REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which also heard from Spokespersons for the International Labour Organization, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
World Environment Day / Green Jobs Discussions at ILO Conference
Ms. Heuzé said that today, Friday, 5 June was World Environment Day. Yesterday, a press release from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) had been sent to journalists via e-mail and copies had been placed in the Press Room. In addition, today, an International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) press release had been sent out and was also available.
Hans von Rohland of the International Labour Organization (ILO) drew attention to a discussion that would be held on 9 June on Climate Change and the World of Work, with the participation of the Danish Labour Minister, among others. He also announced the schedule for this week and next week for the International Labour Conference, currently being held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva (see http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_101558.pdf.)
Another ILO Expert, specifically highlighted the ILO’s Green Jobs initiative, launched last year jointly with UNEP, the International Organization of Employers and the International Trade Union Confederation. In that connection, he invited journalists to a side event to the annual Labour Conference that would take place next Tuesday, 9 June, which would link two of the major policy discussions in the world this year: the discussion on the global financial and economic crisis and its social impact; and the climate discussion that would hopefully culminate in a new agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009. ILO had noticed that political resolve to elaborate a global agreement on climate appeared to be wavering and that people were asking whether, in times of a financial and economic crisis, they should focus on jobs first and deal with environmental problems later. ILO was firmly convinced that was a false dichotomy and the work of the Green Jobs initiative was to demonstrate that with creative policies it was possible to address environmental, climate and jobs crises at one time. Indeed, the economic crisis could be an opportunity that could lead to a greener economy that would be environmentally and socially sustainable. The side event would be chaired by the Climate Secretary of the Danish Prime Minister’s Office, the host for the climate change negotiations in December in Copenhagen. Among speakers would be the Minister of Employment of Denmark, and eminent technical experts from the United States and Brazil who would speak about the national policies in this area. At the event they would launch material on ILO’s Green Jobs initiative and on its Global Programme, as well as a technical brief on the relationship between labour market policies and climate change.
Human Rights Council
Ms. Heuzé said that the Council was continuing its eleventh regular session, today the debate with the High Commissioner for Human Rights was continuing in Room XX.
Rolando Gomez of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that, following the debate with the High Commissioner, the Council would begin interactive discussions with the Independent Experts on human right and foreign debt, and on human rights and extreme poverty. They would then continue with a presentation of several reports prepared by OHCHR and the Secretary-General on the subject of human rights of civilians in armed conflict; extreme poverty; regional arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights; the right of peoples to peace; and the human rights of women. This afternoon, time permitting, they would start with “country situations” (item 4), when any country situations to be raised by non-governmental organizations or States. That discussion, if it started today, would certainly carry over to Monday morning.
Mr. Gomez also announced a press conference today at 11.30 a.m. in Press Room 1 with the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Vernor Muñoz.
Situation in Pakistan
Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) wanted to drive home the urgent financial situation with regard to the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan for Pakistan, which remained only 25 per cent funded. The total appeal had been for $543 million and they were still missing $407 million. Some sectors were very underfunded, with education, for example only having received 8 per cent funding to date. A briefing note was available. The World Food Programme had already warned that if new funds were not received, food distributions would have stop by the end of the June.
Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said an estimated 20,000 people were expected to move today from conflict areas of Swat to safer areas in Mardan, Charssada and Peshawar districts following the lifting this morning of a curfew from 6 a.m. to mid-afternoon local time. To accommodate the newly displaced, UNHCR was continuing development work on two camps established earlier this week. More than 260,000 people were now staying in 21 camps in the North West Frontier Province, according to figures from local authorities. That included more than 170,000 people from the new influx over the past five weeks.
With regard to overall figures, Mr. Redmond noted that the fast track registration data collected over the past month was still being cross checked and verified by the Government, who had informed them that they had so far verified more than 220,000 families, with tens of thousands of family forms still to be cross checked. To give an idea of the total, the average size of these families was six persons. UNHCR still needed some $67 million out of its total appeal of $105 million for its operation to help people in Pakistan till the end of the year. However, he warned that that was based on a previous planning figure of 1.5 million displaced persons. There were some indications that the actual figure might be more like 2 million.
Katharina Ritz of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that ICRC was stepping up its activities in conflict zones and was increasing its activities in aiding displaced populations in conjunction with the Pakistani Red Crescent in the camps. However, it was not easy to get access to the conflict zones. To deal with that, for two weeks now ICRC had teams permanently based in Buner. ICRC also had teams in Lower Dir and, for the past two days, a team was permanently installed in Mingora.
While unable to give an account of the overall situation in the Swat Valley, Ms. Ritz said that Mingora today could still be described as a quite volatile security situation. Shops were still closed; food was scarce; and electricity was lacking, which was also having an impact on health facilities. ICRC had talked to the remaining medical staff in Mingora Hospital, who were very tired and were having a difficult time coping with wounded, among others because of a lack of materials. ICRC had already provided surgical kits, medical kits and dressing material so that at least essential health services could be provided. ICRC was also looking at evacuating wounded out to Peshawar, where ICRC had a hospital. ICRC had reinforced its hospital in Peshawar and a second ICRC surgical hospital would soon be set up in Quetta with 150 beds. Today ICRC had launched an appeal of 40 million CHF, which would help ICRC to assist up to 400,000 persons. The appeal would be implemented with the Pakistani Red Crescent Society which had branches all over the region and a good network of volunteers.
In response to a number of questions from journalists on the overall situation, Ms. Heuzé recalled that there would be a Pakistan update for journalists via telephone link with the just-named Humanitarian Coordinator, Martin Mogwanja, today at 12:30 p.m. in Room III.
Fadéla Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) underscored that funding for the health cluster, which made up $37 million of the joint United Nations appeal for Pakistan, was only 13 per cent funded. That was indispensable to allow agencies such as WHO to buy the medicines needed to care for pregnant women and children and to ensure hygienic conditions and to test drinking water, as well as to continue their activities to monitor the health situation.
From 16 to 22 May, 50,000 consultations had been recorded in 164 sites, tracking over 82 reported health issues. The most serious were acute respiratory illnesses (23 per cent), acute diarrhoea (12 per cent) and skin diseases (5 per cent). With the Monsoon season set to start WHO was worried about an increase in cases of acute diarrhoea and malaria. WHO had carried out a joint needs assessment with partners and found a severe lack of health personnel, in particular female health workers. Among the displaced there were more than 500,000 children under five years of age and more than 70,000 pregnant women, some 6,000 of whom were due to give birth within the coming month. There was an urgent need to set up the needed obstetric facilities for those women.
Antonia Paradella, of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Pakistan, said she often visited the camps to speak to the displaced and to see the conditions they were living in. About two thirds of the displaced were children. UNICEF in Pakistan was particularly worried about the crowded conditions in camps for displaced persons and the potential for an outbreak of preventable waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea. It was also concerned about the overcrowded conditions in homes accommodating displaced families, which was where UNICEF estimated 90 per cent of the displaced were living. That was putting a strain on water supply and storage and on sanitation facilities, as they were reaching the height of the Pakistani summer, with temperatures above 40 degrees centigrade. UNICEF in Pakistan was appealing to donors to urgently provide funds so UNICEF could continue its emergency operations in water and sanitation for displaced children. Only 20 per cent of the needed funds had been received, and UNICEF was requesting an extra $40 million out of the total appeal of $53 million that was part of the OCHA appeal to provide needed assistance till the end of the year.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) added that the families arriving in the camps were in a vulnerable condition, having walked for up to four days to reach the sites. IOM would continue its efforts to deliver food aid to Peshawar, a logistical centre for humanitarian relief in the area. He also underlined that IOM’s portion of the United Nations appeal, $14.6 million, was seriously underfinanced. If fresh funds were not received IOM would not be able to continue its programme after July.
Somalia
Mr. Redmond said that the number of Somalis forced from their homes in Mogadishu had now topped 91,000 since the start of fighting between government forces and armed opposition groups on 8 May. Out of that latest total of displaced, an estimated 34,000 were stuck in the city, looking for shelter in more secure areas. Some 25,000 had managed to flee makeshift sites in the so-called Afgooye corridor, joining 400,000 internally displaced persons already sheltering there. The remaining 32,000 had fled to other parts of Somalia and some were making their way towards neighbouring countries. According to UNHCR local partners, some 2,000 people had indicated that they planned to cross the border into Kenya; more than 1,000 said they were ready to risk their lives with smugglers to cross the Gulf of Aden to Yemen; and 600 said they were heading for Ethiopia. In neighbouring Kenya, the number of new arrivals from Somalia spiked from an average of 100 a day to 200 over the past week. Since the beginning of the year almost 32,000 people had crossed into Kenya, bringing the total of Somali refugees in Kenya to just under 300,000.
UNHCR continued to rush aid to Somalia, and UNHCR local partners had just completed the first phase of an aid distribution south of Mogadishu. Distributions began on Tuesday and reached 12,600 people. The next phase was scheduled to start this week, to distribute aid to some 30,000 people, but the distribution had to be halted due to fighting, Mr. Redmond noted.
Update on Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ms. Byrs said that once again OCHA had raised the alarm about the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo because of the violent incidents and the state of insecurity faced by the civilian population in the country. Despite that, civilians continued to be subjected to violence at the hands of armed groups. More than 20,000 had been displaced in the north of Shabunda and there had been an explosion of violence, in particular sexual violence and rapes, there carried out both by the government forces and the Rwandan Democratic Liberation Front (FDLR).
The deteriorating security situation in South Kivu meant that OCHA had less access to the displaced and the 20,000 displaced in Shabunda were only accessible by air. That isolation reinforced and accentuated the humanitarian needs of the displaced. Now violence and rapes extended to Kabare territory. Rapes continued to be committed in alarming numbers by armed men. The most dramatic and troubling case occurred on 20 May when a three-year-old had been raped by alleged FDLR troops and had died before she could reach the hospital. Her mother had indicated that each of the girl’s sisters, aged 12, 14 and 17, had also been raped by armed men.
H1N1 Update
Ms. Chaib of WHO, providing the latest figures on H1N1 influenza (Swine Flu), said that there were now 21,939 cases, with 125 deaths, an increase of 2,680 cases and 8 deaths over the past two days, since 3 June.
Responding to a query on the timetable for WHO going to phase 6 alert, Ms. Chaib said that there was no timetable for WHO raising the alert level for H1N1 flu to phase 6. The Emergency Committee was meeting today from 2 to 3 p.m. to discuss the severity of H1N1 and to review international health-related measures. The agenda was not to discuss whether or not to move to phase 6. The Emergency Committee results would be made public and she believed that they would posted on WHO’s website.
Other
Brigitte Léoni of International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said that they were just over a week away from the second session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which would open in Geneva on 16 June 2009. The programme for the meeting was available on their website http://www.preventionweb.net/globalplatform/2009/. At the next briefing she would provide the names of participants and announce press conferences.
Gaëlle Sévenier of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) noted that WMO played a key role in disaster prevention and would participate actively in the ISDR Global Platform. On 17 June, at 9.30 a.m., the Secretary-General of WMO, Michel Jarraud, would address the High-level Segment on How To Reduce the Risk of Disasters within the Context of Climate Change. There would be a press conference that afternoon at 2 p.m. in Room 7 at the Geneva International Conference Centre (CICG) on enhancing the adaptation capacity of populations by early warnings and risk management. Mr. Jarraud and others would speak. On 18 June, also at CICG in the margins of the Global Platform, Kofi Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, and WMO Secretary-General Jarraud would officially launch the joint WMO-Global Humanitarian Forum initiative, “Weather Information for All”, to monitor meteorological conditions in Africa. The public launch would take place in Room 2 from 10.30 to 11.30 a.m., following which there would be a press conference with Mr. Jarraud and Mr. Annan at 11.30 a.m. A press release and a fact sheet were available.
Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) announcing the agenda of the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, noted that he would visit Cairo this weekend to attend the joint annual meeting of the African Union Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance and the ECA Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. On Monday, 8 June, he would be in London where he would be the keynote speaker at the International Trade Conference being held as part of the “World Trade Week UK”. He would speak on trade recovery in emerging markets. On Tuesday, 9 June he would address the Overseas Development Institute Conference on the trade policy in the crisis and their implications for development.
Cultural Events
Ms. Heuzé concluded the briefing by drawing attention to a number of cultural events taking place in Geneva:
- Tomorrow there would be an inauguration ceremony for the fresco by Hans Erni decorating the walls of the United Nations Office at Geneva Place des Nations entrance, which would be part of a double ceremony that would also celebrate the entry into office of Geneva’s new mayor, Rémy Pagani, which would take place on the Place des Nations at 2:15p.m.
Secondly, an exhibition “Art without Borders” would open next Thursday and would run for one month, at the Palais des Nations. There were a number of paintings by Modigliani and Soutine that would be exhibited for the first time in public. A press conference would be held at the Palais on 11 June, in Room III, at 10 a.m., by the Russian collector who had made his collection available. He will conduct a private visit for journalists immediately after his press conference.
Finally, there would be an event with Miquel Barceló, the Spanish artist who had created the ceiling in the new Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room and Edouard Glissant, a writer and thinker from the Antilles, who had worked to further intercultural understanding, to discuss the relation of art to human rights. The event would take place on 12 June at 6:45 p.m. in Room XX.