REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also addressed by Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the World Trade Organization.
Activities of the Secretary-General
Ms. Heuzé recalled that the Secretary-General was in Dakar, Senegal, where he was attending a summit meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Yesterday, Chad and Sudan had signed a non-aggression pact in Dakar in the Secretary-General’s presence.
Darfur consultations in Geneva
Ms. Heuzé announced that on Monday and Tuesday next week, 17-18 March, informal consultations on Darfur would take place in Geneva. The meeting on Monday would involve consultations with regional partners, while on Tuesday all the relevant partners involved in trying to advance the political process would participate. The African Union and United Nations Special Envoys for Darfur, Salim Ahmed Salim and Jan Eliasson, would participate in the meetings. A press briefing would be organized at the end of the consultations, most likely not before 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
Human Rights Council
Ms. Heuzé said that due to changes in the schedule of the Human Rights Council session, a number of press conferences had had to be postponed. The press conference of Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, would now take place in Press Room 1 at 11:15 a.m. today, followed by a press conference at 11:45 a.m. by Juan Miguel Petit, Special Rapporteur on the sale of children. In the afternoon, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, would brief the press on his report at 3:30 p.m., also in Press Room 1. A press conference was also planned (but to be confirmed) on Wednesday, 19 March, by Jean Ziegler, Special Rapporteur on the right to food.
Ms. Heuzé recalled that on Tuesday, 18 March, the Council would have a panel discussion on the subject of “intercultural dialogue on human rights” from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. The panel discussion, which was open to the press, would be moderated by the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Bristol University. The list of speakers would be made available in the Press Room.
Displacements in Chad / Darfur / Cameroon / CAR
Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agencey (UNHCR) informed journalists that through yesterday, UNHCR convoys had so far managed to transfer 1,063 refugees who had fled recent fighting in Sudan's Darfur region to Kounongou Camp in eastern Chad. Although tensions remained high along the border region, UNHCR had so far mounted five such convoys since 6 March and a sixth was scheduled today. UNHCR was expecting to step up its efforts to move some of the estimated 13,000 refugees from Darfur who had fled fighting that erupted in northern West Darfur in early February. In addition to transfers to Kounoungou, UNHCR also planned to take some of the new arrivals to Mile Camp.
In northern West Darfur, meanwhile, UNHCR was carrying out field missions to the locations affected by the recent attacks as part of a joint UN assessment process to identify humanitarian needs. UNHCR teams also reported that in the past three weeks, hundreds of Chadian had recently arrived in the Armankul and Abu Sourouj areas of West Darfur, reporting that they were fleeing inter-tribal violence in Chad.
Meanwhile in Cameroon, UNHCR had now moved some 8,400 Chadian refugees to Maltam Camp, 32 kms away from the Cameroon town of Kousseri, opposite the Chadian capital of N'Djamena. UNHCR teams also reported that 3,000 more refugees from the northern Central African Republic (CAR) had crossed into southern Chad in the past two weeks, bringing the estimated total number of new arrivals to some 14,000 since the beginning of the year. Mr. Redmond said that further details were available in the briefing note.
Other
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) recalled that there would be a press conference on Monday, 17 March, at 11:00 a.m., on the annual WHO report “Global Tuberculosis Control”. Speakers would include Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO, President Jorge Sampaio, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, and Prof. Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The report had been made available in the Press Room yesterday, under embargo until 6:00 p.m., 17 March. The report was in English but included executive summaries in French and Spanish.
Ms. Chaib reminded journalists that International Water Day would be observed on 22 March. A media advisory would be circulated, probably on Monday, with details on the activities organized by WHO and UNICEF for the Day. These would include a press conference on Thursday, 20 March, at 10 a.m., featuring as speakers David Heyman, Assistant-Director General of WHO, Philip O’Brien, UNICEF Regional Director in Geneva, and the Prince of Orange of the Netherlands. The press conference would be followed by an event in Room XI of the Palais des Nations where the speakers would be joined by Dr. Margaret Chan, who would make a statement on the occasion of the Day.
Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization (ILO) recalled that 301st session of ILO’s Governing Body (GB) was taking place and would conclude on Thursday, 20 March. One priority theme under discussion was how to make globalization more equitable. Ms. Perthuis recalled that a recent independent report had recommended greater multilateral coherence, which the ILO was trying to contribute to. To that end, Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, would address the GB on Monday, 17 March, at 10 a.m. Journalists were welcome to attend. A joint ILO/WB press conference, with Mr. Zoellick and Juan Somavia, Director General of ILO, would take place at 12:30 p.m. at ILO headquarters.
Asked whether the Governing Body had already discussed the situation in Myanmar, Ms. Perthuis said that the report of the recent ILO mission to the country was available on the ILO website and that the GB would be addressing the issue either on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning, 18 or 19 March. Journalists would be advised of the precise timing.
Catherine Sibut of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) confirmed that Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary General of UNCTAD, would brief the press on the upcoming UNCTAD XII conference at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 18 March, immediately following the bi-weekly briefing. He would be accompanied by Taffere Tesfachew, Chef de cabinet and UNCTAD XII Spokesperson. Ms. Sibut said that the Trade and Development Board would meet next week to finalize the preparations for UNCTAD XII and the reports of the commissions.
Charlotte Griffiths of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) drew attention to a press release on “Safeguarding the right to healthy water”. She said that water from the tap was taken for granted in the developed world, but that the reality was that over 100 million European still did not have access to safe drinking water and 38 children died of diarrhoea each day due to the lack of access to safe water. A special independent body, the Compliance Committee, had been established under the auspices of the UNECE and WHO to supervise compliance with the London Protocol on Water and Health to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes. The Protocol aimed to improve access to safe water as a fundamental human right in the pan-European region. The Committee had held its first meeting in Geneva on 12 March. As a first step, it had adopted rules allowing for communications from the general public concerning failures by governments to meet the requirements of the Protocol. Further information was available in the press release.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that Burundian refugees who had been in exile for years in Tanzania had begun to return. Some 90,000 refugees were expected to be repatriated this year and would require aid to begin a new life. In cooperation with UNHCR, WFP and its partners had decided to encourage the voluntary returns by increasing the food rations given to each family of returnees. Instead of three months of rations, six months would be provided. WFP had launched an appeal for USD 6 million to fund the provision of this aid. In addition, USD 20 million was required to maintain the current operations in the country, which helped 600,000 people each month.
In Ecuador, Mr. Redmond said that UNHCR had this week opened a new office in the north of the country, bringing to three the number of its field offices along the Colombian border. According to initial results from a UNHCR survey presented last month, there were about 60,000 Colombians in need of international protection in Ecuador's northern provinces, having left Colombia fearing for their lives or safety because of the internal armed conflict.
Mr. Redmond drew attention to two others item in the briefing notes: on UNHCR’s stepping up repatriation movements to Southern Sudan from neighbouring countries; and voluntary repatriation of Mauritanian refugees from Senegal.
Miranda Eeles of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) provided an update on the return of the children taken from Chad by the NGO l’Arche de Zoé in October 2007, who were being reunited with their families. Today, 83 children were scheduled to be moved to Adre, where they were scheduled to arrive around noon and be reunited with their families after Friday prayers, at around 2:00 p.m. this afternoon. Of the remaining 20 children, 14 would be reunited with their families next week. The good news was that families of the remaining six children had been identified. Final verification was being handled by the International Committee of the Red Cross. It was not yet known when these six would be reunited with their families.
Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said that at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon agricultural negotiators would meet to decide on the next steps in the negotiations for the Doha Round. There would be a briefing after the meeting at WTO. There was also an ongoing meeting today of the Dispute Settlement Body. It would be announced later whether or not there would be a briefing on that. Next week, there would be two meetings of the regular agenda (i.e. not related to the Doha Round). The Agricultural Committee would meet on Tuesday, 18 March, and on Thursday, 20 March, there would be a meeting of the Technical Barriers to Trade Committee.