REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the biweekly press briefing, which informed correspondents about the Secretary-General’s programme in Indonesia and gave an update on the last day of the 61st session of the Commission on Human Rights. She also announced the upcoming sessions of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the second session of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families next week..

Also briefing the press were spokespersons of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), World Health Organization (WHO), UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme (WFP), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), International Labour Organization (ILO), UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC).

Secretary-General’s travels

Ms. Heuzé opened the briefing by announcing that the Secretary-General was in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta to attend the Asia-Africa Summit, which had opened today and where political leaders from both regions were expected to forge new partnerships for development cooperation. The occasion also marked the fiftieth anniversary of the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung.

Yesterday, Mr. Annan had begun his programme with a briefing on UN reform to heads of state and delegations. Saying that the world was not paying enough attention to the challenges of development and that the multilateral system was falling short on delivering results – particularly for the developing world, the Secretary-General outlined the key features of the proposals contained in his report “In Larger Freedom”, which he expected political leaders to act on at the General Assembly's mid-term millennium review summit in September.

In his address to the summit he said that the Declaration of Bandung had “set forth a vision to overcome the divisions of the Cold War, based on peaceful coexistence and the principles of the United Nations Charter. And it gave the peoples of the developing world a voice on the international stage. The assembled leaders underlined the fundamental right of all peoples to self-determination. They pledged their solidarity with each other in the fight against colonialism, and in the struggle for economic and social development.”

Mr. Annan further added that “the human family will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without development.” He reiterated his call for every developed country to commit to meeting the target for official development assistance (ODA) amounting to 0.7 percent of gross national income by 2015.

“The number one priority in my report is an all-out global effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Disease, poverty and hunger are the greatest killers of our time. The fight against them must be at the heart and soul of the reform agenda,” stressed the Secretary-General. Ms. Heuzé said that the statement was available in English and French.

Western Sahara

Turning to the new quarterly report on Western Sahara to the Security Council, Ms. Heuzé said that the Secretary-General regretted that the overall improved political climate in Western Sahara had not ended the stalemate between the parties on the core issue of how the people of the territory can exercise their right of self-determination. The report was available in the Documentation Centre.

Upcoming meetings in Geneva

Ms. Heuzé announced that the session of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would take place in the Palais des Nations from 25 April to 13 May. The reports of Zambia, China, Serbia and Montenegro and Norway were to be considered.

The second session of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families would take place at Palais Wilson from 25 to 29 April 2005, she said.

Background press releases on these Committees were available in English and French.

Human Rights

Last day of the Commission on Human Rights

David Chikvaidze, Media Liaison Officer for the 61st session of the Commission on Human Rights, told journalists that the Expanded Bureau had met on Wednesday to review time management issues for the last stretch of the 61st session of the Commission on Human Rights. It had reviewed the draft scenario for the closing of the present session, including the consideration of agenda item 21 (Report of 61st session to ECOSOC and draft provisional agenda for the 62nd session of the Commission). The Expanded Bureau had agreed to grant the request of an NGO to make a statement at the close of the session and reviewed its future inter-sessional activities, including appointments of new special procedure mandate-holders, the meeting with the Bureau of ECOSOC, the meeting of special procedures and the meeting of treaty body Chairpersons. It was agreed that, on average, post-sessional meetings of the Expanded Bureau would be held once per month.

Today, the Commission would take action on the draft proposals under the remaining agenda item - item 3 (Organization of work). These included L.101 (the Secretary-General’s proposed reform in the area of human rights); L.102 (Situation of human rights in Liberia) L.103 (Technical cooperation and advisory services in the field of human rights in Chad) and the draft Chairperson’s statement on Colombia.

With regard to item 21, sub-item (a), the Commission would take note of document E/CN.4/2005/L.1, which contained the draft provisional agenda for next year’s session.

The Rapporteur of the Commission, Ms. Deirdre Kent of Canada, would present her report to the Commission on its sixty-first session, which would be issued in documents E/CN.4/2005/L.10 and Addenda, as well as E/CN.4/2005/L.11 and Addenda, said Mr. Chikvaidze.

Press conferences

The Chair of the 61st session, Ambassador Makarim Wibisono would hold a press conference right after the close of the session, so at approximately 2:30 p.m.

Also, Eric Tistounet, Secretary of the Commission on Human Rights, would give wrap-session press briefing on the results, statistics and initial analysis of the 61st session on Monday, 25 April, at 3.00 p.m. in room 1, recalled Mr. Chikvaidze.

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Jose Luis Diaz, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, drew attention to the closing statement of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the closure of the 61st session of the Commission. She was expected to say she had found the forum to be both a source of encouragement and cause for concern. Ms. Arbour would point to several resolutions that had "helped advance our understanding of human rights", but added that she had noted one overriding concern: that the Commission’s ability to address issues of human rights concern at the national level was demonstrably deficient.

Mr. Diaz then turned to the situation in Nepal. On 11 April, the Office had announced it would be establishing a monitoring operation in that country. The four-person expert team had wrapped up a fact-finding mission on the needs of an OHCHR office in Nepal, and was returning to Geneva over the weekend. The plan was to establish an office in Kathmandu and up to five additional regional field offices. It was hoped that the Office could deploy 10 to 12 monitors already at the beginning of May, numbers that should increase as conditions permitted.

A journalist asked about the procedures for appointing Special Rapporteurs of the Commission. Mr. Diaz replied that the Chair, in consultation with the Commission’s membership through the regional groups, decided on the appointment of Special Rapporteurs and other experts. Asked about the chances of a so-called Mexican candidate to become Special Rapporteur on human rights and the fight against terrorism, Mr. Diaz again stressed that the decision lay with the Chair and there was no room for speculation from the Secretariat on such decisions.

Health

Christine McNab of WHO reported an outbreak of polio in Yemen. The agency was experiencing a 50 million dollar shortfall in funding for immunization.

On 25 April, WHO would be marking Africa Malaria Day 2005. Malaria killed one million African children every year. The Rollback Malaria partnership had registered successes such as distributing insecticide-treated nets and newest ACT medicines.

As of 19 April, the Ministry of Health in Angola had reported 266 cases of Marburg haemorrhagic fever. Of these cases, 239 were fatal. In Uige Province, which remains the epicentre of the outbreak, 250 cases, of which 228 were fatal, were reported as of 20 April, said WHO.

Niger

Damien Personnaz of UNICEF said that Niger was witnessing food shortages threatening children as a result of the plague of locusts in that country and poor rainfall wreaking havoc on crops. UNICEF today had called for urgent funding to feed 800,000 children between under five years of age caught in the throes of a food crisis. This crisis was having a devastating effect on children’s health because even under the best of circumstances, the rate of malnutrition stands at an alarming 40 per cent. Today, an estimated 750,000 children suffered from hunger, including 150,000 who showed signs of severe malnutrition. In light of this emergency, UNICEF Niger has made available an additional US$ 270,000 to treat 14,000 malnourished children for six months. However, the children’s agency urgently needed USD 1.03 million to treat another 17,000 severely malnourished children.

DPR Korea

Christiane Berthiaume of WFP reported that it had put in place a new system of monitoring of food distribution on DPR Korea. Due to a lack of financial resources, however, WFP had taken out the vegetable oil from the food rations of 900,000 elderly peopled and 600,000 children. There were also not enough vegetables for 1,2 million children and women and in June it would stop provision of cereals to 1,00,000 people. To date, the food agency had received 215, 000 tons for the year, mostly a carry-over from 2004. At least 37 per cent of children were suffering from chronic malnutrition.

Sierra Leone

Turning to Sierra Leone, WFP reported that it would be forced to cut part of its rations due to lack of financial resources. This difficult decision stemmed from the fact that there were more refugees in camps than originally projected (50, 750 rather that 42,400) because they were not returning to Liberia. WFP did not expect to receive more than 75 per cent of its appeal and had to feed 20 per cent more people with less money.

Colombia

Ron Redmond of UNHCR reported the refugee agency’s concern about the growing impact of forced displacement and violence on the indigenous peoples of Colombia. Attacks against indigenous communities and their leaders had reportedly increased this year. There were even fears that, if the present trend continued, some of the smaller and more vulnerable groups and their cultures would actually disappear as they were driven from their ancestral lands and disperse – possibly never to return.

In the past week, fighting between the Colombian Army and guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) had caused the displacement of an estimated 3,500 indigenous Nasa people from the area around the village of Toribío.

ICRC announced a joint needs assessment by the ICRC and the WFP of Colombia's displaced persons. Forty years of conflict in Colombia and growing economic difficulties had led to a serious deterioration in the basic living conditions of several sectors of the population, in particular those affected by the conflict (internally displaced people and host communities)

Chad

UNHCR said that its Acting High Commissioner Wendy Chamberlin was in N'Djamena, Chad, on the final stop of her five-day mission to Sudan, the Darfur region and eastern Chad.

Ms. Chamberlin arrived in Abeche, eastern Chad, from the neighbouring Darfur region of western Sudan. UNHCR had some 200,000 refugees from Darfur in 11 camps in eastern Chad. A 12th was scheduled to open soon.

Post Tsunami assistance.

Vincent Lusser of ICRC spoke on Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The agency was offering post-conflict support and providing post-tsunami assistance in Banda Aceh to the health sector and enabling family links after the tragedy. About 500,000 displaced people are living either in camps or with host families. It had also started visiting prisons in Banda Aceh for political detainees.

Other

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of IOM announced that in South Africa the counter-trafficking poster campaign had gathered momentum. He also said that in Dominican Republic this week, IOM would hold a counter-trafficking training seminar. In Indonesia, IOM had begun implementing an ECHO-funded market revitalization programme on the islands of Nisa sand Simeulue in response to the 28 March earthquake.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of UNCTAD announced that Member States would meet next week to consider adoption of a new International Agreement on Olive Oil and Table Olives. The Agreement is one of a series of international commodity agreements presided over by UNCTAD.

Corinne Perthuis of ILO also announced the release of a new book “Convergence and Divergence” on working conditions in the companies of the ten new EU Member States. The book examined the measures taken by these countries to ensure decent working conditions and comply with ILO norms. She confirmed that there would be a working breakfast with the author, Daniel Vaughn Whitehead, next on 27 April.

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