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Geneva Press Briefing - 23 February 2024
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Press Conferences | HRC , UNAIDS , UNICEF , IFRC , OHCHR , UNHCR , WHO
Geneva Press Briefing - 23 February 2024
UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING
23 February 2024
Two years of full-scale war in Ukraine
James Elder, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), speaking from Kharkiv in Ukraine, estimated that over the past two years, children in war-ravaged Ukraine had had to spend 3,000-5,000 hours underground, which translated to some 200 days. From dozens of conversations with families and child psychologists, Mr. Elder concluded that psychological scars of children were deep. Some three quarters of young people reported needing psychological support, and only a fraction of them were getting it. Parents across Ukraine reported that their children were suffering from excessive anxiety and sleeplessness. Parents and children alike were worn down. While parental care was critical to addressing the prolonged stress experienced by children, parents themselves were chronically under stress and unable to provide adequate support to their children.
In Kharkiv, informed Mr. Elder, only two out of 700 schools offered in-class learning, which, among other consequences, led to stunted socialization. UNICEF had mobile medical teams going door-to-door providing medical and psychological care, and training psychologists and counselors. However, the attacks continued, living in bunkers continued, and each day was sapping more of the remaining strength and hope. The often-praised resilience of Ukrainians came at a cost, he concluded.
David Fisher, Head of the Delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Ukraine, speaking from Kyiv, said that two years on, people in Ukraine were still pushing forward, people were carrying on, but all under the uncertainty of bombardment and lack of access to essential services in the hardest hit areas. Air alerts were constant even far away from the frontlines. IFRC had visited Kharkiv earlier this week, where local Red Cross staff and volunteers admitted to being tired but added that they had no right to be tired, so they carried on. Ukrainian Red Cross chapters had child-friendly spaces across the country and did their best to give children some sense of normality. Older people in rural areas were among the most vulnerable categories, having lost their homes and seen their health deteriorate. Ukrainian Red Cross had tripled the number of their volunteers and staff and revived numerous branches. In Mykolaiv, for example, Red Cross was providing one third of all drinkable water, and in many places they were the ones to provide first aid. They were also playing a part in reconstruction and recovery, said Mr. Fisher. Thanks to the donors, IFRC’s presence in the country had made a big difference; dozens of sister Red Cross societies were in Ukraine supporting the local society activities. Continued support was needed to ensure that early recovery efforts could go ahead.
Charlotte Sector, for UNAIDS, informed that UNAIDS had published a sitrep on the occasion of the second anniversary of the war. Despite the initial disruption to the national AIDS response at the onset of the war, the national AIDS program had gradually resumed routine operations.
Responding to questions, Mr. Fisher, for the IFRC, said that the highest needs and the most difficult access were in the east, in the vicinity of the contact line. There were constant aid raids and power outages in Kyiv as well, he explained. The biggest needs were in rural areas, where access to basic services was most difficult. Mr. Elder, for UNICEF, explained that UNICEF did not have access to Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine. Ms. Vellucci, for UNIS, said that the Secretary-General would address the Security Council meeting on Ukraine today.
Human rights violations in Sudan
Seif Magango, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), speaking from Nairobi, stated that the armed conflict in Sudan had resulted in thousands of civilians killed, millions displaced, property looted, and children conscripted, as fighting had spread to more regions of the country. New OHCHR report detailed multiple indiscriminate attacks by both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in densely populated areas, including sites sheltering internally displaced people - particularly in the capital Khartoum, as well as in Kordorfan and Darfur - during fighting between April and December 2023.
Just this week, credible video evidence reviewed by the OHCHR showed that several students travelling by road in North Kordofan State might have been beheaded by men in SAF uniform in El-Obeid City – the victims seen as being RSF supporters based on their perceived ethnicity. The video footage posted on social media on 15 February showed troops parading with decapitated heads in the street while chanting ethnic slurs. In Darfur, thousands had been killed in RSF attacks, some of which had been ethnically motivated. The report found that between May and November 2023, the RSF and its allied Arab militia had carried out at least ten attacks against civilians in El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, killing thousands of people, most of them from the African Masalit ethnic community. Ms. Magango explained that by mid-December, more than 6.7 million people had been displaced by the conflict. This number had since increased to more than eight million, both in Sudan and abroad.
Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk stressed that “there must be prompt, thorough, effective, transparent, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights and violations of international humanitarian law and those responsible must be brought to justice.”
OHCHR report can be accessed here.
Answering questions from the media, Mr. Magango stated that the conflict in Sudan was becoming a forgotten one. Violations of human rights were continuing, and there were over 14,600 confirmed fatalities. More than eight million people were currently displaced. Some of the received allegations could amount to war crimes, stressed Mr. Magango. Independent, transparent, and prompt investigations were needed. OHCHR had shared the draft of its report and the press briefing note with the Sudanese authorities; the High Commissioner would present the report at the upcoming Human Rights Council session. Mr. Magango reiterated that the rules of war applied to both state and non-state actors, in other words to both SAF and RSF.
Tarik Jašarević, for the World Health Organization (WHO), replying to another question, said that the ten months of the conflict had indeed had a terrible impact on the lives and health of people in Sudan, where the health system had been already struggling even before the war. He said that 70 to 80 percent of hospitals in conflict-affected states of Sudan were not working; people were dying because of the lack of access to basic health care. The situation in Sudan was getting worse and was not getting the global attention it deserved.
Escalating humanitarian crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
Eujin Byun, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), stated that UNHCR was gravely concerned by the worsening humanitarian situation civilians face in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Intensifying violence and conflict were exacting a heavy toll on innocent civilians, hundreds of thousands of whom were attempting to seek safety on the peripheries of conflict zones. Since the resurgence of fighting around the town of Sake in the North Kivu Province on 7 February, 144,000 individuals had been forced to flee the outskirts of Goma. They had fled indiscriminate bombings that had impacted displacement sites and other civilian areas over the past few weeks, and which had resulted in the deaths of more than 20 civilians and injured more than 60.
The plight of the newly displaced in eastern DRC was compounded by the pre-existing, pressing humanitarian situation. More than seven million people remained displaced across the country, including half a million refugees. Those displaced contended with already high risks associated with inadequate shelters, poor sanitation facilities and limited income-generating opportunities. UNHCR had successfully advocated with local authorities for the extension of two displacement sites on the periphery of Goma and, with other humanitarian agencies, plans to deliver 900,000 shelters in 2024, nearly double the 500,000 built last year. To address these and many other humanitarian needs in the DRC, the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan had been launched on 20 February, appealing for USD 2.6 billion to help some 8.7 million people in need across the country.
There were 252 known armed groups operating in eastern DRC at the moment, so it was difficult to assign responsibility to any particular militia. UNHCR was calling on all actors to respect international humanitarian law, said Ms. Byun in a response to a question. Constrained humanitarian access to people in need was one of the major concerns for UNHCR, she stressed.
UNHCR statement is available here.
Health situation in Gaza
Christopher Black, for the World Health Organization (WHO), speaking from near Rafah in Gaza, said that this week he had taken part in three missions to the Nasser Hospital. Because of the active fighting around the hospital, and in spite of the close proximity, access to the hospital was very challenging. WHO and OCHA teams had evacuated 51 patients in critical condition; even the process of taking the patients out was extremely difficult. Hospital corridors were full of patients and barely lit; patients had to be carried on stretchers down multiple sets of stairs. Mr. Black recounted the bravery of the doctors and medical staff who had remained with the patients, and the Palestinian Red Cross which had worked with WHO and OCHA to get the patients out. Of the 51 transferred patients, there had been ten children and 21 women, specified Mr. Black in a response to a question.
Human Rights Council
Pascal Sim, for the Human Rights Council (HRC), informed that the Human Rights Council would open on 26 February at 9 am its 55th regular session, which would last from 26 February to 5 April 2024, under the presidency of Ambassador Omar Zniber of Morocco. Delivering statements at the opening would also be the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres; the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Dennis Francis; the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk. The Council would then start its high-level segment, hearing from Ignazio Cassis, Swiss Foreign Minister. Dignitaries representing more than 110 Member States would address the Council. At 4 pm, there would be a high-level discussion on the realization of rights of persons with disabilities. Room XIX would serve as a spillover room in case Room XX was full. More information about the 55th session can be found at the HRC extranet page.
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service, stated that the information about the Secretary-General’s participation and press encounter was expected soon. She said that the President of the General Assembly would be in Geneva from 25 to 27 February, after which he would continue to Nairobi. UN PGA would speak at the opening of the Council and participate in the high-level panel on the realization of rights of persons with disabilities.
Responding to a question regarding coverage of the Council, Ms. Vellucci explained that due to the liquidity crisis, UNIS was not able to recruit additional temporary assistance needed for full, usual coverage of the session. Automated webcast of all meeting would be ensured, said Ms. Vellucci; in addition, high-quality broadcast would be provided for the first morning of the 55th session and possibly for the end of the session – voting on draft resolutions. Press coverage would be provided for the first day and the voting, and possibly for other days, human resources permitting. She reiterated that UNIS was still providing full broadcast quality and press coverage of all UN human rights treaty bodies.
Zero Discrimination Day
Charlotte Sector, for UNAIDS, informed that 1 March would mark the tenth anniversary of Zero Discrimination Day. UNAIDS’s call to action was in order to protect everyone’s health, everyone’s rights had to be protected. The world had made great progress towards the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. That progress had been powered by progress in protecting human rights. However, laws, policies and practices that punished, discriminated against, and stigmatize women and girls, LGBT and other marginalized communities violated human rights and obstruct access to HIV prevention, testing, treatment, and care. There was an urgent need to remove laws which harm people’s rights and to bring in laws which uphold the rights of every person.
More information is available here.
Announcements
Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service, informed that on 28 February at 1:30 pm, there would be a launch of a new report by the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua on the human rights situation in Nicaragua.
Committee on Enforced Disappearances would hold on 26 February a dialogue with Honduras under article 29(4) of the Convention, by which States parties may be requested to provide additional information on the implementation of the Convention.
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would close on 1 March its 75th session and issue its concluding observations on the six country reports reviewed during this session: Romania, Mauritania, Ireland, Iraq, Indonesia, and Sweden.
Ms. Vellucci also informed that the UN Secretary-General would address the Conference on Disarmament on 26 February at 2:30 pm.
Teleprompter
Good morning.
Welcome to the press briefing here in Geneva of the United Nations Information Service.
Today is 23rd of February.
We have quite a long list of speakers, but before we go into the topics, I'd like to give the floor to Pascal, who has a short update for you with a view of the opening of the Human Rights Council session next week.
Pascal, you have the floor.
Thank you, Alessandra.
Good morning, everyone.
I just wanted to give you a quick update on our upcoming session.
the United Nations Human Rights Council will begin its 55th session on Monday, February the 26th at the Paladin Astra in Room 20.
The session will open at 9:00 AM with statements from Omars Nieber, the President of the Human Rights Council, to be followed by Dennis Francis, the President of the General Assembly, as well as Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations and Volcker Turk, the **** Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Council will then start its **** level segment with a statement from Ignacio Cassis, the Foreign Minister of Switzerland.
We expect over 50 dignitaries to take the floor on the opening day of this 55th session of the Council, including more than 40 full-fledged foreign ministers.
This **** level segment will continue on Tuesday all day and is scheduled to end on Wednesday around midday and on the opening day of the session at 4:00 PM.
The Human Rights Council will hold its first panel discussion about the realisation of the rights of person with disabilities, with a focus on their full and inclusive participation and inclusion in society.
And the President of the General Assembly and the **** Commissioner for Human Rights will open this panel discussion, which will feature the following panellists, Catherine Russell, the Executive Director of UNICEF, Gilbert Umbo, the Director General of the ILO, Doctor Tedros, the Director General of WHO, and Catalina Devon Das, the Executive Director of the Disability Rights Fund, Miss John ID.
The from the Chinese Federation of Person with Disability will also deliver a statement on behalf of the disability rights movement.
So on Sunday evening, we will send you the latest update regarding the opening of the session, including the latest version of the list of speakers for this **** level segment.
I also want to remind you that the doors of Room 20 will open at 8:30 AM on Monday.
So I recommend you come early.
Room 19 will be used as a spillover room in case Room 20 is full.
And all the Council's official meeting will be webcast on UN Web TV.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Pascal, is there any question?
Yes, Chris was not so much for Pascal.
Then for you Alessandra, is the Secretary General going to be available for the price at any point before or after?
Thank you.
First of all, it is expected that Secretary General would come the official announcement.
We're expecting in the official announcement by his office as soon as possible.
The my understanding is that having the Secretary General here may open onto the possibility for him to speak to the press.
Yes, we will confirm this as soon as we can.
Thank you.
Other questions don't see any.
And before we close this organisational part, I just wanted to as, as Pascal has mentioned, the President of the General Assembly, Dennis Francis will be coming to Geneva.
We've just sent you a media advisory that has been prepared by our colleagues of his press office.
The official travel in Geneva will be from 25th to 27th of February and then the President of the General Assembly will proceed to Nairobi, Kenya, where he will be from the 28th of February to the 2nd of March.
As we have just heard from Pascal in Geneva, the PGA will attend the opening of the 55th session of the Human Rights Council and will participate in the **** level Panel that Pascal has mentioned.
Some indications of what he will say at this on this occasion is in the media advisory that we have distributed to you.
I would like also to say that as part of his visit to Geneva, the President will launch a campaign jointly with UN Women and the President of the Human Rights Council aimed at preventing sexual harassment in the workplace.
He will also hold separate meetings with the President of Human Rights Council, with the **** Commissioner for Human Rights, with the Director General of WHO, the UN **** Commissioner for Refugees and the Director General of ILO.
And he will also speak to the civil society and to the delegates here in Geneva.
And then he will go to, as I said, to Nairobi to attend the 6th session of the UN Environmental Assembly, which will take place from 26th of February to the 1st of March at UNET Headquarters in Nairobi.
And you have more on his programme in the media advisory that we have circulated.
OK, so that is for next week, maybe just before we go into Ukraine.
I see there are questions.
Sorry, Catherine.
Bonjour.
Bonjour Alessandra, and thank you for giving me the floor.
I caught up the briefing a bit late, but I don't know if you did mention or say anything about the fact that due to a lack of liquidities, UNTV and Eunice won't be able to cover as usual the the 55th session of of Human rights.
Could you please give, give us details about the amounts that are needed in order to make a perfect coverage, not only for the press, but for the countries that are unable to attend and also the NGOs that would like to cover the best way possible the issues related to human rights?
Catherine, thank you very much for this question.
It gives me the opportunity to clarify a little bit how the coverage of the Council will be assured by Unis.
As you may know, it is customary that the coverage of the Council is provided by us with the assistance of temporary staff.
And this year, as you said, because of the liquidity crisis of the regular budget, unfortunately we cannot recruit this temporary assistant.
What we are going to do is, and it says as explained in the media advisory on the Council that we have distributed to you last week or the beginning of this week, sorry, we will definitely ensure the webcast of the sessions, of all the sessions.
This is an automated webcast that as you know, it's realised as we do here with the mics and the cameras show the person, the speaker in the room.
So this is going to be provided.
This is a webcast.
So it's not broadcast quality of course for the journalists of televisions is not the best solution and we are very conscious of that.
What we will try to do is to ensure as much as we can do of broadcast with the regular stuff that we have.
And this is going to be basically the first day because of the **** level segment, we will offer broadcast quality images and again the webcast will be assured for the whole length of the Council.
And we will also try to see if we can do something better for the end of the session when the when the votes are are on for what concerns the meeting coverage, meeting summaries that we normally offer, the situation is the same.
We don't have the liquidity to recruit temporary press officers.
So we are going to try and ensure as much as we can with our regular staff and definitely ensure the coverage of the first day and of the voting.
You're asking how much money we would need to ensure better coverage.
That is not the, the, the right approach is.
I mean, the point is not that we don't have money for this activity.
The problem is the liquidity situation of the whole organisation that the Secretary General has explained to Member states in an open in a letter that was distributed that was sent a few weeks ago.
And, and therefore it's, it's the whole situation that is not just the council.
Obviously we are working with the colleagues of the council to see if any extra budgetary funds can be found.
And if this is the case, we would be able maybe to to to provide more coverage, more, more, more, let's say more, more output in, in this process.
But for the moment, this is what we can offer.
Rest assured that we will do our best and that for the **** level segment, for example, and for days that could be of very strong interest to the press, We will try to provide at least some stories on the, on the content of the council and discussions.
And of course, our colleagues of human of the Human Rights Council will also be on the forefront of this, this coverage.
We will do our best.
Basically, that is the bottom line.
And I see, Katrine, you have steal your head up, hands up.
Thank you for giving me the floor back.
I know that you guys are doing the best you can and that through the years we've seen that the UNIS team has melted like snow in the sun.
So we know that it's not due to to goodwill.
But if you look to a practical solution, we often speak about artificial intelligence.
When you use automatic filming, often artificial intelligence is trans making a transcription of what is said.
It's not always **** quality and of course it it can't replace human beings, but it might be interesting, a certain level of interest for us to get those automatic transcriptions that are made by through artificial intelligence of the meetings.
Thank you, Alessandro.
Thank you, Catherine, thank you for the suggestion.
Obviously, this is not something that we have at the moment, but it's something that could be explored for the future.
I just would like to give a detail on what you said.
The issue of the coverage, especially of the human rights bodies is not, I wouldn't describe it as melting in the sun because we did have additional resources for the treaty bodies.
For example, we can ensure a full coverage, whether it's webcast or meeting summaries.
The problem is really because the Council is traditionally covered and we get a budget to ensure this coverage by recruiting temporary assistance and because of the liquidity, not the budgetary situation this year, this is not possible.
But thank you for the suggestion.
OK.
So, OK, there are more questions I think for me, Julia, Julia Lubova.
Yes, hi, thank you so much.
Alessandra, I have a question.
So you, you mentioned but the list of speakers for the **** level day, but can you please confirm if Iranian, Chinese and Palestinian foreign ministers expected to speak on the opening day, deliver statements in person?
I'm sorry, Julia, I don't know if you heard what Pascal said.
Pascal gave a list of the most important features of the first day.
First days, it also indicated that the list of the provisional because it changes all the time, the provisional list of speaker is available on the externet of the Council.
So I would like to ask you to either ask Pascal or check on that list which is updated all the time.
John, John, you're on.
We can't hear you, I'm afraid.
If it's also an organisational question, John, maybe you want to send it in the chat or or or to me.
I'd like to move to the to the first items of the agenda because we have a long list and I'm and I'm really here available with my colleagues if you need more information on the organisation for next week.
So let's now go to the first topic on our agenda, which is Ukraine.
Thomas or maybe you want to come to the podium as you know today, First of all, we are getting the mark of the two years since the escalation of the war in Ukraine.
Yesterday, the **** Commissioner for Human Rights worker Turk, noted that Russia's full scale armed attacks on Ukraine, which is about to enter it's third year with no end insights, continues to cause serious and widespread human rights violation, destroying lives and livelihoods.
And to speak about this issue we have with us, in fact, not with us because he's in Kharkiv.
We have James Salder for UNICEF and to hear from him about the situation of children mental health and Tomaso de la Lunga with David Fisher, who's the IFRC head of delegation in Ukraine, who's reaching us from Kiev.
So I will start with James.
James, give us your update and nice to see you.
Hope you're fine.
Go ahead, Alexandra.
Thanks so much, David.
Hi.
Yeah, Good morning, everyone.
Some new data.
UNICEF estimates that over the past two years of this war, children in Ukraine's frontline areas have been forced to spend between 3000 hours and 5000 hours underground.
That's the equivalent of between around four to seven months.
So just take a moment.
Try to imagine spending what would be the equivalent of 200 days over the past two years confined to a basement, to a bunker, to a hole in the ground that has been the reality for so many children on Ukraine's front lines.
And so seeking safety from the missiles and from the drones is coming at a great cost to these children.
From my dozens of conversations this past week with families and with child psychologists in Har Kiev and in frontline areas, they made it very clear that the situation around mental health has become absolutely devastating.
The psychological scars are running deep and they are deepening by the day.
The data, which I will share straight after this, also shows that around 3/4 of young people have recently reported needing some sort of psychological or emotional support.
A fraction of those are getting it.
So the ongoing shelling, the increased use of drones, all this is building into an awareness that children continue to be killed and so it's hindering families capacity to overcome the deep stress and trauma inflicted by this war.
Parents across Ukraine report that their children are suffering from excessive fear, anxiety, sleeplessness, phobias, sadness.
And so, at a time when parental care is needed most, half of those parents surveyed reported that they are struggling to support their children.
Quite simply, they're worn down.
In my conversations, many of them broke down, though, as I was told we don't cry only when our children have gone to bed.
As a child psychologist in her Key pointed out to me, and this is a quote, parental care is essential to manage the immense toxic stress that children are enduring from prolonged exposure to war and chaos.
But how do they, when parents themselves are experiencing the same events now?
Despite education being that fundamental source of hope and stability, it is chronically disrupted.
It's beyond the reach for a very large segment of Ukraine's children.
Take again the Hakiv city.
In that region, children in frontline areas have been in school for around a week in the last four years.
Around a week.
2 years of COVID, 2 years of war.
Indeed, in Hakiv city there are two out of 700 schools that offer in class learning.
Nearly every person I spoke to expressed deep concern over their children, be it preschoolers or teenagers.
Stunted socialisation.
But finally there is a response.
David will speak to response many other UN colleagues.
From a UNICEF point of view.
We have frontline medical teams going around, which includes a nurse, a doctor and a psychologist going door to door to give mothers and children support and care.
We have frontline workers still, it's bitterly cold at the moment, warm clothing, medicines, life saving support, training a lot of psychologists in the care that I spoke to.
Ukraine is now the most mined country on the planet.
So when we talk about childhood being robbed, no socialisation, no school, no ability to play in those areas.
We have trained 5000 counsellors and and supporters to do mine risk education, which is now a part of the curriculum thanks to the government.
But the attacks continue, the isolation in bunkers continue and as such, the attritional nature of this war is not just being played out on the front lines in the battlefields, but in families lives, in families homes.
Each day I think it's sapping a little bit more of that strength and that hope.
We have heard a lot and we tend to admire the resilience of Ukraine and its children and for very, very good reason.
But we must not forget what this resilience is costing.
Thank you, Alessandra.
Thank you.
Sorry.
Thank you very much, James for this update.
And I go now to IFRC.
Thomas, we want to introduce David.
Yes, absolutely.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alessandra.
So last week, we presented the survey on the level of deaths that Ukrainians are facing inside and outside the Ukraine and the regional perspective.
This week we'll have our Head of delegation Ukraine, David Fisher.
I will speak about the role of the Ukrainian across two years on, but also what he saw in his visit in Kharkiv and the Ninipro and of course the ongoing needs in Ukraine.
Thank you, Thank you, David.
Welcome.
You have the floor.
Thank you.
Good morning everybody and and thanks James for that.
Great, that great introduction.
And a lot of it resonates with with our experience.
I mean, two years on, you know, after this escalation, we see that people in Ukraine are still pushing forward, Businesses are moving, people are trying to build their lives.
But it's all under this constant ****** of bombardment and uncertainty.
And the hardest hit areas you know, that are close to the front lines, people are having trouble accessing essential services, medicines, food, even water medicine.
But even away from what they call the line of contact here, air alerts are constant.
Many internally displaced people are still living without any kind of certainty in the centre and the West.
Unemployment and **** prices are affecting many other vulnerable people in those communities as well.
And international humanitarian support for these people is drying up, as the priority is moving to the east and to the South.
So we also, our team visited Khakifa earlier this week.
I visited the the branch there where all of their windows are, are are boarded up after, you know, destruction from early on in the, in the, in the conflict.
We met in the the basement of the Opera House to stay safe from the constant alerts that were happening while we were there.
This it's an inspiring team.
They told me, you know that they are, they're finding it hard like anybody else there, emotionally, physically.
But they said they're tired, but they're not tired.
They just can't afford to be.
They need to keep moving forward and on.
On Tuesday, we met with with the volunteers of the Ukraine Red Cross and Denipro.
They work at sewing and washing machines to turn around donated clothes for displaced and other vulnerable people.
These people are dealing with the conflict, of course, in their own lives when there are energy outages in the coldest months, although thank goodness there were fewer this winter than there were in the in the last winter.
And you know, this this toll on children that James mentioned really resonates with them.
So you know, your frame Red Cross has these child friendly spaces and their branch level all around the country in Mikolajev, which we visited last week.
You know, they have these, these centres and they, they have games with the children and they, when they do have to go into the shelter, they call it the sort of the Harry Potter chamber.
You know, they're just trying to make them feel like some sense of, of, of normality and also to give the parents some sort of break.
But the children are not the only ones who are, are bearing the brunt of this.
Some of the most vulnerable people are, are older people and rural areas.
A lot of them have lost their loved ones.
They've lost their homes, they've lost their savings, they're going into debt.
Ukraine Red Cross has this home based care programme that they've been doing for many years and they have mobile health units to bring medical, you know, sort of support into these rural areas that just absolutely have no access to it on a day-to-day basis.
And the Ukraine Red Cross has grown enormously in response to this ******.
Over the last two years.
They've tripled the number of their volunteers and their staff.
They've revived over 100 of their local branches.
They've reached more than 12 million people with with emergency relief, with health, with social services.
And in Mikhailaya, for instance, the Ukraine across is providing 30% of the potable water in the city.
They're doing a lot of new things in order to, you know, to, to support their communities around the country.
And they're playing a leading role as the country's largest local humanitarian network.
They have emergency response teams that respond immediately with the government responders when there's a missile attack, when they do need to do evacuation close to the fighting.
They provide first aid, emotional support to people who are affected.
But probably some of their biggest tasks are just kind of building this capacity to cope this this this resilience that the James was talking about with psychosocial support, rehabilitation for the many, many wounded people and disabled people because of the bombing and kind of community level economic projects like shared laundries and this kind of thing.
And they're also playing a part now in reconstruction and recovery.
And it may feel strange, but in the middle of all of this, recovery is the way to go.
And so we have not only many hospitals, rehabilitation centres, schools that have been destroyed, for which, you know, some minimal repairs can can make a difference, but we also need to do recovery in people's health and their livelihoods and their well-being.
It's time for us now as international community to be investing in this more comprehensive way instead of just, you know, relief items.
This is the right way to be meet both the short and the long term needs.
It's an investment in the future of these people in Ukraine and they deserve this help.
Thanks to our donors at the International Federation of Red Pressing, Red Cross, Red Pressing Societies, our appeal has made a big difference in allowing this to happen.
IFRC secretaries here in country with over a dozen sister Red Cross societies also supporting Ukraine.
Red Cross as a local leader.
But our appeal is only about 60% covered.
It's leaving a significant gap.
So here we are, two years on.
Humanitarian needs are growing, but we also have the need and the possibility for recovery in many parts of the country.
We need to ensure that we're supporting vulnerable people wherever they are, both at the front lines and also those who are indirectly affected elsewhere.
And we need to shift to this early recovery approach.
And this is the call we're making.
That's it for me.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, David.
Let's open the floor to questions.
First in the room, Body, body hugger.
Phoenix TV.
Alright, thank you.
Phoenix TV from Hong Kong, I need probably you can speak more that in details.
What exactly Which city has the obstacle access and met obstacle problems?
And who met the problem of hygiene, water extra?
Which city exactly is that Kiev included or so thank you.
I'm sorry.
OK, I understand this is for David.
Go ahead.
Sure, thanks.
I mean, the, the, the, the highest needs, obviously, and the, the, the most difficult, you know, sort of access is along the front lines in the east and in the South and also up in, you know, in some parts of the north are Sumi, where the access basically, you know, is, is, is blocked by the, you know, the incredible volume of, of fighting and bombing which is going on.
But Kiev is also not spared with us.
We have constant error rates here.
We've had some power outages here as well.
Because of this.
Prices have gone up both because of the war and also because of, you know, the situation on the western border.
So people feel this around the country.
The biggest needs, I would say, is in rural areas where just it's very hard to access basic services, incomes are lower and and, you know, we have, you know, sort of families who have split up and and as I mentioned, like, you know, sort of older people, disabled people are the ones that are most vulnerable.
Thank you very much, David.
The other questions in the room, I don't see any.
So let's go to the platform.
Yuri Aprelev, Rio Novosti.
Yes, Thank you.
Thank you.
Alessandra.
My question is for James.
I just wanted to know if Yens is in the room too or if he's not here to this morning.
No, this week, I think Yens is not in Geneva.
But if you have questions for Arch Avanis is available, but they are not.
But they are not in the room.
Yeah.
OK, OK.
Thank you.
So for James, my question, you say that children's on the front line had to hide between 300 hours and 500 hours mainly the past year.
Do these estimates of the hours spent in bankers also concern children in the territories controlled by Russia?
I'm specifically talking about the children's in Daniel, Suhansk, Garlovka, etcetera.
And does UNICEF have access to Russian controlled territories?
That's why I was asking for OSHA, because I was speaking with WHO yesterday and they say that their teams in Ukraine don't have access to these territories, but they didn't explain what is the main problem of having access.
Who is not giving the access for what reasons?
And I was also asking if your teams in Russia can access to the territories under the control of Russia to check the psychologic situation for the children's because for a lot of them, the war didn't start in 2022, but in 2014.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Yuri.
I'll give the floor to James.
But there is also Tariq on the line.
Tariq, if you want to intervene, just raise your hand.
James, Yuri, hi, thanks.
I'm sorry, it'll be a brief answer.
We don't have access in those Russian controlled areas that you mentioned.
So the the numbers and hopefully you've now got them as the briefing note, it was 3000 to 5000.
So at its worst around 200 full days.
And these are areas, some of these areas were Russian control, but these are all areas of Ukrainian territory now under Ukrainian control.
So the areas you speak to, I'm sorry.
And for the for those other elements about general access, Yeah, you're right.
I, I defer to Watcher.
OK, thank you very much.
Other questions on Ukraine?
No, I don't see any.
So just to remind you that the Secretary General will speak today at the Security Council meeting on Ukraine, that there will be also meeting a plenary meeting on the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine of the General Assembly.
And you have this on the UN Web TV available for listening.
Thank you very much to our colleagues of UNICEF and IFRC.
Please stay safe.
And we continue our briefing on another subject, another important subject, which is Sudan.
We have with us Saif Magango, that you all know, the UN Human Rights Office regional spokesperson in Nairobi.
So if you have information for our journalists and the horrific violations and abuses in Sudan as fighting spreads, you have the floor.
Yes, indeed.
Thanks, Alessandra.
Morning everyone.
The armed conflict in Sudan has resulted in thousands of civilians killed, millions displaced, property looted and children conscripted as fighting has spread to more regions of the country.
A report published this morning by our office details multiple indiscriminate attacks by both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces in densely populated areas, including sites sheltering internally displaced people, particularly in the capital Khartoum, in Anderman, Khodafan and Darfur during fights fighting between April and December 2023.
Just this week, critical information received by us and video evidence reviewed by our office has shown that several students travelling by road in North Khodafan State may have been beheaded by men in surf uniform in Al Obeyed city based on their perceived ethnicity as being RSF supporters.
The video footage, which has which was posted on social media on 15 February, shows troops parading with decapitated heads in the street while chanting ethnic slurs.
In Darfur, thousands have been killed in RSF attacks, some of which were ethnically motivated.
The report finds that between May and November 2023, the RSF and its allied Arab militia carried out at least 10 attacks against civilians in Al Ghana, the capital of West Darfur, killing thousands of people, most of them from the African mass elite ethnic community.
There were also killings by the RSF and its allies in the town of Morni and in Adamata, where at least 87 bodies were buried in a mass grave.
By mid-december, more than 6.7 million people had been displaced by the conflict, both within Sudan and into neighbouring countries.
This number has since increased to more than 8 million.
The report cites the People's Authority to Support the Sudanese Armed Forces, a pro SAF entity, as stating that it had armed 255,000 young men in camps across Sudan.
Children were also recruited by the RSF from Arab tribes in Darfur and called the fan.
African ethnic communities, including the four mass elite and Zagawa, also reportedly responded to recruitment campaigns by the SAF in the report.
There must be prompt, borough effective, transparent, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of violations and abuses of international human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, and those responsible must be brought to justice.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Saif.
Let me see if there are questions on Sudan in the room.
I don't see any.
Christian Erich, our correspondent of the German news agency.
Christian, you have a question for a Saif.
Yes, thank you very much, Saif, for the briefing.
I wonder your report goes all the way to December, but since December the situation has, if I understand correctly, worsened a lot.
Do you have any indication about numbers or or incidents that have happened since the end of your reporting period?
Thank you.
Absolutely, thank you so much for your question.
The situation in Sudan indeed remains very concerned and as the Commissioner has stated recently, it is becoming a forgotten conflict.
We continue to record to document and record cases of killings, injury, displacement and also there's been cases and of sexual violence between during this conflict.
As for numbers, we have information to the effect that the fatalities now stand at at least 14,000 600 people who have been killed during this conflict.
These figures have been collected by an organisation that we believe will be credible.
The armed conflict location are cleared in the organisation and there is indeed reason to believe that the numbers are weight up in the thousands.
As we state in this press briefing, the number of people displaced has now crossed the 8 million map, which should concern everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Huge numbers.
Lisa Schlein, Voice of America.
Thank you, Alessandra.
Good morning, Sir.
Yeah, I have a few questions for you.
How serious are these crimes that you are talking about?
Do they rise to the level of war crimes, the crimes against humanity?
Could you specify that, please?
And also, you're calling for an independent investigation.
Who do you have in mind to carry out this investigation?
Probably the warring parties themselves would not be capable of this, or would they?
And also what has happened with this report, Have you been able to pass it on to the rival generals or anybody in charge of of the two sides to look at it?
And if so, has there been any sort of a response?
I mean, seriously, do you think that an independent investigation could be carried out with their approval?
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Lisa.
Indeed, these these violations are incredibly serious and international law.
And as the **** Commissioner has stated in response to this report, having graded read it himself thoroughly is that these violations would amount to war crimes.
But the there is a need for indeed to investigate and for instance, we are heartened by the announcement by the Sudanese, the Sudanese authorities that they will investigate the specific case of the beheadings, the reports circulated of these beheadings and videos on the 15th and on the 16th they vowed to investigate.
We intend to follow up with them on the progress of these investigations and to continue to call on, to continue to call on them to hold those responsible to account and end to work towards ending this series of ethnically motivated killings, apparently that we have reported on for for many months, especially in Balfour.
On the question of whether the investigations will be independent, we wait to see that we, the obligation to investigate rests with the the authorities in Sudan and the international law.
And there is still an authority in Sudan and we, we we have to call on them to respect the international obligations and ensure that investigations are held and those investigations are independent, prompt, transparent and ensure that no one escapes justice and victims get the justice they deserve.
What is going to happen to the report?
We have brought it to the attention of the Sudanese authorities.
We sent them a draught which they had they looked at, we sent them this press briefing early this morning.
So they're completely aware of our findings.
And to add to that, the **** Commissioner is due to present this reports to the Human Rights Council at the upcoming session.
So not only Sudan, but the international community will get to be appraised of the findings of this report and hopefully help towards ensuring justice and also working towards silencing the guns in Sudan.
I see Lisa has a follow up.
Yes, thank you all.
I noticed that when you talk about investigations and response, whatever that you're referring to the SAF, you made no, no reference to Darfur.
So I'm wondering, well, since it's a paramilitary group, whether no accountability or can be expected from them or I don't know, cooperation in terms of any sort of investigation.
What is your relationship with?
The Darfurian fighters, the response, the I'm sorry, I shouldn't call them Darfurian fighters.
The rapid response group.
Thank you.
Thanks so much for your question, Lisa.
Yeah, yeah.
So actually we do call on both parties to respect international law because the obligations under international law during an armed conflict such as the one pertaining in Sudan apply to state and non state actors.
We, we, we have called on the RSF repeatedly to stop desist from attack from attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure to end the pattern of sexual violence that we have seen on in in in areas where they have taken control to release all civilian detainees.
So we are and completely alert and aware to the violations that RSF may have and that carried out or its allies and allegations to that effect.
And we call on them to to to, to respect international law as to the relationship.
We, we, we of course address the money international law as people, as an entity that is subject to it and continue to call on them to to respect their obligations.
Thank you, Catherine, Cianco, Francois.
Yes, thank you, Alison.
Good morning, Steve, and thank you for briefing us.
My question is related to what you just mentioned about the **** Commissioner that is going to present his report on March 1st as also the the expert, the designated expert.
First of all, could you tell us, I don't know if you know about it, if there would be a press conference or a possibility for the press to meet some of the maybe the experts and, and, and some people that are working at your office about that issue?
And also, do you know who is going to which kind of level will represent Sudan in Geneva?
Maybe you don't know yet.
And I forgot to ask Pascal and I will ask if I'm yet still on.
I will also ask a related question, not to you address to you, but address to WHO because among the human rights you have access to care and we know that Sudan is actually battling cholera, dengue.
And if WHO could give us more information about the situation?
Thank you.
Thank you, Katrina.
Thank you.
I'll give the floor to save.
Also, we have Tariq online, so maybe Tariq would be able to answer your question.
This gives me the opportunity to inform you that even if it was not announced, we have Chris Black who has connected from Gaza on the line.
So after that we have finished with Sudan and we have heard from Eugene on DRC, we will try to connect with Chris for an update on the health situation in Gaza, just for your information.
So let's start with Seif to answer Chris Catherine's question and then I'll go to Tariq.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Catherine, on the press conference, I'm not aware at the moment whether that has is is in the works, but I can assure you that the descended expert is due to be in Geneva and will be appearing with the **** Commissioner.
And I think perhaps if you were to make a request to interview them, it would be considered.
So I would encourage you to make that request.
As of now, I'm not aware of plans to to the press conference on the sidelines of the of the address to the Council Sudan representation as indeed you're right, I don't have information on who they're presenting Sudan.
Perhaps Pascal can assist if you reached out to him directly.
Thank you, Tarek.
Hello.
Can you can you hear me?
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Katrina for question, you have you have heard from our acting representative in Sudan feud like I think it was it was last week or week before about a situation in Sudan and indeed 10 months of of the conflict, it had a deadly impact on the on the lives, livelihoods and health of the people.
And the conflict has plunged the country into humanitarian crisis of huge proportions and health system was already weak and struggling due to conflict and disease outbreaks and and and hunger that was caused by, by, by drought.
And now obviously it's getting even worse and cutting out the enormous pressure caused by the by the wall.
Just give you some, some examples.
About 70 to 80% of hospitals in COVID affected states are not working.
And the remaining ones are overwhelmed by the influx of people seeking care, many of whom are internally displaced.
People are dying from a lack of access to basic and essential healthcare and medication.
Critical services, including maternal and child healthcare and management of severe acute malnutrition and treatment of patients with chronic conditions have been discontinued in many areas.
What I suggest to do is to send you some, some numbers, updated numbers on cholera and, and other, other health aspects in a, in a note.
So, so you have it.
But we, as W Chen, you have heard also from our director general, we really keep referring how bad situation in, in Sudan is.
And it the fact that it's getting even worse and that this, this crisis is not getting the, the attention that we would like it to have.
So, so we will, will continue doing that.
And I will be sending some some figures in in my notes.
Thank you very much, Jamie.
Thank you, Alessandra.
My question is for aside from Magongo, Mr Magongo, could you just be a little bit more specific about what the **** Commissioner was referring to when he talked about potential war crimes in the context of the news release?
It was sort of mentioned after there was a reference to the recruitment of child soldiers.
And then the preceding paragraph before that talked about, of course, the sexual violence and ****.
So I just want to be as specific as possible when he's talking about potential war crimes.
What are those potential war crimes specifically?
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
The the, the potential war crimes.
So the conflict in Sudan has thrown up a lot of violations of the Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law generally.
So you've got killings, you've got ****, you've got after sexual violence, you've got recruitment of children, you've got people buried in mass graves left.
I'm afraid we have lost.
Saif.
Saif, are you there?
Can you hear me?
Yeah.
Now you're moving again.
Yeah.
You were frozen.
Can you just repeat the last the last sentence?
OK.
No.
So I was saying the the this conflict in in Sudan has.
I don't know what's happening with the line safe, but we we can't hear you.
Yeah, you're back again.
Let's let's try another time, please.
Otherwise, maybe you can answer Jamie in writing in the chat.
Please go ahead.
Because we we lose you.
Go ahead.
It could be something to do with my my connection.
Let's try again.
So I was basically saying on the question of war crimes that the violations of of the Geneva Conventions and IHL more generally during the conflict in Sudan have been such that there could be many instances that would amount to war crimes that commissioner is talking about.
Some of these violations would amount to war crimes specifically.
If we look at the what the report we've just released, you have killings on a massive scale, killings that are ethnically motivated.
You've got reports of people being sexually violated.
And then the more recent case, which is not in the report, but we found would be really egregious.
So it was just that we needed to bring it to the world's attention, the needle, the the killing and cold blood of of these young men simply for who they are and they're beheading.
All of that seen in in aggregate would amount to war crimes.
But of course it would have to, it would take a tribunal to come to that conclusion.
And that's why the **** Commissioner has repeatedly and and in this case also hold for an investigation to ensure that those responsible are held to account and to actually go to the root of the nature and the extent of peace violations and what whether they they would amount for war crimes.
So in short, that's what I would I would say about that.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, Saif.
Thanks for to both of you for for this briefing on Sudan, which concludes this subject here.
I've got Eugene with me on the podium, but I see that Chris is is on and with the camera.
So with the permission of Eugene, who has been very nice, thank you, Eugene.
I'd like to go that little Chris Black in Gaza before we, we the connection.
Let's, let's try to be with him for a little while.
Chris, thank you very much for connecting.
I, I'm, I know it's, it's difficult and thanks for for doing this.
Even if not announced, we're always very happy to have you.
You have an update on the health situation in Gaza.
Go ahead, please.
Thank you very much Alexander for your for your time.
And then hello to colleagues who I, I know very well from Geneva.
It's funny to be talking to you here from Gaza today.
Perhaps I'll talk a little bit about the, the three missions I was on to, to Nasser Hospital.
And then if you have any follow up questions, I can, I can talk about those.
So I went three days in a row, this would have been so 5 starting five days ago on the the missions with WHO and OCHA, very complex missions because of the nature of the environment around the hospital with active fighting there and the days before and even while we were there, even though it's not very far, the distance is here, everything is kind of close.
But here the distance from from from where we are in Rafa to to Nasser is about 2.7 kilometres.
But even just negotiating that part of Rd through incredible devastation, incredible destruction with roads just churned up by by by the fighting and by tanks was really a challenge for for for The Who and own share vehicles, but also for the for the ambulances of the Palestinian Lake Crescent that were were with us.
We had on 2 occasions we had four ambulances and on one other occasion we had five and they struggled to reach the hospital.
We could get to about 50 metres from the hospital and there then over the three days we evacuated, we referred, we, we were involved in the referral of patients from the health facility that were identified by the director of the hospital as the critical of the patients that needed to move to, to move first.
So 51 patients, many of them unable to walk.
We, we, we moved them in stretchers.
Umm, some they're called walking patients, but they're actually in wheelchairs.
And even the process of getting them out of the hospital was really challenging, especially the first, the first time we were there, we fell into the evening, it was dark.
There's no electricity in the hospital.
Umm, there's the hospital corridors are full of patients and of, of umm, just the chaos of a hospital that's, that's come under fighting.
So there's umm, you know, medical supplies and gurneys and everything was in the hallway and negotiate that at night.
For example, the ICU was on the 4th floor of the emergency building.
So up four stairs, down 4 stairs and narrow spaces carrying patients.
And it was in the dark.
It was really, really a challenge.
But the one thing I would remember is the, is the bravery of the, of the health personnel that stayed behind through this fighting to, to stay with their patients.
The, the, the bravery of the, the hospital director and the bravery of the Palestine Red Press and ambulance crews who, who are risking their lives to, to save these patients.
And, and like I said, we were successful with 51 patients.
We referred to the IMC field hospital here in Rafa, not a long drive.
It's 1/2 an hour drive in ambulance convoy and then those patients, some stayed there in the IMC facility, which is which is a fantastic facility deployed under the emergency medical teams initiative coordinated by WHO and others were referred to other hospitals here in Gaza.
So a complex operations, really hard to describe the the situation in the hospital that I saw it.
Hopefully it's evolved since then.
In the last two days, WHO and OCHA have been working with the health directors at the hospital to try to get the generator functioning again.
It had run out of fuel before we arrived.
It has some fuel now that we brought in the generator itself is is is running, but power is not getting to the health facility.
This was an enormous health facility, which is a giant health facility, very, very important for the health of Gaza.
And the fact that it doesn't have electricity still is really is really a challenge.
So the generator is functioning, but the power between there and the control panel and the hospital itself is not functioning.
So that's what they were working on the last two days.
That's what they're working on again today.
I think I'll leave it at that.
If you have any questions about that or about the time I spent here in Rafa visiting other health facilities or, or life in Rafa, I'd be happy to take them.
And thank you for this opportunity, Alessandra and colleagues in Geneva.
And I'm happy to be with you today.
Thank you, Chris.
Questions in the room, body hugger, Phoenix TV.
Hi, Chris, So lovely to see you there.
Question sample, simple question B.
So do you have the difficulties to access anywhere in Gaza and how many Staffs in total there from WHO?
Thank you.
Thank you buddy for that question and nice to hear your voice, my friend.
Yes, there's, there's difficulties in, in movement because of, of roads are difficult and all our movements are coordinated through the international system so that the, the movement is safe and, and, and organised.
So there's, there's definitely challenges there.
And the numbers I have I think are just under 30,000 people killed and just under 70,000 people injured at this point.
So, and that those numbers are changing of course by the day over.
Sorry, I, I don't know if, if I understood well, I think, but it was asking also how much, how many stuff WHO has in, in Gaza, how much stuff WHO has today?
I think we are 1/2, maybe 7 or 8 international staff here and we're joined by a country office that has been working here throughout the throughout the last few months, but also throughout the last few years, a very strong WTO country office.
So we have quite a few colleagues from there.
I'm not sure the actual number of colleagues there.
I would have to check that for you.
But I think it's certainly more than 10 or 12:00.
And then of course, all these missions that we were doing, we're working really hand in hand with with OCHA as well as colleagues from UNFPA.
I've been out with colleagues from UNICEF, I've been out with colleagues from WFP, I've been out with colleagues from DSS keeping us safe.
So it's really the, the entire UN system here.
It's not just, it's not just WHO that's involved in, in, in helping the for the health of the people here.
It's really Aun cross UN effort and it's really, it's really one, it's just inspiring to be part of that.
And it's a start of WHO that that I don't get to see so often.
So because I'm not always in the field.
And so seeing WHO operation on these in the in these situations along with colleagues from the UN is really it's really inspiring.
You have to say, Chris, sorry, I don't know if you can answer this question that came in writing to my WhatsApp is can can you say exactly from where you're talking in Gaza?
Thank you, That's a good question.
I should have mentioned that off the top.
I'm right now just on the outskirts of Rafa in an area called Al Mohasi.
So it's not, it's on the top of Rafa, so not far from Kan Unis.
I can hear some shelling going on from Kan Unis.
I can see some smoke and Kan Unis is on the way in.
So I'm just very close to the sea at the very edge of Rafa here today.
I was in the centre of Rafa earlier on, but I came out here to get better Internet so I could actually, I have a conversation with you because the Internet here, connectivity, again, what you're talking about access connectivity here is really a giant issue in terms of communicating and coordinating movements.
Cell phone network is basically not working.
So we're really reliant on Internet and one or two locations.
This is one of them along with satellite communication.
So it's again, the roads are one issue and and connectivity is really another issue in terms of coordination, especially for the TV man that you are.
I have a question from Katrina.
Hi Chris, I hope you save.
Nice to see you.
Thank you so much for the images that you posted when you were in the hospital.
It was absolutely a real nightmare.
Chris questions you spoke about 51 patients.
How many children and women among them?
Another question is related to the doctors.
How many doctors left in that so-called hospital?
Can we still call it an hospital?
You OK?
You answered electricity.
What about water, clean water?
How do you have, do they have access to clean water?
And also you spoke about difficulties in movement.
How are the Israeli people helping and supporting the missions in order to have access to the hospital and to the patients?
Thank you, Chris, take good care of yourself.
Matthew.
Kathleen, for your question.
I hope I can remember it all.
Number of health workers, I think we're saying it was 15 or 16 health workers if I remember correctly.
And one thing because I went over the three days that I'll never forget is well, the first day in the dark, them just coming out of the dark and greeting us.
And the second thing is the smiles on their faces that that they were happy to see us.
They were happy that the help that we were bringing in was helping the patients that they've been looking after around the clock.
They, they're living themselves, of course, with the patients.
And when we got there, that was for days in the dark.
And to answer your question with no running water, with no sanitation and with no electricity, and as far as I know, the water situation hasn't changed.
We brought in some bottled water for the patients and for the health workers and we brought in some food for the patients and health workers, but it was we're limited to the amount of material that we can move within our vehicles.
What was your question?
Next question about children, How many children, how many women children?
I think if I remember correctly, there was two children in the 51 patients that we moved and I don't believe I have the breakdown between men and women, but if you would want I can get through that number afterwards.
The the missions that we did were facilitated what we call facilitated through the through the CLA.
So they were facilitated missions and coordinated with Israeli authorities over.
Thank you very much.
Is there any other question for Chris?
I don't see there ends up.
So thank you very, very much.
Please stay safe.
And this is really something that we all want to tell you.
Thanks very much for crushing in the the the the press briefing.
It's always a pleasure to see you come back and tell us about the situation of the health sector in Gaza.
And good luck for your activities in the next days.
So thank you very much, Virgin, for your patience.
And I'll give you the floor now on DRC.
And then we'll still have to hear from Charlotte sector of units.
Good morning, everyone.
I'm here today to bring your attention to yet another humanitarian crisis, particularly DRC.
Sorry.
So so we UNHSCRUN refugee agency is gravely concerned by worsening humanitarian situation civilians in the DRC face.
In the in the eastern part of the country, intensifying violence and conflict are exacting a heavy toll on innocent civilians and hundreds of thousands of whom are attempting to seek safety on the peripheries of a conflict zone.
Since the resurgence over fighting around the town of Saki in the North Kivu province on the 7th February, 144,000 individual have been forced to flee.
At the outskirts of Goma.
They have a flight indiscriminate bombing that have impacted displacement sites and also other civilian areas over the past few weeks and which have resulted in the death of more than 20 civilians and also injured more than 60.
While conflict around Zaki rages, non state armed groups in DRC have launched A horrific spate of attacks against civilians this week in the Beni region of North Kivu as well as in the Irumu territory of Ituri province.
UNHS Air Protection Monitoring reported that they have received the reports of killings and kidnapping and the burning of homes.
We are, we are.
We heard the story of a Jean Paul individual, the the father IDP internally displaced father who moved from Mushake to Saket 3 months ago, now displaced again to Goma.
That means that there is a multiple displacement happening in eastern Congo as well as that the less and less safe zone for the individual and the displaced population.
UNHCR condemns this atrocity against the civilians and displaced population and urgently call for a cessation of hostility across the Eastern Province provinces to safeguard the civilian lives.
The plight of the newly displaced in Eastern DRC is compounded by the pre-existing and pressing humanitarian situation.
More than 7 million people remain displaced across the country, including half a million refugees sick already seek asylum in DRC.
Those are displaced that contend with already **** risks associated with the inadequate shelters, pool, sanitation facility and limited income generating opportunity.
UNHCR has successfully advocated with the local authority for the extension of A2 displacement sites on the periphery of Goma and with the other humanitarian agency plan to deliver 900,000 shelter in 2024, nearly double the 500,000 built last year.
But those are not enough to address these and many other humanitarian needs in the DRC.
The 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan was launched on 20th February, appealing for 2.6 billion to help some 8.7 million people in need across the country.
Additionally, UNHECR and it's partner launched on 2020 second of February yesterday a regional Refugee Response plan to provide a critical protection and assistant to Congolese refugees in neighbouring country.
The plan requires $668,000,000 to support nearly 1,000,000 refugees in neighbouring country and 1,000,000 host community members, the majority of whom are in Angola, Burundi, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, and United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia.
Thanks.
Thank you very much, Eugene.
Let me see if there's any question on DRC in the room or online.
Katherine Fiancon Yes, good morning, Eugene, and thank you for this briefing on DRC.
I read your press release, but I haven't seen anything about who did what because these people have been bombed by whom?
If I'm not mistaken, it is the M23 groups that are in fact attacking around Goma and pushing the ID PS close of Goma and related to a report published by UN.
It looks like the M23 is supported by foreign countries.
So could you tell us more about who is attacking whom and where?
Thank you.
Thanks, Catherine.
As we are aware there is a 252 non state armed group operating in Eastern province of DRC alone.
So it's very difficult to point out who did what at the moment.
So UNHCR is basically calling all party in the region attacking the civilians to to respect the humanitarian principle and humanitarian nature of the displacement sites to protect and safeguard the lives of civilians.
Thanks Catherine.
Lisa Schlein.
Yeah.
Good morning.
First, to follow up on the question that Catherine asked you, I mean, there may be 200 and 5020 or whatever this astronomical number of armed groups fighting around there, but media reports consistently, consistently, consistently talk about M23 and they talk about the Congolese government pointing its finger at Rwanda as supporting them.
So you know, you certainly I've heard this.
Do you not have any comment to make about that?
And then if I may, on a couple of other questions, on your humanitarian operation, are you able really to reach the people that you need to safely have any of your aid workers or other aid workers been attacked by the, excuse me, by the warring parties, whoever they may be?
And then what about the Sudanese Armed forces?
I mean, you talk about all of these rebel groups, but the Sudanese armed forces must be, I'm sorry, I'm getting African countries all messed up here.
The Congolese armed forces must be there, right?
I got it right now fighting with these groups too.
I mean, is, is there active fighting going on between the government forces and M23 or whoever else is there?
And what you know, is anyone winning, is the government making any kind of an impression on this thing?
Thank you.
Thanks, Lisa for your question.
Let me address from the the nonsted armed group that you mentioned that of course that we are aware of the report being published by different actors.
But then yeah, as I mentioned that as there is a 252 nonsted armed group actively operating across the the eastern provinces, it's really difficult for us to comment and comment on the specific nonsted armed group.
I hope that answers your question, maybe not answering, but yes, that's what we can, we can tell for now.
And then humanitarian access.
Thank you for your question.
So basically restricted humanitarian access and the growing needs of for displaced people is our biggest concern that a lot of hundreds of thousands of displaced people are cut off from the vital the humanitarian aid.
That's why we called last year that humanitarian access impeded humanitarian access have to guarantee to reach those people in need, desperate need.
There's no shelter.
They they left everything, their house were burned.
The children and then also women are just in such a dire situation at the moment what we are hearing from the ground.
So we are calling basically all parties involved.
It's non state armed group or the government, government, the forces, as you mentioned, all party to respect humanitarian law and then international human rights law so that a humanitarian, the agency can access those people in need.
Thank you, Lisa, I hope I answered your question.
I hope so too.
OK, thank you very much, Eugene.
Let me see if there are other questions.
No, So thanks very much for this.
And I'd like to thank also Charlotte for her patience.
So she has an announcement for you from UNAIDS.
Yes, I'll make it quick.
Thank you.
Alessandra.
Just just I wanted to say that UNAIDS came out with a sitrep and a brief, a brief on Ukraine two years.
We agree mental health is an issue and so is gender based violence.
However, silver lining is that there has been treatment, HIV treatment and testing.
HIV testing are back to almost pre war levels.
So that is the somewhat positive aspect of this and surprising it really does show resilience as many of the earlier speakers said, moving right along, I will keep it short.
0 Discrimination Day is March 1st.
Why do we care?
Because as you know, there has been a lot of pushback against LGBT rights, against women's rights, etcetera.
And so you and AIDS is trying to kind of push back on that and ask for some multilateralism.
You know, we're seeing it being attacked.
We're seeing democracies being attacked.
And we're trying to kind of get people to think about by protecting everyone's rights, we will protect everyone's health.
I'm not saying there's a right or wrong.
It's just saying if you don't protect people's rights, you do not protect people's health.
Thank you very much, Nasi Boku.
Thank you, Charlotte and we've taken good notice.
A note of your additional information on on Ukraine.
Any question to Charlotte in the room or online?
I don't see any, but I see the Tariq has raises end Tariq.
Yes, thank you.
Thank you.
Alessandra.
I was just chatting with with Chris and he he sent me the numbers that you Catherine asked.
So among 51 patients that have been medically referred outside of NASA medical complex, there were 10 under 16 years of age.
So, so children and 21 female and 30 male.
So this is the information that Chris just gave.
Thank you very much, much appreciated.
OK, so I don't see other hands up.
I've got a couple of announcements for you.
In addition to what we have heard from Pascal for the Council, I wanted to remind you that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Right will close next Friday, 1st of March.
It's 75th session during which it has analysed the reports of Romania, Mauritania, Ireland, Iraq, Indonesia and Sweden.
The Committee on Enforced Disappearances, which is meeting at Pallet Wilson.
We'll have next Monday afternoon at 3:00 PM at Dialogue with Honduras.
And then I wanted to remind you also that the Conference on Disarmament will hold its **** level segment of the year 2024 from next Monday, 26 to Wednesday, 28 February.
This is going to be in room 18 under the presidency of Indonesia.
I don't think I've ever told you the other presidents that.
As you know, they come in alphabetical order.
Indonesia will be president until the 15th of March, and it will be followed by Iran, Iraq, Ireland and Israel.
As you can see in alphabetical order, the last announcement on press conferences.
We are going to send you more, more announcements for press conferences.
I know that there have been few requests, but for the moment, the only confirmed one that we've announced is by the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua's latest report of the human rights situation in Nicaragua.
The experts will talk to you on Wednesday, 20th of February at 1:30 to launch the report and you will have the chair, Jean Michel Simon and two members of the group of experts, Angela Maria Guitrago and Ariela Peralta De Stefano.
If they're oh, John, oh, John, you let's see if we can hear you.
Go ahead.
I have to switch to my mobile, my computer so bottomed out.
It works.
Now just a just a quick question to the beginning of the briefing concerning the human rights session next week, it will be webcast, but will it also be live streamed through the European Broadcasting Union to TV stations or not?
Thank you.
OK.
So as I said, we don't the webcast will be assured insured by the automated cameras in the room and they will be and the images will be available on UN Web TV on the first day.
We should be able, I think we can confirm that we will ensure for the first session of for the first part of the **** level segment, we will have broadcast quality images and those will be made available on Uni feed and of course EBU and the other broadcaster will be able to also pick it up.
I can't speak for the other days unfortunately, but definitely for Monday.
Katherine.
Yes, Alessandra.
As John came back to the beginning of this briefing, I'd like to ask you a favour.
You know that Akanu had found an agreement a couple years ago for the accredited journalists that have a badge, a UN badge valid for one year, to enter Room 20 from the back, go through security from the back of the room.
Because like that we can have access, a quick access to the Department of the Press.
Because if we have to line up with all the NGOs, officials, ambassadors, delegations, it takes forever.
And usually when we enter the room, it's too late.
Seats are already taken and the room only opened 30 minutes before the the **** level starts.
Would it be possible for you to help us once more and to see if we could enter from the back of the room as it was the case in the during the previous years?
Catherine Yes, I do remember very distinctively, distinctively that we had obtained that agreement with security.
So I can ask again.
That's not a problem.
But I'm pretty sure that it will not be possible for the first three days of the **** level segment because of the number of **** level delegations that comes in and out one after the other.
As you know, we have lots of, lots of dignitaries.
You will see it on the list of of speakers of the **** level segments, lots of very **** level dignitaries that come in and out.
So I don't think that that little door would be able to cater for more people than already the official delegations.
But I can ask and definitely I can ask for the and for the beginning of the the end of the **** level segment, the normal session.
We will see what we can do.
Yes, Katrine.
Thank you.
Alessandra.
Maybe you could find a kind of agreement about the time slot that if we arrive, let's say one hour before the beginning, from this time to this time, this hour to this hour, we would be allowed to enter from the back.
That means, like you just mentioned, ahead of the arrival of delegations and after a certain hour, we wouldn't be allowed anymore to go from to enter from the back of the room.
Yeah, it's a good suggestion.
I'll, I'll give it a try for sure.
And thank you so much.
No worries.
And I will, we will try to facilitate your your life.
On Monday Rolando will be in the room with Francois and our interns and we will really do our best to, you know, monitor also the press gallery.
Just wanted to confirm, my colleagues of UNTV are telling me that broadcast cameras live signal will be passed to EBU on Monday morning at least.
So answer to your question, yes, as I said, unified definitely and EBU also when, when we have the broadcast camera coverage, which is as I said, only for the moment only limited to Monday for the first session of the **** level segment.
Thank you very much and indeed, I wish you a very good weekend and brace yourself for next week.
It's going to be interesting.
I'll see you there.
Thank you.