REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the UN Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by the Spokespersons for the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Mine Action Service, the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the United Nations Development Programme.

Syria

Elisabeth Hoff, for the World Health Organization (WHO), speaking on the phone from Damascus, spoke about her recent visit to Aleppo. She said that she had first gone to the Al Razy hospital, where she had seen a high number of injured people coming in, amongst them children. The medical staff were doing an impressive job given the circumstances.

Dr. Hoff observed a high number of young people who had lost their limbs, including an attack on a public square the previous day. It was estimated that there would be more than 1.3 million people in need of health assistance in Aleppo only. A large number of the hospitals had been destroyed. Of the 11 that had been functioning before the crisis, only 4 were actually still working in Aleppo. Many of those, in Aleppo, were running with generators because in general the population only had electricity one to three hours per day and it was the same for the water.

That description was indicative of the overall situation in Syria. Dr. Hoff emphasized that the health situation in the country was deteriorating. WHO was not able to chlorinate water stations, and due to rising temperatures, there was now an increased risk of waterborne diseases. Concerning the issue of vaccination coverage, Dr. Hoff said that Syria used to have very high rates - close to 90 per cent; while at the present the coverage stood between 50 and 60 percent.

Across Syria, 57 per cent of public hospitals were only partially functioning or completely out of service. Local production of medicines had been reduced by 70 per cent and many life-saving treatments were not available. The number of available health professionals had fallen to approximately 45 per cent of 2011 levels and there were severe shortages of surgeons, anesthesiologists, laboratory professionals, and female health professionals. Without the work of NGOs, the WHO would not have been able to provide the response it did. WHO was currently working with around 60 NGOs which were doing a fantastic job, by delivering medical treatments for example.

Dr. Hoff emphasized that securing funding was of crucial importance for the WHO. WHO was asking for USD 124 million, which included the response that they would do for Syrians in Jordan and Turkey. WHO was appealing to the donor community so that they could actually deliver treatments. Regarding the infrastructure that was breaking down, the WHO was hoping that they would be able to rehabilitate some hospitals that had no functioning emergency units at all.

Asked how efficiently medical supplies were coming across the border and reaching Aleppo, Dr. Hoff responded that it was not enough. Some local and international NGOs had a network responding to rural areas and surroundings of Aleppo. WHO with its partners on the ground had managed to support some three million people in the Governorate of Aleppo in 2014. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society was managing to move across front lines all the time, which was impressive. Some patients were crossing lines for corrective surgeries.

Dr. Hoff specified that she had not seen any victims of reported recent chlorine attacks.

She explained that in the ISIS-controlled areas, there were focal persons/sentinels working and reporting back to the WHO on a weekly basis. Vaccinations had not been allowed in Al Raqqa and Idlib, for the first time in years. Access to the ISIS-controlled areas remained a major issue. The focus remained on vaccinations and basic health care, to the extent possible. Dr. Hoff said that Al Raqqa was the most difficult area to reach.

Answering a question, Dr. Hoff said that there had been an increase in Hepatitis A. With warmer weather, the WHO was also fearing cholera. Disinfectants for water were being delivered to the areas which needed it the most.

Pledging Conference for Syria

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), announced that OCHA Chief and UN Emergency Coordinator Valerie Amos would be going to the Third pledging conference for Syria, which would take place in Kuwait City on 31 March. It would be a one-day event, bringing together many UN agencies, Red Cross, NGOs; a number of spokespeople from Geneva would also be there. The conference would be chaired by the UN Secretary-General.

Mr. Laerke said that the appalling humanitarian situation inside Syria and conditions for refugees and the communities hosting them in neighbouring countries continued to worsen. Over 12 million people now needed assistance inside the country, while some 3.9 million were registered as refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.

Answering a question, Mr. Laerke said that there were never exact goals put before such conference; what was important was that the event in Kuwait was another step towards reaching full funding of the Syrian Response Plan for 2015. The conference aimed to rally vital international financial support to meet the basic humanitarian needs of the affected Syrians.

A media advisory was available in English and Arabic.

Sarah Bel, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), stated that the international conference was very important to the UNDP, as it was a key opportunity for the international community to shift a response towards a comprehensive and strategic vision that would secure the short and long term needs of the region. Ms. Bel highlighted that the Syria crisis was not only a humanitarian crisis, but also a development crisis with important implications for to the security and stability of the whole region.

UNDP championed its resilience base development response to the crisis that bridged traditional humanitarian refugee development element of the response. The resilience development response was at the moment covering emergency employment opportunity, especially for women, support to local businesses and food production, restoration of basic services and capacity building for the local authorities. All those actions had been implemented with a view to manage the long term recovery.

Central African Republic

Karin de Gruijl, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), stated that the
UNHCR was strongly condemning the kidnapping of Congolese refugees by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), asking for an immediate release of those still in captivity.

On 21 March, 15 Congolese refugees and one Congolese national had been kidnapped by the LRA near the border between the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They had been abducted from the DRC side of the border, where they had been tending to their fields. Thirteen of them, 2 women and 11 men, had been released two days later and trekked back to the refugee camp near Zemio in the southeast of the Central African Republic. Some of the victims had arrived with open wounds and a 16-year old girl had been raped. Three refugee boys were still missing.

Ms. de Gruijl said that the Zemio refugee camp hosted some 3,400 Congolese refugees from the Ango Territory (Bas-Uele District), in Province Orientale in the north-eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2009, they had fled LRA atrocities in the Province Orientale and found refuge in the Central African Republic.

Upon their arrival, the released refugees had been immediately transferred to the health centre in Zemio where they were receiving the necessary medical care. They were still in shock and anxious to learn about the missing refugees. UNHCR and its partner International Medical Corps had put in place psychosocial counselling sessions to help them cope with this traumatic event.

UNHCR would also step up awareness raising efforts to provide refugees with up to date information about the security situation, any LRA activities in the region and the risks associated with moving back and forth across the border, between the camp in the Central African Republic and their fields in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Since the arrest in the Central African Republic of Dominic Ongwen, an LRA top commander accused of crimes against humanity in the beginning of 2015, LRA rebels had intensified their attacks on villages at the CAR/DRC border. Ms. de Gruijl reminded that the LRA had sprung up in Uganda in 1986, established its first base in Sudan in 1993, and spread to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2005, before moving further north into the Central African Republic in 2009. Chased by the Ugandan armed forces, the remaining LRA rebels had pulled back their positions in the forests in south-eastern Central African Republic. It continued to wreak havoc and spread terror in the region.

More than 180,000 people remained internally displaced in LRA affected areas in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while LRA violence had caused more than 30,000 people to flee to the different neighbouring countries.
UNHCR and partners were providing assistance to refugees and were seeking durable solutions for them, including voluntary repatriation. To date, some 640 refugees had registered to take part in the upcoming voluntary return programme that would be facilitated by the UNHCR. The return programme was expected to start in the coming weeks, once the rehabilitation and extension of the airstrips in Zemio and Ango airstrips had been completed.

Asked about details of the abducted people, Ms. de Gurijl said that those refugees lived in a camp close to the CAR side of the border, but would cross the river to tend to their fields on the other side during the day. The security situation there was very tense, and there were not enough police to provide enforcement for the time being. Over the previous year, it had been a challenge to provide food to some parts of the CAR; consequently, people from camps were looking for ways to supplement both their nutrition and incomes. There were no UN peacekeepers in that part of the CAR.

Ms. de Gruijl explained that a lot of kidnappings had to do with Lord Resistance Army’S elements in the bush, who raided villages, grabbed young people, sometimes just to help carry supplies, while women were frequently raped.

Albinism

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), stated that the OHCHR welcomed the previous week’s strong statement by the President of Malawi, sharply condemning the attacks on people with albinism. President Mutharika had also called on security agencies to be placed on high alert, to arrest people responsible for such attacks and provide maximum protection to people with albinism.

The President’s statement had been followed up by Malawi’s Minister of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, Patricia Kaliati, who unveiled a five-point plan of action, which included:

1) The development of an education and awareness programme, with the organization of national and local public meetings and increased cooperation with civil society organisations;
2) The strengthening of community policing structure and the allocation of adequate police forces in the districts most affected by the attacks;
3) The undertaking of research to understand the root causes of the problem and what was done with the body parts of people with albinism;
4) The establishment of a team of lawyers to support the prosecution in trials on albinism-related crimes and the provision of psycho-social support to victims of attacks; and
5) The review and enactment of existing legislation as well as the adoption of new laws deemed necessary to ensure the protection of people with albinism.

The Minister had also said that the Government was thinking of appealing against some lenient sentences, without referring to any specific case. OHCHR would welcome that as well, and note that earlier in the week a man had received a sentence of just two years after being convicted of attempting to kidnap his 11-year-old niece Mina Jeffrey.

OHCHR hoped that that series of measures would result in a significant improvement in the security and well-being of people with albinism in Malawi, and urged the authorities to ensure that the Government’s action plan was fully implemented without delay.

OHCHR had been informed that the Tanzanian authorities, in particular the Attorney General’s Chambers, had started to develop a plan of action to raise public awareness and fight against impunity. However, it appeared that most of the witchdoctors arrested over the previous few weeks had now been released.

OHCHR once again called upon the Tanzanian authorities to take prompt and firm action to ensure accountability for the crimes committed against people with albinism and to take effective measures to protect this particularly vulnerable group. OHCHR also welcomed the establishment, the previous day, by the Human Rights Council of an Independent Expert on the enjoyment of human rights of persons with albinism. That important new mandate would help give a voice to people with albinism and contribute to their protection, through a dialogue with concerned States, enhanced awareness raising and reporting, and the provision of advisory services and technical assistance.

Asked how many children there were with albinism, Mr. Colville referred to the website of the NGO called “Under the Sun”, which had been working on the issue for a long time. Albinism rates were particularly high in Tanzania; one in 1,400 Tanzanians was reported to be albino.

On the number of killings of children taking place every year, Mr. Colville said that 15 attacks had been reported in three most affected African countries over the previous six months. Figures of as many as 75 attacks in Tanzania alone over the previous decade were also mentioned. There were allegations of kidnappings in Mozambique and Malawi. In many cases, families were implicated in kidnappings.

On why Governments were releasing witch doctors, Mr. Colville said it may be because of lack of sufficient evidence. People had been killed and mutilated, but very few cases eventually made it to the courts.

Mr. Colville explained that cases of attacks against albinism had traditionally been recorded in Tanzania, Burundi and Malawi. It was a recent phenomenon in Malawi, while Mozambique also started to come up recently. It was still unclear whether it was a home-grown development in Mozambique or it was related to Tanzania.

Mr. Colville said that the process on appointing a special rapporteur on persons with albinism could take several months. More details could be sought from Rolando Gomez of the Human Rights Council.

Answering a question, Mr. Colville said that there was a lot of money involved in the albinism business; sometimes thousands of USD would be paid for single body parts. It was not clear who was paying those huge amounts of money but the phenomenon appeared especially prevalent during pre-election times. It was not only witch doctors, but their clients who had to be held responsible. It was yet to be seen if the changing political climate would have an effect on the mentality and the eradication of the phenomenon. All three countries had action plans in place.

International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action

Bruno Donat, for the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), informed that the 10^th International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action would be marked on 1 April at 1 p.m, at the Serpent Bar of the Palais des Nations. Mr. Donat specified that the event usually takes place on 4 April, but this year the date of the anniversary occurred on a Saturday.

“More than mines” was the theme for the 10^th commemoration of the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. The UN applied mine action expertise to an increasingly wide range of explosive hazards, from unexploded missiles, artillery shells, rockets, grenades and mortars, to unsafe and unsecured weapons and ammunition, improvised explosive devices and cluster bombs.

Mr. Donat said that it was a unique event because this year children and youth from conflict areas had been chosen to create and bring their paintings to Geneva. During the previous month they had created drawings and paintings on the topic “More than mines”, brought to Geneva and distributed on the local schools to complement the artwork by children in Geneva. The painting had come from Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Colombia, Libya, Mali, Palestine, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, in particularly Darfur where an UNMAS programme operated. The two schools in Geneva were the Geneva English school and Cycle d'orientation des Coudriers. The striking juxtaposition reflected the relevance of “more than mines” to children’s daily reality of life in conflict and post-conflict areas around the world.

The result would be showcased in an exhibition of about 40 pieces of art combining the field and the local paintings. Bringing the artwork from some areas, such as Gaza and Afghanistan, was quite challenging. Journalists and all interested in the event were invited to come to the exhibition.

World Health Day

Fadéla Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), informed that World Health Day 2015, on 7 April, would draw attention to the issue of food safety. Ahead of the global launch, the WHO would hold a media briefing to outline how globalization and the international reach of the food safety chain offer great opportunities and threats for human health, and also provide new figures on foodborne illnesses. The slogan for World Health Day 2015 was “From farm to plate, make food safe.” That press conference would take place in Press Room 1 on 2 April at 10.30 a.m., and the speaker would be Dr. Kazuaki Miyagishima, Director of the WHO Department of Food Safety.

Ms. Chaib said that WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan would launch World Health Day 2015 at Rungis International Market in Paris, France, on 7 April.

Human Rights Council

Ms. Momal-Vanian, speaking on the behalf of the Human Rights Council (HRC), said that the Council was engaged in taking action on draft resolutions, 15 of them remained in action today after the previous day’s votes. The president of the Council, Ambassador Joachim Ruecker from Germany, would speak today at a stake out near room XX during the lunch break, at approximately 12.45 p.m.

Ms. Momal-Vanian also announced there would be a special session of the HRC on 1 April, on Boko Haram, after Algeria had submitted a request to this effect on behalf of the African Group.

A press release with further details would be issued.

Geneva activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Human Rights Committee was meeting in private until its closing session in the afternoon on 2 April.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which had started its session on 25 March, was examining the report of Germany this morning, after which it would look into the report of Croatia in the afternoon.

Ms. Momal-Vanian informed that there would be only one press briefing the following week, as Friday, 3 April was a public holiday. Monday, 6 April would also be a day off.

Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the International Organization for Migration and the International Labour Organization were also present, but did not brief.
The webcast for this briefing is available here: … http://bit.ly/unog270315