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 also attended by Spokespersons for the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development and the World Meteorological Organization.

Fifteenth Anniversary of International Conference on Population and Development

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivered remarks yesterday at the General Assembly’s commemoration of the fifteenth anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development. Highlighting the importance of this Conference which took place in Cairo in 1994, he stressed that it was there that, for the first time, governments acknowledged that every person had the right to sexual and reproductive health. He noted the progress made in women’s health but said the Cairo consensus remained more a goal than a reality. The Secretary-General said that to fully carry out the Cairo Programme of Action meant providing women with reproductive health services, including family planning. It meant backing poverty-eradication initiatives and it meant preventing rape during wartime and ending the culture of impunity.

The Secretary-General’s remarks were available in the press room.

Secretary-General’s Report on Timor-Leste

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Secretary-General’s report to the Security Council on the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) was released yesterday. The Secretary-General stressed that progress and stability in the country remained fragile. He commended the efforts of President José Ramos-Horta to promote continued dialogue across the political spectrum and among all segments of society. And he reiterated that his good offices would continue efforts to promote constructive political dialogue and a united effort among all political actors on important national issues.
The Secretary-General said he believed that the present strength and composition of UNMIT formed police units should be maintained, especially given that the national police special units were undergoing the organizational reforms required under the new national police organic law.

The full text of the Secretary-General’s report was available on the UN website.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Human Rights Committee this morning would conclude its review of the third periodic report of Switzerland. The press release would be issued at the end of the meeting. This afternoon, the Committee would start its consideration of the second periodic report of the Republic of Moldova. Also this week, the Committee would review the second periodic report of Croatia and the sixth periodic report of the Russian Federation. All the meetings were being held at the Palais Wilson, expect for the report of the Russian Federation which would take place in Room XXIII in the Palais des Nations.

The Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families this morning would conclude its review of the initial report of Sri Lanka. On Wednesday, the Committee would hold a Day of General Discussion on domestic migrant workers. The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations on the report of Sri Lanka would be released on Friday, 16 October, the last day of the session.

Special Session of Human Rights Council

In response to a question on whether there would be a Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the situation in East Jerusalem and the Goldstone report, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that as of this moment, an official request had not yet been delivered to the Council. Asked if consultations were continuing on this issue, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that was correct. The Information Service would keep journalists updated via email on this issue. [It was later announced that the Human Rights Council will meet in a Special Session on Thursday, 15 October at 3 p.m. to discuss “the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and East Jerusalem”. The Special Session was expected to continue on Friday, 16 October.]

World Health Organization and UNICEF

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization recalled that as mentioned last week, a joint WHO/UNICEF report which would be launched in New York on 14 October on a new strategy to reduce child deaths from diarrhoea. The report would be launched via a teleconference at 4:30 p.m. Geneva time by a number of speakers including Ann Veneman, UNICEF Executive Director, and Elizabeth Mason, WHO Director for Child and Adolescent Health and Development. Copies of the embargoed report were available. More details about how to participate in the teleconference were available in the media advisory.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said the joint report with WHO on a new strategy to reduce child deaths from diarrhoea would be launched on 14 October. The second annual Global Handwashing Day would be commemorated on 15 October. This Day was celebrated in more than 80 countries. Every year, diarrhoeal diseases and acute respiratory infections were responsible for the deaths of more than 3.5 million children under the age of five. Global Handwashing Day put the spotlight on the importance of handwashing with soap and water as one of the most effective and affordable health interventions. Washing hands with soap and water helped reduce the incidence of diarrhoeal disease by more than 40 per cent and respiratory infections by nearly 25 per cent.

Gregory Hartl of the World Health Organization said there would be a virtual press conference for Geneva correspondents this week on the latest developments on H1N1 Influenza. It would probably be on Friday, 16 October, and it would be out of Washington. There was a big clinical meeting going on in Washington starting today, running for three days, on what had been learnt so far about the clinical manifestations in a course of H1N1 in clinical settings. It would be at 4 p.m. on Friday, Geneva time. In Washington, it would be a fact-to-face press conference.

Human Rights

Xabier Celaya of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said High Commissioner Navi Pillay was traveling to Brussels where tomorrow she would be opening the first OHCHR office in Western Europe to serve the European Community. OHCHR had an office in Russia and other offices covering Eastern Europe, but this was the first OHCHR office covering the European Union. A press release with more details would be issued tomorrow.

Ms. Pillay said today she was deeply dismayed to hear that another juvenile offender was executed in the Islamic Republic of Iran on Sunday, and called for changes to Iranian law and practice “to end execution of juvenile offenders once and for all.”
She also said she had serious concerns about the death sentences recently handed down to three individuals for their involvement in the protests that took place after Iran’s recent Presidential election. A press release with the High Commissioner’s remarks would be issued shortly.

Mr. Celaya said another press release would be issued this morning from the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial and summary executions, Philip Alston, on the exchanges he had had with the Iranian Government on the issue of juvenile executions.

Yemen

Andrej Mahecic of the UN Refugee Agency said the situation in the north of Yemen remained tense and volatile. The civilian population of Sa’ada governorate continued to flee to the surrounding provinces as the fighting between government troops and Al Houti forces showed no sign of abating. As street battles continued in the city of Sa’ada, the humanitarian situation continued to worsen. Many shops and stores had run out of basic commodities and supplies. Electricity was available from 6 p.m. to midnight and access to the only remaining functioning market was now blocked. Water supplies were available just twice a week. UNHCR’s local partners continued to register displaced people in Sa’ada despite the conflict. The security situation surrounding the camp for internally displaced persons in Khaiwan in Amran governorate was of serious concern to UNHCR. UNHCR appealed to the government to allow the United Nations to start the distribution of aid to IDPs outside the camp. A cross-border convoy carrying aid for some 2,000 people stranded close to Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia crossed into Yemen at the town of Alb on 11 October.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund said an information note on the deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Yemen was available at the back of the room. UNICEF was alarmed by the deteriorating humanitarian situation. Two months after the escalation of fighting, humanitarian access was still restricted. Thousands of affected persons, mostly children and women displaced by the conflict, and others who were stranded inside the conflict zone, had still not been reached by humanitarian actors. According to Aboudou Karimou Adjibadé, UNICEF Representative in Yemen, the humanitarian situation was getting worse by the day. Thousands of children had had very limited access to safe water, food and hygiene in weeks. Malnutrition levels were on the rise and children were facing serious threats to their well-being and even lives. More details were available in the information note.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said only 16 per cent of the appeal for Yemen had been financed. Close to $ 20 million were still missing to cover the Flash Appeal for $ 23.7 million.

The Philippines

Ms. Byrs of OCHA said the situation in the Philippines remained serious. United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, arrived yesterday in the Philippines and would then continue to Indonesia to visit sites of the latest natural disasters. It was now estimated that 6.3 million people had been affected in the Philippines by tropical storm Ketsana and typhoon Parma. A 20-person UNDAC team had been sent to the Philippines on 11 October and its first assessment would be available tomorrow. The agricultural sector was one of the worst affected by the storms, with damages reaching $ 213 million. Some 190,000 farmers were estimated to have been affected and a total of 185,763 hectares of rice-farming land. Approximately 12,500 heads of livestock and 84,000 heads of poultry were also lost. Farmers needed agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizers, tools, poultry, animals and fishing equipment. In the $ 74 million Flash Appeal for the Philippines, the agricultural sector had not received any input at all. There were more details in the information note.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM today took delivery of an air cargo of desperately needed water containers, hygiene kits and soap for victims of the floods in the northern Philippines. The $ 350,000 shipment of non-food relief items donated by USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance would help over 20,000 families displaced by the widespread flooding and devastation that followed the storms. IOM had appealed for $ 8.66 million to provide emergency shelter and non-food relief items for the victims. The UN Central Emergency Response Fund, the European Commission and USAID had already committed to $ 2.25 million, which would allow IOM to help some 61,000 families over the next three months.

Other

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said on Thursday, 15 October at 11 a.m. in Room III, there would be a press conference to present the 2009 Information Economy Report - Trends and Outlook in Turbulent Times. The embargoed report and three press releases were available on the website.

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty was commemorated on 16 October. This was the fourth year that the theme was “Stand-Up Against Poverty”. This year, they would have a group photo at 11 a.m. in the Colonnades (North Entrance of ILO). Participants would also be able to have soup and all proceedings would be donated to the Geneva Red Cross for its programme of fighting against poverty in Switzerland.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said available in the press room were invitations to the Group Photo event and some posters.

Ms. Taveau of UNICEF said actor Orlando Bloom has been named as UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

Mr. Chauzy of IOM said IOM would today start to move 1,000 tonnes of rice to meet food shortages in Pariaman district in Indonesia, where landslides buried three villages in the West Sumatra earthquake on 30 September. More details were available in the press notes.

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said during the past weeks in South East Asia there had been a handful of natural disasters affecting a number of countries. Between 1980 and 2007, nearly 8,400 disasters caused by natural hazards had taken the lives of more than 2 million people and had produced economic losses of over $ 1.5 trillion. WMO would be celebrating the International Day for Disaster Reduction (14 October) by working with its international partners and its 188 Members around the world to integrate early warning systems into emergency preparedness and response, and to learn from good practices. A press release with more details was available.