REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Officer-in-charge of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Secretary-General
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General would be travelling this week to China and Mongolia. During his working visit to China, he would pursue his dialogue with the Chinese leadership on climate change and other global issues. He was scheduled to meet on Friday with the President Hu Jintao, the Premier Wen Jiabao, the Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and other Chinese officials.
The Secretary-General was then scheduled to go to Mongolia on Sunday, 26 July, for an official visit said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier. There, he would address the challenges of climate change and adaptation, with an emphasis on the special needs of landlocked countries. He would meet the President Elbegdorj Tsakhia, the Prime Minister Bayar Sanj and the Foreign Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold there, as well. In his continuing focus on how climate change affects the lives of populations, the Secretary-General would also spend time in a traditional Mongolian herder community faced with water shortages and desertification.
Economic and Social Council
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Economic and Social Council was holding today and since yesterday its Humanitarian Affairs Segment and that it would hold a general debate this afternoon. This morning, the Council was holding a panel discussion on the theme of “Addressing the impact of current global challenges and trends on the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance”.
The Humanitarian Affairs Segment would last until tomorrow, after which the Council would start, on Thursday, its General Segment by discussing the long-term programme of support for Haiti, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.
United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People would convene a United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine on 22 and 23 July 2009 at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The theme of the Meeting was “Responsibility of the international community to uphold international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the wake of the war in Gaza”.
Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva and Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General was expected to make a statement during the opening session on Wednesday, 22 July 2009, at 10.00 a.m. in Conference Room XVI of the Palais des Nations, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.
A press conference by Ambassador Paul Badji, Permanent Representative of Senegal to the United Nations in New York and Chairman of the Palestinian Rights Committee, and Ambassador Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations in New York was also planned on 23 July 2009 at noon in Room III.
Human Rights Committee
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Human Rights Committee was continuing to hold its ninety-sixth session this week. This morning the Committee was considering the periodic report of Azerbaijan. This was the last report to be considered during the current session. The Committee would adopt its concluding observations on Friday 31 July.
For the remaining of the week and next week, the Committee would hold private meetings to consider communications from individuals who claim to be victims of a violation of any rights recognized in the Covenant and to adopt its concluding observations on the four countries that were reviewed at the current session, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.
2009 Humanitarian Appeals Mid-Year Review
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that this afternoon at 3.30 p.m, Mr. John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator would hold a press conference on the mid-year review of 2009 humanitarian appeals.
Elimination of River Blindness
Thomas Abraham of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that a newly published WHO study showed that the elimination of river blindness was feasible.
Hans Remme, of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, a partnership hosted by WHO, said that the study was a milestone for the control of onchocerciasis, or so-called river blindness. The disease affected some 37 million people globally, but more than 99 per cent of them were in Africa. The disease had always been high on the priority lists of WHO. All the current control activities were based on treatments with a drug called Ivermectin, donated by Merck & Co., Inc..
The treatment was done once per year and the drug was very effective as it killed the larvae of the parasite that caused the disease; people felt immediately better. Ivermectin had one limitation: it did not kill the adult worm stage of the parasite. The adult worm could live up to ten years in average and it continued producing new larvae; thus people had to be re-treated once per year. This was good enough to control the disease. The question had always been whether one could control and eliminate the parasites and transmission with Ivermectin treatment, said Mr. Remme.
Large-scale Ivermectin treatments had started in Africa, supported by the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control in 1995-1998. But some countries had started community trials much earlier, as the drug had already been registered in 1987, said Mr. Remme. Two of these countries, Senegal and Mali, had maintained root annual treatment coverage since 1988. As these countries had the longest experience with the treatment it was decided to do a study to see what the remaining residual infection levels where in people, parasites and flies and the results showed that there was virtually nothing left anymore; the level was below what they had thought.
In phase two of the study, Mr. Remme said that they actually tested the hypothesis that they could eliminate the parasite and transmission and safely stop treatment. This hypothesis was tested by stopping treatment in five to eight villages. The population of these villages was then intensely followed for two years. The good news was that over those two years, they had not found any infected people in the test areas and they had not found any infected black flies among the 150,000 flies analyzed annually. Thus, ultimately, one could anticipate the elimination of onchocerciasis, the parasite as well as the transmission. The principle of elimination of the disease in Africa has been established, to what extent they could extrapolate it to all over Africa needed some further work as different conditions, types of parasites and vectors prevailed all over Africa.
Answering to questions by journalists, Mr. Remme said that research was also focusing on the development of a better drug, Moxidectin, which could ultimately also kill or completely sterilize the adult worm. If this would work, the length of treatment with Ivermectin could be cut down to five to six years, instead of the current fifteen to seventeen years. Moxidectin was currently in phase three trials, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Ghana. It could be available as early as 2012.
H1N1 Pandemic
A journalist wondered whether WHO had a position over a Lancet paper that came out on 20 July, which recommended that consideration be given to not reopening schools in areas heavily affected by H1N1 in Britain, this September, to limit the amount of transmission that would occur then.
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that school closure was one of the mitigation measures that could be considered by countries. Different countries would be facing the pandemic at different levels at different times. It was up to countries to consider what mitigation measures would suit them best.
Another journalist wondered what recommendations WHO did give to countries for mitigation or whether WHO was leaving it up to countries to take decisions?
Ms. Bhatiasevi said that a network on mathematical modeling had been established. This network would be looking into different mitigation measures that could be applied at different settings. This network was currently working on different areas and the information that they would be focusing on would be country-specific.
Another journalist asked for an idea of the current figures of the pandemic.
WHO had not been releasing updated information on cases because of new guidance, said Ms. Bhatiasevi, and not all countries were conducting tests to confirm the cases. As of today, there were over a 100,000 cases that had been reported but this did not reflect the actual situation of the real infection. Also, there were now over 700 deaths reported.
Under the new guidance, countries with few cases were required to report all cases to WHO, while countries that already had a large number of cases were required to look at indicators that would show that there was some change in the situation, such as absenteeism in schools or workplaces. All deaths cases had to be reported, said Ms. Bhatiasevi.
As WHO had asked countries not to systematically provide figures anymore, a journalist wondered how WHO could then feed the planned mathematical models that would serve to give out recommendations?
Ms. Bhatiasevi said that the mathematical modeling group would not be looking into numbers of cases but it would be projecting measures that could assist countries in mitigating the impact of the pandemic at different stages.
Situation in Somalia
Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that as the number of Somali civilians driven out of their homes by the conflict in Mogadishu raised, growing insecurity was making it increasingly difficult for aid workers to gain access and provide assistance to the latest victims of the Somali civil war.
UNHCR now estimated that some 223,000 people had fled Mogadishu since the
7 May, when Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam militia groups had jointly launched attacks against government forces in several districts of Mogadishu. Mr. Redmond said that about 20,000 had fled in the last two weeks alone.
UNHCR was greatly concerned about the plight of the large number of internally displaced people who had found refuge in the makeshift sites in the Afgooye Corridor, southwest of the capital. That place had more than 400,000 internally displace people from previous conflicts. They were congested in a small strip of land with little or no basic facilities, said Mr. Redmond.
UNHCR local partners in Somalia reported that domestic humanitarian organizations were overstretched and struggling to meet the basic needs of the newly arrived. There was a lack of adequate shelter, sanitation facilities and clean drinking water. The situation had grown worse following recent torrential rains. Mr. Redmond said that the lack of sufficient latrines posed a major health risk.
The continued fighting and worsening of the security situation in Somalia was hampering the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance from the port of Mogadishu to Afgooye and other parts of Somalia, said Mr. Redmond, exacerbating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
This week’s scheduled distribution of 4,000 UNHCR aid kits in Mogadishu and outlying areas, for example, had had to be postponed due to security concerns, said Mr. Redmond. In addition, due to the latest incidents in Baidoa and Wajid, where militants had occupied and looted two UN compounds yesterday, UNHCR assistance efforts in the adjacent region had virtually grounded to a halt.
UNHCR had again appealed to the warring parties in Somalia to respect basic international humanitarian and human rights principles and to guarantee the safety and security of the civilian population as well as the humanitarian workers who were trying to help the victims, said Mr. Redmond.
In north-eastern Kenya, meanwhile, UNHCR continued to experience a major influx of new arrivals from Somalia in the UNHCR-run Dadaab camp complex, said Mr. Redmond. Since January, they had received 39,000 refugees from Somalia despite the fact that the Kenya-Somalia border officially remained closed. The majority of the refugees were from the Lower and Middle Juba regions and Mogadishu. Some 7,000 new arrivals had been registered at the camps in June; that was up from 5,000 in May.
UNHCR was deeply concerned about the massive congestion in the three adjacent Kenyan sites that made up the Dadaab complex, and about the major health risks that this overcrowding might pose to refugees. Initially thos camps had been designed to accommodate 90,000 people, said Mr. Redmond, they had now swelled to more than 286,000.
A journalist wondered what the status of the process of land allocation was in order to expand the overcrowded camp of Dadaab and Mr. Redmond said that they had gotten assurances from the Kenyan Government for a plot of land not too far from Dadaab but that work had not yet started on that camp site. This was frustrating for UNHCR as there were health and other risks growing worse by the month in the Dadaab camp. It remained urgent that work started on that new site.
Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP), answering to a journalist which said that news reports were saying that WFP had been one of three agencies that had been forced to shutdown by the Shabaab group, said that WFP was not located in the Baidoa compound that was enteredby the rebel group and that it had not been asked to cease operations. WFP was continuing its operations and was currently feeding 3.5 million people in Somalia. WFP was present in the Wajid compound, which has also been entered, but not WFP equipment had been taken and no WFP staff had been asked to leave. Despite the violence, WFP was committed to maintaining its presence in Somalia and delivering food to those who needed it.
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the operations in Baidoa were suspended. The UN Office in Somalia had said that it deeply regretted having to relocate staff and to temporarily suspend its operations in Baidoa. At the same time, the UN continued its operations in Wajid.
UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Iraq Mission
Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that Deputy High Commissioner Craig Johnstone was in Iraq today as part of a five-day mission to review UNHCR’s operations for returnees, refugees and internally displaced people. He was also meeting several Iraqi officials. He had arrived Sunday in Baghdad and yesterday he had met government officials, including the Iraqi Vice President Tarek Al-Hashimi, the Minister of Human Rights, and the Minister for Migration and Displacement.
Mr. Johnstone had acknowledged the improvement in security situation inside Iraq and described the situation as much better than he had been there two years ago. He had also urged the Iraqi government to engage more with Iraqi refugees outside of Iraq and to include them in ongoing national reconciliation efforts, said Mr. Redmond.
While the government had quite naturally focused in the last few years on the situation inside the country, it was now time to increase contacts with refugee populations outside Iraq and to begin fostering a climate of confidence in the future in terms of security, political assurances and protection. This in turn would help pave the way for eventual voluntary return to Iraq said Mr. Redmond. But they were not there yet, Johnstone had said, noting that there were still pockets of insecurity and continuing uncertainty among the refugee populations on the outside.
One journalist wondered whether UNHCR encouraged refugees to return back to Iraq at this time.
Mr. Redmond answered that UNHCR was currently not encouraging people to return but that if people made a decision to return, UNHCR would assist them in doing that. The situation, particularly in central Iraq, remained dangerous and insecure and people should not be forced back there. In the north, as well as in the south, returns were done on an individual basis.
Palestinian Refugees Resettlement
Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that a new transit centre had been opened in Slovakia that would allow for 98 Palestinian refugees to be removed from the desert camp of al-Walid near the Iraqi-Syrian border. This group was part of a large population of Palestinian in three camps still in Iraq or along the borders. UNHCR was particularly concerned about their fate and was looking for places worldwide and within the region where they could be settled, at least temporarily, out of harm’s way. UNHCR was working on this with the International Organization for Migration.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM would provide logistical support to UNHCR to transport group from Al Waleed camp to the Jordanian border, and then onwards to Amman's Marka airport, where they would board an IOM-chartered flight for Kosice, Slovakia.
Human Security in the Arab Countries
Adam Rogers of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said that they were launching the Arab Human Development Report 2009: Challenges to Human Security in the Arab Countries today in Beirut. In Arab countries a widespread lack of human security undermined human development. Independent scholars from throughout the region had prepared the report.
Mr. Rogers said that the report argued that the concept of human security was a prerequisite for human development, and that the widespread absence of human security in Arab countries undermined people’s options. Human security referred not only to questions of survival, but also basic needs such as access to clean water and quality of life concerns. Human security in the Arab countries was often threatened by unjust political, social, and economic structures; by competition for power and resources among fragmented social groups; and, in some cases, by the impacts of external military intervention.
The concept of human security offered a way to reorient development policy in the Arab region toward areas that would have the greatest impact on human well-being. In effect, to focus on human security was to focus on a broader development agenda that determined whether people are able to live secure lives and achieve their potential, said Mr. Rogers. The report made it clear that piecemeal policy approaches would not suffice. Employment generation programmes, for example, would not reach their full potential if people did not have proper nutrition and healthcare.
Mr. Rogers said that some of the areas the report focused on included: strengthening the rule of law to guarantee essential rights, freedoms and opportunities; protecting the environment by strengthening institutions, enacting and enforcing laws; safeguarding the rights of women by changing laws and attitudes which entrenched gender-based discrimination; addressing the weak structural underpinnings of the Arab oil economy and move toward a more diversified, knowledge-based economy that provided sufficient employment; tackling poverty and ending hunger which persisted despite the comparative affluence of the region; boosting public health; and ending occupation, armed conflict, and military intervention which caused human suffering, erased decades of economic development, and undermine the fragile progress of political reform by bolstering extremist forces and also undermining moderate voices.
Migration
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that in Colombia, IOM was helping to reintegrate into civil society minors that had been demobilized from illegal armed groups.
In Morocco IOM was currently assisting migrants through return and reintegration programme. More than 500 undocumented migrants stranded in Morocco had benefited over the past eighteen months from IOM's comprehensive return and reintegration assistance, said Mr. Chauzy.
In Zimbabwe, IOM was helping displaced people and families with micro-credits and business training to help them restart a business activity, which would help them to meet the basic nutritional and educational needs of their families, said Mr. Chauzy.
Access to Research for Development and Innovation
Samar Shamoon of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said that WIPO would be hosting on Thursday and Friday a high-level meeting on strategic use of intellectual property for prosperity and development. High-ranking officials from most Least-Developed Countries were expected to attend, including a number of ministers, such as Bangladesh, Benin, Cambodia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Madagascar, the Maldives, Mali, Nepal, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. The Chairman of the Coordination Council of Least-Developed Countries would hold a press conference with WIPO Director General Francis Gurry on Thursday at 1 p.m. at WIPO.
Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva would, on Thursday, 23 July 2009, be speaking at the launch of a project entitled Access to Research for Development and Innovation (ARDI) for Least Developed Countries at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The purpose of ARDI is to provide free-of-charge access for Least Developed Countries to electronic journals in the area of science and technology.