REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, The Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for and representatives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the World Trade Organization, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration.
Secretary-General to attend ECOSOC and Global Compact Meetings
in Geneva
Ms. Heuzé said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would be arriving in Switzerland during the weekend. On Monday, 2 July at 9 a.m., he would be opening the 2007 substantive session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). At approximately 10 a.m., he would be presenting the Millennium Development Goals Report 2007 to ECOSOC.
At noon, Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General would be giving a press conference in Room III to talk about the ECOSOC session, the MDGs report and other issues.
The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007 was under embargo until 2 July 2007 at 00:01 Geneva time. Paolo Garonna, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe, briefed the journalists about the findings of the report, to which more than 20 agencies, both within and without the United Nations system, had contributed. (see separate highlights of his comments). The embargoed report was also available to journalists.
In the press room were two press releases about ECOSOC, one was a backgrounder which spoke about the different segments of the session, and the second spoke about the high-level segment which would be held from 2 to 5 July under the theme of strengthening efforts at all levels to promote pro-poor sustained economic growth, including through equitable macro-economic policies and through the global partnership for development. Ms. Heuzé said that at 2:30 p.m. today in Room III, Mr. Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General Designate of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and Mr. Nikhil Seth, Director, ECOSOC Support and Coordination, DESA, would brief journalists about the high-level segment, the coordination segment (6 to 10 July) and other segments of the ECOSOC session. Mr. Sha’s appointment was effective 1 July.
Ms. Heuzé said that at the opening meeting of ECOSOC, from 9 a.m. to 9:45 a.m., the Secretary-General would be joined by the President of ECOSOC and the Prime Ministers of Lithuania and Bahrain. After the opening statements, there would be a reading of the 2006 Special citation of the Habitat Scroll of Honour and then the Secretary-General would present an award to the Prime Minister of Bahrain. At 11 o’clock, the Secretary-General would visit the ECOSOC Innovation Fair and would stop on the third floor of building E, to see the exhibition of Bahrain.
The Global Compact Leaders Summit would be held from 5 to 6 July at the Palais des Nations. Ms. Heuzé said that Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact, would brief journalists at 11:30 a.m. this morning in Room III. The Secretary-General would be inaugurating the Summit between 9 and 10 a.m. on 5 July, and would give a press conference at 10:30 a.m. in Room III. Mr. Ban would be joined in the press conference by Mr. Kell and a number of other speakers. More details will be provided next week.
Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General would be in Rome on 3 July to participate in an international conference on the installation of the rule of law in Afghanistan. He would be in Turin on 4 July to visit the UN Staff College. From 7 to 9 July, the Secretary-General would carry out an official visit to Lisbon (Portugal), and on 10 July, he would go to Brussels where he would participate in an international forum on migration and development, being organized under the aegis of the European Union. The Secretary-General’s European tour would conclude with a visit to London on 11 July, and he would leave for New York on 12 July.
Geneva News
Ms. Heuzé said the Conference on Disarmament had yesterday held the last plenary of the second part of the 2007 session of the Conference on Disarmament. Ambassador Jurg Streuli of Switzerland, the President of the Council, read out the report on the work achieved during the second part of the session, stating that a momentum had been created to move the Conference on Disarmament out of its longstanding stalemate; a wide range of delegations supported the proposal based on the draft mandates contained in L.1 in combination with the other two documents, some would not oppose consensus although they had some concerns, and others needed more time for their capitals to decide whether they could go along with consensus; and there was still valuable time available for the implementation of L.1 if agreed upon, during part III of the current session, and no effort should be spared to adopt a programme of work by consensus. The third and last part of the 2007 session of the Conference would be held from 30 July to 14 September.
Ms. Heuzé said the new Permanent Representative of China, Li Baodong, was presenting his credentials this morning to Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.
Available was a press release about the comments delivered by Mr. Ordzhonikidze on 28 June at the Civil Society Development Forum 2007 entitled “A Platform for Development: Countdown to 2015”.
Education Under Attack
Ingeborg Breines, Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office in Geneva, said UNESCO had a global study “education under attack” on targeted political and military violence against education staff, students, teachers, union and government officials and educational institutions. UNESCO would be holding a side event during the high-level segment of ECOSOC on education under attack, during which the Director-General of UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, would present opening remarks. The author of the study, Brendan O’Malley, would also address the event, which would be held on Wednesday, 4 July, from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room XXIV of the Palais des Nations. UNESCO was deeply concerned about the dramatic rise of attacks on schools over the last few years. The report detailed attacks in Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq, Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand. It discussed the nature of the attacks and the motives and impact on education provision. The event would focus on preventive measures and how to deal with this appalling situation. Available was a note with more information, as well as a summary of the report in a number of languages.
Ms. Breines said UNESCO also had a stand in the ECOSOC innovation fair and the focus was how education, culture and sciences were important tools in poverty alleviation. Education as a tool in poverty alleviation would be the theme of the Director-General’s ministerial breakfast on 5 July.
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF’s Executive Director Ann Veneman today condemned continuing attacks on schoolchildren and education facilities in conflict zones around the world. In recent weeks, there had been deadly attacks on schools and students in Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip. In parts of Iraq, parents remained justly concerned about the risks involved in sending their children to school, and insecurity had closed schools in the Central African Republic, Nepal and Sri Lanka. A press release with more details was available.
Gaza Strip
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said available was a press release about the situation in Gaza. It noted that United Nations agencies were making progress towards meeting the basic needs of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip at present, but that there was still a long way to go. The release said that the equivalent of 80 to 90 trucks of relief supplies were now entering the territory daily.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said in order to respond to the most basic of needs of the Palestinians in Gaza, it was necessary for up to 120 trucks carrying food and medicines and other material, both from relief agencies and commercial goods, to enter into Gaza daily. For the Palestinians which WFP helped, it needed supplies carried in 10 trucks daily. These estimates really only responded to the most basic of needs of the population. There were three crossing points and the most important one, the Karni crossing, had re-opened yesterday for the first time in two weeks. It was very important for the Karni crossing to remain open. But the food aid was not enough, it was important for the population to have clean drinking water, and means to prepare the food. The economy in Gaza was very fragile, and the most vulnerable people saw their conditions deteriorate daily.
Other
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said available was a donor update on the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka. Heavy fighting in the north and east of Sri Lanka was resulting in grave humanitarian consequences for more than 200,000 internally displaced persons, and UNICEF needed funds to be able to come to the help of children among these internally displaced persons.
Ms. Taveau said there would be a joint briefing by the Representatives of UNICEF and the World Food Programme in Mozambique on 3 July to brief journalists about the situation there, especially following the floods in the country.
Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said there would be a joint briefing with WFP, FAO and IFAD on 4 July at 10:30 a.m. on “full nutrition and agriculture, working together to end hunger”.
Ms. Heuzé noted that at the opening meeting of ECOSOC, keynote addresses by the President of Switzerland and the Prime Ministers of Lithuania and Bahrain would be on the theme of “the eradication of poverty and hunger”.
Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that since 2001, OCHA had a partnership with Ericsson to improve communication tools during emergency situations. A new system would be installed at OCHA, after it had been tested in Pakistan, and individual interviews could be held on 5 July to tell journalists more about it. Interested journalists could contact her.
Anoush Der Boghossian of the World Trade Organization said Director-General Pascal Lamy would be participating in the high-level segment of ECOSOC next week. He would also hold a number of bilateral meetings with some of the personalities who would be in Geneva for the event, including the Prime Minister of Lithuania, the Foreign Minister of Norway, the Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action of Luxembourg, and others. Next week, the GATS Rules Working Party would be meeting on 4 July along with the technology transfer working group. From 5 to 6 July, there would be meetings on technical barriers to the trade committee.
Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said UNHCR was making an urgent plea for the immediate evacuation of at least a dozen seriously-ill Palestinians, mostly young children stuck in Baghdad or in a makeshift camp at Al Waleed on the Iraqi side of the border with Syria. Without evacuation and life-saving medical help, they could die or suffer lifelong complications. UNHCR currently had 12 cases in urgent need of medical evacuation, the youngest just 15 months old. UNHCR and ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) had been trying everything to provide proper medical care but this was very difficult in the dusty border camps and volatile Baghdad. A humanitarian solution was urgently needed for the remaining Palestinians - 1,450 of whom were living in dire conditions at two border camps, and up to 13,000 still living in Baghdad from an original population of 34,000 in 2003. Those remaining in Iraq had no access to another country, and no communities to flee to inside Iraq. In the meantime, they continued to be targeted.
Mr. Redmond said a new UNHCR study of seven African nations challenged previous assumptions that conflict, forced displacement and wide-scale rape had increased the prevalence of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa and that refugees fleeing conflict spread the infection in host communities.
UNHCR was stepping up its activities along Venezuela's border with Colombia to meet the needs of a growing number of people arriving in search of a refuge from violence and armed conflict, Mr. Redmond said. In Pakistan, with only a day to go before the June 30 planned closure of two Afghan refugee camps by the Government of Pakistan, UNHCR was calling for continued dialogue between the Government and the refugees to ensure a peaceful approach to the process. In Liberia, after two and a half years, UNHCR would end tomorrow (June 30) its repatriation program for Liberian refugees. In conclusion, Mr. Redmond said the UNHCR 2006 Global Report was available in the press room.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Migration Forum said a new IOM report released in Phnom Penh said child domestic workers in Cambodia were at high risk of physical and sexual abuse. The report "Out of sight, out of mind? Child domestic workers and trafficking in Cambodia", found that child domestic workers often had little social protection or support, and were often forced to work in desperate conditions.
In Haiti, Mr. Chauzy said the plight of the estimated 173,000 Haitian children trafficked for domestic work, known in Creole as Restavek, would be the focus of IOM's awareness raising campaign to be presented this weekend in New York.
Mr. Chauzy said IOM Director General Brunson McKinley was today visiting a reception centre for migrants on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, where IOM worked alongside UNHCR and the Italian Red Cross to provide humanitarian assistance to many exhausted migrants who arrived after perilous journeys on unseaworthy vessels.