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 also attended by spokespersons and representatives from UNICEF, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNAIDS and the International Organization for Migration.

Human Rights Council

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Human Rights Council had yesterday afternoon opened its twelfth Special Session on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and East Jerusalem. Addressing the Council, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay, had expressed that there was strong evidence indicating that all parties to the conflict – in different ways and with different effect – had committed and continued to commit serious violations of international human rights. Ms. Pillay had said that two issues which required their attention were the situation in East Jerusalem and the continuing blockade. Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the High Commissioner for Human Rights had reiterated her support for the recommendations of the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict by Justice Goldstone. Accountability for breaches of international humanitarian law and for human rights violations, as well as respect for human rights, were not obstacles to peace, but rather the preconditions on which trust and, ultimately, a durable peace could be built. Israel and Palestine had made statements to the Council as concerned parties. During the general debate, many speakers expressed grave concern about the serious deterioration of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as a result of the activities of Israel, in particular with the escalation of violence in and around the Al Aqsa Mosque. Other concerns were continued construction of illegal Israeli settlements and the building of the separation wall, which represented a major threat to Jerusalem and imposed serious hardships on Palestinian residents. In light of this, the speakers welcomed the holding of a Special Session to consider the Goldstone Report, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said. She added that other speakers had questioned the necessity to hold a Special Session at this time, when it had recently been decided to postpone consideration of the Goldstone Report until the Council’s next session. Several speakers had argued that the report was flawed, in the sense that it did not set out the right of Israel to protect its citizens or pay sufficient attention to Hamas’s actions, and because the report lacked an authoritative Israeli perspective. Furthermore, some speakers felt that, given the complexity and large scope of the report’s recommendations, an adequate analysis of the report required more time. The Council would continue its twelfth Special Session on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and East Jerusalem today, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said.

Geneva Activities

The Committee on Human Rights would conclude the review of the report on the Russian Federation.

The Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers would end its Session today. The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations on the report of Sri Lanka would be released today. The Round up press release would be issued today.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would begin its Second Session on Monday 19 October. The background press release was sent to journalists yesterday.

On Monday 19 October, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty would be commemorated at the Palais des Nations. In recognition of the 20th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the theme for this year's observance of the International Day would be “Children and families speak out against poverty”. The event, organized by the United Nations Office at Geneva in collaboration with the non-governmental organization ATD Fourth World, would provide an occasion for the voices of children and young people to be heard. The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Ján Kubiš would open the ceremony by reading out the message from the Secretary-General, while Mr. Bruno Romazzotti, Representative of ATD Fourth World in Geneva, would also make introductory remarks. The note to correspondents was issued.

Gaza

Ms. Veronique Taveau of UNICEF said that UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors, Ms. Mia Farrow and Mr. Mahmoud Kabil, had visited the Gaza Strip where they had met children traumatized by the recent hostilities that killed over 1,400 people, including at least 350 children, and injured more than 5,000 people, amongst them 1,600 children.

World Trade Organization

Ms. Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said that on Tuesday 20 October 2009 in Geneva, the WTO Director General, Mr. Pascal Lamy would participate at the General Council meeting. On Wednesday 21 October 2009, Mr. Lamy would meet with representatives of the US National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), while on Thursday 22 October 2009, the Director General of WTO would give a speech to a conference on Trade and Energy, entitled "Global Challenges at the Intersection of Trade, Energy and the Environment".

Pakistan

Mr. Andrej Mahecic of UNHCR said there had been new outflows of people from Pakistan’s South Waziristan region this week in anticipation of military operations against insurgents. They had joined civilians who fled to the Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) between May and August this year. As of early September, more than 80,000 displaced people (11,000 families) from South Waziristan had been registered by local authorities in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank. They were staying with host families or have rented rooms.

In recent days, local authorities had begun registering new arrivals, with more than 800 families registered over the past three days out of an estimated 2,000 families that have moved into the area, he said. As part of an inter-agency effort, UNHCR had been working with local partners to distribute relief supplies (such as plastic sheets, sleeping mats, jerry cans and kitchen sets) to displaced people from South Waziristan. In September, they had distributed relief items to more than 6,500 people through our local partners, the Spokesperson said.

Iraqi resettlement

Mr. Mahecic said the UNHCR had now referred more than 80,000 refugees from Iraq to resettlement countries worldwide. The UN refugee agency’s resettlement programme for Iraqi refugees had begun in 2007 and as of October this year 82,500 individuals had been referred to more than a dozen countries. Around 75 per cent - or just less than 62,000 - Iraqi refugees had been referred to the United States. The remaining 25 percent had been referred to a total of 14 resettlement countries, including Canada, Australia, Germany and Sweden. Figures for 2009 showed that, as of 7 October, 28,500 Iraqi refugees had been put forward for resettlement. Around 75 percent of those referrals were to the United States, the UNHCR Spokesperson said.

Asked how much time it took for refugees who had been referred to get transferred to their new country, Mr. Mahecic said the average time depended on a country by country basis. Some countries were more open security-wise, while others were more rigorous with their security screenings. Responding to a question on how many had been actually accepted in the US, the Spokesperson said that the percentage reflected the acceptance rate but he would get back to journalists with the actual figures.

Vaccine and Immunization Report

Ms. Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the new report on the State of the World’s Vaccines and Immunization would be released on Wednesday 31 October at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. This report would be launched jointly by WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank and US Aid and would detail significant progress in vaccine science in immunizing the world’s children, and report on the considerable scientific, logistical and economic obstacles that continued to leave millions of children without the protection of new and established life-saving technologies.

H1N1

Mr. Gregory Hartl of the WHO said that the weekly Epidemiological Update was available on WHO’s website and that today at 4 p.m. Geneva time, they would hold a press briefing from Washington on the Clinical Meeting which has been taking place in Washington and which had produced some very interesting conclusions.

In response to a question about the speed of the spread of the virus over the past 6 months, Mr. Hartl said it was too early for conclusions but that the majority of the cases had been mild, which was good. However, a worrying sign was that severe cases sometimes involved adults who had been healthy but died after contracting the virus and that they had no sound explanation for why this was taking place. Furthermore, winter had still not set in the Northern hemisphere but that this would take place in January, February next year.

World Food Day

Ms. Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme announced that today was the World Food Day and drew the attention to the fact that for more than one billion people who were hungry and had inadequate access to food, it could be called “No Food Day”. She quoted WFP’s Executive Director, Ms. Josette Sheeran, as saying that “despite many nations facing their own economic challenges they had continued to prioritize support to the urgently hungry and had kept their contributions at record highs”.

Fifth meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC5)

Mr. Dave Ogden of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said that the 5th Meeting of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee was being held from 12 to 16 October 2009 in Geneva. The 31 Committee members would review the chemicals proposed for listing in Annexes A, B, and/or C of the Convention (hexabromocyclododecane, endosulfan and short-chained chlorinated paraffins) and to discuss other relevant issues. The Committee had decided today to delay their decision on the new chemicals to next week as there was no consensus among its members with regards to the level of their toxicity, he said.

Locust outbreak

Ms. Elisabeth Byrs of the Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs said that a serious desert locust outbreak had developed in western Mauritania and that the problem was expected to last for the next few weeks. At present, there was no immediate threat to other countries except for southern Morocco and Eastern Sahara, she said. More than a dozen ground teams had been dispatched to the infested areas to conduct survey and control operations and, since mid-September, nearly 1,300 ha had been treated by national teams, she added.

Aids vaccine conference

Ms. Sophie Barton-Knott of UNAIDS said that there would be an AIDS Vaccine Conference taking place in Paris between 19-22 October gathering more than 1,000 researchers to discuss AIDS vaccine. Chief Scientific Advisor, Dr. Kate Hankins, would be available for questions.


Philippines

Mr. Paul Garwood of WHO said that the recent floods in the Philippines had been more serious than expected. WHO had already identified an outbreak of communicable diseases spreading through the floodwaters and that there was one particularly nasty disease called Leptospirosis which rodents carried around through their urine. So far, more than 800 cases and 58 deaths had been reported. WHO expected that around 19,000 people would be infected by this disease and up to 700 may die, he said.

AFGHANISTAN

Ms. Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that Italy had donated EUR 3.1 million for the reintegration of returnees and IDPs to an IOM action plan for the socio-economic reintegration of returnees, internally displaced people (IDPs) and vulnerable Afghans in Herat and surrounding western provinces. The Italian contribution would support thousands of Afghans who fled to Iran to escape the instability, natural disasters and conflict of the past to seek safety and jobs in Iran. In 2008, some 406,000 Afghans, including seasonal workers, returned voluntarily to Afghanistan or were deported. Together with Afghanistan's 270,000 IDPs and other vulnerable groups, they now lived in conditions of abject poverty and were desperately in need of the socio-economic reintegration support that the action plan would provide, she said.

Trafficking

Ms. Pandaya also said that the IOM was today launching a new campaign on the 3rd EU Anti-Trafficking Day and the start of a European ministerial conference on global EU action against human trafficking in Brussels, and that IOM was urging consumers in particular to play a greater role in ending human trafficking. Eliminating the demand for trafficked and exploited labour to provide the cheap goods and huge profits desired by consumers and businesses the world over was critical if global efforts to end human trafficking were to be successful, said the statement from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). “Consumers who are increasingly demanding fair trade have the power to end labour exploitation by buying responsibly and getting business to rethink how it operates. It's also in the interest of business to ensure its supply chain is not using trafficked or exploited labour. This can make a huge difference in countering human trafficking. There is no time to waste,” she said, quoting the IOM Director General William Lacy Swing.