As you know, today is one month since the Haiti earthquake. And we’re going to start the briefing with a video by David Ohana, who is from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who was in Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of the earthquake. And this doesn’t represent an exhaustive account of the relief efforts. It’s David’s rendering of what he saw in Haiti, and it’s our way of marking the day. It’s short, it’s very poignant and we’ll be posting this on the web as well. So, please, David.
[To mark the one-month anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, the Spokesperson opened the briefing with the broadcast of a video produced by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The short film captures the difficult first few days of the United Nations-led rescue and recovery operations. It can be viewed on the United Nations website]. Spokesperson: Great job, David. Thank you very much indeed for that. And as I said, we’ll be putting that on the website, and we’ll be making sure that it is widely viewed. And just to give you a very quick update on the situation in Haiti, as you know, John Holmes and Rebeca Grynspan will brief you at 3 p.m. There are a couple of other things to flag. From Geneva, the Offices of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are urging countries to suspend all involuntary returns to Haiti, due to the continuing humanitarian crisis. And the two offices say that, while the international response to the disaster is well under way, assistance efforts and services have still to reach a significant portion of the affected population. And from Rome, the World Food Programme (WFP) is today hosting a high-level meeting to discuss Haiti’s medium and long-term agricultural development, food security and nutrition planning process. A task force, to be jointly led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and WFP, was announced at the meeting. The task force will support the Haitian Government as it strives to implement immediate and long-term food security strategies that integrate agricultural production and social safety nets. And as you know, a day of mourning is being observed today in Haiti, one month after the earthquake struck.
seen at 12:00, 12 February
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Spokesman for the UN Secretary General.
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