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 International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Health Organization.

Activities of the Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General had signed yesterday his senior managers’ compacts for 2009. Nineteen senior managers were present at the ceremony at the Headquarters in New York and five additional senior managers had participated via videoconference, including the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva Mr. Sergei Ordzhonikidze. The Secretary-General stressed the need for teamwork, saying: “from the Millennium Development Goals to combating climate change and improving staff security, we confront problems that no senior manager or single department can solve alone”. The next crucial step, he added, was to look closely at what works, and to fix what did not.

The Secretary-General yesterday also attended at the UN Headquarters an event organized by the United Nations Children’s Fund on the occasion of Red Hand Day, which sought to mobilize people worldwide to bring an end to the forced recruitment and use of children as soldiers. The Secretary-General said that more States should ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict and called for its implementation, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier. “ The recruitment and use of children in warfare are unacceptable and violate international law”, said Mr. Ban.

Geneva Activities

Turning to the activities in Geneva, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination would hold, from Monday 16 February to Friday 6 March 2009, its 74th session, during which it was planned to review the reports of Bulgaria, Congo, Croatia, Finland, Montenegro, Pakistan, Suriname, Tunisia and Turkey.

Also, the Conference on Disarmament’s next session would take place Tuesday 17 February 2009 at 10 a.m., when it was scheduled to hear a statement by Norway’s Deputy Defence Minister, Mr. Barth Eide, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

Discussions on Georgia would also be held at the Palais des Nations next week from 17 to 18 February, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier. The discussions would start at 3 p.m. on Tuesday and a press conference was planned around 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Further, the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review was ending today its fourth session. A press conference by the President of the Human Right’s Council, Mr. Martin Uhomoibhi was scheduled in Press Room III at 11:30 a.m. today, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

Sri Lanka

Véronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said that in Sri Lanka they were responding to the needs of 30,000 people who had been able to flee the combat zone. These where now receiving humanitarian aid in Vavuniya. UNICEF was coordinating the emergency response in water and sanitation, nutrition, education and protection. Most of the children in Vavuniya were particularly traumatized as they had been very close to the combat lines, had been displaced several times in the past 12 months. Their situation had deteriorated even further in the past months. These children and their families were in dire need of basic services.

UNICEF’s support to these children and their families included hygiene kits, potable water, mosquito nets, education kits, clothes and psychological support. UNICEF remained extremely concerned over the situation of families and the tens of thousands of children who still remained in the combat zone without being able to flee and without having access to humanitarian aid, said Ms. Taveau.

Cholera Outbreak in Zimbabwe

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said, about the situation in Zimbabwe, that as of 12 February 2009 some 73,000 cholera cases had been reported including 3,524 deaths. The “Crude Fatality Rate” was of 4.8 percent. In order to say that cholera was under control, the crude fatality rate had to be below 1 percent. Since the last update of 11 February, 280 cases and 11 deaths had been added. These figures showed that Zimbabwe’s cholera outbreak was still not under control.

There were also an increasing number of cholera treatment centers opening all across the country. There were actually 360 such treatment centers. Further, risks of flooding linked to the current rainy season would make areas difficultly accessible. Also, the lack of food and transportation and the fact that health workers were underpaid were further challenges for the humanitarian community, said Ms. Chaib. A Cholera Command & Control Centre team had visited affected areas and had said that shallow wells, boreholes, rivers and streams were the most likely sources of infection. Recommendations were made for treatment at source and continued distribution of water purification tablets at the household level. The current strategy focused on providing education materials, water containers, water purification tablets, soap and oral rehydration salts at household level.

Turning to the funding of the health sector, Ms. Chaib indicated that the UN agencies and Non-governmental Organizations had asked for US$ 73.5 million for the Cholera Appeal 2009 of which 21 percent had been received until now. Within this overall health appeal WHO alone had requested for its specific activities US$ 20 million of which US$ 5.8 million has been received. WHO had received funds from Botswana, Greece, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, the African Development Bank and the Central Emergency Response Fund for cholera-related emergency activities.

Speaking about the situation in the neighbouring countries, Ms. Chaib said that in South Africa some 4,800 cases and 34 deaths had been reported between 15 November 2008 and 20 January 2009. For Mozambique, there was an ongoing cholera outbreak in 10 out of 11 provinces. A total of some 3,600 cases and 25 deaths had been reported. In Angola, 273 cases and one death had been reported. Three provinces were affected. In Zambia, some 3’000 cases and 43 deaths had been reported between 10 September 2008 and 27 January 2009.

WHO believed that there was a link between the Zimbabwe outbreak and South Africa, and possibly with Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia. But it was hard to say whether all cases were linked to the Zimbabwe outbreak, as Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi and parts of South Africa were endemic for cholera. Botswana was not endemic for cholera and it had only had 8 cases.

Refugees

Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency said that UNHCR teams had reached some 200 indigenous people who had arrived in remote villages in south-west Colombia after fleeing violence on their collective territory. On Tuesday, UNHCR had called for a full investigation into the reported killings of 17 Awá indigenous people in one of the most isolated and conflict-ridden parts of the country. Two UNHCR teams had arrived there yesterday in the villages of Samaniego and Buenavista, where around 200 Awá people had managed to take refuge.

The 114 Awá people who had reached the village of Buenavista were in very poor health after having made the long and hazardous journey from their territory. There were many landmines in the area. Many of the children showed signs of chronic malnutrition. There was very limited infrastructure in Buenavista to receive these people. Officials from the state body responsible for assistance for displaced people had arrived in the area and UNHCR would start coordinating delivery of humanitarian supplies with them. Humanitarian assistance was in place in Samaniego, where 68 Awá had been arriving by yesterday afternoon, said Mr. Redmond.

The Awá authorities had requested that all the displaced be moved out of the area as soon as possible and taken to a safer location further south, where there were other Awá indigenous people living and who were organizing themselves to receive this group, said Mr. Redmond. Despite the efforts of the authorities to reach the site of the reported massacre, so far no civilian state institutions had managed to enter the area, and the bodies of the 17 presumed dead had not yet been found. On Wednesday, there had been local reports that up to 13 more people had been killed on another collective territory known as El Sandal. UNHCR reiterated its call for a full judicial investigation into the reported murders and had again asked all parties to respect international humanitarian law and urged the Colombian government to fulfill its obligations to protect civilians.

In Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp there had been an outbreak of cholera in Hagadera, which was one of three sites that made up the sprawling and overcrowded complex of refugee camps. So far, 14 cases had been confirmed, most of them children, including a refugee child who had recently been arriving from Somalia. This morning, a three-year-old boy had died of cholera. The first case had been identified on 29 January 2009. A team of six medical specialists from the Kenya Ministry of Health, UNHCR, WHO, the International Rescue Committee and the Centre for Disease Control, had immediately been dispatched from Nairobi to Dadaab, to provide extra support to the doctors in the camp and to attend to the 14 infected cases.

Most of the other cases had now recovered and had been discharged. There was still an 18-month old boy in stable condition at the Hagadera Hospital. Hagadera was the biggest of the three settlements at the sprawling Dadaab refugee camp, which now hosted nearly a quarter million refugees, making it one of world’s largest refugee camps, said Mr. Redmond. Hagadera itself had been designed for 30,000 people but now held some 100,000 refugees, overstretching water and sanitation services. Doctors at the camp said the extreme overcrowding at the settlement posed major health problems. Last week UNHCR’s Deputy High-Commissioner L. Craig Johnstone had been in Kenya and had received a commitment from the Government for additional land in the north-eastern part of the country to build new camps which would help to decongest Dadaab.

In south-eastern Chad, after a three-day journey, a UNHCR team has reached thousands of Central African Republic refugees in the south-eastern part of Chad and had begun registering the new arrivals and providing them with emergency assistance, said Mr. Redmond. Some 6,000 civilians, mostly women and children had fled to Chad from the Central African Republic since December to escape attacks by rebel groups and fighting between rebels and Central African government forces. Most of the refugees were now stranded in and around the village of Daha, about a kilometer from the Chad border with the Central African Republic. A convoy organized by UNHCR and other humanitarian aid agencies, including the World Food Programme and the UN Children's Fund had left for Daha from UNHCR’s aid hub in the eastern Chad town of Abéché on Friday and it had arrived on Monday after a rugged journey of 932 kilometers. Today a UNHCR team from Geneva was on tits way and was expected to arrive in Daha tomorrow.

Telecommunication

Sanjay Acharya of the International Telecommunication Union said that the ITU Telecom World 2009 was on track to open its doors from 5 to 9 October 2009. The current economic situation had of course a telling impact on the industry but they had assessed the situation and had altered the course to meet the current realities. They expected the number of exhibitors to drop below previous expectations. But ITU was targeting governments to increase their participation. ITU Telecom World 2009 was expected to see more national pavilions that would provide a platform for the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industry from around the world, to showcase the product applications and services.

In view of the financial crisis, the ITU Secretary-General had invited Heads of States, Ministers and regulators to the ITU Telecom World, to discuss the issues with top-level industry leaders. Telecom World events had always been considered unique networking platforms and the intention was now to give the forum a higher profile, said Mr. Acharya. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had also said that he would be attending Telecom World. “It is vital that we use opportunities such as ITU Telecom World 2009 for a frank debate on the way forward for the ICT industry, that will translate challenges into real and workable solutions.” said Mr. Ban and added: ”Information and communication technologies are increasingly critical for global development and human well-being. We must not allow today’s economic downturn to slow progress in providing widespread access to these essential tools.”

The Telecom World exhibition would also host thematic pavilions along with other United Nations agencies, such as the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on key issues such as ICT and Climate Change, health and education, said Mr. Acharya. A press conference with ITU’s Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré and Mr. Robert Hensler the Chancelor of State of Geneva would be held at the Swiss Press Club on 26 February 2009 from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The current financial crisis, Mr Acharya said, would also be the subject of focus at the World Telecommunication Policy Forum, which would take place in Lisbon from 21 to 24 April 2009. ITU would further also issue a key report on Monday 16 February 2009, called “Confronting the Crisis: Assessing its impact on the industry”. The launch of the report coincided with the opening of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The ITU’s Secretary-General had been in contact with industry leaders and policy makers to deal with the crisis. He remained confident that the ICT industry would be able to deal with the situation, as it had been the powerhouse of economic growth across the world, especially in emerging markets and developing countries. The ITU Secretary-General had also said that the ICT industry and governments had to continue to invest in infrastructure and the roll-out of cost-effective services – such as next generation networks – to stabilize the sector, indicated Mr. Acharya.

Lastly, the Fully Networked Car workshop would be held 4-5 March 2009 at the Palexpo in Geneva, during the Geneva Motor Show. The workshop would focus on intelligent transport systems and in line with the theme: how ICTs and cars could mitigate climate change, an electric sports car would be centre stage.

Trade

Catherine Sibut of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that UNCTAD’s Secretary-General was participating, today and tomorrow, in a meeting of the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Rome. The meeting was addressing the financial crisis and regulation measures that could be taken at the international level.

Also, from 16 to 18 February 2009, a meeting of experts would take place on maritime transport at the Palais des Nations. The discussions would address the impact of climate change on maritime transport. UNCTAD would act as a facilitator during the meeting. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, the International Chamber of Shipping, the Panama Canal Authority, the Port of Rotterdam, the US Department of Transportation, as well as several representatives of conventions and research institutions would also attend the meeting, said Ms. Sibut.

Ms. Sibut said that 80 per cent of global trade in goods were carried by sea and 4 percent of the greenhouse gazes emissions were linked to the international maritime transport. Estimations said that these emissions could increase as much as 400 percent by 2050. These emissions were not part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The parties to the Convention had asked the International Maritime Organization to identify measures, on a technical level, that could be taken in order to reduce these emissions.

For UNCTAD, it was also important to work on the social and economic implications of a new regulatory regime as well as its impact on the economic development of developing countries, particularly landlocked least developed countries and small island developing states. One example of problems to be discussed, said Ms. Sibut, was the financing of the adaptation of port infrastructures facing rising sea levels and to identify who would be responsible to pay for this.

Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization said that WTO’s Director-General, Pascal Lamy, would also take part in the G7 Finance Minister’s meeting in Rome. He was also planning to meet with government officials during the meeting, such Italy’s Secretary of State for International Trade, Germany’s Minister of Finance and the President of the Italian organization Confindustria. On Saturday 14 February, Mr. Pascal Lamy was scheduled to give a speech to the Finance Ministers about the food crisis and development issues.

On Tuesday 17 February 2009, WTO’s Director-General would participate in the Global Progressive Forum meeting at the International Labour Organization, said Ms. Borges. On Wednesday 18 February 2009, the Director-General would have a meeting with the Executive Vice President of the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank. Turning to the activities of the WTO, she said that on Wednesday 18 February and Friday 20 February they would perform Japan’s Trade Policy Review and on Thursday 19 February, there would be a meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body.