Welcome to the press briefing of the Information Service here at the UN in Geneva.
Today is Tuesday, 23rd of January.
We have a few very interesting briefing.
The first one is brought to you by the World Food Programme.
Ishita has is on Zoom connection with us.
She's brought us Abir Etefa, who is the World Food Programme in as senior communications officer and spokesperson and he's talking to us from Cairo.
So you have an update on the difficulties in delivering aid to Gaza.
I give the floor immediately to Mr Etefa, less Ishita.
Maybe Ishita wants to start or we go straight to Cairo.
I see that you're you're my console.
You can you can start talking.
Thank you so much for having me today.
Well, quite few updates, you know, three months into the conflict, I think as you can all follow from your screens, the situation in Gaza is, of course, slipping every day into a more, a much more catastrophic situation.
There are waves of displacement.
People are cramped in the, you know, southern part of the Gaza Strip.
There is the rampant spread of the disease and of course a looming ****** of famine.
As we speak, there's been a lot of intensification of efforts to scale up the World Food Programme, food assistance operations and to look at all the operational challenges.
I think we are in a good space when it comes to the procurement of food, the availability of food on the borders and outside of Gaza.
I think you know the, the, the team, the supply chain team for the World Food Programme has managed to get 21,000 tonnes of food supplies.
That's enough for 2 million people in Gaza for one month.
This is these are supplies are either in Egypt on the way or are already loaded on trucks on the border with Gaza.
So far and since the beginning of this conflict, we've managed to get around over 1400 trucks carrying around 24 tonnes of food commodities in Gaza.
That includes food, food parcels, the canned food like beans, meats, we've got wheat flour, fortified biscuits, supplementary feeding for commodities, for pregnant and for breastfeeding mothers.
In January alone and up till yesterday, there was around 730 trucks that had around again 13,000 tonnes of food that has crossed into Gaza.
There's quite a movement now in terms of getting supplies into Gaza.
We've also had the human, the convoy that started from Jordan into Gaza and we've managed to get 6 convoys on behalf of WFP and partners that have crossed since it was opened on the 20th of, of the centre.
So all of this is like on the, the good, the, you know, the, the, the good side of things.
Problem is that it's extremely difficult to get into the places where we need to go, to get to go to in Gaza, especially in northern Gaza.
So very few assistance has made it beyond the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
WP is also working with teen shops and and and three partner partners and a number of community representatives to deliver assistance to people in UN shelters in Dar al Bala and in Rafa as quickly as possible so that we can get at least the people that we have access to, that they can get the supplies that are needed.
Also, we've had a bit of movement in terms of the access to bread, which is a very important staple food commodity for in the Palestinian and diet.
So we're giving wheat flour, salt, teas and sugar to 8 bakeries.
6 of them are in Rafah, 2 are in there in Bala so that they can produce fresh bread at the subsidised price for people in communities.
The bakeries are producing an average of 1,000,000 loaves of bread every day.
So having said that, I think the risks of of having pockets of famine in Gaza is very much still there.
We, the assessment that we've done during the humanitarian pause, which was I think around the last week of November has shown that we do have, you know, that we have more than half a million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic food insecurity levels and the risk of famine increases each day.
And the conflict is limiting the delivery of, you know, life saving food assistance to people in need.
This report, the IPC has shown that all the 2.2 million people are in crisis or worse levels of food, acute food insecurity and almost 1/4 of the population, that's more than half a million people are actually in, like, you know, uh, in, in, in the most stage of hunger, which is IPC 5 means that people are starving.
We're also, you know, children that are being evacuated to get treatment on the Egyptian side of the border, you know, reports of malnutrition and children who lost a lot of weight, extremely thin.
So very, you know, we're, we're seeing a very worrisome situation in terms of children's malnutrition.
Of course, the shortage of water is making things worse because children gets weaker with diarrhoea, which makes things quite fatal.
Pregnant women not getting enough to eat and the impacts of the impact of that on the health of the babies and the young children.
I think in terms of the distribution so far we've we've reached quite a lot of people again in the southern part of Gaza.
Few convoys have made it to the northern part of Gaza, but that's very, very rare occasion when we managed to get a convoy to the to the north of Gaza.
I think that's pretty much it.
Unless you have any further questions, please go ahead and ***** me these questions over.
Thank you very much, Mrs Setefa.
Yes, indeed, there are questions.
So I will start with Gabriella here in the room.
She is our correspondent of Reuters.
Thank you very much for the update.
In fact, regarding deliveries to Northern Gaza, you just mentioned it was a very rare occasion for this to happen.
In which context did this happen?
Precisely when was it possible to do it?
And what is impeding generally the biggest impediments to having these deliveries shipped to Northern Gaza?
And if you have any idea of the quantity that has gone from WFP since the start of the conflict?
Well, in terms of the access to North Gaza, that it's a process of clearance and deconfliction with the three Israeli authorities so that we make sure that the convoys are passing into areas into these areas safely in a safe manner.
To the, to, you know, to the truck drivers, to the people that we're trying to get the food to, and of course to the, you know, partners and aid workers that are with the these convoys.
I, I have to get to you exactly on the dates of the, of the convoy and how much it was carrying.
I think it was, that was probably between a week to 10 days ago.
So, but I think I'm, I'm going to share with you exactly the, the, the dates when this convoy has gone and I'm actually looking at my notes.
So I can't find this immediately.
I mean, it wasn't in the last few days.
It was just like literally more than two weeks ago.
But I'll send this information through Ishita.
And I'm pretty sure this will be very interesting for all the journalists.
So if Ishita could share this, that would be much appreciated.
I'll go ahead with Chris Fogg, our correspondent of the French news agency AFP.
Thank you for taking my question.
I would like to come back.
You were talking about the the risk of pockets of famine still still there.
Could you give us a little bit more details on that?
Do you have any idea how many people are actually suffering from famine?
And can you tell us where it is in the Gaza Strip?
When in the, when the I, the integrated phase classification system took place, as I mentioned, it was the information that we have and the data that we have, it comes from the, the study that we did during the humanitarian pause, which was like basically towards the end of November.
So that's almost like 2 months ago.
So the information that we have is like bleak and it's quite old and the situation has not improved.
In terms of the locations, I think the majority of these areas and again I don't have the specific locations or areas that are north of Wadi Gaza.
It's like beyond the areas that we can have regular reach out to which is the, you know, the beyond Rafa, which is where the assistance is concentrated.
So but that all of Gaza, the entire population of Gaza that's around 2.2 million people is in IPC phase three.
That's the level of need that requires fires, sustained and regular food assistance or these people are above, which is like basically crisis like IPC four or five.
As I mentioned, more than half the million, more than half a million people are already in the catastrophe phase five.
That's the most severe level of food insecurity and the highest share of people facing **** level acute food insecurity that the IPC has ever classified in any given country or conflict ever.
So that's actually like uncharted territory when it comes to the IPC findings that any result in many parts of the world.
It's basically this is they look at again, different kind of analysis to determine the severity and magnitude of the hunger crises according to a certain scientific standards and criteria.
So locations again, you know, it is all the areas that are inaccessible, different parts.
I mean, of the areas inaccessible, which is basically anything outside of the South of, of Gaza.
And I see that Ishita has confirmed that she will share the, the figures you were looking for Gabriel with the notes.
So you you'll get it Mohammed and I do want see the Turkish news agency.
Thank you so much, Alessandra.
I believe as you know, Israel continues to block aid to Gaza.
People in people in Gaza are in a very bad situation and there is a huge food shortage.
You can probably see the news of people are trying to pick grass and eat eat it.
As a senior UN officials, where have you seen such a poor site before and how would you compare with others?
First of all, I just want to correct thing.
The data was gathered were gathered between the 24th of November and the 7th of December.
So just to make sure that, you know, all of the reference to this between 24th of November and the 7th of December.
And we expect that the situation probably is much worse by now because you know, the improvement on the ground is really not, you know, situation has not improved.
And also maybe we've had some more, you know, food supplies getting in, but not again into every area.
Also the communication blackout that set in Gaza is really impacting also how we're operating distributions are we're unable to organise distribution in an orderly manner because of the communication break breakdown between the different teams across Gaza.
In terms of the comparison between, between this conflict and any other conflict in terms of access to food and food and security, I think it is very much unprecedented.
As I, I think I mentioned that the data having this **** level or highest numbers of people in IPC 5 is extremely concerning.
It is the largest concentration of people in what looks like famine like conditions anywhere in the world.
And the, the also how fast we got to this point is extremely concerning.
It does take us many months of conflict of, of, you know, chaos to get to this point.
And if you look at the even, you know, the situation in Yemen or in Syria or in like South Sudan, in Sudan, all of this we, you know, with, with the conflicts and the long years of conflict in these countries, we haven't seen that **** level of, of number of people in these conditions in such a short span of time.
In less than 100 days, we've had these figures.
I think I'm I'm not sure.
I'm sorry if I missed the other part of the question.
If if I did, please remind me.
Other than that over from my side, I think you you covered pretty much the question from Mohammed.
So thank you very much for this.
Nicomine Bruce, the New York Times.
Yeah, thank you for taking my question.
And I just wanted to confirm is you said half a million people are carving they are in IPCC 5.
Is that based on the estimate reached at the end of November and early December or is that something that you've adjusted, you know, and escalated since that time?
No, we that is all based on the numbers that we've had end of this end of November.
It's like between the 24th and you know, the numbers that we've released on the 20th of December.
Based on this data, what we said at that point, if we don't get the conflict, if we don't have more humanitarian pauses, ceasefire, more access to people, we're going to see, you know, these people are starving already and they will be in a very difficult situation.
Nothing has changed since then.
Maybe we've had a little bit things like the, the Jordan corridor has opened.
We've been able, we've, we have now, right now enough food supplies for all the 2 million people inside Gaza for enough for one month.
Everything is like on the borders, in the port outside, but not yet inside.
And the the important element is that, you know, there are people who are not in the South of Gaza.
So if we want to save lives, get more, get people, you know, lifted from these, from the experience that they are having living in a family like conditions, then we have to have this regular access to all of the areas that are in Gaza.
In terms of the, I think that I'm just looking at my notes here pretty much the, the we haven't been able to do any kind of food assessments since this pause and we would need another ceasefire humanitarian possible that we are able to follow up on these figures and see how the situation has developed since the end of November.
Thank you very much, very clear.
I see Christian would like to Christian Niemeyer from W2 would like to add something.
Yeah, thank you very much, Alessandra.
And then the colleague from from WFP and then Nick and others who asked the questions just to, to add a bit of A to the picture here.
The situation is really grave on the ground.
We just had missions planned and actually some of them now managed to get them through these last days.
We're waiting for a statement which we will send out the moment this is ready.
So it should be any anytime soon now, today.
But the important part is this was now one of the convoys had mainly fuel for a hospital on it.
And the people were holding it up as it multiple times it was trying to move forward and trying to leave and trying to get onto the road because they were so desperate looking for food.
And we needed to convince them.
And the team on the ground needed to convince them that all that there's only fuel and tried to actually show them that this is only fuel so that there's nothing to eat for them on there or no food for anybody else, which they would urgently need.
So the desperation is really grave.
We have very grave reports from inside the hospitals, people begging as they're lying waiting for surgeries or or for for any interventions, begging for water, begging for food, horrible scenarios on the ground.
And the point here is that for an hour side, as of 18 January, which is now until five days ago, we had 88 WTO trucks with medicines have crossed into Gaza.
And while you hear reports every now and then 100 trucks coming in, then another day celebrations that are maybe 150 or maybe even 200 trucks are coming in, these are just, yeah, as badly needed as they all are, every single truck is badly needed.
But the problem is it needs to be sustainable, needs to be planable and it needs to be secure, constant access into Gaza and throughout Gaza to supply everybody with the needs they have and the hospitals and the patients, with the medicines, with the surgical equipment and of course with the food, the water and the fuel as it is needed on the ground.
And that again, it needs to be planable, it needs to be sustainable.
And it cannot be an ad hoc intervention.
It cannot be a celebration of once 100 trucks being coming in and therefore the obligations under any international law have been fulfilled.
Everything which is coming out and in right now and gets to be moved forward is badly needed, but it's way, way, way too little and needs to be more.
Thank you very much, Gabriel.
With a second, I had Satoko Satokadachi from the Yumi Roshimun waiting.
Thank you for doing this.
I just want to get a better sense of how often you have been rejected by Israeli about your attempt to send food to the North in January.
Mrs Etefa, you need to unmute yourself, please.
I think I, I did have a figure about the percentages and the, I do, if I remember this correctly, that it's probably the figure is between around 70% rejection to requests to go to the North.
And you did someone had the question of how many, when was the last time we got trucks to the north?
It was, there was 2 convoys around the 11th and the 13th of January that were carrying 200 tonnes of food for 15,000 people, 15,000 people.
That's really a very, very small numbers.
And This is why we're seeing people becoming more desperate, being impatient to wait for food distributions because it's very sporadic.
They don't get it frequently and they have no trust or confidence that these that these convoys will come again.
So very compared to the, you know, magnitude of needs in these areas, extremely difficult conditions as my colleague from WHO has mentioned over.
And Gabriel, you have a follow up.
Yes, if possible, Mrs Ettifa OCHA has said action on January 12th.
Ocha said that they were noting A systematic refusal by Israeli authorities for deliveries specifically to northern Gaza.
You say that 70% of requests to deliver food to northern Gaza have been refused.
Do you see something systematic here?
And again, I have to double check on this figure of the percentage.
And it's not just for food.
I think it's just in general for access to northern Gaza this, this figure I think came from OCHA, but I have to double check on this.
So yes, systematic limitation on getting into the north of Gaza, not just for WPI think for pretty much everyone.
I maybe I can, unfortunately we don't have the spokesperson of OCHA this morning, but I can tell you what I've, what I've received in terms of information on the humanitarian access that in the first two weeks of January, humanitarian agencies planned 29 missions to deliver the life saving supplies to the areas to the north of Waadi Gaza.
Only seven of the 29 were accomplished, which is 24% either fully or partially.
The remainder of the missions were denied access by the Israeli authorities.
This is a significant increase in denials compared with the previous months between October and December.
Of course, the next year last year, only 14 percent, 6 out of 43 omissions planned to the north were denied, while the remaining 86%, which is 37 out of 43 missions were facilitated.
These denials prevent the scale up in humanitarian assistance and add significant cost to the overall response.
The capacity of humanitarian agencies to operate safely and effectively also remains heavily compromised by the long term restrictions applied by the Israeli authorities on the import of critical humanitarian equipment into Gaza.
That is an information from Orcha.
I think Taco has a follow up.
Yes, I just want to follow up the the slightly gave you reason why they rejected.
No, I'm sorry, I don't have this information.
I don't have first hand hand information to what were the reasons behind the rejection given in this update to us?
Yeah, Thank you very much, Mrs Atif.
I think that concludes the questions to you.
Good luck with your important work and please come back and and brief our journalist anytime in the near future on this dire, very dire situation.
Let's stay in the region and go again to WHO.
Christian, you brought us Doctor Arturo Passigan, who's The Who representative in Yemen and is connecting to Geneva from Aden to tell us about the health situation in this country.
And I will now let's see if he have he has been able to connect.
Yes, he is on Doctor Pezigan or unless Christian you want to start or we go directly to Doctor maybe let me just say the the statement.
Thank you very much Alessandra and thanks for the intro.
No, but the the statement that Doctor Aturu Pezingan will now soon give was just now sent to the Poly journalist.
So you should all have it and hence, yeah, support what we will discuss now.
Doctor Pezingan, thank you very much and good afternoon to everyone from Arden in Yemen.
It has been nearly a decade of conflict here in Yemen and it the country remains to be one of the world's worst humanitarian health emergencies, yet unfortunately forgotten by many.
We have millions of children born into the war.
Many have grown up which is in conflict and all people of Yemen have lived through some of the harshest humanitarian health crisis.
Recent events over the Red Sea and attacks in Yemen as a situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
War since can reverse this hard gain progress for peace and stability.
The people of Yemen have lived through deep devastation, hunger and violence.
They deserve a life of peace and progress.
The UN brokered truce and peace talks raised many hopes that the prolonged conflict would soon end and that the country was on the path of sustainable peace.
This year 2020 four 17.8 million people need health support.
2.4 million children under the age of five are malnourished, about half of Yemen's children.
Only 51% of health facilities are fully operational while 36% are providing limited services and amongst this 29% of the functioning hospitals do not have specialist doctors.
To the extent to which these indicators will affect the Ms, long term health development cannot yet be measured but its impact will last generations.
The governorates affected by the increasing insecurity are facing the worst health and development challenges and for example, the ODATA governorate alone hosts 135,000 internally displaced households with 916 IDP camps.
This has increased the socio economic concerns raising communities and health facilities.
This governorate is in the rest of the countries overwhelmed by endemic diseases such as malaria, dengue, measles, diphtheria and cholera.
Since the beginning of this year, we've had 2940 cases of acute watery diarrhoea and suspected cholera cases having been reported with 13 associated deaths.
The disease first emerged among a mobile community whose movement is quite difficult to track or control.
And the the cases have also already been reported among host communities enough.
And if you could recall, between 2016 and 2021, Yemen was classified as the world's largest outbreak of cholera with over 2.5 million reported cases.
Thus, we'd say that like for our situation in WHO, we're facing a severe shortage of humanitarian support in the country at present.
Our funding gap in 2023 reached 93%.
WHO was able to support at least 126 health facilities that year to compare to 227 in January of 2022.
Thus the drop of support from 101 health facilities that used to provide life saving services to entire communities.
These numbers have very direct, inconceivable implications on human lives.
So we reflect today that Yemen is a critical crossroads and days to come will determine the future of more than 35 million people, whether humanitarian and developmental progress will be reversed or if Yemen will be on the road towards peace.
So I stop here and I would welcome any questions you may have regards to our situation here in Yemen.
Thank you very much, Sir.
Let's see in the room if there's any question or on the platform.
So I thank you very much, Sir, for for this update.
I'm looking at the platform in case somebody had raised their hands.
So thank you very much, Doctor Passigan.
And for this update and maybe Christian, before I give the floor to Matt, before we let go, let you go.
You have a an announcement also indeed.
And again the the statement was sent.
So for any follow-ups on briefing by our head of country office, please come to us.
So yeah, sorry, important.
Sorry, Nick has asked for the problem.
Maybe just no, no, give us give us your announcement and then we will see.
Maybe there will be other questions.
Yeah, it might be, if you can wait on the line one more moment.
Christian, before you disappeared, I wanted to check with you whether you had an update on the situation of the two hospitals that we understood were under attack this morning or were being surrounded by military units and, and, and hostilities.
So do you have any update on that?
And could you specify which the hospitals are and, and what you've heard about the situation inside them?
Give me a second because there are other things obviously now here, maybe let's start as a, as a general thing.
And then Alessandro Fellao, I'll do the question 1st and then come to the come to the announcement.
We now have 14 and that's important, 14 partially functioning hospitals, 7 in the north and seven in the South and with two minimal functioning ones, Alkia, which is one of the two hospitals that is now being raided.
And we don't have specific updates on the situation.
And the NASA hospital there was no, which is basically sieged around the hospital and has no way in and out.
It's a must be a horrible scenario on the on the ground there with people not knowing what the next minutes will bring in.
Additionally, the situation of not having enough food, water or the medical supplies.
We're waiting for an update on exactly those hospitals and the statement is being prepared right now.
So I have to ask for your patience on this.
It's it will come out anytime soon.
I, I, I guess important 20 hospitals are not functioning right now.
That's all over Gaza, as you know, and the people, as the DG said last night, that the patients and people seeking safety within these facilities, not only are they now at risk, but also they are being prevented or or newly injured people are being prevented to reach the hospital and come in.
So absolutely unacceptable and not what any health facility anywhere in the world should go through.
Christian, I think you can go ahead with your announcement tendency there.
Yeah, Will, will, will do Thank you.
So yeah, a bit of a a topic change, bit of a mood change in additionally.
So the the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the WTO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, one of the few international treaties is having an opening press conference of the global tobacco controlling control governing bodies next week.
The the briefing is next week.
But the conference of the parties that is called the COP 10 is happening now.
And you may recall late in last year, it had to be postponed because of the, the technical situation in in the host country.
So now it is happening, It's happening.
The COP 10 in Panama from 5:00 to 10:00 February, followed by the so-called MOP, the meeting of the party.
So the conference of the parties is similar like the World Health Assembly.
And the MOP is a bit similar like the EB in that in that context, maybe they'll give you a quick idea for those we're not too familiar with, but very, very interesting and important topics out there.
The slogan is together promoting healthier lives and some of the topics being discussed, just to give you a quick idea are tobacco advertising, promotion, sponsorship, something is resolved very heavily discussed around the world and again the.
The brief press briefing just for the Palais will be next Tuesday, Tuesday, 30 January from 3:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon, 15 to 1600 hours CET.
Just a briefing for for Palais journalists, a virtual briefing with the head of the FCTC, Dr Ariana Blanco Martizo.
We'll send out a media advisory today because you need to register with the media team of the FCTC Simple Media e-mail, mediafctcinoneword@wto.in T.
But again, an advisory will come out and there's an opportunity to register and that needs to be accredited for the COP in Panama.
I assume not many of you will go, but maybe you have colleagues from your agency.
So you want to flag to this and there's a deadline to that.
That's also exactly Tuesday, Wednesday next week.
So that needs to be done soon.
Again, it will be in the media advisory.
But very interesting topics coming up.
Thank you very much, Christian.
And I don't see questions on that.
Yeah, we remember the briefing of Doctor Krak was also referring to to this meeting.
Yeah, And and they will be waiting for your invitation today, press briefing.
I'll turn to my left now and give the floor to Matthew Saltmarsh for UNHCR on the situation of Ranger refugees.
Thank you, Alessandra, and good morning, everyone.
Yeah, as you mentioned, Alessandra, we have an update on the dramatic increase in the loss of life at sea among Rohingya refugees.
UNHCR is deeply alarmed by statistics that reveal a surge in the number of desperate Rohingya refugees reportedly dying or going missing at sea while taking risky boat journeys across the Andaman Sea or the Bay of Bengal.
Last year, some 570 Rohingya were reported to have perished or gone missing last year in the Southeast Asian waters, with nearly 4500 embarking on deadly sea journeys.
That's a significant increase on the previous years, and there was a big increase in the last quarter in particular.
The number reported missing or dead is the highest since 2014, which saw some 730.
The findings for 2023 give some shocking details.
For example, survivors have shared horrifying accounts of ***** and exploitation during the journeys, including gender based violence.
Estimates show that one Rohingya was reported to have died or gone missing for every 8-8 people attempting the journey last year.
This makes the Andaman Sea in the Bay of Bengal one of the deadliest stretches of water in the world.
Most attempting these journeys were women and children, some 66% of all of those in Barking.
The refugees have been leaving from Bangladesh and to a lesser extent from Myanmar.
In a single deadly incident in November 2023, it is feared that some 200 Rohingya lost their lives when their boat was reported to have sunk in the Andaman Sea.
And prior to that, from January to August, there were at least three serious wrecks, with 30 dead and 177 reported missing.
These figures provide a chilling reminder that failure to act to save people in distress results in unnecessary deaths.
More and more desperate people are dying under the watch of numerous coastal states.
In the absence of timely rescue and disembarkation to the nearest place of safety, UNHCR calls on regional coastal authorities to take urgent action to prevent future tragedies.
Saving lives and rescuing those in distress at sea is a humanitarian imperative and a long standing duty under International Maritime law.
UNHCR is working with impacted States and other stakeholders, including refugees of course, to develop a comprehensive regional response to address these perilous journeys.
The root causes of these maritime movements must be addressed and the international community must step up to make good on pledges made at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva in December 2023 to advance solutions for Rohingya refugees.
And improve self-reliance to provide hope for refugees and reduce the compulsion to take these dangerous boat journeys.
Thank you very much, Matt.
And I see you have already sent your notes to the journalist, so thanks for that.
Any questions to you in HCR in the room or online?
I'll give you a second, but I don't see any hand up on.
Hi Matthew, thanks for this.
Do you have any detail on the actual circumstances of these particular accidents such as the the one you mentioned were 200 drowned?
Were these just unfortunately fragile vessels that were caught in a storm or were they pushed back?
Do we have any accounts that indicate that shipping had passed them by and ignored them?
Or is there a deliberate strategy of basically keeping them at sea?
As you're aware, of course, these crossings are made in incredibly fragile vessels, overcrowded vessels, and so they are particularly vulnerable and susceptible to accidents.
In terms of the specifics around the the wrecks that I mentioned, I don't have any further details in terms of state action.
But of course, you know, we reiterate our call that saving lives and rescuing those in distress at sea is a humanitarian imperative as well as a long standing duty under International Maritime law.
In other words, it is the duty of States and vessels to rescue those in distress at sea and to ensure a safe disembarkation as close as possible to that rescue.
Thank you, Matt, any other question?
So thanks very much for this update, which concludes our briefing.
I just have a couple of short announcements just to remind you that the Committee on the Rights of the Child is concluding the review of the report of the Russian Federation this morning.
And this afternoon we come start the review of the report of Lithuania.
And as I told you on Friday, the Conference on Disarmament is holding this morning the first public plenary of the 2024 session with under the Presidency of India with a speech of our Director General, Tatiana Balovaya, who is also Secretary General of the Conference on Disarmament.
Sorry, and, and, and, and her speech will be on Thursday, 25th of January.
So this morning it's just opening the the public plenary.
This is what I had for you.
I don't know if there is any question to me.
Just also to remind you that on Friday we will be commemorating the International Day of Remembrance of the Victim of the Holocaust.
That will be a lunchtime and we will send you the invitation for this commemoration and I hope you will be able to attend.
Any other question, any other point?
I don't see any hands up.
So thank you very much and I'll see you on Friday.
