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 heard statements from spokespersons and representatives from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization. Also present at the briefing were representatives from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the World Health Organization.

Secretary-General Presents 2008-2009 Budget

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the Secretary-General had requested the budgetary Committee of the General Assembly to adopt his proposed programme budget for 2008-2009 yesterday. The $4.2 billion budget for security, development and human rights around the world represented real growth of $23 million – or half a percentage point – over that of the previous biennium. The increase of 0.5 per cent was "not much, considering the demands upon us" the Secretary-General had told the Fifth Committee, lamenting that “never have our resources been stretched so thin".

Explaining that the budget proposals reflected strict budgetary discipline, balancing growth in some areas with reallocation in others, the Secretary-General had added that the budget also provided for stiffer internal oversight. In addition, he had called for a "simplification and rationalization" of the United Nations, as well as for "transparency and accountability", Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said.

Myanmar

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that the UN Special Envoy for Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, continuing his visit to Asia to undertake consultations with regional capitals, had concluded his meetings in Beijing yesterday. The Special Enovy had had detailed and extensive discussions over his two-day visit in Beijing, where he had delivered a personal message from the Secretary-General, thanking the Chinese Government for its active support to the UN good offices so far and encouraging China to intensify its constructive engagement in support of UN efforts. Mr. Gambari and his Chinese counterparts had discussed the need for the Government of Myanmar to move forward by starting a dialogue with the opposition without delay and pursuing a more inclusive national reconciliation process in order to address the legitimate concerns of the people of Myanmar, as well as the need for the international community to find new ways of encouraging Myanmar to make concrete progress in that regard.

Following the meetings, the Chinese Government had issued a statement of support to the UN good offices and Mr. Gambari’s efforts on behalf of the Secretary-General. Mr. Gambari is now in Tokyo where he is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said.

Latest Statements by the Secretary-General

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said a number of recent statements by the Secretary-General had been made available in the press room, in French and English, including his statement on the Central African Republic, in the context of the Donors’ Round Table on the Central African Republic being held in Brussels tomorrow; a statement expressing deep concern about the increased displacement, human suffering, and sexual violence in the province of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; a statement of concern about recent political developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which could hinder the functioning of central institutions there; and a statement on the recent referendum held in Tokelau, respecting the decision of the people not to move to self-government in free association with New Zealand.

United Nations Day (24 October)

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier mentioned that the musical evening organized by the Cantonal authorities of Geneva on Wednesday, in celebration of United Nations Day, had been much appreciated by UNOG Director-General Sergei Ordzhonikidze, who had addressed the audience of Swiss officials, diplomats and UN staff at Victoria Hall before the concert. A press release containing the remarks of the Director-General on that occasion was issued on the day.

Joint Flash Appeal for Flood Victims in Burkina Faso

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that today the UN and partners were issuing a flash appeal here in Geneva for $6 million to assist 93,000 people in Burkina Faso who had been affected by the devastating floods this summer in that country. The floods had displaced 28,000 people, destroyed some 9,000 homes, and flooded close to 18,000 hectares of crops. The money would be used for the rehabilitation of basic services and to rebuild homes and livelihoods. The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) had already released $878,000 to support household food security and prevent child malnutrition in the affected areas.

CERF had also just allocated $1 million for flood victims in Guinea, Ms. Byrs added.

Floods in Nicaragua

Ms. Byrs said that heavy rains over the past 12 days in Nicaragua had caused flooding affecting approximately 24,000 people in 11 departments of the country. Some 7,000 people had been evacuated, with 8 drowned and 2 missing. The Government had declared a national emergency. It should be recalled that the country was still recovering from the devastating impact of Hurricane Felix, on 4 September, and that the UN flash appeal for $41 million for the hurricane victims, issued mid-September, was only 27 per cent funded so far. A briefing note was available.

Launch of Humanitarian Website for Latin America and the Caribbean

Gerard Gomez, Head of the OCHA Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, announced the launch today of a Regional Humanitarian Network on the Web (www.Redhum.org) at the Global Symposium on Humanitarian Information currently being held at the Palais des Nations. The project had been born out of the realization that whenever there was a humanitarian disaster in Latin America all the information was often available only in English, and that some 60 to 80 per cent of the information necessary to manage those emergencies was already available. Redhum's objective was therefore to provide easy and coherent access and up-to-date humanitarian information from the region in Spanish, to coordinate information so as to indicate gaps, and to diffuse situation analyses that would facilitate decision-making.

Mr. Gomez noted that the programme was a two-pronged one: it was both a website and a network of partners, including OCHA, the civil defence services of Central American countries, the Coordination Centre for the Prevention of Natural Disasters in Central America, the Regional Interagency Group for Disasters, the Red Cross, and others. Funding for the project had been provided by Spain, Switzerland, Kuwait and OCHA.

Noting that the Global Symposium on Humanitarian Information was concluding its weeklong session today, Ms. Byrs said that at after 2 p.m. a round-up press release on would be available in the press room.

Case of 103 Children Being Held in Abeche, Chad

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), referring to the case of the 103 children that had been stopped by the Chadian Authorities from flying from Abeche, in eastern Chad, to France yesterday with a view to their being adopted, said that the children were currently being kept in a centre run by the Ministry of Labour and Social Services of Chad. UNICEF was among the team, including the UN Refugee Agency and the International Committee of the Red Cross, who were ensuring that the children's needs were being cared for, and UNICEF had so far distributed high-protein biscuits and toys to the children. A medical team was on hand to evaluate the children's situation, and investigations were currently under way to try and find the children's family members, working in close collaboration with the UNICEF child protection services in Chad and the Sudan.

UNICEF wanted to make clear its position that what had happened in the case of these children "was both illegal and totally irresponsible and had occurred in violation of all the international rules", Ms. Taveau said. When children were separated from their parents and their communities owing to natural catastrophes or armed conflicts it could not be assumed that they no longer had a close relative living. Such children should therefore not be put up for international adoption and priority had to be given to finding their families. The Hague Convention on international adoption, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as its Optional Protocols on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and on the involvement of children in armed conflict, were very clear on this issue. UNICEF's position was also supported by the UN Refugee Agency, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and non-governmental organizations involved in children's rights, such as Save the Children.

Responding to a journalist, Ms. Taveau said that this was not an isolated incident, it was just a highly visible one because it was a situation in which 103 children had been sought to be transferred together by plane. As for tracing the families, that would be very difficult indeed, given that the children were very young (from one to eight-years old), and that there were no identifying papers on the children. Some children were wearing numbered I.D. bracelets, but it was not known yet where they had received them or what they meant. UNICEF had been told that the some of the children were from Sudan and some from Chad, but that had to be verified. It was not known yet if this was a case of child trafficking or of illegal adoption.

Colombia Killings

Ron Redmond of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that a UNHCR mission that had just returned from the northwest of Colombia had reported a very worrying deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the Chocó region. That part of Colombia was located along the Pacific Coast and stretched north to the Panamanian border. A UNHCR team from Bogotá had gone to the area after six displaced men had been killed last week (16 October) by members of an irregular armed group. Four other men, also displaced, had been wounded in the same incident. This was the latest in a series of killings in that region. Since the beginning of September, in just one part of Chocó, 23 targeted killings had been carried out, and UNHCR was increasingly concerned about the level of the violence and the impact it could have on further displacement in the region. A briefing note was available.

Conference on Intellectual Property and the Creative Industries

Samar Shamoon of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said that next week WIPO would be hosting an International Conference on Intellectual Property and the Creative Industries, on 29 and 30 October, at WIPO headquarters. Among high-level speakers addressing the event were Ministers from Jamaica, Lebanon and Nigeria, as well as the Grammy-award-winning reggae musician Shaggy. Shaggy would also be among those speaking to journalists at a press conference being held on Monday, 29 October at 2.15 p.m. A press advisory and a media alert were available at the back of the room.

Other

Ms. Shamoon also announced that WIPO would be holding the third in a series of public symposia on the life sciences and intellectual property on Friday, 16 November, to address Intellectual Property and Life Sciences Regulation. A media alert was available at the back of the room.

Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization (WTO), presenting the meetings agenda for next week, said that on Thursday, 1 November, WTO would be holding negotiations on trade and environment, and there would also be a meeting of the Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS) Committee. On Friday, there would be a meeting to discuss the membership negotiations of Yemen, as well as a meeting of the whole on agriculture negotiations in the afternoon, as a time to be announced. A briefing for journalists would be held following that meeting.

Turning to the schedule of WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, Ms. Borges noted that next Monday, 29 October, Mr. Lamy would be meeting with the Minister of Trade of Colombia at WTO headquarters.