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 Refugees, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the World Health Organization, the World Meteorological Organization and the International Organization for Migration.

Durban

Jonathan Lynn for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that a statement on the IPCC’s position on the outcomes of the Durban conference was now available.

Responding to questions he said the significance of the meeting was that it had managed to find a compromise on the content of a text, which those who had followed previous climate negotiations would know many major countries had abstained from before. What form this legal agreement would then take and what force it had was a matter for discussion and negotiation later.

On the question of human contribution to climate change, he said that there was now agreement that there was a case for human impact, though natural factors such as volcanoes and sunspots had also to be considered.

Asked about Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, he noted that when Kyoto started Canada accounted for three per cent of emissions within the industrialized countries group and had committed to cut its emissions by six per cent. In fact by 2009, Canada's emissions had actually increased by 30 per cent, meaning it probably accounted for four per cent of the emissions of the industrialized group overall.

If you then included forestry and changes of land use as contributing to warming then Canada accounted for the fourth biggest increase in emissions of those industrialized nations between 1990 and 2009. Excluding forestry then they would be the ninth biggest.

Clare Nullis (World Meteorological Organization (WMO)) added that the WMO had released reports before the Durban conference which showed that the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were now at record levels, and they were largely due to human activity.

Yemen

Hélène Kadi, Emergency Coordinator for Yemen of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that since the beginning of the crisis in Yemen, UNICEF had needed to move from a regular development programme to full emergency mode to help the very poorest. This year had been a catastrophic year for children in the country and 2012 was expected to be the same if the country was not given the attention it deserved, she said. She also believed that despite the recent signing of a political deal the situation would remain dire.
Among the worst affected areas, the impact of the crisis meant that immunisation had dropped by as much as 60 per cent, she explained, and this reduced coverage when coupled with a very high level of malnutrition had created fears that the mortality rate amongst the country’s children would rise.

This meant that as part of the consolidated appeals launched tomorrow, UNICEF was asking for $50 million to sustain its emergency operations, twice the requirement of last year. This funding was to meet immediate humanitarian needs and expand support and operations to areas that had become extremely vulnerable as a result of the last ten months, she said.

UNICEF remained engaged in meaningful action on the ground, she added, and was operating 600 treatment centres to support 44,000 severely malnourished children. Continuing operations like this would be needed in the coming months to avert a humanitarian crisis and investment in the humanitarian work now should be seen as an investment in Yemen’s future stability, she said.

Niger

Gaëlle Sévenier for the World Food Programme (WFP) gave an update on the drought that had returned to the Sahel region of West Africa leaving the population suffering their third food crisis in the past decade. The increasing frequency of such droughts in the Sahel had meant that communities had little time to recover from the last food crisis, leaving household savings depleted and livestock herds decimated, she said.

Niger, Mauritania, Mali and the Sahelian band of Chad were the areas of particular concern for the WFP, she said, and responses varied from one country to the other with Niger, Mauritania and Mali requesting international humanitarian assistance so far. In Niger, the WFP was scaling up assistance, especially for women and children, after the government announced that at least 750,000 people are severely food insecure, a number that was expected to increase to a million by January. There was also concern over Chad, Senegal, The Gambia, Burkina Faso and northern Nigeria.

Looking at the situation in Niger, erratic rains and pest infestations had reduced harvests in central and western regions. Crop assessment results had confirmed a cereal deficit of more than 500,000 metric tons, she explained. In response to this the Government had adopted a preliminary support plan for a six-month period, October through March, to meet immediate needs. The WFP now expected to support 2.2 million people in the next year and this additional assistance would require further funding of $60 million through April 2012.

Syria

Responding to a question, Adrian Edwards for the High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) said there had not been a significant change in refugee numbers, with the numbers remaining around 8,000 on the Turkish border and around 3,000 in Lebanon.





Child on-line safety

Marixie Mercado for the UNICEF said a report released today looked at child abuse and exploitation online, whether through child abuse images, online grooming or cyber bullying, as well as the elements required to build a protective framework for child safety in this environment.

As of 2010 there were an estimated 16,700 websites globally that depicted child abuse images, she said, an increase from 10,600 in 2006. The age of child subjects was also getting lower, with 73 percent of victims appearing to be under ten-years-old.

According to the report, young Caucasian girls under 10 were the most vulnerable. Of 196 countries reviewed, only 45 had legislation sufficient to combat child abuse image offences. Factors that exacerbate the risks include a lack of parental awareness, difficult economic conditions and underdeveloped regulatory frameworks, she said.

The approach recommended by the report was to empower children to protect themselves, removing the impunity of abusers, reducing the availability and access to harm; and support for the recovery of victims.

Geneva activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said the Seventh Review Conference of the Convention on Biological Weapons would hold a public meeting Thursday morning (December 15) to present a report from the Plenary Session on the work it had done since last Thursday. The conference would then meet in the framework of the Drafting Committee to present the final document of the session in a public meeting on its closing day next Thursday (22 December).

Tarik Jasarevic for the World Health Organization (WHO) said that today (13 December) there would be a press conference at 14:00, in Room III on the launch of the World Malaria Report 2011. This year’s report had the latest available data on malaria cases and deaths from around the world, information on the most recent trends and updated information about drug and insecticide resistance in malaria-endemic countries, he said. And for the first time, the report also included separate country profiles for all 99 countries with ongoing malaria transmission. Speakers included the WHO Assistant Director General for HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases; the Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme and a representative from the Roll Back Malaria Partnership.

Clare Nullis for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) gave details of the first meeting of WMO’s Expert Advisory Group on Financial Risk Transfer today and tomorrow (13 to 14 December) and explained it would focus on how to facilitate the provision of weather and climate services to insurance and financial risk transfer markets. The ultimate aim was to help strengthen capacity for managing risks associated with weather, climate and water related hazards, she said.





Ms. Momal-Vanian added that today and tomorrow (13 and 14 December), the 18th round of the Geneva International Discussions would take place and after the meeting a series of press conferences would take place in Room III of the Palais des Nations. The press conferences will start at approximately 17:00, last approximately 30 minutes each and would run consecutively.

The first press conference featured the co-Chairs of the Geneva International Discussions, being the European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus and for the crisis in Georgia, the United Nations Representative to the Geneva International Discussions and the Joint Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism and the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for Protracted Conflicts.

Jemini Pandya for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that on Wednesday (14 December) there would be a press conference at 14:00 in Press Room 1 on ensuring migrant access to health services to address global health inequities. The conference was being held to mark International Migrant’s Day, and would focus on access to health as one for the biggest issues affecting the group today. She added that there were only five countries in the world that offered both preventative and emergency healthcare to irregular migrants. Speakers included the Director of the Migration Health Division at the IOM.

Elisabeth Byrs for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said tomorrow (14 December) 2011 at 11:30 there was a press conference in Room III on the OCHA Consolidated Appeals for 2012. Speakers included the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator as well as the Member of the European Commission Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. She also asked that the materials in the press kit be kept under embargo until the time of the press conference tomorrow.

Adrian Edwards for the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the UNHCR was holding its annual pledging conference in Geneva on Thursday (15 December). The conference was an occasion for UNHCR to present its Global Appeal for 2012 and 2013 and to ask government donors to support its work in ensuring the protection and well being of forcibly displaced and stateless people worldwide.

Next year’s budget for the UNHCR was $260 million lower than this year’s budget, he said, which had to be revised upwards during the course of 2011 because of a succession of crises including in Cote d’lvoire, Libya, the Horn of Africa, Sudan, and the floods in Pakistan. The 2012 budget also included $268 million for operational reserves, intended for new emergencies and other unforeseen needs. He added that aside from a small contribution from the United Nations regular budget, UNHCR was entirely funded by voluntary government and private contributions.