REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, and the World Meteorological Organization,

Syria

Ms. Vellucci said that the Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura was participating in the in Astana meeting. There would be information available for journalists during the week on the preparations for the new round of talks, which was starting on Monday 10 July at the Palais des Nations.

On behalf of Bettina Luescher of the World Food Programme, who was in Rome, Ms. Vellucci informed journalists that the World Food Programme had so far assisted 182,000 people in the following areas: Tabqa, Ain Issa, Suluk, Tal Abyad, Journiyeh and Karama in Raqqa governorate as well as Abu Khashab in Deir Ezzor governorate, which hosted displaced people from Raqqa as well as Mabrouka camp in Hassakeh governorate, which also hosted displaced people from Raqqa. For the month of July, WFP would double its food assistance distributions in Tabqa to reach 25,000 people in the city, compared to 12,500 people between 10 June and 20 June. Tabqa was home to some 90,000 people many of whom had returned to their homes therefore not everyone inside Tabqa received food assistance but only those who were in need.

Ms. Vellucci also said that the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had announced the appointment of Catherine Marchi-Uhel of France as the Head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011 (the Mechanism). Ms. Marchi-Uhel was the first Head of the Mechanism established by the General Assembly on 21 December 2016. She would be based in Geneva with her office; more information would be made available to journalists once she had taken up her functions.

In response to a question about media activities during the new round of talks on Syria, Ms. Vellucci said that this was still being discussed by Mr. de Mistura’s office. She believed it would be similar to the arrangements during previous rounds, including coverage of the opening and the closing, the arrivals etc.

Cholera and Acute Water Diarrhoea Outbreaks in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Sudan

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund said he wanted to update journalists about the outbreak of cholera in three countries on the verge of famine, Yemen, South Sudan and Somalia, with tens of thousands of severely malnourished children. He would also provide an update on Sudan where the number of acute water diarrhoea was rising fast and where there were also huge numbers of children, 2 million actually who were under five and acutely malnourished. Access, funding and security were needed in the four countries so that UNICEF and its partners could reach children with an integrated response that dealt simultaneously with both malnutrition and disease prevention treatment.

Yemen was presently the world’s worse cholera outbreak, but in these other countries, the combination of cholera and acute water diarrhoea and malnutrition could be deadly for children.

In Yemen, there were presently over 260,000 suspected cases of cholera and over 1,600 deaths. Fifty per cent of suspected cases were children and a quarter of the deaths were children. On June 23, the UNICEF Representative from Sanaa briefed journalists, mentioning that two cargo flights had reached Yemen. The three UNICEF charter planes had delivered a total of 36 tons of life saving medical and water purification supplies to Yemen to scale up to combat this outbreak.

South Sudan was presently suffering from one of the most protracted widespread cholera outbreaks in recent history. The current cholera outbreak in South Sudan which started in June 2016 had lasted for the first time through the entire dry season and it was projected to worsen as the new rainy season progressed. About 6,870 suspected cases of cholera had been reported so far this year, the highest figure since 2014. Children and teenagers made up about 51 per cent of the cases. Some 1.1 million were malnourished in South Sudan and almost 290,000 children suffered severe acute malnutrition.

There were 53,000 cases of cholera in Somalia, three times more than in 2016 and 10 times more than in 2015. In Somalia, 1.4 million children were expected to be malnourished, 275,000 of them severely malnourished.

In Sudan, according to data from the Federal Ministry of Health, over 20,000 suspected cases of acute water diarrhoea, with over 400 deaths, had been recorded. Over 20 per cent of the affected population were children. White Nile State was the worst affected, with 7,200 cases reported and almost 100,000 refugees living in camps. The major challenge in Sudan appeared to be the low level of access to safe water and proper sanitation in the most affected areas. UNICEF urgently required $22 million to provide life-saving interventions to over 100,000 children.

Conference on Cyprus

Ms. Vellucci said the Conference on Cyprus continued at the political level this week in Crans-Montana with the participation of both leaders, the foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey and the UK Special Envoy for Cyprus, as well as the EU as an observer. The EU was being represented by Martin Vervey. Participants were now engaged in substantive negotiations based on the clear understanding of the essential elements of a package that may lead to a comprehensive settlement, as discussed with the Secretary-General. The Secretary-General continued to follow developments closely, and remained in constant contact with his Special Adviser Espen Barthe Eide.

Asked if the Conference would wind up on Friday, and if there would be any media events, Ms. Vellucci said for the moment they were working with that planning/working assumption, but nothing was certain about the date. As for media events, there was no briefing yesterday and today should be quiet too. There might be something on Thursday or Friday, but it was hard to foresee. Journalists would be informed as soon as anything was planned.

Migration Flows to Europe, Arrivals and Fatalities

Joel Millman for the International Organization for Migration said that available at the back of the room was a chart, which IOM issued twice a week. He wanted to highlight that the number of deaths of migrants worldwide according to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project was now over 3,000 for 2017. This was the fourth straight year that the world had witnessed this level of death. This was not the soonest that they had reached the 3,000 mark; in 2016 it was in May, and the year before that it was on 1 June. The total number of deaths this year compared to 2017 showed quite a large drop in deaths, almost 1,400. Because some statistics were compiled quarterly, the figures might change and increase, for example concerning North Africa or the United States/Mexico border. This date collection was conservative. More details were available in the briefing notes.

Central African Republic

Andrej Mahecic for the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees said UNHCR strongly condemned an attack against its staff and premises that took place on Saturday, 1 July, in the northern town of Kaga Bandoro, in the Central African Republic. Armed men entered UNHCR’s premises in Kaga Bandoro around 5 p.m. and looted all goods and money on site. Six of UNHCR’s staff members (including 4 UNHCR and 2 UNDP staff) who were present at the time of the incident were robbed of their belongings, including personal items and passports, and threatened at gunpoint. Since the attack, UNHCR had temporarily relocated staff to the MINUSCA base in Kaga Bandoro, and they would be moving some to the capital Bangui. UNHCR condemned this attack and stood by its staff. The safety of aid workers was of tremendous importance for being able to help civilian populations in desperate need. In the Central African Republic, UNHCR provided protection and assistance to more than 8,600 refugees and 503,000 internal displaced people.

In response to a question, Mr. Mahecic said no information was available about the perpetrators. This would need investigation.

China

Elizabeth Throssell for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, answering questions on China concerning Liu Xiaobo who was gravely ill from liver cancer, said the High Commissioner for Human Rights had sent a letter to the Government of China requesting a meeting to discuss the situation of Liu Xiaobo and of his wife and her access to him. That meeting took place on Friday, 30 June. The High Commissioner was hoping to continue this dialogue over the coming days and weeks.

In response to a question, Ms. Throssell said that while OHCHR did not usually comment on bilateral meetings, it would let journalists know if there were any significant developments on this issue.

World Health Organization Announcements

Tarik Jasarevic for the World Health Organization said there would be a virtual press briefing on Thursday 6 July at 3:30 p.m. on the theme of anti-microbial resistance and more particularly gonorrhoea tract resistance. Gonorrhoea was one of those pathogens that was developing resistance to current treatment. WHO, together with partners, was preparing two articles that would be published on this issue. This virtual press briefing would give new global surveillance data and roadmap how to deal with this issue. A media advisory would be sent out today. An embargoed press release would be available, and one-on-one interviews could be arranged.

Mr. Jasarevic said the new Director-General of WHO, Dr. Tedros, had taken up his functions yesterday and he addressed the staff. Today, he was meeting with Swiss authorities in Bern. He would travel to Hamburg for the G-20 meeting on Friday and Saturday where he would participate in a number of sessions. WHO hoped to organize a press event with Dr. Tedros sometime next week.

Impact of Climate Change on Summer Heat in Cities

Claire Nullis for the World Meteorological Organization said this summer had been marked by heatwaves new daily temperature records in many parts of the northern hemisphere. The Iran city of Ahwaz report a temperature of 53.7°c on 29 June as part of the heatwave gripping the region. A committee for the WMO weather and climate extremes would be examining the reported temperature in Ahwaz along with other extreme weather temperatures in Turbat, Pakistan a few weeks ago and in Mitrabah, Kuwait last July. The committee wanted to see whether this was a new temperature record for Asia.

The heatwave which hit the Iberian peninsula a couple of weeks ago had spread to southeastern Europe and the Balkans. The flip side of these high temperatures were summer storms. There has been very heavy rainfall and extremely damaging hail storms, especially in Bulgaria. Parts of the United States had also seen intense heat.

Ms. Nullis said many of the heatwaves were occurring in parts of the world which were naturally hot. But human-caused climate change was also leading to higher temperatures and more heatwaves. WMO was working with television presenters from around the world to explore how climate change would make future summers even hotter in some of the world’s major cities. The series would be kicked off on Wednesday 5 July with Madrid and Barcelona. Montreal, Frankfurt, Sofia in Bulgaria, Hanoi, Cape Town, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Berlin and Paris would follow, in addition to others. More details were available in the briefing notes.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Vellucci said the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination was meeting this week at the Palais des Nations. Today, it was reviewing the seventh periodic report of Italy.

The Human Rights Committee was meeting at the Palais Wilson. This morning, it would conclude its consideration of the report of Switzerland, and at 3 p.m., it would start its review of the report of Liechtenstein.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog040717