REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which heard statements from spokespersons and representatives from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration.

New Statements by the Secretary-General

Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, was in Asia to try and resolve the problems in Myanmar. Yesterday he had met with the Prime Minister of Thailand in Bangkok, delivering a special written message of the Secretary-General to the Prime Minister and discussing with him the situation of human rights in Myanmar. Earlier, Mr. Gambari had met the Foreign Minister and spoke to the press afterward. The transcript of that press conference was available in the press room.

Ms. Heuzé said that Mr. Gambari was in Kuala Lumpur today for a two-day visit, and on Tuesday would travel to Indonesia. He would also visit India, China and Japan, before undertaking a second visit to Myanmar. The Special Adviser had called on the Myanmar authorities to release all political detainees and had related the Secretary-General's concerns over reports of continuing and growing human rights violations since the popular demonstrations had been held.

Human Rights

Responding to a question, José-Luis Diaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) affirmed that no response had been received so far from Myanmar on the Human Rights Council request for a visit by Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar. (The Council's request for an urgent visit by the Special Rapporteur to assess the human rights situation in the country had been made in resolution S-5/1, adopted by consensus following the Council's recent special session on Myanmar (2 October 2007).)

World Food Day

Ms. Heuzé recalled that today, 16 October, was World Food Day. Richard China, Chief of the Rehabilitation and Humanitarian Policies Unit of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said that the theme of this year's Day was "The right to food". The Planet produced enough food to feed its entire population, yet tonight 854 million women, men and children – almost one sixth of the world's population – would be going to bed hungry, and 2 billion people – or one third of the population – suffered from micronutrient deficiencies. In 2004 FAO had provided voluntary guidelines to help to realize the right to food, based on the right of every person to be free from hunger, articulating the obligations of States to protect the right to food. Of critical importance in implementing the right to food was protecting the livelihoods and promoting the rapid recovery of the rural, agricultural populations, which made up 75 per cent of those living below the poverty line.

Bioenergy/Biofuel Issues

Responding to a question on the impact of biofuel production on the right to food, Mr. China said that FAO's position was that the biofuel issue presented both threats and opportunities. The threat was a rise in food prices. However, it could also be an opportunity if biofuel production was channelled to small farmers in poor countries rather than large subsidized farmers in developed countries.

Continuing on the issue of bioenergy, Jean-Michel Jakobowicz of the Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said that at the recent meeting of the UNECE Timber Committee one of the topics on the agenda had been bioenergy and whether the recent surge of interest on the use of renewable, and in particular biomass, energies presented a threat to sustainable forestry in Europe. The two big issues were to determine just how much wood was being harvested for energy purposes, and how gas prices affected the equation. Two press releases were available in the back of the room.

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Ms. Heuzé said that tomorrow, 17 October, was the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Activities to mark the day would be organized by the United Nations in close collaboration with a number of non-governmental organizations, in particular the anti-poverty organization, ATD Fourth World. At the Palais des Nations a ceremony would be held tomorrow at 1 p.m. in Hall XIV.

Maternal and Children's Health

Fadéla Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) invited journalists to a press conference this afternoon to discuss the upcoming Women Deliver Conference being held in London next week (18 to 20 October). The Conference would bring together global leaders, experts and delegates from 75 countries to focus on creating the political will to save the lives and improve the health of women, mothers and newborn babies around the world. The slogan of the Conference was "Invest in women, it pays". The press conference would be held today, at 2 p.m. in Room III, with experts from WHO and the United Nations Population Fund.

Ms. Heuzé cited a shocking statistic: the risk of dying in childbirth for a woman living in a third world country was 1 in 16, whereas the same risk for a woman living in a developed country, such as France, Switzerland or the United States, was 1 in 3,800.

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization (ILO) said a new ILO report to be presented at the London Conference highlighted how action in the world of work could help reduce maternal deaths. Naomi Cassirer, author of the report, "Safe Maternity and the World of Work", said that the decent work agenda and poverty reduction were key to improving maternal health everywhere. The report highlighted three particular areas for priority action: social health protection for all; decent work for health workers; and maternity protection at work, which was essential to creating a broader environment that was conducive to healthy pregnancies and healthy workers. Copies of the report and a press release were available in the back of the room.

Climate Change

Ms. Heuzé said that the Secretary-General's statement on the awarding of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to former United States Vice-President Al Gore and to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was available in the press room.

By a serendipitous coincidence, Ms. Heuzé said, tomorrow in Geneva former Secretary-General Kofi Annan would be launching the Global Humanitarian Forum, whose mission was to foster dialogue and partnerships that strengthened the international community’s ability to address current and future humanitarian challenges. In its first phase of existence, the Forum would focus its activities on the humanitarian consequences of climate change. A press conference would be held at World Meteorological Organization headquarters, at 3 p.m. with Mr. Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the IPCC, and the economist Jeffrey Sachs.

Geir Braathen of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), in an ozone hole update, said the 2007 Antarctic ozone hole was relatively small. That should not, however, be taken as a sign of ozone recovery – meaning an increase in ozone. This year's small ozone hole was due to the fact that the Antarctic atmosphere had been relatively mild during the winter this year. Low temperatures increased the ozone hole, and mild ones decreased it. Copies of the update were available at the back of the room.

Food Assistance to Uganda

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that WFP had begun to deliver assistance to 10,000 people in two camps in the north of Uganda this Saturday, with the provision of 117 tons of supplies. While the flooding had been in the west of the country, recent heavy rains had washed out roads leaving the north of the country completely cut off from supplies. There were 250,000 displaced persons in the north of the country. The programme was scheduled to last for one month, while the roads were being worked on.

Children in Armed Conflict: Machel Report + 10

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that 10 years after the release of Graça Machel's study on children in armed conflict, a new UN report found that the nature of conflicts around the world was changing and that children were increasingly being targeted as a result, whether as child soldiers or as victims of sexual violence. It also found that the children suffered from conflicts even when not directly attacked, be it through disease, malnutrition, displacement or poverty. The report, by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Radikha Coomaraswamy, would be presented by UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman in New York tomorrow. A press release was available at the back of the room, and the full text of the report was available at the following website: www.un.org/children/conflict/machel.

Children and Malaria

Thomas Teuscher, Senior Adviser of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, said a joint United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)/Partnership report, "Malaria and Children", to be released tomorrow in the United States, gave an interim assessment of how well the Partnership had supported the acceleration of malaria control. In particular, it indicated that significant gains were being made in the fight against malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, were from 2004 to 2006 there had been a rapid increase in the supply of insecticide treated nets, coupled with improvements in the distribution of those nets to the communities in greatest need.

Mr. Teuscher underscored that most of the deaths due to malaria – over 80 per cent – occurred in Africa, killing at least 800,000 children under the age of five each year in sub-Saharan Africa alone. The report proved that with large-scale access to prevention – either through insecticide treated nets in Africa, or residual spraying of insecticides in Asia – efforts were on target to reach the Millennium Development Goal in this area by 2015

Responding to a question about the development of a malaria vaccine, Mr. Teuscher noted that there were various partnerships between multinational pharmaceutical companies and research institutes in a number of countries. Within maybe the last year and a half the first trial was conducted on children in Mozambique showing that a vaccine with some potential might exist. But real availability of a vaccine was not expected before 2015. They had to concentrate on the means they had now to combat malaria.

Hervé Verhoosel of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership said a telebriefing on the malaria report was being given today at 4 p.m. Geneva time by UNICEF Chief Ann Veneman; Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, Awa Marie Coll-Seck; the Minister of Health of Ethiopia, and others. Information on how to access the telebriefing and copies of the report (in English only), as well as an executive summary and a press release in English and French, were available at the back of the room. The materials were under embargo until midnight tonight.

Update on Flood Victims in Haiti

Ms. Taveau of UNICEF said that the past two weeks had seen continuing heavy rains, causing floods that had killed some 30 people, and was affecting some 1.4 million persons, half of them children. UNICEF was particularly concerned given the situation of children in the country – where the mortality rate for children under five was 177 per 1,000 – as compared with 8 per 1,000 in the United States. Some areas still remained cut off and difficult to access. UNICEF and its partners had distributed 1,000 hygiene kits, jerry cans and water purification tablets to the victims, and was prioritizing the setting up of schools and health clinics in the affected districts.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM was working with its partners and the Haitian authorities to provide emergency relief items to residents of communities in Cabaret, a coastal town north of the capital of Port au Prince, the area most severely affected by the recent rains and floods. IOM offices in the South of the country were also currently involved in the provision of temporary shelter to communities most affected by the recent spate of bad weather conditions. In the past two weeks, at least 33 persons had been killed, including 27 in Cabaret, as a result of the localized floods caused by torrential rains in the Southern and Western coastal regions of the country.

Other

Ms. Taveau of UNICEF announced two press conferences: on Wednesday, 17 October, at 10 a.m., the UNICEF representative for South Africa would brief the press on the issue of child survival and development in South Africa; and on Thursday, 18 October, at 2 p.m. the UNICEF representative in North Korea would discuss the situation of children in North Korea, as well as provide an update on the recent floods. The conferences would take place in press room 1.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR was urgently in need of funding for its work in the Western Sahara and Algeria refugee camps and for its repatriation operation for Mauritanian refugees. Earlier this year, UNHCR had appealed for $3.5 million to continue various confidence-building measures aimed at connecting Sahrawi refugees in the Tindouf camps in Algeria and their relatives in the Western Sahara Territory. As of last month, however, only about half of the appeal had been funded and there had been minimal reaction from donors. UNHCR feared that one of the confidence-building measures, family visits, would have to be suspended by next month.

Meanwhile, at the end of August, UNHCR had launched a $7 million appeal to fund the voluntary repatriation of 24,000 Mauritanian refugees mainly from Senegal and Mali, Ms. Pagonis said. That return would help resolve one of the most protracted refugee situations in Africa: some of the Mauritanian refugees had spent more than two decades in exile. The 17-month operation, which faced some major logistical challenges, was scheduled to start this month. But with only $500,000 received so far, UNHCR feared serious delays.

In an update on smuggling in the Gulf of Aden, Ms. Pagonis said the rate of smuggling boats reaching the shores of Yemen after crossing the Gulf appeared to have increased during the first half of October, along with the appalling death toll. More than 38 smuggling boats had been recorded arriving along Yemen's coast during the first 13 days of October, carrying nearly 3,800 people. A total of 38 people were known to have died while 134 remained missing. And UNHCR continued to hear harrowing stories from survivors: of being robbed, of being beaten, and of being forced off the boats in deep waters. This year, a total of 18,757 people had crossed the Gulf of Aden by boat. An estimated 404 were known to have died while 393 remained missing.

Mr. Chauzy of IOM announced that new funding had been found for return and reintegration of internally displaced persons from Côte d’Ivoire: the Office of United States Foreign Disaster Assistance was providing $200,000, which would allow an additional 3,500 displaced persons to return to their former homes in Western Côte d’Ivoire, as well as strengthen IOM's ongoing peace consolidation activities. However, IOM still needed an additional $1.6 million to expand its peace consolidation, return and community rehabilitation programmes for 2007-2008. A press release was available at the back of the room.