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 United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General had submitted a progress report to the Security Council on the implementation of resolution 1820, concerning sexual violence. In the report, the Secretary-General detailed how he had been using his own good offices to advocate for an end to sexual violence, including through the global campaign “UNiTE to end violence against women”. He had also strengthened coordination throughout the UN system in efforts to prevent and respond to sexual violence.

The Secretary-General also stressed the importance of having the United Nations lead by example and increase the participation of women in peacekeeping, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier. To that end, he urged Member States to ensure a sizeable representation of female military and police personnel in deployments to peacekeeping missions.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that Mr. Ban Ki-moon also said that he was committed to ensuring that the Deputy Secretary-General and senior UN officials took on a greater global advocacy role on the issue of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations. The full report is available on the UN website.

Economic and Social Council

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Economic and Social Council was holding this morning a debate on the economic and social repercussions of the Israeli occupation on the living conditions of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and that it would consider resolutions on that item later today.

The Council would also discuss the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial countries and Peoples by the specialized agencies and the international institutions associated with the United Nations, said Ms. Ponomareava-Piquier. This afternoon, the Council would address issues linked to the advancement of women.

This Wednesday and Thursday, the Council would consider the report of activities of several specialized institutions and programmes of the United Nations. The issues linked to human rights would be considered on Thursday, said Ms. Ponomareava-Piquier. The Council’s current session would end on Friday with the adoption of the remaining draft resolutions.

Human Rights Committee

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Human rights Committee was also wrapping up its work this week. It was holding private meetings, mainly to adopt its concluding observations on the four country reports it had examined at its current session, namely: Azerbaijan, Chad, The Netherlands and Tanzania. The concluding observations would be issued this Friday.
Global Model United Nations

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the first Global Model United Nations conference would take place from 5 to 7 August 2009 in Geneva. Some 550 students coming from all over the world would attend this first ever UN simulation organized by the UN.

Greening the UN in Geneva

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that on the occasion of the launch of the “Genève – Lac – Nations” project there would be an event on 29 July 2009 at 1 p.m. at the Passerelle between the old and new building. At this occasion, an exhibit on greening the United Nations in Geneva would also be opened. Participating at the event would be the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the State Councillor of the Republic and canton of Geneva, Robert Cramer and a representative of the Services industriels de Genève.

H1N1 Update

Aphaluck Bhatiasevi of the World Health Organization (WHO), giving a brief overview of the current situation of the H1N1 pandemic, said that as of 22 July more than 124,000 laboratory-confirmed cases had been reported, with more than 800 deaths, mostly in the Americas. The majority of the cases were amongst youngsters of an average age of 12 to 17 years old but with the pandemic spreading further other age groups were also starting to be more affected. The top priority was now to determine which age groups were at highest risk so that measures could be taken to best protect them.

Answering to a journalist on the recommendations that had been issued for the upcoming pilgrimage, Ms. Bhatiasevi said that last week there had been a special regional meeting of health ministers from 22 countries of the WHO Eastern-Mediterranean region. One of the recommendations of the meeting had been that people that were considered high-risk population groups, i.e. pregnant women or people with underlying health conditions, should reconsider going for the pilgrimage this year.

Another journalist asked whether the recommendations for the pilgrimage were only valid for it or also for any other mass gatherings. Ms. Bhatiasevi said that WHO was also consulting with other governments and experts on other kinds of mass gatherings, such as concerts or the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa.

Turning to a journalist’s question on what measures individuals should take in case they had symptoms, Ms. Bhatiasevi said that the pandemic was still considered to be a moderate pandemic and the majority of the cases had had mild symptoms. Individuals that had flu like symptoms should rest at home but if they felt that they had more severe symptoms they should seek hospitalisation for further treatment and care. Amongst measures to prevent the spread of the virus, WHO recommended basic hygiene, regular hand washing and mask wearing for people who had to take care of ill people and for ill people so that they did not expose people around them.

Somali Refugees

Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that the the ongoing fighting in Mogadishu and central Somalia was pushing thousands of Somali civilians to risk their lives to cross the Gulf of Aden and seek asylum in Yemen. According to UNHCR’s network of partners in Somalia, some 12,000 people had reached and found temporary shelter in the town of Bossaso in northern Somalia since 7 May. There, a majority of them were waiting for the first opportunity offered by smugglers to take the perilous journey across the Gulf. These internally displaced people were part of some 232,000 Somalis who had been forced to leave their homes since 7 May when the fighting between Al-Shabaab and Hisb-ul-Islam militia groups and government forces had erupted in several districts of the Somali capital.

UNHCR’s partners in Bossaso reported that the areas where potential migrants usually settled were getting more and more crowded and smugglers were already collecting bookings and cash from Somalis bound for Yemen, said Mr. Redmond. As the sea was already very dangerous because of the prevailing weather conditions, the majority of the people were expected to camp in Bossaso and wait for September, when winds were more favourable.

In 2008, more than 50,000 new arrivals had reached Yemen’s shores - a 70% increase from 2007. The trend had continued during the first six months of 2009 with around 30,000 new arrivals - the total for the whole of 2007. It was a dangerous journey, said Mr. Redmond. More than 1,000 people had drowned en route in 2008. Many of them had been thrown overboard or forced to disembark too far from the shore by unscrupulous smugglers. So far this year, almost 300 had died or gone missing.

The smuggling phenomenon placed increasing strain on Yemen’s limited resources and posed more challenges to the Government’s efforts to balance its obligations under international law with the need to protect the country from illegal entry, said Mr. Redmond.

As new arrivals landed on the shores of Yemen, UNHCR’s partners picked them up and took them to one of UNHCR’s reception centres where UNHCR, through its partners, registered new arrivals and provided basic assistance such as food, shelter, medical assistance and support for a period of 2-3 days while new arrivals recovered from their flight to safety, said Mr. Redmond.

The Government of Yemen recognized Somalis as refugees on a prima facie basis. Somali refugees were given the option of shelter at the Kharaz refugee camp, around two hours' drive west of Aden. In Kharaz, they received the legal and physical protection and assistance accorded refugees. There were some 13,000 mainly Somali refugees living in the camp which was fully serviced by UNHCR in co-operation with other UN agencies as well as local and international non-governmental organizations. In addition to the camp population, there were tens of thousands of refugees who had opted to stay in urban areas around the country. Thousands more were moving beyond Yemen into the Gulf countries, said Mr. Redmond.

Answering to questions by journalists, Mr. Redmond said that UNHCR and partners were making ongoing efforts to convince people no to make that dangerous voyage across the Gulf of Aden. But these people saw no future in Somalia and many of them were so desperate that many of them were willing to risk their lives and the lives of their families to escape Somalia. The only solution was a political solution to what was currently happening in Somalia. Humanitarian agencies were left to deal with the symptoms of the failure to reach a political solution.

Situation of Children in Gaza

Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF Regional Director, Middle East and North Africa, speaking in a conference call from Gaza said that they had just given a press conference to draw attention to the ongoing crisis in the education sector in Gaza. The crisis was two-fold with, on one side, the enduring blockade and on the other the damage to the infrastructure following the recent crisis. The blockade had now entered its third year and had immensely impacted the fledgling education system characterized by overcrowding and untrained teachers.

The education system in Gaza was particularly victim of continued underinvestment, the inability to maintain existing infrastructures and the inability to reconstruct and assist the recovery process. Hardware, supplies such as ink and paper and other very simple material were needed in order to be able to have the school year starting next month, as it normally should, said Ms. Kaag. It was her fourth visit to Gaza since the ending of the hostilities and she could only reconfirm what UNICEF reports and those of other partners had been saying over again: that no proper reconstruction had taken place. The issue remained the lack of proper materials and continued acute shortage of basic supplies.

UNICEF welcomed that in recent weeks some additional supplies had been allowed in by the Israeli coordination authority. But this was not just enough when looking at the speed and the volume of the supplies, said Ms. Kaag. Palestinian society cherished education immensely and it was the best investment for the future of any society. Education was a right and not a privilege. It was important to advocate for that right to be respected. They were seeing plummeting learning achievements by subject and by age groups. Classes were overcrowded and the quality of teachers was not what it ought to be, as a number of them did not have the qualifications or the experience to deal with the teaching challenges they faced.

Stranded Migrants in Italy

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that up to a thousand migrants from Morocco were being exploited as seasonal workers in the agricultural sector in Southern Italy. The group was located near San Nicola Varco, a town some 100 kilometres south of Naples. An IOM team had conducted an assessment mission there last week and had interviewed some 200 of the migrants.

The migrants said that they had fallen victim to a fraud; they had been promised working contracts as agricultural seasonal workers but had never received them. The group was currently living in abandoned structures and amid piles of rubbish, without running water or electricity. Their promised salaries had never been paid and they were only receiving between 15 and 25 euros a day to work. Further to that, they had to pay their employers for services such as water and 3 euros each time they were leaving their encampment to go to work in the fields, said Mr. Chauzy.

These migrants were now in an illegal situation, as they could not get a legal work permit without any work contract, and were being exploited by their employers who had not respected their own contractual obligations. IOM was carrying out an assessment with Italian authorities in order to identify solutions for these desperate migrants, to address their many needs and to sort out their contractual situation. IOM could also provide support for those who wished to go home through IOM's assisted voluntary return programme, said Mr. Chauzy.

Illegal labour, especially in the agricultural sector was a widespread phenomenon in Italy, with official statistics showing that it accounted for between 15.9 per cent and 17.6 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, noted Mr. Chauzy. IOM was calling authorities to ensure that contracts issued in the framework of seasonal quota systems were being fully respected by employers.