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 also heard from Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme and the International Organization for Migration.

New Statements by the Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said there were three new statements by the Secretary-General available in the press room. In the first statement on Sri Lanka, the Secretary-General expressed his alarm at the upsurge of violence in Sri Lanka in the past several months, including yesterday's appalling suicide bombing of a convoy of military buses. He stressed that a return to civil war would not resolve the conflict. On Eritrea, the Secretary-General said he was deeply concerned about Eritrean Defence Forces moving approximately 1,500 troops and 14 tanks into the Temporary Security Zone between Eritrea and Ethiopia. He said this development constituted a major breach of the ceasefire and could seriously jeopardize the peace process. The Secretary-General urged the Government of Eritrea to withdraw its troops from the Zone immediately, and to cooperate with the United Nations in restoring the ceasefire arrangements. On Sudan, the Secretary-General welcomed the peace agreement signed by the Government of Sudan and the Eastern Front on 14 October in Asmara, following the mediation by the Government of Eritrea. He hoped that the agreement would consolidate the settlement of the conflict in eastern Sudan, and contribute to peace and stability throughout the country.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Human Rights Committee opened its eighty-eighth session at the Palais Wilson yesterday. During the session, which will conclude on 3 November, the Committee will review reports of Honduras, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine and the Republic of Korea on the measures they have taken to implement the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Committee started its examination of the initial report of Honduras yesterday afternoon and will conclude its review this afternoon. On Wednesday, 18 October, in the afternoon, it will start its consideration of the initial report of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 27 October, the fourth meeting of States parties to the International Covenant will meet at the Palais des Nations. Also this session, the Committee will consider a draft revised general comment on article 14 of the Covenant on the right to a fair trial.

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said to mark this year’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, an event will be held at the Palais des Nations this afternoon in Hall 14 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. The event, which is being organized by ATD Fourth World and the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, will be opened by a representative of the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva who will deliver the message of the Secretary-General for the Day. The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Luis Alfonso De Alba of Mexico, will also make an address. As part of the ceremony, families living under conditions of poverty will deliver personal testimonies and messages about their own personal struggles and efforts to overcome social attitudes towards those living under those conditions. Journalists were invited to attend the event.

José Louis Díaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that today was the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Available on the website of the Office was the statement by the High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on the Day which advocated a human rights approach to poverty eradication.

Poverty in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Matthias Burchard of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said for the first time, UNRWA’s students across the Near East joined the UN campaign against poverty yesterday. More than half a million UNRWA pupils and educational staff stood up against poverty in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, West Bank and Gaza. These participants represented 4.4 per cent of all those worldwide who stood up against poverty. The campaign was enthusiastically followed in all of UNRWA’s 663 educational institutions. This campaign comes at a time when the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is being impoverished day by day by an international sanctions regime despite living under occupation. According to the latest figures, 67 percent of the population in the occupied Palestinian territory now lives under the internationally defined poverty line, including an increase of 17 per cent in the last six months. Palestine refugees are hit hardest by this situation. Among them, the poverty rate has reached 72 per cent in the occupied territory. Over 70 per cent of Gaza inhabitants now rely on food assistance. This situation is aggravated by daily violent clashes among rivalling Palestinian factions, and an increased onslaught by Israel’s military which has resulted in the death of 23 persons in the last four days along. UNRWA is struggling to assist as good as it can under these circumstances, although it has to cut back on some programmes due to a budget gap of more than $ 100 million.

Available at the back of the room is documentation on UNRWA’s programmes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and on its 2006 appeal.

Poverty in South Eastern Europe and CIS States

Michael Bociurkiw of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF’s latest report from its Innocenti Research Centre in Florence concerns child poverty in South-Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States and will be launched tomorrow. An embargoed media release and media kit are available at the back of the room. The report states that despite economic upturn in South-Eastern Europe and CIS States, one in four children under 15 is still living in extreme poverty. While the number of such children has decreased from 32 million to 18 million, there were still stark disparities in child well-being and opportunities. UNICEF was taking the opportunity of the launching of this report to remind Governments in the region that policies and resources must be urgently directed towards children. The report will be launched in a ceremony in Helsinki on Wednesday, 17 October.

Human Rights

José Louis Díaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said he had sent journalists this morning a press release on the Independent Special Commission of Inquiry for Timor-Leste. The Commission had submitted its report to establish the facts and circumstances relevant to incidents on 28-29 April and 23-25 May 2006, and related events or issues that contributed to the crisis. The press release had a summary of the most important findings of the Commission of Inquiry, and the full report was also available on the website of the Office.

Asked about reports that the newly appointed Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights would not be taking up her post and instead would be working with the new UN Secretary-General in New York, Mr. Díaz said he had not heard anything about
this.

Somali Refugees in Kenya

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the UN was today appealing for $ 35 million for Somali refugees in Kenya in the next six months. Jan Egeland, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, had in September granted $ 3.5 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund for tens of thousands of Somali refugees who have been arriving in Kenya since the start of the year. There were already 160,000 Somali refugees in the three Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya and a fourth new camp was needed for the expected influx of up to 80,000 newly arrived refugees. Reports also indicated that an estimated 1.8 million people in the north, central and southern regions of Somalia were facing acute food shortages. The refugees were arriving to an area of Kenya which was already severely stressed by three seasons of drought, with the majority of households already dependent on humanitarian aid. Priority needs were food aid and the expansion of health, nutrition and water provision, along with the continuation of protection assistance including reception and transportation of refugees from the border points to Dadaab. Of particular importance was the need for an emergency immunization programme at the main border points, as there had been 30 cases of polio so far in Somalia in 2006, while Kenya was polio-free. UNHCR would lead the emergency response in collaboration with other UN programmes and funds. A note with more details on the situation and the appeal was available at the back of the room.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said the rapid influx of new refugees from Somalia to Kenya was stretching the assistance capacities of all humanitarian agencies operating on the ground, so today's joint flash appeal announced by OCHA was urgent. UNHCR's portion of the appeal - still subject to internal approval -- was for $10.2 million to plan, coordinate and implement the emergency response in collaboration with other UN agencies. As of today, more than 34,000 Somalis had fled to Kenya since the beginning of the year, fleeing increased violence in southern and central Somalia. UNHCR feared this figure could climb to 80,000 by the end of the year. Dadaab already hosted 160,000 refugees in three sites, so it needed to find a new location for new arrivals. A 3-year-old girl was diagnosed last Friday with polio in one of the three sprawling camps in Dadaab. The girl had reportedly received all necessary vaccinations but still contracted polio -- the first case in Kenya in more than 20 years. This new case was quite worrying, and a team composed of government officials, UNHCR, WHO and UNICEF was on the way to Dadaab today to organize a response to this threat.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said it had actually been 22 years that Kenya had been polio-free. The three and a half year old girl living in a refugee camp in north-eastern Kenya had exhibited signs of polio on 17 September. Tests showed that the wild poliovirus was closely related to a virus in Somalia. Somalia was polio-free for three years before becoming re-infected last year. Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya simultaneously vaccinated millions of children under five from 9 to 12 September. Following this new case, the Kenyan Government and its polio partners were investigating the case and planning immediate mop-up immunizations in the surrounding areas in November and December which would be coordinated with Somalia and Ethiopia.

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said in order to deal with this preoccupying situation on the Somali-Kenyan border, WFP last week started distributing food to the newly arriving refugees. It was also buying high-energy biscuits to help the refugees, who were already in poor condition when they arrived, until they integrated into the camps and received food rations there.

Other

Michael Bociurkiw of the United Nations Children’s Fund said after a delay of a little over one month, about half a million in Lebanon returned to public schools on Monday, 16 October. The delay had been caused by the long conflict in Lebanon which had resulted in the partial destruction of 300 schools, the total destruction of 50 schools, and the interruption of the education of more than 400,000 children. The back-to-school campaign had went well, but teachers were reporting that many children were still bearing psychological scars and wanted to talk about their experiences. Unexploded ordnance remained the single greatest physical threat to children’s well-being in affected areas of Lebanon. Although schools had been cleared by demining authorities, UNICEF was very concerned that children who might take short-cuts through fields on their way to school might expose themselves to ordnance which had not been found. Schools were an important venue to teach children about not picking up unfamiliar objects. A press release was available at the back of the room.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said WHO’s Global Task Force on extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis met in Geneva on 9 and 10 October. Last month, concerns about this extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis were heightened by reports and studies from South Africa of high mortality rates in HIV-positive people with this form of tuberculosis. The Global Task Force has confirmed that this extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis posed a serious threat to public health, particularly when associated with HIV. Other outcomes of the meeting concerned surveillance methods and laboratory capacity measures; and research and development of new tuberculosis drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests. A note was available at the back of the room with more details.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said on 15 October, IOM served as an international observer of the first electoral process abroad for Ecuador’s presidential elections. A second round would be held on November 26, and IOM would also observe the electoral process. In Moscow, the IOM office was launching a new programme to provide reintegration assistance and shelter services to victims of trafficking.

Mr. Chauzy said as part of a regional counter trafficking initiative for the Caribbean, IOM would begin a series of training sessions in Saint Lucia and the Netherlands Antilles tomorrow aimed at helping government officials and non-governmental organizations learn how to identify a victim of trafficking, provide direct assistance and to develop a multi-agency referral network. And a roundtable on the role of the diaspora in the rebuilding of the health care system in the Democratic Republic of the Congo would take place at the World Bank’s Brussels Office on 18 October at 15h00.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said following the change in government in Thailand, UNHCR was encouraged by the priority given by the new administration to improving the lives of the 140,000 refugees living in nine camps along the country's border with Myanmar. Last week, in a meeting with heads of UN agencies in Bangkok, new Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said his government's top priorities were national reconciliation and a solution to communal unrest in the south of the country. UNHCR was pleased that he named as his third priority improving the living conditions and standards in the refugee camps, which are run by the Thai government and are home to refugees from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.