REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which focused mainly on the tsunami relief effort. Spokespersons for the United Nations Children's Fund, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Food Programme, UN-HABITAT, and the World Intellectual Property Organization participated in the briefing.

At the beginning of the briefing, Jan Egeland, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Ambassador Walter Fust, the Director of the Swiss Federal Department for Development and Cooperation, briefed journalists about the appeal for the tsunami relief efforts as well as the start of the launch of the 2005 Consolidated Appeals. A summary of their comments was available separately.

New Documents and Geneva Activities

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said that copies of a statement by the Secretary-General on the Palestinian elections were available in the press room. Also available were copies of a statement attributed to the Spokesperson of the Secretary-General on the initial analysis of the independent committee into the oil-for-food programme.

In Geneva, the Committee on the Rights of the Child had yesterday started its thirty-eighth session at the Palais Wilson. The Committee had adopted its agenda and programme of work and had heard a statement by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Mehr Khan Williams. A press release on the opening meeting was available in English and in French. The Committee would today be examining a report from Sweden. Tomorrow, it would consider a report from Albania, and on Thursday, it would review children's rights in Luxembourg.

Ministerial-Level Meeting on Tsunami Relief Effort

Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said a note to correspondents had been issued in English and in French on media events concerning Mr. Egeland's activities at the Palais des Nations today. He would brief journalists at 2:40 p.m. in Room XX before the ministerial-level meeting on the tsunami relief effort. Journalists and other media representatives were asked to be set up in the room by 2:30 p.m. Mr. Egeland would also brief journalists at 7 p.m. in Room XX at the end of the meeting. Copies of the note to correspondents were available in the press room.

The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, would be attending the ministerial-level meeting on the tsunami relief effort, Mrs. Ponomareva-Piquier said. Yesterday, Mr. Ordzhonikidze had met with the Minister of State of Indonesia for National Development Planning, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who would be participating in the meeting today. The meeting had been held in a very positive atmosphere and Ms. Indrawati had welcomed the efforts of the United Nations. She had reiterated the importance of ensuring that pledges now materialized into much-needed support for the stricken areas. She had also noted that the United Nations was the most appropriate organization to coordinate emergency relief efforts as a "neutral organization" that was considered to be representing the international community.

Yvette Morris, Chief of the Television and Radio Section, said there would be a photo opportunity at the beginning of the meeting at 3 p.m. in Room XIX. Photographers and camera crews who were interested in filming participants as they entered the room should meet her at 2:30 p.m. in front of Room XX. For more information, photographers and camera crews could call her on 022-9174606.

United Nations Children's Fund

Wivina Belmonte of the United Nations Children's Fund said that there was a measles campaign that was now underway in Aceh. One case of measles had been identified and a second case was being investigated. In the present situation, there was an extremely high risk of a measles epidemic resulting from the conditions in the camps, and that against the backdrop of low immunization rates in Aceh and in northern Sumatra to begin with. In the last 36 hours, more than 1,000 children in the immediate area around where the case of measles was identified had been vaccinated against measles and had also received Vitamin A treatment. UNICEF and the World Health Organization were coordinating with the Ministry of Health, but because 75 per cent of the provincial health staff were unaccounted for because of the tsunami, the capacity on the ground was limited. There were areas on the west coast of Aceh which were proving to be challenging because they could only be accessed by helicopter.

Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees

Jennifer Pagonis of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees said that earlier this morning in Banda Aceh, a UN charter flight had arrived carrying 16.5 tons of emergency relief supplies and 3.5 tons of telecommunications equipment. These supplies had had to be sent by a charter flight because UNHCR could not get access to the military flights. The cost of the charter had been $ 23,000. These supplies were part of the 400 tons of emergency supplies which had been flown into Jakarta from stockpiles in Copenhagen and Dubai. Three Swiss puma helicopters would be helping to distribute the relief supplies once they were reassembled. Other UNHCR supplies were being moved from Jakarta by truck.

In Sri Lanka, Ms. Pagonis said UNHCR had been concerned about protection issues. Displaced persons had been asked to leaves places like schools where they had taken refuge. UNHCR had been trying to mediate with local authorities to ensure that displaced persons were not moved many times and that they were informed about where they are going. Ms. Pagonis said that UNHCR had had delays in getting its relief supplies to the disaster victims in northeastern Somalia.



World Health Organization

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that WHO's situation report 12 was available at the back of the room. She did not have anything to add about the two cases of measles in Aceh. There was extensive information in the situation report on the present priorities of WHO in the affected countries, and the state of the health facilities in four of the affected countries.

International Organization for Migration

Jean Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said that in Aceh today, the first IOM road convoy of 50 small trucks carrying relief supplies from Medan had reached the devastated town of Meulaboh. The convoy was carrying diesel fuel, clothes and tents donated by IOM, together with relief provided by the Indonesian Government and the local Government of North Sumatra province. Drivers had reported extremely difficult road conditions. Also yesterday, the first IOM overland relief convoy from Jakarta had left bound for Aceh. The convoy was carrying water, food, clothing, shelter materials and medical supplies. Over the past four days, IOM had also continued its distribution of generators, blankets, biscuits and baby food donated by the Japanese international aid agency to camps for internally displaced persons in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar.

Mr. Chauzy said that in Sri Lanka, IOM Colombo was playing a key role in ensuring that clean drinking water was available to tens of thousands of displaced persons in some of the most affected coastal areas.

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that he had sent to correspondents a statement by practically all the Special Rapporteurs of the Commission of Human Rights in which they called for focusing attention on the most vulnerable tsunami survivors and for the full participation of the survivors in the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts.

Mr. Díaz said he also wanted to speak about what OHCHR had been doing in the wake of the tsunami. It did not consist of delivering humanitarian assistance so it was a bit hard to quantify. None the less, OHCHR was still active in response to the crisis. The focus of the world had been on ensuring the survival of millions of persons at risk, but OHCHR believed it was also time to begin focusing on integrating a human rights perspective into reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts. In addition to well-established human rights norms which all the actors should be aware of and should be integrating into their work, there were some very specific and relevant prescriptions which should be kept in mind, including the UN Guidelines on Internally Displaced Persons and the Guiding Principles on Humanitarian Assistance. Underpinning these guidelines and prescriptions were the principles of equal treatment, non-discrimination and protection. OHCHR encouraged all actors involved in the humanitarian effort to keep this in mind and it was working with them to ensure that this was done.

Mr. Díaz said that within the limited resources of OHCHR, it was working with the actors on the ground to make sure that human rights formed part of the response to the crisis. For example, in Sri Lanka, the representative of OHCHR was highlighting immediate protection concerns, mainly related to the situation of women and children who had been made vulnerable by the disaster. He had also been focusing on issues relating to resettlement of the internally displaced persons, including the rights of these persons based on the Guidelines on Internationally Displaced Persons; property and compensation issues; and also issues related to the loss of legal documents. There were also longer term recovery issues which the representative in Sri Lanka was working on to ensure that the reconstruction effort had the full participation of the people involved and was based on a human rights approach. Other representatives of OHCHR in Asia were involved in similar efforts with the UN country teams in the region and with humanitarian actors and officials. For example, the Bangkok-based regional representative of OHCHR was now in Indonesia and was focusing on the critical situation in Aceh, which involved many different elements including the insurgency, the response to the insurgency, and the situation of displaced persons there.

World Food Programme

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said that all reports on the activities of WFP related to the tsunami were available on www.wfp.com/tsunami. He also noted that WFP was waiting for the ministerial-level meeting today in which donor countries would make concrete the pledges made in Jakarta. WFP needed the actual funds to be able to immediately buy food stocks in response to the crises as its response so far had been taken from food stockpiles in the region. WFP had just concluded the distribution of food for 750,000 persons in Sri Lanka and 300,000 in Indonesia from these food stockpiles.

Mr. Pluess said he hoped that donor countries would provide cash so that WFP could buy food from the region, rather than wait for it for months to be transported to the affected persons. This was a way also to support the economies of the affected countries.

In Indonesia, the distribution of food remained complicated, Mr. Pluess said. Yesterday, WFP had started the distribution of food in the northeastern part of Aceh for some 160,000 persons. Now, the main challenge for all the humanitarian partners was reaching the northwestern part of Aceh where only limited aid had been distributed after being transported by helicopters. It was not enough and a total assessment of the humanitarian needs in that area was not available either.

UN-HABITAT

Sylvie Lacroux of UN-HABITAT said a press release was being issued today on the occasion of the second launch of the Flash Appeal for the Indian Ocean disaster. UN-HABITAT was continuing its close coordination with the UN coordination structure in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Somalia. In collaboration with its regional offices and its programme managers, field plans for emergency and re-construction proposals for Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Somalia had been prepared. Within the Flash Appeal, UN-HABITAT had drawn up a list of 10 cities which would benefit from immediate relief estimated at $ 1 million. UN-HABITAT was also aiming to rehabilitate immediately 2,000 partially damaged houses in Sri Lanka and to partially reconstruct some 8,000 destroyed houses. In Indonesia, UN-HABITAT had formulated a joint project with UNDP for restoring infrastructure and rehabilitation of housing and human settlements. In Somalia, UN-HABITAT sought to provide shelter to homeless persons by rehabilitating properties and basic infrastructure. Initial estimates stood at $ 2 million. Altogether, assistance to be provided by UN-HABITAT would be in the sectors of shelter, sanitation, water supply, and integrated settlement planning which led to community empowerment. UN-HABITAT was for the time being participating in the emergency phase in the Indian Ocean disaster and $ 11 million in requirements for this phase had been identified within the Flash Appeal. An information kit would be available at the end of the day.

World Intellectual Property Organization

Samar Shamoon of the World Intellectual Property Organization said a ceremony would be held at WIPO on Friday, 14 January at 4 p.m. to mark the filing of the one millionth international patent application. Journalists were welcome to attend. Interviews could also be set up for interested journalists.

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