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 International Organization for Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Health Organization.

Secretary-General/Copenhagen Conference

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier observed that today was the last day of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen. While noting that negotiations were progressing “very slowly”, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was in Copenhagen, had said he was very encouraged by the United States announcement on Thursday that it would contribute to a global fund of $100 billion to help poor countries deal with climate change. The European Union leaders, for their part, had announced a couple of days ago that they were ready to contribute €7.2 billion (about $10 billion) to developing countries over the next three years to combat climate change. At the same time, Secretary-General Ban had noted that in total aggregate terms, the commitments mentioned by the United States and the EU “has not yet reached the scale of what science has recommended”. He urged all leaders to exercise their political leadership based on common sense, compromise and courage. Noting that “all the people around the world are watching us”, he had called once again for heads of State and government to take action.

Secretary-General/Guinea Report

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier said that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had begun examining the report of the International Commission of Inquiry set up by the United Nations to investigate the deadly crackdown on unarmed demonstrators in Guinea in September 2009. The report was based on the work of the independent commission, which had visited the Guinean capital, Conakry, between 25 November and 4 December. Following his consideration of the report, which was ongoing, Mr. Ban would send it to all relevant parties, including the Guinean Government, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States and the United Nations Security Council. The three members of the International Commission of Inquiry were Mohamed Bedjaoui (Algeria), Françoise Ngendahayo Kayiramirwa (Burundi) and Pramila Patten (Mauritius). At least 150 demonstrators were thought to have died and many others to have been raped when Government forces opened fire on protesters in Conakry in 28 September.

Tsunami: UNICEF Five-Year Assessment Report of Relief and Recovery Activities

Veronique Taveau of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said at the back of the room was a news note on the release of a report on the 2004 tsunami, which provided an assessment of what UNICEF had done over the course of the past five years to assist those affected by the tsunami. She recalled that, on 26 December 2004, the tsunami in the Indian Ocean had directly impacted on eight countries, leaving 230,000 dead, the majority of them women and children. The international community had mobilized immediately, pledging over $14 billion for the relief and recovery of tsunami-affected countries, with UNICEF receiving $694.7 million.

Because of the sheer scale of the tsunami’s destruction, and with the massive mobilization of resources, the report highlighted that there had been many opportunities to “build back better”, Ms. Taveau said. In Indonesia, for example, the most-affected country, with 167,000 victims, an unprecedented effort had been made to build child-friendly schools. Schools had been built with separate toilet facilities for girls and boys (which made it possible for many more girls to attend school), and teachers had been instructed in survival techniques. The report also highlighted some of the important lessons learned from the tsunami relief and recovery operations, not the least of which was ensuring that relief operations were better coordinated and ensuring that all stakeholders were better prepared to deal with emergencies. In Myanmar, for example, lessons UNICEF had learned from the tsunami response had positively influenced preparedness and response to the devastation unleashed by Cyclone Nargis in 2008, as emergency humanitarian supplies for several days had already been pre-positioned in the country.

Of the funds received by UNICEF, only $22 million remained unspent, and it would go towards the continuing reconstruction and development in the affected areas, Ms. Taveau concluded.

Migrants/International Migrants Day

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that, on the occasion of International Migrants Day (18 December), IOM was calling for greater efforts beyond Copenhagen to tackle the complex issue of environmental and climate-induced migration. The reality was that climate change and environmental degradation were already triggering migration or displacement all over the planet, and that the poorest countries were bearing the brunt of those movements. A press release in three languages was available at the back of the room.

Mr. Chauzy also drew attention to a new study on remittances flows to Angola, which called for measures to enhance their development, as well as for continued efforts to facilitate investment in the country. Only 14 per cent of the sums sent as remittances to Angola were invested productively, with 67 per cent used to meet basic household necessities. Among the report’s recommendations was the need to find ways to lower the cost of remitting by expanding and increasing competition among cross-border remittance services and by harmonizing the related regulations.

Mr. Chauzy also highlighted the launch today by IOM of a report and an on-line resources website addressing the global financial crisis and its impact on the Philippines and neighbouring countries. Interestingly, it appeared that remittances had not fallen since the crisis, with remittances for the month of September 2009 reaching $1.4 billion, up 8.6 per cent from $1.33 billion in the same month last year.

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

As the year was coming to an end, Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), wanted to highlight three flash appeals that had received very little attention or funds from donors: for assistance relating to floods in Burkina Faso, which was only 44 per cent funded; for floods in El Salvador, which had only reached 32 per cent; and the flash appeal for Namibia.

Ms. Byrs also presented an annual assessment of United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Teams (UNDACs), made up of experts who were deployed around the world to respond to disasters. In 2009, there had been 11 UNDAC missions, with 57 experts deployed to 20 different countries. Of the 11 missions, 9 had been sent to deal with hurricanes and floods, and 2 for earthquakes. In comparison, in 2008 there had been 16 missions and in 2007, 14. Since the creation of these teams, in 1993, 197 missions had been undertaken at the invitation of the Governments concerned. There were 189 active UNDAC members coming from more than 70 countries and organizations. Over 100 (102) countries had received an UNDAC mission, 27 African countries, 28 in the Americas, 20 in Asia, 8 in the Pacific and 15 in Europe. The trend, however, was towards an increasing number of missions in Africa. The UNDAC system also offered assessment missions, undertaking an analysis of national disaster preparedness systems and procedures, which were provided free of charge to Governments that requested them. In 2009, UNDAC undertook three such disaster preparedness missions – to Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and Peru. A press release was available.

Yemen/Refugees

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that more than 74,000 Africans, fleeing desperate situations of civil war, poverty and famine in the Horn of Africa had reached the shores of Yemen this year. That represented a 50 per cent increase over the already record high figure of 50,000 arrivals in 2008. Refugees and migrants made the dangerous journey on smugglers’ boats across the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea under harrowing conditions, sometimes beaten, raped or killed or simply thrown overboard. In 2009 so far, 309 people had died in attempting the crossing. The mixed migration route through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea was presently the busiest and the deadliest in the world.

Somalis no longer made up the majority of arrivals. Their numbers had remained steady, with 32,000 arrivals this year. The number of Ethiopians arriving, however, had more than doubled, with 42,000 arrivals. Mr. Mahecic highlighted that, while virtually all arriving Somalis approached reception centres in Mafyaa and Ahwar where they received protection and assistance, only 9,000 Ethiopians had done so this year. UNHCR believed that some of those Ethiopians who had not approached the centres had done so for fear of arrest and detention. UNHCR had not had systematic access to Ethiopian nationals in Yemen detained for illegal entry, and had been continuously raising its serious concern with the Yemeni authorities about the continued detention and deportation of Ethiopians, without granting those wishing to seek asylum a prior opportunity to contact the Agency. As of early December UNHCR had gained access to detention facilities in two Yemeni governorates and had been interviewing Ethiopians held there, with some 10 per cent of interviewees opting to apply for asylum (34 out of 367 Ethiopians interviewed). More visits were planned.

A journalist noted the positive development that, while the number of arrivals in Yemen had almost doubled, the number of deaths had been reduced by almost half, and asked if UNHCR could explain that. Mr. Mahecic responded that it was difficult to say. Most of the smugglers were very ruthless. Perhaps they had been taking note of what was going on and what had been said about their work globally and had treated people differently. However, there was still the question of the number of missing, who were presumed dead, but those figures would only be available next year.

Update on Displaced in Northwest Pakistan

Mr. Mahecic said that as military operations intensified in Orakzai Agency of north-west Pakistan, an estimated 40,000 people had sought refuge in the neighbouring district of Hangu over the past few weeks, according to the local authorities. The internally displaced persons were mainly staying with their extended family or with local families. The local authorities had established a camp at Muhammad Khoja, about 20 kilometres from Hangu town towards the Orakai Agency border, and about 50 families were currently residing there. UNHCR had sent 100 all-weather tents to reinforce supplies at the camp, as well as family kits and relief supplies like sleeping mats, blankets and kitchen sets. Distribution of relief supplies to people staying in host communities would begin shortly.

There were reports that displaced people from Orakazai had also fled to Kohat district, but UNHCR had no firm figures on that, Mr. Mahecic continued. He recalled that, further south, in the Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts of the North West Frontier Province, more than 280,000 people remained displaced from the earlier military operation in South Waziristan and continued to live in rented rooms with host families. UNHCR had distributed more than 32,000 tents to registered families to date, along with almost 53,000 relief supply kits.

A-H1N1 Flu Virus

Asked about reports of alleged conflicts of interest by members of the SAGE (Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization) independent advisory board, Fadéla Chaib of the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that Gregory Hartl (the WHO spokesperson on issues related to the H1N1 epidemic) had not been able to attend the briefing today. However, information on the composition of SAGE with the name of the experts was available on the WHO website.

The weekly H1N1 update would be sent to journalists this afternoon (Friday), around 5 p.m. Yesterday was the last virtual press briefing of the year. While WHO would be closed Thursday and Friday next week, the update would be available on the web.

A journalist was quite troubled by a statement made by Dr. Fukuda [the WHO Special Adviser on Pandemic Influenza] yesterday, that none of the donations [of H1N1 vaccine] had been delivered yet. What was the real difficulty in delivering those vaccines? Dr. Fukuda had mentioned that receiving countries had to show they were capable of administering the drugs, but that could take years perhaps. In response, Ms. Chaib said she would ask Gregory Hartl to respond by phone. However, she reiterated what Dr. Fukuda had said yesterday, that WHO’s focus was to help countries get as soon as possible the pledged vaccines. There were 180 million doses that needed to be dispatched to countries that would not otherwise have access. She also noted that there were three steps required to receive the vaccines: the country had to make the request, they had to agree to some terms and conditions, and they had to develop a national plan. It was part of WHO’s job to help those countries develop such a national plan. Three countries were already ready to receive the vaccine: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Mongolia. Other countries would follow.

A journalist also noted that there was a discrepancy in the numbers concerning doses needed. Yesterday, Dr. Fukuda had spoken about 220 million doses needed for 95 countries. Back in October, however, another expert had spoken of 300 million doses. And the figure they were talking about now was just 180 million doses. Ms. Chaib said that Gregory Hartl would have to respond on the discrepancy, but added that the 180 million related to the actual number of doses pledged.

Other

Ms. Ponomareva-Piquier announced that, on Monday, Scott Cambell, Chief of the Africa Section at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, would present two reports on the Lords Resistance Army in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo regarding possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. The briefing would be held at 11 a.m. in Room III