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 Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.
New Statements by the Secretary-General
Ms. Heuzé said there were a number of new statements in the press room. There was a statement by the Secretary-General in which he condemned in the strongest terms the recent attacks on staff of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) and of international humanitarian organizations working both in Darfur, Sudan, and in Chad.
He particularly deplored the killing of an AMIS staff member, as well as the earlier attack against a national staff member of an international non-governmental organization, in Kalma camp, and the critical wounding of a UNICEF international staff member in Abéché (eastern Chad). The UN country team in Chad had also condemned and expressed regret over the increase of violence in that country, which led to the serious wounding of a UNICEF worker. The country team noted that she was wounded in a carjacking of a humanitarian vehicle, the 24th such case. So far, no one had been arrested.
Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Fund said that late yesterday in New York, UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman had issued a statement in reaction to the attack, saying that UNICEF staff was the agency’s most valuable resource and their safety was of paramount concern. She said it was unacceptable that aid workers were attacked or killed while providing life-saving relief and protection to the people they saved.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that violence such as that which had marred Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland’s visit to Kalma camp in South Darfur was part of the reason why OCHA was very preoccupied about the protection of the vulnerable people in the camps, and of the humanitarian persons who helped them.
Ms. Heuzé said also available was the statement by the Secretary-General in which he welcomed the agreement signed between the Government of Sudan and the main rebel group at the inter-Sudanese talks in Abuja. Mr. Annan urged the other two parties to seize this historic moment and sign the agreement that would bring this tragic chapter in the history of Sudan to an end. The Secretary-General said the implementation of the agreement, once concluded, would require that the United Nations immediately begin to strengthen the African Union force on the ground so that they could begin implementation of the critical aspects of the agreement. The United Nations would also need to intensify its own humanitarian efforts, and it needed the resources required to do this.
Ms. Heuzé said that in order to highlight the urgent need for contributions to the humanitarian appeal in Darfur, the Secretary-General had decided to contribute the $500,000 Zayed Prize he was awarded in February 2006 to the UN-led relief effort in Darfur. Currently contributions stood at only 20 per cent of need, with devastating implications on the ground.
Middle East Quartet Meeting in New York
Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General and the other principal members of the Quartet would meet today at UN Headquarters to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East. Attending the meeting which would start a 9 a.m. New York time were the Secretary of State of the United States Condoleezza Rice; Russian Federation Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; European High Representative for a Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana; Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik and European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero Waldner.
Also attending the meeting would be the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. At 11 a.m. the Secretary-General would meet separately with the three Arab Foreign Ministers. At 12:30 p.m., there would be a working lunch with the Quartet Principals. At 3 p.m., the Secretary-General would meet again with the Quartet Principals, and at 5 p.m., there would be a press conference with them.
Elections for Human Rights Council
Ms. Heuzé said the first election of the members of the newly established Human Rights Council would be held by the General Assembly today starting 10 a.m. New York time. The candidates would be elected directly and individually by a majority of the Members States of the General Assembly. Out of 64 candidates, 47 Council members would be elected. Journalists in Geneva could follow the election process on the webcast on the UN website. The first results of the elections were expected 90 minutes after the start of the meeting, but Ms. Heuzé said it had not been excluded that the election procedure might not conclude today and might continue tomorrow. A list of the candidates running for election was available in the press room, as was a note explaining how the vote would take place.
Vote on UN Reforms
Ms. Heuzé said that in a divisive vote separating developed from developing countries, the General Assembly yesterday passed a resolution that could effectively slow a series of bold reform proposals put forward by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to overhaul and modernize the world organization's management structures while bringing them in line with its increasingly field-based work. By a vote of 121 to 50 with 2 abstentions (Norway and Uganda), the Assembly adopted a resolution which had passed by a similar margin late last month in the powerful Administrative and Budgetary (Fifth) Committee after being put forward by the “Group of 77,” a caucus of 132 countries.
Addressing the Assembly after the vote, its President, Jan Eliasson of Sweden, voiced regret that the tradition of adopting by consensus resolutions on management issues had not been maintained, but cautioned against “a pointless discussion of why we failed to agree or what went wrong.” Instead, he urged efforts to achieve “the broadest possible agreement on all the reform issues before us” and appealed for dialogue among those with opposing views. “We must listen to each other, gain a better understanding of each other’s positions and move from polarization to cooperation,” he stressed. Mr. Eliasson’s statement was available as was a press release on the vote.
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Liberia
Ms. Heuzé said that the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) had issued a statement on Sunday, 7 May, saying that it took the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse seriously and was currently implementing a range of measures to address the matter. Following the release of the Save the Children UK Discussion Paper entitled “From Camp to Community: Liberia study on exploitation of children”, UNMIL said it was committed to prevent, identify and sanction the abhorrent practice of sexual abuse and exploitation in full compliance with the Secretary-General’s Bulletin “Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse” and its policy of zero tolerance. UNMIL said all cases of serious misconduct of United Nations personnel, including all complaints involving sexual exploitation and abuse, were investigated by an independent mechanism – the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS).
The UNMIL statement said that in Liberia, since the beginning of 2006, eight sexual exploitation and abuse cases involving United Nations personnel had been reported to the resident OIOS. Most of these investigations were on-going. One case had been substantiated and the staff member was immediately suspended. An additional instance involved allegations against staff of an implementing partner of a United Nations agency. At the conclusion of this case relations between the agency and the implementing partner were terminated.
Ms. Heuzé recalled that the UN's chief of peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno, told the Security Council last February that for a long time the magnitude of the problem of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers was underestimated. In the name of the thousands of competent and courageous UN personnel in peacekeeping operations, Mr. Guehenno vowed to prevent and punish such acts that betrayed their good work and tarnished the reputation of UN peacekeeping. "We dishonour these brave men and women when we fail to prevent, or punish those from within their ranks, who victimize the very people peacekeepers are meant to protect and serve. I’m not so sure this was fully understood a few years ago, as clearly as it is today," he said, adding that a lot of progress had been made on implementing a comprehensive strategy adopted by the UN General Assembly to prevent the problem and to enforce a zero-tolerance policy, but he added that there was still a considerable way to go.
Christian Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said WFP considered all forms of sexual exploitation unacceptable and it took any allegations of such conduct very seriously. Nothing was more sad or horrible than having a poor and vulnerable person forced to submit to sexual exploitation in exchange for food for their family. WFP had a zero policy concerning sexual exploitation and in the cases where the allegations were verified, the Programme took severe action against the guilty. WFP also saluted the courage of the women who had reported the alleged violations. She noted that the Save the Children report had not reported any accusations against WFP but that two women in interviews with the BBC had made them. WFP was taking the allegations very seriously.
Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF was the lead agency in Liberia coordinating the prevention of this kind of sexual exploitation. This kind of abuse unfortunately existed, not only with the United Nations but in non-governmental organizations. If these allegations were verified, and there was no reason to shed doubt on the Save the Children report, other measures would be taken, but he had no further information at this point.
In response to a question, Ms. Berthiaume said that WFP was working in Liberia with 32 non-governmental organizations, many of them local, and those were the people who carried out the food distributions to the 750,000 vulnerable persons in the country. Like all the UN family, after the allegations in 2002, WFP had gone through a process of training people about zero sexual exploitation tolerance. While WFP investigated the allegations, she wished to caution that no one yet knew what happened and who had been involved.
Geneva Activities
Ms. Heuzé said the Committee against Torture was continuing its session at the Palais des Nations. Yesterday, journalists had received the press release summarizing the Committee’s consideration of the periodic report of the United States. Today, it was reviewing the initial report of Qatar.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had yesterday afternoon concluded a four-meeting review of a periodic report of Canada, and a press release had been issued. Today, the Committee would be reviewing the report of Mexico, and it would take up the report of Morocco on Wednesday afternoon.
Both Committees would conclude their sessions on Friday, 19 May and their concluding observations and recommendations would be issued on that day.
Human Rights
José Luis Díaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour had been in Sudan last week. She would speak with journalists at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, 11 May. The High Commissioner would speak about her visit to Sudan as well as trips to Ethiopia and Kenya, where she had gone before arriving in Khartoum on 29 April. In Nairobi Ms. Arbour had discussed human rights issues in Somalia.
Ms. Arbour would be going to Cambodia next week, and she would preview that trip on Thursday as well.
Mr. Díaz said also relating to Sudan that the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, had issued a statement expressing deep concern over the drastic food cuts for millions of Sudanese as of this month. The Special Rapporteur recalled that under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, States parties had the obligation to respond quickly and in an appropriate manner to emergency food situations on the territory of a State Member of the United Nations. The Special Rapporteur requested that Member States immediately honour their legal obligations and ensure the realization of the right to food of the suffering populations, in close collaboration with the authorities of Sudan. He said despite repeated appeals to donors, the United Nations World Food Programme had received just $ 238 million, or 32 per cent, of the $ 746 million needed. The statement was available at the back of the room.
Other
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said the fifty-ninth World Health Assembly would be held from 22 to 27 May at the Palais des Nations. Issues to be discussed included among others strengthening pandemic-influenza preparedness and response, infant and young child nutrition, HIV/AIDS, polio eradication, sickle-cell anaemia, and smallpox eradication. The Assembly would consider several draft resolutions recommended by the Executive Board on these and other issues. The keynote speaker was the Prince of Wales. Prince Charles was President of the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health and Patron of a number of health charities. He would deliver the address on Tuesday, 23 May around 3 p.m. in the Assembly Hall. The agenda, the daily Journal and other Assembly documents could be found at www.who.int/gb/. There would be a briefing on Wednesday, 17 May at 10:30 a.m. in press room 1. A media advisory was available at the back of the room.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said available at the back of the room were two press releases concerning the completion of air drops of food in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Katanga Province and the world’s leading humanitarian video game – playing clean – reaching 4 million.
Jean Fabre of the United Nations Development Programme said that on 17 May, the UN Resident Coordinator in Pakistan would come to Geneva along with the Chef de Cabinet of the Vice President of the Reconstruction Authority of Pakistan to present to donors the reconstruction plan for the coming 12 months. There would be a briefing organized.
Catherine Sibut Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said a new UNCTAD study entitled “The Palestinian war-torn economy: aid, development and state formation” revealed that deteriorating economic performance and declining living conditions under more intensive restrictions in the occupied Palestinian territory since 2000 had left Palestinians frustrated by higher levels of poverty and unemployment and had damaged the already weak government of the Palestinian Authority. The study was issued today and copies of the report as well as a press release were available at the back of the room.
Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was scheduled today to start the repatriation of approximately 850 Congolese refugees from Juba in South Sudan to Kisangani in the north eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on an exceptional basis. Despite the fact that UNHCR did not consider the conditions in the specific areas of return as favourable and conducive to sustainable return, and it was not in a position to provide any reintegration assistance, it had agreed to facilitate the return of a very specific group of Congolese refugees. These refugees, because of their advanced age and poor living conditions in Sudan, had demanded repatriation to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, fully aware of the difficult situation in their areas of return.
Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that a group of 72 Congolese refugees who have been in exile in Sudan for more than 40 years were today heading home with help from IOM and UNHCR. The refugees, part of a larger group of 1,500 who said they wanted to return to the Democratic Republic of Congo following the announcement of planned elections in June this year, were going back to Kisingani on an IOM chartered plane from Juba in South Sudan. Only 253 out of the 1,500 refugees that made up UNHCR's caseload for return would be able to go home for now due to funding constraints. UNHCR was seeking funding to help return the remaining caseload.
Ms. Pandya said that in Sudan IOM was racing against time to assist thousands of internally displaced people in South Darfur return home in Northern Bahr el Ghazal before the onset of the rainy season made roads impassable. In Serbia and Montenegro, nearly 1,900 discharged soldiers from the army would be provided with reintegration assistance to ensure their successful transition into civilian society and workforce through a two-year programme to be carried out by IOM. In Pakistan, in addition to providing return assistance to families currently living in more than 150 planned camps, IOM had started providing transportation to earthquake victims living with relatives and to those living in small unplanned camps since the disaster that killed more than 70,000 people last October.