REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section, United Nations Information Service at Geneva, chaired the biweekly press briefing, since the Director of the Service was attending informal consultations on the human rights sections of the Report of the Secretary-General “In Larger Freedom”. These were open consultations taking place in room XVIII.

Also participating in the briefing were spokespersons from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), World Health Organization (WHO), World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and International Organization for Migration (IOM). The spokesperson of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) had no announcements to make but was available to take questions.

Secretary-General’s appeal to donors’ conference on Sudan

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier opened the briefing by announcing that the Secretary-General had participated in a donors’ meeting on Sudan yesterday in Oslo, Norway. Mr. Annan had urged donors to give generously to support the Comprehensive Peace Agreement for Sudan. Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier recalled that the United Nations had identified $2.6 billion that would be required for two and a half years. The Secretary-General had also noted that some one billion dollars were still required to meet the most immediate needs. That speech was available in the press room, she said.

Before the speech, the Secretary-General had met jointly with Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement chairman John Garang. Mr. Annan had told them that the clock was ticking on the deadline for concluding an agreement with the UN regarding the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Sudan, added Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

Deputy Secretary-General to address conference on conflict prevention in Stockholm

UN Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, was in Stockholm today. She would address a conference on "Conflict prevention and resolution: Challenges and Change for the United Nations", co-organized by Norway and Sweden in connection with the preparation of the 2005 General Assembly Summit. Ms. Fréchette’s address would show that the United Nations was a more effective prevention instrument than many realize. Her statement was available under embargo until 2.40 p.m. Geneva time, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

Spokesmen’s Round-Table event

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier announced that on 14 April in New York, Fred Eckhard, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, would be hosting a Spokesmen’s Round-Table event at United Nations Headquarters. The event would chronicle the role of the Spokesman’s Office and its relationship with the press from 1945 until the present day. The Secretary-General would open the event at 3.00 p.m. Geneva time and UNIS would make sure that UNOG journalists would have the live audio of the event and would provide more information about the technical details tomorrow.

Working Group on Internet Governance

Turning to Geneva events, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the third meeting of the Working Group on Internet Governance would take place from 18 to 20 April in room XVIII under the chairmanship of Mr. Nitin Desai, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General for the World Summit on the Information Society. On 18 April, consultations would be open to all stakeholders and on 19 and 20 April, the Group would go into closed session.

Human rights - Nepal

Finally, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier announced that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was to set up a monitoring operation in Nepal in a move to help establish accountability for human rights abuses and prevent further violations. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and Ramesh Nath Pandey, Minister for Foreign Affairs on behalf of His Majesty's Government of Nepal, signed the agreement establishing the operation yesterday. The press release on the agreement was available in the press room, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier in conclusion.

Press conferences

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that today at 12 noon a press conference on the Indian Tiger crisis would take place. Mr. Willem Wijnstekers, Secretary-General, UNEP/CITES, and Mr. John Sellar, CITES Senior Enforcement Officer, would brief the press.

On 14 April, Dr Peter Piot, UNAIDS Executive Director, would give a press conference on key issues for UNAIDS in 2005, followed by a question-and-answer
session with Mr. Piot.

Commission on Human Rights

David Chikvaidze, Spokesperson for the Commission on Human Rights, told journalists that the Expanded Bureau had met last night and had approved the updated timetable for the interactive dialogues and other presentations. The Bureau had noted that the consideration of the Report of the High Commissioner on the situation of human rights in Colombia would take place at 3.00 p.m. tomorrow under agenda item 3 (organization of work). Also, about 40 representatives of national institutions were scheduled tomorrow, amounting to about five hours of proceedings for national institutions. Additional meetings were scheduled today and tomorrow to accommodate the programme. The Bureau set up its regular meeting with NGOs on 15 April at 2.00 p.m. said Mr. Chikvaidze.

Turning to today’s programme for the Commission, Mr. Chikvaidze said that during the lunch time session today, due to begin at 12:00 noon, after the voting on agenda items 6 (racism, racial discrimination xenophobia and all forms of discrimination) and 7 (right to development) and before resuming consideration of agenda item 14 (Specific groups and individuals), the Chair would briefly open agenda item 16 (Report of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights) in order to allow the Chairperson of the 56th session of the Sub-Commission, Mr. Soli Jehangir Sorabjee, to introduce the report of the Sub-Commission as requested in Commission resolution 2004/60.

The following Special Rapporteurs would address the Commission today under agenda item 14 (Specific groups and individuals), namely, Ms. Gabriela Rodríguez Pizarro, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, who would engage in interactive dialogue with the Commission and Sheikha Hessa Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani, Special Rapporteur on disabilities of the Commission for Social Development, who would not have interactive dialogue, he said.

Resolutions

Mr. Chikvaidze stated that nineteen draft resolutions had been submitted yesterday and the pace would pick up further. Six resolutions had come up under item 9 (violation of human rights in any part of the world) and thirteen under item 10 (economic, social and cultural rights). Voting on these resolutions would take place during the afternoon of Thursday, 14 April and/or the morning of Friday, 15 April.

Voting today

The afternoon session would begin with voting on draft resolutions falling under items 6 and 7. Under item 6, would be L.12 on "Combating defamation of religions" sponsored by Pakistan (on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference) and L.14 on the "Inadmissibility of certain practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" presented by the Russian Federation. Belarus and Cuba were co-sponsors of the draft resolution.

Under item 7 would be the draft resolution L.9 from Malaysia (on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement and China) and draft decision L.11 of the Sub-Commission on the right to development.

Upcoming events

Mr. Chikvaidze recalled that the High Commissioner would be taking part in a panel discussion today on “Human Rights Violations and Remedies in the HIV & AIDS Epidemic” in room XXVII from 1 to 3.00 p.m. The discussion had been organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNAIDS, Human Rights Watch and the Permanent Mission of Poland and would be chaired by Ambassador Rapacki of Poland.

Press conferences

Mr. Juan Miguel Petit, Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, would be giving a press conference on the topic of his 2005 report, which was 'child pornography on the Internet'. It would take place on Wednesday, 13 April at 10.30 a.m.

Finally, in reply to a question previously posed, Mr. Chikvaidze highlighted that regardless of the delay in the proceedings of the Commission, the voting schedules were always adhered to as stated.

World Health Organization

WHO reported that 214 cases of Marburg disease in Angola as of 9 April, claiming 194 lives. In Uige, mobile surveillance teams had resumed operations on Saturday following intensive campaigns to improve public understanding of the disease. The teams in Uige are following up some 360 contacts, but more improvements are needed to detect cases earlier, ensure their isolation and supportive care, and find and manage contacts. An isolation ward, dedicated to the care of Marburg haemorrhagic fever patients, has been established at a hospital by Médecins sans Frontières because it was to rapidly seal off opportunities for the amplification of transmission within health care setting.

Sudan

UNHCR announced that Acting High Commissioner Wendy Chamberlin had made an appeal on Monday, the first day of the two-day Oslo Donors' Conference on Sudan. She urged donors to cement the peace and development process in southern Sudan by providing urgent support to help Sudanese refugees to go home and stay home. International support "will make the difference for hundreds of thousands, indeed, millions of people" who want to go home after more than two decades of conflict. But without that support, she warned. Some 600,000 spontaneous returnees – 200,000 non-registered refugees and 400,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) – have already gone back to southern Sudan on their own. Another 550,000 refugees in neighbouring countries and 6.1 million IDPs remained uprooted in the devastated region.

IOM added to that message, saying that out of a total of 33 million dollars needed for its programmes, it had received just four million dollars. IOM was already working in four IDP camps in Greater Khartoum and aimed to develop a database to ensure the provision of essential information on conditions, and to help identify and address gaps in reintegration assistance.

Darfur

WFP warned that unless donations were rapidly forthcoming before the rainy season, nearly 200,000 refugees who had fled into Chad from the Darfur conflict into Sudan risked hunger in the coming months. WFP was appealing for 87 million dollars in food aid to cover the needs of the refugee camps in eastern Chad until the end of next year. An additional 7 million dollars would be needed to keep the WFP-operated air service functioning between N’Djamena and the humanitarian base at Abeche.

Ethiopia

WFP announced that the future of three million Ethiopians in need of food aid was in jeopardy with malnutrition rates rising and funding for humanitarian operations falling. The agency urgently required 33 million dollars to feed 1.5 million people for two and a half months as part of the 2005 UN Humanitarian Appeal for 271 million dollars. Just 58 per cent of the amount had been secured, a total of 212 million dollars.

UNICEF – “Progress for children” Report

UNICEF said that despite gains in girls’ education worldwide, far too many girls were still missing out on schooling. UNICEF’s latest “Progress for children” country-by-country report focused on gender parity in primary school attendance and found that millions of girls were still denied a basic education. Gender parity was a prerequisite for the Millennium Development Goals but the 2015 deadline could be missed without significantly shrinking the gap. At the current rate, most countries in the Middle East/North Africa, East Asia/Pacific and Latin America/ Caribbean regions were on track but many countries in sub-Saharan African and South Asia would not make the target.

The spokesperson also announced that outgoing Executive Director Carol Bellamy would give a press conference to launch the report exclusively from Geneva. It would be her last press conference here. The press conference would take place on 18 April at 11.30 a.m. in room III.

International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

ISDR announced a meeting from 14 to 15 6 April in Mauritius for a tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean. The meeting was being co-organised by UNESCO and ISDR. Specific systems for observation will be strengthened in the Pacific, in Hawaii, and in Japan, to transmit warning information. A partial system put in place had worked well in the 28 March earthquake that struck Indonesia. A final system would be up and running by the end of 2006.

World Intellectual Property Organization

WIPO announced that it would host a one-day open seminar on 18 April on the copyright liabilities of those who act as on-line intermediaries.

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