REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i., United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by the spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration and the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
United Nations Secretary-General
The Secretary-General had returned from his South Africa trip on Monday, 12 October. The trip had also included a stop in Bolivia at the People’s World Conference on Climate Change and the Defence of Life. In his statement there, the Secretary-General said that climate change and the defence of life were at the top of the international agenda this year, with the adoption of many Framework Conventions, the last being the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the forthcoming Twenty-first Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris. “Our goal is transformation, and no one must be left behind. No man. No child. And, especially, no woman,” said Mr. Ban.
The International Day for Disaster Reduction was observed on 13 October and this year’s celebration was dedicated to the power of traditional, indigenous and local knowledge. In the statement issued on the occasion, the Secretary-General said that traditional and indigenous knowledge was the indispensable information base for many societies seeking to live in harmony with nature and adapt to disruptive weather events, a warming globe and rising seas. Mr. Ban Ki-moon stressed that local knowledge of the impacts of urbanization, population growth, eco-system decline and greenhouse gas emissions was especially important in an era when more and more disasters were climate- and weather-related. He concluded by calling for the recognition of the efforts of communities, large and small, who put their wisdom to use in reducing disaster risk and sharing their precious “knowledge for life”.
Responding to a question, Mr. Fawzi said that the Secretary-General had issued a statement in which he had expressed his very strong concern about the excessive use of force in the latest events in Palestine.
Geneva activities
Staffan de Mistura, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Syria, had held a press conference on Monday, October 12, during which he had comprehensively briefed the journalists. Mr. de Mistura was now in Moscow.
The next treaty body to meet in Geneva will be the Human Rights Committee, which would hold a three-week session from 19 October to 6 November to consider reports by Austria, Benin, Greece, Iraq, the Republic of Korea, San Marino, and Suriname.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development would launch the publication of the Review of Maritime Transport 2015, on Tuesday, 13 October at 2 p.m. in Press Room 1.
The flags of the Vatican and of Palestine would be hoisted at the Office of the United Nations at Geneva, at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, 13 October, in the presence of the Palestine’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Riyad al-Maliki, Permanent Representative of the State of Palestine, and Deputy Representative of the Holy See to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva. The United Nations Office at Geneva Director-General, Michael Møller, would open the ceremony, and Monsignor Richard Gyhra of the Holy See and Minister Maliki would also speak. Mr. Møller was currently in Bern, addressing the annual conference of Swisspeace on conflict prevention this morning. He would return in time for the flag raising.
The flags had already been raised in New York, and Geneva was now implementing the United Nations General Assembly resolution adopted on 10 September 2015, in which the United Nations had been requested to raise the flags at the Headquarters and all its offices in the world.
Wednesday, 14 October at 10.30 a.m., in Press Room 1, the International Trade Centre’s new flagship report ‘SME Competitiveness Outlook: Connect, Compete, Change for Inclusive Growth’ would be launched. In this first edition, focus was on the role small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) played in facilitating inclusive economic growth.
The United Nations Deputy Secretary‑General, Jan Eliasson, would be in Geneva on Thursday, 15 October to deliver a keynote at the Global Consultation Meeting on the World Humanitarian Summit, which would take place in Istanbul in 2016. This final preparatory Conference was starting on Tuesday, 13 October at the Centre International de Conférences Genève.
Mr. Eliasson would hold a press conference on Thursday, 15 October at 10.30 a.m. in Room III, to discuss the World Humanitarian Summit and his just concluded tour of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey.
On the occasion of the International Day for Disaster Reduction, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction would launch the exhibit at the Passarelle, at the Palais des Nations, at noon on Tuesday, 13 October.
Mr. Fawzi recalled that it was only eleven days to go before the United Nations Day on 24 October and its 70th birthday. The Open Day at the Palais des Nations would be interesting for all, adults and children alike, during which Maestro Michelangelo Pistoletto would unveil his remarkable work of art “Rebirth” in the Ariana Park.
WHO to publish the Study on Ebola Viral Persistence in Male Survivors
Margaret Harris, for the World Health Organization (WHO), announced the online publication of the long-awaited Ebola Viral Persistence Study in Male Survivors in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, 14 October. The study provided the first large numbers that indicated how long the Ebola Virus could persist in male survivors, and was a part of an ongoing project looking at the relevance of the viral persistence as related to ongoing illnesses.
On the Study, Ms. Harris said that it was confined to males because the most accessible and most available body fluid in communities was semen. The main concern was to determine whether or not persisting viruses could lead to the possibility of transmission or ongoing illnesses. The virus persisted in protected sites of the body, which included the cerebral nervous system, and this was hard to study. Currently, a huge number of survivors existed today, and a lot of clinics and people were working to try to understand the nature of the ongoing illness.
At 9 a.m. on Monday, 19 October, WHO would launch the Global Report on Road Safety 2015 and would hold a virtual press conference in the Library Room at WHO, with the participation of WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan. Mike Bloomberg, from Bloomberg Philanthropies, would join the conversation via telephone.
On the question related to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement concluded on
5 October and its impact on the access to medicines, Ms. Harris said that there were many discussions on this very important agreement in the WHO and that the desire to get it right was keeping the WHO from issuing a statement now.
Violence and displacement in Chad
Leo Dobbs, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), deplored the violence and mourned the loss of life caused by suicide attacks at the weekend in the western Chad town of Baga Sola. UNHCR was particularly concerned about the attack at the Kousseri site for internally displaced Chadians in Baga Sola that had left at least 22 people dead. This was an area where UNHCR and other humanitarian agencies were providing protection and assistance to tens of thousands of people displaced by the conflict with Boko Haram. According to the available reports, the suicide bombers, including two women, had attacked the market and the Kousseri site, killing 47 people and injuring dozens others. UNHCR worked with other agencies in the Dar Es Salam refugee camp, 10 kilometres from Baga Sola, which hosted 7,139 refugees from Nigeria and Niger.
In recent weeks, UNHCR had stepped up assistance to alleviate the difficult situation of some 60,000 internally displaced people in the lake area, who had been displaced from their island homes earlier this year as their lives had been affected by the violence that had spread from Nigeria into neighbouring countries. Those people were living in desperate conditions, lacked livelihoods, shelter, food and healthcare, so the work that the UNHCR and its partners had been doing in what had effectively become a war zone was very important. The attacks on Baga Sola showed how vulnerable and isolated the lake area was. The UNHCR welcomed the Government’s determination to improve security, reiterated the commitment to help the displaced in western Chad and urged the international community to continue to support Chad.
Answering questions, Mr. Dobbs said that according to the available information, there had been two female suicide bombers in the Kousseri internally displaced persons’ camp, and three suicide attackers at the market, one female and two teenage boys. This was the first attack of this kind in the lake region. The Government was encouraging people to move away from the lake region as they geared up for an offensive against Boko Haram. Tens of thousands had been displaced and they had difficulties to cope in this isolated area. There was a danger of more violence as the lake Chad basin essentially became a war zone and a frontline area.
Mediterranean arrivals near record 600,000; over 3,000 died trying to reach Europe
Joel Millmann, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that so far this year, around 132,071 people – 99,999 of whom were men - had arrived to Italy from Libya, which was 6,000 less than by September last year. The decrease in the flow from North Africa across the Mediterranean was probably due to the decline in the number of Syrians who have crossed through September, whose flow had moved to Turkey and Greece. The Italian Government provided the IOM with a broad list of the nations which were still sending hundreds of people through Libya to Italy, and which included Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Gambia, Bangladesh, Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Guinea, Palestine, and Iraq.
Federico Soda, Director of the IOM Coordination Office for the Mediterranean, had pointed out the alarming aspect of the increase in the arrival of Nigerian women, from 1,008 last year to 4,371 in 2015, expressing concern that many were potential victims of trafficking. The IOM Office in Italy had established two anti-trafficking teams to provide women with information and protection.
Mr. Millmann also said that the number of Iraqis arriving to Europe through Greece had increased by 12,000 in just 30 days – from 9,059 in August to 21,552 in September. This showed the speed in which people were leaving Iraq right now. The other country which was building up that flow was Afghanistan, with 76,620 persons, and Syria with 277,000 persons. There seemed to be no let-up in the number of people crossing and with winter coming, this was a cause of great concern. The number of deaths recorded in the Mediterranean routes had been now adjusted to 3,103 persons.
Migration at the centre stage for the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s Assembly
Jemini Pandya, for the Inter-Parliamentary Union, said that the 133rd Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly would take place in Geneva from 17 to 21 October, and would focus on migration, discussing policies that aimed to benefit both the migrant, the host country and the country of origin. Delegates would be looking at migration in all its forms, all around the world, emphasizing the actions that Parliaments and Members of Parliament could take to ensure fairer, smarter and more humane migration. The assembly would further aim at pushing a mobilisation of action on ratification processes of various conventions related to migration, such as the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, which was only ratified by 48 countries, of which none was a high income country.
Parliamentarians from nearly 130 countries would attend the assembly, including 680 Members of Parliament, 48 Speakers of Parliament and 219 women parliamentarians. The main debate would lead to an outcome document, and the Assembly would also adopt a resolution on democracy in the digital era and the threat to privacy and individual freedoms.
Responding to questions, Ms. Pandya said that the IPU was maintaining the engagement with the United States Congress and added that Assemblies were particularly useful for informing the members and raising awareness on relevant issues, and aimed at mobilizing the Parliaments to take follow-up action. Because of the importance of the migration and what was going on in the world, the IPU expected the Assembly to adopt an outcome declaration that all members would sign.
The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog131015