HIGHLIGHTS OF BRIEFING BY SHASHI THAROOR, UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC INFORMATION

Shashi Tharoor, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, speaking today during the regular briefing of the UN Information Service in Geneva, said he had met with the Executive Committee of ACANU yesterday and they had discussed difficulties journalists in Geneva sometimes faced to promote the activities of some agencies and programmes. He hoped journalists were satisfied with the press conference that the Secretary-General had conducted in Geneva earlier this month.

In New York, the UN had been working on the follow-up to the World Summit. The President of the General Assembly was energetic and determined and he was taking forward the Outcome Document of the World Summit. At the same time, the Secretary-General's report came out just yesterday on his efforts to implement those portions of the Outcome Document that related to the Secretariat. The Task Force had already begun work on fleshing out the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council. The UN was looking at important progress on building on the base that the World Summit had provided.

Asked about the work of the newly appointed Senior UN System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, and if he had an overall coordinating role worldwide or if this was a shared function with the World Health Organization, Mr. Tharoor said the reason the Secretary-General had made this appointment was because the issues seemed to go beyond the responsibility of any one organization. The World Health Organization remained a key partner, and the Secretary-General had visited their Crisis Centre. Mr. Tharoor said he would also be meeting with WHO officials later in the day to get more of a handle on how they were dealing with all of these issues. The Food and Agriculture Organization also had a crucial role, because avian flu affected birds. The role of the Coordinator was to try and rise above the specific organization mandate. In addition, it would be useful for the media to have a specific focal point. All of this put together was the responsibility of Dr. David Nabarro. As the situation evolved, there would be more updates and details.

In response to a question on how quickly there would be movement on the Human Rights Council, Mr. Tharoor said as far as the Human Rights Council was concerned, in the Outcome Document, world leaders had resolved to establish such a Council. The nuts and bolts for establishing the Council remained to be sorted out. Work had begun and the President of the General Assembly had said he would like to see the work concluded before December because this was a budget year and for all of the decisions with budgetary implications, there was a certain logic behind concluding them in such a way that the financial provisions for them could be taken in the adoption of the overall budget for the next biennium which started 1 January 2006. There was a strong institutional and administrative pressure to conclude this work this year. But Member States had to agree. As an international civil servant, all he could say was that until the Member States agreed, all plans had to proceed for the existing institutions to continue their work. It would be premature to do away with any existing institutions until it was clear what would replace them and when and where and how.

A journalist asked how the United Nations felt about denouncing or naming and shaming violators. Mr. Tharoor said denunciations were not the style of the UN. The Secretary-General had once told him an old Ghanaian proverb which said you should not hit a man on his head when you had your fingers between his teeth. This proverb applied very well to the work of the UN. The UN did not denounce people today whom it had to work with tomorrow. The UN had its metaphorical fingers between the teeth of many Member States. It stood up and announced anything from outrageous human rights violations to humanitarian calamities and the world's response thereto. It was not that the UN was not willing to be outspoken, but this outspokenness must not come at the expense of its effectiveness. Where the UN's effectiveness required it to work with people whom the media may wish to denounce, it would leave journalists to do the denouncing and it would continue to do its work.

Speaking along the same lines, a journalist said the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression had last week called on the Tunisian Government to free all opinion prisoners and asked if the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society could be successful if this did not happen. Mr. Tharoor said that of course the UN hoped that what the journalist had mentioned could be resolved. At the same time, the decision to hold the WSIS in Tunisia had been taken by the Member States. In fact, holding the WSIS there would allow the UN to highlight the need for developing countries to benefit from the information society. The so-called digital divide affected the developing countries and so it was logical to hold the second part of WSIS in a developing country. At the same time, the Tunisian Government knew what was expected of it as the host country. He had not reason to believe that there would be any problems for the Summit.

Asked how the UN could enhance its image, Mr. Tharoor said this could be done by convincing the media that the UN's work was effective and efficient and was worth coverage and to change the belief that "good news was no news". Also, there were decisions by editors and it seemed that sometimes all editors were concerned about were negative stories concerning the UN. In the end, it was up to the UN. If it could show the world that its work made a real difference for people, then the image of the UN would change and any negative reflection would disappear. This could be seen during the tsunami. It had been a great tragedy, but the United Nations had arrived there very quickly and its work had been very effective. If the work of the UN was reflected, it would help the world discover the real UN, and not only how some its critics imagined it to be.

A journalist said there were rumours of attempts to change the geographical rotation tradition for the successor of the Secretary-General and asked for further information. Mr. Tharoor said there was a great deal of discussion on the issue of the successor of the Secretary-General and it was his duty as an international civil servant to say that this was entirely a decision to be taken by Member States. There was no written convention, but there was an unwritten convention, which had evolved particularly over the last few Secretary-General-ships, that the world would like to see a rotation amongst the various geographical zones. The Asian Group had stated openly that it considered it to be its turn. Whether this was indeed accepted in the end would depend on events that had not yet occurred. It would depend on how the Security Council, which took the first step in this matter, would act next year.

In response to another question, Mr. Tharoor said he wished to see the presence of the media at the UN Office at Geneva enhanced. He regretted that some international media had reduced their representatives at UNOG. This was a pity because the UN was happy to have a strong press corps here in Geneva which could show that the work of the UN was worthy of the attention of the world. Answering a follow-up question, Mr. Tharoor noted that the Secretary-General had chosen Geneva to hold his latest press conference, and the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs often used Geneva to make announcements. Also, Geneva was the home of human rights and health and humanitarian issues. It was not a matter of the UN not giving Geneva enough importance, but rather that the media preferred dealing with issues of peace and war and security which were dealt with in the Security Council in New York.

Asked what was being discussed in New York among Member States concerning a political response to a pandemic, Mr. Tharoor said there have not been much so far under the auspices of the UN. There had been the EU meeting on the subject and bilateral discussions among affected countries. The UN itself in New York had not hosted a forum on this subject so far. But the Secretary-General had taken a personal interest in this matter. He had named his own Coordinator, and he believed that the UN was at the start of a complicated, long and important process.