REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information about the General Assembly's Special Session commemorating the liberation of the Nazi death camps; the start of the 2005 session of the Conference on Disarmament; developments concerning the tsunami relief efforts, as well as new reports and other issues. Spokespersons for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund and the Economic Commission for Europe participated in the briefing.
At the beginning of the briefing, the Director wished journalists all the best wishes for 2005. She had been on assignment in Mauritius and this was her first briefing since her return. She also noted that 2005 was a particularly important year for the United Nations as there would be a Summit to review the progress made in implementing the Millennium Development Goals in September.
Special Session of General Assembly Commemorating the Liberation of the Nazi Death Camps
The Director said that the General Assembly in New York had yesterday held a Special Session to commemorate the liberation of the Nazi death camps 60 years ago. The Secretary-General in his statement said that the world needed to be vigilant against all ideologies based on hate and exclusion whenever and wherever they appeared, and it must also not remain indifferent to other examples of inhumanity. He stated that "terrible things are happening today in Darfur, Sudan," adding that he expects to receive the report of the international commission of inquiry that would determine whether acts of genocide had occurred in Darfur. The five-member commission of inquiry which is led by Antonio Cassese is expected to submit its report to the Secretary-General today. The report is scheduled to be released on 1 February.
Conference on Disarmament Starts 2005 Session
The Director said the Conference on Disarmament had started the first part of its 2005 session yesterday. The first plenary would be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 27 January. There were no speakers inscribed so far. The background press release had been issued last week in English and in French. It included, among other things, information on the countries which would be holding the rotating presidency of the Conference during 2005 and the dates of the three parts of the session.
UN World Economic Situation and Prospects 2005
The Director said the UN World Economic Situation and Prospects 2005 book was being co-launched today in New York and Geneva. There would be a press conference in Room III at 11:30 a.m. today by Carlos Fortín, Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and Ian C. Kinniburgh, Director of the Development Policy and Planning Office at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and the main editor of the book. The book and a number of press releases were also available. The briefing and the report were embargoed until 6 p.m. Geneva time today, noon New York time. For journalists who were interested in further information, there was a list of experts available whom they could speak to concerning the different regions covered by the book. The World Economic Situation and Prospects was produced at the beginning of each year by UN DESA and UNCTAD, in collaboration with the UN regional commissions.
Geneva Activities
The Director said the Committee on the Rights of the Child would be concluding its three-week winter session on Friday, 28 January. The Committee had yesterday concluded its consideration of the report of Togo. Today, it was examining the situation of children in Bolivia and tomorrow, it would review the report of Nigeria. It was agreed that a press conference would be held on the last day of the session when the final observations of the Committee on the reports which it had examined would be released.
The Director said that available in the press room were copies of the message by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Under-Secretary-General and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, to a seminar held yesterday by the UN Intellectual History Project led by Mr. Berthelot at the Varembe Conference Centre in Geneva.
Tsunami Relief Efforts
The Director said that Mr. Ordzhonikidze had initiated a collect at UNOG for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Eight tons of material had been collected and two sets of emergency aid had already been dispatched to Colombo in Sri Lanka and Jakarta in Indonesia. The Director-General had also participated in the collection soliciting contributions from staff members, raising approximately 25,000 Swiss francs in one day. To culminate the efforts, the Director-General had lent his patronage to the Concert of Peace to be held on 3 February in Room XIV in solidarity with the victims. It was being organized in cooperation with the affected countries. The programme of the peace concert was available in the press room.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that it would be one month tomorrow since the tsunami hit Asian and African countries overlooking the Indian Ocean. The United Nations had now received $ 759 million in response to its appeal for $ 977 million for the tsunami victims. Logistics remained a problem, especially in Indonesia where the main problem was obtaining fuel for the aircrafts, especially the helicopters, transporting aid. Assessment missions to look into the logistics situation in Banda Aceh and Meulaboh were continuing. Roads had been damaged which made land transport difficult. In the Maldives, there was a problem of finding ships which were large enough to carry the requisite relief aid, but not too large so that they could navigate between the many islands.
In response to a question on relief efforts for Somalia, Ms. Byrs said that the international community had not forgotten the tsunami victims in Somalia. She pointed out that both Somalia and Myanmar had been less affected than the other countries and the humanitarian infrastructure already existing in the two countries as well as local efforts were adequately helping the tsunami victims without the need for major input from the international community.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said that concerning WFP's portion of the UN appeal for the tsunami victims, $ 185 million had been received out of the $ 256 million requested for food and logistics. Some 20 per cent of the money had come from the private sector, a record contribution. WFP's biggest long-term private sector partner, the global mail, express and logistics company TNT, had placed its expertise and transport network at WFP's disposal in moving food, emergency response material and staff members to the affected countries. Logistics remained the biggest problem. A press release on WFP executive Director James Morris welcoming the "truly historic" private sector response to the tsunami was available at the back of the room. Mr. Morris would be in Davos to attend the World Economic Forum and would discuss this issue.
Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees said that almost one month since the tsunami, UNHCR's shelter relief efforts were now in full swing on the west coast of the Indonesia province of Aceh with the Super Puma helicopters proved by the Swiss Government flying in relief supplies on a daily basis to Meulaboh, one of UNHCR's main operations centres, and into other sites. While the rescue and emergency relief operations were quickly coming to a close, the struggle to build a new life in devastated communities remained a daunting task. UNHCR remained concerned that conditions in the camps for displaced people and the temporary relocation centres remained below international standards. The Indonesia authorities were responding to UNHCR's recommendations. In Sri Lanka, UNHCR was today scheduled to finish a four-flight airlift of 2,000 tents to Sri Lanka from its supplies in Amman, Jordan. A further 5,500 tents were being shipped by sea to Colombo.
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that David Nabarro, the Representative of the WHO Director-General for Health Action in Crisis, would today update journalists on the health situation after the tsunami disaster at 1 p.m. in Room III.
Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children's Fund said that hundreds of thousands of tsunami survivors living in temporary camps faced a growing risk of water-borne disease due to flooding of toilets and inadequate numbers of toilets and bathing facilities. In Banda Aceh, only one in 1,000 people had access to a toilet. Heavy rains had worsened the situation in Sri Lanka where some camps were flooded and many toilets were full and in need of emptying. Available was a press release with further details.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said that at the request of the Indonesia Government, IOM had agreed in principle to build 11,000 pre-fabricated houses for Acehnese families made homeless by the tsunami. Negotiations with suppliers were currently ongoing and IOM was appealing to donors for additional financial support. IOM trucks had already moved thousands of tents into Aceh to meet the immediate shelter needs of the estimated 400,000 Acehnese displaced by the disaster. The Sri Lankan Government had given the green light to an offer by IOM to help restore the livelihoods of tsunami-affected workers in the northern district of Jaffna. Assessments were currently underway to find out what assistance was needed. Meanwhile, IOM's relief efforts in Sri Lanka were continuing with operations in 13 divisions. A total of 10,000 displaced families living in 63 camps were receiving assistance from IOM.
Other
Jean-Michel Jakobowicz of the Economic Commission for Europe said that available in the press room were two new press releases. The first concerned the ECE Forum on Entrepreneurship which would be held at the Palais des Nations on 10 February. Christian Poncelet, the President of the Senate of France and a leading advocate of entrepreneurship and venture capital for economic growth in Europe, would address the Forum. The second release concerned an initiative by the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business on e-invoicing.
Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said, in response to a document released yesterday by the British opposition Conservative Party saying that it would withdraw from the 1951 Refugee Convention if elected and that it would no longer accept asylum seekers who came under their own steam but would just take a quota of 15,000 a year, that no State had ever withdrawn from the Convention to date. UNHCR would be very worried if a country like Britain did withdraw. It would be counter-productive and could have a domino effect which could be damaging for the whole world-wide system of asylum.
Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that there would be a joint WHO/UNAIDS briefing on Wednesday, 26 January, in Room III on the launch of the "three by five" progress report. The main launch would be held in Davos, and there would also be launches in Nairobi and Paris.
Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children's Fund said that available at the back of the room were embargoed copies of UNICEF's Humanitarian Action Report 2005. There would be a press conference at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow in Room III by Daniel Toole, Director of UNICEF's Office of Emergency Programme.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said that IOM Deputy Director-General Ndioro Ndiaye was taking part in the forthcoming Annual Policy Forum organized by the Global Coalition for Africa. The two-day meeting, which begins tomorrow in Addis Ababa, would focus on migration and Africa. In Mauritania, IOM had assisted a group of 24 Bangladeshi irregular migrants who were stranded in the Sahara desert while trying to reach Europe.