REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by spokespersons for the International Organization for Migration, United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations Refugee Agency, World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.

Geneva Activities

A conference to mark the fifteenth anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security would take place tomorrow, Wednesday, 9 September, in Geneva, said Mr. Fawzi. Organized by the Government of Switzerland, the full-day conference would start with a keynote address from the Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter. It would take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Maison de la Paix in Geneva. More details, including a long list of expert speakers, can be found here: www.dcaf.ch/swiss1325.

Peter Sutherland, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Migration and Development, would give a press conference today, Tuesday, 8 September, at 11:30 a.m., in Room III. The press conference would be webcast live at www.webtv.un.org and a transcript would be published afterwards here.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) would launch a new report on the human rights situation in Ukraine in a press conference at 2 p.m. today Tuesday, 8 September, in Room III. Gianni Magazzeni, Chief of the Americas, Europe, and Central Asia Branch, would be speaking.

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families would hold a special panel discussion on migration crises around the world today, at 3 p.m. in Room VII of the Palais des Nations. The event would mark the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, would make an opening statement, to be followed by thematic panel discussions on “Current trends in violations of migrant workers’ human rights” and “Challenges for States and promising developments in responding to these trends”. The Committee would close its session in a private meeting tomorrow, Wednesday
9 September, after which it would publish its concluding observations for the four States reviewed this session: Cabo Verde, Guinea, the Seychelles and Timor-Leste. A summary of today’s meeting, as well as a round-up press release, would be issued here.

A breakfast briefing on the forthcoming thirtieth session of the Human Rights Council would take place at 9.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 9 September in Press Room 1, organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Joachim Ruecker (Germany), would be speaking and a light breakfast would be served, said Mr. Fawzi.

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances started a two week session yesterday (Monday 7 September), in which it would consider the reports of Iraq and Montenegro. A background release was available here.

The Conference on Disarmament would next meet in public at 3 p.m. today, Tuesday,
8 September, in the Council Chamber, in which it would continue with the preparation of its annual report to the General Assembly. The 2015 session officially concludes on 18 September.

Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), announced a press conference for next Monday, 14 September, at 12 p.m. to present the Millennium Goals Report on eradicating poverty, which would be published in all six official languages of the United Nations.

Yemen

The Special Envoy for Yemen of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, was disturbed by press reports regarding the leak of internal United Nations correspondence, said Mr. Fawzi. The content of those reports, especially in some Yemeni media outlets and Internet sites, constituted distortions and misinterpretations. The reports did not reflect the position of the Special Envoy or of the United Nations.

The Special Envoy would continue his efforts with all Yemeni parties to reach a peaceful and durable solution, said Mr. Fawzi, noting that he was currently in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Towards the end of this week he would travel to the United Arab Emirates, and then on to Oman.

Action 2015 and the Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development Agenda would take place in New York from 25 to 27 September when over 160 Heads of State and Government, together with leaders of civil society and the private sector, would gather to adopt the new Sustainable Development Agenda. The Agenda was a bold and ambitious agenda which aimed to end poverty and promote prosperity and people’s wellbeing, while protecting the environment, for the next 15 years. The Summit represented a key milestone in this year of global action, said Mr. Fawzi.

To help the media better understand the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, a series of briefings were taking place with senior United Nations experts, to provide an overview of the summit in English, French, Spanish and Russian. The briefings, which would each last 30 minutes, would be available via WebEx. The Russian briefing would take place on Wednesday, 9 September, at 3 p.m. followed by a briefing in Spanish at 3.45 p.m.
Briefings in English and French would take place the following Wednesday. Mr. Fawzi strongly encouraged any members of the media interested to register via his office.

Mr. Fawzi also flagged that internationally renowned artists have come together to record a song on climate change and the United Nations’ call for a meaningful, universal, global climate change agreement to be signed in Paris in December.

Entitled “Love Song to the Earth”, it featured performances by Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Natasha Bedingfield, Sean Paul and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Angelique Kidjo, among others. Love Song to the Earth would be widely released on September 11, and the artists, producers and directors of the song — as well as Apple — are donating their respective proceeds to Friends of the Earth United States and the United Nations Foundation, noted Mr. Fawzi.

Syria

Melissa Fleming, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said conditions inside Syria and in its neighbouring countries continued to deteriorate and drive thousands of Syrians to risk everything on perilous journeys to Europe. She said that as the crisis dug deeper into its fifth year with no sign of a political solution in sight “despair is on the rise and hope is in short supply”.

The last few months inside Syria had been brutal. Fighting had intensified in almost all governorates, with an increase in rocket and mortar attacks on Damascus, a rise in vehicle explosions in major cities like Lattakia, Aleppo, Homs, Hassakeh and Quamishli, and heavy bombardment in Zabadani and rural Damascus, with the ensuing retaliation driving thousands more people from their homes.

Amidst the escalating violence, people had lost their livelihoods as well as their homes; unemployment in all sectors was soaring alongside inflation while the value of the currency had plummeted: the Syrian pound had lost 90 per cent of its value over the last four years. In most parts of Syria, electricity was available only for two to four hours a day, if at all. Many regions struggled with water shortages. More than half the population lived in extreme poverty, said Ms. Fleming.

Syrians now faced increasing challenges in finding safety and protection in neighbouring countries, which, faced with overwhelming refugee numbers, insufficient international support and security concerns, had taken measures this year to stem the flow of refugees. Those measures included restricting access or applying closer management of borders, and implementing onerous and complex requirements to extend their stay.

For the 4.08 million refugees already living in neighbouring countries, the vast majority of whom were not living in informal camps, hope was dwindling as they sunk ever further into abject poverty. Recent UNHCR studies in Jordan and Lebanon, for example, had found a marked increase in refugee vulnerability because of funding shortfalls for UN refugee programmes, and those of partners.

In Jordan, the situation for more than 520,000 Syrians living outside the country’s refugee camps was increasingly dire. A recent UNHCR assessment showed that 86 per cent of those in urban and rural areas were now living below the poverty line, having exhausted any savings or other assets they once had. As a result, more than half of all refugee households had high levels of debt and were taking increasingly extreme measures in order to cope, such as reducing their food intake or sending family members – all too often including their children – out to beg or to work in fields and other jobs.

A similarly bleak picture existed in Lebanon, said Ms. Fleming, where the preliminary findings of a recent vulnerability study found 70 per cent of Syrian refugee households lived far below the national poverty line – up from 50 per cent in 2014. Here too, more refugees were buying food on credit, withdrawing children from school and resorting to begging.

The situation was linked to the lack of funding for humanitarian programmes, said Ms. Fleming. WFP had had to cut 229,000 refugees in Jordan from its food assistance this month. The big appeal - the Syrian Refugee and Resilience Programme for 2015 – was currently just 37 per cent funded. No sector of the aid programme was unaffected.

The vast majority of refugees in Jordan and Lebanon lacked the financial resources to contemplate the costly and dangerous journey to Europe, said Ms. Fleming. They also had no prospect of being able to return safely to Syria, so the situation was obviously leading to a sense of desperation and entrapment. Many refugees were trying to scrape the money together to make the journey to Europe, despite the dangers, because they were desperate.

More information can be found in the briefing note: http://ow.ly/RkH3x.

Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said most refugees in the countries neighbouring Syria were living on 0.50 cents a day. Because of WFP’s critical funding shortages it had been forced to half its food assistance to 1.3 million Syrians. Hundreds of thousands of refugees had been cut off from aid. WFP needed US$26 million per week to pay for food assistance in Syria and the region. It was a desperate time, an annus horribilis for Syrian refugees.

In the ensuing questions a journalist asked Ms. Fleming whether more people were leaving Syria following the intensification of fighting. She responded that as of 9 July, four million Syrians had fled the country. Now, anecdotal evidence showed that many Syrians were taking the direct route from Syria to Europe, and not seeking refuge in neighbouring countries. Many were leaving cities such as Damascus that were being bombed, accessing Lebanon with their air ticket and taking a flight from Beirut to Turkey. The press knew the rest of the story from that point, she said.

The number of arrivals in Europe had surged over the weekend with thousands of refugees arriving in Greece every day. There were now around 30,000 refugees on the Greek islands. Most of them, some 20,000, were on the Greek island of Lesbos, there was between 4,500 and 5,000 refugees on the island of Kos, and another 5,000 located on other islands. A record number of refugees – 7,000 - crossed the border into The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia yesterday.

Asked about pull factors versus push factors, Ms. Fleming said refugees were going to places where they felt they would be treated well and could be safe and restart their lives. However there could not be a German solution to a European problem, she emphasized. We have to recognize that Austria was taking in the same number of refugees in proportion to its population as Germany, with it accepting 80,000 refugees per year when its population was only eight million.

Ms. Fleming also spoke about the scenes in Vienna, where she had been for the last few days, and described the volunteer response at Vienna train station as “overwhelming”, with one volunteer present for every three refugees.

Asked whether the refugee flows coming into Europe would stop if humanitarian agencies were funded, Ms. Fleming first noted that there were four million Syrian refugees in the region and only 500,000 in Europe. Yes, she responded, Syrian refugees were coming to Europe because the conditions in Syria and in the neighbouring countries were so dire, and because WFP was not giving out enough food. Some refugee families had said that, without WFP food packages, they would risk the journey to Europe. If humanitarian agencies were better funded then more Syrian refugees would stay in the region, Ms. Fleming repeated.

Christophe Boulierac for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said women and children seeking refuge in Europe continued to pass through The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia in growing numbers. Nearly 10,000 people, approximately 40 per cent of whom were women and children, were registered crossing into The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia at Gevgelija from Greece between 1 and 6 September. More than 7,720 people were also registered crossing into Serbia through Presevo over the same time period.

The actual number of women and children reaching the reception centres in both countries was likely to be double the reported figures, as many families travelled onwards without being officially registered, said Mr. Boulierac. Since June of this year, more than 64,000 people had been registered at the reception centre in Gevgelija, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, while 89,161 people who had expressed their intention to seek asylum had been registered crossing into Serbia during the same period.

Refugees who had entered Serbia and registered their intent to seek asylum were given 72 hours to complete the process. Most of them continued their journey by bus north to the capital city of Belgrade, then further on to Hungary, and finally to western or northern European countries. Many were fleeing violence from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, said Mr. Boulierac.

UNICEF and its partners continued to expand humanitarian services at reception centres in the two countries. In Gevgelija, UNICEF had been very quick in addressing the immediate needs of women and children, including providing water and age-appropriate food as well as toys. It had also established several child friendly spaces, where up to 50 children at a time could play and benefit from psychosocial support and women could rest and take care of their babies. Three 10,000 litre water tanks collapsible for safe drinking and washing water were being installed.

On the Serbian side of the border at Presevo, UNICEF had established a child friendly space, equipped with educational materials and toys. It also offered recreational and educational activities, which were beneficial for the physical and emotional well-being of the children on the move through Serbia. Parents would shortly be provided with basic counselling related to child health and nutrition, hygiene and safety issues. Additional child friendly spaces would also open soon in Belgrade and the town of Kanjiza, near the Hungarian border, for refugees and migrants on the move through Serbia.

Joel Millman, for the International Organization of Migration (IOM), introduced a colleague, Mr. Daniel Szabo, who produced infographics and maps with data on the number of minors – child migrants – coming to Europe. The maps can be found here: http://missingmigrants.iom.int/infographics.
Mr. Millman said so far this month IOM had documented 2,760 deaths by sea routes to Europe, and 60 of those occurred in the last few days during sea crossings to Spain, Greece, and in the straights between Libya and Sicily. The death toll was climbing. He also recalled the sinking of a ship off the coast of Italy in April that left an estimated 800 people drowned. The Italian Navy had now undertaken a salvage operation and had so far recovered 118 bodies. The Navy would continue its operation until it could recover all the bodies within its power.
Nigeria

Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), updated the press on the humanitarian situation in Nigeria as a result of violence linked to Boko Haram. WFP was concerned by increased fighting and insecurity in the north-eastern and the border regions, which led to an increase in the number of refugees and internally displaced people. Close to 750,000 people were now food insecure. WFP believed the security crisis could lead to prolonged hunger as it became more difficult for people to gain access to food and maintain a livelihood.

Children were especially vulnerable, and the number of women and children aged under five suffering from malnutrition in the areas affected by the Boko Haram violence was rising. Health centres had reported a spike in the number of malnutrition cases they were seeing.

WFP was increasing its operations to reach over 655,000 people in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. It was providing special nutritious food but was nevertheless concerned that the most vulnerable people were not receiving adequate assistance. WFP was appealing to the international community for US$16.3 million to pay for immediate and urgent assistance.

Responding to questions about the beneficiaries of the WFP’s assistance, Ms. Luescher said WFP would reach 655,000 out of a total of 720,000 food insecure people. In the areas most affected by Boko Haram violence the acute malnutrition surpassed WFP’s emergency threshold, reaching up to 22 per cent in some areas of Chad and 12 per cent in Cameroon.

Closed borders had played a part in the crisis as they halted trade and prevented access to farmlands, stopped herders from reaching grazing lands, and banned fishing for security reasons. Rural household in affected areas had sold more livestock than in previous years. One in three household had reported that they had incurred debt in order to purchase food. Ms. Luescher said a press release with more data would be issued today.

Ebola

Fadela Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), announced that Dr. Bruce Aylward, Special Representative of the Director-General for the Ebola Response, would give an update on the Ebola situation at 11.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 9 September in Room III.

Asked about the latest Ebola cases, Ms. Chaib said that three confirmed cases of Ebola were reported in the week to 30 August – two in Guinea and one in Sierra Leone. The case in Sierra Leone was the first in the country for over two weeks. The overall case incidence remained stable at three confirmed cases per week for five consecutive weeks, she informed the press.