REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE
Ahmad Fawzi, Director, a.i., United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons of the World Health Organization, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Geneva activities
Committees
The Conference on Disarmament was holding a public plenary in the morning of 24 May, starting at 10 a.m. Until 29 May, the Conference would be under the presidency of Ambassador Tehmina Janjua of Pakistan. For this 2016 session, the CD presidency would then successively be assumed by Peru, Poland and Republic of Korea. The second part of its 2016 session would last until 1 July. Then, the third and last part of the session would take place from 2 August to 16 September.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child would end this morning its review (begun on 23 May in the afternoon) of the report of the United Kingdom and would begin in the afternoon the review of the report of Slovakia. Over the course of the week, the Committee would review Pakistan and Gabon, and the following week it would review Bulgaria and Luxembourg.
Press conferences and other announcements
Fadela Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), announced some highlights of the day at the 69th World Health Assembly. At noon on 24 May, in the Assembly Hall, Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, would deliver the keynote speech at the plenary. The first technical briefing of the WHA would take place on 24 May at 12.30 p.m. in Room XII on the topic “Health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and sectorial action”. The panellists would be the Minister of Health of China, the Vice-Minister of Health of Chile, a civil society representative from India, the Minister of Public Health of Thailand, and the Ambassador for Global Health from Sweden. The discussion would be moderated by The Lancet’s Editor-in-Chief, Richard Horton. The briefing would be open to the media.
A ceremony to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the passing of former WHO Director-General Dr Lee Jong-wook would take place in Hall XIV, chaired by Dr Ian Smith, WHO Executive Director, Office of the Director-General. All detailed information was available in the Journal.
Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) spoke about the programme of UNCTAD 14, the fourteenth session of the Conference, to take place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 17-22 July. She said that the conference was meant to bring together not just the representatives of UN Member States but also private sector decision-makers, academics specialized in the development economy, and civil society representatives. The implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals would be at the centre of the discussions, as well as the commitments made at COP21 and at the Conference on Development Financing. Among the topics to be broached would be the crisis of the global multilateral trade system and replacement mechanisms such as regional cooperation, especially South-South cooperation. Negotiations were underway between the Member States to re-examine UNCTAD’s mandate and adapt it to the new conditions of the global economy. Those negotiations would finish in Geneva at the end of May and would continue in Nairobi. A final document would serve as the work plan for the UNCTAD Secretariat for the next four years. Media accreditation for UNCTAD 14 was open online, and a press conference would be organized in June to provide more detail on the conference.
Mr. Fawzi announced a press conference at 1 p.m. by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Press Room 1, on the humanitarian response plan for Zìmbabwe for 2016. The speaker would be Bishow Parajuli, UN Resident Coordinator for Zimbabwe.
Mr. Fawzi also announced a press conference of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on 24 May at 2 p.m. in Room III. The topic would be: “Challenged by war, violence and dispossession, UNRWA managed to upkeep high standard of basic health care for 5.2 million Palestine refugees”. The speakers would be Dr. Akihiro Seita, Director of UNRWA’s Health Department, and Dr. Umaiyeh Khammash, Chief Field Health Programme of West Bank.
Emergency Medical Teams
Ms. Chaib introduced Dr Ian Norton, WHO Project Leader, Emergency Medical Teams. Dr Norton said that emergency medical teams were clinical response teams – field hospitals an trained experts - who could be sent to the field for disaster and outbreak response. This new project had been launched since July 2015 to quality-assure and peer-review those large global teams. Historically, teams had self-responded, particularly in Haiti, where hundreds of teams had arrived with the best intentions, but some had lacked adequate training or equipment. WHO had decided to form a working group, and after six years of work on the topic, over 67 teams had signed up to be quality-assured in a peer-review process with the WHO, matching the minimum standards and the classification system that had been set after Haiti.
The first three teams had gone through the quality assurance process, two from Russia and one from China. A total of 200 global teams were expected to be registered by the end of the process, in the next two to three years, representing over 100,000 health workers.
Dr Norton said that WHO believed that the best response was a national response, a strong ability within a country to respond to its own disasters and outbreaks helped ensure that the crisis did not spread to the next country. The teams were professionals based in their own countries, which would then be offered to their regions and their neighbours if required. In response to a question, Dr Norton said that for teams operating in conflict zones, the same ethical principles and technical standards, as well as prior quality assurance by the international community, would apply. Their coordination would be the only thing to change when they were mobilized in a conflict environment.
In response to other questions, Dr Norton said that emergency medical teams were mainly focused on patient care (direct care to individuals), which would apply for outbreaks such as Ebola or cholera. For Zika there was not such a demand for clinical teams, and public health rapid response teams were used instead, but it was a similar programme. He also said that public health response teams had deployed from the European Union and from China for the yellow fever emergency. Clinical teams were on the ground, from the Red Cross, MSF and several others. If surge capacity was required in DRC it would be requested and global teams would be asked to step forward. For the outbreak and disaster context, the teams could only be deployed following a request of the host Government, but the teams always tried to offer their help proactively in order to close the time gap.
Dr Norton also clarified that the teams asking for registration came from NGOs, large Government civil protection-type teams, and from the military. There were three major areas for compliance: principles (behaving ethically, asking for permission to do surgeries, treating all comers according to medical need…), core standards (they would all be trained, self-sufficient, would all bring the necessary medications), and technical specifications (ability to clean instruments, triage patients…).
Niger
Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCHR), said that UNHCR was seeing increasing insecurity and worsening humanitarian conditions in the region of Diffa, south-eastern Niger. According to Government figures as of mid-May, the area was hosting over 241,000 Nigerian refugees, internally displaced people from Niger, and returning Niger nationals who had been living in Nigeria. The security situation around the towns of Diffa and Bosso, to the east, had deteriorated in recent months, with a succession of criminal incidents including suicide attacks near villages and spontaneous sites where both Nigerian refugees and the internally displaced were being sheltered.
Some 157,000 people who had fled Boko’s Haram terror had settled in 135 makeshift encampments along 200 kilometres of Route Nationale 1, a major road that ran parallel to the border with Nigeria and the Komadougou river. The region had been under a state of emergency since February 2015, and living conditions there were particularly harsh. Aid agencies were struggling to bring assistance to the displaced due to the highly insecure environment, the increasing number of sites – some of them remote – and a lack of funding. Of USD 112 million required by 22 aid agencies including UNHCR, for operations in the Diffa region in 2016, only USD 20 million had been received to date.
In all, 2.7 million (2,674,421) people were displaced in the Lake Chad Basin area because of the violence linked to Boko Haram. 2.1 million were internally displaced in Nigeria. In addition, there were 241,256 displaced people in Niger, 270,210 displaced people in Cameroon, and 7,337 Nigerian refugees in Chad. More details were available in the briefing note.
Greece
In response to a question regarding the evacuation of the Idomeni refugee camp underway today, Mr. Edwards said that people were being taken from Idomeni to nearby Lagadikia. There were some 845 people already at Lagadikia. That camp had a capacity of about 4,000 and there were other sites on the Greek mainland where people could be moved if that capacity was exceeded. The question of how people were being moved from Idomeni was crucial. UNHCR opposed the use of force and in transfer of persons of concern from one place to another it was important that organized movements were voluntary, non-discriminatory, and based on well-informed choices by the individuals.
In response to another question, Mr. Edwards confirmed that UNHCR had staff on the ground. Additional staff were on their way from Athens, and had probably already arrived. As long as the movement of people was voluntary in nature and there was no use of force, UNHCR had no particular objections.
Syria
In response to questions, Mr. Edwards said that people had difficulty moving in Syria due to road blocks. There were still 6.6 million people internally displaced within the country, and Syria was still a refugee-hosting country. He also said that no clear trend change in routes on the Mediterranean had been observed as of yet. In response to another question, he said that people seeking asylum in Greece should have access to having their claims heard and assessed properly. It was essential for Greece to have the capacity to do that.
Rupert Colville, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that OHCHR condemned the series of suicide and car bombings which had taken place on 23 May in the morning in the two Syrian coastal cities of Jableh and Tartous. OHCHR had received reports of scores of people killed, with Government sources citing 78 casualties and other estimates rising as high as 145. ISIL had claimed responsibility for the attacks. Most of those killed or injured were believed to be civilians and the timing and choice of locations suggest the attacks had been deliberately intended to inflict the maximum number of civilian casualties. Those horrific incidents are the most recent in what appeared to be swiftly-escalating violence across the country in which civilians, along with structures indispensable to their survival, appear to have been specifically targeted.
While OHCHR was still investigating the circumstances, initial reports suggested those attacks had violated international humanitarian law which prohibited directing attacks against the civilian population as well as against hospitals. As a result, such attacks may well constitute war crimes. Those events yet again underlined the crucial point that the situation in Syria should be referred to the International Criminal Court.
Sri Lanka
Christophe Boulierac, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that the situation in regards to water and sanitation was a key concern in Sri Lanka’s flood emergency today. Over 300,000 people including women and children had been affected by the tropical cyclonic storm Roanu, which had caused landslides and heavy rains in 22 of the 25 districts of the country. Eighty-two people had been reported dead so far and 118 people were missing from the resulting landslides, according to the temporary assessment. Humanitarian agencies estimated that over 100,000 children were worst affected in the flood emergency.
UNICEF had responded to the threat of water-borne disease such as diarrhoea due to water contamination, by supplying 12 tons of chlorine powder and 500,000 purification tablets being distributed through Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health, to ensure safe drinking water. UNICEF had also procured water tanks and water pumps, for distribution through the National Water Supply and Drainage Board to the affected regions. Protection and education were also key in this situation. UNICEF was working closely with Sri Lanka’s national child protection authority and Education Ministry to ensure the protection and safety of all affected children.
Kenya
Mr. Colville said that OHCHR was very concerned by the increasing violence surrounding the weekly protests taking place in Kenya. On 23 May, at least three people were believed to have been killed – two reportedly shot dead by police in the town of Siaya, in the western part of Kenya, near the border with Uganda, and another person had been allegedly killed by the police in Kisumu. Numerous other people, including some members of the security forces, were reported to have been injured.
OHCHR urged the authorities to ensure these acts of violence were not repeated, and to respect the right to assemble peacefully. OHCHR also called on demonstrators to protest peacefully and not resort to violence themselves. The killings and injuries, coupled with extremely disturbing videos and photographs allegedly showing members of the security forces brutally beating and kicking protesters during the last round of protests on 16 May, raised serious questions about whether Kenya’s security services were abiding by national and international laws and standards governing legal, strictly necessary and proportionate use of force. More details on those standards were available in the briefing note.
Iraq
Mr. Colville said that OHCHR urged the Iraqi Government to immediately conduct an independent, transparent and effective investigation into the use of force by security forces against protestors outside the Green Zone in Baghdad on 20 May. Four protestors had been killed and up to 200 injured after security forces had used tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and some live ammunition against the demonstrators for close to two hours. It had been reported that up to 200 people had been subsequently arrested in connection with the protest, including a group of university students. The hundreds of protestors, including women and children, had hailed mainly from different areas of Baghdad which had suffered terrorist attacks, such as Sadr city, and had been calling on the Government to take immediate action to ensure greater accountability for those attacks and to protect their communities. Rather than placing blame on the protestors, OHCHR appealed to the Government to promptly announce an independent investigation to establish whether unnecessary or excessive force had been used and to hold accountable by law any security officers who may have acted in violation of the strict standards required concerning the use of force by law enforcement officials. Additionally, OHCHR urged the Government to ensure that the protection of civilians was paramount in its military operations to retake Fallujah. On a separate matter, OHCHR was concerned at the announcement by the Ministry of Justice that 22 people had been executed in the past month.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Mr. Colville said that a series of worrying steps had been taken by the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January 2015 to shrink the democratic space in the country ahead of the elections. Just between January and April 2016, the UN Human Rights Office had documented 216 human rights violations related to the exercise of the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, including arbitrary arrests and detention, disruption of civil society and opposition meetings, and ill-treatment of protestors. On 20 May, three civil society activists from LUCHA (Lutte pour le Changement) had been convicted on charges of inciting civil disobedience, spreading false news and breaching State security. On 21 March, the DRC Minister of Justice and Human Rights had announced that of the 22,000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country, only 63 had satisfied the necessary regulations and had legal capacity. Two opposition presidential candidates had also faced harassment. OHCHR urged the authorities to engage in a constructive dialogue with the opposition and to ensure that the rights of all Congolese to participate in the public affairs of their country were respected. OHCHR also urged the Democratic Republic of the Congo to fully abide by international norms and standards relating to the work of human rights defenders, including the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
In response to a question, Mr. Colville confirmed that one of the opposition leaders he had referred to was indeed Moïse Katumbi. In 2015, about 250 human rights violations had been recorded for the whole year, compared to 216 violations just between January and April 2016.
Mediterranean update
Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that the latest period had been the least lethal in recent months, with 1,370 deaths on the Mediterranean been recorded in 2016 so far, 25 per cent below 2015 figures for the same period. In May 2016, 13 deaths on all Mediterranean routes had been recorded, compared to 330 deaths in May 2014 and 95 in May 2015. None of the 13 deaths in May 2016 had occurred on the eastern route between Turkey and Greece. The drop in fatalities could be attributed to the extremely sharp drop in arrivals between Turkey and Greece. Concerning the central Mediterranean route, in the last 24 hours, more than 2,700 migrants had been rescued between Europe and Libya. There was much more vigilance from the Libyan coast guard vessels. These efforts were encouraging and IOM hoped that this was the start of a more sound management policy of refugees and migrants, who were dissuaded from attempting the dangerous crossing. IOM had been working to evacuate groups of Sub-Saharan Africans from Libya, one of the core groups attempting the crossing. The period of stark mortality seen in 2015 may have run its course.
In response to a question, Mr. Millman said that latest area that IOM was looking at was southern Libya, where they were augmenting the work they had been doing with Agadez, Niger, to deal with the continuous transit of Sub-Saharans up towards the coast. Most of the sea-borne migrants were leaving from the Tripoli and Zuwarah areas, where ISIL was not particularly active.
The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog240516