REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by spokespersons for the International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Organization for Migration.

Commission on Human Rights

Ms. Heuzé announced that the Commission on Human Rights had met on Monday, 16 January 2006, to elect the Bureau for the Commission’s upcoming session beginning in March 2006 (13 March – 21 April 2006). Manuel Rodriguez Cuadros of Peru had been elected Chairperson. The Vice-Chairpersons elected were Roger Julien Menga of the Congo, Zohrab Mnatsakanian of Armenia, and Paul Meyer of Canada. The Rapporteur elected was Sunu Mahadi Soemarno of Indonesia.

Ms. Heuzé drew attention to the statement of Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in which she discussed the need to honour and carry forward the Commission’s heritage, and to maintain the crucial role played by the special mechanisms developed by the Commission in past decades. The new Human Rights Council should build on the achievements of the Commission, particularly in preserving the role of the special rapporteurs and the close relationship with civil society through national institutions and non-governmental organizations.

Geneva meetings and activities

Ms. Heuzé said that there would be no meeting of the Committee on the Rights of the Child today. She recalled that the Committee held two sessions in parallel and that on Wednesday, 18 January 2006, the Committee would be reviewing reports presented by Hungary and Lithuania. On Thursday, 19 January 2006, Azerbaijan and Mauritius would be presenting their reports.

Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, had announced yesterday, 16 January 2006, the appointment of Aminata Djermakoye as Director of the Division of Administration, with immediate effect. Ms. Djermakoye had previously served as Chef de Cabinet of the Office of the Director-General of UNOG for a period of eight years. Until 15 January 2006, she had served as Chief of Protocol at UN Headquarters in New York. She would be replaced in that function by Ms. Alice Hecht.

Statements by the Secretary-General

Ms. Heuzé said that a number of statements by the Secretary-General had been made available in the press room and were also accessible on the UNOG website, including:
§ a statement on a series of violent attacks in Afghanistan;
§ a statement on the deteriorating security situation in Sri Lanka;
§ a message of congratulations to the newly inaugurated President of Liberia; and
§ a message expressing condolences to the people and Government of Kuwait on the death of the Amir of Kuwait.

Avian influenza and WHO’s Executive Board meeting

Fadéla Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that a note for the media would be issued within the hour to announce a donation by the pharmaceutical company Roche of an additional two million treatment courses of osetamivir for use in the developing countries most likely to be affected by avian influenza in humans. The donation would be used in countries that were unable to afford the drug. This donation was separate from and in addition to Roche’s donation of three million treatment courses in August 2005, which was stored centrally and would be used as part of a “rapid response stockpile” to be used exclusively at the site of an outbreak of pandemic influenza in an attempt to slow or contain its spread.

Ms. Chaib drew attention to next week’s meeting of WHO’s Executive Board (23-28 January 2006) at WHO Headquarters. The Board would be addressing a range of important issues, including the earthquake in Pakistan. It was significant to note that this year, the Presidency of the Board was held by the Health Minister of Pakistan. WHO would arrange a press briefing by the Minister and representatives of WHO on the subject. The Board would also be discussing the most recent developments with regard to avian influenza, notably that it had now been found in a European country (i.e. Turkey), as well as the results of the pledging conference on avian and human influenza currently taking place in Beijing. The Board would also review the actions taken by WHO in response to the outbreak since the beginning of 2005. A media advisory would be issued this week on all the media arrangements for the Board’s meeting. All the documents to be presented to the meeting were available in the six official languages of the United Nations on WHO’s website, at www.who.int/governance/eb.

Ms. Heuzé added that the text of the Secretary-General’s videotaped statement to the Beijing conference had been made available in the press room.

Kenya

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme (WFP) noted that the current situation in the Horn of Africa was of grave concern, especially in Kenya. Without new financial contributions, as of February 2006 WFP would no longer be able to provide aid to the 1.1 million people in Kenya currently receiving assistance from the organization, not to speak of those additional people that would require assistance in the future due to the drought that was ravaging the region. In total, it was estimated that 2.5 million people in Kenya would require assistance from WFP in 2006. In an effort to “avoid another Niger”, a recent crisis situation where urgently needed funds had been slow to materialize, WFP had been sounding the alarm on Kenya since 16 December 2005. However, no additional funds had yet been received. An additional $44 million were needed immediately, while another $140 million would be needed for the remainder of the year.


Other

Ms. Heuzé announced that a report entitled “The World’s Women 2005: Progress in Statistics”, would be launched at a press conference at Headquarters in New York tomorrow, 18 January 2006. This was the first report to analyse collection and reporting at the national level of sex-disaggregated statistics across a broad range of areas critical to policy making, including violence against women and the contribution of women to global economic activity. The report set out a blueprint for improving the availability of data in these and other areas. The press conference would feature Jose Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, and Mary Chamie, Chief of UN DESA’s Demographic and Social Statistics Branch. The report and press materials were embargoed until 6:00 p.m. tomorrow. For those interested, the press conference would be webcast on the United Nations website at 5:15 p.m. Geneva time.

Ron Redmond of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that Liberia’s new president, Ellen Johson-Sirleaf, had urged tens of thousands of Liberian refugees to consider returning home now to join in the rebuilding of their country. The President had pledged that her government would work with UNHCR and other partners to reintegrate them into their communities. The filmed message would be part of a UNHCR mass information campaign for some 190,000 Liberian refugees scattered across West Africa. Additional information was available in a briefing note at the back of the room.

Mr. Redmond said that senior UNHCR staff from Cairo and Geneva had met with Egyptian authorities on Monday, 16 January 2006, following the expiry of the deadline for UNHCR to assess the status of 462 Sudanese in three Cairo detention centres. They had been detained since last month’s tragic confrontation in a Cairo square. UNHCR had obtained adequate assurances that those in need of international protection would not be deported. UNHCR had also received positive indications that additional time would be given to the office to finalize the legal process and assess all the cases properly. Additional information on this issue was also available in the briefing note.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that several days of heavy snow and rain had badly hampered aid distributions in earthquake-affected Pakistan and grounded helicopters since 15 January. In order to provide extra support for quake survivors during the inclement weather, IOM had established Rapid Response Teams in Muzaffarabad to answer calls for urgent assistance. On Sunday alone, 250 calls for urgent assistance had been received. Today, IOM would be distributing 2,000 winterized kits in Muzaffarabad city. In addition, 170,000 people from the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) of Kala Dhaka were beginning to receive large amounts of shelter equipment. In the next two weeks, IOM will coordinate the distribution of a large UNICEF consignment of 242,000 blankets, 170,000 children kits, and 9,000 quilts to Kala Dhaka. Additional information was available in a briefing note at the back of the room.

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization (ILO) proposed the organization of a briefing with ILO experts on asbestos, which would be high on the agenda of ILO in the month to come. It was agreed to schedule the briefing for Thursday morning, 19 January 2006.