REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the UN Refugee Agency, the International Labour Office and the World Trade Organization.
Secretary-General’s Activities
Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General arrived in Stockholm yesterday and addressed the Annual Review Conference of the International Compact with Iraq. Available on the UN website were all the documents available for this conference, including the transcript of the press conference given by the Secretary-General at the end of the conference.
On the sidelines of the conference, the Secretary-General met with the European Union’s High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana; Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki; U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband; and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Amr Moussa. He also met bilaterally with the Foreign Ministers of Sweden, Slovenia, Italy, Turkey and Iran.
The Secretary-General will attend the High-Level Conference on World Food Security which will be held from 3 to 5 June in Rome. He will also conduct official visits to the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia shortly. On 12 June, the Secretary-General will participate in the International Conference on Afghanistan in Paris.
Cluster Munitions
Ms. Heuzé said the text of the draft convention on cluster munitions, which was prepared by the Diplomatic Conference for the Adoption of a Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin and will be approved at 11:30 a.m. this morning, is available in both electronic and paper form. Patricia Lewis, the Director of UNIDIR, this morning briefed journalists about the draft convention, which will be signed officially in a ceremony in Oslo in December 2008. The convention will enter into force once it has been ratified by 30 States. Ms. Lewis is still available for interviews if journalists are interested.
Geneva Meetings
The United Nations yesterday commemorated 60 years of peacekeeping in ceremonies held around the world, including at the United Nations office at Geneva. The Director-General of UNOG chaired a wreath-laying ceremony followed by a round-table discussion in the Council Chamber attended by members of the diplomatic community, journalists, NGOs as well as former peacekeepers from a number of countries – including Australia, France, Ireland, Kenya, Senegal and Uganda. Also yesterday, the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur said that a Civilian Police Inspector from Uganda was brutally and shamelessly murdered in North Darfur.
Ms. Heuzé said the Committee on the Rights of the Child is this afternoon considering the initial report of the Philippines under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on children in armed conflict. On Monday, 2 June, the Committee will review the third periodic report of Eritrea. The Committee will conclude its session on Friday, 6 June, when it will issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Georgia, Bulgaria, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Serbia, Sierra Leone, the Philippines and Eritrea.
The Human Rights Council will hold its eighth regular session from 2 to 18 June, Ms. Heuzé said. During the session, the Council will consider for the first time the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review’s Working Group on the fulfillment of human rights obligations in the first group of States reviewed under this new mechanism. The Working Group of the Council considered the situation of human rights in 32 States during two sessions held over the past two months. The second week of the Council’s session will be devoted to discussing and adopting the outcome of the Working Group.
At the beginning of the session, the Council will hear an update from the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, her last before leaving her position at the end of June. The President of Slovenia, Danilo Turk, will also address the Council at the opening of the session. Ms. Heuzé said
the Council will hear reports from and hold interactive dialogues with its Special Procedures on internally displaced persons; summary executions; independence of judges; right to education; extreme poverty; transnational corporations; the Occupied Palestinian Territory; and Haiti. The Council will discuss follow-up to its Special Sessions on the situation in Myanmar, on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and on the world food crisis. It will also continue with its review, rationalization and improvement process of Special Procedures. Also during the session, the Council will devote two meetings to discuss the human rights of women, and will hold two Special Events on the entry into force of the Covenant on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and on the draft UN guidelines for the appropriate use and conditions of alternative care for children.
Ms. Heuzé said the background press release for the Council’s session is available in the press room in English and in French. Rolando Gomez will also be sending other relevant documents to journalists electronically.
In conclusion, Ms. Heuzé said the World Health Organization was holding a press conference on World No Tobacco Day at 11:30 a.m. in Room III. The Day was celebrated on 31 May every year, but this year, the commemoration would be held on 30 May. A joint WHO/UNICEF/UNAIDS press conference will be held on Monday, 2 June at 11:30 on a new report detailing latest global figures on access to HIV prevention, treatment and care. And a second series of consultations on Darfur will be held in Geneva next week but not at the Palais des Nations because of other ongoing meetings. There will be a press conference by Jan Eliasson, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Darfur, and Salim Ahmed Salim, African Union Special Envoy for the Inter-Sudanese Political Talks on Darfur, at 5 p.m. on Thursday, 5 June.
Myanmar
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it was now one month since Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar. There had been some progress, including approval for 45 visas,
but there remained a need for more qualified humanitarian experts to help on the ground, including staff of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC). The country Director of the World Food Programme returned from an assessment trip in Lapputa and expressed concern about the lack of infrastructure which created logistical problems for the distribution of aid and assistance. Eleven UN/international NGO staff and many medical teams from ASEAN and neighbouring countries have traveled to the affected area. There was a need to see more relief experts, including the IFRC, getting into the Delta as soon as possible. The Food Cluster estimated that the monthly food requirement was approximately 8,933 tonnes. It estimated that it has reached approximately 483,000 beneficiaries out of the planned 750,000 target. There were still areas which had not been reached because of logistical problems. Some restrictions on official imports of telecommunications equipment remained and the Government of Myanmar was called upon to facilitate to the maximum the entry of equipment needed for the rescue operation. United Nations personnel has to inform the authorities 8 hours before traveling to the Irrawaddy Delta, but now this facilitation should be extended to members of NGOs. As of 29 May, the total estimated number of relief aircraft which were unloaded in Yangon was 178. Other details were available in the note at the back of the room. As of 30 May, the UN Flash Appeal of $ 201 million was so far covered with $ 81 million or 40 per cent.
Michael Klaus of the United Nations Children’s Fund said schools had been due to be reopened on 2 June, but the Ministry of Education had delayed the opening of schools in seven townships in the Irrawaddy division and one township in Yangon division to start one month later. However, in some of the cyclone-hit areas, schools would be opening as planned on 2 June. Responding to a request from the Ministry of Education, UNICEF was now working with it to help re-open these schools by distributing repair materials for damaged schools as well as essential school supplies, learning materials and recreational kits as well as “schools in a box”. In the coming six months, UNICEF planned to support the repairing and renovation of around 1,000 primary schools and 400 pre-school facilities. It was estimated that more than 4,000 basic education schools had been either damaged or totally destroyed, which affected around 1.1 million children. On the whole, the plan for the next six months was to look beyond the relief phase and to work in different areas like water, hygiene and sanitation. UNICEF had had 22 visas approved so far.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM had received an additional eight visas for ASEAN national emergency staff who would be deployed as of tomorrow in Yangon and the Delta region. They included health, logistics and operations specialists. This international staff, together with newly recruited national staff, would allow IOM to deliver, emergency health and shelter assistance to victims in the Delta, many of them who were still being located and identified. Cases of acute diarrhea, gastro enteritis, acute respiratory infections, pneumonia, measles and suspected cases of malaria and jaundice had been reported.
Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR is setting up two field units in the Irrawaddy Delta area in Lapputa and Bogale townships to better respond to the emergency, monitor the distribution of relief items and to further assess the needs of the region. By mid-week, UNHCR had flown 405 tonnes of emergency supplies into Yangon from its global stockpiles in Dubai, including plastic sheeting, blankets, mosquito nets and kitchen sets.
International Labour Conference
Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said tomorrow, 31 May, within the context of the International Labour Conference, a Special Session will examine the respect of Myanmar to the Convention on Forced Labour. The Special Session will be held at ILO Headquarters from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. It is open to journalists.
Ms. Perthuis said she will be sending journalists a list of main events during the next two weeks of the international Labour Conference. The President of Slovenia, Danilo Turk, will address the Conference on Monday, 2 June at 3 p.m. At 2:15 p.m. on Monday, there will be a press briefing in press room one on the effect of the global food crisis on employment in the rural sector. There will also be a working lunch with Juan Sommavia, the Director-General of ILO, at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 3 June, which journalists were invited to attend.
South Africa
Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was today releasing 2,000 tents to the South African Government to help provide much-needed shelter to thousands of people made homeless in the recent xenophobic attacks against foreigners, including refugees and asylum seekers. It was also making available to the Government an expert site planner who would help the authorities in identifying suitable locations for temporary shelter. In addition, UNHCR had provided 7,000 blankets and 2,000 sleeping mats to the victims. UNHCR hoped that this initial donation would contribute to alleviating the suffering of people displaced by the xenophobic violence.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said available at the back of the room was a situation report on the violence against foreigners in South Africa.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said ILO was this morning in Pritoria discussing with the embassies of some of the countries of origin of these foreigners if they needed help to evacuate some of their nationals who were stranded in South Africa.
Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diène, released a statement today in which he expressed his distress at the recent xenophobic violence targeting refugees, migrants and South African ethnic minorities in Johannesburg and surrounding townships.
Other
Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization said this weekend, Director-General Pascal Lamy will be in Peru where he will participate in the APEC Trade Ministers meeting there. On 3 June, he will be participating in the High-level Conference on World Food Security in Rome. On 5 June, he will be in Paris to attend a Ministerial meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. A meeting on agriculture in the context of the Doha negotiations has been postponed from today to 3 June. The notes included information about other meetings at WTO next week.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said between 50,000 and 60,000 persons have been displaced from the homes by the fighting in Abyei in Sudan. IOM had sent a complementary convoy of aid on 25 May with 71 tonnes of assistance to the affected persons.