REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Office at Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from spokespersons and representatives from the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. The newly appointed Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfried Lemke, also participated in the briefing, giving journalists an overview of his priorities for the mandate.

Secretary-General's Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that yesterday, the first-ever HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis Global Leaders’ Forum had been held at United Nations Headquarters in New York. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had addressed that meeting, and the text of his speech was available in the press room.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General had taken part in the launch of the report of the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa, entitled “Securing Our Future”. Addressing the high-level panel, he had noted that there has been an international movement towards universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support, but that serious challenges remained, including rising prevalence among women and young people.

The text of that address was available in the press room, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier noted, as well as the text of the Secretary-General’s statement on the Sudan, welcoming the agreement reached on 8 June between the National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, in which the parties agreed on a road map to resolve the Abyei dispute.

Fadéla Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO), reverting to subject of the first-ever high-level global forum on HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis, said that a media advisory had been sent last week, and a press release had been sent to journalists yesterday. Attending the forum were several Presidents – from Togo, Mozambique and El Salvador – as well as former President Bill Clinton, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, and others. It was important to recall that, today, there were some 3 million people in the developing world being treated with antiretroviral drugs for HIV, but among those infected by HIV, about 250,000 of them died from Tuberculosis. If they were not able to control Tuberculosis, they would not be able to control HIV.

Secretary-General’s Travels

Next Thursday, the Secretary-General would participate in the International Conference on Afghanistan taking place in Paris, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier announced. While in Paris, he would meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. On the following day, Friday, 13 June, the Secretary-General would be in London, where he expected to meet with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other senior British officials. He also intended to address the United Nations Association of the United Kingdom on the theme of “Securing the Common Good: the United Nations and the Expanding Global Agenda”.

Over the weekend, the Secretary-General would travel to Saudi Arabia, at the invitation of the Saudi King. Then, on Monday, 16 June, the Secretary-General would participate in the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the London-based International Maritime Organization, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said.

Geneva Activities

Turning to meetings in Geneva, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier noted that this morning the Conference on Disarmament was holding a plenary meeting, at which it was scheduled to hear statements from the Under-Secretary for Multilateral Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Integration of Ecuador, and from France.

For its part, the Human Rights Council was continuing with its consideration, began yesterday, of the final outcome documents of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, which had held meetings to review the human rights of 32 countries in April and May 2008. The consideration and adoption of those outcome documents would continue through the end of the week. Press releases in English and French were available at the end of each meeting.

New Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace

Wilfried Lemke of Germany was appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as his Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace on 7 April 2008, and he entered into his functions on 11 April.

Wilfried Lemke, Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, noted some of his important credentials: he was a former Minister of the Interior and Sport of Germany, and for 18 years he had worked as a professional manager of a Werder Bremen Football Club. He was here today to open an exhibition on the theme of the football world’s commitment in support of combating poverty and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

On the big issue of the Olympics, Mr. Lemke noted that his job had started with some complicated discussions. He had already met the Chinese Ambassador four times – twice in New York, and twice in Geneva – and he had a feeling that things were going in a good way. He was a sportsman, and he did not want politics to come into sports. “What politics cannot solve, you can be sure sportsmen cannot solve”, that was his position. Both he and the Secretary-General wanted to have successful games in Beijing. He had promised Ban Ki-moon that he could be trusted to work in this way to de-escalate the conflict and to bring people together into a dialogue.

The Special Representative was travelling next week to Africa to join the International Youth Crime Prevention and City Summit organized by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN–HABITAT). In light of what had happened some weeks ago in South Africa, it was a very, very serious theme. He would speak at the Summit, in particular addressing concerns about the World Cup 2010, and would meet with representatives of FIFA. At Ban Ki-moon’s request, and following his personal wishes, Africa would be the focus of his activities during his mandate, because there were so many problems in Africa and the good use of sports could help to bring development and could build bridges between the people and help them to live in a peaceful way, Mr. Lemke underscored.

Responding to a journalist’s challenge that the Special Adviser was not presenting any new ideas, Mr. Lemke responded by noting that “the ideas people have are not so important. The thing is, what people, after they have ideas, do in a concrete way.” Moreover, he added, his experience was that one should copy good things. That was what he was planning to do in Africa. He would go to refugee camps. He would bring more value to people on the ground, with less spent on organizing. He wanted to copy good practice, organize money, and build bridges so that people could develop and live in peace.

ILO Annual Conference

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization (ILO) noted that today the President of Panama had visited, and that tomorrow, in the context of a high-level panel discussion on the theme “Tackling the Food Crisis through investment, production and decent work”, the Prime Minister of Lesotho would participate, as well as the an employer from New Zealand, the President of International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the ILO Director-General. The panel would be held at 11 a.m. in the Assembly Hall. The Prime Minister of Lesotho would later brief journalists on the situation in Africa regarding the food crisis and what measures were being taken, at 3.10 p.m., in Room III.

Ms. Perthuis noted that Thursday, 12 June, was the World Day Against Child Labour, which this year focused on the theme of education, as one of the best tools to end child labour. Available at the back of the room was a media kit. A press release with a link to a technical report on the situation of children, broken down by country, as well as a list of experts available for interviews, would be sent tomorrow morning.

Myanmar

Ms. Chaib said that WHO Representative in Myanmar, Dr. Adik Wibowo, had returned this weekend from a weeklong visit to the affected areas of the Irawaddy Delta (Labutta, Bogale and Myaungmya), which she undertook with a WHO team including various experts on tuberculosis, malaria and an epidemiologist. She had taken with her two truckloads of medicines, which she had distributed. She had had open access to villages, camps and health centres, where she observed a great need for fresh water supplies. That was the priority concern. She was also concerned by to find more people who had been undergoing treatment for Tuberculosis (TB). More WHO international staff were expected to go to Delta this week to trace TB patients with interrupted TB treatment. After their assessment, they would start TB curative and preventive treatments.

So far, WHO and the health cluster had provided 650 tons of aid to Myanmar victims, Ms. Chaib said: 200 fogging machines; 35 000 surgical gloves and 32 000 pieces of surgical essential primary health care; 20 emergency health kits (each kit sufficient to meet the medical needs of 10,000 people for 3 months); and some 50,000 bednets.

Somalia

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noting that Somalia had again been in the news, following armed clashes last week-end, drew attention to the deteriorating humanitarian situation on the ground there. The situation was indeed grave: there were 2.6 million persons in need of assistance – or a quarter of the population. And, if the situation did not improve, by the end of the year that number could climb to 3.5 million persons in need of aid. It was recalled that 1 million persons had fled areas where they was fighting this year, and 6,500 Somali civilians had been killed since the beginning of 2007. A briefing note was available at the back of the room. Also at the back of the room was a communiqué from the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Somalia, condemning the killing of a Somali journalist. Journalists had been systematically targeted in Somalia, which was the second most dangerous country in the world for journalist to work. The United Nations and its partners were carrying out major efforts to assist the needy populations, but the level of the response simply was not up to the scope of the problem. Moreover, the UN Appeal for Somalia of $205 million was only 44 per cent funded.

Colombia/Ecuador Disappearances

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR was calling for the full and speedy resolution of the investigations into allegations of disappearances, as well as torture, attempted rape and death threats, against members of a Colombian refugee community in Ecuador. Three Colombians, including one refugee and one asylum-seeker, had disappeared at the end of last month from the village of San Martin in northern Ecuador, just across the border from Colombia. UNHCR had received consistent reports from firsthand witnesses that the three had been kidnapped by a group of masked men in uniforms during an armed incursion into San Martin on 26 May. The unidentified group had apparently come from Colombia. According to information recieved, the masked men had tortured members of the local community before taking the three men away.

UNHCR strongly condemned these acts of violence against refugees and their host communities, Ms. Pagonis said. It appreciated the serious efforts of Ecuador and Colombia to resolve the matter in a transparent way, and both countries had opened investigations into the events. There were about 60,000 Colombians in need of international protection in Ecuador’s northern provinces.

Responding to questions, Ms. Pagonis said it was not yet known what the motives were for the attacks. A press release was available.

Human Rights

Yvon Edoumou of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour was very concerned about the fate of four juvenile offenders in Iran who could be executed for crimes that had been committed when they were under 18 years old. They had received reports that the four were at risk of imminent execution. The High Commissioner had called on Iran not to carry out the execution, reminding Iran of its international human rights obligations prohibiting the death penalty for juvenile offenders. A press release in the back of the room included the names of the four offenders.

Mr. Edoumou announced that OHCHR and the Government of Kyrgyzstan had signed an agreement just a couple of hours ago establishing a regional office for the promotion and protection of human rights in Central Asia. The office would be based in the capital, Bishkek. The Central Asia office brought to nine the number of OHCHR regional offices worldwide.

Also available was a press release from the Special Rapporteur on human rights while countering terrorism, regarding draft legislation being introduced in the United Kingdom which the Special Rapporteur felt would set a negative example in terms of upholding human rights in the fight against terrorism, Mr. Edoumou said.

Other

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that the passage of a tropical storm through Belize at the end of May had caused serious damage, destroying houses and displacing 1,600 families. Some 8,000 persons had been affected, among them 3,800 children and 2,000 women. Principal concerns were food security, assessing crop damage, sanitary conditions and a lack of clean drinking water. UNICEF had deployed emergency assistance to help the victims. A press release was available.

Ms. Taveau also announced that, on Tuesday, 17 June, Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa would hold a briefing on the situation of children in Iraq, and on the impact the conflict, which had been raging for five years now, was having on them. The press conference would be held at 11.30 a.m. in Room III.

Charlotte Griffiths of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) announced that the parties to the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters would hold their third meeting in Riga, from 11 to 13 June 2008, marking the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention. Developed under the auspices of UNECE, the Convention was widely viewed as the world’s most far-reaching treaty on public participation in human rights. The meeting was expected to conclude with the adoption of a “Riga Declaration” and a long-term strategic plan to chart the future path of the Convention in coming years. Among key agenda items for the meeting were the review of 35 national reports on implementation, and the status of the entry into force of the amendment on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which covered the right for the public to participate in decision-making concerning GMOs.

Gregory Hartl of WHO announced that WHO was planning to hold a major global public health security exercise very soon. The exact dates would not be announced, as it was planned to be done run as a surprise test, to see how WHO would react to a potential event of international public health significance, such as a pandemic event or a large disease outbreak. On the first day of the exercise, journalists would be invited to WHO headquarters to see how WHO was doing. A media advisory was available in the back of the room.