REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by spokespersons for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Health Organization and the International Organization for Migration.

Sri Lanka

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the situation in Sri Lanka was worrying. Sri Lanka has been hit by incessant rains since 26 December, with 300 millimeters of rain registered on 12 January alone. According to the Disaster Management Centre, more than 1 million people have been affected as of 13 January, with the most-affected districts being Batticaloa and Trincomalee and other regions in east-central Sri Lanka and the central provinces. Some 367,000 people were displaced into 633 temporary relocation centres in 12 districts and there have been 27 deaths, 12 missing persons and 47 injured people, but these numbers were likely to increase, Ms. Byrs underscored. She added, however, that the Sri Lankan authorities, the United Nations and the Sri Lankan Red Cross were trying to help the affected people. Sri Lankan Air Forces have immediately provided assistance on the ground, 24 rescue teams were present and 28 other teams on stand-by in the country. Roads remained under water and some villages were yet to be reached. A rapid assessment by the United Nations, the results of which would be announced in Sri Lanka today, also suggested that non-food items and drinking water were needed. The United Nations intended to launch an appeal in the next weeks to dispose of the funds to care for the most vulnerable people affected in Sri Lanka, notably children. The appeal would also cover more long-term needs such as the recovery of agriculture, infrastructures and shelters.

Emilia Casella said the World Food Programme (WFP) was particularly concerned about the impact on the people as a significant amount of rice paddies had been badly damaged, with the exact extent yet to be determined. This had come ahead of the harvest in February/March which had been expected to be a bumper crop, but was now raising concerns about people’s food security. WFP had so far distributed emergency rations to 170,000 people and was now looking to initially cover about 420,000 people with emergency food rations. An emergency operation would soon be launched and WFP was counting on meeting the food needs of about half a million people over a period of six months. While the floods had damaged many roads and severely limited the ability to reach some locations, WFP was working hard on this issue. On a positive note, the warehouses of the WFP had not been damaged and its food stock would be given out as soon as possible, Ms. Casella underscored.

Marixie Mercado of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said roughly a third of those affected in Sri Lanka were children, who were among the most vulnerable in flood emergencies as many could not swim and some were too fragile to fend for themselves. For the children in this region, recovering from the end of the conflict 18 months ago and a tsunami six years ago, these floods constituted a major setback. Many families were only just returning home after years of displacement and schools that had just been refurbished were now being used to shelter flood victims. UNICEF was working closely with the government and partners to see how it could best assist those most affected by the floods. At the back of the room was a newsnote from Sri Lanka, reporting that a second consignment of UNICEF supplies had arrived in the flood-affected eastern part of the country today. The supplies included hygiene kits, sleeping mats, cooking pots and buckets. This followed a dispatch yesterday that included 50 water tanks and water tablets to purify two million liters of water and other hygiene material.

Côte d'Ivoire

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that as of yesterday, 247 people were reported to have been killed since the beginning of violence, up from 210 a week ago. There had also been 49 disappearances. This included twenty new cases that had been reported since 6 January.

Turning to allegations of a third mass grave, which the High Commissioner for Human Rights had spoken about yesterday, Mr. Colville said UNOCI military observers had been informed by telephone on 10 January that a grave containing “many bodies” had been found in Issia, Western/Central Côte d'Ivoire. While UNOCI police and military officials had been on mission there the following day to investigate the alleged grave, OHCHR was unable to confirm whether that grave existed or not. Neither could OHCHR fully confirm earlier reports of two mass graves but it would return to both sites after initial attempts to visit these. For the time being, however, none of the three alleged mass graves have been confirmed and they all remained at the allegation level, Mr. Colville underscored.

Responding to a question, Corinne Momal-Vanian said that the Secretary-General had submitted a request to the Security Council to increase the level of troops. Mr. Ban also issued a statement late yesterday, saying he was “deeply concerned that regular and irregular forces loyal to Mr. Gbagbo have begun to attack and burn United Nations’ vehicles.” The message added that Mr. Ban strongly condemned these attacks and again warned “those responsible for organizing and carrying out such attacks that they will be held accountable”. In terms of rules of engagement, the mandate of UNOCI was clear – it had the right to use force in self-defence and in defence of civilians.

In response to another question, Ms. Momal-Vanian added that in New York a new Ambassador of Côte d’Ivoire had taken up his functions, appointed by President-elect Ouattara, and that Côte d’Ivoire’s former Ambassador in Geneva was no longer in function.

Pakistan

Jared Bloch of International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department had contributed EUR 5 million to IOM to provide emergency shelter and one-room shelters for victims of Pakistan's 2010 floods. The floods in the summer of 2010 had left over 1.6 million Pakistani homes destroyed or damaged. Aid agencies had managed to provide emergency shelter to some 783,000 families, but over half a million mostly desperately poor families had yet to receive any aid. In Sindh, the worst hit province, the government and aid agencies had only managed to reach about 32 per cent of the people in need, while in Punjab they had reached about 63 per cent.

The new ECHO funding would provide at least 15,000 homeless families with tents or plastic sheets and essential non-food relief items in Sindh and Punjab provinces. It would also help about 7,000 families to build new one-room shelters from local building materials. The money would also contribute to IOM's coordination of the work of the over 70 international and local agencies participating in the shelter cluster, their local and national government counterparts and the National and Provincial Disaster Management Authorities.

A total of nearly 1,500 one-room shelters and nearly 5,000 transitional shelters had now been completed by shelter cluster organizations in flood affected areas. The US Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance had also allocated USD 10 million to IOM to enable it to support the construction of at least 16,000 more one-room shelters.

Tunisia

In response to a question, Mr. Colville said OHCHR was willing to support any investigation which may take place into what had happened in Tunisia, particularly the killings. There would be discussions with Tunisia on this matter.

Central Emergency Response Fund

Ms. Byrs said the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, had yesterday allocated some USD 84 million to boost the humanitarian response in 15 neglected emergencies around the world.

The Central Emergency Response Fund was funded by voluntary contributions from Member States, non-governmental organizations, local authorities, the private sector as well as individuals.

At the back of the room was a note with further details about the countries receiving allocations, such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and the Central African Republic.

New Report Highlights Role of Migrant Care Workers in Ageing Societies

Mr. Bloch said a newly released report in the IOM Migration Research Series report noted possible serious challenges to developed Western nations with regard to care needed for a growing number of older people and the role of migrant care workers.

The report, entitled "The Role of Migrant Care Workers in Ageing Societies: Report on Research Findings in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and the United States," showed that while migrant caregivers play an increasingly significant role in all four of the countries, little is known about this workforce.

The combined multi-year project data collected from migrant care workers, care providers, and older adult care users in the four countries highlighted the overall lack of prioritization for provision of elderly care in the four countries, said Mr. Bloch.

The report also showed that the main challenges raised by the demand for migrant labour were related to the larger issues of an underfunded system of care provision and an often-underpaid sector of employment. Increasing reliance on migrant care workers was a symptom of these challenges with the report concluding that migrants, while making important contributions, were not the solution to these structural deficiencies.

Mr. Bloch said that the report noted that immigration policies in the four countries potentially contributed to poor work conditions in the care industry through such measures as tying temporary work visas to sponsoring employers.

The report pointed to a few key recommendations for addressing the increasing significance of elder care overall. Specifically, more attention is required regarding recruitment, skill requirements, admissions, mobility, and residency issues to ensure a qualified labour force. The migrant caregiver experience must also be addressed in terms of the attitudes and expectations of employers and clients and employment policies should seek to reinforce the quality of employment through training and other means.

The report noted that migrant admission policies may require genuine reform and recommended that employer demand be closely monitored, Mr. Bloch added. Copies of the report were available at the back of the room.

Human Rights Agenda

Ms. Momal-Vanian said three human rights bodies would start meeting next week.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child would hold a three-week session to examine the reports submitted by eight countries. In chronological order, these were Afghanistan on Tuesday, to be followed by New Zealand, Singapore, Denmark, Belarus, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Ukraine and Mexico. A background release had been issued yesterday.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women would also hold a three-week session which was primarily dedicated to examining the seven country reports scheduled for this session. The Committee would consider, in chronological order, the report by Israel on Tuesday, to be followed by the reports by Kenya, Liechtenstein, South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Belarus. A background release had been issued yesterday, said Ms. Momal-Vanian.

The Human Rights Advisory Committee, for its part, would next week look into the studies that the Human Rights Council had asked it to conduct, in particular on best practices regarding missing persons, discrimination in terms of the right to food, the rights of persons working in rural areas, the promotion of the rights of peoples to peace and international human rights cooperation. A background release was available in the Press Room and on the internet, Ms. Momal-Vanian said.

WHO Agenda

Ms. Chaib announced that the Executive Council would hold its 128th session from 17 to 25 January, including a meeting on the morning of Saturday 22 January. The entire session was open to journalists. The speech of WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, who would open the session, would be sent to journalists as soon as possible, and the provisional agenda was available to journalists in the six official languages. A media alert had been sent out to journalists yesterday.

Ms. Chaib said a team was today at WHO's premises to shoot a motion picture in which a team of doctors fought against a deadly virus. The film, directed by Steven Soderbergh and featuring prominent actors such as Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, would notably be shot at the WHO entrance. The film would be in cinemas by the end of this year.

UNCTAD Agenda

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said the latest Global and Regional Investment Trends would be presented at a press conference on Monday 17 January at 11.30 a.m. in Press Room 1, embargoed until 5 p.m. GMT. The 10­-page document would be presented by James Zhan, the Director of UNCTAD's Division on Investment and Enterprise.

On Tuesday at 11.30 a.m. in Room III the report on the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2011 would be presented, developed jointly by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, UNCTAD and the five UN Regional Commissions. Speaking at the press conference would be Robert Shelburne, Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Heiner Flassbeck, the Director of UNCTAD's Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, and Alfredo Calcagno, economist at the same division. This was not simply the launch of an updated version of the first chapter, published in December, Ms. Sibut-Pinote underscored. Launches would be held in Geneva, Bangkok, Addis Abbaba, Beirut, Pretoria and New York, as well as in Mexico and China.

On Wednesday, the third session of the multi-year expert meeting on enterprise development policies and capacity-building in science, technology and innovation would start. This expert group was particularly important as small and medium enterprises were the missing link of sustainable development in developing countries, Ms. Sibut-Pinote underscored. More information would be provided on Tuesday.

WFP Agenda

Ms. Casella said WFP’s Executive Director Josette Sheeran would be travelling to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israel and Jordan next week. A media advisory would be sent out over the weekend with more details of her visit.

Other

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Mr. Sergei Ordzhonikidze, would meet the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica, Kenneth Baugh, on Tuesday 18 January. The World Trade Organization’s Director-General Pascal Lamy would also meet with Mr. Baugh on Wednesday 19 January.