REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by the Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, the Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Human Rights Council and the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Ebola
Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that a Member States briefing on the Ebola outbreak and response in West Africa would take place on 16 September 2014, from 11:00 to 12:30 at the Palais des Nations. A press conference with USG Amos, Dr. Nabarro and a representative of the WHO would follow immediately afterwards, at around 12:35 in Press Room III.

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), stated that as efforts to halt the spread of the Ebola virus were intensifying, UNICEF warned of its far-reaching impact on children. In Liberia, Ebola had severely disrupted health services for children, caused schools to close and left thousands of children without a parent. Children were dying from measles and other vaccine preventable diseases and pregnant women had few places to deliver their babies safely.

Over the previous decade, Liberia had moved from a country mired in devastating conflict to a country celebrating the highest rate of decline in child mortality in Africa. Now, Ebola was threatening to wipe out all those hard-earned gains for children and for Liberia.

Mr. Boulierac said that almost all health facilities were closed or only partially functional. Children were not receiving protective vaccinations or being treated for the common childhood illnesses that accounted for the majority of deaths in children under 5 years of age, including malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea, and severe acute malnutrition.

To date UNICEF had flown in, with support from the World Bank, nearly 248 metric tonnes of supplies which included personal protection equipment, hygiene kits, chlorine (the biggest ever delivery of chlorine in UNICEF’s history), plastic sheeting, oral rehydration salts for the treatment of diarrhoea and other emergency health supplies.

In the previous week, UNICEF, together with Liberian partners, had distributed 9,000 hygiene kits to 45,000 people in West Point, an impoverished, densely populated community in Monrovia that had been heavily impacted by the Ebola outbreak, and that was also prone to high rates of acute watery diarrheal diseases. Each kit included two-10 litre buckets, water purification tablets and soap.

Mr. Boulierac added that a vital element to the control of that highly infectious disease was prevention. UNICEF provided water and sanitation to treatment centres. UNICEF was also training up psycho-social workers and was working to restore essential maternal and child health services, including for children suffering from malnutrition.

Sarah Crowe, also for UNICEF, on the phone from Liberia, said that there was a wide sense of a whole country being taken over by the virus. The country, which had recently recovered from the civil war, was now being devastated by the Ebola epidemics. Medical professionals on the ground had to look into unconventional ways to deal with the crisis. Chlorine deliveries alone were a monumental logistical undertaking.

The effect of the epidemics on children was of great concern for UNICEF. Children seeing their family members falling sick and being taken away, were under significant distress, and there was a deep stigma against children who had been affected by the virus. UNICEF was trying to provide care and attention for such children, without exposing health workers to threat. An innovative approach included having Ebola survivors deal with them during the incubation period.

Ms. Crowe said that the whole epidemics was having devastating effects on children and families. It was a heavy rainy season, with more cases of malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea, and if children were not getting attention, their situation would be even more difficult. Schools were closed, but children were still interacting with one another outdoors even though they were largely aware what should and should not be done. Teachers in the community had also become informal educators of the population about the threats and risks of Ebola.

Liberians themselves were finding new ways to deal with the situation, as there were not enough partners of the ground. The situation was beyond the scope of any single agency or country. Many Liberians felt abandoned, as their country was facing the highest number of cases; the urban setting made it only harder. UNICEF was working with health workers, with WHO and other organizations, training those people and trainers, to use any means they had at their disposal to protect themselves, such as covering themselves with plastic bags, when dealing with their loved ones who were sick. The fragile health system was under tremendous strain, with very many unknowns.

On whether messages were filtering through to regular people about burials, Ms. Crowe responded that it was a culture where people were celebrated in death, which made it very unnatural for local people not to have contact with bodies of the deceased. The message on non-touching was nonetheless getting through as most people understood that corpses could be deeply infectious. Funeral services across the country were closed.

Asked about children orphaned by Ebola, Ms. Crowe said that in Liberia there were about 2,000 children who had been left without parents. Survivors were increasingly taking care of children who had been exposed to Ebola.

On whether any difference was seen on the ground, given that a number of countries and organizations were offering help, Ms. Crowe said that there still needed to be a massive scaling up of the support. There were not enough beds available in Liberia, and other equipment was simply not available. Protocol also did not exist on how families should take care of Ebola patients at home. The message went through, but there were just not enough medical professionals on the ground. The epidemics was of historic proportions.

Ms. Crowe did not have data on the number of infected children across the region. Entire families were often taken away by the virus, and children were normally treated together with their family members. Women and caregivers were far more affected.

In terms of innovative ways that UNICEF was applying, Ms. Crowe said UNICEF was explaining to people to wash their hands in chlorine and cover their clothes with plastic bags if nothing else was available. Plastic sheeting, gloves and rehydration salts were also being more widely used.

Gaza

Mark Van Ommeren, for the World Health Organization (WHO), gave an update on the mental health situation in Gaza following the recent conflict. He emphasized the difficulty of the recent war for the civil population who had experienced a high level of violence. At no time had there been a possibility to escape the conflict which brought along many human losses and extensive destruction of private or public property, such as livelihood or schools.

In total, the mental suffering in Gaza was grasped as enormous: most notably, a lack of perspective on the future and a fear of further violence were attested. Today, the WHO published an account called ‘Due to the War’ on its website, including personal stories and best estimates of people with mental health difficulties. It was expected that in Gaza, one in five people – in comparison to one in ten globally – had mental health problems which were severe enough to warrant access to mental health services. Development of adequate mental health services in Gaza was therefore assessed as vital.

In conflict areas, agencies tended to provide short-term treatment and immediate support but often omitted to focus on long-term support for conflict affected people which were needed to treat war traumas successfully. Thus, the appearance of most common mental disorders, for instance depression, anxiety or psychosis, was facilitated. Generally, societies which had experienced conflicts had many more needs for mental health services to recover from psychological consequences of war emergencies.

For the previous ten years, the WHO, with support from the European Commission, had been working on mental health services in Gaza in terms of improving the mental health care system by guaranteeing the availability of respective facilities and training mental health care professionals. In the context of the latest violence in Gaza, the WHO was working closely with UNICEF to guide governmental and non-governmental bodies in assuring an efficient coordination of health care support activities. In numbers, the amount of health care centres, which included mental health departments, had risen from 28 to 43 since the previous war in Gaza. If funds were to become available, they should be used to install mental health departments in all available health care centres. At the same time, the WHO sought to expand access to rehabilitation centres which focused on the treatment of war specific traumas.

Given those circumstances, the WHO needed to cooperate with the Ministry of Health in order to create awareness of people’s mental health needs. The aim was to generate a long-term interest in peoples’ mental health needs which would not go away after the end of a violent conflict. In brief, the goal of the WHO and cooperating key partners was to provide a sustainable mental health care system for Gaza.

Asked for more details on mental illnesses, Dr. Van Ommeren said that women reported more symptoms than men, which made them a particular vulnerable group. Secondly, children had also developed mental health disorders, which had was assessed as problematic, since their experiences and traumas would affect the future of the nation.

Mali

Mr. Laerke stated that the humanitarian community in Mali had revised their strategic response plan and reported that they still needed more than half of the money required for an adequate response. Agencies were short of USD 271 million out of a total of USD 481 million required till the end of 2014.

Despite the engagement of the Government and humanitarian partners, the resources mobilized so far were insufficient. Indeed, the food crisis had worsened throughout the country in recent months during the lean period. More funding was also required to support the provision of basic services to vulnerable people, particularly in the north of the country, where more than half of those who had fled during the crisis had already returned.

Mr. Laerke specified that some 4.7 million people were now food insecure, including 1.9 million severely food insecure and 2.8 million under stress, compared to 3.3 million when the response plan had been launched in February. However, food partners had only raised half of the resources they needed.

Key sectors such as nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, and protection were less than 30 per cent funded. That meant, for example, that hundreds of thousands of people did not have access to clean water, thousands of malnourished children were facing higher mortality risks because they were not screened and treated, and people risked injuries or death because they were not educated or made aware about the risks of unexploded remnants of war such as ammunition.

There were still 101,300 internally displaced people in Mali and 140,000 Malian refugees in neighbouring countries.

Sri Lanka

Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that the UNHCR was gravely concerned about the resumption of arrests, detention and deportation of asylum-seekers and refugees in Sri Lanka.

The Government of Sri Lanka had started its special operation on 9 June this year, which had then come to a halt on 15 August, but was again resumed on 3 September.

UNHCR had learnt that between 3 and 11 September, 62 Pakistani and 3 Afghan asylum-seekers had arrested and detained; 40 had been subsequently deported. Since early June the authorities had arrested and detained a total of 328 refugees and asylum-seekers, and deported 183 of them to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mr. Baloch said that the UNHCR believed that there were still 102 people of concern to UNHCR in detention, including 38 Pakistanis and 64 Afghans.

When UNHCR had met with the Government earlier in September, assurances had been given for the immediate release of all asylum-seekers and refugees arrested and detained since June. While UNHCR appreciated the Government’s speedy action to release 71 Pakistani and 2 Iranian refugees and asylum-seekers in early September, not everyone in detention had been released and the UNHCR was dismayed that the arrests, detention and deportations had resumed.

UNHCR appealed to the Government to refrain from any further arrests and deportations of people of concern and to uphold its responsibilities under international law. The Refugee Agency reiterated its call on the authorities to allow access to the detained asylum-seekers so that it could assess their international protection needs. UNHCR stood ready to work closely with the Government to assist and seek durable solutions for refugees and asylum-seekers in the country.

Asked whether the UNHCR knew what the reason was behind those deportations, Mr. Baloch said that they were seeking clarification why that was ongoing, but no clear answer had been provided yet.

On what was happening to the deported people once they were back in Pakistan, Mr. Baloch said that the UNHCR had presence in Pakistan, but could not monitor the returns much. Many were from the minority Ahmadi population. Concerns existed about their safety and security, as they had been attacked in the past.

Iraq

Christiane Berthiaume, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that the displaced people in Iraq were more and more moving to the centre and the south of the country. Roughly 11 per cent of all displaced Iraqis, that was to say about 105,000 individuals, had already moved to governorates south of Baghdad.

Those movements were due to a variety of reasons. Some Mosul families had been displaced from Baghdad in 2006 and were simply returning home. IOM had been delivering hygiene kits, air coolers, water coolers, water tanks in central and southern Iraq. More requests were pouring in from local governments in Diyala, Qadissiya, Wassit and Babylon to respond to the needs to those newly displaced people.

Regarding figures, Ms. Berthiaume said that 1,7 million people were recorded to have been displaced and almost 475,000 since January 2014 after the crisis of Anbar. In June and July, events around Mosul had forced 500,000 people to move, as well as 720,000 people in August due to the fighting in Sinjar.

Central African Republic

Ms. Berthiaume informed that today the IOM was publishing a new working paper: “Migration Dimensions of the Crisis in the Central African Republic”. The report comprised four sections that looked at the political context of the crisis; the various types of migration in CAR; the impact of the conflict on migration flows; and the short, medium and long term socio-economic implications for the country.

“Migration Dimensions of the Crisis in the Central African Republic” was one of a series of papers produced as part of IOM’s Migration Crisis Operational Framework. The papers aimed to help policy-makers and practitioners gain a deeper understanding of the full spectrum of mobility issues during a crisis, including the humanitarian, security, cultural and socio-economic ramifications for transitioning to eventual post-conflict recovery. To date, similar publications had been released on Mali, Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia.

Human Rights Council

Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council (HRC), informed that this morning there was a panel discussion on the right to privacy in the digital age, in the context of surveillance activities. The panel was examining the promotion and protection of the right to privacy in the digital age in the context of domestic and extraterritorial surveillance and/or the interception of digital communications and the collection of personal data. The panel featured an introductory statement by Flavia Pansieri, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. A concept paper with more information had been distributed.

At noon, the interactive dialogue would continue with the Special Rapporteur on truth, justice, reparation and non-recurrence, Mr. Pablo de Greiff, and the Working Group on arbitrary detention.

Around 1 p.m., the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances, would present its report, including on its missions to Argentina, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Spain.

At 3 p.m., there would be a presentation of report by Intergovernmental Working Group on the right to development.

From5 p.m., Deputy High Commissioner Pansieri would present a series of 23 thematic reports by the Secretary-General, High Commissioner and OHCHR, including reports on the death penalty, gender-based and sexual violence, child, forced or early marriages and reprisals.

Mr. Gomez informed that on 15 September, the Council would discuss protection of family and its members, and the integration of gender perspective in human rights. On 16 September, the Commission of Inquiry on Syria would report to the Council and would be ready to meet with the press afterwards.

Accountability for the post-2015 development agenda

Jean Rodriguez, for the Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), said that the UNECE was hosting Ministerial Consultations to discuss accountability for the post-2015 development agenda.

In about one year, the UN Member States were expected to adopt a new development framework to succeed the expiring Millennium Development Goals. The post-2015 development agenda would be a universal and transformative agenda with goals for all countries. It would be centered around a set of Sustainable Development Goals, which were currently being negotiated by governments.

Mr. Rodriguez explained that the high-level political commitments of the new agenda would not be legally binding. It was therefore crucial that all relevant actors took responsibility for achieving actual change on the ground, answered and reported to their constituencies, and disclosed actions and results in a transparent way. In short, it was essential to ensure Accountability for implementing the post-2015 development agenda.

Against that backdrop and upon the request of the Secretary-General, UNECE and the regional UN Development Group were organizing a Regional Ministerial Consultation on Accountability for the Post-2015 Development Agenda at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 15 and 16 September.

The meeting aimed at a focused and inspiring discussion on what accountability should look like in the post-2015 world and how it could help achieve the SDGs. The main questions that were put forward for discussion were: What was the best and most effective way to hold stakeholders accountable for implementing a universal and transformative agenda? What could an accountability mechanism look like that involved the local, national, regional, and global levels? How could the wealth of existing mechanisms be integrated? What could be a possible role of the regional level within a multi-layered accountability framework? And how could partnerships among different stakeholders – governments, civil society, the private sector – help create and strengthen accountability?

Mr. Rodriguez stated that those issues would be discussed in a multi-stakeholder format with high-level participation from governments, civil society, international organizations, the private sector and academia. The meeting would be chaired by Ambassador Michael Gerber, Special Envoy for Global Sustainable Development of Switzerland and feature a number of high-level speakers, including Ms. Amina J. Mohammed, Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General on Post-2015 Development Planning.

The meeting outcome with the regional messages on accountability would feed into the synthesis report of the Secretary-General on the post-2015 agenda that was to be prepared by the end of the year.

Geneva activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian reminded that the Committee on the Rights of Child was holding a day-long debate on the rights of children in the context of digital media. On 15 September, the last report of the current session – that of Croatia – would be considered.

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances, which would consider reports of Belgium and Paraguay, and the Committee on the Rights of Disabled Persons, which would look into reports of Belgium, Denmark, Equator, Mexico, New Zealand and Republic of Korea, would commence their sessions on 15 September.

Today at 12 noon, in Press Room III, CITES would hold a press conference on protecting sharks and rays at risk. The speakers would be John Scanlon, CITES Secretary-General, David Morgan, Head of Scientific Services and Haruko Okuso, Capacity Building Coordinator.

At 1 p.m. today, in Press Room I, the issue of prosecution strategies in the fight against impunity would be addressed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Pablo de Greiff.

On 15 September at 9:30 a.m., in Press Room I, Ariel Dulitzky, Chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances would speak about disappearances continuing to be a worldwide challenge.

A press release of the World Food Programme on its emergency operation to feed people affected by violence in east Ukraine was distributed.

The 69^th session of the UN General Assembly would commence in New York on 16 September. A detailed dossier was available online and the online General Assembly press kit was available online at www.papersmart.unmeetings.org/ga69.

The Geneva Peace Talks, organized for the second time by the United Nations Office at Geneva, the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform and Interpeace, would take place in Room XVII of the Palais des Nations on 19 September from 4:30 till 7:30 p.m. The theme would be “Let’s talk peace!” A Media Advisory was available at the back of the room and had been sent to all correspondents.

Catherine Sibut, for United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), informed that the Trade and Development Board was holding its sixty-first session in Room XVIII of Palais des Nations from 15 to 26 September. Key issues would include tackling inequality through trade and development; contribution of UNCTAD to the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2011–2020; economic development in Africa - catalysing investment for transformative growth in Africa; evolution of the international trading system and its trends from a development perspective; technical cooperation activities - review of the technical cooperation activities of UNCTAD and report on UNCTAD assistance to the Palestinian people; and UNCTAD contributions to the implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic and social fields.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://webtv.un.org/media/geneva-press-briefings/watch/geneva-press-briefing-unctad-hrc-unece-who-ocha-unicef-iom-hcr/3781559773001