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 Refugee Agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration and the World Health Organization.

Committee on the Rights of the Child

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on the Rights of the Child was holding this week private meetings to discuss its concluding observations and recommendations on the ten reports it had considered at the current session. The session would end this Friday.

Haiti Storm

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that on Friday, 24 September a strong storm had hit Port-au-Prince at 3 p.m. and had lasted only 30 minutes. Six deaths and 67 injuries had been reported. Assessment teams had now visited 172 affected sites.

Shelter remained overwhelmingly the principal need, said Ms. Byrs. 6,690 tarpaulins and 833 tents had been distributed reaching 4,178 of the 14,611 families that were expected to receive shelter materials.

The Haiti Appeal was 70 per cent funded with US$ 1.04 billion out of the US$ 1.49 that were requested after the January earthquake, said Ms. Byrs.

Ms. Byrs said that assessment teams reported that it was increasingly difficult to distinguish shelter needs that were generated by the storm of 24 September from those resulting from the deterioration of tarpaulins and tents that had been distributed after the earthquake. Replacement of decayed shelter material was ongoing, as part of the earthquake response.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration, answering a journalist’s question on the tents and why some of them had not sustained the storm, said that most of the material that had been distributed after the earthquake had now been deteriorated and weakened over time. There were now in a process of renewing the entire shelter material.

Pakistan

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM had launched a pilot project to offer core shelter solutions to flood victims returning to their damaged or destroyed homes. The project would offer a flexible alternative to transitional shelters, based on need and would include items such as doors, window frames and clean up kits.

The pilot project would target 300 families in Punjab and Sindh. The project would show the extent to which the flexible core shelter concept was feasible and whether it would help people to permanently rebuild their former homes by providing them with locally-sourced materials and tools, said Mr. Chauzy.

The project also aimed to analyze the challenges posed by large scale implementation, including the selection of beneficiaries, procurement and the availability of local building materials, said Mr. Chauzy.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization, updating on the health situation on the ground, said that due to the colder weather in the northern part of the country, there was now an increase in acute respiratory infections cases being reported. In the past week, there had been almost 90,000 cases of acute respiratory infections being recorded, which accounted for 80 per cent of the consultations in that week alone.

Also last week, there had been 486,000 people reporting for different medical conditions, including respiratory infections, acute and bloody diarrhoea, suspected malaria and skin diseases. Overall, since 29 July to 24 September, more than 6.2 million people had been treated across flood-affected parts of Pakistan for the main four conditions: diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections, suspected malaria and skin diseases, said Mr. Garwood.

Turning to the most notable health concerns of the past week, Mr. Garwood said that in Punjab and Balluchistan there was an increase in suspected malaria cases. Across Sindh skin diseases were increasing compared to previous weeks. All in all, since 29 July, more than 1 million people had suffered some kind of skin disease. This accounted for the largest health condition being reported amongst the affected population.

Up until now the health cluster had delivered medicines that could treat up to 4.9 million people. Another concern at the moment was with people returning to the northern part of the country, as well as Punjab. They had to assess the provision of healthcare in these areas, said Mr. Garwood. They were reviewing the establishment and the location of diarrhoea treatment centers to ensure that when people returned to their affected communities that health services were available in order to meet their needs.

Also in Sindh Province, more implementing partners were needed on the ground, including non-governmental organizations to help roll out health facilities including the establishment of diarrhoea treatment centers, said Mr. Garwood.

Myanmar Refugees/Japan

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that the first Myanmar refugees had arrived in Japan for resettlement, as part as Asia’s first ever pilot resettlement programme.

After spending up to 25 years in a refugee camp in Thailand, the first group of 18 refugees – three married couples and 12 children, aged one to 15 – had stepped off a six-hour overnight flight at Narita airport near Tokyo early this morning to begin their new lives in Japan. Japan pledged in December, 2008, that it would accept 90 Myanmar refugees from Mae La camp in northern Thailand over three years, said Mr. Mahecic.

Two other families had had to stay behind in Bangkok at the last minute because they had been suffering from flu, said Mr. Mahecic. They were expected to travel as soon as they get well. The families, who were farmers of the Karen ethnicity, had fled Myanmar between 1985 and 2001. The parents ranged in age from 28 to 45, and almost all the children had been born as refugees in Thailand.

This flight marked a new chapter in Japan’s strengthening of its refugee and asylum policies. Japan was UNHCR’s second-largest donor, said Mr. Mahecic. Not only did the country provide generous financial support for refugees in many parts of the world, but it now also provided a future for refugees in the country. UNHCR very much hoped Japan would set an example in resettlement for other Asian countries to follow.

Mr. Mahecic said that Japanese officials had visited Mae La camp to select refugees for resettlement in February this year. Initially the families would settle in Tokyo, where the Japanese Government would give them generous assistance in integrating during their first six months.

While still in Mae La, the refugees had taken lessons in adapting to Japanese culture, and some rudimentary Japanese language lessons, said Mr. Mahecic. In Tokyo, they would be given apartments, more language lessons, and help in adapting to the culture, as well as vocational training and support in finding a job.

The next two groups, each consisting of 30 refugees, were to follow in one and two years’ time. Some 20,500 refugees had already been resettled from Mae La camp, among the nearly 61,000 Myanmar refugees who had been resettled from the nine camps in Thailand since large-scale resettlement began in 2005, said Mr. Mahecic. Most had gone to the United States, Australia and Canada, with a smaller number departing for eight other countries, including New Zealand. With so many refugees having been resettled, the population of Mae La had now fallen to just under 30,000, but it remained the biggest refugee camp along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that IOM’s role in the project included health assessments, pre-departure cultural orientation and language training for the refugees. This had been done in the Mae La refugee camp before their departure for Japan.

Libya/Irregular Migration

Answering to a journalist on the issue of new funding to address irregular migration in Libya, Mr. Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that IOM had received US$ 1 million in new funding to boost its efforts in helping to build and consolidate the capacity of government bodies and civil society in Libya to help address irregular migration and protect the most vulnerable migrants there, including victims of trafficking.

Mr. Chauzy said that the number of illegal migrants in Libya was estimated to a number between 1 and 1.5 million, but there were no precise figures. A programme also funded through this effort would focus on reinforcing the judicial and prosecutorial capacities to combat human trafficking through training and on promoting revised legislative and operational measures to protect victims.

International Health Regulations Review Committee Meeting

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that the International Health Regulations Review Committee’s third meeting was taking place at the World Health Organization Headquarters since yesterday. A public plenary was taking place today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. during which World Health Organization staff would be interviewed. World Health Organization Director General Maragaret Chan had taken the floor around 10:30 a.m. Her speech had been sent out to all correspondents.

Later this afternoon and until tomorrow 4 p.m. the members of the Committee would meet in a closed meeting to review the information they received over the last two days, said Ms. Chaib. The plenary would be resumed tomorrow after 4 p.m. during which the Committee would present its conclusions. This would be followed by a press conference around 5 p.m. by the Committee’s Chairperson, Dr. Harvey Fineberg at World Health Organization Headquarters in the Indian Room.

Further, the plenary meetings were being recorded in audio and video formats and recordings were available to the media, said Ms. Chaib. The fourth meeting of the Review committee would take place from 3 to 5 November. The preliminary concluding observations of the Committee would be presented during the Executive Council next January. The final report would be presented during the General Health Assembly in May 2011.

Global Migration Group Meeting

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Principals' Meeting of the Global Migration Group would meet this Thursday, 30 September from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., at the Council Chamber. The meeting would be chaired by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay, with the participation of heads of agencies including the High Commissioner for Refugees, Mr. Antonio Guetteres, the United Nations Development Programme’s Administrator, Ms. Helen Clark, the Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, Mr. Carlos Lopes, the International Organization for Migration’s Director General, Mr. William Lacy Swing and other senior officials.

The thematic discussion of the meeting was about the protection and promotion of the human rights of irregular migrants. A joint statement on the subject was expected to be adopted at the end of the meeting. It was a private meeting. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights would issue the joint statement after it was adopted, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

A photo opportunity and a brief press encounter with the heads of agencies after the meeting would be organized, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Agenda

Following the presentation of the report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the three members of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council to inquire into the Gaza flotilla incident would hold a press conference at the Palais des Nations this afternoon at 2 p.m. in Press Room III, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Also today, the International Labour Organization would hold a press conference at 3 p.m. in Press Room I for the launch of the World of Work 2010 Report. Raymond Torres, Director of the International Labour Organization International Institute for Labour Studies and lead author of the report would present the report, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that they would hold a press conference tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. in Press Room III to give an update on the outcome of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) Global Meeting that had taken place in Kobe this month. Rashid Khalikov, Director, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Geneva and Toni Frisch, INSARAG Global Chairman, would be present.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that they would hold a press conference together with the United Nations Children's Fund, UNAIDS and the Global Fund at 11:30 a.m. for the launch of the report "Towards Universal Access - Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector - Progress Report 2010".