REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, United Nations Refugee Agency, World Food Programme, World Health Organisation and the International Organization for Migration.

UN Secretary-General Travels

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, briefed the press on the Secretary-General’s upcoming travels, starting with a visit to the United Arab Emirates where he would arrive on Saturday 16 January. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would speak in Dubai at the launch of the report from his high-level panel on humanitarian financing, a report which would help shape the discussion at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May this year. On Sunday 17 January the Secretary-General would travel from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, and would take part in the World Future Energy Summit on Monday 18 January, delivering a keynote address on turning political commitments to climate change into practical action. He would also participate in the Zayed Future Energy Prize Award Ceremony.

On Tuesday 19 January the Secretary-General would be in Geneva for a short visit which would include working meetings with the heads of UN Agencies. No press opportunities were planned. On Wednesday 20 January the Secretary-General would travel to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the Annual World Economic Forum. On 22 January he would be in Zurich, where he was expected to deliver a keynote address on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the Annual Conference on Swiss Development Cooperation.

Syria

Following his speech to the General Assembly on Thursday 14 January about his 2016 priorities, the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made remarks to the press about the situation in Madaya found by United Nations humanitarian teams who accessed the besieged Syrian town this week, and said “Let me be clear the use of starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime. All sides are committing atrocious acts in Syria prohibited under international law”.

In response to a journalist who asked if the United Nations was bargaining with war criminals in order to get humanitarian access to besieged towns in Syria, Mr. Fawzi quoted the late High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello, who once said “We do not choose our interlocutors”. We might speak to anyone who has the power and the authority to make a deal that will bring peace and justice in a conflict. The journalist’s implication was rejected. The UN existed precisely to speak on the behalf of those who were voiceless and vulnerable, he emphasized.

Another journalist asked about reports that United States Secretary of State John Kerry would be in Geneva this weekend for a meeting on Iran with the Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs. Mr. Fawzi responded that he had no details he could share at this stage.

Asked about the activities of the United Nations Special Envoy on Syria, Mr. Fawzi said yesterday, Thursday 14 January, Mr. de Mistura was in Brussels where he met with Riad Hijab and Ms. Mogherini. Plans were going ahead for the Intra-Syrian Talks to begin on 25 January. It was likely there would be more information next week.


Geneva Activities

The next session of the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR) would start at the Palais des Nations on Monday 18 January. The twenty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group will be held in Geneva from 18 to 29 January during which the next group of 14 States are scheduled to have their human rights records examined under this mechanism. The group of States to be reviewed by the Universal Periodic Review Working Group during this session are (in order of scheduled review): Namibia, Niger, Mozambique, Estonia, Paraguay, Belgium, Denmark, Palau, Somalia, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Latvia, Sierra Leone and Singapore. The meeting will take place in Room 20 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. A background press release was issued on Friday.

The next session of the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR) would start at the Palais des Nations on Monday 18 January. The twenty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group will be held in Geneva from 18 to 29 January during which the next group of 14 States are scheduled to have their human rights records examined under this mechanism. The group of States to be reviewed by the Universal Periodic Review Working Group during this session are (in order of scheduled review): Namibia, Niger, Mozambique, Estonia, Paraguay, Belgium, Denmark, Palau, Somalia, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Latvia, Sierra Leone and Singapore. The meeting will take place in Room 20 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. A background press release was issued on Friday.

The Conference on Disarmament would begin its 2016 session on Monday 25 January, with the first public meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. on Tuesday 26 January in the Council Chamber at the Palais des Nations.

on Tuesday 19 January the International Labour Organization (ILO) will launch their flagship report ‘World Employment and Social Outlook – Trends 2016’ at 9.30 am in Room III. ILO Director-General Guy Ryder and the Director of the ILO Research Department Raymond Torres would be speaking. Mr. von Rohland noted that the report was under embargo until Tuesday, 19 January 2016, at 9 p.m. GMT (10 p.m. Geneva time)

UNDP Administrator Helen Clark would be in Geneva on Monday 18 January to present the UNDP Human Development Report with UNOG Director-General Michael Møller and ILO Director-General Guy Ryder, and the participation of UNCTAD. The event would take place from 3 to 4 p.m. in Room XII of the Palais des Nations and would include a discussion on the challenges of work and how to seize the opportunities of the ‘world of work’ to advance sustainable development. For more information see www.hdr.undp.org.

Jessica Hermosa, of the World Trade Organization (WTO) outlined the WTO agenda for the coming week. On Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 January Director-General Roberto Azevêdo would visit Jamaica to meet with senior Government representatives and give an address at the University of the West Indies. In Geneva, on Tuesday 19 January the Trade Policy Review of Georgia would take place at 10 a.m. On Wednesday 20 January Director-General Azevêdo would continue his regional tour, visiting Barbados to meet with senior Government representatives. In Geneva the Trade Policy Review of Georgia would continue at 10 a.m. on Thursday 21 January. On Friday 22 and Saturday 23 January Director-General Azevêdo would be in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, which would include an Informal WTO Ministerial Gathering at the invitation of the Swiss Confederation hosted by the President of the Swiss Confederation, Johann N. Schneider-Ammann. On Friday in Geneva, the Committee on Trade and Development Session on Aid for Trade would hold an informal meeting from 10 a.m.

Finally, Mr. Fawzi gave a heads up that on 11 February 2016 a TEDx event – TEDx Place des Nations – would take place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, in the iconic Alliance of Civilizations and Human Rights Room, from 3 to 7 p.m. Ticket registration opens on Monday 18 January. Information can be found here: http://tedxplacedesnations.ch.

Humanitarian aid to Syria

Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said UNICEF could confirm that cases of severe malnutrition were found among children in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya following its participation in the second joint UN/Syrian Arab Red Crescent/ICRC humanitarian mission to the area on Thursday. A statement issued by Hanaa Singer, UNICEF Representative in Syria, said the people the team met in Madaya were exhausted and extremely frail. The UNICEF team that went to Madaya was particularly saddened and shocked to have witnessed the death of Ali, a severely malnourished 16-year-old boy who passed away in front of their eyes, in the town’s clinic.

At the make-shift hospital UNICEF visited in Madaya, there were only two doctors and two health professionals working under overwhelming conditions. Doctors were emotionally distressed and mentally drained, working around the clock with very limited resources to provide treatment to children and people in need. The UNICEF team and staff of the World Health Organization were able to screen 25 children under five for malnutrition. Twenty-two of the children showed signs of moderate to severe malnutrition. All of those children were now receiving treatment at the health facility using specialized medical and nutrition supplies that the UN and ICRC delivered on Monday. The team screened another 10 children aged from six to 18 years. Six of them showed signs of severe malnutrition. A 17-year-old boy was in a life-threatening condition and desperately needed immediate medical evacuation. A pregnant woman in her ninth month with obstructed labour was also in urgent need of evacuation.

While the findings of the mission were by no means a representative sample and UNICEF could not yet draw conclusions from it about the overall nutrition situation, it provided a real-time reflection of the situation on the ground in Madaya. The UN teams together with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) planned to continue the nutrition assessment on Sunday for further follow up. UNICEF and WHO teams were also working with health staff to establish a stabilization centre and outpatient therapeutic services for the treatment of malnutrition in Madaya.

Let us not forget that across Syria, there were 14 other “Madayas” said Mr. Boulierac. They were locations where different parties to the conflict were using siege as a tactic of war, depriving children and innocent civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies and services. On Thursday 14 January, UNICEF as part of a UN, SARC, ICRC joint convoy, was able to send ten trucks with a similar range of supplies to two other besieged areas, Foah and Kafraya benefitting the estimated 6,000 children trapped in the area.

UNICEF reiterated its previous call on all parties to the conflict to lift the siege on communities in Syria and provide unimpeded, unconditional and sustained humanitarian access to allow teams to conduct assessments of health, nutrition and other humanitarian needs, the provision of on-site medical and nutritional therapeutic care and to proceed to the immediate medical evacuation of women and children who were in critical conditions.

Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organisation (WHO) said World Health Organization and UNICEF nutritionists conducted a malnutrition assessment, and the Syrian Arab Red Cross (SARC) conducted medical examinations on more than 350 people. The reports from those would be available soon but already it was clear that medical treatment and further assessments would be required.

WHO’s call for mobile clinics for Madaya has received agreement and the first clinic went to Madaya this morning (Friday 15 January), operated by a SARC medical team. WHO also had an agreement to have a vaccination campaign in Madaya and hoped to set up vaccination facilities by next week, if all the organizational requirements were met.

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), responding to questions about a pending agreement to allow aid convoys into Zabadani, told the press that the negotiations were still under discussion and no date had been confirmed yet. More convoys were also being planned for Madaya, Foah and Kafraya and it was hoped they would be able to depart next week.

Bettina Luescher, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said WFP’s contribution to the inter-agency convoy included wheat flour for 39,000 people which would last a month and wheat flour for 20,000 people in the towns of Foah and Kafraya. It took many hours of negotiations until the convoys were allowed into Madaya, at around 7 p.m. last night, said Ms. Luescher. The WFP team spoke with different people in the town including women and children, and heard that the first rations had been distributed according to the number of family members, and that people had eaten a meal yesterday. The wheat flour was initially not allowed in, under around 10 p.m. last night. People were approaching the teams on the street asking for food and the wheat flour.

The nutritional situation was very bad. The adults looked very emaciated. A report received from the Relief Committee, local community representatives in the village of Madaya, said 32 people had died of starvation in the last 30 day period. WFP was bringing in other food supplies in particular for small children suffering from severe cases of malnutrition. Other supplies on the convoy in addition to wheat flour included washing powder, soap, water purification tablets, diarrhoea and disease sets, midwifery sets and blankets. WFP was appealing for regular access, to really help people it needed continuous access - once a month was not enough.

Responding to a question about who gave WHO permission to provide mobile clinics, Mr. Jasarevic said that permission was received from the Government, and that the convoys were on their way, but had not yet arrived within the city perimeter. The purpose of the mobile clinics was to assess the situation and see what was needed, then return. They would not be staffed by WHO.

Asked for a precise number of how many people had starved to death in Madaya during the siege, Mr. Jasarevic stated that WHO had not undertaken such an assessment. Bettina Luescher for the World Food Programme (WFP) reiterated the Relief Committee figure that 32 people had died from starvation since the beginning of the siege. On how many people had been medically evacuated from Madaya since the first convoy went in four days ago, Mr. Jasarevic said his only information was that around 10 people were evacuated on 12 January. No evacuations had occurred since then.

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), responded to a question about whether what was happening in Madaya was a war crime or a crime against humanity. Mr. Colville said both the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner had referred to deliberately starving civilians as a war crime under international law. It could also be a crime against humanity but the threshold for proof was different. They were both very serious crimes. The key matter was whether there was intent to starve, and that was not always so easy to prove.

Burundi

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR),
said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein had just issued a statement warning that deeply worrying new trends were emerging in Burundi, including cases of sexual violence by security forces and a sharp increase in enforced disappearances and torture cases. He also called for an urgent investigation into the events that took place in Bujumbura on 11 and 12 December, including the reported existence of at least nine mass graves.

“All the alarm signals, including the increasing ethnic dimension of the crisis, are flashing red”, the High Commissioner said in his statement.

The attacks on three military camps on 11 December and the large-scale human rights violations that occurred in their immediate aftermath appeared to have triggered new and extremely disturbing patterns of violations, said Mr. Colville. OHCHR had, for example, documented 13 cases of sexual violence against women, which began during the search and arrest operations that took place after the December events in neighbourhoods perceived as supportive of the opposition. The pattern was similar in all cases: security forces allegedly entered the victims’ houses, separated the women from their families, and raped them – in some cases gang-raped them.

OHCHR had also received numerous allegations that during the initial search operations on 11 and 12 December in five neighbourhoods of Bujumbura, police and army forces arrested considerable numbers of young men, many of whom were later tortured, killed or taken to unknown destinations. Members of the Imbonerakure militia reportedly took part in these operations. Despite the allegations of large-scale arrests, only a small proportion of them appeared to be in official places of detention, which was extremely alarming, given the increasing number of extra-judicial enforced disappearances, coupled with allegations of secret detention facilities and mass graves.

Witnesses had reported the existence of at least nine mass graves in Bujumbura and its surroundings – including one in a military camp – containing more than 100 bodies in total, all of them allegedly killed on 11 December 2015. OHCHR had also received reports that members of the Imbonerakure forced people to dig the graves, either under threat of being killed themselves or with the promise that they would be paid. It was also alleged that some of these grave-diggers were in fact subsequently executed.

According to information gathered from inhabitants of various neighbourhoods, some of the victims of human rights violations during the search operations that followed the 11 December events were targeted because they were Tutsis. The suggestion that an ethnic dimension was now starting to emerge was reinforced by one of the sexually abused women who said that her abuser told her she was paying the price for being a Tutsi. Another witness claimed that Tutsis were systematically killed, while Hutus were spared. In the Muramvya neighbourhood, according to several different witnesses, the decision to arrest people was also reportedly largely made on an ethnic basis, with most of the Hutus being released.

The Ministry of Justice recently requested the General Prosecutor of Bujumbura Mairie to investigate the allegations of mass graves, and OHCHR welcomed that, said Mr. Colville. However, the High Commissioner was also calling for an independent, thorough, credible and impartial investigation, and stressed that the alleged grave sites needed to be safeguarded. Family members of people who had been arrested, forcibly disappeared or extrajudicially executed must also be informed of the whereabouts of their loved ones, or their remains.

OHCHR was also seriously concerned about the reported increase in the use of torture and ill-treatment. The number of people killed rose to at least 130 in December, double the number recorded in November, and since 26 April 2015 a total of at least 439 people had been killed. OHCHR was deeply concerned by the rampant impunity for all the human rights violations being committed by security forces and the Imbonerakure, despite ample evidence that they were responsible for more and more serious crimes. The High Commissioner feared that it was an indication that a complete breakdown in law and order was just around the corner. With armed opposition groups also becoming more active -- and the potentially lethal ethnic dimension starting to rear its head – it would inevitably end in disaster if the current rapidly deteriorating trajectory was maintained, said Mr. Colville. The High Commissioner’s statement is available here.

Scott Campbell, head of the OHCHR Africa Section, responded to questions from journalists. Asked whether Burundi was in “an unstoppable downward spiral toward civil war”, Mr. Campbell said no, it was not at all unstoppable. The High Commissioner along with other senior officials from the UN and the African Union had been insisting on a political dialogue to avoid further deterioration. It was clearly not unstoppable. Dialogue was essential. The Government had to give clear instructions to cease attacks on civilians. At the same time the armed groups carrying out violent attacks on the police and State agents had to cease their acts. Political space, freedom of information and access to information within Burundi also needed to be opened up to stop the deterioration of the situation. For instance there was no independent radio currently in Burundi and many civil society and human rights leaders had either fled or gone into hiding. Those concrete measures would prevent any further deterioration, said Mr. Campbell.

Asked about the efforts of the African Union to resolve the situation he said the African Union had made many of the same calls, and the question of Burundi would be on the agenda at the African Union Summit in two weeks’ time and OHCHR hoped the need to have an inclusive political dialogue in Burundi would be addressed at the same time.

Responding to another question, Mr. Campbell confirmed that the United Nations Security Council would visit Burundi on 21 and 22 January. Their key messages would include a call for dialogue and a call for an end to impunity. OHCHR had briefed the participating Member States and stressed the same points made in the High Commissioner’s statement today.

Answering questions about whether the Burundi conflict was taking on a regional dimension, Mr. Campbell said the regional implications were seriously concerning as flagged by the High Commissioner. There was an overlap of ethnic communities and troop movements across borders, not only between Burundi and Rwanda, but also overlapping into Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. It was certain that what was happening in Burundi was impacting on events in Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere in the Great Lakes region.

New Ebola Case

Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organisation (WHO), responding to a question, said a new case of Ebola has been confirmed in Sierra Leone, reflecting the ongoing risk of new flare-ups of the virus in affected countries. The new case was a woman who had died on 12 January. The case underscored what the WHO had been saying about outbreak risk, as it moved from case management to risk management. The next 42 days would be crucial as flare-ups were expected. WHO would remain in the region and ready to respond. Answering a follow-up question Mr. Jasarevic said WHO was still investigating whether the case was a sustained transmission or an isolated cases. More information could be found in the WHO statement.

People fleeing Mozambique

Karinde Gruijl, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said the number of people fleeing Mozambique and seeking asylum in Malawi had increased significantly over the last few weeks. In the village of Kapise, Mwanza district some 100 kilometres south of the country’s capital Lilongwe, UNHCR registration teams had recorded the arrival of 1,297 people, two thirds of them women and children, with over 900 people awaiting registration. Another 400 new arrivals have been reported in 16 villages located further south in the district of Chikwawa.

The Mozambicans said they fled fighting between the opposition RENAMO and government forces. Refugee women told a UNHCR protection officer how their homes were burned down with one grandmother left inside to die. They said Government forces were attacking villages believed to be harbouring opposition members. UNHCR had not been able to confirm the accuracy of these allegations.

UNHCR was working with the Government to coordinate the response to assist the newly arrived refugees. The World Food Programme was providing food and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) was already on the ground with a mobile clinic. Malaria was a major concern and the number of patients seen daily had increased from 70 to 250. The Government of Malawi was considering reopening Luwani refugee camp, which previously hosted refugees from Mozambique during the civil war from 1977 to 1992 when over a million Mozambican refugees fled to neighbouring Malawi.

More information could be found in the briefing note.

Yemen

Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said last week the High Commissioner issued a statement after he learned that his Representative in Yemen was apparently no longer welcome in the country. The Government of Yemen had subsequently revised its position, and the Representative would now be continuing as before. OHCHR warmly welcomed the decision by the Government, as well as their commitment to continue to cooperate fully with the United Nations.