise organized by the new Department of Safety and Security, in cooperation with OCHA, Interpol, and other international organizations. This first three-day disaster-response exercise was aimed at facilitating coordination between national governments, the international law enforcement community, and humanitarian organizations in response to a major man-made or natural disaster, Ms. Heuzé said. This exercise was a follow up to the Secretary-General’s 2004 report on the safety and security of humanitarian workers and United Nations personnel. Amongst those participating in the exercise were the USG for Safety and Security, Sir David Veness, the Secretary-General of Interpol, Ronald K. Noble, and representatives of all United Nations agencies.

WHO

Fadela Chaib said two press conferences would take place next week. The first would be on 28 March, and would be on the Progress on Global Access to HIV Antiretroviral Therapy: a report on “3 by 5” and beyond. Geneva was the principal site for the launch of the report. “3 by 5” is a joint WHO/UNAIDS initiative to get 3 million people under antiviral treatment by 2005. As it was now 2006, it was time to look at the outcome, lessons learned and the steps beyond. The report would be available under embargo on Monday 27 March.

A press conference would also be held on 30 March on World Health Day, which was celebrated every year on 7 April. Present would be Tim Evans, Assistant Director-General for Evidence & Information for Policy, Joy Phumaphi, Assistant Director-General on Family and Community Health, and Wim van Leberghe, one of the authors of the World Health Report 2006.

H5N1

Fadela Chaib confirmed that a fifth fatal case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus had occurred in Cambodia. This was the fifth confirmed case in Cambodia and the first in 2006. A team of officials from the Ministry of Health and from WHO had investigated the situation. Seven residents had been found with fever, but no respiratory symptoms. All had a history of recent contact with diseased birds, or had been involved in caring for the child. All had been placed under medical observation, and samples had been taken and sent to the Pasteur Institute. Results of these tests were expected next week

Responding to a question on the appearance of the H5N1 virus in Palestine, on whether there were cooperation issues between Hamas and the Israeli Government, and whether the Palestinian authorities had approached the WHO to take steps, Ms. Chaib said there were cases of avian flu among poultry in the area, and Palestinian authorities had approached the WHO to obtain Tamiflu and Personal Protective Equipment in particular for those in contact with poultry and those working in the sanitary field.

Polio

A nation-wide polio vaccination campaign was to be launched on Sunday 26 March in Somalia with the aim of vaccinating 1.4 million children. There had been 14 cases of polio so far in 2006, whilst there had been 199 in 2005.

WFP

Christiane Berthiaume said that, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Carni checkpoint had been opened for 48 hours, and WFP had been able to bring in 16 containers, containing 300 tons of food, mainly beans and vegetable oil. This was a very limited amount of food. A further problem was that the Israeli authorities were not allowing WFP to bring out the empty containers, and this was problematic as the Organization needed to fill them again and bring them back in. Kerem-Shalom checkpoint on the Egyptian side had been opened, which was a good thing, and WFP would try to bring food in from there. However, it was a new checkpoint, and was not yet organized sufficiently to bring in the amount of food required, although 5 trucks, containing 260 tons of food, donated by Egypt, had gone through the checkpoint, and this, being mainly wheat flour, was a good thing. It was very important for the two checkpoints to stay open, and crucial for Carni to stay open, not only for food relief, but also for commercial transactions. There was currently very little wheat flour in the Gaza Strip, which required 450 tons per day. The 300 tons of other foods that had been brought in would not feed many for very long. WFP was currently investigating as to how it could buy wheat flour outside Gaza and bring it in.

UNHCR

Jennifer Pagonis said there was increasing concern about the situation of Palestinians in Baghdad as 100 families had reportedly received written death threats. They were in a state of panic, which could spread and lead to more Palestinians fleeing the city. While Iraqis were also affected by the general insecurity, Palestinians felt especially vulnerable and targeted.

Regarding the 88 Palestinians who had got stuck in No Man’s Land at the Iraqi-Jordan border, on Wednesday, this group had been relocated back inside the Iraqi border at Trebil by the Iraqi authorities. It was unclear as to whether they would be able to stay there; the group was adamant it did not want to return to Iraq. UNHCR was trying to ensure the basic needs of the group, but they were in an area that made access and intervention very difficult.

UNHCR welcomed the announcement by the Spanish Government of an unprecedented contribution of 12.5 million Euros towards UNHCR programs in 2006. The European Commission and UNHCR had also concluded an agreement this week under which the Commission would continue to support UNHCR’s ability to respond to refugee emergencies.

Other

Corinne Perthuis, speaking for the International Labour Office, said that the Administrative Council of the ILO was currently meeting. On Monday, the follow-up of the debate on how to have a form of fair globalization that created employment would be held in the presence of Louis Michel, the European Commissioner.

Aurelia Blin, speaking for the World Trade Organization, said next week the Committee for Trade Negotiations would be meeting on Tuesday. Pascal Lamy, WTO Director-General, would be giving a press conference next Tuesday at a time to be announced. Negotiations on the accession of Vietnam would be held on Monday 27 March and on Azerbaijan on 30 March. There would be other committee meetings over the next week.

Jean-Michel Jakobowicz, speaking for United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, said the First Global Road Safety Film Festival had taken place on Thursday. Prizes had been given to Denmark, Israel, Oman, Morocco, and Cambodia, as well as to professional cinematographers.

Brigitte Leoni, speaking for ISDR, said that on Monday the Third International Conference on Early-Warning Systems would take place in Bonn in Germany. Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, will open the Forum, and present the first results of his report on early-warning systems, as requested by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, will address the Conference, detailing the progress of reconstruction.

Jemini Pandya for the International Organization for Migration said next week the head of operations for Darfur would be back in Geneva, and a special briefing would be held on Wednesday, 29 March. Today in Bucharest, an agreement had been signed between the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, and the IOM, on protecting the human rights of migrants and the need to address the dangers of irregular migration. In Moldova, a new pilot migration and health project funded by The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and the Soros Foundation had been launched to address the health concerns of Moldovan migrants. In Indonesia, with new funding from UNICEF, the IOM would build 225 classrooms in 43 temporary schools on Nias Island in North Sumatra province, which had been heavily damaged by an 8.3 magnitude earthquake on 28 March 2005.