REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief, Press and External Relations Section, United Nations Information Service, United Nations Office at Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by the spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, International Organization for Migration, United Nations Refugee Agency, and the International Labour Organization.

Central African Republic

Donaig Le Du, Chief of Communications for the United Nations Children’s Fund in the Central African Republic, in her update on the situation of children in the Central African Republic, stressed that this was one of the worst countries in the world to be a child. The situation was possibly even worse than initially thought as the violations were happening far away from the eyes of the public. In this context, the active role of the media was crucial, stressed Ms. Le Du.

Following the latest cycle of violence, some 600,000 persons were internally displaced, and with the current refugee numbers, it meant that one in five children in the country was uprooted. Bangui was quiet, armed groups were active outside of the capital, but because of bad road infrastructure and weak cell phone coverage, it was hard to know what was happening in the countryside. Bad infrastructure was the reason why it took two days for the news of the recent tragic killing of six Red Cross volunteers to get out.

Ms. Le Du explained that armed groups were not fighting each other but were rather attacking civilians on the side of the opponent – in this, the principal victims were children. There were reports of horrible violations happening, such as a baby being killed in the arms of her mother in a hospital in one of the regions. Hospital supplies were being looted, including the cold chain, which meant that vaccination activities were halted. Access was a major issue and the Central African Republic was one of the most dangerous countries to work in as a humanitarian worker. The country was at the bottom of the Human Development Index, stressed Ms. Le Du, and everything must be done to help the children there and get the news out – those children must not be abandoned.

Responding to questions raised, including on the number of displaced children, recruitment of children by armed groups, and the role of the United Nations peacekeeping mission, Ms. Le Du confirmed that one in five children was displaced, either internally or as a refugee. Bangui was calm, but two-thirds of the country were controlled by the armed groups, principally in the South on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but also in the centre and North-West - there was no frontline as such, but armed groups were jostling for best control of natural resources in those areas. All questions raised about the role of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) should be answered by the mission itself, stressed Ms. Le Du, adding that there were 12,000 peacekeepers for the country as big as France and Belgium combined.

Since 2014, some 10,000 children had been released from armed groups. Leaders of all armed groups had signed a statement committing themselves to releasing the children from their ranks and stopping further recruitment of children. However, with the new spate of violence, the recruitment continued and there were new children in the armed groups’ ranks. The United Nations Children’s Fund urged all armed groups to respect their commitments, release the children and halt child recruitment.

Yemen

Olivia Headon, for the International Organization for Migration, briefed on two separate incidents off the Coast of Yemen in which 280 persons had been forced into the rough seas of the Shabwa governorate in Yemen last week.

As for the first incident, the remains of twenty-nine individuals had been found on the shore: twelve Ethiopian males, twelve Ethiopian females and five Somali males were among the confirmed dead. The number of people missing had been reduced from 22 to six - the remaining six were all Ethiopian males. The number of people presumed dead in the first incident stood at 35. In the second incident, 160 people had been forced off a boat on 10 August. To date, twelve deaths had been confirmed: eight Ethiopian males and four Ethiopian females. The number of presumed deaths in this incident stood at eighteen. In total, 226 people had survived, forty-two were confirmed dead and twelve were still missing, while 54 people were presumed dead. None of the surviving migrants were currently in the care of the IOM as they preferred to continue their journey to the Gulf countries. The IOM would continue to patrol the beaches, help migrants in distress and search for those still missing or their remains.

Ms. Headon announced new funding from the Department for International Development (DFID) for three new programs in Western Yemen to be implemented over the next three years. The programmes would target over 250,000 people, including Yemeni migrants affected by the conflict, displaced Yemenis, and Yemeni returnees; they would entail psychological support, cholera response, vaccination for children, reintegration support for children affected by gender-based violence and human trafficking. The programmes were also meant to help migrants transiting through Yemen on their way to the Gulf countries, and would help the host communities in the transit regions in order to raise their awareness about the situation of the migrants and their rights. The programmes, an addition to the ongoing activities in Yemen, would be carried out in partnership with the Danish Refugee Council, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Handicap International and InterSOS. A focus would be put on injured or sick migrants, as well as on migrants with disabilities and other vulnerable migrants.

Responding to the question concerning the importance of conflict resolution in Yemen and the negative impact of arms sales, Ms. Headon stressed that the IOM always advocated for a high-level political solution in all conflict situations it was operating in, as it was known that a military response could not resolve those conflicts. As she put it, it was a high-level political agreement where all parties to the conflict made a decision, that could actually save lives; meanwhile, the IOM was going to continue to advocate to receive the funding to save lives and protect vulnerable migrants going through Yemen should the conflict continue.

Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief, Press and External Relations Section, United Nations Information Service, United Nations Office at Geneva, said that the Special Envoy on Yemen was currently in the United Arab Emirates, where he met with the Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. He was traveling extensively through the region to get the support for a political solution to the crisis in Yemen, said Mr. LeBlanc.

On Sunday 13 August, the Special Envoy had concluded a visit to Tehran where he had met with Iranian Foreign Minsiter Javad Zarif and the Deputy for Arab and African Affairs, Hussein Jaber, and during which the Hodeidah proposal had been discussed in length. Acknowledging Iran’s strong support to the United Nations efforts, the Special Envoy had stressed a common understanding that only a political solution could bring an end to the war, and that the Hodeidah proposal could be the opening towards a comprehensive political agreement and the need to avoid the further worsening of the humanitarian situation.

Last week in Riyadh, the Envoy had met with the Saudis, the Yemeni President Hadi and Vice-President Ali Mohsen, and the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and discussed the Hodeidah proposal as the first step towards a comprehensive peace process, resumption of salary payments and the opening of the Sana’a International Airport, concluded Mr. LeBlanc.

Mediterranean Sea Migrations

Joel Millman, for the International Organization for Migration, explained that thus far in August, over 2,000 migrants had arrived in Europe by the Mediterranean route. The July arrivals represented half of those in July for the last two years and there were 800 fewer deaths compared to this time last year. There was an emerging trend of very low departures from North Africa, which might be linked to a drop in fatalities, and possibly the cooperation with local authorities, especially in Libya, started to show some results. Spain was not necessarily to be the next destination for Europe, though the trends were quite stunning: Spain had experienced three times more arrivals than last year, but was still very far from the current situation in Italy, which meant that the smuggling community was not switching to Spain.

A journalist recalled earlier IOM statements claiming that what was currently happening in the Mediterranean was a result not of pull but of push factors that the people in the Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East were experiencing, and asked whether the lower number of arrivals meant that things were getting better or that there were lots of people held somewhere in Libya. Responding, Mr. Millman explained that the biggest factor in Libya responsible for the decline in fatalities was the Libyan coastguard which had rescued over 12,000 people this year - most of those rescued had ended up in facilities from which the IOM had been able to evacuate over 6,000 people and was hoping to evacuate a further 9,000 this year. It was the dialogue and cooperation with the authorities which led to more lives being saved before they reached the open seas, and also more people hearing about options for voluntary return, which was one of the most important IOM activities in Libya. Those two factors combined could explain the figures, said Mr. Millman, who stressed that much more remained to be done to reach many more migrants before they reached the North African coasts.

Congolese Refugees in Angola

Adrian Edwards, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), briefed the press on the situation of refugees from the Kasai region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and their relocation from the over-crowded reception centres in northern Angola. Some 33,000 Congolese refugees were being relocated to a newly established – and safer - settlement in Lóvua, located some 100 kilometres further inland from the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Nearly 1,500 refugees had been relocated from the Mussunge reception centre to the new site since 8 August in arranged transport.

Since April this year, Congolese refugees have been receiving humanitarian assistance at Cacanda and Mussunge temporary reception centres and in surrounding communities around Dundo, the capital of Lunda Norte Province. The Angolan Government had allocated about 33 square kilometres of land to set up Lóvua settlement to improve the living conditions of refugees; all refugees would receive a plot of land to build shelters and grow food to supplement their food rations, while the safe distance from the border would help in maintaining the humanitarian and civilian character of the site.

Mr. Edwards reminded that since March this year, thousands of Congolese had fled the violence and ethnic tensions in the Kasai region to northern Angola. While the security situation in the Kasai region remained volatile, the Angolan authorities and UNHCR with partners were ready to provide protection and assistance for up to 50,000 Congolese refugees by the end of 2017 at Lóvua. The appeal for US$65.5 million for life-saving protection and assistance to Congolese refugees from Kasai in Angola issued in June, had been 32 per cent funded so far, and additional funding was urgently needed to continue developing infrastructure and services for refugees in Lóvua settlement, concluded the spokesperson.

Asked for additional information concerning the announced expelling and deportation of 40,000 Rohingyas from India regardless of their status and what the UNHCR could do in this context, Mr. Edwards said that the UNHCR did not have this information at the moment and he stressed that people in need of international protection should have access to that protection and the United Nations Refugee Agency was very concerned about all cases of refoulement.

Syria

Concerning the next round of the intra-Syrian talks, Mr. LeBlanc noted that consultations were still ongoing to identify possible dates during the first half of September.

In the meantime, the Office of the Special Envoy had been engaged in technical discussions and had invited technical experts from the opposition sides for new technical consultations on constitutional and legal issues announced after the sixth round of talks. If those consultations would take place, it would be the third such round in the presence of the opposition, whose members were regular invitees to the intra-Syrian talks as per Security Council resolution 22/54. The Office of the Special Envoy looked forward to continuing active engagement with them.

In answer to a question, Mr. LeBlanc said the Special Envoy was not expected to brief the Security Council during its upcoming discussion on chemical weapons in Syria. His next briefing was scheduled on 28 August, he said.

Cyprus

Mr. LeBlanc said that the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, had officially requested to be released from his responsibilities as the Special Adviser in order to run in the upcoming legislative elections in his country, Norway.

In a statement issued on Monday, 14 August, the Secretary-General had expressed his sincere gratitude to Mr. Eide for leading his good offices mission on the Cyprus issue in support of the bi-communal talks between the Greek-Cypriot leader, Nicos Anastasiades, and the Turkish-Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akýncý, in their efforts to reach a comprehensive settlement. Over the last 27 months, with steadfast dedication, commitment and creativity, Mr. Eide had helped the two leaders make unprecedented progress towards reaching a viable and sustainable solution to the decades old dispute, bringing them closer than ever before to their shared vision of a united Cyprus.

Geneva Events and Announcements

Hans Von Rohland, for the International Labour Organization (ILO) announced the launch of the Global Commission on the Future of Work, which would be the second time since the end of the World War that such a commission had been launched. The first one had been during the 1990s and had addressed the social dimension of globalization.

On 21 August, twenty members of the Commission, experts from all over the world, would be announced, while two heads of State or Government had already been announced as co-presidents: Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden and Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of the Republic of Mauritius. It would submit its reports in the context of the upcoming centennial of the International Labour Organization in 2019, and would address subjects such as demographic matters to lack of job security and green jobs.

The Commission would be launched at the ILO Headquarters on 21 August between 3 and 3.30 p.m. and a press stakeout would be organized beforehand, said Mr. Von Rohland.

Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief, Press and External Relations Section, United Nations Information Service, United Nations Office at Geneva, said that the Conference on Disarmament had started its third and last part of the 2017 session, which started on 31 July and would continue until 15 September. Its next public plenary would take place on Tuesday, 22 August, when Spain would take over the presidency of the Conference from South Africa.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination continued its 93^rd session, which was taking place in Geneva from 31 July to 25 August at Palais Wilson. This morning, the Committee would conclude considering the report of Canada and would start reviewing of the report of New Zealand in the afternoon. The concluding observations on the reports reviewed during the session, namely Kuwait, Russian Federation, United Arab Emirates, Equator, Djibouti, Tajikistan, Canada and New Zealand would be made public on Friday, 25 August. The calendar of country reviews is available here.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities opened its 18^th session on Monday, 14 August at Palais des Nations. It will examine the reports of Panama, Morocco, Montenegro, Latvia, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. The calendar of country reviews is available here.

On Monday, 21 August the United Nations and humanitarian partners would mark World Humanitarian Day, which this year focused on health care in crisis (see the programme). Following a panel discussion at 3 p.m., an annual award ceremony organized by the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation would take place, with the award presented to Dr. Rebecca Samuel Dali of Nigeria.

In a press conference at 4 p.m. today, 15 August, Handicap International would unveil a new Goodwill Ambassador, whose identity was under embargo until 4 p.m. today.

The webcast for this briefing is available here: http://bit.ly/unog150817