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 Human Rights Council, the UN Refugee Agency, the World Meteorological Organization, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Secretary-General: Underground Nuclear Test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Darfur

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday strongly deplored the conduct of an underground nuclear test by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, in “clear and grave” violation of resolutions of the Security Council. The Security Council also spoke out against the act. “The Secretary-General is deeply concerned that this act will negatively affect regional peace and stability as well as the global nuclear non-proliferation regime,” his spokesperson said in a statement. The members of the Security Council, which met in an emergency session convened at the request of Japan, “voiced their strong opposition to and condemnation of the nuclear test,” Ambassador Vitaly I. Churkin of Russia, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-member body for the month of May, told reporters after the closed-door meeting. Mr. Churkin added that Council members have decided to start work immediately on a resolution on this matter in accordance with the body's responsibilities under the UN Charter. Following claims by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea to have conducted a nuclear test in October 2006, the Council had demanded that it “not conduct any further nuclear test or launch of a ballistic missile” and had imposed sanctions against the country.

Available in the press room were copies of the statement of the Secretary-General on the nuclear test, as well as a statement in which he said he was gravely concerned by recent fighting between Government forces and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement in the area of Umm Baru in North Darfur.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said on Wednesday, 27 May, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, will address the First African Forum for Dialogue at the Grand Hotel Kempinski. Organized by the African Union to mark Africa Day (25 May), the one-day Forum will explore the current challenges facing the African continent under the theme "Africa's Development: Whose Responsibility?". The Chairperson of the African Union, Mr. Jean Ping, and Federal Councillor Micheline Calmy-Rey will also address the audience of Government representatives, United Nations entities, other international and regional organizations and civil society. The statement of the Director-General to the Forum will be made available.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers will be commemorated at the Palais des Nations on 28 May. The commemoration will be held at 3 p.m. Mr. Ordzhonikidze will open the commemoration, which will be in two parts. The first part will consist of a wreath-laying and flag-raising ceremony at the United Nations Memorial in the Ariana Park. The second part of the event will take the form of a round-table discussion, which will be held in Conference Room XI.

The Conference on Disarmament started the second part of its 2009 session last week, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said. The Conference this morning was holding a plenary at 10 a.m. and it was expected that there would be a large number of speakers. Copies of the statements that were available would be put in the press room, and of course there would be a press release at the end of the meeting.

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said the Committee on the Rights of the Child yesterday opened its fifty-first session at the Palais Wilson. The Committee re-elected Yanghee Lee as Chairperson of the Committee. During this session, which concludes on 12 June, the Committee will review the promotion and protection of children's rights under the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in France, Sweden, Mauritania, Bangladesh, Niger and Romania. The Committee will also review efforts made by Slovenia and Oman with regard to their implementation of the two Optional Protocols to the Convention, on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
The Committee this morning was starting its review of the combined third and fourth periodic report of France, which it would conclude this afternoon.

Special Session of Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka

Rolando Gomez of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Human Rights Council’s Special Session on the situation of human rights in Sri Lanka would be opening this afternoon at 3 p.m. It was likely that the Special Session would continue its work tomorrow. Seventeen Member States of the Council had requested the Special Session. It would start with a statement by the President of the Council, Ambassador Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi of Nigeria. This would be followed by a video message from High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. Copies of her statement would be made available. There would also be a joint statement by the Special Procedures of the Council read out, and Sri Lanka would be given the floor as the concerned party. Sri Lanka was sending the Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe, to address the Special Session. There were two draft resolutions on the floor, and consultations were continuing.

Asked if both texts would be up for approval, Mr. Gomez said according to the rules of procedure of the Council, the first text that was tabled would be considered first, if there were no changes, therefore the text submitted by Sri Lanka and members of the Non-Aligned Movement would be considered first, unless there was a compromise text which may come out as a result of the two texts. The second text was submitted by Switzerland yesterday. The President of the Council hoped that there would be a compromise text. Anything was possible at this point.

Pakistan

Ron Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said Pakistanis continued to leave the areas of conflict between government forces and militants in search of refuge in Mardan, Charsadda, Swabi and Nowshera districts of North West Frontier Province. Some 18,000 families -- about 126,000 people -- were registered on average every day in these districts. According to provincial government authorities, the number of displaced people from the Swat, Lower Dir and Buner districts registered in a fast track process since 2 May had now reached over 2.38 million people. However, these figures were being cross-checked and verified in a second-stage process and they may change. The federal government and provincial authorities were discussing the modalities for the registration and assistance to displaced people beyond North West Frontier Province. Many people were still reportedly stranded in the conflict zones. The
lifting of the curfew only lasted for some hours and the roads quickly became congested as people rushed to flee. For those who had reached the safety of camps, UNHCR was working with government authorities to build separate shaded communal areas for men and women to provide access to cool areas. UNHCR continued to witness many acts of generosity
from the Pakistani community towards their fellow citizens. On Saturday, UNHCR’s relief supplies for its operation in north-west Pakistan were bolstered by a 36-tonne consignment of tents, plastic rolls, kitchen sets, jerry cans, soap, generators, water tanks and purification equipment airlifted to Islamabad by the Italian Government and donated to UNHCR. There was more information about what UNHCR was doing to help these internally displaced people in the briefing notes.

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said there were questions last week about the heat wave affecting Pakistan. The hottest city was Nawabshah in Pakistan, where the temperature yesterday was 48 degrees Celsius and today was 46 degrees. According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, Pakistan was facing heat wave conditions with temperatures forecast to reach 49 degrees in some places. Dry weather with heat wave conditions were expected to continue in most parts of the country. However, isolated thunderstorms and rain may occur in Kashmir and adjoining areas.

Miranda Eeles of the United Nations Children’s Fund said they were now looking at 2.8 million internally displaced persons in Pakistan, with an estimated 65 per cent being children. The challenge was not so much in providing support to people in the camps, but rather to those who were in the host communities where the majority of these internally displaced persons were staying. UNICEF was working closely with the World Food Programme, and was using their 23 humanitarian hubs as entry points for non-food item aid. UNICEF was appealing for an additional $ 41.4 million, out of the Pakistan Humanitarian Response Plan that was issued on Friday. To date, UNICEF had received no funding, just a few pledges. In response to a question, Ms. Eeles said that on Friday, 29 May, they hoped to arrange a tele-briefing with UNICEF’s Deputy Representative who had been to the camps and had managed to see the conditions. The problem was that most of the people were in host communities, so it was very difficult to assess their needs and to understand the true situation. A multi-cluster rapid assessment team would spend the first week of June looking at the emergency needs of the displaced in terms of water and sanitation, child protection and health, so they should have more information once that team had finished its work.

Paul Garwood of the World Health Organization said that 11:30 a.m. today in Room III, there would be a telephone conference with the WHO representative to Pakistan, dialing in from Peshawar, along with the Health Secretary for North West Frontier Province, to provide an update on the health situation in North West Frontier Province. A briefing note was also available on health cluster activities there.

Somalia

Mr. Redmond of the UN Refugee Agency said the number of Somalis fleeing the latest escalation of fighting in and around Mogadishu had surpassed 67,000. Intense fighting between the government and opposition forces erupted in several north-west areas of
Mogadishu on 8 May. Most of the displaced were heading towards the Afgooye corridor, south-west of Mogadishu, where a number of large makeshifts camps had mushroomed over the past two years. These sites already hosted an estimated 400,000 internally displaced people.
Those displaced who were unable to make the 30-km journey had sought refuge in south-western parts of Mogadishu that had not yet been overrun by fighting. The deteriorating security situation had sharply reduced deliveries of desperately needed humanitarian aid to the displaced in and around Mogadishu. Local agencies that had been providing a lifeline to the internally displaced persons were facing growing security problems as they tried to help the needy. In order to meet the most urgent needs for shelter and basic aid in this unfolding emergency, UNHCR was starting today the distribution of aid for some 50,000 people in Agfooye corridor through its local partners in Somalia. Today’s distribution would include cooking sets, plastic sheeting, blankets and mats. Meanwhile, the number of Somali refugees fleeing to the neighbouring countries continued to rise.

Yellow Fever

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said available at the back of the room was a press release on funding for Yellow Fever vaccine stockpile.

Rosamund Lewis of the World Health Organization said today the International Coordinating Group on Yellow Fever Vaccine Provision was appealing for additional funding to meet the public health threat that was represented by Yellow Fever. Yellow Fever was an ancient disease which was caused by transmission through the mosquito vector. It had caused devastating epidemics in Europe and in North America in the not so distant past. Today, it was endemic in Latin America and in many parts of Africa and it still had the capacity to cause these devastating epidemics. In the past few years, they had seen a resurgence of the circulation of the Yellow Fever virus on both continents. Yellow Fever control was based on outbreak response, containment of yellow fever outbreaks, through vaccination, and also preventive immunization, including of children. There was a highly effective vaccine available which caused long-term immunity and cost less than one dollar a dose. The problem was that the WHO and UNCIEF Yellow Fever Control Programme in West Africa was short of funds. There were threatening Yellow Fever outbreaks. There was a Yellow Fever vaccine stockpile of six million doses reserved for responding to outbreaks. The stockpile was funded until 2010, and beyond that there was no funding committed. There was also a programme of preventive immunization of countries of highest risk, and for the 12 countries of highest risk, they were short of funds for Nigeria, Ghana, Central African Republic and other countries. They were appealing today for funding for the Yellow Fever partnership.

Pascal Villeneuve of the United Nations Children’s Fund said this was an occasion to underline again the importance and efficiency of general vaccination to fight a number of diseases, especially those that affected both children and adults. The basic strategy for Yellow Fever was to vaccinate all children at the age of 9 months along with the measles vaccine, as part of the routine vaccinations, which children received. The partnership between WHO, UNICEF, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Medecines Sans Frontiers was praised. It was necessary to find the funds to continue this strategy.

Other

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said the twelfth session of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology was convening in Geneva from 25 to 29 May in Room XVIII. This was a Commission of the Economic and Social Council and UNCTAD provided its secretariat. The programme of the session was available on the website and the Commission’s meetings were open to journalists.

Ms. Sibut-Pinote said on Thursday, 28 May in Room III at 10:30 a.m., UNCTAD would help the Economic Commission for Africa launch the Economic Report on Africa 2009.

The Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights was meeting at the World Intellectual Property Organization this week and on Friday, 29 May, there would be a lunchtime side event on copyright exceptions and limitations which was being organized by UNCTAD and the International Centre on Trade and Sustainable Development. Finally, Ms. Sibut-Pinote said the thirty-seventh Pearle Conference was being held on 29 and 30 May. On 29 May, UNCTAD was participating to speak on the creative industries programme at UNCTAD.

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Office said the International Labour Conference was being held from 3 to 19 June at the Palais des Nations. Some 4,000 delegations representing Governments, employer organizations and worker organizations would be attending. This year, the Director-General Juan Somavia had modified the format of the International Labour Conference and its programme of work. Mr. Somavia would speak to journalists about his report on Thursday, 4 June at 3 p.m. in Room III. He would also provide updated global unemployment figures. In addition to discussing the employment and social policy consequences of the economic and financial crisis, the Conference, on 15 and 16 June, would hold a summit meeting on employment.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said Sunday, 31 May was World No Tobacco Day. A press release would be issued on Friday, 29 May, and a press conference would be set up on the same day.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said an update about the situation in Sri Lanka was available in the briefing notes. In Tajikistan, multiple floods and mudflows had affected 15,000 people, including 10,000 displaced persons, and 28 people were reported killed. The Government of Tajikistan estimated the damage at $ 100 million with major losses in agricultural, infrastructure and residential sectors. The Government had requested international assistance and OCHA had released an emergency cash grant of $ 118,000. There were more details in the briefing notes.

Paul Conneally of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Organizations said in Zimbabwe, the spectre of cholera still remained. From last December and through February, he and his colleagues from the International Federation had come to the briefing to talk about the situation in Zimbabwe. In the interim, Zimbabwe had faded from the news agenda. However next week, or the week after, they would reach their 100,000 case of cholera in Zimbabwe. In February, there were about 48,000 cases. The threat remained and was very real. Some 4,300 people had died in Zimbabwe from cholera, which was preventable. The International Federation was issuing a report on this today and it was available as well as the press release. Basically the issues that had been driving this health crisis had not been addressed.