REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which heard from the President of the Economic and Social Council at the conclusion of the Council's 2007 substantive session in Geneva. Also speaking were Spokespersons of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Food Programme and the International Organization for Migration.

Economic and Social Council

Ms. Heuzé said that today was the last day of the Economic and Social Council's substantive session. Notably, at this past session, the Council had held a high-level segment devoted to the themes of strengthening efforts at all levels to promote pro-poor sustained economic growth, including through equitable macro-economic policies, and on strengthening efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger, including through the global partnership for development, in pursuance of Millennium Development Goals 1 and 8.

Ambassador Dalius Èekuolis of Lithuania, President of the Economic and Social Council, said that the 2005 World Summit had given ECOSOC a clear mandate to start the process of reform, and he was very pleased that this session at Geneva had seen the first substantive session of a renewed Council. During the course of the session, the Council had carried out its two new functions: the Annual Ministerial Review and the Development Cooperation Forum. It had been a creative year for ECOSOC. This session had been a testing ground, and the general feeling among Member States was that it had been a successful start. In terms of coordination within the United Nations, this session had also been marked by a very good participation, in particular, that of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. That boded well not just for the international development agenda, but also for the United Nations reform agenda. Also noteworthy had been the inclusion of important emerging issues such as climate change on the Council's agenda. Finally, although it had not been an easy process, Council Members had worked hard and achieved consensus on a Ministerial Declaration, which marked that there was unanimity in the Council and gave good grounds for optimism for the Council's further efforts to achieve the MDGs – in particular on hunger, poverty and towards a global partnership for development.

Mr. Èekuolis noted that he would be issuing a Presidential summary of the session.

Highlights of the statements by ECOSOC President Dalius Èekuolis at today's briefing are being issued separately by the Information Service.

Human Rights Committee

Ms. Heuzé said that, as today was also the last day the Human Rights Committee's ninetieth session, it would issue its concluding observations this morning on the reports of States parties which it had considered during the course of the session – Zambia, Sudan, and the Czech Republic – as well as on the situation in Grenada, which the Committee had reviewed in private in the absence of a report.

José-Luis Diaz of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) added that Rafael Rivas Posada, the Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee would hold a briefing on the results of the Committee's session following the regular press briefing at 11.30 a.m. in Room III.

Racial Discrimination Committee

Ms. Heuzé said that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination would hold its seventy-first session at Palais Wilson starting next week – from 30 July to 18 August – to review anti-discrimination efforts undertaken by the Governments of Costa Rica, New Zealand, Kyrgyzstan, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea and Moldova. A background press release was available in French and English, which contained a schedule for the consideration of State party reports.

Secretary-General

Available was a statement by the Secretary-General's spokesperson detailing the United Nations position on the Commission of Truth and Friendship for Indonesia and Timor-Leste, Ms. Heuzé said. The statement reiterated that the United Nations could not endorse or condone amnesties for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or gross violations of human rights, nor would it do anything that might foster them. Unless the Commission of Truth and Friendship complied with such standards, officials of the United Nations would not testify at its proceedings nor take any other steps to support its work.

In terms of the Secretary-General's schedule, he was in California today and was making official visits to Haiti and Barbados next week, Ms. Heuzé said.

Rwanda: High Commissioner Welcomes Abolition of Death Penalty

Mr. Diaz said that High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour had today welcomed the abolition of capital punishment in Rwanda, describing it as "a powerful endorsement of the importance of pursuing justice while repudiating violence in all its forms". "Abolition in Rwanda sends a very strong message", the High Commissioner had said. "A country that has suffered the ultimate crime and whose people's thirst for justice is still far from quenched has decided to forego a sanction that should have no place in any society that claims to value human rights and the inviolability of the person. Rwanda is demonstrating leadership by action." Among other things, the death penalty ban should allow the extradition to Rwanda of persons that had been accused of genocide in order to stand trial in the national courts. Many countries refused to hand over suspects to jurisdictions in which they might face capital punishment. Rwandan authorities had signalled to the High Commissioner the impending abolition of the death penalty in the country during her visit to Kigali in May this year.

OHCHR Report on Violence in Bas-Congo

The High Commissioner was also releasing a report today, pointing to the use of excessive and indiscriminate lethal force use by the Congolese military and police in putting down demonstrations in the Bas-Congo province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the beginning of this year, Mr. Diaz said. The clashes had pitted the military and the police against the political-religious group Bundi Dia Kongo (BDK), which had been protesting senatorial and gubernatorial elections it had claimed were fraudulent. In her report, the High Commissioner said that the high death toll pointed to an excessive use of lethal force by the national security forces. While both sides shared responsibility for the violence, the High Commissioner deplored the impunity being enjoyed by the security forces. The High Commissioner also deplored the fact that trials of civilians involved in the events were being conducted before military tribunals, a clear violation of international human rights standards.

Mr. Diaz said that, in her recommendations, the High Commissioner had called, among other things, on the authorities to bring to justice all those who had committed crimes during those events, to ensure that the trial in appeal of the civilian members of BDK were tried by civilian courts, and to take appropriate measures to equip the national police so that it could better deal with such events.

The report is available on the OHCHR website (www.ohchr.org).

Iraqi Humanitarian Situation

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) said WHO was convening a ministerial consultation on 29 and 30 July in Damascus, Syria, to address the health needs of the more than 2 million Iraqis living in neighbouring countries. The host countries were currently covering the displaced Iraqis through their national health systems, whose services were overwhelmed by the growing demand. Participants at the WHO conference – including the Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria, representatives of international humanitarian organizations such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and United Nations system members, including the UN Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – would review the available information on the current health situation among the Iraqis, their access to health services and how the host countries were coping with the additional demand.

Responding to a journalist's question about the value of such a conference as compared to a donor conference, which could raise immediate funds, Ms. Chaib noted that it was never only a question of money; it was also a question of how to provide enough doctors for the thousands of Iraqis flooding into neighbouring countries, and of the need for an assessment of what services had to be provided to that particular population, including mental health services and vaccinations so important to those fleeing a violent situation. A press release was available.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced the launch of a joint UNICEF/UNHCR Education Appeal for Iraqis, specifically aimed at education for Iraqi children. Speakers would include Judy Cheng-Hopkins, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, and Pierrette Vu Thi, UNICEF Deputy Director, Office of Emergency Programmes. The briefing on the appeal would be held at 2 p.m. in Room I.

Pakistan Floods Update

Ms. Taveau said that more than 1 million children had now been affected by the flooding in southern Pakistan. Infectious diseases were developing in the Baluchistan and Sindh provinces, which had been hardest hit by a devastating cyclone one month ago. In particular, the threat of typhus and diarrhoeal diseases were of great concern, as well as other diseases linked to a lack of sanitary conditions which were beginning to crop up. The most pressing need at the moment was for clean drinking water: between 200,000 and 500,000 people did not have access to potable water.

UNICEF had sent 1.5 million water purification tablets which were currently en route to the two regions; and 5,000 10-litre jerry cans were en route from Dubai to Quetta. In parallel with those activities to ensure clean drinking water was available, and others, UNICEF was continuing with its vaccination programme for 95,000 children, some 30,000 of whom had already been vaccinated, Ms. Taveau said. With 961 schools partially destroyed, UNICEF had also distributed 80 "school-in-a-box" kits, each adequate for up to 80 children, as well as temporary shelters to serve as classroom space, and assistance in repairing the damaged school buildings. Of the $38 million UN Joint Emergency Appeal for Pakistan launched last week, UNICEF had asked for $6.3 million, mostly for water and sanitation. To date, UNICEF's part of the appeal was only 25 per cent funded.

Report on Environmental Impact on Children's Health

Today, WHO was releasing the first-ever report highlighting children's special susceptibility to harmful chemical exposures at different periods of their growth, Ms. Chaib announced. A press release in English and copies of the report were available at the back of the room, and a French version of the press release would be issued later this morning.

Jenny Pronczuk, WHO Medical Officer for Protection of the Human Environment, introduced the report, "Principles for Evaluating Health Risks in Children Associated with Exposure to Chemicals", by noting that WHO estimated that some 13 million deaths worldwide each year could be prevented by making environmental interventions. Over 30 per cent of diseases in humans were attributable to the environment. In terms of the environment and children, some 4 million children under 5 years old died every year globally because of pollutants in the air, the water, exposure to chemicals, and other environmental factors. Those statistics meant that environmental interventions could have a major impact on health.

While children made up 60 per cent of the world's population, they made up 100 per cent of the world's future, Ms. Pronczuk said. Also, children were especially vulnerable to environmental factors and had different susceptibilities during different life stages, due to their dynamic growth and development processes. For those reasons, WHO was investing a lot in children's environmental health. The report had been prepared with the participation of experts from 60 countries, including from developing countries where children were suffering the most from environmental factors.

Responding to questions, Ms. Pronczuk said that Africa, followed by South East Asia were the regions that had the most negative environmental health impacts on children.

Other

Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said departures of refugees from Thailand under the world's largest resettlement programme had passed the 10,000 mark earlier this week. Nearly all of the refugees had fled fighting and oppression in Myanmar over the past 11 years, and had been sheltering in nine refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. The total camp population was 140,000.

Ms. Pagonis underscored that the good news was particularly welcome as this was one of the most protracted refugee situations in all of Asia. Departures were picking up, with more refugees leaving Thailand every week. More than 3,800 Myanmar refugees were scheduled to depart Thailand between now and the beginning of October, and UNHCR expected that number to rise even further.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme (WFP) noted that there had been a series of natural catastrophes in 2006 and 2007 that had had serious negative impacts for agricultural production in Nepal, with serious implications for Nepal's inhabitants. WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) had therefore undertaken an assessment of the situation, which showed that the country was experiencing a 220,000-ton agricultural deficit for this year, as compared with a 23,000-ton deficit for 2006. The report confirmed WFP's concerns, in particular for the vulnerable populations in remote regions in the west of Nepal. It also warned that if the current situation of food insecurity persisted it could destabilize the peace process in the country. The report recommended a number of short- and long-term projects to ameliorate irrigation systems and infrastructure to improve food security. In the short-term, WFP had launched an appeal for $49 million to assist 1.2 million of the most vulnerable people in the country.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that each year tens of thousands of children were found in the European Union without legal papers, parents or means to be looked after. Those children came from all over the world, but especially from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. IOM was therefore launching a new Europe-wide programme aimed at improving current legislation promoting and protecting the rights of unaccompanied minors arriving on the territory.

Unaccompanied minors usually arrived on European territory in a particularly vulnerable state, following often-traumatic journeys that sometimes led to physical and mental health problems, Ms. Pandya said. Defending the interests of the child, however, could often conflict with a Government's migration legislation, which was too-often concerned not to offer too favourable status for minors in fear of creating a migration pull factor. There were discrepancies across Europe, or deficiencies, in laws protecting the rights of unaccompanied minors. Funded by the European Commission, the IOM programme would bring together a network of experts and government officials from Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania to produce a manual and recommendations on first reception and treatment of unaccompanied minors. Improved legislation should be based on the best interests of the child, and should place unaccompanied minors in less restrictive settings. The problem of unaccompanied minors who disappeared from reception centres and who ran a high risk of becoming victims of trafficking would also be addressed. The first experts’ meeting would take place in Brussels in September, followed by exchange study visits and a second experts’ meeting in Vienna.