REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section, United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, the International Telecommunication Union and the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions.

Attacks in Sri Lanka

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), made the following statement:

“UNICEF is deeply shocked and saddened by the terrible violence directed against families, including children, gathered in churches and hotels on Easter Sunday, across Sri Lanka.

UNICEF expresses its deepest sympathy to the victims, families and communities impacted by these brutal attacks.

News of how these attacks have affected children and adolescents is still coming in, but we now know that scores of children – both Sri Lankan and other nationalities – have been killed and injured. Many are wounded and are now fighting for their lives in intensive care units across the country. To date (23 April 2019), we know that 27 children have died and 10 children have been injured as a result of the blast that occurred in St Sebastian’s Church Katuwapitiya, in Negombo.

In Batticaloa, 13 children lost their lives, with the youngest victim just 18 months old. 15 children aged between 7 years and 16 years are receiving treatment in hospital.

5 additional children of foreign nationality are confirmed to have died.

20 children have been admitted to hospital in Colombo, with 4 of them in intensive care (ICU), as a result of the blasts in Colombo.

Many children have lost one or both parents, and countless children have been witness to shocking and senseless violence.

UNICEF is working closely with government partners to collect reliable information on the situation of the children and adolescents impacted. As of now, UNICEF has identified the following needs and is responding in the following way:

Some hospitals where children are admitted are in need of essential medical supplies. UNICEF is in the process of procuring and providing needed supplies.

Children who have been separated from parents are in need of support to identify relatives and connect with their families. Children who have lost parents are in need of permanent placements. UNICEF is providing financial and technical assistance to probation services to help reunite children with their parents or place them with family members and caregivers.

Psychosocial support and counselling is also identified as a major need. This week, UNICEF will be providing ‘psychosocial first aid’ to children and their families who have been impacted.

UNICEF continues to provide support to the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and the Ministry of Health in coordinating data collection and to ensure that children and adolescents are prioritized in this response.

UNICEF condemns this violence in the strongest possible terms. No child should experience such a heartbreaking situation and no parents should lose their child forever under such horrible circumstances.”

In response to a question from a journalist, Mr. Boulierac said that 45 children were confirmed to have died, of whom 5 were of foreign nationality. As the situation evolved, those figures were liable to change.

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, recalled that, on Sunday, 21 April 2019, the Secretary-General of the United Nations had expressed outrage at the terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, a sacred day for Christians around the world. He recalled the sanctity of all places of worship and he hoped perpetrators would be swiftly brought to justice. The Secretary-General also expressed his condolences to the families of the victims, the people and the Government of Sri Lanka, and wished a speedy recovery to the injured. The Secretary-General reiterated the support and solidarity of the United Nations with the people and the Government of Sri Lanka in this difficult moment for the nation.

Cyclone Idai

Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), made the following statement:

“In Mozambique, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the national Government and other partners have begun the work of relocating families displaced by Cyclone Idai back to areas closer to their places of origin.

On Saturday, 200 families were moved out of emergency shelters in the central town of Beira. It is hoped that, over the next 10 days, some 70,000 further people will be moved out of the temporary sites they have been living in for the past month. These sites include schools, communal halls, libraries and other buildings.

Cyclone Idai hit the southern African nations of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in mid-March. Hardest hit was Mozambique, where the cyclone killed some 600 people, with more than 1,600 injured, according to official estimates. Nearly 240,000 houses have also been damaged and over 111,000 destroyed.

Families moved at the weekend came from the district of Buzi, the epicentre of devastation in Mozambique. There, Cyclone Idai brought complete destruction.
As a first step, they were moved to a transit centre in Guara Guara, some 55 kilometres from their areas of origin in Buzi.

Guara Guara is on higher land and is more suitable for families to restart a life closer to home until they are able to recover old houses that have been completely destroyed. On arrival, the families were assigned emergency tents provided by UNHCR and by INGC (the Government of Mozambique’s agency for managing natural disasters).

The settlement is equipped with potable water and latrines, and the national government – with the support of the UN World Food Programme – is providing food. MSF is operating a health centre on the ground.

The families will stay in Guara Guara for up to three days and will receive a plot of land (20 x 30 meters, totalling 600 square meters), a kit of materials to clean the land and build their new houses, and seeds to start farming.

UNHCR is positioning its available stocks of relief items – including mosquito nets, solar lamps, sleeping mats, blankets, kitchen sets, jerry cans and buckets – to be distributed to those families. Priority is given to the elderly, persons with disabilities, single women and unaccompanied children.

We are working with other humanitarian partners to ensure adherence to internationally accepted relocation standards, including the voluntary nature of the moves.

With an estimated 1.8 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in Mozambique, aid organizations are facing immense challenges due to extensive damage to infrastructure and low funding. So far, humanitarian agencies have been able to reach only 30 per cent of the target population.”

In response to questions from journalists, Mr. Baloch said that the process of moving families from the district of Buzi to the transit centre in Guara Guara had begun on Saturday, 20 April and had continued on Sunday, 21 April. There was currently no update on whether the allocation of land to those families had commenced. It was hoped that, with assistance, the families would be able to replant destroyed crops and rebuild their homes in their areas of origin in Buzi.

Death of Dr. Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that, on Friday, 19 April 2019, Dr. Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, an epidemiologist and father of four deployed by WHO in the response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had been killed in an attack on Butembo University Hospital. Two other persons who had been injured in the attack were in a stable condition. In a statement, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had said that the attack was a tragic reminder of the risks health workers took every day to protect the lives and health of others, and that WHO was assessing the security situation to ensure the safety of all patients, health workers and Ebola responders. The organization remained committed to supporting the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to end the Ebola outbreak as quickly as possible. On Wednesday, 24 April, Dr. Mouzoko Kiboung’s body would be flown from Goma to his native Cameroon. In the Butembo area, ambulances and Ebola treatment centres were still operating, and burials were taking place. Other activities, such as vaccinations, contact tracing and community engagement, were, however, on standby while the security situation was being assessed.

In response to questions from journalists, Mr. Jašareviæ said that investigations were ongoing into who had perpetrated the attack and why. It was not the first time that an Ebola responder had been targeted by, or caught up in, an attack. Security incidents prevented WHO from providing the full set of services that were vital to ensuring an effective response to the Ebola outbreak. WHO was trying to strike the difficult balance between protecting its own staff and caring for Ebola patients, while also working to gain the trust of local communities. It employed security advisers and required all its staff on the ground to undertake security training.

Libya

In response to a request for an update on the situation in Libya, Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that, according to the latest figures, since clashes had intensified on 5 April 2019, 264 people, including 21 civilians, had died, and 1,266 people, including 69 civilians, had been wounded. WHO was recruiting additional specialized emergency medical teams to be deployed to Tripoli-area hospitals. WHO staff had been visiting health clinics in areas where large numbers of displaced people were sheltering so as to ensure that the facilities had what they needed to treat the displaced. WHO was equipping four primary health-care facilities that were serving newly displaced families and providing essential drugs and medical equipment. A total of 11 ambulances had been damaged or impacted by violence since the conflict had begun. WHO medical specialists who had been deployed to frontline hospitals eight days previously continued to help those hospitals to perform complex and minor surgeries. WHO emergency teams had conducted 99 major surgeries and 69 minor ones. WHO was also pre-positioning emergency medical supplies, trauma kits, and essential drugs for chronic diseases in 12 main hospitals.

Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that, since 4 April 2019, some 32,000 civilians had been displaced in Libya. Over 3,600 refugees and migrants were believed to be trapped in detention centres exposed to the clashes, or where clashes might be imminent. The security situation remained volatile amid continued fighting in the south of Tripoli. It was thought that many of the people displaced were being hosted by friends or relatives, while others were staying in collective shelters west of Tripoli or in cities along the coast. Over the previous fortnight, UNHCR had relocated over 500 refugees from the Ain Zara, Qaser Ben Gashir and Abu Salim detention centres. On the morning of Friday, 19 April 2019, 160 refugees had been flown from UNHCR’s Gathering and Departure Facility in Tripoli to Niamey, in the Niger. The number of refugees in Libya as a whole was estimated to stand at 60,000, of whom some 6,000 were believed to be in detention.

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, Ghassan Salamé, was continuing his efforts to advocate de-escalation in Libya. The previous day, he had met, in Tunis, with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Tunisia, with whom he had discussed developments related to the clashes in southern Tripoli. Both men had asserted that the United Nations-facilitated political process was the ideal and only way to solve the Libyan crisis.

Also the previous day, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Deputy Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, Maria do Valle Ribeiro, had said that, according to the latest estimates, around 35,000 people had been displaced in Libya, and displacements were continuing at an increasing rate.

Girls in ICT Day

Tiago Pinto-Pereira, for the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), made the following statement:

“On 25 April, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the global technology community and an expected 170+ countries will celebrate ‘Girls in ICT Day’, an international day observed by the United Nations to help bridge the gender digital divide. The importance the United Nations is placing on technology as a driver of development is reflected in the launch of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ United Nations High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation last year. Hundreds of events are planned worldwide aimed at inspiring a new generation of girls to explore the exciting opportunities offered by a career in information and communication technology (ICT).

ITU estimates that within the next 10 years, there will be more than 2 million technology jobs that cannot be filled because of lack of digital specialists. Girls and young women who learn coding, app development and computer science will be well-placed for a successful career in the ICT sector; advanced digital skills are rapidly becoming a strong advantage for students in almost any field they might choose to pursue. Digital skills give an advantage in a competitive job market, provide a higher salary and enhance career mobility.”

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that that afternoon, between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., an event entitled “Closing the Gender Gap in the Digital World” would be held in Room XXIII of the Palais des Nations to celebrate Girls in ICT Day. A number of experts would be in attendance and would share success stories and avenues for action.

Malaria vaccine pilot

Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the world’s first malaria vaccine had been launched in Malawi earlier that day. It was hoped that vaccinations would commence in Ghana and then Kenya later in the year. At a press conference to be held at 3 p.m. that day at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, a number of speakers would provide some background information on the long-awaited vaccine.

Iran floods

Tarik Jašareviæ, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the WHO Representative for the Islamic Republic of Iran would be in Geneva from 7 to 10 May 2019 and would be available to speak about the response of WHO to the 2019 Iran floods.

Geneva announcements

Charles Avis, for the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, said that, from Monday, 29 April 2019 to Friday, 10 May 2019, the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (BC COP-14), the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention (RC COP-9) and the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (SC COP-9) would be held back to back at the Geneva International Conference Centre. Participants would discuss major environmental issues, including marine plastic litter and the impact of chemicals and waste on human health. With regard to the Basel Convention, it was hoped that a legally binding decision would be adopted on marine plastic litter. As to the Stockholm Convention, perfluorooctanoic acid and dicofol, which were both accepted by the international community as being carcinogenic, would be considered for inclusion in the list of persistent organic pollutants. Three new chemicals would be considered for inclusion in the list of banned or restricted chemicals under the Rotterdam Convention, and the inclusion of four chemicals already on the list would be reviewed. At 2.30 p.m. on Monday, 29 April 2019, a press conference would be held in Room III of the Palais des Nations with the participation of marine expert and explorer Paul Rose and the executive secretaries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Environment Programme.

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was opening its ninety-eighth session at the Palais des Nations that morning. During the session, which would run until 10 May 2019, it would review reports submitted by Andorra, Guatemala, Hungary, Lithuania and Zambia.

The Committee against Torture was opening its sixty-sixth session at the Palais Wilson that morning. During the session, which would run until 17 May 2019, it would review reports submitted by Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Germany, Mexico, South Africa and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The first International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace would be celebrated on 24 April 2019. In a message, the Secretary-General of the United Nations had said that the occasion underscored the value of international cooperation for the common good, but that it was not enough to proclaim the virtue of multilateralism; the international community had to prove its added value. Tomorrow in Geneva, an event entitled “The Evolution of Multilateralism: from the League of Nations to the UN” would be held between 11 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. in the Cinema Room of the Palais des Nations.

Mr. LeBlanc informed that the Secretary-General of the United Nations would be leaving New York on Wednesday, 24 April to travel to Beijing, China, where he would take part in the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. On the morning of Friday, 26 April, he would deliver remarks at the Forum’s opening ceremony, while on 27 April, he would participate in a leaders’ roundtable on promoting green and sustainable development to implement the 2030 Agenda. While in Beijing, he was expected to meet with President Xi Jinping and other senior officials.

Press conferences

Wednesday, 24 April at 2.30 p.m. in Press Room 1

World Health Organization (WHO)
Embargo lifts at 3.30 p.m. Geneva time on Wednesday, 24 April 2019

Publication of the WHO Guidelines on Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep for Children under 5 years of age
This new guidance sets, for the first time, how long very young children should sit watching screens, called ‘sedentary screen time’. It also advises on how long very young children should sleep at different ages and the time that should be spent on physical activity to prevent obesity and optimize their health now and in later life. The guidance and a press release will be made available to journalists under strict embargo on Tuesday, 23 April.

Speakers:
· Dr. Fiona Bull, Programme Manager, Surveillance and Population-based Prevention, Department for the Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases, WHO
· Dr. Juana Willumsen, WHO focal point for childhood obesity and physical activity

Thursday, 25 April at 11.00 a.m. in Press Room 1
United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)

Release of a UNIDIR report on gender in disarmament: “Still Behind the Curve – Gender Balance in Arms Control, Non-proliferation and Disarmament Diplomacy”

Speakers:
· Renata Hessmann Dalaqua, report author, UNIDIR
· Renata Dwan, Director, UNIDIR

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog230419