REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Officer in Charge of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the Global Health Workforce Alliance, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Development Programme, the International Organization for Migration and UNAIDS.

Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General had left Geneva yesterday and was now in Ireland, for his first official visit to this country. While in Dublin, the Secretary-General would meet President Mary McAleese, Prime Minister Brian Cowen, Foreign Minister Micheál Martin and Defence Minister Willie O’Dea for discussions on UN-Ireland cooperation, especially in the area of peacekeeping operations.

On 9 and 10 July, the Secretary-General would attend the meeting of the Group of Eight (G-8) in L’Aquila, Italy. He would seek to press G-8 countries for greater cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, financing the Gleneagles Scenarios for Africa, and weathering the consequences of the economic crisis on developing countries. The Secretary-General was to be back in New York on the evening of 10 July, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

Economic and Social Council

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the UN Economic and Social Council had opened yesterday its 2009 substantive session with the start of its high-level segment, which this year was focusing on the theme of current global and national trends and their impact on social development, including public health.

The Council had further started this morning’s meeting at 9:30 a.m. to listen to the introduction of the report of the Secretary-General on the Annual Ministerial Review. This would then be followed by voluntary national presentations by Bolivia, China and the Dominican Republic, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

Mr. Nikhil Seth, Director, ECOSOC Support and Coordination, would also give press briefings, starting today until Thursday 9 July in Press Room I at 12:30 p.m., to answer any questions, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

Véronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that UNICEF was participating to the ECOSOC Innovation Fair with a stand near Room XX, where they were presenting new initiatives and technologies that were helping to save lives, especially those of children.

Erica Koshi of the UNICEF Innovation Team said that their stand presented not only their products but also some of their partners. She presented three innovative items: “Plumpy' Nut”, a peanut-based food which could be kept for up to two years if left unopened and which had revolutionized the way UNICEF was treating severe acute malnutrition in very difficult situations; “Rapid SMS Technology”, an open-source technology with which people in developing countries could send regular health data and any symptoms they might have to a central database through a regular cell phone and automatically get a diagnosis and a recommendation for what they should do in return; and auto disable syringes that prevented any re-use of the syringes that UNICEF was distributing with the vaccines they were providing to 60 per cent of the world’s children.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that WHO was participating to several ministerial roundtables and other events during the ECOSOC. Tomorrow at 8 a.m. there would be a roundtable on the work WHO was doing to address non-communicable diseases and injuries. A press conference by Dr. Ala Alwan, Assistant Director-General, Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health Cluster, was also planned tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. in Press Room I.

Jose Julio Divino of the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA), a joint platform for action on the health workforce crisis and a WHO partner organization, said that they would host a special session at the UN ECOSOC Innovation Fair to launch the “Resource Requirement Tool” tomorrow at 10:30 in Room I. This was a very innovative financing tool to scale-up human resources for health and strengthen healthcare services at country level. Panellists included Dr Sigrun Mødegal, Chair of the Board, Global Health Workforce Alliance and HIV/AIDS Ambassador for Norway; Dr Francis Runumi, Commissioner of Health of Uganda, who would speak on how the Resource Requirements Tool had successfully been used in his country; and Mr Marty Makinen, Managing Director, Results for Development Institute.

Marty Makinen, Managing Director, Results for Development Institute said that he represented the financing taskforce of the Global Health Workforce Alliance. The Resource Requirement Tool enabled countries to cost their human resources for health development plans. There had been estimates of billions of dollars for the funding of the human resources needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. But this figure was at the global level and the tool allowed individual countries to make their own specific estimates of their cost and let them known specifically what their needs were. Many countries had already shown their need for this tool by asking for it to be applied even in advance of its launch.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier announced that Mr. Shaaban Muhammad Shaaban, UN Under-Secretary-General, Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, who was currently in Geneva to attend the high-level segment of ECOSOC, would sign a Memorandum Of Understanding with the University of Geneva within the framework of the UN outreach programme to universities. The event was planned for Friday, 10 July on the premises of the Geneva University around 10 a.m. There would also be a photo opportunity.

Situation in China

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay had issued a press release this morning on the situation in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

In the press release she said that she was alarmed by the large number of casualties during Sunday’s rioting in Urumqi, as well as by continuing reports of high tension and unrest in the region and was calling for restraint by all actors, said Mr. Colville. Initial figures that were announced by the Chinese Government on Monday had suggested that more than 150 people had been killed and over 800 had been injured during the violence that had engulfed Urumqi. The exact circumstances that had led to so many people being killed and injured were still unclear but longstanding tensions between the Uighur and Han Chinese ethnic groups seemed to have had played a major role.

This was an extraordinarily high number of people to be killed and injured in less than a day of rioting and the High Commissioner was urging Uighur and Han civic leaders, and the Chinese authorities at all levels, to exercise great restraint so as not to spark further violence and loss of life, said Mr. Colville. The right of demonstrators to exercise freedom of expression in a peaceful manner had to be maintained.

OHCHR fully recognized that the authorities had an essential duty to maintain public order. However, it was vital that the authorities only resorted to lethal force when it was strictly unavoidable in order to protect life, said Mr. Colville. Those who had been arrested should be treated properly and they should be accorded due process that was fully in line with China's own laws and international human rights standards and norms. Such standards covered matters such as reasons for arrest, humane treatment of those arrested or detained, and methods of interrogation, as well as the conduct of fair trials, and the handing down of proportionate sentences to those found guilty of committing crimes.

The High Commissioner was calling for a transparent independent investigation into the causes of the rioting and the reasons why it had escalated to the point of causing injuries or loss of life to over 1,000 people, as well as identifying the victims and establishing precisely what happened to them. OHCHR believed such a process was essential to create trust. Otherwise there was a risk of a prolonged vicious circle of resentment, unrest and violent reaction and counter-reaction. Finally, the High Commissioner was offering her deepest condolences to the injured and the families of all those who had been killed in the tragic events on Sunday, she said.

H1N1 Pandemic

Ms. Chaib said that today at 5:30 p.m. there would be a virtual press conference on the H1N1 flu pandemic and the latest reported cases by Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO Assistant Director-General.

Further, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization was holding an extraordinary meeting today and it should end its work towards 5 p.m. today. They would discuss the current situation and make recommendations. These recommendations would then be sent to the WHO Director-General who would review them and who could accept them as they are or amend them. A press conference on the results of this meeting would be held at a later date.

Situation in Somalia

Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that the escalating conflict in Mogadishu, Somalia was having a devastating impact on the city's population. It was causing enormous suffering and massive displacement. By yesterday, the eight-week-long offensive that was led by the Al-Shabab and Hisb-ul-Islam militia against government forces had driven a staggering 204,000 people from their homes, making it the biggest exodus from the troubled Somali capital since the Ethiopian intervention in 2007.

According to UNHCR’s local partners, fighting in the past week alone had killed some 105 people and wounded 382, said Mr. Redmond. Several neighbourhoods had been affected and these areas had hitherto been islands of peace, escaping much of the conflict and destruction. Many residents were now fleeing their homes for the first time since the start of the Somali civil war in 1991.

While many of the displaced had been fleeing to the Afgooye corridor, some 30 km west of Mogadishu, which was already hosting over 400,000 displaced people, the majority were now heading further afield. Estimates were placing the number of internally displaced in Somalia at more than 1.2 million, said Mr. Redmond Despite the fact that the Kenyan border was officially closed and Kenyan authorities were not allowing asylum-seekers to cross into Kenya, the number of people arriving in the UNHCR-run Dadaab refugee complex near the Somali border in northern Kenya continued to rise. This was one of the world’s biggest, most congested and oldest refugee camps and was getting more crowded by the day. The number of Somali refugees who have arrived in the camp since the beginning of the year was of 36,000. The actual number of new arrivals was much higher since many of them headed directly to urban centres. Dadaab refugee complex now hosted some 284,306 refugees.

Situation in Pakistan

Mr. Redmond said that yesterday the United Arab Emirates and UNHCR had signed a partnership agreement to support vital humanitarian operations in Pakistan. The agreement was signed with the UAE’s Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nehayan Foundation and would provide for the needs of internally displaced people, mainly women and children, living in precarious situations. It provided for the procurement of basic relief items and would also help to facilitate the voluntary return of displaced people in the north-west of Pakistan where there were more than two million displaced people.

On the ground meanwhile, preparations continued in the displacement camps for the upcoming monsoon season, said Mr. Redmond, which was expected to start in mid-July. UNHCR was moving from trying to shield people from the heat and the 48 degrees Celsius temperatures to trying to protect them from flooding and water. UNHCR teams had reported that they were carrying out distribution of assistance for the approximately 80 per cent of the internally displaced people who were living with host families and in public buildings. These people were increasingly in need of assistance because those hosting them were running out of resources. Since June 22, a total of 25,630 families had received such assistance. UNHCR would continue this process as long as it would take. UNHCR, its partners and other UN agencies were currently discussing with the government the best ways to assist the eventual return of displaced people.

Central African Republic Child Soldiers

Ms. Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that UNICEF welcomed the demobilization of 182 child soldiers that had been released by the “People's Army for the Restoration of Democracy” (APRD) Rebel Group in Central African Republic’s northern Ouham Pendé province. Among the 166 boys and 16 girls, aged 10 to 17, many had served the APRD since its formation in 2006. Almost all children had been reunited with their families after having received assistance to transition back into civilian life. UNICEF had checked their health status and was offering catch-up classes for the children still of school age to facilitate their reintegration into the formal school system.

UNICEF was extremely pleased that APRD leaders were following through with their commitment to surrender the children in their ranks. UNICEF was working closely with the Central African Republic Government to plan and coordinate the release of the children, said Ms. Taveau. The release of the children had come after several months of discussions between the Government and the APRD and followed the 2008 Libreville Peace Agreement as well as the visit of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflicts, Ms. Radhika Coomarasawamy.

While UNICEF lauded this positive development it however remained concerned about the renewed fighting and the emergence of new armed groups along the borders to Chad and Sudan, as well as local self-defence militias throughout the country. The increase in violence was heightening the risk of children’s rights, recruitment, or re-recruitment of child soldiers, said Ms. Taveau. UNICEF Central African Republic needed an additional US$ 1billion to ensure the continuity of the demobilization of child soldiers and their reintegration into their communities.

Aid for Trade and Human Development

Adam Rogers of the United Nations Development programme (UNDP) said that their new administrator, Ms. Elen Clark was it Geneva until this evening. She had participated to the opening of the Global Review on Aid For Trade at the WTO and was meeting with WHO Director-General, Ms. Margaret Chan and other heads of the different agencies.

Mr Rogers further said that UNDP together with other several UN organizations, including the International Trade Center, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the United Nations Economic Commissions for Europe, Africa and Western Asia, the United Nations Environmental Programme, the United Nations Office for Project Services and the World Trade Organization had launched yesterday during the WTO’s Global Review a publication called “Aid for Trade and Human Development”, a guide to conducting aid for trade needs assessment. The guide also helped developing countries access existing markets while waiting for the WTO’s Doha Round and other processes that were currently under way to lower trade barriers.

Luisa Bernal, Trade and Human Development Specialist, UNDP, said, on the report, that it was a very practical tool which reflected a joint effort of a number of UN agencies, basically to build capacities of developing countries and to identify where were the critical needs in the area of trade and to improve their capacities to integrate better in the world economy. The guide approached the issue from a human development perspective; it was not only a macroeconomic approach, it was looking at the broader ways in which trade could impact human development.

International Dialogue on Migration

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration (OIM) said that the second part of IOM's International Dialogue on Migration would take place on 9 and 10 July in Geneva. This year’s focus was on the human rights of migrants with a special look at human trafficking and exploited migrants.

With human trafficking often regarded as a transnational organized crime and response to it approached largely through the prism of criminal justice, the Dialogue would examine the pros and cons of applying such an approach to combating human trafficking and highlight operational challenges for governments and other actors in identifying and assisting victims, said Ms. Pandya. The Dialogue would also tackle how the needs and vulnerabilities of those migrants who were abused and exploited but who did not meet the strict definition of trafficking could be addressed.

Also taking part and addressing participants was Rita Soelwin, a migrant who had been trafficked to the US by her aunt and forced by her aunt to work as a domestic worker, said Ms. Pandya.

Thailand Refugee Resettlement

Ms. Pandya said that IOM had now resettled 67,000 refugees from Thai refugee camps since 2004. Of these over 50,000 had come from Myanmar and nearly 55,000 – over 80 per cent of the total – had went to new homes in the United States. So far this year, IOM had resettled 10,000 people out of Thailand. The programme was however extremely challenging because the logistics of resettlement keep getting tougher as IOM was shifting its focus form the more accessible camps to the most remote camps. IOM had spent 34 years in working on refugee resettlement in Thailand; it began in 1975 in the aftermath of the Viet Nam war.

Global HIV Prevention Campaign

Sophie Barton-Knott of UNAIDS said that they would launch in a press conference today a global HIV prevention campaign which would be rolled out over the next three years, through post offices throughout the world to eventually reach over 600,000 post offices and over 5 million postal workers, including the millions of people that visit post offices every day. The campaign was a partnership between UNAIDS, the International Labour Office, the Universal Postal Union and the UNI Global Union.

New UNHCR Spokesperson

Mr. Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency introduced Melissa Fleming the new Chief of the UNHCR Communication Service and Spokesperson which will replace him at the end of July. She served as IAEA Spokesperson and Head of Media for the last eight years. Before that she had served during six years as Spokesperson and Head of Press and Public Information at the OSCE. Prior to that she had been a journalist working in radio and television for several years.