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 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the International Labour Organization, the Global Fund, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration and the World Health Organization.

Secretary-General

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was heading to South Africa today to represent the United Nations at the official opening of the FIFA 2010 World Cup this Friday. The United Nations Office on Sport for Development and Peace had issued a press release on the matter and a press kit highlighting the activities around the World Cup would be available later today in the Press Room. The Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfried Lemke, would also accompany the Secretary-General.

While the Secretary-General would then go on a continental tour bringing him to Burundi, Cameroon, Benin and Sierra Leone, his Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace would stay in South Africa to visit a number of projects that address the Millennium Development Goals, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Committee on the Rights of the Child

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on the Rights of the Child was meeting in private today to adopt its concluding observations and recommendations on the country reports it had considered at its current session, which would be closed this Friday.

However, the Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations might only be available next Tuesday, noted Ms. Momal-Vanian. This was due to the fact that the Committee had met in two parallel chambers during this session and had considered a high number of country reports.

Conference on Disarmament

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Conference on Disarmament yesterday had adopted a schedule setting out the organization of its informal meetings under each Agenda item. The first such informal meeting was taking place this morning. A press release on the adoption of the schedule had been issued yesterday evening.

The next public plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament would take place on Friday, 11 June, at which the Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs will address the Conference, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Geneva International Discussions

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the eleventh round of Geneva International Discussions was taking place today. After the meeting, a series of press conferences would take place in Press Room III. The first, by the three Co-Chairs of the Geneva International Discussions should start at approximately 5.00 p.m., followed by the Russian Federation and Georgia.

World Oceans Day 2010

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that today was World Oceans Day. The idea for World Oceans Day stemmed form the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the United Nations General Assembly had subsequently decided that that day would be celebrated every 8 June, starting in 2009. This year’s theme was “Our Oceans: Opportunities and Challenges”.

International Labour Conference

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said that with the International Labour Conference now in its second week, work in the different Committees was accelerating. Several side-events were also taking place.

Ms. Perthuis also noted that World Day Against Child Labour would be marked this Friday, 11 June. Events would take place in more than 60 countries and at the International Labour Conference a high level tripartite panel session would discuss the latest Global Report on Child Labour.

In Geneva, the local community organization “Le Respect” would mark this Day with a gathering of school children, local community leaders and tripartite partners at the Place des Nations. Also present would be the Mayor of Geneva, Sandrine Salerno and Geneva State Counsellor, Charles Beer, said Ms. Perthuis.

Further, this Thursday at 4 p.m. a press conference would be held in Press Room I for the launch of the annual “The Situation of Workers of the Occupied Arab Territories" report. Present would be Friedrich Buttler, Special Representative of the Director-General of the International Labour Organization and Nada Al-Nashif, Regional Director of the Regional Office for Arab States, International Labour Organization.

WMO Executive Council

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that the WMO Executive Council was opening today its annual meeting in Geneva, which would be held until 18 June.

The Council would address a range of programmes and topics, said Ms. Sevenier, including the progress made towards the establishment of a Global Framework for Climate Services; the enhancement of early warning systems; responses to volcanic ash disruptions to air traffic and the restoration of the National Meteorological Services of Haiti.

UNHCR Requested to Cease Activities in Libya

Melissa Fleming of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that this week UNHCR had received instructions by the Libyan Government to cease its activities in Libya and close down all its offices in the country.

UNHCR very much regretted this decision, said Ms. Fleming. UNHCR was doing major work in Libya to protect, assist and find durable solutions for the refugees and asylum seekers present in the country. In addition, UNHCR also supported the Libyan Government in dealing with the issues involved in the mixed migration flow through Libya.

UNHCR had made Libya a country where resettlement programmes were being prioritized and was helping refugees to find new homes in other countries. Should UNHCR offices close, these resettlement programmes would have to cease. Ms. Fleming said that several resettlements had been planned for the coming months.

Ms. Fleming said that UNHCR was still trying to negotiate its presence in Libya and remained hopeful that a positive solution could be found. UNHCR was the only existing asylum system in Libya and this move would leave a huge vacuum for the thousands of refugees and asylum seekers already present in the country and those who continued to arrive every week.

Answering journalists’ questions, Ms. Fleming said that UNHCR had not been given any reason by the Libyan authorities for why they should leave the country. 26 UNHCR staff members were stationed there; the majority of them were local staff. Almost 9,000 refugees and about 3,700 asylum seekers were registered with UNHCR in Libya. Together with its implementing partners UNHCR was providing healthcare, shelter, education and vocational training, as well as legal advice and advice in finding a durable solution to these persons; all this would stop if UNHCR had to leave.

UNHCR had been present in Libya since 1991, said Ms. Fleming. The largest numbers of refugees present in Libya were Palestinians, Iraqis, Sudanese, Somalis, Eritreans, Liberians and Ethiopians. The majority of asylum seekers were Eritreans. The vast majority of them were living in urban areas and UNHCR provided them with shelter material. Others were being held in detention centers to which UNHCR had access to monitor how these persons were being treated.

Delays in Rescue-at-Sea Operation off Malta

Melissa Fleming of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that the agency was concerned about delays in a search-and-rescue operation on Sunday and Monday involving a boat carrying more than 20 persons, mostly Eritreans, near Malta.

Distress calls had been received by UNHCR in Italy on Sunday evening and passed to Maltese and Italian maritime authorities. It was unclear which country had had search-and-rescue responsibility when the distress calls had first been sent. According to information made available to UNHCR, the boat had only been rescued late on Monday and by Libyan vessels, said Ms. Fleming.

While the boat in distress had been in or near Malta’s search-and-rescue area and around 40 nautical miles only from Italy, it had taken some 24 hours for the rescue to take place. Malta and Italy had relied on Libyan vessels to conduct the rescue inside Malta’s search and rescue zone instead of intervening and taking the group to a closer safer port, said Ms. Fleming. Three women and an eight-year-old child had been on board. All the passengers had now been taken back to Libya, where they had started their journey.

Ms. Fleming said that Malta and Italy had high recognition rates for Eritreans. UNHCR was however concerned about their access to international protection in Libya, which was not a signatory to the 1951 Convention for Refugees and had no domestic asylum system.

Ms. Fleming said the incident could have had resulted into a terrible human tragedy and one had to question why it had happened.

European Deportations to Iraq

Melissa Fleming of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that according to information it had received from four governments – the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK – UNHCR understood that these were arranging an enforced removal of Iraqi citizens to Baghdad, Iraq later this week. UNHCR had not yet received confirmed information of the number and profile of those individuals and whether some of them had requested protection.

UNHCR's position and advice to governments remained that Iraqi asylum applicants originating from Iraq's governorates of Baghdad, Diyala, Ninewa and Salah-al-Din, as well as from Kirkuk province, should continue to benefit from international protection in the form of refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention or another form of protection depending on the circumstances of the case, said Ms. Fleming.

This position reflected the volatile security situation and the high level of prevailing violence, security incidents, and human rights violations taking place in these parts of Iraq. UNHCR considered that serious – including indiscriminate – threats to life, physical integrity or freedom resulting from violence or events seriously disturbing public order were valid reasons for international protection, said Ms. Fleming.

Answering a question by a journalist on whether this was a coordinated enforced return operation, Ms. Fleming said the operation would be coordinated by the European boarder security organization Frontex.

Mongolia/Extreme Winter

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM, in cooperation with United Nations partners including the United Nations Children's Fund, was launching an Emergency Displacement Assessment to investigate the situation of thousands of rural Mongolian families forced to migrate from their homes to Ulaanbaatar due to one of the coldest winters on record.

The extreme winter conditions, known locally as the "Dzud," had resulted in the death of a quarter of the country's livestock. Over 11 million animals had been unable to find fodder through the snow cover and either froze or starved to death, said Mr. Bloch.

The assessment would form the basis of a new initiative for mid to long-term assistance to meet the needs of the most vulnerable rural migrants - mainly women, the elderly and children, said Mr. Bloch.

WHO/Conflict of Interest

Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization said that copies of the letter by Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization to the editors of the British Medical Journal, in reference to their article on conflicts of interest at the World Health Organization, was available in the Press Room.

Global Fund/Mid-year Results

Veronique Taveau of the Global Fund presented the Global Fund’s mid-year results which showed that 2.8 million persons with HIV had received life-saving antiretroviral treatment, a 22 per cent increase on results reported in June 2009.

The Global Fund had so far also provided 7 million persons with effective tuberculosis treatment, this was a 30 per cent increase from last year, said Ms. Taveau. Progress in the fight against malaria was also reported with a rise of 39 per cent since 2009 in the delivery of insecticide-treated bed nets.

As a result of the Global Fund’s programmes, around 4,000 deaths were being averted everyday, said Ms. Taveau.

Further, with more than US$ 10 billion disbursed, the Global Fund currently provided one-fifth of international resources to fights AIDS, as well as 63 per cent of international funding to fight tuberculosis and 60 per cent funding to fight malaria, said Ms. Taveau.

Global Fund Executive Director, Michel Kazatchkine, had said that, if the Global Fund was able to maintain the results achieved so far, malaria could be eliminated as a public health problem in most malaria-endemic countries, HIV transmission from mother to child could virtually be eliminated and significant declines in tuberculosis prevalence and mortality could be achieved in the next five years, said Ms. Taveau.

Ms. Taveau also noted that this year was decisive for the Global Fund and its related United Nations partners with the upcoming Millennium Development Goals Review Summit. The Summit would then be followed by a meeting of the Global Fund’s donors on 5 October, at which donors would pledge resources for the period 2011 to 2013.

UNCTAD Agenda

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that the press kit on the Economic Development in Africa Report 2010 was available in Press Room I. A press conference would take place on 15 June in Press Room III with UNCTAD’s Secretary-General, Supachai Panitchpakdi and Charles Gore, Special Coordinator for Cross-sectoral issues, Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes, UNCTAD.

Ms. Sibut-Pinote also noted that the Trade and Development Board was meeting today to discuss preparations for the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which would next place in Turkey in May 2011. Tomorrow, the Board would discuss the preparations for the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals.

In this connection, Rob Davies, Minister of Trade and Industry of South Africa would hold a press conference on Wednesday, 9 June at 1.30 p.m., on how to get the Millennium Development Goals back on track, said Ms. Sibut-Pinote.

Further, a press briefing on the latest joint report by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, UNCTAD, and the World Trade Organization on G20 trade and investment measures would take place this Friday, said Ms. Sibut-Pinote.