REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Office at Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for and Representatives of the United Nations System Staff College,
the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Organization, the International Labour Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Trade Organization and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General’s Agenda

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was scheduled to participate in the UN Climate Change Conference on the island of Bali from 12 to 14 December. There he wanted to maximize the prospects for the launch of climate change negotiations. The Secretary-General felt a breakthrough was needed in Bali as a critical first step. If the world was to meet the challenge of global warming, a new and comprehensive agreement that all nations could embrace was needed. The Secretary-General did not expect world leaders to walk away from the summit with a new global accord to succeed Kyoto. But he would expect them to agree to an agenda of issues and set a timetable for reaching such an accord, before the Kyoto protocol expired in 2012.

On his way to Bali, the Secretary-General would stop for an official visit to Thailand. On 14 and 15 December, the Secretary-General would visit the UN Mission in Timor-Leste. From Dili, the Secretary-General would fly to Jakarta on his way back to New York.

The Secretary-General had also confirmed his attendance the following Monday, 17 December, in Paris, at the International Donors Conference for the Palestinian Territories, co-hosted by France, Norway, the European Commission and Tony Blair, in his capacity as Special Representative for the Middle East Quartet.

Secretary-General Nominates New Middle East Envoy

The Secretary-General had informed the Security Council of his intention to appoint Robert H. Serry of the Netherlands as the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and his Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. In this capacity, Mr. Serry would be the Envoy of the Secretary-General to the Quartet.

New Messages by the Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said a number of messages by the Secretary-General were available in the press room. They included his messages on the occasion of World AIDS Day (1 December), the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery (2 December), the International day of Disabled Persons (3 December), and the International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development (5 December).

Committee on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families would today be concluding its seventh session and would be issuing its concluding observations and recommendations on the initial report of Ecuador which had been considered during the session. A roundup press release would be issued during the day.

Annual Accreditation for Journalists

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the renewal of accreditation for journalists for 2008 would start from 3 December 2007. A note to correspondents had been issued with details.

New Director for United Nations System Staff College

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the UN Secretary-General had appointed UN Assistant Secretary-General Carlos Lopes as Director of the United Nations System Staff College. This appointment was in addition to Mr. Lopes’ current functions as Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

Mr. Lopes said that after 19 years of working within the UN system, he had joined UNITAR in May and had started a process of transformation of UNITAR based on a reform plan that was approved by the Counsel of UNITAR in June. The Secretary-General had asked UNITAR to carry out a number of important tasks, including, with the aid of the United Nations System Staff College, the organization of the special retreat of UN leaders which was held in Turin in September. The two bodies had also jointly coordinated on other tasks. With the appointment of Staffan de Mistura, the former Director of the United Nations System Staff College, as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, the Secretary-General, upon consultation with the Board of Governors, had appointed him as Director. This was the first time that the same person headed these two leading UN training institutions and he hoped it would facilitate and enhance further synergies between them.

Human Rights

Yvonne Edoumou of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said High Commissioner Louise Arbour would travel to Brazil this weekend on her first visit to the country. The High Commissioner would be in Brazil from 3 to 5 December. During the visit, she would meet with President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and a number of other senior government officials. She would also be meeting with representatives of non-governmental organizations and members of the United Nations family. Ms. Arbour would visit Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio where she would hold a press conference at the end of the visit on 5 December.

Mr. Edoumou said on 3 December, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Government of Senegal would sign in Dakar a Memorandum of Understanding for the opening of the West African Regional Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The office would be opened some time in early 2008. These regional offices were part of a strategy by the Office to establish more geographic presence throughout the world in order to better assist Member States in the protection of human rights. This regional office was the fourth of its kind in Africa.

A journalist asked if the High Commissioner would be visiting any prisons in Brazil, and wondered if she would be bringing up the protest cases of two young women who were put into cells with male inmates and who were repeatedly raped with the complicity of the police. Mr. Edoumou said addressing the issue of prison conditions for inmates would be part of addressing broader human rights issues. The Office of the High Commissioner was aware of this case and the High Commissioner would use it as an example of the need to address human rights issues.

Children in Aftermath of Bangladesh Cyclone and in Haiti

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said she had left a news note at the back of the room on the aftermath of the cyclone in Bangladesh where 8.4 million people were estimated to have been affected by the cyclone, approximately half of them children. UNICEF’s Representative in Bangladesh, Louis-Georges Arsenault, was sounding the alarm about an estimated 300,000 children under the age of five who were living throughout the disaster zone in makeshift camps with their families, surviving on meagre food and water, without proper shelter or access to basic amenities. Mr. Arsenault said if these children were not fed micronutrients quickly and were not protected by vitamins and iron, and if diarrhoeal diseases spread, then the children would die. Starting tomorrow, UNICEF would start a massive distribution of high-energy BP5 biscuits and family kits to children under three years of age and to pregnant women. The distribution would be carried out jointly with the World Food Programme and Save the Children and local non-governmental organizations. In the framework of its emergency operation, UNICEF was launching an appeal for $ 29.2 million to help women and children with food, water, sanitation, education and protection. More details were available in the news note.

Ms. Taveau said UNICEF was very concerned about the situation in Haiti where violence was affecting children. UNICEF firmly condemned the kidnappings and assassinations carried out against children in recent weeks. A few days ago, a seven-year-old child was found dead, his body mutilated, two weeks after he was kidnapped in the city of Cabaret, north of the capital Port au Prince. A ransom of
$ 680 had been asked for the boy but his parents could not pay. In past weeks, similar cases of kidnappings had increased, 11 alone in November affecting children ages 3 to 17 years. UNICEF called on the Haitian authorities to do everything to ensure the protection of children and to ensure that the culprits were brought to justice.

Ms. Taveau reminded journalists that UNICEF’s representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Anthony Bloomberg, would brief journalists about the situation of children in that country on Monday, 3 December at 2 p.m.

Other

Emma Ross of the World Health Organization, providing an update on the break of the embargo by the New York Times of the measles story yesterday, said that after speaking to the reporter and assessing how this happened, WHO had decided to bar the New York Times from receiving any WHO press material for the next two weeks.

On Tuesday, 4 December, WHO would be distributing documentation on the report on children’s medicines, Ms. Ross added.

Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization said WHO would probably issue an update this afternoon on the new outbreak of Ebola in western Uganda. Yesterday, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta had said this was a new strain of Ebola. There were currently four strains of Ebola, so this would be a fifth strain and it appeared to have slightly different characteristics from the other four strains. WHO was paying special attention to this outbreak. There were 20 samples tested, first at a national laboratory and then at the CDC. Eight of the 20 samples tested positive for this new Ebola strain, and the results of the other 12 samples were not available yet. So far, since the end of September when the outbreak started, there had been 51 reported cases, with 16 deaths in western Uganda. WHO was very concerned about this because the new strain did not present itself in exactly the same way as other Ebola strains. Obviously, any time WHO was looking at Ebola, and a new strain of Ebola, this was a new challenge.

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization reminded journalists that at 11:30 this morning, right after the briefing, there would be a press conference on the launch of the book “The Right to Decent Work of Persons with Disabilities”, published by the ILO on the eve of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (3 December).

William Spindler of the UN Refugee Agency said two sick Palestinian refugee children waiting for resettlement from Iraq died in the last two weeks, one of them in Al Waleed refugee camp at the Iraq-Syria border and the other one in Baghdad. Another refugee, a 50-year old man also waiting to be resettled, died earlier this month in Al Waleed refugee camp. So far, seven people had died there, including three young children, since Palestinian refugees started to arrive at the border in March 2006 fleeing violent attacks against them. The UN Refugee Agency had spoken on various occasions about the serious difficulties faced by Palestinian refugees in Iraq, many of whom were stranded at the border, and it continued to urge resettlement countries to make rapid decisions and facilitate the departure of those most in need. Meanwhile, some refugees continued to return to Iraq. UNHCR welcomed any improvements to the security situation and stood ready to assist people who had decided to return voluntarily. However, UNHCR still did not believe that the time had come to promote, organize or encourage returns to Iraq.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said she just wanted to inform journalists about upcoming press conferences. On the launch of the Consolidated Appeals, John Holmes, Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, would speak to journalists at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, 10 December. As this was also Human Rights Day, she suggested that she would distribute a press kit on 10 December at 8:30 a.m. with a number of documents to help the media. Journalists who were interested in having the press kit before the weekend could have it, but they had to respect the embargo time, which was 3:30 p.m. Geneva time on 10 December.

Ms. Byrs said on 11 December, OCHA would launch the Work Plan for Sudan, which was a kind of an appeal. There would be a press conference on 11 December after the briefing at 11:30 a.m.

Anoush der Boghossian of the World Trade Organization said the Trade Negotiations Committee was holding an informal meeting this morning. Next week, WTO would be launching the World Trade Report 2007 on 4 December at 11:30 a.m. at WTO. Also next week, the Cape Verde accession would move to the final phase. There would be a meeting on 6 December to adopt the documentation, including the accession package. This could be forwarded to the WTO General Council at the end of December. There would be meetings of the agriculture negotiations on 3 December, to be followed by a briefing.

Concerning Director-General Pascal Lamy, Ms. der Boghossian said that he would participate in the International Trade Centre’s joint Advisory Group on 4 December. On 3 December, he would participate in UNIDO’s General Conference.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said as part of a joint organized return plan, the first overland IOM convoy assisting South Sudanese to return home since the end of this year’s rainy season would depart on 1 December from the outskirts of Khartoum to Renk country in Upper Nile State. Subsequent IOM land convoys would travel to Southern Kordofan and Unity State. A barge would take other displaced persons to Malakal. A total of 3,500 persons were expected to be assisted home by 31 December. Some $ 4 million was urgently required for priority return operations scheduled for early 2008 and to establish a logistics infrastructure which entailed the building or re-establishment and refurbishment of an extensive network of departure centres and way stations that were either dismantled or damaged during the long rainy season.

Ms. Pandya said the Japanese Government would contribute a further $ 9 million to enable IOM to continue to deliver reintegration support to former combatants, amnestied political prisoners and unemployed youth in high-risk parts of Aceh.