REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which also heard statements from Spokespersons and representatives for 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 International Labour Organization and the International Organization for Migration. Representatives or spokespersons for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the World Health Organization were also present.
World Food Crisis / Rome Summit
Ms. Heuzé said that the main subject of concern on the international community's agenda today, and for the next three days, was the global food crisis. Today had seen the opening in Rome of the High-Level Conference on World Food Security, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Available was the Secretary-General's opening address to the Conference this morning, which drew attention to a number of elements in the United Nations response to this unprecedented crisis – for it was estimated that high prices would push over 100 million people back below the $1-a-day poverty line. Indeed, the crisis would probably lead to important changes in programmes for agricultural development and in the economic sphere. The United Nations plan sought, in the short term, to improve vulnerable people's access to food and laid out immediate steps to increase food availability to their communities. In the medium and long term, the plan called for action for longer-term resilience and for actions to contribute to global food security.
At the end of the Conference, in the early afternoon of 5 June, they would be able to see what kind of a commitments had been undertaken by participants, and be able to judge to what extent the common United Nations strategy that had been launched by the Secretary-General in Bern last month, when he had created the Global Task Force on the World Food Crisis, would be signed on to by States, Ms. Heuzé commented.
Yesterday in Rome the Secretary-General visited WFP and IFAD Headquarters and met with staff and experts of the two organizations. He also addressed a high-level meeting on food security in Haiti and had bilateral meetings with participants to the FAO conference.
Geneva Activities
Turning to Geneva activities, Ms. Heuzé noted that today the Human Rights Council would continue its interactive dialogues with human rights mandate holders, in particular with the Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty and with the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, as well as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. Available were the daily bulletin, setting out today's agenda, as well as press releases of meetings held yesterday.
Also in Geneva today, the Conference on Disarmament was meeting this morning, Ms. Heuzé announced. Syria and Ireland were on the list of speakers so far. (Later, the Republic of Korea and the Netherlands joined the list.) Press releases in English and French would be available by the end of the morning.
Ms. Heuzé recalled that the Committee on the Rights of the Child was meeting in private today, working on its concluding observations regarding the reports it had considered at this session. Those concluding observations on reports submitted by Georgia, Bulgaria, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Serbia, Sierra Leone, the Philippines and Eritrea would be available on Friday, when the Committee concluded its work.
Finally, Ms. Heuzé wished to note that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain was on an inspection visit to Geneva today, to review progress on work to renovate Room XX. On Thursday, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Moldova, who was also in charge of European Union integration for that country, would meet with the Director-General.
Myanmar
Responding to a journalist who charged that foreign workers were still not being given access to the Irawaddy Delta, hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis, Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that now the procedure for obtaining visas had been made easier. There was now only 48 hours' notice before travelling to the delta. The United Nations personnel who had requested that authorization had gotten it. As for reaching the people who needed help, as of today, 1.3 million beneficiaries had been reached with some assistance. Since the last update, the percentage of the people reached in the Irawaddy Delta had increased from 23 per cent to 49 per cent. So progress was being made. However, with regard to those receiving assistance, it was important to realize that most of them were being reached with inconsistent levels of assistance: assistance received was not sustained and in some cases was well below requirements. OCHA did not know how many people had been reached by the Government or national partners.
But it was true that other international aid workers, in particular Red Cross and non-governmental organization staff, also had to be granted timely access to the delta, Ms. Byrs agreed. OCHA urged the Myanmar Government to extend the expedited clearance to all international NGOs working in Myanmar. Their experts were urgently required on the ground. Here, Ms. Heuzé explained that, currently the procedures for entry of United Nations staff were indeed easier than for staff from other international organizations. Ms. Byrs added that, it was especially difficult for International NGOs that had not had a presence in the country before the disaster to enter. They had first to register at their national embassies and then their request was passed on to the Myanmar authorities.
There remained a serious lack of sufficient and sustained humanitarian assistance, Ms. Byrs underscored. The priority now therefore was a clear analysis of the needs against the assistance available and planned for. That assessment would be available on 24 June, when OCHA would present a preliminary report to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Responding to a follow-up, Ms. Byrs insisted that there was absolutely no evidence of people dying for lack of assistance now.
Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that, one month after the destruction wrought by the cyclone, many children in the Irawaddy Delta region had returned to school yesterday. UNICEF had worked side by side with the Ministry of Education to repair schools and distribute school materials so that could happen. Among others, UNICEF had distributed sheet iron for roofing, as well as the "school-in-a-box" kits and recreational materials. But not all the children had returned to school yesterday – the return to school had been delayed a further month for children in some of the hardest hit areas.
According to Government figures, 4,100 primary, elementary and secondary schools had been affected by the cyclone, among which 1,255 had been completely destroyed. UNICEF teams were in the process of undertaking an assessment of the full damage, taking account of just how many children had returned to school or had not been able to as yet, so that they could adjust their assistance plans accordingly, Ms. Taveau added.
Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) noted that IOM had joined the United Nations-ASEAN-Government assessment effort, and that IOM was continuing to deliver assistance. More details about IOM activities in Myanmar were available in a briefing note at the back of the room.
Iraq
Mr. Chauzy said that IOM's latest Returnee Needs Assessment, carried out in coordination with Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and Migration, confirmed that families displaced by violence and military operations were returning in numbers to certain areas of the capital where security had improved over the past months. That was particularly the case in Bagdad's eastern Sadr City, where according to the Ministry, more than 4,000 families (an estimated 24,000 individuals) had returned to their former homes, despite sporadic clashes between Iraqi Forces and insurgents. Most health facilities and schools in Sadr City had reopened, as well as some shops in the Jamil wholesale market, although recent fire damage, lack of electricity and sanitation still prevented the majority of market shops from resuming their activities. In May, returns also gathered momentum in Baghdad's Rasheed sub-district, with up to 1,000 displaced Shia and Sunni families returning to the Awareej area.
Reasons cited for taking the decision to return include improved security and reconciliation among various groups, particularly between tribal leaders, the Multi-National Force-Iraq and local authorities, Mr. Chauzy said. The report underlined, however, that in many neighbourhoods or cities, families could not return to their former homes, either because they had been destroyed, were currently occupied by squatters or because of on-going insecurity. Returnees and internally displaced people throughout the country continued to face a chronic shortage of services, with almost half of the families in some areas saying they have intermittent access to government food rations, which remained largely insufficient for their needs. More than 2.7 million Iraqis remain internally displaced. The full report could be accessed on the IOM website (www.iom.int).
ILO Annual Conference
Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Organization (ILO) noted that while the ILO was in the second week of its annual Conference. But she was here today to draw attention to one of the many debates that were taking place in the margins of the official ILO Conference. Tomorrow, 4 June, the Department of International Labour Standards, was organizing an interactive panel discussion on the "Social Dimensions of Procurement", which would take place in Room II, starting at 1 p.m.
George Politakis of the International Labour Standards Department of the ILO said the panel discussion was focusing on this theme because of the importance of the public procurement sector: around 15 per cent of the world's gross domestic product was devoted to public procurement operations, and in some developing countries up to 70 per cent of all public spending went to public contracts. The panel discussion would also consider a study on ILO Convention No. 94 concerning labour clauses in public contracts, which obliged contractors to pay wages and ensure working conditions not less favourable than the most favourable locally established wages and work conditions. A recent decision of the European Court of Justice, in April, showed how topical this discussion was. That decision involved case brought by Polish construction workers who were working in Germany and who had been paid less than half of what their German counterparts received. The European Court had found that those labour contracts were inconsistent with the principle of the freedom to provide services within the European Union. Among other panel members was Jan Andersson, President of the Employment and Social Committee of the European Parliament.
Information flyers, in French and English, were available in the back of the room.
Other
Jennifer Pagonis of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that today UNHCR joined some 30 other organizations in condemning the recent murder of a Nigerian national in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, the latest in a series of attacks against foreigners in the country. The victim, who had been known to UNHCR after approaching its office in Kiev two years ago, seeking legal assistance, had been found last Thursday evening in the Solomenskiy district of the city suffering numerous knife wounds. The police said the motive for the attack was unknown. UNHCR, IOM and some 30 other groups had urged the Ukrainian Authorities to conduct a thorough investigation of the killing, including the possibility that it was racially motivated. According to anecdotal evidence collected by the NGO, Diversity Initiative, there had been at least 40 such attacks so fare in 2008, including 4 murders. A briefing note was available.
Ms. Taveau said at the back of the room was a pres relief in which the UNICEF welcomed the adoption of the international treaty banning cluster munitions. Roughly 40 per cent of the victims of such munitions were children. UNICEF called on all Governments to sign and ratify that important treaty as soon as possible.
On Thursday, 5 June, there would be a press conference by Jan Eliasson, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Darfur, and Salim Ahmed Salim, the African Union Special Envoy for the Inter-Sudanese Political Talks on Darfur, on the subject of the Darfur Consultation. The press conference would take place in Room III at 5 p.m. Responding to a journalist who asked if representatives of rebel movements would be present at the Consultation, Ms. Heuzé clarified that no rebel movement members had been invited, as these were not negotiations, but consultations. The participants were essentially countries who were interested in seeing a solution to the Darfur issue. The Consultations, which would start tomorrow and would run through the Friday afternoon, were not being held in the Palais, but in the Kofi Annan Room at the new UNAIDS headquarters. A list of participants would be placed in the press room.
Ms. Heuzé announced that there would also be a press conference later today, with the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges, Leandro Despouy, who had just presented his report to the Human Rights Council, at 3.30 p.m. in press room 1.