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 United Nations Refugee Agency, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration and the World Health Organization.

Mediterranean Crossings

William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that a series of shipwrecks and capsizings on the Mediterranean the previous week now appeared to have claimed at least 880 lives, according to new information received through interviews of survivors in Italy.

Thus far, said Mr. Spindler, 2016 was proving to be particularly deadly. Some 2,510 lives had been lost so far compared to 1,855 in the same period in 2015 and 57 in the first five months of 2014. On a Mediterranean-wide basis, the odds of being among the dead were currently one in 81. That highlighted the importance of rescue operations as part of the response to the movement of refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean, and the need for real, safer alternatives for people needing international protection.

So far in 2016, 203,981 people had made the journey. Almost three-quarters of those travelled from Turkey to Greece prior to the end of March. Some 46,714 of these had travelled to Italy, almost the same as the total recorded there in the first five months of 2015 (47,463). The North Africa-Italy route was dramatically more dangerous: 2,119 of the deaths reported thus far in 2016 had been among people making that journey, making for odds of dying as high as one in 23.

Mr. Spindler informed that the UNHCR was working to better understand the possible reasons and dynamics behind those movements. The majority of boats departing Libya were at present reported to be leaving from the Sabratah area to the west of Tripoli. They often carried 600 or more passengers, and sometimes were towed by larger fishing boats which in turn put them at risk. According to some, unconfirmed, accounts, the recent increase in numbers was linked to efforts by smugglers to maximize income before the start of the holy month of Ramadan, in the coming week.

According to survivors, smuggler hubs operating in locations including Niger remained active in feeding people from West Africa through to Libya, where many remained for many months before being put onto boats for the crossing to Europe. Reports of trauma from sexual and other forms of gender-based violence among women making the journey appeared common. Some women had told the UNHCR that they had been subject to sexual slavery in Libya. UNHCR had also been seeing an increase in arrivals of unaccompanied children.

As of now, UNHCR had not seen evidence of a significant diversion of Syrians, Afghans or Iraqis from the Turkey-Greece route to the Central Mediterranean one. The principle nationalities on the Libya to Italy route so far in 2016 had been Nigerians and Gambians, although among countries more commonly associated with refugee movements nine per cent have been Somalis and eight per cent Eritreans.

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), stated that, as of 30 May, an estimated 204,311 migrants and refugees had entered Europe in 2016. The latest death had happened the previous day, with one person dying of a heart attack.

One week earlier, Mr. Millman would report that there were just thirteen fatalities, none having occurred on the deadly eastern Mediterranean route. The situation had changed dramatically over only one week: over the last eight days, an estimated 968 people had died, the biggest incident occurring on 26 May. An engineless wooden boat with over 550 passengers was being towed by another smuggling boat, which had an estimated 800 people on board. The smaller boat being towed had begun to take on water and eventually capsized. Reports indicated that all, apart from 87 migrants, had died. Many of the migrants had been Eritrean, with a number of Ethiopians and Sudanese on board. Although migrants had been reluctant to board a vessel with no engine, survivors had said that they had been forced aboard by smugglers.

On 25 May, another deadly incident had occurred, with 250 migrants reported dead and about 280 still missing. Smugglers were using much bigger boats carrying as many as 750 people. That diverted from the trend of the previous twelve months which had seen rubber dinghies carrying 100-130 people. Those larger boats were as reckless in their navigation. A rescue had been made off the coast of Crete, after a boat with 64 migrants had issued a distress call. Among those rescued had been 13 from Afghanistan, 17 from Iran, 28 from Iraq, 5 from Syria, and one Pakistani child.

Asked to provide more details on the tragedy before Greece and Italy, Mr. Spindler said that the UNHCR did not have much information on the incident in the Ionian Sea.

On the rescue efforts by the European Union, Mr. Spindler acknowledged the fantastic work done by the Italian Coast Guard, which had rescued 14,000 people in the past week. Over the years, hundreds of thousands had been saved. At the moment, smugglers were packing people on boats which were not meant for crossing. As soon as they departed, they would call the Coast Guard to come rescue them. The high mortality rate was a reflection of the condition in which people were travelling. Smugglers were becoming more ruthless and the risks were ever higher. Smugglers had to be cracked down, but it would not help much unless the root causes of migration were addressed. Legal ways for the most vulnerable refugees ought to be expanded.

Asked whether the Italian Coast Guard saving sinking boats was a pull factor, Mr. Spindler said that the pull factor argument had been quashed in 2015, when the search-and-rescue operations had dwindled, but the number of crossings had nonetheless increased. Relocation efforts needed to be stepped up; it was shameful that only 2,000 out of the agreed 160,000 relocations from Italy and Greece had taken place.

Mr. Spindler reiterated that the approach of calling Italian ships to the rescue was not new. Sub-Saharan Africans were not a new development either. Mr. Millman added that smuggling groups were robust and were using the economies of scale to bring the costs down. There was a growing number of people from the Horn of Africa. There were plenty of deterrents, but people were leaving their countries for desperate reasons. Based on a survey published by the IOM the previous week, migrants paid between 85 and 350 USD to cross from Sub-Saharan Africa to a meeting point in Agadez in Sahara. The range paid to smugglers to cross the Mediterranean was between 400 and 2,000 USD. Some people crossed for free if they agreed to work as crew and help smugglers. The range of prices was connected to the circumstances in which migrants found themselves.

On the question whether most of those people could be qualified as economic migrants, Mr. Millman replied that there were plenty of people who began their journeys as economic migrants, but then became victims of trafficking during the process, and thus deserved protection upon their arrival. Not only those directly fleeing from terrorist groups, such as Boko Haram, should qualify for protection. Many other migrants should also be given international protection.

Mr. Spindler, responding to another question, informed that the numbers of crossings between Turkey and Greece had indeed gone down, but people were still fleeing Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and there was still need for international protection.

Mr. Millman could not provide further details on smugglers. It was quite an ad hoc operation, he said, and anybody with a gun could get into the business of smuggling.

Falluja

Mr. Spindler stated that around 3,700 people had fled Falluja over the previous week, since the new offensive by Iraqi forces to retake the city had begun, according to figures provided by the authorities. Many of those people were staying in the al-Iraq camp in the Ameriyat al–Falluja district, where UNHCR was working. Others were scattered in one of several other government-run camps in the district or staying with relatives. Iraqi forces were helping to transport families escaping the city, and had set up a hotline (195) to provide information to people wanting to leave. UNHCR understood that another 500 men and boys over 12-years-old were held for security screening, which could take five to seven days.

UNHCR had also received reports of casualties among civilians in the Falluja city centre due to heavy shelling. There were also reports of several hundred families being used as human shields by ISIL, in the centre of Falluja, said Mr. Spindler.

Flogging of Students in Iran

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that the OHCHR condemned the outrageous flogging of up to 35 young men and women in Iran the previous week, after they had been caught holding a graduation party together in Qazvin, north of Tehran. According to State media, the students had been arrested, interrogated and sentenced by the Prosecutor’s Office to 99 lashes each and then had been flogged – all within the space of 24 hours.

Flogging was prohibited under international human rights law, in particular the Convention against Torture. The United Nations Committee against Torture, the Human Rights Committee and United Nations Special Rapporteurs had repeatedly voiced serious concerns about States’ use of flogging, highlighting in particular its use against women, and had called for its abolition.

In another case, 17 mine workers had been reportedly flogged in Western Azerbaijan province in Iran this month for protesting the dismissal of 350 workers from the Agh Dara gold mine. The previous month, a woman had been publicly flogged for having sexual relations outside marriage. While there was no reliable estimate on the use of flogging in the country, reports suggested that it was used regularly for a wide range of perceived offences.

OHCHR urged the Iranian authorities to cease the use of this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Responding to a question, Mr. Colville said that there was no information on the condition of the flogged students, but it could only be imagined how much damage 99 lashes would do. The main reason for the flogging was that it had been a mixed party, as well as due to the dress code.

Not wearing a hijab, not fasting during the Ramadan and sexual offences were among wrongdoings which could lead to flogging. There was clearly a strong gender element, such as not wearing a hijab. Violence in the name of religion frequently included a gender dimension, said Mr. Colville in a response to another question.

Asked whether the overall human rights situation was improving in Iran, Mr. Colville said that it was difficult to draw conclusions, especially without a field presence in the country. There was perhaps more inclination not to apply the death penalty for drug offences.

Exclusion of NGOs from UN meetings

Mr. Colville stated that the OHCHR was adding its voice to the many concerns raised – including by the Secretary-General – at the previous week’s decision by a majority of the 19 Member States on the ECOSOC NGO Committee to deny the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) consultative status. OHCHR believed that the decision not to allow that well-established NGO to take part in UN meetings, including those of the Human Rights Council here in Geneva, was unwise, unfair and arbitrary.

CPJ was a respected voice on the issues of protecting journalists and press freedom, and the statistics it provided on killings, attacks and imprisonment of journalists around the world were widely viewed as among the most reliable in existence.

In effect, said Mr. Colville, the votes of just ten States had meant CPJ’s voice and important research continued to be excluded from all relevant UN debates and processes. Of the 19 States that made up the NGO Committee, six voted in favour of giving CPJ the consultative status it clearly deserves, and three abstained. The vote came after CPJ's application, first made in 2012, had already been deferred seven times by the Committee.

OHCHR also had strong concerns about the recent refusal of permission by Member States for 11 civil society organizations representing LGBTI and other marginalized communities to attend the forthcoming High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS taking place at UN Headquarters in New York. The Secretary-General had made an important speech on that subject in the Republic of Korea the previous day, in which he had denounced the shrinking of democratic space, and urged freedom for civil society organizations and non-governmental organizations and human rights defenders.

The High Commissioner fully shared that concern, as there was ever more evidence of more and more States clamping down on the freedoms of expression, association and assembly, with the media and human rights defenders in the frontline. While that might be in the interests of authorities wishing to crush criticism and retain power, it was clearly not in the interests of their populations. That unfortunate episode involving CPJ was emblematic of the unfortunate and very negative trend.

Asked to provide details on the vote in the NGO Committee, Mr. Colville informed that
Azerbaijan, Burundi, China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Sudan and Venezuela had voted against giving CPJ the consultative status; India, Iran and Turkey had abstained; and Greece, Guinea, Israel, Mauritania, United States and Uruguay had voted in favour.

On whether it was a time to change the system or to go around the system and give a consultative status to CPJ, Mr. Colville said that the full plenary of ECOSOC could overturn the NGO Committee’s decisions. It was likely that there would be a vote at the next session of ECOSOC.

Executions in Gaza

Mr. Colville stated that the OHCHR condemned the execution of three men by authorities in Gaza today despite serious and widespread concerns that international fair trial standards had not been respected, and in spite of appeals by many local and international actors to halt the executions.

Those executions had been carried out without the approval of Palestinian President Mamoud Abbas as required under Palestinian law, effectively denying those men their right to seek pardon or commutation of their sentence. That right to seek pardon or commutation was also enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Palestine had acceded in 2014.

OHCHR remained deeply concerned about further planned executions in the near future. Mr. Colville reiterated that death sentences carried out pursuant to unfair trials were in violation of international law. OHCHR urged the authorities in Gaza to halt any future executions and to uphold their obligations under national and international law to respect the rights to life and to a fair trial. It also called on the Palestinian President to urgently establish a moratorium on the death penalty in line with the global trend, with a view to its abolition.

In a response to a question of the number of persons to be executed, Mr. Colville said that it had been initially reported that 13 would be executed, three of whom had been killed this morning.

World No Tobacco Day

Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), informed that today was the World No Tobacco Day, on which occasion the WHO was promoting the concept of plain packaging of tobacco products, which reduced their attractiveness. All interview requests could be sent through WHO.

Ebola

Mr. Lindmeier said that the following day Guinea would announce the 40-day period since the last person had been tested negative for the Ebola virus for the second time. Liberia was expected to follow suit on 9 June. A press communique was expected from Guinea; and the WHO country office and the Government were working on it together. WHO would recirculate the press release and provide further details on it in the course of the day today.

In a response to a question, Mr. Lindmeier said that the next step would include 90 days of surveillance, which would commence the day of the announcement. Flare-ups should be expected, but since the countries were now prepared, those should be dealt with quickly and efficiently. If 90 days passed by, the transmission of the Ebola virus could be declared to be over. Asked if Ebola was now endemic in West Africa, Mr. Lindmeier said that the virus was resident in bats so it was expected that it could flare up every now and then.

Zika Virus

Mr. Lindmeier stated that the WHO had just updated its guidelines on the sexual transmission of Zika. People should practice safe sex or abstain from sex for at least eight weeks when returning from Zika-affected regions. If one of the partners had shown symptoms, six months were needed to ensure that the virus had fully left the body, which was especially important if couples were planning a pregnancy. Protection measures for those living in Zika-infected areas were similar to those for HIV and other STDs.

Asked on the exact recommendations for those couples who were planning to conceive, Mr. Lindmeier said that scientists were constantly looking at the evidence and had found that the virus was staying longer in body fluids than initially thought, which was why eight weeks were recommended as an abstention period instead of four. WHO recommended that people consider delaying pregnancy if they lived in Zika-infected regions. For that reason, access to contraceptive measures for women living in those places ought to be improved.

The fetus could get infected in the womb by either mosquito bites or sexual intercourse. Delaying of pregnancies had been recommended in other cases before, explained Mr. Lindmeier. He reiterated, in a response to another question, that the WHO’s recommendation to those living in the affected areas was to consider delaying pregnancy and to practice safe sex.

On the question on the WHO’s position vis-à-vis the Olympic Games in Rio, Mr. Lindmeier said that given that Zika had already spread to 60 countries around the world, and thousands of people travelled daily in and out of Brazil, WHO believed that there was no further significant risk of a global spread. Different to that was individual risk assessment, which could be minimized by risk prevention. The authorities ought to ensure there were no mosquito breeding grounds and personal protection was paramount, such as using mosquito repellants and monitoring oneself upon return. The list of the 60 countries could be found at the WHO website, in the latest report of 25 May.

Asked about blood transfusions, Mr. Lindmeier stated that people returning from Zika-affected areas should not give blood for six to eight weeks. Every blood sample, inside and outside of Brazil, needed to be tested before transfusion. For the saliva as a way to transmit the virus, studies were not conclusive yet, informed Mr. Lindmeier.

Geneva Activities and Press Conferences

Mr. Fawzi informed that it was his last day as the Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service. On 1 June Alessandra Vellucci would assume her functions as the UNIS Director. The handover period would last for two weeks, until 14 June.

Regarding the Syrian talks, Mr. Fawzi responded that the Office of the Special Envoy was working on the resumption of talks. Jessy Chahine would return on 6 June to reassume her duties as the Spokesperson for the Special Envoy. There was no comment on the resignation of the head of the High Negotiating Committee. The Office was aware of the development, and considered it an internal matter of the opposition.

Mr. Fawzi said that the Committee on the Rights of the Child was reviewing this morning the report submitted by Luxembourg under the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, child prostitution and child pornography. This was the last report to be reviewed before the end of the session on 3 June. At the end of the session, the Committee would issue its concluding observations concerning all the reports reviewed during the seventy-second session: Samoa, Nepal, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Pakistan, Gabon, Bulgaria and Luxembourg.

The Conference on Disarmament was holding this morning a public plenary, the first under the presidency of Ambassador Luis Enrique Chávez Basagoitia of Peru, who succeeded Ambassador Janjua of Pakistan.

On 2 June at 12.30 p.m. in Room III, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs would hold a press conference on the humanitarian situation in Yemen. The speaker would be Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen.

Also on 2 June, at 2.30 p.m., there would be a press conference by the International Parliamentary Union on MPs from Middle East working together on critical water issue. The meeting started today and would end on 2 June. The official announcement would come out as soon as the list of speakers had been finalized.

Today, at 3 p.m., a commemoration would be held of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers, in collaboration with the International Association of Peacekeepers. The ceremony would be presided by the Director-General, and would take place in front of the Council Chamber. After the ceremony, a documentary entitled “UN: Last Station before Hell” would be screened in Room XX, to be followed by a panel discussion.