REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from the Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, the World Food Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the International Organization for Migration.
Sudan
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General had yesterday taken note of the expiration of the 30 April deadline at the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on the conflict in Darfur. The Secretary-General urged the parties, particularly the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), to redouble their efforts and to come to an agreement without delay, so that the suffering and destruction in Darfur could be brought to an end. The Secretary-General said the situation in Darfur continued to be dire. He urged the parties to seize this historic opportunity to achieve peace and begin the task of recovery and reconstruction. The Secretary-General said the United Nations stood ready to assist them on this path.
Praveen Randhawa of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said High Commissioner Louise Arbour commenced on 30 April a six-day visit to Sudan. This was the High Commissioner’s second visit to Sudan. Yesterday, the High Commissioner was in south Darfur where she travelled to Nyala and met with local non-governmental organizations, community leaders and local authorities. In the town of Manawashi, the High Commissioner spoke to internally displaced persons and victims of sexual gender based violence. Today, the High Commissioner was visiting west Darfur. While in el-Geneina, she would be meeting with internally displaced persons in the Adamata IDP camp. This morning, the High Commissioner had already heard from UN relief officials in el-Geneina on how persistent insecurity was hampering humanitarian aid delivery in west Darfur. The lack of access was having a dramatic effect there. This evening, the High Commissioner would return to Khartoum. On Wednesday, 3 May, she was expected to meet with senior Sudanese Government officials and representatives of the diplomatic community. On 4 May, Ms. Arbour would travel to Juba in southern Sudan.
Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR deeply regretted the deaths of four Chadian civilians and the wounding of five others yesterday in an attack near the village of Dolola in southeastern Chad, just a few kilometres from the UNHCR camp at Goz Amir which housed 17,700 Sudanese refugees from Darfur. A group of 150 armed men, described by the local population as janjaweed militia, surrounded the villagers on Monday and opened fire on them. Some 1,000 head of cattle were also taken. Several hundred internally displaced Chadians were also living in the camp after fleeing earlier janjaweed attacks. The growing number of attacks near Goz Amir camp was a matter of grave concern to UNHCR. There was a need to further increase security in the region.
Ms. Pagonois said the first convoy of 160 Sudanese refugees in Uganda repatriating to south Sudan left Tuesday morning. UNHCR planned to help 160 refugees a day return home to their areas of origin. So far, 27,000 of the 174,000 Sudanese refugees had registered to repatriate.
Secretary-General’s Recommendations for a Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy
At 11:30 a.m. today New York time, the Secretary-General was scheduled to unveil his recommendations for a global counter-terrorism strategy to the General Assembly as requested by world leaders in the September 2005 World Summit. The document was part of the Secretary-General’s follow-up to the broader reform measures agreed at the Summit. On the basis of the Secretary-General’s submission, Member States would begin consultations on a counter-terrorism strategy in the coming weeks. The recommendations would be contained in a report, which would be made available on the following website: www.un.org/unitingagainstterrorism.
Commission on Sustainable Development
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Commission on Sustainable Development yesterday opened its fourteenth session at Headquarters to review progress on energy for sustainable development, industrial development, and pollution and climate change amid heightened concerns over energy security, the growing demand for energy resources, and the pervasive and persistent poverty that impeded access to modern and cleaner energy services, including electricity, especially in developing countries. A press kit on the session of the Commission was available in the Documentation Centre.
Geneva Activities
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee against Torture had yesterday opened its thirty-sixth session at the Palais des Nations. This morning, the Committee was starting its consideration of the report of Peru. Tomorrow, it would take up the report of Georgia, and on Thursday, it would consider the report of Guatemala. The session would conclude on 19 May.
Also yesterday, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had started its thirty-sixth session. Today and tomorrow, the Committee would consider the report of Monaco, and on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday, it would review the report of Liechtenstein.
The International Law Commission had also started its meeting yesterday and it would continue to meet until 9 June. The Commission would also meet from 3 July to 11 August.
The Working Group on arbitrary detention would be meeting from 8 to 12 May at the Palais des Nations.
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said she wished to remind journalists that World Press Freedom Day would be commemorated on 3 May with a roundtable discussion in Room XII at 3 p.m. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, would open the panel discussion, which would address the issues of press freedom and freedom of expression in its many forms. He would deliver the message of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, on the occasion of the Day. A number of panellists would participate in an interactive dialogue with an invited audience consisting of representatives of Member States, non-governmental organizations, the media and United Nations staff members. A videoconference link would be set up with Pretoria, South Africa, to enable journalists and other invited guests to participate in the discussion from that location. Journalists were cordially invited to attend.
In response to questions, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the theme of the roundtable was on the issues of press freedom and freedom of expression in its many forms. The personalities participating in the dialogue included the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Ambeyi Ligabo.
In conclusion, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier reminded journalists that there was a press conference at 11:30 a.m. today by the United Nations Environmental Programme on ridding the world of persistent organic pollutants.
Other
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said a WHO consultation for the development of a global action plan to increase the supply of influenza pandemic vaccines was being held at WHO on 2 and 3 May. The objectives of the consultation were to prepare a global action plan for increasing access to influenza pandemic vaccines in order to reduce the anticipated gap between potential vaccine demand and supply during an influenza pandemic; and to involve key partners and stakeholders from governments, the research community and the pharmaceutical industry in the development of this global action plan to ensure buy-in and collaboration during the implementation phase.
Ms. Chaib said polio immunization campaigns along the Afghan-Pakistan border would be starting on 7 May, targeting 2 million Afghan children and 14 million Pakistani children. The parallel campaigns were targeting a shared corridor of poliovirus transmission as this shared reservoir of virus was the last focus of transmission in these countries.
Hans Von Rohland of the International Labour Organization reminded journalists that there would be a press conference on Thursday, 4 May at noon in Room III to launch the ILO global report on child labour, "The end of child labour: Within reach". Kari Tapiola, Executive Director of ILO and Guy Thijs, Director of the ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, would be participating in the press conference.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme, in response to a question on whether her announcement that food rations in Sudan would have to be halved last week had led to new donations to WFP, said there was no response yet. She noted that yesterday had been a day off in many parts of the world, and she hoped that she would have more news on donations for the briefing on Friday, 5 May.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, also responding to a question on whether OCHA’s appeal for donations had led to a response, said while she did not have a comprehensive view of the funding situation. Giving examples, she said that concerning the Horn of Africa appeal last month for $ 443 million, only $ 95 million had been received. This was insufficient. Also the appeal for the Democratic Republic of the Congo for $ 600 million remained problematic and Ross Mountain, the Secretary-General’s Deputy Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had tried to encourage donors last week to respond to it. She promised journalists a comprehensive breakdown of donor responses to appeals at the next briefing.
Cathy Jewel of the World Intellectual Property Organization said the WIPO Standing Committee on copyrights and related rights was meeting this week to advance its work towards the development of a treaty to update intellectual property standards for broadcasters in the digital age. All the documents were available on the website.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said a programme to help and encourage Iraqi expatriates wanting to contribute to the reconstruction of their country was currently selecting 60 people to work in various Iraqi government ministries for assignments ranging from between three months to a year. In El Salvador, IOM and the Government were opening the first shelter for victims of trafficking in the Central American region. In Afghanistan, hundreds of local construction firms were benefiting from an IOM programme that had completed 1,100 construction projects in the war-shattered country at a cost of some $ 85 million since 2002.