POINT DE PRESSE DU SERVICE DE L'INFORMATION (en anglais)

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from the Spokespersons for the UN Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme, the Economic Commission for Europe, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Meteorological Organization, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Labour Office and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General Says Stakes are High on Human Rights Council

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that upon the arrival of the Secretary-General at Headquarters yesterday, Mr. Annan told reporters that everyone was consumed by the establishment of the Human Rights Council, adding that the stakes were very high. He said if everyone was not careful and the wrong moves were made that unravelled the Council, then they would be in a situation where they had a Commission which everyone claimed was discredited. Concerning the United States, the Secretary-General said he was chagrined by its position and he did not know how the issue would be resolved. He said the United States had a very good record on human rights and it played a very important role in the establishment of the UN human rights machinery. So it did have a leadership and a moral position in this area, and he hoped that it would find some way of associating itself with the other Member States.

The transcript of the Secretary-General’s remarks was available in the press room.

Preparations Begin for Internet Governance Forum

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General had decided to establish a small secretariat in Geneva to assist in the convening of the Internet Governance Forum. The Secretariat would be headed by Markus Kummer, who was the Executive Coordinator of the Secretariat of the Working Group on Internet Governance, which was established by the Secretary-General at the request of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. The first meeting of the Forum was expected to take place later this year in Athens. A press release was available in the press room.

Statements by the Secretary-General

Available in the press room were statements by the Secretary-General in which he welcomed the national dialogue that was beginning in Lebanon; and welcomed the meeting between the main Ivorian leaders in Côte d’Ivoire.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said also available was the letter which the Secretary-General sent to the President of the Security Council in which he announced the appointment of five experts to make up the group of experts dealing with sanctions on Côte d’Ivoire as per Security Council resolution 1643 (2005).

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said in Geneva, the Conference on Disarmament yesterday continued its thematic debate on its agenda items 1 and 2, with particular emphasis on the future of nuclear disarmament. Press releases on the meeting were available in English and in French. The next plenary of the Conference would be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 7 March.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was continuing its sixty-eighth session at the Palais Wilson. This morning, the Committee was concluding its consideration of the report of Guyana and this afternoon, it would start its review of the report of Botswana. On Tuesday, 7 March, the Committee would consider the situation in Antigua and Barbuda, Republic of the Congo and Nicaragua under its review process for States parties whose reports were late.

The Thirteenth Session of the Group of Governmental Experts of the States Parties to the 1980 Conventional Weapons Convention would be held from 6 to 10 March at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The Group would hold its Fourteenth Session from 19 to 23 June 2006 and its Fifteenth Session from 28 August to 6 September 2006. The Third Review Conference of the CCW would be held in Geneva from 7 to 17 November 2006. Ambassador François Rivasseau of France has been appointed as its President-designate. Available was a background press release.

The Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission would hold its fifty-ninth session from 7 to 9 March 2006 under the Presidency of Ambassador Tassos Kriekoukis (Greece). A background press release was available and there would also be a roundup press release at the end of the meeting on 9 March.

Mission of Heads of WFP, UNICEF and UNHCR to Great Lakes Region

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said High Commissioner António Guterres was wrapping up his weeklong mission to the Great Lakes region today in Tanzania after talks with senior government officials. During a field visit to Kibondo district in north-western Tanzania yesterday (Thursday), Mr Guterres saw for himself the squalid living conditions new arrivals from Burundi were experiencing in overcrowded transit centres. Over the last few weeks, a growing number of Burundians had been crossing the border to seek refuge in Tanzania citing lack of food and growing insecurity as the reasons for their flight. Earlier this week, the High Commissioner, as part of his joint mission with the Heads the World Food Programme and UNICEF to the Great Lakes region, was in Rwanda and Burundi.

Mr. Guterres would hold a briefing at the Palais des Nations, Salle III, on Monday, 6 March at 4 p.m. about his mission to this region, which required a lot more international attention.

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said the three Heads of WFP, UNICEF and UNHCR had finished their tour of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi and Rwanda yesterday. The Executive Directors of WFP and UNICEF, James Morris and Anne Veneman, then went to Kenya and met with President Kibaki to urge the Government to focus more on the catastrophic impact of the present drought and the support which the two agencies could present to the Government of Kenya. Some 3.5 million persons needed emergency food aid in Kenya because of the drought. Thousands of animals had died and the rain forecast was very poor. Mr. Morris would remain in Kenya until Sunday, 5 March and would give a press conference in Nairobi before he left.

Other

Jean Michel Jakobowicz of the Economic Commission for Europe said the European Community had ratified the Aarhus Convention’s Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers, thereby committing its 25 member countries to setting up nationwide registers of polluting substances. This would make it easier for the public to get information about pollutants released to air, water and land from specific sites, as well as waste transferred off-site to other locations for disposal or incineration. A press release was available with more details.

Mr. Jakobowicz said the First Global Road Safety Film Festival would be held on 23 March 2006 in Salle XIX in the Palais des Nations, hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe on the occasion of the meeting of its Working Party on Road Traffic Safety. An international jury, made up of road safety experts, would evaluate and select the winning films on the basis of the clarity and relevance of the message, adaptation to the target, quality and originality of the script, technical qualities (sound, sound track, camera work, editing) and the cost-effectiveness ratio. The Film Festival aimed to promote international cooperation in road safety between the different regions of the world and would also serve as a springboard to promote the First United Nations Global Road Safety Week (23 to 29 April 2007) organized by the United Nations regional commissions and the World Health Organization (WHO). A press release was available.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said WHO would convene an international meeting of public health experts to discuss a rapid response strategy to an emerging influenza pandemic from 6 to 8 March in Geneva. Some 30 experts from around the world would develop an operational guide for WHO and international authorities to use in an attempt to extinguish a pandemic in its initial stages. Using the draft protocol, which was available on the WHO website, entitled “WHO Pandemic Influenza Draft Protocol for Rapid Response and Containment” as a departure point, this meeting would define priorities for WHO and partners as planning for a pandemic containment effort moved forward. The meeting would be held behind closed doors, but she would try to organize a briefing at the end of the meeting. A press release with more details would be issued shortly.

Josep Bosch of the World Trade Organization said on 6 March, there would be a special session of the committee on trade and development negotiations. There would be a meeting of the goods council on 10 March. Concerning Director-General Pascal Lamy, he would be in Spain on 8 and 9 March for meetings with King Juan Carlos 1, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and other members of the Government.
Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said population movements in both directions along the insecure Chad/Sudan border were continuing with some 100-125 Sudanese refugees now arriving at Gaga camp in eastern Chad every day. On Tuesday, UNHCR had reported that in a worrisome new development, Chadians were also fleeing to Darfur because of insecurity in Chad. So now there were refugees going in both directions in this increasingly volatile region.

Meanwhile, Mr. Redmond said, Assistant High Commissioner Judy Cheng-Hopkins had completed a two-day visit to UNHCR operations in south Chad, where some 47,000 refugees from the Central African Republic were currently living. It was her first mission for UNHCR since she assumed her position two weeks ago and it reflected the importance UNHCR was placing on the worrisome crisis in the region. In south Chad, UNHCR continued moving the latest Central African Republic refugees away from the volatile border.

Mr. Redmond said that UNHCR was seriously concerned over the safety of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Iraq, some of whom had reportedly been directly targeted and killed in the continuing violence there. UNHCR’s voluntary repatriation operation for Liberian refugees in West Africa crossed the 50,000 mark last month, with an average of 250 people a day choosing to return to Liberia.

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said two bombs exploded yesterday at 11 a.m. in the premises of the WFP’s sub-office in Damak in Nepal. There were no casualties reported, nor any major damage. This was very worrying and for security reasons, WFP had closed its offices. The UN system condemned these attacks which were a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

Mr. Pluess said the World Food Programme had been developing the concept of a humanitarian lottery, and it had been discussed at a recent conference in France on innovative financing for development. This was a way to respond to increasing humanitarian needs and to build awareness of these growing needs. The money that would be raised would go to WFP and its partner agencies who worked with children. The idea was to start this humanitarian lottery in Europe first, and then to spread it around the world. This project had received the full support of the European Development Commissioner. WFP had carried out a survey and estimated that if it held four lotteries a year in Europe, it could raise between 400 and 500 million euros.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that UN Under-Secretary-General for humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, was in Guatemala where he had signed a note of intention to establish the basis of a future regional cooperation agreement on preparedness and response to natural disasters. A press release was available at the back of the room with more details.

Ms. Byrs said OCHA and UN agencies in the Central African Republic continued to report an extremely serious and deteriorating security situation in the country’s north, close to the Chadian border. Since late December, a number of towns and villages were reportedly attacked by armed individuals. Houses were burnt, people killed, entire villages looted and in some cases destroyed. A recent visit to the affected areas indicated that at least 100 villages in the areas near the towns of Markounda and Paoua in the North were currently totally empty. This had had major humanitarian repercussions, for internally displaced persons in particular, and for those trying to survive in their villages. Food was reported to be scarce, which was a major drama in areas where malnutrition was already high. The security situation in the affected areas did not allow a direct response by the UN. Moreover, there was a serious lack of reliable local partners. UN agencies were confident that aid would be delivered within a reasonable timeframe, so that further distress may be prevented.

Mark Oliver of the World Meteorological Organization said the latest seasonal forecast for the Greater Horn of Africa region extended earlier forecasts of the increased likelihood of near-normal to below-normal rainfall for much of Kenya, central and southern eastern Tanzania, parts of central and southern eastern Uganda and much of Somalia. If this forecast was realized, it would have strong negative impacts on the region which even on the best of times was dependent on the seasonal rainfall.

Marie Francoise Borel of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the Federation had revised its appeal for Pakistan and more details would be available next week.

Jean-Luc Martinage of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the Federation was launching an emergency appeal for 1 million Swiss francs to support the Sudanese Red Crescent Society in immediately responding to a cholera outbreak in southern Sudan for a period of three months.

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Office said that starting 6 March, ILO’s film festival would start. It was being held in conjunction with International Women’s Day which was commemorated on 8 March. The theme of ILO’s round table on the Day this year was women and sports.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM was launching an eye care programme in the earthquake area in Pakistan. Starting Monday, 6 March, IOM would begin to provide medical eye care for earthquake survivors living in the large tent camps around Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-Administered Kashmir. In Indonesia, and in a significant step towards the consolidation of peace, security and community stabilization in one of Asia's oldest trouble-spots, the Japanese Government yesterday contributed one billion yen ($ 8.6 million) to IOM's programmes supporting the Indonesian government's peace-building efforts in Aceh province.

Mr. Chauzy said in Afghanistan, IOM's Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Programme had started to provide direct agricultural help including seeds and fertilizers to more than 500 former soldiers in the north of the country. And in Viet Nam, IOM and the Vietnam Women's Union had set up a telephone hotline covering Kien Giang and three other border provinces to warn potential labour migrants about human trafficking along the Cambodian border. According to official figures, more than 10,000 women and children were listed as "missing" in Viet Nam in 2005. Nearly 700 women and children are known to have been trafficked to Cambodia, where an estimated 22,000 Vietnamese women worked in the sex industry. Human traffickers were also active on Vietnam's northern border with China.