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 provided information about the Human Rights Council's fifth session, the Conference on Disarmament, the International Labour Conference, the World Day Against Child Labour (12 June), south-Sudanese refugees in the Central African Republic, and other issues. Spokespersons for the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN Refugee Agency and the World Health Organization participated in the briefing. Also present were representatives of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the World Food Programme.
Human Rights Council
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that yesterday the Human Rights Council had begun the work of its fifth session, which would run until next Monday, 18 June, and during which the Council had to finalize its process of institution-building. The Council had to complete its review of all the mandates, mechanisms, and working methods of the former Commission on Human Rights, with a view to maintaining a system of Special Procedures, a Complaints Procedure, and an Expert Advice Body. The Council would also have to establish the framework for a Universal Periodic Review, which would monitor the fulfilment by each State of its human rights obligations and commitments. As had been noted in yesterday's press release, at the opening of the Council, the High Commissioner for Human Rights herself had underscored that coming to an agreement on the Universal Periodic Review mechanism had not been easy, but that such an agreement was now within reach.
With regard to the whole process of institution-building for the Council, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier observed that the President of the Council, Luis Alfonso de Alba, had carried out a wide-ranging consultation process over the course of the past month. On the basis of that process, President de Alba had drafted a consolidated text, which had been presented to delegations on 4 June. That text would serve as a basis for concluding discussions on the finalization of the Council's institution-building. The text, which had previously been made available, would certainly be modified over the course of the session.
During its fifth session, the Council would also examine several reports from Special Procedures. Yesterday, it had begun that work, taking up the reports of Special Rapporteurs or Independent Experts on the independence of judges and lawyers; on contemporary forms of racism; on the right to food; on toxic and dangerous products; on the right to adequate housing; and on extreme poverty.
Today, the Council would meet from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. without a break, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said. The Council would complete its consideration of reports introduced yesterday, before taking up reports on the situation of human rights in Belarus; in Cuba; Somalia; Haiti and Cambodia.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, the Council would once again meet from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. without interruption. It was scheduled to consider follow-up to its decisions and, in particular, would examine the report of the group of experts on the situation in Darfur, which had been established last March under the leadership of Sima Samar, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan, and included six other special procedures mandate holders. The report had been sent to journalists yesterday by e-mail, and copies were also available in the press room, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier noted. Wednesday afternoon, the Council was scheduled to begin its discussion on the consolidation of its institution-building process, which would terminate in the adoption of decisions at the end of the session.
Conference on Disarmament
The Conference on Disarmament had held a plenary session this morning, during which the President of the Conference, Ambassador Borsiin Bonnier of Sweden, had declared her intention to continue open-ended informal consultations this morning with a view to the elaboration of a complementary presidential statement which could clarify questions and allay concerns about draft decision CD/2007/L.1, which aimed to get the Conference back to substantive work. The Conference also heard statements from the United States and Germany. The next plenary of the Conference would be held on Thursday, 14 June, at 10 a.m., Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier added. Press releases of that meeting, in English and French, would be available shortly.
Secretary-General
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that four documents concerning the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, had been made available in the press room: statements on the launch of measures to establish a Special Tribunal for Lebanon; deploring the killing of two workers of the Lebanese Red Cross at the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon; and on the extension of the appointment of Serge Brammertz as head of the International Independent Investigation Commission into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. There was also a transcript of the Secretary-General's press encounter yesterday in New York, upon his return from a week-long trip to Panama, to Spain, and to Germany, where he participated in the G8 Summit meeting in Heiligendamm.
International Labour Conference
Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization (ILO) recalled that this was the final week of the 96th International Labour Conference, and said there was a heavy schedule. The President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, was addressing a special plenary sitting this morning. Tomorrow morning, Felipe de Bourbon, Prince of Asturias, would address the tripartite members of the Conference at 11.30 a.m. Those meetings would be held in the ILO Assembly Hall. On Friday, 15 June, Nelson Mandela would also be awarded a prize at the closing of the Conference for all his efforts to further development of decent work and to include a social dimension in the pursuit of economic expansion and job creation. There would be video coverage of Mandela's speech.
Ms. Perthuis noted that today delegates would discuss a Work in Fishing Convention this afternoon, which would be voted on Thursday morning. That convention, on working conditions in the fishing sector, would have a direct effect on 30 million men and women across the globe. A press release would be available on Thursday morning. A press briefing would be held following the vote.
World Day against Child Labour
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that UNICEF was joining forces with ILO to mark the World Day against Child Labour today, 12 June. According to ILO, nearly 218 million children worldwide, from 5 to 17 years old, were engaged in some kind of labour, with 126 million children engaged in the worst forms of child labour. The World Day against Child Labour was a platform to alert the world to that terrible reality. Some 70 per cent of child labourers worked in agriculture, 9 per cent in industry, and 22 per cent in the service industry. For that reason, UNICEF had decided to put the issue of child labour in agriculture in the spotlight today. Hundreds of thousands of children forced to work in the fields were being deprived of an education. One of the Millennium Development Goals was the attainment of universal primary education; when children were required to work long hours at arduous and repetitive tasks that prevented them from attending school, not just that goal, but those children's future was at stake. Available was a fact sheet (in English) on child labour in agriculture, and a press release (in Spanish) from UNICEF Guatemala, containing information on the work of that office to prevent child labour.
Refugees in Central African Republic
Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR, along with other UN agencies, was rushing supplies to 2,650 newly arrived refugees, who had walked 200 kilometres from south Darfur to the Central African Republic. The refugees were in a desperate condition in the east of the country, where they had been surviving mainly on mangoes for the last few weeks. On Sunday, as part of a convoy of UN humanitarian aid from the capital Bangui, UNHCR had sent shelter materials, including 600 pieces of plastic sheeting, clothes, soap and 600 jerry cans to help the refugees in Sam Ouandja located near the border with Sudan.
The refugees, who had been arriving steadily since late May following repeated attacks on their villages in south Darfur, were rapidly running out of food and had only a nearby creek for their water supply. A number of refugees had fallen ill with diarrhoea or malaria, Ms. Pagonis said. Other UN agencies, including the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization and UNICEF had also sent supplies on UNHCR's convoy on Sunday, including 80 metric tonnes of food, seeds and agricultural tools for 1,000 families, water purification sets, some medical supplies and other basic household items and education kits. WFP trucks were carrying the aid supplies, along with UNHCR's relief items, and were expected to take about 10 days to reach the refugees because of poor road conditions.
Ms. Pagonis said that in the next couple of days UNHCR was planning to fly a small team to Sam Ouandja to register the newly arrived refugees, arrange for their safety in cooperation with local authorities and organize aid distribution. A site planner from Geneva was also expected to arrive shortly to improve the infrastructure of the site. Assistance, including seeds and agricultural tools, would also be distributed to the local population of Sam Ouandja, who had recently suffered from violent conflict and displacement. Not only was the humanitarian situation pretty dire in that corner of the Central African Republic, the security situation was pretty precarious as well.
Launch of WHO Revised International Health Regulations
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that on Friday, 15 June, revised International Health Regulations would enter into force. The regulations were an innovative set of rules and procedures agreed by 193 countries that would help to make the world more secure from threats to global health. A press release would be available on Thursday, and a press conference, to be held on Thursday, would be confirmed later.
Other
Ms. Taveau of UNICEF announced the visit by the American actress Lucy Liu, in her capacity as a roving UNICEF Ambassador, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, starting today for four days. The visit would focus on children victims of violence. A detailed itinerary for that visit was available.
Ms. Chaib said that today WHO Director General Margaret Chan was in Brussels, to visit the European Commission to discuss enhanced cooperation on health issues. Dr. Chan would meet with European Commission President Barroso and others to discuss such priority issues as the health consequences of climate change, global health security, and improving health outcomes in Africa. Although the first trip by the Director General Chan to the European Commission since her appointment, it was the fifth high-level meeting between WHO and the Commission. In particular, Dr. Chan would emphasize the imminent entry into force of the revised International Health Regulations, which included new mechanisms to address public health emergencies such as pandemic influenza.
Ms. Chaib also called attention to a press briefing on measuring the impact of environmental factors on health, to be held today at 3 p.m. in press room 1. For the first time ever, WHO would release world-wide data measuring the impacts of environmental factors on health, highlighting huge inequalities. Leading the conference would be Susanne Weber-Mosdorf, Assistant Director-General for Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments. Information from that briefing was embargoed until tomorrow at 11 a.m. Although the principle launch of the data would be in Geneva, the embargo would respect a joint launch in Vienna tomorrow morning.
Thursday, 14 June, was World Blood Donor Day, Ms. Chaib said. To mark that occasion, WHO was launching an initiative to improve the availability and use of safe blood to reduce maternal mortality. A press release and a fact sheet on World Blood Donor Day would be available this afternoon.