REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Alessandra Vellucci, Director, United Nations Information Service, and Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief, Press and External Relations, United Nations Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by the spokespersons for the World Food Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration, the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, and the World Trade Organization.

Syria

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that at the Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region, pledges for a combined USD 6 billion had been received for 2017 alone, to respond to humanitarian needs inside Syria and in the neighbouring countries, as well as resilience building and protection. In addition, there had been pledges from a combined 41 donors for USD 3.7 billion for 2018 and beyond.

The war underway in Syria was very vicious, characterized by displacement and suffering both inside the country and across the borders. The possession and use of chemical weaponry was abhorrent and a violation of international laws and treaties, and OCHA condemned it. In relation to the incident where scores of people, including women and children, had died due to what very strongly appeared to be exposure to chemical substances, OCHA urged a full investigation, echoing what the UN Secretary-General had called for, to get to the bottom of the facts regarding what had happened in Idleb.

Under-Secretary-General Stephen O’Brien had reiterated this morning that the best antidote to suffering was peace, and that we should give the various tracks of dialogue a chance for finding a negotiated peace.

In response to questions, Mr. Laerke said that OCHA reiterated the Secretary-General’s call for an investigation. Regarding the military decision made by the US overnight, OCHA would not comment on it as humanitarians.

Asked about the US missile strikes, Mr. Laerke said that he did not have any reports on those strikes’ impact on humanitarian operations, but that airstrikes in Syria were being seen all the time and it was not a new feature of the war there. The UN continued to push ahead to try and reach as many people with aid as possible.

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that at least 27 children had been confirmed killed in the attack in Idleb and a further 546 people, among them many children, had been injured.

He also said that a humanitarian partner working on the ground on the medical response to the event had said the following: “Doctors working at the hospital received an entire family with severe shortness of breath. They had extreme pain in their faces and were foaming at the mouth. Doctors responding to the attack worked to exhaustion. They lacked enough antidote, lacked enough beds to treat the victims and were deeply affected from witnessing so much suffering in front of them. There is not enough personal protective equipment. Some hospital staff are experiencing symptoms of chemical poisoning only from touching patients. Only some hours after the attack, the main hospital that was treating victims, including children, was targeted. Patients had to urgently be transferred to other centres, and many patients died on the way. We need everybody’s efforts to stop these attacks on civilians, women, children and hospitals. As a humanitarian, I ask everyone to let us work in a safe environment. We are saving lives and we don’t want to lose any more humanitarian workers to the violence.”

UNICEF and partners continued to respond to the attack by supporting three mobile clinics and four hospitals to provide first aid and treatment, and nine ambulances to refer and transport patients to hospitals in the area. UNICEF had already distributed atropine in the past and was rushing in more of it. Atropine was an antidote to nerve agent and pesticide poisoning. UNICEF was also working with partners to raise awareness about exposure to chemicals.

Beyond Idleb, there were over 2.8 million children living in hard-to-reach areas in Syria, including 280,000 living in areas under siege, with almost no access to humanitarian assistance.

In response to a question about the possibility of chemical agent contamination through contact with contaminated patients, Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that in the case of many chemical substances, exposure could happen by inhalation or through the skin, as some of those agents formed droplets which could stay on the skin and be passed on to the person touching. There was no confirmation of what had been used in this instance, but WHO had stated that symptoms were consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals.

From the Health Directorate in Idleb, the latest numbers as of 6 April were of 84 deaths and 546 injured in Idleb. Out of those 546, 74 patients had been transferred to Turkey and were in the hospital in Hatay region. Out of those 74, 34 were showing symptoms consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals, while 40 others had been treated for trauma and other types of injuries and disease. Most of the patients were in a good health condition and could be discharged; one person was in a serious condition and others were in a moderate condition and were still receiving treatment. Three patients had died out of the 74. WHO continued to work with health partners in Idleb, providing necessary medicines, reviewing the needs, and making sure that health workers had expertise and the necessary equipment and medical supplies to respond to those types of cases. That was why since 2012 WHO was working on preparedness in Syria and Iraq to make sure that health workers were ready. More than 600 health workers had been trained to triage, diagnose and treat exposure to chemical weapons. WHO had been sending medical supplies and medicines as some of the exposures to certain toxic chemicals could be treated; for others there was only symptomatic treatment. WHO was also publishing and updating the guidance for Ministries of Health in the region in case they came to witness those events.

In response to questions, Mr. Jasarevic clarified that WHO had had no role in the autopsies conducted by Turkish forensic experts, had not taken any samples nor participated in taking or analysing samples. For any results of tests, one would have to refer to the Turkish forensic authorities. A WHO representative had been there on a mission to visit hospitals to verify the numbers of people who had been admitted, to assess the overall situation and needs, and to validate casualty figures, which was why there was a WHO representative present at the autopsies done by the Turkish forensic experts. WHO could thus not comment on tests being done or on their results.

In response to a request from the press, Mr. Jasarevic said that WHO would be happy to organize a separate briefing on exposure to toxic chemicals with a medical expert. He also said that patients showing symptoms associated with chemical exposure had started arriving in ambulances from Syria to the Turkish border as for the morning of 4 April. Eleven ambulances from the Turkish side and three rescue teams had immediately been deployed to the scene. Teams of Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency of Turkey had been deployed to the scene and had established decontamination tents. Decontaminated patients had been transferred with ambulances to Reyhanli State Hospital and to other health facilities. During treatment, patients were showing acute respiratory distress syndrome, characterized by widespread inflammation in the lungs.

Asked about why more injured patients had not been transferred into Turkey, Mr. Jasarevic said that he did not see other reasons than that the others had been able to be treated on the spot. WHO and other partners working in Idleb had been consistently prepositioning medicines even before the attack, for example there had been a delivery to Idleb the day before the attack as part of routine deliveries, and had shipped additional medicines the same day that the attack had taken place. He would check why more people had not been transferred to Turkey.

In response to further questions, Mr. Jasarevic stated that it was not the mandate of the WHO to investigate those types of events. There was a procedure for that and other international bodies were doing that. WHO may be called, as it had been the case in East Ghouta in 2013, to provide experts to any mission that was being initiated by the UN, but its main role was to focus on patients and assess the public health impact and the needs that the health system might have to respond to those cases. The OPCW had the mandate to investigate the agent which had been used and the circumstances under which the attack had taken place. In the past, WHO had been lending its experts to those missions, but was not doing the testing and investigation itself. Today and tomorrow WHO experts would be visiting patients still in hospitals in southern Turkey.

Asked about the 2013 mission in East Ghouta, Mr. Jasarevic clarified that it had been an OPCW-led mission with WHO experts, who had joined the mission upon invitation from the Secretary-General to WHO’s Director-General. If the WHO received an official request from the OPCW to join the investigation, it would do so. Since 2012, WHO had been working in Syria and Iraq on preparedness. For example, in 2014-2016, WHO had distributed 450 sets of protective equipment to NGOs in Syria, and 500 sets of personal protective equipment to referral hospitals. WHO had also procured and distributed antidote (atropine) to all the governorates in Syria except Al-Hasakah and As-Suwayda, passing them through cross-line shipments, to 77 locations including hard-to-reach areas. Since 2014, WHO had supported training of over 600 clinicians, Syrian Arab Red Crescent health responders and NGO health providers. In 2016, the WHO office in Syria had trained 363 clinicians and respondents in dealing with hazardous material exposure, including pre-hospital decontamination, referral, triage and treatment. In 2017, 50 participants had passed courses in that field. There had been reports on the use of toxic chemicals since 2012, and some of those had been confirmed by the OPCW. WHO’s role was to make sure that the health system could respond to that. WHO had shared material through health providers on what the population should be doing in the case of finding themselves in a contaminated area. Mr. Jasarevic would send to the press further details on that.

Asked about the investigation, Ms. Vellucci said that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) fact-finding mission was in the process of gathering and analysing information from all available sources. The fact-fighting mission would report its findings to the OPCW’s Executive Council and State Parties to the chemical weapons convention.

In response to further questions, Ms. Vellucci said that she was waiting for a reaction from New York to the latest developments. She also said that there was a Press Officer for media inquiries at the OPCW, Johan de Wittlaan, and that the press was encouraged to contact him. The fact-finding mission established in 2014 saw the continuation of its mandate endorsed by the Security Council in 2015.

Leonard Doyle, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that IOM Director-General William Lacy Swing had also been at the Brussels Conference and had made some important remarks there. The humanitarian context of Syria remained really serious. The need to have access to people in a humanitarian and neutral way remained a priority. IOM had a rather large mission in Syria and worked closely with UNICEF and others humanitarian partners. On 2 April, IOM had delivered aid to 10,000 people on one day. This was mostly in eastern Aleppo, and included house-sealing kits and non-food items, helping people to survive and reconstruct to create shelters for themselves in this terrible situation. A press release on the topic was available.

Answering a question, and on behalf of the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria (OSE), Ms. Vellucci said that the Special Envoy was following closely the situation, including through consultations with relevant interlocutors. The UN would provide additional comments as more information was brought to bear.

Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that the horrific attack on Khan Shaykhun had focused international attention on Syria, and rightly so. The use of chemical weapons, if confirmed, would amount to a war crime, and there were several other instances where chemical attacks had allegedly been used by Syrian forces.

Sadly, the attack on Khan Shaykhun was far from an isolated incident. There had been many – too many – other incidents in various parts of Syria in recent weeks where civilians had perished. Idleb and Raqqa were among the governorates that had been subjected to the most intensive bombing to date. In March alone, the UN Human Rights Office had documented that more than 130 civilians had reportedly been killed and a further 170 injured in Raqqa, and more than 100 killed – a third of them children – and over 50 injured in Idleb.

The overwhelming majority of such deaths and injuries were reportedly due to airstrikes. Other areas had not been spared: airstrikes on 3 and 4 April had reportedly killed at least 42 civilians – 11 of them women and six children - in Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus.

Civilians in besieged towns, including in the Damascus suburbs and in Idleb Governorate, continued to die due to indiscriminate attacks launched from the air and ground, sniper fire and the denial of water, food and medicine. The UN Human Rights Office had documented that in March at least eight civilians had been reportedly killed by snipers in the town of Madaya, and three civilians had been killed by ground-based strikes in Al-Fuah.

In addition, suicide bombers had increasingly been targeting areas in Damascus frequented by high number of civilians, including the central court complex that had been one of the targets of a double bombing on 15 March that had left more than 30 people dead. Since August 2016, the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria had documented seven attacks involving the use of chlorine by Syrian forces.

All parties to the conflict in Syria, including foreign states conducting airstrikes, must take constant care to spare the civilian population by strictly respecting their obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions.

Civilians had paid a brutal price during this conflict, and OHCHR called once again on the international community, including the Security Council, to set aside political differences and focus on ensuring that the people of Syria were spared further terror, death and devastation. Those who were responsible for such grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law across the country must be held to account.

In response to a question about the casualties in Raqqa, Ms. Shamdasani said that those had been the result of airstrikes as well as other violations. Airstrikes had hit residential areas, for example on 19 March 14 civilians had been killed, and another residential area had been struck on 8 March and 14 civilians had been killed. Some of the other deaths had been due to the detonation of explosive devices, so it was a range of causes, but the vast majority however were due to airstrikes.

Gaza

Ms. Shamdasani said that OHCHR condemned in the strongest terms the execution of three men in Gaza on 6 April, despite OHCHR’s appeal and those by other international and Palestinian organizations for the sentences not to go ahead. The defendants had been convicted of treason under the PLO Revolutionary Penal Code on the basis of what was termed “collaboration with the occupier”.

Those executions had been carried out in breach of Palestine’s obligations under international law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which placed stringent conditions on the use of the death penalty.

A number of those conditions had been breached in the 6 April executions. Those had been civilians convicted by a military court, again in contravention of international law.

OHCHR was also concerned that trials in Gaza resulting in the imposition of a death sentence did not appear to meet international fair trial standards. Allegations of torture, which the authorities had not investigated sufficiently, raised the possibility that confessions may have been coerced. Also, individuals could not effectively exercise their right to seek a pardon or have their sentence commuted, as required by international law.

OHCHR urged the authorities in Gaza to halt further executions and comply with Palestine’s obligations under international law. OHCHR also called on the State of Palestine to immediately establish an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty with a view to its abolition.

Kenya

Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that with new resources received since the beginning of 2017, WFP was now able to restore the full food ration for all refugees from April to July. Although more funds were still needed, WFP was extremely grateful for the donations coming in.

The following donors (in alphabetical order) had announced new contributions to WFP’s refugee operation in Kenya, allowing for the resumption of full-sized food rations: Canada (USD 2.2 million), China (USD 5 million), Germany (USD 2.7 million as part of a multi-year contribution), Japan (USD 2.2 million), Sweden (USD 1 million), and the United Kingdom (USD5.1 million as part of a multi-year contribution). A USD22.5 million in-kind contribution from the United States had arrived in the country and was available for distribution.

In response to questions, Ms. Luescher said that the United States had sent a ship with food supplies which were being distributed all over the country. The food aid was going to 420,000 refugees, and part of the aid that WFP was providing was also in cash. There had been a shift in recent decades from in-kind aid to more and more cash aid. However, the US in-kind donations were really crucial. In some places, there were no other ways of getting food to people. The US had also provided cash donations and remained the largest donor to the WFP with USD 2 billion in 2016. Ms. Luescher said that the US donation might have been approved under the previous administration as those processes took time, but that the WFP continued to be in close contact with the US administration and the new WFP Director was currently busy fundraising in the US. The US had been the WFP’s largest donor for many years and had been one of the WFP’s “founding fathers” some fifty years ago. Regardless of the political majority, the WFP had always enjoyed full support from the US Congress, the administration and its various departments, and was confident that that would continue.

Colombia

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that according to the latest information, 306 people had been killed in the tragedy in Mocoa, Colombia, so far, and 372 were missing. According to IOM’s Chief of Mission in Colombia, IOM had received USD 400,000 in funding for this emergency. Some of that work would overlap with the work IOM was doing on restoring populations affected by years of conflict and indigenous communities. IOM was doing a lot of work registering people in that region, and would continue during this emergency to help humanitarian aid missions reach vulnerable people. The private sector had stepped up strongly, and Telefonica Movistar was lending IOM handphones to expedite registration processing, as well as free access to the broadband they had installed in Mocoa. That was a critical support as communications were an issue for the humanitarian community in general.

In response to questions, Mr. Millman said that 1,518 people had registered as victims and the generally affected population was of 45,000 according to the Red Cross. A shelter cluster meeting would take place in Mocoa today.

South Sudan

Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that UNHCR was alarmed at the ongoing deterioration of the security situation inside South Sudan as a recent attack in the town of Pajok in the Eastern Equatoria region was forcing more refugees to flee for safety. Uganda’s northern Lamwo district had received over 6,000 South Sudanese since 3 April. Ongoing fighting was also reported in the districts of Magwi and Oboo - towns also close to the border. This spreading of violence signified a worrying development.

People fleeing the recent incident had claimed that the town had come under an indiscriminate attack by the South Sudan armed forces. Refugees reported witnessing their loved ones shot dead at a close range, with many arrested or slaughtered, including children. Families had fled in different directions; the elderly and disabled who could not run had been shot dead. Many people were still hiding in the bush trying to find their way to Uganda, while homes and properties had been looted and burned. Main roads out of the town were reportedly blocked by armed groups.

UNHCR staff in northern Uganda were helping desperate women, children, elderly, and the disabled. Refugees were in dire need of immediate humanitarian assistance including food, shelter, water and medical care.

Around 4,000 refugees had immediately fled South Sudan in the aftermath of the horrible attack on Pajok town, which had an estimated population of up to 50,000.

Uganda currently hosted more than 832,000 refugees from South Sudan. Some 192,000 had arrived in 2017 with an average of 2,000 refugees fleeing insecurity, violence and famine every day. Over 62 per cent of the new arrivals were children.

In response to questions, Mr. Baloch said that host communities and humanitarian agencies were struggling to provide basic services to the arriving refugees, as the influx continued, and was not slowing down. Humanitarian agencies did not have enough funding to help support those who were arriving. The UNHCR staff on the ground were struggling to feed the arrivals and provide them shelter, safe drinking water and medical care. UNHCR’s funding appeal for 2017 for USD 781.8 million was only 11 per cent funded. Uganda had a generous policy of welcoming those refugees, but infrastructure was under enormous pressure there.

Humanitarian agencies like UNHCR were trying to do as much as they could with the available resources. The arrivals came through a screening centre, then UNHCR tried to accommodate them in the camps, but overcrowding was an issue. The Bidibidi camp in Uganda had 272,000 refugees from South Sudan. New arrivals were now being taken to an alternate site. It was a struggle to help those refugees without the support and the funding required.

World Health Day – “Depression: Let’s Talk”

Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that today, 7 April was World Health Day and it was also the anniversary of the funding of WHO in 1948. The theme for 2017 was “Depression: Let’s Talk”. Mr. Lindmeier introduced Dr Shekhar Saxena, Director, Department for Mental Health and Substance Abuse at WHO.

Dr Saxena said that depression was one of the most disabling conditions in the health area. It was very common, present in 300 million people, in all age groups, in all countries, in both genders. It was the largest single cause of disability in the world today, and was responsible for 7.5 years of life lost because of disability.

There were many risk factors for depression, including conflicts, wars and natural disasters. It was estimated that one in five people affected by those situations may have depression or anxiety. WHO believed that mental health and psychosocial assistance should always be part of all humanitarian assistance, right from the beginning. WHO was already working in many of the conflict-affected countries including in Syria, Turkey and other neighbouring countries to train the health care and humanitarian care providers in learning the basics on providing mental health and psychosocial assistance.

Depression could also cause death. Suicide was one of the most serious consequences of depression. A large number of people committing suicide were suffering from depression. Adequate and timely treatment of depression could decrease the number of suicide. All over the world, 800,000 people died of suicide every year, a death every 40 seconds. It was important to remember that there were silent epidemics in the world killing a large number of people.

In response to questions, Dr Saxena said that WHO had published a few weeks back estimates on depression and anxiety prevalence around the world. That information was available on the WHO website. Overall, between 4 to 5 per cent of adults were suffering from depression and a similar number had anxiety, while some were suffering from both. There were no significant differences in prevalence between developed and developing countries. The majority of people with depression were living in low- and middle-income countries. Depression was more common among women, 5.1 per cent versus 3.6 per cent among men. Other risk factors included poverty, discrimination and all adverse life situations, either chronic or acute, especially among young people, difficulties in education, social relationship, and among young adults, joblessness. Being a victim of violence was a major risk factor.

Regarding treatment, there were psychological as well as medicinal treatments for depression. Medicines needed to be prescribed only for moderate and severe depression and not for mild cases, and a combination of both could be effective. General doctors and nurses, even health care workers, could be trained to provide treatment for depression, and that was the only way that services could be extended in the majority of countries.

Dr Saxena also said that WHO had clear evidence-based guidelines about when drugs should be used and when psychotherapy should be used, and often a combination was required. In some high-income countries the number of people taking anti-depressants was too high, but in low- and middle-income countries that proportion was too low. Evidence-based practice, based on clear indications, was the only way, and WHO had developed guidelines for that.

Geneva Events and Announcements

Tim Caughley, Resident Senior Fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), said that UNIDIR's Nuclear Weapon Risks Symposium would be held on 10 April at the Palais des Nations in Room XVI, drawing attention to the risks of nuclear weapons. In recent times, there had been increased attention drawn to accident and near-misses including the handling of nuclear weapons and their use in conflicts. The whole gamut of risks would be covered at the event. The event would be open to the public and would be recorded, and the recordings would be posted on the UNIDIR’s website in due course. It was not an official UN meeting as such but a public event convened by UNIDIR. The programme was available on the UNIDIR website.

Asked about the effects of a breach by a party of a binding obligation in a treaty prohibiting certain kinds of weapons, Mr. Caughley said the treaty’s terms would determine the action that should follow.

Jessica Hermosa, for the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that the WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo would be jointly launching with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and World Bank President Jim Kim, a report on making trade an engine of growth for all. The report should already be available this afternoon under embargo, and the embargo would be lifted on 10 April at 2 p.m.

Mr. Azevêdo would also be meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on 10 April, with the heads of IMF, the World Bank, OECD and ILO in Berlin.

On 12 April, WTO would be launching the 2017-18 Trade Forecast as well as the outcomes for 2016. There would be a lockdown for journalists at WTO at 10 a.m., there would be a press conference at 11 a.m. and the embargo would be lifted at noon.

Mr. LeBlanc said that today was the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide in Rwanda. In his message, the UN Secretary-General had said that today was a time to honour those who survived, recognize their pain and courage, and the struggles they continued to face. The survivors’ resilience and their capacity for reconciliation were an inspiration to us all. There would be a ceremony in Room XIX starting at 5 p.m.

Mr. LeBlanc reminded the press of a press conference by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on 7 April at 11.30 a.m. in Room III, on the effects of more than four years of violent conflict on the mental and emotional well-being of children living closest to the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine. The speaker would be Giovanna Barberis, UNICEF Representative in Ukraine.

Mr. LeBlanc said that the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), would meet in private until the end of its 17^th session on 12 April, following which it would publish its concluding observations on the reports of the eight countries reviewed during the session: those of the Republic of Moldova, Iran, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, Armenia, Honduras and Canada.

The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, which had opened on 3 April its 26^th session at the Palais Wilson, would meet in private until the end of its session, which would run until 13 April, following which it would publish its concluding observations on the reports of Bangladesh, Jamaica and Nigeria.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog070417