REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information on the Secretary-General's keynote address to the closing plenary of the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security which was delivered in Madrid, the upcoming session of the Commission on Human Rights, press conferences and other activities which would be held in Geneva next week, and other issues. Spokespersons and Representatives of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UN-HABITAT, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Programme and the International Organization for Migration also participated in the briefing.

Secretary-General Addresses International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security in Madrid

Mrs. Heuzé said that Secretary-General Kofi Annan had yesterday addressed the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security in Madrid, setting out the main elements of a principled, comprehensive strategy against terrorism in five points, the "Five Ds". The Secretary-General also noted that his High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change had called for a definition of terrorism, which would make it clear that any action constituted terrorism if it was intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a Government or international organization into, or away from, action.

The Secretary-General also met with a group of organizations representing victims of terror, accompanied by King Juan Carlos of Spain and former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. The Secretary-General would be travelling to the Middle East next week. He would be arriving in Ramallah on Monday, 14 March where he would meet with Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, and his Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei. The Secretary-General would also meet with the staff of the UNRWA office. On Tuesday, the Secretary-General would start an official visit to Israel during which he would meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

Commission on Human Rights

The Director said that as journalists knew, the six-week annual meeting of the Commission on Human Rights would be starting on Monday, 14 March. A background press release in English and in French was already in the press room. It listed the different agenda items and the reports, including their document numbers. Two notes to correspondents would be issued shortly to facilitate the coverage of the session, including coverage of the opening ceremony and the three and a half day high-level segment which would start on 14 March in the afternoon in the Assembly Hall. A number of documents concerning the Commission were already available in press room 1 as usual.

There would be a series of press conferences by Foreign Ministers and other senior dignitaries attending the high-level segment of the Commission. Journalists had already been informed about a number of these press conferences, but she wished to point out that some of the times were provisional and would only be confirmed later because of the tight schedule of the visitors.

Meetings Held at the Palais des Nations

Mrs. Heuzé said a number of interesting meetings had been held at the Palais des Nations in the past few days. The fifty-fifth session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission met from 8 to 10 March. A press release was issued in English and French at the end of the session yesterday afternoon. A press briefing was also held. The Governing Council approved awards of $ 265,472,128.47 for compensation. The next session of the Governing Council would be held from 28 to 30 June, and it would be the last session where the Council examined claims.

The International Meeting on the Question of Palestine, which was convened by the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to discuss the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the wall being built by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory, had met at the Palais des Nations on 8 and 9 March. The Information Service had provided meetings coverage of the Meeting and the press releases in English and in French were all in the press room. A copy of the Final Document which was adopted by the meeting was also put in the press room as soon as it was issued.

The Conference on Disarmament had held its weekly plenary yesterday and a press release had been issued yesterday in English and in French. Next week, the Conference would exceptionally hold three plenaries to accommodate the Foreign Ministers and other senior dignitaries who would be attending the high-level segment of the Commission on Human Rights and who would also be addressing the Conference. There would be a plenary at 11 a.m. on Monday, 14 March to hear a statement from the Foreign Minister of Canada. The Conference would meet at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 15 March to hear from the Foreign Ministers of Peru, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden. On Thursday, 17 March the Conference would meet at 10 a.m. and would hear from the Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan, the Foreign Minister of Slovakia, the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Foreign Minister of Poland.

Geneva Activities on 14 March

The Director there were a number of events taking place on Monday 14 March in addition to the opening of the Commission on Human Rights. An exhibition entitled "Protected Art" would be inaugurated at 1 p.m. in the Hall des pas perdus in the presence of Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Louise Arbour, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega Sanz, the First Vice President and the Minister of the Presidency of Spain. The exhibition presented a historical documentary of how, during the Civil War of Spain, works of art from the Prado Museum were brought for safe-keeping to the Palais des Nations which at the time was the Headquarters of the League of Nations. Journalists were invited to participate in the inauguration. A short press release in French and Spanish on the exhibition was available. A special briefing would be organized for journalists just before the inauguration.

At 10 a.m. on Monday, there would be a ceremony held at the Intercontinental Hotel to inaugurate the Global Fund for Digital Solidarity. The Presidents of Nigeria and Senegal would be attending this ceremony among other dignitaries.

Human Rights

José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, recalled that he had spoken a number of times about the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Leandro Despouy, expressing his wish to visit Ecuador. The dates for the visit had now been set for 13 to 17 March. The Special Rapporteur would present his preliminary observations to the sixty-first session of the Commission on Human Rights at the beginning of April. As mentioned in previous news releases, there was a very serious crisis which the Ecuadorian judiciary was undergoing and he would be looking at that situation.

Mr. Díaz said the Information Service would be putting out a note to correspondents on information concerning the coverage of the Commission. A colleague from the Office would be doing the liaison for the Commission. His name was David Chikvaidze. His telephone number now was 022 917 9122, and starting Monday, it would be 022.917 7107. Mr. Díaz said that he would also be available.

In response to a question, Mr. Díaz said that the Commission would open at 10 a.m. on Monday in the Assembly Hall. The outgoing Chairperson would speak, followed by the High Commissioner and then by the incoming Chairperson. He could confirm that the statement of the High Commissioner would be available in advance, but he could not speak about the statements of the other speakers.

Other

Josep Bosch of the World Trade Organization said that next week, WTO was holding two important sets of negotiations in the context of the Doha Development Agenda, one on agriculture and the other on market access. There would be informal meetings and consultations on agriculture negotiations throughout the week, ending with a formal meeting on Friday, 18 March. There would be a briefing on Friday afternoon. There would also be informal meetings and consultations for market access for non-agricultural products on 14, 15 and 16 March. There would be small group meetings on market access on 17 March, and a formal wrap-up session on Friday, 18 March. There would also be a briefing on Friday. The trade policy review of Mongolia would be held on 15 and 17 March. Concerning the agenda of the Secretary-General, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi would be in London on Tuesday to deliver a speech at the London City University. He would receive the Minister of Industry and Commerce of Mongolia on 16 March.

Catherine Sibut-Pinot of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that the Commission on Trade in Goods and Services and Commodities would be holding its ninth session from 14 to 18 March. There would be a number of press conferences held in that context. The Commission on Investment, Technology and Related Financial Issues would be concluding its meeting today. There would be a concluding press release later in the day.

Sylvie Lacroux of UN Habitat said Koichiru Matsuura, the Director-General of UNESCO, and Anna K. Tibaijuka, the Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, would sign a memorandum of understanding to enhance collaboration between both agencies on cities and urban issues following a public debate between cities, researchers and international organizations on "The Right to the City". The public debate would be held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 18 March. A press release was available.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland would give a press conference in Room III on 16 March at 1 p.m. He was also invited by the Norwegian Refugee Council to help launch their annual report at 9 a.m. on the same day at the Swiss Press Club.

According to the latest situation report on the tsunami relief efforts, Ms. Byrs said that concerning the Flash Appeal for the tsunami which was launched on 6 January, out of $ 871 million pledged by official donors, $ 541 million had been contributed ("paid," "disbursed"). A further $ 194 million has been committed. That meant that 84 per cent of official Flash Appeal pledges have been converted into commitments or contributions.

Ms. Byrs said that at the same time, on 11 November 2004, the Secretary-General had launched 14 Consolidated Appeals to address the needs of 26 million people. To date, only 21 per cent of the required $ 1.7 billion had been pledged.

Ron Redmond of the High Commissioner for Refugees said that the UNHCR office in Rwanda had confirmed that more than 800 Burundians had fled across the border into Rwanda in the past two weeks, citing what they said were rising tensions in the provinces of Ngozi, Kirundo and Muyinga. The Burundians, including a large group of Batwa pygmy tribes people as well as some 600 Tutsis, told UNHCR staff in Rwanda that they had not witnessed any actual violence but had heard rumours. Some reported coming under threat from neighbours.

Mr. Redmond said that in Viet Nam and Cambodia, nine Montagnards returned to Viet Nam today in the first repatriation carried out by UNHCR under an agreement with Viet Nam and Cambodia in January aimed at finding solutions for more than 700 Vietnamese who had fled their country over the past year.

In Tanzania, Mr. Redmond said UNHCR greatly appreciated the steps that had been taken to increase food rations to 400,000 refugees in its 13 camps in northwestern Tanzania by 23 per cent, easing somewhat the food shortage affecting the refugees. The World Food Programme had increased rations to 1,629 calories per person per day, effective with the food distribution starting 14 March. Along with WFP, UNHCR had appealed to donors to increase their contributions, but it feared a shortfall of nearly half the money needed this year. WFP had appealed for $ 43 million in order to feed refugees in Tanzania adequately, and had received only $ 23 million so far. UNHCR strongly urged donors to support WFP's efforts to ensure that refugees did not go hungry.

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said that thanks to new donations from Britain, Switzerland and the Netherlands, WFP had managed to purchase some 12,000 tons of maize and pulses locally for the refugees in Tanzania and was now able to provide food rations for those people. However, it had had to reduce rations of vegetable oil from 20 to 10 grams and it had no salt which was problematic. WFP still needed further donations to really improve the nutritional status of these refugees.

In Azerbaijan, WFP had released a food security and nutrition report today which warned that an estimated 400,000 to 600,000 rural Azerbaijanis, mostly living in the mountainous regions, faced food insecurity. It also said that around 300,000 of the
1 million Azerbaijanis displaced by the conflict with Armenia in Nagorno Karabagh were likely to continue to rely on food aid for the subsequent future.

Mr. Pluess said that in Haiti, WFP had completed its large-scale emergency relief operation to feed the victims of the Gonaives floods which killed 3,000 persons and left 300,000 in need of assistance.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that the IOM office in Lagos was currently working with Nigeria's National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and UNICEF to provide assistance to 40 children who were rescued last weekend by the police and immigration authorities in Lagos State. In Indonesia, IOM had agreed to coordinate a province-wide damage assessment in Aceh at the request of the Indonesia Government what would play a critical role in the recovery and reconstruction of the tsunami-ravaged area.

Journalists for the second time this week complained that the Spokesperson for UNAIDS almost never attended the briefing and did not inform journalists in advance about important UNAIDS reports which were launched in Geneva and abroad. The Director took note of the comment.

The Director said that UNICEF had asked her to announce that the UNICEF Regional Office for Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States had launched its new website: http://www.unicef.org/ceecis which was packed with information about the work of UNICEF in the CEE/CIS region and included a media centre with the latest press releases, fact sheets, features, videos and photos. Journalists who had any questions could call Angela Hawke on 022 909 5433.