REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief, Press and External Relations Section, United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons of the World Health Organization, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the United Nations Children’s Fund.
UN Secretary-General
Mr. LeBlanc said that on 5 May, the Secretary-General had opened the 2016 Climate Action Summit in Washington, D.C., and had spoken to a diverse group of representatives from Governments, the civil society, businesses, academia, and philanthropy. He had said that to rise to the challenges of climate change, we needed strong partnerships at all levels. He had added that no sector of society or no nation could succeed alone. He commended the commitment from large emerging economies, high and middle income countries and nations at all stages of development, including the U.S. and China, to secure a low-carbon future that could limit global temperature rise and underpin sustainable development. The Summit continued today in Washington. The Secretary-General had also taken part in a press conference on 5 May with the President of the World Bank. The transcript was available.
Geneva activities
Committees
The Committee against Torture would meet in private meetings until the end of its 57th session on 13 May, except for a public meeting on 10 May in the afternoon on the follow-up of articles 19 and 22 of the Convention against torture.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Palais Wilson, Ground floor) would end in the morning of 6 May the review of the report of Namibia (begun on 4 May in the afternoon). That would be the last report to be reviewed until the end of the 89th session (on 13 May).
The Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review Working Group was reviewing this morning the human rights record of Papua New Guinea in Room XX, and this afternoon it was going to review Tajikistan. On Monday, the UPR Working Group would review Tanzania in the morning and Antigua and Barbuda in the afternoon.
Press conferences and other announcements
Mr. LeBlanc announced a press conference by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 9 May in Press Room 1 at 2 p.m., during which a new report by WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the International Baby Food Action Network would be presented. The report would reveal how many countries had passed laws in line with the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.
Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that several other WHO press conferences would also take place in the week before the World Health Assembly.
On 10 May, the Director of Pandemic and Endemic Diseases of the WHO would give the press an in-depth briefing on the yellow fever outbreak.
On 11 May, a new air pollution report from the WHO would be released, with a database comprising 3,000 cities in 103 countries. On 12 May would take place a WHO briefing on new recommendations regarding multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. On 13 May, WHO would hold an embargoed press briefing on new recommendations regarding treatment of women and girls living with female genital mutilation.
In the week before the World Health Assembly there would also be a release of world health statistics, which would be distributed to the press in advance.
Mr. LeBlanc also said that on 11 May at 12:00 p.m. in Press Room 1 there would be a press conference by the APES Committee.
Yemen
Mr. LeBlanc said that a press statement from the UN Special Envoy for Yemen had been circulated to the press on 5 May. The Special Envoy had said that the peace talks were continuing in Kuwait, and that the commitment to reach an agreement would not wane over time. He had recognized however that there had been a number of worrying breaches to the cessation of hostilities on 4 May. There was careful follow-up on the issue with the parties and with the support of the international community. Those breaches must not affect the ongoing peace talks.
Syria
In response to a question, Mr. Jasarevic said that there had been a sub-national polio immunization campaign in different parts of Syria. In Aleppo, there had been a campaign from 24 to 28 April.
Mr. Jasarevic also gave a summary of the attacks on hospitals in the Aleppo area. There had been five incidents against health facilities reported since 23 April. On 3 May, al-Dabeet maternity hospital in a government-controlled area of the city had been struck, killing three and injuring seven. On 29 April, Bustan al-Qasr health care centre in an opposition-controlled neighbourhood had been hit, causing several civilian injuries and rendering the centre inoperational. On 29 April, a primary health care centre in opposition-controlled Al-Marja, supported by the OCHA humanitarian pools fund, had been destroyed, and no casualties had been reported. On 28 April, a local NGO had reported that their office in Bustan al-Qasr had bene impacted. The attack had killed 23 civilians and had wounded 50, including one NGO worker, and had destroyed two ambulances and several vehicles belonging to the organization. On 27 April, the attack on the al-Quds hospital had caused 50 fatalities including five staff members. Those attacks had claimed the lives of six health workers, including a gynaecologist, a paediatrician, a dentist, and three nurses. WHO had issued a joint statement with UNICEF to express its alarm.
However, WHO was continuing to work in Aleppo, trying to deliver medical supplies to all parts of Aleppo Governorate through the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and local NGOs with whom WHO had a cooperation agreement.
In response to a question, Mr. Jasarevic said that WHO worked closely with Governments in a public or non-public way, and had been appealing for years now for unconditional access and delivery of medical supplies according to needs in Syria. WHO was continuing the advocacy on those issues.
Following a question, Leo Dobbs for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR was appalled by the news of the barbaric attack on a refugee camp in Syria and the loss of life, but could not independently confirm all the details as they did not operate in the area and did not have access. This event was clearly a tragedy, and the safety of civilians fleeing their homes should be sacrosanct.
Mr. LeBlanc said that the Special Envoy for Syria was aiming to resume the talks in the month of May, but no date had yet been set.
Yellow fever
Mr. Jasarevic said that the outbreak of yellow fever which had started in December 2015 in Angola was of particular concern to WHO, as for the first time in a very long time there had been transmission of the virus in the capital, Luanda, and in other major urban centers. Local transmission, not related to travel from Angola, had also been confirmed in two cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Exported cases from Angola had been recorded in China and Kenya. A large-scale vaccination campaign was continuing in Angola. The International Coordinating Mechanism (composed of the WHO, UNICEF; MSF and ICRC) had dispatched more than 11 million vaccines to Angola, with the last 2.4 million expected to arrive today and on 10 May. More than 7 million people had been vaccinated in Luanda and in the Huambo and Benguela provinces. The WHO is aiming to have more than 80 per cent of people vaccinated order to contain transmission. Some 2.2 million doses of the vaccine were on their way to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and were scheduled to arrive on 11 May. Uganda was also experiencing a yellow fever outbreak, but this outbreak was not believed to be linked to the one in Angola.
WHO had set up incident management teams in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and also in Geneva, working with the WHO regional office to accelerate efforts to combat the outbreak. WHO was also supporting Ministires of Health in Angola and DRC to coordinate the health response in the areas of immunization, to ensure rapid detection and laboratory confirmation of suspect cases, to implement integrated vector control activities and to establish and reinforce community-led social mobilization activities. Moreover, WHO was working with neighboring countries such as Namibia and Zambia to strengthen cross-border surveillance to reduce the spread of infection. A travel advisory had been issued to inform travellers that yellow fever vaccination was required. People leaving the country at exit points to neighboring countries were now being asked to produce proof of vaccination against yellow fever.
As of 4 May, 2,148 suspected cases of yellow fever had bene reported in Angola, with 277 deaths. Among those cases, 641 had been laboratory-confirmed. In the DRC, the Government had officially declared a yellow fever outbreak on 23 April, and as of 4 May the country had reported 5 probable cases and 39 laboratory-confirmed cases. Out of the 39, 37 had been imported from Angola and 2 were due to local transmission. In China, there had been 11 confirmed cases which had been travel-related, and in Kenya, 2 confirmed cases.
In response to questions, Mr. Jasarevic said that the outbreak had started in late December 2015. The majority of the cases in the DRC had been linked to the Angola outbreak through travel, but now, there were two confirmed cases of local transmission by the Aedes mosquito. There was no shortage, but rather a limited supply of vaccines. In the world, there were four manufacturers with an annual production of up to 80 million doses. There were 48 countries in Africa and in Latin America which were considered endemic and used routine immunization (this had been the case of Angola since 1997), which accounted for about 30 million doses. However, a significant proportion of the population was not being vaccinated, and mass vaccination was used whenever there was an outbreak, accounting for another 30 to 35 million doses. Finally, a stockpile of vaccines was managed by the international group composed of the WHO, UNICEF; MSF and ICRC, releasing vaccines whenever there were outbreaks. WHO was working with the manufacturer to see how production could be increased. Two out of the four manufacturers would be able to increase production in the coming years. Demand had been fuelled by the introduction of the yellow fever initiative.
Mr. Jasarevic also clarified that there was no evidence to support a link between the Angola and Uganda outbreaks. Local transmission versus travel-related transmission was determined by looking at epidemiological history and at the virus itself in the lab, but further details on this would be provided by the WHO during the 10 May press conference. From an epidemiological point of view it was important to know where the outbreak had started.
Migrants/refugees
Sarah Crowe, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that new data from Eurostat for the year 2015 was showing that a record 96,500 unaccompanied children had applied for asylum in all of Europe, across EU and non-EU countries. UNICEF was calling for very strong measures to be taken up for those children, at serious risk of abuse, exploitation and trafficking. The number constituted a four-fold increase since 2014.
Across the continent, many children were falling between the cracks and were leaving reception centres because of frustration over delays due to the Dublin process and out of fear of being detained. The Dublin regulations were now under review, and UNICEF was calling for a much faster and fairer system, with a 3-month period for registration and processing of children (versus the current 11 months). Each child should get a full hearing in their own best interest, to determine whether there were any family links, and to restore them. The majority of the children were from Afghanistan and Syria. A significant number of the children were boys aged 16 to 17 years old. A strong guardianship programme needed to be put in place in order to protect those children. Unaccompanied children were often not accounted for in the system as they tended to take matters into their own hands and link up with family or extended family.
In response to a question, Ms. Crowe said that the current crisis was the first digital humanitarian crisis. People on the move had access to smartphones and could contact extended family across Europe and keep going. Sweden had taken in the greatest proposition of unaccompanied children (36,000 in 2015), followed by Germany, Hungary and Slovenia. Sweden had reported that ten children disappeared from the system every week. Germany had reported 4,700 children as being unaccounted for.
In response to another question, Ms. Crowe said that 13 per cent of the unaccompanied children were under 14 years of age. She underscored that the older teenagers under 18 were still children, and needed to be taken care of. It was also in the best interest of the host countries to make sure that they were being protected, educated and taken into a system of care through well-functioning guardianship programmes. Much better monitoring and child protection systems needed to be in place to counter risks of abuse, exploitation and trafficking. Greater attention should be paid to the children’s needs and rights. Ms. Crowe also reiterated that in a majority of cases, the children who were unaccounted for were with family, and the concept of family ties needed to be expanded to include the extended family.
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