REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Alessandra Vellucci, Director, United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Food Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Syria

Jessy Chahine, for the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria (OSE), said that the Special Envoy would brief the press on 1 September following the usual humanitarian access task force stakeout. Regarding the resumption of the Intra-Syrian talks, the Special Envoy greatly regretted the intensified fighting and the grave humanitarian situation. A political process and a political solution were the only way out of the crisis. Discussions between the Russian Federation and the United States this week were crucial to efforts to restore the cessation of hostilities. The United Nations was continuing consultations with the co-chairs of the ISSG, and ISSG members, on the way ahead. The Special Envoy was determined to carry forward the political track and continued actively to consider options for early action.

Ms. Chahine also said, regarding Mr. de Mistura’s call for a 48-hour pause in fighting in Aleppo, that the Office of the Special Envoy had conducted an assessment and had come to the conclusion that the statement from 27 August still stood. Discussions were ongoing between the US and Russia, and everyone involved. No-one had rejected the urgency of a humanitarian pause.

In response to a question regarding a UN comment on Turkish military action in Syria, Ms. Vellucci said that on 24 August, the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General had said that, as the Security Council had affirmed through numerous resolutions, the fight against ISIL and other terrorist groups remained a priority for the international community, and the Secretary-General had strongly condemned the ISIL attack against Turkey. At the same time, the United Nations urged all to respect international norms and principles, and emphasized that all sides must under all circumstances protect civilians and civilian infrastructures in any action undertaken.

In response to a question about a recent Guardian article with allegations related to the UN’s humanitarian effort in Syria, Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that many of the points raised in the article were not new. In Syria, as in all countries where the UN operated, the UN’s presence and activities were governed by the UN Charter and other relevant instruments. From the planning process to the actual response, it was done in accordance with core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. Inside Syria, it was a very large response, with an appeal for USD 3.2 billion (only 33 per cent funded as of today). Since the beginning of the conflict, the UN had responded to the escalation of fighting by scaling up its programmes and reach. The UN was delivering within Syria by all means available, and across borders. The UN delivered in all governorates of the country, and the deliveries included life-saving water, food, nutritional supplements, the whole gamut of humanitarian assistance. The UN delivered to all areas of the country, irrespective of the status of control, and using the most effective modalities, including to non-Government controlled areas through cross-border deliveries from Turkey and Jordan, and cross-line from Government controlled areas to besieged and hard-to-reach enclaves. In 2016 alone, the UN had reached more than 1 million people in besieged, hard-to-reach and other high priority areas in Syria with its convoys.

The UN worked with all parties to the conflict, as it did in all crises, including the relevant departments of the Government of Syria, to reach people with the life-saving support that they needed. It was correct that in Syria, the Government determined the non-governmental agencies that the UN agencies in Syria were permitted to work with. If agencies in Syria did not accept this they would not be able to save so many lives.

Regarding the particular funding provided to the Syria Trust Fund for Development, Mr. Laerke spoke about the part that came under OCHA. It was an allocation from the OCHA-managed Syria Humanitarian Fund. The Syria Trust Fund for Development had received funding through that humanitarian fund in 2016 and in 2015. It had been granted a total of USD 751,000 combined, or 2 per cent of the funds allocated through the Syria Humanitarian Fund. Like all other organizations, the Syria Trust Fund for Development had applied for, and had subsequently been granted funding, based on its technical expertise and the merit of their proposed project in delivering life-saving assistance to people in need, as assessed by OCHA and the Humanitarian Coordinator in accordance with the principles of impartiality and neutrality.

In response to a follow-up question, Mr. Laerke said that to his knowledge there was no particular review being carried out once funding had been allocated to an organization which had been vetted and was delivering aid to projects based on OCHA needs assessments. In regards to where the UN drew the line as far as working with other parties, Mr. Laerke said that in order to work together, both parties needed to agree to work together. The UN would work in Syria with those who could grant them access to people in need, but it required that they wanted to work with the UN. Local negotiations were happening across Syria in order for the UN to have access to people through its inter-agency convoys. Regarding sanctions, OCHA and the UN as a whole abode completely and in full transparency by all UN sanctions. They did not necessarily take into account sanctions imposed by individual countries.

In response to a question, Mr. Laerke said that the Government determined which national and international NGOs the UN were permitted to work with. He also reiterated that most of the points raised by the Guardian article had been addressed by the UN on various occasions. [After the briefing, the key points of Mr. Laerke’s statement were sent out to the press.]

Mr. Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that all Syrian public, private and NGO hospitals were provided with blood bags only from the national blood bank. The national blood bank was the only entity in Syria that was fully and exclusively responsible for ensuring safe blood and blood products. It operated under the Ministry of Defence and not the Ministry of Health. WHO did not work directly with the Ministry of Defence. WHO had distributed blood safety kits and blood bags to the national blood bank through the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Higher Education, two entities with which it worked. The responsible directorates within those two Ministries prepared monthly distribution plans that set out the total number of blood bags required by the health care facilities including public and NGO-managed hospitals, for the upcoming month. Those lists, disaggregated by health facilities, were sent to the national blood bank which distributed the supplies as they arrived. WHO had means of tracking the material it donated. It had established a network of 59 focal points in all 14 governorates to monitor the delivery of the health care and to provide records. WHO staff regularly visited health care facilities and interviewed patients and staff about the availability of blood transfusion services and the source of the blood supplies. Based on WHO’s records, the total spend on blood bags and kits since the beginning of the conflict was estimated at USD 5.1 million.

William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that UNHCR had provided full answers to all questions submitted to them by the Guardian regarding their partnerships and contracts in Syria. All of UNHCR’s partnerships were in accordance with the rules and regulations of UNHCR and the UN. Syria was a war zone and preventing aid from becoming politicized was a constant concern that UNHCR took very seriously. Despite the very tough and complex environment, UNHCR had decided to remain in Syria to help millions in need of life-saving aid. UNHCR did that irrespective of political affiliation, religion, ethnicity to as many parts of the war-torn country as possible. UNCHR’s primary goal was always to reach as many men, women and children in need as possible. So far UNHCR had reached more than 6 million Syrians with life-saving aid.

Syrian refugees in the United States

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that on 29 August IOM had announced that it had participated in the most recent arrival of Syrian refugees for resettlement in the United States. With that arrival the US had exceeded its target of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees. As of 29 August in the afternoon, the number had been 10,172. Some 87 per cent had been processed by IOM’s resettlement support centre in MENA, based in Amman, Jordan. In 2016 IOM had assisted Syrians resettling from 11 countries in the Middle East, the Gulf and North Africa. Meeting the goal had not come at all at the cost of the US’ comprehensive and robust security screening. Secretary of State John Kerry had singled out IOM and UNHCR this morning for their outstanding work in that area.

In response to a question, Mr. Millman said that many commentators agreed that 10,000 was a low number for the United States, given the country’s size and scale. Canada had accepted 25,000 and had pledged to accept perhaps 25,000 more. Turkey had 3 million refugees and Lebanon, more than a million. For a while, Europe had been receiving 10,000 a week through Greece. However, every response was important. IOM would like to see the whole world become more open to welcoming those individuals. He also said that historically, the US accepted more people and granted asylum to more people than any other country in the world. Of course, some countries in East Africa had had hundreds of thousands of refugees for many years. The US State Department was a donor and a collaborator for IOM. Many people in the current administration would like to increase those numbers, but there had also been a lot of pushback locally throughout the US and a lot of misinformation being put out about the lack of screening for example.

In response to another question, Mr. Millman said that the per capita expense for a refugee in a country in the Middle East was probably lesser than in a Scandinavian country. However, given the number of refugees hosted in Turkey for example, it was possible that the total spend was higher, but Mr. Millman did not have the exact figures.

France - Burkini ban

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that OHCHR welcomed the decision on 26 August by France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat, to suspend the ban adopted in the seaside town of Villeneuve-Loubet on supposedly inappropriate beachwear – which had been widely interpreted as targeting the burkini and other forms of dress worn by Muslim women. OHCHR called on the authorities in all the other French sea-side towns and resorts that had adopted similar bans to take note of the Conseil d’Etat’s ruling that the ban constituted a grave and illegal breach of fundamental freedoms. OHCHR urged all remaining local authorities which had adopted similar bans to repeal them immediately, rather than exploit the limited geographical scope of that particular decision in order to keep their highly discriminatory bans in place until the end of the current holiday season.

According to international human rights standards, limitations on manifestations of religion or belief, including choice of clothing, were only permitted in very limited circumstances, including public safety, public order, and public health or morals. In addition, under international human rights law, measures adopted in the name of public order must be appropriate, necessary, and proportionate.

OHCHR fully understood – and shared -- the grief and anger generated by the terrorist attacks carried out in France in recent months, including the atrocious 14 July attack in Nice. However, those decrees did not improve the security situation but rather fuelled religious intolerance and the stigmatization of Muslims in France, especially women. By stimulating polarization between communities, those clothing bans had only succeeded in increasing tensions and as a result might actually undermine the effort to fight and prevent violent extremism, which depended on cooperation and mutual respect between communities.

Clearly, individuals wearing burkinis, or any other form of clothing for that matter, could not be blamed for the violent or hostile reactions of others. Any public order concerns should be addressed by targeting those who incited hatred or reacted violently, and not by targeting women who simply wanted to walk on the beach or go for a swim wearing clothing they felt comfortable in. Nor could it be claimed that such a ban on beachwear was necessary on grounds of hygiene or public health. Dress codes such as the anti-burkini decrees disproportionately affected women and girls, undermining their autonomy by denying them the ability to make independent decisions about how to dress, and clearly discriminated against them. In addition, as had been widely noted, the manner in which the anti-burkini decrees had been implemented in some French resorts had been humiliating and degrading. More details were available in the briefing note.

In response to questions, Mr. Colville said that doctors had been advising the public for the past decade or two to cover up more on the beach because of skin cancer. Many of the reasons for the ban which had been put forward by some of the local authorities and mayors who had instituted those bans were quite clearly spurious. They had nothing to do with health or hygiene. It was a complete contradiction to think that one could liberate people from clothing impositions by making other clothing impositions. There had been bans on the burqa in other countries, but it was a different issue as a burqa was a full face covering, as opposed to the burkini. In the case of the burqa, in certain circumstances there could be legitimate security concerns regarding people concealing their identity. The burkini ban stimulated friction and thus undermined public order. In response to another question, Mr. Colville said that nudity was a slightly different issue than deciding what clothing a woman could wear.

Bolivia

Mr. Colville said that OHCHR condemned the brutal murder on 25 August of the Vice Minister of Interior and Police, Rodolfo Illanes, as well as violent clashes between demonstrators opposing a new mining law and police forces, which had left three miners dead and hundreds of people, including police officers and journalists, injured.

Mr. Illanes had been reportedly beaten to death, and his security officer badly injured, by a group of striking miners in the evening of 25 August in Panduro, some 160 kilometres south of the Bolivian capital of La Paz, while on his way to negotiate a peaceful resolution to a road blockade staged by miners.

OHCHR understood that six people were currently detained in connection with that murder. OHCHR urged the authorities to ensure that a full and objective investigation into Mr. Illanes’ death, as well as into the death of the three miners, was carried out, in line with Bolivia’s international human rights obligations.

OHCHR called on all sides to engage in an immediate, genuine and constructive dialogue and to refrain from resorting to violence.

Mediterranean rescues

Mr. Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that more than 1,100 people had been rescued off the Libyan coast since IOM’s last report on 26 August, and almost 7,000 had been rescued on 29 August. In total, 7,027 people had been rescued over 48 hours from 28 to 29 August in the Channel of Sicily. There had been two fatalities reported so far.

Greece arrivals

In response to questions, Mr. Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that a small uptick towards the end of August had been seen in arrivals but that the numbers were still far from what had been seen earlier in 2016, let alone in 2015. It was still too early to tell whether that was a change in trends or not. As of 29 August there had been 163,000 total arrivals in Greece so far in 2016 (versus a total of 856,723 for the year 2015). The vast majority of those had arrived before April. Some 99 per cent of the arrivals were coming by sea.

In response to a question regarding the EU-Turkey deal, Mr. Spindler said that there were aspects of that deal which UNHCR had welcomed and had been advocating for, for a long time before the deal had been announced, such as help for countries like Turkey who were hosting the vast majority of refugees. Resettlement from countries hosting refugees was also welcomed by UNHCR. UNHCR’s concern was that deterring people from making the voyage did not solve the problem. There were still millions of people in need of protection, and the fact that they were not arriving in such large numbers anymore in Greece and in the rest Europe did not mean that the problem had been solved. The situation needed to be followed closely and it was necessary to work in the countries of first asylum to help refugees where they were, as well as increasing resettlement. About 10 per cent of Syrian refugees (some half a million people) needed to be resettled, not just to Europe, but also North America, the rest of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia, whatever resettlement countries could come forward. It was also necessary to look into regular, legal pathways for people to move, such as resettlement, family reunification, student visas, work visas, private sponsorship of refugees and so on. And it was necessary to deal with the cause of the problem, which was the conflict in Syria itself. UNHCR was not part of the EU-Turkey deal but was concerned about mechanisms for protecting refugees.

In response to another question, Mr. Spindler said that a very small number of people were crossing by land through Bulgaria from Turkey. Mr. Millman added that in July almost 2,000 people had come by land through Bulgaria. Close to 3,000 people had arrived by sea in Greece in August so far, and it would be the first time since April that the number would be over 3,000. However, in January, February and March, over 50,000 people had arrived in each of those months.

LGBTI Pulse Memorial Scholarship for migrants

Mr. Millman also said that IOM had launched the LGBTI Pulse Memorial Scholarship on 29 August aiming to provide educational opportunities for LGBTI migrants, including refugees.

School meals in West and Central Africa

Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that the WFP was very concerned that due to insufficient funding of its programmes, more than 1.3 million children across West and Central Africa could risk not getting life-changing school meals. The WFP’s programmes were endangered as donor priorities shifted due to the many humanitarian crises around the world. Half a million children across Cameroon, Mali, Mauritania and Niger could start the school year without being able to rely on those meals. It was crucially important as families could take the children out of school if WFP could not deliver the meals. If money was being spent on school meals the whole country, the villages and the families could profit. In Chad, the number of beneficiaries could go down to 15,000 from 200,000 in 2013. In Senegal, fewer than a fifth of the children could be reached.

In response to questions, Ms. Luescher said that the WFP needed USD 48 million urgently to make sure that those 1.3 million children could continue receiving school meals. She said that children who did not receive school meals could not concentrate, and could not develop adequately, both physically and mentally. School meals helped girls get an education, get jobs and have fewer children. It was a huge benefit for families, villages, and all of society. WFP studies on the cost of hunger in various regions of the world had shown that for every US dollar invested in school meals, the economic return was 3 to 8 dollars, as the children were later more productive, smart and self-reliant. The WFP worked in many countries to try to empower the Governments to take over the school meal programmes from them, but in West and Central Africa currently the WFP was the only organization who could run the programmes.

Geneva Events and Announcements

Ms. Vellucci said that the Conference on Disarmament - whose third and last part of the annual session would run until 16 September – was holding a public plenary this morning at 10 a.m. Until the end of its session, the Conference would be presided by Ambassador Kim In-chul of the Republic of Korea.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, would hold only private meetings until 2 September, when it would conclude its sixteenth session. At the conclusion of the session it would publish its final observations on the reports presented by seven States Parties which it had reviewed: Uruguay, Ethiopia, Bolivia, United Arab Emirates, Guatemala, Colombia and Italy.

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families opened on 29 August its twenty-fifth session, which would end on 7 September, at the Palais Wilson. During the session, it would review the initial reports of Honduras, Niger and Nicaragua, as well as the periodic report of Sri Lanka. This morning, the Committee was concluding its review of the report of Honduras, started on 29 August in the afternoon. This afternoon, it would start the review of the report of Niger.

Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that today at 2.30 p.m. in Press Room 1 there would be a press conference on WHO’s new guidelines for the treatment of three common sexually transmitted infections in response to the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. These infections were Chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis. The speaker would be Dr. Teodora Wi, Medical Officer, Department of Reproductive Health and Research, WHO.

Mr. Lindmeier also said that on 31 August at 10 a.m. there would be an Emergency Committee on yellow fever. The virtual press briefing on the topic would take place at 8 p.m. that day.

On 1 September the Zika Emergency Committee would be held at 2 p.m. and the corresponding virtual press briefing would be held the next day, on 2 September at 2 p.m.

Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said that the UNCTAD report on the assistance programme for the Palestinian people would be launched on 6 September. The report on Trade and Development would be published on 21 September. A press conference on Palestine would take place on 6 September at noon in Press Room 1, and the main launch of the report on trade and development would take place on 16 September at 3 p.m. in Geneva. The Palestine report would give an overview of the economic and social situation in the occupied territories and in Palestine. The report on Trade and Development would focus on the combination between industrial policies and monetary and financial policies required to the world economy out of the slump which it had been experiencing since 2008.

Ms. Vellucci announced a press conference by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) on 1 September at 10 a.m. in Room III, launching the Cluster Munition Monitor 2016 Report. The speakers would be Jarmo Sareva, Director, UNIDIR, Mary Wareham, Advocacy Director, Arms Division, Human Rights Watch and ban policy editor for Cluster Munition Monitor 2016, as well as Jeff Abramson, Final Editor and Program Manager, Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/Unog300816