UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UN Geneva Press Briefing

Good morning.

Welcome to the press briefing of the Information Service at the UN in Geneva.

Today is Tuesday, second of April

and we have a We don't have a long list of points,

but I'm pretty sure that would be interesting.

And I'll start with Pascal for an update on the

Human Rights Council that concludes his work this week.

Thank you, Alexandra. Good morning, everyone.

Today,

the UN Human Rights Council is discussing five different country situations.

The council heard from the High Commissioner on his latest reports on Ukraine,

and he is about to start an interactive dialogue with Antonia

Holla,

the international expert designated by the High Commissioner last

year to identify and verify the obstacles to the implementation

of the 2016 peace agreement in Colombia.

This is the first time Ms

Hola

is appearing before the Council in her capacity as international expert,

and she is presenting her first report to the council.

After Colombia,

the council will hear a presentation by Mr Christian Salazar

Walk

on the latest

report on south Sudan.

Starting tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 p.m. the Human Rights Council will

begin the consideration of a total of 34 texts for adoption.

More specifically, one decision and 33 resolution.

The draught decision proposed the postponement

of the postponement of 17 mandated activities

to 2025 and 2026

and this proposal to postpone these activities followed. The letter followed the

receipt by the president of the Council

of a letter from the High Commissioner explaining the

current difficult situation due to the liquidity crisis

and among the 33 resolutions that are proposed for adoption.

We have several that concerns mandate renewal. I'm going to list them for you.

The Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine,

the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic,

The Fact Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran

and the Special rapporteur on the Islamic Republic of Iran It is a joint

the same resolution for the two same renewal.

The special report on the

the Special Report on Myanmar,

the Special Report on the Environment on the

Right to Food on the Field of Cultural Rights

on the Right to Adequate Housing on the Right to Privacy,

the independent expert on foreign Debt and the independent human rights

expert designated by the High Commissioner on the situation in Haiti

and we have two new resolutions for this session one on the

culture of peace and another one on the rights of intersex persons.

That's it for

me.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Let me see if there are questions in

the

room or online. Let

me have a look.

I don't see any

good luck for this.

Just wanted to add that I will send you the list

of all the resolution this afternoon in the running order.

Ok, thank you.

OK, so let's go to now

to Lilongwe,

where we have our colleague Paul Turnbull,

who is the country director for Malawi of

the World Food Programme Welcome Paul And thank

you very much for being here to brief the journalists in the UN in Geneva.

It's about the situation in Malawi over the draught.

I'll give you the floor, please.

Thank you for joining us today.

I appreciate this opportunity to shed light on the critical situation in

Malawi following the recent declaration of a state of disaster by President

Jarra.

The declaration on the 23rd of March understa understates

the sorry underscores the gravity of the harsh impact of El Nino

in Malawi

in 23 out of 28 districts in Malawi,

El Nino conditions are pushing around 40% of Malawi's population

of over 20 million into hunger threatening lives and livelihoods.

Prolonged dry spells have damaged crops at critical

stages of growth in southern and central regions,

while flooding has washed away crops in some

of the districts in northern and central regions.

The El Nino event has compounded existing vulnerabilities in Malawi,

which is still suffering from the impacts of tropical storms and

cyclones in 2022 and 2023 as well as a faltering economy.

As national maize stocks are running very low,

Malawi has been forced to import staple commodities and

food prices have already been at alarming levels.

For example,

the prices of maize in 2023 were double the prices of the

previous year and were triple those of the five year average,

with over 80% of the population relying on agriculture to cover their basic needs,

the steep decline in production of stable crops

will be devastating for millions of people.

The adverse effects of El Nino on food production threatens livelihoods,

food security and nutrition

acutely food insecure households are at risk

of having to resort to negative coping strategies

such as

skipping meals, smaller food portions

and adults not eating so that young Children can eat.

There has been a surge in cases of Children

with moderate acute malnutrition and severe acute malnutrition,

which is expected to become worse this year.

The strain on families also risks increasing protection issues,

particularly impacting girls and women.

The government's preliminary estimate is that close

to 2 million farming households are affected.

President Chua

emphasised the need

for a scale up of humanitarian assistance,

particularly in providing food assistance to those at risk of hunger.

He called upon various stakeholders, including Malawians Development Partners,

international organisations NGO S

and the private sector

to contribute resources to address the humanitarian crisis

in a co ordinated effort led by the Department of Disaster Management Affairs.

The estimated requirement

of 600,000 tonnes of maize for the humanitarian

response programme highlights the scale of the crisis.

WFP will do its part

of Malawi's food assistance requirements and we are calling for

an urgent scale up of the humanitarian response in Malawi

in line with the scale of the needs,

the early onset of the 2024 2025 lean season poses significant challenges.

Normally, the lean season starts in October

this year. It could start as early as July in the worst affected districts.

The regional impact of El Nino in southern

Africa and the consequent surge in demand for maize

raises concerns about shortages in the region.

Most importantly, sourcing maize from outside the region EG from Argentina,

Brazil, the Black Sea ports or Mexico

would entail a lead time of 3 to 4 months.

This highlights the need for the early release of funding for food procurement

and the necessity for coordinating regional and international efforts

to address the logistics challenges, especially at the ports in southern Africa.

I would like to conclude by emphasising

the importance of international solidarity and collective action

in addressing the human crisis humanitarian crisis in Malawi.

I thank the media for their attention.

Thank you very much, sir, for for this briefing,

and I open the floor to questions now if any in the room.

I don't see any hand up here, so let's go to the platform.

Lisa

Schlein is our correspondent to Voice of America.

Lisa, you have the floor for your question.

Uh,

yes. Thank you, Alessandra. Good morning. Good morning to you, Mister Turnbull.

could you talk a bit more about the negative coping measures

you were talking about? Uh, family skipping meals and so forth.

But what about the, uh, aspect of the,

uh, the fear of exploitation that,

you know, forced labour or or,

uh, forced, Uh, early marriages and so forth Is,

is any of that going on as a consequence of, uh, families not having

the money to buy the food to get what it is that they need? If you could talk a bit about

the ex possible exploitation that exists

And also, um,

what is the situation of malnutrition? Do you have any figures on,

uh, how serious that is whether

Sorry, whether it has R risen or not,

I've got something wrong with my voice. I'm so sorry. Uh,

and lastly, if you would, uh what about the money? Have you got enough?

And would you send your notes, please?

Yeah, that's that's That's something. Maybe for, uh, ishita.

If, uh, you could send the journalist the notes

of Paul. Otherwise, we can do it for you if you send it to us?

Paul? Uh, I think you heard the three questions, right?

Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much for the question.

Very insightful. Um,

I think on the exploitation side, um, that certainly is a risk. I would say it's not.

Not particularly well documented for the whole country,

but it's certainly been happening in the refugee population.

Um, that that is in Malawi. We have about 50,000 refugees.

Um, mainly from the, uh, DRC

that we have been monitoring

the the various, the various aspects of food insecurity.

And we found that nine out of 10 families, um, this was in November,

um, were suffering from

food insecurity that they were employing negative coping mechanism. That's a,

you know,

having 90% of the population already engaged in the negative co coping mechanisms.

And there's this was actually during the the the the previous lean season.

So with a crop even worse for 2024 I think

there's a much bigger risk for the next lean season.

And that's that's why we we we're going out early.

As as did the President of of Malawi,

so that we can act early and avert a crisis here

for the malnutrition.

Um, what we do have, um, fro from our colleagues in UNICEF is records of the surge in

cases of moderate and acute malnutrition.

Uh, moderate and sorry and severe acute malnutrition

that that are, uh,

they're going to the health centres now.

This probably underestimates the scale of the problem here. So,

UNICEF and with the support of the government and

WFP is organising what we call a smart survey

which will be a a much better snapshot and much more representative

of of the malnutrition in the country.

So, um, what we've got is evidence coming from the health centres at the moment,

which shows an increase, but frankly, um, as Malawians tend not to seek health, Uh,

very readily we we fear that the there's an

underestimate of of the current state of nutrition.

Um, the last question.

Could you repeat the last question, please? I

think it was about the the financial situation if you have enough money.

But maybe Lisa, you want to

articulate it?

Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got my voice back.

Uh,

if you if you would if you would elaborate upon that, that is uh,

has there been an appeal lodged?

Are you planning to do this? Have you got the money

to actually provide the aid that is needed? Thank you.

Uh, um,

Yes, I'm I'm afraid we don't have the money at the moment.

Which is one of the reasons we are we're going

out with with various advocacy measures such as this.

The 600,000 tonnes that President

Chara,

uh, mentioned in his, uh, state of disaster

that that would cost about $210 million.

Um, assuming favourable prices on on the world market. So

that's that's what the the government has estimated WFP would do be doing its part.

Our provisional plan, pending more accurate estimates,

is that we would be appealing for an additional $70 million dollars

in food and some cash transfers.

Um, for addressing the lean season, the NE, the next lean season, which we fear, uh,

in some areas will start as early as July

and and then

you know, more likely to intensify towards October.

Thank you very much.

Is there any other question

to Paul?

I don't see any, so thank you very much, Paul,

for this update and we are happy to have the World Food Programme any time you can come

and

Oh, sorry. Sorry. There is another question. Maybe

I don't know if it's for you or not, but it's from Mousa

as

our correspondent of

Almain

Moa.

OK, so, Paul, thank you very much for this briefing. And Yes,

please

send the, um

the notes. Uh, yeah. Uh uh. Margaret is here, and I'll ask her to come to the podium.

And I also have a comment from, uh, an answer to your question. Uh, if you want to ask it

from

oa,

let's give the time to Margaret to come to the podium.

I'll also remind you that a

U

and UN HCR are also listening and available for questions if needed.

So,

Mosa, you want to start with your with your question to

To Margaret, please?

Uh, was that was that,

uh

uh, Well, I mean,

not

just if there's any update about the situation in Gaza from WHO. Thank you.

Apologies

indeed. Ov over the, um

what was an Easter break for many people in the world, there were horrific

levels of violence continuing

in Gaza and we saw

that the Al

Shifa Hospital is now in ruins.

We've had contact with the staff.

The directors told us that

Al

Shifa Hospital is gone,

that

it's no longer able to function in any shape or form

as a hospital. We know that at least 21 patients died during the period of the siege.

We also know that the staff had to

bring the patients together in,

uh, a building that wasn't even a hos,

uh, design

a clinical building. It was a human resources, um,

administration area.

Uh, they had no water food. They were sharing one bottle of water between 15 people.

By the end, they had no facilities for toilets.

They had no means of looking after the patients who

many of whom were very, very,

severely injured intensive care

level patients who had urinary catheters. But there were no urinary bags. So

you can imagine the horror

that has been going on.

Uh, now,

today we're hoping to get a mission up there to see what

we can do to help what aid we can provide and also,

of course, to the

few other hospitals functioning in the area.

And there's three or four, particularly important is

Kamal

Adwan,

where the the Paediatric Hospital where we learn that at

least 15 malnourished Children per are coming in per day

And the needs are just getting

ever more

S more severe. So again

and again

and again, as we have said. But it's got to be taken seriously.

The ceasefire,

the UN resolution The world has agreed a ceasefire must happen.

It should have happened months ago. But it must happen now.

Thank you very much. Uh, Margaret, Um yeah, Let me go back to the room. Uh,

there are more questions on the platform, so please stay, but let me go to the room,

Ben.

Yes, thanks. So question to Maga,

But more broadly, to all the

humanitarians who are here and who would like to jump in

about the seven person who have been killed

lately working for World Central Kitchen.

And they were killed by a strike. Obviously Israeli strike.

First of all, if you have a reaction, an observation,

uh, on that and more broadly also, if you have a line from, uh O,

I'd like to hear it. Thank you.

Yes, thank you very much. I've actually been

able to to I I'm able to read you.

It's a It's a tweet that Martin Griffiths put out yesterday.

Maybe this morning, I'm not sure about the time, but in any case,

commenting on what happened, he said,

outraged by the killing of world centre kitchen aid workers in Gaza.

They were heroes killed while trying to feed starving people.

My condolences to their families and colleagues, and Martin goes on saying all the

talk about ceasefires

and still this war still is the best of us.

The actions of those behind it are indefensible. And as much as Margaret said,

Martin concludes, this must stop.

That is the comment of

Martin Griffiths.

Margaret, Maybe you have a comment on your side on this,

you know, again and again we try to get

missions, aid, help. And

if people who this was an agreed mission with this team, it was de

conflicted. Deconflict means both sides know they're coming.

Both sides have agreed,

Uh,

it was a The car was well marked. It was very clear it was World central kitchen.

Now this is happening.

And remember,

hundreds of healthcare workers have been killed while doing their job.

Ambulance drivers

Uh, and of course, thousands of civilians th more than 13,000 of them Children.

So

every day, we're now seeing international,

the all the people who should be protected,

all the people who are there and all the

people who are there to help them being killed.

And if ever the world could finally pay attention,

what is going on

is completely is, as been said, a moral stain on humanity. It is

a thing we as humans cannot allow to continue. It must stop.

Yeah, I'll go to Gabriel.

Uh, thank you a question for Margaret. Um, for months, Doctor

Por and Doctor Tedros and others have said that

Gaza can't afford to lose another health facility.

And now Gaza has lost a major health facility. What does that mean? Going forward.

Thank you.

That's a very good point. Uh, destroying Al Shifa

means ripping the heart out of the health system. It was the tertiary care centre.

It was a huge hospital. 750 beds.

Uh, 25 operating theatres, 30 intensive care rooms.

You know, it was the the place people go to

for the kind of care that a really good health system provides that we,

in all our societies, expect to have should we be in need?

And the reason you have such a level of a hospital is it means you have a chance,

even if you have a very severe illness of having that reversed returning hole

beginning your life again. That's what health is about. You know,

the best of physical mental health and well being. And you achieve that by having a

functioning health system that can provide

care at all levels. And destroying Al

Shifa means you have ripped the heart out of the the health system in Gaza.

Uh, wait, Jeremy.

Yeah. Margaret.

Um

uh,

Margaret, uh

like to know, uh, how many people you still have left I I in Gaza.

And,

uh,

after what happened again, uh, yesterday and, uh, the world centred kitchen.

Uh, people got killed. A

RE you considering withdrawing your personnel? IN Gaza.

We have a few people I. I think it's three or four internationals.

There's a very strict limits because of the

great danger everybody's in and the difficulty of removing large teams should

should that ever become necessary.

But we will certainly continue to do our work our mission

is to

support the attainment of the highest level of health for everyone.

Now, under these circumstances,

that is particularly difficult.

But that is our mission, and we will continue to do it. But we are certainly looking at

the security. Um,

uh, the the the

the the security that,

uh, our teams are facing because indeed, all our missions have to be deconflict.

Uh, we only go if they're deconflict. We only go

if we get permission. Of course. Uh, and

understanding whether you've got permission.

You It's been been de conflicted, and you're still,

uh, putting staff at incredibly high risk is something we definitely need to

look at.

Uh, John?

Yes. Good morning. Uh, Margaret, can you hear me?

Go ahead.

Hello?

You mentioned the

21 patients

that, uh, died at Al Shifa.

Do you have details? Uh, how many medical staff? Uh, doctors, nurses,

uh, assistants died as well. Uh, in in this operation. Thank you. By the

Israeli defence forces.

Joan, I don't have a breakdown like that. I've only got anecdotal information.

And certainly the people who are contacting

us were talking of of medical staff being

injured and killed and again. Every

every health worker you kill,

you're killing a community. You're

killing the community.

They serve and I And of course, you're killing a human who is only there

to help. That's the only reason they're there.

Make.

Yeah. Thank you. Um, hello, Margaret.

Um, I just wondered if you could

you you mentioned a a mission to Al

Shifa

plan today. Wh what's What's the purpose of that? Do you? Who is left in Al

Shifa and is it? Have you got an agreement essentially, to evacuate

anyone who is left there. And secondly,

you mentioned Ker

of malnutrition.

Um, arriving in

Kama

Adwan Hospital. Could you go into that a little bit more on, uh,

the numbers you're seeing and the state of, uh,

of the patients you're receiving the kind of ages

of these people and whether or not you are also hearing,

um, some evidence of more people dying of of starvation. Thank you.

Thanks, Nick.

Uh, so and And let me say I should not have really said we were going to ask shifra

because it's, uh it's on. We only get to go if we're given permission.

And I haven't got information about whether we were given permission.

So we've been trying to go for days and days and days, and

they've most of our missions are rejected. Um,

so I should clarify that,

uh, now the purpose of going, obviously

we're not going to be able to provide, say,

the things that a functioning hospital would need.

But first of all, we need to do an assessment to understand what we can do.

Secondly, Absolutely. Right. Who needs to be evacuated? How can we get them?

Where can they go?

Uh, what can we do to To save the lives of those patients remaining.

So that is another very important reason for going there.

on the Children. I. I don't have specific numbers in the stabilisation centre.

I know the day we set it up, so it was set up last week. Uh,

there were already six Children in there. Um,

the particular inpatient are usually Children who've

got medical illnesses as well as malnutrition.

Because,

as you know, I'm sure if you've got an underlying condition,

malnutrition will kill you much more quickly.

So they become the most urgent patients.

We

are struggling to understand

the mortality numbers beyond the numbers that are

reported of people who are killed in the bombardment

because many people don't even get to hospital. And we are looking at

how you can understand that better. So I really don't have good numbers for you.

But again

from different doctors, particularly in the maternity hospitals,

they are reporting that they're seeing

a big rise in Children born low birth weight

and just not surviving the neonatal period because they are, they're born too,

too small.

Any other question to Margaret

or

to other colleagues online?

I don't see any. And before we leave

the matter about Gaza,

let me remind you, we have sent you an invitation

a

couple of weeks ago. So let me just remind you that

tomorrow and

the day after the 3rd and 4th of April here at the Palais de N,

we are hosting a conference of civil society

organisations working on the questions of Palestine.

This is a conference organised by the UN Committee on

the exercise of the Inal rights of the Palestinian People.

The title of the meeting is building bridges with international civil society to

address the ongoing

in room 17,

and I'll just read you about the conference,

the Committee on the Exercise of the Inal

Rights of the Palestinian People will

convene the Conference of Civil Society organisations

working on the Question of Palestine

and on building bridges with international civil society to

address the ongoing

nakba in Room 17 of the Paladin.

The conference will focus on the role of civil society worldwide

in advocating for a durable ceasefire

and in achieving accountability for Israel's war

crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory,

including east Jerusalem.

The speakers will include civil society

representatives from Palestinian human rights organisations

as well as representatives of Solidarity movements in Africa, Europe,

Latin America and the United States.

You are invited to this meeting. It's open to the media

and it's open of course to all member states, observer, UN organisation,

civil society organisation, et cetera. We have sent you the uh programme

and the media advisory and this particular meeting will also hold

a press conference. That's gonna be tomorrow

at 1. 30 in this room,

so we will have a

tambour

from the

the department which organises the meeting.

But we will have also five ambassadors and permanent representatives

of their country to the UN in New York.

So that will be Ambassador Sheikh

Nyong, who is the chair of the General Assembly Committee on the Exercise of the

Rights of the Palestinian People and also permanent representative

of Senegal to the even in New York.

Ambassador Harma

Nazir,

permanent representative of Indonesia to the UN in New York. Ambassador

Ahmad Faizal

Mohammad,

the permanent representative of Malaysia to the UN in New York. Ambassador

Y Romero

Puentes, the deputy permanent representative of Cuba

to the United Nations in New York.

And Ambassador Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of the state of Palestine,

to the UN in New York.

And so that will be here in the press room at 130.

We will listen from these five ambassador

and permanent representatives.

I also have another announcement on a light of tone. I have to say,

um, we would like to invite you to join us in a nice place in Geneva, which is the

Baker Shopping Centre. What are we doing there?

It's It's sort of an open day. It's only that it's an open week. We can't, as you know,

welcome the Geneva population at the Palais

at this moment where works are everywhere we have got restrictions

on the campus. So we are moving to town.

We have 16 agencies.

An international organisation

that will come to bar

for one week from 16th to 20th of April

to show the population of Geneva the shoppers, whoever is interested

about their work,

they will also offer active moments to share and to make people understand better.

What are the activities they are carrying out?

There will be quizzes. There will be games. There will be a

situation, a hands on situation.

So we would love to have you there

covering the event, especially on the 16th,

when we will do the inauguration together with

the Director General and the mayor of Vernier.

As you know, Baraka

is on the Vermeer

territory and the other Swiss

authorities.

And that is what I had to,

uh, for you. Yes.

Oh,

sorry. Margaret. Come, come. Please.

No problem. Yeah. Yeah, we can add this today.

I was hoping to finish on a lighter,

but it's important that you say what you want.

No, no, no.

It's just that we're going to have a director general press conference tomorrow.

That's all. Just to let you know, it's

It's only just been agreed this morning.

And you should

the media adviser just

don't know what time.

Afternoon.

Just to let you know. Thank you very much. I'm sure you'll send out the

Oh, you have sent out the advisor. Ok, good. So you know,

is there any question on to me or any other colleagues?

I don't see any we, Ben,

can you put in?

I think it has been

sent already, but let us repeat.

It will probably send another one next week to remind everyone

about this about this nice event.

and And I'm being told to resend the invitation to the press

conference and the meeting on Palestine So we'll do it today.

Voila.

Any other questions? No. So thank you very much. And I'll see you on Friday. Thanks.

UN Geneva Press Briefing - 02 April 2024