The United Nations Office at Geneva
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Bi-weekly press briefing - 28 November 2023
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Press Conferences | UNICEF , UNHCR , WHO , UNCTAD , UNDP , UNITAID , OSE
Bi-weekly press briefing - 28 November 2023
PRESS BRIEFING BY THE UNITED NATIONS INFORMATION SERVICE
28 November 2023
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Refugee Agency, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the United Nations Development Programme, and Unitaid.
Humanitarian situation in Gaza
Responding to questions from the media, James Elder, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), speaking from Gaza, said that the situation in Gaza was devastating. The current moment of respite provided a chance to get aid in and for people to look for their loved ones. Mr. Elder spoke of seeing people drink the water the very moment it was delivered to them. Sorrow and stress were visible all over, said Mr. Elder. Cramped in temporary accommodation, people were waiting for hours just to go to the bathroom. The right type of aid was getting in now, but the necessary quantities could be secured only if the humanitarian truce was expanded and turned into a permanent ceasefire. In the absence of sufficient fuel, trees were being chopped off for heating and cooking. There were a lot of humanitarian workers on the ground, particularly UNRWA staff, whose bravery had to be highlighted, said Mr Elder. Still, there were nearly not enough programmes to address children’s psychological traumas, for example. Conditions in which children were living in were not fit for their recovery. Most children who had lost their parents had been absorbed by extended families and communities, and their stories were heartbreaking.
Answering further questions, Mr. Elder said that fuel meant access to clean drinking water because desalination plants needed fuel to operate. The aid coming in these days was just a start. If the fighting were to start again, there was no way that there would be sufficient fuel to run the plants. All the aid coming in now was but a triage, he reiterated. Mr. Elder further said that the situation in Gaza was worse than he had anticipated before going there. He spoke of having seen children receiving health care while lying on mattresses in parking lots. Everything in Gaza was emergency care right now. Lack of access to safe water was crippling, leading to many gastrointestinal health problems. If the hostilities continued at the same scale as in the past eight weeks, it would mean allowing this horror to proceed. What happened to the human instinct to protect children? asked Mr. Elder.
Margaret Harris, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that for weeks now, hospitals had managed to accept and treat patients thanks to the bravery of the health workers, but the conditions in health facilities were simply dismal. On 24 November, the WHO had carried out an assessment mission to UNRWA shelters in the north, where it had noted problems with waste disposal and the lack of safe water, hygiene, food, and medical care. There was a rise in diarrheal and respiratory diseases. There were many cases of diarrhea among infants but no adequate treatment, which could mean a death sentence to those children. UNRWA staff were conducting surveillance in this regard. Chronic health conditions would become acute conditions which would kill those patients; eventually, more people could die of diseases than of bombardment. Dr. Harris stressed that the needs were massive, and the amount of aid coming in, while increasing, was still only a trickle. Vaccinations could not be conducted unless there was safety, she explained.
A continuing, true ceasefire was needed, stressed Dr. Harris. The neutrality of health care ought to be respected at all times, and health workers had to be neutral. She spoke of “patient transfer” rather than “evacuations” of patients, as some patients were simply being moved from hospitals where they could no longer receive medical support to places where they could possibly receive at least some care. ON the matter of the health workers in custody, Dr Harris said that during the transfer of critically ill patients from Al Shifa, the convoy had been kept at a checkpoint between the north and the south parts of the Gaza Strip for six hours; some medical personnel who had been in the convoy had been detained by the Israeli Defense Forces. Dr. Harris said that the human rights of those medical workers had to be respected. The loss of the Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s most advanced hospital, was devastating. It should be restored to its full functionality as the Strip’s main tertiary level health institution. Ms. Harris said that there were some 20,000 health workers in the Gaza Strip; the skills where there, but what was needed were safety and more functioning hospitals. There was need for continuity of the fuel and the safety to do necessary repairs and for medical personnel to know that they would not be hurt or killed while doing their jobs. Safe, functioning, well-equipped places where doctors and nurses could perform their tasks were an absolute necessity.
New findings on climate change and health products
Herve Verhoosel, for Unitaid, said that Unitaid welcomed that for the first time ever, the organizers of COP would include an official Health Day on 3 December to draw attention to the interconnection between climate and health. This was a key moment to put health at the core of climate action. The climate crisis was putting pressure on an already overstretched global health system and bringing access to basic healthcare in danger once more. The irony was that a sector that strived to keep people well was also contributing to the problem, accounting for approximately 4.6 percent of global net carbon emissionsNew Unitaid report with findings on climate change and health products drew attention to the fact that key health products and medicines used by practitioners every day around the world to respond to diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, improve women's and child's health, and respond to global emergencies, might not be fit for purpose in a changing climate.
Unitaid was calling on the global health industry, policymakers, governments, research institutions and major buyers of pharmaceutical products to act now, before it was too late. Key health products had to remain accessible as the climate changes, or else we risked backsliding on hard-earned gains in responding to infectious disease and improving healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. Unitaid had already begun advancing these solutions with a goal of introducing 30 key health products by 2030 that are more “climate-smart” as part of its new Climate and Health strategy, which would be launched at COP28 on 3 December.
Vincent Bretin, Unitaid Director of Results, said that it was known that climate change put health system under stress, the health sector contributed significant emissions, and health supply chains impacted the environment. In its study, Unitad had looked at ten key health products in global health, the absolutely vital products in global health, such as medicines for HIV, TB or malaria, malaria bed nets, diagnostics for TB, or oxygen facilities. Key findings showed that the absolute quantities of carbons emitted in the atmosphere from those ten supply chains was very large – over 3.5m tons/year, which, for a comparison, was bigger than the emissions of the city of Geneva. Unitaid’s research showed that a main source of impact related to the release of toxic chemical waste at the point of manufacturing. Significant impact was also linked to waste at the point of use of disposal; for example, bed nets alone generated 57,000 tons of plastic waste every year with currently almost no recycling solutions in place.
The last series of findings, informed Mr. Bretin, related to climate risks on supply chain. He provided an example of malaria treatment, a product used by hundreds of millions of people every year, whose supply chain risks had to be addressed. Mr. Bretin reiterated that Unitaid would present these key findings at COP 28. Unitaid’s Board had just approved a Climate and Health strategy last week, which was centered on the concept of climate-smart products. Unitaid called on our partners to support broader action around this agenda, as many solutions existed, and a concerted effort could go a long way in addressing the issues identified in the report.
Nansen Refugee Awards
Matthew Saltmarsh, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), informed that the UNHCR had just announced the winners of the annual Nansen Refugee Awards. Those were individuals who went above and beyond to help refugees, displaced, and stateless people. The 2023 winner was Abdullahi Mire, a former refugee and journalist who had championed the right to education while putting 100,000 books in the hands of refugee children in Kenya. The four regional winners were: Elizabeth Moreno Barco (Americas), a human rights defender who advocated for communities affected by armed internal conflict in Colombia; Asia Al-Mashreqi (Middle East and North Africa), founder and chairperson of the Sustainable Development Foundation, which had assisted nearly two million individuals in Yemen affected by conflict; Abdullah Habib, Sahat Zia Hero, Salim Khan, and Shahida Win (Asia-Pacific), four Rohingya storytellers documenting the experiences of stateless Rohingya refugees; and Lena Grochowska and Władysław Grochowski (Europe), a Polish couple whose hotel chain and foundation provide shelter and training to refugees. The Awards would be presented in Geneva on 13 December during the Global Refugee Forum. UNHCR press release can be found here.
UNDP : Human Climate Horizons
Sarah Bel, for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), informed that UNDP was launching today its Human Climate Horizons - a data platform providing localized information across 24,000 regions in the world on future impacts of climate change across several dimensions of human development and human security. The platform provided multiple policy scenarios through the end of the century on the potential human costs of climate change to influence behavior and support to accelerate mitigation and adaptation. Full press release is available here.
Announcements
Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said that from 30 November to 12 December, UNCTAD would participate in COP28, where UNCTAD would highlight the close links between climate change and the dynamics of global trade and finance. UNCTAD would also advocate green trade and industrial strategies that not only accelerated the global transition to low-carbon energy but also ensure a fair and equitable transition for the most vulnerable. UNCTAD, the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Trade Centre, and the World Trade Organization were organizing a pavilion dedicated to trade, "The House of Trade", dedicated to finding solutions to make trade a gas pedal of climate and sustainable development efforts, and to ensure a just transition to a low-carbon economy. Ms. Huissoud reminded that UNCTAD’s main reports of 2023 had all dealt with economic issues in relation to COP28, and their main messages would form the basis of the organization’s participation at COP28. More details can be found here.
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service, informed about the dedicated UN page, which would be regularly updated with news and developments from COP28: https://www.un.org/climatechange/cop28.
Alessandra Vellucci, speaking on behalf of the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria (OSE), informed that today at 4 pm Geneva time, Deputy Special Envoy for Syria Najat Rochdi would brief the Security Council. Her remarks would be distributed afterwards.
Ms. Vellucci informed that on 6 December at 11 am, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk would hold his end-of-year press conference.
On 29 November, an event to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People would be held at the Palais des Nations, in Room XVII at 11 am. More information is available here, and the event would be webcast at webtv.un.org.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was concluding this morning its review of the report of South Africa.
The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families was revieing today the report of Uruguay.
Teleprompter
OK, let's start. Good morning.
Welcome to the press briefing of the Information Service of the UN in Geneva.
Today is Tuesday, 28th of November.
We have quite a few items to discuss,
but before going to the, um,
to the, uh, list
of speakers that you have received, we have, uh, the pleasure and and and the honour,
because it's really complicated,
but to have James Elder, uh, the spokesperson of UNICEF
online from Gaza,
and he doesn't have briefing, uh, notes. Uh uh
uh, active, uh, for you today, but bef since he is connected,
and and I said they said that the the connection is not great.
If you have any questions for him, let's ask him now and then we will go to the, uh,
list of speakers that you have received.
So, uh, James, thank you very much for being here.
I guess the situation there is not easy at all.
Uh, thanks for being connected for our journalists.
And I see already that Emma has a question for you.
Hi. Uh, good morning, James.
I was wondering if you could describe, um,
the situation with aid deliveries in the South.
We're hearing that there is,
um, water being distributed and food. But there's very, very long queues.
Um, could you describe the situation?
And, um,
what about Children and what they're going through?
And, um, cases of trauma that you may have seen. Thank you,
James.
Hi, Emma. Hi, everyone. Thanks so much. Alessandra.
Yeah, Emma.
The desperate situation
is giving people a
a moment of respite.
James. Sorry we lost the first sentence.
I I'm I'm sorry you came all broken for the first sentence. If you could start again.
Your answer. Sorry.
Not at all. Yeah, it's It's devastating. Emma, Um,
this is, of course, a moment of respite critically to get aid in
And also for people to take the heartbreaking task of looking for
loved ones. Looking in hospitals, burying loved ones,
uh, in terms of aid,
it's started.
Obviously, it's been, uh, the, you know,
the biggest distributions in the last four days,
particularly to the north for for a month.
And the situation there was desperate. I was in Gaza City on on Sunday.
You can see the gaunt look in people's faces.
When there was a delivery of water, people would drink the water
at the moment it was given to them
in the South.
As you rightly point out where we're also trying to focus because, you know,
we have 1.8 million people displaced now, all of them bearing the marks of,
um these horrendous attacks. You know, you really do see
sorrow and stress sort of taking root here in Gaza.
So, yes, there are long queues.
I you see queues for 23 hours of adolescent girls just
trying to go to the bathroom and they will say,
time and again,
um, you know
why we've lost everything? Why are we being denied our dignity?
So the right type of aid is coming in now
the quantities need to increase.
And that could only happen with a continuation of this pause,
both because it would be callous and cold to think we could
turn around and start destroying homes and Children and families lives again.
But also, of course, because
this aid needs to multiply.
Yeah, it's getting cold. We need tents, we need warm clothes.
People will constantly talk water, food,
medicines, and they will ask the question as well.
To be honest, Emma, time and again I'm asked particularly in the north.
Are you going to stop the war
now? My response to that, unfortunately, is
no. Your your life is being decided by people elsewhere.
We're here to to stem the bleeding.
Um, the last part I would add Emery is is cooking gas.
You know, there are everyone is chopping down trees everywhere.
Unfortunately, normally here, firewood is is for a barbecue, a braai
or for people to have a nice fireplace in their homes they use, they use cooking gas.
And I see in queues of more than a kilometre of people, not of
vehicles of people standing there in the rain, waiting.
And, of course, like everything,
it runs out and half the queue goes home empty handed.
So it is desperate. It's the right type of aid.
But the quantities required for a trauma deeply traumatised people will only
happen if the pause turns into a cessation turns into peace.
Thank you, James. Christiana.
Ok, Ok.
Yes. James, it's Christiana here. German Press Agency.
Can you talk about trauma in particular? Um, are there any, uh, practitioners?
Are there any people who are taking care of the kids?
There are you know,
there are a lot of of people on the ground and and I have to make it very clear.
The the the bravery, the
the immense workload. You know, the the URA
colleagues who are
many of their ID PS themselves. Many, many of them have lo have lost loved ones
and many of them will have some training because, of course, URA
has so many education facilities
they will be those front line people.
But
in terms of those with the training,
in terms of the deep psychological trauma that many Children will be facing, no,
there are not.
There's nowhere near enough of the programme
for that right now and equally Christine,
When when I'm in camps and you see the conditions people are
living in and you see the the stunned faces of families,
then you realise this is not a place where Children are going to recover,
certainly not where they wait.
As someone said, you know, biting fingernails, um,
to see every day or or next day if there's going to be another pause.
So again, peace will be part of a big part of that solution.
Um, but the conditions that Children are living in
are not fit for their recovery. Right now, UNICEF
is working with partners to try and now create some safe
spaces that will give Children again a moment of respite.
It will also help us understand
how many Children are unaccompanied. Of
course,
such is the the the the warmth of this culture
that the vast majority of Children who've lost parents,
are absorbed.
I met a boy the other day whose, whose story? I have told,
um
Omar and he, you know,
sits in my head and heart and and he's But
he's There are there are hundreds of omars across the country
when his family home, Christine, was when it was, um
when it was hit,
his mother was killed. His father was killed.
Omar's twin brother was killed.
Now his story is not unique.
And yet when you talk to an Omar, he would perpetually just close his eyes.
And I asked his auntie, why? Why does he he do that?
He's very articulate for a boy who's endured all of this,
and she simply said, He's He's P.
He's picturing them. He's terrified
that he will forget what they look like, and he knows he's lost them here.
He doesn't want to lose them in his mind.
That is a part of the trauma. The Children adolescents,
um, the elderly are facing here,
and we can only start
to address that,
uh, in any meaningful manner
once we have a meaningful peace.
Very, very hard teams. Um, Nina?
Yes. Thank you. Uh, hi, James. I was wondering you mentioned now,
um, trying to get an overview of how many Children are unaccompanied. Do you have
any estimate yet? Uh, of the, uh, of the numbers.
And also, I was wondering on the aid that's coming in
if you're seeing, um, any fuel going into hospitals in the north?
I mean, if there's anything,
um, that looks like those could get running again. Um uh, Yeah. Thank you.
Um, sorry. I just lost the first part of the crap fuel, fuel and hospitals I got.
I missed the first part. I'm sorry.
So the first part was about the Children.
How, uh,
you mentioned unaccompanied Children or Children who
have lost their their family members.
I'm I'm wondering if you have any sort of es
estimate
of the percentages we're talking about. Thank you.
We we we don't, but we're working on it.
I literally spoke to a colleague half an
hour before he's going off to shelters to start
the kind of UNICEF
and partners work around child friendly spaces where we
will draw out Children for for both to give them
a break from this horror and to work out who
doesn't have a family member or a extended family.
Uh, again,
such is the warmth of this culture that so many
Children are absorbed It it strikes me as being ironic.
To be honest, that
you know, IW,
we would hope that any conversation around this conflict starts with empathy.
Certainly that is the position of those in Gaza the way they absorb Children.
Um, we need that compassion, of course, to be across the board.
Those who have the power, those who have the power
to end, um, to end this fighting.
Um, but I will. We I'm I am seeking a number, but I don't I'm sorry,
Fuel.
My understanding that I would defer,
of course to our WHO colleagues is at least that, For example, Shifa
sent a message yesterday for those people who needed ca cancer treatment
that they would would return.
I think that speaks of fuel. But I, I would defer, as always, to WHO. I know here that
fuel equals water.
UNICEF's work on desalination plants is really critical.
And we're getting fuel to the north.
We've done assessments. We're looking at the there.
There there is structural problems as well. But we're looking to get those desal
plants
going again. And that's on the back of fuel.
That's critical. It's a start.
It cannot stop in two days when we again bite our fingernails
to see if we can, uh, extend this pause.
Thank you.
On the hospitals later on. We should have Margaret.
So maybe he she will have some some more information to give.
I saw another hand in the room.
I don't know if I'm wrong.
It was Yeah. OK, you had to follow up. Go ahead. Go ahead.
Uh, James, do you have any update on the 28
premature babies that were evacuated? Uh, what their health is, And the question
last week that wasn't possible to be answered was, Are there orphans among them,
or how many of them are orphans?
No, My apologies. I haven't II I
guess it's good news. They're they're they're out of Gaza. So I just,
you know,
naively assume their their their safety and health. I will find out for you.
Certainly. The first question will be straightforward.
Um, the second one? Not so much, but, um, my apologies.
I'll find it out for you today and get back to you.
Thank you. In a moment, we'll also have Margaret.
She's coming to the podium now, but, uh, INKB
had a question for you, James.
Yeah. Thanks, James. Um, can I just come back on fuel and desalination plants?
When do you expect to get them up?
And do you have enough fuel for sustained operations,
or are we going to have them running for a week?
And then the whole thing will collapse again?
Um, And secondly, and this is a question that perhaps, um,
Margaret might want to chime in on as well.
What kind of access to to ped
paediatric care is there for for kids in Gaza at this point,
after all the aid that's been coming in.
Thank you.
So it'll be slightly more anecdotal, Nick.
But but in short, no echoing the Secretary General that This is a This is a start.
All the aid is a start. It's the right start. It's definitely the right type of aid.
Um, fuel, medicines, food, warmth.
When it comes to water in the desal plants, there's no way.
And this is why the message is time and again,
is
the pauses have to turn into a ceasefire. If we turn around in two days, seven days
and there's there's there's attacks again the fighting begins. Then
there is no way there will be enough fuel that has been able to get to the North.
Get to those desal plants,
um, the type of machinery that is needed for repairs,
and we will be back to where we are now.
Except, of course, people all have started from a position of a nightmare,
and they'll only ha yeah, they'll be.
They'll start from zero and go down. So So no, All this aid is is triage.
There's no doubt, and it's not even enough for triage.
Um, so that's on the fuel, and that's
that's on the food. And that's on the
the cooking gas and everything else, um, paediatric care.
You know, Nick,
there's those phrases of things that you know every
child or a war zone or nowhere is safe
was only coming here. I. I expected
the worst
in coming, and I was surprised that it was even worse than I'd imagined.
Hospitals for Children, Hospitals Full stop are war zones.
I see Children with with horrendous wounds of war,
in car parks, on makeshift mattresses, Uh, in gardens everywhere.
Doctors having to make horrendous decisions on
you know who they prioritise
remembering.
Of course, when a mortar shell hits a family home,
the injuries to a child are are not one or two.
But,
you know, if I think of the little boy I saw coming from Shifa,
who'd spent three or four days on a bus in
that 40 kilometres because of checkpoints and so on,
had not had any help and his missing left leg
the smell was clear. That that was decomposing.
Um, that boy had that had shrapnel over, uh, po potentially, uh,
was blind and had burns to 50% of his body.
It's not an outlier.
Those those wounds are everywhere.
The hospitals I see here hospitals where where I went to in the north,
it's the same the The church at the hospital I was at in the north, uh,
had been turned into an emergency ward.
It too had marks of of shells or some type of some type of weaponry.
So paediatric care. Everything here is emergency care right now.
A young last word. Sorry, Nick, but, uh,
I met a a young woman yesterday who's 21 and had just finished the fourth year of her,
uh, medical
degree. It's a seven year degree.
I she struck me as one of those young women who'd
been studying four hours a day since she was 10.
Just phenomenal brain and heart.
And all she's ever wanted to do is be a doctor.
And this was her year of being able to go and do practise and so on.
And she bought her stethoscope and her gown.
And she said, But I see the doctors here. They're not doctors.
They're just burying patients.
Now, of course,
what they are doing is saving immense lives. They work tirelessly.
It's phenomenal,
but I understand her point there,
the the the the world of doctors and healthcare workers is is not
what they would ever have signed up for but it's a war zone,
and and they are doing everything in the most trying conditions.
Thank you.
And maybe Margaret,
you you'll give us a little bit more on on on the situation in the hospital.
But before Gabriella has a question to James?
Yes, Thank you very much, Alexandra. Thank you, James.
if you can elaborate or just clarify on
the situation with the regard of drinking water,
how many desalination plants are working?
Uh, the population, especially Children, are
drinking
salty water, water that has a high content of salt.
So how many Children can die in these conditions?
Because, uh,
WO and experts say that thousands are at risk of dying from severe diarrhoea.
Do you see this scenario like there?
Short answer? Yes. I wish I had that. We
when we went to the north, One of the things that assessment has been done.
Fuel is going getting the desal
plants working.
I hope in about 90 minutes to get an overview, and I will share it with
everyone, even just on that group, in terms of the status of desal
plants and what water is coming in?
WHO is absolutely right in that concern. We've reiterated that,
Um, a doctor who I met in the North, who'd spent four weeks in
Shifa
and before that at Turkish Hospital was very clear when he spoke to me that
the threats to Children are very much from the air and now very much on the ground.
He was terrified as a med medical professional
in terms of the disease outbreak that is,
that is lurking here and how that will devastate Children who are immune systems.
And lack of food
already is making them per
perilously weak
again, anecdotally, as a non medical professional, When I'm in hospitals,
you know I it's Children with wounds of war,
and it's Children with gastro and who are sick everywhere.
And I meet a lot of parents who are
medical professionals or at least have master's degrees.
They know exactly what their Children need.
They don't have access to safe water,
and it's crippling them. And I The the clearest thing that
that spoke to me about both that and the trauma here was
a a young guy in his thirties who had a two year old and a nine month old in the hospital,
very sick for gastro because he just had not been able to get them clean water.
He knew what they needed.
And he simply said to me,
James, there's just one thing I wanna do when this war ends.
And I asked him what thinking of some type of celebration.
And he simply said, I just wanna cry
and what he means is the brave face.
Everyone is trying to keep that face to their Children as if they they've got this.
But they they are so close, so close to the edge.
Indeed.
Beza.
Thank you, Alexandra.
I
want to talk about in the worst case scenario,
if the power does not extend it or return to a ceasefire
with the volume of aid entered during this power,
how long people in Gaza can survive as well as hospitals and shelters can operate.
I wouldn't have the the the knowledge across the different sectors of
health and nutrition and and water to to give a number.
But if hostilities continued,
if the attacks continued with anything like anything like
the ferocity of the first six or seven weeks,
you see it you see a mass mass killing
of Children and civilians we've already seen that.
And now, as I say as,
uh, as as Gazans have told me here,
they're starting from the position of a nightmare.
If it was to continue
with the the the perilous position that Children
find themselves in terms of their health,
with families having lost everything,
with living outside with the rain coming with disease
threatening and with with threats from the air,
then I mean
the the the world time and again says never again and then watches it happen again.
Um, that would would be a It would be a dark stain on everyone's conscience,
but much more than any language I can
I can share here.
James, thank you very much.
I'd like to give the floor to to
Sorry to Margaret for WHU, but if you can stay, it's It's up to you, really.
I know that. It's, uh, it's complicated. So
yeah, if you can stay a little bit more, uh,
so that we have the the the Gaza issue a topic
just to give the floor to Margaret for an update on the situation of hospital.
Thank you, Alessandra.
And thank you so much, James,
for being there in a really dangerous place to bear witness to what is going on,
particularly with the Children.
But with
all the people who are suffering, and as a parent, I just can't imagine
keeping your Children going all this time and being able to somehow keep it together
with the hospital. So you had a question about how they could keep going.
In fact, they haven't been going for weeks
in, in a sense, not in the sense of a hospital
that we understand.
But they have managed to accept patients. They have managed to try to treat patients
as best they can because they're healthcare workers and because
a hospital is where a sick person needs to be.
At the beginning of this pause,
one of the things we also did was go try to get to the North, which we were able to do
to do an assessment of the people in the shelters. Because, remember,
it's not just the hospitals.
Everybody everywhere has dire health needs now because they're starving
because they lack clean water
and they're crowded together.
They're in terror, so they've got massive mental health needs,
and they, um and there are
continuing a rise in outbreaks of infectious diseases,
particularly diarrheal diseases and respiratory diseases.
And I'll give you some numbers from
our assessment in on bear with me because I've just managed to lose the spot.
So yeah, the the report back was that at the beginning, from the
on entry into the force of the poor,
um, we on the 24th of November, WHO carried out an assessment mission to the UN
R shelters
north of Gaza. And
the things they noted were the lack of waste collection around the shelters,
the
extremely limited access to medical consultation.
So basically, if you're sick, if your child has diarrhoea,
if you've got a respiratory infection, you're not gonna get any.
You're very unlikely to get any medical care because it just isn't available.
Uh, no medicines, no vaccination activities, no access to safe water and hygiene
and no food.
A very We saw a very high number of cases of diarrhoea among infants.
Um, and again, there was no treatment available for them.
You know, if you have a a child with diarrhoea, you need to give them
rehydration to
in order to keep them going until they get better and if you're not able to do that,
they can die very quickly from dehydration,
patients suffering from chronic conditions.
And we know there are hundreds of thousands of
people with different chronic conditions ranging from diabetes,
heart disease, cancer.
they don't have access to any of the critical drugs they need. So
they were being kept going like, as we all are, if we've got any kind of illness,
but that stopped, they don't have access to those things.
So those chronic conditions will become acute things,
acute conditions and those acute conditions will kill them.
So eventually we will see more people dying from disease
than we are even seeing from the bombardment if we are not able
to put back this health system and provide the basics of life food,
water,
medicines and, of course, fuel to operate the hospitals.
I think there was also a question about supplies of fuel.
We understand that the fuel has been provided
to those hospitals that are still functioning.
But I do not have numbers. We have certainly provided fuel to ICRC
to continue their work. I'll stop there, but, you know, take any questions.
Yes, Margaret. Thank you.
you were talking about the situation on the 24th of November,
and surely this medication has been delivered.
Now, what? What is the status of,
um, medication for diarrhoea, for example, supplying the UN
shelters and the hospitals? What has
been able to
do? In the meantime, thank you. That's a very good point. But remember,
you don't just magically get supplies,
you bring them in,
you bring them to a distribution point, then they are sent to the different places.
So the reason that assessment was done, particularly in the shelters,
was to understand who needs what and where.
Now the needs are massive.
The amount of aid we've been able to get in is a trickle.
Still, even though it's more than before,
as uh, the
secretary general said, It's not. It's barely registering.
one of the things we did do that was important
to be able to do was move the vaccination.
We had a vaccination vaccines
go through them to see if any of them were
no longer functioning because of the lack lack of power,
and we weren't able to get to the store of the vaccines before.
But you have to then go and see. Are these vaccines still working?
We've checked through them all.
Most of them still were suitable and we moved them to
a place where they receive a steady supply of power.
So indeed, the vaccination can start. But
again, you can't vaccinate until you've got safety. I mean, you can try,
but essentially you're putting your teams in danger,
particularly in the areas where you've got
the Children, who will who do need the catch-up vaccination.
It it becomes
It's something that you really should only be doing when there's no bombardment.
Of course, we have been doing it.
We have been vaccinating because Children need to be vaccinated. But
we really, really need a true ceasefire. A continuing real ceasefire.
Um, and on the other medicines, yes.
So we have been able to bring in quite a number of medical supplies.
Most of them honestly are trauma supplies
because of the huge need of the of the many people
who've got so much physical damage due to the bombardment.
Um, but indeed, we've also brought in. Let me get the supplies we've brought in.
We moved the 7600 doses of vaccines
we were able to deliver intravenous fluids for
45,000 patients.
Um, and
so far,
uh
uh,
we were able to get
100 and 60 trucks, 66 trucks with medical supplies. That's not just us.
That's partners as well.
Um, and these will offer serve the different healthcare needs.
So it's not only trauma. As I said, most of it is trauma,
but also the, um, medications for continuing chronic conditions.
And that's for 417,500 people.
But remember, we're talking 2 million people who need our help.
Hi, Margaret. Good morning. Thanks a lot for coming to brief us.
can you tell us what the overall plan is for
trying to get the health sector back on its feet?
I know it's difficult.
You don't know how long the cease fire will last,
but is it really evacuating the northern hospitals to the south?
Or you gonna try and get some operational up there?
And could you say a word about, um, the four medics that were taken?
I believe that they were taken from a WHO convoy.
Um, this is the Al
Shifa director and others are are are how worried, Are you?
Are you involved at all in in trying to get them released? Thanks so much.
So on the on the medics who, um, were in the convoy that was moving patients from, um,
the North.
Uh, these were people who had, uh, critical conditions.
Who needed dialysis, who had
had been severe, severely ill trauma patients,
people with spinal disorders and also
pregnant women,
were all being moved.
And yes, there was a period of six hours where they were detained at the checkpoint,
and
some
medical officers who were in that convoy
were kept.
We're very concerned.
We made it very clear that their human rights must be
maintained and they must receive all the mo appropriate care and
and treatment.
I do not have any more information about that I. I think you'll have to speak to
the those who've detained
those, uh, healthcare workers.
But it's very important that the neutrality of healthcare worker be res.
He healthcare be respected
at all times, and healthcare workers are
and should must always be neutral.
on the you asked me.
Oh, hospitals. Yes. That's a really important question.
So we don't actually call that an evacuation.
We call that a patient transfer for a very good reason.
We are transferring people from a place where they can no longer get
the care they need for their conditions to another place
where there's a better chance of getting that care now.
In
fact, in Gaza, for many of these patients,
there is nowhere that can really provide the level of care they need because of the,
the degradation of the health system, the overcrowding I It's
every hospital that we've moved patients to is already at over 100% capacity,
so simply transferring patients is a very difficult thing to do.
Uh,
so,
yes, we would like to see the hospitals to be back up and running,
and we've had enormous goodwill from around the world.
Many, uh, emergency medical teams specialist teams from different countries
have offered their services, and we would like them
to plug in to the hospitals that are there
to work as teams within the hospitals.
So we don't want to see a separate system evolve. Uh, the sort of separate system.
All the healthcare comes in, and then it goes away.
What we need to do is to build back the system, ideally, even build it back better.
But at the moment, we're not even anywhere near there.
the best place for all the patients is in a well functioning health system.
Nina.
Thank you. Uh, hi, Margaret. I was wondering on this,
OK. Sorry, I.
I had a similar question, but, um just on looking at what was said about the Al
Shifa
hospital, uh, earlier, when
WHO was referring to it as an evacuation at
that time and talking about it being a death zone. I'm just wondering
if, um,
you know how long it might take to get something like that up and working. And
has there been any fuel going into those hospitals in the north So far,
I from what I've heard, there hasn't been, but maybe I'm wrong.
Thank you.
Sorry. I don't have the specifics on the on the fuel. Uh uh.
I've just looked I've just asked colleagues if they can provide that,
and if I get that, I'll I'll I'll
bring more.
But I don't have numbers or places or any of
that sort of granular detail that I'm sure you want.
Um
the destruction. The
degradation of Al
Shifa Hospital and the services that provided it is a tragedy.
This was Gaza's most advanced, most complex, uh,
hospital, providing the services that are needed for people who with severe,
complicated illness, including women with
severe
with complicated pregnancies or babies who were
the result of a complicated pregnancy.
So,
basically, if you had something really difficult to manage, Al
Shifa was the place you would go. So if you had your
you needed something that would save your life that
you couldn't normally get done in a normal hospital,
that's where you went.
And
that's why
we want to see it restored to its function.
Because again, in our health system, you need
the basic hospitals, the cottage level district hospitals.
You need the secondary hospitals that can do the
maternity surgery, blah, blah blah.
And then you need the tertiary hospitals,
the really complex hospitals that can deal with the stuff nobody else can do.
And that's what makes a really good hospital system.
And that's what has now
been essentially destroyed for by the the the loss of Alsa
Hospital,
although again one of the main reasons it was not functioning, remember,
was lack of fuel.
So we we've not really done a full assessment of the physical damage to the hospital.
But again,
it it it it could not function because a complex
hospital cannot do those jobs unless it's got power.
Musa
me,
Alexandra.
Good morning, Margaret.
Uh, I sent you an email two days ago about the accusations against against, uh,
the WHO.
In fact, uh, the, uh, a
Mediterranean observatory says that a group of doctors,
including the director of Al
Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Abu
Salmi,
were arrested by Israeli forces during their evacuation from the
shifa to the south of Gaza.
And, uh, this, uh, evacuation co-ordinated by the World Health Organisation.
Can you please, uh, explain me what happened exactly, Uh, in this, uh, uh, case,
what is, uh, the role of, uh, WHO?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Um, as mentioned, uh, before that, there was a an evacuation,
a transfer of patients from Al al
Shifa
that had been organised with definitely WHO
and Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
And, uh,
during that Eva
that that transfer of patients,
uh, a number of the medical staff came as well.
Uh uh, along with, uh, many of the patients, relatives, patients, companions.
Uh, they were stopped. It was unexpected.
The the agreement had been that any screening of those going would happen at the Al
Shifa hospital itself.
But they were detained or stopped at a checkpoint between the north and the south,
and they were kept that this convoy was kept there for six hours.
And during that period, some of the medical staff that had come from Al
Shifa in the convoy
were detained by the Israeli defence force personnel.
And that's that's really all I have at this stage.
But as I said, we call for their human rights and their rights to be protected.
Gabriela?
Yes, thank you very much. Hi, Margaret. Just a very quick question.
Uh,
is is there an update on how many Children have died from diseases such as diarrhoea?
Uh, are these deaths being recorded in in a
in in a timely way?
And also, um, thanks to James for speaking to us from Gaza,
if you can tell us about your personal experience of being there on the ground,
uh, comparing with others or something like that, Thank you.
OK, I'll start with Margaret, and then we see if James is still connected.
Thanks. Yes, that's a very important question.
And there is certainly surveillance going on.
Looking at the number of cases of diarrhoea. We're relying very much on our
colleagues in the in UN
R A who are doing that surveillance.
As for the number of deaths, I do not have a number.
I expect that we will would not have that level of detail
for quite some time.
Honestly, the deaths from
overall are generally counted in the hospitals. They're
to be really horribly graphic. These it's bodies in the morgue are
identified as dead identified as a person. And then that number is counted.
So at the moment, the counting will be any, if anything, quite an undercount.
James, I see you still there. Thank you very much.
Would you like to answer Gabriela's question?
Yeah. Hi, Gabriella.
Uh, it's difficult. Of course. I think it can be,
um so almost embarrassing to in indulge in a context like this.
For someone like me who
who will, you know, be part of an extraction at some point. Um,
look at as a humanitarian as a father. Gabriela, I think
it's it's perplexing for me to think that we keep going day by day, and
chances are at some point, apparently, that the
the attacks will will continue. Um, I find that very difficult. Obviously,
the the the the state of Children is is incredibly
hard to see.
I personally
make myself, you know,
look at the situation of Children. I guess this is the first time I
find it very difficult in a hospital.
And a father's asked me to come and talk to someone and another burn victim,
Another burn victim.
That's a very
that's very difficult. Um, a
very difficult thing. But
you know,
it's what's happening.
Um, and we we should be here to, As Margaret said, Bear witness. Um,
so I, I guess for a personal sense, I you know,
I always believed that we had a human instinct to protect Children,
and and I've certainly here asked myself if we're
perhaps not losing that.
Thank you, James. Yes, it's a lot of courage.
Thank you very much for bearing witness of this.
I take the last two questions and then we will move on to the other,
uh, subjects. Sorry. Three last questions. No, no, I can I can I'm sorry.
You've had a lot of chances to speak. We have more people to listen to.
And John has not spoken in and Isabel either.
So I'll give the floor to John that across
this?
Yes. Uh, good morning. Uh, thank you for these updates.
Uh, I've just got a follow up to, uh
uh the questions earlier by Emma and Musa.
Uh,
Margaret, Uh,
what's the situation?
What is, uh, WHO at the headquarters level?
Uh, Doctor Tedros and at the regional level
Doctor Alman, Dari.
Have they touched base with the
Israeli authorities concerning their four detained
medical personnel? Uh, and also, uh, James, uh,
do you have any, uh,
uh,
data on number of Children who have been amputated
because of injuries in in the Gaza Strip?
Thank you.
Thanks. John I.
I don't have any information about whether those contacts have happened,
and I wouldn't actually, Honestly, um, I essentially
we would. All those sorts of bilateral meetings remain confidential.
James or Margaret? Any information on the amputations?
No, John, I I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This
No,
um
anecdotal.
Certainly
different Children to the ones I've spoken to this morning.
But,
um, one
child that that I physically helped with his father get off a bus who
would definitely have netted an amputation because part of his leg was missing.
Three hours later,
the boy was still on the hospital floor,
waiting for attention.
And I and I'm talking to medical staff who
I'm pretty sure had worked about 36 hours straight,
and were quite literally running running between people.
Uh, and again, this was day two of a humanitarian pause,
so I would see someone bleed out over there, someone screaming over here,
a mother screaming because someone had died
there.
So
health workers doing everything they can and
prioritising I imagine knowing that that Children,
I guess that child was not his life was not in danger at that moment.
And that
amputation would come. I don't know. I'm drifting into medical areas, so,
uh, only anecdotal. Um, and I hate to think when that number will come.
John,
uh, John, you have a follow up, and then I go to Isabel, and then we
yes, uh, to James. And perhaps Margaret can, uh, uh,
follow up as well.
Uh, I was wondering, uh, James, given the needs that you're uh,
graphically describing to us on on the ground.
Uh,
are there orthopaedic surgeons and other specialists,
uh,
paediatricians that have volunteered to assist UNICEF's work in the Gaza Strip,
and same, uh, goes to Margaret?
Are you getting tapping into your international,
uh, field hospital network? And what
is the possibility of getting getting getting an
increase in medical personnel on the ground?
Uh, given, uh, the needs are so dire that
James just mentioned the child waiting three hours on the operating theatre.
Thank you.
I think he was on the ground,
Not even in the operating theatre.
He was.
He was on. He was on the floor.
Uh, John, I defer to Margaret on specifics.
I've met more than a handful of people here in camps who, uh,
are volunteering in a medical
in a medical sense.
Uh, who have, you know, a medical background and, uh,
and have been displaced and are volunteering absolutely everywhere.
This is the This is the culture of support that that abounds here.
Uh, if you're alluding to people coming in,
uh, obviously they they you know, Jordanians are building a field hospital.
Those things are those things are happening. But I.
I defer to Margaret for the rest, please.
Thanks, James. And
there are, in fact, 20,000 healthcare workers, uh, across Gar
of many of them have been displaced.
So the the skills there the personnel are even though we are losing too many,
we've lost over 100 doctors, but, uh,
the skills are there. What's needed is safety.
So the hospitals are not being bombed.
What's needed is more hospitals. We've got so few now functioning.
I think we're down to eight, but I'll have to check my numbers.
Um, and of those quite often there,
what they can offer is reduced simply because they lack the fuel.
They lack the supplies.
Now we've, as I said, we've been able to bring in some,
but it's a mountain that's required,
and a mountain that's required to get everywhere.
And you need the continuity of the fuel.
You need to be able to do the repairs to the physical damage.
And
ultimately, number one, you need safety.
People need to know they can go to work and just be
doctors and nurses that they are not going to be bombed,
that they are not going to be killed
and that applies to the people coming in. So yeah, you're right, John. We've had
a number of different, um, international medical teams, many with skills in
orthopaedics and neurosurgery in burns management. All of them very much needed.
Also,
the ones that can provide extra primary care to boost.
But once again, they need to have a place they can
do their work. So they need the supplies.
They need the fuel, they need the food, they need the water, as I keep saying
and they need the safety, they have to know
death is not going to rain down on them from the air.
And
And also maybe just to remind you that
to have a look at the UNRWA situation report
number 40 that we have distributed to you,
I think it was yesterday.
They
are also doing an incredible job in terms of, uh, treating health. Uh uh.
Patients,
um, that from the beginning of the war,
uh, they have treated over 600,000 patients.
Um, and they are telling us that on the as of 26 of November 9 out of the 20 two M
health centres were still operational
in the middle and south areas recording 10,697 patient visits,
including Palestinian refugees and non refugees.
And there are many other data on dental, emergency, dental services,
national vaccinations, etc.
As well. I will
refer you also to those numbers. Last questions from Isabel.
Yes. Good. Good morning. Thank you very much.
I would, um I'd like to ask on the again on the the arrest of the medical, Uh,
this medical staff as,
um WHO I understand participated in this operation in this transfer as a guarantor
of the of the operation. So, uh, could you be clear if Margaret, please, if, uh,
these bilateral meetings or contacts that you refer to are happening
and that these contacts are happening at the highest level to know, Where are these,
uh, medical staff?
Why they were
detained. And what are their conditions?
Thank you,
Isabella. I Maybe I wasn't clear. I have no information about any meetings going on.
I was saying that if there were meetings going on, I wouldn't be reporting them.
But I have no information
about any meetings going on.
But of course,
we are very concerned for the health and well being and
and the protection of the rights of those who were detained.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, James I,
I we really appreciate that you were there to brief us from Gaza.
I. I really, uh please take care of yourself.
Uh uh.
Stay safe and thank you very much and come back if if you're still there on Tuesday.
Uh, sorry. On on on Friday, we
will be really glad to see you. And thanks.
And and good luck with your very important work.
And thanks, Margaret, for for briefing us on the health situation.
Um, we have now a a session on cop 28. So I'm asking the people who are, uh,
briefing on that to come to the podium.
And while we are doing that, I give the floor to Matthew Salt.
Marshall has an announcement about the
Nansen Refugee Award 2023. Matthew.
Thank you very much. Alessandra. Um,
just a quick announcement from our side
and, uh, during a rather bleak news environment.
It's nice to have a more positive announcement for you. The announcement is that
today we put out a press release, um,
with the winners of UN HCRS annual
Nansen Refugee Award.
This honours individuals, groups,
organisations who go above and beyond the call of duty to protect
refugees, displaced people and stateless people.
The war was established in 1954
and it celebrates the legacy of Fried
Nansen, a Norwegian scientist, explorer
and the first High commissioner for Refugees.
So this year's winner is Abdullahi
Mire. He's a former refugee and journalist
who's championed the right to education.
He was born in Somalia.
Mire grew up in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya.
He was eventually resettled to Norway,
but a yearning to serve his community
drew him back and he found work in Kenya as a journalist
and set up an organisation called the Refugee Youth Education Hub.
This is a refugee led organisation that has opened three libraries in the camps
or stocked with donated books
and has expanded learning opportunities for tens
of thousands of displaced Children and youth.
There are other winners as well.
We have four regional winners that we announced in the press release.
These are from the Americas. Elizabeth Moreno
Marco.
She's a human rights defender who advocates
for communities affected by armed internal conflict
in Colombia. Uh,
from the Middle East. We have
Asia
Al Mahle,
founder and chairperson
of the Sustainable Development Foundation,
which has assisted nearly 2 million individuals
in Yemen who are affected by conflict.
Uh, from Asia Pacific there are four winners who are Rohingya storytellers
who have been documenting their experience. Experiences of statelessness,
um, in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh
and then from Europe. There's Lena,
Roska
and
Ladowski, a
Polish couple whose hotel chain and foundation provides shelter
and training for refugees.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony here in Geneva on the 13th of December.
That's the first night of the global Refugee Forum,
and that is open to all journalists attending the forum.
Although there is a separate registration that's required. The press release
should have gone out to you all yesterday for release this morning.
Thanks, Alessandra.
Thank you very much. Uh, Matt, let me see if there are questions for you
in the room.
Christiane, was that a hand or no? OK, let me look at the platform.
I don't see hands up,
but you are absolutely right. We we really
need to hear good stories at the moment. And so thank you. very much for this briefing
and maybe one of the next briefings.
We'll hear more about the global refugee forum and the the organisation for it.
so thank you very much, Matt.
And let's go to the several colleagues who would like to brief you
about the, uh, conference of the parties.
Uh,
that will take place in the United Arab Emirates from
the 30th of November until the 12th of December.
Yesterday the Secretary general, who is coming back from a trip to Antarctica,
um, has given a press conference. We have distributed to you the the transcript.
Among other things, he said,
um, that we are trapped in a deadly cycle.
Uh, he was particularly referring to ice because he had the chance to see several
in, uh, Antarctica.
And he said,
um, ice reflects the sun rays.
As it vanishes, more heat is absorbed into the earth atmosphere.
That means more heating.
Uh, which means more storms, floods, fires and dry,
which means more melting, which means less ice, even more heating. This is a
terrible cycle. That must be break
at the cop. Um
uh uh.
He called, uh, uh for solutions,
and especially for the political will from the leaders
who must act to limit global temperature rise to 1.5
°C, protect people from climate chaos and and the fossil fuel age.
The Secretary general said We need a global commitment to triple renewables,
double energy efficiency and bring clean power to all by 2030.
And indeed the cop 28 must deliver an ambitious and credible global
stocktake outcome that responds to the gaps in mitigation finance adaptation and
also to operationalize the new loss and damage fund with early pledges.
And to hear more about this,
we have Sarah Bell from U NDP
K
New whistle
for
Ted.
But I'll start on my left with
her Verso,
who has brought us
the unit a director of results to speak about the investment in climate,
smart health products
and their new report. Thank you.
Thank you, Alessandra, Before leaving the floor to
who
is
our
director for results,
I want to tell you that you all receive this morning the text
of our interventions and the report that we will both be with our chair
at
cop
in Dubai and please feel free to put us in contact with your colleagues there
and before talking about the report. I have few
are important points that I want to raise on. Behalf of Unit
Unit
welcomes the fact that for the first time ever,
the organisers of cop included an official
Elf Day at Cop 2828 on 3rd December
to draw attention to the interconnection between climate and health.
This is a key moment to put health at the core of climate action.
The climate crisis is putting pressure
on an already overstretched global health system
and is putting access to basic health care
in danger
once more.
The irony here is that the sector that strives to
keep people well is also contributing to the problem,
accounting for approximately 4.6
of global net carbon emissions.
At the same time,
the degradation of nature and rising of temperatures
are threatening the effectiveness of health products
and the availability of key active ingredients
to life saving medicine.
The health aspects of climate change are often
overlooked.
The report
draws attention to the fact that key health products and medicine
used every day around the world to respond to diseases like HIV
TB and malaria
improves women and child health
and respond to global emergencies may not be fit for purpose in a changing climate.
The need for greener and more sustainable health
care and resilient health system is clear.
But the development of climate, resilient health products and medicine
change to transport system and appropriate legislation
will take years.
Unit is calling on the global health industry,
policymakers, governments,
research institutions and major barriers of pharmaceutical products
to take action now,
before it's too late,
we must ensure key health products remain accessible as the climate changes,
or else we risk backsliding on gains in responding to
infectious diseases and improving health care in low
and middle income countries.
As an organisation focused on product introduction and market shaping,
unit
has already began advancing this solution
with the goal of introducing 30 key health products by
2030
that are more climate smart. As part of the new climate and health strategy,
that unit
will be launching at Cop 2028 in Dubai
on 3 December.
But I would like to leave to Vinson on the
floor to develop quickly the finding of this report,
Thank you,
and if I start by health products and climate.
I think there's a few things that we already know.
We know that health products are
sensitive to climate risk. Potentially.
We know that the health sector contributes significant emissions,
and we know that health product supply chains also have an environmental impact.
What we realise we don't know so well is what it means for specific products.
And we found lots of studies that are either very generic
or very specific to one product and one specific issue.
And this is why we decided to do a study that was very ambitious in terms of scope.
Looking at 10 different health products that are vital products for global health,
HIV medicines, TB, medicines, TB, diagnostics,
bed nets form malaria.
We've also wanted to look at a whole range of issues.
We've looked at the full value chain of those products, the eight steps from
acquisition of raw materials down
to the disposal, the use of disposal of those products,
but also six types of climate and environmental impacts from carbon emissions
and water pollution, for instance,
and nine different types of climate risk that could be posed on those supply chains.
And finally we involved 23 partner organisations in this effort
to solidify the findings and to create broader ownership.
The first series of findings related to carbon emissions and what we found was that
those 10 health products are associated to very
significant carbon emissions 3.5 million tonnes overall,
which is more than the emissions of the city of Geneva.
A very concrete
exa M
uh, do
based HIV regimen. This is a daily pill that is taken by people living with HIV.
Within that pill you have 650 milligrammes of three active ingredients.
Pharmaceutical ingredients.
Each of those ingredients is manufactured from 4 to 5 steps of chemical reactions,
meaning that to manufacture those 650 milligrammes
you need,
you emit 200 grammes of carbon dioxide.
But then this is a pill that is taken every day.
So for a person in a year, you need to multiply, of course,
by the number of days in a year,
and you get to more than 70 kilogrammes of emissions per year
and you have 30 million people taking this treatment every year,
which means you get to 2.7 million tonnes of carbon emissions.
This is what we call the report from milligrammes to megatons.
Milligrammes of an active ingredient in the daily
pill can result in megatons of carbon emissions.
Our analysis also looked at potential solutions.
We identify more than 20 technical solutions that can help reduce those emissions.
Those a RE solutions around process efficiency in manufacturing,
improving circularity of raw materials
in manufacturing or redesigning products.
What is striking is that those solutions taken together
can help reduce 70% of the emissions identified in the report.
And 40% of those emissions could be
reduced without increasing the cost of production.
And 40% happens to be actually very close to the
43% reduction target for 2030 of the Paris agreement,
meaning that
for those products that a RE very important for US
that a RE very important in terms of affordability,
we could be in a position to almost reach
the Paris target without increasing the cost of production.
Carbon emissions is not the end of the story.
There are environmental impacts associated to those products.
I'll give two exa Mples.
The first one relates to the impact of manufacturing and the release
of toxic toxic waste chemicals in the environment near manufacturing sites.
This is an issue that is well known. Uh, the solutions exist
and IN the report we flag IN particular the potential of green chemistry.
Green chemistry is a way to redesign chemical processes,
which, for instance,
for TB drugs could lead to a reduction of the use of raw materials by 55 to 66%
and increase the yield of the manufacturing process from 18 to 43%.
Those a RE the types of approaches that need to be embraced
more because they could help US reduce the waste of chemical um,
the
use of chemical waste.
They could help us
reduce the number of emissions because we use fewer products
and they could also help us reduce the cost of manufacturing.
So it's a true win win win solution
for green manufacturing.
Uh, we also identify IN the reports, um,
impacts IN terms of plastic pollution. Uh, the exa Mples of Malaya
bed nets which, as you know, a RE used extensively
IN the prevention of
Malaya.
More than 200 million bed nets, a RE distributed every year,
and this produces more than 57,000 tonnes of plastic waste every year.
That is, uh, a T This point, uh, not recycled or managed.
The last series of findings relate to the opposite effect.
Climate impacts health product supply chains.
And this is best illustrated with one example
malaria treatments.
Artemisinin
combination therapies,
which are given to hundreds of millions of people every year.
And the journey of those treatments starts in China.
In China
is produced Artemisia
Anno,
a plant from which is derived one of the ingredients of the treatment.
This is a plant that is sensitive to heat
to dry climate,
and with climate change, there is a risk there that the yield of
producing the active ingredient is impacted by weather events.
The journey continues in India, where most of those medicines are manufactured.
And actually,
we found that 75% of the manufacturing sites for this
product happen to be in two regions of India,
very localised around Mumbai and Hyderabad.
And those are regions that are subject to floods today,
and that will be even more exposed to flooding in the future.
Second risk on the same supply chain
and finally, those products continue their journey mostly to Africa.
Take the example of Nigeria, the country where more than 30% of the Malaya
burden is.
And Nigeria is a country that we see heat waves
increase by a factor of 2.5 between now and 2050.
And this is a product,
the medicine that happens to be sensitive to heat and that loses efficacy
when it is exposed to extreme heat.
This is a third risk on the same supply chain of the same product that is so essential.
So what this example shows is that we need to pay a lot more attention to supply
chain risk overall,
as a conclusion, What are we doing as you needed about it?
First, we're going to publish all those findings. The report is going public today.
We will communicate the key results at Cop 28 in a few days from now.
And we're taking action our board just to prove a
climate and health strategy that we're going to implement that
will allow us to take steps towards climate smart products
address some of those issues through market shaping actions.
And we also call on our partners, uh, to join uh, those efforts
and to help us take this agenda forward. Thank you very much.
Thank you both very much. And sorry for
the mistake. With the plate, um,
I'll open the floor to questions
and then I'll go to, uh, the other colleagues. Christian
Eric is our
correspondent of the German press Agency.
Uh, thank you.
My question is,
can you give us one or two examples of
the 40% of technical solutions that don't cost any money
as concrete examples as possible?
Thank you.
So I've given one example already around green chemistry.
There are things around process improvements, for instance.
So I'll take another example
in those chemical processes.
There are many solvents that are being used as part of the chemical reaction
for one kilogramme of active ingredients.
For instance, for the HIV product I mentioned
you need 400 kilogrammes of solvents.
Those 400 kilogrammes correspond to, of course,
a lot of emissions because it is a chemical product that you need to manufacture.
And you need to use a lot of energy for that.
There a RE solutions where you can recycle those solvents.
So use the sa me solvent IN the manufacturing process
so that you don't need to re reuse another 400 kilogrammes of
solvent for the next kilogramme of active ingredient that you manufacture.
So if IN a manufacturing facility, you implement this kind of process,
you can reduce the associated emissions.
Uh,
Ben,
presented to
that,
she's really
good,
um
dot
question in English or in French?
I don't see any. So let's continue.
You can say we we we continue with a cop and related, uh,
subjects.
Maybe I'll do the platform now and I'll go
to Sarah and then we'll finish with Catherine.
Sarah, you also have AAA report to launch, right?
Uh,
yeah. Mercy
on
me
bukele
as
we continuing
on on
angle,
U NDP has launched today's human climate horizon.
This is a data platform that provides localised information across
24,000 region in the world on future impacts of climate change
across several dimensions of human development and human security.
This is the the result of a joint work of the
Climate Impact Lab and U NDP Human Development Report office.
So the platform
aggregates data and provides multiple policy
scenario through the end of the century
on the potential human cost of climate change.
Um and the the objective of the of the day of the platform is to influence behaviour,
change
and support, um,
support policies to accelerate mitigation and adaptation.
the specific release that I shared with you this morning through a press
release bring forward the effect of climate change on coastal land and flooding.
It builds upon available research and data on climate change, effect on mortality,
labour and energy demand.
And, uh, there
There is a good statistic on how, um,
many low lying region along the coast of Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia,
um, will face a severe threat of permanent inundation.
Um, and and, uh,
how flooding will trigger a reversal
in human development in coastal communities world
worldwide.
This is only the first release, and there there will be further released.
The next one is planned to focus on food production system.
So, as I said,
you receive the press release
that include the link to the platform.
please have a look at the platform and I can ask one of our
colleagues to walk you through the data and the functionality of the platform.
Just In addition, I will coordinate the media request
at CO our senior leadership will be on the ground.
Um, throughout the the two weeks,
including U NDP administrator at the beginning of Cop,
the regional director for Africa, the regional director for Arab states
and our head of negotiation We throughout the the two weeks.
So please, uh, reach out if you're looking for specific information.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sara. Any questions to the NDP?
I don't see any in the room on the platform.
No.
So thank you, Sarah, for this update. And then let's conclude with
S
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Fermi
Sorry. Switch back to English. And before we we close, uh, this, uh this, uh, page
on the cop 28.
Just to to let you know I've put it in the chart,
but you can also easily find it on on the web.
Uh, the UN, uh, web page for the cop 28 is available in six languages.
Uh, it's an easy, uh, link. Uh, un.org, a climate change cop. 28.
That puts you the link in the in the chat.
And there will be all kinds of updates during the cop, uh,
on on this page and also links to the other agencies work.
So don't hesitate to go
and consult
these.
I have two short updates for you.
First of all,
I've been asked by the office of the special iny for Syria to let you know that today at
4 p.m. in Geneva, time 10 a.m. in New York,
the deputy special envoy for Syria, Najat
Rushdie,
will be briefing the Security Council
and, as usual, as delivered remarks will be distributed when she concludes
quickly. Also just a reminder of the press conference of the High Commissioner
Volker,
who will speak you
on Wednesday, 6th December at 11 a.m. This is the usual end of year, uh,
press conference of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
He will also, of course, speak about the 75th commemoration, uh,
75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and also speaking about a wide range of topics.
So I'm sure you'll be very numerous at this press conference.
I also would like to remind you Oops. Sorry
to remind you of the invitation. We have distributed
yesterday, I think
to the special meeting which will be held at the Paladin
on Wednesday 29th this time, 29th of November
to mark the annual observance of the
International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian people.
We've spoken a lot about that already. And
this is an international day that we always commemorate here at the Palais.
Uh, the our Director General
Tara
Balo
Via will be opening the meeting with introductory remarks
and with the statement of the Secretary General.
We
will also have representatives of the Committee
on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of
the Palestinian People Special Committee to investigate Israeli
practises affecting the human rights of Palestinian people
and other Arabs of the occupied territory.
League of Arab States, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperations,
the Non Aligned Movement, the African Union,
and
is accredited to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable
Rights of the Palestinian People and the State of Palestine.
They will all send representative who will speak at this event.
Um, this will be webcast live, uh, on Web TV uh, on UN Web TV
and we open at 11 a.m. in room 17 of the Pale
this is going to be lasting about,
uh, about one hour and a half.
Very, very.
Last point is, uh,
the fact that the third is concluding this morning the report of South Africa.
They are left with Bulgaria and Vietnam to, uh,
analyse the reports of these two countries.
Um, the Committee on the protection of the rights of all migrants,
workers and members of their family that opened yesterday.
It's 37th session is reviewing the report of Uruguay today.
They will have also the reports from Kyrgyzstan and south
in principle to examine.
And I think this is all I had for you.
So I don't know if there are any other questions
to my colleagues on the podium or to me.
John Zaro Costas.
Yes. Thank you, Alessandra. It's just a housekeeping
observation. That would be, uh, quite a few colleagues, Uh,
have uh, mentioned this to me, and I'm speaking as a committee member of
a KANU. It would be helpful when there's major meetings in the Palais
that the agency concerned come to the regular briefing to give us a heads up.
There's two events, uh, this week one, the business and human rights
in the Palais right now. And secondly, the annual meeting of IOM.
Neither, uh, of these meetings were flagged in the regular briefing on Friday.
Thank you very much,
John. I take notes, uh, of this comment. Yes, indeed, we will.
We will, uh, inform, uh, our colleagues of of this remark.
Uh, and as I was saying before, as you all know,
there are two major events happening in the week of, uh,
starting on the 10th of December,
ending in the fifth.
One is the seventh 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
and the other one is the Global Refugee Forum.
As we said before, with Matt,
they will brief you on this event.
That's going to happen in Public Expo, But it's a UN event, So the premises will be UN,
uh, there.
And, uh, of course, the anniversary. Uh, you'll hear more from fur.
But I know that Elizabeth is planning to come and brief you on the, uh, uh,
events for the anniversary.
Uh, I think next week.
So you will have this
but the point Well taken for the meetings happening at the
Palais. Now, I also think that next week on the 5th and 6th.
We have a big event on human rights and sport.
So I would ask the colleagues maybe to tell us something about that on Friday
if there are no other points,
Thank you very much. Uh oh. Sorry. Katrina.
Thank you so much, Alexandra,
for reminding us about the human rights and sport event the fifth and 6th December.
Uh,
would the people in charge be kind enough to send
us now the programme and not wait the last minute?
Thank you.
I may be wrong, but I think it is available on the on the web,
But, uh, let me let me, uh, ask, uh, for confirmation and and and
and ask colleagues in in any case to inform you about this, but I think I
think I've downloaded it from the web. So maybe this is the case.
Uh, Catherine, we, uh, to control it.
Yes, Alessandra, I mean, I.
I did my homework, and as you just mentioned,
I found that out by looking on the web already
a couple of weeks ago.
But, I mean, there are no details, so I mean, it would be very, um I mean, uh,
appreciated that they send us the programme directly or a link directly to the page
which, uh,
has the programme because we cannot spend hours on the on the website searching.
OK,
well noted, I refer
thank you very much. And, uh, bona petit
I want to thank you and all the team behind
the scene, that's
all.
Thank you very
much for the thank
you.
Thanks to everyone for following this long briefing and bona petit
and I'll see you on Friday. Thank you.