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 International Organization for Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme and the World Trade Organization.

General Assembly update

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the General Assembly of the United Nations continued. On Friday, 27 September, there would be a high-level review of the progress made in addressing the priorities of small island developing States (SIDS) through the implementation of the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway.

Human Rights Council update

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, speaking on behalf of the Human Rights Council, said that, on Friday, 27 September, the Human Rights Council would take action on its remaining draft resolutions. The Council had adopted 23 resolutions the previous day and had yet to take action on a further 15. The Council would appoint seven new members of its Advisory Committee and a new Independent Expert for the Central African Republic. The Council would then close its 42nd session.

Syria

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, speaking on behalf of the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria, said that the Special Envoy, Geir O. Pedersen, would brief the Security Council on Monday, when he would provide an update on the Constitutional Committee. Further details on the briefing would be circulated in due course.

The Niger

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

“More than 40,000 people have now been forced to cross from northwest Nigeria into Niger as a result of an upsurge in violent attacks on civilians over the last ten months.

People are seeking safety from indiscriminate attacks unleashed by organized armed groups on men, women and children alike. There have been frequent reports of kidnappings, torture, extortion, murder, sexual violence and destruction of houses and property.

The escalating violence in the Nigerian states of Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina has led to a new humanitarian emergency in Niger’s border regions. Nigerian refugees continue to arrive in more than 50 villages in the departments of Guidan Roumji, Guidan Sori and Tibiri. On September 11 alone, more than 2,500 people fled when civilians were targeted by armed groups on the Nigerian side. As the security situation continues to deteriorate in Sokoto State, we are expecting more refugees to arrive in Niger.

People are seeking safety from indiscriminate attacks unleashed by organized armed groups. There have been frequent reports of kidnappings, torture, extortion, murder, sexual violence and destruction of houses and property.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is working with local authorities and its humanitarian partners to assist refugees, many of whom are arriving traumatized and with few belongings.

Fleeing villagers report the attackers to be well-equipped and well organized, and that some refugees have been chased over the border into Niger. Some village chiefs in Niger are also reported to have been targeted and killed by the armed groups.

Refugees, many of them women and children, are arriving with gruesome details of extreme violence. A 14 year-old refugee told UNHCR staff that attackers killed more than 50 people in her village, including her family members. Her father and two young sisters, aged three and four, were shot dead, while her five year-old brother was killed with a machete. Attackers stole all her family’s belongings.

The attackers, who take some people hostage, let others go free to warn the rest of the community of the consequences if they do not pay ransoms and if they do not flee their homes.

UNHCR is rushing assistance to the area and registering the new arrivals with six mobile units in the border regions. We have opened a new field office and deployed emergency staff and resources to respond to the humanitarian needs. A 747 cargo plane carrying 98 metric tonnes of relief items from UNHCR, landed in Niamey on Monday (September 23). Items were being distributed to the refugees and host communities welcoming them into their villages.

Most refugees are in villages close to the border which are prone to incursions from armed groups. UNHCR is working with local authorities to relocate refugees to ten villages identified as being in safer locations.

But more resources are urgently needed to support refugees and their hosts. An inter-agency refugee response plan launched this week seeks US$ 35.5 million until the end of this year. So far we have 6 percent of the required funding.”

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), read the following statement:

“In Niger, heavy rainfall since June has led to severe flooding which has killed 57 people and affected more than 211,000 people, according to Government authorities. In addition, more than 16,000 houses have been damaged. Most of the affected people are in the three hardest hit regions of Zinder, Maradi and Agadez. It had been reported that refugees were currently not affected by the situation.

The situation deteriorated dramatically during the last week of August, when the water levels of the Niger basin reached flood stage. From the beginning of September, more than two-thirds of the flood-affected - some 150,000 people – were recorded. Overflow from dams in Burkina Faso and Mali have contributed to the flooding in Niger.

The last time the Niger basin reached flood stage was in 2012. At that time, the floods left dozens of dead and affected nearly half a million people. This year, the Government alerted the population and humanitarian organizations of the impending crisis on the 30 of August, before the full impact of rising water levels hit.

However, the damage assessment this year already exceeds the forecasts made earlier in the year, when the Government and the UN estimated that between 170,000 and 200,000 people were at risk of flooding.

There has been an upward trend in how many people are affected by these seasonal rains in recent years. The number of people affected each year since 2015 has doubled and increasing material damage recorded, including destruction of crops and loss of livestock.

The UN and humanitarian partners are supporting the Government’s own response particularly in the priority sectors of shelter and non-food items, food security and water, sanitation & hygiene.

However, the response provided does not meet the urgent needs identified so far. A main reason is lack of funding. There is a total of 2.3 million people in need of aid in Niger, half of them children. The 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan for Niger requires US$383 million dollars. It remains under-funded at 37 per cent.”

Herve Verhoosel, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that WFP, humanitarian agencies and the Government were ramping up assistance in the region, in which tens of thousands of people had sought refuge and assistance after fleeing violence involving non-State armed groups. WFP was providing emergency food assistance to the refugees, internally displaced persons and vulnerable host communities in the conflict-affected region. WFP had provided unconditional food and nutrition assistance to all UNHCR-registered Nigerian refugees in Maradi since June 2019. In August, WFP had provided food and nutrition assistance to all 31,000 registered Nigerians. In September, distributions had aimed to reach 41,000 refugees and, for the first time, 14,000 poor host community members. In addition, WFP had financed the distribution of food assistance from the Government to 5,680 households - or 40,000 individuals – in the host community over five days.

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

“An estimated 123,000 children have been affected by the flooding. They are of course most vulnerable to respiratory infections and water-borne disease.

With the Ministry of Humanitarian affairs and Disaster Relief and the Directorate General of Civil Protection, we are working to bring assistance to flood-affected families. We have been able to distribute basic but essential items - mosquito nets, soap, water storage and material to construct basic shelters. We’ve so far distributed 947 kits to 6,600 people, with more to come in next days.

Because data collection has been such a bottleneck in the past, slowing down assistance, we have distributed 50 tablets that are helping the government and human partners with electronic data collection that should help trigger a faster response.

As OCHA has said, Niger is facing simultaneous emergencies that are stretching the capacities of government and partners to respond. Children in Niger face malnutrition, recurrent disease outbreaks and epidemics, cyclical floods, drought and displacement. This is of course exacerbated by instability in neighboring countries, which has resulted in an influx of thousands refugees, returnees and migrants, all of whom need access to basic social services for survival.

And - recent weather forecasts give us reason to worry that the numbers of children affected by the floods will rise.”

Responding to questions on the attribution of responsibility for the attacks, Mr. Baloch, for UNHCR, said that, as far as UNHCR was aware, the attacks were not linked to Boko Haram. UNHCR did not have detailed information on which specific armed groups were responsible. Although the Nigerian refugees who had arrived in the Niger had not identified the armed groups responsible for the attacks, they had recounted the horrors they had seen and experienced. In the previous four months, the number of refugees in the Niger had more than doubled. In addition, more than 200,000 people had been internally displaced.

Responding to questions on the extent of the flooding and on the funding situation, Mr. Laerke, for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that images of the flooding showed there was a vast area that was partially flooded. That area included parcels of elevated land that were technically not flooded. The information available to OCHA indicated that the specific areas to which the Nigerian refugees had fled were not currently flooded. OCHA had received US$ 141.3 million of the US$ 383.1 million that it had requested for 2019. If further funding was not received, the projects and programmes included in the Humanitarian Response Plan at the beginning of the year would not be implemented or would have to be downscaled.

Providing a WFP perspective on the funding situation, Mr. Verhoosel, for WFP, said that his organization needed US$ 42.2 million to finance actual needs in the Niger for the following six months. Since the beginning of 2019, WFP had assisted 1.4 million people across the country. WFP remained highly concerned at the situation in the Niger and across the region.

Responding to the same question on the funding situation, Ms. Mercado, for UNICEF, said that the funding shortages meant that more children would not receive the basic but essential services that they needed to survive, attend school and be protected from the crises affecting them.

Refugee evacuation from Libya

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

“A group of 66 vulnerable refugees was evacuated from Libya to Rwanda last night on a UNHCR-chartered flight. They are the first to benefit from the Emergency Transit Mechanism, recently agreed and set up by the Government of Rwanda, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the African Union.

The group which landed at Kigali international airport around 9:30 pm local time, included a baby born in Libyan detention just two months ago. In total, 26 of the evacuees were refugee children, nearly all of them unaccompanied, without a family member or parent.

One evacuee had not been outside a detention centre for more than four years. All evacuees were either Sudanese, Somali or Eritrean.
Upon arrival, refugees were registered and provided with documentation, before being taken to a transit centre in Gashora some 60 kilometers south of the capital, Kigali, where UNHCR will provide them with accommodation, food, water, kitchen sets, blankets and other core relief items.

A team of nine health professionals, including a psychologist, will work alongside counsellors specialized in working with children and survivors of sexual violence to provide health care and assist evacuees who survived torture, sexual violence and human rights abuses during their time in Libya.

The entire group has been granted asylum-seeker status, pending an assessment of their refugee claim by UNHCR. They have the same rights as other refugees in Rwanda, including access to education and healthcare, and freedom of movement and to work.

A second evacuation flight is expected in the coming weeks as UNHCR continues every effort to get vulnerable refugees in Libya out of harm’s way and to safety. Faster and increased evacuations and initiatives such as the Emergency Transit Mechanism, are urgently needed.

UNHCR urges the international community to support Rwanda’s gesture of solidarity with refugees by providing financial support and resettlement places.

UNHCR estimates that US$10 million will be spent on initial investments and to run the Emergency Transit Mechanism between Libya and Rwanda through the end of the year. This includes initial costs of construction and renovation works, and basic aid and services for evacuated refugees. UNHCR is using flexible funding for the Rwanda ETM, which was not budgeted at the beginning of the year, and is actively soliciting additional donor support.”

Responding to questions on the UNHCR-chartered flight, Mr. Baloch, for UNHCR, said that the Emergency Transit Mechanism demonstrated the solidarity shown by Rwandans towards their African brothers and sisters. The President had emphasized that spirit of solidarity in his recent address to the General Assembly at its 74th session. Other Emergency Transit Mechanisms were in place elsewhere, including one in the Niger. Emergency centres offered a lifeline to refugees who were at immediate risk. In Libya, refugees had reportedly been attacked and tortured at detention centres. UNHCR hoped that, once the refugees had arrived in Rwanda, it would be possible to find alternative solutions for them, where necessary. Other countries needed to show solidarity in that regard.

Responding to further questions, Mr. Baloch said that the UNHCR-chartered flight was the first such flight from Libya to Rwanda. The emergency centre in Rwanda had a capacity of 500, but it was possible that greater capacity would be needed in the future. UNHCR hoped that, after a period of time in the emergency centre, refugees would be able to move on to safer locations. He hoped that, in the coming days and weeks, it would be possible to fly more Libyan refugees to safety.

Responding to a request for comment on reports that the current administration of the United States of America planned to make cuts to its refugee resettlement programme, Mr. Baloch said that, to his knowledge, the ceiling for refugee admissions had to be approved by the President before it was finalized. UNHCR was therefore unable to comment on those reports. Resettlement offered a lifeline to refugees. Their lives often remained at risk even once they had found refuge. In July 2019, UNHCR had projected that, in 2020, it would be necessary to resettle around 1.44 million of the 26 million refugees across the world. It was a constant struggle to find resettlement places for so many refugees. Indeed, UNHCR was barely able to resettle 100,000 refugees a year. In 2018, 25 countries had admitted a total of over 92,000 refugees for resettlement.

Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas.

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

“During the next weeks, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) will increase its support to survivors of Hurricane Dorian by managing shelters, providing essential household items to displaced families, supporting debris removal operations and deploying its Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) to provide accurate information on the needs of the affected population. 

This support will be possible thanks to USD 1.9 million granted this week by the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). 

With these funds, IOM will continue supporting the Government of The Bahamas, in the wake of the catastrophe that has left 53 dead, 600 missing and tens of thousands displaced to less affected areas of the country. 

Jan-Willem Wegdam, head of the IOM Emergency Response Team in The Bahamas, said: “IOM will manage shelters and provide training in camp management and coordination and, if necessary, equipment of collective centres, upgrades, and repairs to existing buildings, and provision of latrines, bathing stations, and non-food item kits.” 

Where families can return to their homes but require tools and materials to carry out small-scale rehabilitations, IOM will provide toolkits and necessary training to family members. This intervention will prevent the overcrowding of collective centres and support households returning home as quickly as possible, when safe to do so.

IOM will also support the Bahamian Ministry of Social Services and Urban Development to monitor the missing persons list.”

Responding to a question on the total number of people affected, Mr. Millman, for IOM, said that, according to a recent IOM situation report, approximately 76,000 people had been affected. It was indicated in the same situation report that, in parts of the country, electricity was not available and running water was limited, that nearly 5,000 people had been evacuated and that approximately 1,900 people were living in Government-approved emergency shelters. The figure of US$ 1.9 million did not necessarily impose a limit on the number of people who could be assisted. In the long term, it was difficult to say how long it would take to remedy the effects of the hurricane.

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General had noted yesterday that the Government of the Bahamas was shifting its efforts towards recovery. The United Nations and its partners were continuing to support the Government-led response efforts, including the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable and to displaced persons. As at Wednesday, the United Nations and humanitarian organizations had supported the Government in delivering over 350,000 meals and 135,000 litres of water and in providing health services, debris removal, waste management, temporary housing and other items.

IOM announcement

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that the World Migration Report 2018 had turned out to be the most successful publication that IOM had ever released. It had been downloaded some 400,000 times. The latest edition, for 2020, would be released in approximately six weeks. IOM would be happy to share further information on the statistics contained in such reports.

UNECE announcements

Jean Rodriguez, for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), said that UNECE was currently not expecting to make an announcement in connection with the work of the Informal Group of Experts on Automated Driving. Journalists would be informed if any decision was adopted.

Mr. Rodriguez also said that UNECE Sustainable Cities Week 2019 would be held from 1 to 4 October. The theme was “Affordable housing and urban infrastructure for all”. It should be recalled that, in the UNECE region, at least 100 million low- and middle-income people were housing-cost overburdened. In the European Union alone, it was estimated that around 52 million people could not keep their homes adequately warm and that around 41 million faced arrears on their utility bills. The full programme for the week had been included in the media advisory circulated to journalists. The four key themes to be discussed were: a proposal to organize a forum of mayors; the possibility of organizing a ministerial meeting, in 2020, to review the implementation of the UN Charter on Sustainable Housing; the launch of an updated version of the Real Estate Market Policy Framework on 2 October; and the launch of the Country Profile on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management of Belarus on 4 October. The diverse speakers at the event would include government representatives, mayors and academics. On Friday, 4 October, on the occasion of World Habitat Day, UNECE would organize a screening of the documentary Push, which featured the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, Ms. Leilani Farha. The screening would take place at 1 p.m. in the Cinema Room.

Responding to questions on Sustainable Cities Week 2019, Mr. Rodriguez said that homelessness was one of the issues that would be discussed at the event. UNECE had previously published studies on homelessness. The United States of America and Canada were fully associated with the work of UNECE. The selection of the mayors who would participate in Sustainable Cities Week 2019 had been determined by their availability. In that regard, it should be noted that one of the four mayors who had made a tree-planting pledge as part of the Trees in Cities Challenge, a UNECE campaign launched at the Climate Action Summit 2019, was from Canada.

WTO announcements

Fernando Puchol, for the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that, on Tuesday, 1 October, the revised world merchandise trade forecast would be published online at 11 a.m. It was a review of the trade forecast released in April 2019. There would be no press conference associated with the publication. In April 2019, it had been forecast that trade volume growth would fall to 2.6 per cent in 2019 and that it might rebound to 3 per cent in 2020.

Mr. Puchol also said that the Dispute Settlement Body would meet on Monday, 30 September. It would consider requests for the establishment of panels by the European Union (Turkey – certain measures concerning the production, importation and marketing of pharmaceutical products), the United States of America (India — Additional duties on certain products from the United States) and Tunisia (Morocco — Definitive Anti-Dumping Measures on School Exercise Books from Tunisia). In addition, the Dispute Settlement Body would consider the reports of the Appellate Body in Ukraine – anti-dumping measures on ammonium nitrate and Korea –anti-dumping duties on pneumatic valves from Japan. Members would hear a joint presentation by Canada and the European Union on their interim appeal arbitration arrangement pursuant to Article 25 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding. The two parties had agreed that, after December 2019, they would resort to arbitration if the Appellate Body was not able to hear appeals of panel reports in any future disputes between them. It was expected that a press briefing would be held at WTO on Monday, 30 September.

Mr. Puchol added that, on 30 September, Director-General Roberto Azevêdo would participate in “Trade for Her: Empowering Women through International Trade”, a conference hosted by the European Commission in Brussels. On Tuesday, 1 October, he would meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other heads of international organizations in Berlin. On Friday, 4 October, he would meet with Alejandro de la Peña, Secretary General of the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), at WTO.

Responding to a question on the interim appeal arbitration arrangement, Mr. Puchol said that WTO was providing the logistics and assistance necessary to facilitate the joint presentation by Canada and the European Union. The interim appeal arbitration arrangement was a member State-driven initiative.

Responding to a question on the conference in which the Director-General would participate in Brussels on Monday, 30 September, Mr. Puchol said that WTO would publish a news item on that day. The Director-General’s participation related to the gender equality initiative that WTO had been promoting since the Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in 2017.

Responding to a request for an update on European Communities and Certain member States — Measures Affecting Trade in Large Civil Aircraft, Mr. Puchol said that the parties had been informed of the latest developments in the dispute. Information on the procedure, which was confidential, was not shared with the WTO communications team. Journalists would be informed once the final document was released by WTO.

Geneva announcements

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that, on Monday, 30 September, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would open its 66th session, during which it would consider the reports of Denmark, Ecuador, Israel, Senegal, Slovakia and Switzerland. The 66th session would be held until 18 October, at the Palais Wilson.

Mr. LeBlanc added that, also on Monday, 30 September, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances would open its 17th session, during which it would consider the reports of the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Slovakia and the situation in Nigeria in the absence of a report. The 17th session would be held until 11 October, at the Palais Wilson.

Mr. LeBlanc also said that, in the afternoon of Friday, 27 September, the Committee on the Rights of the Child would close its 82nd session and would issue its concluding observations on the reports of Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Mozambique, Panama, Portugal and the Republic of Korea.

Mr. LeBlanc added that, also on Friday, 27 September, the Human Rights Council would close its 42nd session. Updates on the Council’s work would be provided throughout the day.

Press conferences

Wednesday, 2 October 2019 at 9:00 a.m. in Room III
UNHCR
Announcing and introducing the winner of UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award 2019
Speaker:
• Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees