REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which was also attended by Spokespersons for the International Telecommunication Union, the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration, the World Food Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund and the United Nations Development Programme.

Agenda of the Secretary-General

Corinne Momal-Vanian said that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had arrived in Geneva this morning and would deliver opening remarks at the “Roundtable Discussion: Strengthening Preparedness for Nuclear Accidents” starting at 12 p.m. at the Geneva International Conference Centre.

The opening ceremony of the Third Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Reduction would start at 2.30 p.m. at the Geneva International Conference Centre, to be followed by a High-Level Plenary Session on “Increased Investment in Local Action”, which the Secretary-General would also address.

Mr. Ban would give a press conference on the Global Platform at the Geneva International Conference Centre at 3.30 p.m. today together with Margareta Wahlström, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction. The programme of the Secretary-General was at the back of the room.

Tomorrow, Mr. Ban would address the Second International Forum on Sport for Peace and Development and give a press conference at 10.15 a.m. in Room III. Journalists were invited to be seated by 10 a.m.

Libya

Melissa Fleming of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that early last Friday a boat carrying people fleeing Libya had sunk shortly after departing Tripoli. Relatives of those onboard said that the vessel was carrying around 600 people. A senior Somali diplomat in Tripoli had reported that sixteen bodies had been recovered, including two babies. But the full death toll was unknown to UNHCR. Most of those onboard were believed to have been from sub-Saharan Africa.

Europe had until now received less than two percent of those fleeing Libya, said Ms. Fleming. This past weekend saw an increase in arrivals across the Mediterranean: five boats had arrived in Lampedusa, carrying close to 2,400 people. Most were sub-Saharan Africans, many of them women and children. All five boats needed rescuing by the Italian coastguard and maritime police, with one boat running aground close to the Lampedusa shore.

On Sunday, 8 April, UNHCR had appealed to European States to urgently put in place more reliable and effective mechanisms for rescue at sea on the Mediterranean. UNHCR reiterated that call today. In addition, it appealed to ship masters for heightened vigilance and continued adherence to the longstanding maritime obligation of aiding people in distress. People fleeing Libya were often doing so in un-seaworthy and overloaded vessels. UNHCR urged States, commercial shipping companies and others present in the Mediterranean to consider that all boats leaving Libya for Europe were likely to require assistance, Ms. Fleming underscored.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy of the International Organization for Migration said that it would probably never be known how many people had drowned in this latest tragedy. That was the reality of the crisis in Libya; more and more people were leaving and in at least one instance there was evidence that people had been pushed to get onto a boat.



Côte d'Ivoire

Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it was extremely urgent that the fund for Côte d'Ivoire, which was only 22 per cent funded, received a greater response. Contributions were urgently needed as the humanitarian situation remained problematic and more assistance was needed in the West. Humanitarian agencies worked relentlessly and reached ever more people in western Côte d'Ivoire, but resources were becoming scarce. For example, the humanitarian UNHAS flight service transporting humanitarian personnel and humanitarian aid -- connecting Accra with Abidjan, Man and Bouake -- would end on 30 June without new funds. Too little funds were received too slowly, warned Ms. Byrs.

Events related to the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

Emilia Casella of the World Food Programme said la Niña was affecting large parts of the world and the Horn of Africa was currently facing a drought. An Africa Climate Outlook Forum in February had forecast an increased likelihood of below normal rains, and that was now happening.

The seasonal long rains had been poor in much of the region, affecting Somalia, Kenya and parts of Ethiopia. Most of the households in pastoral areas would probably become extremely food-insecure and many livestock were expected to die as the drought potentially progressed. WFP was working with the Ethiopian Government, the World Bank and other partners to respond and prepare so that farmers and pastoralists who were expected to be affected would be impacted as little as possible by the drought.

The Ethiopian Minister of State for Agriculture and WFP staff would give a briefing tomorrow at 4.30 p.m. in Room XI of the CICG ahead of the high-level roundtable on safety nets on Thursday, 12 May. A background note was at the back of the room.

Christopher Tidey said he was joined by UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Dr. Agnes Chang. Ms. Chang would be speaking today at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction at a featured event on education at 12.45 p.m. in Room II of the CICG.

Dr. Agnes Chang, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, said an estimated 175 million children were likely to be affected by climate-related disasters each year. Last year, 2010, had been one of the deadliest and costliest years in history with 6 million children affected in Pakistan and an estimated 2 million in Haiti. Disasters denied the most vulnerable children access to quality education and disrupted education to millions of children every year. As a consequence, disasters were rolling back years of progress towards attaining education for all, commitments and Millennium Development Goals for education.

Ms. Chang said she had been in Tokyo when the earthquake hit. The shock had been long and strong and the tsunami had wiped out entire towns and villages. The damage was brutal and the load to recovery would be very long. Ms. Chang had visited many towns, and her heart was broken. As a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, she had been to many places but had never seen such a complete destruction in so little time. However, preparation and risk reduction had saved countless lives in Japan. The death toll would have been much higher in other parts of the world if struck by a disaster with the same magnitude.

The devastation had affected both adults and children alike, but reports showed that many children had survived the tsunami because of the timing. The tsunami had hit Japan at 2.46 p.m. when most school children were at school. That was the reason why they had survived, as Japanese schools were built on very carefully chosen grounds and on higher grounds in tsunami-prone areas. They were built in concrete, at least three stories high and with open grounds around them. More on the Japanese experience and lessons learned from other countries could be heard at this afternoon’s featured event on education, said Ms. Chang.





Neil Buhne, Director of the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, Geneva Office, said in many places there was an interaction between natural disasters and conflict. This afternoon, at the World Reconstruction Conference in Room VI of the CICG, there would be a session focusing on the disaster-conflict interface. The UNDP “Study on the Disaster-Conflict Interface – Comparative Experiences”, based on nine case studies of places where natural disasters and conflict had taken place simultaneously, would be launched at that meeting.

The study aimed to make the programming more likely to lead to peace and recovery and make it less likely that a natural disaster worsened conflict or that a conflict made a natural disaster worse. The study had found that disasters were most likely to contribute to those conflicts that were over limited natural resources. It had also shown that ongoing conflicts significantly curtailed hazard-prone countries from developing the systems needed to prevent natural disasters from having such an effect. Also, it suggested that slow-onset protracted disasters such as droughts could deepen resource-based conflicts across large areas when occurring in places where people faced high levels of poverty and competition over limited natural resources. More information would be provided today at 4.45 p.m. at the Global Platform meeting.

Sixty-Fourth World Health Assembly

Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organization said that a media alert on the highlights of the 64th World Health Assembly, to be held from 16 to 24 May in Geneva, was at the back of the room. The highlights notably included the speech of WHO Director-General Margaret Chan (on Monday 16 May from 2.30 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Assembly Hall) and the addresses by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Bill Gates, the Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (from 11.30 a.m. onwards on Tuesday 17 May).

Margaret Chan, Bill Gates and Sheikh Hasina might give a short press conference towards 1 p.m. on Tuesday 17 May (to be confirmed).

The list of WHO communication officers and the names of the recipients of the five prizes awarded during the World Health Assembly were available from the media alert.

Second International Forum on Sport for Peace and Development

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Second International Forum on Sport for Peace and Development was opening this morning in Room XVIII. The just-concluded opening session had heard statements by Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee, Pal Schmitt, President of Hungary and member of the International Olympic Committee, and Wilfried Lemke, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace.

As announced earlier, other high-level dignitaries would also address the Forum, among them Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the UK Minister for Sport and the Olympic Games, the President of the Fédération Équestre Internationale, the President of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Organizing Committee, the President of the International Paralympic Committee and the South African Deputy Minister of Sport. A press release was available at the back of the room.

UNAIDS launches “Move It!” campaign with free community event

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that UNAIDS would launch the social media campaign “Move It!” to create a groundswell of support for a successful outcome at the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on AIDS in New York in June. This key meeting of global leaders would look at progress made on AIDS since 2011, and countries would re-commit to the HIV response.

To launch the event, bicycle enthusiasts, HIV activists and community members would converge at a bicycle event taking place at the Place des Nations on Friday 13 May from 11.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m.

After Geneva, the campaign would run on social networking sites and culminate with a second event in New York City on 5 June just before the High-Level Meeting.


International Telecommunication Union Awards

Sanjay Acharya of the International Telecommunication Union said that ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré had this morning announced the winners of the 2011 ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award. The three eminent personalities were the President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, telecommunication innovator Sam Pitroda and the CEO of Inveneo, Kristin Peterson.

Tarja Halonen was co-chairman of the High-Level UN Panel on Global Sustainability and had focused on several key issues in low-income countries. Sam Pitroda currently served as Technology Adviser to the Prime Minister of India and was widely considered to have been responsible for India’s telecommunications revolution. Kristin Peterson was CEO of Inveneo, a non-profit social enterprise that takes computers, internet access and telephony to rural and underserved communities in the developing world.

The awards went out in recognition of the dedication of these personalities to promote information and communication technologies as a means of providing a better life for humanity, particularly in rural communities. The awards would be presented at a ceremony at ITU headquarters in Geneva on 17 May, the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day marking the establishment of ITU on 17 May 1865.

This year’s theme, “Better Life in Rural Communities with ICTs”, brought attention to those who resided in rural districts and far flung communities that had no access to the benefits of information and communication technologies.

Human Rights Committees

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had started to review the report of Yemen yesterday afternoon and would conclude its examination this afternoon. On Thursday, the Committee would take up the report of Russia, the last report scheduled for consideration during this session. From Thursday afternoon onwards the Committee would meet in closed meetings to adopt its concluding observations on the five reports considered. The concluding observations would be made public at the end of the session, on Friday, 20 May.

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Committee against Torture, for its part, had opened its session yesterday morning and started to review the report of Slovenia this morning, to be continued tomorrow afternoon. The Committee had continued its practice of not dedicating two consecutive meetings to the review of each report. For example, the delegation of Slovenia would not respond to the questions Committee members asked this morning before tomorrow afternoon. Meanwhile, Kuwait would present its report tomorrow morning and receive questions from the Committee members before responding to these on Thursday afternoon.

Other

Ms. Chaib said the WHO chief statistician might talk to journalists on the “Global Statistics Report 2011” on Friday, 13 May at 2 p.m. in Press Room I. A note would follow shortly.

Ms. Byrs said a press conference with Panos Moumtzis, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, might take place on Tuesday 17 May at 2.30 p.m. in Room III (to be confirmed).

Journalists might be given the opportunity to put questions to a co-author of the OCHA report “To Stay and Deliver” on Monday 16 May at 12 a.m. in Press Room I (subject to confirmation).