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 appointment of a UN System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, activities of the Director-General of UNOG, the UNHCR Executive Committee, human rights, PrepCom 3 of the World Summit on the Information Society, and other issues. Spokespersons for and Representatives of the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Telecommunication Union, the World Trade Organization, the Global Commission on International Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Food Programme, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, UN-HABITAT, UNESCO, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development and the International Organization for Migration participated in the briefing.

UN System Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza Appointed

Mrs. Heuzé said the Secretary General has appointed David Nabarro as Senior UN system Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza. Dr. Nabarro was one of the most senior public health experts in the World Health Organization and the Secretary-General was grateful to WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook for seconding him to the United Nations. Dr. Nabarro would be responsible for ensuring that the UN system makes an effective and coordinated contribution to the global effort to control the epidemic of avian influenza (or “bird flu”), which at present was particularly affecting countries in Asia. He would also ensure that the UN system supported effective local, national, regional and global preparations for a potential human influenza pandemic - so as to reduce the human toll, as well as the economic and social disruption, that this pandemic could cause. The UN system’s efforts on influenza would reflect the technical guidance provided through the UN's specialized agencies responsible for animal and human health (the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization). It would respond to the needs and interests of national governments and their peoples, and be undertaken in conjunction with the World Bank, other development banks, development agencies, non-governmental organizations, the Red Cross and Red Crescent movements, major private entities, the research and development community and all others with a stake in influenza-related issues.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that Dr. Nabarro was now in New York and he would be coordinating the UN efforts on avian and human influenza. WHO had issued a press release yesterday. Dr. Nabarro would be replaced at WHO in Geneva by Allaa Eddin Elwan, who was presently the WHO representative in Jordan.

Dick Thompson of the World Health Organization, responding to a question on the figure of a possible 5 to 150 million deaths from an influenza pandemic which Dr. Nabarro mentioned in New York yesterday, said there was a range of expert opinion about the number of possible deaths should a human pandemic evolve. Dr. Nabarro was giving that range of expert opinion. All of this was guess work and nobody would know how lethal the next pandemic would be until it actually began and WHO had a sense of the case fatality rate, how easily it was transmissible and whether or not it detected old people or young people. WHO had estimated and was advising countries to be prepared for a pandemic that would cause 2 to 7.4 million excess deaths. A pandemic caused huge social and economic disruption and WHO was using this 2 to 7.4 million figure as a guide while it urged countries to prepare for the next pandemic. It was unclear what the next pandemic would be like, but with proper preparation, some of the damage could be reduced.

Answering further questions, Mr. Thompson said this 2 to 7.4 million figure was the estimate for the most mild pandemic that could be experienced. This pandemic has not occurred yet. The virus that would emerge and cause the pandemic had not yet been identified. WHO was very aware and concerned about a particular virus, H5N1. The pandemic could come from another virus, or it could come from this virus, but the anti-virals that everybody was talking about now might not be effective. This virus had to change in some way to cause a pandemic.

Asked about vaccines, Mr. Thompson said vaccine companies were in a bind as there was no pandemic virus yet. If they started producing a vaccine against H5N1, and the pandemic came from another virus, those vaccines were not going to be very valuable. A lot of work needed to be done to develop a vaccine.

Activities of the Director-General of UNOG

Mrs. Heuzé said Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Under-Secretary-General and Director-General of UNOG, was today meeting with Eduardo Stein-Barillas, the Vice President of Guatemala.

UNHCR Executive Committee

Ron Redmond of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees said that UNHCR's governing body, the 68-nation Executive Committee, would be beginning its annual five-day meeting on Monday, 3 October at the Palais des Nations. The meeting was open to the media. The "ExCom" would be reviewing and approving UNHCR's programes and budget, advising on international protection and discussing a wide range of other issues with UNHCR and its inter-governmental and non-governmental partners. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was scheduled to address the meeting on Thursday, 6 October at 3 p.m. High Commissioner Antonio Guterres would deliver the opening address on Monday.

Human Rights

José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Office had been following events in Andijan, Uzbekistan, and subsequent developments, and most recently trials that had started there of people accused of crimes for the mid-May events. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour had written to the Uzbek Government yesterday proposing to send an observer to the ongoing and future trials of persons accused of crimes committed in connection with the events in Andijan. The High Commissioner in her communication said that in order for the observer mission to work effectively, it was necessary that it be granted unhindered and unrestricted access to places of detention, registers, including protocols and certificates of medical examinations, and to all interrogations of detainees. She was also asking for full and unimpeded access to all those detained in connection with the Andijan trials, in particular the defendants; unhindered and unrestricted access to all legal proceedings, documents and counsel; and the assurance that no persons, official or private individuals who had been in contact with the observer mission in relation to its mandate would for this reason suffer threats, harassment or punishment or be subjected to judicial proceedings. The observer would report regularly to the High Commissioner.

Mr. Díaz said journalists had received this morning a statement by the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Leandro Despouy, who was visiting Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Also, a press release had been issued on the visit by the Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Walter Kälin, who would undertake an official mission to Sudan, including Darfur, from 3 to 13 October.

David Chikvaidze, Media Liaison for the Commission on Human Rights and the Treaty Bodies, said that on 27 September, the Commission on Human Rights had held a one-day informal session. The purpose of the meeting was normally to update on developments following the regular session and to look ahead to issues on the agenda of the Third Committee. The Secretariat had briefed the Commission on some of the agenda items and some of the Member States had made statements indicating their intention to table resolutions in the Third Committee. A document containing a compilation of statements at the session was available at the back of the room, and could be useful in providing journalists with good factual information as they tracked the work of the Third Committee.

Mr. Chikvaidze said the next meeting of the Commission on Human Rights as announced by the Chairperson would be on 16 January to elect the Bureau of the sixty-second session.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child was today concluding its fortieth session, Mr. Chikvaidze said. During the session, the Committee had considered periodic reports from Australia, Algeria, Uganda, China, Finland, Denmark and the Russian Federation. At 12:30 p.m. in press room 1, the Chairperson of the Committee, Jacob Egebert Doek, would brief journalists about the session.

PrepCom 3 for World Summit on Information Society to Conclude Today

Sarah Parks of the International Telecommunication Union said there would be a press conference today at 1:30 p.m. in Salle III with ITU's Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi and the President of the PrepCom process for the Tunis phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, Ambassador Janis Karklins. The PrepCom was not expected to be finished before midnight tonight. Internet governance was one of the critical issues. Last Wednesday, the European Union had changed its position and allied itself with many of the developing nations, effectively against the United States. There was still no agreement on the control of the root zone file system which was the system which controlled the Internet addresses and the country code top level domain, and whether or not a new international multi-stakeholder forum was needed and who should perform the oversight function. Those issues would have to be discussed in another three day of meetings just before the Tunis Summit, but the details of the meetings still had to be agreed upon.

Other

Mrs. Heuzé said that the World Intellectual Property Organization's Assemblies were continuing until 5 October. Journalists who had any questions about them should contact the WIPO Spokesperson's office directly.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said copies of the embargoed new WHO report "Preventing Chronic Diseases: a vital investment" were now available. The embargo was until midnight, Tuesday, 4 October. There would be a press conference at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday in Salle III.

Aurelia Blin of the World Trade Organization said there would be a meeting of the Trade Facilitation Negotiating Group on 5 and 6 October, which would be followed by a briefing. Trade and development negotiations (committee "special session") would be held on 4 October, as well as informal agriculture negotiations ("open-ended informal special session"). There would also be membership negotiations for Montenegro on 4 October, for Bhutan on 6 October, and for Serbia on 7 October. The Director-General, Pascal Lamy, would meet with the Director-General of he World Health Organization on 4 October, and would meet with the Minister of Trade of Tunisia and the Minister of Trade of Bhutan on 6 October.

Tony Murdoch of the Global Commission on International Migration said the Commission had been working in Geneva since 2003 and would be presenting its report to the Secretary-General in New York on 5 October. An embargoed press kit would be available on 3 October.

Rolf Jenny, Executive Director of the Global Commission, recalled that the Commission had been launched on 9 December 2003 by the Secretary-General. Everyone had been waiting for the results of the Commission's report. The report was based on a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of migration problems. The Commission, which was made up of 19 international personalities, would propose a framework of action based on six principles as well as a number of recommendations. One of the main conclusions of the Commission was that the international community had not yet succeeded in realizing the real potential of migration and migrants.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Typhoon Damrey which had hit China recently had affected 5.7 million persons in the south of the country. Forty-one persons in China were killed by the typhoon which also hit the Philippines and Viet Nam. In Hainan province in China alone, 436,000 persons had been displaced.

Ms. Byrs said that on 7 October, the UN Resident Coordinator and the Humanitarian Coordinator in Nepal would meet with journalists right after the briefing to speak about the Nepal appeal, which would be launched as part of the Consolidated Appeals in November.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children's Fund said there would be a press conference on 5 October at 10:30 a.m. in Salle III on the UNICEF report: UNICEF Innocent Insight, Children and Disability in Transition. This report, which dealt with children with disabilities in Central/Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent Sates and the Baltics, was only being launched in Geneva.

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said WFP was today warning that there could be up to 5 million people in Malawi who would need urgent international assistance due to sharply rising malnutrition rates and maize prices that were "pushing people on the brink across it". This was happening months ahead of the traditional lean season. WFP had been warning of an imminent food crisis in Malawi and the rest of southern Africa for the last six months, but now rising maize prices meant that more people would need aid to survive the lean season. During the lean season, WFP had planned to feed around 2 million amongst the most vulnerable people in seven districts in Malawi. The Government and other organizations would have also fed some 2.2 million in other parts of the country. But the maize prices now had increased up to 70 per cent, plus maize was scarce in the market. As a result of that, WFP may feed up to 2.9 million in the southern districts of Malawi, but it had to wait for the outcome of the assessment in October. Before this turn of events, there had already been a massive shortfall in funding. WFP called on donors to redouble their efforts to ensure the people in Malawi did not starve. The window of opportunity was very short, and cash and food donations were needed now.

Mr. Pluess said that in Ecuador, Colombian refugees and asylum seekers were having a hard time these days and there was a real threat that the WFP food assistance would have to be cut unless $ 1 million were rapidly raised. Some 6,300 Colombian refugees and asylum seekers were in Ecuador. Refugee legalization procedures in Ecuador took up to six months, during which the refugees were not allowed to work.

Ron Redmond of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees said UNHCR also endorsed WFP's call for support of the Colombian refugees in Ecuador so that the food rations could be met. UNHCR remained very concerned about continuing unrest in northern areas of the Central African Republic, including a Tuesday attack on the town of Markounda by an unidentified armed group. A UNHCR team based in Chad was being deployed to the border tomorrow with Chadian Government officials to check if there were any new influxes. The unrest was also worrisome because of UNHCR's ongoing repatriation operation bringing some 1,500 Chadian refugees back to their homeland from the north of the Central African Republic.

Mr. Redmond said UNHCR had issued a press release yesterday on the tragic attack on the Aro Sharow camp for internally displaced Sudanese in West Darfur that reportedly left 29 dead and 10 seriously wounded. A UNHCR team was out there today and more information should be received from its members later.

Abdalla Abbas, Acting Director of the UN-HABITAT Geneva Office, said World Habitat Day was commemorated on the first Monday in October every year. This year, the celebrations were being spearheaded from Jakarta to remind the world that thousands of homes were destroyed by the tsunami and hundreds of thousands were still living in shelters and temporary housing. Press kits were available at the back of the room concerning World Habitat Day.

Mr. Abbas said UN-HABITAT was also launching a report titled "Financing Urban Shelter: Global Report on Human Settlements 2005". UN-HABITAT estimated that an average investment of $ 294 billion over the period 2005-2020 would be needed to improve dramatically the living conditions of 670 million poor residents of urban centres. The report noted that financing was only one dimension. A press kit on the report was also available.

Ingeborg Breines, Director of the UNESCO Geneva Liaison Office, said the General Conference of UNESCO would be held from 3 to 21 October in Paris. More than 2,000 participants would attend the General Conference, and among other things, they would examine and adopt the Programme and Budget for 2006-2007 and would name the Director-General for the next four years. The main topic of the General Conference was "Education for All" and there would be a special round table with education ministers as well as a Youth Forum. Available was a media advisory at the back of the room.

Sian Bowen of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the Federation would next week be launching its 2005 World Disasters Report: Focus on information in disasters. The launch would be on Tuesday, 4 October, at 2 p.m. in Salle III. Embargoed copies of the report were available at the back of the room.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said the Trade and Development Board would be holding its fifty-second regular session from 3 to 14 October. There was documentation for the press in the press room.

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