REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s Fund, and the United Nations Refugee Agency.

UN Secretary-General

Mr. Fawzi said that on 28 January the Secretary-General would leave New York to go to Addis Ababa where he would attend the 26^thAfrican Union Summit.

From there he would go to Muscat, Oman, for an official visit to the country on 1 and 2 February. On 2 February, he would leave to London to attend the humanitarian conference on Syria, which would be hosted by the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway and the UN.

Talks on Syria

Responding to a question, Mr. Fawzi informed that the official spokesperson of the Intra-Syrian Talks in Geneva Khawla Matar would send out her contact details to journalists today.

Geneva Activities

Mr. Fawzi stated that the Conference on Disarmament was holding its first public meeting of the session now. The Conference would hear the Acting High Representative for Disarmament Affairs – Mr Kim Won-soo – who would read out a declaration by the UN Secretary General. The Conference was opening under the presidency of Nigeria. The first session of 2016 would last until 1 April.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child would end its 71^st session on 29 January. On 27 January at 10 a.m. , the Committee would hold a public informal meeting with States parties.

Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review was reviewing the situation in Latvia this morning. In the afternoon, it should adopt reports on Denmark, Palau and Somalia.

Mr. Fawzi informed that just following the press briefing, in Press Room III, there would be a press conference on the critical humanitarian situation in Syria.This was not just another routine update, but an in depth review of what is probably the worst humanitarian disaster of this century. We would be hearing from those who witness first-hand the daily suffering of the Syrian people. Speakers would include Yacoub El Hillo, UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syrian Arab Republic, Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Hanna Singer, UNICEF Representative in Syria, and Elizabeth Hoff, WHO Representative in Syria.

Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that on 27 January at 3 p.m. in Press Room I, the WHO would provide an update on health situation in Libya and on WHO activities. The speaker would be Dr. Jaffar Hussain, WHO Representative in Libya.

On 28 January at 2 p.m. in Press Room I, there would be a launch of the WHO Smoke-Free Movies Report. The Report described the film industry’s influence on tobacco consumption and called for actions to curb the powerful impact that movies could have on promoting this deadly habit among children and adolescents. The speaker would be Dr. Armando Peruga, Coordinator, WHO Tobacco Free Initiative.

Mr. Lindmeier said that the schedule for the Executive Board’s meetings had been circulated. Russia was supposed to meet an announcement on Ebola vaccine today.

Humanitarian Action for Children 2016

Christophe Boulierac introduced Sikander Khan,Director, Geneva Office of Emergency Programmes for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), who briefed the press on the main points of the Humanitarian Action for Children 2016.

The total appeal on behalf of children by UNICEF for 2016 amounted to USD 2.8 billion, and was part of the various country appeals that have been launched by OCHA on behalf of the humanitarian system. The UNICEF appeal aimed to assist 76 million people, including 43 million children, in 63 countries. Those large requirements were reflective of the enormous humanitarian needs facing children, with nearly 250 million children living in areas affected by conflict. Half a million of the refugees and migrants that had entered Europe in 2015 were from Syria.

The largest section of the appeal – USD 1.16 billion – was destined to support UNICEF’s response in Syria and the Syrian refugee crisis in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Key areas of intervention included safe water, immunizations, education and child protection.

This year’s appeal was lower than in 2015, when Ebola had accounted for a large portion of the request (USD 507 million),but it was approximately double the amount asked for three years earlier, as Mr. Khan mentioned in response to a journalist’s question. In 2016, 25 per cent of the appeal, amounting to USD 722 million, would go towards education in emergencies. It had been determined that education was a life-saving intervention in emergencies, together with protection, dealing with violence and violations. Commenting on that in response to a journalist’s question, Mr. Khan said that safe learning environments provided a certain degree of normalcy in the life of the child in a conflict-torn area, which was why education and protection “come together as a package”.

Mr. Fawzi added that 2.5 million children could be displaced as refugees in Syria by the end of 2016, as mentioned the previous day by the Special Envoy for Children, Gordon Brown, who had developed a new plan for “double-shift education”. The plan required USD 750 million, and USD 500 million had already been raised through offers of grants or loans from countries and businesses.

In response to questions from journalists, Mr. Khan said that it had taken UNICEF and other partners a long time for education to be considered as lifesaving. Initiatives such as Oslo agreement is one such initiative which has helped reinforcing the fact that schools have to be protected. “If a child doesn’t go to school for five years, a generation is lost,” he said.

Mr. Khan made clarifications regarding the needs in Africa. UNICEF is asking for US 188.9 million to respond to the humanitarian needs in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad, including the consequences of the violence in northeast Nigeria. UNICEF is appealing for US 25.5 million to help protect children in Burundi and to provide aid to Burundian refugees who have fled Rwanda and Tanzania. In East Africa, South Sudan was another area of focus, as well as Ethiopia and Eritrea, which were not part of the global appeals coordinated by OCHA. Finally, the Central African Republic was also covered by the appeal, including a small component on Ebola.

In response to another question, Mr. Khan said that the health segment of the work was being carried out in partnership with other health actors. He added that there was a segment in the Haiti portion of the appeal which corresponded to cholera, and mentioned that UNICEF was still involved in the procurement of vaccines.

In regards to the effects of climate change and El Niño on the lives of children, Mr. Khan cited negative effects on nutrition and safe water among others, with livelihoods being affected, leading to child poverty, child labor, exploitation, trafficking, and movement of populations. Resilience programs in the Sahel had been put together to counter those effects, and UNICEF could share some fact sheets on the work related to the effects of El Niño. For Ethiopia and Eritrea, not covered by the global appeal, there was a deficit of support identified by UNICEF, which the present UNICEF appeal sought to respond to.

Mr. Khan also stated that many different factors were forcing populations to move, not only in Syria. As UNICEF had been saying over the past year, it was a protection crisis, with education at the heart of it, as service interruption and protection challenges were having an impact on decisions made by families.

Zika virus

Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), announced that the Executive Board would hold a special session on Zika on 28 January. It should be a lunch session open to the media; there was also a possibility that it would be webcast. If that was the case, there would be no special briefing on Zika the following day. Access to the WHO for journalists with UN badges should not be a problem, said Mr. Lindmeier, in a response to a question.

Replying to another question, Mr. Lindmeier said that claiming that the world had lost a battle against mosquitos was somewhat fatalistic. Scientists were working on medicines and ways to battle it, so the fight was ahead. Mosquitos carrying different viruses had been present for years in Brazil, and the focus now was on exterminating Zika and eliminating breeding grounds.

Answering a question, Mr. Lindmeier that thus far there had been an outbreak in some 20 countries in South America and 10 countries elsewhere, with Brazil being most affected. Zika as such was not a dangerous disease, and had rather mild symptoms. Few people showed symptoms, which was why the disease was largely unknown; rash seemed to be the most distinctive feature of the virus. Most cases for now were only suspected Zika cases, as only a few hundreds had been confirmed in laboratories. WHO did not exactly yet know how it spread and where mosquitos got the virus from.

Associated with Zika in Brazil, there had been close to 4,000 microcephaly cases in infants, in addition to some stillborn babies. Until now, there had been some 49 deaths due to microcephaly. The association between Zika and microcephaly had been mostly circumstantial so far; connection had been confirmed in only a handful of cases so far. The big task ahead was to establish the link, on whether it was Zika alone causing microcephaly, because the latter could also be caused by a number of other factors, including drugs, alcohol, vaccines, pesticides, etc. A recent outbreak of Zika in French Polynesia, three years earlier, had not led to any reported microcephaly cases.

Asked whether a briefing by an expert could be organized for Geneva press corps, Mr. Lindmeier said that that had already been booked, but if the experts could hold it on 28 January, that would be preferred.

A journalist asked whether microcephaly could spread outside of Brazil. Mr. Lindmeier responded that the same question was being raised by many, and the WHO was working with a number of partners to establish the exact conditions and whether there were two different strains circulating. For now, the best way to prevent and protect included traditional measures against mosquitos. The fight against mosquitos was not only a Brazilian fight, stressed Mr. Lindmeier. A lot of efforts were going and should continue to go to prevention efforts.

On a different question, Mr. Lindmeier stated that H1N1 was included in seasonal flu strains, which was not very uncommon in Russia this time of year.

MERS virus

Mr. Lindmeier briefed on the new case of the MERS virus found in Thailand. Thai authorities had found the MERS virus in an individual traveling from Oman to Thailand. There had been an estimated 40 person contact points as the individual had flown with symptoms and proceeded to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel and then to the hospital. The Thai authorities were tracking down all persons with whom the individual had come into contact. The individual had been in the hospital since his arrival, on 23 January. Mr. Lindmeier stressed that this was once more an imported case of the MERS virus and not an endemic case.

Europe refugee situation

Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that the UNHCR, International Organization for Migration and some 65 other organizations appealed to donors for USD 550 million to support the ongoing humanitarian response. With more than 60 million people displaced and increasingly impacting countries of the Global North, the previous year had seen over a million refugees and migrants arriving in Europe by boat.
Mr. Edwards reminded that the appeal aimed at funding humanitarian operations in 2016 across the affected countries, with approximately half of the funds allocated for Greece. Humanitarian operations would include aid and protection activities where people were arriving, to bolster capacities for front-line responders such as coast guard, and support for affected communities. Help with relocation, resettlement and other regular solutions was also part of the appeal.
Asked about the UNHCR’s position on the expected Danish decision of taking money from refugees, Mr. Edwards said that this was sending damaging messages instead of bringing solidarity. He added that this situation could indeed be breaking some international conventions.
Responding to a question on how countries, like Italy and Greece, controlled their borders, Mr. Edwards confirmed that the management of the borders would be one of those countries’ top priorities for the forthcoming months.

More information could be found in the Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan for Europe: Eastern Mediterranean and Western Balkans route, which would be available later today.

Burundi

Cécile Pouilly, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that, in accordance with a resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 17 December requesting the High Commissioner “to urgently organize and dispatch on the most expeditious basis possible a mission by independent existing experts”, the OHCHR had set up a team comprising Christof Heyns, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions; Maya Sahli Fadel, Member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Special Rapporteur on refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and migrants of the same institution; and Pablo de Greiff, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence.

The experts had been mandated by the Council to swiftly investigate violations and abuses of human rights in Burundi, make recommendations on the improvement of the human rights situation and to engage in a dialogue with the authorities and other relevant actors of the ongoing crisis.
Given the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in Burundi and the request for an oral update to the Council at its next session in March, the High Commissioner had requested the Government of Burundi to allow the team to start its first mission to Burundi on 25 January. The team had not yet been able to deploy due to the lack of response to date from the Burundian authorities. OHCHR hoped that the Burundian authorities would take all the necessary steps, including granting of visas, to allow for the prompt deployment of the experts on the ground.

Asked why the OHCHR was even trying to negotiate with the Burundian authorities, which had forged the elections, instead of placing sanctions on the regime, Ms. Pouilly said that the Office had repeatedly denounced all violations of human rights in Burundi, including by the country’s security forces. Teams on the ground were looking into all the violations, and the team of experts was meant to take the investigation one step further and to try to identify solutions.