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 on the Secretary-General's European trip, the Secretary-General's statement on the elections in Lebanon, the United Nations' demining work in Iraq, upcoming press conferences, the Working Group on Internet Governance and other issues. Spokespersons and Representatives of the Working Group on Internet Governance, the Commission on Human Rights and the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees participated in the briefing.

Secretary-General's European Trip

Mrs. Heuzé said the Secretary-General was in Brussels where he would attend the International Conference on Iraq on Wednesday, 21 June. At the conference, which was being co-hosted by the European Union and the United States, the Secretary-General would be delivering remarks at the opening and closing sessions.
Late on Wednesday, the Secretary-General would be taking part in a press conference, along with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyer Zubari and the conference’s co-hosts. From Brussels, the Secretary-General would be travelling to London to attend on Thursday morning a meeting of the Middle East Quartet, at the Principals’ Level.

Secretary-General's Statement on the Elections in Lebanon

The Director said the Secretary-General has issued a statement congratulating the people and Government of Lebanon for their successful parliamentary elections.
The Secretary-General commended the outgoing Government on the excellent manner in which it had handled its electoral responsibilities, and stood ready to extend support and assistance to the new government, as and if required.

UN Efforts to Help Clear Mines in Iraq

Mrs. Heuzé said nearly half a million square meters of Iraq's land had been cleared of landmines over the past year, thanks to UN-backed efforts to rid the country of such mines. A UN-launched project had trained more than two dozen mine disposal teams in Iraq, which had led to the removal of more than 3,700 mines or other explosive ordnance. Still, about one out of every five Iraqis lived within one kilometre of areas highly contaminated by such explosives.

New Spokesman for Secretary-General Appointed

Mrs. Heuzé said that Stéphane Dujarric de la Rivière has been appointed as the new Spokesperson for the Secretary-General. He succeeds Fred Eckhard who retires at the end of the month. Marie Okabe has been appointed as the Secretary-General's Deputy Spokesman. Mr. Dujarric and Ms. Okabe had been serving as associate spokesmen. So in fact the new team was not really new but had been working with the Secretary-General for a number of years. The Director recalled that journalists in Geneva knew Mr. Dujarric from his visits with the Secretary-General, and knew Ms. Okabe who had worked as part of the public information team of the former High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata.

Upcoming Press Conferences

The Director said that a press conference would be held at noon today in Room III by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Food and Agricultural Organization to speak about two new reports: the OECD/FAO Agricultural Outlook 2005-2014 and forecasts, trends, policies and challenges in world agriculture. Copies of the embargoed reports were available at the back of the room.

Stephen Di Biasio of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said the Agricultural Outlook was a collaborative effort between the FAO and the OECD. The second report was an analysis of agricultural policies; it was an OECD report and included a special study on the impact of EU enlargement.

The Director said there would be a press conference at 2:30 p.m. today on the launch of IOM's World Migration 2005 "Costs and Benefits of International Migration". There would also be a press conference at 3:30 p.m. today on the launch of the WHO International Radon Initiative, with a special focus on the dangers of radon (the number two risk factor for lung cancer after smoking). The speaker would be Dr. Mike Repacholi, Coordinator of WHO's Radiation and Health Programme.

On Wednesday, 22 June, at 2 p.m., there would be a press conference organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on debt relief and what it really meant. Philippe Straatmann, Chief of UNCTAD's Programme on debt management and financial analysis, would be speaking along with officials from the World Bank, EURODAD and UN DESA.

And on Thursday, 23 June, there would be a press conference by the World Health Organization on the launch of a new report on genetically modified food by Dr. Jorgen Schlundt, Director of Food Safety at WHO.

Working Group on Internet Governance

Markus Kummer, the Executive Coordinator of the Secretariat of the Working Group on Internet Governance, said that the fourth and last meeting of the Working Group on Internet Governance was held from 14 to 17 June. There was an open round of consultations at the International Telecommunication Union on 14 June which was very well attended, then from 15 to 17 June, the participants met at a retreat which provided the setting for conducive discussions. At the end of the retreat, the participants agreed on the report which reflected the consensus of the entire Working Group. The report was now being finalized and it would be submitted to the Secretary-General either later this month or early next month. The Secretary-General would then release the report. He would not be able to speak about the contents of the report until it was released by the Secretary-General.

Mr. Kummer said the mandate of the Working Group was to come up with a working definition for "Internet governance"; to draw up an inventory of public policy issues which were relevant to Internet governance; and to develop a common understanding of who does what and this involved the responsibilities of the different actors including Governments, the private sector, civil society, inter-governmental organizations and other institutions dealing with this issue. The Working Group had also been asked to develop proposals for action as appropriate and the focus of the report was very much on these proposals.

Commission on Human Rights

David Chikvaidze, Spokesperson of the Commission on Human Rights, said the Chairman of the sixty-first session of the Commission on Human Rights convened yesterday, 20 June, informal consultations to reflect on the recommendations on human rights contained in the report of the Secretary-General "In Larger Freedom". The Chairman was requested to do this by ECOSOC decision E/2005/217 (adopted on 9 June 2005 in lieu of CHR resolution L.11/Rev.1). The Council further authorized the Chairman to prepare a summary of the meeting. The summary was being finalized and after it was reviewed by regional group coordinators for accuracy, it would be transmitted later today, 21 June, to the President of the General Assembly through the President of the Economic and Social Council.

Mr. Chikvaidze said that during the meeting, 45 governments, four groupings of governments and representatives of 12 non-governmental organizations spoke. Some converging positions on some elements of the proposed reform were evident. At the same time, there existed numerous issues of various calibre with caveats and reservations that would need to be addressed in the weeks leading up to the summit in September and beyond. The summary of the meeting which would be sent to New York would contribute to the inter-Governmental discussions which would be held at Headquarters starting today and until 23 June on the entire reform package.

On another issue, Mr. Chikvaidze said the Fourth Inter-Committee Meeting of human rights treaty bodies started its work yesterday. Mr Fernando Mariño Menendez, Chairperson of the Committee Against Torture, was elected Chairperson, and Mr. Jaap Doek was elected vice-chairperson. The members discussed a number of issues, including the implications of the proposals relating to a unified treaty body contained in the High Commissioner's Plan of Action on the treaty body reform process. The meeting would continue today and Wednesday.

The 12th meeting of special procedures also started yesterday, Mr. Chikvaidze said. The meeting held a one-hour interaction with the High Commissioner. Today, informal consultations were taking place with governments and NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC.

In conclusion, Mr. Chikvaidze said that at the request of a number of governments, an extension of one week had been granted by the Chairman of the Commission for the presentation of candidates for special procedures established at the 61st session of the Commission on Human Rights, as well as for the replacements on existing mandates due to the expiration of the second three-year term. The new deadline for the submission of candidatures was 6 p.m. on Monday, 27 June 2005.

Other

Jennifer Pagonis of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that the new High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonia Guterres, was on the second-leg of his three-day visit to Uganda to see for himself the situation of refugees in northern Uganda. Mr. Guterres was visiting Palorinya, a refugee settlement on the Nile, to meet new arrivals from Sudan who had fled recent incursions into south Sudan by the Ugandan rebels known as the Lord's Resistance Army. Mr. Guterres would also visit some of the 1.5 million Ugandans who had been displaced within their own country because of attacks for the Lord's Resistance Army. On his first day in Uganda, which was World Refugee Day, Mr. Guterres praised the Ugandan Government for its support for refugees and called on the international community to match its generosity by giving more aid to Africa.

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