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 United Nations Conference for Trade and Development, the World Health Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, the Economic Commission for Europe, and the International Organization for Migration.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Conference on Disarmament was meeting in public plenary this morning to hear an address by the Foreign Minister of Mongolia. This was the last week of the first part of the 2012 session of the Conference. The second part of the 2012 session would be held from 14 May to 29 June. [It was later announced that the next meeting of the Conference on Disarmament would be at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 15 May].

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances was holding its second session at the Palais Wilson this week. The Committee would be holding a public meeting on Thursday, 29 March at 10 a.m. to meet with States, United Nations bodies, specialized agencies, intergovernmental organizations, national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders. The Committee would conclude its session on Friday, 30 March.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the nineteenth round of the Geneva International Discussions would be held on Thursday, 29 March. The usual series of press conferences by the participants would start around 5 p.m. in Salle III.

In response to a question on whether there was any more progress on Kofi Annan’s mission to Syria, Ms. Momal-Vanian said Mr. Annan was in Beijing today and no read out had come out on his meetings there yet. What was available was a transcript of the press conference he gave in Moscow before departing yesterday for Beijing.

UNCTAD XIII

Catherine Sibut Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said UNCTAD XIII would take place from 21 to 26 April in Doha. Accreditation was already open and all details were available on the website http://unctadxiii.org/en/Pages/home.aspxwww.unctadxiii.org
The press kit would be available at the end of the week.

Taffere Tesfachew, Director of UNCTAD’s Division for Africa, Least Developed Countries and Special Programmes, Spokesperson for UNCTAD XIII, said this Ministerial-level conference, held every four years, would take place in Doha this time. There were negotiations taking place at the moment, but they were going at a slow pace, a reflection of the state of affairs around the world. Among other things, the Conference would look at the impact of the global economic situation on developing countries. The main purpose was to have a work plan for the next four years for UNCTAD, but the Conference also provided a platform for addressing some of the pressing issues facing developing countries from the globalization process and crises. They were expecting over 100 Ministers and a number of Heads of State to attend the Conference.

In response to questions, Mr. Tesfachew said between 7,000 to 8,000 persons were expected to participate in UNCTAD XIII. The theme that Member States had identified as a topic for the Conference was development-led globalization: towards inclusive and sustainable development. One sub-theme was South-South Cooperation and another was the impact of global economic crises on developing countries. An agreed consensus document would come out of the Conference that would define the work of UNCTAD for the next four years. In the margins of that, there would also be a statement coming out on the global economic situation from the UNCTAD membership point of view. As for funding, these quadrennial conferences were funded primarily by the host country.

WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Tarik Jasarevic of the World Health Organization (WHO) said the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body on a Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products was nearing its last round of negotiations. Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control would meet for a fifth and final session starting Thursday, 29 March. A media advisory with more information was available at the back of the room.

Haik Nikogosian, Head of the Convention Secretariat, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, said this would be the fifth session of the negotiations on a protocol. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was the first and only global health treaty. Under the Framework Convention, it was possible to have protocols and other instruments. When the protocols were adopted, they became international treaties themselves. This would be the first protocol adopted under the convention. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Body was created to negotiate this particular protocol on illicit trade in tobacco products, starting in 2008. If the negotiations were successful, and he hoped they would be as a large part of the protocol was already agreed, then the draft protocol would be submitted for adoption by the Conference of the Parties, which would be meeting in November 2012 in Seoul. Illicit trade was one of the most problematic areas of tobacco control because it was the source of relatively cheap tobacco products, and cheap products fueled the consumption of tobacco products.

In response to questions, Mr. Nikogosian said countries globally lost between $ 40 and 50 billion dollars a year from smuggling tobacco products in the form of unpaid duties and taxes. He also noted that the tobacco industry, which partly fueled the illicit trade, would attempt to derail the protocol

Mali

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that in a presidential statement yesterday, the Security Council strongly condemned the acts initiated and carried out by mutinous troops against the democratically-elected government in Mali and demanded that they ceased all violence and returned to their barracks. The Security Council called for the restoration of constitutional order, and the holding of elections as previously scheduled. Meanwhile, Said Djinnit, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, participated in a joint mission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union and the United Nations, which was dispatched to Bamako on Friday, 23 March, under the leadership of ECOWAS. The members of the mission met a delegation of the junta led by Captain Adama Diarra and spoke on the phone with Captain Amadou Sanogo whom they could not meet personally for security reasons. They reiterated the appeal launched by ECOWAS, the African Union and the United Nations for an immediate return to constitutional order. Mr. Djinnit had been invited and was attending the ECOWAS Summit being held today in Abidjan during which the ECOWAS Heads of State would examine the prevailing situation in Mali.

Haiti

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that with the rain starting to fall on Port-au-Prince last week, 65,000 internally displaced persons risked having their camps flooded. The rain has already caused considerable damage to at least five camps. This was adding to the already difficult situation in the camps, which were threatened by the absence of adequate funding. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was concerned about the under-funding for Haiti. The 2012 appeal for Haiti, requesting
$ 231 million, was only funded at 8 per cent. At this rate, the humanitarian community would not be in a position to give the necessary support to the Government of Haiti to prepare for the rainy and cyclone season. There were more details in the note at the back of the room.

UNHCR/South Sudan, Report on Asylum Seekers, Somalia

Melissa Fleming of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said journalists had probably been reading about the very disturbing news of fighting between the two national armies of Sudan and South Sudan along the border areas. This had prompted UNHCR to reiterate its very strong concerns about the safety of Sudanese refugees in nearby Yida settlement near the border. It had already been dangerous and life threatening for the refugees, and news of these increased cross border clashes was making the situation much worse. UNHCR was providing the 16,000 refugees with basic assistance, but it was urging them to move to a safer camp already established further south. However, only 2,500 had made the move. UNHCR considered that Yida refugee settlement was not safe for long-term stay due to its proximity to the volatile border zone. In Upper Nile state, on the other hand, 86,000 Sudanese refugees fleeing attacks in Blue Nile state had relocated away from border zones. In total more than 105,000 Sudanese refugees from Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states were currently enjoying asylum in South Sudan. Another 30,000 refugees fled Blue Nile into Ethiopia.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had issued a statement late last night in which he said he was deeply concerned about the military clashes in the border region of Sudan and South Sudan and he called on the Governments to fully respect and implement the agreements they had already reached on security and border monitoring and the disputed area of Abyei.

In response to a question on the report on the asylum seekers that said that last year, the number of asylum seekers to the Nordic countries had decreased by 10 per cent, Ms. Flemming said yesterday UNHCR released its statistics from industrialized countries and reported a sharp increase of about 20 per cent for 2011. The High Commissioner for Refugees had called this a very difficult year. The report was available at the back of the room.

Tarek Abou Chabake, Head of Statistics at UNHCR, responding to the same question, said there had been quite significant increases in central parts of Europe, France and Germany. It was possible that people did not want to go further north, or that maybe they could not reach the north. It was difficult to say and they did not really know the reasons behind this decrease by 10 per cent of asylum seekers going to the Nordic countries. There had been fluctuations over the years in some countries because of stricter asylum countries. The 20 per cent increase was mainly felt in southern and central Europe and the United States. The top five countries, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden accounted for more than 50 per cent of all asylum seekers among the 44 countries.

Ms. Flemming also pointed out the Dublin II regulation which required asylum seekers to claim asylum in their first port of entry to the European Union. Many might prefer to go to a country where they might be more likely to get asylum, but they might be unable to get there.

Concerning Somalia, Ms. Flemming said last week bombings in Mogadishu had unfortunately hit a settlement for displaced persons. Yesterday, more mortars, believed to be destined for the pro-government forces near the Somali Parliament building, hit the Darwish settlement for internally displaced persons, killing a father and his three-year old child and injuring eight other people. Anti-government forces were reported to have instructed internally displaced persons to move away from areas surrounding the presidential palaces as they intended to continue their attacks.

She said that UNHCR took note that pro-government forces were implementing practices to reduce the impact of indirect fire on the civilian population and further notes that civilians were given advance notice of the recent military activity in Afgooye which allowed them to vacate the area safely and seek assistance in Mogadishu and other areas.

Economic Commission for Europe / Aarhus Convention

Jean-Rodriguez of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) said the thirty-sixth meeting of the Compliance Committee of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters would be held from 27 to 30 March. The meeting would be held in private, but he was mentioning it because the convention was increasingly being implemented in all countries.

Mr. Rodriguez said a press conference would be held today at noon in Salle III on the launch of the UNECE/FAO North American Forest Sector Outlook Study 2006-2030.

International Organization for Migration / Philippines

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said an IOM pilot project launched two years ago had helped hundreds of disadvantaged young people, including the children of migrants in some of the poorest provinces of the Philippines, to finish their education. The project provided an education subsidy to disadvantaged youngsters in 15 selected public high schools to allow them to stay in school, get a better education and eventually get better jobs. Thousands of young Filipinos left school early for financial reasons to join the workforce. Many were ill-prepared and found themselves in dead end and often exploitive employment. IOM was encouraging new partners to carry on the subsidy.