REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Officer-in-charge of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Trade Organization.

Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the latest report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council on the UN Mission in Sudan came out yesterday. The Security Council was scheduled to take up the report in closed consultations today after its presentation by Alain Le Roy, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.

In the report, the Secretary-General noted a deterioration in the security situation in Southern Sudan, saying that escalating intertribal violence in Southern Sudan was a significant threat to the stability of the country as a whole. Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General warned that key milestones in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, such as the elections and referendums, could easily be affected by the growing insecurity.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General added that the conduct of peaceful, transparent and credible elections was fundamental for the process of democratic transformation throughout Sudan, and it was only possible if all Sudanese stakeholders, including those in Darfur, worked together to enhance a conducive political environment. The report was available on the UN website.

Also available in the Press Room was the Secretary-General’s statement on the killing of a UN staff member in Pakistan, in which he said that he had been shocked and saddened by the killing of a senior national staff member of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the Katcha Garhi refugee camp near Peshawar, Pakistan, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

In another statement on the murder of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, also available in the Press Room, the Secretary-General said that he was appalled and saddened by the murder of the Russian human rights activist Natalia Estemirova following her abduction from her home in Grozny, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay, and the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, both urged on Thursday for thorough and independent investigation into the murder of this Russian human rights activist, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

Economic and Social Council

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Economic and Social Council was continuing this morning its debate on operational activities by holding a dialogue with UN country teams on strengthening UN country team’s coherent support to public health. The Council would then conclude its debate by adopting the conclusions of this debate.

This afternoon, the Council would hold a joint event of the operational and humanitarian affairs segments, which would be focused on the coordination in the transition phase between emergency relief and sustainable recovery, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier.

On Monday morning, the Council would start its Humanitarian Affairs Segment, under the theme of “Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian assistance: Present challenges and their impact on the future”. The Humanitarian Affairs Segment would last until Wednesday included.

Véronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said that there would be a series of speakers taking part to the Humanitarian Affairs Segment including, amongst others, Mr. John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and Louis-Georges Arsenault, UNICEF's Director of the Office of Emergency Programmes.

Ms. Taveau said that Mr. Arsenault would also brief the press on Tuesday at 2 p.m. on the situation in Pakistan and the activities of UNICEF in this country, as he just came back from a mission to Pakistan.

Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People would convene a United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine on 22 and 23 July 2009 at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The theme of the meeting was “Responsibility of the international community to uphold international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the wake of the war in Gaza”.

The Opening session would take place on Wednesday, 22 July 2009, at 10.00 a.m. in Conference Room XVI of the Palais des Nations, said Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier. Statements were expected to be made by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva and Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, by Paul Badji, Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, by the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, Rudi Salle, and by a representative of Palestine.

Human Rights Committee

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Human Rights Committee was continuing its consideration of the report of Chad today. On Monday afternoon, the Committee would consider the report of Azerbaijan, until Tuesday morning.

Killing of UN Staff in Pakistan

Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that UNHCR staff were still in shock over the brutal killing yesterday of staff member Zill-e Usman, who has been shot by unidentified gunmen in the Katcha Gari camp in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. Another UNHCR staff member has been wounded in the incident and he was reported in stable condition in a hospital today. A guard working with the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees, which was a government-funded agency, had also been killed.

Four to five gunmen had reportedly opened fire on Mr. Usman as he was walking back from the camp administrative office to his car during a routine visit to the site, said Mr. Redmond. Mr. Usman had been the third UNHCR staff member to be killed in Pakistan this year. On June 9, Aleksandar Vorkapic had died in the bombing of the Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar and on February 2, Syed Hashim, UNHCR senior driver, had been killed in the kidnapping of John Solecki, head of the Quetta office, who had been released two months later.

In expressing UNHCR's deepest condolences to Mr. Usman's family, High Commissioner António Guterres had said that there was no justification for attacks on humanitarian workers dedicated to protection and care of the world's most vulnerable people. Mr. Redmond said that Deputy High Commissioner L. Craig Johnstone had told staff gathered in Geneva headquarters yesterday for a minute of silence that the killing of Mr. Usman had been an outrage and a tragedy that affected us all. It also raised some fundamental questions on how UNHCR could ensure staff security in a very difficult situation.

Mr. Redmond said that globally, it reminded them what the High Commissioner had previously described as a major dilemma facing humanitarian agencies around the world – how did they meet the life-or-death needs of the world's most vulnerable people while making sure that those who provided that help were kept safe?

Their ability to assist those who needed it most was being severely tested by the shrinkage of what Mr. Guterres called the 'humanitarian space' in which they had to work. The nature of conflict was changing, noted Mr. Redmond. This was particularly true nowadays as conflicts were increasingly within the boarders of one country and with a multiplicity of armed groups – some of whom viewed humanitarians as legitimate targets.

Another indication of that was this week’s brutal killing in Chechnya of Ms. Natalia Estemirova, who was working for “Memorial”, which was a close Non governmental organisation partner of UNHCR. She had also been awarded UNHCR's Nansen Refugee Award in 2004, said Mr. Redmond.

In an address in January to the UN Security Council, the High Commissioner had noted that humanitarian personnel worked in the most dangerous places in the world and risked their own lives in an effort to help vulnerable populations to preserve theirs. Ensuring staff safety had to be a top priority for every humanitarian organization and the UN as a whole, and the High Commissioner had added that this was non-negotiable, said Mr. Redmond. And yet, through the evolving nature of armed conflict and the changing attitudes of some belligerents, the deliberate targeting of humanitarian workers had increased, establishing a tension – and in some cases a contradiction – between the imperatives of staff safety and humanitarian action.

UNHCR had continuously struggled to determine the 'acceptable' level of security risk to which its staff members could be exposed. As yesterday's tragedy demonstrated this was a truly terrible dilemma, said Mr. Redmond.

Answering to questions asked by journalists on the reason behind the killing and whether there would be an investigation, Mr. Redmond said that there would be a very thorough investigation into the incident and into how UNHCR could strengthen or improve security measures. They did not know why this attack had occurred. Also, as part of a standard procedure, some of UNHCR’s staff had been temporarily relocated to Islamabad.




Pollutants

Jean Rodriguez of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said that the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers to the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention), signed by thirty-six governments and the European Community in May 2003 in Kiev, Ukraine, was set to enter into force on 8 October 2009 following France’s ratification, which had been deposited with the United Nations Secretary-General on 10 July.

Michael Stanley-Jones, Environmental Information Management Officer, Aarhus Convention Secretariat, UNECE Environment, Housing and Land Management Division, said that pollutant release and transfer registers were inventories of pollutants and of waste that were released, or transferred, from industrial facilities, and from other sources, such as agriculture, traffic and small and medium enterprises.

The Protocol to the Aarhus Convention could be seen as an independent treaty; a freestanding legal instrument, said Mr. Stanley-Jones. The inventories were made available to the public over the Internet and helped people identify major pollutants that were travelling through their neighbourhoods, to discover what was in their back yard and to find out how they could address these sources of pollutants. Further, European Union countries were already preparing to release their first annual reports on release of pollutants to air, water, land and of waste transferred to communities. The Protocol also offered a new tool to countries battling climate change, as it also covered facilities releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases known to contribute to global warming.

More information can be found under: http://www.unece.org/env/pp/prtr.htm

UNECE Agenda

Jean Rodriguez of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said that UNECE’s Executive Secretary Mr. Jan Kubis would be in Kazakhstan on Monday and Tuesday to participate in a UN System meeting organized by the United Nations Development Programme for all agencies involved in projects in Central Asia.

WTO Agenda

Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said that WTO would launch its 2009 World Trade Report – “Trade Policy Commitments and Contingency Measures”. There would be two simultaneous launch events: one in Geneva and one in Singapore.

While in Singapore, WTO Director-General, Mr. Pascal Lamy would take part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade. He would meet several of the ministers in separate meetings over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday. Mr. Lamy would be in Brussels on Thursday, where he would meet with the European Commissioners for Trade and Economic Affairs, said Ms. Borges.

Turning to the agenda of the WTO headquarters, Ms. Borges said that there would be technical meeting on the Agricultural Negotiations throughout the week. The Dispute Settlement Body would meet on Monday and on Wednesday an informal General Council would take place, where members would discuss the arrangements and preparations for the November Ministerial Conference. Azerbaijan’s membership negotiations would take place on Friday.

WHO and Geneva Press Corps relationship

During the briefing a journalist said that Agence France Press (AFP) had sent a letter to World Health Organization Director General, Ms. Margaret Chan, to protest the fact that she had held an embargoed briefing with a restricted group of journalists.

The journalist said that they had received a response from Ms. Chan today, and that her answer was particularly unsatisfactory and too offhand. AFP wished to reiterate their protest to the UN about the holding of this restricted briefing. WHO was too casual in its relationship with the Geneva Press Corps and today’s absence of a WHO spokesperson, the day after an important publication on the status of the H1N1 flu was a further proof of this. What was the reason behind the absence of a WHO spokesperson during a major pandemic?

The journalist said that AFP was also seriously looking into the possibility to join the request by Association of Correspondents Accredited to the United Nations (ACANU) for a legal opinion on this matter.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piqueir said that she would inform the Director General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Mr. Sergei Ordzhonikidze on these matters. She also said that it would be important to hold a meeting between the ACANU and UN spokespersons to discuss these issues.