REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief, Press and External Relations Section, United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by spokespersons for the World Food Programme, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration, the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization.

Human rights and the 2030 Agenda

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, speaking on behalf of Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council, said that a day-long meeting on human rights and the 2030 Agenda would be held on Wednesday 16 January in Room 20. The meeting, which would serve to discuss the synergies between human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals, would feature the following speakers: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet; President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Coly Seck of Senegal; Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development at Colombia University, Professor Jeffrey Sachs; and Mary Robinson, Chair of the Elders and President of the Mary Robinson Foundation on Climate Justice. The meeting would begin at 10 a.m. and would continue after lunch with an afternoon session. A media advisory with further details on the event had been distributed to journalists on Friday 11 January.

Update on food distribution in Yemen

Hervé Verhoosel, for the World Food Programme (WFP), read the following statement:

“For the first time since the increase in fighting in Hudaydah in June 2018, WFP managed to assist hard to reach areas of Tuhayta and Darahimi. This was thanks to an inconsistent de-escalation over recent days following the December peace talks in Stockholm, Sweden.

So far WFP has dispatched more than 3,334 metric tonnes of food assistance to these areas, simultaneously from both Aden and Hudaydah.

Eight thousand one hundred and twenty-five households in Al Tuhayta have received enough assistance for two months and 2,662 families in Al Darayhimi, south of Hudaydah city have received food rations.

These are the first humanitarian shipments delivered since July 2018 when a WFP contracted truck was hit in the area.”

Responding to questions from journalists, Mr. Verhoosel said that the security situation in Yemen was not quite as good as had been expected. The truce was holding but it was inconsistent and sporadic problems persisted. Trucks were still being delayed at checkpoints and aid distribution had slowed slightly. As a consequence, WFP had not yet quite reached its target of providing assistance to 10 million persons. Nonetheless, in the month of December 2018, food for around 7.5 million had been dispatched and nearly 2 million persons had received food vouchers. Updated statistics would be available in coming days.

In answer to an additional question, Mr. Verhoosel said that he was unable to predict exactly when the goal of assisting 12 million Yemenis would be reached, although he did not expect an inordinately long delay. It would depend to a very large extent on how the security situation evolved. That situation had improved and WFP encouraged all parties to continue their negotiations.

Details concerning the use of flexible funding in 2018

Hervé Verhoosel, for the World Food Programme (WFP), explained that United Nations agencies received two kinds of funding: earmarked funding, which donors provided for a specified purpose, and flexible or unearmarked funding. For agencies such as WFP, the latter was particularly important. He hoped that donors would continue to provide unearmarked funding as it was the best way to support rapid response to unpredictable events and crises that might arise.

Mr. Verhoosel read the following statement:

“The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) received USD 440 million of flexible funding in 2018, a ten percent increase from 2017. Flexible contributions allow WFP to use funds wherever and whenever needs are greatest, giving it the agility to scale up and deploy systems in 24 hours to respond to sudden-onset emergencies, buy supplies in advance, and to have the means to sustain lifesaving assistance in neglected and prolonged crises.

For example in 2018, the Sahel experienced the worst lean season in the last four years, affecting the already unstable food security and nutrition situation in the region. The early availability of flexible funding from donors enabled WFP to avoid a major food crisis by kick-starting its response, reaching over 3 million people with a combination of food assistance, cash-based transfers and malnutrition prevention and treatment activities.

In Colombia, USD 18 million of flexible funding allocations from Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Belgium provided Venezuelan families with hot meals after dangerous border crossings, and in Bangladesh where operations were underfunded, flexible allocations helped WFP sustain assistance to almost 900,000 Rohingya refugees.

Under the agreement known as the Grand Bargain, concluded at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, leading donors committed themselves to reducing the earmarking of funds, aiming for a global target of 30 per cent for flexible humanitarian funding by the year 2020.

Governments that provide multilateral support, however, are still very much in the minority. Flexible contributions remained at just six percent of WFP’s total resources this year, well below a 20 percent mark in 2002.

In 2018, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Ireland and Belgium led the way in providing WFP with flexible support. Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Canada were the top supporters of WFP’s Immediate Response Account.

Flexible and predictable funding is crucial for ensuring a dynamic response to changing humanitarian needs. WFP calls on more donors to provide unearmarked contributions so that operations can continue to be agile, predictable and efficient in WFP’s efforts to reach those most in need.”

UNHCR and partners seek USD 296 million for Burundi refugee crisis

Charlie Yaxley, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), read the following statement:

“UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and 35 partners are today jointly appealing for USD 296 million to provide desperately needed aid in 2019 to some 345,000 Burundian refugees in neighbouring countries.

Burundi is one of the most neglected refugee situations globally. And measurably so; In 2018 it was among the world’s least-funded refugee crises.

The consequences of this are being felt across the board by Burundian refugees in four neighbouring countries, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda. People are enduring cuts to food rations, lack of medicines, overcrowded schools and inadequate shelter. Despite the best efforts of all, a massive increase in support is needed to adequately provide for even the most basic needs.

Children, who make up more than half of the refugee population, are bearing the brunt. Many arrived in the countries where they are after having become separated from their parents or wider family. The challenges in providing safe and adequate foster care are significant. Others suffer psychological distress from the violence they have witnessed. These children need psycho-social care.

Women and girls are suffering high levels of sexual and gender-based violence and exploitation. Makeshift and dilapidated shelters provide little protection. A lack of available materials for cooking and shelter construction is forcing women and girls to walk long distances to collect wood from outside the camps and settlements where they are isolated and vulnerable to attack.

Last year, food cuts were implemented in Tanzania, DRC and Rwanda. Families have been regularly left without enough food to last until the end of the month. Women and girls are resorting to negative coping mechanisms, including survival sex, and forced and early marriage.

While overall security has improved in Burundi, significant human rights concerns persist. Around 57,000 refugees have returned to Burundi since mid-2017, citing the wish to return to their houses and farms, and to reunite with family. Other returnees believe that conditions at home, no matter how challenging, will be an improvement on the situation they experienced as refugees.

UNHCR does not believe conditions in Burundi are currently conducive to promote returns, however, we are assisting refugees who indicate they have made an informed choice to voluntarily return. We urge States to ensure that no refugee is returned to Burundi against their will. As more refugees are expected to voluntarily return during 2019, the appeal includes funding to assist and reintegrate returnees.

In the meantime, an average of 300 refugees still flee Burundi each month, and UNHCR urges governments in the region to maintain open borders and access to asylum for those who need it.

Last year, the inter-agency regional refugee response for Burundian refugees received just 35 per cent of the USD 391 million requested. UNHCR urges the international community to accelerate and increase funding for this year’s appeal to provide much-needed humanitarian assistance and meet basic needs.”

In answer to questions from journalists, Mr. Yaxley said that UNHCR was not promoting the return of Burundian refugees. In fact, it was urging neighbouring States to keep borders open, to welcome Burundians seeking asylum and not to return anyone without their full and informed consent. Nonetheless, the refugees had their own sources of information and 57,000 of them had chosen to return to Burundi since mid-2017. Some returnees reported that the security situation there had improved. At the same time, people continued to flee the country citing persecution, harassment and food insecurity as reasons. In the end, the decision to return was an individual one that was often dictated by personal circumstances such as a desire to regain property or to reunite with family. Persons who voluntarily decided to go back were provided with a return package by UNHCR, which included money to assist in their initial reintegration.

IOM survey on stranded child migrants in Djibouti

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that, as part of research into migration across the Horn of Africa and into the Arabian Peninsula, IOM staff had interviewed 1,137 children who had been characterized as “stranded” and were living on the streets of Djibouti City. Most of them came from Ethiopia and some, but not all, of them had been bound for the Middle East.

In December 2018, IOM had reported that seaborne irregular migration to Yemen in 2018 would surpass the volume of similar migration to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea. Those findings were featured in the report “Mixed Migration in the Horn of Africa and the Arab Peninsula”. Also in 2018, IOM had recorded 150,000 migrant arrivals into Yemen, 20 per cent of whom were minors. The long journey was often made on foot and exposed people on the move to dehydration, illness and human rights abuses, including trafficking.

Djibouti might appear to be an unlikely place to sustain a population of foreign street children. But, in point of fact, it was a major transit location for migrants, especially from Ethiopia, who sought to cross over to Yemen, and ultimately to the Arab Peninsula. The journey through Djibouti was gruelling. Those with money might hitchhike. The rest might simply find themselves trapped, unable to get to the coast – for the cross-over into Yemen – through one of the driest and hottest places on earth.

The population covered by the study was made up of children aged 0 to 17. Of the 1,137 children surveyed, 633 were aged 0 to 9, including 195 girls. One respondent reported working long hours in a restaurant, earning about USD 56 per month in local currency.

Money for the study had been provided by the European Union though the EU-IOM joint initiative for the protection and reintegration of migrants in the Horn of Africa as part of a 2 million euro project for children in street situations in Djibouti

Launch of a report on migration and health

Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that a press conference would be held in Room III at 1 p.m. on Monday 21 January to launch a WHO report on the health of refugees and migrants in the European Region.

It was the first-ever report on the health of refugees and migrants in the WHO European Region and would reveal that migrants and refugees were at higher risk of falling ill while in transit or while living in receiving countries, due to changes in living conditions and adapted lifestyle choices.

The report challenged some preconceived notions that were widely held by host communities about the health of migrant and refugee populations, and provided receiving countries with strong evidence to target their interventions. In addition, the report reaffirmed that refugees and migrants were entitled to the same human right to health as everyone else in the Region.

The new report, developed in partnership with the Italian National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty (INMP), brought together for the first time the latest evidence on the health of migrants and refugees from across the Region, drawn from 13 000 documents. In addition, it charted the progress countries were making to improve the health of migrant populations.

The speakers at the conference would be Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe, and Santino Severoni, Coordinator Public Health and Migration programme at WHO/Europe.

Meeting of WHO Executive Board and threats to global health in 2019

Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the 144th session of the WHO Executive Board Meeting would take place from 24 January to 1 February. All its sessions would be public except – as was customary – the deliberations regarding the appointment of new regional directors. Two Regional Directors were due to be appointed during the session: for South-East Asia and for the Western Pacific

Finally, Mr. Jašareviæ said that he wished to draw journalists’ attention to a recent WHO document outlining ten threats to global health for 2019.

Election results in DRC

Responding to a question raised by a journalist regarding the contested outcome of recent presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the situation in the country remained relatively calm. Both the Secretary-General of the United Nations and Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) were calling on all sides to maintain that calm. In her briefing to the Security Council on 11 January, Ms. Zerrougui had explained that the results were still preliminary. She was continuing to meet with the parties urging them to work together to ensure a smooth and transparent transition. It was important to note that the United Nations was not itself involved in the elections, which were a Congolese-owned process. Thus, first and foremost, it was up to the national authorities to take matters into their hands and shoulder their responsibilities.

Situation in the Syrian Arab Republic

In answer to a question raised by a journalist, Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Syrian Arab Republic had arrived in Damascus that morning. In due course, he hoped to be able to provide information about the outcome of the meetings the Special Envoy would hold and about any other countries in the region he intended to visit.

Replying to a question posed by a journalist regarding the reported deaths from cold and lack of care of eight small children in Rukban refugee camp, Hervé Verhoosel, for the World Food Programme (WFP), read the following statement:

“The United Nations remains seriously concerned about the increasingly desperate conditions for more than 40,000 people staying at the Rukban site. The majority are women and children, who have been staying at the site for more than two years in harsh conditions with limited humanitarian assistance, access to medical care and other essential services.

WFP and the United Nations has been strongly advocating for a second inter-agency convoy with critical assistance to take place as soon as possible following the last inter-agency convoy last November.

WFP and the United Nations continues to call on all parties to ensure safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access to people in need, in line with their obligations under international humanitarian law.

WFP and the United Nations also calls for safe, voluntary and dignified durable solution for the displaced population at the Rukban site. The UN is planning to conduct an intention survey during the next inter-agency convoy to inform discussions on durable solutions.”

Canadian citizen sentenced to death in China

Answering a question raised by a journalist regarding a death sentenced recently handed down by a Chinese court against a Canadian accused of drug smuggling, Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that, although he was unable to comment on the specifics of the case, the United Nations had a firm and long-standing stance against the death penalty in any and all its forms.

Update of the launch of the Global Commission report on the Future of Work on 22 January

Rosalind Yarde, for the International Labour Organization (ILO), said that said that the media launch of the Global Commission report on the Future of Work would take place at ILO headquarters at 9 a.m. on Tuesday 22 January at the ILO. The briefing would be attended by the co-chairs of the Commission: South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, and Prime Minister of Sweden, Stefan Löfven, as well as by ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder. Journalists would have an opportunity to ask questions about the findings and recommendations of the report. The briefing would not be webcast but it would be filmed and made available to media outlets.

A copy of the report, the executive summary and a press release would be made available on a password protected webpage, under embargo until 10:30 a.m. Geneva time on 17 January.

This report marked the culmination of more than 15 months of high-level discussions on how to achieve a better future of work for all at a time of unprecedented change and of exceptional challenges for the world of work relating to such things as the effects of technological innovation, youth employment, skills development, income inequality and gender inequality.

The independent 27-member Commission was made up of leading global figures from business, trade unions, think tanks, government and non-governmental organizations.
The launch of the report also marked the official launch of the ILO centenary year, which would be celebrated throughout the course of 2019.

Geneva announcements

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the Committee on the Rights of the Child had begun its eightieth session the previous day. During the morning it would conclude its review of the report of Guinea, which it had begun the previous afternoon. In the afternoon, it would begin its consideration of the report of the Syrian Arab Republic. During the course of its current session, it was due to consider reports from seven States parties: Bahrain, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Guinea, Italy, Japan and the Syrian Arab Republic.

Press conferences

Thursday 17 January at 2.30 p.m., Press Room 1 - UNCTAD/UNECE

Presentation of the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2019 (Embargoed until Monday 21 January 4 p.m. GMT- 5:00 p.m. Geneva time), published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the UN Regional Commissions and UNCTAD

Speakers:
• Richard Kozul-Wright, Director, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, UNCTAD
• José Palacin, Senior Economic Affairs Officer, Office of the Executive Secretary, UNECE

Friday 18 January at 2.30 p.m., Press Room 1 - UNCTAD

Presentation of the latest Global Investment Trends Monitor (Embargo 21 January 2019 at 1 p.m. Geneva Time)

Speaker:
• James Zhan, UNCTAD, Director, Division on Investment and Enterprise

The embargoed material is available to journalists via an online newsroom. A password is required to access the newsroom; to obtain one, it is necessary to fill out the form online. Journalists with access to the UNCTAD virtual newsroom can download embargoed press releases and summaries of UNCTAD reports.