REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration, the Economic Commission of Europe and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Heuzé said the Conference on Disarmament yesterday held the first public plenary of the second part of its 2008 session, under the Presidency of Ambassador Yevhen Bersheda of Ukraine. The Conference heard statements on draft decision CD/1840 by the 2008 Presidents of the Conference, which was tabled at the Conference on 13 March. According to the decision, if adopted, the Conference would appoint Chile as Coordinator to preside over substantive discussions on nuclear disarmament and the prevention of nuclear war; appoint Japan as Coordinator to preside over negotiations, without any preconditions, on a non-discriminatory and multilateral treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, thus providing all delegations with the opportunity to actively pursue their respective positions and priorities, and to submit proposals on any issue they deem relevant in the course of negotiations; appoint Canada as Coordinator to preside over substantive discussions dealing with issues related to prevention of an arms race in outer space; appoint Senegal as Coordinator to preside over substantive discussions dealing with appropriate arrangements to assure non-nuclear weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; and would request those Coordinators to present a report to the Conference on the progress of work before the conclusion of the session.

The next public plenary of the Conference will be at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 20 May.

Ms. Heuzé said the Committee on the Rights of the Child will meet at the Palais Wilson from 19 May to 6 June to review the promotion and protection of children's rights under the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Georgia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Sierra Leone and Eritrea. The Committee will also consider the situation in the United States and the Republic of Korea with regard to the promotion and protection of children's rights under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and will review efforts made by the United States, the Republic of Korea and the Philippines with regard to their implementation of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

The Committee against Torture and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights were both concluding their sessions today. The Committee against Torture’s concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Australia, Sweden, Algeria, Costa Rica, Indonesia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Zambia and Iceland would be made available during the day. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of France, Benin and India would also be available shortly, but the conclusions on the report of Bolivia would only be available on Monday, 19 May in the afternoon.

Ms. Heuzé said the second session of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review was concluding on Monday, 19 May. Today, the Council was meeting in private. Available was an information note about the elections of Member States to the Council which would be held in New York on 21 May. It included the list of countries which were running for membership to the Council.

The Council was holding a Special Session on the global food crisis on Thursday, 22 May in Room XIX.

Ms. Heuzé said on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary session, the International Law Commission would hold a special commemorative event at the Palais des Nations on 19 and 20 May. The event would consist of two segments. First, there would be a solemn meeting on 19 May beginning at 11 a.m. in the Council Chamber (Old Building) to be addressed by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Federal Counselor of the Swiss Confederation, and Nicolas Michel, the Legal Counsel of the United Nations. The second segment beginning at 3 p.m. on the same day would comprise a series of panel discussions involving Legal Advisers of Member States and other international law experts, focusing on practical matters concerning the Commission and its cooperation with Member States in the progressive development of international law and its codification. The overall theme was: “The International Law Commission: Sixty Years… And Now?” The panel discussions would continue all day on 20 May. The complete programme for the event could be found at http://www.un.org/law/ilc.
Available was a press release with more details.

Human Rights

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Committee against Torture’s concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Algeria, Australia, Costa Rica, Iceland, Indonesia, Sweden, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Zambia would be issued today. Available at the back of the room were the Committee’s conclusions on the reports of Algeria, Australia, Indonesia and Sweden. The rest would be put up on the website of OHCHR during the day. At the next session of the Council, the Committee would be taking up the reports of Belgium, China, Hong Kong, Macaw, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lithuania, Montenegro and Serbia.

Myanmar

Ms. Heuzé said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has decided to send Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes to Myanmar. He would by flying in on a World Food Programme flight.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Mr. Homes would be flying out on Saturday and arriving Sunday in Myanmar. The first aim of the visit was for Mr. Holmes to receive a first hand account of the situation on the ground and to meet with the Resident Coordinator and the UN country team who had been doing a very good job under difficult circumstances. He wanted to highlight the enormous efforts made by the humanitarian staffers who were totally run down, emotionally tired, and some had lost their homes too, but they were still doing their best to help the affected population. With the authorities, Mr. Holmes would discuss important issues, in particular related to access and coordination of aid distribution, among others. There had been some slow progress. There were some signs of flexibility, but as always more was needed. An emergency team from ASEAN was in Myanmar and the UN and ASEAN were cooperating together. The estimates were that between 1.6 million persons and 2.5 million persons were severely affected by the Cyclone, but the UN was very wary of these figures. There was also an estimate that around 300,000 persons have received rudimentary aid through the United Nations and other members of the humanitarian community, maybe representing 20 per cent of the affected persons.

The agriculture sector had suffered badly, Ms. Byrs said. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that $ 243 million were needed to allow the agricultural sector to start working again. There were no estimates on damages to the fishing or forestry industries. The only good aspect of the rain arriving now was that it was washing away the salty water, but there were still areas totally inundated with salty water, and the delta was the rice basket of Myanmar. On finances, there was an information meeting for the donor community here in Geneva which was meeting today, co-chaired by OCHA and the Permanent Mission of Myanmar. As for the UN appeal for $ 201.6 million,
$ 39 million had been pledged and contributed. Multilateral and bilateral aid was believed to amount up to $ 133 million pledged and contributed. Thirty-two aircrafts have been confirmed to be arriving in Myanmar in the coming days.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said to date, WFP had dispatched 1,200 tonnes of rice, high energy biscuits and cereals to the areas worst affected by the Cyclone. This was enough to feed 200,000 persons. WFP estimated that around 160,000 persons had already received food aid since the Cyclone hit. It was difficult to make available exact figures because many families shared the food aid they received with other families. Three WFP aircrafts carrying aid had arrived in Rangoon yesterday. The first carried water and sanitary and medical equipment provided by the German Government. The second carried food and other aid from Switzerland. The third carried shelter material from Great Britain. There were other aircrafts expected in coming days. It was raining heavily these days which complicated the unloading of the planes and dispatching the aid by road to the affected areas. Another problem was finding fuel to refuel these planes so that they could leave. WFP had hired a big boat to help distribute the food. It was estimated that 90 per cent of the boats in the affected areas had been destroyed by the Cyclone. WFP had also asked for permission to use a helicopter to distribute food in areas which were difficult to reach. WFP had received four new visas for its personnel. WFP had appealed for $ 69.5 million to cover its operations and had so far received $ 8.5 million. The cyclone had hit the rice basket of Myanmar, home to 60 per cent of Myanmar’s production of rice. The families there had lost their animals and whatever stocks of rice they had. It is now that they should be planting seeds for the October-November harvest, but farmers did not have the money to buy seeds and animals.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR’s third plane has landed in Myanmar’s main city, Yangon, carrying supplies from its emergency stocks in Dubai, continuing the airlift of relief items for victims of Cyclone Nargis which had so far brought in 119 tonnes of emergency shelter and basic household supplies. The plane carried 40 tonnes of assistance, including plastic sheets, blankets, kitchen sets and mosquito nets. The goods were distributed to UNHCR’s partners which were now distributing them to help as many as 5,000 families in the Irrawaddy Delta. One more flight was expected from Dubai into Yangon on Saturday, 17 May. As part of the UN’s $ 187 million joint appeal to address the emergency, UNHCR had asked for $ 6 million to help 200,000 people and its portion of the appeal was already about 90 per cent funded.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF of course was concerned with the protection of children. The situation in Myanmar for children remained very difficult, physically and psychologically from the trauma they had experienced, and this was of critical concern to UNICEF. Assessments showed that the destruction of homes, schools and water and sanitation systems were posing terrible threats to children’s lives and well-being. Children were sleeping on the streets, or in schools or monasteries which were still standing, usually without any protection from the rain. These factors increased the risk of disease. This situation also raised fears of exploitation of children. It was difficult to estimate the number of affected children, but UNICEF believed that 40 per cent of persons worst affected by the Cyclone Nargis were the children. Thousands needed urgent assistance. UNICEF’s priority was to protect children and women against exploitation, negligence and abuse. UNICEF had established a cluster made up of UNICEF, Save the Children, and 15 other organizations to protect the children and women. The three priorities of this cluster was the identification, registration and protection of children separated from their families and children at risk; identification of most vulnerable families which could resort to selling their children or sending them out to work; and putting up temporary camps with space reserved for children where they could play and receive care and psychological aid. Twenty such spaces had already been established. UNICEF did not have exact figures for separated children, but the first count was 500. UNICEF was also arranging radio broadcasts to help reunite separated children with their parents or close family members.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said as mentioned before, there were cases of diarrhea in Myanmar and a few cases of measles and dengue which were expected to increase in coming weeks. There were also incorrect reports of cases of cholera in the press. WHO denied that it had confirmed any cases of cholera in the areas affected by the Cyclone. The Government of Myanmar had informed WHO that it was treating all cases of gastro enteritis as cases of cholera. There was no significant rise in the cases of gastro enteritis. In that connection, the Government of Myanmar had asked WHO and UNICEF for help in purifying water and setting up sanitation systems. WHO had this week sent one cholera kit to the affected regions with treatment for more than 100 cases. WHO had also set up a surveillance system in order to detect cases of water-borne diseases. WHO had some seven national teams, around 50 people, in the affected areas setting up the surveillance system and reporting any health events. WHO was also sending more than 13,000 insecticide treated bed nets.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said on 18 May, IOM Yangon would take delivery of 13 metric tonnes of emergency drugs donated by the United States non-governmental organization AmeriCares for victims of Cyclone Nargis. IOM currently had two medical assessment teams in the Irrawaddy Delta region and they were expected to return to Yangon at the weekend. IOM had appealed for a total of $ 8 million and it had now received $ 1.88 million of funding in response.

China

Carine Van Maele of the World Meteorological Organization said there had been a false alarm about a second cyclone about to hit Myanmar which had created a lot of confusion. Available on the website of WMO was the weather forecast for Myanmar and there was also a link to another site which gave information concerning extreme weather conditions. Journalists should be careful about the sources of their information.

Ms. Heuzé recalled that the Secretary-General had offered his condolences to the Chinese Government and offered the help of the United Nations.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said China was a big country with enormous resources and qualified staff. China had welcomed assistance from the international community in cash or in kind. The most urgent needs were tents and body bags, and there was also a need for medicines, ready to eat meals, blankets, clothes, flash lights and emergency lanterns, among others. The affected areas were mountainous which caused tremendous difficulties for aid to reach them. Heavy equipment was needed to help clear the blocked roads. The worst affected area was 100,000 square kilometers, which was huge. There were 102,103 wounded persons, and close to 12,300 persons still buried under the rubble. There were 13,400 persons who were rescued live from the rubble. 571,400 houses had collapsed and 279,900 houses were destroyed in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Yunnan and Hubei. This was China’s worst earthquake since the one in 1976 which killed 240,000 persons. The Environmental Monitoring Report provided by the Ministry of Environmental Protection confirmed that the destruction of two facilities had resulted in the leak of sulfuric acid and liquid ammonia and the Office of the Resident Coordinator informed the Ministry of assistance available from UNEP/OCHA on potential environmental risks. The Office of the UN Resident Coordinator would submit an initial $ 50,000 Emergency Cash Grant request to purchase assistance items for victims. The UN Agencies would provide in-kind contributions. A team of 29 Russian rescuers and medics, as well as a 60 member Japanese rescue team were expected to arrive today to participate in the search and rescue operations.

Brigitte Leoni of the International Strategy of Disaster Reduction said the world knew how to make buildings more resistant to earthquakes and it was indispensable to use this knowledge in earthquake prone regions. Yet this knowledge was not yet well disseminated among decision-makers. Collapsed buildings were the main killers when earthquakes happened. Building codes for houses, schools and hospitals had to be enforced. ISDR Director Salvano Briceno was in Pakistan for the International Conference on School Safety.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said many children had died under the rubble in China in buildings which collapsed after the earthquake, and hundreds remained missing. Exact figures were very difficult to reach, but UNICEF’s bureau in China estimated that 12 million school-age children lived in Sichuan province, including 2 million in the worst affected area. In one town, at least 900 children were still buried in the rubble of their school. Ann Veneman, UNICEF’s Executive Director, said in a statement yesterday that UNICEF was working closely with the Government and people of China to assist suffering children in the aftermath of the earthquake that struck Sichuan province. It was providing tents, blankets and school kits. UNICEF had worked in this region for years and knew it well.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said that the Chinese authorities had asked for
ready to eat meals and WFP had unblocked $ 100,000 from its emergency fund to distribute ready to eat meals to 118,000 persons. All the operations in China were coordinated by the Resident Coordinator, which was UNDP.

Other

Carine Van Maele of the World Meteorological Organization said she would organize a briefing next week with two experts on Wednesday or Thursday.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was very concerned by escalating violence in eastern Chad, including a fatal attack on gendarmes near a refugee camp and increased levels of vehicle hijacking. UNHCR feared that the attack on Khartoum last weekend could further destabilize the security situation in the east and it had reduced its activities and staff movements as a precautionary measure.

In Somalia, UNHCR this week completed the distribution of aid to more than 40,000 internally displaced persons in over 50 settlements west of Mogadishu. The aid was delivered to internally displaced persons living along a 30-kilometre stretch of road linking Mogadishu to the town of Afgooye. An estimated 300,000 former residents of Mogadishu lived in this area.

In conclusion, Ms. Pagonis said High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres was in southern Yemen today as part of a five-day official visit to the country. Yesterday, Mr. Guterres visited Kharaz refugee camp near Aden, where he called on the international community to step up its assistance for refugees crossing the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa. Following his visit to the south, Mr. Guterres was scheduled to attend a regional conference on refugee protection and international migration in the Gulf of Aden in the capital Sanaa on 19 and 20 May.

Charlotte Griffiths of the Economic Commission of Europe said she had mentioned the controversial Danube canal project last week and whether or not there would be a finding that Ukraine was in non-compliance with its obligations under the UNECE Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context. The meeting would be held in Bucharest next week and a decision was expected to be taken on 21 May.

Claudia McGoldrick of the International Committee of the Red Cross said there would be a very important diplomatic conference in Dublin on cluster munitions starting 19 May, and more than 100 countries were expected to attend. The conference, which would continue until 30 May, would be discussing and negotiating the terms of a new international treaty prohibiting cluster munitions. ICRC and the Red Cross movement played an important part of the process leading up to this conference. ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger would be one of the speakers in the opening ceremony at the conference. Interviews with ICRC experts during the conference could be arranged for interested journalists.

Ms. McGoldrick said ICRC President Kellenberger would be giving a press conference on 27 May at ICRC headquarters for the launch of the 2007 annual report. A press release and other material would be issued before that.

Available in the press room: “World Economic Situation and Prospects 2008 – Update as of Mid-May 2008”