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 United Nations Development Programme, the World Health Organisation, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the United Nations Children's Fund.

Secretary-General’s Travels

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, would be travelling to Ottawa, Canada on Wednesday, 12 May, to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the Governor General of Canada and several ministers.

The Secretary-General would take this opportunity to discuss a range of global issues, including the Millennium Development Goals; maternal and children’s health; climate change; the United Nations’ support to Haiti, Sudan and Afghanistan; and the upcoming G8 and G20 summits, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Next week, the Secretary-General would travel to Istanbul, Turkey, where the United Nations and the Government of Turkey would be co-hosting, on 22 May, a high-level international conference on Somalia. That conference was intended to advance the Djibouti peace process and its objectives of political stability, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Later this week, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe and the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah would give a press briefing in New York, on the topics that were expected to be discussed at the Istanbul Conference, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Committee Against Torture

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee Against Torture had concluded its public consideration of all the country reports it had planned to consider during the current session. This afternoon the Committee would hold a meeting with the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, which is a mechanism entitled to conduct visits in all places of detention in those States that are parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.

The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations on the reports it has considered since 26 April would be made public at the end of the session, this Friday, said Ms. Momal-Vanian. The countries whose reports were considered at the current session were Austria, Cameroon, France, Jordan, Liechtenstein Switzerland, Syria and Yemen.

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was considering today the report of Kazakhstan and would start its consideration of the report of Afghanistan tomorrow, which would be the last country to be examined at the current session.

The Committee’s concluding observations would be adopted in private and would not be available before the end of the session on Friday, 21 May, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Conference on Armed Violence

Adam Rogers of the United Nations Development Programme said that each year, 740,000 persons – over 2,000 persons a day - died as a result of violence associated with armed conflicts and large- and small-scale criminal violence. Most of these deaths were occurring in non-conflict settings.

With the many small arms in the streets and in the hands of criminal gangs, it was becoming very difficult to meet even the most basic humanitarian and development objectives of the Millennium Development Goals in many countries, said Mr. Rogers. In response to that, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had initiated a process to get Governments to commit to certain principles to turn back this tide of violence.

Miguel Bermeo, Director, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, United Nations Development Programme said that the Norwegian Government and the United Nations Development Programme were co-hosting a global conference tomorrow in Geneva to address this issue of armed violence, which was one of the serious obstacles to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Mr. Bermeo said that 90 per cent of the deaths due to armed violence occurred in low- and middle-income countries and that the long-term impacts of armed violence had enormous implications on education, health, welfare and poverty. At the same time, persistent inequality and lack of development were among the underlying causes of armed violence.

With the severity of the global financial crisis, expected to force another 90 million persons into poverty worldwide, the need to maximize development was pending and the need to target the root causes of violence had never been more pressing. According to the most recent estimates, the total cost of armed violence in non-conflict countries amounted to $163 billion, more than the total annual spending on official development assistance, said Mr. Bermeo.

Tomorrow’s conference would provide an opportunity to ensure that the upcoming Millennium Development Goals Review Summit would incorporate, in its deliberations, the distinct challenges presented by armed violence, added Mr. Bermeo.

Annette Abelsen, Director, Humanitarian Disarmament Section, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the Oslo Commitments on Armed Violence were setting out five concrete actions aimed at preventing and reducing armed violence. These action points had been developed in consultation with States and discussions with experts from the civil society and international organizations.

Around 60 States were expected to participate at the conference, said Ms. Abelsen. Many would be represented at the political level and it was expected that the Oslo Commitments would be endorsed at the conference.

Answering a journalist’s question, Mr. Rogers said that the goal of the conference was not to create a new millennium development goal but to link armed violence with the realization of the Millennium Development Goals, at the national and regional level.

Turning to a question on how many of the 740,000 deaths could be attributed to official conflicts and non-conflicts, Paul Eavis, Senior Adviser, Armed Violence Prevention, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, United Nations Development Programme, said that about two-thirds of those deaths were from causes other than conflicts, i.e. from high-level violence, personal violence and homicides. A third of these deaths could be attributed to armed conflicts.

More information can be found under: http://www.genevadeclaration.org/

Somali Refugees

Melissa Fleming of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR was calling today on Governments to strengthen protection for Somali refugees and had issued today new guidelines on the protection of people fleeing Somalia. The guidelines were intended to promote a consistent approach to the protection needs of persons from Somalia.

These guidelines encouraged Governments to assess applications for refugee status from persons from central and southern Somalia in the broadest possible way, and to extend complementary forms of international protection, where refugee status was not granted, said Ms. Fleming.

It was UNHCR’s view that asylum seekers from central and southern Somalia were in need of international protection, said Ms. Fleming. Those who did not meet the criteria for refugee status should benefit from complementary forms of international protection, as applicable in situations of generalized violence or armed conflict.

In view of the nature of the conflict and the dramatic humanitarian situation, UNHCR did not believe that Somali refugees could find an internal relocation alternative in central or southern Somalia. Furthermore, UNHCR considered that an internal flight alternative in Somaliland or Puntland was generally not available for any Somali not originating from these territories, said Ms. Fleming.

Although most asylum countries would examine claims on an individual basis, UNHCR encouraged countries facing large numbers of arrivals to grant protection to persons from southern and central Somalia on a group basis, said Ms. Fleming. This was already happening in the neighbouring countries.

Ms. Fleming said that over recent months UNHCR had made clear its alarm at the worsening security and humanitarian situation in Somalia. Conditions had been steadily deteriorating for some time and were particularly acute in the central and southern areas of the country. UNHCR and other organizations providing aid faced great difficulties in reaching the millions of needy within Somalia.

UNHCR continued to see high levels of displacement internally. There were an estimated 1.4 million displaced persons within the country and approximately 575,000 Somali refugees in neighbouring countries, said Ms. Fleming. In 2009, Somalis constituted the third-largest group of asylum applicants in the industrialized world, after Iraqis and Pakistanis.

It was UNHCR's view that involuntary returns to central and southern Somalia under today’s circumstances would place individuals at risk. UNHCR was appealing to all Governments to observe these guidelines and also to focus their energies on helping those individuals in Somalia and neighbouring countries who were bearing the brunt of this unfolding international tragedy.

Pakistan/Displaced

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that this month marked the first anniversary of one of the largest population movements in Pakistan since the country’s inception in 1947. The displacement of 2.3 million persons had been caused by military offensives against militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to the government, the displaced included some 39,000 families from South Waziristan, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting, and over 45,000 families from Orakzai and Kurram Agencies.

But despite the ongoing needs of vulnerable displaced families and families who had returned home to rebuild their lives, the Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan appeal for US$ 537 million, which had been launched two months ago, had been met with a lukewarm response from international donors. Only 20 per cent of the Plan had been funded to date, said Mr. Bloch.

IOM, which appealed for US$ 11.6 million for ongoing relief and rehabilitation activities for displaced families, had received no funds from the appeal, said Mr. Bloch. Projects proposed had included the provision of emergency shelter for returning vulnerable families; reconstruction and development of essential community shelter and infrastructure affected by military operations; security awareness training for the humanitarian community; mass communications and disaster risk management programming with local government.

This response contrasted sharply with generous donor contributions for IOM’s quick-impact infrastructure rehabilitation over the past year, said Mr. Bloch. These projects, which were now nearing completion, included two drinking water supply schemes benefiting over 40,000 persons. Another three completed projects in Swat district were now providing access to clean drinking water for 50,000 persons in Mingora, the district capital.

Since the beginning of the displacement crisis, IOM had also distributed 67,550 tool kits, 1,550 tarpaulin shelter kits, 5,000 tents and thousands of non-food relief items, including blankets and quilts, said Mr. Bloch.

IOM had also trained 187 aid workers from various non-governmental organisations, including 29 women, to work in high risk environments, including in the Federally Administered Tribal Area, through its Pakistan Security Awareness Induction Training project.

Afghanistan/Floods

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM was delivering emergency relief to Afghans affected by flash floods that had hit the country in late April and was working with partner agencies to assess the needs of flood-affected communities.

These floods had killed at least 80 people, seriously injured over 240 and damaged more than 5,000 houses in 12 of the country's 34 provinces over the past three weeks, according to the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority, said Mr. Bloch.

Mr. Bloch said that the hardest hit provinces were Jawzjan in the north of the country, Bamyan in the centre and Baghlan, north of Kabul, where shelter, food and drinking water were desperately needed by affected communities, according to officials.

2010 World Cup Counter Trafficking Campaign

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that an international campaign aimed at preventing trafficking in persons during next month's football World Cup in South Africa had been launched last week in Italy, Brazil, Botswana and South Africa.

The campaign, which was initiated by Talitha Kum, an international network of religious sisters from 19 different congregations, was backed by IOM and the International Union of Superiors General, said Mr. Bloch.

As part of the campaign, Public Service Announcements would be broadcast on radio and TV channels and flyers featuring an IOM Helpline number would be distributed in high visibility areas and transport hubs such as bus stations and at the Johannesburg international airport, said Mr. Bloch.

IOM's work in South Africa aimed to address such gaps, particularly as they related to the most vulnerable, specifically women between the ages of 16 and 30 who came from broken homes, single parents, the unemployed and destitute, including men who were trafficked for forced labour, said Mr. Bloch.

Cote d’Ivoire/Children’s Rights

Christiane Berthiaume of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that a few weeks ahead of the 2010 World Cup, UNICEF was organizing football matches in Cote d’Ivoire from 12 to 16 May, for some 320 Ivorian children aged between 7 and 17. This event was aimed at promoting children’s rights in the country.

Health/Mobile Phones

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France, would soon publish its Interphone study report on mobile phone use and brain cancer risk. The World Health Organisation’s office in Lyon would handle all communication and media requests on this matter.

H1N1 Update

Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization (WHO), answering a question by a journalist, on why the pandemic stage was still ongoing, said that WHO was waiting to see what would happen at the onset of the southern hemisphere’s winter this mid-May, and that the Emergency Committee would then meet a few weeks later to analyze the data at that point and to decide whether or not to stay in Phase six.



Upcoming Press Conferences

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) would hold a press conference tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. in Press Room I, on the Somali emergency. Present would be UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner, Mr. Alexander Aleinikoff.

Also tomorrow there would be a press conference by Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs at 2:00 p.m. in Press Room I on the launch of the United Nations Appeal for Mongolia. Present would be Rana Flowers, United Nations Resident Coordinator for Mongolia, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that on Tuesday, 18 May at 3:00 p.m. there would be a press conference in Press Room III to present the activities planned in Geneva for the Weekend International, 5 to 6 June 2010 and World Environment Day on 5 June 2010. Present at the press conference would be, amongst others, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva and Francis Gurry, Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that today at 2:00 p.m. in Press Room I there would be a press conference by Maged Younes, Director, Department of Governing Bodies, World Health Organization, who would talk about the preparations for the sixty-third World Health Assembly, which would take place from 17 to 21 May at the Palais des Nations.