REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was in Japan today where he would meet with Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. He would also visit Nagasaki and Hiroshima to draw attention to the urgent need to achieve global nuclear disarmament. In Hiroshima, he would attend the Peace Memorial Ceremony; and thus become the first Secretary-General to do so.

The Secretary-General yesterday announced the launch of a Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May incident in which Israel raided a six-ship convoy in international waters that had been carrying humanitarian goods and activists and heading for Gaza and which had resulted in the deaths of nine civilians, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

The former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Geoffrey Palmer, would serve as Chair of the Panel and the outgoing President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, would be Vice-chair. The Panel would have two additional members, one each from Israel and Turkey, and would begin its work on 10 August, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier. It would submit its first progress report by mid-September. The Secretary-General’s statement on the establishment of the Panel was available in Press Room III.

Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had opened yesterday its session and was holding this morning an informal meeting with non-governmental organizations to discuss ways to cooperate and the modalities for non-governmental organizations’ participation in the Committee’s sessions.

This afternoon, the Committee would start its consideration of the report of El Salvador until tomorrow mid-day. The Committee would then consider the report of Iran on Wednesday and Thursday and the report of Uzbekistan on Thursday and Friday, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

Next week, the Committee would consider the reports of Romania, Australia, France and Slovenia, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier. And the week thereafter it would consider the reports of Morocco, Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Estonia.

Human Rights Council Advisory Committee

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee had also opened its session yesterday and had elected Purificacion Quisumbing of the Philippines as its Chairperson. The Advisory Committee had then resumed work on its draft principles and guidelines on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy, which had to be finalized at the current session.

The Advisory Committee was discussing today a study on best practices concerning missing persons, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier. During this session, which would close on Friday, the Advisory Committee would also continue its drafting of a study on discrimination in the context of the right to food.


Situation in Pakistan

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had reported that the worst floods to hit Pakistan since 1929 had left more than 1 million people in need of emergency assistance. In addition to a rising number of deaths, injuries and displacements, there was major damage to housing, roads, bridges, infrastructure in general, and livelihoods.

Over the weekend, a rapid assessment mission headed by Martin Mogwanja, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Pakistan, had visited two north-western districts by helicopter, as there was no road accessibility to the districts. The mission had confirmed widespread damage and urgent humanitarian needs, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

Access continued to be the main problem hampering relief efforts. Floods had damaged roads and bridges, and communications and utilities had also been damaged. Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the initial estimates were that 150,000 people would require emergency assistance.

The Pakistan Emergency Fund, managed by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which currently contains US$ 8 million, had been activated to provide funding to partners, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier. In a statement, the Secretary-General announced that up to US$ 10 million could be provided by the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that these worst floods on record in Pakistan were placing the health of hundreds of thousands of people at risk, with a high-threat of water-borne disease outbreaks and immense damage to health facilities. WHO was coordinating the response of health partners and supporting the efforts of the Pakistani authorities. They had sent medicines and related health supplies capable of treating more than 200,000 people.

No disease outbreaks had been confirmed yet. Major health concerns at the moment were the control of water-borne diseases, including diarrheal diseases, respiratory infections, treating the injured and helping to ensure the quality of clean drinking water, said Ms. Chaib.

At least 39 health facilities had been destroyed by floodwaters, resulting in a loss of tonnes of medicines, said Ms. Chaib. There was also a tremendous need for more medical and related materials, as well as to immunize children, particularly against polio and measles.

Static and mobile medical team were currently providing outreach services to affected areas. More than 15,000 patients had already been treated by these teams, said Ms. Chaib. A disease outbreak early warning system had also been set up by World Health Organization, together with national teams.

Marco Jimenez of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that an estimated 3.2 million people had been affected by the floods in overall, directly or indirectly, of which 1.4 million were children. The floods had mostly affected the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (the former North-West Frontier Province), where at least 2.5 million people had been affected and 1,400 people had died.

For UNICEF, the current most-worrying issue was the risk of water-borne diseases which were deadly to children, said Mr. Jimenez. UNICEF’s current activities were aimed at trying to prevent such diseases. UNICEF had provided hygiene kits and water tankers to help people gather clean water and together with its partners had also set up 24 medical camps, in coordination with other humanitarian actors and the local authorities, benefiting about one million people.

Mr. Jimenez said that further rains were expected in the coming days and the water flood was moving southwards towards the Punjab and Sindh provinces, putting them also at risk.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that, as of yesterday, they had supplied food to about 40,000 people and were continuing today, expecting to reach about 250,000 people by the end of the week. Assessments were ongoing. Access remained the major challenge. About 700,000 people were in the worst-hit areas and needed immediate food assistance.

In addition, WFP was also assessing damage to its own warehouses and infrastructure, said Ms. Casella. WFP had already had a strong presence in the country as it had been assisting about one million people a month in the affected area and 2.7 million people overall in the country prior to the current floods. Pakistan also served as a staging area for a large portion of WFP's food deliveries into Afghanistan.

Further, WFP's Afghan team was also anticipating that about 50,000 people would be in need of flood assistance in Afghanistan, said Ms. Casella.

Melissa Fleming of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR, as part of the coordinated United Nations response, was stepping up its assistance to provide shelter to the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the worst floods and landslides Pakistan had seen in decades.

So far, UNHCR had distributed some 10,000 tents and other relief supplies to the two worst hit provinces, and was urgently procuring some 20,000 additional tents. Ms. Fleming said they were trying to reach, as an initial measure, at least 250,000 of the most vulnerable people with shelter and essential “non-food items”, including blankets, jerry cans, buckets, plastic sheets and kitchen sets.

UNHCR staff on the ground had called this morning to report that new rains had started falling in the worst-affected areas, said Ms. Fleming. With August being the traditional month of the monsoon, more rains were expected.

The majority of the flood-hit displaced were crammed into public buildings, including schools and colleges. Among them were thousands of Afghan refugees and displaced Pakistanis who had suddenly lost their homes for the second time, said Ms. Fleming.

Ms. Fleming said that High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres today had said that those who had survived these punishing floods were still at grave risk. They were exposed and vulnerable and urgently need our help. The Pakistani people of this region had been serving as the generous hosts of more than a million Afghan refugees. Now was the time for the international community to demonstrate the same kind of solidarity with them.

Christian Cardon of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that more than 1,500 people had died due to the floods and 2.5 million people were affected in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There was a widespread devastation and entire villages had been washed away. Roads, bridges, schools and health centres had been totally destroyed. Crops had also been destroyed, animals had drowned and farm machinery had been washed away.

ICRC had also noticed contamination of drinking water by flood waters, increasing the risk of diseases. Among the urgent needs were food, means to prepare food and shelters, said Mr. Cardon. ICRC staff on the ground was currently also assessing whether there was a need for helping in re-establishing family links.

Mr. Cardon said that the Pakistan Red Crescent had already distributed food supplies to 7,000 people in Baluchistan and the whole Red Cross Red Crescent movement planned to distribute food to 250,000 victims in the coming days.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM had agreed to coordinate the Emergency Shelter Cluster of relief agencies in responding to the floods, following a request from the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator.

IOM had also participated in a joint Government-United Nations assessment mission to Charsadda and Nowshera districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday. It had concluded that all 29 Union Councils of Charsadda and 30 Union Councils of Nowshera had been severely affected by the flooding. Mr. Bloch said IOM would continue to work with partners on the ground to meet the humanitarian needs.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier also announced that the Chief of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Pakistan, Manuel Bessler, would be available to hold a teleconference with journalists this week. The exact time and date would be communicated at a later moment.

Answering a journalist’s question on whether the Talibans had taken advantage of the situation and had tried to re-conquer the control of areas they had lost earlier, Babar Baloch of the United Nations Refugee Agency said that they could not deny nor confirm such reports but that what they were currently seeing on the ground was that communities were coming together so to assist people who needed support.

Situation in Afghanistan

Marco Jimenez Rodriguez of the United Nations Children's Fund said that on the Afghan side, preliminary figures indicated that 4,000 homes had been destroyed by the floods and had affected 30,000 people, of which three-quarters were children.

Here again, the main concern for UNICEF was the risk of water-borne diseases putting at risk the life of children, said Mr. Jimenez. To respond to the situation, UNICEF had so far distributed 430 tents, high energy biscuits for 10,000 children and pregnant women as well as non-food items consisting of jerry cans and water kits to help people collect and purify water, as well as 3,000 oral re-hydration salts for 1,500 children. Distributions were ongoing and would continue in the coming days, especially as further rain was forecast in the border area around Kabul.

Migration

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that collaboration between Ukraine’s Cyber Crime Unit, the United Kingdom-based Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and IOM Ukraine’s Counter Trafficking Programme had lead to the conviction for life imprisonment of a British paedophile that had trafficked two eleven-year old Ukrainian girls for the production of child pornography.

The Cyber Crime Unit had referred the traumatized children and their parents to IOM for comprehensive medical, psychosocial and social assistance and support, said Mr. Bloch. Their testimonies and incriminating video material had contributed to the paedophile’s conviction.

As part of efforts to fight human trafficking in Ukraine, IOM worked with an extensive network of non-governmental organizations on prevention activities, including informational campaigns, public service announcements and telephone help lines. IOM also provided comprehensive technical assistance to the law enforcing entities responsible for the prosecution of human traffickers, said Mr. Bloch.

In Colombia, more than 4,000 ex-combatants demobilized from illegal groups and 290,000 victims of violence had benefited during the past five years from the process of Justice and Peace provided by the Colombian Government, and for which IOM provided assistance to the demobilized to return to civilian life, as well as to victims of violence to gain access to truth, justice and reparation, said Mr. Bloch.

IOM had also provided support for the processing of more than 13,000 financial compensation claims that the Colombian Government had authorized for relatives of victims of violence, had assisted the Attorney General's Office in its investigations of the crimes reported by victims and had helped in the search for and handing over of the remains of missing persons, said Mr. Bloch. IOM contributed its technical assistance to help strengthen coordination amongst Colombian State institutions responsible for assisting victims.

Agenda

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Press Briefing of Friday, 6 August would be held in Room V.