DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Sue Markham, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly.

Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon, thank you for coming.

**Secretary-General’s Trip to United Kingdom

This morning at Oxford University, the Secretary-General was given the cap and gown of a Doctor of Civil Law before joining the procession from Balliol College to the ceremonial centre of the University, the Sheldonian Theatre, where the Encaenia -- or commencement -- was to take place.

The Secretary-General was introduced by the Public Orator, Jasper Griffin, who said, in Latin, "Mr. Annan is not a man to shirk problems which are either arduous or dangerous, and he is conspicuous also for his readiness, if something goes wrong, not to take refuge in the all-too-familiar pattern of bureaucratic obfuscation, of evading responsibility, and of leaving any criticism to be faced by subordinates."

He called the Secretary-General "a generous champion of the poor, a far-sighted partisan of justice and a tireless advocate of peace".

The Chancellor then awarded the Secretary-General an honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law.

The Secretary-General then attended a luncheon hosted by All Souls College, after which he met briefly with some students of international affairs at

St. Anthony's College, whose head is Marrack Goulding, the former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs.

The Secretary-General returned to London in the late afternoon to prepare for a series of official meetings tomorrow, starting with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

**Security Council

The Security Council met in closed consultations this morning to hear a briefing by Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov, the High-Level Coordinator on missing Kuwaiti property.

As you will recall, the Secretary-General’s report on this issue was published last week.

Tomorrow, the Council will hold two formal meetings.  During the first the Council is expected to adopt a resolution extending the mandate of the United Nations mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina by one year.  During the second meeting,

the Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, will introduce the Secretary-General’s report on the Prevention of Armed Conflict.

**Ethiopia-Eritrea

The Secretary-General’s report to the Security Council on Ethiopia and Eritrea is out on the racks today.

The Secretary-General commends both Governments for their continued commitment to the peace process.  He, however, expresses concern about the excessive number of militia and police maintained by Eritrea in the Temporary Security Zone, and continued restrictions by both sides on the United Nations mission’s freedom of movement.

The Secretary-General urges the leadership of both countries, with the assistance of the international community, to work on confidence-building measures aimed at restoring normal relations between the peoples of the two countries.

The Council is expected to discuss the report next week.

**Council Mission to Kosovo and Belgrade

Also on Security Council documents, out on the racks today is the report of the Security Council mission to Kosovo and Belgrade, which was presented by the head of the mission, Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury of Bangladesh, to the Council yesterday afternoon.

The report has been transmitted to the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Kosovo, Hans Haekkerup, who has been asked to share it with those whom the Council met in Kosovo and in Belgrade.

**Special Session of General Assembly on HIV/AIDS

Just a few minutes ago, many of you saw the Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, who provided you with some information in advance of next week's General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS.

She said that the special session, in addition to the plenary, would include four roundtables on specific themes:  prevention and care; AIDS and human rights; the social and economic dimensions of the epidemic; and funding.  She also gave a thorough explanation in answer to questions on the proposed Global Fund.

She also noted that, in addition to the declaration Governments are expected to adopt next week on AIDS, the meeting has given rise to considerable awareness of AIDS.

Asked about some culturally sensitive passages that nations were discussing in the draft declaration, the Deputy Secretary-General said she believed, from her discussions with governments, that there is a strong desire to come to agreement, and to find the right words to be able to have a consensus document.

Also today, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) announced a partnership with the Coca Cola Africa Foundation, by which the Foundation will support AIDS education, prevention and treatment programmes in Africa over the next three years.

Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, welcomed the agreement and said that through it, Coca Cola can "bring its unrivalled marketing and logistics expertise to responses to the epidemic, from the community to the highest political level."

Upstairs we have a press release by UNAIDS with more details on this cooperation.

Still on UNAIDS, I’d like to bring to your attention that tomorrow at

11 o’clock, Dr. Piot will launch the report “Together We Can -– Leadership in a World of AIDS”, which examines political and social leadership in the fight against the epidemic.

UNAIDS also asked us to inform you that an important study of the resources that will be needed to provide HIV care and prevention until 2005, a study commissioned by UNAIDS, will be published tomorrow in the journal “Science”.  The article is embargoed until tomorrow at 2 in the afternoon, Eastern Time. Journalists may obtain copies by phoning “Science” at (212) 326-6440.

**World Refugee Day

As I relayed to you yesterday, today marks the first ever World Refugee Day.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that the day is being marked around the world by numerous events organized by refugees, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), schools, universities, musicians and politicians.

The theme of the Day is “respect” -– respect for refugees themselves and recognition of the positive contribution so many of them make to their host societies, as well as for the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Hailing the occasion, the top United Nations refugee official, Ruud Lubbers, urged decision-makers to do more to preserve the institution of asylum and to give financial backing to refugee programs worldwide.

**East Timor

From East Timor, we have the news that East Timor's National Council today unanimously passed a regulation to establish a Commission on Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, which will examine human rights violations committed in East Timor between 1974 and 1999.  The Commission will also create a body that would assist agreements between local communities and people who had perpetrated lesser crimes during that period.

After passing that regulation, the National Council also unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Transitional Administrator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, to take all steps to establish an international tribunal to prosecute those who had committed serious human rights violations in East Timor.

Further details on this are available in the briefing notes from Dili, which also include information on the flooding in Lospalos District, which has forced 150 people into emergency shelters in the area.

**International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Today at The Hague, Florence Hartmann, the Spokeswoman for the International Tribunal’s Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, confirmed that Del Ponte's visit to Belgrade, scheduled for this Friday, has been postponed, and no new date has been set.

The Tribunal has not been involved with internal discussions under way in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia about cooperation with the Tribunal, but, when that process is finished, the Tribunal would be informed and at that point, a new visit by the Prosecutor would be organized.

Additional information is available in today's weekly press briefing by the Tribunal.

**Signings and Ratifications

This morning, Colombia became the fifth country to sign the International Coffee Agreement, 2001.

**Press Releases

We’d like to flag one from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).  It has reissued yesterday’s press release with a correction to some figures.  The number of women who died of AIDS last year should be 1.3 million instead of 1.6 million as stated yesterday.  The new press release is available in the Spokesman’s office.

**Fourth of July

As in past years, the United Nations community will be able to view the Macy’s Independence Day fireworks display from the grounds of the United Nations.  Holders of United Nations grounds passes will be able to bring up to eight guests.  Tickets will be issued for guests on a first-come-first-served basis.  A limited number of tickets will be available for resident coordinators and can be collected starting on Monday in the Staff Committee Office in room S-525.  United Nations staff can also collect tickets starting on Monday 25 June at the Staff Committee Office as well.  Tickets for delegations can be collected at the Pass and Identification Office in the UNITAR Building during their regular working hours on 20, 21, 22, 28 and 29 June, as well as on 2 and 3 July.

There is an Information Circular with more information on that.

**Press Conferences

And finally, this afternoon, immediately following our briefing here, at 12:45, Andy Bearpark, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Reconstruction and European Union (EU) representative in Kosovo, will be here to discuss the EU’s role in Kosovo’s economic development.  A media advisory with further information is available on the racks on the third floor.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  When was the UNAIDS Coca Cola announcement officially made?

Deputy Spokesman:  We got the announcement shortly before the Deputy Secretary-General’s press conference, so it was this morning in Geneva.

Question:  What I am trying to ascertain here is:  if there are future announcements of this nature that involve United Nations agencies, we would really appreciate getting first dibs on reporting the story, rather than seeing it in the Wall Street Journal.  I also wonder if you could put out a list of people who have donated to the AIDS Fund.

Deputy Spokesman:  I think we gave you that a few days ago.  But there is one addition.  We will have it updated.

Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly

**World Refugee Day

The President of the General Assembly today issued a statement on the occasion of the first World Refugee Day.  It also marks the 50^th anniversary of the United Nations Convention relating to the status of refugees.

In his statement, the President said that refugees are ordinary people, are fellow citizens of the world, facing extraordinary difficulties, sizeable enough for them to leave their homesteads and their everyday lives.  After the trauma of leaving their homes, refugees have to cope with and manage the pressures of starting over in another country, in another culture, frequently in distant countries and sometimes even in hostile environments.

He goes on to say that resettlement offers one solution for refugees, but the waiting period for granting asylum is often long -– several months or years -– and in the meantime it is crucial that the mental and physical capacities of refugees are maintained and rebuilt.

A copy of the statement is available upstairs as a press release, and also on the Web site.

**Special Session of the General Assembly on Children

This afternoon in the Plenary Hall, there will be the drawing of lots for the speakers for the special session, which is going to be in September.  That will be at 3 p.m. and it is an open meeting, if anyone is interested in covering it.

There will be informal consultations on the draft outcome document tomorrow and Friday.

**Special Session on HIV/AIDS

At this morning’s press conference by the Deputy Secretary-General, we made available a number of documents which will also be available on the third floor.  I would like to draw your attention to a few of the important aspects of them.

The press kit contains some very interesting background information on the major issues.  There is a booklet of fact-sheets; there is also a press release that brings you up to date with the issues and the status of the discussion on the draft outcome document.  And there is a list of media contacts in that kit, which you might find helpful.

We also made available the current list of speakers for the general debate. There are 24 Heads of State and Government and six Vice-Presidents for a total of 30 high-level speakers.  The remainder are mostly at the ministerial level.

There is also the information note to delegations, which we made available to the press, because it contains information that you might find useful.  I draw your attention in particular to page 17, which is a three-page summary of the programme of activities.  It does not list all the activities that we expect, but they are some of the main ones.  There are so many going on that you might find it useful to have that as a reference point.

It does not include the press conference list, which we will issue separately, probably starting Friday.  Of course, it will be released to you daily in advance.  It does not contain the NGO events, of which there are a great many. We will make that available to you as well.

There is another document containing the broader events schedule.  This includes not only events going on inside the United Nations but also what is going on outside the building.

In response to a question raised at the Deputy Secretary-General’s press conference, we have now made available a new sheet with names of some of the high-level people attending, in addition to the Heads of State and Government.  That list is still subject to change.

What to expect in the coming few days?  Of course we will brief you daily.  We kicked off this morning with the press conference of the Deputy Secretary-General, and tomorrow UNAIDS will be launching their leadership report at

11 o’clock.  As you know, leadership is one of the main issues in the draft outcome document, and therefore tomorrow’s press conference will be very interesting to you.

There is a press release out which tells you about the lighting of the United Nations building with the AIDS ribbon.  That will happen on Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights, and an official photograph will be made available late on Saturday night after the building has been lit up.  We have solicited volunteers from within the Secretariat to help us with the preparing of the windows for putting up the AIDS ribbon.

Sometime between now and Monday, we will have more informal negotiations on the draft outcome document.  I am afraid I don’t know yet specifically which days. We will also have, before the special session, a formal meeting of the General Assembly, at which time it will transmit the outcome document to the special session.  I’m sorry I can’t tell you yet on which day that will be.  As soon as I know, we’ll let you know, but I hear it might be Saturday.

Starting also over the weekend, we will have billboards, a bit like the Millennium billboards on bus shelters, about the special session.  They will be on bus shelters around New York City and also at the three major New York City airports.

We will have, as usual, a daily noon briefing which Manoel and I will be conducting.  We will keep it as short as possible.  Every day at 1 p.m. we will have a substantive briefing, which Dr. Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS, will conduct with the co-sponsors of UNAIDS.  As you know, there are seven United Nations

agencies involved with UNAIDS and the heads of those organizations will attend that daily briefing.  It will be in Conference Room 2 every day at one o’clock.

We will also have press conferences by the Chairs of the Round Tables.  There will be four Round Tables, starting on Monday afternoon, and at the end of each Round Table, at 6 p.m. for the afternoon sessions and 1:15 p.m. for the morning sessions we will have the Chairman of the Round Table brief you in this room.

On Monday morning at 11:30, the President of the General Assembly will have a press conference.  He may also have the co-facilitators with him at that press conference.

The press conference schedule is pretty chock-a-block and we try very hard not to overlap press conferences, although it will happen.  The afternoon press conference of the Chairs of the Round Tables unfortunately will overlap with the one o’clock briefing, but we will make sure that one of them is replayed on UNTV afterwards.

Press conferences will be here, in Room 226, and also in Conference Room 2.  They will be more or less back to back, so we hope that people will keep to the tight schedule.

The Secretary-General will hold a press conference on the final day of the special session at 12 noon.

Conference Room 1 will be a media-centre, and we expect quite a number of journalists to come, especially for the special session.  They will have all the facilities available to them there:  computers, Internet access and telephones.  Copies of the documents and press releases will be down there as well.

The NGO activities will be in Conference Room 4 and also in some of the alphabet rooms.  In the press release, we have given you an estimate of how many people we expect, but people are still registering.  We expect at least 2,000 representatives of some 500 civil society groups, NGOs and the private sector.  We expect at least 1,000 representatives of delegations to attend.  I don’t have a figure of the number of journalists that have so far asked for accreditation, but I am sure that will be some hundreds.

That covers some of the logistical things.  If there is anything else, I’ll be happy to provide you with whatever information I can.  Thank you.

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