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 also attended by Spokespersons from the Office of the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs, World Food Programme, Office of the Human Rights Council, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund, World Health Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the International Organization for Migration, the International Labour Organization, World Meteorological Organization and the World Trade Organization.

Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, held a press conference in New York yesterday. The transcript is available in the press room. During his press conference, among other issues, he stressed the importance of climate change. On 22 September, the Secretary-General will convene the largest-ever gathering of Heads of State and government on climate change to mobilize political momentum to ensure a successful conclusion to the negotiations on a new pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that will culminate in Copenhagen in December. However, “The global negotiations towards Copenhagen are moving too slowly, and time is short”, he said. “With this summit we hope to supercharge the process”. With only 81 days until the UN climate change conference, Mr. Ban told the news conference he wanted world leaders to show they understand the gravity of climate risks as well as the benefits of acting now. Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General also made a statement condemning in the strongest possible terms the terrorist suicide attack at the AMISOM [African Union Mission in Somalia] compound where nine peacekeepers, including the Deputy Force Commander were killed. The statement is available in the press room.

Director General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Mr. Sergei Ordzhonikidze, would leave for New York next week to attend the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly which begins on 23 September. The Director-General would also participate in other meetings including the Security Council Summit on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation which will be chaired by United States’ President Barack Obama.

Conference on Disarmament

The Conference on Disarmament closed its 2009 substantive session today. The major achievement of the Conference this year was the adoption of decision CD/1864 on a programme of work by consensus after a more than decade-long stalemate; however, consensus subsequently proved elusive on a decision to implement the work programme.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that, yesterday, the Conference on Disarmament had adopted its annual report which would be submitted to the General Assembly at its 64th session. In the report, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Conference requested the current President and the incoming President to conduct consultations during the intersessional period and, if possible, make recommendations with a view to early commencement of substantive work during its 2010 session, taking into consideration the positive momentum provided, inter alia, by a number of initiatives by states and their leaders relevant to the work of the Conference as well as the adoption by consensus of CD/1864 establishing the Programme of Work for the 2009 session. Ms. Ponomareva Piquier said dates for the 2010 sessions of the Conference on Disarmament had been set to 18 January to 26 March, 31 May to 16 July and 9 August to 24 September.

Committee on the Rights of the Child

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Rights of the Child examined yesterday the report on Bolivia and would examine the report on Poland next Tuesday.


International Day of Peace

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the United Nations Office at Geneva would commemorate the International Day of Peace today with a ceremony taking place in the Council Chamber of the Palais des Nations at 3:00 pm. The Note to correspondents is available in the press room.

Human Rights Council

Mr. Rolando Gomez of the Human Rights Council said the Council heard today a High-Level address by Ms. Celima Torrico, Minister of Justice of Bolivia. This had been followed by a presentation of the report of the Working Group on the Right to Development (by representatives of OHCHR). The Council would then hear a presentation of the report by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, as a follow up to the Special Session on the Global Food Crisis held in May last year. Mr. De Schutter would also be giving a press conference at 1:15pm today in press room 1, he said. The Council would also hear a presentation by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, who would report on her participation at the High-Level meeting of the GA in June this year dedicated to the financial and economic crises, as requested by the Special Session of the Council on the economic and financial crises held in February this year. Rolando Gomez said this would be followed by a presentation of a number of thematic reports prepared by the OHCHR including the Right to Truth, Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism, Unilateral Coercive Measures (report of Secretary-General), the Right to Development, the Secretary-General’s Report on the Death Penalty, as well as an analytical study prepared by OHCHR on transitional justice. In the afternoon, there would be a general debate on item 3 on the Promotion and Protection of All Human Rights, Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including the Right to Development, he said.


WHO, H1N1 Pandemic

Mr. Gregory Hartl, from the World Heath Organization, said the United States was one of nine countries that planned to give a certain amount of their stock vaccines to WHO so that it could be distributed to developing countries. The WHO welcomed this move, he said, and added that today
they would also publish the sixty-sixth Pandemic Update which showed that the number of laboratory confirmed cases had risen to almost 300,000, while 3,500 death’s had been confirmed. However, because most countries did not count individual cases, the number of 300,000 was probably way under the actual figure, he said. The Spokesperson said that, starting from next week, they would probably restart the virtual press briefings with Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny.

Asked how many vaccines would be needed, Gregory Hartl said that there were 6.3 billion people and that the priority was to produce as much as possible but there were priority groups that would have to be given preference. In response to another question, the spokesperson said that WHO had contacted each of the 193 Member States to ask what access they had to vaccines and based on that there were 85 countries that did not have access to the pandemic vaccine and that these countries would be the first recipients of the donations of vaccines from the nine countries that were contributing. Responding to a question saying that in France only half of the doctors would accept to be vaccinated, Gregory Hartl said that WHO’s position was that the best way to defend yourself against the pandemic was to get vaccinated.


Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Ms. Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said the organization would next week start distributing monthly food rations to 40,000 internally displaced people who were returning to their homes from camps around the eastern DRC city of Goma. This WFP assistance was designed to help the people to resettle and work their fields during the current planting season as well as the new school year was beginning, she said.




Kenya

Ms. Emilia Casella said that despite several appeals for donations towards their programme in Kenya, the WFP had only received 25 million US$ so far and that the stark reality was that the WFP just did not have enough food to distribute to the people in need. The Spokesperson said this had been underlined by WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, who in a statement said the shortage of donations would soon force the WFP to reduce the monthly ration size to millions of hungry Kenyans and that WFP had only received 8% of the US$ 301 million that was needed to feed 3.8 million people over the next six months.

Guatemala

Ms. Elisabeth Byrs of the Office of the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs, said the situation in Guatemala indicated that the country faced its worst drought in 30 years triggering a serious food crisis. The number of children affected by severe malnutrition arriving at the national hospital of Jalapa had increased to 91 since the beginning of August 2009, she said, adding that on 11 September, the President of Guatemala had called on the international community for help.

Yemen

Ms. Veronique Taveau of UNICEF, read a statement by UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Ms. Sigrid Kaag, who said that UNICEF were deeply concerned about the reports that many civilians, including children, had died following an air raid on a camp for displaced persons in northern Yemen. Ms. Kaag had renewed its appeal to all parties in the conflict to abide by their obligations under international law and to ensure that children remain out of harm’s way and are given the assistance they urgently need.

Mr. Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the High Commissioner, Ms. Navi Pillay, had again issued a statement condemning this second strike against civilians which was a deeply troubling development in a situation which already caused enormous suffering on civilians in particular. The High Commissioner had reminded the Government of Yemen and its armed forces of their obligations to protect civilians caught up in the fighting and international law and had asked for an international investigation to find out what had gone wrong, Mr. Colville said.

Ms. Melissa Fleming of the UNHCR said the situation was alarming in the north for the civilians caught up in the conflict as most of the civilians were stranded and dangerously exposed to the fighting. In addition to emergency aid already shipped to Yemen, UNHCR had positioned tents, mattresses, blankets and other aid items for more than 2,000 people on the Saudi side of the border with Yemen. UNHCR were ready to launch a cross border operation from Saudi Arabia to access and assist the IDPs scattered north of Sa'ada city, pending security clearances from both governments, she said.

Cameroon

Ms. Veronique Taveau said the actress and UNICEF Ambassador, Ms. Mia Farrow, finished today her week-long visit to Cameroon where she visited nutritional centers for children. Cameroon was part of countries UNICEF considered a “silent crisis” and that was the main reason Mia Farrow had visited the country. Every year, 62,000 children die of malnutrition.

French Minister Eric Besson Meets UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Ms. Melissa Fleming said that, during a meeting with French Minister for Immigration Mr. Eric Besson yesterday in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. António Guterres, said he hoped appropriate measures would be taken to ensure the protection of asylum seekers and unaccompanied children during the event to take place in the northern French city of Calais in the course of the next week. This was expressed following Mr. Besson's announcement earlier in the week that French authorities will close down the various makeshift settlements in and around Calais – known as the 'jungle' – where several hundred undocumented foreigners are waiting in the hope to cross into the UK, she said. The High Commissioner had recognized the challenges posed by irregular migration, and the strain which the network of smugglers and traffickers poses on the Calais region and recognized the right of the French Government to maintain law and order. However, he noted that among the irregular migrants in the region there were persons in need of international protection, and noted the protection needs of these individuals, particularly the large number of unaccompanied children, the Spokesperson said.

UNCTAD

Ms. Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the UNCTAD, said the Palestinian Minister of Economy would hold a press conference on the efforts made by the Palestinian authorities next Tuesday at 11:45 am. At the same time the UNCTAD Report on Assisting the Palestinian People would be discussed at the Council on Human Rights, she said. On Tuesday morning UNCTAD would issue a press release concerning the Investment Trends of Foreign Investors into G-20 countries.

G-20

Ms. Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization, said that last April, the G-20 nations had asked the ILO to make a study of the impact on jobs and employment while the international financial crisis was just beginning and that this study, entitled “Protecting People, Promoting Jobs”, was now available and would constitute what the ILO would submit to the leaders in Pittsburgh during the forthcoming summit. Mr. Philippe Egger, Deputy Director of the Office of the Director General, would hold a press conference following the briefing to comment on the study, the Spokesperson said.

Horn of Africa/Yemen

Ms. Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migrants, said information was key to ending abuse of irregular migrants on their way to the Gulf of Aden. In this context, a radio campaign aimed at informing migrants and asylum-seekers of the dangers they face when traveling through Somalia to the Gulf of Aden and beyond of the dangers, was being launched tomorrow, 19 September on the BBC World Service, she said. The Spokesperson also said the IOM campaign in Somali, in partnership with UNHCR, would target both migrants as well as host communities in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen. The campaign would aim to foster better knowledge among would-be migrants before making their decision to go abroad and also target host communities in a bid to improve their reception and protection of the migrants. According to the Somali traditional law, “xeer”, when people seek refuge, a "host" clan must protect them. In many cases during Somalia's recent history, this has not been possible simply because of the extremely dire situation faced by the host communities themselves, she said.

Ms. Jemini Pandya said that the IOM Deputy Director General, Ms. Laura Thompson, would participate in the IX South American Conference on Migration which is meeting next week in Ecuador's capital, Quito.

Other

Ms. Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization came to announce the schedule for next week (Doha negotiations, Dispute Settlement, Mr. Lamy's participation in Pittsburgh).

Ms. Gaelle Sévenier of the World Meteorological Organization said that the International Telecommunication Union and the World Meteorological Organization held its first-ever joint seminar which focused on the monitoring and predicting of weather, water and climate through the usage of radio-based information and communication technologies. The seminar had shared information on WMO’s integrated Global Observing System and ITU’s role in using ICT’s as a catalyst to combat climate change, she said.

Ms. Gaelle Sévenier also announced that Mr. Michel Jarraud, Executive Director of WMO, would chair a round table discussion on 21 September just before flying to the Summit on Climate Change in New York. At this round-table discussion, the World Bank would present its report, “World Development Report 2010 – Development and Climate Change,” she said.