REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Michele Zaccheo, Chief, of the Radio and Television Section, United Nations Information Service, United Nations Office at Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons for the Human Rights Council, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Human Rights Council update

Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council, said that on the morning of 26 September 2017, the Human Rights Council had opened with its continued general debate on item 8 – follow-up to and implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. At around 10.30 a.m., it would hear a report from the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, including on its visits to Canada and Germany, and an interactive discussion thereafter. At around 12 p.m., there would be a general debate on racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia.

At around 3 p.m. on 26 September, there would be an oral update on Ukraine by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, which would be based on the report circulated on 25 September. Sometime between 5 and 6 p.m., the Council would hold an enhanced interactive dialogue on a report of the High Commissioner on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. If there was insufficient time, the Council would hold that interactive dialogue the following morning.

On Wednesday, 27 September, after either beginning or continuing the interactive dialogue on the report concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Council would hear a series of country reports, on Cambodia, Somalia, Libya, Sudan and the Central African Republic. At 11.30 a.m., the Council would suspend its proceedings to hear an address by the President of the Central African Republic, H.E. Mr. Faustin Archange Touadera.

On Thursday, 28 September, the Council would hear reports, produced by the Office of the High Commissioner, on Cambodia, Yemen and Georgia. It would then proceed to consider and vote on the 35 draft resolutions before it, before concluding its session on Friday, 29 September.

Attack on Bangladeshi peacekeepers in Mali

Michele Zaccheo, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that on Thursday, 28 September 2017, the Security Council would hear briefings on threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts, drawing attention to the recent statement issued by the Security Council in relation to an attack by unknown assailants against a convoy of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), killing three Bangladeshi peacekeepers and injuring five others. In its statement, the Security Council condemned the attack, which had occurred on 24 September, in the strongest terms and called on the Government of Mali to swiftly investigate the attack and bring the perpetrators to justice. It underlined that attacks targeting peacekeepers could constitute war crimes under international law and that involvement in planning, directing, sponsoring or conducting attacks against MINUSMA peacekeepers constituted a basis for sanctions designations pursuant to United Nations Security Council resolutions. In its statement, the Council went on to reaffirm that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constituted one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. It underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of such reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice.
Mr. Zaccheo recalled that on Thursday, 28 September, the Secretary-General was expected to brief the Security Council on the situation in Myanmar.

Bangladesh

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that the main challenge was currently to provide protection to already-vulnerable children. More than 250,000 children had arrived in Cox’s Bazar since 25 August 2017. The needs in makeshift settlements were very high and ever-increasing; the suffering of families and children was severe.

UNICEF now had a steady stream of supplies in place, something that had not been true just days previously. Trucks of supplies purchased locally or internationally were arriving from Dakar. A flight containing supplies had landed in Dakar on 24 September and the distribution of those supplies had begun in Cox’s Bazar. The first consignment of the UNICEF emergency supply flight had carried 100 tonnes of supplies in from Copenhagen, including water purification tablets, family hygiene kits, sanitary materials, plastic tarpaulins and recreational kits for children. The second flight was scheduled to arrive during the current week and would bring with it school bags, education materials, tents, family hygiene kits, tarpaulins, immunization supplies and nutritional supplies.

UNICEF was working to send new consignments with water and hygiene supplies. Families and children arriving in Bangladesh generally first looked for a place to set themselves up with bamboo and tarpaulin; they needed safe water immediately. With the next consignment, UNICEF aimed to provide 450,000 people with safe water for four months and 35,000 people with improved sanitation and hygiene. The situation on the ground was shocking. Children were drinking visibly dirty water and there were clearly not enough latrines. Children were especially vulnerable to water-borne diseases, which was also connected to malnutrition. It was a race against the clock. Some 10 days previously, the Government of Bangladesh, together with UNICEF and partners, had initiated a vaccination campaign against measles, rubella and polio, targeting 150,000 children under the age of 15 years, including the immunization of 50,000 children under 5 years old for polio; it had also provided for de-worming and vitamin A supplements. The campaign had met with difficult conditions, including some heavy rains, but the vaccinations were crucial to keep children safe from measles, which was especially lethal for malnourished children or children with low immune systems.

The Government had recently set up 29 additional clinics, including 7 mobile clinics and 22 fixed clinics. UNICEF provided vaccines and syringes. It was also scaling up its water sanitation response in order to prevent a humanitarian crisis from becoming a humanitarian disaster. There was also a risk of cholera. UNICEF and its partners were currently delivering 70,000 litres of drinking water per day; beginning the following week, it would deliver 100,000 litres per day. A total of 150 hand pumps were to be installed and 35 deep-tube wells were currently being built in the camps.

With the arrival of supplies, UNICEF would be able to scale its nutrition programmes. Two supply trucks with therapeutic food had already reached Cox’s Bazar: the therapeutic supplies would allow UNICEF to cure 10,000 children under 5 years old suffering from severe malnutrition. Its nutrition programmes targeted 240,000 children under the age of 5 years.

Since the beginning of the crisis, UNICEF had set up 41 child-friendly spaces, which made it possible to identify separated children, among other activities. According to the latest estimates, there were some 1,600 separated children. It was important to identify them as such because they were in need of additional support with regard to health, nutrition and protection. Specifically in terms of protection, they were more at risk of sexual abuse, child labour and early marriage. Such spaces also made it possible to identify those children who were most severely affected by their experience; they needed counselling immediately.

Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that UNHCR was calling for a redoubling of the international humanitarian response in Bangladesh in light of concerns that conditions for an estimated 436,000 Rohingya refugees who had fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar in the last month could still deteriorate dramatically. In fact, the number of refugees was expected to rise still higher, not necessarily because of new arrivals but in accounting for people from host communities.

As part of its contribution to the response led by the Bangladeshi authorities, that morning, UNHCR had flown in its fourth humanitarian airlift. The UNHCR-chartered Boeing 777 plane, loaded with 100 metric tonnes of aid, had landed in Dhaka just after midnight. As shelter needs in south-eastern Bangladesh were acute, that flight had been loaded with shelter materials only. Two more aid flights were being scheduled.

Despite every effort by those on the ground, the massive influx of people seeking safety had been outpacing capacities to respond, and the situation for the refugees had still not stabilized. Many of those who had arrived recently were deeply traumatized. Despite having found refuge in Bangladesh, many were still exposed to enormous hardship.

At the request of the Bangladesh authorities, UNHCR and its partners had scaled up protection and life-saving support to the new arrivals in Kutupalong and Nayapara camp, and had extended that support to the informal settlements surrounding those camps. UNHCR was also distributing emergency shelter kits, kitchen sets and other such items.

UNHCR continued to identify and support the most vulnerable refugees such as unaccompanied children, women, the elderly and disabled, who were in urgent need of shelter, food, water, and health care. In the last week, UNHCR and partners distributed hygiene kits to some 1,900 women, while each day an average of nearly 10,000 people received meals through community kitchens.

As the population in the Kutupalong and Nyapara camps had now doubled, so had the needs for clean drinking water. In the past few weeks, UNHCR had constructed additional seven deep tube-wells, shallow tube-wells and latrine chambers to help deal with that increase.

During his visit to Bangladesh over the previous weekend, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, had discussed the importance of working towards solutions with Bangladeshi authorities, but had emphasized that the immediate focus had to remain on fast, efficient and substantial increase of support to those who were so desperately in need.

Responding to questions about the risk of early marriage for children in the camps, Mr. Boulierac, for UNICEF, said that the Agency had been intensifying its response since 25 August 2017, when it had just 5 staff on site – now it had 70. Early marriage, which had been an issue in Bangladesh even before the current refugee crisis, was an especially serious risk for the children, girls in particular, who had been separated from their families and who therefore lacked protection. While such children first and foremost wanted to see their basic needs met, they also were more psychologically vulnerable. UNICEF was trying to provide them with as much support as possible.

Michele Zaccheo, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that he would refer the question regarding to the legal aspects of early marriage amongst vulnerable refugees in Bangladesh to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as requested. He reminded correspondents that the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, would be briefing the Security Council privately today on matters related to Myanmar and the on-going crisis, and that on Thursday, 28 September, the Secretary-General would also be addressing the Security Council on the situation in Myanmar. The political process at the level of the Security Council could also touch on legal issues, he said.

Responding to further questions about separated children, Mr. Boulierac, for UNICEF, said that some 60 per cent of the arrivals in Bangladesh since 25 August were children but that the situation continued to evolve. Although he had not seen first-hand children being trafficked or forced into early marriage, it was clearly a risky environment for them and there were many reports of people on the fringes of the camps and settlements trying to engage with children and making them work offers, which sometimes also resulted in sexual exploitation. Early marriage was an issue in Bangladesh even outside the refugee crisis. The child learning centres and adolescent clubs set up by the Agency in the settlements were useful to raise awareness about such issues among children, teenagers and their families, where applicable.

Responding to questions, Mr. Edwards, for UNHCR, said that the needs were massive and despite the heroic efforts on the ground, the aid response was insufficient and had to be stepped up urgently. If things did not change quickly, people would suffer even more acutely.

Responding to questions, Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that so far, there was no evidence of cholera cases. That said, the risk of an epidemic could not be ruled out. Cholera was endemic in Bangladesh. It was therefore crucial to ensure access to clean water, as UNICEF and other partners were striving to do. In addition, the vaccination campaign had been rolled out because of the overcrowded conditions and related risks of cholera outbreaks. WHO had established a control room in Cox’s Bazar to strengthen disease surveillance and support daily reporting of morbidity and mortality from partners. WHO was providing critical medical supplies for 20 of the 38 mobile medical teams covering the settlements and camps. Those teams would report to the control room, which would in turn monitor the health situation and provide early warnings and alerts relating to disease and help improve coordination of various health actors on the ground. An emergency coordination committee had also been set up to lead the health response for which WHO would act as secretariat.

Responding to questions, Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that the scale of the emergency had surpassed initial projections. Humanitarian partners were now revising the response plan to account for additional needs and expected that funding requirements for the next six months could rise to some USD 200 million. The revised plan was expected to be finalized by the end of the month and would target around 1.2 million people, including new refugees, previously arrived refugees and their host communities. As of that morning, humanitarian partners had received 43 per cent of the USD 77 million required in the initial response plan. Mr. Edwards, for UNHCR, added that the call by UNHCR for the redoubling of efforts concerned mainly funding. Bangladesh had shown great generosity thus far and the response by humanitarian agencies and host communities on the ground had been great, but much more international support was needed to meet the needs of one of the fastest accelerating refugee crises in the world.

Asked a question about the Secretary-General’s address to the Security Council scheduled to take place on Thursday, 28 September, Mr. Zaccheo, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that a number of members of the Security Council had supported the initiative of the Secretary-General’s briefing. He would get back to interested correspondents about the exact procedure involved, including whether or not the President of the Security Council had discretionary power to invite the Secretary-General to conduct such briefings.

Dominica / Hurricane Maria

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that after category-5 hurricane Maria had all but wiped the small island nation of Dominica off the map on 18 September 2017, humanitarian agencies had been ramping up their presence and deliveries despite severe logistical constraints.

Hurricane Maria had killed at least 15 people, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), affected some 80 per cent of the total population of 71,000, damaged or disrupted the supplies of food, electricity and running water to all 53 of the country's hospitals and health centres and destroyed all crops. Bearing in mind that 25 per cent of the country's workforce depend on agriculture, it was hard to overestimate the immediate and medium-term impact on food security and people’s income of such blanket destruction. With tens of thousands of people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, the priorities identified for the immediate response were not only food, water and shelter, but also restoration of electricity.

Dominica was accessible via the Canefield airport, which was being used for emergency flights and the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (operated by WFP) had begun flights for aid workers. At least one seaport was also accessible. The initial emergency response had been led by CDEMA with supplies of food and non-food items. Countries in the region had also provided food, medicine and generators as the island was almost entirely without power. A number of United Nations agencies and humanitarian partners had deployed teams to assess the situation in Dominica and had begun distributing aid. More staff were expected to arrive in the coming days. Military forces from Canada, France and the Netherlands were supporting the delivery of food and water to affected people and troops from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago were helping to ensure security at vital access points such as airports and seaports.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) had launched an appeal for over USD 1.6 million and OCHA was working on details for a flash appeal to fund the broader response.

Nigeria

Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that a major oral cholera vaccination campaign had been launched on 18 September 2017 to halt the spread of cholera in Borno State, Nigeria. During the week-long campaign, some 844,000 individuals, aged over one year old, had received a one-dose cholera vaccine, which provided protection for up to six months. The campaign had been conducted in a camp for internally displaced persons in Maiduguri as well as Jere, Monguno and Dikwa local government areas – locations where there was a high risk of further spread of cholera.

As of 25 September 2017, there were just under 4,000 suspected cholera cases and 54 related deaths. In addition to the recent vaccination campaign, WHO, together with the Nigerian Ministry of Health and other partners, was working to contain the outbreak by establishing cholera treatment centres and by increasing outreach to communities with information on cholera and its prevention. Other partners were also working to provide access to safe water.

In north-eastern Nigeria, some 14 million people were affected by the crisis and 6.9 million required health assistance. According to a report produced using the Health Resources Availability Monitoring System, in Borno State, there were 743 health facilities, 35 per cent of which had been completely destroyed and another 29 of which had been partially damaged, leaving just 30 per cent intact. Around 100 temporary facilities had been set up to support the emergency response; 49 of those were emergency clinics for displaced people living in the camps. Mr. Jasarevic, recalling a recent press briefing with the head of the malaria programme in Borno State, said that WHO estimated that more than half the deaths in that area were related to malaria; there was therefore clearly a dire need for health services in general.

Responding to questions, Mr. Jasarevic, for WHO, said that the oral cholera vaccine was only one tool in the fight against cholera, which also required prevention initiatives, access to clean water, the set-up of treatment centres and communication with the at-risk population. The vaccines used in the recent campaign had been approved by the International Coordinating Group for Vaccine Provision; the situation would be monitored in the near future to see if there was a need for further vaccines or other approaches. Such campaigns was especially useful in places where there were few cases but which were at high risk, for instance, if neighbouring areas had declared an outbreak. Challenges during the recent campaign included attacks on humanitarian efforts and difficult access to some areas, requiring military escorts.

Asked why only one dose of oral cholera vaccine had been administered to people during the recent immunization campaign, Mr. Jasarevic said that vaccination with two doses, while providing longer-term protection, presented challenges involving the availability of the vaccine and the unlikelihood of being able to reach the same people within three weeks of administering the first dose. One dose afforded protection of six months – a window within which it was hoped the outbreak could be contained.

Responding to further questions about the cholera vaccination campaign, Mr. Jasarevic said that there had been a number of cholera outbreaks in 2017, as in past years; some years were worse than others. The pattern of repeated outbreaks was found in countries with poor infrastructure and in those in situations of conflict. That was the impetus for the convening of a meeting by the Global Task Force on Cholera Control, on 4 and 5 October 2017, in Veyrier-du-Lac, France, the outcome of which was expected to be a road map on cholera and a declaration to be signed by various partners on reducing cholera by 90 per cent by 2030. In that connection, at 1.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 3 October 2017, in Press Room III, a large press conference would be held with experts in advance of the meeting.

Asked about the role of WHO in supporting improved infrastructure for sanitation, Mr. Jasarevic said that indeed, it was difficult to imagine reducing the prevalence of cholera without investing first in water and sanitation infrastructure. One of the main priorities of the Director-General of WHO was universal coverage, meaning that every individual had access to basic health services and affordable treatment. But it was important to advocate for further budgetary investment in the health sector, so that rather than choosing to selectively invest in certain health-care responses, countries strengthened health-care systems that were themselves able to respond to any sort of emergency in the future.

World Rabies Day

Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO) recalled that 28 September was World Rabies Day. Rabies was a vaccine-preventable viral disease occurring in more than 150 countries and territories that could be eliminated through the vaccination of dogs, which were the main source of human rabies deaths, contributing up to 99 per cent of all rabies transmissions to humans. Infection caused tens of thousands of deaths every year, including many children, mainly in Asia and Africa. Countries could contribute to eliminating the disease by preventing dog bites and by vaccinating dogs. For humans, there was a pre-exposure vaccine that was recommended for people who were in close contact with potentially infected animals; post-exposure prophylaxis was also available, but costly and difficult to access.

Announcement of WHO press conferences

Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 27 September 2017, in Press Room I, WHO would give a press conference on its upcoming release, together with the Guttmacher Institute, of new estimates on abortions by level of safety.

At 9.30 a.m. on Friday, 29 September, in Press Room I, the World Health Organization would host a high-level panel discussion on the occasion of the United Nations International Day of Older Persons, celebrated annually on 1 October. The discussion would focus on the need for resilient health and long-term care systems.

Geneva Events and Announcements

Michele Zaccheo, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that at 10 a.m. in New York, on 26 September 2017, the Secretary-General would address the General Assembly on the occasion of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons; the address would be webcast on webtv.un.org.

On Tuesday, 26 September 2017, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would conclude its consideration of the report of the Russian Federation. Its sixty-second session would come to a close on Friday, 6 October.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child would conclude its seventy-sixth session on Friday, 29 September 2017, after having considered reports of Ecuador, Tajikistan, Denmark, the Republic of Moldova, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Vanuatu, Guinea and Cyprus.

At 1 p.m. on Wednesday, 27 September 2017, a press conference on the crisis in the Central African Republic would be hosted by the President of the Central African Republic in Room III. It would be webcast live on webtv.un.org.

At 11 a.m. on Thursday, 28 September, an event would be held on the Place des Nations in connection with the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Led by Mayor Pagani, Michael Møller, Director-General, United Nations Office at Geneva, and Erik Solheim, Executive Director, Head of the United Nations Environment Programme, the event would celebrate a world unified to tackle mercury, which was a global threat to human health and the environment. The giant drop of mercury in the Place des Nations – a collaborative effort by the Interim Secretariat of the Minamata Convention and Plastique Fantastique – would symbolize the entry into force of the Minamata Convention and Geneva’s hosting of the first meeting of the Conference of the Parties to that Convention.

At 2.30 p.m. on Thursday, 28 September, in Press Room 1, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) would hold a press conference on the publication of the Information Economy Report 2017: Digitalization, Trade and Development.

At 9.30 a.m. on Friday, 29 September, in Press Room III, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) would hold a press briefing on the humanitarian situation in Yemen, including the cholera outbreak.