REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Elena Ponomareva-Piquier, Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was attended by spokespersons for and representatives of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS and the International Organization for Migration.

Climate Change

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that a new cycle of negotiations on the text of the outcome document for the Conference on Climate Change to be held in Copenhagen in December 2009 had opened yesterday in Bonn, Germany, and would run for four days. “Time is running out”, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer had said, addressing the meeting in Bonn yesterday. “The current text is riddled with square brackets. It is worrying that there is so much to do with so little time left”, he had underscored.

For his part, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking in Seoul yesterday to the World Federation of UN Associations, had noted that they had less than 10 years to halt the global rise in greenhouse gas emissions if they were to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet. He added that, in Copenhagen this December they had a chance to put in place a climate change agreement that all nations could embrace. The Secretary-General had underscored that they had to seize this once-in-a-generation chance. He expected some 100 Heads of State and Government at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change to be held on 22 September in New York.

Geneva Activities

Turning to activities in Geneva, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination had finished its examination of the report of China yesterday morning. This morning, the Committee would conclude its consideration of the report of Greece, and this afternoon it would begin its review of the report of Azerbaijan, which it would conclude tomorrow morning.

Concerning disarmament activities, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier noted that the Conference on Disarmament had met again yesterday with a view to taking action on a draft decision by the President on the implementation of its programme of work. However, the President had announced that Pakistan had asked for discussions to be reopened on the draft text, and she had called on delegations to work together to reach consensus on the document and take a decision on Wednesday. On Wednesday, 12 August, the Conference was also scheduled to hear an address by the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs, Yang Jiechi.

Regarding the Director-General’s schedule, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said he would be meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of China on Wednesday before the Minister addressed the Conference on Disarmament. Also tomorrow, the Director-General would make an address on disarmament issues in the context of a public discussion entitled "Strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime: A Blueprint for Progress", where Ambassador Susan F. Burk, Permanent Representative of the President of the United States for Nuclear Non-proliferation will be speaking. The event was organized by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

World Humanitarian Day

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier announced that on 19 August they would celebrate the first World Humanitarian Day. Established by the General Assembly, World Humanitarian Day was in part dedicated to all those humanitarian workers who had lost their lives while trying to assist communities in distress, many of whom came from those very communities. Among those dedicated professionals was one of the great humanitarians, Sergio Vieira de Mello, killed along with 21 other colleagues in a bomb attack on United Nations headquarters at the Hotel Canal in Baghdad on 19 August 2003. Colleagues and humanitarian workers should be inspired by his example, as their efforts to try and deliver humanitarian assistance continued to be limited in many places by ever more frequent and violent attacks, of which they were increasingly the targets.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) observed that in 10 years 700 humanitarian workers had lost their lives, in attacks, in kidnappings, during robberies, during rapes and other situations. There would be commemorative ceremonies in each country. In Switzerland, in Geneva, there would be a ceremony at the Parc des Bastions starting at 5 p.m., in which UNOG Director-General Sergei Ordzhonikidze would participate, as well as a number of other Swiss dignitaries. There would also be concerts and exhibits. All the information about the Day could be found on http://ochaonline.un.org.

Ms. Byrs underscored the fact that humanitarian workers were increasingly the targets of attacks, and it was the vulnerable that suffered. There were certain countries that had been of particular concern in 2009. In Pakistan, humanitarian workers were continuing to deliver assistance at the risk of their own lives: four United Nations personnel had been killed there this year. Other countries and regions of serious concern were Sierra Leone, the Horn of Africa, Afghanistan, the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iraq.

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said just a few weeks ago, UNICEF had lost another colleague – the head of its education programme in Pakistan – in an attack on a hotel in Peshawar. UNICEF estimated that each year 175 million children were affected by humanitarian catastrophes, and UNICEF, along with its partners, were committed to coming to the assistance of those children, whatever the difficulties, so as to provide them with health services, protection and education. That was why World Humanitarian Day was so important.

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme (WFP) said that WFP had 12,000 staff and more than 90 per cent of them were in the field. This year they were working in 74 countries, helping to feed 108 million people. WFP had been noticing each year an increase in the danger their colleagues were facing. It was important to get the message out that what their colleagues were doing, at the risk of their own lives and their own life, was to work for humanitarian principles of neutrality and independence. WFP had lost two staff so far this year – two of their food monitors were murdered in Somalia in January – and last year they had seen a really alarming rate of deaths, kidnappings and injuries. Journalists should speak with workers in the field to talk about why they were compelled to do the work they did. She had left a list with numbers of field staff that could be interviewed at the back of the room.

Responding to a question on the actual impact of such violence, Ms. Casella said that if one went to the Sudan OCHA page it was possible to look at maps which showed increasing red “no go” areas in Darfur, where it was no longer possible for humanitarian workers to go. That translated into human beings that were not getting health care, water and sanitation or food. They had been talking about the impact on their colleagues, but the real impact was on children and on women who were in need.

Christiane Berthiaume of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation, explaining the origin of the Day, said that following the 19 August 2003 bombing the relatives and friends of Sergio Vieira de Mello had created a foundation to honour humanitarians like him, working throughout the world. One of the first tasks of the Foundation had been to establish a day on which to pay tribute to those often invisible heroes, the humanitarian workers. Working together with the public in Switzerland, France, Sweden and Brazil, they had launched the initiative to name 19 August World Humanitarian Day. It was a time to remember that there was no humanitarian assistance without humanitarian workers.

Providing some numbers to show the increasing violence, Ms. Berthiaume said that in 1998, 36 humanitarian workers had been killed while carrying out their work, whereas in 2008 some 122 had lost their lives. In total, in 2008, 260 humanitarian workers had been either killed, kidnapped, seriously hurt or raped. Particularly disturbing had been the increasing number of kidnappings of humanitarian workers, with 62 kidnappings last year as compared with 18, 10 years ago. Starting next year, the Foundation would award a prize on the occasion of World Humanitarian Day to recognize exceptional efforts undertaken in the humanitarian sphere.

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that this year had been a tragic one so far for UNHCR. In Pakistan alone they had lost three colleagues. The list of their colleagues killed while carrying out their work was long. It was crucial that the world’s attention was drawn to what some had called “shrinking humanitarian space”, particularly in areas where the needs were huge, such as in countries like Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Paul Garwood World Health Organization (WHO) said WHO planned to use this day to underscore the neutrality of health staff, hospitals and staff, and those who used those facilities.

Deteriorating Humanitarian Situation in Somalia

As an example of what they had just been talking about, Ms. Byrs wanted to look at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Somalia. The humanitarian needs were increasing in Somalia because of increasing insecurity there. That, in turn, constrained the effective humanitarian response at the same time when aid deliveries should be stepped up. Somalia had one of the highest rates of per capita aid worker attacks in the world. So far in 2009, 8 aid workers had been killed and 19 had remained in captivity since 2008. Between May and July, three United Nations compounds in South/Central Somalia had been taken over by armed militia. Sea piracy was also a big problem, threatening the humanitarian supply chain. They now needed military naval escorts, thereby increasing the cost of delivering aid. Funding was also a concern. More support was needed, with the security sector only 18 per cent funded in Somalia.

The situation was deteriorating rapidly in Somalia, with civilians more and more becoming the targets of attacks. There were now a total of 1.3 million displaced in Somalia, or 1 in every 7 persons, Ms. Byrs said. A briefing note was available.

Malnutrition in Central African Republic

Ms. Taveau said that UNICEF was alarmed about the situation in the Central African Republic, where the rates of acute malnutrition among children were rising. “In both the conflict-affected north and more stable south, almost 70,000 children under five are living below acceptable standards, and now many are moving towards the outer edge of survival”, according to UNICEF’s acting representative in the country. UNICEF was appealing to donors for $1.5 million for live-saving therapeutic foods, drugs and other supplies. A press releases was available in English and French.

H1N1 Flu Virus

Fadéla Chaib of WHO said they were updating the figures on H1N1 infection rates once a week, on Tuesdays. As of 6 August, there were 177,457 cases and 1,462 deaths reported from over 170 countries and territories. Those figures obviously did not reflect the totality of cases, as many countries were no longer required to analyse all suspected cases of H1N1. Several countries had reported their first cases, including Azerbaijan, Gabon, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Moldova and Swaziland. WHO had also put in place a hotline on the H1N1 pandemic at +41 22 791 5000.

Responding to a question concerning a report in a British journal that Tamiflu was not effective in preventing seasonal flu in children, Ms. Chaib said that WHO had sent questions to its experts so that they could formulate a WHO position on the article which had appeared in “The Lancet”. No answer had been received yet, but as soon as it was received it would be sent to ACANU journalists. However, it should be stressed that the article looked at the effectiveness of Tamiflu in treating seasonal influenza, not the H1N1 flu. There were also some questions about why WHO was only providing statistics now by region, and not by country, in particular given that statistics were provided to WHO by States and not by regions. Ms. Chaib said that that decision had been taken to reflect the reality of the situation.

Aphaluck Bhatiasevi of WHO, also responding to questions, said that, in terms of the spread of the pandemic, that was being seen in many of the tropical countries and in Asia, particularly in India, Thailand and Viet Nam. Regarding vaccine development, WHO had been involved in some capacity-building work for production of influenza vaccines for developing countries, among them India and Thailand. But that was an ongoing process and it would take some time.

World Water Week in Stockholm/Economic Commission for Europe

Jean Rodriguez of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) announced the programme for the coming week, when ECE would be participating in celebrations for International Water Week in Stockholm, from 16 to 22 August. ECE Executive Secretary Ján Kubiš would participate in a high-level panel on transboundary waters on Monday afternoon. On Wednesday, 19 August, ECE would organize a seminar on its Convention on the protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (known as the Water Convention) focusing on how a legal framework was making a difference on the ground. A second part of the seminar would look at transboundary water cooperation in Central Asia. A press release was available.

Health Situation in Southern Sudan and Eastern DRC

Mr. Garwood of WHO said that according to the latest figures from the field, there were now some 50,000 persons displaced by fighting in the Orientale Province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and another 21,000 who had been forced into southern Sudan’s Western Equatorial state to seek refuge. WHO was providing health support in both of those areas. A lack of access, particularly in Orientale Province, was restricting the level of health care that people could receive. WHO had received reports that major health concerns at the moment were malaria, reproductive health issues and acute respiratory infections. There was also an extremely low level of immunizations in this area, and thus a concern about the spread of major contagious diseases such as measles and meningitis. WHO had received almost $500,000 from the Central Emergency Response Fund to respond to current needs.

Other

Edward Mishaud of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said the report “HIV transmission in intimate partner relationships in Asia” had been presented today in Bali in the framework of the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. The main messages looked at understanding the modes of transmission in the region. As was known, commercial sex work, injecting drug use and men who had sex with men were the main drivers. The report looked more in detail at the female partners of the main drivers who engaged in sex. Copies of the report and a press release, in French English and Spanish, were available at the back of the room.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said today IOM had released its Migration Profile for Argentina, a country shaped by massive immigration from Europe in the nineteenth century, was dealing with new migration realities, including an outflow of descendants of European migrants back to Europe or to the United States, and a concurrent inflow of working-age migrants from neighbouring countries. The report was available in Spanish only so far.