REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service, United Nations Office at Geneva, and Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief, Press and External Relations Section, United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by spokespersons for the Human Rights Council, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Trade Organization.

HRC update

Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council, said that the Human Rights Council was holding the second part of its annual full-day discussion on the human rights of women. The focus was on information and communications technology, particularly the educational opportunities it provided and gender disparities in accessing such technology in certain parts of the world. That would be followed by a clustered interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, who would report on IMF and its impacts on social protection, and on his missions to Ghana and the United States of America. The Council would then hear from the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, who would present a report on the implementation of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement as well as reports on her missions to El Salvador, Libya and Niger.

The clustered interactive dialogue with the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, and with the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers had been shifted to Monday 25 June. Monday would also see the presentation of a host of thematic reports by the Deputy High Commissioner on such subjects as climate change and migration; child, early and forced marriage; and civil society engagement. Also on Monday, country-specific rapporteurs for Belarus and Eritrea would present their reports to the Council. The report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic was due to be presented on Tuesday 26 June.

Syria

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, would host a meeting with senior officials from France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and the United States at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on the morning of Monday 25 June 2018. Visual media were invited to cover the arrival of the officials, who were expected at Door 4 between 8.30 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. A media pool coordinated by UN TV would be able to capture images of the beginning of the meeting. Journalists should contact the respective Permanent Missions of the participating countries for information on the attendance of their officials.

She had no details about this week’s meeting of the Humanitarian Task Force.

Launch of the second human rights report on Venezuela

Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), read the following statement:

“A UN Human Rights report published on Friday spotlights the failure of Venezuelan authorities to hold accountable perpetrators of serious human rights violations that include killings, the use of excessive force against demonstrators, arbitrary detentions, ill-treatment and torture. The report also lays bare the grave impact of the economic and social crisis in the country on the rights to food and health.

The report provides an update on several key human rights violations documented in the August 2017 UN Human Rights Office report on Venezuela. While the previous report focused on the excessive use of force and alleged extrajudicial killings in the context of demonstrations, this new report also documents credible, shocking accounts of extrajudicial killings in the course of purported crime-fighting operations carried out since 2015. From July 2015 to March 2017, the then-Attorney-General’s Office had recorded the killing of 505 people by security forces during such operations. Witness accounts suggest a pattern: raids in poor neighbourhoods conducted to arrest ‘criminals’ without a judicial warrant; the killing of young men who fit the profile, in some cases in their homes; and finally security forces tampering with the scene so that the killings would appear to have occurred in an exchange of fire.

Victims’ accounts raise questions as to whether such operations were really meant to dismember criminal groups. A number of elements seem to indicate they were an instrument for the Government to showcase alleged results in crime reduction.’

Under the previous Attorney-General, who was replaced in August 2017, 357 security officers were reportedly under investigation in relation to the killings. But since then, there has been no information publicly available about the cases, with a key obstacle being that the bureau in charge of the investigations is also allegedly responsible for most of the killings.

In January 2017, those operations were replaced with another operation, which is much less transparent and difficult to track than previously, but civil society accounts suggest that the killings have continued. The report also documents the killing of 39 detainees in the state of Amazonas in 2017 and of seven members of an alleged armed group in Caracas in 2018, where security forces allegedly used excessive force.

Impunity also appears to be pervasive in favour of security officers allegedly responsible for the killing of at least 46 people during protestors last year. Evidence has reportedly disappeared from case files, and members of the Attorney-General’s office in charge of investigating the cases were replaced when the new Attorney-General took office in August last year.

State authorities have failed to promptly and effectively investigate the excessive use of force and the killings of protestors by security forces. Relatives of victims state that they have lost trust in the justice system and did not expect the Government to ensure accountability.

The failure to hold security forces accountable for such serious human rights violations suggests that the rule of law is virtually absent in Venezuela. For years now, institutional checks and balances and the democratic space in Venezuela have been chiselled away, leaving little room to hold the State to account. The impunity must end.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights has recommended that the UN Human Rights Council establish a Commission of Inquiry into the situation in Venezuela. Furthermore, given that the State appears neither able nor willing to prosecute serious human rights violations, there is also a strong case to be made for deeper involvement by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Several health professionals also described to the UN Human Rights Office the acute deterioration of healthcare facilities. Systemic shortages of key supplies and medicine; doctors leaving the country, unable to make ends meet on meagre salaries; and the lack of transparency by the Government, which on occasion has reportedly responded to criticism by threatening or even detaining healthcare workers and journalists who are critical of the healthcare situation, all appear to be contributing to the dramatic healthcare crisis in the country.

Similarly, the Government has refused to acknowledge the scale of the food crisis in the country, failing to comply with its international obligations to put every possible effort into fulfilling the rights to health and food.

Families are having to search for food in rubbish bins. By some measures, 87 per cent of the population of Venezuela is affected by poverty. The human rights situation of the people of Venezuela is dismal. When a box of hypertension pills costs more than the monthly minimum wage and baby milk formula more than two months’ salary, but protesting against such an impossible situation can land you in jail, the extreme injustice of it all is stark.

Civil society organizations working on human rights issues also continue to face severe legal restrictions, smear campaigns, threats and harassment, as well as accusations of terrorism, treason and other crimes. Arbitrary and unlawful detentions, while at a lower rate than previous years, continued in a more targeted fashion. In one case, a group of young friends exchanging messages on social media about joining a protest were arrested and deprived of any contact with their families or lawyers for more than four months. They have recently been conditionally released.

The report also documents some 90 cases of detainees subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment since 2014, which in many cases could constitute torture. It details the degrading ill-treatment which some family members are subjected to when they visit detainees.

The report was compiled following some 150 interviews and meetings with Venezuelans, including with at least 78 victims or witnesses, as well as the review of information from a wide range of sources. The findings of the report indicate the continued existence of a policy to repress dissent.”

Responding to questions from journalists, Ms. Shamdasani explained that the High Commissioner for Human Rights strongly supported the involvement of ICC and was in frequent contact with the Court, which had already opened a preliminary investigation. There did not appear to be a political dimension to the extrajudicial killings, which mostly occurred in poor neighbourhoods. The victims were apparently profiled as suspected criminals and the purpose of the whole exercise seemed to be to demonstrate that the Government was taking serious measures to tackle crime. As OHCHR had no direct access to the country and its attempts to reach out to the Government had gone unheeded, it had had to draw information on child malnutrition and other issues from credible non-governmental sources

Ms. Amanda Flores, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that both the present human rights report and the previous one had been sent to ICC. Cooperation did take place behind the scenes but any request for support from ICC would have to be considered in the light of the neutrality of OHCHR.

Responding to further questions, Ms. Shamdasani said that OHCHR was continuing its attempts to engage with the Government of Venezuela. However, the Government had publically stated that it did not recognize the Office of the High Commissioner’s mandate to issue a report such as the present one. The High Commissioner was calling for greater involvement of the Human Rights Council. The establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into the situation in Venezuela would require the Council to pass a resolution. Membership of the Human Rights Council entailed no immunity to criticism for human rights violations. Quite the contrary, it came with additional responsibilities to uphold human rights. Similarly, the fact that a particular State was a member did not mean that the Council could not hold a special session to examine the human rights situation in that State. There were precedents in that regard.

US withdrawal from the Human Rights Council and separation of migrant children from their parents by US authorities

Responding to questions from journalists, Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that it was disappointing but not surprising that the United States had withdrawn from the Human Rights Council. The President of the Human Rights Council and the President of the United Nations General Assembly had issued statements in that regard. For his part, the High Commissioner for Human Rights had repeatedly highlighted the significance of multilateralism and the importance of States stepping forward to engage with their human rights responsibilities.

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, drew attention to recent comments by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who had said that the UN would much prefer the United States to remain in the Human Rights Council, because the human rights architecture was a key tool to promote and protect human rights around the world. Human rights were one of the pillars of action of the United Nations.

Responding to another query from a journalist, Ms. Shamdasani said that, in the wake of the recent executive order signed by the US President, migrant children would no longer be separated from their parents but they would be held in detention. She wished to reiterate that irregular migration should never be treated as a criminal offence and children in particular should never be detained for reasons related to their own or their parents’ migration status. Detention was never in the best interests of the child and separation from parents was necessarily a very traumatic experience. OHCHR was calling on the United States to overhaul its migration policy, to consider non-custodial, community-based alternatives to detention for migrant children and their families, and to introduce policies based on the principle of care rather than that of law-enforcement. OHCHR had not specifically requested permission to visit US migrant detention centres but had used information emerging from visits conducted by US civil society organizations.

Ms. Shamdasani said that OHCHR had a global mandate. Therefore, it engaged with all States to remind them of their obligations under the treaties to which they were party. At the same time, it pursued diplomatic avenues and any other private and public channels to advocate for human rights.

Responding to questions from journalists, Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that UNICEF also opposed the detention of migrant children or their separation from their families. Like OHCHR, UNICEF also encouraged the adoption of non-custodial, community-based models to irregular migration. Such models had been adopted and successfully implemented by other countries.

Nicaragua

Responding to a question from a journalist, Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that OHCHR had received an invitation from the Nicaraguan authorities to conduct a human rights mission. Preparations for the mission were currently underway .

Update on Yemen

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, read the following statement from the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, Martin Griffiths:

“I will continue my consultations with all parties to avoid further military escalation in Hudaydah, which I fear would have severe political and humanitarian consequences.

My priority now is to avoid a military confrontation in Hudaydah and to swiftly return to political negotiations.

I am encouraged by the constructive engagement of the Ansar Allah leadership in Sana’a and I look forward to my upcoming meetings with President Hadi and the Government of Yemen. I am confident that we can reach an agreement to avert any escalation of violence in Hudaydah.

While in Sana’a, I also briefed the Security Council on 18 June and announced my intention to relaunch political negotiations in the coming weeks.

I reiterate the commitment of the United Nations to reach a negotiated political settlement to end the conflict in Yemen. I welcome the commitment and willingness of the parties to engage in a UN facilitated intra-Yemeni political process.”

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), read the following statement:

“A week after fighting began in the port city of Hudaydah, hundreds of thousands of civilians remain at serious risk. We are deeply worried about the situation. Even before the fighting began, conditions in Hudaydah were some of the worst in the country.

Twenty-five percent of children in Hudaydah are suffering from acute malnutrition. If nutritional support from humanitarian partners is disrupted, it risks the lives of almost 100,000 children. Hudaydah was also one of the epicentres of last year’s cholera outbreak, one of the worst in modern history.

Humanitarians have been on the ground distributing assistance throughout, and we will stay as long as conditions permit, said Lise Grande, Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen. We have been off-loading food at the port and we are rushing in as many emergency stocks as possible while we can. Partners have established ten humanitarian service points and are distributing food boxes and emergency kits to displaced families. We have prepositioned sufficient fuel to help operate water points, treatment plants and hospitals, and, every day we help to provide over 46 million litres of water. Eleven health teams have been dispatched to health facilities in Hudaydah.

Of all the things we are worried about, cholera is top of the list. It wouldn’t take much to start an unstoppable outbreak. If the water system in just one neighbourhood breaks down, and if nothing can be done to immediately address the situation, cholera could spread with lightning speed.”

Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that WFP had sent three ships to Hudaydah in the course of the previous week. Two had since departed while one was still in port. There was currently enough wheat stored in Hudaydah and Saleef to feed 1.1 million households (6.6 million people) in Northern Yemen for a month. WFP was planning to send another vessel from Djibouti to Hudaydah in the coming days with humanitarian supplies from WHO, UNICEF and WFP.

Distributions of ready-to-eat family food rations was ongoing to over 7,200 displaced people. Up to 1,000 IDP families were relocating from Hudaydah to Sana’a. Twenty schools outside the city were hosting the families and WFP was ready to support them through the provision of ready-to-eat rations. While the markets in Hudaydah seemed to be functioning normally, wheat flour was becoming increasingly scarce and its price had increased by 70 per cent in the previous three days. In addition, the price of vegetable oil had increased by 30 per cent and the price of cooking gas by 52 per cent since the previous week. WFP was loading 166,000 litres of diesel and 110,000 litres of petrol onto trucks in Hudaydah, ready for distribution to the community.

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), read the following statement:

“Due to the ongoing offensive, IOM, the UN Migration Agency, has been forced to postpone its voluntary humanitarian return assistance to migrants stranded in Hudaydah until further notice. The same military operations have, so far, caused 5,775 Yemenis to flee their homes in the Hudaydah area since it began on Wednesday 13 June. This figure is set to increase over the coming days.

On Thursday 14 June, IOM cancelled a voluntary humanitarian return operation that would have helped over 200 migrants get home from the warzone via Hudaydah port. In addition, an unknown number, but estimated to be in the thousands, of migrants are stranded in or near the frontlines. Following heavy shelling and air strikes near IOM’s Migrant Response Point in Hudaydah, 22 migrants were immediately evacuated to Sana’a, where they are currently housed with foster families. They have been traumatized by the experience and IOM counsellors are working closely with them.

In 2017, IOM helped 2,860 migrants return home from Yemen, of whom 746 migrants were voluntary returnees through Hudaydah port – the majority of whom were Ethiopian migrants but others included Sri Lankans, Indians, Nigerians and Pakistanis. So far in 2018, IOM has assisted over 430 migrants with return assistance via Hudaydah port. It is unknown how many migrants live or are transiting through Yemen but IOM estimates that approximately 100,000 entered the country in 2017, mostly from the Horn of Africa en route to the Gulf countries.

The rising displacement caused by the offensive is in addition to the over 89,000, who were already displaced in the governorate prior to the current military offensive. Humanitarian partners are preparing a response for 60,000 internally displaced households (approximately 420,000 individuals) through 12 Humanitarian Service Points and Transit Sites – this includes new and old displacements.”

In answer to questions from journalists, Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that, according to reports, 59 civilians had been killed and 51 injured in military action between 1 April and 18 June. However, due to heavy clashes, OHCHR monitors had been unable to reach the affected areas to confirm the figures, which were clearly much lower than the actual number.

Responding to a question from a journalist, Ms. Luescher said that, although harbour pilots and tug operators had encountered some difficulties in reporting for work, the port of Hudaydah remained accessible. It was vital for the port to keep functioning as a supply line for humanitarian and commercial food supplies, otherwise people would die.

Responding to a question from a journalist, Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that the airport of Hudaydah was not a major factor in the delivery of aid. What was vital was that the port remain open. The port had been the scene of fighting over recent days, but he could not speculate on who had been responsible for cuts in the water supply to Hudaydah.

Replying to journalists’ questions, Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that a water pump had been hit in shelling on Monday leaving 10,000 households without water and raising fears of another outbreak of cholera. Twenty-five trauma kits allowing for 2,500 surgical operations had been prepositioned in health facilities in six districts while five more trauma kits were ready for distribution. Supplies had also been prepositioned in the Hudaydah central blood bank. WHO had plans to vaccinate over 800,000 persons with oral cholera vaccination across six priority districts in Hudaydah. However, the vaccination campaign required some measure of peace and stability. It could not be conducted in the midst of the fighting.

In response to a question from a journalist, Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, confirmed that the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen was consulting widely, also with Saudi Arabia.

Bangladesh

Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that, in the face of the monsoon rains, WFP engineers were working round-the-clock to mitigate the risks of flooding and landslides, which could affect up to 200,000 people in the camps. They were working closely with partners to prepare additional land for safe relocations, strengthening roads, building bridges, fortifying embankments and clearing drainage canals. WFP had recently completed a 45-metre bridge, which would allow for safe crossing across a main waterway and ease access to more remote areas of the camp. A joint earthworks project with IOM and UNHCR – collectively known as the Site Maintenance Engineering Project – was preparing new land to be used for shelter, 60 acres in the northern part and 40 acres in the south.

WFP was particularly concerned about pregnant women, breast-feeding mothers and children, all of whom received a special nutritious porridge to ward off malnutrition. Rations of rice, lentils and oil had been adjusted so that larger families got enough food. All beneficiaries were gradually being phased into the e-voucher programme. Families in the programme received monthly entitlements on a pre-paid debit card, which they could use in allocated shops to buy 19 different foods including rice, lentils, fresh vegetables, eggs and dried fish. Food vouchers led to more nutritious and diverse diets, empowered women and provided real value for money. They cost less to distribute than food and boosted the local economy.

In addition, WFP had distributed a one-off sum of USD 24 to more than 40,000 of the most vulnerable people from host communities, who faced similar problems to refugees. Many of those people have provided refugees with shelter and food, and they required continued support. Each month, around 160,000 women and children received special nutritional food. Under-fives were assessed for acute malnutrition at 21 supplementary feeding centres. Their parents were told why the nutritious porridge was important to eat, in addition to regular meals.

Surveys conducted in late 2017 showed that all refugee sites were above the WHO malnutrition emergency threshold of 15 percent. Kutupalong, the largest refugee site in the world, had the worst rates (24 percent among children aged 6-59 months). The surveys indicated that nearly half the children suffered from anaemia.

Financial support was vital but only 10 per cent of the WFP appeal for USD 141 million had been secured. In particular, WFP urgently required USD 3 million to resume its school meals programme for the 2018-2019 academic year, which had been suspended in June due to funding constraints.

Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that after 10 months and just into the monsoon season, the health needs of highly vulnerable people continued to be immense and were likely to increase in the ongoing rainy season. Heavy rains were flooding the camps, increasing the risk of water borne diseases such as diarrhoea and hepatitis; and vector borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and chikungunya.

The grossly underfunded health sector was grappling to meet the health needs of the people. It had received only 12.3 per cent of the USD 113.1 million it required for the 2018 Joint Response Plan. WHO had appealed for USD 16.5 million in 2018.

An estimated 700,000 Rohingyas had crossed over to Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine since 25 August 2017. Together with those who had crossed earlier, their total numbers stood at around 850,000. Nearly 1.3 million people were being targeted for humanitarian assistance, including new and previous arrivals and their host communities.

The area was one of the world’s most densely populated, prone to floods and cyclones. Additionally, in the need for firewood and building material, the refugees cut trees to build shelters in the hilly terrain, thereby adding to the risk of landslides. Health services needed to be further scaled up to meet the demand of a large population settled on a challenging terrain.

According to a report of the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), dated 13 June, more than 28,000 people had been affected by rains (nearly 18,000 between 9 and 13 June alone). In addition nearly 2,800 people had been displaced and one person had died. Infrastructure had also been damaged in rains, landslides, wind-storms and floods. In addition, 14 health facilities had been temporarily closed, while one health facility, 22 water points, 300 latrines and 3,303 shelters had been damaged.

Vulnerable health facilities had been mapped and were being relocated. Of the 210 health facilities mapped in the Ukhia area of Cox’s Bazar, 65 were at risk of direct flooding and many others could become inaccessible. Medical equipment and supplies had been prepositioned at various secure locations to respond to potential outbreaks and mass casualty events. Mobile medical teams had been constituted, trained and kept ready. As a preventive measure, one million people had been administered oral cholera vaccine in May ahead of the monsoon.

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that almost 28,500 people had been directly affected by heavy rains and efforts were being made to move those most at risk to new ground. In the Camp 20 Extension, Shelter and Site Management teams had been working since 13 June to establish robust shelters for families relocated from landslide-risk areas. IOM was building 50 shelters per day in the Camp 20 Extension, and planned to complete 2,000 shelters by the end of July.

IOM had been working to repair damaged infrastructure by clearing drainage culverts, positioning sandbags to stop further erosion, clearing landslides from access roads, digging temporary drainage channels and diverting traffic. Water continued to be a major priority. There was an urgent need for more deep-water wells to prevent contamination during flooding. In addition, there was a concern that funding shortages could impact on drain maintenance, which was a vital factor in the prevention of outbreaks of dangerous waterborne diseases. Just 22 per cent of the total IOM funding appeal of USD 180 million had been secured.

Responding to journalists’ questions, William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that the recent memorandum of understanding had provided a legal framework for humanitarian access. The UN already had a presence in Rakhine state and discussions on the modalities of access to the communities affected by violence were about to begin between UNDP and the Government. The conditions for a return of the refugees did not currently exist

Responding to questions, Ms. Luescher said that WFP did have a presence in Rakhine state where it provided food and nutrition to 179,000 people. Of them, 69,000 were in northern Rakhine state where WFP was helping Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu villagers, in cooperation with NGOs and local authorities. In early May, FAO and WFP had conducted a joint crop and food security assessment mission, visiting 30 villages in all five districts of Rakhine state. Mission teams were currently analysing data and consolidating their findings before providing preliminary results.

Mediterranean crossings

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that migrant arrivals had fallen remarkably in 2018. Between 2014 and 2017, the lowest number of irregular migrants arriving in Italy by sea had been 119,369, in 2014, and the highest 181,436, in 2016. Figures for the first six months of 2018, suggested that fewer than 50,000 would arrive in the whole of the year. In the past week, 936 migrants had been rescued at sea by the Libyan coastguard, bringing the total for the year to 8,310. Unfortunately, deaths of migrants at sea had risen and it seemed likely that they would soon exceed 1,000 for 2018.

William Spindler, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that, according to his information, the reported figure of 220 migrants who died at sea off the coast of Libya in recent days would bring the total number of migrants who had died at sea in 2018 to 1,065. Within the previous 24 hours, 346 persons had been rescued from three vessels by the Libyan coastguard and taken back to shore.

Responding to a concern raised by a journalist, Mr. Spindler agreed that there were very real fears that the fact that migrant rescue vessels were being turned away and denied permission to enter port might potentially dissuade future rescue attempts. Such a course of action risked endangering anyone requiring assistance at sea, not just migrants.

Announcements

Fernando Puchol, for the World Trade Organization (WTO), said a background briefing on the meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body would be held at WTO at 4.30 p.m. that day, to be followed by the launch of the report of the Appellate Body at which the Chair of the Dispute Settlement Body and the Chair of the Appellate Body would both be making opening remarks.

A new OECD book entitled “Trade Facilitation and the Global Economy” would be presented at WTO at 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday 26 June, immediately prior to the WTO meeting on trade facilitation.

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, said that the Conference on Disarmament (which will complete the second part of its 2018 session next Friday – i.e., 29 June) would hold a public plenary meeting at 10 a.m. today, the last under the presidency of Syria. Syria would be chairing the Conference until 24 June. The remaining part of this year’s session would be chaired by Tunisia (25-29 June and 30 July-19 August) and Turkey (20 August-14 September).

Press Conferences

Friday, 22 June at 12:00 p.m. in Room III
Permanent Mission of Qatar
A year of the blockade on Qatar : Continuation of Human Rights Violations
Press conference by Dr. Ali bin Smaikh Al-Marri (The Chairman of the Qatari National Human Rights Committee).
https://bit.ly/2t6Qsst

Monday, 25 June at 10:00 a.m. in Press Room 1
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
Update on deterioration of humanitarian situation in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, following onset of Monsoon Season.
Press conference by Steve McAndrew, Head of Emergency Operations, Cox’s Bazar (outgoing), IFRC
https://bit.ly/2MCMVuf

Tuesday, 26 June at 9:30 a.m. in Room III
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
Global launch of the World Drug Report, New York, Nairobi, Vienna, Geneva
EMBARGO 26 June 2018 at 11A.M. EDT (5 P.M. CEST)
Press conference by Ms. Miwa Kato, Director of Division for Operations, UNODC; Dr. Shekhar Saxena, Director of Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, WHO; Mr Peter Ghys, Director of the Strategic Information and Evaluation Department, UNAIDS; and Mr. Kamran Niaz, Epidemiologist in Drug Research Section, UNODC
https://bit.ly/2ywWGXK

Wednesday, 27 June at 10:00 a.m. in Press Room 1
OHCHR
Sharing of the main findings of the report by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea highlighting key human rights developments in Eritrea since the extension of the mandate in June 2017
Press conference by Sheila B. Keetharuth, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea
https://bit.ly/2MzifK8

Thursday, 28 June at 10:00 a.m. in Press Room 1
ILO/OIT – UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL THURSDAY, 28 JUNE at 20:00 GMT (22:00 GENEVA TIME)
Launch of the report: “Care work and care jobs for the future of work”
Press conference by Manuela Tomei, Director of the ILO’s WORKQUALITY Department; and Shauna Olney, Chief of the ILO Gender, Equality and Diversity Branch.
https://bit.ly/2tibYdK