REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section at the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing. Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Labour Office, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the International Telecommunication Union and the International Organization for Migration participated in the briefing.


Secretary-General

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier announced that the Secretary-General was in Paris where he met yesterday with his Special Envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, who briefed him on his meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, which took place in Damascus on Sunday. In that regard, the Secretary-General issued a statement from Paris, which referred to Mr. Roed Larsen's meeting with the President as "constructive and helpful". The Secretary-General was encouraged by Mr. Roed-Larsen's report and will continue to work together with President Al-Assad, the Syrian Government and other parties for the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1559, the statement read. Copies were made available in the Press Room.

Also in Paris yesterday, the Secretary-General met with the newly appointed Foreign Minister of France, Phillippe Douste-Blazy.

Today, the Secretary-General will deliver an address to a meeting hosted by President Jacques Chirac of France and the Office of the Global Compact, on business contributions to the Millennium Development Goals.

Also today, the Secretary-General will hold separate bilateral meetings with President Chirac and Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom, after which he will have a luncheon meeting with them.

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier also mentioned that a statement by the Secretary-General concerning the bomb explosions in Iran was available in the Press Room.

Director-General

The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, was in Saint Petersbourg where he was representing the Secretary-General at the Ninth Petersburg International Economic Forum. Later in the day, Mr. Ordzhonikidze will be delivering the message of the Secretary-General to the meeting. Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said copies of the Secretary-General's message were available in the Press Room.

General Assembly

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier drew attention to the election of Ambassador Jan Eliasson of Sweden as the President of the upcoming sixtieth session of the General Assembly. Speaking before the Assembly after the vote, Mr. Eliasson said the support he received was especially significant since "the legendary Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld was born in Jönköping, Sweden, this year 100 years ago". Copies of the statement by the current President of the General Assembly, Jean Ping, on the occasion of Mr. Eliasson's election were available in the Pres Room.

Geneva Activities

The third Meeting of Experts from States parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, generally known as the Biological Weapons Convention, began its two-week session yesterday at the Palais des Nations. The Meeting, which will end on 24 June, was convened to discuss, and promote a common understanding and effective action on the adoption of codes of conducts for scientists and follows similar sessions held in the last two years. A press release with more information was available in the Press Room.

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier also informed journalists that the Conference on Disarmament would hold a meeting on Thursday, 16 June, at 10:00 a.m. under a new Presidency when Christian Wegger Strommen of Norway assumes the chair.

Human Rights

Jóse Luis Díaz, of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), informed journalists that the Expanded Bureau, or steering committee, of the Commission on Human Rights, decided on Friday that informal consultations of the Commission would take place on Monday, 20 June, at Room 17 of the Palais des Nations starting at 10 a.m.. At that time, participants will discuss the role, functions and composition of the proposed Human Rights Council, as put forth in the report of the Secretary-General – "In Larger Freedom". Following the meeting, the members of the Commission will send a summary of the daylong discussions to the Economic and Social Council in New York as its contribution to the debate on reform of the human rights programme.

Mr. Díaz also announced that the OHCHR fact-finding mission to Togo, looking into allegations of human rights violations there in the first half of this year, had arrived in the country and begun meetings with Government officials. The team was scheduled to meet today with the Prime Minister.

Other

Corinne Perthius of the International Labour Office informed journalists that the 93rd International Labour Conference will be concluding on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. To mark the close of the session, the Director-General of the International Labour Organization, Juan Somavia, will hold a press conference tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. in Room III to discuss the outcomes of the annual session.

Before the Conference concludes, Ms. Perthius added, several committees will also conclude their work, including, among others, the Fishing Sector Committee, which has drafted a new Convention, and which was expected to be adopted before the close of the 93rd session. The fishing sector employed some 30 million persons worldwide and the Convention, which compiled seven other conventions adopted since ILO's creation in 1919, would be the first on the fishing sector in more than 40 years, she said. The new Convention aimed at strengthening the protection of workers in the fishing sector. In this regard, a press conference was scheduled to take place at Press Room One with Norman Jennings a specialist at ILO on the subject.

Ron Redmond of the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees announced that some 5,000 Rwandan asylum seekers in Burundi were sent back to Rwanda over the past two days, leaving the Songore transit center in northern Burundi empty. UNHCR was not allowed to the transit center when the departures were taking place on Monday and cannot confirm that the returns were voluntary. In addition, other United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations were not allowed to monitor the developments from early Monday morning afterwards. UNHCR did not consider the return of these individuals as voluntary, and said it constituted a violation of the principle of non-refoulment that was enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, to which both Burundi and Rwanda were signatories. The return operation from Songore started on Sunday, following an announcement by Burundi and Rwanda that the two countries were re-labeling asylum seekers as "illegal immigrants" even though no individual examination of the asylum claims had taken place.

Mr. Redmond added that UNHCR was also concerned about the fate of some 7,000 Burundian refugees in Rwanda who were also considered to be "illegal immigrants" and feared to be returned to their homeland against their will.

In response to a question, Mr. Redmond said some of the refugees had been in the Songore transit center for several months and that UNHCR had the opportunity to speak with some of them in Rwanda who testified that they fled due to persecution and threats. The UNHCR considered them to be refugees and believed they should continue to receive international protection. The UNHCR has been in contact with both governments throughout this process and continued to be.

With regard to a question on the newly appointed High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, Mr. Redmond said Mr. Guterres would officially begin his work as High Commissioner tomorrow morning and that a press release would be made available in that connection afterwards. A photo opportunity was also being planned to mark that occasion.

Sarah Parks of the International Telecommunication Union reminded journalists that there would be a press conference on Thursday, 16 June, at 2:30 p.m. in Room III to announce the launch of a new ITU initiative called "Connect the World". The Secretary-General of the ITU, Mr. Yoshio Utsumi, was scheduled to speak at the press conference, as well as members of the private sector, civil society and United Nations telecommunication specialists. Press kits would be available later in the day at the Press Room.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration drew attention to a new IOM report on Asian labour migration, which examined initiatives in five Asian countries – Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka – to protect vulnerable migrant workers and to provide them with support services in order to optimize the benefits or organized labour migration. Among other things, the report noted that more should be done to protect migrants from unscrupulous and unlicensed recruiting agents. The report looks specifically at initiatives taken to regulate recruitment procedures and to guarantee minimum standards in overseas employment contracts.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said the social crisis in Bolivia has been seriously affecting WFP's operations in that country where more than 2,000 persons in the El Chaco region had not received food aid due to roadblocks. WFP's operations in the region, including school food programmes, have been interrupted. Nevertheless, UNICEF and CARITAS had planned to distribute food to 2,350 children in the El Alto region of the country.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children's Fund said in connection with the Day of the African Child, being observed on 16 June, UNICEF had issued a press release stating that through the year some of Africa's most intractable emergencies were seriously under funded with only two out of ten countries with recurring emergencies on track to reach UNICEF funding targets and warning that most would make it half way. Copies of the press release were made available.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development reminded journalists of the press conference taking place at 11.30 today on the subject of "A Trade Marshall Plan for LDCs [Least Developed Countries]". The scheduled speaker was Ms. Lakshmi Puri, Director of the Division on International Trade in Goods, Services and Commodities at UNCTAD.


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