REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration, the International Labour Office, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the International Telecommunication Union.

Nigeria and Cameroon Sign Agreement after Intensive UN Mediation

Ms. Heuzé said the Presidents of Nigeria and Cameroon yesterday signed an agreement settling a border dispute over the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula following intensive mediation over the weekend by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. She recalled that the two Presidents had met a number of times with the Secretary-General in Geneva on this subject in the past. The agreement provided for the withdrawal of Nigerian troops within 60 days, with a possible 30 day extension, from Bakassi, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s Supreme judicial body, awarded to Cameroon in 2002. The Secretary-General said the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, chaired by his Special Representative, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, had proved highly effective. The entire process had been creative, low-cost and efficient and progress had been achieved at a fraction of the cost of comparable undertakings elsewhere.

Security Council Delegation in Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ms. Heuzé said a delegation from the Security Council was in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it had met with officials from the Independent Electoral Commission, the High Authority on Media, parliamentarians and local women groups as well as members of the international humanitarian community. The delegation also met with President Joseph Kabila, the four Vice-Presidents, and the joint commission on security, which includes both Congolese Police and Army representatives as well as military personnel from the UN Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) and police advisors for the UN Mission. The delegation received an update on the preparations for the July 30 elections and on other issues of concern to the Security Council, including fair access to the media and voting facilities. The mission was undertaking a tour of peacekeeping operations in Africa. Journalists interested in the mission could find documentation on it at the Documentation Centre.

Conference on Disarmament

Ms. Heuzé said the Conference on Disarmament was meeting in open plenary this morning to discuss transparency and confidence building measures in outer space. There were eight speakers on the list: Pakistan, Cuba, China, Belarus, Italy, Ireland, Brazil and France. The Conference was meeting this month under the Presidency of Ambassador Valery Loshchinin of the Russian Federation and the structured debate until the end of the month was focused on the issue of the prevention of an arms race in outer space.

New Documents

Ms. Heuzé said the Secretary-General’s message to the tenth St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was available in the press room. It was embargoed until 10:30 a.m. New York time.

Also available was the statement by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, delivered yesterday at the opening of an exhibition entitled “Combating Desertification – Science, Technologies, Daily Life” at the Palais des Nations.

Human Rights Council

José Luis Díaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said preparations were continuing for the first session of the Human Rights Council which would open on 19 Monday and run until 30 June. Ms. Heuzé, himself and other colleagues who would be doing media liaison for the session would be addressing the media on the preparations and providing other background information at noon on Thursday, 15 June in press room 1. A number of events would also be taking place in parallel to the session. On Friday, 16 June, in cooperation with the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Administrative Council of Geneva, there would be the opening of an exhibition “Regards sur les droits humains”. This would be made up of photographic panels illustrating different human rights issues which would adorn the lakeside. The exhibition would be opened at 5 p.m. on Friday at the Palais Wilson. On Sunday, 18 June, there would be the first open house at the Palais Wilson from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

At the opening ceremony on 19 June, the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly were expected to attend and address the Council. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour would of course be there. Then the high-level segment would be opened during which dignitaries would address the Commission for four days. The actual debate of the Council would start on Friday, 16 June. More details would be provided at the briefing on Thursday.

Human Rights

Mr. Díaz reminded journalists that the annual meeting of the Special Rapporteurs and other Special Procedures of the Commission on Human Rights would be meeting next week and he would provide journalists with the list of those attending. He would be happy to set up any interviews for interested journalists.

Asked if the Office had any comment on the suicide of three inmates at Guantanamo Bay, Mr. Díaz said this was a very very tragic event which was not completely unexpected. The focus of attention should be on closing Guantanamo. Practically everyone agreed on this. It would seem, judging from statements coming from the administration of the United States, that even some members of the United States administration also believed that Guantanamo should be closed. What needed to be done now was to reflect collectively on how to facilitate the process of closing down Guantanamo and what would be done with the people who were being held there in those conditions.

In response to a further question, Mr. Díaz said the whole UN human rights system had been very engaged in the situation in Guantanamo. Most recently, the Committee against Torture, in a very considered decision after looking at the report of the United States on implementation of the Convention against Torture, had made a very strong call for the closing of Guantanamo and made other very specific recommendations concerning the treatment of prisoners there. Several Special Rapporteurs had also been following the situation very closely and had asked to go there, but had been denied full access to detainees. The Special Rapporteurs had expressed concern about the situation of detainees and the conditions under which they were being held. The High Commissioner had also echoed those concerns publicly, and perhaps more importantly, in this case, privately with the United States authorities. She had made representations to the United States authorities on the question of Guantanamo. The whole system, including the High Commissioner, had been consistently engaged on this issue.

Ms. Heuzé said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for children and armed conflict, would speak to journalists from 10 to 10:30 a.m. on Friday, 16 June on violence against children. Ms. Coomaraswamy had just returned from a trip to Uganda.

East Timor

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the UN yesterday released a Flash Appeal for Timor-Leste for $ 18 million to cover humanitarian needs for three months of more than 130,000 persons who had been displaced by the violence over the past few weeks. The situation was improving slowly and the number of incidents in and around Dili was decreasing. Water and electricity services were functioning in Dili and some shops were opening. The main concern remained that of health threats.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said WFP’s share of the UN Flash Appeal was $ 5.3 million. WFP was already distributing food aid from its stockpiles in the country.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said the first phase of UNHCR’s emergency air and sea operation to rush relief supplies to Timor-Leste was completed yesterday. As part of the UN Flash Appeal in New York, UNHCR had asked for
$ 4.8 million to fund its shelter focused emergency response to the Timor-Leste crisis.
In total, UNHCR had so far sent more than 200 metric tons of supplies for more than 17,000 people.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said IOM yesterday appealed for $ 1.9 million over the next three months to help the Timorese Government to coordinate logistics needed to deliver food and non-food relief items to thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs). The money, part of an $ 18.9 million UN Flash Appeal, would also go towards helping the Government to coordinate IDP camp management, identify outstanding needs in the camps and cover any shortfalls in terms of shelter and non-food relief items.

Other

Hans Von Rohland of the International Labour Organization reminded journalists that there would be a press conference at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow to present a new ILO book on the latest developments and trends in preventing violence at work.

Mr. Von Rohland said that the International Labour Conference was continuing its work at the Palais des Nations. It would vote on the Convention and Recommendation on occupational safety and health on Thursday, 15 June. Also on Thursday, there would be a discussion on Myanmar.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Fund said available was a donor update on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory. UNICEF had revised its humanitarian appeal from $ 8.4 million to $ 22.7 million to meet the immediate needs of children and women as the situation deteriorated. The update included a lot of information about the conditions in the occupied territories. Salaries had not been paid for most teachers and health workers for three months. UNICEF and other humanitarian actors were having difficulty in entering the occupied territories, especially Gaza. Also, the security context was on a fast downward spiral. The number of Palestinian children being held in Israeli detention facilities had also risen from 319 children at the end of January to 379 by the end of May. As of 24 May, 16 Palestinian and one Israeli child had lost their lives in the conflict since the beginning of the year.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said High Commissioner Antonio Guterres today left on an eight-day mission to four African nations that would culminate in Liberia next week when he marked World Refugee Day with some of the hundreds of thousands of returning refugees and displaced now struggling to rebuild their country. The theme of this year’s Day was “hope”.

UNHCR was concerned abut the security situation in Habila in far western Darfur, after an attack last night by four armed men in military uniform on the UNHCR field office which left one guard wounded.

Ms. Heuzé said the Spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization had not been able to come to the briefing today but he had placed a press release in the press room on WMO launching an online forum for weather presenters. The new service was aimed at improving the overall communication of meteorological forecasts and warnings to the general public by encouraging weather presenters to exchange data, pose questions, provide solutions and discuss presentation skills and relevant technologies.