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 Conference on Trade and Development, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Organization for Migration, the World Trade Organization and the World Meteorological Organization.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Heuzé said the Committee on the Rights of the Child would be meeting at the Palais Wilson from 14 January to 1 February to review the promotion and protection of children's rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Georgia, Timor-Leste and the Dominican Republic. The Committee would also consider the situation in Timor-Leste, Kuwait and Chile with regard to the promotion and protection of children's rights under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and would review efforts made by Timor-Leste, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait and Chile with regard to their implementation of the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. A background press release had been issued yesterday.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women would hold its fortieth session at the Palais des Nations from 14 January to 1 February 2008 to review the reports of Bolivia, Burundi, Saudi Arabia, France, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Morocco and Sweden on how those countries are implementing their obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Ms. Heuzé said this marked the first session of the Committee since the transfer of its secretariat services from the Division for the Advancement of Women in New York to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. The transfer came at the request of Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as part of wider reforms to rationalize and streamline the work of the human rights treaty bodies. The background press release would be issued shortly.

Ms. Heuzé said the Group of Governmental Experts of the States Parties to the 1980 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW) would also meet from 14 to 18 January 2008 at the Palais des Nations. The Group of Governmental Experts would negotiate on the humanitarian, military, technical and legal aspects of the use of cluster munitions. A press release had been issued on this issue.

The Director reminded journalists that the calendar of meetings at the Palais des Nations during 2008 was available in the press room.

Ms. Heuzé said the World Economic Forum had asked her to remind journalists that they would be holding a press conference on Wednesday, 16 January at 11 a.m. at the headquarters of the World Economic Forum.

UNCTAD Panel on Creative Economy and Industries for Development

Ms. Heuzé said the UNCTAD XII was meeting in April in Accra, Ghana, and for the first time, one of its themes would be the creative economy and industries for development in developing countries.

Muriel Scibilia of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said a high-level panel on the creative economy and industries for development, an UNCTAD XII pre-event, would be held on 14 and 15 January at the Palais des Nations. The objective of the high-level panel was to provide a platform for progress in the intergovernmental debate in this new area. The creative economy was an evolving concept based on creative assets and covered economic, cultural, technological and social issues. The session would explore the creative economy’s conceptual, institutional and policy framework, as well as global trends and features of the international market for creative industries.
The high-level panel was expected to propose innovative development options that could help developing countries to put in place cross-cutting policies that would enhance their creative capacities and the competitiveness of their creative goods and services with a view to making development gains. The panel’s recommendations would be transmitted to the Preparatory Committee so as to facilitate the deliberations by Member States on this topic at UNCTAD XII. During UNCTAD XII, there would be a number of side events including a concert, art exhibitions and a fashion show. On 20 April, a joint UNCTAD/UNDP report would be released in Ghana on the consequences and economic potential of the creative industries.

Ms. Scibilia said documentation on the panel, including a press release and the programme of work, would be issued shortly. There would be a press conference at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, 14 January. There would also be a reception held and journalists were cordially invited to attend.

Kenya

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in Kenya, the UN agencies were working with the figure of 250,000 internally displaced people, and that nearly half a million people would need assistance in the coming weeks and months. An inter-agency appeal was being prepared and would be launched at the beginning of next week. The Central Emergency Response Fund had given approval for an initial allocation of $ 7 million and the bulk of that would go to traditional areas such as food, health, water, shelter and sanitation. It was anticipated that malnutrition would rapidly worsen if insecurity and lack of access to food and assistance persisted, in addition to the destruction of farms and loss of family livelihoods. Dozens of cases of rape and gender based violence had been reported and there was a need for post-rape treatment. UNFPA had distributed 1,000 post-violation kits to Nairobi hospitals. There was a note available with more details.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said WFP had started for the first time food distributions in the slum areas of Nairobi, in collaboration with the Kenyan Government and the Kenyan Red Cross. The food distribution had taken place in one slum area and would then continue in three other slums. The objective was the help 33,000 persons and to provide them with one week of rations. Food prices had increased by 400 per cent and few food items were available in the slums. Out of the 2.3 million inhabitants of Nairobi, 60 per cent lived in these slums. WFP was also using a helicopter to check the Rift Valley and see if there were populations which did not have access to food aid. To date, WFP had distributed a complementary food ration to 46,000 internally displaced persons, in addition to 71,000 who had already received cereals provided by the Government and distributed by the Kenyan Red Cross. Within the inter-agency appeal, WFP was asking for money to help 225,000 internally displaced persons and those affected by the violence. It was important that the donors responded rapidly to the appeal.

In response to a question on the security situation and the distribution of food aid, Ms. Berthiaume said the situation had obviously improved, but it remained precarious and volatile. There was still movement of populations. This was because the political situation was not stable yet.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said the situation remained tense but calm in Kenya. Last week, UNICEF had distributed 11,000 family kits to cover the needs of internally displaced persons. These kits contained covers, soap, jerry cans and water. UNICEF had also provided 55 health kits to provide basic healthcare for 100,000 persons. Available was a document which UNICEF staff on the ground in Kenya had compiled, quoting traumatized young people about their experience during the violence. In response to a question, Ms. Taveau said 30 per cent of children in Kenya were malnourished, so everything which could make the situation more difficult – in terms of work of parents or availability of food - would worsen the situation of the children themselves and UNICEF was concerned about that.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said in Kenya, more than 4,000 internally displaced people had been registered by the Kenya Ted Cross and IOM at an accommodation site in Eldoret in Kenya’s Rift Valley province, the worst affected by the recent violence in the country. IOM had received $ 660,000 from the Central Emergency Response Fund which had allowed it to manage and coordinate camps for internally displaced persons in response to the crisis and to provide logistics and transport assistance for the relocation of vulnerable persons and the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

A journalist asked for a press conference with former UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan as he would be mediating in the Kenya crisis. Ms. Heuzé said she would check, but she knew that Mr. Annan was not in Geneva at the moment. She also noted that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had voiced strong support to the mission given by the Chairman of the African Union to Kofi Annan to mediate the Kenyan political crisis.

Situation in Gaza

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said WFP had carried out a study on the food situation in the Gaza Strip in mid-December to evaluate the effect of the closure of the Karni border crossing point since June and the results were now out. It was found that 22 per cent more people in Gaza now needed food aid in Gaza, and that the situation was further declining every day. The number of people WFP was helping in Gaza had now risen to 302,000, or 65 per cent of the non-refugee population of Gaza, up from 252,000. The WFP had increased its appeal for funds from
$ 107 million to $ 141 million. So far $ 45 million had been donated, but without further offers soon, the agency would be forced to begin cutting back its operations from March.

WMO

Paul Garwood of the World Meteorological Organization said WMO was developing a new global satellite strategy to monitor climate change. It was developing a new vision for using dozens of satellites to monitor climate change and weather. A high-level WMO meeting would be held in New Orleans on 15 and 16 January to put this strategy to the world’s space agencies. A press release was available and his colleague would provide more details.

Jerome Lafeuille, Chief of the Space-based Observing System Division for WMO’s Space Programme, said New Orleans was chosen by the American colleagues because the damage of Hurricane Katrina was still fresh in minds and satellites had primary responsibility to help monitor such weather. The main focus of the meeting next week would be the expansion of the Global Observing System by satellite to not only monitor severe weather but also climate on a continuous and long-time basis. The main feature of this new vision for the Global Observing System by satellite was that at the moment, there were operational satellites which were focused on monitoring the weather, and there were a number of experimental satellites which measured additional parameters which were useful for climate. But climate needed to be monitored not only on an experimental basis, but also on an operational basis. So one of the big challenges would be to transfer some experimental programmes to an operational status. Another challenge was that the new vision was more ambitious because it would rely on a wider range of satellites than what were being used now, but the opportunity was that they also had a number of new potential contributors.

Other

Anoush der Boghossian of the World Trade Organization said today, there were agriculture negotiations going on at WTO. On Tuesday, 15 January, the dispute settlement body was meeting, and on 16 and 18 January, there would be meetings of the Pakistan trade policy review. On 17 January, there would be a meeting of the Accession Working Party on membership negotiations for Algeria. And on 18 January, there would be a meeting of the Boeing panel, including a screening of a video recording.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said following the floods in Mozambique, the situation in that country remained of concern. Some 62,000 persons were affected, and 38,000 had been evacuated, half of whom were children. A health cost cluster mission would visit the affected areas next week to evaluate the situation. There was always fear of malaria which worried UNICEF. UNICEF had distributed 15,000 treated mosquito nets to the evacuated persons. Water and sanitation was also a concern for UNICEF and it had installed temporary toilets and water distribution points. Schools remained closed and were scheduled to open on 31 January. UNICEF would be helping the Government to ensure the smooth opening of schools.

Concerning the floods in Zimbabwe, Ms. Taveau said at the request of the Ministry of Health, UNICEF had provided the affected populations in the country with oral dehydration tablets and treated mosquito nets.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said in Zimbabwe, relentless rain continued to cause severe flooding in many areas of the northeast of the country, leaving severe destruction and affecting at least 8,000 people. IOM was working to ensure the smooth distribution of mosquito nets, tarpaulins, blankets and water purifying tablets. More details were available in the IOM notes.

Mr. Chauzy said IOM’s 2007 Displacement Review showed that despite decreasing levels of violence, reduced displacement rates and limited returns, Iraq was still facing a serious humanitarian crisis with more than 2.4 million Iraqis internally displaced and some 2 million living as refugees, mostly in neighbouring Syria and Jordan. And in Egypt, as part of the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human trafficking, a two-day expert group meeting hosted by IOM in collaboration with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, aimed at proposing innovative approaches for the study of human trafficking, was beginning today in Cairo.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said available was a press release on the launch of an appeal for $ 104 million in support of humanitarian, early recovery and development activities in Nepal in 2008. Nepal was prone to disasters and last year, floods and landslides had affected more than 60 per cent of the country and displaced more than 70,000 people. Almost half a million people remained food insecure as a result of drought and other seasonal disasters. There were more details in the press release.