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 representatives of and spokespersons for the Global Humanitarian Forum Geneva, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Works and Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Far East, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, the GAVI Alliance, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Trade Organization and the International Organization for Migration.
Issues Related to Climate Change
Global Humanitarian Forum Geneva Meeting on the Human Face of Climate Change
Walter Fust, Director of the Global Humanitarian Forum Geneva, said the Forum would hold its first major event on 24 and 25 June. The Forum was inviting 200 personalities from all segments of society and from different countries to discuss “The Human Face of Climate Change”. Until now, in international conferences, the issue of adaptation to climate change looked at from the point of view of developing countries had not been addressed sufficiently, and the Forum hoped to be able to do this. There were four main aims for this Forum: to put climate justice high on the political agenda and to discuss how to keep it there; to build a stronger multi-stakeholder community to support the adaptation to climate change; to carry out further discussions on how to set the right incentives to involve the private sector more; and to mobilize for better understanding that climate change demands a real definition of development, as there can be no development without adaptation, and no adaptation without development. The Forum hoped the event would have in-depth discussions and would address concerns and solutions.
Mr. Fust said the programme of the event was available at the back of the room. Kofi Annan would give a press conference at the end of the event on 25 June at 4 p.m. at the Intercontinental Hotel. Catherine Bertini would also brief journalists on 24 June at 1 p.m. on empowering women in agricultural development policies, a key to the food crisis. There would be other briefings by participants.
UNFCCC
Ms. Heuzé said Yvo de Boer, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, will give a press conference on Monday, 23 June, at 4 p.m. in Room III on the status of global climate change negotiations under the United Nations – where they are and where they need to go.
WMO
Carine Van Maele of the World Meteorological Organization said WMO’s Executive Council would be holding its sixtieth session in Geneva from 18 to 27 June. Among the main issues to be discussed by the Executive Council were the enhanced capabilities of Member States to produce better weather forecasts and warnings; the enhanced capabilities of Member States to provide better climate predictions and assessments; and the enhanced capabilities of Member States in multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster prevention and preparedness. Issues related to adaptation to climate change and the world food crisis would also be discussed. A press release was available at the back of the room with more details.
Ms. Van Maele said on a related topic, there would be a press conference on the La Niña Update by Rupa Kumar Kolli, Chief, World Climate Applications and Services Division, Climate Prediction and Adaptation Branch, Climate and Water Department, on Tuesday, 24 June at noon. The report was embargoed until 5 p.m. Geneva time on 24 June.
Palestinian Refugees in Nahr El Bared and Gaza Strip
Matthias Burchard of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said that an international High-level Donor Conference on the Reconstruction and Recovery of the Nahr El Bared Palestine refugee camp and its surrounding area, situated in northern Lebanon, would take place in Vienna on Monday, 23 June. Seventy countries and international organizations had been invited to the conference, which was hosted by the Austrian Government, in cooperation with the Government of Lebanon, the European Commission and the Arab League. Thirty thousand Palestinian refugees and Lebanese became homeless in 2007 after heavy fighting broke out between the Lebanese Army and a terrorist group which had infiltrated the camp. The reconstruction of Nahr El Bared would be the largest project ever undertaken by UNRWA. It would require the building of a new town with houses, schools, health centers, mosques, other community facilities, a UN compound and associated infrastructure. The Lebanese Government and UNRWA were appealing for $ 445 million.
Mr. Burchard said tomorrow, UNRWA would be launching 10 weeks of Summer Games for 250,000 Gazan children and youth, with high-level community participation. In 324 locations throughout Gaza, UNRWA and its partners would provide educational and entertaining activities to enhance creativity, personal development and enjoyment, sports, gymnastics, arts and crafts, kite building and flying, swimming, ceremonies and festivals.
On the truce between Hamas and Israel, UNRWA’s Commissioner General, Karen AbuZayd, said she was cautiously delighted about the truce in Gaza, which so far seemed to be holding. She appealed to all concerned for it to continue. She hoped that UNRWA could now take for granted the consistent and adequate flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and hoped that the problem of access for people could become a thing for the past.
Documentation on the Nahr El Bared reconstruction and an opinion editorial by UNRWA’s Commissioner General to mark World Refugee Day were available at the back of the room.
World Refugee Day
Ms. Heuzé said today was World Refugee Day and the message of the Secretary-General on this occasion was available in the press room.
Jennifer Pagonis of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees said today was World Refugee Day, and across the globe, in the 116 countries where UNHCR worked, staff, refugees and humanitarian partners were involved in a huge range of activities to mark the occasion, including experiencing refugee life in a UNHCR tent - that was happening right outside on the Place des Nations here in Geneva from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. - bridge lighting, sports events, concerts, photo exhibitions and film festivals. Refugees showed incredible courage and perseverance and this year’s
overall theme of “Protection” was a reflection of the need and right to protection that refugees deserved. To show his solidarity with the millions of refugees and displaced, and to pay tribute to all those humanitarians who help them, High Commissioner António Guterres was on a three-day mission in Kenya seeing first hand the situation of displaced Kenyans and of Somali refugees uprooted from their war-ravaged country.
UNHCR was very alarmed over credible reports of ongoing, forcible returns of Eritrean asylum-seekers from Egypt despite UNHCR appeals to halt any return of asylum seekers until UNHCR had had access to detention centers to determine their claims for international protection, Ms. Pagonis said. UNHCR urged the Egyptian authorities to halt the deportations of asylum seekers and respect their obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention to which it was a signatory. UNCHR was asking for unhindered access to all persons seeking asylum currently in detention and requesting the Egyptian authorities to urgently provide information on the location and well-being of some 1,400 Eritreans and other persons of concern to UNHCR, whose names and detention locations had previously been shared with us by the authorities.
GAVI Alliance
Mercy Ahun of the GAVI Alliance, introduced the GAVI Alliance annual Progress Report 2007 which is being launched in advance of the meeting of the GAVI Executive Board which will take place in Geneva next week. She explained that the Alliance was a public-private partnership made up of countries from both developed and developing countries. WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank were important partners in the Alliance. The vaccine manufacturing industry was also involved. Their common aim was to save the lives of children and to protect peoples’ health through immunization. The GAVI annual Progress Report 2007 highlighted the achievements made to prevent premature death and to improve public health in the world’s poorest countries. According to GAVI’s progress report, there was a steady increase in immunization coverage rates. In 2007, 75 per cent of GAVI-eligible countries were immunized with three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccines, an increase from 64 per cent in 2000. More developing countries were making efforts to introduce new and under-used vaccines. By the end of 2007, GAVI was able to provide a total of $ 3.5 billion to immunization and national health programmes up until 2015, 74 per cent of which was being spent on new and under-used vaccines.
Dr. Pascal Villeneuve of UNICEF said UNICEF and WHO were founder partners of the GAVI Alliance, and the progress report highlighted the significant advances made as a result of the work of the Alliance.
Dr. Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele of WHO said in the 1980s, there were six vaccines administered in developing countries, while the number was more in developed countries. Today, eight additional vaccines had been added.
UNICEF
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said available were three news notes and press releases at the back of the room. UNICEF was deeply concerned by increasing reports of kidnappings and abduction of children by criminal gangs and armed groups, particularly in countries affected by violence. In many cases, these abductions were being carried out with impunity. After giving examples from Haiti, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iraq, Ms. Taveau said it was everyone’s duty to ensure children were safe from harm, and governments had a responsibility to enact and enforces measures that provided a protective environment for all children. There were more details in the press release.
In China, the Gansu Province, one of China’s poorest provinces, was severely damaged and thousands of school classrooms were destroyed in the 12 May earthquake. In coming days, UNICEF would deliver 200 large school tents, 60,000 student kits and 2,000 teacher kits to Longnan prefecture in the southernmost point of Gansu.
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Hilde Johnson had arrived in Addis Ababa for a four-day visit to Ethiopia where she would review the emergency situation in drought affected areas. The Government of Ethiopia estimated that at present, 75,000 children under the age of five in drought-affected areas faced severe acute malnutrition and required immediate therapeutic care to survive. Some 4.6 million people in the drought-affected areas were in immediate need of humanitarian aid. There will be a press briefing on 25 June at 12:30 p.m. upon the return of Ms. Johnson from Ethiopia.
Human Rights
Yvon Edoumou of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said delegates from 25 Latin American and Caribbean countries and representatives of over 120 non-governmental organizations concluded yesterday in Brazil a three-day regional meeting in preparation for the Anti-racism Review Conference to be held in Switzerland in April 2009. The regional meeting in Brasilia was the first of four such gatherings to be held worldwide in preparation for the Review Conference to the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance that took place in 2001 in Durban, South Africa. Among the proposals listed in the meeting's final document are the creation of a racial equity index and the implementation of concrete measures to guarantee that indigenous peoples and African descendents have access and/ or right to property to their traditional lands.
Ms. Heuzé said that today at noon, journalists interested in meeting with the new President of the Human Rights Council, Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi of Nigeria, could do so in Room XXIII. This was not a press conference, just an informal meeting. The new President and the Bureau of the Council were elected yesterday in an organizational meeting of the Council. A press release had been issued at the end of the day.
Other
Ms. Heuzé said that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime World Drug Report 2008 would be available under embargo starting Monday, 23 June. The report was embargoed until noon New York time on 26 June.
Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization said there was a meeting of the Dispute Settlement at noon today, and there would be another one on Tuesday, 24 June. Oman’s trade policy review would be held on 25 and 27 June. On 27 June, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy would be meeting with Oman’s Trade Minister Maqbool bin Ali Sultan. The Director would be participating in the Global Humanitarian Forum on 24 June in the round table on priorities for food security in a changing climate. On 25 June, the Director-General would meet with Olivier de Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, and on Thursday, he would meet with Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in Madrid.
Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said journalists might have noticed a new logo on ILO reports, a grey heart with a red “equals” sign inside. This was the symbol of ILO’s year-long campaign starting this month on gender equality at the heart of decent work. Every month, the campaign will have a different theme. There would be a working breakfast on Thursday, 26 June, at the restaurant on the eighth floor to introduce this new campaign.
Jean Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM's bi-yearly governorate profiles provides an in-depth analysis of the latest displacement situation and trends in each of Iraq's 18 governorates. According to the latest report, the plight of the 2.8 million internally displaced persons, including 1.6 million persons who were displaced following the bombing of the Samarra Mosque in February 2006, required sustained attention from the international community, even if some limited improvements had been recorded in a number of governorates.
Mr. Chauzy said IOM and the Government of Mali were today launching a nationwide information campaign to raise public awareness of the dangers of irregular migration in order to better prevent it. In the Philippines, IOM was bringing migration tales to the stage. "Karaoke Dreams" - a musical comedy produced by the Philippine Educational Theater Association and sponsored by IOM's European Union-funded Philippine Border Management Project, would open in Metro Manila today.