REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard from Spokespersons for the International Organization for Migration, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Meteorological Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Secretary-General’s First Foreign Visit

Ms. Heuzé said Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is on his first foreign trip and is presently on his way to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He will visit seven countries in nine days. Yesterday, he addressed in Paris the international donor conference on reconstruction in Lebanon, and he urged the international community to respond favourably and generously to the package presented by the Lebanese Government. The Secretary-General said that rarely has the United Nations witnessed such a quick transition from the emergency phase to development work. He also called on Lebanon’s neighbours to fully respect its unity, independence and sovereignty.

Yesterday morning, the Secretary-General met with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who briefed him on the situation in the country and conveyed his appreciation of the UN’s involvement in Lebanon. The Secretary-General reaffirmed the UN’s long-standing commitment to Lebanon, and they discussed the political and economic situation and the implementation of resolution 1701. The Secretary-General also held bilateral meetings with a number of foreign ministers, including those from Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. He also met with his Special Envoy for the Future Status Process for Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, who discussed his plans for presenting his proposal on Kosovo’s status in the coming weeks. Today, Mr. Ahtisaari will share his proposal with the Kosovo Contact Group in Vienna. The Contact Group includes representatives from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Russia. In a week’s time, he will present his proposals to Albanian and Serb officials, and will then take them to the Security Council in March.

Sudan

Ms. Heuzé said the composition of the High-Level Mission to Darfur which comes following decision S-4/101 of 13 December by a Special Session of the Human Rights Council will probably be announced during the day. It will comprise of five highly qualified persons appointed by the President of the Council following consultations with members of the Council, as well as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Sudan, Sima Samar, to assess the human rights situation in the Darfur region of Sudan and the needs of the Sudan in this regard.

Also concerning Sudan, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, will be visiting there from 26 January until 1 February, upon the invitation of the Sudanese Government. She will be accompanied by Rima Salah, UNICEF’s Deputy Executive Director.
Ms. Coomaraswamy’s objective is to get a firsthand look at the situation on the ground, in order to see how she and all stakeholders can ensure greater protection for children affected by the conflict. In addition to Khartoum, she will visit Darfur and southern Sudan.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Heuzé said the Conference on Disarmament held a second plenary on Wednesday, 24 January in which it adopted its seven-item traditional agenda. The Presidents of the 2007 session of the Conference also appointed Coordinators for the agenda items. An extensive press release summarizing the various statements made is available in English and in French.

Ms. Heuzé said the Committee on the Rights of the Child is continuing its session at the Palais Wilson. Yesterday, it reviewed the initial report of Malaysia and today, it is taking up the third periodic report of Chile.

A number of interesting press conferences will be held next week. They include a press conference on Monday, 29 January, at 11 a.m. in press room 1 by the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction on 2006 disaster statistics. The speaker will be Prof. Debarati Guha-Sapir, Director of the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters in Belgium. There will also be a press conference by UNICEF on the embargoed UNICEF Humanitarian Action Report 2007 on Monday, 29 January, at 11:45 a.m. The report lists the forgotten humanitarian crises. And the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Organizations will launch its annual appeal on Tuesday, 30 January, at 2 p.m.

International Day of Commemoration

Ms. Heuzé said the annual observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, which is commemorated on 27 January, will be marked by a ceremony to be held in the Salle des Assemblées at the Palais des Nations from 4:30 p.m. to 6:10 p.m. on Monday, 29 January 2007. In keeping with the theme of “Remembrance and Beyond”, the observance will aim to raise awareness among today’s youth about the Holocaust in order to help prevent future acts of genocide. The programme was available at the back of the room. The keynote address will be given by Professor Irwin Cotler, historian and holocaust scholar. Two young people will also speak of their experiences as guides at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. For interested journalists, there will be an opportunity to interview these youngsters at 3 p.m. on Monday, before the ceremony.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said she wanted to introduce Norbert Wuhler, Director of IOM’s Claims Programmes, who will speak about IOM’s compensation programme for victims of Nazi persecution. A press release is also available.

Norbert Wuhler, Director of IOM’s Claims Programmes, said that in the run up to the Second World War and during the war, Germany and German companies had employed between 9 to 11 million forced slave labourers in concentration camps and forced labourers in camps that were working for industrial complexes. These people were forgotten and ignored until 2000. Many victims of Nazi injustice were recognized and something was done for them soon after the war, but not this group. In 2000, Germany and the German industry set up a programme to compensate those people. The programme that IOM was implementing was part of this. The financial compensation was important, but it was not the main aim of the programme. What was important was that after all that time, the injustice that was done was recognized and some form of redress was attempted. A press release with more figures on the six-year compensation programme is available.

Human Rights

José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent will meet from 29 January to 2 February. At this session, the Working Group will be looking at the issue of racial profiling. A number of legal and human rights experts will take part in the deliberations of the Working Group. A press release with more background information, the programme of work and the biographies of these experts will be available shortly. The themes and the experts who are coming are very interesting. On the problem of racial profiling and the functioning of the administration of justice, French magistrate Regis de Gouttes, who is also the Chairperson for the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, will speak. Experts will also talk about the human impact of racial profiling, when police and law enforcement personnel target individuals on the basis of their racial or ethnic origin; the problem of impunity and accountability relating to active racial profiling; and racial profiling in counterterrorism measures. Speaking on that last topic would be the Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, Martin Scheinin. Also present would be the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diene; and Leila Zerrougi, a member of the Working Group on arbitrary detention. The discussion on racial profiling will start on Tuesday, 30 January in room XXI at the Palais des Nations and the abovementioned experts and others will be available for interviews. A press release with background information will be available later in the day.

Yesterday, a statement by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, was issued. The Special Rapporteur called on the Government of Singapore not to proceed with the planned execution of Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, a Nigerian citizen. Mr. Tochi was executed today. In the statement, Mr. Alston said “In the case of Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, the Government of Singapore has failed to ensure respect for the relevant legal safeguards. Under the circumstances, the execution should not proceed.” He said that Singapore law making the death penalty mandatory for drug trafficking was inconsistent with international human rights standards. “Singapore’s decision to make the death penalty mandatory keeps judges from considering all of the factors relevant to determining whether a death sentence would be permissible in a capital case,” Alston said. The statement was available.

Mr. Díaz said also available was the High Commissioner’s statement from earlier this week on recent killings in Guinea and the upcoming visit of the Working Group on the use of mercenaries to Peru.

WMO Fraud Case

Carine Richard Van Maele of the World Meteorological Organization said journalists are aware that several articles have been published lately regarding a fraud case at WMO which the organization made public in 2003. These articles stemmed from the disclosure of confidential documents, which were currently part of a criminal investigation, on the part of a former internal auditor. This breeched the confidentially clause by which all auditors are bound. This former staff member also distorted the truth and made unfounded and defamatory allegations about the organization and its current management. The internal investigation report cited in the media as well as all relevant documents were transmitted to the Swiss legal authorities in the context of the complaint filed by WMO in 2003, and all requests for information and documentation requested by the Swiss authorities were promptly granted. The Secretary-General of WMO denies categorically all the accusations which were brought against him by the former internal auditor. The full text of the WMO stand is available.

Other

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that at Davos tomorrow, 27 January, from 1 to 3 p.m., Margareta Wahlstrom, the acting Emergency Relief Coordinator, will participate in a discussion entitled “Moving past reaction to preparedness: public-private collaboration for humanitarian relief”. The guiding principles for philanthropic private sector engagement in humanitarian action, prepared by the World Economic Forum Humanitarian Relief Initiative and OCHA, will be the basis for the discussion. The guiding principles and a document listing the other participants in the discussion is available at the back of the room.

Ms. Byrs said concerning the floods in Peru, since December 26, heavy rains in the department of San Martin and Huanuco in the North East of Peru have caused a series of floods and landslides, which affected more than 50,000 persons in the Departments of San Martin and Huanuco where the Huallaga River overflowed. Some 8,900 people were affected in Huanuco, 36,900 in San Martin and since 23 January an estimated 4,000 persons in the Department of Junin, Province of Chanchamayo, District of San Ramon. So far, four people have died and nine have disappeared. Six thousand hectares of food crops were washed away in San Martin and Huanuco and some 9,100 houses affected and 1218 destroyed. More details are available in the update on the floods in Peru at the back of the room.

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency said at least 73 frightened Palestinians have arrived in El Waleed, at the Iraq-Syrian border, after fleeing Baghdad earlier this week following the detention and release of 30 Palestinian men last Tuesday. Their arrival brings to 593 the number of Palestinians stuck at the Iraq-Syria border, many of them for months. Syria has denied them access and they refuse to return to Baghdad where Palestinians have been the target of numerous attacks. The most recent developments occur against a backdrop of unrelenting violence against Palestinian and Syria refugees in Baghdad.

In Guinea, Ms. Pagonis said the general strike paralysing the country over the last two weeks has limited UNHCR’s access to camps hosting Liberian refugees. But despite this, security permitting, UNHCR plans to go ahead with a voluntary repatriation convoy on Saturday which will bring to 46,000 the number of refugees helped by UNHCR to return to Liberia from Guinea since the repatriation programme started in October 2004.

Simon Pluess of the World Food Programme said that concerning Guinea, in Conakry’s main public hospital, WFP will be offering support to the victims of the current strike that is paralysing the country through an operation coordinated by Medicines Sans Frontiers. Seven day rations will be distributed to some 125 persons who were wounded during the recent protests. Due to the strike, access to the hospital in Conakry is more difficult than in other towns. Strike-related insecurity in the forest region had also led to delays in the monthly distributions in a refugee camp, but WFP is now distributing food to some 5,000 people there. In the aftermath of the recent violence, WFP’s humanitarian service has filled in a great demand for airlifts in the field of medial supplies and essential personnel.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children’s Programme said available is the embargoed UNICEF Humanitarian Action Report 2007. The embargo will be lifted at a press conference on Monday, 29 January, at 11:45 a.m. The report lists appeals for the forgotten humanitarian crises that UNICEF is working on.

Samar Shamoon of the World Intellectual Property Organization reminded journalists that on Tuesday, 30 January, the third global congress on combating counterfeiting and piracy will open in Geneva. It was a joint public sector-private sector initiative. The programme will be available in the press room. There will be a press conference at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. The meetings of the congress are open to the press.

Jemini Pandya of the International Migration Organization said the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department has agreed to boost IOM’s emergency relief operations in the typhoon-hit Bicol region in the Philippines with 550,000 Euros (P36 million) of new funding. The funding, which follows a $250,000 (P1.24 million) grant from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), will extend the coverage of ongoing IOM relief operations to 20,000 families (100,000 people) in the typhoon-affected provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur and Catanduanes.

For use of information media; not an official record