REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the World Meteorological Organization, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities had opened yesterday a one-week session, which will be mostly made of private meetings during which the Committee will work on its rules of procedures and working methods. The next public meeting of the Committee will take place on Friday, 26 February when it is scheduled to meet with States parties.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination concluded this morning its consideration of the report of Cameroon and would take up, this afternoon, the report of the Netherlands. This week, the Committee would also consider the reports of Japan, Iceland and Kazakhstan, as well as Panama next week, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

The Conference on Disarmament would also hold a public meeting this Thursday, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

On Friday, 26 February Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva would participate to the press briefing to present the United Nations Office at Geneva’s 2009 Annual Report. Ms. Momal-Vanian said this year’s report would underscore the efforts made by the Office to limit its carbon emissions and to put in place a Strategic Heritage Plan for the Palais des Nations.

Tomorrow at 09:30 a.m. the fourth World Congress Against the Death Penalty would be opened at the Palais des Nations, in Room XX. The proceedings in Room XX would also be broadcast on a screen in Room XIX. Room XXIV was reserved for holding interviews and a press conference would take place in Room XXV after the opening ceremony, around noon, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Situation in Haiti

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the number of people who had left Port-au-Prince for outlying departments had increased to almost 600,000. An estimated 160,000 persons had gone from Port-au-Prince to the border area of Haiti with the Dominican Republic. The majority of these displaced had been received by host families, increasing the number of inhabitants in houses from around 5 to 10 or 15 persons. This situation increased the vulnerability of these already poor host communities. Infrastructures and services, such as water and sanitation and health services were thus highly needed in this region.

To date, more than 330,000 people had received emergency shelter material, representing around 30 per cent of the total homeless population, said Ms. Byrs. One of the priorities was now to address drainage and solid waste management.

On the logistics side, Ms. Byrs noted that more than 3,000 passengers from over 230 organizations, including United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations and media institutions, had used the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service between Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince. The Air Service had also delivered a total of 8,800 metric tons of relief items.

The revised Humanitarian Appeal for Haiti, calling for US$ 1.4 billion in humanitarian funding was now 48 per cent funded, said Ms. Byrs.

Marie-Françoise Borel of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said that the start of the rainy season next April might aggravate the current humanitarian emergency and IFRC was working very hard to mitigate the situation.

IFRC intended to step up its water and sanitation activities to prevent latrines from overflowing and to prevent water points from becoming contaminated when the heavy rains would come, said Ms. Borel. The Haitian Red Cross had some 5,000 volunteers available to support IFRC’s water and sanitation work. Water was being trucked-in and some of the roads might become impassable and thus IFRC was conducting contingency planning to select the best routes.

Miguel Urquia, Senior Officer, Shelter and Settlements Department, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said that IFRC believed that the shelter cluster members could achieve the distribution of emergency shelter materials, including tarpaulins, tools and tents to the 1.2 million people affected by the earthquake, before the start of the rainy season. They were now at the midpoint in the shelter material distributions and were on-course to achieve that goal.

IFRC was realistic and realized that these emergency-shelter solutions were partial and temporary and IFRC was thus working on transitional housing – houses with steel or timber frames and wooden panels or tarpaulins as walls- and hoped that these more durable solutions would meet the requirements of the people for the hurricane season, said Mr. Urquia.

IFRC hoped to see material for the first 1,000 units shipped from Santo Domingo in the first week of March and hoped that construction could begin before the rainy season, said Mr. Urquia. IFRC further hoped to build at least 22,000 transitional houses before the hurricane season, which would begin around 1 June.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said that a vaccination campaign that had started on 16 February 2010 had so far vaccinated more than 62,000 persons, or 10 per cent of the target population, against diphtheria, tetanus, weeping cough, measles and rubella. More immunizations teams were however urgently needed in order to finish this campaign. Local staff trained by the Ministry of Health, along with non-governmental organization would also help perform these vaccinations campaigns.

So far, there had been no recorded increases in infectious diseases outbreaks, said Mr. Garwood. Respiratory infections represented the main cause of illness, followed by trauma, injury, diarrhea and suspected malaria cases. There had been two isolated cases of typhoid recorded, along with two cases with malaria, all confirmed through laboratory tests.

Another eighteen suspected cases of measles had been reported, but none had been confirmed so far, said Mr. Garwood. Data was now also being received from selected internally displaced persons settlements, registering higher-than-normal cases of hypertension.

Mr. Garwood also noted that the local healthcare staffs were progressively returning to work, strengthening the ability of the local healthcare providers to deliver care.

Marc Vergara of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that sanitation remained one of the main priorities for the more than 1 million displaced persons. UNICEF and its partners planned to install more than 10,000 latrines by April and more than 20,000 in total in the next six months. Before the earthquake, only around 17 per cent of the population had had access to latrines.

UNICEF had recently rented 1,000 portable toilets, which would be installed in 11 sites, grouping more than 110,000 displaced persons. These would add to the 2,600 latrines that were already put in place, said Mr. Vergara.

UNICEF had also signed an agreement with a local NGO called Initiative locale pour le development des jeunes en dehors du milieu scolaire for the construction, by 1,200 youngsters of approximately 1,000 sanitation blocs, made of latrines, showers and handwashing areas. They would also take care of the cleaning of these sanitation blocs.

Mr. Vergara also highlighted the fact that promotion of hygiene measures was crucial in the actual conditions and that such a promotion had to happen through local network that were known and respected by their communities.

Chris Lom of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM was starting today a registration exercise in the Champs de Mars settlement, currently home to an estimated 16,000 people.

This afternoon, teams of IOM staff will go through the Champ de Mars and issue colour coded tokens, based on age group, to every resident. Tomorrow, heads of families would be asked to take these tokens to registration point, where they would provide their family details and home addresses and be issued with a temporary identification card, said Mr. Lom.

These cards were purely for the purpose of denoting place of origin and did not imply any other entitlement at this stage, said Mr. Lom.

The registration was part of a broader strategy to address the issue of congested temporary settlements throughout Port-au-Prince. The objective was to enable as many people as possible to return to their places of origin, said Mr. Lom.

Those people who could not do so should seek shelter in the premises of a host family, such as relatives or friends. If neither were possible IOM, the Government and shelter cluster partners would plan and sanitize the largest settlements to turn them into functioning camps, said Mr. Lom. The final option would be to establish new planned sites.

To date, 415 spontaneous sites had been identified. Amongst them, 21 sites had been prioritized for decongestion, said Mr. Lom.


Situation of IDPs in Yemen

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that faced with an acute funding shortfall for its Yemen operation, UNHCR had approved an internal loan amounting to US$ 4.7 million in order to continue programmes for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons in this country.

This step was an alternative to scaling down or suspending UNHCR's protection and assistance programmes which would have had an adverse and irreversible impact on a civilian population forcibly displaced by seven months of conflict between the government and Al Houti movement in northern Yemen, said Mr. Mahecic.

A weak donor response this year threatened UNHCR’s operational capacity and protection efforts to register and document some 250,000 internally displaced persons, to monitor their situation and to address their humanitarian needs – giving special attention to those most vulnerable – namely children, women and elderly, said Mr. Mahecic.

The funds were also urgently needed to expand the existing, already overpopulated internally displaced persons camps at Al Mazrak and to build new ones in the north of the country, to organize and provide shelter materials, namely tents and plastic sheeting as well as to provide the basic relief items such as blankets, mattresses, hygienic kits, etc. Mr. Mahecic said that to date, UNHCR had received fewer than ten per cent of the needed funds. UNHCR's part of the 2010 United Nations consolidated appeal for Yemen amounted to US$ 39 million.

Meanwhile, displaced Yemeni civilians in Al Mazrak camps in Hajjah province remained hopeful but cautious about the first holding cease-fire in seven months and their readiness to return immediately, said Mr. Mahecic. The general sentiment was similar in Amran and Sa'ada governorates. So far, movements had been limited to individual family members assessing the situation on behalf of the entire households.

Mr. Mahecic said that initial sketchy reports from internally displaced persons confirmed considerable difficulties in moving around parts of Sa'ada province which had been affected by the fighting. Some roads were still blocked and there were unmarked areas still littered with mines and unexploded ordnance. A report of one casualty of an internally displaced person due to a mine explosion had further strengthened fears among internally displaced persons regarding the safety of return.

Mines and unexploded ordnance posed a serious risk for returning refugees and internally displaced persons worldwide, said Mr. Mahecic. UNHCR again urged caution to prevent any further and unnecessary loss of civilian lives in Yemen. Removal of mines and unexploded ammunition and the resumption of basic services were priorities before any massive return could take place. UNHCR was poised to assist the voluntary and safe return process in Yemen.

Food Vulnerability in Niger

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said that food vulnerability was affecting millions of people in Niger. Some 2.7 million, or one in five households, were severely food insecure and another 5.1 million were moderately food insecure. More than half the population was estimated to have less than two months worth of food stocks to survive until the next harvest in October.

In the first weeks of 2010, nearly 29,000 cases of global acute malnutrition had been reported, said Mr. Garwood. Of these, 15,370 had been cases of moderated acute malnutrition and more than 13,000 cases had been of severe acute malnutrition.

Niger’s authorities had launched in recent weeks a support plan to improve food safety and prevent malnutrition and to treat cases of malnutrition of children aged under five. Acute malnutrition affected more than 12 per cent of children in this age group in Niger, said Mr. Garwood.

WHO had been working with the Niger Government and Authorities to address the food security crisis and issues related to food strengthening and iodine deficiency, said Mr. Garwood. WHO was seeking some US$ 659,000 for emergency nutrition intervention for children aged under five in Niger.

In Agadez, WHO had also supported the training of seven trainers in recent weeks on the new protocols on the treatment of people with acute malnutrition, said Mr. Garwood. These trainers would in turn train almost eighty people.

Severe Winter in Pakistan

Paul Garwood of the Word Health Organization (WHO) said that following a request from Pakistan, in the wake a series of avalanches caused by sever winter, WHO had delivered medicines that could treat more than 120,000 people for the next months. Severe winter weather had been hampering rescue and relief efforts but a recent improvement in access would enable WHO to send an assessment mission to the region this week.

H1N1 Pandemic

Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the Emergency Committee constituted under the International Health Regulations to advise WHO on issues relating to the H1N1 pandemic would meet this afternoon. There were several items on the agenda, but the main question would be to advise WHO on whether to remain in Phase 6 of the pandemic or to move to the so-called post-peak period. He also emphasized that a post-peak period did not mean declaring the pandemic over.

Migration

Chris Lom of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM was hosting today a conference in Jakarta on "Promoting Dialogue and Information Sharing on Labour Migration between Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Middle East."

During the conference IOM would present the findings of a research report that would be published in April on labour migration from Indonesia and essentially the situation of female domestic migrant workers. The conference represented the beginning of a dialogue between sending and receiving countries. IOM hoped this would eventually help provide more legislation in terms of protection for these migrant workers, said Mr. Lom.
On another matter, Mr. Lom said that today at 4 p.m. the IOM Director-General would be signing an Agreement with the Japanese Ambassador on closer ties between Japan and IOM.

Other

Ms. Momal-Vanian, speaking on behalf of the United Nations Conference on Trade And Development, said that the Expert Meeting on Contribution and Effective Use of External Resources for Development, in Particular for Productive Capacity Building, would end tomorrow. In this context, all journalists were invited at a reception at the Bar L’Escargot at 6 p.m. today.

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that the High-Level Taskforce for the Global Framework for Climate Services was holding its first meeting this week. The decision to establish a Global Framework for Climate Services had been taken in September 2009 at the Third World Climate Conference. A press conference would be held at the occasion of this first meeting on Friday, 26 February at 11:45 a.m. at the WMO Headquarters in Room B, with Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization and Members of the High-Level Taskforce.

Ms. Sevenier also noted that an article by the WMO Expert Team on Climate Change Impacts on Tropical Cyclones was published this week in Nature. The article noted there would likely be an increase in the maximum windspeed of tropical cyclones and in rainfall rates. The Experts concluded that the total number of tropical cyclones worldwide would likely either decrease or remain unchanged.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the first meeting of the Noncommunicable Diseases Global Forum, which WHO was currently setting-up, would take place tomorrow. Over 100 people would participate in the event, amongst which would be Her Royal Highness Princess Haya Al Hussein of Jordan, Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde of Belgium, Duchess of Brabant, as well as Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General.

This Friday would mark the fifth anniversary of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, said Ms. Fadela Chaib. A press conference would take place in Press Room I, at 2:45 p.m. with Thamsanga Dennis Mseleku, President of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and Haik Nikogosian, Head of the Framework Convention on Tobacco control Secretariat.