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 was also addressed by Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General’s Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has just finished the press conference he held in Bern. The Information Service will be preparing a transcript of the Secretary-General’s comments.

This afternoon, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., the Secretary-General will give the inaugural lecture of the Geneva Lecture Series on the theme of “Are the Development Goals Doomed to Fail?” The Secretary-General will make an introductory statement, which will be followed by an interactive dialogue. The lecture will be held in the Assembly Hall. Journalists are requested to be there by 3:30 p.m., and there are seats reserved for them in the gallery on the fifth floor.

Two new statements by the Secretary-General are available in the press room. In the first statement, the Secretary-General condemns the loss of civilian life in Gaza, including the tragic deaths of a mother and four of her children. In the second statement, the Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack against Afghan President Hamid Karzai that occurred during a victory parade in Kabul, claiming the lives of two Parliament members and injuring nine others.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee against Torture yesterday opened its fortieth session, electing its Chairperson and members of the Bureau and adopting its agenda and programme of work. The Committee elected Claudio Grossman as its Chairperson, Nora Sveaass, Essadia Belmir and Xuexian Wang as Vice-Presidents and Ms. Kleopas as Rapporteur. This morning, the Committee will start its review of the report of Australia, and this afternoon, the report of Sweden.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also opened it fortieth session yesterday at the Palais Wilson and adopted its agenda and programme of work. In the afternoon, the Committee discussed the right to education with a representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and then heard from non-governmental organizations on the situation of economic, social and cultural rights in France, India and Bolivia, whose reports will be considered during the session. This morning, the Committee is reviewing the report of France.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier reminded journalists that the Palais des Nations will be closed on Thursday, 1 May because of the Ascension Holiday, and that there will be a briefing as usual on Friday, 2 May.

Other

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said today at 11:30 a.m., there will be a briefing on AIDS and children in press room 1.

Ms. Taveau said the Geneva Book Fair will be starting on Wednesday, 30 April. UNICEF has a big stand at the fair and journalists are welcome to come and visit. UNICEF is organizing two roundtables, the first on 1 May at 10:30 a.m. on the rights of children, and the second on 2 May at 1 p.m. on the situation of children in humanitarian crises.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said the WHO Working Group on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property started meeting yesterday at the International Geneva Conference Centre. This was a technical meeting, but she had some background information notes which might make the topic more interesting to journalists. The meeting will continue until Saturday, 3 May. The last meeting of this Working Group was in November 2007. The Working Group is preparing a draft strategy to present to the World Health Assembly, which will meet from 19 to 24 May.

Ms. Chaib said from 6 to 9 May, a WHO consultation on the revision of pandemic influenza preparedness guidance will be held at the International Geneva Conference Centre. WHO had not revised its guidelines on pandemic influenza since 2005. This was a technical meeting.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said a UNHCR-commissioned survey of nearly 1,000 Iraqis currently staying in Syria had shown that 95 per cent had fled their homeland because of direct threats or general insecurity, and that only four per cent currently had plans to return to Iraq. The following reasons were given by those not wishing to return: 61 per cent stated that they were under direct threat in Iraq; 29 per cent did not want to return because of the general insecurity in Iraq; eight per cent responded that their home in Iraq had been destroyed or was presently occupied by others; one per cent said they had no job in Iraq; and one per cent said they had no more relatives left at home.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said in Belgium, a two-day meeting bringing together senior labour migration officials from ten Colombo Process countries and European Union Member States was opening today. The meeting, organized under an EC-funded programme to facilitate labour migration between Asia and Europe, aimed to further the understanding of labour migration dynamics between the two regions.

Ms. Pandya said IOM had launched a pilot project to raise awareness and strengthen preparedness for an avian influenza pandemic in migrant communities and communities hosting migrants on the Cambodia-Viet Nam border. A roundtable meeting bringing together government ministries, UN agencies, civil society and other stakeholders in Egypt and chaired by IOM will take place on 30 April in Cairo to fine tune Avian flu preparedness activities targeting migrants.