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GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will be in Geneva 14 June, her first stop abroad since being released from house arrest by Myanmar/Burmese authorities earlier this year. The head of her country’s National League for Democracy (NLD) will speak at the International Labour Organization‘s 101st international labour conference. Some 4,000 delegates from around the world will be attending the conference.

Suu Kyi has accepted the invitation of ILO Director-General Juan Somavia to address the plenary of the conference on the morning of 14 June, the ILO says in a statement.

Dr Margaret Chan up for election to head WHO for second term

Dr Margaret Chan (archives)

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The World Health Organization’s 192 members are meeting for five days in Geneva starting Monday 21 May. The assembly will elect a director general and current head Dr Margaret Chan, with solid backing from the board, looks set for re-election.

Chan, in her opening remarks Monday, emphasized the progress made by countries whose governments have shown “the importance of national ownership and leadership.” She cited India’s polio eradication programme, Ghana’s commitment to guinea worm eradication, noting that “during the first quarter of 2012, cases of this disease dropped 67% compared with last year, and now number just over 100.” And Namibia, which “is leading a group of 8 neighbouring African countries in a joint effort to eliminate malaria.”

Funds are tighter, and it’s time to get back to the basics, “shift to thrift” and be innovative, says Chan

Chan characterized the last decade as a golden one for world health, on many levels, but arguing against the doomsayers who believe the opposite is now true.

“At the start of the decade, the Millennium Development Goals showed how much the perception of health had changed, from a drain on resources to a driver of socioeconomic progress. In that golden decade, governments, in both donor and recipient countries, made the health agenda a top priority. Money for health development more than tripled. Substantial results followed, with a particularly strong impact on deaths from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and childhood illness.”

More than 60 countries now pushing for universal health coverage

The director general saved her strongest words, in an upbeat message about where health is headed, for a shift towards universal health coverage.

“Following publication of the 2010 World Health Report on health system financing, more than 60 countries have approached WHO seeking technical support for their plans to move towards universal coverage.

“What we are seeing goes against the historical pattern, where social services shrink when money gets tight. I think this drive to expand coverage is a powerful signal. Despite deepening financial austerity, the will to do the right thing, the fair thing, for people’s health prevails.”

“Our natural capital is declining and our Ecological Footprint is increasing.”

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The message is stark: “Humanity’s demands exceed our planet’s capacity to sustain us. That is, we ask for more than what we have.” The implications are dire: food and water for all will happen only if we manage our resources much better. There is a solution, says the WWF, which Tuesday 15 May issued its annual report on the state of planet Earth: to “decouple human development from unsustainable consumption (moving away from material and energy-intensive commodities).”

The  “Living Planet” report takes a look at the changes in just a little over half a century. In a first, the Gland-based organization launched its report from space with help from the European Space Agency and astronaut Andre Kuipers.

The new report points to two key problems, population growth and rising consumption trends in high-income groups around the world and in BRIICS countries. The Ecological Footprint Index, one part of the report, measure the biologically productive area people use in each country for their basic needs. The world’s resources are use inequally: “If all of humanity lived like an average resident of Indonesia, only two-thirds of the planet’s biocapacity would be used; if everyone lived like an average Argentinean, humanity would demand more than half an additional planet; and if everyone lived like an average resident of the USA, a total of four Earths would be required to regenerate
humanity’s annual demand on nature.”

“Human population dynamics are a major driving force behind environmental degradation. One aspect of this is the overall size of the global population, which has more than doubled since 1950 – to 7 billion in 2011 and is forecast to reach just over 9.3 billion people by 2050.”

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The International Red Cross in Geneva says that it is “extremely concerned about the deteriorating health condition of six Palestinian detainees who have been on hunger strike for between 47 and 71 days.” More than 1,600 people being held in what is called “administrative detention: by Israeli authorities have been on a hunger strike since 17 April. The six to whom the ICRC refers “are in imminent danger of dying, says the ICRC.

The hunger strikers’ main demands are for the authorities to allow family visits from Gaza to resume and for an end to solitary confinement in Israeli places of detention.

The ICRC insists Israel must allow families to visit the hunger strikers, saying that “in such extreme circumstances, allowing contact with family members becomes an imperative humanitarian need.”

ICRC delegates and medical staff have been visiting the detainees since their hunger strike began.

“We urge the detaining authorities to transfer all six detainees without delay to a suitable hospital so that their condition can be continuously monitored and so that they can receive specialized medical and nursing care,” says Juan Pedro Schaerer, the head of the ICRC delegation in Israel and the occupied territories.

“While we are in favour of any medical treatment that could benefit the detainees, we would like to point out that, under resolutions adopted by the World Medical Association, the detainees are entitled to freely choose whether to consent to be fed or to receive medical treatment. It is essential that their choice be respected and their human dignity preserved.”

Haitians finding shelter, Jordan’s mines lifted, Thai migrants get affordable HIV help

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Warnings of impending civil war in Syria came from the UN’s Special Envoy Kofi Annan Tuesday 8 May, backed up by an International Red Cross appeal Tuesday for CHF24.5 million in funds to help the tens of thousands of displaced Syrians. But the news from international organizations in Geneva in recent days is not all gloomy. A sampling:

The IOM (International Organization for Migration) reports this week that “the number of people living in displacement camps in and around Haiti’s capital Port au Prince has declined by 14% to an estimated 421,000 since February, according to figures collected by IOM. This is the steepest decline in the camp population since early last year. Some 73% of the original population has now left Haiti’s camps since the height of the crisis in 2010, when an estimated 1.5 million people were made homeless by a massive earthquake, which the government says killed up to 300,000 people.”

The AP Mine Ban Conventionreported that Jordan “became the first country in the Middle East to have removed all minefields in its territory in accordance with its international obligations.” The 60 million m2 or more “of areas known or suspected to contain mines were cleared. Many of these areas were subsequently made available for major development projects, including for agriculture in the Jordan Valley, for religious pilgrimages to locations such as the Christian Baptism Site, and for tourism in Aqaba,” says the Convention office in Geneva.

Five million migrants in Thailand who come mostly from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar will have better access to HIV treatment under a new regional governments agreement following a meeting organized by the UN Development Programme, UNDP. “Government representatives agreed to examine ways to use intellectual property rights and free trade agreement flexibilities to lower the cost of treatment services and increase coverage for migrants. They also agreed to harmonize treatment and medical referral protocols across countries and ensure that in addition to treatment, migrants have better access to HIV services overall.”

Women in Airolo, Timor-Leste, finally get the vote in April 2012 (photo,©2012 UNDP)

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Timor-Leste, widely known as East Timor, is slowly but surely making a recovery from the 1975-1999 independence battle that left it badly scarred.

The Geneva-based UN Development Programme this week issued photos taken in the Ainero district, which has remote areas that are difficult to reach, showing women voting for the first time in the second round of the presidential election.

The country became the first newly independent sovereign state in this century in 2002, three years after its long fight ended.

The eastern half of the island of Timor was a Portuguese colony until 1974, but within months Indonesia invaded and declared it part of its own territory. Indonesia, The Netherlands, East Indies and later Indonesia had shared the other half of the island.

East Timor’s independence became an international cause célèbre for the next 25 years, but the toll on the island’s development was very high.

UNDP has been involved in rebuilding the country since 1999, and one of its priorities has been reducing gender disparities.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A quick fix for joblessness worldwide, but particularly in Europe, is not at hand, says the International Labour Organization (ILO). The Geneva-based UN body gives a gloomy prognosis in its new “World of Work 2012″ report, issued Monday 30 April. It argues that the time has come to “move towards a growth- and job-orientated strategy”, particularly in Europe, where austerity programmes are taking too great a toll.

“This is not a normal employment slowdown. Four years into the global crisis, labour market imbalances are becoming more structural, and therefore more difficult to eradicate. Certain groups, such as the long-term unemployed, are at risk of exclusion from the labour market. This means that they would be unable to obtain new employment even if there were a strong recovery.

“In addition, for a growing proportion of workers who do have a job, employment has become more unstable or precarious. In advanced economies, involuntary part-time employment and temporary employment have increased in two-thirds and more than half of these economies, respectively. The share of informal employment remains high, standing at more than 40 per cent in two-thirds of emerging and developing countries for which data are available. Women and youth are disproportionately affected by unemployment and job precariousness. In particular, youth unemployment rates have increased in about 80 per cent of advanced economies and in two-thirds of developing economies.”

The report notes that there is still a deficit of 50 million jobs worldwide, compared to the number of jobs pre-crisis, in 2008. And with no new jobs in sight for the 80 million new workers entering the market in the next two years, the problem is likely to worsen. It says that a social unrest index created for the report is rising, compared to 2010, as people become more concerned “about the lack of decent jobs”.

Unemployment is up in nearly two-thirds of European countries since 2010 and jobs recovery “has stalled” in Japan and the United States.
“Elsewhere, employment gains have weakened in terms of the needs of a growing, better educated working-age population, as in China. And jobs deficits remain acute in much of the Arab region and Africa.”

A significant part of the problem in Europe is the austerity programmes, it argues: “the policy strategy has shifted its focus away from job creation and improvement and concentrated instead on cutting fiscal deficits at all costs.”

The overall negative outlook of the report is offset by some encouraging words: developing economies’ have in some cases benefited and jobs provided thanks to their policies of boosting domestic consumption. The ILO report offers a number of solutions it argues will work, to improve the overall employment picture:

• labour market institutions should be strengthened so that wages grow in line with productivity, starting in surplus economies. In the current situation, consideration could be given to a careful and coordinated increase in the minimum wage
• it is critical to restore credit conditions and create a more favourable business environment for small enterprises. The issue is particularly pressing in the Euro-zone countries, where the policy of the Central Bank to provide liquidity to banks has failed to boost credit to the real economy. There may also be a case for higher taxation of firms that do not reinvest profits, and/or lower taxation of firms that emphasize investment and job creation.
• In the case of emerging and developing countries, efforts should be centred on public investment and social protection to reduce poverty and income inequality and to stimulate aggregate demand. For advanced economies, the focus should be on ensuring that unemployed people, especially youth, receive adequate support to find new jobs.

World of Work Report available in full or summary

World of Work 2012 web site
Video interview with the authors, from the ILO

Updated 23:00  GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Khalil Rasjed Dale, a British national who worked for the British Red Cross and Geneva-based ICRC (International Red Cross) was murdered in Pakistan, the ICRC says, without providing further details about his death. Dale was the health-programme manager in Quetta/Balochistan. He had previously carried out assignments for the ICRC in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

He was kidnapped by unidentified armed men as he returned home from work 5 January about 13:00 and the ICRC says his murder occurred four months later.

“The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act,” said Director-General Yves Daccord. “All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil’s family and friends.”

“We are devastated,” said Yves Daccord. ‘’Khalil was a trusted and very experienced Red Cross staff member who significantly contributed to the humanitarian cause.”

The Telegraph in the UK reports that his bullet-riddled, decapitated body was delivered to police with a note saying he was killed because no ransom was paid. The article, written by a reporter in Islamabad, cites local authorities.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Thailand, called by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) a “migration hub in South East Asia and a key country of destination for migrant smuggling”, is entering agreements with Canada and the IOM to combat the problems of human smuggling and to improve border management.

Two separate agreements are being concluded this week. The Geneva-based IOM, together with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) announced 17 April that an agreement was signed in Vienna that will increase cooperation between the two agencies, which already work together in human trafficking in Colombia, southern and western Africa as well as in the Horn of Africa.

Canada funds US$7 million anti-smuggling campaign

Canada, Thailand and the IOM are expected to announce Friday 20 April a project to tackle human smuggling to and from Thailand.

Read more…

Angelina Jolie in Pakistan, one of 40 missions she has undertaken for UNHCR in the past 10 years (photo, ©2012 UNHCR)

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Actress Angelina Jolie, who has for a decade been an active Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, has been named Special Envoy of High Commissioner António Guterres.

Jolie has done more than 40 field visits around the world, says the Geneva-based organization, “becoming an expert on the phenomenon of forced displacement and a tireless advocate on their behalf.”

The new post begins immediately. She will focus on complex emergencies: “large-scale crises resulting in the mass displacement of people, to undertake advocacy and represent UNHCR” and its commissioner at the diplomatic level, “engaging with relevant interlocutors on global displacement issues”, the UNHCR said in a statement Tuesday.

Geneva, Switzerland: candidate to host the Green Climate Fund permanent secretariat

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland officially presented Geneva Thursday 12 April as a candidate to host the Green Climate Fund permanent secretariat. Switzerland is also running for a seat on the GCF’s Executive Board.

Germany and South Korea are currently the only other candidates. The provisional seat is in Bonn.

The GCF was created in 2010, with the Cancun agreements, and is designed is to administer tens of billions of dollars to  help developing countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and “undertake the measures necessary to adapt to climate change”, says Bern.

In the start-up phase, the World Bank is to act as trustee for the GCF in its start-up phase. The Fund is scheduled to have a permanent secretariat by 2014.

Bern and the canton of Geneva argue that the city is well-suited to be the GCF’s host, noting in a federal government statement that Geneva is “a strategically significant location for political and scientific work in the environmental domain, and increasingly in the climate domain as well. The GCF fits very well into this institutional landscape and can contribute significantly to enhancing international Geneva.”

It lists other agencies and groups that make up this “a major hub for international environmental policy “:

• the headquarters of the World Meteorological Organization
• the Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the Global Earth Observation Initiative.
• in 2011 Geneva was designated as the location for the Secretariat of the Global Framework for Climate Services.
• A Regional Office of the United Nations Environment Programme is located in Geneva.
• the World Bank and the UNDP, active in environmental financing, have offices in Geneva.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – An 8.6 earthquake registered off the coast of Indonesia is raising fears throughout Indian Ocean nations of a major tsunami like the one in 2004 that killed tens of thousands of people. The Hindu in India reports that “the tremors were felt far and wide in southern and eastern parts of India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.” Stuff in New Zealand says the quake was originally listed as 8.9, then downgraded.

The earthquake was registered at 431 km from the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh and tsunami watch alerts were issued.

View Larger MapThe Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has been issuing bulletins every half hour.

The Hong Kong Observatory, part of the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization system, provided an early alert showing the location of the earthquake (above).

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva is lending legs 4 April to the UN’s international day for landmine action: around the world, for the fourth such day, people are rolling up one pants leg to show solidarity with efforts to ban landmines and rid the world of those already planted.

The Swiss federal government in Bern today published its strategy for landmine action for the 2012-2015 period, noting that Switzerland spends CHF16 million a year supporting the

“Since the 1990s, Switzerland has been actively campaigning for the implementation of international instruments to prohibit these weapons. The current strategy is its third in succession, and it not only outlines Switzerland’s commitment, but also presents the results that have been achieved to date. It is partly thanks to Switzerland’s support that countries such as Albania or Burundi have been cleared of landmines. Switzerland has made a significant contribution to improving the living circumstances of the affected populations in various regions and countries, including Colombia, Niger, Laos, Libya, the Horn of Africa, and South-East Europe.

“Each year around 16 million Swiss francs are spent on supporting the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), for the implementation of specific projects in affected countries and the secondment of demining experts.”

The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, also known as the Ottawa Convention, was adopted in Oslo in 1997 and opened for signature in Ottawa the same year. It entered into force on 1 March 1999. To date 159 States are parties to the Convention with 155 of them no longer holding stocks of anti-personnel mines. Over 44.5 million stockpiled mines have been destroyed by the States Parties.

Of the 50 States that at one time manufactured anti-personnel mines, 34 are now bound by the Convention’s ban on production. Most other States have put in place moratoria on production and / or transfers of mines.

Demining has resulted in millions of square metres of once dangerous land being released for normal human activity. On 1 January 2012, Guinea Bissau became the 20th State Party to declare that it had complied with its Convention obligations to clear all areas containing anti-personnel mines.

Mine Action Strategy of the Swiss Confederation 2012 – 2015 (pdf)

Fruit and wine from Switzerland, where resistance to patents on plants and animals is growing

BERN, SWITZERLAND – Two major Swiss organizations, humanitarian agency Swissaid and the non-profit group Bern Declaration, called Wednesday morning 4 April for “urgent political action” to be taken in light of the “No patents on seeds” report, made public today. The report indicates that despite a European Patent Office (EPO) decision at the highest level in 2010 to ban patents on plants and animals, a dozen such patents were issued in 2011.

Both groups are members of the No patents for seeds international coalition, which in a press release gives the background to patents issued in 2011:

“The report gives examples of patents on sunflowers, melons, cucumbers, rice and wheat. Patents were granted despite a decision of the highest court of the EPO (Enlarged Board of Appeal) in 2010, reaffirming the prohibition of patents on conventional breeding as written in European patent laws. As the new report shows, industry and examiners at the EPO are systematically using legal loopholes to grant patents on seeds, plants and even harvest and food products derived thereof. “

Some 100 requests were registered in 2011, the report shows, 12 of them successful, for patenting plants that are the result of traditional plant selection methods. This brings to 2,000 the number of plant patent and to 12,00 the number of animal patents, issued by the EPO at the end of 2011, with or without the genetic code patented as well.

In addition to the plant patents, another dozen were granted for “farm animal breeding claiming breeding material, sex selection, marker assisted selection, cloning or genetic engineering”, says the coalition.

“These patents restrict biodiversity, have a negative impact on innovation, reduce farmers’ options and make food suppliers and consumers more dependent on them,” says François Meienberg of the Bern Declaration in a press statement. “It’s urgent for European and Swiss lawmakers to put the brakes on this form of predatory pricing.”

Germany has passed a law against such patents.

“No patents for seeds” report, 4 April 2012 (English)

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva’s Palais, home to the UN in Geneva, has begun the biggest makeover in its history, and not too soon, says the UN, which recently issued un update on the dire state of the Neo-classic buildings that date to 1929. The League of Nations took up residence in 1936 and then the United Nations in 1946. The UN created a Strategic Heritage Plan for repairs and renovations in 2007, then began to look for funds.

The new director general of the United Nations office in Geneva, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, met in Bern Tuesday 3 April with Didier Burkhalter, Swiss federal councilor and minster for foreign affairs, to sign papers for Switzerland’s contribution to the renovation project. The overall cost of the eight-year project wa estimated at CHF618 million in 2010. Switzerland in 2011 pledged CHF50 million to energy-related measures as part of the plan.

The buildings provide one of the largest conference centres in Europe, with 34 meeting rooms and halls and 2,000 offices.

Some 4,000 UN staff work at the Palais building, which has about 100,000 visitors a year.

The federal government noted in signing the check Tuesday that Geneva’s international role remains a pillar of the country’s foreign policy. Switzerland is home to 25 international organizations, of which 22 are in Geneva, and the city is also home to 7 other international organizations that have fiscal agreements with Switzerland. Another 250 international bodies in Geneva “act as advisors” to the UN, says Bern.

Editor’s note: Le Point in France carries an article with details about the repairs that need to be carried out.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND -  Thanks to ICRC (International Red Cross) mediation, six police and four soldiers, the last captives in uniform held by Colombian rebels, were released Monday 2 April after 10-14 years in jungle captivity.

Thomas Ess, a Swiss ICRC staff member who until recently was based in Geneva and who is now in Bogotá, was on board one of the aircrafts that picked up the former hostages. Ess describes the scene when the former police officers realized they were being freed.

The hostages, held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, were transferred abroad a Brazilian military helicopter to a military base in Villavicencio, southeast of the capital Bogota, before being united with family members.

The release, announced by FARC on February 26, had been negotiated by the International Committee of the Red Cross and a group of Colombian mediators, headed by a former senator, Piedad Cordoba, who has visited Geneva several times looking for support for her humanitarian mission.

An unknown number of civilian hostages are still being held by the rebels. In February, FARC promised to abandon ransom kidnappings.

Responding to FARC’s hostage release, President  Juan Manuel Santos said, “It is a gesture which we appreciate, but it is not enough”.

Links to other sources: El Pais, BBC, The Telegraph

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The sandblasting process used to fashionably fade jeans carries severe health risks and companies are not doing enough to end the deadly practice, says Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), The group in a report called “Deadly Denim”, released 29 March in Geneva, calls for a worldwide ban.

The report highlights what it calls severe health hazards linked to sandblasting used to manufacture designer jeans in Bangladesh.

Shanaj, who stays at home as a housewife is teaching the children of garment workers on the roof of a house. She only charges 200-300 taka a month. Most garment workers do not make enough money to send their children to school - August 2009, Dhaka, Bangladesh (photo/caption, CCC / Jasmina Akhtar)

CCC is an alliance of organizations in 15 European countries, including Switzerland, whose members include trade unions and NGOs representing women’s rights, consumer advocacy and poverty reduction groups, among others.  It focuses on assuring decent working conditions in the garment industry.

The report details how mechanically blasting tiny sand particles onto denim exposes workers, who often receive little or no protective gear, to serious respiratory problems including silicosis, a lung disease, and even death.

A worker can develop acute silicosis after just weeks of exposure to high concentrations of the dust.

MD Raihan, a former jeans sandblaster present at the release of the report in Geneva, explained that he had never received gloves or a mask for work, though “when buyers came we were provided with this equipment, but once buyers left, this equipment was taken away”. He stopped working after 18 months, as he had become increasingly ill.

A “Killer Jeans” campaign by CCC in 2010 prompted many fashion companies to stop using sandblasting but CCC says the method is still employed and must be banned.

It is calling on the International Labour Organization and the World Trade Organization to expand their silicosis bans, which cover the mining and construction industries, to include denim production.

Sarah Iqhal, one of the report’s authors, explains that working in a sandblasting room is “like being in a sandstorm in the middle of a desert”.

The industry has a high turnover, with many people exposed to these health hazards, says Christa Lugenbuehl of the organization’s Swiss group. “Workers often cannot work for more than one to two years in sandblasting due to their diminishing health.”

Luginbuehl calls for brands to “change their designs” and employ methods that are less hazardous.

Stricter regulations in developed countries have lead to sandblasting processing being moved to areas with fewer controls, according to CCC, including Turkey, Egypt, China, Bangladesh and Mexico.

Turkey banned the process in 2009 following a study linking sandblasting to silicosis. Fifty-two deaths in the country have since been attributed to garment sandblasting, according to the Clean Clothes Campaign report.

Links to other sources: Fair Trade Center, Ecouterre

Detail from the Hans Erni peace fresco on the front wall of the UN building in Geneva, where the Human Rights Council meets

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Israel’s announcement Monday that it is suspending all relations with the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva came just after the 19th session of the Council ended in Geneva, Friday 23 March. The decision capped a divisive debate towards the end of the session that once again pitted Israel and the United States against most of the rest of the council, but the debate received less media attention than usual because it was eclipsed by heated sessions on Syria, Sri Lanka, Iran, Myanmar/Burma and North Korea.

The UN office did not immediately confirm that it had received notice from Israel that it is suspending ties.

The council last week voted 36-1, with 10 abstentions, to send a fact-finding mission to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory to study the impact of Israeli settlers on Palestinians. It was one of a number of votes concerning Israel and Palestine.

Austria, Belgium, Norway and Switzerland, among European  countries, voted for the measure. Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Spain abstained. The council has 47 member countries elected for three-year terms; France, Germany, Italy and the UK currently send observers.

Israel’s foreign ministry decided Monday morning at a meeting led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman that “Israel’s ambassador to the UN organizations in Geneva will not appear before the council, answer any of its phone calls or cooperate with Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay in any way,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

Read more…

World water day is 22 March – whet your appetite for water news

Those of us next to Lake Geneva are among the world's lucky, with easy access to pentiful water supplies

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Today is World Water Day, declared by the United Nations, and we’re taking a moment out to think about what is historically one of humanity’s greatest problems and where we are with solving it.

In a nutshell, here’s what we “drink”, according to the UN: “There are 7 billion people to feed on the planet today and another 2 billion are expected to join by 2050.

“Statistics say that each of us drinks from 2 to 4 litres of water every day, however most of the water we ‘drink’ is embedded in the food we eat: producing 1 kilo of beef for example consumes 15,000 litres of water while 1 kilo of wheat ’drinks up’ 1,500 litres.”

Geneva, International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance: Before reading about the many problems linked to water where solutions are not in place, look at the wonderful collection of photos from the International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance, from its 2011 global photo contest. The Alliance, based in Geneva, brings together the many groups who are working to ease water shortages by harvesting rainwater, as part of sustainability programmes.

Switzerland: Palestinian refugees in seven camps in Lebanon are receving $2.62 million over two years for a remediation and upgrading of camp water supplies project, a cooperative effort between the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The project began at the end of December 2011.

It is designed to “ensure healthier lives for Palestine refugees by preventing and controlling diseases by providing access to safe drinking water. In addition, SDC will provide UNRWA with three Swiss technical experts for the project,” according to UNRWA.

West Bank:The UN News Centre 19 March published the results of a survey that show significant problems with access to water for West Bank Palestinians, as Israeli settlers move in nearby. “Palestinians have increasingly lost access to water sources in the West Bank as a result of the takeover of springs by Israeli settlers, who have used threats, intimidation and fences to ensure control of water points close to the settlements, according to a new United Nations survey released today.

Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, ECCC (Khmer Rouge Tribunal)

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A former Geneva magistrate who has been the international reserve co-investigating judge for the Khmer Rouge investigation and trials handed in his resignation Monday 19 March. His move follows a lengthy dispute with the tribunal’s national judge over the international judge’s right to conduct investigations.

The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, as the ECCC (Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia) is popularly known, is a national court that was set up by agreement between the United Nations and the Royal Government of Cambodia to try senior former members of the Khmer Rouge government for crimes against humanity from 1975-79.

Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet gave his notice to the Secretary-General of the UN noting, according to an ECCC statement issued Monday, that “in view of the victims’ right to have investigations conducted in a proper manner and despite his determination to do so, Judge Laurent Kasper-Ansermet considers that the present circumstances no longer allow him to properly and freely perform his duties.”

History of taut Cambodian judges-UN appointees relations

Kasper-Ansermet was named by the UN to the case in October 2011 to replace German investigating judge Siegfried Blunk.

Blunk had resigned after accusing the Cambodian government of interfering in the investigations and Kasper-Ansermat was assigned to replace him, as the reserve judge. Blunk’s resignation came just the weeks after international publicity over charges by prosecutor Andrew Caylay that the national judges were trying to bury two of the five cases by closing it prematurely.

Human Rights groups have called for the resignation of national judges on the tribunal, although Human Rights Watch also called for Blunk’s resignation.

Phnom Penh refused to accept the Geneva judge‘s appointment, but Kasper-Ansermet stepped into the job and provoked futher the ire of the Cambodian government by continuing work on Cases 003 and 004 and by calling for five more former Pol Pot regime rulers to be investigated.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge officer who changed sides, is opposed to any new cases, citing lack of funds, which has been a problem for the court, according to Le Monde.

One former leader, known as “Duch” was sentenced late in 2011, but the other cases are still in the pre-trial investigative stage.

Judge’s right to Twitter sparked debate

Kasper-Ansermet, who is active on the Internet, was charged by the Cambodian government with acting illegally by Twittering about the Tribunal cases. The UN said it had investigated these concerns and determined they were unfounded. In February 2012 the International Bar Association in London found that “he exercised appropriate restraint and one can conclude that Judge Kasper-Ansermet’s actions should not be used as a reason to justify his rejection.”

Geneva legal and human rights roots

He began his career working for Swiss public broadcasting, TSR television, as an assistant producer. He studied law and trained in Geneva and was eventually named a judge at the Palais de Justice in the city, from 2001 to 2004, but overall he has 18 years’ experienc as a prosecutor, investigating judge and a judge in Geneva, focusing particularly on complex financial crimes and corruption.

Before his ECCC appointment he was a member of the Swiss Expert Pool for Civilian Peace (PEP) where he advised the prosecutor’s office in the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). Prior to this he served as the head of the Paris office for the Inquiry Commission into the United Nations Oil-For-Food Programme.

Ed. note: he is the grandson of Ernest Ansermet, who led the Orchestre Suisse-Romande to international fame.

Visit “against deteriorating humanitarian aid background” as fighting breaks out in capital

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Jacob Kellenberger, head of the Geneva-based International Red Cross, is in Moscow Monday 19 March to ask Russian authorities for help in getting a two-hour daily break in fighting in Syria.

Kellenberger’s visit “takes place against the background of a deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria,” the aid group said Sunday.

“The humanitarian situation in Homs, Idlib, Hama, Deraa and other areas affected by the unrest remains extremely difficult and could deteriorate further. People have been suffering for several months in some areas, with women and children particularly affected,’ Kellenberger said before leaving

“A daily cessation in the fighting for a period of at least two hours remains essential in order for emergency medical evacuations to take place safely and for aid to reach vulnerable people swiftly,” he noted. “The ICRC is asking for an unambiguous commitment from all concerned to these breaks in the fighting, so that it can reach people in urgent need.”

Moscow said last week it will continue its “military cooperation with Syria”. Russia is reported Monday, by Swedish think tank and research group The Stockholm International Peace Initiative (Sipri), to have supplied 78 percent of Syria’s arms in the past five years – which have increased 580 percent.

Monday fighting in capital heaviest in a year

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Social media’s role having a huge impact on Red Cross work

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The International Red Cross working closely with the The Syrian Arab Red Crescent team, continue to provide first aid and medical care as well as food, blankets and hygiene items near the city of Homs, to residents and people who fled Baba Amr, while the worst hit areas remain off-limits. A senior Red Cross figure Tuesday evening confirmed to GenevaLunch that social media are playing an increasingly significant role in conflict areas, requiring more staff to deal with the stream of communication, which recently, for example, included French journalist Edith Bouvier using Twitter to contact the ICRC to ask for help.

Bouvier suffered leg injuries in the blast that killed two other reporters 22 February. She was able to escape Syria 2 March and go to Lebanon.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay came down hard on Sri Lanka's post-war report

(Land mine information corrected) GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva’s international profile was particularly high during the past week.

The Human Rights Council condemned Syria but also highlighted growing concerns over Sri Lanka, the World Trade Organization picked up the Acta Internet freedom debate, Cern announced it will be using cloud computing to help handle massive LHC data and a campaign was kicked off to to raise awareness about anti-personnel landmine issues.

The International Red Cross Saturday morning 3 March has a team ready to provide emergency supplies to badly hit Baba Amr in Homs, Syria, after being told it could go in, with permission then denied.

Highlights from international Geneva actions during the week of 28 February – 2 March:

Cern and the computing cloud  GenevaLunch story 1 March; Reuters

Human Rights Council  Syria: GenevaLunch story 1 March, NY Times, Palestine News Network, Ria Novosti. Sri Lanka: The country’s ambassador to the country, Tamara Kunanayakam, reacted strongly, as did media in Sri Lanka, to a resolution presented by the US and the European Union that call for Colombo to speed up efforts to restore peace. The resolution came as Sri Lanka published a report by its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), which was also criticized by UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, who said it fell short of the accountability process demanded by UN Experts.

Kunanayakam argued that the council is overstepping bounds in not allowing the LLRC, a domestic panel created by the president, to complete its work, and she called the US in particular “impatient”, saying that “the majority of the international community supports Sri Lanka’s efforts and its stand that a functioning domestic mechanism should not be circumvented by interference until its conclusion. ‘The hypocrisy and the double standard thus displayed (by the US and the European Union), if should they be encouraged would affect the credibility and undermine gravely the legitimacy of the Council,’ the Sri Lankan ambassador warned,” reports Colombo Page.

Marla Otero, a US under-secretary of state, speaking to the council in Geneva 2 March, said “We know from experience that there can be no lasting peace without reconciliation and accountability, but the United States is concerned that, in Sri Lanka, time is slipping away.  The international community has waited nearly three years for action, and while we welcome the release of the LLRC report, the recommendations of the report should be implemented. ”

ICBL, International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a Nobel Laureate organization, kicked off its “Lend your leg” action to call attention to the landmine issue and to urge governments to put a full stop to the devastating harm mines cause in the run-up to mine awareness day 4 April. The 13th anniversary of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention was 1 March.

ICRC, International Red Cross, was told by the Syrian government 1 March that it could enter the battered city of Homs to provide emergency food and medical supplies to thousands of civilians who have been the victims of weeks of shelling. But Friday 2 March the head of the ICRC said they were not allowed to enter the area as promised. “It is unacceptable that people who have been in need of emergency assistance for weeks have still not received any help,” said ICRC president Jakob Kellenberger. “We are staying in Homs tonight in the hope of entering Baba Amr in the very near future. In addition, many families have fled Baba Amr, and we will help them as soon as we possibly can.”

WTO, World Trade Organization  Media attention to Acta, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, has been focused mainly on the European Commission and European Parliament arguments over the hotly debated legislation, but it was also under scrutiny this week in Geneva.

IP Watch carries a lengthy article on the Acta debate, which prompted 2.5 million people to sign a petition given to the European Parliament, opposing it. IP Watch reports that Acta was discussed in the WTO “in the context of enforcement trends on the agenda of the Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS),” which met at the start of last week. It cites one unnamed participant: “Acta was considered one of the ‘tools’ governments had against counterfeiting and piracy, but now there is misinformation about it that is leading to reactions, the participant said. In particular, the Acta debate gets ‘mixed up’ with copyright issues, when copyright itself is not addressed in Acta, the participant said.

“‘Acta enforces copyright. It does not say something is legal or illegal,’ the participant said. ‘Acta gives a tool to address illegality. Acta does not say what is a copyright infringement.’”

Strong opposition to Acta is linked in part to international opposition to Pipa, a US law that prompted Wikipedia and scores of other major Internet organizations to call a one-day whiteout  17 January 2012.

European consortium establishes cloud computing system

Cern's computing storage needs were huge even before the LHC in 2008 began to require the data storage equivalent of a stack of CDs 20 km tall, per year. To handle this amount of data, Cern developed the Grid, allowing processing power to be shared between computer centres around the world. The time has come for Helix Nebula, the next step in storage space solutions.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Three major European science organizations are joining forces to build a heavy-duty cloud computing systems that will bear the weight of their scientific research data, Cern in Geneva announced 1 March.

Cern (European Centre for Nuclear Research) will be the first to use it, to have more computing power to process data from its international Atlas experiment at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider).

“Helix Nebula”, or the science cloud, “will support the massive IT requirements of European scientists, and become available to governmental organizations and industry after an initial pilot phase”, says Cern.

Two-year pilot projecct

Helix Nebula will be deployed and tested during two years, based on three flagship projects proposed by Cern, EMBL  (European Molecular Biology Laboratory) and ESA (European Space Agency): to accelerate the search for the elusive Higgs particle, to boost large-scale genomic analyses in biomedical research and to support research into natural disasters.

The partnership is looking to establish a sustainable European cloud computing infrastructure. Industry will be called on to support it in order to provide “stable computing capacities and services that elastically meet demand”, but the names and commitments of these partners were not revealed Thursday.

From Higgs to genomes to earthquakes, all in the cloud

The EMBL is setting up a new service to simplify the analysis of large genomes, such as those from mammals. “The quantities of genomic sequence data are vast and the needs for high performance computing infrastructures and bioinformatics expertise to analyse these data pose a challenge for many laboratories,” says Rupert Lueck, head of IT services at the EMBL. Its cloud-based whole-genome-assembly and annotation pipeline relies on expertise from the Genomics Core facility in Germany, the EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute, and its Heidelberg’s IT Services.

The ESA is partnering with the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is collaborating with the National Research Council (CNR) in Italy, to create an Earth observation platform focusing on earthquake and volcano research.

British embassy personnel withdrawn from

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva voted 38-3 to condemn Syria in a resolution that refers to “widespread and systematic violations of human rights”. China, Cuba and Russia voted against the motion, continuing to argue that intervening in Syria’s affairs will worsen the situation.

The vote came as Syrian forces bombarded the Baba Amro district of Homs, where the plight of rebels and civilians is worsened by the heaviest snow the area has seen in years, according to rebels quoted by Reuters.

The Swiss government Thursday confirmed that it closed its Syrian embassy Wednesday, after weeks of encouraging its citizens there to leave the country. The embassy says that 150 who are registered remain in the country, all but three of them with dual citizenship. Two-thirds of them live in Damascus, with another group in Aleppo.

The UK announced it has withdrawn staff from its embassy in Damascus and it is stopping all diplomatic services.

The Voice of America cites Hillary Clinton at a press conference as saying “There is little doubt that Iran is strongly supporting Assad and his regime,” adding: “The details about what they are or are not doing, we could provide what we know in a classified session, but you are absolutely right that Iran has a lot invested in Assad and will do whatever it can to keep him in power.”

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The World Health Organization in Delhi announced 29 February that India is no longer on the list of “endemic” polio nations, with that list now reduced to an all-time low of three countries. Polio-endemic nations are those that have never stopped indigenous wild poliovirus transmission.

The three remaining polio-endemic countries are Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan.

India’s last new case was registered in January 2011 and at the start of 2012 the WHO noted that while India was once recognized as the world’s epicentre of polio vaccinations and careful surveillance had turned the situation around. The Geneva office said in January that “if all pending laboratory investigations return negative, in the coming weeks India will officially be deemed to have stopped indigenous transmission of wild poliovirus.”

The Delhi office’s announcement was covered at length by the BBC‘s medical correspondent, who points out that eradicating the disease by 2012 is nevertheless not on track.

The WHO in Geneva, for its part, says that Read more…

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Two of the main Geneva-based aid organizations are reporting very different situations in the field this week. The IOM (International Organization for Migration) Tuesday 28 February announced the relatively good news that the number of people still living in camps in Haiti has fallen to under half a million people for the first time since the massive earthquake in 2010.

ICRC enters Hama for first time with blankets, hygiene kits

The ICRC (International Red Cross), which is publishing daily updates on its work in Syria, says it is entering the city of Hama for the first time, with emergency supplies for 12,000 people. But it reported Sunday  that efforts to remove scores of injured people from Syria were cut short when it failed to get the agreement of both government forces and rebels to a ceasefire that would allow it to provide emergency services.

Times journalist escapes; Bouvier may also be in Lebanon

Aljazeera reports Tuesday morning that one of the injured Western journalists hurt in the shelling that killed two others last week in Homs, Syria, has escaped to Lebanon. Paul Conroy, a photographer for the Sunday Times in the UK made it safely out of Syria and French reporter Edith Bouvier, who has made headlines with her video appeal from Homs, where she suffered a broken leg, may also be in Lebanon. Bouvier’s whereabouts has not been confirmed, according to Aljazeera.

Haiti situation: refugees being moved into new homes

The IOM reports that the reduction in camp numbers

“comes as the Government of Haiti’s newly created housing authority L’Unité de Construction de Logements et de Bâtiments Publics (UCLBP) starts to deliver results and the pace of relocation picks up. An initiative known as “16/6″ is helping earthquake displaced people living in six public spaces to return to sixteen communities which are undergoing redevelopment. It was launched by President Michel Martelly last year and a government-led steering committee is now setting the pace for reconstruction and relocation.

“In the last two weeks, under this programme, some 200 families have permanently left Champ de Mars, the historic plaza in front of the ruined National Palace. Over the coming months the square will be returned to public use under the project, which is funded by Canada.”

$35.6 million needed for 85,000 refugees fleeing Mali fighting

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Fighting that flared up in northern Mali 17 January continues and is causing an exodus of refugees, the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) said Friday 24 February in an appeal for funds. It is seeking $36.5 million to cover emergency expenses to July 2012 for the need of 85,000 uprooted people.

“An estimated 130,000 people have been uprooted within and outside Mali since the resumption of clashes between the Malian army and Tuareg rebels of the Mouvement National de Libération de l’Azawad (MNLA)–breaking the 2009 peace deal that had formally ended the Tuareg rebellion in Mali,” the UNHCR says. “In the surrounding countries, the largest influx has so far been recorded in Niger with 28,858 arrivals. In Mauritania, 22,958 Malian refugees have been registered so far.  Another 17,499 Malian refugees have found refuge in Burkina Faso.  More daily arrivals are being recorded in the neighboring countries as attacks continue throughout northern Mali, where an estimated 60,000 Malians are also internally displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance.

The funds will be used by the Geneva-based organization “to provide emergency assistance to the displaced in Mali and neighboring countries. The UNHCR is to establish camps further away from the Mali border in all three countries to allow refugees to receive help in safer locations.”

UNHCR seeks solution for small group of N Koreans

The UNHCR also announced Friday that it is in contact with Chinese authorities concerning a group of 25 N Koreans who have been held in China since Februay, without providing details of when or why or where they are being detained. The Geneva organization is working to ensure that China respects the international principle of no forced return.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Italy was dealt a blow Thursday by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled against it in a case known as Hirsi Jamaa and Others v. Italy that date back to 2009. “Italy violated the European Convention of Human Rights by intercepting and returning to Libya in 2009 a group of Somalis and Eritreans without examining whether this would constitute a real risk to their lives,” according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR),which intervened in the court case.

The Geneva-based organization is calling on countries to provide better access to humanitarian assistance for people picked up at sea, who are often more vulnerable than other asylum-seekers, both physically and psychologically, it says. The decision 23 February “provides important guidance to European states in their border control and interception practices, representing a turning point regarding state responsibilities and the management of mixed migration flows”, the UNHCR believes.

“As an intervener in the case, the UNHCR highlighted the obligation of states not to forcibly return people to countries where they face persecution or serious harm. This is known as the ‘non-refoulement principle’. In its submission to the Court, UNHCR underlined that, given the situation prevailing in Libya at that time, push-back policies undermined access to protection and the principle of non-refoulement, which also applies on the high seas. The UNHCR appreciates the challenges that irregular migration poses to Italy and other EU countries and acknowledges the significant efforts made by Italy and other states to save lives in their search and rescue operations.”

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Global Fund will be looking for a new communications director, with Jon Lidén announcing his departure 13 February, reports IP Watch. Lidén had held the post for nearly 10 years, almost since the organization was created. The Global Fund is expected to have $10 billion to disburse worldwide for the three-year 2011-2013 period to fight Aids, malaria and tuberculosis,

The group has been under pressure for the past year, with some funding withdrawn and other funding commitments delayed after US media accusations of fraud that have been hotly debated. Lidén is quoted by IP Watch as saying in a memo to staff that he and the new general manager, Gabriel Jaramillo, have agreed “that for the new direction the communications work should be taking, the organization is best served by finding a new person to lead this work.

Jaramillo replaces the departing executive director, Michel Kazatchkine, who leaves in mid-March (IPW, Public Health, 25 January 2012) amid rumours that the United States was behind the change, according to IP Watch.