REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i., United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was also attended by the Spokespersons for the Human Rights Council, the International Organization for Migration, the International Labour Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization.
Geneva Activities
Mr. Fawzi informed that 193 states would formally adopt the Sustainable Development Goals during the 70th session of the General Assembly, in New York. The document, entitled “Transforming the World; the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, had 17 goals with 169 targets with the aim of ending poverty over the next 15 years.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child would review today a report by Timor-Leste. Two country reports would be considered next week: Madagascar (28 September), and Cuba (29 September). The session concludes next Friday. Reports already considered: United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Poland, Brazil and Chile.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would consider today a report by Italy. Next week the Committee would consider reports of: Guyana, Iraq, Morocco and Sudan. The consideration of Greece's report, scheduled for yesterday, was postponed, and would now take place on Monday, 5 October, and Tuesday, 6 October.
The Human Rights Council (HRC), would consider today periodic reports by Andorra, Bulgaria, Honduras, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Croatia, Jamaica and Libya.
On Monday, the HRC would hold a general debate on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Working Group on People of African descent would present a report on its session held earlier this year (March/April) and on its recent missions to the Netherlands and Sweden.
On Monday, the Council would also hold a panel discussion on the impact of the world drug problem on human rights That would be the first time the Human Rights Council would have a dedicated discussion exclusively on this issue. The panel would be moderated by Ruth Dreifuss, former President of the Swiss Confederation, and member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.
CHILDREN REFUGEES UNDER STRESS
Sarah Crowe, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said today the organization was launching a new appeal of US $14m to care for refugee and migrant children in Europe. There had been a massive increase in the numbers of children on the move to Europe – roughly 19,000 each day. Already in the first seven months of the year, 133,000 children had sought asylum in Europe, the size of a small town. Many were escaping conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ms. Crowe said UNICEF was uniquely positioned as it was working in every country. The funds would help children on the move through Europe and would allow for the creation of child-friendly spaces, health care, food, shelter, as well as other humanitarian services. UNICEF was also offering to assist governments in high-income countries that were dealing with the large influx of children. The number one priority for UNICEF remained the Syrian crisis, which was nearly half a billion dollars underfunded and where there were seven million children in need.
The reality of the current crisis meant UNICEF had to deal with the reality of children in need of help in countries that had been traditionally donor countries.
Ms. Crowe said the current appeal would help fund the kind of innovative work the Palais would hear about for programmes in Croatia. She introduced Valentina Otmacic, UNICEF representative in Croatia, who spoke on the phone about the situation of children, refugees and migrants in Opatovac—a Croatian village on the Serbian border. The majority of children were Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis.
Current conditions were harsh, especially for children, Ms. Otmacic said. Those who arrived at the camp typically stayed only 1 to 2 days. Croatian authorities were giving priority to women and children, but more was needed.
To illustrate the extent of the trauma children were going through, Ms. Otmacic told the story of a 9-year-old Afghan boy who tried to commit suicide. The child was colouring in the only child-friendly zone of the camp. At one point, he removed a lid from a can and attempted to cut his neck. As he did that, he screamed: “I want to die”. He was stopped by an adult, who found in his pocket a whole collection of metal lids. His father had been killed in Afghanistan and his mother had also died. He was travelling with his uncle and lost his sister on the way to Europe. UNICEF provided psychological support to the boy.
Answering questions about the conditions of the camp, Ms. Otamacic explained the camp had four sectors and that refugees were unable to move between them. Only one had a child-friendly space. The camp was handling 4,000 persons – of which 600-800 were children. The camp’s total capacity was 5,000.
UNHCR and expected increase of refugees
Adrian Edwards, for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that more than 4 million Syrian refugees are in countries neighbouring Syria including Iraq. Since the start of the conflict, there had been 429,000 asylum applications by Syrians in Europe.
The UNHCR has identified seven principal factors behind the recent increase in the number of Syrians seeking refuge in the region and in Europe. They were: loss of hope, high costs of living and deepening poverty, limited livelihood opportunities, aid shortfalls, hurdles to renew legal residency, limited education opportunities, and feeling unsafe in Iraq. Mr. Edwards also called attention to the sharp reduction in food vouchers.
Read the press release issued by the UNHCR detailing the seven factors here.
Amin Awad, UNHCR Director of the Bureau for the Middle East and North Africa, described the dramatic situation in the region. “Five years later, there is no hope, only desperation” he said. He stressed the need to resolve the conflict in Syria and to stabilize the region. If not, that could evolve into a global security problem, he warned. “Syria is burning. Towns are destroyed. People are on the move. For many, it became business-as-usual. People became indifferent in many ways,” he said.
With neighbouring countries hosting four million refugees, Mr. Awad said the former were lacking resources to help the latter. They had poor infrastructure, and could not provide enough education, health or offer jobs. The UN had made an appeal of US$4.5 billion to help these countries, but only 40% of that was provided. Mr. Awad reminded that food vouchers given by the World Food Programme (WFP) had to be reduced because of lack of funding – from US$ 40 a month per family to US$ 13,5 a month for a family of five people. Even this amount is not guaranteed today, he added. Refugees were surviving with USD 0.45 cents per day. That was one of the reasons they were moving to Europe, as food was the second driver for people to move.
Mr. Awad said that UNHCR did not detect incentives from host countries for refugees to leave to Europe. Answering questions on funding, he said that although funding was important, there were many other issues to be addressed. He called for a global Mediterranean initiative to resolve the problem.
Internally displaced persons in Iraq on the rise
Dominique Bartsch, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq said that it was anticipated that 10 million Iraqis would need humanitarian assistance by the end of the year. This represented more than a quarter of the population. This figure included 3.2 million of internally displaced persons. The crisis in Iraq had accelerated since last year, when ISIS (militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) took over large portions of Iraq. The launch of counter-offensive strikes by the Iraqi security forces with the support of its allies had resulted in active fighting and more displacement. It had been calculated that 3.2 million Iraqis were internally displaced. Only 10% of those had been accommodated in camps, and the rest had been squatting in buildings or living with friends and families.
“The humanitarian situation is worsening dramatically”. Mr. Bartsch warned. It was feared that a cholera outbreak could very quickly spread out in Iraq. The most basic services, according to him, had to be reduced, because of lack of funding. Food aid had also been reduced. Mr. Bartsch said that children were now out of school for more than a year and this was also leading families to leave for Europe.
UNHCR was anticipating a much larger flow of internally displaced persons in Iraq, as Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, had been taken by ISIL and more fighting was expected. Of a population of 1.2 million in Mosul, it was calculated that 500,000 persons could be displaced because of the fighting.
Mr. Bartsch also called attention to the situation of more than one million Kurdish internally displaced persons in Iraq who had no perspective and inadequate humanitarian support. He said it was difficult to calculate, but it was estimated that tens of thousands of Iraqis were departing for Europe. The vast majority of those departing were not in camps.
Mario Raviglione, Director of the Tuberculosis Programme for the World Health Organization (WHO), presented the “Digital Health for the End TB Strategy: Agenda for Action”, a global TB (Tuberculosis) programme, together with the European Respiratory Societies. It would be a new tool to combat the disease.
The Agenda for Action would be launched officially at the annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society in Amsterdam on the 29th of September. It would integrate digital health into the activities of prevention, in line with WHO and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The End TB Strategy would also be presented in January 2016.
Tuberculosis was one of the main causes of deaths (1,5 million every year), with 9 million new cases per year, said Dr. Raviglione.
WFP and worsening situation in Malawi
Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), warned that Malawi was currently facing the worst food crisis in a decade as a result of a horrible combination of severe floods and droughts.
Ms. Luescher said that 2.8 million people, almost a fifth of the country’s population, would require life-saving food assistance during the coming lean season right before the harvest, after people have probably eaten most of the food that they had before. The WFP was increasing the response to help 2.4 million people and NGOs.
However, WFP needed US$ 81 million dollars to do this, but it was currently underfunded, receiving only a quarter of the funds. WFP said it was crucially important to keep the funding in the long term to help the large number of Malawis in need, specially the children (42 per cent were stunted). The WFP was asking for US$ 10 million dollars just to save children’s school milk programme.
Worsening housing conditions in Europe
Jean Rodriguez, for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), announced the publication of a report on social housing in 56 European countries. The UNECE report showed that the lack of investment in social housing, particularly after the 2008 crisis, had resulted in the increase of housing prices, affecting thousands of vulnerable people and those from disadvantaged backgrounds as well as the middle class.
According to Jean Rodriguez, millions of people in several countries were waiting for social housing, including 1.8 million people in the UK, 1.7 million in France, 1.17 million in Ukraine, and 5,3 million in the United States.
Mr. Rodriguez also noted that the situation in Eastern Europe was worrying as many property owners struggled to maintain their houses, which led to an impoverished population. In addition, housing difficulties could potentially lead to physical and mental health problems, as it could directly impact people’s emotional and psychological state.
The study on the subject was available at: http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/hlm/documents/Publications/Social_Housing_in_UNECE_region.pdf
WTO meetings
On Monday, 28 September, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Roberto Azevêdo, would deliver the Opening Lecture of the 2015-2016 academic year at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. The following meetings were scheduled for Monday: Global Seminar on WTO Accessions at 9.00 a.m.; Dispute Settlement Body at 10.00 am; Market Access Committee for Non-Agricultural Products at 3.00 p.m.
On Tuesday 29 September, Mr. Azevêdo would meet with Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. Tawfiq Al Rabiah. Tuesday’s meetings would include: Development negotiations at 10:00 am; Working Group on Trade, Debt and Finance at 10:00 am.
On Wednesday, 30 September, the WTO Public Forum – a three-day event – would take place until Friday, 2 October. Other events of the day would include: the book launch – ‘WTO Accessions and Trade Multilateralism’ at 12.00 p.m. with opening remarks by Mr. Azevêdo, and the book launch – ’20 years of the WTO: a retrospective’ at 07.15 p.m.
The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog250915