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UN DAILY NEWS from the
UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE
20 June, 2008 =========================================================================
KOSOVO PLAN IS A ‘PRACTICAL AND WORKABLE SOLUTION,’ BAN TELLS SECURITY COUNCIL
The proposal to reconfigure the United Nations’ presence in Kosovo is “a practical and workable solution” to one of the world’s most intractable issues, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, warning that reaching a mutually acceptable settlement will not be easy.
Addressing a Security Council debate on Kosovo, a week after unveiling plans to adjust the profile and structure of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Mr. Ban said he had rarely encountered such a delicate or divisive issue during his 40-year diplomatic career.
“Legally, politically and morally, it is a landscape of enormous complexity and sensitivity that required the exercise of extraordinary objectivity and balance,” he said, adding that such developments this year as the declaration of independence in February and the Kosovo Serb community’s overwhelming rejection of a new constitution in Pristina have brought lasting changes to the situation.
“It is my assessment that, taken together, these developments have created a profoundly new reality in which UNMIK is no longer able to perform as effectively as in the past the vast majority of its tasks as an interim administration. This needs to be acknowledged as a fact of life.”
Under Mr. Ban’s plan, the UN is neutral on the question of Kosovo’s status. The European Union would also play an enhanced operational role in the area of rule of law under a UN “umbrella” headed by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and in line with the 1999 Security Council resolution that established UNMIK.
A reconfigured and restructured UNMIK would continue to carry out many functions, including those related to a dialogue with Serbia on provisions in six areas: police, courts, customs, transport and infrastructure, boundaries and Serbian patrimony.
To lead this new phase, Mr. Ban said he intends to appoint Lamberto Zannier of Italy to be his new Special Representative, succeeding Joachim Rücker.
“He will help to carry forward the vision I have presented in my report, and to lead a new phase of dialogue, and he will be scrupulously balanced in his approach.”
Mr. Zannier is currently on secondment from the Italian Government to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as director of its conflict prevention centre, and has worked closely with the UN system since joining the Italian foreign ministry in 1978.
The Secretary-General stressed to the Council that his package of changes is aimed at finding “an operational modus vivendi to help move Kosovo a few steps back from the brink of further conflict.”
He said he now awaited the reaction of Council members and the other participants in today’s debate, saying that dialogue was critically important for all of Kosovo’s communities.
“The package is a practical and workable solution – a concrete and sustainable response to a complex and difficult situation. It is founded on the imperative, overriding need, as I said, to maintain international peace and security and stability in Kosovo and the region, while responding and adapting to changing circumstances on the ground.”
UNMIK has been in place since mid-1999 after NATO forces drove Yugoslav troops out of Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs and other minorities by nine to one, that year amid deadly inter-communal fighting. On 17 February this year, the Assembly of Kosovo’s Provisional Institutions of Self-Government adopted a resolution declaring independence from Serbia.
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UNICEF REPORTS RISING TREND OF VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN IN STRIFE-TORN COUNTRIES
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that child kidnappings are on the rise in several countries affected by violence – including Haiti where more than 50 children have been abducted so far this year – and are often carried out with impunity.
There have been cases of kidnapped children in Haiti being raped and tortured, and in some cases even murdered, the agency noted in a statement issued today.
Authorities in the small, impoverished nation suspect that criminal gangs in search of easy profits are responsible for many recent kidnappings. “Most of the perpetrators remain unpunished,” UNICEF stated.
Earlier this month, the agency joined a national call across Haiti to halt the recent surge the number of child kidnappings. Over 50 children have been abducted in the first six months of this year, more than half of them girls.
The UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti (known as MINUSTAH) has been working with the national police force to dismantle criminal gangs wanted for kidnappings, murders and other crimes.
UNICEF also reports similar incidents in other countries, including the Central African Republic (CAR), where armed gangs have seized on the instability created by conflict to terrorize rural farms and communities, including by kidnapping children and holding them for ransom.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), thousands of children have been rounded up by armed groups and used as child soldiers or held in captivity as sexual slaves for extended periods of time, the agency notes.
Meanwhile, UNICEF has received reports that a growing number of children in Iraq have been recruited and used by militias and insurgent groups. “Girls are increasingly subject to murder, kidnapping and rape, or are being abducted and trafficked within or outside Iraq for sexual exploitation,” it adds.
The agency stressed the need for concerted action to combat this growing problem, stating that “it is everyone’s duty to ensure children are safe from harm, and governments have a responsibility to enact and enforce measures that provide a protective environment for all children.”
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BAN CALLS FOR ‘REDOUBLED’ EFFORTS ON CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF FORCED DISPLACEMENT
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has marked World Refugee Day today with a call for greater international solidarity to protect victims of forced displacement across the globe.
“I urgently call on the international community to redouble efforts to address both the causes and consequences of forced human displacement,” Mr. Ban said, noting that the worldwide number of refugees had grown to more than 16 million in the past year.
The Secretary-General stressed that, since the adoption of the UN Refugee Convention in 1951, human displacement has become a far more complex issue.
“Conflict and poverty, the most common reasons people are compelled to leave their homes, are now amplified by the effects of climate change, increasing scarcity of resources and food shortages – factors which may lead to greater insecurity in the future,” he stressed.
Mr. Ban also noted that the responsibility of providing asylum for refugees currently falls “disproportionately” on developing nations.
“Contrary to public perceptions in many industrialized nations, developing countries actually bear the burden of hosting a larger number of refugees, despite their limited resources,” he said.
He added that the goal of the international community should be to ensure that refugees would be free one day to return home in safety and dignity.
Meanwhile the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres said in a statement that “Refugees show incredible courage and perseverance in overcoming enormous odds to rebuild their lives. Ensuring that they get the protection they deserve is a noble cause because refugee rights are human rights – and rights that belong to us all.”
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassadors actress Angelina Jolie and opera singer Barbara Hendricks also made statements to mark World Refugee Day, as did Pope Benedict XVI.
“Refugees are people forced to flee from their countries as a result of true life-threatening dangers. From the heart I hope that these – our brothers and sisters so tried by suffering – are guaranteed asylum and the recognition of their rights,” he said.
In a related development, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a statement today that a new kind of casualty was being created by climate change: the environmental refugee.
“Rising sea levels, increasing desertification, weather-induced flooding, and more frequent natural disasters have, and will increasingly become, a major cause of population displacement in several parts of the world,” the statement said.
Citing a report from the UN University, UNEP said that there were now more than 19 million people officially recognized as “persons of concern” – people who are likely to be displaced because of environmental disasters. UNEP said that figure is expected to grow to about 50 million by the end of 2010.
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GREEK AND TURKISH CYPRIOT LEADERS TO HOLD TALKS IN JULY, ANNOUNCES UN ENVOY
The leaders of the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot communities, Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat, will meet again on 1 July for further talks on possible reunification, the United Nations envoy to the Mediterranean island said today.
Tayé-Brook Zerihoun, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Cyprus, was speaking at a news conference in Nicosia, following an announcement by representatives of the two communities of a series of measures aimed at easing the daily life of Cypriots across the island.
The measures provide for educational programmes in connection with cultural heritage; steps on road safety; easing the movement of ambulances between the two sides; the establishment of a Cyprus Joint Committee on Health; cooperation for an island-wide assessment of all major waste streams; and agreement on environmental education.
Mr. Zerihoun added that further measures could be announced in the coming days.
“The momentum of the process has not slowed,” the Special Representative stated. “It is in fact producing tangible results.”
Following their last meeting on 23 May, Mr. Christofias and Mr. Talat committed themselves in a statement to working towards “a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality, as defined by relevant Security Council resolutions.”
The partnership will comprise a Federal Government with a single international personality, along with a Turkish Cypriot Constituent State and a Greek Cypriot Constituent State, which will be of equal status.
The UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) has been in place on the island since 1964 after the outbreak of intercommunal violence. It is tasked with preventing a recurrence of fighting, contributing to a return to normal conditions and the maintenance of law and order.
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UN RELIEF CHIEF WELCOMES ISRAEL-GAZA CESSATION OF VIOLENCE
The head of the United Nations humanitarian wing today welcomed the announced cessation of violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said in a statement that the cessation of violence “offers particular hope for the ordinary people of Gaza, who have so far borne the brunt of the problems, but also for people in southern Israel.”
Mr. Holmes, who is also Emergency Relief Coordinator, said he hoped that the halt in violence will result in a rapid improvement of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where UN agencies currently provide assistance to more than three quarters of all households. Gaza is home to about 1.5 million people.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that the situation inside Gaza has seriously deteriorated over the past year since Hamas took control of the area by force and Israel then imposed severe restrictions on the entry and exit of goods. A lack of raw materials and an inability to export foods has paralyzed economic activity almost entirely and increased Gaza’s dependence on outside aid.
Mr. Holmes, whose statement echoes that of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday, added that he hoped the cessation of violence would lead to a sustained opening of the Gaza border crossings for both humanitarian and commercial reasons.
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CENTRAL AFRICAN COUNTRIES BECOMING IMPATIENT WITH UGANDAN REBELS – UN ENVOY
The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is continuing to commit atrocities in Central Africa, and the countries of the region are growing impatient with the rebel group’s actions and its failure to sign a peace deal ending its long-running conflict with Uganda, a senior United Nations envoy told the Security Council today.
Joaquim Chissano, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the LRA-Affected Areas, briefed the Council on the latest developments in efforts to end the conflict that has ravaged northern Uganda since the mid-1980s.
A series of accords struck by the rebels and the Government earlier this year raised hopes that they could reach a permanent, wide-ranging agreement ending the conflict, but in April LRA leader Joseph Kony failed to sign a deal mediated by the Government of Southern Sudan that his representatives had earlier initialled.
Mr. Chissano said today that Mr. Kony had twice failed to attend signing ceremonies, and countries such as Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR) were growing weary.
The Congolese Government is considering measures to force LRA fighters to leave its territory, particularly amid reports that the rebels are still committing some atrocities against civilians in the DRC, the CAR and Sudan.
But all countries in the region remain willing to continue the peace process, he stressed, noting that they still want the UN to do all it can to bring Mr. Kony to the peace table so that the agreement can be signed and then implemented.
Mr. Chissano said there were no plans to re-negotiate the contents of the various accords reached this year, but some elements may have to be clarified for the sake of the LRA leadership.
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UN PROMOTES SPORTS AND PEACE PROJECT IN KENYA
More than 300 children from across the Kenyan capital Nairobi will gather tomorrow to launch a three-month event to promote peace and reconciliation organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The “Play for the P***t: Play for Peace” initiative aims to use the power of sport to provide a positive environment for interaction for young people affected by the recent post-election conflict in Kenya.
The 21 June event at the Kenya Cultural Centre will launch a series of events for youth aged six to 24 in schools and communities across Nairobi which were most affected by the recent unrest.
Activities will include talks, drama workshops, tree planting and a clean-up of the Nairobi River, as well as weekend sports tournaments. Community-based organizations will help organize the activities and children will have access to trained peer counsellors.
The initiative, which will be attended by world-famous marathon runners Paul Tergat and Catherine Ndereba, will run until 21 September to coincide with World Peace Day.
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SENIOR UN POLITICAL OFFICIAL MEETS SOUTH AFRICAN LEADER AFTER VISIT TO ZIMBABWE
Senior United Nations political aide Haile Menkerios met with South African President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria today, following a five-day visit to neighbouring Zimbabwe, which has been beset by deadly political violence since the first round of the presidential election on 29 March.
Mr. Menkerios, the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, was dispatched to Zimbabwe by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in an attempt to reduce political tensions ahead of the run-off round of the presidential election set for 27 June.
“It appears that he will remain in the area for some additional days,” UN spokesperson Michele Montas told journalists in New York.
During his visit to Zimbabwe, Mr. Menkerios met with President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the two men who will face each other in next week’s run-off. He also held talks with the Foreign Minister, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, church leaders and civil society groups, including human rights organizations.
Mr. Ban and other top UN officials have called for an immediate end to the hostilities, cautioning that the ongoing violence threatens the credibility of the upcoming polls.
The current political crisis is also compounding an already deep social, economic and humanitarian crisis, in a country where as many as 4 million people are in need of help.
The Security Council will meet on Zimbabwe on Monday, when it will be briefed by the UN’s top political official, Under-Secretary-General B. Lynn Pascoe.
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OUTER SPACE TECHNOLOGY CRITICAL TO ALL HUMANITY, UN SAYS
The use of space technology for disaster management, climate change and food security were among the main themes of the 51st session of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which wrapped up today in Vienna.
During the 10-day session the committee heard reports on water resource management initiatives that use space technology to monitor and mitigate the effects of flood disasters and to improve the timeliness and accuracy of forecasts.
The UN body also noted global initiatives to use space-derived geospatial data for sustainable development in areas such as agriculture, deforestation assessment, disaster monitoring, drought relief and land management.
In addition, the committee heard about a number of educational initiatives that use satellite technology for distance education to reach teachers and students at all levels, including the Space Education Programme of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Under the theme “Why should we go to space?” the newly elected Chairman of the Committee, Ciro Arévalo Yepes, cited Professor Stephen Hawking in his opening address:
“In a way the situation was like that in Europe before 1492. The discovery of the new world made profound differences to the old. Spreading out into space will have even greater effect. It will completely change the future of the human race and maybe determine whether we have any future at all. Hopefully, it would unite us to face a common challenge," he said.
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RISING IMMUNIZATION RATES HELPING POOR COUNTRIES, UN-BACKED ALLIANCE REPORTS
The report from the GAVI Alliance, which includes the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), found that more than 2.9 million premature deaths have been averted by the partnership since it was formed in 2000.
Rising immunization rates are the cause, with 75 per cent of children in 72 GAVI-eligible countries immunized last year with three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and polio vaccines, up from 64 per cent in 2000.
Julian Lob-Levyt, Executive Secretary of the GAVI Alliance, said that immunization is the one health intervention that offers poor countries the best opportunity to make economic and social progress.
“Health gains that took rich countries 150 years to achieve can now be attained in just 10 to 15 years by developing countries, thanks to new technology and a revitalized global commitment to protect all children against preventable diseases,” he said.
Dr. Lob-Levyt added that new vaccines and forms of technology, as well as new streams of funding, were “allowing us to tackle the killer diseases in a methodical and consistent way. We are at a seminal moment in positively impacting health in poor nations.”
The report, released today, also found that more poor countries are making efforts to introduce new or under-used vaccines and more nations are also applying for financial support from the GAVI Alliance to strengthen their health-care systems.
The GAVI Alliance, which was earlier known as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, aims to bring together the key stakeholders in immunization, including governments, the vaccine industry, philanthropists such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and research and technical agencies.
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BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA STILL ENDURING SERIOUS DISPLACED PROBLEM – UN EXPERT
Too many citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina remain displaced from their homes 13 years after the country’s war ended, and many of those that have gone back to their villages live in unfinished buildings and lack basic economic opportunities, a United Nations human rights expert said today.
Walter Kälin, the Secretary-General’s Representative on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), wrapped up a week-long visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina by urging the Government and the international community to each step up their efforts to help the displaced and returnees find decent and lasting living conditions.
Mr. Kälin met with senior Government officials, including the Chairman of the Presidency Haris Silajdžic and Prime Ministers Nedzad Brankovic and Milorad Dodik, as well as individual IDPs, returnees and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) during his visit.
He said in a statement today that while the Government and the international community have made enormous efforts to return almost all property to their rightful owners and to reconstruct the majority of destroyed houses, reconstruction as a whole was far from being achieved.
“It is hard to believe that hundreds of families all over Bosnia who have had the courage to return to their remote villages continue to live in unfinished buildings, without electricity or running water and no economic opportunities after so many years.”
Most returnees were still struggling to make a living, he said, finding it difficult to obtain jobs – in part because of widespread employment discrimination about minorities – or the start-up capital or equipment needed to generate an income. Discrimination in education and the hostile use of national and religious symbols were also exacerbating the situation.
Mr. Kälin said authorities were becoming increasingly aware that a person’s return did not end when they arrived at their former home but instead when they were able to resume a socially and economically sustainable life.
This was particularly true, the Representative said, for the most vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, the disabled or the infirm.
He praised several municipalities for putting in place microcredit and other support schemes to help returnees get back on their feet.
Mr. Kälin serves in an independent and unpaid capacity and reports to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Most recently he has visited Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Kenya.
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DR CONGO: UN MISSION BEGINS SENSITIZATION TRAINING FOR GOVERNMENT TROOPS
Government forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are being given a week-long training course in child protection, human rights, sexual violence and military justice by the United Nations mission in the country (MONUC).
Nearly 1,800 soldiers from the national armed services, known as FARDC, are receiving the training in South Kivu province in the east of the country as part of a new zero tolerance campaign on the recruitment of children into armed groups, which was launched by the head of MONUC, Alan Doss, last week.
Earlier this week MONUC released a report that found that the FARDC was among the main violators of human rights in the country with its members accused of rapes, acts of torture, armed robberies, extortion and arbitrary arrests.
The human rights course is part of 12 weeks of professional training that includes courses in military tactics, weapons handling, logistics and professional ethics.
On completing the training the troops will be deployed in South Kivu with the aim of reestablishing state authority in an area that sees frequent attacks by Congolese militia and foreign armed groups.
Meanwhile MONUC, in its weekly report on the security situation in the country, said that the west was relatively calm, although there had been several violations of the ceasefire in the north east, as well as a wave of forced recruitment of children by various armed groups.
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UN SEEKS $445 MILLION TO REBUILD PALESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP IN LEBANON
The United Nations and the Lebanese Government will be seeking $445 million to rebuild the devastated Nahr El-Bared Palestinian refugee camp during an international donor conference to be held in Vienna on Monday.
The camp, situated in northern Lebanon, was the scene of heavy fighting from May to September 2007 between the national army and Fatah el-Islam gunmen. The violence left 30,000 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese homeless.
Matthias Burchard of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) told reporters in Geneva that 70 countries and international organizations had been invited to the conference, which is being hosted by Austria in cooperation with Lebanon, the European Commission and the Arab League.
The reconstruction of the Nahr El-Bared camp represents the largest undertaking in UNRWA’s history, and will require the building of a new town with houses, schools, health centres, mosques and other community facilities, as well as a UN compound and associated infrastructure, he noted.
In a related development, Mr. Burchard said UNRWA will be launching a 10-week summer programme for 250,000 children and youth in the Gaza Strip tomorrow.
The agency and its partners will be providing a range of activities in over 300 locations, including educational programmes, sports, gymnastics and arts and crafts.
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NEARLY 50 SITES NOMINATED TO JOIN UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE LIST
The committee that considers requests for inscription on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage List will have 47 nominated sites to choose from when it meets for its annual session next month in Canada, UNESCO announced today.
The nominations comprise 13 natural sites and 34 cultural sites, including two that cross national boundaries, according to a press release issued by UNESCO ahead of the nine-day World Heritage Committee meeting, scheduled to start in Québec on 2 July.
The nominating countries include five States that have no sites inscribed on the World Heritage List: Kyrgyzstan, Papua New Guinea, San Marino, Saudi Arabia and Vanuatu.
UNESCO said the committee would also scrutinize the state of conservation of 30 sites that have been placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger because of problems such as pollution, pillaging, the impact of natural disasters or poorly managed mass tourism.
Those sites include the cultural landscape of the Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany, which may be deleted from the World Heritage List if the 21-member committee determines that the building of a bridge in the heart of the landscape warrants the move.
Currently there are 851 sites of “outstanding universal value” in 141 countries that have been inscribed on the World Heritage List, and each year sites are added after applications are first reviewed by either the International Council on Monuments and Sites or the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
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MYANMAR: UN FOOD AGENCY APPEALS FOR FUNDING TO KEEP AID HELICOPTERS FLYING
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says it is critically short of funds to keep a fleet of ten helicopters in the air in Myanmar, where they are playing a critical role in delivering relief supplies to the 2.4 million survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
“WFP is leading the way in moving life-saving supplies to distressed communities by boat, truck and air – but it will all grind to a halt by the end of this month unless we get additional funding now,” said Chris Kaye, WFP Country Director for Myanmar.
To date, only just over half of the $50 million required for the logistical operation has been secured and WFP says that much of this money has already been spent on barges, boats, rivercraft and basic infrastructure needed to reach cyclone survivors in remote, hard-hit villages across the Ayeyarwady Delta.
The devastation means that the only way of bringing relief to the survivors is by air or by waterborne craft, which are both costly operations.
The helicopters have been able to provide additional relief items, including water tanks and purification tablets, to people living in the worst affected areas, reaching 60 locations.
“The helicopters have reached several villages which had received no help at all during the six weeks since the cyclone struck,” Mr. Kaye said.
WFP’s overall emergency operation to provide food assistance to 750,000 people in Myanmar is also struggling for funds, after receiving only 45 per cent of the $69.5 million required.
Currently there is only sufficient funding to provide one month’s ration of rice to 750,000 people.
To date, a total of 676,000 people in the Delta have received food assistance from WFP. Besides WFP-supplied food, consisting mostly of high-energy biscuits and rice, helicopter flights have delivered relief supplies for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other aid agencies.
Additional flights have deployed teams of humanitarian workers who are carrying out an assessment of the impact of Cyclone Nargis across the Delta – a joint project between the UN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Government of Myanmar.
The helicopters have also carried out two medical evacuations of Delta inhabitants, including airlifting a small child suffering from serious dengue fever from Bogale to Yangon.
“These helicopters show how the UN can bring immediate help to the people of Myanmar,” said Erika Joergensen, WFP Deputy Regional Director.
“We appeal to donors to maintain their generosity towards WFP’s emergency logistics and telecommunications operations, which our fellow humanitarian agencies depend on to save lives.”
In a related development today the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) appealed for $83 million in emergency and long-term agricultural assistance following Cyclone Nargis.
“Myanmar’s hardship caused by Cyclone Nargis is unprecedented - never before in the country’s recent history has there been a natural disaster of this magnitude,” the FAO said in its needs assessment report. “The cyclone cut a huge swath of destruction about 100 miles wide across 200 miles in the populous Ayeyarwady Delta, killing an estimated more than 130,000 people and ten thousands of livestock, while destroying homes, crops, property and entire livelihoods,” it added.
A joint assessment team, organized by the UN, the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) and the Government of Myanmar have just completed collecting data in 30 affected townships in the Ayerarwady Delta over the past ten days.
Preliminary findings will be presented at an ASEAN meeting in Myanmar on 24 June and the survey will also be used to launch a revised humanitarian appeal in Geneva next month.
Meanwhile UN agencies reported that, in addition to food, 350,000 plastic sheets have now been distributed to serve as emergency shelter, with a further 450,000 in the pipeline. More than 100 Child Friendly Spaces have been set up for children in the affected areas, over 1000 primary schools have been rehabilitated and more than 100,000 children have been reached with education recreation kits.
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‘PROTECTION’ THE THEME AS UN ACTIVITIES MARK WORLD REFUGEE DAY
From recreations of refugee camp life in national capitals to film festivals, food bazaars and fashion shows, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is observing World Refugee Day today with a series of activities around the globe to draw attention to the plight faced by the displaced.
The events, which are supported by UNHCR’s partners, including governments, donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the agency’s Goodwill Ambassadors and refugees themselves, also include light shows, photography exhibitions, lectures, concerts, sports competitions, quizzes, essay-writing competitions, tree-planting projects, seminars, workshops and public awareness campaigns.
Using “protection” as the theme of the Day this year, UNHCR is recreating refugee camp life in around 20 capitals. Earlier this week it set up family tents with exhibits of relief items and a burned-out hut in London’s Trafalgar Square to raise awareness of conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of people displaced in Darfur.
Rome's fabled Colosseum is being illuminated with the UNHCR logo and the legend: “Protecting refugees is a duty. Being protected is a right.” In keeping with annual tradition, the soaring Jet d'Eau in Geneva is being bathed in blue light to mark the day.
A photographic exhibition, "Do You See What I See?" is taking place at Geneva's Palais des Nations, the UN's European headquarters, as well as in Yemen and Namibia. Refugee children in Yemen's Kharaz camp and Osire camp in Namibia have documented their lives, hopes and dreams through text and images.
In Syria, a charity concert at the Opera House in Damascus by acclaimed Iraqi oud (lute) player, Naseer Shamma, will raise money for UNHCR's Iraqi refugee programme, which faces a funding crisis.
UNHCR offices in Uganda and Ethiopia have full programmes planned in refugee camps and settlements, while refugee-themed film festivals are being held in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Mexico, Poland and Venezuela.
In India, the highlights include a clothes drive and a cultural extravaganza run by UNHCR as well as a free health camp for refugees, organized by the refugee agency's partner, New Delhi YMCA.
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Osvaldo Laport is attending a tent exhibition in Buenos Aires, where the bookshop El Ateneo will be handing out UNHCR bookmarks based on a local awareness campaign.
In neighbouring Chile, President Michelle Bachelet – a former refugee – will meet UNHCR Regional Representative Cristian Koch and refugees living in the country, including some of the more than 100 Palestinians recently resettled in Chile after fleeing the violence in Iraq.
UNHCR's Deputy High Commissioner L. Craig Johnstone will lead World Refugee Day celebrations in the United States, attending a public ceremony and a film screening at the National Geographic Museum in Washington D.C.
A special message from UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie has been released on the video-sharing website YouTube around the world, while Sudan-born basketball star Luol Deng is inviting YouTube users and Facebook users to join an online campaign to “Give Refugees a Hand.”
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FRESH OUTBREAK OF POLIO EMERGES IN NORTHERN NIGERIA – UN HEALTH AGENCY
An outbreak of polio has hit northern Nigeria again and started spreading into neighbouring countries, the United Nations health agency says, warning of a potential international outbreak on the scale of the one that struck 20 countries between 2003 and 2006.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Wednesday that there has been a nine-fold increase in the number of new cases caused by wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) so far this year in Nigeria compared with the same period last year. The West African country now accounts for 86 per cent of all the world’s cases with that strain of polio.
Cases of WPV1 linked to the northern Nigeria outbreak have recently been identified in Benin and western Niger as well, a similar pattern to the 2003-06 outbreak that resulted in 1,475 cases in 20 countries, including some as far away as Indonesia and Yemen.
WHO said the new outbreak has occurred because as many as one in five children have not been immunized against polio in key high-risk areas in northern Nigeria. Authorities are planning two large-scale vaccination campaigns next month and in August, and similar campaigns are taking place in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
The UN agency said disease surveillance is also being stepped up across the region to try to prevent the outbreak from widening.
Fears are high because of the intensity of the outbreak, the upcoming rainy season – a period associated with increased transmission of the disease – and the anticipated large-scale population movements for the Islamic Hajj to Mecca later this year.
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