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 of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the World Trade Organization.

Activities of the Secretary-General

Ms. Heuzé announced that the Secretary-General had returned to New York yesterday, following a two-week trip to Europe. He had left from London yesterday, having visited Geneva, Rome, Lisbon and Brussels over the course of his trip. Yesterday in London the Secretary-General had met with the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and had discussed the four priority issues on his agenda – the situation in Darfur; climate change; the situation in the Middle East; and the Millennium Development Goals.

Next week, the Secretary-General was scheduled to travel to Washington, D.C., for a meeting with the American Administration to discuss the same priorities.

Brammertz Report

On the high-profile Brammertz Report, Ms. Heuzé said that yesterday morning the Secretary-General yesterday had transmitted to the Security Council the latest report by Serge Brammertz concerning the work of the International Independent Investigation Commission that was looking into attacks that have taken place in Lebanon. The report provided information on the Commission’s priority work in the investigation of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and into 17 other cases, including the killing this June of former Member of Parliament Walid Eido.

Ms. Heuzé noted that the Security Council expected to discuss the report with Mr. Brammertz next Thursday, 19 July. Copies of the report were available in the press room.

Geneva Activities

Economic and Social Council

Ms. Heuzé said that the session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in Geneva was still ongoing. Yesterday ECOSOC had concluded its segment on operational activities of the United Nations for international development cooperation.

For those involved in humanitarian affairs, Ms. Heuzé highlighted that ECOSOC's humanitarian affairs segment would be held over the first half of next week, from 16 to 18 July. During that week a number of high-level humanitarian actors would be in Geneva, including John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Relief Coordinator.

Human Rights Committee

Turning to events taking place at Palais Wilson, Ms. Heuzé noted that yesterday the Human Rights Council had concluded its consideration of the report of Sudan, which it had reviewed over the course of three meetings. This afternoon the Committee would discuss its revised General Comment to article 14 of the Covenant, on the right to a fair trial. Next week, on Monday, 16 July and Tuesday, 17 July, the Committee would take up the second periodic report of the Czech Republic for consideration, and on Wednesday, 18 July, it would review the situation of civil and political rights in Grenada in the absence of a report.

The Committee this week had released decisions on a number of complaints from individuals, who have exhausted all the avenues of judicial redress in their own countries, and who maintain that they have been subjected to violations of their rights under the Covenant by States members, Mr. Diaz said. The Committee had issued decisions on 10 very interesting cases. Violations were found to have been committed by Algeria, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, New Zealand, Cameroon, the Philippines, Canada and Colombia. The Committee also issued decisions on other cases in which it found no violation of the Covenant – two cases involving complaints against Belarus and Canada – and looked at eight cases which were not admitted for consideration as the Committee did not consider there was any merit to those complaints.

Following the briefing, Mr. Diaz would send links to that documentation and information on how to sign up for the listserv, so that journalists could look at decisions as they were issued, as well as details of those cases.

Special Rapporteur on Trafficking on Trial in Bangladesh

Responding to a query on OHCHR's unanswered request for information on the the situation of Sigma Huda, UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children, who was being held by the authorities in Bangladesh on charges of corruption, Mr. Diaz agreed that the issue had been dragging on for a while. He reiterated that OHCHR had been in constant touch with the Bangladeshi authorities. OHCHR had not received the information requested regarding clarification of the case. As he understood it, the trial of Ms. Huda had now started; it was also reported that the Special Rapporteur was in ill health. A number of the Special Rapporteurs were considering issuing a public appeal on the case. For the United Nations's part, there were continuing discussions with the Bangladeshi authorities, to try to get more information from them and to see what could be done.

Responding further, Mr. Diaz noted that, in the exercise of her duties as Special Rapporteur, Ms. Huda was covered by the privileges and immunities enjoyed by UN experts on mission. Presumably Bangladesh felt that that immunity did not apply in this case; but OHCHR did not know precisely what their argument was for that. OHCHR was seeking clarification of Bangladesh's reasoning on that point.

Asked whether the United Nations could impose sanctions in this case or whether Bangladesh could be taken to court, Mr. Diaz said that, while the UN, including the Office of Legal Affairs, was following up on the issue, the Secretariat itself could not impose any legal sanctions on Bangladesh. Presumably, however, the case could be taken up by an international jurisdiction. As to action that could be taken by the Human Rights Council in "naming and shaming", Mr. Diaz observed that, as a Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council, the issue would presumably come before that body.

A journalist pointed out that the privileges and immunities only applied when a UN Expert was on mission. In the present case, Sigma Huda was being held by her own Government and not by a country to which she would be on mission. Mr. Diaz responded that the problem was that without any further information on the case a determination could not be made about this. Ms. Huda was supposed to make her presentation to the last session of the Human Rights Council; she had been prevented from doing that by the Bangladeshi authorities. OHCHR wished to know why she was prevented from doing so. What were the reasons that Bangladesh would have for keeping her from fulfilling her duties as Rapporteur? One needed to hear all sides in order to understand, and so far one very important part of the discussion was absent.

Pakistan Floods

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said UNICEF urgently required $5 million for the emergency response needs of children and women affected by the floods in Pakistan. It was estimated that 2 million people had been affected by the floods provoked by four days of heavy rains after cyclone Yemyin had hit the southern provinces of Baluchistan and Sindh. More than 100,000 people had lost their homes, 246 were reported dead, and over 200,000 had been displaced.

The areas hardest hit by the floods were also among the poorest in the country, Ms. Taveau underscored. UNICEF was therefore particular worried about the affects the flood was having on the already precarious situation of children and women in those areas, where 40 per cent of the children under five were underweight, and maternal mortality was twice what it was in the rest of Pakistan. There was little access to clean water owing to destruction of water systems by the floods; and hospitals and health clinics in the affected areas were closed or only partially functional. The appeal covered assistance for all aspects related to child protection: water, nutrition, education and health.

Internally Displaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that today, in the North Kivu province of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, UNHCR and UNICEF were making a joint distribution of assistance to more than 10,000 internally displaced people in the Buganga area. The province was facing the worst displacement situation in three years, with 163,000 people newly displaced since January – bringing to a total of 650,000 people internally displaced in the province.

UNHCR were increasingly concerned by the spiralling displacement and atrocities in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. With heightened tensions and the build-up of military forces, the situation risked turning into humanitarian and human rights disaster. UNHCR was concerned that fresh military operations by renegade brigades, militia groups or government forces would result in greater suffering for the civilian population without leading to more stability. UNHCR urged all armed parties in North Kivu to immediately halt direct attacks on civilians and atrocities, which included the burning of villages, widespread pillaging and raping of women.

Responding to a query about whether there were any peacekeepers in the areas UNHCR was working in in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and what the security situation was for aid workers there, Ms. Pagonis acknowledged that, while there had been problems in eastern Congo for many years, the latest splurge of violence in the area, with the mixed brigades, was particularly bad. It was a very dangerous area for humanitarian agencies to be operating in, and it was not always possible to get access to all those in need. Government forces, along with militias and mixed brigades had been implicated in some of the human rights abuses occurring in the area.

Other

Ms. Heuzé said that available in the press room in French and English was a statement on the results of elections in Timor-Leste.

Ms. Pagonis of UNHCR said that in Ethiopia today, UNHCR teams were expected to start relocating a group of 500 newly recognized Somali refugees who had fled from renewed conflict in strife-torn south and central Somalia over the past year. They had been staying around the Kebribeyah area, near the Somali border in eastern Ethiopia and were being relocated to a re-opened UNHCR camp at Teferi Ber.

In Eastern Sudan, UNHCR was taking part in a joint UN relief effort to help flood victims in the refugee hosting area of Kassala state in eastern Sudan as well as in northern Blue Nile state and in four camps for displaced near Khartoum. All of those had affected by heavy rains at the start of the rainy season. While the 12 refugee camps in eastern Sudan, hosting 136,000 Eritrean, Ethiopian and Somali refugees, had not been directly affected by the heavy rains on Sunday and Monday, an estimated 7,000 people living in villages close to the flooded Al Gash River bordering Eritrea had suffered considerable damage to their homes.

Ms. Taveau of UNICEF drew attention to the launch of UNICEF's HIV/AIDS prevention campaign in Angola by UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Pau Gasol Saez – a Spanish basketball player who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA, on Saturday, 14 July at 3 p.m. at a sports stadium in Luanda. A media advisory was available.

In Geneva, on Monday, 16 July, Daniel Toole, Director of UNICEF's Office of Emergency Programmes, would hold a press conference on UNICEF priority operations and forgotten emergencies. The conference would take place at 11 a.m, in Room III, Ms. Taveau announced.

She also recalled that, following today's regular press briefing, Bintou Keita, UNICEF's Representative in Burundi, would hold a press conference at 11:45 a.m. in Room III, to discuss the situation of children in that country. Later today, at 4.30 p.m., Ms. Keita would take part in an ECOSOC round table on the transition from aid to development in Burundi in Room XIX.

Jana Borges of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said, on the Doha Negotiating texts, Agriculture Chair, Crawford Falconer, and Non-Agriculture Market Access Chair, Don Stephenson would probably publish their draft modality texts on Monday. The timing was not set in stone, but the texts would be posted on the WTO web site as soon as they were available. Journalists would also receive an e-alert as soon as they were ready. Press conference with Mr. Falconer and Mr. Stephenson would be scheduled shortly after the texts came out, probably on Monday or Tuesday next week.

After WTO members received the texts, they would need some time to review them, Ms. Borges said. On the following week, Agriculture and Non-Agricultural Market Access Negotiating Groups would meet (between 23 and 25 July) to discuss the texts. On Thursday, 26 July the Trade Negotiations Committee would meet, and on Friday, 27 July the General Council would meet to discuss Doha and other procedural matters.

As to the schedule for next week, Ms. Borges said there were plenary meetings of the Trade Facilitation Negotiating Group on Monday and Friday at 10 a.m.; trade and environment negotiations on Wednesday and Thursday, at 10 a.m.; Bahrain's trade policy review on Wednesday and Friday, starting at 9.30 a.m.; and on Thursday, 19 July, WTO would hold membership negotiations for Montenegro, starting at 10 a.m.