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 and representatives of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Director-General

Ms. Momal Vanian said the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, would travel to Moscow next week to join the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, at the Middle East Quartet meeting, as well as for bilateral meetings.

Conference on Disarmament

Ms. Momal Vanian said that 41 delegations had taken the floor yesterday at the Conference on Disarmament to discuss a proposed programme of work for the Conference’s 2010 session, which was presented last Tuesday by the outgoing President of the Conference, the Ambassador of Belarus. Starting next week, the Conference would be presided by the Ambassador of Belgium. The next plenary meeting would be announced shortly.

Human Rights Council

Claire Kaplun of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Human Rights Council was continuing this morning its interactive dialogue with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on violence against children.

Ms. Kaplun said that the Council was a bit behind schedule. As a consequence the presentation of reports by the Special Rapporteurs on the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and in Myanmar, which were scheduled for Monday morning, would probably be postponed to Monday afternoon. The press conferences that were planned with both Special Rapporteurs on Monday would thus also be rescheduled.

Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was closing today its seventy-sixth session and would make public later today or Monday its concluding observations on the reports it considered at the current session. The concluding observations would then be made available on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ website. A roundup press release would be issued later today.

Haiti

Ms. Momal-Vanian said United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, had appointed yesterday Major General Luiz Guilherme Paul Cruz of Brazil as Force Commander of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Major General Cruz succeeded to Major General Floriano Peixoto Vieira Neto. Since the earthquake, the MINUSTAH Force had been increased to 8,940 troops and 3,711 police officers.

Andrew Morton, Haiti Programme Manager, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said that before the earthquake, Haiti had been the most degraded country in the Western Hemisphere. It was very steep, mountainous, heavily cultivated, with three per cent of its original forest-cover left and massive soil erosion. The conditions in the cities before the earthquake had already been quite difficult, with lack of sanitation, waste management and electricity.

A plethora of new problems were now arising, as a result of the earthquake and the associated relief issues, said Mr. Morton. UNEP was assessing and trying to address them with the rest of the relief community.

Among the problems UNEP identified were the millions of tons of debris from the fallen buildings. The debris included not just concrete but everything that had been contained in the buildings, such as wood, plastic, metal, clothing, etc. Another issue was the major increase in municipal waste and especially in healthcare waste, due to the burst in medical activity. It was estimated that the volume of healthcare waste had tripled, said Mr. Morton. As the relief effort had came in, it had also added to the waste burden. Municipal waste services had also suffered logistical and human losses during the earthquake.

The traditional system of waste management in Haiti was in collecting it and burning it or in taking it by truck to a landfill where it was torn apart by persons who made their living by recycling waste, said Mr. Morton. UNEP wanted to ensure that healthcare waste did not go that way. In order to separate the waste and treat it in a hygienic manner, a large number of containers for segregations of the waste had been brought in and UNEP was also buying fuel for the incinerators that were already there.

A bigger problem for which UNEP had not yet found a solution was that of the planned transitional shelters, which were designed to keep up to 500,000 persons sheltered for up to two years. These were made of tin and timber, but the problem was that there was not any timber available in Haiti. The solution in that case was bulk importation of timber and UNEP would need to look at how to encourage the aid community to facilitate this importation.

UNEP was also planning to monitor the environmental performance and footprint of the relief effort and on how to best assist all involved organizations actively by offering them a pool of specialized technical service. UNEP would further try to demonstrate some large-scale technology, such as the use of biogas in the settlements, said Mr. Morton.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that two months after the earthquake much had been achieved in the health sector, but still much more need to be done. WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund and partners had vaccinated more than 300,000 children and adults against a range of infectious diseases, particularly measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and weeping-cough. The central drugs store in Port-au-Prince, managed by WHO had provided hundreds of tons of medicines to public hospitals and mobile clinics.

WHO and its partners had also monitored water quality at three major water distribution points, said Mr. Garwood. Some 316 healthcare organizations had been activated and were still working in Haiti, under the coordination of the Health Cluster. There were still major gaps, particularly in the number of healthcare staffs and training of staff. Also many hospitals still suffered structural damage; almost half of the Haiti’s health facilities in and around Port-au-Prince had sustained damages. There were also still an insufficient number of post-op beds.

Also, with the upcoming rainy season there were many risks around the issue of water-born diseases. Malaria cases had already started to increase, said Mr. Garwood.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM was conducting a psychosocial assistance programme, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization and some 30 other partners. The programme consisted of mobile psychosocial teams visiting settlements to meet with families. Each team had a psychologist, social worker, artistic animators, and a team leader. Creative approaches were needed to support the emotional wellbeing of Haitians through culture and craft. The therapeutic activities were also aimed to help communities preserve and rebuild former relationships - including the traditional Haitian concept of "lakou", a place where families gather and chat.

The programme, which was funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency aimed to provide comprehensive psychosocial first aid to some 150,000 individuals and follow-up counseling for up to 10,000 distressed individuals over the next five months, said Mr. Chauzy.

Marc Vergara of the United Nations Children’s Fund said that, before the earthquake, one children in three under five years of age had been estimated to be malnourished and one in 20 were suffering from severe malnourishment. An estimated 500,00 children under five year of age and approximately 200,000 pregnant women or with infants had been affected by the earthquake. 20,000 children were estimated to suffer from moderate malnourishment and more than 6,000 from sever malnourishment. These numbers were expected to increase in the coming months, due to the current living conditions in Haiti and with the start of the rainy season.

Some 30 centers dealing with severe malnourishment were now operational in Haiti said Mr. Vergara. UNICEF was also providing complementary nutrition and therapeutic products. Nutrition council was also being provided in the settlements. The so-called Blanket Feeding Programme had already benefited 20,000 women and children in approximately 110 settlement sites.

On sanitation, 3,673 latrines had now been installed said Mr. Vergara. The objective was still to meet the number of 13,000 latrines but there were space problems due to the debris in the streets.

On education, the reopening of school was still planned for 1 April, said Mr. Vergara. 1,400 tents servings as schools were planned. 600 of them had already arrived and 800 more would arrive next week. Some 200,000 children would then attend school in them in a shift-system.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that two months after the earthquake, the Revised Humanitarian Appeal was funded by only 49 per cent.

Africa/Floods

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that heavy rainfalls had caused severe flooding in Kenya. Nine districts had been hit and an estimated 10,000 persons were affected. The Kenya Red Cross Society, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization were responding to the emergency.

The district which was the most hit was that of Mandera, where the floods had affected some 4,350 persons, said Mr. Byrs. Some 500 cattle were also missing. Water had been contaminated, as the water distribution system was not functioning anymore, and roads were currently impassable; posing a logistics challenge for the flow of humanitarian aid.

Food prices were expected to rise in the coming weeks, due to continuing heavy rains, said Ms. Byrs. 20 damaged bridges required repairs across the country and the current death toll was of 11 persons.

The continued rise of river water level might potentially lead to additional flooding and authorities would have to open dams, said Ms. Byrs. Authorities had already issued a warning for the Tana Delta, where additional flooding might happen, and were preparing to evacuate the population in that region. According to the Kenyan Meteorological Department, heavy rains would continue through May.

Floods were also affecting all of Southern Africa and the situation was being closely monitored, said Ms. Byrs. Mozambique was the country the hardest hit, with 13,000 affected persons. An estimated 130,000 were currently living in risk zones and might be potentially affected should water levels continue to rise. Also hit were Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Somalia

Andrej Mahecic, of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR was extremely worried about the worsening situation for the civilian population in Somalia which was, once again, exposed to relentless and indiscriminate fighting in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country. UNHCR estimated that since the beginning of the year more than 100,000 Somali civilians had been forced to flee their homes across the country. This represented an increase of 20,000 persons since early February.

The latest fighting between government forces and the Al-Shabaab militia was concentrated in Mogadishu’s northern suburbs of Shangaani, Cabdulcasiis, Yaaqshiid and Kaaraan, said Mr. Mahecic. Since February, some 33,000 Somalis had been driven out of their homes by the continuing conflict in the capital. Almost 14,600 of them had fled to Afgooye corridor, a stretch of road some 30 kilometres west of Mogadishu. There, they were jammed in makeshift settlements which were already home to over 366,000 internally displaced persons. Thousands had also fled to other parts of the country.

Mr. Mahecic said that UNHCR was especially concerned about safety and well being of some 8,300 persons who, without any means to get out of Mogadishu, remained displaced within the capital. As the fighting was raging on, aid agencies could not access and assist these extremely vulnerable internally displaced persons.

Meanwhile in Kenya, nearly 10,000 new Somali refugees had been registered over the first nine weeks of this year. Considering the ongoing violence in Somalia, UNHCR feared that the Dadaab refugee complex in northern Kenya, hosting already some 270,000 refugees, had yet to observe a significant increase in the rate of the new Somali arrivals, said Mr. Mahecic.

Somalia remained one of the countries generating the highest number of internally displaced persons and refugees in the world. There were now more than 1.4 million internally displaced persons in Somalia while over 560,000 Somalis lived as refugees in neighbouring and nearby countries, said Mr. Mahecic.

Tajik-Afghan Border

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization WHO said that the Japanese government had given US$ 1.5 million to fund a joint WHO and French Non-governmental organisation 12 month project, to support the strengthening and equipping of 16 health facilities along the Tajik-Afghan border, particularly to help address the health impact of the humanitarian crisis such as flooding and displacement of Afghan refugees into Tajikistan.

H1N1 Update

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization gave the latest figures on the status of the H1N1 pandemic. By 7 March 2010, 213 countries and territories had reported cases of pandemic influenza virus H1N1. The number of reported deaths was of 16,713.

Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on a Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products would be held from 14 to 21 March at the Centre International des Conférences de Genève (CICG).

This fourth session would review progress made since the third session and would also be the last before action would be taken on the draft protocol. More than 120 Parties to the Convention had confirmed their participation to this session, said Ms. Chaib. The possible result of the session would be the final text of the draft protocol and the report of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to the fourth session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which would take place this November in Uruguay. The protocol should then be adopted at the Conference of Parties.

Next Week’s Agenda

Jean Rodriguez of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said that the Executive Secretary of the UNECE, Jan Kubis, would hold bilateral meetings next week with permanent representatives, including the Permanent Representative of Israel and the Secretary-General of the Black Sea Trade & Development Bank.

On Wednesday, 17 March, regional consultations on the Millennium Development Goals would be held in Room VIII at the Palais des Nations. The meeting would look at and assess the progress of the Millennium Development Goals in the UNECE region, said Mr. Rodriguez.

The twenty-seventh meeting of the Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters would be held from 16 to 19 March in Geneva. The Committee would consider communications it has received on non-compliance with the Convention’s provisions, said Mr. Rodriguez.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that UNCTAD’s Global Commodities Forum would take place from 22 to 23 March, at the Palais des Nations. This new platform would seek to address the future direction of commodities markets in the present climate of uncertainty about world economic developments. High-level speakers at the Forum would include government ministers, high-level policy makers, leaders from development institutions, from industry, from banks and trade firms as well as representatives of developing country trade representatives and organisations. A press conference on the Forum would also take place on Tuesday, 23 March at 11:30 a.m. with UNCTAD’s Secretary-General, Supachai Panitchpakdi.

On Wednesday, 17 March, there would be an expert meeting on services, development and trade, which would look at ways to assist developing countries in the strengthening of their domestic services capacity and their efficiency, competitiveness and export capacity, said Ms. Sibut-Pinote.

Also next week, a symposium on international investment for development would be held from 15 to 16 March 2010. The symposium was aimed at the academic community and would look at possible partnerships between UNCTAD and academics on issues of mutual interest, said Ms. Sibut-Pinote.

Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization (WTO), presenting WTO’s agenda for next week, said that, starting next Monday afternoon, the Market Access Negotiating Group would hold consultations all throughout the week. The Regional Trade Agreements Committee would also meet on Monday. Services negotiations would be held on Tuesday afternoon. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Committee would meet on Wednesday. The Dispute Settlement Body would meet on Friday and trade and development negotiations would be held all throughout the week.

Turning to WTO Director-General, Pascal Lamy’s agenda, Ms Borges said that Mr. Lamy would be in San José, Costa Rica from 17 to 18 March 2010. He would participate in an event called: "20 years of Costa Rica in the multilateral trading system". While in San José, Mr. Lamy would meet with President Óscar Arias and President-elect Laura Chinchilla, as well as trade ministers from the Central American region.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that on Monday, 15 March 2010, at 2 p.m., a press conference would be held in Press Room III to present a WHO/United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) joint progress report on sanitation and drinking water. The report would look at progress made in this area with regards to the Millennium Development Goals. Present at the press conference would be Maria Neira, Director, Public Health and Environment Department, WHO, Robert Bos, Coordinator, Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health, WHO, Clarissa Brocklehurst, Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, UNICEF (by telephone) and Tessa Wardlaw, Chief of Statistics and Monitoring, UNICEF (by telephone).