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 attended by Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the UN Refugee Agency, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Meteorological Organization and the International Organization for Migration.

Statement by the Secretary-General on Violence in Nigeria

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was deeply saddened by the inter-communal violence in the Nigerian city of Jos, which had resulted tragically in the loss of many lives, the displacement of people and the destruction of property. The Secretary-General was encouraged by the Nigerian Government’s response to efforts to bring the situation under control and to restore normalcy. The statement of the Secretary-General in English and in French was available in the press room.

Human Rights Council

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the eighth special session of the Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo concluded yesterday after adopting a resolution by consensus in which the Council expressed serious concern at the deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in North Kivu and called for the immediate end to all human rights violations. In the resolution, which was submitted by the African Group, the Council also condemned the acts of violence, human rights violations and abuses committed in Kivu, in particular sexual violence and the recruitment by the militias of child soldiers, and underlined that the Government had the primary responsibility to make every effort to strengthen the protection of the civilian population and to investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of violations of human rights. Two press releases were issued yesterday in both English and French.

The third session of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Working Group opened yesterday in Geneva and would continue until 15 December during which 16 States would have their human rights records examined under this new mechanism, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said. The States to be reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review we0re Botswana, Bahamas, Burundi, Luxembourg, Barbados, Montenegro, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Liechtenstein, Serbia, Turkmenistan, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Colombia, Uzbekistan and Tuvalu. Today, the Working Group was reviewing the reports on Burundi and Luxembourg. All the documents relating to the work of the Working Group were available on the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Geneva Lectures Series

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the second edition of the Geneva Lecture Series, a joint UNOG/UNITAR initiative to address global challenges, would be held at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 10 December at the Assembly Hall. Sergei Orgzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, would open the lecture. The keynote speakers were Nobel Prize laureates Shirin Ebadi and Wole Soyinka and the theme was “are human rights universal?” During the lecture, there would also be an intervention by Prince Albert II of Monaco and closing remarks by Carlos Lopes, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNITAR. A note to correspondents with the complete programme for the lecture would be issued.

Cholera Epidemic in Zimbabwe

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said according to the latest figures on the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe, as of 1 December, there were 11,735 cases, including 484 deaths. The death rate at this point was 4 per cent of all cases which was high. For the epidemic to be considered under control, the death rate had to be under 1 per cent. This probably meant that sick people did not arrive to the medical centres quickly enough, or that even once they arrived there was a shortage of medicines. WHO was working with around 10 partners in the health cluster in Zimbabwe, and it had presented an emergency plan to control the cholera epidemic. The Ministry of Health of Zimbabwe had accepted the emergency plan. WHO had also sent medicines to Zimbabwe which should be arriving on 3 December. South Africa was also providing medicines and medical teams to WHO’s southern Africa office. A WHO team had arrived on the ground in Zimbabwe and it would be joined by others.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the areas most affected by the epidemic were Harare and other urban areas, where there were 5,829 suspected cases and 108 deaths. OCHA’s press agency IRIN reported on 24 November that there was also an outbreak of anthrax. Save the Children was also reporting this outbreak which was threatening the livestock and also humans who sometimes ate the meat of dead animals.

Miranda Eeles of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF Zimbabwe today announced a rigorous 120-day emergency response to intensify relief efforts to Zimbabwe’s children. This was not only in response to the cholera outbreak that 42 out of the 62 Zimbabwean provinces were suffering from. It was also in response to a total collapse of the education and health systems in the country. This response would focus on increasing health outreach services, providing nutritional supplements, boosting school attendance and scaling up access to safe water in the short term. There was also an update on the cholera crisis at the back of the room.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Miranda Eeles of the United Nations Children’s Fund said there were unconfirmed reports that five children were recruited in Kitshanga yesterday in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The recruitment of many children appeared to be continuing among all the armed groups in North Kivu. UNICEF called on all armed groups to immediately stop recruiting children and to release all children in their ranks. The recruitment of children was a war crime and commanders would be held accountable against international standards. There was also increased fighting over the weekend in several villages south of Masisi town, leading to around 25,000 people fleeing. There was an acute risk of diarrhoea and measles spreading and malnutrition rising. Two weeks ago, there were 183 cases of measles and 10 per cent of children were malnourished after a screening of that area. UNICEF called for an immediate stop to fighting as children’s lives continued to be put at risk and their basic rights violated.

Ms. Eeles said 85 per cent of schools in Rutshuru territory still remained closed to around 150,000 students. This was despite a declaration by the CNDP that they would be open yesterday. UNICEF called on all armed groups to create a safe environment so schools could reopen and children could resume their studies.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was continuing today the voluntary transfer of displaced Congolese civilians from the precarious Kibati camps on the northern outskirts of Goma. They were being relocated to four existing camps just west of Goma. UNHCR efforts had to be suspended on Sunday afternoon due to shooting, which also continued through the night. Altogether, four internally displaced persons were wounded and taken to a local hospital. Work was proceeding at the new Mugunga III camp, where the bulk of the Kibati population would be relocated. Meanwhile, reports from local partners in Kanyabayonga, some 150 kilometres north of Goma, said that some 40,000 displaced people had managed to return to their homes, which they found looted and destroyed. Also there were reports suggesting that fighting around Ishasha had abated after a visit there of the UN Special Envoy. The fighting around Ishasha began on 22 November and forced at least 13,000 Congolese to seek refuge in Uganda during the past week. The flow had now stopped. There were more details in the information note.

Floods in Panama and Sri Lanka

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in Panama, heavy rains and floods had affected more than 23,600 people and claimed 10 lives. There were also many injured or missing. Some 11,670 persons were now in 44 temporary shelters. Many highways and bridges had been destroyed. Some 1,165 houses were damaged and about 200 destroyed. A number of communities could not be reached and the transport and distribution of relief items remained a challenge. The coffee harvest had been affected. OCHA had sent an UNDAC team which arrived in the country on 29 November to support the Government’s efforts. UNDP had secured $ 100,000 for needs assessments. OCHA would be providing cash grants to purchase immediate relief items. The Red Cross had dispatched 80 metric tons of humanitarian aid to assist 17,000 affected people in the province of Bocas del Toro.

In Sri Lanka, there were flash floods due to heavy rains over the past few days on parts of the northern districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Trincomalee, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. More than 370,000 people had been affected and about 71,000 were displaced. An interagency assessment of the floods was ongoing in the Jaffna district.

Ms. Byrs said a press release was being released today in New York, Geneva and Poznan on OCHA launching a campaign to raise awareness of the humanitarian implications of climate change and to call for improved disaster preparedness and response measures in countries that suffered most from extreme weather. From 1988 to 2007, 75 per cent of all disaster events were climate-related, and accounted for 45 per cent of deaths and 80 per cent of economic losses were caused by natural hazards. This campaign was running alongside the Poznan climate change conference in order to sensitize people to the humanitarian impact of climate change.

Yemen

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said at least 20 people drowned off the coast of Yemen yesterday and two were reported missing after smugglers carrying them across the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa forced them to jump overboard in deep water. The boat was reportedly carrying around 115 passengers, mostly Ethiopians. The remaining 93 passengers made it to shore and were transferred the UNHCR-run Ahwar reception centre.

Human Rights in Iraq

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq was today issuing in Baghdad and Geneva its thirteenth report on the human rights situation in Iraq, covering the period 1 January to 30 June 2008. A press release was available at the back of the room. The Mission like other UN missions had an integrated human rights component and worked closely with OHCHR in the production of these periodic reports. The report said that during the first six months of this year, Iraq had witnessed significant improvements in general security conditions, with a marked drop in high-profile attacks which caused very large numbers of casualties. Nevertheless, the major improvement was relative to Iraq’s own past. By almost any other standard, the human rights situation in Iraq remained very serious. Targeted killings and kidnappings of key professionals, including journalists, educators, doctors and lawyers were continuing. Politicians, security officials, police and members of pro-government militias were also frequently coming under attack or being assassinated by armed groups. During the reporting period, religious and other minorities also continued to be the victims of targeted violence, threats, assassinations and destruction of property and cultural cites. The report highlighted the situation of detainees across the country, including in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. Many detainees were deprived of their liberty for months or even years, often under harsh physical conditions, without access to defense council and without being formally charged with any crime. Continuing widespread torture and ill-treatment of detainees by Iraqi law enforcement authorities and continuing impunity for current and past human rights abuses constituted severe breaches of international human rights obligations and remained a major concern. The plight of women across Iraq still required urgent measures to combat gender-based violence. The report also addressed the conduct of security operations in Basra and Sadr City by the Iraqi and Multi National Forces in Iraq between March and May 2008 when heavy fighting in densely populated urban areas, where militia members positioned themselves, had resulted in hundreds of civilians deaths.

Other

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization reminded journalists that there would be an embargoed briefing on Thursday, 4 December in press room 1 at 11 a.m. on “The World Report on Child Injury Prevention”. Embargoed copies of the report were available in the press room. The main launch was in Viet Nam and another would be held in London on 10 December.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that the ninety-sixth session of the IOM Council was starting today. This was the first time that IOM Director General William Swing would present a report to Member States since taking office on 1 October. There would be a special panel involving the Global Migration Group on 3 December that could be of interest to journalists. There was also the international dialogue on migration on 4 December. There were some discussion papers on these issues at the back of the room.

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said WMO was attending the Poznan climate change conference and on 11 December, the Secretary-General of WMO, Michel Jarraud, would give a press conference to present the third World Climate Conference which would be held in Geneva from 31 August to 4 September 2009.

Ms. Sevenier said they were still in the International Polar Year, which would end in a few months. On 4 December, the seventh International Polar Day would be commemorated with the theme “Above the Polar Regions”. Available was a press release and a brochure on this.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the United Nations Economic Commissioner for Europe had asked her to announce that two press releases were issued today on “Strengthening the economic integration of ECE economies: cooperative solutions to global challenges” and on UNECE awarding major contracts to finance energy efficiency investments for climate change mitigation.