REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Organization for Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the United Nations Environmental Programme, the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the next public plenary of the Conference on Disarmament would be held on Tuesday, 9 February, at 3 p.m., when the Deputy Foreign Minister of Italy, Vincenzo Scotti, was scheduled to address the Conference.

The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women would this morning be concluding its forty-fifth session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Malawi, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Egypt, Botswana and Panama which it considered during the session. A roundup press release would be issued.

In response to a question on whether Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had taken a position on the response of Israel to the Goldstone report, Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Secretary-General had submitted his report to the General Assembly, in accordance with the General Assembly’s resolution. The United Nations had not yet made the report public and it would do so once it was ready to be issued as an official document of the General Assembly.

Universal Periodic Review

Claire Kaplun of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Working Group would be holding its seventh session starting Monday, 8 February until 19 February. The background press release in English had been issued yesterday, and the French version would be issued shortly. The timetable and agenda of the session could be found on the OHCHR website, along with all the other documentation. The Working Group would start its work on Monday at 10 a.m. with the review of the situation of human rights in Qatar.

Haiti

Paul Conneally of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said he was in Haiti from 15 January until last week and would update journalists about the Federation’s activities there. The immediate focus of the Federation had been on health, water, sanitation and relief since the first week of the disaster. Right now, the Federation had health facilities in Port-au-Prince, together with the national societies, namely more that 21 emergency response units from 16 national societies specialized in all the abovementioned areas. On the health side, the Federation had focused on surgical care and basic health care. It had the capacity to treat 340,000 people in total. On water, the Federation was distributing clean water and installing sanitation facilities in Port-au-Prince and outside areas. It was distributing to 200,000 people one million litres of water a day. On the relief side, the Federation was working closely with the Haitian Red Cross. There had been a lot of talk on security. The Federation worked closely at the community level and it had spent two days talking with the people affected by the earthquake before the distributions to ensure that there was a good dialogue. So far, they had had no security incidents and had distributed relief to 130,000 persons. On the Haitian Red Cross side, their facilities were completely destroyed as were the facilities of the Federation in Haiti, including the blood bank, so an important priority for the Federation was to build back the capacity of the Haitian Red Cross.

Chris Lom for the International Organization for Migration said a network of 55 humanitarian agencies was currently racing to provide tens of thousands of tents, tarpaulins, ropes and toolkits to 1.1 million displaced Haitians before the onset of the rainy season - which could begin as soon as the end of February. Rains had already begun to fall in the southern town of Jacmel and the situation was extremely urgent. Distribution was gathering pace both in Port-au-Prince and beyond. IOM had also been developing health projects, in particular in the area of mental health. He would also like to draw attention to the overhaul of the coordination system in Haiti. This was very important when there was a large number of agencies working on the ground. The IOM Director-General left for Haiti yesterday and would spend three days there to visit IOM teams in Haiti and in the Dominican Republic.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the priorities now were shelter and sanitation. The shortage of latrines was one of the most serious problems as were other sanitation issues. They needed some 7,000 latrines and 25,000 portable toilets. The flash appeal was 88 per cent covered. The appeal would be revised in mid-February to take into account preparations for the hurricane season which would start June, and to try and protect the already affected population from future hurricanes. Concerning security, the situation was calm, and while there had been some security incidents, these were isolated cases.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF’s Director-General was in Haiti. She met with the Prime Minister yesterday. She witnessed the start of the massive vaccination campaign targeting some 500,000 children under the age of seven against measles, rubella and tetanus. Water remained a critical issue. UNICEF and its partners were distributing clean water to more than 500,000 persons daily. Sanitation was also another critical issue. Around 750 latrines had been installed in Port-au-Prince and outside it. Some 23 huge tents had been installed where children could to seek refuge and play. As for education, families were wary of sending children to school, fearing another earthquake could strike and destroy the remaining schools. UNICEF was working with the Government to distribute messages to the Haitian people encouraging them to send their children back to schools.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said there would be a high-level meeting on Friday, 12 February in Rome to discuss agricultural development, food security and nutrition. This was the global kick off of the agriculture pillar of the Haiti redevelopment plan. It would be hosted at the World Food Programme headquarters in Rome by the Haitian Agriculture Minister and would be attended by the Heads of the Food and Agricultural Organization, the World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Donors would also be represented.

Ms. Casella said in Haiti, as of last night, 1.6 million people had received food assistance since the disaster in and around Port-au-Prince. In the past five days, using the fixed distribution points system, a total of 620,000 people had received food assistance, part of that 1.6 million people. The Swiss Government had provided a third helicopter for the relief efforts in Haiti, and was already providing important transport to some of the remote affected areas. It was also assisting with assessments being carried out by partners.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said to date, they had seen no cases of any epidemic potential diseases being reported in Haiti or along the border with the Dominican Republic. There was a robust disease surveillance system inside of Haiti and along the border. Six suspected measles cases had been reported, three of which had already been discarded and the other three were being further investigated.

Yemen

Melissa Fleming of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was facing a dramatic funding situation in Yemen and may be forced to scale down its operations for refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) there if they did not receive fresh contributions very soon. UNHCR's part of the 2010 UN consolidated appeal for Yemen amounted to US$ 35.6 million. To date, UNHCR had received less than three per cent of
the needed funds. The dire funding situation was seriously diminishing UNHCR’s capacity to register and document refugees and IDPs, and to monitor their situation and to address their needs. These funds were also required to expand the existing, already overpopulated IDPs camps and to build new ones, to
organize and provide shelter materials, namely much needed tents and plastic sheeting as well as to provide the basic relief items such as blankets, mattresses, hygienic kits, etc. UNHCR was deeply concerned that unless there was a prompt and adequate response from donors, the lack of funding would very soon have a direct impact on their work to protect and assist some 250,000 IDPs and more than
170,000 refugees in Yemen.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said this morning WFP had approved a $ 4 million loan from its internal immediate response account to its Yemen operations to allow the continuation of programmes addressing the hunger needs of the displaced from the Sa’ada conflict, refugees and a great number of people who had been fielding the ongoing impact of continued high food prices and the global financial crisis. This was a bridging loan that would cover funding for a number of weeks. In the meantime, WFP would be speaking to donors, particularly those in the region, about the budget shortfall faced by the WFP operations. If donor funds were not found in the next few weeks, this would likely lead to further ration reductions and possibly the suspension of a number of programmes in Yemen by the end of the first half of this year. Yemen was just one of a number of countries where WFP’s operations were likely to face budget shortfalls in 2010 and the immediate internal response account would not be able to cover them all. Unfortunately, in February, WFP was already reducing rations in Yemen.

Female Genital Mutilation

Veronique Taveau said tomorrow, 6 February was the International Day against Female Genital Mutilation. This traditional practice had grave consequences on the health of women and girls in 28 African, Sub-Saharan and Middle Eastern countries. This practice was believed to affect between 120 million and 140 million women and girls. Every year, 3 million girls were at risk of this practice. Following wide spread efforts, there had been a decrease by 65 per cent of the practice in some communities. A press release was available at the back on the room.

Elise Johansen of the World Health Organization said the day was called the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation because they did not only want the practice level to change. WHO was working on healthcare providers who carried out this practice on girls; 18 per cent of women and girls who had suffered from female genital mutilation had had this inflicted by a healthcare provider. There were indications that this trend was growing. This raised concerns. WHO was cooperating with countries where female genital mutilation was a big problem to develop a global strategy against its medicalization, namely Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Guinea and Yemen.

Other

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said at 5 a.m. this morning tropical cyclone Oli was at 380 kilometres southwest of Tahiti. It was currently equivalent to a category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 210 to 240 kilometres per hour. It was expected to intensify in short term, and weaken gradually afterward, but remain in above Category 1 hurricane intensity up to the next 48 hours. The sea state in the surrounding area and that on its tracking route would be extremely rough at least in the next 72 hours. Ships passing by these areas were advised to take urgent measures to avoid risks.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that at 11:30 a.m. today, just after the briefing, UNCTAD would be holding a press conference to present the Trade and Environment Review 2009-2010. The report was embargoed until Monday, 8 February 2010, 05:00 p.m. GMT.

Ms. Sibut-Pinote said for journalists who covered the Arab world, the UNCTAD Secretary-General would be participating in the Jeddah Economic Forum on 15 February.

Juan Vasquez of the United Nations Environmental Programme said there would be a press conference at 12:30 p.m. today about the next triennial world conference of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Governments attending the conference would be discussing 40 proposals in Doha, Qatar from 13 to 15 March on new measures to conserve and manage sustainably the bluefin tuna, elephant populations and a wide range of sharks, corals, reptiles, insects and plants.

Anoush der Boghossian of the World Trade Organization said there would be negotiations on agriculture on Monday, 8 February and Friday, 12 February. There would also be negotiations on facilitating trade all of next week. There would be a meeting of the Services Council on Thursday, 11 February. WTO Director-General was in Australia and would meet with the Australian Prime Minister and the Minister of Trade on Tuesday, 9 February. Mr. Lamy would be in Geneva on Friday, 12 February when he would meet with the European Trade Commissioner designate.

Chris Lom of the International Organization for Migration said Sri Lanka had become a bit of an information black hole up until now. IOM would start to issue regular updates at the first of every month detailing its activities in northern Sri Lanka.

Geoffrey Hartl of the World Health Organization said WHO would be putting up two items today on the website, the latest vaccine update on the state of vaccine distribution and the weekly update on the state of pandemic virus activity in the world.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that the non-respect of the civilian character of camps for displaced persons was a cause of major concern. There had been armed incursions during January in camps in North Kivu. There were 1.3 million internally displaced persons in camps in North Kivu. OCHA called on the fighting parties to respect the international laws and civilian character of these camps. These armed incursions affected the humanitarian efforts in the area. In December, 80 persons were killed in such armed incursions but they did not have the figures for January yet. These attacks could lead to renewed displacement.

Samar Shamoon of the World Intellectual Property Organization said on Monday, 8 February at 11 a.m. in Salle III, Francis Gurry, the Director-General of WIPO, would be speaking to journalists about the international patent system in 2009.

Melissa Fleming of the UN Refugee Agency said the Iraqi election, which was considered to be a major opportunity to consolidate national reconciliation, would be taking place on 7 March. UNHCR was standing ready to facilitate the participation of Iraqi refugees living in the countries neighbouring Iraq in the forthcoming elections. As of December 2009, UNHCR had on its records some 300,000 Iraqis who
were believed to still be present in the region (including over 210,000 in Syria), of whom close to 190,000 were of voting age. Based on host government sources, the total number of Iraqis in the region was much higher, as hundreds of thousands of Iraqis did not register with UNHCR for a variety of reasons.