REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Organization, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, the UN Refugee Agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Environmental Programme, the World Trade Organization and the International Organization for Migration.

2010 Review Conference of Parties to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) would be held from 3 to 28 May at UN Headquarters in New York. The President-elect of the Review Conference was Ambassador Libran N. Cabactulan of the Philippines. Background press releases had been sent out and there were other documents on the UN website. Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of UNOG, who was also the Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, would be flying to New York over the weekend to attend the NPT Review Conference.

World Press Freedom Day

Ms. Momal-Vanian said World Press Freedom Day was commemorated on May 3, 2010. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in an observance event held Thursday in New York, said that freedom of expression was a fundamental human right, enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But around the world, Governments and those who wielded power used many different ways to obstruct it. The Secretary-General noted progress made in the area of freedom of information: the right to know, which was also the theme of this year’s observance. He said that while there was a global trend towards new laws which recognized the universal right to publicly held information, these new laws did not always translate into action. Requests for official information were often refused or delayed, all too often because of a culture of secrecy and a lack of accountability. The Secretary-General called on governments, civil society and people around the world to recognize the important work of the media, and to stand up for freedom of information, and for more effort to change attitudes and to raise awareness. He said the United Nations stood with persecuted journalists and media professionals everywhere. The Secretary-General’s message on this day was available at the back of the room.

On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, the Library of the United Nations Office at Geneva would hold a special “open house” on that day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to highlight the services and resources of the Library that were available to support accredited journalists of UNOG in their work. A note to correspondents had been sent out on the “open house” which would include tours of the Library and the newly re-opened League of Nations Museum.

Geneva Activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Committee against Torture opened its forty-fourth session last Monday at the Palais Wilson. This morning, the Committee was hearing the response of Jordan to questions raised by Committee Experts last week. And this afternoon, it would start its consideration of the report of Switzerland.

The Committee on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families was today concluding its one-week twelfth session. Its concluding observations and recommendations on the initial report of Algeria would be released.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would open its forty-fourth session on Monday, 3 May. During the session, the Committee would review the reports of Colombia, Algeria, Mauritius, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan. The Committee would also discuss its draft General Comment on sexual and reproductive health rights and would consider the future development of a draft General Comment on article 10 of the Covenant (widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family).

The Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Working Group would be meeting next week.

Eighth Session of Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Working Group

Claire Kaplun of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the eighth session of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Working Group would be held in Geneva from 3 to 14 May. A background press release was sent out yesterday. Fifteen States would be having their human rights records examined during the session. These countries were (in order of review) Kyrgyzstan, Kiribati, Guinea, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Spain, Lesotho, Kenya, Armenia, Guinea-Bissau, Sweden, Grenada, Turkey, Guyana, Kuwait and Belarus. Due to the devastating earthquake, which has affected Haiti in January 2010, the Human Rights Council, in a Special Session held on 27 January, had endorsed the request of the Haitian Government to postpone the review of this country, initially scheduled for 11 May 2010, no later than the last session of the first Universal Periodic Review cycle.

WHO Director-General’s Visit to Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said as journalists knew, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan had just concluded a visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. She returned to Geneva very late last night. She had a very busy schedule today, but it might be possible to hold a virtual press conference with her at 4 p.m. A media alert would be sent to journalists as soon as the time was confirmed.

Polio in Tajikistan

Christiane Berthiaume of the United Nations Children’s Fund said almost four million doses of UNICEF-procured oral polio vaccine had been delivered to Dushanbe in Tajikistan on 27 April. Over the next few days, the vaccine would be distributed to all health facilities throughout the country for a three-round national immunization campaign against polio. Almost 1.1 million children aged 0 to 6 would receive two drops of the life-saving polio vaccine during each round. Polio had recently reappeared in Tajikistan after a 13-year absence. UNICEF would support a national immunization campaign to ensure security against polio spreading from Tajikistan to Uzbekistan. The Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan was considering conducting the first round around 17 May, targeting 2.89 million children from 0 to 5 years in all regions of the country.

Ms. Chaib of the World Health Organization said as of 29 April, 32 wild poliovirus cases were confirmed in Tajikistan. Genetic sequencing had now determined that the poliovirus was most closely related to virus from Uttar Pradesh, India. The vaccines had arrived in Tajikistan and national immunization campaigns would be held in and around Dushanbe and across the country. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan were also planning supplementary rounds of immunization. Neighbouring countries were responding to the outbreak by heightening surveillance at all health care facilities and reporting sites while reviewing immunization status of children.

World Meteorological Organization

Gaelle Sevenier of the World Meteorological Organization said WMO expressed its condolences today at the passing away of Professor Aksel Wiin-Nielsen, WMO Secretary-General from 1 January 1980 to 31 December 1983. WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud would be attending the funeral, which would be held in Denmark on 4 May.

Ms. Sevenier said available at the back of the room was a press release on the fifteenth meeting of the South-West Pacific National Meteorological and Hydrological Services of the World Meteorological Organization, which was opening today in Bali, Indonesia. WMO organized this meeting every four years for the 22 Member States and territories in the region. Secretary-General Jarraud this morning addressed the opening, highlighting that some National Meteorological and Hydrological Services organizations in the region had adopted new responsibilities such as geo-hazards and climate services incorporating the provision of tsunami warnings and seasonal climate predictions among others. These additional responsibilities were in addition to their more traditional role in issuing warnings of impending disasters caused by typhoons and other characteristic weather extremes. There were more details in the press release.

Ms. Sevenier said she had with her today an expert, Edward Sarukhanian, who would speak about the Oslo Science Conference, which would be held from 8 to 12 June in Oslo. A brochure was available at the back of the room as was information on journalist accreditation. Edward Sarukhanian, member of the committee organizing this conference, said the idea of this conference was to sum up the results of the International Polar Year 2007-2010. These were preliminary results, but they showed that many interesting things were happening in the polar regions and the message was loud and clear that what was happening in the polar regions affected the rest of the world. They expected 3,000 persons to participate in the conference.

United Nations Environmental Programme

Julie Marks of the United Nations Environmental Programme said May and June would be a busy period for UNEP, particularly in the lead-up to the World Environment Day. They would also be approaching a peak period for the International Year of Biodiversity. There would be a breakfast briefing on 7 May with Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. He was based in Montreal, but would be in Geneva on his way to Nairobi for major international meetings on science, policy and biodiversity to take place from 10 to 28 May. The major biodiversity publication, Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, would be globally launched on 10 May. The main launch would be in Nairobi. There would be an event at the International Environment House in Geneva at 10 a.m. on 10 May to launch the publication. Dr. Djoghlaf would be able to preview some of the elements in the report. This briefing prior to the global launch was a direct response to journalists’ requests for UNEP to do more for the Geneva press corps. Ms. Marks said she also sent out this morning a media advisory requesting applications for media accreditation to attend the first session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to prepare a global legally binding instrument on mercury, which would be held in Stockholm, Sweden, from 7 to 11 June.

UN Secretary-General’s Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace

Poul Hansen, of the office of Wilfried Lemke, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, said with important sports events coming up like the World Cup, and with the closer cooperation between the United Nations and the Olympic family, sports was definitely on the agenda of the United Nations. In this context, Mr. Lemke this morning announced the launch of a five-year partnership between the United Nations and SportAccord, the international association of sports federation. This partnership would focus on achieving the Millennium Development Goals through sport. Sport was much more than just records and medals, it was also about social responsibility and that was why this partnership had been established. A press release was available with more details.

In the same context, Mr. Hansen said that on Wednesday, 5 May, his office would be hosting the inaugural meeting of the newly established Sports for Development and Peace International Working Group in Geneva. Around 40 Governments would be present to discuss how to share good practices in the area of sport and development and in order to further social responsibility within the area of sport. A press release would be issued. Mr. Hansen said their website, which was launched in February this year, contained more information on these issues.

United Nations Children’s Fund

Ms. Berthiaume of the United Nations Children’s Fund said UNICEF’s new Executive Director, Anthony Lake, would be beginning his tenure on Saturday, 1 May. An embargoed press release was available at the back of the room.

Ms. Berthiaume said in Niger, UNICEF had noticed an increase of cases of severe malnutrition in health centres. According to the Niger Ministry of Health, there had been 82,000 new cases admitted since 1 January. There were indeed more and more women carrying children in very bad condition arriving at the health centres. Water was becoming a big problem with wells almost dry. In order to prevent a degradation of the health condition of children, UNICEF was giving training for communities to detect malnutrition cases in order to react quickly before it was too late, and to mobilize and sensitize communities. These were important elements of a campaign to mitigate the impact of this food crisis on the smallest ones and to ensure the success of the blanket feeding operation conducted in partnership with the World Food Programme and non-governmental organizations, aimed to mitigate the impact of this food crisis on the small ones. This operation would allow feeding half a million children under two years.

Pakistan

Andrej Mahecic of the United Nations Refugee Agency said a year on from the massive Swat exodus, the need for help remained acute. Next week would mark the first anniversary of the initial stage of the emergency in northwest Pakistan’s Swat Valley and surrounding districts. With more than two million people on the run this was one of the largest and fastest developing displacements that UNHCR had seen. To date, according to government estimates, 80 to 90 percent of the more than two million people who were affected had returned to their home areas. Despite this, UNHCR continued to see thousands of people still struggling to rebuild their lives. UNHCR and its NGO partners were helping some of the most vulnerable returnees by building shelters for civilians whose homes and other property had been lost. Many families lost breadwinners and other loved ones. The displacement crisis in north-west Pakistan was not over. In addition to those who fled last May, some 1.3 million people from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas remained displaced in various parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the new name of North West Frontier Province. Also, people were still fleeing the conflict areas. Today, UNHCR in Pakistan faced a complex humanitarian operation on several fronts. In addition to helping people rebuild lives and homes in return areas, new IDPs from Kurram and Orakzai needed to be registered and given emergency relief. The longer-term displaced still needed care. More than 130,000 people lived in nine camps which had to be maintained or consolidated. New return operations to Mohmand and Bajaur were underway and these internally displaced persons would also need help to rebuild and re-establish their lives. UNHCR was currently helping with transport for returnees and emergency shelter kits. Next month, it would start monitoring in return areas to identify ongoing needs and plan future assistance. These poor communities would need a significant investment of funds from donors to make their return sustainable.

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the appeal launched two months ago for Pakistan was seriously underfunded, and the humanitarian community was facing a serious funding shortage which was jeopardizing basic life saving activities. The appeal had been for
$ 538 million, but had only received 24 per cent of this figure, $ 128 million. The health sector was 9 per cent funded, food assistance was 28 per cent funded, and education was 12 per cent funded. This was a serious funding shortage affecting ongoing programmes there. For example, over 1 million people in DI Khan and Tank could lose access to health carte because the non-governmental programme Merlin could not afford to keep projects open. Save the Children was closing two programmes in Swat, Buner and DI Khan which would affect almost 200,000 people, including 4,500 children.

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said concerning polio in Pakistan, the total number of cases for 2010 was 14. Pakistan was making efforts to improve population immunity levels to both type 1 and type 3 polio in the three transmission zones of Sindh (Karachi), Balochistan (the Quetta area), and conflict-affected areas in the Federally Administrated Tribal Agencies and North West Frontier Province. District/agency-specific plans had been developed and were now being implemented. National Immunization Days were held on 26-28 April. Sub-national vaccination campaigns had been conducted this week, using the new polio vaccine. Another round in high-risk areas would be held from 24-26 May. A special cross-border meeting with Afghanistan was held in April, attended by senior-level public health staff from both governments and polio eradication partner agencies. With more than two million children under the age of five years having crossed the border between the two countries in 2009, the meeting centred on how to coordinate activities between the two countries.

John Holmes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ms. Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that John Holmes, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, arrived yesterday in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and would be visiting three of the country’s provinces most affected by armed violence: South Kivu, Orientale Province and Equateur Province.

Other

Catherine Sibut-Pinote of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said the Trade and Development Commission would be held from 3 to 7 May at the Palais des Nations. The two principal themes of the meeting were successful trade and development strategies for mitigating the impact of the global economic and financial crisis, and the contribution of tourism to trade and development. UNCTAD’s Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi would be opening the meeting. A large number of documents were available on the website, including the report of the Expert Meeting on commodities and on tourism and the report on successful trade and development strategies for mitigating the impact of the global economic and financial crisis. A press release would be issued on Monday, 3 May after the opening of the first meeting.

Jean Rodriguez of the Economic Commission for Europe said available at the back of the room were copies of ECE’s annual report 2010, which mainly covered work in 2009. The report included a summary of the main events and activities of ECE last year classified by sector of activity, as well as the main priorities of UNECE in 2010, including development of norms for fuel and development of statistics. Next week, ECE Executive-Secretary Jan Kubis would be in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on 3 and 4 May, where he would participate in the forty-third annual meeting of the Committee of Governors of the Asian Development Bank.

Ms. Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said two years after cyclone Nargis had hit Myanmar, a set of documents was available at the back of the room, including “key achievements in Facts and Figures” as well as a snapshot document. Ms. Byrs said also available at the back of the room were copies of a press release on the joint UN/EU environmental emergency response mission publishing its findings on the situation in Kalush, Ukraine.

Janaina Borges of the World Trade Organization said on 3 May and on 5 May, there would be meetings on agriculture negotiations and the rules negotiating group. On 4 May, there would be the General Council meeting, and a briefing would follow. Director-General Pascal Lamy would on 3 May meet with the Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat and with Yemen’s Minister of Industry and Trade. On 6 and 7 May, he would be in Tanzania where he would meet with government officials.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said nine African migrants who benefited from IOM's legal counselling following a recent spate of anti-foreigner violence in the Calabrian town of Rosarno had been issued with temporary residence permits for reasons of social protection under Article 18 of the Italian Immigration Act. The migrants were part of a group of several hundred mostly sub-Saharan farm workers who were exploited by corrupt employers in citrus farms, working up to 12 hours a day with little or no pay and who were forced to live in inhumane conditions in makeshift huts and abandoned factories. Working with a network of Italian counter-trafficking non-governmental organizations, IOM organized the transfer of the migrants to shelters in various parts of the country.

Mr. Chauzy said there were other subjects highlighted in the briefing notes. In Haiti, 13,393 jobs were created in March through 186 ongoing IOM community stabilization projects. In Switzerland, IOM Director General William Lacy Swing and Universal Postal Union Director General Edouard Dayan would today sign an agreement in Bern pledging closer cooperation between the two organizations on joint a activities aimed at furthering the development impact of remittances.