REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

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

Persons with albinism

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, expressed revulsion at a recent surge in violent attacks against people with albinism in several East African countries. In the previous six months, at least 15 people with albinism in Tanzania, Malawi and Burundi had been abducted, wounded, killed or subjected to attempted kidnappings, including three such incidents in the past week alone.

Those attacks were often stunningly vicious, with children in particular being targeted. As a result, many people with albinism were living in abject fear. Some no longer dared to go outside, and children with albinism had stopped attending school because of the recent spate of assaults, murders and kidnappings.

In Malawi alone, at least six incidents had been reported in the first ten weeks of 2015, compared to four incidents recorded over the previous two years. In Machinga District, in the south of the country, where several kidnappings and killings had taken place, groups of men were reported to be roaming around hunting for people with albinism.

Mr. Colville said that during the night of 3-4 March, a 14-year-old girl had been abducted by two men from Kalombo village, in Machinga District, but managed to escape. The following night, a two-year-old boy called Chakupatsa Stanely had been reportedly kidnapped in another village in Machinga called Murukhu. After the boy’s mother had screamed for help, one kidnapper had been caught, but the other two had escaped, possibly across the border into Mozambique and the child was reunited with his family.

Four other attacks targeting people with albinism had been documented in Malawi since the beginning of the year, including kidnappings, murder and dismemberment of their borides.

The situation had also been worsening in Tanzania, where on 7 March a six-year-old boy had been attacked in his home in Kiseta village, in Sumbawanga district. The attackers had fled with his right hand after cutting it off with a machete. The boy and his mother, who suffered serious head injuries, were both in hospital. The police had moved his two siblings, who also had albinism, to a safer place and have arrested seven suspects. Since January, two other incidents had been reported, including the attempted kidnapping of a four-year-old boy, and the atrocious killing of a one-year-old baby.

A total of eight attacks had been reported in Tanzania since August 2014, during which two people with albinism had been killed; one had been kidnapped and was still missing; two others had sustained major injuries and had limbs cut off by attackers; one had been gang-raped; and two had managed to escaped from their kidnappers.

The High Commissioner stressed the importance of combatting impunity for crimes against people with albinism. The ban on witchcraft imposed by the Tanzanian authorities in January was a step in the right direction, as was the conviction of four people in Tanzania over the 2008 killing of a woman with albinism. He called on authorities to prevent attacks on people with albinism in all countries where they were occurring, bring to justice alleged perpetrators and ensure that redress and rehabilitation for survivors and their families were made a priority.

Attacks against people with albinism were also taking place in other African countries, including in Burundi, where 19 killings of people with albinism had been reported since 2008. The elaboration of a national policy to promote and protect the rights of people with albinism in Burundi had been proposed but not yet initiated.

Asked whether the Governments of countries where such cases were taking place were accepting or denying the facts, Mr. Colville confirmed that the OHCHR was in contact with the affected Governments, especially with Tanzania. The authorities were not denying the facts that such attacks were occurring, but clearly it was an extremely vulnerable population, and questions had to be asked if more could be done.

Ukraine

William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that the UNHCR was extremely concerned about the worsening humanitarian situation in Eastern Ukraine, particularly in the areas not controlled by the Ukrainian Government, where the lack of access to benefits and services previously provided by the central authorities had drastically worsened the plight of the civilian population. That had been further aggravated by restrictions to the movement of people and goods.

Conditions in northern Donetsk and in Luhansk were particularly dire, with the supply of water and electricity often disrupted by shelling and rocket attacks. Heavy shelling resulting in civilian deaths continued to be reported, especially around the town of Debaltseve, which had been the scene of heavy fighting in February. The fighting made the delivery of humanitarian aid to the many civilians trapped in the conflict areas extremely difficult. Living conditions, particularly for those with damaged homes or sheltering in bunkers and basements under the rubble of their houses or apartment buildings, had been exacerbated by cold weather and low temperatures.

Mr. Spindler said that the freedom of movement was an issue and civilians were often trapped in the conflict zone. Lack of available and affordable transport, insecurity along exit routes and administrative barriers were preventing civilians from reaching safety and many people in those areas felt abandoned.

The Ukrainian authorities had evacuated over 11,000 people from Donetsk and Luhansk, but assistance continued to fall far short of demand, particularly in the provision of accommodation, transport, information and maintaining family unity. Despite security risks, UNHCR and partners had delivered emergency non-food aid to some of the neediest civilians, including in areas under frequent bombardment. For the first time, UNHCR had delivered aid to two areas in Luhansk – Novopskov and Markivka, which had until now been inaccessible to aid agencies.

UNHCR was continuing to scale-up its presence in Donetsk city and was currently looking at the feasibility of an increased presence in Luhansk. The number of people internally displaced by the conflict in Ukraine had now reached the 1.1 million mark, while the total number of Ukrainians who had sought asylum, residence permits and other forms of legal stay in neighbouring countries stood at 674,300, including 542,800 in Russia and 80,700 in Belarus.

Answering a question, Mr. Spindler said that the UNHCR was working very closely with the Ukrainian authorities, but also communicated with non-government groups. Changes in policy had resulted in people not receiving state benefits, which could lead to further displacement or to more hardship for those who remained in their places of residence. UNHCR was hoping that some changes would come in that regard. People who were entitled to benefits should continue to receive them.

On how many internally displaced persons were currently in camps, serviced by the Government, Mr. Spindler said that the vast majority of IDPs were staying in private apartments, with relatives or friends.

Madagascar

Elisabeth Byrs, for the World Food Programme (WFP), explained that the situation in Madagascar was critical because of major climate shocks, notably floods and landslides. This situation was worsened by drought, especially in seven districts in the south of Madagascar. The food and nutritional security of 200,000 people, including 40,000 children, was deteriorating because of the drought. The first aim of the WFP was to help 136,000 people, especially groups of population most at risk as children and pregnant women. In a second step, the WFP wished to provide the population with more supplies and help 100,000 additional people, including 20,000 children.

Ms. Byrs stated that the situation was also complicated by the fact that Madagascar was at the peak of the cyclones season and had had two tropical storms in previous months. Such disasters would have an important impact on the agriculture and harvests of the three southern regions of Anosy, Androy and Atsimo Andrefana, which were already victims of erratic rainfall. That would worsen the situation over the long term and contribute to a vicious circle of poor agricultural production.

For its aid supply which was going to last three months, the WFP needed USD 3 million of funds to respond to the needs of 100,000 additional drought-affected people in Madagascar.

Nigeria

Yves Clemenzo-Jean, for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said that the ICRC had released a new operational update on the situation around the Lake Chad, describing the situation as very difficult. They witnessed a full blown humanitarian crisis around that lake, in Nigeria and the surrounding countries.

Over a million people had been displaced in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Many had left their homes with almost nothing, looking for family members in an atmosphere of anxiety. The ICRC also witnessed hostility in host communities where the economic situation was difficult, especially in areas where basic services were lacking.

Therefore, the ICRC and the national Red Cross in those countries had stepped up their response, delivering food in Nigeria for around 50,000 people since December, for 8,000 people in Niger, and trying to establish family links in Chad, with plans to work more in the North of Cameroon. 500 people were currently working on that crisis with a budget of CHF 51 million. ICRC was planning to further increase its aid to those countries in the future.

Mauritania

Mr. Colville stated that the OHCHR had been closely following court proceedings against members of two civil society organizations – an anti-slavery group called the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA), and the Action for Education, Work and Progress. The two had held a demonstration on 11 November 2015 in Rosso in the southwest of the country.

Three men, including former presidential candidate Biram Dah Abeid, were serving out two-year sentences on charges that include "illegal assembly" and "refusal to carry out orders given by the administrative authorities". Another three people remained in detention in Nouakchott pending a verdict in their case, which was expected to be delivered on 12 March. Among other charges, those three IRA members were being prosecuted for belonging to an “unregistered organization”.

OHCHR was deeply concerned at the severity of the sentences against Dah Abeid and his colleagues. The three men were appealing the verdict, but they remained in detention pending appeal.

In a report issued by the UN Human Rights Office in Mauritania in December, the OHCHR had urged the authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the events of 11 November 2014, including the behaviour of security forces. Regrettably, such an investigation had yet to be set up, in spite of concerns that the OHCHR had repeatedly expressed to the authorities on possible violations of the right to peaceful assembly and to freedom of association.

OHCHR urged the Government of Mauritania to immediately conduct such an investigation, and to release all those detained for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and to freedom of association. OHCHR called on Mauritania to ensure that those involved in the judicial process, including prosecutors, carry out their work in line with international human rights norms and standards. OHCHR had also encouraged a review of existing legislation on the rights to peaceful assembly and association, to ensure conformity with international human rights law.

Repatriations from Syria and Libya

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), informed that this week the IOM was continuing to evacuate vulnerable migrants from war-torn Syria. On 9 March, 25 Filipino workers had departed Damascus for Beirut’s international airport, and were scheduled to arrive to Manila today.

With those departures, since the beginning of the crisis in Syria, IOM Damascus had assisted in the repatriation of 2,210 Filipino workers. IOM would send 22 more workers home to the Philippines starting the following week.

Mr. Millman said that this week also the IOM had stepped up its assisted voluntary return activities in Libya. On 15 March, 138 Senegalese migrants detained in Misrata, Libya, had been evacuated through a border crossing at Binquerdan, Tunisia, flying to Dakar in the pre-dawn hours of 6 March.

The evacuation had brought to 271 the number of Senegalese migrants safely leaving Libya with IOM’s help, partnering with the Libyan Red Crescent and the Government of Tunisia. Another evacuation of 130 Senegalese men from Libya was scheduled for later in March. The evacuations from Libya were funded by the European Union and the Government of Norway.

Since the beginning of 2014, IOM had assisted a total of 658 third country nationals who had requested voluntary repatriation from Libya. Besides the two recent evacuations of Senegalese, another 4,176 third country nationals remained in the IOM pipeline. Mr. Millman said that overall evacuations were moving fairly smoothly.

On the conditions of the Senegalese leaving Libya, Mr. Millman responded that the evacuees had been brought to Dakar, even though most were from smaller towns in Senegal and had gone to Dakar for work. There were an estimated 3,000 Senegalese living in Libya now, but there could be more in transit, as Libya was perceived as a good route to Europe. Traditionally, Libya had been a good place for work for the Senegalese, but it was now too hard to secure money transfers now. Nowadays, gangs were frequently attacking sub-Saharan Africans in the streets in Libya and robbing them of their possessions.

Women in politics

Jemini Pandya, for the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), announced that the Women in Politics 2015 Report and Map would be launched today and was under embargo until 12:45 p.m. EST. It would also be available online.

Asked whether having women in Governments could be seen as a true sign of their empowerment, Ms. Pandya said that according to democracy principles, while 51 per cent of world’s population were women, the current rates were still not as representative as they should be. Women, young people and minorities should have their voices in decision and political making as well as in advocacy. Ms. Pandya opined that women’s approach to politics was often different than men’s, especially in issues related with conflict resolution, so having women involved would indeed make a difference.

On IPU’ Secretary General, Mr. Martin Chungong, statement on Syrian President Assad being the key for reaching peace in Syria, Ms. Pandya responded that one of IPU’s principles was that in order to solve any type of conflict all voices had to be heard at the table, otherwise if peace was imposed without the involvement of all the parties, such peace would not last in the long term.

Human Rights Council

Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council (HRC), stated that the previous day, 23 independent experts had briefed the Council on the environment, foreign debt, right to food, adequate housing, torture and coming days.

In the morning, experts would continue the discussion with the Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan Mendez, and the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, Michel Frost. The following presentation would be that of a report by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, Catalina Devandas Aguilar. That would be the first report by the expert whose mandate had been created by the Council in June 2014. The report would be followed by interactive discussion. With time permitting, there would be a presentation at approximately 2 p.m. of a report by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Heiner Bielefeld, which would address the issue of violence committed “in the name of religion.” The report would also be followed by interactive discussion.

There would be an annual interactive debate on the rights of persons with disabilities from 3 p.m. to 6p.m. to focus on the rights of persons with disabilities living independently and being included in the community.

The following day, the Council would either continue or begin the discussion with the Rapporteur on religion and would then move onto presentations from the Rapporteur on cultural rights, the sale of children and the special representatives of the Secretary-General on violence against children and on children and armed violence.

On 11 March, there would be two separate press conferences in Press Room I – one at 10 a.m. by the Special Rapporteur on torture and the other at 3 p.m. by the Special Rapporteur on religion.

The previous night, President of the Council Joachim Rücker had informed the Council of the letter received from the Commission of Inquiry on Gaza which had requested a deferral to June for the submission and presentation of its report. The Council would need to approve the request and the President would raise the issue at a meeting of the Council, where he would ask for approval from its members. It would be standard procedure, as had been the case for Sri Lanka. The President had noted in his statement his support for the extension to allow the Commission to complete their report given the complexity of tasks at hand and the need to bring justice to the victims.

Mr. Gomez also announced that Cedric Sapey was back to support his team and would be available to contact at +41.22.917.9695.

When asked if there would be a special session on Boko Haram, Mr. Gomez stated that there had not been any specific call for it. The subject had been featured prominently throughout the Council session thus far and before, but no upcoming special session could be confirmed.

Geneva activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Conference on Disarmament was holding a public debate this morning on negative security assurances.

The Human Rights Committee would start a session on 16 March, during which it would discuss reports of Russia, Cambodia, Ivory Coast, Cyprus, Croatia and Monaco.

Ms. Momal-Vanian informed that the WTO would hold a press conference in Press Room 1, at 3 p.m. today. Josep Bosch would speak to the media about the meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body.

Fadéla Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the WHO would hold a press conference on Ebola in Press Room III, on 11 March at 2:30 p.m. It would be organized together with the WFP. The two organizations were combining efforts to reach zero cases in the three affected countries. Speakers would be Dr. Bruce Aylward of the WHO and Cesar Arroyo of the WFP, who would join by phone from Rome.

In Press Room 1, on 12 March at 10 a.m, there would be a press conference on Hepatitis B, a serious disease which affected thousands of people every year. Speakers would include Dr. Gottfried Hirnschall, Director of the HIV Department at the WHO, and Dr. Stefan Viktor, who was in charge of the WHO's Global Hepatitis Programme.

Regarding dementia, Ms. Chaib informed that the following week, on 16 and 17 March, the first Ministerial conference to fight dementia would take place in the Executive Council Room at the WHO, which would be webcast live. A press conference was likely to be held on 17 March. The event was organized by the WHO and the Government of Great Britain, and it would deal with all forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s. It would be opened by Dr. Margaret Chan. The agenda and the list of participants would be sent out shortly.

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that the UNICEF Syria representative Hanaa Singer would be in Geneva on 12 and 13 March and would attend the regular press briefing on 13 March. She had spent a lot of time in the field and could provide plentiful, recent information. On its website, UNICEF provided a number of testimonies of children, showing impressive determination and perseverance.

Mr. Millman informed that the IOM would host the panel Migrant Fatalities: Identification, Tracing and Family Support, which would take place today at the IOM Headquarters from 2 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. The rationale of the event was to raise awareness on the issue of identifying and collecting data on missing migrants and helping their families.

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), announced that on 13 March, at Press Room I from 12 noon to 12:30 p.m., the Transitional Appeal for Haiti would be launched by Peter Declaire, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti.

The Spokespersons for the International Labour Organization and United Nations Development Programme were also present, but did not brief.
The webcast for this briefing is available here: … http://bit.ly/unog100315