REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Office at Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for and representatives of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Refugee Agency, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Organization for Migration, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization and the World Meteorological Organization.

UN Strategy on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said at the last briefing journalists had asked questions about the United Nations strategy on sexual exploitation. Available at the back of the room were the answers to the questions raised, as well as a fact sheet by the Conduct and Discipline Unit of the Department of Field Support on the UN’s strict policy of zero tolerance regarding sexual exploitation and abuse and UN action to counter misconduct.

Statements by the Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was saddened to learn of the death of Brigadier General Ahmed Moinuddin, the Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, during an attack on 22 October in Islamabad, Pakistan where he was on leave.

The Secretary-General has addressed a special event on human trafficking in the Economic and Social Council Chamber at UN Headquarters, hosted by the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In his remarks, the Secretary-General reiterated his calls to alleviate such factors as poverty, underdevelopment and lack of equal opportunity, which made persons, especially women and children, vulnerable to trafficking.

In Kampala, António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, delivered a message on behalf of the Secretary-General to the African Union Special Summit on Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa.

The texts of the Secretary-General’s statements were available in the press room.

Director-General’s Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, this afternoon would address an event organized by the Geneva International Model United Nations (GIMUN) and UNOG to mark UN Day, 24 October. The conference, which would focus on the theme of "Human Security – from Theory to Practice", would be attended by students, members of the GIMUN and the general public.

On Saturday, Mr. Ordzhonikidze would attend a concert at Victoria Hall organized by the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva and the Administrative Council of Geneva to commemorate UN Day, and he would deliver a statement on this occasion.

On Monday, 26 October, Mr. Ordzhonikidze would at 8:30 a.m. open a conference on regenerative medicine, organized by the Biobridge Foundation. The conference was being held at the Assembly Hall of the Palais des Nations. Participants included Professor Lux Montagnier, Nobel Prize Laureate for Medicine (2008), Professor Pierre-Francois Unger, Minister of Economy and Public Health of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, as well as many scientists from around the world who would be talking about stem cells and clinic applications. There were a number of press kits available at the back of the room. The conference was open to the press.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would be concluding its second session today. During the one-week session, the Committee held a day of general discussion on Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the right to equal recognition before the law. It also discussed ways and means of expediting its work and its draft rules of procedure. There would be a roundup press release issued at the end of the day.

The Committee on Human Rights would be concluding its ninety-seventh session on Friday, 30 October when it would issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports submitted by the Governments of Switzerland, Moldova, Croatia, the Russian Federation and Ecuador on measures taken to implement the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This afternoon, the Committee would discuss at 3 o’clock a draft General Comment on Article 19 of the Covenant on freedom of expression. The Human Rights Committee was meeting at the Palais Wilson.

Ethiopia

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the Government of Ethiopia and the humanitarian agencies needed $ 175 million for the total net emergency requirement for food and non-food needs for October to December 2009 to help 6.2 million people.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said they were talking about 6.2 million people who needed urgent food assistance in Ethiopia. It had been 25 years since the very big famine in Ethiopia, and now, they were heading towards a very serious situation. The number of people needing emergency food assistance in Ethiopia had steadily increased, rising from 4.9 million in January to 6.2 million today. Due to budget shortfalls for WFP and other humanitarian agencies, there had been cuts to people who most urgently needed food assistance. So far from January to September this year, most of the people had only received half of the rations that they needed in Ethiopia. Ethiopia was facing a large-scale shock, a result of a combination of factors – poor and erratic rainfall over the last two years, the high food and fuel prices that hit the country last year and which were persisting, and the current global financial meltdown.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF’s representative in Ethiopia would brief journalists via teleconference about the situation in Ethiopia.

Ted Chaiban of UNICEF said in Ethiopia and in the Horn of Africa more generally, as a result of climate change, they had had bad small rains earlier in the year, and the current major rains had been delayed and were erratic. They believed they would be facing a challenging situation in 2010, with 6.2 million people requiring food assistance, including 270,000 children who would need support in terms of acute severe malnutrition. At the same time, they had at their disposal a number of factors that were making a big difference. First was the productive safety net programme. Second was the health extension programme led by the Federal Ministry of Health with the support of UNICEF and other organizations. The third was an approach piloted to treat severe acute malnutrition at community level, and the result was that children were treated early on, thus avoiding complications. UNICEF needed $ 32.8 million to do a number of things, including pre-positioning ready to use therapeutic food to treat the severely and acutely malnourished children; funding for saline solution and antibiotics to address acute watery diarrhea; to establish access to water points to fight viral diseases; and insecticide treated nets since they were in malaria season. In some parts of Ethiopia, they also needed support to do measles immunization because the combination of measles and malnutrition was deadly for children.

New Treaty for Internally Displaced People in Africa

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said later today they expected a ground-breaking new treaty for internally displaced people (IDP) in Africa to be endorsed at the African Union Heads of States Special Summit in Kampala, Uganda. This was a very significant development in IDP law. The endorsement of the Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa marked a significant step forward in filling the unfortunate vacuum that had traditionally been the lot of internally displaced people. People who fled persecution or conflict and crossed into another country were categorized as refugees and, as such, benefited from a long-standing and well-oiled international legal protection system, including the 1951 Refugee Convention, but, until now, internally displaced people had been more or less excluded from the system of international legal protection, even though they were often displaced in exactly the same way, and for exactly the same reasons, as refugees. At least in Africa, that should no longer be the case. OHCHR hoped that the adoption of this historic Convention in Africa would inspire other regions and the international community in general, so that the lives of IDPs would be significantly improved, not just in Africa but elsewhere in the world as well.

Mr. Colville said there was a press release ready to go, as soon as the Heads of State endorsed the treaty, quoting High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. It would be sent as soon as the treaty was signed. [The press release quoting Ms. Pillay was later issued. “The endorsement of the Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa marks a significant step forward in filling the unfortunate vacuum that has traditionally been the lot of internally displaced people,” the High Commissioner said. “It is very good to see Africa taking a leadership role in creating the first legally-binding instrument to protect and assist internally displaced persons across the continent.”]

Andrej Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said in Kampala, Uganda, African leaders were expected to sign today a groundbreaking legal framework that for the first time codified the rights of people displaced within their own countries. If endorsed, the Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa would become the first legally binding one to define – on a continental scale – the responsibilities that States and even armed groups had to protect and assist their own uprooted citizens. Beyond armed conflict, the convention covered major causes of displacement including obligations that governments had toward their citizens fleeing natural and man-made disasters and people removed from their land when development projects took over. People forced to flee would find in the convention the full range of rights they should be entitled to, before, during and after displacement. There were now 11.6 million IDPs in Africa, about 45 per cent of the world’s total IDPs. The continent also had some 2.65 million refugees and asylum seekers. Some two million people were newly displaced last year. UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, who was in Kampala representing Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, would hold a press conference on the outcome of the summit today after the closing session around noon Kampala time.

In response to a question, Mr. Mahecic said that if endorsed, the convention would be binding for those who endorsed it. At least 15 AU Member States had to sign the convention before it could come into force.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM Director General William Swing welcomed moves by the African Union (AU) to adopt a convention on the protection and assistance of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Africa during a special AU summit on refugees, returnees and IDPs ending today. "The planned adoption of the convention by the AU heads of states and governments indicate their commitment and that of the African Union to find durable solutions to forced displacement on the continent. It shows that Africa is now taking a global lead in adopting a legally binding instrument on internal displacement," Mr. Swing said, adding that the adoption of the convention would be a ground-breaking moment. There were more quotes in the briefing notes.

Mr. Colville said he just had one side bar to what was happening in Uganda. Yesterday, a ‘host country agreement’ for the renewal of the mandate of OHCHR was signed in Kampala. The agreement was for a period of two years, renewable. OHCHR’s Uganda country office was established in July 2005, initially to support the Government’s efforts to protect and empower populations in the conflict-affected areas of northern Uganda. OHCHR has six field offices in northern and north-eastern Uganda, in addition to its office in Kampala.

Sri Lanka

Mr. Colville of OHCHR said yesterday the United States State Department published a report yesterday on the last few months of the war in Sri Lanka. There had not been a full inquiry into what did or did not happen during the last months of the war, and this report was not one either, but it catalogued in quite some detail specific events that had been reported. OHCHR still believed that something like the Gaza Fact-Finding Mission was certainly warranted given the wide spread concerns about the conduct of the war in Sri Lanka. It seemed that more clarity was likely to emerge about who did what to whom and whether or not war crimes, crimes against humanity and other very serious human rights abuses were committed by one or both sides.

Mr. Colville said the issue of the some 240-250,000 displaced people living in what were in effect internment camps continued to be a great concern. Sri Lanka committed itself to opening up, and dealing properly with the displaced and other victims of the war, as well as dealing with some of the underlying problems relating to discrimination against the Tamil minority. So OHCHR hoped the Government took serious actions to fulfil those commitments in the very near future. They did in fact release a few thousand people yesterday from one of the camps, but there were still a very large number of people in these camps. It was already five months since the end of the war. These people had lived through a really appalling war, surrounded by death and destruction, running from place to place with nowhere safe to hide, enduring shelling, forced recruitment, and constant fighting, shooting, killing all around them -- really an almost unimaginable situation for children and other civilians to have to live through for even one day, let alone months on end. OHCHR really hoped that these people could start to lead a more normal life soon, which meant getting out of this very restrictive situation in the camps.

Mr. Chauzy of IOM said although there were reports indicating that some people were now leaving the Menik farm displacement camp to return to their homes, a critical need for food, water and health care for those in the camp still remained. IOM, in coordination with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health, had constructed 13 primary health care centres at Menik farm, two community centres, a 50-bed dormitory for medical staff and an on-site medical supplies warehouse, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development and the UK Department for International Development. They were going to increase the capacity with another two healthcare centres and would continue to provide medical assistance as best as it could to those in Menik farm.

Mr. Mahecic of UNHCR said UNHCR was present on the ground and was, in cooperation with the Government and other UN agencies, in the process of distributing some aid items among the returnees and shelter. UNHCR was also carrying out a needs assessment and protection monitoring in the return areas.

Iraq

Mr. Mahecic of UNHCR said UNHCR was concerned about the fact that some European States have begun forcibly returning Iraqis originating from Central Iraq over the last few months. In their guidelines issued last April, UNHCR noted that in view of the serious human rights violations and continuing security incidents throughout Iraq, most predominantly in the central governorates, asylum seekers from those governorates should be considered to be in need of international protection. UNHCR therefore advised against involuntary returns to Iraq of persons originating from Central Iraq until there was a substantial improvement in the security and human rights situation in the country. This reminder came after the United Kingdom attempted to forcibly return 44 Iraqi men to Baghdad earlier this month. Other European States had signed readmission agreements for Iraq for voluntary and forced return. UNHCR also had concerns about the safety and dignity of these returns. Concerning asylum seekers from the three Northern Governorates, as well as those from the Southern Governorates and Al Anbar, UNHCR recommended that their protection needs were assessed on an individual basis.


Yemen

Mr. Mahecic of UNHCR said displaced families from embattled Sa’ada province in northern Yemen were continuing to arrive in Al Mazrak camp. Most of them were from Al-Daher, Haidan, Razeh and Sheda’s districts. On average, 10 to 15 families arrived at Al Mazrak camp every day. Almost half of Al Mazrak camp had been reorganized and extended with further blocks of tents erected with the help of internally displaced people. UNHCR estimated that there were some 8,000 IDPs in Al Mazrak camp. Another 11,000 IDPs were sheltered by host families and communities in this part of Yemen. Development of the second site had been suspended at the request of the Government, after local authorities had indicated that they wanted Al Mazrak II to be situated in a different location, closer to the first camp. UNHCR was worried that the delay in reaching a final decision on the second camp was having an impact on the improvement of the first camp which was becoming increasingly overcrowded with needs for health, water and sanitation increasing. An estimated 150,000 people had been affected by fighting in Yemen since 2004.

Ms. Byrs of OCHA said the flash appeal for Yemen had been for $ 23.7 million, and to date it was funded by 36 per cent. The appeal would be revised upwards in coming months. The situation in the town of Razeh west of Sa’ada governorate had deteriorated in past days, after rockets hit the hospital there. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Pakistan

Simon Schorno of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Jacques de Maio, ICRC’s head of operations for South Asia, would brief journalists on the situation in Pakistan and the military operations in South Waziristan.

Mr. de Maio said there was one point about ICRC’s reading of the current humanitarian situation and subsequently, its reading of humanitarian priorities - the much trumpeted situation in South Waziristan had to be seen and understood against the background of a deteriorating situation throughout Pakistan, and past and present armed violence in North West Frontier Province and the tribal agencies and the spate of suicide attacks throughout Pakistan. In this larger context, what they saw now was a sharp increase in the number of civilian casualties. This was an important factor in the phenomenon of displacement in various areas. The humanitarian concerns must extend to all the civilians still in the areas where military operations were taking place. With regards to North West Frontier Province and South Waziristan in particular, it was very clear that the humanitarian space was not conducive to reliable knowledge and reporting about what was actually going on and what the humanitarian needs were. As for ICRC’s humanitarian priorities in the context, they stemmed from the population’s priorities. The number one priority was protection from the effects of armed violence and conflict. Humanitarian access must expand and must reach meaningful level in order to be able, on one hand, to have a better picture of the situation, and on the other hand, to be able to address them adequately.

Ms. Taveau of UNICEF said available at the back of the room was a press release about a new wave of displaced children and families from South Waziristan. UNICEF remained committed to providing essential services and supplies to all children and women affected by conflict in Pakistan. Over 139,000 people had left the remote and insecure border regions of South Waziristan to date, and lack of humanitarian access made it impossible to reach those remaining in South Waziristan. To date, UNICEF had been working with partners on the ground and had ensured that more than 45,000 displaced people had safe water. About 35,000 had received hygiene kits and water storage containers to protect themselves from waterborne diseases. Earlier this month, nearly 180,000 children from South Waziristan and host communities were immunized against measles, many reached by vaccinators for the first time in their lives. UNICEF strongly urged all parties to take immediate steps to ensure that children were protected from the effects of armed conflict, and to ensure safe passage to aid workers and life-saving supplies.

In response to a question, Mr. Mahecic of UNHCR said they did not have access to South Waziristan. Restrictions on access extended to much larger parts than simply South Waziristan. The security environment was extremely difficult and there were very heavy restrictions on access. As far as how many civilians were in South Waziristan, there had not been in recent recorded history a comprehensive and reliable census. These were tribal remote areas. There were reports of up to 50,000 persons who had fled recently. There was concern that should the violence continue, there could be more than 150,000 more people moving out.

H1N1

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said there would be an update on H1N1 later in the day, and it would be sent to journalists by email. Starting next week, her colleague Gregory Hartl would be coming to the briefings to update on H1N1 only on Tuesday, as they would resume their virtual press briefings every Friday. On 30 October, there would be an update on adverse effects of vaccines.

Ms. Chaib of WHO said an important meeting would be held next week at the International Geneva Conference Centre. It was the SAGE meeting (the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization). It was made up of 15 experts in various fields who met at least twice a year to discuss issues related to immunization. The meeting would be held from 27 to 29 October. On 28 October in the afternoon, there would be a discussion on H1N1. The meetings were not open to the public or the press, but she would be happy to set up meetings with some of the experts. The agenda of the meeting and other details were available on the WHO website.

Other

Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization said next week there would be meetings of the rules negotiating group throughout the week. The regular Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Council would be meeting on 27 and 28 October.
Also on 28 October, there would be a meeting of the Lebanon membership negotiations, and of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Committee. There would be a meeting of the Goods Council on Friday, 30 October. Director-General Pascal Lamy would be participating next week on 26 October at the ICTSD Bridges China Dialogue, which was being held at the World Meteorological Organization. On 27 October, he would meet with Lebanon’s Minister of Economy and Trade. On 29 October, Mr. Lamy would be in Cairo to participate in the African Union meeting of Trade Ministers. And on 30 and 31 October, he would be in New York to participate at the UN’s Chief Executives Board meetings.

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said concerning the latest development of Typhoon Lupit in the Philippines, which was the third to be affecting the region this month, according to the Philippines Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, the eye of the storm was situated at 130 kilometres east of Aparri, Cagayan, in the north of the Philippines. The typhoon was moving slowly to the west and would approach the northern borders of Luzon with winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour.

Ms. Sevenier said experts were meeting this week in Shanghai, China to decide how to improve the predictions of tropical storms in order to reduce their impact.

Mr. Mahecic said the final stage of the organized voluntary repatriation of Mauritanian refugees from Senegal began this week. By the end of December, 5,000 to 7,000 refugees were expected to return. The end of this repatriation would mark the conclusion of a UNHCR operation that began in 1989. Strong support was needed for them to rebuild their lives.

Ms. Chaib said on 27 October, WHO would publish the “Global Health Risk Report”.

Alice Ghent of WHO said the Global Health Risk Report described 24 health risk sectors, environmental, behavioural or physiological. A press release would be available on 26 October.