Thank you for joining us for this press briefing
here at the UN office at Geneva today,
We have quite a packed agenda.
We have colleagues from human rights speaking about Iran and Sudan.
We have a colleague from the International Federation of the Red
Cross who is going to address Afghanistan and then on the podium
on my right, we have Mr Stefano Toscano, who is the director of the
Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian de Mining,
uh, U unmasked UN Mine Action service. Uh
uh head of the UN Mine Action Service here in Geneva.
They're gonna speak about the 27th International Meeting
of Mine Action National directors in the UN,
the otherwise known as NDM UN 27 which is actually taking place next week here
in Geneva. So over to you for brief remarks and then for questions afterwards.
Hi. Good morning, everyone.
It's my pleasure to announce that we have
the 27th international meeting of the mine action
National directors and UN Adviser taking place next week in Geneva on Monday,
Wednesday it will happen at the International Conference Centre of Geneva
and this is an event that we're organising together
with the Geneva Centre for Humanity and de Mining
partnership here to represent this
endeavour. And we are doing this with the support of the government of Switzerland
and I take this opportunity to really thank them for enabling us to do this event.
We have about 800 mine action leaders who are
coming from all around the world to participate.
We're talking about national directors, national authorities, but also a
NGOs, private sector and of course,
all the UN advisers who are supporting national authorities and also humanitarian
organisations to deliver mine action around the world.
We would like to welcome the journalists to come
to the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony.
So the opening one is on Monday from 930 to 1030
the closing ceremony is on 1st May
until 445. So again it's in the Geneva International Conference Centre.
What's really important if you have two very important
colleagues here in the room who can also facilitate
interviews with some of those mine action
programme managers coming from around the world.
So you can see here we have Lee Wooer,
who is in charge of communication for
who is communications director for the
So please reach out to them. We have 30 people to give you an idea.
You know, the chief of our
mine action programme in Afghanistan will be here.
adviser to the resident to the new main co ordinator
in Ukraine, Adviser on mine action will be here.
So it's a good opportunity if you want to discover a
little bit more about mine action in some of those crises.
Yes, and I will just pass the floor to Steffan
introduce a little bit more about the substance of the meeting.
First of all, let me start by
and emphasising the excellent Cooper operation we have with en
in organising this meeting.
It's really a privilege to work with you.
And I also would like to acknowledge,
as Cristel already did the pressure support
by Switzerland to make the meeting possible.
in a world where conflicts we know are on the rise in number size and complexity.
My connection is a necessary response to a humanitarian imperative,
60 million people are affected
by the threat of explosive ordnance,
landmines, cluster munition and improvised explosive devices.
So 60 million people in more than 60 countries
and territories are still living with this fear every day
by simply going about their daily task.
can be putting their lives and livelihood in danger,
and this is true during the conflict, but also after the conflicts and for decades.
So it's really a significant threat over the years and across the globe.
This shows that my action also transcends what we typically consider to be
to be a humanitarian task.
When a child in Yemen cannot safely walk to or a
school or a farmer in Ukraine risks missing another wet season,
it is clear that land mines and other explosive
ordnance are a major barrier to human rights,
decent work and sustainable development.
As mentioned by Cristel, we also very much look forward to welcoming
more than 800 expert participants from around the world to discuss these issues
at the 27th National Director meeting
really this is the largest gathering in the sector
it really makes a difference.
The national director meeting is a technical event. It
is a meeting of practitioners by practitioners for practitioners
and it is our wish and hope that participants will leave the
meeting with concrete ideas on how best to address their practical challenges,
their practical, everyday challenges in performing by an action.
And this is based on the exchange with others.
And this really is in a nutshell what the national director meeting is all about.
This year's theme is Protecting Life and Building peace.
The sessions will be delving into a broad
range of topics from global challenges
like the role of mine action in food security
and global supply chains to new technology
and mobilising resources to release the final square metre
of land for countries to be declared mine free.
This latter point is particularly important.
We know there is a competition for funds on many fronts
and the sector as to focus on this in order to find innovative ways to ensure
So we welcome you as Christel
MAS, very much to join us on Monday morning
for the opening session and have provided a list of
experts who would be available for interviews upon request. So thank you very much.
We do have a couple of questions for you, starting with Catherine Fiona of
Catherine over to. Yes. Thank you.
Bonjour, madame. Bonjour, monsieur. Thank you for being here.
I have a a couple of questions.
So first of all, could you be kind enough to send your press releases?
Um, and list of participants to, uh, unis,
uh, through Orlando in order for all, uh, the press to have access to
the list of, uh, participants.
I have also a question of access to the CE CG.
Will our UN badge be enough to enter?
uh, to meet the national directors and interview them, uh, and meeting them,
Um, and also about the title of Madame Crystal. Uh, Lou Forest.
What is your exact title at un mas?
And if you could be kind enough to share with us the contact detail.
I'm sorry. The contact details of your communication officer
and for the notes. If we could have it as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Katherine. Of course, I'll let Christel
give you her title, but just on housekeeping.
Since many of your questions deal with housekeeping, you do not require to, uh,
However, if you are interested to
we did share with you this media advisory with contact information
for both Lee and Laura both in the room here,
uh, along with a number of people, potential interviewees.
So you do not need to get additional credentials if you already have you
Um, but, uh, do if you haven't received this, maybe either.
Check with Lee if you're in the room. Lee and Laura.
Otherwise, we can gladly just resend this to you.
And, uh, maybe for your exact title. Um, over to Crystal.
Yes, thank you very much for this question. In fact, I have two titles.
I'm the officer in charge of the
mass office in Geneva, the UN Mine Action Service office in Geneva.
But I am also the global co ordinator of the Mine Action Area of Responsibility,
which is a group of un and
NGOs that work together as part of the global protection cluster
in the humanitarian response architecture. So I have two titles
and I'm taking this opportunity of having the floor again
to let you know that today we put on the
So please take a look. You can see who are funding
mast and what we do with the money and
how many lives we've saved by destroying explosive items. Thank you.
Thank you very much. And yeah, do take a look at the website.
It's got a lot of interesting facts and figures there.
Uh, we have a question from Ben from RT S in the room. Front row.
Thank you for the event. It's well noted now about the news.
Do you have any fresh data about
mine contamination or explosive
remnants in Gaza? We have a lot of data on Ukraine, of course,
if I'm not mistaken, still absolutely nothing about Gaza.
So maybe you have some fresh news.
We ourselves are not active at this point in time,
so I wouldn't have first hand news or figures that I could share with you.
uns colleague might have more information on that.
if you would like to jump up here,
Palestine and has had one for many years. And of course, we are in the process of
providing as much assistance as we can and redesigning the
programme to make it fit for purpose for the new situation
will give you more detail about that. Thanks.
So concerning the numbers it is
right now. It's impossible to say we don't know.
We know that typically there is a failure rate
of at least 10% of land service ammunition,
ammunition that is being fired and fails to function.
What we do know is that we estimate 37 million tonnes of debris
which is approximately 300 kg of debris per square metre.
65% of the buildings that have been destroyed
are residential buildings.
two weeks ago or the week before this week, we had together with you and the P,
looking at explosive hazard management from a debris
perspective and removing explosive hazards in debris,
gosa. We did this together with the NGO community
in order to prepare ourselves for what eventually might come
and an intervention in Gaza.
I worked myself in Iraq for the last seven years.
So I have seen this in the past, not to the same extent.
But it is a very complicated situation with potentially deep bird bombs also,
said, we've worked in Gaza for several years, so we are familiar with
the types of ammunition we are familiar with
with deep earth bombs but numbers I cannot give you.
Thank you. Per. And I should just mention that
in the list of potential interviewees, we have a colleague from en Mass
who is charged with looking into the situation in Palestine.
Uh, Charles Birch, in fact.
OK, Jeremy, you have a question
Can you say again, how many kilos per square metres you just said?
And if you had? I know I understand that you don't have the full numbers, but
the full picture. But if you have to take a guess,
when we talk about Ukraine,
we are saying that it will take decades for Ukraine to get rid
If you have to take a guess about Gaza.
Yes, So first of all, I wouldn't guess,
because it's impossible to guess all I can say that at least
10% of the ammunition that is being fired potentially fails to function,
and the number was 300 kg per square metre of surface with debris.
One number I can give you is that an estimation has
been done based on the current number of tonnes of debris
in Gaza and with 100 trucks.
We're talking about 14 years of work with 100 trucks, So that's
based on that figure. 14 years to remove with approximately 750,000 work days
person workday to remove the debris. So
significant numbers when it comes to debris.
questions in the oh, yes, Stefano wanted to add something, please.
If I may just add a comment on Ukraine
because there are indeed many numbers out there.
have come. I was in Kyiv last week and we had
my action donor coordinations seminar.
think it is important to stress that, for example,
the figure of 174,000 square kilometres suspected of being contaminated
is of course a starting point and in my action the
hard work is really to move from the starting point to determining
which surface exactly is contaminated.
And just to say that in recent months
the Ukrainian authorities have been able to release
18,000 square kilometres back to productive use.
the way mine action functions allows you
via the application of standards to clarify
relatively speedily in certain cases which surfaces can
be released to productive use and which cannot.
So this job needs to continue,
the figure will decrease. It is still very massive.
the first task once conditions allow to determine with more precision
which part of the country is contaminated and which is not,
thank you very much. I would just like to follow up on the fact that
the media is very interested,
of course in the situation consequences for the population and also what we call
reverberating consequences, as per
the amount of time and energy and money and the risk of clearing explosive items in
when you have buildings have been destroyed. It's very difficult. So
But I think the best thing would be for the
colleague interested in Sudan to talk to our programme manager
former Afghani miner who is now the head of our programme in Sudan. Thank you.
Uh, thank you very much. And I was just getting clarification. Yes, indeed.
Sadiq Rashid is the name of the person who's dealing with Sudan.
So do reach out to him. And then in terms of Zoom, I think you had a question.
Uh, no, it will not be zoomed. Therefore, we do strongly encourage in person,
uh, participation and do, um,
again, no need to get credentials, but do register through Lee Wood year,
and we'll make sure you get his context,
OK? Really? Last two questions because we have quite a busy
agenda afterwards, John Zarak
Costas. And then we'll go to Yuri and then we'll have to wrap it there.
Yes. Uh, good morning. You can hear me there.
this is a question, uh, for the Lancet.
Uh, I was wondering if you could give us some information on how many health, uh,
facilities and, uh, ambulances, et cetera
have been, uh, damaged because of IE DS or cluster munitions.
And secondly, if I'm not mistaken, I think win mas
is involved in some of the, uh, emergency, uh, trips to some of the hospitals in Gaza.
Have you found unexploded ordinances in some of the hospitals?
And are you in the process of removing them? Thank you.
So most of those questions I'm happy to refer them to Charles our sea
who will be here next week and who will be able to answer questions.
But what I can talk about
is what we've done in Gaza so far.
So we are supporting humanitarian convoys
from an explosive hazard management standpoint,
supporting them, ensuring that they are safe.
We supported 97 convoys. So far,
we are assessing critical infrastructure, looking at it from
an explosive hazard management perspective. Looking at the impact,
we are doing explosive hazard awareness for
humanitarian workers so that they are safe.
We provided risk education for civilians in Gaza to 1.2 million people.
We are looking eventually at the multi sectoral assessment to be planned.
Where we will be part and together with the rest of the humanitarian sector,
we will look at explosive weapons and their use.
we are working closely with the
resident coordinator and the humanitarian coordinator
in planning and preparing for what
And I also mentioned the workshop last week in Amman where we were
looking at the problem with debris in urban populated areas.
and final question from Yuri
Yes, Thank you, Orlando. This is more a request than a question.
Can we have a separate briefing on that?
Because, as you said, there are a lot of topics today
in the briefing of the UN. But we have a lot of questions. Still for en mas.
So if we can organise something
just only on this topic with you
the next week, for example,
it would be really great because still a lot of questions.
I think, uh, gauging from the level of interest we've just felt here.
um, this is something we can explore with Lee and Laura afterwards.
Uh, but thanks for? For registering that on that note. I'm sorry, John.
We really need to wrap it up and move to the next.
If you can contact Lee or Laura afterwards. John, I know you have your hand up.
Um, So thank you, uh, for joining us here very much. Good luck.
Next few days and thanks to you for
really shedding light on this very important issue.
So on that note, we will move to we're gonna shift the order a little bit, I think, uh,
Tomaso, we have a colleague, Uh, who's gonna speak on Afrikaans?
Did you wanna come up here? And I can introduce him if you like. Sure.
OK, so we're gonna move to thank you very much once again.
So we're gonna move to, um, Afghanistan.
We have a colleague from the International Federation for the Red Cross.
who is a regional director for the IFRC.
Who is joining us from Adoha. Who's going to speak to the, uh,
a long term and human development strategy in Afghanistan.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody.
I've just concluded my fifth visit to Afghanistan since the autumn of 2021 each
time through a combination of meeting the leadership of the Afghan Red Crescent,
the ministers from the IE a authorities meeting Afghan colleagues,
Afghan communities visiting disaster zones and service facilities.
I tried to understand how humanitarian trends are evolving
and what may be the best way to address them.
Over the last week, uh, I was in Kandahar and Kabul.
I met the acting minister of foreign affairs,
the acting deputy prime minister, Abdul
the governor of Kandahar,
and I visited the transit stations, the Spin
Boldak transit station for returnees from Pakistan,
health facilities in Kandahar city and in the
surrounding villages and mental health facilities in Kandahar.
And my visit culminates this week in Doha
together with the Afghan Red Crescent and the
CRC, with the diplomatic community here in Doha who cover Afghanistan
and then a partnership meeting on Sunday in support of the Afghan Red Crescent.
And I would like to just quickly share
some highlights and recommendations from my visit.
But I will start by saying it is important to note some of the positives
because while there are still
plenty of security incidents going on in Afghanistan every day, actually,
The security on the whole is better than it has been for decades,
and on the surface it is peaceful
deeply welcomed by a war ravaged population.
There is also a clear commitment to reduce
theft and corruption that is also welcomed,
and mostly an openness to work with international stakeholders
who want to work in and support Afghanistan.
So those are some positives. Peel back a layer, though,
and the severity of the humanitarian crisis does become very apparent.
And I'm just going to raise two issues that came
from my visit here and then make a few recommendations
first on the returnees from Pakistan.
you will be aware that over half a million have crossed the border over recent months
and it is likely that we will see
large numbers of new arrivals in the coming months.
And I imagine this is probably the largest population flow in a short period of time
in Asia since the population movement from Myanmar into Bangladesh
in 2017. So it's a significant event.
The humanitarian effort has largely concentrated on
the transit stations in the border areas
to help people on arrival
the evidence that we looked at on this visit suggests that
the real challenges start once people move away from those transit areas.
And the evidence of that was we We visited clinics where
they reported a real spike in cases of acute malnutrition.
Coming from the arrivals from Pakistan,
routine immunisation programmes of the IC IFRC and
the Afghan Red Crescent in the villages.
And there it was clear looking at the Children that,
uh as well as being anaemic you could steal. You could see wasting and stunting
uh uh amongst the Children.
And when we And when we interviewed the returnees themselves,
how they were going to settle in their point of destination
or how they were going to build a livelihood
And largely they expected to be living with distant relatives,
would actually make very,
very poor people some of the most poorest communities in the world,
So I'd like to make just two suggestions on this.
What will be an ongoing response through about
2024 1 that the programmes to support returnees
focus not just on the transit stations which have
received the bulk of the investment to date.
But they also look at boosting the capacity of the health services
in the areas where people are arriving
that there be a focus on economic regeneration of the people once they arrive.
Secondly, it will be important to work with the government of Pakistan in 2024
to, uh to ask that that if there are going to be returnees, that they at least come in,
uh in a more staggered way in smaller numbers at a time. Just so it's more manageable
issue that I want to raise in terms of crisis is
about the mental health crisis in the country,
because a lot is said about hunger, education,
exclusion and disasters in Afghanistan, and rightly so
because all of those issues are important and all of them, one way or another,
IFRC is involved in responding to. But beneath those crises
there is an invisible crisis of hopelessness, depression,
desperation that stem from a collapsing health service, mass unemployment,
and frustrated boys, girls, men and women who are stuck at home all day.
All of which is aggravated by decades of conflict trauma
And as well as hearing that in every conversation that I had,
I did have the chance to witness that in its most extreme form,
uh, a place where you see
the real terrible collateral damage of war
in the mental health services of the Afghan Red Crescent.
And here I saw sort of yards full of men,
former prisoners of war people traumatised by violence, bombs, torture,
who had witnessed the death of their loved ones
in a terrible state and no longer able to cope or be independent in life.
And the women and girls also victims
of violence exposed to bombings and and tragedies
with no exposure to the outside world and not even with blankets to sleep on.
Now, the doctors, um uh, in the facilities, both male and female,
are doing heroic work to try to make it
functional and dignified behind, despite the constraints.
But it was a reminder that
how much pain there is behind the high walls in what are now quite bustling
So in terms of recommendations, I would say that that the first is how important it is
to support Afghan institutions who are working with the most vulnerable people.
And there are still lots of reservations about this.
But it is really the only way to sustainably help
the country rather than constantly
relying on parallel international organisations.
In IFRC, that means supporting the Afghan Red Crescent.
But there are plenty of other,
uh, clinics and institutions who are desperately in need of support.
The second point is really how important it is now to
be thinking long term and to focus on economic regeneration,
A huge amount of the international financing to date has focused on short term aid,
including ours, actually,
which has a place. But it is
the wrong tool to deal with protracted
and chronic poverty, and a shift really needs to happen
Having said that, the third point is that Afghanistan is clearly highly prone
we saw the earthquake a few months ago were responding to floods in
the south of the country as we speak these disasters are constantly making
And in those cases we do need to step in with emergency aid as well. As physicians work
for that. With so many restrictions on education in the country,
we need to find every opportunity we can to invest in youth
youth groups, learning opportunities, training opportunities,
vocational opportunities for men and women.
Anything that helps people feel dignified
gives them a chance to learn
And I think finally, the most important thing is you know,
not to forget Afghanistan.
but the needs are as great as ever.
And it's no less important than it was
when it was in the headlines before.
Thanks to you. Very important message indeed.
Christian from a German news agency. It's a question for you. Go ahead, Christian.
I was, uh, uh stopped. I stopped at the first, uh uh,
things you mentioned. How it's so welcome that the security,
uh, situation has become better. Did you speak to women?
Whether they are also welcoming the situation, uh, being being
hid away and stuck in their homes. And maybe you can say a few words on
on this dilemma. How do you deliver
any help That, uh, targets women and girls?
Uh, how much are you restricted or how can you get around
It's You seem to be suggesting that it's necessary to work together with the with the
Afghan authorities. How How do you do that if they, uh,
treat half the population with disdain?
Well, thank you for the question. I don't want to sugar coat it. There are
challenges. And there is massive exclusion.
I did speak to women, of course. More women than men. Actually,
uh, we are very proactively trying to ensure that our workforce is gender balanced.
Uh, we, uh, employ women for all of our health services. Mental health services.
Um, primary health clinic services
services for women headed households. Widow headed households are run by women.
So actually, I spoke to a lot of women.
and we have women and Afghan women here at the round
table this week to speak about their experiences as well.
So I don't want to, you know, in any way. Uh
um, you know, not emphasise how important that issue is,
but it would not be true to say that
there is no participation in humanitarian services or
no participation in the workforce or no participation in
being clients of services because actually women are
both delivering the assistance and receiving the assistance through
the IFRC and the Afghan. At present,
the security, I think, is welcomed by all. Yes, I had a special.
I spoke to women individually,
and I had a special session just for women to discuss what's going on in their lives,
I think nobody wants to be in an insecure environment or to feel
unsafe when they go to the shops or go to the market.
a genuine sense that the security is better
and people are no longer constantly living in fear
of being collateral damage or a target to the bombing attacks.
but that doesn't mean there are not other things in life that
are causing that terrible mental health crisis that I refer to,
of which being excluded from many work opportunities and
education opportunities for girls is clearly a key one.
Thank you very much. We have a question now from Paula of Geneva Solutions. Paula?
Um so, first of all, I'd like to know, um, how many people you actually have deployed
Um, where they're deployed are are they deployed beyond, uh, urban areas.
And also, I guess, um you know, same question for the red,
uh, Red crescent. Um, there.
beyond that, I think I have lots of questions. I.
I think I probably have have to speak to you directly, but, um,
also in terms of, you know, you're talking about the need for more, um,
You know, there's sort of a certain type of repackaging of,
um of some of the aid in ter in, In other terms that are used,
um, that is taking place.
And, uh, just wondering, you know, if that's already started within,
um, the, uh uh, IFRC And, you know, red Crescent movements. Uh, there. And,
uh, what specifically that, uh, would involve.
So it's your first point.
We don't have a large team,
but we nev we almost never do because our
model of working is to work through a national organisation
and only keep the minimum minimum capacity on the international side
That's necessary for representation, technical support and quality, uh,
quality assurance and accountability.
in two or three of the provinces of Afghanistan.
But the team of around 40 of which are, uh, six or seven are expatriates
and the work is done through the
national organisation through the Afghan Red Crescent.
And that is our model for all its opportunities and risks.
Uh, it is our fundamental belief that the country has to take its respon
responsibility for managing its own crises.
And it needs strong institutions to do that.
And we try to support one of them through the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society.
In every country in the world, Afghanistan is no different.
in terms of the livelihoods,
we have actually been working on it for years.
It's just not enough, and we're not scaling it.
So one of our core programmes, for example, is the widow headed households that are,
and this is a huge problem in Afghanistan,
especially because of the restrictions in some of the workplaces
that widow headed. Households then become destitute very quickly.
Uh, so we have centres where they can both stay
and where they can get vocational skills
and seek to become economically independent.
After one or two years of being supported in in these centres,
they're just not big enough to go to scale.
You know, we had 500 graduates last year, for example, which is a drop in the ocean.
Other agencies, I think, are largely aligned with the idea that
it is inadequate to continue Contin,
continually deliver food or cash
ultimately need to restore their
livelihoods and become economically independent.
And if that were not self evident, it becomes
enforced in the sense that now the funding ceilings have gone down so much,
the amount of people that can be reached
through aid distributions is diminishing every single year.
even more pressure to use the reduced amount of financing for longer term impact.
Thanks very much. We have one more question from Nick of the New York Times.
Yeah, Thank you. Um, I there was a very active
Afghan civil society pre 2021.
I'm just wondering to what extent Um international sanctions continue to inhibit
support to um national organisations
International organisations have international connections
But Afghan national societies um are they
Is there any funding actually reaching them?
Uh it is possible to get funding into the country.
Um and but there are restrictions on it and you have to get sanctions,
funding into the country.
I hear that there are many smaller NGO S that are still struggling
not just because of the practical limitations of accessing financing,
but generally interest in the context has gone down.
And I think that's what you know, you know, that is that is the critical issue that
the future is looking extremely bleak.
I I mentioned a few points about the positives because I think it's only fair,
improvements generally for people's life the fact that people feel safer for, uh,
that's no small thing in a country that's been so traumatised by wars
but the future in terms of
where will the next generation of female doctors and nurses come from?
Where Will the next generation of female teachers come from,
Uh, where is going to be?
The investment come from where that will
generate the employment opportunities for FA,
for families to be, uh, economically independent and hopeful about the future.
desperate to leave, uh, or desperately depressed
these these future projections are looking quite
Which is why it is so important, I think,
for a rethink about what type of investment is going to have the best impact.
What type of investment is what have we learned from the last three years?
Where do we think this is going?
And what type of investment is likely to
be best primarily for the people of Afghanistan,
which is controversial because there is so much
politics involved in decisions around allocations of aid.
But in the interests of the people of Afghanistan,
it's important to have this discussion and try to find the best solution possible.
Thank you very much, Alexander. I think that's the end of the questions.
But Tom also wanted to add something.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Orlando.
And of course, thank you, Alexander, for this, uh,
uh, comprehensive briefing.
Not just because I'm saying I'm seeing some questions and, uh,
journals that are interested in, uh,
we will have Alexander Indo
together with our head of delegation in Afghanistan available for
interviews in the next coming days during the partnership meeting,
but also in the next weeks to come.
So if you want to follow up,
if you have any follow up questions if you want to talk to them,
please feel free to contact us to the usual channel of the
media team. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. And thanks again, Alexander.
Very much for this important briefing.
And, of course, feel free to join us any time.
OK, we'll move on to Iran.
Jeremy Lawrence from the human rights the UN Human
rights Office says update on the Iran hijab law.
Thanks. Uh, Rollo and good morning, everyone.
we have received information that uniformed and plain clothes police
in Iran are enforcing a violent crackdown throughout the country
against women and girls under the country's strict hijab laws,
as well as men who are supporting them.
There have been reports of widespread arrests and harassment of women and girls,
many between the ages of 15 and 17.
On the 21st of April, the Tehran head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
announced the creation of a new body to en
enforce existing mandatory hijab laws,
adding that guard members have been trained to do so in a more serious manner
Reports indicate that hundreds of businesses have been
forcibly closed for not enforcing compulsory hijab laws,
and surveillance cameras are being used to identify
women drivers not complying with the laws.
Our office is also very concerned that a draught bill titled
Supporting the Family for Promoting the Culture of Chastity and Hijab,
which impose imposes even stricter punishments,
is nearing final approval by the Guardian Council.
While the latest draught of the bill has not been made public,
an earlier version stipulates that those found guilty of violating the
mandatory dress code could face up to 10 years imprisonment,
Corporal punishment constitutes a form of cruel,
inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment,
imposed for the exercise of fundamental
freedoms is arbitrary under international law.
We reiterate that this bill must be shelved,
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk calls on the Iranian
government to eliminate all forms of gender based discrimination and violence,
including through the revision
and the repeal of harmful laws, policies and practises
in line with international human rights norms and standards.
This week, we also received reports that the Isfahan
Revolution Court sentenced to death rapper Toma
over views he expressed in the context of nationwide
protests in 2022 following the death of Gina Massa
Aini had fallen into a coma in police custody
after being detained by the Morality police for not wearing
The high commissioner urges the authorities to overturn Tama
and calls for his immediate and unconditional release.
All individuals imprisoned for exercising their
freedom of opinion and expression,
including artistic expression, must be released.
have already been executed
The high commissioner urges the Iranian
government to immediately halt the application
of the death penalty and establish a moratorium on its use.
the death penalty may only be imposed for the most serious crimes,
which refers to crimes of extreme gravity
that result intentionally and directly in death.
Thank you very much. Uh, Jeremy
and I see that the, uh, notes have been shared with us, so thank you for that as well.
Uh, we have questions, uh, for Jeremy.
Are they in the room or online?
I see. Uh, Lisa from VO. A. Has a question for you, Lisa. Over to you.
Thanks. Uh, good morning, Jeremy.
Um, have all street protests ceased because of fear.
I don't know, speak of bullies. Why is it why is this such
unmitigated hostility toward women?
Do you see a anything comparable in regard to other groups in, uh,
Or, uh, I mean, the revolutionary people, the Khomeini, and
much afraid of women. Are they afraid of women? And then I'm wondering whether
the High Commissioner has received any response to as many
calls his interventions or whether he's just kind of calling into the winder
Yes. Well, I certainly hope it's not into the wilderness.
Um, we continuing to engage with the Iranian authorities.
and particularly when it comes to, uh, the issue of the hijab bill and, uh,
With respect to the, uh, to
they do not appear to be taking place. Still, in the context of,
but what we have seen, uh, what we're hearing
in the past months, uh, that
the authorities, whether they be plainclothes police or or or or pla, uh,
are increasingly enforcing
uh, as you know, the hijab law has been in place since the 1979 revolution.
what we're also doing is taking this opportunity to raise our
concern about the the new form of this hijab bill,
which, as I mentioned, is,
increasing will increase the prison term to 10 years.
It had previously been about two months,
and the same with fines, Um,
incredibly floggings. Um,
in fact, we we there was an instance in in January where a woman was flogged 74 times.
under this, uh, current legislation.
it's, uh there's only one answer for this, and it's
as we say in the statement,
the the bill has to be shelved.
Thank you very much. We have, uh, Nick New York Times question.
Yeah. Thank you. Um, Jeremy, I wonder if you have any more on
the new organisation that you say is being set up.
And the second question is,
do you have much detail on what it was that, um,
Clay, He said that has provoked this sentence.
And whether you think his death sentence
is relating specifically to his comments on,
um, the protests or whether there are other aspects of his, um,
activities his career that might have, um,
triggered such AAA severe, Uh, response. Thank you.
Yes. Thanks, Nick. So this case actually dates back to, um
uh, he was initially imprisoned in October 2022
uh, public statements that he made in support of the nationwide protest.
Uh, subsequent to that, there has been he he had been sentenced to death.
Then there had been, uh, the Supreme Court over overruled. That,
Now we've got this, uh, the Isfahan
court. The Revolution Court, Uh, reimposing the death sentence.
now what I can say from what we understand, is that,
uh, there will be an appeal. Uh uh. It'll, uh, over the next 20 days,
um, hopefully common sense will prevail on on that front.
Thank you very much. Jeremy.
Further questions for Jeremy on
that We have Nick follow up. Yep.
Jeremy, I was asking also about the new organisation that you say is being set up.
Uh, what information you have on that? Thank you,
Nick. I'm afraid we don't have a lot more information.
the what we had heard through through the
channels coming from our sources coming from,
as you know, that there is or the existence of the morality police already.
Um, they, uh their actions seem to
they seem to pull back slightly after that. The protests.
But what we're hearing now is that they're they're back
out on the streets enforcing
We'll be following the situation obviously very closely with
respect to this new force and this new decree,
which has been issued through the Revolutionary Guards.
Great. Thanks very much for that. Uh, Jeremy,
No, I don't see that's the case.
So Thank you once again for highlighting this important issue. We have, uh,
who? I also of the UN office, The human rights office, Who is, uh,
speaking with us from Nairobi. And thanks for your patience safe. Um, S
is going to speak about Sudan and the situation specifically in El Fasher.
Thanks. Thanks so much. Orlando. And, uh, thanks for,
uh, everyone and, uh, yeah. Good morning.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights worker Turkey is gravely concerned
by the escalating violence in and around Al Fasher city, North Darfur,
where dozens of people have been killed in the past two weeks
as hostilities between the Sudan Armed Forces
and the rapid support forces have intensified.
Reports indicate that both parties have
launched indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons
with white area effects such as mortar shells and rocket
fired rockets fired from fighter jets in residential districts.
At least 43 people among the women and
Children were killed as fighting was taking place between
the SAF and RSF, backed by their respective allied militia.
Since 14 April, when the RSF began its push into fashion.
Civilians are trapped in the city.
The only one in Darfur stood in the hands of the SAF,
afraid of being killed should they attempt to flee
this. This dire situation is compounded by a severe shortage of essential supplies
as deliveries of commercial goods and humanitarian
aid have been heavily constrained by the fighting
and delivery trucks are unable to
freely transit through RSF controlled territory.
the RSF has conducted several large scale attacks on villages in western al
mostly inhabited by the African
RSF has burned down some of the villages, including DMA,
Such attacks raised the spectre of other ethnically motivated violence in Darfur,
last year. Fighting and attacks between the Riza
Masalit in western Darfur
left hundreds of civilians dead and injured
and thousands displaced from their homes.
The commissioner calls for an immediate
de escalation of this catastrophic situation,
an end to the conflict that has published the country for more than a year now,
and investigation of all alleged violations and abuses of international
and violations of international humanitarian law
with a view to ensuring accountability
grow justice and reparations.
He also urges both parties
to the conflict and their allies to grant civilians safe passage to other areas,
ensure the protection of civilians
and facilitate safe and unhindered humanitarian access.
questions for safe on Sudan.
uh. The outlook appears to be very bleak. I'm wondering if there is any,
Uh, what shall I say? Uh, communication pipeline, whether,
happening, if anything, on the
United Nations negotiating fronts?
there are a lot of organisations and a lot of people in your or your own included,
uh, screaming about stopping this.
And and is it even reasonable to believe that it's possible to have any kind of an
into abuses or whatever? I uh uh
I'm sorry. It it it It seems
pretty hopeless at the moment. How do you view the situation? Do you see any opening,
Well, indeed. It's, uh, still a very catastrophic situation.
Uh, bleak as you describe it.
there continues to be lots of human rights
violations and abuses taking place across the country.
Not just in, uh, uh, Darfur.
the the the diplo. On the diplomatic front,
there has been bits and starts in the process.
we are calling indeed for
talks to be ramped up and for both parties to,
uh, meaningfully into the process to resolve this, uh, conflict.
uh, because one year of fighting has only led to,
and, uh, devastated the country's economy poli politics and everything.
Um, talks are continuing,
but of course, uh, we see that, uh uh,
there is need to ramp them up and
try to push, because at the end of the day,
peace can only be comprehensively resolved.
Uh, through the end of the fighting and a
return to civilian government in Sudan.
Do we have further questions
No, I don't see. That's the case. So, uh,
thank you very much for highlighting this and colleagues for keeping. Oh, you have
a OK, maybe another issue or
ok, We have, um, question on another issue, but so thank you very much.
Yeah, I understand that, Margaret, uh, from WHO is online.
Margaret is online. I see her here. You have a question for WHO? Yeah,
Just a quick one on the press release that
just released this morning
regarding the widespread overuse of antibiotics during the covid pandemic,
could you just specify apart from
the resistance phenomenon,
is the harm that you are talking in the press, release the harm for people who are
who are not in need of antibiotics but did receive
what was the issue with them receiving this thing. And can you
specify across regions? I understand that it's not the same in
regions. So of course I'm interested in Europe,
Yeah, sure. Jeremy. Yeah, indeed.
This comes from our database from several years of, uh, clinical,
uh, material collected from, uh, hospitals.
And it certainly indicates that there was quite a variation across regions.
we were reported greatest use over 70% was in afro.
Uh, euro started higher and then fell lower.
Um, that and the Western Pacific region had the lowest use,
but they were all much higher than you would expect to expect or want to see,
because the only use time you would use antibiotics when you've
got a viral infection is if you had a secondary proven,
bacterial infection that was sensitive to those antibiotics.
So in other words, they were not being used to appropriately. And if you are the harm.
The main harm, of course,
is that if you are using antibiotics, uh, you're unnecessarily.
You're increasing the likelihood of antimicrobial resistance to those
particular antibiotics so that when you do need them
for your bacterial infection, they are no longer so useful.
But of course, every any individual can have allergic reactions,
or they can have a response to, uh, a medication.
So if you give somebody a medication that they don't actually need,
you are always exposing them to an unnecessary risk.
Every time you treat a a person for any illness with any medication,
Will this medication do the job and,
prevent whatever the disease is and is that a
more important outcome than any of the potential risks?
Just how do you explain this?
I mean, after so many years of campaign, at least in Europe,
regarding the use of antibiotics and all the medics were aware of this thing.
75%. That's the number. 75% of people received antibiotics in hospitals.
So is it the effect of surprise? How do you
How do you explain that? And how many
years of prevention have we lost in just two years? Three years of pandemic
A A and I'd only be speculating.
So that's that's a very good question to look at what happened?
Why were these decisions being made? Because the advice was not to do that.
And the advice was very clear. Right from the start, this was a virus.
So it wasn't that that there was any guidance or recommendation that that
uh, clinicians go in this direction.
But perhaps because people were dealing with something completely new,
they were looking for whatever they thought might be appropriate. But,
uh, that you're quite right. The advice has already always been.
Do not use antibiotics. Unless for a proven bacterial infection
that's sensitive to that particular antibiotic.
Thank you for that clarification. Margaret. Do we have, uh,
any other questions on this for Margaret?
No, I don't see. That's OK. So thank you for chiming in on this important note.
just a couple of last announcements from me before we wrap up this press briefing,
Uh, as usual, just to highlight the treaty body meetings, human rights treaty,
next week, the Committee Against Torture on Wednesday morning,
we, uh, review the report of North Macedonia. That's the first of May.
And the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
will close this afternoon,
its 112th session after having reviewed Mexico, San Marino,
Albania, Qatar and Moldova
and press conferences. There are two. I'm going to flag
both on Tuesday, the 30th of April. This coming Tuesday in
this room, following this press briefing at noon,
we'll have Philippe Lazzarini who, as you know, is U NRW, A's commissioner general
who will be updating you on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
for briefings, and he's taking time to brief you 12 noon on Tuesday, the 30th.
On Tuesday at 4 p.m. We'll have an update on
the humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
UN, resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator,
who will be speaking with you here at 4 p.m. on DRC.
That's all I have. If you have questions for me, Christian, you have a question.
Yes. Sorry. That was a very quick one for Margaret.
Can you tell us at what time on Monday, the pandemic treaty?
Uh, negotiations will resume.
And what is the expected, uh, finish of that round of negotiations? Thank you.
I'm OK. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry, Margaret.
I don't have an exact, but they normally resume
in the morning. Nine ish tenish and they go all day.
We want this to be ready for the World Health Assembly, which, as you know,
starts at the end of May.
the the the timeline they're on. It's a very fierce timeline,
but I, I can't give you anything tighter than that.
Fair enough. Ok, thank you, Margaret, for the questions. Now
Uh, I wish you a good afternoon and a good weekend and see you here on Tuesday. Thanks.
