REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Meteorological Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the International Organization for Migration

World AIDS Day

Ms. Heuzé recalled that today was World AIDS Day. She said that journalists had received the Secretary-General's message and those of other UN officials, including this morning the High Commissioner on Human Rights' statement, which highlighted the importance of accountability of Governments to abide by the obligations undertaken to fight HIV/AIDS. All of those documents were available in the press room.

Michael Bociurkiw of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that this weekend all of the professional sports teams in Spain would wear a special red "Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS" armbands to commemorate World AIDS Day, which would allow the message to reach a massive audience and increase awareness about AIDS. Football Club Barça (FC Barcelona) would also wear UNICEF logos on their jerseys, and had agreed to donate 5 million Euros to UNICEF's HIV/AIDS campaign.

Human Rights

Jose Luis Diaz confirmed that there was going to be a special session of the Human Rights Council on Darfur, which was expected to take place on Tuesday, 12 December. A draft decision for the Council to vote on at that session had already been tabled, and copies would be placed in the press room for journalists.

Mr. Diaz recalled that 10 December was Human Rights Day. Next Monday, a set of press materials would be available, detailing how the OHCHR would be marking that occasion. The focus of Human Rights Day this year was the fight against poverty as a duty of States, and not as a matter of charity or compassion.

Ms. Heuzé noted that at its morning session today the Human Rights Council would begin considering the report of the Commission of Inquiry on Lebanon, established by a resolution adopted at its second special session in August.

A series of press conferences would take place today, starting after the briefing on Darfur, at which the Director of the World Food Programme's Liaision Office in Geneva, Daly Belgasmi, who had just returned from a mission to Darfur, would brief on the increasing difficulties humanitarian actors faced in rendering assistance to victims. This would be followed by a briefing on the Human Rights Council's Commission of Inquiry on Lebanon by Commissioners Joao Clemente Baena Soares (Brazil); Mohamed Chande Othman (Tanzania); and Stelios Perrakis (Greece). Later, Ambassador Masood Khan, President of the Sixth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention, would review progress made thus far and answer journalists' questions in Press Room 1, at 3 p.m.

El Niño/La Niña

Mark Oliver of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said that the WMO's latest El Niño/La Niña update, published today, confirmed a moderate El Niño event had now been established across the tropical Pacific basin and was expected to continue at least into the first quarter of 2007. Impacts had already been, and continued to be, severe in the western equatorial Pacific, including Australia and Indonesia, which were both suffering from severe drought conditions. A WMO expert then observed that a moderate El Niño did not mean that the impacts would be moderate. It would likely mean drier conditions over the Australian and Indonesian regions, including the northern parts of South America. It was also sometimes associated with wetter conditions over tropical eastern Africa, and there were also some instances of the winter Monsoon over South Asia being more intense.

A press release was available at the back of the room and two experts, Dr. Kumar Kolli and Mrs. Leslie Malone, were available to respond to questions after the briefing.

Flooding in the Horn of Africa

Mr. Oliver said that the weather forecast from the Kenyan meteorological department indicated further rainfall over the next week for Kenya and Somalia and a monthly forecast indicated that a higher than normal rainfall was also to be expected for the month.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, with regard to the flooding, that the two greatest concerns right now were health issues owing to contaminated water and difficulties in getting access to the affected populations. In Ethiopia's Somali region it was estimated that some 361,9000 had been affected; in Somalia, estimates went as high as 900,000; and in Kenya, OCHA held that some 300,000 to 500,000 had been affected, while the Kenyan Red Cross had estimated that 723,600 people were in need of immediate assistance. The Kenyan Health Minister had issued a cholera alert.

Flooding was also occurring in Province Orientale, in the north-easternmost part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ms. Byrs said. The Congo River had had swollen from its usual level of 4 metres to 6.51 metres. The hydro-electrical power station in Kisangani, the provincial capital, was in jeopardy, and parts of Kisangani, as well as over 40 surrounding villages were already under water. An inter-agency evaluation mission would be travelling to the region in the next few days. An update on the flooding in the Greater Horn of Africa was available at the back of the room. Details on the flooding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo would be sent later today.

Mr. Bociurkiw added that UNICEF was assisting some 250,000 people in urgent need of supplies following flooding in southern Somalia. UNICEF was helping by delivering shelter materials, blankets, and other basic supplies, including water treatment materials. A press release was available at the back of the room.

Situation in Chad

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said the Agency had airlifted 110 tons of emergency relief supplies – 10,000 plastic sheets and 43,753 blankets – into the Chadian capital on Wednesday. A further 10,000 plastic sheets, 108,000 blankets and 6,000 canvas tents will be sent shortly by land. A total of 145 humanitarian workers from various UN agencies and non-governmental organizations have been temporarily relocated and another 98 were to depart Abeche soon. At the same time, UNHCR was bringing in logistics and supply specialists to ensure that the vital lifeline to 218,000 refugees in 12 eastern camps near the border with Darfur continued, as well as for some 90,000 internally displaced Chadians. The road from Abeche to the north was now completely cut off because of security concerns, which meant there was no road access to six refugee camps that housed some 110,000 refugees.

The situation also remained volatile in south-eastern Chad, Mr. Redmond observed. On Wednesday, in Goz Beida, the compound of an NGO working with UNHCR had been attacked by a group of about 100 young men who destroyed all equipment and slightly wounded 10 local staff.

Other

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that WHO member States and other stakeholders would meet in Geneva from 4 to 8 December to initiate talks aimed at increasing research and development for medicines for poor populations. The first session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on Innovation, Public Health and Intellectual Property would discuss ways to stimulate research and development for neglected and other diseases affecting developing countries; improve delivery systems and access; and examine sustainable financing mechanisms to ensure long-term benefits. The meetings would be held at the International Conference Centre, starting at 10 a.m. on Monday, 4 December. A media advisory and a timetable for the conference were available at the back of the room. Conference documents were available in all six official languages on the WHO website at http://www.who.int. For those wishing more information they could contact Daniela Bargozzi at +41 79 475 54 90.

Mr. Redmond said UNHCR was concerned about a group of 126 Ethiopians detained since Monday by Yemeni security forces after they landed on the coast near Bir Ali after crossing the Gulf of Aden by boat. The 126 Ethiopians were part of a group of 355 Somalis and Ethiopians who had made the two-day crossing from Somalia. The Ethiopians had been immediately transferred by the security forces to the immigration authorities and threatened with deportation, and UNHCR had requested access to the Ethiopians to determine if there were any refugees among them, who should not be deported. So far, those requests had been unsuccessful. Yemeni authorities told UNHCR yesterday that all non-Somali new arrivals would be deported to their home countries.

Mr. Redmond also announced that UNHCR had just received a $10 million emergency relief grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a variety of health, education, water and sanitation projects for Southern Sudan.

UNCTAD recalled that a press conference would take place in room III at 2 p.m. on the trade and development implications of a changing energy economy (notably, the effect of skyrocketing prices on developing countries). It should be noted that the Secretary-General of UNCTAD would be replaced by Ms. Lakshmi Puri, Director, Division on International Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities.

Luisa Ballin, of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, announced the opening this morning of the two-day annual session of the Parliamentary Conference on the World Trade Organization (WTO) at the Geneva International Conference Centre. The session would assess the extent to which WTO negotiations benefited all countries and lived up to their development aspirations. A press conference by the IPU President, Pier Casini, and WTO Director-General, Pascal Lamy, and the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Manuel António dos Santos would be held at 4 p.m. this afternoon. A press release was available and more information could also be found at the IPU website: www.ipu.org.

Ms. Ballin also wished to draw attention to a seminar of parliamentary committees on achieving gender equality had been organized from 4 to 6 December, at IPU headquarters. Anne Marie Lizin, President of the Belgian Senate, would deliver the keynote speech to the debate on Monday at 10 a.m.

Jemini Pandya, of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), noted that, as the second anniversary of the tsunami was approaching, the European Commission had signed an agreement with IOM today to donate 9.9 million euro over four years to fund an IOM project which would directly benefit about 100,000 people in Ampara, an eastern district of Sri Lanka where some 10,000 people died in the tsunami. The project would help communities and local authorities to construct and renovate critical productive and social infrastructure, such as rice mills and fish processing and packaging facilities. It would also improve vital social services such as health clinics and vocational training centres.

Also on tsunami reconstruction, Mr. Bociurkiw of UNICEF said that former President Bill Clinton, the UN Special Envoy on Tsunami Recovery, was beginning a two-day visit to the Tsunami-hit areas of India, Thailand and Indonesia today. Region-wide to date, 36 permanent schools and 145 semi-permanent schools had been built with UNICEF's help, and UNICEF had spent $356.5 million on its tsunami programmes. A press release was available at the back of the room.

Ms. Heuzé announced that the Convention on Disabled Persons would likely be adopted by the General Assembly on 13 December. In that connection, she recalled that Sunday, 3 December was the International Day of Disabled Persons. A message from the Secretary-General and background documentation were available in the UNIS documentation centre.

Ms. Heuzé also wished to call attention to the holding on Monday, 4 December, of a High-Level Conference on Eliminating Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by UN and NGO Personnel in New York, which had been organized by the Secretary-General. Heads of the UN system had been invited to participate as well as Member States, NGOs, and troop-contributing countries. Mr. Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva would attend.