REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the International Organization for Migration.

At the beginning of the briefing, Ms. Heuzé invited journalists to observe a moment of silence in remembrance of their colleague, Bob Kroon of the Netherlands Press Association, who died on Sunday, 24 June.

Secretary-General Attends Meeting in Paris on Darfur

Ms. Heuzé said Mr. Ban Ki-moon attended yesterday in Paris a High-level Meeting of the Expanded Contact Group to discuss the way forward in addressing the situation in Darfur. At a press conference, the Secretary-General said that the United Nations was maintaining its focus on four distinct tracks, which were: the political process, peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, and reconstruction and development in Darfur.

Economic and Social Council

Ms. Heuzé said the Economic and Social Council would be meeting in Geneva from 2 to 27 July. On 5 and 6 July, there would be the Global Compact Leaders Summit. A number of reports would be released and press conferences held next week on both those meetings.

The Millennium Development Goals Report would be available on 28 June with an embargo for 2 July at 10 a.m. Geneva time. This was when the Secretary-General would present the report to the ECOSOC plenary. A background briefing would be organized on the report towards the end of this week.

In response to a question, Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General would probably give a press conference on Monday, 2 July, but the exact time still had to be confirmed.

A briefing would be organized on Friday, 29 June at 11:30 a.m. with Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact, to speak about the Global Compact Leaders Summit, its objectives, the participants and other information. A press kit would also be distributed. The Summit would meet all day on 5 July and on 6 July until 1 p.m.

On the reform of ECOSOC, an issue which the Secretary-General had underscored, there would be a press conference organized on Friday with Ambassador Sha Zukang, who would start his new appointment as Under- Secretary-General of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs on 1 July.
The press kit on ECOSOC would be available starting Thursday, 28 June. The curtain raiser on the ECOSOC meeting would also be issued on that day.

Ms. Heuzé said concerning logistics, in view of the large number of dignitaries who would be visiting the Palais next week in relation to these two meetings, there would be certain restrictions on cars on the grounds of the Palais and also inside the buildings. Journalists who used the parking area for journalists were reminded to exhibit clearly their special signs in the cars, otherwise, the cars would be moved.

Bike to Work

Ms. Heuzé said continuing on the issue of cars and transportation, a ceremony would be held today at noon to celebrate the Bike to Work initiative. More than 220 UN staff in Geneva were currently participating in the initiative during the month of June and they would join the Director-General of UNOG, Sergei Ordzhonikidze and the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Adolf Ogi, patron of the campaign, to celebrate. Because of the weather conditions, the event would be held in Hall XIV, located behind the Assembly Hall, at 12 noon. Journalists were invited to attend.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Heuzé said the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) of the States Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW) concluded its session on 22 June 2007 in Geneva and recommended to the 2007 Meeting of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention to decide how best to address the humanitarian impact of cluster munitions as a matter of urgency, including the possibility of a new legally-binding instrument. At the Meeting of the High Contracting Parties, which would be held in Geneva from 7 to 13 November, a decision would have to be taken and the negotiation of a legally-binding instrument on cluster munitions was the core of that decision. A press release had been issued this morning with more details.

The Conference on Disarmament was meeting this morning under the Presidency of Switzerland. There were only two speakers on the list, Argentina and Mexico. This was the last week of the second part of the 2007 session of the Conference on Disarmament and the President also had to present the report on the work of this part on Thursday, 28 June, the last public plenary of the second part.

Ms. Heuzé said the World Drug Report 2006 was released today. There was a press conference held at the Palais yesterday on the report, which was being presented on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which was established by the General Assembly 20 years ago.
There were still copies of the report available in the Documentation Centre for interested journalists.

The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission would be marking its first anniversary tomorrow, 27 June. A note to correspondents was available as well the message of the Secretary-General on the anniversary.

The Director-General of UNOG, Mr. Ordzhonikidze, would be participating in an important meeting on Thursday, 28 June, organized by civil society. It would be opened at 10 a.m. and Ms. Heuzé said she had the order of the day and other information available for interested journalists.

Finally, Ms. Heuzé said a ceremony to unveil a bust of the late Sergio Vieira de Mello would be held outside the Palais Wilson on 28 June, starting at 6 p.m. The bronze likeness rested upon a plinth which carried the names of the other twenty-one colleagues who lost their lives in the bombing of UN headquarters in Iraq on 19 August 2003. Mr. Díaz from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights added that the bust would be unveiled by the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, and the artist, the President of the Russian Academy of Art Zurab Tsereteli, would take part in the ceremony. Survivors, family members, the Geneva diplomatic corps, the UN and NGO communities and the media were invited. A media advisory had been issued and anyone wishing to interview Mr. Tsereteli could contact Mr. Diaz.

Human Rights

José Luis Díaz said today was the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. On this occasion, a joint statement had been issued by the United Nations Committee against Torture, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The joint statement pointed to some progress made in the fight against torture, and highlighted the entry into force, last year, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture as an historic step in the fight against torture and other forms of ill-treatment. This protocol provided for the establishment of independent national preventive mechanisms empowered to undertake visits to places of detention. The joint statement also pointed to two issues of concern. It said it was a matter of grave concern that some States had disregarded the Committee against Torture’s requests not to deport or remove individuals to countries where they ran the risk of being tortured. The application of the death penalty in many parts of the world also continued to be of concern as persons on death row and executed persons, as well as the members of their families, could be considered, under certain circumstances, to also be victims of torture. The full statement had been issued as a press release and was available in the press room.

On a related issue, Mr. Díaz said the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances was holding the second of three annual sessions from 25 to 29 June 2007 at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. During its 82nd session, the Working Group planned to review 227 cases of enforced disappearances as well as recently submitted information on previously accepted cases from 29 countries. Journalists wishing to meet with any of the members of the Working Group should contact him.

In response to a question, Mr. Díaz said the Working group dealt with both old and new cases.

A journalist asked about the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in human beings who was prevented from leaving Bangladesh a few weeks ago. Mr. Díaz said he would see if any updated information on the rapporteur, Sigma Huda, was available.

In conclusion, Mr. Díaz said Miloon Kothari, the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, would brief journalists at 11:30 a.m. today in press room 1.

Asked if OHCHR had any comment on the sentence to death of “Chemical Ali”, Saddam Hussein’s cousin, Mr. Díaz said the High Commissioner had maintained a consistent position in similar cases in Iraq. The conditions under which these verdicts had been handed down were not ideal, and the trials were far from complying with international standards of due process and a fair trial. Those concerns still stood.

Other

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization, asked why WHO had not spoken about the reported cases of H5N1 in Germany, said this was because these were cases of the virus being found in wild birds in Germany; they were not human cases and WHO only dealt with human cases of Avian Influenza. WHO was in contact with the Food and Agriculture Organization in Paris to evaluate the situation. There was a meeting of the Avian Influenza group at WHO this morning and they had decided that there was no change in the risk assessment for Germany.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said WFP was having enormous difficulties in bringing and distributing food aid to the Gaza strip, but it continued to work there. Yesterday, 89 trucks carrying food aid had entered Gaza, including 20 trucks belonging to WFP. The stocks of the food supplies in Gaza had been decreasing and the price of flour was still high, although it had lowered from last week. But the arrival of food on the market was not enough, because the people had to have the financial resources to buy it and that was not available as the economy was frozen and there were no jobs. The situation remained difficult. For WFP, between 19 and 24 June, it had brought into Gaza 640 tons of food, 16 per cent of the food it needed to distribute to vulnerable groups in Gaza every month. It had also distributed nearly 200 tons of food, and it continued to distribute bread.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said the situation of more than 1,400 Palestinians who had fled Baghdad and were stranded in camps on the Iraq-Syria border was deteriorating by the day. There was an urgent need for medical care as well as an immediate humanitarian solution and UNHCR urged countries in the region, and further afield to help end their suffering. A UNHCR team visited Al Waleed camp - home to 1,071 Palestinians - on the Iraqi side of the border last week and identified four children and one young man in urgent need of medical care. An added worry was that the security situation was also rapidly deteriorating in the area. Early last week the camp was visited by armed local men who threatened the refugees and demanded some of their supplies. High temperatures and sandstorms were adding to the suffering of those in the camps. In Baghdad the situation remained grim. Many Palestinians were trapped, afraid to move but also afraid to stay. There were still an estimated 15,000 Palestinians remaining in Iraq - less than half of the estimated figure in 2003. UNHCR had repeatedly called for international support for the Palestinians but with few results. UNHCR continued to strongly urge the Iraqi authorities and multinational forces to provide protection to the extent possible to the Palestinian community in Baghdad and at the Iraq-Syria border.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF was deeply concerned about increased suffering for everyday Zimbabweans, particularly children, as a result of grave economic problems facing the country. With official inflation at 4,530 per cent, the cost of essential goods and services was increasing every day, in some cases doubling. The country was facing critical shortages of drugs, key health and education staff and it had entered another drought year. Despite these colossal hardships, significant accomplishments had been made. UNICEF needed $ 14 million for its operations in Zimbabwe, but at the moment, it only had 20 per cent of this amount. More details were available in an update note.

Ms. Taveau said in Cairo, a review of implementation of recommendations emanating from the UN World Report on Violence Against children started yesterday, as the launch of the Arabic version of the study brought about massive participation from regional and international experts, local and regional non-governmental organizations as well as government and child delegations from across the Middle East and North Africa.

Jean Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said ASEAN and IOM were today launching a major report on human trafficking in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. In Dhaka, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs of Bangladesh and the IOM regional office were today launching a three-year programme to prevent human trafficking and protect and assist victims of the crime with livelihood assistance and better prosecution for those who organized it and benefited from it. In Ecuador, IOM and the World Food Programme had joined forces to help communities on the northern border of Ecuador.