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 World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Health Organization.

Secretary-General

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, was in Istanbul today to take part in a high-level international conference on Somalia, co-hosted by the United Nations and the Government of Turkey.

That conference, to be held from 21 to 23 May, was intended to advance the Djibouti peace process and its objectives of political stability, security and reconstruction. The conference would also focus on combating piracy off the Somali coast. Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Secretary-General would also participate, during his stay in Istanbul, in bilateral meetings with Turkish leaders.

Africa Day 2010

The Director General of the United Nations Office, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, would address the Second African Forum for Dialogue on Tuesday morning, said Ms. Momal-Vanian. This event was organized by the Permanent Delegation of the African Union in Geneva to mark Africa Day 2010.
The Secretary-General’s message on Africa Day 2010 had also been sent out today, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that the UNCTAD Secretary-General, Supachai Panitchpakdi, would also participate in this Second Forum. The statement he would deliver at the Forum would focus on sustainable development as a catalyst for peace and security.


Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was concluding today a three week-long session that had been held at Palais Wilson since 3 May, during which it had considered the reports that were presented by Afghanistan, Algeria, Colombia, Kazakhstan and Mauritius.

The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendation would however be made available only on Tuesday or Wednesday, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

Committee on the Rights of the Child

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on the Rights of the Child would open a three week-long session next Tuesday at Palais Wilson. Ten country reports would be considered during the session: Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Grenada Guatemala, Japan, Nigeria, Serbia and Tunisia.

On Wednesday the Committee would consider the reports of Serbia and Nigeria. On Tuesday and Friday it would consider the reports of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Japan, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.



Malawi/Gay Couple Sentencing

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay had issued a press release today on yesterday’s sentencing to 14 years of imprisonment with hard labour of a gay couple, imposed by a court in Malawi.

The prosecution and sentencing of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga was, in the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ view, blatantly discriminatory, and set an alarming precedent in the region for the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as well as groups that support them, said Mr. Colville.

The law which had enabled the conviction dated back to the colonial era and had lain dormant for a number of years – rightly so, because it was discriminatory and had the effect of criminalizing and stigmatizing people based on perceptions of their identity. “If this was replicated worldwide, we would be talking about the widespread criminalization of millions of people in consensual relationships and the rampant violation of privacy”, said Mr. Colville.

Laws that criminalized people on the basis of their sexual orientation were by their nature discriminatory, and as such were in apparent violation of a number of key international treaties, including the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. Unfortunately such laws still existed in quite a number of countries across the world, said Mr. Colville. The trend should be towards getting rid of them, as was the case with other forms of discrimination. Instead, some countries, including Malawi, seemed to be heading in the opposite direction.

Mr. Colville said the High Commissioner was calling for the conviction to be repealed and for the penal codes criminalizing homosexuality to be reformed. She was also concerned that this case appeared to have stimulated a marked deterioration in official and public attitudes in Malawi, not just towards individuals perceived as being homosexual but also towards organizations that speak out about sexual orientation and related issues, including ones doing vital work to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights believed that the reverberations of this decision, along with the recent attempt to bring in a new draconian bill aimed at homosexuals in Uganda, could have severe repercussions throughout the African continent. It would inevitably drive same-sex couples underground, and if this trend continued and spread, not only would it mark a major setback to civil liberties, it could have a disastrous effect on the fight against HIV/AIDS, said Mr. Colville.

“So, in addition to the serious moral and legal ramifications of this decision, it raises intensely practical problems as well”, said Mr. Colville.

The argument was sometimes made that non-discrimination against people on the grounds of sexual orientation was a cultural issue, said Mr. Colville. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights believed that it was clearly a question of fundamental rights, not one of geography, history or disparate cultures. The protection of individuals against discrimination was pervasive in international human rights law. Why should it be suspended for this one group?

Tajikistan Humanitarian Appeal

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that an appeal of US$ 5.3 million had been launched to provide relief and recovery assistance to thousands of people that had been affected by the flashfloods in Kulyab and the surrounding districts in the south of Tajikistan on 7 May.

About 4,500 persons had been displaced since their houses had been destroyed, their livestock killed and crops destroyed said Ms. Byrs. These displaced were currently staying in tent camps. Another 16,000 persons in rural areas had lost their livelihoods and their livestock. These persons needed life-sustaining support for up to six months.

Ms. Byrs said the appeal included 26 projects proposed by United Nations agencies and partners. Tajikistan was already the poorest country of the 15 former Soviet republics, she noted.

Somali Asylum Seekers

Melissa Fleming of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that on 11 May, UNHCR had issued new eligibility guidelines on the protection needs of Somali asylum seekers and on 12 May had notified donors of its concerns over the deteriorating situation in Somalia.

Ms. Fleming said that, today, UNHCR was appealing to all States to uphold their international obligations with regard to non-refoulement. Returns to central and southern Somalia must only take place on a strictly voluntary basis.

The practice of States with regard to assessment of protection needs regrettably varied quite a lot, said Ms. Fleming. In recent months there had been incidents of returns. Since the release of UNHCR‘s eligibility guidelines these had included a further reported deportation, of over 100 Somalis from Saudi Arabia to Mogadishu in mid May.

UNHCR was concerned by the plight of Somalis globally and believed that a consistent international approach was needed to ensure that the international protection needs of refugees from Somalia were met. Ms. Fleming said that UNHCR again urged governments to pay close heed to UNHCR's new eligibility guidelines.

Children/Central African Republic

Christian Berthiaume of the United Nations Children's Fund said that insecurity and chronic conflict in the Central African Republic continued to impact tens of thousands of children. Delivering humanitarian aid to the regions hit by the conflict was extremely difficult and the lack of funds was further impeding these operations.

Up to one million persons were affected by the conflict, including 190,000 internally displaced persons, 25,000 refugees form the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 5,000 refugees from Sudan. Ms. Berthiaume said the United Nations Children's Fund and its partners continued to respond to the humanitarian needs of the population affected by the conflict in the priority areas of health, nutrition, water and sanitation.

However, the United Nations Children's Fund had only received US$ 2 million to date, out of the US$ 12 million that had been requested as part of the 2010 Consolidated Appeals Process joint appeal, said Ms. Berthiaume. The most urgent funding priorities amounted to US$ 4 million over the next three months.

Ms. Berthiaume said that if funding needs were not addressed, at least 300,000 children under five years of age and 100,000 pregnant women would not be able to access integrated health and nutrition packages; 150,000 children under five and 500,000 households would remain unprotected against malaria; 274,000 children in rural areas would continue to have poor access to safe drinking water; 50,000 adolescents living with HIV/AIDS and 500,000 youth at risk would not receive targeted behaviour change communications on HIV prevention, care and treatment; 1,000 children associated with various armed groups would not benefit from demobilization and reintegration programmes and 100,000 orphans would not be able to access protection services.

World Health Assembly

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the World Health Assembly was concluding today. The Assembly was scheduled to conclude its work at 9.00 p.m., tonight. But pending issues in Committee A and Committee B could extend the discussions until midnight. All remaining issues would be discussed either at the next Executive Council or the next Assembly.

Since yesterday, the Assembly was also discussing a document on the election of the Director-General of the World Health Organization. Ms. Chaib said that since 2007 there had been talks about the election criteria of the Director-General. Some countries asked for a geographical rotation and others believed that only the best candidate should be elected, without geographical consideration. The Assembly might vote on this issue today.

Sarah Russell of the World Health Organization said that two drafts resolutions had been put forward on counterfeit drugs. These papers were now before a drafting committee to get five draft resolutions into one which should then be submitted to Committee A, which should submit it to the Plenary, later today.

Also, the draft global code of recruitment of health personnel had gone to Committee A without problems yesterday and was before the Assembly today, said Ms. Russell.

Peter Strebel, Medical Officer, Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, World Health Organization said that World Health Organization members had accepted, yesterday, the report to the World Health Assembly entitled “Global Eradication of measles”.

Mr. Strebel noted that measles deaths among children under five years of age had fallen by 89 per cent from 1.1 million in 1990 to 118,000 in 2008; accounting for nearly 25 per cent of the total decline in child mortality over this period. This success had led many countries on a more ambitious goal: global eradication of measles. However, no target date for achieving this eradication had been set.

At the Assembly yesterday, Member States had endorsed a series of interim targets set for 2015 on the way to eradication, said Mr. Strebel. While these targets were achievable, there were barriers to reaching them in the near term and to even maintaining the tremendous gains that were made so far.

Starting in 2008 there had been a considerable decline in funding and political commitment for measles control, noted Mr. Strebel. This had resulted in a stagnation of progress. Being one of the most contagious diseases, measles was making a rapid comeback. Since 2009, there had been large measles outbreaks in several countries all over the world. WHO estimated that the combined effect of decreased financial and political commitment could result in a return to over 500,000 deaths a year by 2012, wiping out the gains that had been made over the past 18 years.

If measles outbreaks continued to spread in this way, the achievement of Millennium Development Goal Four ¯ reduction of child mortality by two-thirds ¯ would be in jeopardy, said Mr. Strebel.

Steven Wiersma, Medical Officer, Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, World Health Organization, said that WHO Member States had accepted this morning the report to the World Health Assembly entitled “Viral hepatitis” and had adopted a Resolution on this issue.

The Member States had recognized the tremendous burden caused by viral hepatitis (i.e. hepatitis A, B, C, D and E) — a combination of diseases that were estimated to kill over 1 million persons each year and an estimated one in 12 persons were currently infected and had to face a life with liver disease if unrecognized. This endorsement by Member States called for WHO to develop a comprehensive approach to the prevention and control of these diseases, said Mr. Wiersma.

The Assembly had recognized some very notable achievements in hepatitis prevention. These included infant immunization with hepatitis B vaccines. There were now over 91 per cent of Member States that included the hepatitis B vaccine in their infant immunization programs and over 70 per cent of infants had received three doses of this vaccine which provided them with life-long protection from this one virus, said Mr. Wiersma.

Despite these tremendous successes, the Assembly had noted that more needed to be done to ensure that those already infected had access to care and effective treatments to delay development of disease and prevent disability, said Mr. Wiersma. the Key elements of the strategy called for a World Hepatitis Day; the developing of comprehensive strategies and time-bound goals; the strengthening disease surveillance; enhancing prevention aspects; providing screening, diagnosis and treatment for those already infected and formulating tools for developing country situations.


4th Geneva Lectures Series

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the fourth edition of the Geneva Lectures Series www.unog.ch/gls , a joint United Nations Institute for Training and Research and United Nations Office at Geneva initiative, would be held on Wednesday, 26 May, at 4:30 p.m. in the Assembly Hall.

The speaker for this edition would be Jane Goodall, United Nations Messenger for Peace and Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, who would speak under the theme of “Nature’s wake-up call: Why we must heed the warning”, said Ms. Momal-Vanian. The event was also held in conjunction with World Environment Day.

Global Framework for Climate Services

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said that the High-Level Task Force towards the Global Framework for Climate Services, whose creation had been decided during the Third World Climate Conference, would meet next week in Geneva.

UNCTAD Agenda

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said that UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General, Petko Draganov, would be in Berlin on 29 May to address the 2010 International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy.

A Preparatory Meeting of the Latin America and Caribbean Region for the Sixth United Nations Conference to Review All Aspects of the United Nations Set on Competition would be held from 26 to 28 May in Brasilia, said Ms. Sibut-Pinote.

UNECE Agenda

Jean Rodriguez of the United Nations Economic Commission on Europe (UNECE) said that UNECE’s Executive Secretary, Jan Kubis, would be in Prague on 24 and 25 May to attend the Eighteenth Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Economic and Environmental Forum. The theme of the Forum was "Promoting good governance at border crossings, improving the security of land transportation and facilitating international transport by road and rail in the OSCE region".

On 26 May, Mr. Kubis would meet in Geneva with the Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan and on 27 May with the Ambassador of Israel and the Director of the Division for International Organizations of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Also that day, the Executive Secretary would meet with members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Bureau of Fruit and Vegetables Scheme, said Mr. Rodriguez.

Several meetings would also be held next week at the Palais des Nations, said Mr. Rodriguez. Among them was a meeting of the Working Party on Customs Questions affecting Transport on 25 to 28 May. Further, a meeting of the Task Force on the assessment and monitoring of air pollution effects on forests would be held from 29 May to 2 June in Garmisch-Parten-kirchen, Germany.


New UNOG Website

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the website of the United Nations Office at Geneva had been revamped to streamline navigation and to give the site a more contemporary and appealing design. Access to press releases had also been made easier.

The website can be accessed under www.unog.ch.