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 was also attended by Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the UN Refugee Agency, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the World Economic Forum and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on 3 November reviewed the reports of Myanmar and Portugal, the two last countries that it was considering during this session. The Committee would be meeting behind closed doors for the rest of the week and would issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports it had reviewed on Friday, 7 November before it closed the session.

The Committee against Torture yesterday opened its session which would continue until 21 November. This afternoon and on the afternoon of 5 November, the Committee would review the second periodic report of Lithuania. It would consider the initial report of Serbia on 5 November in the morning and 6 November in the afternoon; the second periodic report of Kazakhstan on 6 November in the morning and 7 November in the afternoon; and the fourth periodic reports of China, including the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macao, on 7 November in the morning and 10 November in the afternoon. The Committee would be taking up more country reports next week. All the meetings of the Committee would be held at the Palais Wilson, except for the consideration of the reports of China which would be held in Salle XII of the Palais des Nations. Because of its schedule, the press releases on the Committee were issued at the end of every meeting, rather than at the end of the consideration of each country report.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights also opened yesterday and would conclude on 21 November. This morning, it was taking up the second to fourth periodic reports of Nicaragua, which would continue until 1 p.m. on 5 November. This week, the Committee would also consider the fifth periodic report of Sweden on 5 November in the afternoon and 6 November in the morning, and the initial report of Kenya on 6 November in the afternoon, until 6 p.m. on 7 November. All the meetings would be held at the Palais Wilson. The Committee was taking up other reports next week. For this Committee, a press release was issued at the end of the consideration of each country report.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was continuing his efforts to broker an end to the crisis in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He told journalists yesterday that in order to ensure sustained United Nations engagement, he has appointed Olusegun Obasanjo, the former President of Nigeria, as his special envoy to work with the leaders of the region and the international community to bring about a lasting political solution. The Secretary-General said he had held repeated conversations with Presidents (Joseph) Kabila (of the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and (Paul) Kagame (of Rwanda), directly and through his envoys. He was also working closely with world leaders, including the Chairman of the African Union, the Chairman of the African Union Commission, the President of the European Union and other EU leaders, and the United States Secretary of State. Mr. Ban said Presidents Kagame and Kabila had also expressed their willingness and readiness to meet with him, possibly this week or early next week, and he understand that the African Union President would also convene an urgent regional summit on this issue, in Nairobi or elsewhere in Africa, sometime soon this month.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Alan Doss, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had been in contact with the various warring parties in Goma last weekend to ensure safe access for MONUC troops and for humanitarian actors. MONUC had 17,000 troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but because of the current situation, it was necessary to regroup them to the Goma area. MONUC troops needed to intervene in North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri and Ule wele. Alan Doss also corrected that MONUC was not the largest ever peacekeeping operation. In Liberia, 17,000 peacekeepers were deployed in the country, which was much smaller than the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Also in Kosovo, NATO deployed 40,000 soldiers with the latest equipment in an area 200 times smaller than the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Veronique Taveau of the UN Children’s Fund said the humanitarian situation was becoming more and more alarming for thousands of vulnerable persons in North Kivu, mainly children and women. Last week, up to 100,000 persons, around 60 per cent of whom were children, had become internally displaced. For hundreds of newly displaced families, the conditions were very difficult, with thousands having little access to food or potable water or care. UNICEF estimated that hundreds of children had become separated from their families. School education was now increasingly affected for tens of thousands of children for the second consecutive year, and in such a situation, children became the most vulnerable and exposed to recruitment. UNICEF was very worried about the situation and called on all to stop recruiting children. Concerning a vaccination campaign which should start in a few days, UNICEF and the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were getting ready to vaccinate 86,000 displaced children against measles.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said two new donations had been made available for medical supplies and water purification equipment to be sent to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Norway today confirmed that it would provide almost 30 tons of medicine, capable of treating up to 150,000 people for the next month for conditions such as diarrhoeal diseases, trauma and other critical health needs. Norway was also sending water purification equipment to provide clean water to up to 60,000 people for the time being. Italy last week offered to send 10 tons of medical supplies to treat up to 60,000 patients for one month. The support was extremely valuable, but they needed more and more international support for the increasing health needs in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. WHO had launched an emergency health response plan that would require support from donors to identify three key health problems: insufficient levels of care for the displaced; the risk of a cholera outbreak; and the threat of a measles epidemic.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said tomorrow WFP would start distributing a 10-day ration to more than 135,000 people in six camps around Goma. The distributions would all happen on the same day to prevent unrest. WFP yesterday participated in a multi-agency overnight assessment mission to Rutshuru town. WFP staff on the mission had visited camps for internally displaced persons around Rutshuru which were completely deserted, with many shelters burned to the ground. It was still not clear where all the residents had gone. Today WFP was welcoming a 2.3 million Euro ($ 3.1 million) donation from the European Commission directly for the operation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. WFP had sufficient stocks in Goma for a limited but immediate response, but on the medium term the food supply picture was a major concern. WFP was moving more food from Uganda and Zambia to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and there were some contingency stocks available in Bukavu. Security and access remained the main concern for WFP and all humanitarians in the area. They needed better guarantees from all sides for safe passage of humanitarian staff and goods.

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said as feared, three internal displacement sites run by UNHCR near Rutshuru had been destroyed and emptied. UNHCR and its partners were now trying to determine the whereabouts of the tens of thousands of internally displaced persons from these camps, as well as the spontaneous camps that were erected around Rutshuru. The internally displaced persons from the camps had reportedly fled north, and eastwards towards Ishasha in Uganda. Many had reportedly joined friends and relatives in nearby villages while others had sought shelter in churches and public buildings. In Uganda, more refugees arrived over the weekend. UNHCR teams in Ishasha received more than 1,000 refugees originating from the Rutshuru area. The new arrivals immediately asked to be relocated to the Nakivale refugee settlement in Uganda, 350 kilometres away from the border. In total, some 10,000 Congolese refugees had arrived in Uganda since the latest round of fighting erupted in August.

Anna Schaaf of the International Committee of the Red Cross said in Goma, the situation yesterday was calm, thought it was still very tense and it was not clear what was going to happen. It could deteriorate at any moment. The ICRC teams based in Goma were mainly active now in Kibati camp, 10 kilometres outside of Goma. They had been able to do carry out water trucking for the past few days. The main issues of concern for the people in this camp, the population of which had tripled in the past few days, was water and food. ICRC was planning to start a food distribution tomorrow for approximately 60,000 persons. An ICRC psycho-social team was also working in Kibati camp. ICRC used to have a house which gave shelter to female victims of rape, but this house had been looted and destroyed in the past days. ICRC would try to reconstruct the house to be able to shelter women who were in need of assistance. ICRC also had a surgical team working in the military hospital in Goma.

Rupert Colville of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said a mobile UN human rights team was allowed into the area controlled by the CNDP forces of Laurent Nkunda yesterday. This was the first time that they had access to rebel-held areas since the crisis had started. This was a welcome development. However, the team was accompanied by an armed member of the CNDP which compromised severely their ability to conduct interviews with people and to find out what was going on. The team would try again today. One of the issues that the team was trying to look into was the report of targeted killings coming out of the rebel-held areas. They had so far not heard any allegations about large-scale atrocities. The focus had been more on the kind of precise, targeted killings and the general creation of panic, fear and confusion which had driven people from their homes and camps. OHCHR shared the concerns of the humanitarian agencies for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people, particularly the relative lack of access to them which was denying them many of their basic rights such as health and education.

Yemen

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said tragedy struck again the Gulf of Aden on 2 November when up to 40 people on a smuggling boat carrying 115 desperate people across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia were forced overboard in deep water off the coast of Yemen. Twelve bodies had so far washed up on the beach and 28 remained missing. The remaining 75 boat people survived and had arrived in UNHCR’s Ahwar reception centre where they were receiving help. Smuggling of people at sea was not confined to the Gulf of Aden and UNHCR and its partners had been working to help governments deal with the issue. The number of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Aden by sea in the first 10 months of 2008 was already higher than the total for the whole of last year in several areas, according to UNHCR estimates. UNHCR was beefing up its response by improving reception conditions for those who managed to reach Yemen, and at the same time, improving the living conditions of people with protection needs in the Horn of Africa so that they did not need to risk their lives by crossing into Yemen.

Jemeni Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said IOM needed about one million dollars to provide emergency assistance to tens of thousands of people displaced by floods in south eastern Yemen. Most of the displaced were in the governorate of Hadramut, which was hit by a tropic storm nearly two weeks ago. According to the Yemeni Government, the resulting floods had killed at least 180 people and left more than 100 persons missing. In an initial rapid assessment carried out in Hadramut last week, food, non-food items and a lack of shelter were cited as the main needs. There was major damage to roads and infrastructure which was also hampering efforts to access the displaced persons.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said WHO was seeking $ 350,000 for emergency health response to those displaced and affected by the recent floods in Yemen. They knew of at least 180 people who had died. The major health concerns were malaria, malnutrition, diarrhoeal diseases and extensive damage to health facilities.

World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index

Saadia Zahidi of the World Economic Forum said the World Economic Forum’s gender gap index would be released on 12 November. The Nordic countries were once again at the very top of the rankings in this index, which covered 130 countries this year. The major change at the top was that Norway was now in number one position, having passed both Finland and Sweden. The Nordic countries were characterized by very narrow gaps, not just in terms of health and education, where they had pretty much reached parity, but also in terms of political empowerment and economic participation. Available was an embargoed background release with more details.
In the world as a whole, based on an average of the 130 countries, in the past three years, about 95 per cent of the gap on education has been closed, about 97 per cent of the gap on health has been closed, only about 60 per cent of the gap on economic participation had been closed, and around 16 per cent of the gap on political empowerment had been closed. As a whole, this was saying that the world’s women were in some ways almost as educated and almost as educated as the men. The report and the press release were embargoed until 0600 Central European Time on 12 November.

Other

Gaëlle Sévenier of the World Meteorological Organization said the thirteenth session of the Commission for Hydrology would be held at the WMO Headquarters from 4 to 12 November. The Secretary-General of WMO believed that it was fundamental for the Commission for Hydrology and WMO to continue to offer national hydrological services the necessary technical assistance, especially in the case of developing countries. This afternoon a press release with more details would be sent to journalists.

Ms. Sévenier said Viet Nam was suffering from the worst floods in 25 years, which so far have killed 85 persons in the north and centre of the country. According to the national meteorological forecast centre, the heavy rains would continue in the coming days, with the possibility of more floods and landslides.

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development said the twenty-fifth session of the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting was being held from 4 to 6 November 2008 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. There would be a high-level meeting held on 5 November in Salle XXVI. The meetings were public, and a press release would be issued at the end of the high-level meeting tomorrow afternoon.

Ms. Sibut-Pinote said the Twelfth African Oil, Gas and Minerals Trade and Finance Conference would be held in Equatorial Guinea from 4 to 7 November. Available was an information note at the back of the room with more information. UNCTAD’s Review of Maritime Transport 2008 was being released today and available was a press release. The Review itself was available on the UNCTAD website, but not in paper form.

Vincent Valentine of UNCTAD’s Division on Technology and Logistics said UNCTAD had been producing the Review of Maritime Transport for 40 years. A large proportion of goods traded internationally were still transported by sea, some 80 per cent in fact. The Review looked at the situation from the beginning of 2007 to the middle of 2008. During 2007, world sea born trade exceeded for the first time 8 billion tons. There was an increase in supply of shipping services, which had had an effect on freight rates and they had begun to fall. The press release had more information.

Charlotte Griffiths of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) said she wanted to talk to journalists today about potatoes. UNECE was this week highlighting the International Year of the Potato 2008 and in doing so aimed to draw attention to some of the most urgent challenges facing the international community – the global food crisis and the need to step up efforts to realize the Millennium Development Goals. The potato was the fourth most important food crop in the world, with an annual production approaching 300 million tons. UNECE was organizing an exhibition in the United Nations Cafeteria from 3 to 7 November to mark the International Year of the Potato 2008 and the launch of the UNECE Potato Cookbook. A press conference would take place at 10:30 a.m. on 6 November in Salle III. A copy free of the cookbook would be available for each journalist at the press conference. A press release with more details was available at the back of the room.

Sanjay Achariya of the International Telecommunication Union reminded journalists about the press luncheon at ITU on 12 November at 12:30. The luncheon followed the high-level meeting on climate change and cyber security with two Presidents and some 25 Ministers and other senior officials attending. ITU would also be announcing its new initiative on protecting children online at this meeting. There would be a press conference at 11 a.m., before the luncheon. There would be another media advisory sent later today.

Jemeni Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said IOM, together with the Afghan Government, had launched a nationwide water and sanitation initiative designed to support communities hosting returnees from Pakistan and Iran.

Samar Shamoon of the World Intellectual Property Organization said the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights was being held from 3 to 7 November. It started with two days of informative sessions on exceptions and limitations and on audiovisual performances.

Ms. Shamoon said next week, she wanted to invite journalists to a seminar which WIPO was holding on sports and intellectual property. The seminar, to be held from 10 to 12 November, was especially being held for journalists to show how the intellectual property system had supported the evolution of sports.