REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from the Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Refugee Office, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Trade Organization and the International Organization for Migration.

At the beginning of the briefing, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier welcomed a group of Norwegian journalists who were in Geneva at the invitation of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and were attending the briefing.

Secretary-General to Visit Switzerland Next Week

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be in Switzerland next week. On Tuesday, 22 January, the Secretary-General will be in Lausanne where he will visit the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne. At 3 p.m., there will be a stakeout. Later on Tuesday afternoon, the Secretary-General will visit the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at a moment when it is getting ready to launch a number of events to start a year-long campaign leading up to the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On Wednesday, 23 January, the Secretary-General will open the 2008 session of the Conference on Disarmament at 10 a.m. in the Council Chamber. Available in the press room is a background press release on the session of the Conference. At 2 p.m., the Secretary-General will attend a meeting for the Consolidated Appeals Process 2008 in Room XII. At 3 p.m., he will participate in a Memorial Ceremony in the Assembly Hall to pay tribute to United Nations colleagues and other victims killed or injured in the brutal and senseless terrorist attack on the United Nations offices in Algiers on 11 December 2007. The Ceremony will gather the United Nations family and the international community in Geneva to honour the courage and commitment of all the victims. The families of the colleagues who lost their lives in this abominable senseless tragedy attack have been invited to Geneva to participate in the event. Journalists are invited to attend. A note to correspondents with more details will be issued.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 23 January, the Secretary-General will give a press conference in Room III. He will then travel to Davos where he will participate in the World Economic Forum.

Human Rights Committees

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women had started its fortieth session at the Palais des Nations on 14 January, and had already reviewed the reports of Bolivia, Burundi and Saudi Arabia. Today, the Committee was taking up the periodic report of France and on Tuesday, 22 January it would consider the periodic report of Lebanon.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child also started its forty-seventh session at the Palais Wilson on 14 January and had already reviewed the report of Timor-Leste. Today, the Committee was taking up the report of Germany on the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child on children and armed conflict. On Monday, 21 January, the Committee would take up the report of the Dominican Republic.

Kenya

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said the situation in Kenya was very difficult and UNICEF was especially worried about the situation of children and their vulnerability, especially within the packed camps for displaced persons where many children were traumatized by what they had seen and experienced. Some families had no shelter, no money, nothing. The situation was deteriorating and the violence was continuing. The Red Cross had opened up more than 300 camps for displaced persons and had registered nearly 300,000 displaced persons since the start of the inter-ethnic violence at the end of December. In some of the camps, there were women and children who were so weak that they did not have the force to go to the food distribution points to receive food aid. There had been cases of violations against children, and the number of victims of sexual aggression had multiplied. UNICEF was reinforcing its protection role in the camps to help the neediest families. It was also carrying out assessment missions to see what the families needed. Out of the $ 35 million requested by the UN agencies for Kenya, UNICEF was requesting $ 6.6 million.

William Spindler of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR on Thursday flew in tons of humanitarian supplies from its stockpiles in Dubai to Nairobi for distribution to Kenyans displaced in the recent unrest. A Boeing 747-400 brought in 19,600 bales of plastic sheeting to be used for shelter; 40,000 mosquito nets and 15 generators. Some of these supplies would be used to replenish stocks in Dadaab refugee camp in the north-east of Kenya. At the beginning of the operation to assist the recently displaced people, UNHCR borrowed some supplies from Dadaab for distribution in different areas of Nairobi and to uprooted people in the Rift Valley. To date, UNHCR had distributed a total of 1,400 household/family kits in Nairobi and the Rift Valley. UNHCR worked with the Kenyan Red Cross Society and World Concern International for distribution of emergency shelter and non-food items. In neighbouring Uganda, the Office of the Prime Minister reported that 6,590 people had crossed the border from Kenya. They were scattered mainly in Malaba, Busia and Lwakhakha. The majority of the refugees were being hosted by local communities, while a few thousand were staying in schools in Malaba and in Busia. A transit center in Mulanda, 35 kms from the border, was currently being prepared.

Marcal Izard of the International Committee of the Red Cross said in the wake of Kenya’s post-election violence that forced large numbers of people to flee their homes, ICRC has helped the Kenya Red Cross to set up tracing teams in all the main affected areas. So far, the Kenya Red Cross had registered more than 150 cases of children separated from their families. Of these, more than 120 have been successfully reunited. The Kenya Red Cross had also received almost 150 requests to help locate adult family members. More than 100 additional cases of separated family members were solved by the staff on the spot.

Other

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said on Tuesday, 22 January at 1:30 p.m. in Salle III, UNICEF will be launching its State of the World’s Children Report 2008. This is the first time that the UNICEF flagship report will be launched in Geneva by UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman. Also participating in the launch will be Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, and Bience Gawanas, Commissioner for Social Affairs of the African Union. A press release was available at the back of the room under strict embargo until 1:30 p.m. on 22 January. Also available was a note with the details of the password-protected site where journalists could find electronic copies of the embargoed report.

Ms. Taveau said concerning the Africa Cup of Nations which will start this weekend in Ghana, available are two press releases on how UNICEF and the Confederation of African Football have joined together to promote a child’s right to quality education. Some of Africa’s top football players will feature in the campaign during the Africa Cup of Nations.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said concerning the severe winter conditions in Afghanistan, harsh winter weather conditions had caused fatalities, hardship and major access problems in the western and central highlands regions of Afghanistan in the past few weeks. Up to 17 January, 200 fatalities were reported. Fifteen of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan were severely affected with the majority of roads closed and the price of what food and fuel available rising steeply. Avalanches had killed some people and cut off dozens of villages. Animals had also suffered with 42,000 goats, sheep and cows dying. The main outstanding needs were food, blankets, sweaters and fuel for heating, blankets, plastic sheets and warm clothing. Although winter preparedness efforts and pre-positioning had taken place in advance, resources were spread thinly across the country and stocks had rapidly been exhausted in the worst affected areas. In order to support coordination by the Humanitarian Regional Team in Herat, a UN team will travel from Kabul to Herat, and it might also be deployed to some of the other affected provinces if possible.

Marcal Izard of the International Committee of the Red Cross said ICRC had issued a press release yesterday about some 2,000 people in Colombia who were newly displaced in Colombia’s Arauca province. There had been threats from armed groups against these people living in this oil rich region and the families had fled the countryside. The Colombian Red Cross and ICRC were delivering assistance to those families, including food for one month, shelter and clothing and household items. These people had fled the countryside to towns where they were living in schools and the homes of family and friends.

Jana Borges of the World Trade Organization said WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy will be in Davos next week from 24 to 26 January. On 24 January, he will meet with President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines. Over the course of the three days he will also hold meetings with Trade and Foreign Ministers from Germany, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Cambodia, Egypt, Brazil and Japan. On 25 January, the Director-General will participate in a lunch with trade ministers, organized by the Swiss authorities and he will also take part in the panel "Threats to the Global Trading System".

At WTO, Ms. Borges said there will be negotiations on industrial goods on 21 and 22 January and negotiations on rules on 25 January. The Dispute Settlement Body will meet on 21 January.

William Spindler of the UN Refugee Agency said next week, UNHCR will sign an agreement with the Barcelona Football Club (FCBarcelona), one of the world's most famous sport associations. The main objective of the agreement is to raise public awareness of the protection needs of refugees and other uprooted people around the world and to underscore the importance of sport as a tool for education and social inclusion. As a first step, UNHCR and FCBarcelona will carry out a number of projects to help refugees in Ecuador, Nepal and Rwanda.

Mr. Spindler said a Tripartite Commission involving the governments of Mauritania and Senegal and UNHCR met for the first time on Thursday to discuss the upcoming return of Mauritanian refugees currently in Senegal. The meeting followed the signing last November of an agreement between the three parties on the voluntary repatriation and reintegration of Mauritanian refugees who fled from their country following a series of incidents in 1989. In Venezuela, UNHCR had signed an agreement with the Venezuelan "Banco del Pueblo Soberano" -- one of the largest micro-finance institutions of the Venezuelan government -- to grant micro-credits to Colombian refugees and asylum seekers in the Venezuelan border states of Zulia, Táchira and Apure. The agreement, which totaled over
$ 700,000, would benefit some 10,000 registered refugees and asylum seekers as well as some 200,000 unregistered Colombians in need of international protection.

Philip Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said a two-day conference bringing together ministers and senior officials from Asian labour countries of origin and Gulf destination countries alongside leading regional and international organizations will open on Monday, 21 January in Abu Dhabi. The conference, hosted by the United Arab Emirates and co-organized by IOM, aimed to highlight the potential of contractual labour mobility to benefit overseas workers as well as the development of both countries of origin and destination in Asia through the setting up of key action-oriented partnerships.