REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also addressed by Spokespersons for and Representatives of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, the World Trade Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme and the International Organization for Migration.

Secretary-General in Switzerland

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had arrived in Switzerland yesterday from Italy. He conducted an official visit to Bern yesterday where he met with Micheline Calmy-Rey, President of the Swiss Confederation, Pascal Couchepin, Vice President of the Swiss Confederation, and Samuel Schmid, Minister of Defence of the Swiss Confederation. The transcript of the press encounter with the Secretary-General and Ms. Calmy-Rey at the Palais Federal in Bern was available in the press room. This morning, the Secretary-General had a working breakfast with the Conseil d’Etat of Geneva at the Fondation Zoubov. He also spoke to UN staff in the Assembly Hall. The Secretary-General was now at the International Labour Organization where he was presiding over the United Nations Chief Executives Board meeting. This meeting would continue tomorrow, and it was private.

The Secretary-General will leave for the Middle East on Sunday, 22 April. His first stop is in Doha, Qatar where he will attend a forum on democracy, development and free trade. He will then go to Syria where he will meet with senior Syrian Government officials, including the President, the Vice President and the Foreign Minister of Syria.

New Statements by the Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said available in the press room were the texts of two new statements by the Secretary-General. On the horrendous carnage in Baghdad where a string of bombings left nearly 200 people dead and many more injured, the Secretary-General expressed outrage at the callousness and scale with which innocent civilians were being slaughtered on an almost daily basis in Iraq. He called urgently on the political and religious leaders of Iraq to come together in a spirit of dialogue and mutual respect in order to find a way out of this destructive spiral of violence.

In another statement, the Secretary-General welcomed the statement by the Arab Ministerial Committee for the Arab Peace Initiative, which indicated increased engagement of the League of Arab States to reinvigorate the peace process. The Secretary-General said he looked forward to meeting with the Ministerial Committee that had been formed to promote this process.

Committee on Rights of Migrant Workers

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the sixth session of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families will be held at the Palais Wilson 23 to 27 April 2007. On Monday afternoon, 23 April, and Tuesday morning, 24 April, the Committee will consider the initial report of Egypt. This is the third State party report that the new Committee is considering after the reports of Mali and Mexico. The status of reporting, as well as ways and means to promote the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, will be discussed in a meeting with States parties to the Convention on the morning of Wednesday, 25 April 2007.

Sixtieth Anniversary Session of the Economic Commission for Europe

Marek Belka, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, said the sixtieth anniversary session of the UNECE will be held at the Palais des Nations from 25 to 27 April. Available is a press release outlining the six panels which will be held on this occasion. The panels will conclude with a declaration which will give Member States an opportunity to reiterate support for the UNECE and give it more general credibility. UNECE has undergone a change over the last couple of years. The programme focus was changed, and the governing structure has been tightened. Some 25 Ministers and Deputy Ministers will be attending the session. On the occasion, the UNECE is also organizing an exhibition on Gunnar Myrdal, the first Executive Secretary of the Commission.

Human Rights

Praveen Randhawa of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said a report on the situation of human rights in Karamoja in north eastern Uganda was released yesterday. In a statement, High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour called on the Government of Uganda to respect its obligations to protect the human rights of all individuals under its jurisdiction at all times and that it cease the use of indiscriminate and excessive use of force against men, women and children. The High Commissioner said the Government should take all necessary measures, including reviewing the ongoing disarmament process, to prevent any further human rights violations in Karamoja. The High Commissioner further emphasized that military response to the violence and crimes committed by armed Karimojong elements should not be the first nor the only line of response. Rather, the Government should put measures in place to allow for the legal arrest, detention, prosecution and punishment of those armed Karimojong that committed crimes through the civilian administration of justice system. The report and the High Commissioner’s statements were available in the room.

Ms. Randhawa said OHCHR Nepal held a press conference at noon today in Kathmandu in which they released their findings into the 21 March killings in Gaur and surrounding villages. The report and a press release were available in the room and on the website of the Office.

Other

Iain Simpson of the World Health Organization said the report on the impact of road safety on young people had been released yesterday. Next week was UN Global Road Safety week.

Mr. Simpson said on Wednesday, 25 April, there would be a global meeting on access to H5N1 and other pandemic vaccines held at WHO. A media advisory had just been sent out. Also available was a media advisory on a press briefing on Monday, 23 April by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership.

Laetitia Dard of the International Labour Organization said available was a press release about ILO’s eleventh African Regional Meeting which will be held in Addis Ababa from 24 to 27 April. This meeting gathered workers, employers and Governments from the 53 North African and Sub-Sahran African Member States of ILO. According to a new analysis prepared by ILO, Africa’s economies will have to create some 11 million new jobs annually to reduce unemployment to the global average. Despite a slight decline in the percentage of working poor, the number was expected to increase by over 50 million by the year 2015.

Jana Borges of the World Trade Organization said there would be a briefing at noon today at WTO on the Trade Negotiations Committee meeting. Next week, on 24 April, there would be a meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body and on 25 April, there would be an informal meeting of the Agriculture Negotiations Group.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR yesterday began the distribution of relief supplies to thousands of displaced people in Afgooye, a Somali town some 30 kilometres west of Mogadishu. This came amid reports of an outbreak of fresh fighting in Mogadishu. Afgooye now had an estimated 40,000 displaced Somalis who had fled Mogadishu since the beginning of February.

Mr. Redmond said High Commissioner Antonio Guterres was scheduled to visit Sudan next week. It will be his second visit to the country. He will arrive on Monday, 23 April in Khartoum. UNHCR has been asked by the UN system to expand its operations for the internally displaced in Darfur and Mr. Guterres will be looking into this issue during his talks with Sudanese officials. He will also visit Darfur.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said measles affect 30 to 40 million children every year, killing 500,000 children, particularly children under five years of age. UNICEF, WHO and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies had recently immunized around 16 million children and adults in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea against measles in less than two months after the Government asked for assistance. This was one of the fastest responses to a major outbreak of measles. In Iraq, and in one of the biggest humanitarian operations in that country in the last two years, a wave of 8,000 vaccinators would set out across the country starting this weekend to prevent a possible outbreak of measles amongst Iraq’s children, many of whom had not received their routine immunization as a result of insecurity. The ambitious immunization drive would last for two weeks and would aim to bring the Measles, Mumps and Rubella combined vaccine to as many of the 3.9 million Iraqi children aged between one and five years old as possible. Press releases on both vaccination campaigns were available.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said a shortage of contributions has forced it to cut food rations for 1.28 million persons in Uganda, including internally displaced persons, refugees and victims of the drought. In April, WFP was forced to reduce the individual food aid package for the displaced to just 40 percent of the minimum daily energy requirement of 1,200 kilocalories because of a shortage of contributions. Donors had made certain promises which will probably allow WFP to continue providing this reduced food aid package until the end of May. WFP hoped that the new contributions will ease the pressure in June.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said although IOM operations to help voluntarily return thousands of internally displaced people to South Sudan were in full swing, early rains across most of the South were heralding the imminent arrival of the rainy season which would soon stop all road returns until later this year. To keep operations running during the rainy season, IOM would begin to use the White Nile from early May to help return internally displaced persons from Kosti in White Nile State to Malakal in Upper Nile State by barge. Air operations between Khartoum and Juba would also begin in May.

Mr. Chauzy said the IOM office in Montenegro has launched a two-year nationwide information campaign to inform the general public and particularly young people of the dangers of human trafficking. This week, IOM assisted a group of 91 Haitian migrants to voluntarily return to their country from Cuba. In Ecuador, IOM was working with the Governments of Ecuador and Peru to carry out a recently signed agreement to regularize the status of Ecuadorians and Peruvians in joint border areas.