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 Spokespersons for and Representatives of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Trade Organization and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General’s Travels

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon was in Davos where he addressed the plenary session of the World Economic Forum, saying that the challenge of securing safe and plentiful water for all was one of the most daunting challenges faced by the world today. He noted that the lack of water had contributed to poverty and tension around the world, from Darfur to the occupied Palestinian territory to Colombia. “Water is running out,” the Secretary-General said. “We need to adapt to this reality, just as we do to climate change. There is still enough water for all of us—but only so long as we keep it clean, use it more wisely, and share it fairly.” The Secretary-General’s statement was available in the press room.

This evening, Secretary-General Ban would embark on his first-ever official trip to Eastern Europe. He would arrive in Slovenia, which currently held the European Union presidency, after which he would stop in Slovakia. He would then travel to Kigali, Rwanda, where he would speak at the Genocide Memorial, before proceeding to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he would address the opening of the African Union summit meeting on 31 January.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said she wanted to clarify an issue. There had been some media reports saying that Secretary-General Ban would be the first UN Secretary-General to visit Rwanda since the 1994 genocide. In fact that was wrong. Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan had visited Rwanda, including also the Genocide Memorial in Kigali, in 2001.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Conference on Disarmament was holding a public plenary this morning and the list of speakers was in the press room.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was today considering the report of Sweden. The Committee, which was closing its session on Friday, 1 February, would be meeting in private all next week.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child would be reviewing the report of Chile on Monday, 28 January. The Committee after that would also meet in private until it concluded its session on Friday, 1 February.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust would be observed on Monday, 28 January 2008, with a ceremony at 4:30 p.m. in the Assembly Hall of the Palais des Nations. The ceremony, held under the theme of "Remembrance and Beyond", would pay tribute to those who perished in Nazi death camps and reassert the commitment to uphold the values of human rights. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, would open the ceremony, which would feature a video message of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon. Other speakers would include Itzhak Levanon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Father Patrick Desbois, a historian of the Holocaust, and Shevach Weiss, former Ambassador of Israel to Poland and a holocaust survivor.

Update on Gaza

Elena Mancusi Materi of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said the situation in Gaza was subject to change, however this was the latest she had. On crossings, the terminals of Rafah, Karni and Kerem Shalom were closed. Erez was open for internationals and Palestinians with special coordination only. Sofa was open yesterday to receive a Jordanian donation of 11 trucks of basic commodities, but no humanitarian consignments were let through. And Nahal Oz was open yesterday for passage of some industrial fuel, cooking gas, benzene and diesel. With regards to supplies, the easing of the closure was expected to bring in 2.2 million litres of industrial fuel for the Gaza Power Plant. In fact, an amount which was remarkably less significant was being received. The power plant had the capacity to produce 80 megawatts if it received enough fuel, but it was currently producing 60 megawatts. If absence of fuel continued, it would lead to a crisis on Friday, today. Once fuel entered the tanks, it took 12 hours to settle before it could be used. The easing of the closure was also expected to open the passage of 500,000 litres of diesel, out of which 100,000 litres was earmarked for UNRWA. So far, the Agency had still been unable to retrieve this assigned quota and it was in discussion with the relevant parties. Although some cooking gas has been received, stocks had not yet been replenished, not all stations had been supplied and long queues were still found in front of many stations. Commercial imports were still blocked. The easing of the closure was supposed to allow 50 trucks of humanitarian supplies into Gaza. UNRWA managed to get in less than half the trucks. UNRWA’s operations were very fragile. Access to water continued being problematic for almost half the households.

Ms. Mancusi Materi said UNRWA environmental health routine activities have also been hindered, representing yet another threat to the health of the Palestine Refugees. Conservative measures were being implemented to minimize fuel consumption in the 18 primary Health Centers which UNRWA ran in the Gaza Strip. With respect to secondary health care, UNRWA was ensuring hospital care by referring refugee patients to Ministry of Health and private/charity hospitals. UNRWA had donated a total of 5,000 litres fuel to two hospitals to allow continuation of their operations during the emergency. However, frequent electricity cuts and limited fuel available to run hospital generators are seriously hindering all hospital services and in particular, intensive care units, operation theatres and emergency rooms. Lack of fuel for transportation has further worsened access to hospitals for the patients as well as for staff. These stringent difficulties were being imposed on a population where 35 per cent lived on less than 2 $ a day. Unemployment was skyrocketing and 80 per cent of the population received some form of humanitarian assistance. Whole communities in Gaza were being punished for acts that they were not responsible for.
UNRWA called for the lifting of the restrictions on movement of fuel, medicines and essential commodities to Gaza, and appealed for easing permits for medical care referral abroad. UNRWA was particularly concerned that the continuing restrictions on the movement of goods and people were causing enormous distress on the population and affecting their access to health care services and proper sanitation.

Guido Sabatinelli, UNRWA’s Director of Health at UNRWA’s Headquarters in Amman, said many factors now were affecting the health of Palestinians. At the same time, UNRWA and the Ministry of health were facing deep difficulties in delivering health services. In this situation, UNRWA was observing a decline of health indicators. There was an increase in the rates of mortality, malnutrition and anemia. The situation was very serious.

Flooding in Bolivia and Southern Africa, Mudslide in Peru

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said since November 2007, heavy rains on Bolivia had caused serious damage. There were so far 21,521 families affected, 27 deaths and four missing. The Government had declared a state of emergency in nine of the country’s departments and a United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team was in the process of being deployed. The worst affected departments were Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.

A mudslide had affected 18,000 persons in southern Peru. She would try to provide more details shortly.

As for the Southern African floods, the water levels appeared to have stabilized, and in some cases have reduced. The cumulative number of people affected by the rains and floods in Southern Africa was now 122,200 persons, with Mozambique being the worst affected, followed by Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland.

WHO Executive Board

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said WHO’s Executive Board was continuing its work at WHO Headquarters. All resolutions which had been accepted and would be presented to the next WHO Assembly were available on the WHO website. On polio, the Executive Board studied the report of the Secretariat which noted that polio remained endemic in only four countries – Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan - but that there were cases of polio in 13 countries. Harmful use of alcohol was another issue and WHO had presented a strategy to try to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. Alcohol today was responsible for 2.3 million premature deaths around the world, as use of alcohol had affects on road accidents, suicide cases and domestic violence. Harmful drinking among young people and women was an increasing concern in many countries. Other issues included international health regulations, female genital mutilation and health of migrants.

UNICEF

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said the violence in Kenya was continuing despite mediation efforts by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. UNICEF continued to be extremely worried about the situation of children. Whole families continued to flee their homes fearing ethnic violence, and there was displacement in areas that were relatively calm before. The camps for displaced persons continued to see new arrivals. UNICEF to date had distributed $ 1.2 million worth of emergency aid including family, health and education kits. UNICEF staff was distributing aid, but UNICEF needed funds to help children, young women and women who were victims of sexual violence. Cases of rape were increasing, including young women who were raped when they went to the camp latrines at night, and an investigation was continuing. UNICEF also needed $ 3 million for its child protection and child education programmes in Kenya. It was urgent that children be able to return to school as quickly as possible, and that calm return to Kenya. UNICEF personnel had also collected quotes from victims of the violence which were available in a note.

Ms. Taveau said consultations were held in Geneva over the past two days between UNICEF and non-governmental organizations in humanitarian action from around the world to discuss the kinds of partnerships and action that could be put in place to respect children’s rights during humanitarian emergencies.

Ms. Taveau said Nickelodeon Latin America, in collaboration with UNICEF, would start on Monday, 28 January a values campaign for children throughout Latin America. Verdito, a new character, would make daily on-screen appearances encouraging change with brief, direct and age-appropriate messages that appealed to the audience concerning caring for the environment, water conservation and recycling among others.

Other

Jana Borges of the World Trade Organization said next week, there would be a Ghana trade policy review on 28 and 30 January. There would be a zeroing panel (DS-350) public viewing on 29 and 30 January. On 30 January, there would also be Bhutan membership negotiations, and an informal meeting of the rules negotiations from 30 January to 1 February.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy was holding a series of meetings with Ministers in Davos, including Ministers from the European Union, Brazil, Canada, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Cambodia, Egypt, Japan, Peru, South Africa, Lesotho, and with the President of the Asian Development Bank. Next week in Geneva, he would meet with Australia’s Trade Minister on 28 January and Ireland’s Minister for Trade and Commerce and Oxfam’s International Executive-Director on 30 January.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said IOM had been asked to lend support to the Ghanaian Government in providing care and assistance to a group of minors rescued from a brothel in Ghana on 19 January following a police raid. This operation was the largest ever carried out in Ghana to protect potential victims of human trafficking. Another IOM programme covering Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali and Senegal aiming to promote cooperation and establish a network among civil society, law enforcement and the judiciary to fight human trafficking had kicked off, representing a step forward in inter-regional efforts to deal with the crime.

Ms. Pandya said other news in the press briefing notes included a new film which took a rare look at the migration realities faced by Zimbabweans today, a study tour to Singapore for Cambodian consular officers, IOM construction of 350 typhoon and earthquake-proof homes in the Philippines, and a training seminar for officials from countries of the Andean Region on human rights and international migration law in Peru.