REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, the Director of the United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by Spokespersons for World Health Organization, the Human Rights Council, the Economic Commission for Europe, the World Trade Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the UN Children’s Fund, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.

Pillay welcomes Australian decision on identity for transgender and intersex people

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the UN High Commission for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, today welcomed the Australian Government's decision to enable Australians who were transgender or intersex, or who did not wish to identify themselves as either male or female, to have their sex and gender identity properly reflected on their passports. The option of expressing a change of gender or indeterminate gender would now be open to anyone who has had appropriate clinical treatment – and not necessarily physical treatment.

By its action, Australia was placing itself in the vanguard of change on this issue. Increasingly, States around the world were starting to recognize the need to reflect sex and gender diversity. Other States that had taken pioneering steps in recent years to make it easier for transgender and intersex persons to obtain legal recognition of a change of gender, or to indicate a gender other than male or female, included Nepal, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Uruguay.

Ms. Pillay was urging other States around the world to review their own laws, policies and practices to ensure that discrimination against transgender and intersex individuals was addressed in a systematic and effective way, said Mr. Colville.

States must give generously to help victims of contemporary forms of slavery recover their lives, says High Commissioner for Human Rights

Mr. Colville said that the OHCHR appealed to UN Member States to give generously to the UN Voluntary Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. There had been a marked decrease in donations received by this important fund in recent years. Last year, the fund had only been able to provide 15 percent of the amount requested by NGOs working in this area. This year, the fund had received a record number of 436 applications for grants amounting to more than $ 6 million, but the contributions received thus far amount to only about $ 365,000. With the present funds, only six percent of the projects requested would receive support.


Pakistan

Clare Nullis of the World Meteorological Organization said that the Pakistan Meteorological Department had issued an advisory yesterday. It said that mainly dry weather was expected in flood-affected areas of Sindh during the next few days.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that 5.5 million people have been affected so far and that the number of deaths has increased to over 230, with 1.1 million homes damaged or destroyed and 4.5 million acres inundated. The rains were also having an effect outside of Sindh, with 20,000 people in 14 districts being affected in the province of Balochistan, and there was a risk of flash flooding in east Balochistan due to heavy rainfalls. The Government has prioritized shelter as people who had been displaced by flooding were living along roadsides and on embankments and other areas of higher ground, as well as in public buildings such as schools. Resource mobilization was currently a major constraint and organizations were using contingency stocks and diverting resources from early recovery programmes to meet life-saving needs. The UN was currently finalizing its emergency response plan, to be launched early next week and reviewed against evolving needs and more in-depth evaluations in a month’s time.

Marixie Mercado of the UN Children’s Fund said that 2.7 million of the 5.5 million flood-affected people in Pakistan were children, including 760,000 children below the age of five. At least 34 children and 59 women were among those killed. In the Sindh province – which had been badly hit by floods last year, and was worst affected by this round of flooding – over 730,000 people were living in relief sites, including over 360,000 children. In Badin, one of the worst-affected districts, water reached waist height in many places.

Many affected children lived in communities that were still recovering from the worst floods in the country’s history, which occurred just last year, Ms. Mercado went on to say. Some of the districts that had not been affected by the 2010 floods were hit now, resulting in most of the Sindh province either experiencing new floods or recovering from previous floods. UNICEF was delivering safe water, sanitation and health supplies such as vaccines and medicines to ward off disease. Over the coming days UNICEF would be scaling up to reach much larger numbers of children in the worst affected areas.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said that WFP had distributed food to 15,300 people in the most-affected districts, notably Badin. The one-month rations included high-energy biscuits and specialised nutritious food for children such as Wawa Mum, a chick-pea paste made in Pakistan. WFP aimed to provide emergency assistance to about half a million people by the end of the month and planned to scale up deliveries to reach 2.2 million by October. Seventy-three per cent of food crops in the flood zone had been destroyed and 36 per cent of livestock had been lost.

In addition to food distributions, WFP was providing logistical support to the humanitarian community. Following reports of considerable damage to infrastructure caused by heavy rains, WFP logistics teams were being deployed across the districts to determine the extent of inaccessibility of the roads. WFP was using the stocks it had used to assist 3.3 million people in the country but these needed to replenished, and the organization would therefore appeal to the generosity of donors.

Jumbe Omari Jumbe of the International Organization for Migration said that IOM and its partners in the "cluster" of aid agencies providing emergency shelter were to appeal to international donors for funding to help at least 250,000 families. The appeal, to be issued this weekend, follows Pakistan's urgent request for international assistance, would target 274,000 families who would be left without emergency shelter as the Government said that it could only provide 150,000 tents. IOM had already released to local partners for distribution 18,400 shelter and non-food relief item kits comprising plastic sheeting, ropes, blankets, plastic sleeping mats and cooking utensils to Sindh, following a request from the government.

Tarek Jasarevic of the World Health Organization said that in order to provide a quick overview of the health services available to the population in affected areas and to identify health gaps, WHO, together with the Provincial Health Department and the National Health Preparedness and Emergency Response Network, had conducted a rapid health assessment in the 22 affected districts of the Sind province. They had found that 224 out of 839 health facilities in those affected areas were inaccessible, submerged by flood water or damaged, accounting for 33 per cent of all basic health units and 11 per cent of all rural health centres. Supplies of essential medicines were adequate for the time being thanks to the pre-positioned buffer stocks which had been available at very short notice. However, if these stocks were not replenished acute shortages of vaccines, medicines and consumables would occur.

It had also been found that maternal child health services were available in only 40 per cent of health facilities and needed to be supported. There were acute shortages of basic newborn kits and essential drugs for assisted delivery. The disease early warning system established during the last year’s floods was well in place. So far, the system had detected 193 alerts of which 36 had been confirmed outbreaks. Acute watery diarrhoea accounted for the main health problem. The Rapid Response Team had responded to all reported outbreaks within 48 hours.

South Sudan seeing growing refugee influx from Southern Kordofan

Adrian Edwards of the UN Refugee Agency said that over 8,000 civilians had fled into the newly independent Republic of South Sudan to escape fighting in the state of Southern Kordofan in neighboring Sudan. The new arrivals were mostly refugees from the Nuba Mountains region of central Sudan, who began trickling into South Sudan in July following heavy fighting and air strikes. Since last week however, there has been a surge in arrivals with up to 500 people a day from 100 people a day in August.

These were the first refugees to reach post-independence South Sudan and UNHCR expected more arrivals amid persistent reports of aerial bombing in Southern Kordofan. New arrivals also included some South Sudanese who had been living in Southern Kordofan State before being compelled to return because of the situation there. These people were currently scattered in remote northern areas of Unity State where a lack of airstrips and roads was severely limiting humanitarian access. To reach them, aid agencies were using a small number of quad bikes - one of the few means of traveling in this area. These bikes, although well-suited for the terrain, could bring in only limited numbers of staff and goods at a time. WFP supplied-food had to be airdropped recently to the region.

Libya

Mr. Edwards said that UNHCR and its partners continued to be concerned about the situation of third country nationals, including refugees. UNHCR and IOM had been working closely with the National Transitional Council Stabilization Team to try to improve the protection environment for refugees and migrants. The Stabilization Team was already coordinating with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior to put into place a strategy that included public messages to the general public, temporary documentation for migrants and identification of shelter and other services for vulnerable people.

UNHCR staff had carried out a series of field visits to areas where refugees and asylum-seekers were living in Tripoli. UNHCR met with a group of 60 Sudanese from Darfur, some of whom had been injured when they had been caught up in the conflict. A group of Eritreans said that two of their compatriots had died in cross fire during the conflict in Sabha. Since UNHCR and IOM had restored their respective hotline services in the Tripoli area, large numbers of calls had been received from refugees and migrants reporting numerous protection incidents.

UNHCR had been contacted by the local military council in Zintan, Nafussa mountains, asking UNHCR to identify solutions for a group of third country nationals, reportedly Somalis. UNHCR had also heard from a group of Somalis fleeing the Sabha area currently surrounded by NTC forces. IOM and UNHCR, together with an implementing partner, were organizing the evacuation of this group to Tripoli.

UNHCR had also made a number of visits to areas where Libyans were displaced, Mr. Edwards went on to say. Over a thousand people from the village of Tewergha (30 km south of Bani Walid) were living in three displacement settlements in the Tripoli suburbs. They had seen their homes and schools being destroyed. In addition, around 6,000 people from Tarhona (55 km south-east of Tripoli) were living in three different sites in the suburbs of Tripoli and a number of schools.



Horn of Africa

Ms. Byrs said that the number of beneficiaries reached in southern Somalia had increased in the last two months and the number of people reached with food assistance in August was nearly double the 730,000 reached in July. However, the highly volatile security situation continued to hamper relief efforts in extremely dangerous southern Somalia. In Kenya, five consecutive weeks of above average rainfall had caused flooding and destroyed crops in the Lake Victoria region. Some 20 to 30 per cent of Kenyan pastoralists had lost all their livestock due to drought. The $ 2.5 million appeal for the Horn of Africa was 63 per cent funded, with an additional $ 916 million needed for humanitarian programmes.

Mr. Edwards said that together with its partners, UNHCR had been making progress in delivering health and nutrition services to Somali refugees in the Dollo Ado camps in Ethiopia. The measles vaccination campaign, completed two weeks ago, had resulted in a sharp decrease in the number of new cases and related fatalities. Mobile health teams were reaching many families who previously had no access to medical services. In Kobe camp, there had been a steady decline in the crude mortality rate, which was now estimated to be 2.1 per 10,000 people/day, down from a rate of 4 to 5 per 10,000 a few weeks ago.

On average 300 Somalis continued to cross the border daily into Dollo Ado from the areas of Bay, Gedo and Bakool. New arrivals told UNHCR that conditions in Somalia were still precarious, with most livestock having now perished and food remaining extremely hard to come by. Some of them were also directly fleeing conflict and violence. In Mogadishu, the incidence of diarrhea and measles among internally displaced Somalis remained a serious concern and the estimated mortality rates among children under the age of five continue to be alarmingly high. Malnutrition rates had also worsened.

UNHCR has undertaken a number of fact-finding missions to some of the more than 180 makeshift camps in the Somali capital where distributions of its emergency aid items were carried out. UNHCR aimed to undertake up to 10 fact-finding missions a week to settlements for internally displaced people. Despite a somewhat improved security situation in Mogadishu in recent weeks, the organization still had no access to many parts of the capital. Outside the protected compound of the Mogadishu International Airport, its staff was still forced to move with secured convoys.

International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer

Ms. Nullis said that today was the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. The theme was “HCFC phase-out: a unique opportunity”. HCFCs are hydrochlorofluorcarbons and have increasingly been used as substitutes for older chemicals called CFCs, which are very damaging to the ozone layer. However, HCFCs are very potent greenhouse gases.

In its Antarctic Ozone Bulletin published today, WMO reported that the ozone hole over the Antarctic had increased rapidly during the first two weeks of September to approximately 24 million square kilometres.

A press release had been sent out earlier.

Seventh "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference

Jean Rodriguez of the Economic Commission for Europe said that the two major themes of discussion at the Seventh "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference, to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from 21-23 September, were the transition towards a green economy and sustainable management of water and water-related ecosystems. Many high-level officials would attend the conference, including the Environment Ministers of Poland, Georgia, Estonia, Romania and Slovakia.

Human Rights Council

Cédric Sapey of the Human Rights Council said that the Council would meet at 9 a.m. on Monday for a full-day meeting. As well as discussing the report of the OHCHR mission to Yemen, the Council would hear an update by the commission of enquiry to Libya, discuss the report of the OHCHR mission to Syria and hold an interactive dialogue with the Independent Expert on the human rights situation in Sudan. The President of Costa Rica and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria would also address the Council at 4 p.m. and noon, respectively.

World Trade Organization Agenda

Ankai Xu of the World Trade Organization said that the programme of the different sessions of WTO’s Public Forum, to be held from 19-21 September, would be sent to journalists and placed in front of Press Room I shortly.

On Tuesday, 20 September the WTO-ILO co-publication “Making Globalization Socially Sustainable” would be launched at 11.15 a.m. Invitations to the launch were at the back of the room.

On Thursday, 22 September there would be a WTO meeting on the Regional Trade Agreement Committee at 10 a.m.

On Friday, 23 September the WTO was offering a very informal, basic introduction to the WTO for newly-arrived journalists, with presentations on the WTO dispute-settlement system, trade monitoring, membership negotiations, and other topics. The programme was at the back of the room.

Ms. Xu said that WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy would attend the WTO Public Forum on Monday and Tuesday and deliver opening remarks at the launch of the WTO-ILO co-publication. On Wednesday, 21 September Mr. Lamy would travel to New York to attend the IBM 100-year Anniversary Forum on the Future of Leadership, before travelling to Washington on Friday to attend various bilateral meetings. On Saturday, he would attend the 2011 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund in Washington.

Other

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that UNOG Director-General Kassym-Jomart Tokayev would travel to New York next week to participate in the Secretary-General’s Symposium on International Counter-Terrorism Cooperation (19 September), the high-level meeting on Nuclear Safety and Security (22 September), and the Conference Facilitating the Entry Into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (23 September). Mr. Tokayev would also hold a great number of bilateral meetings with delegations and colleagues from the UN Secretariat. As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had announced yesterday, more than 120 Heads of State would be in New York for the General Assembly.

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families had finished its review of the reports scheduled for consideration at this session (Argentina, Chile and Guatemala) and would hold a day of general discussion on undocumented migrant workers on Monday. The Committee would conclude its session next Friday by presenting concluding observations on the three reports.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child would open a three-week session on Monday, during which it would examine the reports of Italy, the Republic of Korea, Syria, Iceland, Panama, the Seychelles and Sweden.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, for its part, would also start meeting on Monday for a week-long session, during which it would notably examine the report of Spain on Tuesday.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Yemen would give a press conference on the situation in his country on Monday, 19 September at 3.30 p.m. in Room III.

Mr. Rodriguez said that UNECE was to launch the European Forest Sector Outlook Study 2010-2030 at a press conference on Thursday, 22 September at 11 a.m. in Room I.

Ms. Momal-Vanian invited journalists to attend the screening of the film “Fredens Pris” (Peace Prize), an extensive documentary on the life, vision and actions of the former United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, on Monday at 12.30 p.m. in Room III. The screening was organized to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Mr. Hammarskjöld, who died in a plane crash while on a peace mission in the Congo on 18 September 1961. Several publications on the life and work of Mr. Hammarskjöld, provided by the Permanent Mission of Sweden, would also be made available at the screening.

Gregory Härtl of the World Health Organization said three documents related to the Noncommunicable Disease Summit starting on Monday in New York were at the back of the room, including two reports under embargo.