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 of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, United Nations Children's Fund, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration, and the World Health Organization.

Secretary-General’s Agenda

Corinne Momal-Vanian said later this week the United Nations Secretary-General would travel to Morocco to inaugurate the opening session of the World Policy Conference 2010 on 15 October in Marrakesh. The three-day conference, organized by the French Institute of International Relations, will gather some 140 personalities from governments, the private sector, academia and the media to discuss global governance issues. The Secretary-General will also be received by His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, and meet with the United Nations Country Team in Rabat.

The Secretary-General will then travel to Strasbourg where he will address the Council of Europe on 19 October on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights. Later that day, he will address the European Parliament in plenary session.

Momal-Vanian said the Secretary-General will also meet with the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe and the President of the European Parliament, attend an extraordinary meeting of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and be welcomed officially by the Senator-Mayor of Strasbourg.

Human Rights Committee

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Human Rights Committee yesterday opened its hundredth session. Yesterday afternoon the Committee began considering the report of El Salvador, which it will conclude this morning.

This afternoon and tomorrow morning the Committee will examine the report of Poland. Later this week, it is scheduled to review the reports of Jordan and Belgium, followed by Hungary next week.

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

Ms. Momal-Vanian said this morning the Committee examined the report of Malta before considering the report of Uganda tomorrow, followed by that of the Czech Republic on Thursday. On Friday, 15 October, the Committee will hear a presentation by India on a special report on the impact of the 2002 Gujarat events on women.


Spanish Language Day

Today, the United Nations commemorated one of the “Language Days at the United Nations”, said Ms. Momal-Vanian. This initiative was launched in 2009 and aimed at raising awarness of the history, culture and achievements of each of the six official languages of the United Nations.

To mark today’s Spanish Language Day, two short films would be shown today in Room XVII at 1.15 p.m. “El chasqui de Macchu Picchu” from Peru and “En la senda de la Escuela” from Mexico were both subtitled in French. The screening was conducted in collaboration with the Latin-American Cultural Centre Tierra Incógnita.

Flood in West and Central Africa

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 1,421,669 disaster victims and 377 deaths have been registered in Western and Central Africa as of 11 October. With 360,000 persons affected and 42 deaths Benin was hardest hit by the floods, followed by Nigeria with 300,000 victims and 118 deaths. Torrential rains and exceptionally high water levels of the Niger and other rivers resulted in West and Central Africa being once again hit by heavy floods.

The Benin Government declared the country a disaster area and had appealed to the international community for help. OCHA thus alerted an United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team, which would probably be dispatched to Benin tomorrow.

Among the other countries affected by the floods were Niger, with 226,611 people affected, Chad with 144,579, and Burkina Faso with 105,421 affected persons. Burkina Faso launched an US$14 millions emergency plan to respond to the floods and it had received US$ 2 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund. A serious cholera epidemic was faced by Nigeria, Chad, Northern Cameroon and Niger.

Ms. Byrs said Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, would be in Niger and Nigeria between 13 and 16 October and would meet humanitarian actors and local authorities.

Press Conference on Effective Methane Drainage and Use in Coal Mines

Ms. Momal-Vanian reminded that the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe would hold a Press Conference today at 2.15 p.m. in Press Room 1 to launch its “Best Practice Guidance for Effective Methane Drainage and Use in Coal Mines”.

International Day for Disaster Reduction

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Secretary-General’s message for the Day was available in French and English in the room.

Brigitte Léoni of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said several events throughout the world would be held to mark the International Day for Disaster Reduction, commemorated tomorrow. In Geneva, a Press Conference will be held where Margareta Wahlström, Special Rapporteur of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, will launch an appeal to Governments to stronger invest in disaster prevention. Ms. Wahlström would also appeal to companies, particularly those based in Geneva, so that that they too helped strengthening the resilience of cities against disasters. Tony Frish, from the Swiss Development Corporation, and Philippe Verges from the Small Equity Initiative, would also participate at the Press Conference which to be held tomorrow at 10 a.m., said Ms. Léoni.

Journalists were also invited to participate at a cocktail ceremony, to be held tomorrow from 6.30 p.m. onwards, where several speakers would speak about the topic. The Geneva press corps would shortly receive a link to a website with the press release, the message of the Secretary-General on this Day, and information on the events.

Marixie Mercado of the United Nations Children's Fund said ahead of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction tomorrow UNICEF was calling for particular efforts to strengthen the skills and resilience of children, especially in risk-prone countries, to confront disasters. The newsnote at the back of the room gives a number of examples and approaches: disaster resilient school buildings, teaching community workers to detect and manage child malnutrition, or in Bangladesh for example, where more children die of drowning than any other country in the world, working with partners to teach children how to swim.

Pakistan

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said an IOM-led shelter survey in Punjab indicated that around 85 per cent of those displaced have returned home to retrieve what is left of their possessions and to start rebuilding. More are returning every day. Punjab, which is Pakistan's breadbasket, is among the regions hardest hit by the floods which inundated the Indus Valley in August and September. According to Government figures, the water damaged or destroyed around half a million homes in the province, said Mr. Bloch.

The survey, which was conducted between September 26 and September 29 by IOM and partner agencies in the Emergency Shelter Cluster, focused on a sample of 755 flood victims to determine the number of returnees and the materials they needed to rebuild. Survey responses indicated that 70 per cent of the families who are still displaced are planning to return home soon. But around 1 per cent of the overall displaced said that they will not be able to return for at least six months, either because their houses are totally destroyed or will need more time to repair, or because they have no jobs and no money for reconstruction. Some 30 per cent of respondents said their home experienced some flooding every one to three years. These were typically small-scale farmers living close to the Indus River and growing their crops on the fertile flood plain, which is submerged by the river during the wet season.

The survey supports the Shelter Cluster's strategy for early recovery which offers different shelter assistance, depending on whether flood victims are able to return and rebuild their homes, whether they suffer extended displacement or whether they are seasonal flood migrants. The strategy is currently being tested through an IOM pilot project in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. For people who cannot return immediately, it offers a transitional shelter, said Mr. Bloch.

Aid agencies participating in the Emergency Shelter Cluster have now reached a total of 471,858 families - or around 3.3 million people - with emergency shelter country-wide. But this covers only 25 percent of the estimated need. Around 8.4 million people have yet to receive emergency shelter.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said WHO was today holding a Press Conference in Pakistan regarding WHO activities aimed at tackling Malaria. There was a slight increase in of suspected Malaria cases in Pakistan’s flood-affected areas.

Afthanistan

Christian Cardon of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) drew attention to the significant increase in the number of war-wounded patients received at the Mirwais Regional Hospital in Kandahar. This year, around 1,000 war-wounded patients had been admitted in August and September as compared to 500 during the same period last year. The increased numbers of admissions were not only a direct consequence of the ongoing hostilities in Kandahar but also an indirect consequence of the conflict, underscored Mr. Cardon, explaining that for instance parents may be prevented to seek treatment for their sick children by roadblocks or insecurity.

He also said that the security situation had detiorated over the last two months in Kandahar province and the whole of the country, complicating access to severely hit areas and victims. The ICRC also noticed the multiplication of armed groups over the country which further complicated humanitarian access to some areas.

The ICRC has opened a seventh orthopedic centre in the country, in Helmand province, to respond to the crucial need for health care facilities in Afghanistan. That type of centre had the capacity to treat over 1,500 men, women and children every year, said Mr. Cardon.

Yemen

Jared Bloch of IOM said despite an increasingly volatile security situation IOM was expanding its aid efforts to help internally displaced people and host communities affected by renewed clashes in northern Yemen. IOM has recently distributed 500 tents and non-food kits to internally displaced families in four hard-to-reach northern districts of Al-Jawf governorate to help them better prepare for the harsh winter conditions in this mountainous region. IOM is the only international organization providing vital relief assistance to internally displaced persons and host communities in this area. Working with local non-governmental organizations, IOM plans to continue distributing material assistance through 2011 in a bid to address the immediate shelter, health, sanitation, water and food needs of approximately 14,000 displaced people in northern Al-Jawf.

Somalia

Mr. Garwood said WHO witnessed an increase of the number of casualties recorded in Somalia due to increased violence. Since January 2010, at least 5,000 people have been wounded. Twenty per cent of these were children and one in three were women. More than 100 people had been killed in Mogadishu alone. WHO estimated that more than 500 people had died since the beginning of 2010 since this violence.

WHO was working with nine health facilities in Mogadishu to upgrade their facilities so they could treat the wounded and save lives. To make this more sustainable, WHO Somalia was requesting USD 1.94 million to upgrade capacities, offer medicines, and to continue live-saving surgical treatment within these two hospitals and 7 health care facilities.

UNCTAD Activities

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said the Association of International Accountants would meet today.

The Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting will also meet from tomorrow until the end of the week, said Ms. Sibut-Pinote. The meeting was aimed at normalizing the accounting and reporting of companies to the greatest possible extent at a global level in order for investors to compare different types of activities and determine their investments. The Geneva Press corps would this afternoon receive the programme. Journalists would be given the opportunity to meet the Experts that would be speaking.

Ms. Sibut-Pinote said a conference would be held from 9.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Room XXVI to mark today’s World Statistics Day. Speaking would be some representatives of the nine organizations that jointly organized this event, namely the International Labour Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Health Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Meteorological Organization and the World Trade Organization. The programme of this event would be sent out shortly and a brochure on all statistics-producing agencies and their respective areas of work would be published, said Ms. Sibut-Pinote.

She added that UNCTAD would shortly publish the fourth global investment trends monitor. A Press Briefing would be held on 14 October at 11 a.m. in Room I, providing updated information on the figures contained in the World Investment Report published last July.

Ms. Sibut-Pinote also drew attention to the publication of the Information Economy Report 2010. The report was embargoed until Thursday at 5 p.m. universal time.

WHO Activities

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization (WHO) drew attention to a Press Conference to be held tomorrow at 11 a.m. in Press Room 1 on an action plan laying the foundations for the elimination of Tuberculosis. Also tomorrow, a Conference was organized for the launch of this action plan in Johannesburg.

Mr. Garwood said on Thursday, 14 October, the first report on neglected tropical diseases would be released. French versions of that document would be made available later today in Press Room 1.