REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also included Spokespersons for the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.


Secretary-General’s Message Commemorating Victims of Chemical Warfare

Ms. Heuzé said yesterday in The Hague, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons organized for the first time a ceremony in memory of the victims of chemical warfare. The Secretary-General’s message on this occasion was available in the press room. In the message, the Secretary-General noted that more than 90 years had passed since modern-day chemical weapons were first used during the 1915 Battle of Ypres in World War 1. Since then, chemical weapons had continued to be developed and deployed against both soldiers and civilians, with the arsenal reaching its zenith during the Cold War. It was not until 29 April 1997 that the Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force. That was the milestone which was being marked as the world paid tribute to the victims of chemical warfare.

The Preparatory Committee for the Sixth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention was today concluding a three-day meeting at the Palais des Nations. The Chairman of the meeting, Ambassador Masood Khan of Pakistan, would read out a statement in memory of the victims of chemical warfare at the final plenary. A roundup press release would be issued towards the end of the day.

Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances

Ms. Heuzé said the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances was today concluding its week-long session at the Palais des Nations. The meetings of the Working Room in Room IX were open. Journalists interested in setting up any interviews with the Working Group’s five experts could contact her office.

Meetings to be Held at the Palais des Nations in May and June

Ms. Heuzé said traditionally, many meetings were held at the Palais des Nations in May and June. A note to correspondents would be issued later today listing all the meetings to facilitate the work of journalists. These meetings included:

- the second part of the 2006 session of the Conference on Disarmament would be held from 15 May to 30 June. The first plenary would be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 16 May. The Conference would be meeting under the presidency of the Permanent Representative of Romania, Ambassador Doru-Romulus Costea, until the end of May. The Conference would continue its thematic debate on agenda items one and two, specifically the issue of fissile material.

- the Committee against Torture would be held from 1 to 19 May at the Palais des Nations. A background press release on its session was issued yesterday in English and in French. The States parties which the Committee was reviewing this session included Peru, Georgia, Guatemala, the United States, Qatar, Togo and the Republic of Korea.

- the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would be held from 1 to 19 May at the Palais des Nations. The States parties which the Committee would be considering this session included Monaco, Liechtenstein, Morocco, Canada and Mexico. A background press release on the session was also available in English and French.

- the International Law Commission would be meeting from 1 May to 9 June, and from 3 July to 11 August at the Palais. The Commission met in public in its morning meetings and in private in the afternoon. The provisional agenda for the session was available.

- the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention would be meeting from 8 to 12 May in Room XXV at the Palais des Nations.

- the Committee on the Rights of the Child would meet at the Palais Wilson from 15 May to 2 June 2006 to review the promotion and protection of children's rights in Latvia, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Tanzania, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Lebanon and Turkmenistan. The Committee, which met in two parallel chambers, would also be holding, in closed meetings, technical reviews of the implementation of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict in El Salvador, Belgium, Canada, and the Czech Republic. It would hold technical reviews of the implementation of the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, in closed meetings, in Turkey and Qatar. It would hold technical reviews with Iceland and Italy on both Optional Protocols.

- Finally, the World Health Assembly would be held at the Palais des Nations from 22 to 27 May, and the International Labour Conference from 31 May to 16 June.

Sudan

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said because of the shortage of funds, WFP would have to cut by half food rations for millions of vulnerable persons in Sudan. WFP had to keep part of its limited stocks to help the people through the rainy season which was also called the hunger season which lasted from July until September when the harvest was ready. This had been a very difficult decision to take as people in Sudan, especially in Darfur, had already suffered so much. Despite repeated appeals to donor countries, WFP had only received $ 238 million in response to its appeal for $ 746 million to help 6 million persons in the country. She said donor fatigue, no possible solution in sight for the conflict which had already dragged on for a number of years, and other competing emergencies could be blamed partly for the shortage of funds.

Other

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said available at the back of the room was the statement by WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook which he delivered in Moscow today at the G8 Health Ministers Meeting. She reminded journalists that there would be a press conference on Wednesday, 3 May at 2 p.m. on a new report which showed how investment in cleaner fuels would save millions of lives and produce a seven-fold economic benefit. A media advisory with more details was available in the press room.

Aurelia Blin of the World Trade Organization said the Trade Negotiations Committee would be meeting on 1 May and there would be a briefing in the afternoon. On 5 May, the Rules Negotiating Group would be holding an informal meeting. The Director-General Pascal Lamy would preside over the Trade Negotiations Committee.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said food insecurity in Gaza was increasing because of the irregular flow of food into the area and the dwindling funds being made available to the Hamas-led Government. WFP was obliged to increase the number of people it was helping in the next few months by 25 per cent. It was also facing a shortage of funds for its operations in Gaza.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR’s office in Sri Lanka was reporting that the overall situation seemed to have stabilized in most parts of the conflict zone in the north and the east of the country. However, UNHCR remained seriously concerned over the recent displacement of thousands of people in the north-eastern Trincomalee district. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNHCR had begun preparations for the registration next week of thousands of internally displaced persons in the conflict ravaged Katanga province. In Colombia, hundreds of people were fleeing heavy fighting between the army and one of Colombia’s irregular armed groups in the south-western department of Narino. Since last Friday, more than 1,400 persons had left their homes in remote settlements to take refugee in the village of Sanchez, fleeing air to ground fighting between army helicopters and members of an irregular armed group encamped in the mountains.

Mr. Redmond said in Kenya, heavy rains had resulted in massive flooding in north Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, leaving a two-year-old child dead and more than 2,000 refugees homeless. Yesterday, UNHCR teams and other aid agencies began to assess the damage and the needs of the refugees. And in conclusion, he said UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Erika Feller, today wound up a five-day mission to Asia in the Vietnamese capital where she agreed with the Government that UNHCR and Viet Nam would continue their cooperation to resolve the issue of the ethnic minority Montagnards who had arrived in neighbouring Cambodia.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said that the IOM office in Moscow and the delegation of the European Commission to the Russian Federation had launched an ambitious and comprehensive programme to prevent human trafficking in the Russian Federation. The programme sought to improve coordination between government and non-governmental entities engaged in counter-trafficking activities and to strengthen cross-border cooperation between the Russian Federation, CIS and EU countries. In Zimbabwe, a donation to IOM's humanitarian programmes there by the Swedish Government would go a long way in providing much needed assistance to mobile and vulnerable populations this year.
In Kenya, Mr. Chauzy said an IOM airlift to repatriate some 2,000 Sudanese refugees from Kakuma Camp, in northwest Kenya to their homes in Sudan's Upper Nile, Unity and Jonglei provinces was continuing. And in Sri Lanka, an IOM-backed centralized government database containing information on populations affected by the December 2004 tsunami had recorded details of half a million people.