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 was also attended by Spokespersons for United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Organization for Migration. Spokespersons from the World Health Organization and the UN Refugee Agency were also present, but had no announcements to make.

Secretary-General’s Trip to Mexico

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General would head to Mexico on 3 August for his first official visit to that country. The fight against AIDS would be a major focus of the three-day trip. In Mexico City, the Secretary-General would open the XVII International AIDS Conference, being held for the first time in Latin America, with Mexican President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa. At the Conference and during its side events, the Secretary-General was expected to meet with world leaders, people living with HIV and community groups. He would reaffirm that the AIDS epidemic was not over and that the world needed a long-term vision to respond. While in Mexico, the Secretary-General would hold bilateral meetings with the country’s President and Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa Cantellano. He also planned to address a joint session of the Mexican Senate and Chamber of Deputies; discuss climate change policies with Mexican officials; and reach out to the business community through the UN Global Compact’s Mexico network.

New Statements and Report by the Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General had a number of new statements and a new report which were available in the press room. The Secretary-General had said he was gratified that his nomination of Ms. Navanethem Pillay of South Africa as the new High Commissioner for Human Rights had been endorsed by the General Assembly. The new High Commissioner would take up her post as of 1 September.

In a message ahead of the Olympic Games, which would be held in China from 8 to 24 August, the Secretary-General was calling for an Olympic Truce – a worldwide cessation of all hostilities for the duration of the Games, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said. He had said such a truce, while limited in duration, could provide a pause in which to reconsider the heavy cost of war, as well as an opening to initiate a dialogue and a window to provide relief for suffering populations. It could also demonstrate to the world that peace was possible in even the most seemingly intractable situations if they truly worked towards it. The Secretary-General had joined the International Olympic Committee and the General Assembly in calling on all those who were at war to observe the Truce. “Let them lay down their weapons, if only temporarily, so that humanity can lay claim to gold even before the Games begin,” Mr. Ban had said.

In another statement, the Secretary-General had condemned in the strongest of terms the series of bombings in two cities in India that had killed and wounded a large number of civilians. He had reiterated that no cause or grievance could justify terrorist acts of that kind and had appealed for restraint in the face of such provocation.

The Secretary-General had also strongly condemned the bombings in Istanbul, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier added.

Finally, in his latest report on Georgia, the Secretary-General had noted that the last four months had witnessed a resurgence of tensions, and he had called upon all stakeholders to preserve the integrity of the ceasefire regime. The full report was available on the United Nations web site.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had opened its seventy-third session at Palais Wilson yesterday, which would continue until 15 August. This morning, the Committee would conclude its consideration of the periodic report of Ecuador, and this afternoon it would start its review of the periodic report of Namibia.

The Conference on Disarmament had yesterday opened the third and last part of its 2008 session, which would continue until 12 September. During the short plenary held this morning under the presidency of the United States, the Conference had heard statements from the Russian Federation, India and China. A press release would be issued shortly. The next public plenary of the Conference would be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 5 August.

World Breastfeeding Week

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that World Breastfeeding Week, which was held annually from 1 to 7 August, would be observed by over 120 countries this year, with the aim of promoting that practice so that babies around the world would enjoy better health. According to the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, which was coordinating the weeklong events, breastfeeding was the single best way to ensure newborns got the nutrients they needed, and the World Health Organization recommended exclusive breastfeeding for babies up to the age of six months. It was estimated that if all mothers followed that WHO recommendation, the lives of 1.3 million babies would be spared each year. However, despite progress made over the last 15 years, only 38 per cent of babies under six months old were breastfed in developing countries. Exclusive breastfeeding was a true “survival strategy for children”, as it was estimated that it would prevent 13 per cent of the deaths of children under five in developing countries. A press release, under embargo until 31 July, 11 p.m. GMT, was available at the back of the room.

UNCTAD 2008 Statistics Handbook

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that the UNCTAD’s 2008 Handbook of Statistics, released today, contained some interesting numbers. It showed that, in 2007, the increases in global merchandise exports for developing countries (15.2 per cent) had acceded increases for developed ones (14.4 per cent). As for world services exports, they had climbed by 18.1 per cent in 2007, with developing countries keeping the same pace. The Handbook also showed that, while emerging economies were frequently in the spotlight, industrialized nations continued to dominate global economic activity, accounting for 71 per cent of world gross domestic product in 2007, although they represented only 15 per cent of the world’s population. The report was also available in English on the Internet at www.unctad.org/statistics.

Myanmar

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced that the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development had pledged $850,000 to support IOM medical teams providing primary health care to Cyclone Nargis survivors in the Irrawaddy Delta in Myanmar. The project, which was part of the UN Flash Appeal for Myanmar issued earlier this month, focused on ensuring access by the many people still living in very difficult conditions to primary health care. IOM mobile medical teams, using Zodiac inflatables and other boats to access remote locations hit by the cyclone, had already treated over 24,600 patients in 327 villages in the Delta. IOM had also set up 15 temporary tent clinics in areas where medical infrastructure had been completely or partially destroyed.

Other

Ms. Sibut-Pinote announced that the UNCTAD Trade and Development Report would be launched at the beginning of September. UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi would present the report at a press conference to held in Room III on Tuesday, 2 September, following the regular UNIS briefing. The report was under embargo until 4 September

Ms. Taveau said that UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman was in Madagascar for a few days to visit the areas that had been worst hit by the passage of Hurricane Ivan in February 2008, which had directly affected 160,000 people, destroying 364 schools and dozens of health centres. Today, Ms. Veneman was officially launching a national campaign to fight Tetanus, which aimed to vaccinate 830,000 women between 15 and 49 years old with the goal of eliminating maternal and neonatal Tetanus on the island. During her stay, the Executive Director would meet the Malagache President, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and other members of Government, as well as religious leaders.

Following her visit to Madagascar, Ms. Veneman would travel to Mozambique before journeying on to Mexico, where she was scheduled to participate in the International AIDS Conference being held in Mexico City from 3 to 8 August.