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 UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the World Meteorological Organization, the UN Environment Programme, the Economic Commission for Europe, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration and the World Health Organization.

Programme of the Secretary-General during his visit to Geneva

Corinne Momal-Vanian said that as per usual practice journalists would be informed of the Secretary-General’s programme in advance. Mr. Ban’s programme for 10 May would be sent to journalists on the evening of 9 May and that for 11 May on the evening of 10 May.

The Secretary-General would give a press conference on the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction at 3.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 10 May at the Geneva International Conference Center,
together with Margareta Wahlstrom, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. A general press conference would follow the day after, on Wednesday, 12 May at 10.15 a.m. in Room III. UNOG Director-General Kassym-Jomart Tokayev would be part of the delegation of the Secretary-General.

The Director-General was currently meeting with key officials and ambassadors in Geneva. He would also meet with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey on Monday 9 May in Bern. Ms. Momal-Vanian said several credentials had already been presented to Mr. Tokayev, notably by the European Union and Portugal.

Third Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

Brigitte Leoni of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction said the third session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction would start on Tuesday, 10 May. The four-day platform would be opened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

A roundtable discussion on strengthening preparedness for nuclear incidents, emergencies and accidents had been added to the programme, as requested by Mr. Ban following the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The discussion, organized in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, would be held on Tuesday, 10 May from 12 a.m. to 1.15 p.m. in Room II (and not in Rooms III and VI as indicated in the media advisory). A media advisory was at the back of the room.

Brigitte Leoni said a new “Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction” would be launched at a press conference today at 11.30 a.m. in Room III. The report would be given to journalists at the press conference (under embargo until Tuesday 10 May, when it would be presented by Ban Ki-moon) or could be accessed online by receiving a password.

Clare Nullis of the World Meteorological Organization said one of WMO’s central roles was in disaster reduction, and WMO was therefore participating actively at the Global Platform. On Thursday, 12 March there would be a plenary on climate change adaptation with WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud on the panel. Michel Jarraud and Jan Egeland, the co-chairman of a High-Level Taskforce which had just issued recommendations on the establishment of a new Global Framework for Climate Services, would give a press conference in Room 15 of the Geneva International Conference Center on Thursday, following the climate change adaptation plenary and ahead of a feature event on climate services for managing risks. WMO would be posting a detailed media advisory on its website by Monday.

Sixty-fourth session of the World Health Assembly

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that the sixty-fourth session of the World Health Assembly, in which 194 Health Ministers were expected to take part, would open on Monday 16 May and meet through Tuesday 24 May.

Highlights included the opening speech by the newly appointed UNOG Director-General Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on 16 May and the speech of WHO Director-General Margaret Chan at 2.30 p.m. on Monday. On Tuesday, the Assembly would be addressed by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at 11.30 a.m., to by followed by a speech by Bill Gates, who was also scheduled to give a press conference.

Other highlights included the four technical briefings, to be held from 12.30 p.m. to 2 p.m. in Press Room XII. The first technical briefing on Tuesday 10 May was dedicated to discussing “Public Health Concerns and Radiation Health” and the list of participants to these briefings would be distributed shortly.

A contact list of WHO's communication staff would be sent to journalists shortly and journalists would be briefed every day at 11.30 p.m. in Press Room I during the Assembly (except 16 and 17 as well 20 May). At the end of the Assembly, on Tuesday 24 May, WHO would issue a press release summarizing its work. The provisional programme and other documentation was available at the back of the room and on WHO's website in all six official languages.

Côte d’Ivoire

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the International Commission of Inquiry led by Vitit Muntabhorn had arrived in Côte d’Ivoire on Wednesday, 4 May. The Commissioners were currently meeting various stakeholders in Abidjan and were due to travel to other parts of the country next week. OHCHR was supporting the mission with a secretariat of 12 staff, including a gender adviser, a specialist on children in armed conflict, a forensic pathologist, a military expert and a security officer, with logistical and administrative support provided by the UN Mission in Côte d’Ivoire.

Colville said that the mandate given to the Commission of Inquiry by the Human Rights Council was to investigate the facts surrounding allegations of serious human rights abuses committed in Côte d'Ivoire following the presidential elections of 28 November 2010, to identify those responsible for such acts and bring them to justice. Meanwhile, OHCHR staff in Côte d’Ivoire were investigating reports of human rights violations in the Yopougon district of Abidjan earlier this week (3 to 4 May), which had reportedly led to at least 40 people being killed. They would also be looking into an attack against a Baptist church allegedly carried out by FRCI during the violence. The Human Rights Division of the UN Mission in Côte d’Ivoire had received allegations on the existence of a mass grave as well as the possible killing of civilians in Yopougon by both sides. The UN Mission’s Human Rights Special Investigation Team was due to visit the site of this alleged mass grave today.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the situation in Côte d’Ivoire should not be forgotten. People continued to need assistance while the emergency humanitarian action plan for Côte d’Ivoire and neighbouring countries was only 22 per cent funded. Twelve UN agencies and about 20 international NGOs were currently working in Côte d’Ivoire, but, with most agencies being based in Abidjan, more NGOs and humanitarian actors were needed in the West.

Ms. Byrs said that efforts must continue to be stepped up to help the population. On 3 May, for example, the Baptist Church where 2,500 internally displaced persons had sought refuge in Abidjan’s Yopougon district had been attacked by armed men. Fifty-four persons were said to be have been taken away and stocks of Doctors without Borders had been looted.

World Meteorological Congress

Ms. Nullis said that the World Meteorological Congress, which met every 4 years, would be held from 16 May until 3 June at the Geneva International Conference Center. The Congress would be opened by WMO President Alexander Bedritskiy and WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. There would be a High-Level Segment attended by Heads of State/Government on Monday and Tuesday, 16 and 17 May. The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, had confirmed her attendance and would speak in the afternoon of Monday, 16 May.

Second edition of the International Forum on Sport, Peace and Development

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the second edition of the International Forum on Sport, Peace and Development -- co-organized by the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace and the International Olympic Committee -- would be held in Room XVIII on Tuesday and Wednesday next week (10 and 11 May).

Journalists were invited to attend this forum, at which several high-level speakers and personalities have confirmed their attendance, among them UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the President of the International Olympic Committee, the UK Minister for Sport and the Olympic Games, the President of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Organizing Committee, the President of the International Paralympic Committee and the South African Deputy Minister of Sport. More information was available at the back of the room and at www.un.org/sport.

“Decoupling report” by UNEP-hosted International Resource Pane

Isabelle Valentiny of the UN Environment Programme said that a “Decoupling report” by the UNEP-hosted International Resource Panel would be pre-launched at a press conference taking place on Monday 9 May at 10 a.m., embargoed until 12 May at 5.30 p.m. GMT, when the report would be launched in New York.

The panel’s main task was to provide scientific impetus for decoupling economic growth and resource use from environmental degradation. On Monday, the two main authors of the report would explain how investment and innovation could at least freeze if not reduce per capita consumption.

The report was the first in a series to be produced by the panel. It would look into the concept of decoupling, present case studies from countries such as Germany or Japan which already had decoupling policies in place and present various scenarios, ranging from business as usual to moderated consumption.


Plight of Thousands of Chadians Still Stranded in Libya and Those Who Have Fled of Great Concern

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said that of the more than 710,000 people who had crossed the borders with Libya's neighbours or who had arrived by boat in Italy and Malta, nearly 23,000 had arrived on trucks and lorries in northern Chad with more arriving daily. IOM staff at Faya reported that although on average three large vehicles arrived in Faya every day carrying up to 150 people each, 14 trucks reached the town on one day alone earlier this week, overwhelming local capacity to help them. Another 14 trucks carrying mainly women and children were reported to be en route to Faya and expected to arrive there any day soon.

The temperature in the area was well above 50 degrees centigrade, said Ms. Pandya. Those who managed to arrive were extremely dehydrated and physically exhausted by such a demanding journey. They had just made a two week trip across the desert without food and water on an open and crammed vehicle in the full sun. There were no towns along the route to stop at and get supplies.

Some of the migrants had told IOM that they had left many people behind in Libya who could not travel and who needed assistance. Among them were an estimated 40,000 Chadians in the southern Libyan town of Gatroun, mostly women and children reported to be in a desperate and pitiful condition. People were telling IOM that these migrants had no food, water, shelter or sanitation. After many weeks like this, and in these temperatures, they could not survive for much longer.

Recent arrivals in Faya had brought the current number of migrants in need of onward transport assistance from this small desert community to more than 3,700. An IOM transit centre in the town had a capacity to accommodate and assist about 900 people, although at the very least that capacity needs to be doubled. IOM had already taken 6,159 returning migrants by road from Faya to final destinations in Chad and another 316 particularly vulnerable people including women and children by air to the capital, N'Djamena. On Thursday, IOM had organized the road evacuation from Faya to final destinations elsewhere in Chad of 700 returning migrants. However, road journeys from Faya to N'Djamena, Abéché and other destinations in Chad including Bol and Mao last between three to four days and were again very challenging.

Although IOM provided food, fuel, escorts and communications facilities in case of emergencies during the journey, Faya's remoteness and isolation, not helped by the absence of roads, made this another extremely difficult trip for the migrants who have already endured much. As a result, IOM would shortly begin an air evacuation from Faya to N'Djamena and Abéché after deploying additional staff to beef up its operations there and respond to a range of issues including operational, medical, psycho-social and protection. This followed the deployment of additional staff to Kalait, which had seen the arrival of more than 5,300 Chadian migrants fleeing Libya. It lay in a remote section of the desert with no services or roads for 340 kilometres.

Earlier this week, as IOM staff were en route to Kalait, they came across a broken down truck with 115 migrants on board. The migrants had been stranded on sandy dunes for five days surviving on whatever water given to them by a few passing trucks and eking out their minimal food supplies. IOM, which had organized a truck to rescue them and took them safely to Kalait, had since taken 113 of the migrants back to their home towns and villages. The migrants had recounted tales of beating and robbing against them. One man, who had worked as a security guard in the Libyan town of Kufra for two years, said "They were attacking black people because the rebels thought black people were helping Gaddafi." He had added that he too had been beaten and all his money stolen leaving him with nothing to return home with. Another migrant who had been working in a shop in Ajdabia for the past 18 months, said their journey from Libya had begun 25 days beforehand. He too said he had been hit and robbed of all his money and possessions and with many of his friends having suffered a similar fate, they had all decided to leave Libya. IOM staff reported that there was a sense of excitement and relief among the migrants as they boarded the IOM trucks despite their already long journey.

Human Trafficking Rife in Thai Fishing Industry, Says IOM Report

Ms. Pandya said that human trafficking in Thailand's multi-billion dollar fishing industry – a major international supplier of seafood and the world's largest exporter of shrimp and canned tuna – was widespread, according to an IOM report published this week. The report pointed to informal recruitment processes and lax regulation which led to the abuse of thousands of migrant workers in the industry over the past two decades.

The report identified that the trafficking of migrant labour to Thai fishing boats effectively started in the 1990's. Following a deadly 1989 typhoon, Thai fishermen from the poor Northeast of the country had largely abandoned the sector, leaving remaining boat owners in desperate need of labour. As a result, Burmese, Cambodian and Lao migrant workers began to be recruited and informal migrant and Thai labour brokers stepped in to facilitate the process.

Since then, young migrants desperate for work had been frequently deceived by promises of well paid jobs aboard the boats, but were in fact sold to boat owners. They then had to work to pay off the money paid by the boat owner to the broker before being paid any wages.

Depending on the amount paid, a trafficked fisherman could often work from one to eight months before earning any wages for himself. In some cases, depending trafficked fishermen may work without pay for years on boats that were serviced by supply ships and rarely return to port, according to the report. Working conditions were extremely hard and fishermen are expected to work 18 to 20 hours of manual labour per day, seven days per week. Sleeping and eating was possible only when the nets are down and recently caught fish have been sorted. They lived in cramped quarters, faced shortages of fresh water and must work even when tired or ill, thereby risking injury to themselves or others. Fishermen who do not perform according to the expectations of the boat captain may face severe beatings or other forms of physical maltreatment, denial of medical care and, in the worst cases, maiming or killing.

Only a small percentage of foreign workers on fishing boats have proper documentation and work permits; and virtually none of the workers had written employment contracts. On land in Thailand, there is widespread use of informal "identification cards" which offer some protection from arrest by local police, but have no legal basis in either Thai immigration or labour legislation. This meant that victims risked arrest and deportation if they try to escape.

At sea, on boats leaving Thai waters, boat captains often held fraudulent Thai Seafarer books issued with the photo (but not the real name or bio-data) of each fisherman, but usually did not release these to the crew while in foreign ports, thereby further diminishing any legal protection afforded by the document abroad.

Thai fishing vessels plied the territorial waters of dozens of nations, especially Myanmar, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, and travelled as far as Somalia and other parts of the coast of East Africa. The report aimed to provide a better understanding of the recruitment, living and working conditions of fishermen and the extent of exploitation and abuse in the Thai fishing sector.

ECE agenda

Jean Rodriguez of the Economic Commission for Europe said ECE Deputy Executive Secretary Andrey Vasiliev would be in Istanbul on Thursday, 12 May to participate at the Fourth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries. Mr. Vasiliev would take part in a session on conflict-torn countries, notably to speak about ECE's programmes for Central Asian countries and explain action taken to integrate Afghanistan into ECE's work.

Also Thursday, 12 May, ECE would organize a demonstration of emergency brake systems for lorries and buses. While the ECE was working to prepare an international norm on the emergency brake system by the end of the year, the EU had already decided that the system would be mandatory within the EU, estimating that it could save up to 4,000 lives within the EU alone.

Shuttles to transport journalists to the Touring Club Switzerland in Meyrin, where the demonstration would take place, were available as of 11.30 a.m. Interested journalists should be in touch with Mr. Rodriguez.

Human Rights Committees

Corinne Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights started to review the report of Germany this morning, to be continued on Monday morning and followed by the reports of Yemen and Russia later next week. This week, the Committee had examined the reports submitted by Turkey and Moldova.

The Committee against Torture, for its part, would open its next session on Monday. During the session, exceptionally held over the course of four weeks, the Committee would chronologically review the reports of Slovenia and Kuwait, Ghana, Turkmenistan, Finland, Mauritius and Monaco, and Ireland. A background release had been issued yesterday.


Other

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that UNCTAD would give a press conference on investment in pharmaceutical production in least developed countries today at 2 p.m. in Press Room I.

Ms. Valentiny said UNEP had recently sent out an advisory on its yearly environmental award. The winners would be announced in New York on Tuesday 10 May, and embargoed interviews with the two laureates from Europe, one from Russia and one from Switzerland, could be set up.

Ms. Nullis said that WMO had posted a news item on the prolonged draught from which large parts of Europe were suffering on its website yesterday.