REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Organization for Migration and the International Telecommunication Union.

Syria

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that the hostilities in Afrin district had displaced an estimated 167,000 people. Some 137,000 of them had left for Tel Rifat. The remainder had gone to Nubul, Zahra and other surrounding villages. It was estimated that 50,000 to 70,000 people were left in Afrin city. UN agencies faced difficulties in reaching people in need. However, they had access to those who had left Afrin city and were now in the surrounding villages. Between 17 and 20 March, some 5,000 ready-to-eat rations and 1,000 bundles of bread had been delivered daily to people in Zahra and Nubul and 2,500 ready-to-eat rations to people in Tel Rifat. Water trucks had delivered some 250,000 litres of water daily to Afrin city neighborhoods and to Tel Rifat. Non-food items, including clothing and winter items, had been delivered to Zahra, Nubul and Tel Rifat, and 3,200 high-energy biscuits had been provided for those who had reached Tel Rifat.

Marixie Mercado, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), read the following statement on the situation in Idlib:

“UNICEF partners report that 17 children were killed earlier this week in Idlib when heavy violence near a UNICEF-supported school forced students to flee to an underground shelter in a nearby building, which then came under attack. Around 1 million children live amid the escalating violence in Idlib. Across Syria, over 300 education facilities have been attacked since the beginning of the conflict.”

Ms. Mercado, for UNICEF, read the following statement on the situation in East Ghouta:

“As UNICEF gains access to children in areas that have been under siege for the past five years, the scale of the suffering and the trauma they have endured becomes clearer – as does the need for lifesaving support.

On March 20, UNICEF reached some 7,000 people, about half of them children, in Nashabieh, Kafr Batna, Hamourieh and Saqba, with support for the first time in almost five years. We were able to bring water, health and nutrition supplies, and in Nashabieh, we have set up mobile health teams and continue to truck water. Before, we had extremely limited access to these communities as they were part of the besieged East Ghouta enclave, and assistance would come mainly through interagency convoys.

UNICEF staff described children and families in desperate condition, stunned from years of violence and deprivation. Hygiene and sanitation conditions in the overcrowded shelters pose the most urgent risk to children. UNICEF is working to provide the children who have lived through years of siege with the services and protection they have been without for so long, and to make up for the years of learning they have lost. But even as we are able to reach children in more places, the violence continues just kilometres away.”

Ms. Mercado, for UNICEF, read the following statement on the situation in Afrin:

“Around 100,000 people still remain in Afrin district.

The IDPs in Nubul and Zahra are in collective shelters, mainly schools and mosques. They have minimal access to health services including vaccinations for children – and there is no first aid, surgery or specialised care available. The nearest medical point is Alzahra field hospital, 3 kilometers away, which is not well equipped. Permission is required to get through the checkpoints to Aleppo, which is about 25 kilometers away, and has more medical facilities. UNICEF has provided the Aleppo Department of Health with health and nutrition supplies to meet the needs of over 25,000 children and mothers from Afrin.

UNICEF and partners are trucking water to all three locations every day, and we have also provided bottled water, water tanks and hygiene kits. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent has been able to reach hundreds of children in Tel Rifat with psychosocial support for the first time, and has also been able to get to several villages around Tel Rifat where there are around 4,000 people completely without access to services.”

Ms. Mercado, for UNICEF, read the following statement on the Nubul collective shelters:

“There are 13 collective shelters including mosques and stables, but displaced families are also staying with friends or renting houses. The displaced describe running in the face of shelling, sleeping in the open, being separated from their families – and now, fear over what the future holds. A man from the local community said they were bringing food and bread and clothing to the displaced families, but that this could not continue, as the people in the village were not rich themselves.”

Fadela Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), gave the following statement on the situation in Afrin:

“The World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed mobile medical clinics and critical health supplies to areas hosting newly displaced people from the northern Syrian district of Afrin, while supporting partners struggling to maintain health services in Afrin city and surrounding areas.

The majority have fled to Tal Refaat, while others are seeking shelter in Nubul, Zahraa and surrounding villages. The massive influx of displaced people is putting a strain on host communities and already overwhelmed health facilities.

‘Children, women, and men have undertaken harrowing journeys to flee Afrin and need urgent health assistance. Our staff have met civilians who reported walking for 36 hours to reach safer areas,’ said Elizabeth Hoff, WHO Representative in Syria. ‘WHO calls on all parties to ensure that critically sick and injured civilians are referred to facilities that can provide proper treatment.’

With support from NGO partners and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), WHO deployed four mobile health teams to Tal Refaat, Nubul and Zahraa, and delivered 10 tonnes of medical supplies, sufficient for 55,700 treatment courses. A second shipment of medicines and medical supplies, sufficient for more than 64,000 treatments, is ready to be dispatched from Aleppo to Tal Refaat and Afrin once access is guaranteed.

Earlier this year, WHO delivered five mobile clinics and two ambulances to the Aleppo Directorate of Health, which are now in use to support the response. In addition, the two main public surgical hospitals in Aleppo received several shipments of health items and medicines, including for trauma injuries.”

Ms. Chaib, for WHO, gave the following statement on the situation in East Ghouta:

“All of the shelters are well over capacity, with more people continuing to arrive on a daily basis. Most of the shelters do not have capacity or infrastructure to accommodate the large number of people arriving. People are staying out in the open, there are insufficient wash facilities and overall hygiene standards are low. Almost all sites need waste management and lack latrines. The current situation leads to weak hygiene practice among the IDPs, and difficulties in accessing safe water can increase risk of water- and food-borne diseases.

Of those who left East Ghouta this week, WHO has been informed that 458 people have been referred for advanced treatment to hospitals in Damascus. It is not known at this stage how many of the patients who have been hospitalized this week are part of the list of priority medical evacuation cases.”

Ms. Chaib, for WHO, also said that the conflict continued to claim victims every day. Lives were being lost not only through violence, but also as a consequence of the devastation of the health-care system, which could no longer provide the services that were needed to maintain life.

Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Laerke, for OCHA, said that there was a steady stream of reports of attacks and bombardments in East Ghouta. As the area was under siege, the United Nations was unable to verify those reports. However, it was likely that at least some of the reports were true. The United Nations was helping the tens of thousands of people who were fleeing the area. They had suffered great physical and mental harm. They were often sick, hungry and had been denied medical care for months or even years. The United Nations was not a party to the various agreements reached in connection with the situation in East Ghouta and did not have a monitoring role in that connection.

Answering a question on the use of chemical weapons, Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that Secretary-General António Guterres had met with the Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and, in a statement of 22 March attributable to his spokesperson, had said that he was alarmed at the persistent allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria and that the use of chemical weapons, under any circumstances, was unjustifiable and abhorrent. The Secretary-General had reiterated his call for the Security Council to demonstrate unity and resolve on the matter.

Responding to a question on the frequency of violence against health-care workers in Syria, Ms. Chaib, for WHO, said that, in January 2018, there had been 31 incidents of violence against health-care workers, 28 of which had been verified. In February 2018, there had been 43 such incidents, 39 of which had been verified. In 2018, the frequency of attacks on health-care workers had increased. The number of verified attacks on health-care facilities, workers, and infrastructure in the first two months of 2018 amounted to more than 50 per cent of all such attacks verified in 2017. Health-care workers were not a legitimate target in times of war. WHO did not have a mandate to investigate such incidents. However, it was collecting, verifying and recording information on all attacks. Such information was included in a report distributed annually at the World Health Assembly.

Ms. Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that Catherine Marchi-Uhel, Head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011, was going to hold a press conference the afternoon of 3 April to talk journalists through the activities of the Mechanism and answer their questions.

Ethiopia

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), read the following statement:

“IOM, the UN Migration Agency, has launched an appeal for USD 88,550,000 to help people in need of humanitarian assistance in Ethiopia. The appeal covers IOM’s activities under the humanitarian community and Government’s Ethiopia Humanitarian and Disaster Resilience Plan (HDRP), IOM’s assistance to Ethiopian migrant returnees from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and humanitarian support to refugees from neighboring countries.

IOM’s appeal aims to support some of the 1.7 million Ethiopians displaced throughout the country, identified by IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM). Approximately 1.1 million people are displaced due to conflict, 857,000 of whom were displaced near the borders of the Oromia and Somalia Regions over the past year, and over 500,000 people due to climatic shocks. In addition, 47,600 Ethiopian migrant returnees and 87,000 South Sudanese and Somali refugees are planned to be reached with support detailed in the appeal. Under this appeal, IOM will also support empowerment of young people and the strengthening of institutions in Ethiopia working on counter trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants.

Mohammed Abdiker, IOM Director of Operations and Emergencies at the Organization’s headquarters in Geneva, said: ‘We want this appeal to mark the end of the ‘Band-Aid approach’ and the start of longer term thinking. Millions of people are in dire need of our urgent support in Ethiopia, but we hope that the life-saving sustainable measures we put in place this year will mean that, by next year, more communities will be resilient to climate stresses like drought.’

Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians leave home to seek employment in the Gulf countries, most often KSA. On 29 March 2017, KSA issued a note verbale declaring that all irregular migrants should voluntarily leave the country, among them an estimated 500,000 Ethiopians. To date more than 140,000 Ethiopians have returned. Many returnees come back to little and the push factors that encouraged them to leave in the first place are still present. IOM’s appeal covers reintegration support, which is vital for returnees to sustain their livelihood.

Ethiopia remains the second largest refugee-hosting country in Africa hosting over 909,000 refugees. Of these registered refugees, more than 428,000 are South Sudanese and 254,000 are Somali.”

Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Millman said that the situation in Ethiopia constituted an emergency. El Niño, drought and armed conflict were factors that often came into play, and the donor community needed to respond. However, it was necessary to address the long-term imbalance. It was important to address the underlying factors that caused Ethiopians to migrate to other countries and to support livelihoods in Ethiopia. The appeal was restricted to people in Ethiopia. That category would include some returnees in addition to the approximately 900,000 refugees from other countries who were currently in the country. IOM’s main priority was to mitigate the effects of the drought. The drought was a natural resource challenge that threatened to undermine the remarkable rate of growth that Ethiopia had achieved in recent years. Some years previously, billions had been spent on saving Ethiopia from famine and collapse, and the country was now at risk once again. It was important to return people to their villages, where possible, and to stabilize agriculture with a view to sustaining economies and household incomes in perilous locations.

Mr. Millman said that IOM had no comment on the remarks recently made by Benjamin Netanjahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, regarding African migrants. There had been some level of migration from Ethiopia to Israel in the past.

WHO announcement

Fadela Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that 24 March was World Tuberculosis Day, which was marked each year to raise awareness of the devastating health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB) and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic. Despite significant progress in recent decades, TB remained the most deadly infectious disease across the world and claimed over 4,500 lives a day. The emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) posed a major health security threat and could risk gains made in the fight against TB. The United Nations General Assembly would hold a high-level meeting on TB later in 2018, which reflected the high importance attached to TB at the international level. In 2018, WHO had reported that 10.4 million people had fallen ill with TB, and there had been 1.8 million TB deaths in 2016, which made it the top infectious killer worldwide. While anyone could contract TB, the disease thrived among vulnerable populations, including migrants, refugees, ethnic minorities, miners and others working and living in risk-prone settings, the elderly, marginalized women and children in many settings.

Ms. Chaib said that, earlier that week, a briefing on World Tuberculosis Day had been held in New York, which showed that the disease was high on the international agenda. A press release would be issued later that day with more information on World Tuberculosis Day.

WTO announcement

Fernando Puchol, for the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that, on Tuesday, 27 March, the Director-General, Roberto Azevêdo, would meet with a delegation of high-level officials from the Philippines led by Loren Legarda, the Chair of the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations. The meeting would take place in the context of the Trade Policy Review of the Philippines, which was scheduled for Monday and Wednesday. Also on Tuesday, Mr. Azevêdo would meet with a high-level delegation from the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation and with Ms. Olga Algayerova, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. The Dispute Settlement Body would meet on Tuesday and Wednesday, 28 March. The Negotiating Group on Rules and the Working Party on the Accession of Comoros would also meet on Wednesday. Comoros and Bosnia and Herzegovina were currently in accession negotiations.

Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Puchol said that journalists’ requests for a press conference had been transmitted to the Office of the Director-General. WTO had released a statement on the free trade agreement signed by African leaders earlier that week. With regard to the tariffs announced by the United States of America and the comments recently made about WTO by the President of this country, Mr. Puchol said that the situation was evolving very rapidly. WTO would conduct a detailed evaluation of the situation and make a public statement later that day. Issues relating to the imposition of tariffs on steel and aluminum were being addressed in the context of the Council for Trade in Goods, which was meeting that day.

ITU announcement

Jennifer Ferguson-Mitchell, for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), said that ITU had opened media registration for the AI for Good Global Summit, which would run from 15 to 17 May. Media representatives who had not received the notification were encouraged to check their spam folders. They were also invited to subscribe to ITU media alerts at www.itu.int/newsroom, where they could click on the “Subscribe to Media Alerts” red button and customize the alerts that they received. ITU also wished to announce two upcoming events: Mobile Learning Week, which would be held from 26 to 30 March in Paris and was organized jointly by UNESCO and ITU; and Girls in ICT Day, which would take place on 26 April and would involve hundreds of events taking place worldwide, including at ITU HQ in Geneva.

Geneva events and announcements

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that, at 12.30 p.m. on Monday, 26 March, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe would be hosting an event to explore challenges and approaches to closing the gender pay gap with partners from Governments, the private sector and international organizations. The event would take place in the Library Events Room. The pay gap was a major barrier to gender equality in the ECE region. Women earned on average 18.2 per cent less than men every hour. The pay gap ranged from 5.5 per cent in Italy to 17.7 per cent in Switzerland and up to 62.4 per cent in Kyrgyzstan. The participants would include the Harald Aspelund, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Iceland to the United Nations; Christine Löw, Director, Liaison Office Geneva, UN Women; and Sue Johnson, Senior Manager, Inclusion & Diversity, PwC, Geneva.

Press conferences

UN Geneva

Press conference by the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the 138th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, 24-28 March
Wednesday, 28 March at 1:15 p.m. – Press Room 1
https://bit.ly/2IMzXI7

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The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog230318