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 Meteorological Organization and the World Food Programme. Spokespersons for the World Health Organization and the United Nations Refugee Agency were also available to answer questions, but had no announcements to make.

Secretary-General’s Statements

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had welcomed yesterday the commitment to renewed United States engagement with the United Nations, in particular the recent financial contributions to the world body made possible by the initiative of President Barack Obama and the approval of the American Congress. “United States leadership at the United Nations is essential, given the complex array of challenges facing the international community, from climate change, to issues of peace and security, to human rights”, the Secretary-General had underscored in a statement. The Secretary-General’s statement was available in the press room.

Myanmar

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier highlighted that yesterday the Security Council had called once again for the release of all political prisoners in Myanmar, while expressing concern over the verdict on Wednesday against opposition leader and Noble Peace Prize Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been condemned to an additional 18 months’ of house arrest. In a statement read out to the press by Ambassador John Sawers of the United Kingdom, which holds the rotating Council presidency this month, the 15 members of the Council reaffirmed their statements of 11 October 2007, 2 May 2008 and 22 May 2009 on Myanmar.

Geneva Activities

In Geneva, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination continued the work of its seventy-fifth session at Palais Wilson this week. It was concluding its review of the report of Chile this morning, having finished its examination of the report of Colombia yesterday morning. On the afternoon of Monday, 17 August, the Committee would begin its consideration of the report of Chad. Other reports remaining to be examined at this session were those of the Philippines and Ethiopia, both of which would be reviewed next week.

Concerning disarmament activities, Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier announced that the Conference on Disarmament would meet next in public on Monday, 17 August at 10 a.m. It was hoped that would be an interesting meeting.

World Humanitarian Day Celebrations in Geneva

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier recalled that, on 19 August, they would be celebrating the first-ever World Humanitarian Day. On Wednesday, at 5 p.m., all were invited to a ceremony at the Parc des Bastions in Geneva, which would be opened by UNOG Director-General Sergei Ordzhonikidze.

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the programme of events was still provisional, but a final version would be available at Tuesday’s briefing. The master of ceremonies would be Darius Rochebin, a Swiss television journalist, who would give the floor to Mr. Ordzhonikidze for an opening address, to be followed by Sandrine Salerno, Vice President of the Administrative Council of Geneva. There would be other speeches by high level dignitaries, including Annie Sergio Vieira de Mello.

World Water Week (16 to 22 August)

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that for World Water Week next week UNICEF was holding a number of seminars on access of children to water as part of the celebrations organized in Stockholm. Every day, some 4,500 children died due to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene. The use of water and soap to wash hands could reduce that number by almost half. Today almost a billion people did not have access to clean water. More information was available at www.WorldWaterWeek.org, and a press release was available at the back.

Other

Ms. Taveau said UNICEF expressed its sadness and grave concern at the assassination of two humanitarian workers of the non-governmental organization (NGO) “Save the Generation” in Grozny, Chechneya, on Wednesday. From 2001 to 2008, UNICEF had worked closely with the NGO, which delivered psychological, medical and social assistance to children affected by conflict in the area.

Lisa Muñoz of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that on Tuesday, 18 August, WMO would be releasing an El Niño/La Niña update. The update, which would be available at the regular UNIS briefing, would be under embargo till 5 p.m. GMT that day. Dr. Rupa Kumar Kolli, the WMO expert in this area, would be on hand at the briefing to answer any questions.

Emilia Casella of World Food Programme (WFP) announced that on Thursday, 20 August at 2 p.m. the Sudan country director of WFP, Kenro Oshidari, would give a briefing to Geneva journalists via telephone from Khartoum both on Darfur and Southern Sudan in Room III. Mr. Oshidari had been in Sudan for over three years, but had also been WFP’s emergency coordinator at the very beginning of the Darfur conflict.

Further to a previous announcement about the funding crisis for WFP’s Humanitarian Air Service, Ms. Casella also wanted to announce that the United States had made a $1 million donation to keep the Humanitarian Air Service in Chad alive for another month. However, if they received no new funds, that service would be shut down on 15 September by 50 per cent and totally discontinued by 30 September, affecting up to 5,000 humanitarian passengers a month. Regarding the other Humanitarian Air Service that was in deep financial difficulty, the West African Coastal Service still needed an injection of $3.3 million to be able to continue to the end of 2009, and no donors had come forward to help that service.