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 the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the World Meteorological Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Organization for Migration and the UN Refugee Agency.

Secretary-General in India

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was in India on the last leg of his two-week tour in Europe, Africa and Asia. Yesterday, the Secretary-General accepted the Sustainable Development Leadership Award in New Delhi, and, upon receiving the award, he stressed that combating climate change would need all our leadership, all our commitment, all our ingenuity. By facing up to this crisis, he said, the world had been given an exciting opportunity to make progress on a wide range of sustainable development issues. It was an opportunity the world must seize. The Secretary-General would be flying back to New York today.

Madagascar

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said available in the press room was a statement by the Secretary-General who said he remained concerned about the tense political situation in Madagascar. At the invitation of the Government of Madagascar, he was dispatching Haile Menkerios, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, to assess the situation in the country and explore what the United Nations could do to help avert further violence and contribute towards peace and stability in Madagascar.

Abkhazia, Georgia

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the latest report by the Secretary-General on the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia was available. Referring to the UN Observer Mission in Georgia, he said that the overall security situation in its area of responsibility since its mandate was extended on 9 October 2008 had remained tense. He noted that the Mission had continued its work on both sides of the ceasefire line without major impediments, but the context in which the Mission operated had changed fundamentally. For example, the status of the Moscow Agreement, which provided the basis for its mandate and the ceasefire regime, was, at best, no longer clear, and the Commonwealth of Independent States peacekeeping force, on which the Mission had to rely for its own security, was no longer in place. In that regard, the Secretary-General said the Mission’s position had become precarious and could rapidly become unsustainable. The Secretary-General also noted that the Geneva discussions on security and stability, co-chaired by the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the UN had yet to deliver tangible results. In that context, he called upon the parties to redouble their efforts towards an agreement on security, as well as issues related to refugees and internally displaced persons. The Secretary-General concluded that, because of the precarious security situation and in order to contribute to the well-being of local populations, the Security Council should endorse the continued presence of a UN mission, retaining the current configuration and deployment.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the next round of the Geneva discussions would be held on 17 and 18 February.

Director-General’s Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, was since 10 a.m. this morning meeting with the Group of Friends of the Palais des Nations. The meeting was to discuss how to take forward the Strategic Heritage Plan for the Palais des Nations. Michael Adlerstein, Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the Capital Master Plan at United Nations Headquarters, would also take part to share lessons learned from this renovation project. The Group of Friends was formed in 2008 to provide guidance and support for the development of a Strategic Heritage Plan for the Palais. Mr. Ordzhonikidze and Mr. Adlerstein would brief journalists about the meeting at 3 p.m. this afternoon in press room 1.

On Monday, 9 February at 10 a.m., the Director-General would address opening remarks to the Preparatory Meeting of the World Ocean Conference. The Preparatory Meeting was part of the process leading up to the World Ocean Conference to take place from 11 to 15 May 2009 in Manado, Indonesia. The theme of the Conference was “Climate Change Impacts to Oceans and the Role of Oceans to Climate Change”.

On Thursday, 12 February, the Director-General would participate via video-conference in the 2009 Senior Managers’ Compacts – Finalization of the 2009 Compacts for Signature by the Secretary-General and Signing Meeting.

Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was today concluding its winter session. A roundup press release would be issued later in the day.

Conference on Disarmament

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Conference on Disarmament would hold its next public plenary at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 12 February. The Conference would start next week informal discussions on its agenda items

Special Adviser to Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said she would brief journalists about upcoming activities by Wilfried Lemke, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace. On Saturday, 7 February, Mr. Lemke would give the kick-off to a youth camp in Cairo. Starting today, more than 130 boys and girls from more than 16 countries would take part in the four-day football and volleyball training camp. The camp was organized by the Global Sport Fund, an initiative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Qatar Olympic Committee, with the main objective of offering young boys and girls opportunities to interact and develop their potential through sport, while avoiding the temptations of delinquency and drugs use.

On 12 and 13 February, the Special Adviser would attend the final phase of the 2009 World Winter Games for persons with intellectual disabilities in Idaho, the United States. Also, Mr. Lemke was officially supporting the 2009 “Kilimanjaro Initiative” climb, which would be attempted by a group of 35 to 40 climbers from 28 February to 4 March to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

Available were documents relating to these activities at the back of the room.

Sri Lanka

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said in Sri Lanka, WHO had a presence just outside the conflict area. WHO had been supplying medical supplies and it had staff on a contingency holding basis on the periphery. At this stage, there was no clear information on the health needs. WHO called on all sides to the conflict to respect the neutrality of health facilities and staff, and patients who were receiving care.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said WFP carried a food review of the conflict area in January. According to this, WFP estimated that the Vanni caseload would be 230,000 people. At present, the entire population of the Vanni was facing a food crisis to the continuous displacement, crop failure and recent floods. Livelihoods were almost completely lost, exacerbating the food insecurity, and the people’s coping mechanisms had been exhausted. There was complete dependence on humanitarian food assistance for survival. Since September 2008, WFP had sent 11 convoys into the area, and this was basically what had been keeping about 230,000 people alive during this period. WFP wanted to get a food convoy into the area yesterday, but was unable to get clearance to do so. The authorities had promised there would be a four-hour humanitarian window yesterday. The last convoy sent in was on 16 January, carrying 820 metric tons of food in to feed 230,000 internally displaced persons who were trapped in the conflict zone. That food would have been enough for about one week.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said with the intensification of the fighting, the situation in north eastern Sri Lanka remained extremely precarious for children, women and other civilians. UNICEF was very concerned about the plight of children who had been utterly traumatized during the conflict. Families had been bunkered down in underground shelters with very few resources. UNICEF had made a strong plea to both warring factions to grant full freedom of movement, to avoid civilian casualties at all costs and to open corridors of peace so that civilians could leave the conflict area and humanitarian workers could access those in dire need of food, emergency health services, water and sanitation and protection of children and women.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR staff were working in the north of Sri Lanka along with other UN agencies and were prepared for further movements. There had been continuous movement in that conflict over some years.

Zimbabwe

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said WHO’s latest epidemiological bulletin on Zimbabwe was issued today. It talked of increasing reported cases of cholera. As of 5 February, 67,945 cases of cholera had been reported since August, and of those, 3,371 people had died. This week, the case fatality ratio, based on the reported deaths and cases, remained high at 3.9 percent, but was slightly lower than before at 4.5 per cent the previous week. The target was to put the case fatality ratio under 1 per cent. In medical facilities, that case fatality ratio was 1.4 per cent.

International Labour Organization

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said that on 20 February, the ILO would celebrate the first World Day of Social Justice. The theme was “The Crisis: Threat or Opportunity for Social Justice”. ILO was also celebrating its ninetieth anniversary as since 1919, ILO had been working for social justice. Journalists were invited to the celebration. Parallel commemorations would also be held in New York. On 18 February, journalists were invited to a working breakfast with the Secretary-General at the Villa Pastoral at the Swiss Press Club.

Ms. Perthuis said that the Eighth European-Central Asian Regional meeting of the International Labour Organization was meeting in Lisbon starting Tuesday, 10 February and she would be attending the meeting. The meeting would discuss the challenge of forging a decent work response to the financial and economic crisis and mounting job losses and social hardship. Available at the back of the room was a background press release, and a report assessing the situation which was embargoed until 0001 GMT 9 February.

Other

Catherine Sibut-Pinot of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said on Monday, 9 February, UNCTAD would be publishing a policy brief on agriculture. It would be a document for the High-level meeting on “African Agriculture in the 21st Century: Meeting the Challenges, Making a Sustainable Green Revolution”, organized by the Government of Namibia and the Department for Economic and Social Affairs.

Also on Monday at 3 p.m., Viet Nam's investment policy would be discussed. The Investment Policy Review would provide a thorough assessment of the investment framework in Viet Nam, Ms. Sibut-Pinote said. It offered concrete recommendations as to what could be done to further improve the investment climate and attract higher levels of beneficial foreign direct investment.

Ms. Sibut-Pinote said that on 10 and 11 February, the 2009 Expert Meeting on the Development Dimension of International Investment Agreements would be held at the Palais des Nations. The purpose of this meeting was to bring together experts and practitioners from government, civil society, academia and the private sector to address the development implications of the proliferation of investment agreements, and identify and clarify the key issues to be further analysed in order to enhance the capacity of developing countries to harness the development potential of international investment agreements.

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said on 25 February, an important event organized in the context of the International Polar Year would be held. A milestone in the understanding of the Earth system was the International Polar Year 2007-2008, a joint initiative of the World Meteorological Organization and the International Council for Science. Thousands of scientists from over 60 countries had carried out over 160 research and outreach projects, which advanced understanding in many areas, including global climate change. New insights in polar knowledge resulting from this historical undertaking would be made public at a ceremony at WMO headquarters on 25 February 2009, where the “State of Polar Research”, a succinct report with preliminary findings of the International Polar Year would be released. A wide range of projects would be profiled reflecting the diversity of the International Polar Year. Examples included studies of Arctic community adaptation to climate, vast changes in permafrost, extensive marine biodiversity surveys in both Polar Regions, exploration of Antarctic sub-glacial lakes, Antarctic research in search of insight into life on Mars, and the establishment of a network of young polar researchers. There would be a press conference at the Palais des Nations on 25 February at 11 a.m.

Ms. Sevenier said journalists were invited to the opening at the Palais des Nations, on 24 February, of “Our Polar Heritage”, a unique photographic exhibition of scientists at work in the field during the International Polar Year. The exhibition would take place at the Palais from 16 February to 23 March 2009. A press release in a number of languages was available at the back of the room.

Janaina Borghes of the World Trade Organization said Director-General Pascal Lamy was in Berlin today. Yesterday he met with the German Chancellor and several heads of international organizations. There would also be a briefing today at 1 p.m. at WTO by the Services Director about the Service Negotiations. On Monday, 9 February, the Trade Policy Review Body would hold an informal meeting to discuss the report by the Director-General on the financial and economic crisis, and trade-related developments. On Wednesday, 11 February, the Dispute Settlement Body would be meeting.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said in Kenya, following the recent petrol tanker fire, WHO had been able to make available 50,000 Euros to provide medical supplies and equipment to help treat people affected by the fire. Some 110 persons were killed and 176 injured in the 31 January accident.

Mr. Garwood said in Gaza, the health system in Gaza was now fully functional, with staff back to work. All Ministry of Health hospitals had full stocks of drugs. There were still some problems in primary healthcare centres, run by the Ministry of Health, UNRWA and non-governmental organizations. The health situation and provision of care was much better now than during the recent crisis. Closures needed to be stopped, the internal political Palestinian situation needed to be resolved, and the ceasefire must hold in need for this situation to continue.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said a joint IOM/UNDP/UNOCI programme to provide sustainable socio-economic reintegration assistance to former combatants and ex-members of self defence groups in central Côte d'Ivoire was currently helping a first group of 128 individuals. To date, some 10,000 ex-combatants had been disarmed, demobilized and regrouped throughout the country by the Integrated Command Centre, with a further 35,000 combatants and 20,000 members of self-defence groups still in need of disarmament and demobilization assistance. A total of 9,000 former combatants should be integrated in the new mixed army, police and gendarmerie. There were more details in the notes. The $ 1.4 million, six-month programme, funded by the UN's Peacebuilding Fund, aimed to provide vocational training and in-kind assistance to set up more than a thousand micro projects that would benefit some 1,300 demobilized individuals living in and around the towns of Séguéla, Kani and Vavoua.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said an emergency relief convoy was scheduled to depart this morning from the Chadian town of Abeche on a gruelling, three-day, 720-km journey to a remote area of south-eastern Chad where up to 10,500 refugees from the strife-torn Central African Republic were now estimated to have sought safety. The latest influx around the Chadian border village of Daha
resulted from fighting which began in late December and sent an initial 4,500 refugees to the Daha area in mid-January. The situation continued to deteriorate this week with the arrival of thousands more refugees. Local Chadian authorities estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 new refugees arrived in Daha on Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing the total number of Central African Republic refugees in the remote area to an estimated 8,500 to 10,500. Most of the new arrivals were women and children. They fled ongoing fighting in the north-eastern Central African Republic between rebel groups and the military near the town of Ngarba. The refugees were in dire need of assistance.

Mr. Redmond said in Kenya, the Government had agreed to allocate land to accommodate the increasing numbers of Somali refugees who were fleeing to Kenya to escape the escalating conflict in their country. Deputy High Commissioner Craig
Johnstone just returned this morning from a three-day mission to Kenya. In a meeting with Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Mr. Johnstone received a firm commitment that the Government would provide land for establishment of a new refugee camp in north-eastern Kenya to take the pressure off the sprawling and overcrowded Dadaab refugee complex. Dadaab, which was designed for 90,000 people, now had a population of about a quarter of a million, making it one of the world’s largest and most congested refugee sites.

Mr. Redmond said UNHCR and its humanitarian partners were dispatching staff and essential relief supplies to the border area of Dolo-Ado, in the Somali Region of
south-east Ethiopia where there were now an estimated 10,000 new asylum
seekers who had fled insecurity in neighbouring Somalia since the
beginning of the year.

Finally, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Redmond said a growing number of Rwandan civilians were emerging from remote areas of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo seeking to repatriate. UNHCR was increasing the number of UNHCR trucks and was opening a new transit centre in Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, that could accommodate up to 500 people.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 59 more children had been separated from several armed groups and were receiving protection and assistance from UNICEF and partners. The children were between 12 and 17 years old. Family tracing had started for all 59 children by UNICEF and partners. Another 60 children were expected to be released today and tomorrow. UNCIEF had sent three buses to pick up the children and bring them back to Goma where they would receive protection and assistance. UNICEF hoped that in the next three months, around 1,500 children could be separated from armed groups thanks to ongoing negotiations.

Ms. Taveau said 6 February was the International Day for zero tolerance of female genital mutilation. Every year, three million girls between the ages of 4 and 14 became victims of this practise. This mutilation was a violation of the rights of all girls. It was estimated that today there were 70 million women victims of female genital mutilation around the world. This tradition was practised almost everywhere around the world, but most frequently in the 28 Sub-Saharan African countries, and in the Middle East, especially in Egypt. Available was a press release on female genital mutilation out of Sudan, where UNICEF commended efforts by the Government to end this practise. In Sudan, despite ongoing efforts, female genital mutilation affected about 69 per cent of girls and women. A number of events would take place in Sudan to continue to draw attention to the issue of female genital mutilation.