REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Labour Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Meteorological Organization.

Haiti

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that Edmond Mulet, the Secretary-General’s acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was present at the “Friends of Haiti” meeting in Montreal yesterday, as well as UN Development Programme Administrator Helen Clark, and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes.

Referring to the UN flash appeal for Haiti, Ms. Clark said in Montreal that it was important for there to be a commitment to fund all aspects of the flash appeal, including those intended for the early recovery needs of Haiti, said Ms. Momal-Vanian. UNDP had launched a cash-for-work programme to provide Haitians with an independent source of income in return for such work as rubble removal or street repairs.

On Thursday, Ms. Clark and Bill Clinton, UN Special Envoy to Haiti, would take part in a special session at the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Claire Kaplun of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Human Rights Council would hold tomorrow a Special Session on Haiti. The holding of the Special Session came at the request of Brazil and was supported by 32 Member States of the Human Rights Council, as well as a dozen of non-Member States, including Haiti.

The aim of this Special Session was to define the measures that could be taken to guarantee the respect for human rights in the difficult context currently affecting Haiti and to guarantee that a human rights dimension was at the heart of the ongoing and upcoming humanitarian and reconstruction operations, said Ms. Kaplun.

Another issue that would be discussed tomorrow, at the request of Haiti, was the postponement to 2011 of its review before the Council’s Universal Periodic Review, which was currently scheduled for May 2010, said Ms. Kaplun. Michel Forst, the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti would also be present during the session, as well as the Brazilian Foreign Minster.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), turning to the situation on the ground, said that the coordination of humanitarian help was improving by each day, but that one should not underestimate the difficulties linked to the fact that the earthquake had happened in a very dense urban center. Emergency and humanitarian workers had to move through piles of rubbles. It was also hard to distribute help instantly to all the population of a city of around 2 million inhabitants. The United Nations’ current goal was to help around 3 million persons that had been affected by the quake.

A Joint Operation and Tasking Center had started operating today said Ms. Byrs. This center brought together the UN, the MINUSTAH, the US Army and the Canadian Army, which both were putting highly needed means to the UN’s disposal.

The port of Port-au-Prince was now functioning only at 40 per cent of its capacity, noted Ms. Byrs, while the airport continued to receive flights non-stop. Some 800 to 1,000 planes were still on the waiting list. Priority was given to flights carrying humanitarian aid.

Turning to the priorities, Ms. Byrs said that an enormous number of tents were needed. The Government had requested around 200,000 tents, including family tents. There were now already 40,000 tents on the ground. It was however also important to look at the next stage, as the rain and hurricane season was coming up in April. Tent-villages could thus only be a temporary measure. Currently, some 800,000 to one million persons had already organized themselves into temporary shelters.

Other needs included small trucks for the transportation and distribution of humanitarian supplies, but also food and post-traumatic and post-surgery medicines, said Ms. Byrs.

OCHA had also conducted evaluations of the situations outside of Port-au-Prince, said Ms. Byrs. Around 62,000 persons had fled to the Artibonite region. Around 235,000 had made use of the opportunity offered by the Government for facilitated return to the countryside. This population movement to the countryside was currently slowing down. Ms. Byrs noted however that the receiving communities would also need support, as these were mostly already very poor communities. Further, around 20,000 persons were in need of health assistance in the city of Jérémie in the Grande Anse region.

Concerning water distribution, there were now 115 water distribution points, which covered more than 235,000 persons a day. The Water Cluster’s goal was to reach 500,000 persons though 200 distribution sites, said Ms. Byrs.

The UN’s Flash Appeal for Haiti was funded, by now, by up to 48 per cent, said Ms. Byrs. Financing of the Food Cluster and the WFP operations was most important, as the persons on the ground had currently no means to cook their food. OCHA was confident that the donors would respond positively to the Appeal as soon as possible.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that they had reached nearly 450,000 persons with the equivalent of nearly 10 million meals since the earthquake. This week, nearly 75 trucks were expected to arrive from the Dominican Republic. Two WFP-contracted helicopters had arrived yesterday in the Dominican Republic and would be operational this week. A WFP landing craft was also on its way with a further 1,000 metric tons of food, which could be landed directly onto the shore.

Answering to a question by a journalist of the funding of WFP’s part of the Flash Appeal for Haitit, Ms. Casella said that WFP had appealed for US$ 279 million, of which US$ 180 million had already been received.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that UNICEF, as the Water and Sanitations Cluster Coordinator, was currently distributing water to 235,000 persons, with the objective to reach 500,000 in the next days. Drinkable water was critically needed in order to avoid a second catastrophe linked to the outbreak of illnesses. UNICEF, in collaboration with WHO and the Haitian Health Ministry had also started an emergency vaccination campaign against measles for 600,000 children aged less than five.

UNICEF was also broadcasting health and hygiene messages through the operating radio channels. Tents with special areas of children had started to arrive, along with more than 1,000 recreational and early childhood kits, said Ms. Taveau.

Concerning the protection offered to children, Ms. Taveau said that UNICEF had received testimonies of children which had disappeared from hospitals and UNICEF had thus decided to reinforce controls in hospitals and orphanages, as well as at the airport. UNICEF was working together with 29 organizations to control unaccompanied children and to reunite them with their families, as fast as possible.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said that health providers on the ground were now moving from emergency care towards more post-operative and primary healthcare. There was a great need for services for amputees. Thousands of people had suffered amputations as a result of this emergency. In some hospitals, around 30 to 100 amputations were taking place everyday.

At the moment, the key focus for WHO and other health-providers on the ground was to provide better and more rehabilitation and other post-op services to enable people to recover form their amputations, said Mr. Garwood. There was a critical need for more staff and experts in rehabilitation and other types of care to help amputees recover. WHO was working together with Handicap International to come up with a plan to best provide for the care needed for amputees.

Primary healthcare was also a major concern and WHO was increasing services in this field, particularly through mobile clinics which were visiting the displacement camps, and other locations where people had moved to, to provided prevention and hygiene services, said Mr. Garwood.

Mr. Garwood also noted that at least 120,000 people had been living with HIV/AIDS in Haiti, half of those people had needed antiretroviral therapies, which had probably been disrupted by the earthquake for many of these people. There was an urgent need for these people to have their therapy resumed.

Laila Baker of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said that there had already been a high-level of sexual and gender-based violence in Haiti before the current crisis. UNFPA had been expecting that in the aftermath of the earthquake, with the lack of rule of law, that there would be increased sexual violence. UNFPA now already received reports of such violence from its partners, such as ICRC and IFRC, but the cases had not been confirmed yet.

In order prevent further gender-based violence, including sexual violence, UNFPA was using the Protection Cluster and was working together with UNICEF and other partners to put in place various protection measures, such as safe-spaces for women, equipping all health facilities with post exposure rape kits and having personnel in place who could manage the victims and offer counseling.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that, as the Human Rights Council would hold its Special Session on the situation in Haiti tomorrow in Room XX, the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, which had opened its current session yesterday, would be moved from Room XX to Room XIX.

The Advisory Committee yesterday, continued its discussion on a draft declaration on human rights education and training; one of the four main requests addressed to it by the Council which it would look at during this session. Ms. Momal-Vanian said that tomorrow the Committee would consider a draft set of guidelines on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members and would discuss a study on the best practices related to missing persons. On Wednesday it would look at the issue of discrimination in the context of the right to food, before closing its session this Friday.

The Conference on Disarmament had been scheduled to hear from the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh tomorrow, said Ms. Momal-Vanian, but this was rescheduled to today. At this morning’s meeting the Conference would also discuss its agenda.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was today considering the report of the United Arab Emirates. This would be followed by the consideration of the reports of the Netherlands on Wednesday, Egypt on Thursday, Botswana on Friday and Panama next Monday.

Turning to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Ms. Momal-Vanian said it would conclude its work on Friday, 29 January after issuing its concluding observations and recommendations on the country reports which it had considered during the session.

The United Nations Office at Geneva would observe the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, under the theme "Remembrance and Beyond”, in a ceremony to be held at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, 27 January in the Assembly Hall. The theme for this year’s commemoration was "Holocaust remembrance: The Legacy of Survival", said Ms. Momal-Vanian. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Mr. Sergei A. Ordzhonikidze, the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Office at Geneva, His Excellency Mr. Aharon Leshno-Yaar, and Mr. Noah Klieger a holocaust survivor, would participate in the event.

Ms. Momal-Vanian also highlighted the fact that Ms. Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction would hold a press conference this Thursday together with Prof. Debarati Guha-Sapir, Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters to present the trends and figures of disasters for 2010 and the period covering 2000-2010.

Afghanistan

Carla Haddad of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that, in the run-up to the International Conference on Afghanistan that would take place on 28 January in London, the ICRC was raising concern about the rising number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan. The situation on the ground demanded increased precautions by all parties - the Afghan national security forces, the international military forces and the armed opposition.

ICRC was asking for everyone to try its best to minimize the war's impact on civilians, not only in combat zones, but also far from the battlefield, where hospitals, medical services and healthworkers were sometimes targeted, said Ms. Haddad.

An increased number of weapon-wounded persons were arriving at Mirwais Hospital, in Southern Afghanistan, where between 500 and 700 war-related operations were now being performed each month by ICRC and local surgeons, said Ms. Haddad. A total of 2,112 weapon-wounded patients had been admitted to Mirwais Hospital in 2009, which was an increase of more than 25 per cent compared with 2008.

Medical facilities and first-aid posts were often not spared the effects of the fighting – occasionally, they were even directly targeted. Ambulances were blocked and sometimes shot at, which made it impossible to evacuate casualties, said Ms. Addad. Medical workers venturing into remote areas did so at the risk of their lives.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Andre Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said that the continuing military operations and banditry by armed groups in the troubled North Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had forced thousands of civilians to leave their homes over the past two months.

Since December last year, UNHCR had registered 15,508 newly displaced persons as they had approached dozens of UNHCR-run sites, seeking shelter and safety. According to the fleeing families the situation had been very difficult and unsafe in their villages in the western part of North Kivu where military operations and rampaging by armed groups were forcing civilians to seek safety elsewhere, said Mr. Mahecic.

UNHCR had registered the newly arrived displaced persons in camps in and around Kitchanga, in an area spreading some 50km to 150km north-west of Goma, the capital of the province. This latest wave of displacement brought the total camp population to 116,000 displaced persons. UNHCR was currently managing 47 internally displaced persons camps in the region, providing protection and assistance, said Mr. Mahecic.

UNHCR estimated that so far they had registered only a part of the recently displaced population and that many more could be sheltering with host families or hiding in the woods fearing to return to their homes. These internally displaced persons could not be accessed due to insecurity and impassable roads, said Mr. Mahecic.

The Congolese government had launched several offensives during 2009 aimed at neutralising the Rwandan Hutu militia, the so-called Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). However, other militias and armed groups had taken advantage of the situation, attacking civilians, looting property, committing rape and burning homes. Mr. Mahecic said that there was an estimated total of 2.1 million internally displaced persons in eastern DRC where harassment, human rights abuses, rapes and intimidations against civilians were regularly reported by the local population.



H1N1

Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization said that Dr Keiji Fukuda, Special Adviser on Pandemic Influenza to the WHO Director-General, had addressed the Council of Europe this morning, in a hearing on the H1N1 pandemic. In his speech, Dr. Fukuda had highlighted the difference between the definition and description of a pandemic. The definitions of a pandemic had not changed, it was based on two factors: the circulation of a novel influenza virus to which few or no human beings had immunity; and to geographical spread.

Mr. Hartl said that WHO was pleased to take part in this hearing. Discussions and reviews like today’s at the Council of Europe were welcome by WHO and the Organization would continue to do it after any large event, as they had done it after the SARS crisis.

Joint Study on Global Practices on Secret Detention

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that tomorrow they would launch the Joint Study on Global Practices on Secret Detention in the context of counter-terrorism. This study had been jointly carried out by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. The report would also be presented to the Human Rights Council in March.

Global Employment Trends 2010

Hans Von Rohland of the International Labour Organization (ILO) announced the launch of ILO’s Annual Report on the Global Employment Trends for 2010 and said that ILO’s Director-General Juan Somavia would be available for interviews on the subject at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Aeronautical Meteorology

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said that next week, 150 representatives from National Meteorological and Hydrometeorological Services would gather in Hong-Kong China for a meeting of the WMO Commission for Aeronautical Meteorology.