REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

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

Pakistan

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the United Nations was expanding its relief operations in Pakistan as the area inundated by flood waters continued to increase and the number of people affected by the disaster climbed. According to the latest available figures, the number of people as significantly affected was almost 17.2 million, with 8 million needing urgent humanitarian aid. An area of more than 160,000 square kilometres – greater than the entire size of England had now been ravaged by floods since exceptionally heavy monsoon rains began falling in Pakistan late last month. Some 3.4 million heads of cattle had been lost. John Holmes, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York yesterday that the logistics of reaching isolated affected populations with aid was the main challenge. Mr. Holmes said the response plan would have to be revised because the initial figures underestimated the number of people suffering from the disaster. A revised response appeal was expected in mid-September. Mr. Holmes added that about 70 per cent of the $ 460 million initially sought by the UN and its humanitarian partners for flood relief had either been contributed or pledged so far. Mr. Holmes underlined the importance of reviving the agricultural sector as soon as the emergency humanitarian operations ended, as the situation of food security and the economy of Pakistan depended on that sector.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said copies of the latest available operational update were at the back of the room. She just wanted to add more information which she had received from the field this morning. As of this morning, WFP had distributed one-month rations to 2.2 million people affected by the floods under the emergency response, as well as another 500,000 refugees and internally displaced persons who were already on the WFP caseload before the floods. An air bridge had been established between Islamabad and Sukkur yesterday, which would assist with the quick distribution of food. As of yesterday, they were able to send a C-130 transport aircraft with supplies for the World Health Organization to distribute medical supplies. WFP was facing a shortfall of $ 90 million on its $ 150 million appeal, and this was worrying as needs were going up and there would be a revision of the appeal, while they were still short of receiving the full amount needed for the current response plan. WFP urged donors to respond and also for donors who had made pledges to confirm those pledges. WFP needed to acquire the food needed for Pakistan and procurement needed to be done to keep the pipeline flowing, especially for these increased needs. WFP also had to respond to special needs with special kinds of food such as high energy biscuits and ready to eat supplementary foods, such as food made with peanut based paste and chickpea based paste. These helped young children and were very effective. WFP was making sure that they could roll as many of these out. The Executive Director of WFP, Josette Sheeran, would be visiting Pakistan next week to tour the operations in the field.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said there were increasing disease trends, particularly for water and vector borne diseases, especially in Sindh and Punjab provinces. Medical treatment had been provided for more than 3.3 million people until 23 August, with now four main causes for medical consultations: acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, skin infections and suspected cases of malaria. Cases of suspected malaria were increasing in Sindh and Balochistan provinces where active transmission was ongoing. There were no reported deaths yet. It was possible to expect an increase of malaria cases in the next four weeks. Malaria was endemic in Sindh and Balochistan and WHO had provided diagnostic kits and malaria treatment for the population in need. Medical supplies covering the needs of 2.6 million people had been delivered, including medicines for diarrhoea. WHO could meet the health cluster partner needs for the next two months, but more funding would be needed in order to replenish the medicine stock. As of today, 43 per cent of the
$ 56 million requested by the health cluster had been funded.

Marco Jimenez Rodriguez of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF’s parameters continued to be the same in terms of life saving assistance in the places that had been affected in Pakistan. So far in terms of health, over two million people had received medical services in the past three weeks. In terms of immunization, over one million vaccinations had been applied to women and children. It was important to underline that this provision of medical services had been greatly facilitated by a team of some 30,000 lady health workers who belonged to a team under the national health programme. In terms of water, UNICEF was providing safe drinking water to over two million people. This had been possible through the restoration of nearly 500 water supply systems as access was gained to affected areas and with the help of 500 tankers daily. Access to safe drinking water was also increasing thanks to the distribution of water purifying tablets, jerry cans, plastic buckets, filters and water bladders. This would continue as long as access was possible in different places. In terms of nutrition, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, UNICEF had distributed nutritional supplies to over 13,000 people, three quarters of whom were children. This distribution of nutritional assistance was expected to increase significantly next week as UNICEF received supplies arriving this weekend. In terms of protection, there were four 24-hour telephone lines working in four different places in Pakistan to provide counseling and information about referral services for the benefit of children and women. At this point, these efforts had resulted in the reunification of 131 children with their families, out of the 156 registered children. There were 100 child friendly spaces benefitting thousands of children. Next week, UNICEF’s Executive Director Anthony Lake was expected to visit Pakistan.

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration said yesterday IOM’s Director General William Lacy Swing arrived in Pakistan to visit flood-affected communities and to meet with senior government officials, including the President of Pakistan. The Director General’s visit was specifically highlighting IOM’s scaled up relief efforts in Pakistan as well as expressing solidarity with the flood victims. IOM was scaling up the relief operations in the southern regions, with reports of more areas in Sindh province being submerged. This included plans for another humanitarian hub in Hydrabad, specifically to provide shelter and non-food items including blankets and kitchen items to flood-affected families in Sindh. Over the next three weeks, IOM would also be handling near daily in kind donation flights from the United States and United Kingdom Governments full of critically needed shelter material which would be sent immediately to Punjab and Sindh. To date, IOM had procured from local markets 8,450 tents, 11,400 blankets, 17,400 kitchen sets and 16,400 plastic sheets amongst other items. These were currently being distributed amongst the flood affected families in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. Additional procurement of relief items was underway with financial support from the Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and Japan. The scaled up operations in Pakistan were being supported by IOM missions globally, which had sent a core of experienced personnel to expedite the relief operations in Pakistan, with further human resources lined up to arrive in the coming weeks. The Pakistani Government had facilitated the arrival of these relief workers by arranging for expedited visas upon arrival. The emergency shelter cluster had delivered over 115,000 tents and 88,000 plastic sheets to the benefit of some 160,000 families. In the pipeline, there were an additional 114,000 tents and 521,000 plastic sheets to serve an additional 375,000 families. Still, it was estimated that there were more than 642,000 families that would require shelter support. According to the National Disaster Management Authority’s estimates, around 1.2 million houses had either been damaged or destroyed by the floods in Pakistan. There was still a sizable shortfall in the shelter needs.

Adrian Edwards of the United Nations Refugee Agency said the number of people returning home voluntarily to Afghanistan from Pakistan so far this year had exceeded 100,000, which was almost twice the number of people who returned last year. Over the past nine years, some 4.5 million people had returned from Pakistan to Afghanistan. This was the largest voluntary repatriation programme anywhere in the world. As part of UNHCR’s monitoring responsibilities, it conducted interviews with returning Afghans to assess the reasons for return. This year, the most oft-cited factors had been economic reasons, difficulties in Pakistan, and local improvements in security in some parts of Afghanistan. It was still very early to determine the impact of the floods on the return rates. Overall, almost 70 per cent of returnees were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with the rest from Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh. There were more details in the briefing notes.

In response to queries by journalists as to whether the reports of threats against humanitarian workers were affecting the relief work of the United Nations, Ms. Momal-Vanian cited Mr. Holmes, who had noted yesterday that while the United Nations would implement appropriate precautions and take the threats seriously, many of these threats existed before the flood crisis began. Ms. Momal-Vanian added that in most countries where humanitarians worked, security concerns existed and security measures were in place. This was sadly often part of humanitarian work and was true in Pakistan. But so far, the relief operation had not been hampered by insecurity or threats of insecurity. Hazardous security environment did not help but there were more problems to deal with due to the massive scale of the operations.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination would be holding a press conference at 11:30 a.m. today in Room III as it prepared to conclude its session and issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, France, Iran, Morocco, Slovenia, Romania and Uzbekistan which were reviewed during the session. Copies of the concluding observations and recommendations were sent this morning to journalists in the language that they had been adopted. A roundup press release would be issued later in the day.

The Conference on Disarmament would hold its next plenary on Tuesday, 31 August. On the occasion of the start of Cameroon’s presidency of the Council, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cameroon would address the meeting.

Ms. Momal-Vanian reminded journalists that on Monday, 30 August, there would be a video conference in Room III at 5 p.m. with New York Headquarters on the "InterAcademy Council's review on processes and procedures of the IPCC". A revised media advisory was available at the back of the room.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said 29 August was the International Day against Nuclear Tests. In 2009, the Government put forward a proposal calling for the establishment of an International Day against Nuclear Tests. The idea won unanimous support. The first observance of the Day would be on Sunday, 29 August 2010. The Day would be commemorated in New York in a special meeting of the General Assembly on 9 September. A website had been created on the Day, and its address was www.un.org/no-nucleartest. The message of the Secretary-General on this occasion was available at the back of the room.

Central African Republic/Democratic Republic of the Congo

Adrian Edwards of the United Nations Refugee Agency said this week UNHCR began transferring an estimated 1,500 Central African refugees scattered along a remote part of the Congolese border with the Central African Republic to a newly constructed refugee camp, some 70 kilometres inside the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These refugees had fled attacks by the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, between March and May this year and found shelter in several isolated border villages in Bas-Uele district in the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The aim of this transfer had been to improve safety for the refugees by reducing the risk of new attacks by the Lord’s Resistance attacks. In addition to protection and shelter, the new camp also allowed the provision of safe drinking water and better humanitarian access.

Haiti

Marco Jimenez Rodriguez of the United Nations’ Children’s Fund said it was important not to forget, because of the crisis in Pakistan, that over 2 million people remained directly and indirectly affected by the earthquake in Haiti, and there were still 1.3 million displaced persons. With the support of UNICEF, a second round of vaccinations concluded recently in Haiti for the benefit of 180,000 children. Also UNICEF had been carrying out activities in terms of nutrition had helped to maintain stable the nutrition situation. It was also important to recall that many children and lactating women remained at risk of malnutrition. The activities that UNICEF had been carrying out in coordination with the Government and many other organizations in terms of hygiene promotion were the reason why many illnesses had been prevented, considering the very harsh situation in which people were living in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. UNICEF has managed to reunite 746 children with their families out of the 3,582 children that have been registered, which remains a big challenge.

Djibouti

Jared Bloch of the International Organization for Migration said IOM Djibouti was providing emergency material assistance to a group of 700 irregular migrants from Ethiopia who were intercepted in Djibouti and were in need of immediate medical assistance following reports that over 170 individuals were experiencing severe diarrhoea. One death had been confirmed thus far. Sixty of them were still in emergency care and another 119 had been moved to the City of Djibouti for additional care. IOM was working closely with the Ministry of the Interior and local authorities to help manage this situation, including providing donations of antiseptics, cartons of latex gloves, bleach, boots, pick and shovels, as well as beds to provide accommodation for these migrants. These migrants were from Ethiopia and were on route to Yemen through Djibouti. Many had been established to be irregular migrants.

Report on Democratic Republic of the Congo

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said he was sure that many of the journalists had seen the article on the leaked report on the 10 years of human rights abuses and atrocities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which had appeared in Le Monde. OHCHR was upset with Le Monde because the report they published was not the final version. Upon learning that Le Monde had acquired an earlier draft of the report, OHCHR had made it clear to Le Monde that this was an earlier version, and that the final and definitive version was coming out extremely soon. They had hoped that Le Monde would wait. A proper launch of the definitive final version of the report would be held in Geneva very soon. The report had been in preparation for five years now and was a significant undertaking.