REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Office at Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for and Representatives of
the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration and the Economic Commission for Europe.

Statement by Middle East Quartet

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Middle East Quartet yesterday issued a statement on Israel’s actions in Gaza. In the statement, the Quartet re-affirmed that the current situation in Gaza, including the humanitarian and human rights situation of the civilian population, was unsustainable, unacceptable, and not in the interests of any of those concerned. The Quartet declared its readiness to work closely with Israel, the Palestinian Government and international donors in order to achieve sustainable economic development on the basis of the full implementation of the Agreement on Access and Movement of 2005 and in the broader perspective of the two-state solution. Consistent with these objectives, the Quartet and the Quartet Representative had worked with Israel, as well as consulting the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, and other concerned parties, to effect a fundamental change in policy in Gaza. The new policy towards Gaza just announced by the Government of Israel was a welcome development. The Quartet noted that the elaboration of further details and modalities of implementation would be important in ensuring the effectiveness of the new policy.

New Statement and Message by the Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General has deplored the attack on the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) in Western Darfur. Three UNAMID military personnel were killed and another wounded in the resulting exchange of fire. All UNAMID casualties were from Rwanda.
The Secretary-General expressed his condolences to the families of the peacekeepers who lost their lives and to the Government of Rwanda.

The message of the Secretary-General on Public Service Day, which was commemorated on 23 June, was available in the press room in all the United Nations languages.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Conference on Disarmament this morning held a short public plenary in which the President of the Conference, Ambassador Luiz Filipe De Macedo Soares of Brazil, provided an update on the current status of informal consultations for the adoption of a programme of work. The next public plenary would be held on Tuesday, 29 June at 10 a.m.

There were a number of interesting press conferences being held this week. At noon today, the Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator in Myanmar, Mr. Bishow Parajuli, would brief journalists about the situation in Myanmar.

On Wednesday, 23 June, Cecile Molinier, Director of the United Nations Development Programme Geneva Liaison Office, would speak to journalists about the Millennium Development Goals, preparing for the Global Review Summit. She would introduce a report from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs and another from the UN Development Programme which detailed progress and obstacles on the road to 2015. The embargoed reports would be made available in the press room just after the briefing and they were embargoed until 11 a.m. New York time on 23 June.

Kyrgyzstan

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said she had just spoken with the Head of the OCHA office in Bishkek. The situation remained tense in Kyrgyzstan. The security situation was not totally under control, including in Osh where there were still barricades on the main street, which Government troops had tried to clear, and this had been met with resistance. Because of the tense situation, providing humanitarian aid for internally displaced persons was difficult. Thirty airplanes carrying aid sent by the United Nations or other organizations had arrived in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan since the beginning of the crisis. Distribution of the aid was ongoing, hampered by the security situation. A total of 7,539 persons had returned to Jalal-Abad province in the past two days. The situation in Jalal-Abad was a bit less tense than the situation in Osh. The Humanitarian Flash Appeal for $ 71 million for Kyrgyzstan would be followed this week by another to help refugees and vulnerable persons from Kyrgyzstan in Uzbekistan. For Kyrgyzstan, an allocation of $ 8 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund to kick-start projects in the appeal had already been authorized. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Adrian Edwards of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in Uzbekistan, distribution of UNHCR aid had been underway over the weekend to some of the estimated 100,000 refugees who had crossed the border from Kyrgyzstan. The Uzbek authorities had themselves been handing out UNHCR relief items and UNHCR’s own emergency team had been on the ground in the Andijan area since Friday visiting sites and carrying out assessments. The Uzbek authorities were telling UNHCR that there were more than 50 other sites hosting refugees along the border. From UNHCR’s meetings with refugees so far, it was clear that many were still struggling to deal with family separations during the flight from southern Kyrgyzstan. The situation on the ground in southern Kyrgyzstan remained tense. The authorities had started to remove barricades in Osh. UNHCR had re-established a presence in Osh as part of the UN hub at the airport, and its non-governmental organization partners were assessing needs and organizing delivery of assistance. The poor security situation continued to hamper delivery and proper assessment of needs. UNHCR estimated that there were some 300,000 people displaced inside Kyrgyzstan, including some 40,000 with urgent shelter needs.

John Budd of the United Nations Children’s Fund said a convoy carrying 40 tonnes of supplies had arrived in Osh this morning after delivering supplies in Jalal-Abad. Another airlift of supplies would take place tomorrow directly into Osh. UNICEF was still unable to carry out a proper needs assessment mission due to the security situation. In Uzbekistan, overcrowding in the camps and rising tensions were happening due to the increasing heat. Children were particularly in need of protection against dehydration. UNICEF had great concern about the water and sanitation situation in the refugee camps. Bottled water was currently being supplied in the camps, but this was not sustainable. Already, there were indications that water would be in short supply in coming days and that there would be an increase in water-borne communicable diseases. Privacy was an issue for breastfeeding women and they needed special support. Two cargo planes with emergency supplies were due in Andijan tomorrow or Thursday. UNICEF had supported a measles and rubella vaccine campaign for children aged 1 to 15. UNICEF had also completed vaccinating 52,000 children against polio.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said available was a press release that was being issued by the WHO office in Denmark. WHO was coordinating the international health response to the humanitarian crises in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. There were a number of urgent needs in both countries to deliver health care to people who had been wounded in the violence, including women who had suffered from sexual and gender-based violence. People with chronic diseases also needed to receive medical care. There was also an outbreak of polio in Tajikistan and WHO was trying to ensure that it did not spread to neighbouring countries. WHO had deployed teams to assess and coordinate emergency response in the two countries, and humanitarian aid and medical supplies had been sent to the cities of Osh and Jalal-Abad in Kyrgyzstan and in Andijan in Uzbekistan. There were more details in the press release.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration said IOM was appealing for $ 3.7 million to help thousands of families affected by inter-ethnic conflict in Kyrgyzstan. The appeal, which was part of the wider $ 71 million UN Flash Appeal, included $ 1.47 million for the delivery of essential non-food relief items, including emergency shelter materials; $ 420,000 for emergency logistics to move displaced people and deliver humanitarian aid for relief agencies; $ 805,000 to provide clean water and sanitation for displaced families; and $ 1 million for emergency psycho-social assistance to crisis-affected communities.
IOM’s deliveries of non-food relief items would focus on 40,000 internally displaced people in makeshift camps on the Kyrgyz side of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border and some 170,000 others seeking refuge in neighbouring host communities.

Other

Jean Rodriguez of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe said the Aarhus Convention’s Compliance Committee met four times a year and its last meeting concluded on Friday, 18 June. The Compliance Committee had received its fiftieth communication shortly before its latest meeting. The Aarhus Convention came into force in 2003.

Aphrodite Smagadi, Legal Affairs Officer, Aarhus Convention Secretariat, said the Compliance Committee was one of the most important elements of the Aarhus Convention. The Convention had three pillars, access to information, public participation and access to justice. The Compliance Committee was made up of nine experts and its compliance mechanism could be triggered in four ways: a Party made a submission about non-compliance by another Party; a Party made a submission concerning its own compliance; the secretariat made a referral to the Committee; or members of the public, including individuals or non-governmental organizations, could make communications concerning a party’s compliance with the provisions of the Convention. The compliance mechanism had now been triggered fifty times in communications from the public, and only once by a Party making a submission about non-compliance by another Party. The press release included a table concerning the communications and their details. There were a lot of cases still pending.

Adrian Edwards of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said as celebrations for World Refugee Day were going on in Yemen on Sunday, a newly arrived 22-year-old Somali male was killed and two non-Somali women were seriously wounded in a gun battle between the military and smugglers. The smugglers were boarding African mixed migrants onto two Saudi Arabia-bound trucks. Currently, some 51 non-Somalis were in detention pending further investigation. Another Somali was reported missing and presumed to have fled. The army had handed over five Somali males to UNHCR’s partner, the Yemeni Red Crescent. UNHCR was working with the Government of Yemen to have access to the non-Somalis in detention and to assist persons of concern. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration said the IOM temporary labour migration programme from Guatemala to Canada was assisting 1,000 migrants to travel to Canada this month. An IOM research assessment had found that ethnic Somali pastoralists in North Eastern Kenya were increasingly losing their main source of livelihood due to drought and other environmental factors, and were vulnerable to risks associated with irregular migration such as human trafficking and smuggling.