REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Corinne Momal-Vanian, Director of the UN Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing, which was attended by the Spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the Human Rights Council, the United Nations Development Programme, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Organization for Migration and the International Trade Centre.

Vanuatu

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), informed that a Flash Appeal had been launched in Vanuatu today to help 166,000 people, or more than half of the country’s population, cope with the impact of Tropical Cyclone Pam which had devastated the island nation 11 days earlier.

The appeal asked the international donor community for USD 29.9 million in support of the Government-led response. Donors had already funded 8 per cent of the appeal, or USD 2.3 million. The appeal's top priority was to provide life-saving assistance such as food, water, health care and shelter to people across all the affected areas but also to help them recover their livelihoods and re-establish basic services such as education.

Mr. Laerke specified that the provinces of Shefa and Tafea were the hardest hit. All crops there had been damaged or destroyed and food was running out. In other provinces, up to 90 per cent of shelters had been wiped out while roads were impassable and debris was still being cleared.

An estimated 75,000 people urgently needed shelter and 110,000 people were without access to safe drinking water as water sources had been exhausted. Food had also been identified as a pressing need for affected people and the appeal asks for USD 8.2 million to help bring food assistance to communities. Mr. Laerke added that the relatively low figure of 11 deaths during the cyclone was a consequence of the early warning systems and the provision of evacuation centres by the Government.

The full appeal was accessible at the following link: http://bit.ly/1HvpNUL.

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), informed that around 82,000 children, or two thirds of the children in Vanuatu, were in need of humanitarian assistance. UNICEf has announced a new USD 4.8 million humanitarian appeal, as part of a wider United Nations USD 29.9 million ask for Vanuatu launched today.

UNICEF was concentrating on making sure that children and their families in Vanuatu, as well as in affected communities in Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Kiribati, had access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, and health services including immunisation. UNICEF was providing treatment for diarrhea, care of new-borns and nutrient supplements, while also protecting children from violence, exploitation and abuse.

UNICEF is concentrating on making sure that children and their families in Vanuatu – as well as in affected communities in Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Kiribati - have access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, and health services including immunisation. UNICEF is providing treatment for diarrhoea, care of new-borns and nutrient supplements, while also protecting children from violence, exploitation and abuse.

Mr. Boulierac said that schools had officially re-opened today, but 80 percent of school buildings had been damaged in Vanuatu, 34 were being currently used as evacuation centres and housing for teachers was also destroyed. UNICEF was working to ensure that more than 50,000 school-aged children affected by the cyclone returned to class as soon as possible.

UNICEF revealed the huge funding shortfall as of 23 March, UNICEF had only received around USD 769,000 towards its emergency response to Cyclone Pam.

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that the IOM was seeking USD one million to assist provision of relief assistance and support of displaced people returned to their communities. The critical job to the IOM would be to help people get back to their homes, given that dozens of evacuation centres were beginning to empty out.

IOM estimated that 75,000 people would have critical shelter needs, and 110,000 were without access to clean drinking water. Reportedly, 80 per cent of local food sources had been seriously damaged, so 166,000 people needed food aid and assistance to resume agricultural activities.

Sarah Bel, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), stated that the UNDP was focusing on recovery activities to complement lifesaving interventions, especially those related to food security and infrastructure. The activities would focus of Tafea and Shefa, the two provinces most hit by the disaster. Those would include debris clearance, rehabilitation of community, rain water harvesting and early warning system for the protection of gardens, restoration of livelihood for the most vulnerable and fishery communities.

Asked about the locations of the displaced persons, Mr. Millman said that schools and other emergency locations were used for the displaced, until their living conditions were restored so that they could put back their lives together.

Answering a question on the ways the UNDP was helping restore livelihoods, Ms. Bel said that UNDP activities included assisting communities with repair and reconstruction of shelters and housing, bridges and roads, key buildings and market places. Efforts were also being made to restore communication, water and electricity supplies.

On the issue of risks to which children in Vanuatu were exposed to, Mr. Boulierac specified that there had already been a high level of domestic violence taking place in Vanuatu prior to the cyclone, and natural disasters often only aggravated such existing phenomena. Mr. Laerke added that recent data on violence against women showed that 60 per cent of women in Vanuatu experienced sexual or physical violence during their lifetime.

Yemen
Mr. Boulierac stated that the recent attacks on mosques in Sanaa had left 12 children killed and 20 injured. Grave violations of child rights were continuing to take place in Yemen, and were even more worrying in the light of the current situation in the country. The year of 2014 had seen a 40 per cent increase of children killed and wounded compared to 2013. There had also been a 100 per cent increase in attacks on schools and hospitals, while recruitment of children into armed groups had increased by 47 per cent.

Mr. Boulierac specified that Yemeni children were exposed to a number of dangers, including IEDs, mines, drones, suicide attacks and sexual violence. UNICEF reiterated its appeal to all parties of the conflict to spare schools, hospitals and civilian targets. UNICEF also asked for an immediate halt to the recruitment of children in armed forces and an immediate assistance and protection to children in need.

The current crisis In Yemen had had a disastrous effect on the economy. Social welfare funds were now frozen, with no payments made since the beginning of the year, which affected large swathes of the population. The Social Welfare Fund beneficiaries have not received their payments since January this year. The Fund covers 35% of the population with their support.
Yemen was one of the poorest countries in the world and 47 per cent of children under the age of five suffered from malnutrition. It was, after Afghanistan, the second country in the world when it came to the proportion of malnourished children. Levels of malnutrition were alarmingly high at the moment, with 1.6 million persons affected, out of whom 850,000 children were suffering from acute malnutrition and 160,000 from severe acute malnutrition.

UNICEF and its partners on the ground continued to provide vaccines to children, construct child friendly schools, provide psychosomatic support to children in distress and provide therapeutic food to mothers and children who are malnourished, amongst other things.
Mr. Boulierac also said that the provision of vaccines was secured for the following two months only. The Government was not in a position to pay for subsequent months. Yemen remained very exposed to the virus of poliomyelitis as many children not being currently vaccinated. Vaccine stocks and cold chain might be were at risk of being damaged. This month UNICF paid the fuel to avoid this disruption, since the government is not able to fulfill this cost anymore.

Multiplicity of local conflicts also meant limiting the access of children to education, and an estimated 200,000 children were affected by attacks of schools, occupation or closure of schools or; girls were more affected by this disruption of education, as many parents decided to keep their children at home due to insecurity and poverty.

In 2015, UNICEF needed USD 60 million to respond to the needs of mothers and children in Yemen.

Cameroon

Karin de Gruijl, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), informed that the High Commissioner António Guterres had started a two-day visit to Cameroon, a country wedged between two of today’s major displacement crises in Africa: Nigeria and the Central African Republic. More than 74,000 Nigerian refugees had crossed into the Far North region of Cameroon according to the authorities, including some 25,000 who had escaped clashes between the regional military forces and insurgents in north-eastern Nigeria in the month of February alone.

Because of the highly insecure situation in the border areas in the Far North region, UNHCR had been moving the refugees to Minawao refugee camp, located some 90 km from the regional capital Maroua. Mr. Guterres would visit Minawao on 25 March to hear the refugees’ testimonies first hand and see the conditions in the camp, which was now home to nearly 33,000 Nigerian refugees. The relocation exercise wasongoing, but, despite the insecurity, many refugees preferred to stay close to the border either to wait for relatives, take care of their cattle or return home as soon as the situation there improved.

Ms. de Gruijl said that the High Commissioner would also meet with some of the estimated 96,000 Cameroonians who had been internally displaced by the regular incursions by insurgents into the country and offer UNHCR’s support to help cover their most urgent needs.

In addition to the refugees from Nigeria, Cameroon was also hosting more than 244,000 refugees from the Central African Republic, including nearly 139,000 who had fled the country since December 2013. The High Commissioner would discuss both humanitarian crises with President Paul Biya and thank the Cameroonian Government and people for their generous open door policy and hospitality towards refugees. They would also discuss the support that was needed to improve the living conditions for the refugees, internally displaced people and the host communities in Cameroon.

Ms. de Gruijl specified that the violence in north-eastern Nigeria had forced more than 192,000 people to flee across the border into neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger. In addition, nearly 1.2 million people were internally displaced in north-eastern Nigeria. In February, UNHCR had issued an appeal for a total of USD 71 million for life-saving protection and assistance activities in Nigeria and the neighbouring countries; thus far, only USD 6.8 million in contributions had been received.

Asked how many of the refugees had been transferred to the camp further inland, Ms. de Gruijl said that 33,000 had already been moved to the camp. Because of limited access, it was difficult to agree or disagree with the refugee assessment of the security situation in the area. UNHCR did not have access to the border area. One reason why refugees often did not want to move to the camp was because they were waiting for their relatives. On whether there were any camps for the IDPs, Ms. de Gruijl said that IDPs were much more dispersed than refugees, but there were projects under way to strengthen the capacities of host communities. UNHCR was trying to make sure that the IDPs were getting the same kind of assistance as refugees.

Answering a question, Ms. de Gruijl specified that the High Commissioner would not be visiting Nigeria, but only Cameroon and Chad.

Myanmar National Export Strategy

Jarle Hetland, for the International Trade Centre (ITC), informed that on 25 March Myanmar would launch its first National Export Strategy. The project had been launched in the capital Nay Pyi Taw by Myanmar’s Vice President U Nyan Tun, Minister of Commerce Uwin Myint and the ITC Executive Director Arancha Gonzalez. It would help Myanmar develop its trades aspect, with a particular focus on medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Strategy would include interventions to boost the competitiveness in a long term view and also ensure sustainable export-led growth and prosperity for an emerging Myanmar.

The Strategy sought to shift Myanmar’s trade patterns to provide greater prosperity for the people of Myanmar from trade. While the country’s export structure had changed dramatically in recent decades, exports had becomes concentrated on a handful of products, mostly unprocessed natural resources, while export destinations remained limited. In response, the Strategy aimed at diversification.

The Strategy would serve as a roadmap to increase production and value addition in the following priority sectors: beans, pulses and oilseeds; fisheries; forestry products; textiles and garments; rice; rubber; and tourism. On 23 March, the ITC had launched a two-year coaching programme for Myanmar’s tourism sector which aimed to increase the level of tourism industry up to international standards.

For the private sector to fully participate in the transformation, the Strategy tackled constraints in the business environment through access to finance, trade information and promotion, trade facilitation and logistics and quality management. Mr. Hetland explained that the Strategy had been created with the collaboration of the Ministry of Commerce, with the technical assistance of the ITC and financial support German Federal Ministry for Economic, Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implementation support of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).

Human Rights Council

Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council (HRC), announced that the HRC was continuing its general debate on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance. After that, it would move to a series of presentations by independent experts speaking about the situation in Central African Republic, Côte d’ Ivoire, Haiti and Mali. The following day, at 9:00 a.m, the Council would start the Annual Thematic Discussion on Technical Cooperation and at noon there would bea presentation of the report on the human rights situation in Iraq and the abuses committed by Islamic State in that country. This report had been made public at a press conference the previous week. In the afternoon, there would be another series of countries’ situations reports regarding Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Cyprus, Iran, Afghanistan Libya, Guinea and South Sudan.

Mr. Gomez also shared a list of 34 resolutions to be considered by the Council on 26 and 27 March.

Geneva activities

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that the Conference on Disarmament was concluding the first part of its 2015 session this week. It was currently holding a public session, with Pakistan, Colombia and Ethiopia listed as speakers.

The Human Rights Committee was examining the report of Croatia this morning, while in the afternoon it would start its consideration of the report of Monaco.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would start its session on 25 March. During the session, it would examine the reports of Germany, the Cook Islands, Croatia, Mongolia, Dominican Republic, Czech Republic and Turkmenistan.

Ms. Momal-Vanian also informed that an embargoed briefing on UNHCR’s latest Asylum Trends report would take place in Press Room III on 25 March at 11 a.m. The report would be issued on 26 March, and it contained the latest figures of asylum seekers in industrialized countries and an analysis of asylum trends during 2014. Speakers would be UNHCR Spokesperson Melissa Fleming, and Tarek Abou Chabake, Senior Statistician at UNHCR.

Ms. Momal-Vanian added that a press briefing by the head of the UN's human rights division in Libya on the severely deteriorating human rights situation in Libya would take place in Press Room I on 25 March at 9:30 a.m. The speaker would be Claudio Cordone, Director of the Human Rights, Transitional Justice and Rule of Law Division at the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).

Ms. Momal-Vanian said that, on the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of the Biological Weapons Convention, an event would take place in the Council Chamber on 30 March. It was in the Council Chamber that the Convention had been negotiated in the 1970s. The Secretary-General’s message on that occasion, under embargo until 26 March, was distributed.

Mr. Hetland said that in October, the first SME Competitiveness Outlook would be launched, at the World Export Development Forum in Doha. It would be an annual publication which focused on factors influencing the performance of SMEs in global markets. In that context on 26 March, the WTO would hold a debate in the room S1. The event would include presentation of the content of the competitiveness outlook by the private sector, Government’s representatives and other stakeholders, including from the B20, the International Chamber of Commerce and Members States Ambassadors. All interested to attend should contact Mr. Hetland by email.

Spokespersons for the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization were also present, but did not brief.
The webcast for this briefing is available here: … http://bit.ly/unog240315