REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Alessandra Vellucci, Director, United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons of the Human Rights Council, the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the World Trade Organization.

Iraq
Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), introduced Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, speaking by phone from Iraq. Dr Alwan had been visiting displaced people from Fallujah over the past few days. He said that more than 40,000 people had been displaced in Amiriyat Fallujah, from the outskirts of Fallujah city. The WHO team had visited almost all the camps housing the thousands of families who had left Fallujah during the recent events. Some of the camps were housing people who had fled from Ramadi, following the military operations there. Most of the IDPs in the camps had left Fallujah in recent days. Fallujah had not been accessible to any humanitarian actors in more than a year, which was extremely worrisome. There were still an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people inside the city. Some of them were beginning to leave today, and there was a flow of different people reaching parts of the region.

IDPs with whom Dr Alwan had met on 16 June had confirmed that people inside the city were lacking food, water, basic health services, and there was no precise information on the quality of whatever water that was available. Examinations of IDPs at the mobile clinics and health centres in the camps had shown that diarrheal diseases and skin diseases were extremely common and severe. Many people were dehydrated.

Mothers had told the WHO team that their children had not been vaccinated for the past two years, which was of great concern, as those children were at risk of outbreaks of preventable diseases, such as polio. The team had seen one- to three-year-olds who had never been vaccinated. WHO had started immediately preparing for a massive vaccination campaign against polio and measles to all displaced children from zero to 15 years of age.

A major concern was the spread of diseases due to overcrowding and an inadequate hygiene situation, with a lack of sufficient sanitation. Water was now available in the camps and WHO was trying to monitor the quality of water. The lack of electricity in many places was another complicated issue being discussed with the Government. WHO was working closely with UNICEF on the water and sanitation issues in the camps.

The demand for healthcare was also huge. People had been seen queueing for consultations at the WHO mobile clinics serving the different camps. People had also been queueing at the health centres. WHO was able to meet most of the urgent demands and was scaling up in terms of the availability of basic health care, increasing the number of mobile clinics and of new health centres to anticipate the needs of the newcomers in this area.

It was estimated that in the new camps there were at least 500 people who had been seen by the mobile clinics deployed to the Anbar Governorate. Most of the consultations had been related to chest infections, upper respiratory infections, diarrhoea, skin diseases and chronic diseases. Prevalence of diabetes and hypertension was high in the population. Many people had not had regular treatment for their chronic conditions. The people in the camps were also in need of urgent psychosocial support as soon as possible. WHO was acting immediately on this. Some people said that they had left behind other members of their families. Psychosocial disorders were extremely common.

In conclusion, Dr Alwan said that Iraq had never witnessed such an aggravated humanitarian and health situation. The number of IDPs was very high and more were to be anticipated. WHO was working across very scarce resources, having to take away funding from other priority programmes to respond to some of the life-saving needs. Urgent support was needed. More needed to be done to provide essential and urgent health services, to prevent disease outbreaks, and to improve the availability of water and sanitation services of acceptable standards. Rehabilitating the devastated health system in the area was another challenge.

Dr Alwan expressed WHO’s great disappointment in regards to the response from donors to the appeal for funding. Out of the USD 28 million requested, only 25 per cent had been received. The needs had surpassed what had been planned for and resources were extremely scarce. The health sector was one of the least funded sectors, and funds were needed to protect the dignity of people. Dr Alwan also expressed his appreciation for the job being done by Iraqi officials with very scarce resources. WHO had been working very closely with the local health authorities, and had been accompanied by the Director-General of the Anbar Province and all the staff there. WHO had also been working with the mayors of the various towns affected.

In response to questions, Dr Alwan said that in the camps WHO was providing routine immunization services, but had also decided that a regular, comprehensive campaign was needed covering the age group from zero to 15 years of age to reduce the possibility of disease outbreaks. WHO wanted to cover all the IDPs, all the children in the camps in existence today and those where the newcomers from Fallujah would go. The current camps in Amiriyat Fallujah were almost completely full now and newcomers were being directed to new camps in two different regions: Khalidiya and the Habbaniyah Tourist City. The immunization campaign would cover all those places.

Dr Alwan also said that the estimated total number of IDPs in the different camps was around 70,000, and it did not include those who would still come out of Fallujah. There was no precise estimation of the number of children as of yet, but it would be over 50 per cent of the population.

In response to other questions, Dr Alwan said that there were already more than 3 million IDPs in different parts of Iraq, and for Mosul, the estimates ran up to as many as 2 million possible additional IDPs. These estimates corresponded to the worst case scenario, with a much wider scale of displacement in Anbar due to the Mosul military operations. WHO was working intensively within the UN system on the preparations for Mosul, but Dr Alwan was extremely concerned about the funding situation. The numbers of people being dealt with in Fallujah right now were much smaller and there was already a major funding issue. Regional funds from other priority programmes had to be taken away to cover some of the urgent needs. Quick solutions needed to be found to increase preparedness. He also said that the issue of psychosocial support was key. WHO specialists were conducting an assessment on the exact needs and a larger team would be deployed as soon as possible, hopefully within the next few days. There would be a huge training operation for local health workers to be able to provide psychosocial services, and there were not enough physicians.

In response to a question about psychosocial support for the Yazidi minority in Iraq, Dr Alwan said that WHO had been doing a lot of work on that over the past year and had had a number of specialists working with the local health authorities in the north to provide support to those families. He would ask Dr Khalid Saeed to get in touch with members of the media to provide more information on that.

In response to a final question, Dr Alwan said that the health system in the region was devastated. WHO had had discussions on that with the mayor of Ramadi and also within the UN system. The destruction affecting the health care system was huge. Ramadi hospital , the main secondary and tertiary health facility was totally devastated and not operational at all. There were plans within the UN system, such as the stabilization programme implemented with the Government through UNDP, to start rehabilitating some of the key healthcare centres. WHO had successful experience in building a number of health centres within a very short timeframe, three to four weeks, providing most of the essential health care services. Many more of those centres needed to be created in Khalidiya, Habbaniyah Tourist City and Amiriyat Fallujah. The main challenge would be to rehabilitate the secondary and tertiary health care centres inside Fallujah, where there was no assessment as there was no access. As soon as there would be access to Fallujah, an assessment could be made of what could be done in terms of quick fixes and medium-term solutions.

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that a new IOM report from Fallujah was also available online.

Zika
Mr. Jasarevic said that the WHO would be publishing today the Zika strategic response plan for the next year and a half. A media note would be sent shortly and the plan would be available online. It would outline the work that WHO and partners would lead to support national Governments and communities in their response to Zika. As of today, 60 countries had reported transmission of the Zika virus. More than 60 partners were involved in the global response to Zika, up from 23 in February 2016. The strategy would place a greater focus on preventing and managing medical complications caused by Zika virus infection, by providing counselling and treatment to pregnant women, partners, households of infected people, and working with communities. The amount needed to implement the plan was USD 121.9 million. Some 14 out of 60 partners had already contributed with the amount that had been requested of them. There had been a previous plan in February, but at the time there had not been as much knowledge about Zika as there was now. The link between Zika and neurological disorders had not yet been established then. Knowing now that Zika could have long-term consequences, it was necessary to work with countries to have enough capacities to counsel couples before the pregnancy, to monitor and follow pregnancies, and to provide medical support if needed to babies.

In response to questions, Mr. Jasarevic said that the amount of USD 121.9 million was necessary for the current plan for the period running from July 2016 to December 2017.
For the previous period, WHO had received as of 9 June just over USD 4 million, which had represented less than 20 per cent of the amount that had been requested for the first plan, going until June. The new response plan was asking for more resources. In May, the United Nations Secretary-General had established a UN Zika response multi-partner trust fund, to generate and ensure the effective use of the resources necessary to implement this revised Zika strategic response plan.

In response to another question, Mr. Jasarevic said that the plan was divided into five main areas of work:
- Detection: to develop and strengthen surveillance systems at all levels, to be able to detect disease and complications, and to provide up to date epidemiological information to guide the response
- Prevention: integrated vector management, risk communication and community engagement
- Care and support: to strengthen health and social systems and other relevant stakeholders at a national and community level to provide appropriate services and support to individuals, families and communities affected by Zika
- Research: to generate data and evidence needed to strengthen public health and community guidance, as well as to fast-track and scale up research, development and availability of vector control tools, diagnostic tests and vaccines
- Coordination: to ensure that there would be an adequate, transparent coordination mechanism for the response to Zika.

The response at the national level would be mainly funded by Governments themselves. The USD 121.9 million would be basically for the work of 14 partners, mainly UN agencies including WHO, and other partners like Institut Pasteur.

Yellow fever vaccination
Mr. Jasarevic also announced an upcoming press release on the outcome of an extraordinary meeting of the WHO strategic advisory group of experts on immunization. The meeting looked at the issue of fractioning of doses of the yellow fever vaccine. With the current outbreaks in Angola and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as in Uganda, there was pressure on the stockpile of yellow fever vaccines. So far, WHO had sent around 18 million vaccine doses to those three countries.

The yellow fever vaccine given at one-fifth of the regular dose could be used to control an outbreak in case of a shortage of regular dose vaccines. This would not be used in routine immunization for children, but in mass immunization campaigns.

In response to questions, Mr. Jasarevic said that according to the experts, one-fifth of the standard dose would provide protection against disease for at least 12 months. He also said that one vial contained ten doses of 0.5 millilitres. There was a need for enough smaller syringes to take 50 doses from one vial instead of ten.

Syria
In response to questions, Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that the convoy to Al-Waer had been completed late in the night of 16-17 June, and the team had returned safely to their base. The convoy had brought humanitarian assistance for some 37,500 residents in Al-Waer, which had an estimated 75,000 inhabitants. It had carried food, health supplies, education and other emergency supplies. A second convoy was being planned in the coming days, pending Government approval, to complete deliveries for the entire population of Al-Waer.

The convoy to Afrin, which had carried assistance for some 50,000 beneficiaries, had also been completed.

The third convoy that had been mentioned would have been to Kafr-Batna and had not gone through due to last-minute logistical complications, but the hope was that it would proceed in the coming days.

Mr. Jasarevic said that on 16 June there had been no reported removals of medical supplies. In the past week, there had been some removals. Insulin had been brought in the 16 June convoy to Al-Waer, and emergency health kits, burn kits, NCD medicines and dialysis materials had been brought to Afrin.

Mr. Laerke said that the food leg of the convoy to Daraya on 9 June had carried food for some 2,400 people, which had been a partial delivery. Parcels for one month had been delivered. The UN was seeking permission to go back, and approval to go to all besieged locations in Syria.

Migrant deaths in the Sahara
Joel Millman said that 34 people had been found dead of dehydration in the Sahara desert earlier this week. IOM had not been involved in the discovery or the repatriation of the remains. IOM’s Missing Migrants Project had produced some data which included 471 deaths on the African continent in 2016. Mr. Millman underlined that those figures were well undercounted, and were believed to represent a fraction of the actual number of land deaths. In 2016, 85 people had died trying to reach the Canary Islands. In addition, 20 Somali migrants had been found suffocated in a truck in Zambia a couple of days ago. The number of deaths since the beginning of January 2015 was 678. Giving more details on the causes of deaths, Mr. Millman explained that migrants were exposed to terrible exploitation and sex trafficking, and that children were forced into begging in some African cities.

In response to questions, Mr. Millman said that 257 deaths had been recorded by IOM in Sudan and Libya through the first six months of 2016. “Excessive sexual attacks”, a term used by officials in those countries, had been responsible for dozens of deaths. Hundreds of women from Nigeria had been forced into prostitution in Libya. Dozens of deaths were linked to sexual abuse of migrants on that route. Deaths were also due to smugglers misleading people about the distance left to the border and vehicles running out of gas, stranded in the desert, with people dying of dehydration. Mr. Millman also said that according to IOM Chief of mission in Niger, Giuseppe Loprete, the route on which migrants had been found dead this week was typical of a route that would bring them from small villages on Niger’s border with Nigeria, to work in Algeria. Mixed groups of men, women and children from those villages tended to be bound for Algiers and Oran, and would work there for years, some forced into sex commerce, young children forced into begging in the streets, and others exploited in construction jobs or in farming.

In response to other questions, Mr. Millman said that the activity of the Nigerian women coerced into prostitution tended to be focused on Edo State in southern Nigeria and there was not a strong link to Boko Haram violence there. However, the villages close to the Nigerian border might be impacted by the disruption of internal migrants, displaced people or violence. The link between Sub-Saharan African and North African coastal cities for labour was thousands of years old. There was growing evidence of a refugee - political distress type of component, but it was a very old migrant route and it continued in modern times.

Mr. Millman also said that the long-term demographic shift, was part of a marriage between job-rich aging societies of the North and job-hungry youthful societies of the South, that needed to be managed effectively. He said that IOM’s mandate consisted of serving migrants where they could and persuade people to take a more holistic long-term view. He said he would not comment on Médecins Sans Frontières’ decision about funding from the European Union and that he had no information regarding IOM’s involvement in UN meetings on contingency planning for an offensive on Mosul.

In response to a question on whether migrants and refugees on the Greek islands were getting the assistance and protection that they needed, Mr. Millman said that 2,500 deaths in 2016 on the Mediterranean spoke to the contrary. IOM and its Member States were concerned about this situation and were doing everything they could.

Human Rights Council
Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council, updated the press on the Council’s activities. The Council had just concluded its interactive discussion with the Working group on human rights in transnational corporations and other business enterprises, and on the report of the Special rapporteur on the freedom of expression, David Kaye. The Working group on transnational corporations would brief the press in Press Room 1 at 1.30 p.m. today on their annual report to the Council on State-owned enterprises. The Council was currently engaged in a discussion with the Special rapporteur on the right to education, Kishore Singh, whose report touched upon challenges to the right to education in the digital age, as well as his on his mission to Fiji. The Council would also speak with the Special rapporteur on the rights to peaceful assembly and association, Maina Kiai, whose report was focusing on the impact of fundamentalism on the exercise of that right. He was also presenting reports on Chile and the Republic of Korea.

Today at approximately 2.30 – 3 p.m. the Council would hear from the Special rapporteur on violence against women, Dubravka Simonovic, whose report focused on her activities over the year, as well as her recent missions to Georgia, South Africa and Sudan; and then from the Working group on the discriminations against women in law and in practice, addressing the issue of discrimination against women with regards to health and safety. The report of the working group would also touch upon their missions to Senegal and to the United States.

On 20 June the Council would hear from other experts on thematic issues, including on internally displaced persons, summary executions, as well as a statement from the Deputy High Commissioner of a host of thematic human rights issues.

On 21 June, the Council would hear from the Commissions of Inquiry on Syria and on Eritrea. The Commission of Inquiry on Syria had presented their report on ISIS crimes against Yazidis on 16 June. It would present that report to the Council as well as an oral update on recent developments in the overall human rights situation in the country. Detailed information was available in the Bulletin.

Ms. Vellucci said that members of the press could enter through the side door on the busiest days of the Council, on 21 and 22 June, when there would be a security check at the main entrance.

Mr. Millman also announced an event organized on 17 June to address migrants’ health and access to HIV/AIDS and TB services in Eastern Europe and in Central Asia.

Geneva activities
The Conference on Disarmament would hold its next public plenary on 21 June.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, whose 58th session would end on 24 June, would hold only one public meeting next week – on 23 June in the afternoon – devoted to a joint meeting with the Human Rights Committee to celebrate the 50th anniversary of both Covenants (the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights).

At the end of its session, the Committee would issue its concluding observations on the reports of the seven countries reviewed during this session, i.e France, Sweden, Honduras, Burkina Faso, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Angola and United Kingdom.

The Human Rights Committee would open on 20 June, at 10 a.m., at the Palais Wilson, its one hundred and seventeenth session, during which – until 15 July – it would review the reports of Denmark, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Ghana, Ecuador, Burkina Faso and Argentina on how they had been implementing the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Press conferences and other announcements
Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that the World Investment Report 2016 would be presented at a press conference on 17 June at noon in Press Room 1. The speakers would be the main author of the report, James Khan, Director, Division on Investment and Enterprise, UNCTAD and the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Mukhisa Kituyi.

Ms. Vellucci announced a press conference today, 17 June at 1.30 p.m. in Press Room 1 by the Working Group on Human Rights and Business. The Chair of the Working Group, Dante Pesce, would talk about the Working Group’s annual report to the Human Rights Council, on State-owned enterprises, as well as about the report of the group’s mission to Brazil (A/HRC/32/45).

Adam Rogers, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said that as part of an advocacy initiative in the context of the Paris Agreement, attempting to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, the European Electric Vehicle Rally would be arriving at the Place des Nations, in Geneva at 5 p.m. today, 17 June. After a 13,000 km trip that had started in Bremerhaven in Germany, the 100 electric cars would form the symbol “1.5”. Three photographers would take pictures from the top of the WIPO building. Speakers at the event would include Louis Palmer, founder and organizer of the World Advanced Vehicle Expedition (WAVE), Maria Luisa Silva, Director, UNDP Office in Geneva, H. E. Ms Elayne Whyte Gómez, Ambassador Permanent Representative of the Republic of Costa Rica, Philippe Ramet, Environment Councillor of the Permanent Mission of France, and Nick Beglinger, CEO of Cleantech21 Foundation.

Jessica Hermosa, for the World Trade Organization (WTO), announced that on the morning of 21 June, the WTO would be releasing the bi-annual monitoring report on the G20’s trade restrictions. That exercise had started in 2009 to keep an eye on trade during the global recession. In the previous report released in November 2015, it had been found that even the stockpile of trade barriers had been growing.

The dispute settlement body would be meeting next week and formally adopting a ruling that Colombia had been wrong in imposing measures on textile imports against Panama as an anti-money laundering strategy. There would also be requests to initiate processes on disputes affecting poultry, tuna labelling, glossy paper and pneumatic valves. The full agenda was available online.

A meeting would also take place next week to discuss Ecuador’s plans on import surcharges. Ecuador had been meant to lift those surcharges in June 2016 but had requested an extension till June 2017, due to the need to protect the country’s balance of payments in view of the reconstruction necessary after the devastating earthquake.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo would be addressing a seminar on helping micro, small and medium enterprises reach global markets, and would be meeting with trade ministers of landlocked developing countries. He would also be visiting Copenhagen for a trade policy conference there.

Ms. Vellucci announced that today was the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. She also said that on 19 June will be the first time that the international community would commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. More information was available at: www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog170616