REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the International Labour Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children's Fund and the World Health Organisation.

Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference kicked off in New York yesterday. In his statement, the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, had stressed that disarmament and non-proliferation were amongst his top priorities. The Secretary-General also called on States not party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to ratify it as soon as possible.

Commission on Sustainable Development

A session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development also got under way in New York yesterday, said Ms. Momal-Vanian. It would last until 14 May. At the opening of the session, Sha Zukang, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, told the Commission that changing unsustainable consumption patterns was critical to maintaining our planet’s ecological balance. Luis Alberto Ferraté Felice, Guatemala’s Environment and Natural Resources Minister and chair of the Commission, had said that sustainable development required a transformation of values and principles that directly influenced development strategies and lifestyles. With the Earth’s current population of 6.75 billion, consumption and production volumes were expected to continue to rise, severely straining ecosystems. Over 60 per cent of the ecosystem services are being degraded or unsustainably used. Further, 20 per cent of the population in the highest income countries were accounting for 77 per cent of total consumption in 2005, while the poorest 20 per cent used only 1.3 per cent.

Disarmament

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Thirtieth Ministerial Meeting of the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa had adopted last Friday in Kinshasa a new legal instrument called the Central African Convention on the control of small arms and light weapons, their ammunitions and parts and components that can be used for their fabrication, repair and assembly.

Committee Against Torture

Ms. Corinne Momal-Vanian said that the Committee Against Torture had heard yesterday morning Switzerland’s answers to questions raised by Committee Experts last Friday. The Committee’s concluding observations concerning Switzerland and the other countries being examined at the current session, would be made public at the end of the session on 14 May.

Also, yesterday afternoon, Syria presented its report to the Committee and Experts raised questions, to which the delegation would give answers this afternoon, said Ms. Momal-Vanian. This morning, the Committee was considering the report of Lichtenstein.

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had opened yesterday its forty-fourth session and had held a meeting with non-governmental organisations, which informed the Committee on the situation of economic, social and cultural rights in Colombia, Algeria, Mauritius, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan, whose reports would be considered during this session, said Ms. Momal-Vanian. The Committee was starting today its consideration of the report of Colombia, until tomorrow morning. The report of Algeria would be considered on Wednesday and Thursday and the report of Mauritius on Friday and next Monday.

Yemen

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said that due to lack of funding for its programme in Yemen, the World Food Programme had been forced to cut rations in half starting this month. These half-rations would be primarily given to the roughly 270,000 internally displaced persons that had been displaced by the conflict in and around Sadaa, as well as to participants in a few other specialized feeding programmes for children under the age of five and pregnant and lactating mothers.

Recent food security reports had confirmed that 3.4 million people in Yemen needed food aid, but the World Food Programme was currently only able to reach about 14 per cent of those; and now only with half-rations, said Ms. Casella.

Half-rations meant about 1,050 Kcal per person per day, compared to 2,100 Kcal which was the recommended standard. Ms. Casella said that by August, the World Food Programme in Yemen would have run out of food almost completely, including for nutritional support for 50,000 internally displaced children under the age of five.

World Food Programme staff was seeing children of one year old arriving in food centers with the weight and height of newborns, said Ms. Casella. Many families were also seen essentially eating only bread and tea during the day, with a few vegetables a couple of times a week. They rarely ate important sources of protein and vitamins such as eggs, meat or fish. WFP’s Food for Education programmes had succeeded in raising girls’ enrolment by as much as 60 per cent in some schools, but due to this lack of funding, this programme had already been suspended almost a year ago. At the moment, more that one in ten children suffered from acute malnutrition and more than half of the children under fiver were underweight. Overall, 12 per cent of the population was severely food insecure.

WFP was in important discussions with regional and international donors and remained hopeful that funds would arrive and that the situation would improve for its programme in Yemen, said Ms. Casella. Currently, WFP was facing a US$ 75.3 million shortfall, out of a total US$ 103 million needed for 2010.

Answering to a journalist’s question, Ms. Casella said that the donors who had provided funds for Yemen this year were the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Norway, the United Nations Central Emergency Fund and Cyprus.

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said the situation in Yemen was very serious and dramatic, especially for the internally displaced persons. Most of them had been in displacement since last August. Those with money had gradually used that money to pay for food. Those with cattle had been forced to sell their livestock. People were still not going back to their areas of origin. They still felt unsafe and feared mines and unexploded ordinances and were waiting for the proof that peace was indeed holding. UNHCR hoped that there would be an adequate response to WFP’s appeal.

Situation in Republic of Congo

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that in the last few days, UNHCR teams had regained access to some 35,000 Congolese refugees scattered on the Republic of Congo (ROC) side of the Oubangui River. The group was part of some 114,000 refugees who had fled clashes sparked by fishing and farming disputes in Equateur Province in north-west Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last October.

Pacifying operations by the DRC military against ethnic militias in Equateur had prevented access for the past five weeks, but with the recent lifting of security restrictions UNHCR had been able to resume humanitarian assistance, said Mr. Mahecic. UNHCR teams would also be looking at reports of new refugee arrivals from the DRC.

The 35,000 Congolese refugees in question were living in 36 sites on the Oubangi River between Doungou and Liranga, some 320 km further south. This area extended from UNHCR‘s main logistics base in the regional capital of Impfondo, some 700 km by air to the north of Brazzaville, said Mr. Mahecic.

As of mid-last week UNHCR staff had been able to resume individual registration of refugees. They were also seeking to verify the number of new refugee arrivals from Equateur, where further deadly assaults by Enyele militia had been reported in the town of Mbandaka in early April. Similar attacks late last October had sparked the influx into ROC, prompting UNHCR and other UN agencies in March to mount a US$ 59 million emergency appeal for food, shelter, water, education, health care and other needs, said Mr. Mahecic.

The refugee situation in this corner of Africa was among the most complex logistical operations UNHCR faced anywhere, said Mr. Mahecic. The 114,000 people they were trying to help in this area were scattered in some 100 sites along a 600 km stretch of the Oubangui River which separated the Republic of Congo from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of the DRC refugees were located to the north of Doungou.

Reaching people across such an extended and remote area presented enormous challenges, said Mr. Mahecic. All UNHCR staff, resources and assistance had to be flown to Impfondo where they were loaded onto speedboats and barges which navigate the Oubangi River. This was the only way for UNHCR staff to reach these refugees and deliver the much needed aid. The operation was consuming a lot of time and resources. For example, it had taken UNHCR teams more than two days to travel by boat the 287 kilometres between Impfondo, the provincial capital of northern ROC, and Liranga.

Meanwhile in DRC, UNHCR was planning to reinforce its presence in Equateur province where it was estimated that a further 30,000 people had been internally displaced, said Mr. Mahecic.

Guinea

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) said that the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, would sign this afternoon an agreement with Guinea’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Bakary Fofana, concerning the formal establishment of an OHCHR office in Guinea.

Mr. Fofana had been a leading member of civil society in Guinea and had been appointed to his post in February, five months after the 28 September demonstration in the capital Conakry, which had been violently suppressed by security forces, with 156 confirmed killed and many others injured, raped and some disappearances, said Mr. Colville.

The Commission of Inquiry that had been set up by the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, in the wake of the September violence, had submitted a report to the Secretary-General. Among the recommendations included in the report had been the establishment of an OHCHR office, said Mr. Colville. This had been subsequently endorsed by the new Government of National Unity, which had been set up in January.

Mr. Colville said that the new office would boost the United Nations’ ability to cooperate with the Government in its efforts promote and protect human rights of all Guineans. OHCHR also believed that is was a clear indication of the current Government’s commitment to draw a line under the country’s very troubled history. The office’s key objectives were to support the Government’s efforts to protect human rights, to fight against impunity – which was a problem that had bedeviled Guinea for decades – and to empower the Guinean people in the realization of all their rights.

Christiane Berthiaume of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Mia Farrow, would travel Wednesday to Guinea. Ahead of elections next month, she would witness how children had been among the most seriously affected by political and economic turmoil in the country. During her five-day mission, she would also meet youth groups and launch the Peace Building Fund, a broader United Nations initiative supported by UNICEF aimed at encouraging young people to find peaceful ways to resolve conflicts and lessen the risk of them being caught up in violence.

Pakistan

Christiane Berthiaume of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that UNICEF was very concerned by the impact on displaced children and women which the lack of funds for its operation in the western part of Pakistan might have. UNICEF had only received a third - US$ 19 million – of the US$ 58 million requested as part of a joint humanitarian appeal. As a result, 6,000 malnourished children which had recently arrived from Federally Administered Tribal Areas could be left without nutritional support.

If new contributions were not received soon, critical water services in crowded camps for displaced persons might be at risk during the very hot summer, exposing children to deadly diseases such as diarrhea, said Ms. Berthiaume. Eight Pakistani children were dying of diarrhea every hour. Amongst internally displaced persons living in crowded and unsanitary conditions, this rate might soar if clean water was not available as the hot summer took hold.

Snake Antivenoms

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that WHO was publishing today new guidelines for the production, regulation and control of snake antivenoms, together with a an online database with details on where venomous snakes were located, what they looked like, which antivenoms were appropriate, and where they could be obtained.

Lembit Rago, WHO Coordinator for Quality and Safety of Medicines, said that snakebite was a neglected public health issue in many tropical and subtropical countries. An estimated 5 million people were bitten each year resulting in up to 2.5 million envenomings, at least 100,000 deaths and around three times as many amputations and other permanent disabilities. Most of these occurred in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Victims were most often women, children, farmers in poor rural communities, mainly in countries were health systems were weak and medical resources scarce, said Mr. Rago. In contrast to other serious health conditions, a highly effective treatment did exist. Most deaths and serious consequences from snakebites were preventable by making antivenom more widely available.

Today, countries faced a critical global shortage of appropriate, safe and effective snake antivenoms, said Mr. Rago. A combination of factors had led to the present situation. WHO had taken steps to raise the awareness of health authorities and policy makers on this issue.

The two tools WHO was publishing today would help public health officials, national medicines regulators, procurement agencies, antivenom manufacturers, clinicians and health care professionals, as well as the general population, said Mr. Rago.

The new guidelines and online database are available at: www.who.int/bloodproducts/snakeantivenoms

Trade & Development

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that tomorrow, a press conference would be held in Press Room III from 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. with Heiner Flassbeck, Director, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and Alfredo Calcagno, Senior Economist, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. They would present the annual publication by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific; the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2010.

Ms. Sibut-Pinote also noted that the Trade and Development Commission’s second session was ongoing. The Commission was holding today a high-level panel on the contribution of tourism to development. The Fifth Annual Meeting of Global Network of Eximbanks and Development Finance Institutions (G-NEXID) would also on the margins of the Commission’s session, this Wednesday and Thursday. The outcome of that meeting would be presented before the Commission this Friday.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s Second Symposium would be held next Monday and Tuesday, said Ms. Sibut-Pinote. This year’s symposium would raise the question of how to identify alternative development strategies that could help less-wealthy countries recover from the many crises that had struck the world since last year.

Other Announcements

The United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfried Lemke would be in Geneva tomorrow, said Ms. Monmal-Vanian, and would be available for interviews between 10 a.m. and noon.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the United Nations Environment Programme would offer a breakfast briefing on Friday, 7 May, from 8:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. in Press Room I with Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary, United Nations Conventions on Biological Diversity.

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization said that the third report on child labour, called “Accelerating Action Against Child Labour”, would be launched this Friday at 11:30 a.m. in Press Room III.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said that Daly Belgasmi, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East would be in Geneva over the next three days and would be available for interviews. Also, this Thursday at noon there would be a briefing on the situation in Chad in Press Room III.