REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information about the humanitarian situations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Niger and sexual violence in the Darfur region of Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees participated in the briefing.

The guest speaker at today's briefing was Mrs. Christine Chanet, Chairperson of the eighty-fourth session of the Human Rights Committee.

Statements by the Secretary-General

The Director announced that a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General welcoming the decision by the Irish Republic Army (IRA) to end armed actions in Northen Ireland and disarm was available.

Also available was a statement in which the Secretary-General calls on the authorities of Kyrgyzstan to facilitate the evacuation of Uzbek refugees and asylum seekers in the country.

Mrs. Heuzé also announced that a press release was available concerning the appointment by the Secretary-General of John Ruggie as his special representative to deal with human rights issues involving multinational corporations and other business enterprises. Professor Ruggie previously served as Assistant Secretary-General and senior adviser for strategic planning from 1997 to 2001. He was one of the main architects of the United Nations Global Compact and led the Secretary-General’s successful effort at the Millennium Summit in 2000 to propose and secure the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals.

Activities in Geneva

The Director announced that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination will hold its sixty-seventh session in Room XI of the Palais des Nations from 2 to 19 August during which time it will examine the country reports by Barbados, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Zambia, Iceland, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Seychelles and Saint Lucia. In this regard, the Secretary of the Committee, Ms. Nathalie Prouvez, will hold a press conference on Thursday 28 July at 10:30 in Press Room I to discuss the role of the Committee and the agenda for the session.

The Group of Governmental Experts of States Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (CCW) will be held form 2 to 12 August at the Palais des Nations. The Meetings of the States parties to the Convention, held from 18 to 19 November 2004, decided that Ambassador Gordan Markotic of Croatia would chair all three sessions of the Group in 2005. Ambassador Markku Reimaa of Finland was appointed as Coordinator on MOTAPM (Mines Other than Anti-Personnel Mines) and Ambassador Jayant Prasad of India as Coordinator on ERW (Explosive War Remnants). A press statement was made available on the subject.

The International Law Commission will end the second part of its fifty-seventh session on 5 August. The Commission, made up of thirty-four members acting in their personal capacity, is meeting in public in Room XXI of the Palais.

Mrs. Heuzé informed correspondents that the Information Service will be closed on Monday, 1 August, because of the Swiss National Holiday.

Human Rights

José Luis Díaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights announced the release of a new report on rape and sexual violence in the Darfur region of Sudan which concludes that armed elements in Darfur, including law enforcement officers and military, continue to perpetrate rape and sexual violence with authorities seemingly unable or unwilling to hold them accountable. The report, entitled "Access to Justice for Victims of Sexual Violence", was prepared at the initiative of High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and was an assessment of how the Government of Sudan had lived up to commitments it undertook on 3 July 2004 with Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a joint communiqué. The Government at that time undertook to investigate and punish acts of sexual violence in the Darfur region. The report points out that the Government had taken some steps to address the issue and notes, in particular, the formation of a State committee on gender-based violence for south Darfur and also to the provision of technical assistance to improve the investigative capacity for law enforcement agencies in Sudan. The report also recalls that to date most perpetrators of rape and sexual violence had not been brought to justice and added that it remained to be seen whether a recently established special criminal court for the events in Darfur would effectively address the issue.

Mr. Díaz made mention of the appointment of Gay McDougall by the High Commissioner as expert to look at the issue of minorities, as mandated by the Commission on Human Rights. Ms. MacDougal is a former member of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and Executive Director of the US-based Global Rights organization.

Mr. Díaz also drew attention to a press release concerning the appointments of special rapporteurs and experts as announced by Makarim Wibisono, Chairman of the sixty-first session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Mr. Díaz announced that he would be sending out a statement by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Walter Kälin, who is calling on the international community to recognize that the evictions in Zimbabwe were a situation of massive internal displacement.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Mrs. Heuzé informed correspondents that the report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1533 of 2004 was available in the Press Room. Among other things, the report addresses the situation of illegal weapons flows.

Arianne Waldvogel of the World Food Programme drew the attention to the crisis in eastern DRC, which, since 1998, has caused the deaths of nearly four million people and the displacement of millions more inside the DRC and in neighboring countries. The delay of the elections initially scheduled for 30 June was another example of the precarious situation in the country. One of the greatest concerns of the WFP in eastern DRC was the insecurity in the area, which was the main obstacle to efforts in protecting the population. This situation had a very negative impact on nutritional levels and food safety for those in the region.

While underlining the problem of access to vulnerable populations, Ms. Waldvogel said at the time of a mission to Bukavu on 14 July, all WFP programmes in the region were suspended due to the closing of roads due to insecurity. In 2005 and 2006, WFP food assistance will be provided to some 175,000 displaced Congolese, as well as nearly 400,000 Congolese refugees who have returned to their homeland. Overall, WFP aims to assist more than 1.2 million vulnerable people, in particular women and children victims of AIDS.

As far as sexual violence, she said it was difficult to estimate the extent of the rapes in the Kivu region since the majority of such cases go unreported. In southern Kivu, the WFP was assisting nearly 10,570 women. The international community has acknowledged that tens or hundreds of thousands of women were victims of these abuses in Kivu and in the east of the country. In that regard, the WFP was carrying out projects for the social and economic rehabilitation of women. Ms. Waldvogel also indicated that given the extension of its operations in the region to June 2006, the budget of its programmes has been increased by $US 30 million to $US 191 million. A press release on the subject was made available.

Niger

Simon Pluess of WFP stated that the food shortage in Niger was a cause for increasing concern and has resulted in an increased WFP presence in the country to assist vulnerable populations. At present, WFP is able to assist some 1.6 million people for the period up to October this year but is hoping to reinforce its presence further to reach out to 2.5 million persons. At the beginning of week, 25 trucks containing 1,000 tonnes of rice and 500 tonnes of vegetables departed Lome, Togo bound for Niger, he added.

Also speaking on the crisis in Niger was World Health Organization medical expert Annunziata Pino who said his agency was expecting an increase in deaths from communicable diseases resulting from the food crisis. Water and sanitation-related diseases were also expected to rise and an increased number in cases of diarrhea, cholera, tuberculosis and malaria was likely. There were 49 recently reported cases of cholera and five deaths in one of the regions affected by the food crisis. There was a WHO assessment mission underway the preliminary findings of which has determined that WHO will be providing support to the Ministry of Health of Niger in terms of health coordination, early detection of communicable diseases and by way of training to deal with cases of severe malnutrition. The WHO was also working with the Ministry of Health to define a new ad-hoc emergency strategy to wave medical user fees and would also be providing drugs free of charge.

In response to a question, Mr. Pino said the WHO had appealed for $US 400,000 in a flash appeal for Niger and it was expected that WHO would ask for more than double that amount in a revised appeal to be launched soon. On another question he said women, children and the elderly were particularly vulnerable and there was a special concern for pregnant women for contracting Hepatitis E.

Zimbabwe

Mrs. Heuzé made mention that United Nations agencies on the ground in Zimbabwe had completed an assessment of needs to address the crisis affecting more than 700,000 people in the country.

Kyrgyzstan/Uzbekistan

Jennifer Pagonis of the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees announced that the second stage of a humanitarian air transfer of Uzbek refugees from Kyrgyzstan ended this morning after 439 Uzbek refugees landed in Timisoara, Romania on a chartered flight. Initially, all 426 refugees from Sasik camp were transferred then late yesterday evening 14 Uzbeks in detention in Osh were released by the Kyrgyz authorities and flown to Bishkek on a plane which had been on standby, to join the other refugees for the flight to Timisoara. Fifteen Uzbeks remain in detention in Osh and UNHCR was negotiating with the Kyrgyz authorities for their release and remained deeply concerned about their fate.

Other

Ms. Pagonis stated that UNHCR was extremely concerned that the civilian population in Putumayo and eastern Nariño in southern Colombia was suffering severely from an armed blockade in the area. The region, near the border with Ecuador, had seen intense fighting in the past few weeks between irregular army groups and the Colombian military. UNHCR urged all parties to allow persons in the combat zones to move to safer areas and to permit humanitarian workers to reach people in need of assistance and was working with local authorities to develop an implement a humanitarian assistance plan for the civilian population. More than two million people are displaced in Colombia because of the four-decade conflict between governmental troops and irregular armed groups, making Colombia the biggest humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere. UNHCR was working with the Colombian Government, non-governmental organizations and other United Nations agencies to protect the rights of internally displaced persons.

Ms. Pagonis announced that UNHCR's regional representative based in Thailand was scheduled to visit Viet Nam's Central Highlands early next week to assess the condition of Montagnard returnees from Cambodia including those who returned voluntarily earlier in the year, and some rejected asylum seekers who were deported on 20 July.


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