Welcome to the press Briefing today here in Geneva at the UN is Tuesday, 25th of June.
We have a long list of speakers, so we'll start immediately with Pascal, who has to go back to the Council and has some update.
We have a bit of delay on our programme of work.
The Human Rights Council is continuing this week.
It's interactive dialogues with the somatic independent experts.
We will hear today around noon from Margaret Salliswaite, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.
She's presenting a report on the independence of judicial systems in the face of contemporary challenges to democracy, as well as two more reports on the recent visits to Montenegro and Mongolia.
And later this afternoon, the Council will hear from a new mandate holder, Jihad Mahdi from Egypt, the new Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.
Mr Mahdi will present his vision for his mandates tomorrow.
On Wednesday, we will hear from Mauritius Bobins, the Special Rapporteur on summary executions.
He will present 2 reports on the protection of the dead and his recent visit to Honduras.
We will also hear from the Working Group on Business and Human Rights, which will present a report on investors, environmental, social and governance approaches to human rights, as well as another report on its recent visit to Japan.
And we will hear from Irene Can, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression.
She has 2 reports, one on journalist in exile and another one on the recent visit to Serbia and Kosovo.
And on Thursday, you will hear from CEO Ben Mullally, the Special Rapporteur on Human trafficking.
She will present 2 reports on trafficking in person, mixed migrations and protection at sea, and other two other reports on her visit to Colombia and the Central African Republic.
And another new mandate holder, Cecilia Baillet from Argentina.
He's the new independent experts on international solidarity.
Our report focuses on the participation of civil society organisations in the frameworks of international solidarity.
And you will also hear from the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls on Thursday.
2 reports, 3 reports, sorry, one on the escalating backlash against gender equality and two other reports on its recent recent visits to Mauritania and Malta.
In terms of programming notes, I have two press conferences this week Claning Mufukeng.
The Special Rapporteur on the right to House will speak to you in this room tomorrow at 3:30 PM.
And on Thursday, Cecilia Baillet will speak to you at 11:15 PM.
And I see this opportunity of the International Day of the Seafarer to remind you that at its organisational meeting, the Council was told that a draught, a new draught resolution on the human rights of seafarers will be tabled by the Philippines.
This will be the first time, if adopted, that the Council address the human rights and fundamental freedom of seafarers.
Correction, I will double check, but I think the press conference with Cecilia Baez I was planning is at 11 AM tomorrow.
We'll check that also with with Ali because I think you have received an invitation.
So I just want to check about the timing.
Pascal, any question before you go?
Any question to the Council before he goes?
I don't see any on the platform.
Thank you very much for the update.
Hope you catch up with the time.
So let's go to the first subject on our agenda.
We have the pleasure to welcome together with the ends Yasmina Gerda, who's the Humanitarian Affairs Officer with OCHA that has spent three months in Gaza.
We will hear from Yasmina.
I give the floor first to Yans and then we will hear from Yasmina and then we will take questions.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
Good morning, everyone here and online.
I am indeed very happy to have Yasmina with us here today.
She is just out from Gaza a few days ago from her second tour there.
And I've heard that many of us in order to have heard what she's been saying about that, about her experience there and the conversations, the conversation she has had with people who wanted to convey that to you because we find it very striking and very illustrative.
So without further ado, yes Mina, the floor is yours.
Thank you for the opportunity to share with you what I witnessed in Gaza.
I had indeed the privilege to to work there for three months over 2 deployments and I just got out.
You know, we tried to, to measure and quantify the suffering that Palestinians of Gaza have been facing for 262 days.
And we do that with figures, the total displaced, the leader, the leaders of water that they get everyday, the truckloads of aid that get to cross in every week.
But it doesn't matter those numbers.
They're never near enough to meet the food, shelter, health, and other needs of a population that has lost nearly everything.
Their jobs, their roofs, their clothes, access to their bank accounts, and access to privacy.
I've heard and seen first hand stories that will haunt me for the rest of my very privileged life.
We really, really should not speak about living conditions there because none of them have living conditions.
What they have, if you look closely, is survival conditions.
They're holding on by a thread.
It's so hard to understand forced displacement sometimes.
But imagine one evening receiving an evacuation order.
You have 10 to 15 minutes to leave your building because it's going to be bombed.
Your kids are sleeping in the room next door.
You wake them up, they whine, probably.
And you have to make split second decisions to decide what to pack.
What's essential And how do you define essential?
Birth certificates, IDs, baby formula?
You wear your best clothes, of course, and you grab whatever cash that you have lying around.
But the things that you actually love and don't want to part with, those are luxuries that you cannot take with you.
It's the graduation gift.
It's the photos and letters from your friends.
It's souvenirs from that family vacation you took once.
So you take one last look at the room and you say a permanent goodbye because you know it will be dust.
This isn't a made-up story.
This is a story of Russia.
She was the mother of two girls.
And it's a story I heard time and again by people who fled Gaza City, Jabalia, Chanyunes de al Bella and now of course, Rafa.
And this is one of the best, best case scenarios too, because a lot of people aren't even warned before the attacks happen.
It was the case in a neighbourhood called Museyrat over 2 weeks ago, where hundreds of people were killed and injured during a special operation to release hostages.
And I can still hear Munira.
She was an English teacher before the war and she told me since the war began she's just been feeling endless sadness.
How against bloodshed on both sides she is.
There is the accountant Hassan, who explained that all his thoughts as the bombs were dropping on his house went to his family.
And then there was this 19 year old girl called Lemis who kept repeating my life should begin now but it's ending now and all of them, I, I don't mention their names for obvious security reasons, but they were just trying to have a meal with whatever they had secured that day.
When the bombing started and lasted for two full hours and tank shells and gunshots.
We were working a couple of kilometres away and the walls, the doors, the windows of our building were shaking non-stop.
We didn't know what was going on exactly.
We found out after the death toll, 270 and the hundreds of people maimed for life, some 700.
That's according to the Ministry of Health.
The children who lost limbs that I met the next day at the nearby hospital, many of whom reminded me of my own 2 little toddlers.
They were staring in the void, too shell shocked to produce a sound or a tear.
For those who survived the bombing of their neighbourhood by running away on time, it's only the beginning of the nightmare.
In most humanitarian responses, and I've done a few displaced people could eventually find some sort of safety.
But the past nine months, the past few days even, have confirmed that there is no safe corner in the Gaza Strip.
And in most humanitarian responses, displaced people could eventually access reliable humanitarian support, like a proper tent that meets international standards, a food parcel, clean water, a learning space for children, safe areas for women.
They are, of course, among the worst affected by any conflict, let alone this one.
Mental health support to help handle the trauma of war.
But delivering aid in Gaza is a daily puzzle across the board.
The ongoing fighting, the public order and safety vacuum, the insufficiency of absolutely everything we need, the regular attacks on our storage facilities, the pile of administrative impediments, bad Internet, weak phone networks, destroyed roads, You name it.
We spent hours waiting at checkpoints, coordinating, compromising a way through humanitarians, internationals, yes, but Palestinians most notably, work very hard to deliver long working hours, looking for creative solutions around huge challenges and taking very serious risks.
But every day, no matter how hard we try, we cannot reach everyone.
And the cost of all this, of course, is on the people who struggle the most, the children, those with disabilities, the women, the elderly.
I remember in my very first week in Gaza, a woman in Rafa who must have been over 70, asked me if she could tell me a secret.
So I leaned in and she whispered in my ears, Pampers.
I don't trust my Arabic well enough, so I I repeat it.
Pampers, This woman had been living without geriatric diapers for months and was hoping a humanitarian organisation could secure some for her.
The thing is, civilians in Gaza are not weak people.
They are so far from helpless.
I have seen families dig makeshift septic tanks with spoons using toilets and pipes from destroyed buildings so they could have a little bit of privacy and hygiene near their tents.
You know, put some some distance between themselves and their own waste.
Against all the odds, Dignity has a pulse in Gaza.
I've seen children make kites out of food packaging so they could play.
Somehow under the constant buzzing of the drones, Childhood has a pulse in Gaza.
Their mothers using the flour and the water that they receive to bake pita bread out of dirt ovens in the sand so they can sell it and make a little money to buy something different for their kids.
Entrepreneurship has a pulse in Gaza.
People talk about their dreams to rebuild after the flattening of their bedrooms and their kitchens.
Hope has a strong pulse in Gaza.
What civilian women, children and men need and desire above all across the Strip is a respite.
They need decision makers to finally make a decisive gesture to put an end to the relentless way in which they are being knocked down after every attempt to get back up.
And they need the support of the rest of the world to do that.
I'll be happy to take questions.
Thank you for telling us this, Yasmin.
And I think it's it's very, very important that your first hand experience be shared with the journalists.
So I'll open now the floor to questions.
Emma is our writers correspondent much since you were there for three months, I guess you were there before and after the the Rafa operation began in May.
I know things have been bad for a long time in in Gaza, but could you give us a sense for how much more difficult things have become since then and why with with the new displacement?
And did you personally see many signs of hunger really worsening during that.
So regarding the before and after the Rafa incursion, umm imagine, imagine close to 1,000,000 people packing up everything from where they were and moving in just ten days, two weeks.
I think it took for a million people to move everything we knew before the incursion on how to deliberate where people were, where their needs were, everything we had established, we had to pack up and move to go find them where they were moving to.
In the chaos of everything, you don't get information.
We put enumerators along the road to try to understand where they were headed and what they needed ahead of time so we could prepare.
But the the constantly shifting situation renders the delivery of humanitarian aid in a context that is already so far from an enabling environment, so challenging it.
Every day you wake up and you do not know based on the fighting, based on the population movements, based on what's coming through the crossings, based on the decisions of decision makers, you don't know what you're going to be working with.
I hope that answers the question.
One word on on aid delivery as well.
You, you mentioned checkpoints, how how much worse did that get after Rafa?
So the humanitarian space was reduced dramatically in the sense that more and more of the roads that we used to take became dangerous due to the fighting and also due to the challenges with public order and general safety.
Getting goods from point A to point B to reach those who need it, when you also have almost no storage facilities, have lost your access to fuel.
Everything was set up in Rafa.
For us to operate in Rafa, where the majority of the people were, everything changed and so the delivery of aid was Hanford and on hunger in the southern parts of Gaza, a lot of humanitarian partners were able to set up malnutrition centres and set up screening solutions so that we could anticipate the need.
Again, this is shifting when your population shifts and all of a sudden people lose their access to their services and the situation worsens.
I believe for several weeks there were thousands of children who were being followed or who were being screened that all of a sudden we sort of lost track of because they moved and had to be found again and services had to be moved.
Mean you mentioned the children.
And since what happened with Rafael, this million people who were moving, what kind of sense did you get of the numbers of children who may have been lost contact with their family, you know, unaccompanied children, if you could say something about that?
And you also mentioned the children who had had to be amputated or if you have any sort of sense of the extent.
I know you said the numbers are are.
Are huge, but if you could give us sort of a sense of of what you saw in terms of the suffering of the children there.
I believe that HealthPartners, health humanitarian organisations and protection humanitarian organisations do not have the exact figures and so I don't have them either, but they're working on securing that.
It's extremely challenging.
I'm going to tell you that for us to be able to follow cases of unaccompanied children, we need access to people, and getting fuel to access people has become a huge struggle that is hampering a lot the protection efforts go.
Ahead, I understand that the numbers are are not available, but from your time on the ground sort of how how big a problem do you think that is?
I mean there you had a million people moving in very short period of time.
Did you did you see a lot of children who were unaccompanied?
I mean, even if you don't have necessarily access, just if you can give a indication I.
I have seen unaccompanied children.
I would not be able to give you a ballpark figure at all, sorry.
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No, a question from Almaydin on the on the chat, he says I heard your report on Gaza and it contradicts Israel's statement that it doesn't target civilians.
What is actually the truth?
We we wish you could go there yourself, all of you and all of you asking questions about what is the truth, what is the truth, who's who's doing what.
We see what we see on the ground.
Yasmina saw what she saw on on the ground.
We wish you as media could go there and report for yourself and report to, you know, to the readers and viewers that you have would trust you.
It's important also to mention that we are not party in this conflict.
It's not US against Israel.
We are neutral, impartial, independent humanitarian organisations who bear witness to what is happening on a daily basis and we convey that to you.
But don't call on us to say what is the truth, because the truth is ours, what we see and what we convey, and that is our truth.
If that contradicts with others people's truths, then we cannot be the judge of of their truth, but we can certainly convey our own.
I hope that answers the question.
Well, it doesn't really answer the question, but I hope that clarifies the position we're in and the foundation that we that we stand on and that we must maintain at all costs and at all times and everywhere, our independence, our neutrality, and our impartiality in this.
Thank you very much and very, very important words.
Looking at the room is there I'm sorry any other question for Rocha on the platform?
I think I've read you the question that came in.
I'm asked if it's possible to have Yasmin as notes.
The the notes have been sent already.
Sorry, the notes have been sent already.
OK, OK, so the notes have been sent.
Look at your e-mail please.
And Nina a follow up sorry had a separate question.
I was wondering when the Rafa offensive started, Israel was talking about sending that people should go to safe zones.
I'm just wondering if you had any, if you were able to see those zones and how safe you thought they were and if people were actually going there.
I mean, my impression is that a lot of people went elsewhere, but if you could say something about that.
Our direct observation on the ground every day is that there are no safe centimetres left in Gaza.
There is nowhere you can be and be certain that there isn't going to be an attack on you that night.
We humanitarians are established in buildings that could be considered sufficiently far from the fighting that we could be considered safe, and yet our own facilities against international humanitarian law are attacked on a regular basis, and over 200 aid workers have been killed since the beginning of this conflict.
So there is no safe space, no safe space in Gaza for anyone.
So Yasmina, thank you so much for this.
Yes, my name is work for your mood symbol.
It has been three months since the world Central KitchenAid worker has been killed.
And could you tell us how the deconfliction mechanism has been improved or it just simply doesn't exist anymore?
The deconfliction mechanism.
One thing I want to start with on the deconfliction mechanism, it is not there to stop or negate international humanitarian law, which prevails everything, which is that access to people in need should be facilitated and aid workers should not be targeted, and so many other details.
But those are pretty important after the killing of our colleagues, who were also friends and.
Very challenging week that followed.
We had extensive discussions with the parties to conflict and we tried to re clarify that international humanitarian law prevails and that the deconfliction mechanism is only here to support it to be an added added layer of safety for movement and delivery of aid.
You have heard that more humanitarian facilities have been attacked and more humanitarian workers have died since the 1st of April.
So international humanitarian law and the deconfliction mechanism are not fully being respected Very.
OK, let me see if there is any last minute call.
Yasmina, thank you so much, really.
I think, yeah, I think what what it was said, I think it was from Nina that we've heard a lot.
And Gaza was a little bit falling up on the sides.
It's been put back on the limelight from you and from what you've seen and what you've told us.
Thank you very, very much for this very, very strong briefing.
And I hope everybody will report on your words and what you've seen.
Yance, is that OK with you?
So thank you very much to both of you and good luck with your important work.
Come back anytime, please.
So let me go now to UNHCR.
William, can you come to the podium?
While William is coming to the podium, let me remind you speaking about Gaza that at 1:00, Philippe Lezarini, Commissioner General of UNRWA will be here in person to brief you.
As you know, the Advisory Commission of UNRWA is meeting in Geneva.
You have heard maybe as so you reported on, on the speech of the Commissioner General yesterday.
It's also available online and we sent you the remarks, the transcript of the remarks.
And so you will be able to hear from him directly on what's happening in these two days and other questions from the situation in the Palestinian territory, occupied Palestinian Territory.
William, let's go now to Chad.
We have with us from Jemena, Laura Locastro.
I think we we know Laura, she has already been speaking to our press.
Laura is the UNHCR representative in Chad and it's the, the briefing is about this with these refugees.
I don't know if you want to start.
And then we give the first to Laura.
Just just to introduce Laura.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Sudan, UNACR and our colleagues from other humanitarian organisations have been reporting about what has been happening inside that country.
One of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, one of the worst displacement crisis in the world.
More than 10 million people have been uprooted by the fighting in in Sudan we have heard of appalling human rights violations and now famine is.
Looming in addition to all this already very dire situation with the onset of the rainy season, floods are likely to hamper relief efforts.
And the impact of this situation in the neighbouring countries has been overwhelming.
And we are lucky enough to have today Laura Locastro, our representative in Chad, one of the countries most affected by the conflict in Sudan.
More than 600,000 refugees from Sudan have arrived in Chad since the beginning of the conflict, adding to those who had fled previous conflicts.
And to tell us more about that situation, I am very pleased to introduce Laura to you.
Thank you very, very much, William.
It's it's quite difficult to talk after the account of Jasmine.
But if Gaza has been a little bit, you know, falling out of international media, you can imagine how much has happened, you know, with with respect to the students in to Sudan situation and a country like Chad.
So I need as these are is my last week in child I I felt obliged and compelled to talk to you and to apply and to call on humanitarian Laura.
Laura, sorry, I have to interrupt you.
Sorry, we have a little technical itch.
I understand the webcast has been the zoom sorry has been frozen.
So we need one minute to reboot.
Let's start the briefing again.
I'm I'm hopefully sorry with Laura and and whoever was on the line and here in the room.
We really had a, a technical issue, but we're back online.
Labra, you're back on Zoom.
And if you don't mind to start again your your presentation because I think I've forgotten what you've said.
It was it was really short, so it should be OK.
I just started and so I wanted to I think I started mentioning that to maintain international attention on Chad and the crisis in Sudan has been a very, very challenging since the very beginning.
And so This is why one week from from leaving the country, I decided to come to you and and present to you the situation in this country that is extremely hospitable but extremely poor.
So as you know from as William, since the beginning of the crisis 14 months ago, Chad has opened the door to 600,000 refugees and something like 180,000 Chadian migrants returning from from Darfur.
So this if you want the 600,000 Sudanese refugees, they add up to the 400,000 that were already there.
So today in the four provinces of eastern Chad, there is a population of 1,000,000 refugees from South Sudan.
And you have to consider that the entire eastern child has a total population of Chadians of 2.4 million.
So the ratio is unprecedented.
And in fact, we say that when you look at the total number of population in in Chad of Chadians and compared to the 1.2 million refugees altogether that we today we have in Chad, the ratio is one of the highest in Africa.
So the situation, unfortunately, it's very, it's very dramatical.
It's a very concerning because it's not that the refugees across the border and then the situation has stabilised.
They keep crossing the border.
The situation in Darfur as you know is not resolved fighting in Al Fashir that everybody was afraid about, you know, started and they are creating a lot of displacement in the South and then southwest of Al Fashir.
And there are refugee and there are Sudanese that are trying to reach Chad.
They are trying to reach Chad, even if it is a difficult journey, a very costly journey, a very long journey and that a journey that is very dangerous for particularly boys and men.
So but so the we, we have two main entry points where we have on average is something like 600 refugees crossing the border into the small border town of Adria every day.
And you know, last week we received the 800 new arrivals that arrived in Tina, which is another border crossing very important that is facing Al Fashir.
So the number of refugees is increasing, is increasing in a situation in which, you know, the underfunding has been, has been characteristic of this situation, these operations since the beginning.
The, the, the funding of the RRP of 2020 for 2023 was only funded by 40%.
So against this, this large population, which is for Chad, that is, let's say the largest refugee crisis that they've ever experienced in the country.
What was the UNHCR partners response was immediately to try to to secure the this larger refugee population and and and relocate them away from the border.
There were risks of course multiplied and the conditions were not not met in order for them to to leave without a health hazard and all the rest.
So UNHCR and its partners, we opened we we created extension to 10 existing refugee settlements in Chad.
There were already 12 of them.
So 10 existing refugee settlement were were expanded in order to host a newcomers and we built six really large refugee settlement that also today an average of 44,000 people each.
And you have to consider that they are surrounded by villages of something like 500 persons per per village.
So the proportion is is really is really huge.
So with these, we have managed to relocate and provide some very basic protection and assistance to 360,000 refugees in these settlements where they've been able.
They've been able to access some family shelters, but not for all of them, water and then healthcare, sanitation.
But again, we are unfortunately far below international standards because of lack of resources.
For instance, just to give you an example, in these settlements we have on average 8 litres per person per day of clean water, drinking water.
So, so there is still a lot of work to be done.
As I, I told you, only 40% of the needed resources were mobilised.
So we have, we have done what's possible.
And let's say the good result was that not major epidemic occurred in 2023, in 2024, we are starting to introduce some.
Education activities but only reaching 14% of the children of school age children.
Now the problem that we have today is that beside the fact that the standards are really not met in all the refugee settlement, beside the fact that the people have continued to cross the border, we have something like 200,000 refugees that are stranded at border points.
In particular the city of Adra, which hosts 190,000 refugees in a makeshift kind of camp.
They are self settled, let's say.
So they have, they have not.
We, we could not build, you know, shelter for them because at the border it's not the place to be.
So they are in in with very poor sanitation conditions.
We have witnessed A relatively controlled, but still, you know, epidemics of hepatitis E, which is a science and symptoms of Insaliburg from the working living conditions and not access to clean water and sanitation facilities.
And also we have been witnessing an increase in insecurity, insecurity within the this the site because it's in a manageable site.
Even when you do a food distribution by WFP, the stuff it's scared because anything can happen that the crowd is too big to be controlled.
But also insecurity because while the majority of these refugee population is made of women and children, there is a minority of them are men and some of them are armed, some of them smuggle alcohol and drugs.
And this creates a huge problem for the government to maintain security.
A government that again, you know, has opened the doors as welcomed the people as offer security, but now it's getting also very, very thin in means because they have they're very pro occupied by the situation in their and so they don't have the means to ensure sufficient security within the refugee settlement.
And in Andre, in addition to that, there is another area, another phenomena, which is the one of host population, the host population Chadians, they are most of the time of the same ethnic group of the refugees.
So when the refugees arrive, they open the door and they share that, you know, the one potato that was at home, it was shared with the people coming.
They share the water, they share the food, they share the land and now they are coming short of patients because now they expect also some support stand our systems and particularly development, development intervention to come to them.
We have to consider this part of child is a part where most of the villages that no access to potable water, no access to education facilities, health facilities.
So the tension is growing, is growing, let's say day, day by day and the future is not is not a future that let's say it's uplifting.
Let's say it's very worrisome because of the continuous arrivals.
Now the refugees are crossing the border.
When we ask them, why are you crossing the border?
The main reason and the first, the first reason that they claim is because they are hungry because of the famine like situation in their food.
In addition to that, there is the insecurity and the bombing and the shelling that is happening in the air Fisher.
So we expect the ended the Chadian authorities they have confirmed we expect many more refugees to cross the border and well.
So this is this is particularly worrisome because we have no resources to preposition support the support assistance nor to open additional refugee additional settlements where to relocate these these populations.
In addition to that, there is the rainy season, the rainy season in this country, you know, it's a it's a semi area part of the world.
But when the rain comes and it comes only once a year, they are devastating, devastating.
So acts to most of the locations would be very, very difficult.
In the past, what we used to do was to preposition food, that's preposition non food items, reposition drugs in order to be able to to cope with with months to three months in which access would be very, very difficult.
But now we have not had the means and the population is growing and the attention with the host population is growing as well.
So the government keep asking us to accelerate the relocation of refugees from they're also worried because the numbers are increasing and and other is not anymore a town with 40,000 people.
There are 6 fold the number and, and they they also, it is just not copying.
And of course the living condition, the will being of people cannot be insured.
So in order to do that, of course we, you, NHSR and the partners, we are estimating that we need at least to open another three refugee settlement or two in the area.
So that is most affected the Wadai and wine and 1 towards the north expecting much many more people coming from Memphis here.
So the the budget of, of UNHCR of 214 million for 2024 has been funded only 10%.
And what we need now, not tomorrow, maybe yesterday, but it's now it's 80 million in order to open three settlements where to relocate 150,000 refugees that need absolute urgent protection and, and assistance.
And in order to, you know, minimise the risks of epidemics of mortality, increase of mortality, morbidity and also of insecurity.
What we we have to say that in addition to indeed the the further deterioration of the security situation in the country, the absence of humanitarian assistance or adequate humanitarian assistance.
Let me recall here that of course everything that we've done it thanks to the very generous donors that have provided the incredible support to UNHCR and all the other partners.
But unfortunately it's not enough.
So another consequence of course, it would be not only the destabilisation of the entire provinces of the eastern child, which can produce as well a destabilisation of the entire country that as you know is a very critical country in this island, Central Africa.
But also so it will certainly increase, you know, the dangerous journeys towards Libya.
And then beyond the, the reports about, about movements of Sudanese from Chad or through Chad to Libya and then going towards Europe do not correspond to actually the reality, do not make a genuine account for what is happening.
When I go to the sites and I talked to the refugees, which I, what I've been doing for the past year and a half.
And, and very, very often when I ask, do you know about someone that has taken that dangerous journey towards the north?
I mean, 1/3 of the audience of about 60 people, they tell me, they raise their hand, they say, yes, we have, we have people and they can tell you as well.
How many of them died while trying to cross into Europe and and the same, you know, meeting a father that I met like that casually asking him just by by chances if you don't have anybody.
We realise that in chat there is no future, there are there's no enough food assistance and there is no not accelerating the development intervention.
We are trying to work on that, but of course it takes time and so the people take that dangerous journey.
So, so that may may seem far away, but it's it's quite close in this globalised world of today.
I thank you very much for your attention.
I'm ready to answer to any question you may have.
Thank you very much Lara for this very comprehensive briefing.
Let me see if there's any question for you in the room.
Don't see any hand up or on the platform.
Think you've been extremely clear as I don't see any questions.
So thank you very much and also thanks very much for your patience with the with the technical problem we had before.
William, is there anything else you would like to add?
So let's go to our next point on the briefing and we have with us another guest that is brought to us by Christian.
Christian, we have with us Doctor Rosamund Lewis, the technical lead on mpox.
I think you're going to give us an an update on that.
I don't know if you want to start.
And then we go to Rosamund.
Well, thank you very much.
You did all the introduction already.
So OK, let's go to Rosamund then.
Thanks for for being standing by so long.
I'm just trying to ensure that, yes, I'm on the tip now.
Thanks very much, Bourgeoisie den Shaf codec.
Good morning to everyone.
This briefing is about the global mpox situation, which continues to evolve.
And since the global outbreak of mpox began in May 2022, WHO has continued to support Member States and monitor the situation today.
And Box remains a public health ****** as the situation continues to evolve.
There have been over 3100 laboratory confirmed cases reported globally since the start of 2024.
And in May alone, around 600 confirmed cases have been reported to W Joe from 26 countries in in most of the regions.
In addition, cases are on the rise in Africa.
So the total number of cases right now reported is over 97,000 globally.
But Africa is now leading the leading region, having now just now replacing the Americas as the leading reporting region for confirmed cases in relation to the continuing global reporting of mpox, a significant outbreak due to the virus Clay 2B, which was the virus that appeared in in many countries and regions.
This has now emerged in South Africa.
Since April, South Africa has reported 13 confirmed cases.
They previously had only 5 in 2022 and none of those were severe.
Now they're reporting 13 confirmed cases again due to Clay 2B virus, this time with two deaths, and all patients are severely ill and have required hospitalisation.
We know that those with advanced HIV infection are at greater risk for serious illness and death from mpox and South Africa has responded very promptly.
They're providing information to healthcare providers and persons at risk, working with community associations and engaging with people at risk, enhancing surveillance and contact tracing, providing clinical care, including specific antiviral treatment and advancing quickly to secure access to vaccines for people at risk.
At the same time, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as you know, continues to face a major outbreak to Ben Fox student played one the other played of the virus with over 9000 clinically compatible cases and over 400 deaths reported amongst those in 2024 alone.
This is already much higher than the already peak that was reported in 2023.
So we're continuing on an upward trajectory.
The case fatality ratio there is almost 5%, which is far higher than what was seen in the global outbreak, which was less than .2%.
Children are particularly affected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with even higher death rates, up to 17 or 18% or almost one in five.
They are separately is also a distinct outbreak of a new strain of Clade One virus in South Kibo, which is driven a bit like the global outbreak, primarily by sexual contact, but mostly among sex sex workers.
This outbreak has also now reached Boma in North Kibo and a camp for internally displaced persons.
So we should all be concerned.
While the Clade One virus so far contained to Central Africa, it's potential spread to neighbouring countries and other regions remains very concerning.
There remains a risk, a risk of wider outbreaks and WHO is working with neighbouring countries as well to step up preparedness and strengthen surveillance and cross-border collaboration.
In addition, among African nations, the Republic of the Congo has also recently declared an outbreak at Vampox and Cameroon continues to report new cases periodically.
There is a critical need to address this resurgence.
WHL has recommended a wide-ranging comprehensive response including risk communication, community engagement, surveillance and other public health interventions and WHL has also recommended the use of mpox vaccines for persons at risk.
WHL calls on Member States to continue to demonstrate clinical research to show the effectiveness of these vaccines.
Studies have demonstrated the real world effectiveness of mpox vaccines and studies on antiviral agents do continue.
LHL continues to continue to support countries to strengthen surveillance, laboratory work, clinical care, infection prevention, control and other elements of the response and to prepare vaccination strategies for the countries experiencing outbreaks.
In the absence of pre qualification for the vaccines, we are working directly with Member States to facilitate and support vaccine review by their national regulatory authorities.
This work is under way with South Africa and with the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the moment.
While M Box can affect anyone as we know, especially through direct skin to skin contact or face to face contact, integrating M Box services into existing services for secular transmitted infections is also crucial.
As it's now become obvious that M Box is also a sexually transmissible disease in endemic area.
It's critical to better understand how M Box is spreading until Rachel continues to work with Member States to design protocols and studies to better understand and address this question.
Additionally, resources must be prioritised for vaccination, treatment and public health initiatives for groups at risk, which is very different according to the context, as you've heard.
So Member States and other entities are invited to continue to support this effort through resources, financial resources, access to vaccines and treatments for low and middle income countries, including donations and procurement for countries that may require support for access.
Thank you very much, Rosemond.
Let me see if there are questions in the room.
Emma Farge, Reuters, good morning.
Could you just clarify, you said Africa overtook the US on the cases.
Is that overall or in what time period?
And secondly, could you just answer clearly why the treatments and vaccines that have been available in **** income countries for two years now still aren't available in places like DRC?
When do you think that might change as well?
So as you know, we report out monthly now.
We're receiving monthly reports from from the regions who received their reports from the central member states who are still reporting surveillance is declining.
But nonetheless, the Americas has been leading in terms of case reports for laboratory confirmed cases.
The data is not yet officially out.
It will be coming out this week and you will see that it seems like the African region is, is now reporting more clinically confirmed, sorry, laboratory confirmed cases in addition to their large numbers of clinically compatible cases.
So we'll share that information data as soon as it is ready to be published, which will be in a few days.
Regarding vaccines and and therapeutics, so yes, vaccines are licenced, they are approved and they were developed for smallpox as you know.
And the monkey box virus is a related virus.
And so therefore it was thought that they would be effective and had previously been demonstrated to be effective against mpox as well.
So now in real world studies around the world, more than 13 studies have been have demonstrated effectiveness of the vaccinia based vaccines against mpox.
And this has been reviewed and taken out by The Who Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunisation.
So that that is the source of their strong recommendation to vaccinate people at risk.
At the same time The Who has a process for pre qualification of vaccines, which is a strict process as it should be and are looking for further data on efficacy.
So at the at the time, what we are doing is working directly with countries through of course our our three levels of the organisation headquarters, regional offices and country offices to support in country processes through their national immunisation technical advisory groups, their regulatory authorities.
And for example, one country in Africa has already improved use of impulse vaccines and that was Nigeria.
So we're working with other countries now to to facilitate also that direct process.
Regarding therapeutics, there are studies that are ongoing, particularly for Techoveramat.
It is an agent that was also developed, an antiviral agent also developed for smallpox, and it is undergoing studies, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which we hear will is expected to conclude during the course of this year.
And so we look forward to those results.
In the meantime, countries have made that product available for compassionate use or through The Who process of monitored emergency use of unregistered interventions.
That product is in fact also licenced, but as I said, the studies for efficacy for M box are ongoing.
And so right now the accesses are through expanded access protocols or in very small quantities for compassionate use.
Amy Keaton, Associated Press.
I wanted to just follow up.
You said a lot of things there on, on Emma's question, just to make sure that I understand what you're, you're saying.
The reason why we're not seeing a vaccination in Africa and as as we did in, in use of therapeutics in, in, in Africa to the same extent that we've seen in North America boils down to the fact that there are national PQ processes that are not allowing those things to go forward in those African countries.
Is that the simple answer?
And then I just had two follow-ups.
You mentioned our two other questions.
One is you mentioned the higher transmission rates.
How do you explain that the I think you said 5% or something along those lines.
What's what do you attribute that to?
And and, and just another one, what is the possibility that the fake for Mpox might be revisited?
Thanks very much for those questions.
So to clarify on national regulatory authority processes, they're not called pre qualification national.
Each country has its own national regulatory authority and its own process for reviewing, processing vaccines and determining whether they can be used in country for either studies or for emergency use or for full market authorization in country.
There are different processes, different pathways that countries can follow.
At the moment the countries we that that are experiencing outbreaks are looking at emergency use authorization.
It is the national regulatory authority that is reviewing vaccine files from the manufacturers.
So those processes are are underway and so we'll share information when we have it.
Right now what we know is those processes are underway in the countries looking to procure vaccines for for their use nationally.
So they do have to go through their own policy advice process and then regulatory review process.
And then of course, development of immunisation strategies, operational plans, adverse events, monitoring, everything that comes with immunisation once those initial processes are completed.
Regarding higher transmission, you mentioned 5%, but that was the figure I gave for case fatality ratio in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
What that means is all the clinically compatible cases reported, there is 5% of them.
There's also an equivalent a #400.
So 400 deaths have been reported among clinically compatible cases that lock.
So that's a 5% case fatality ratio that is not the same as transmission.
Transmission does independently seem to be picking up.
There are, as I mentioned, higher reported numbers of cases in 2024 than there were in 2023, which was already a peak year.
And in addition to that, there has been found a new strain of Clade one virus in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is still a Clade 1 but is transmitting exclusively from person to person.
Whereas in the endemic areas, we understand there is still a mix of zoonotic spillover events leading to outbreaks and leading to person to person transmission.
But in eastern part of the country, it's only person to person transmission.
So there are different forms of epidemiology, different case mixes, different ages affected according to the context even within one country regarding the possibility of emergency of international concerns.
So that is a unique instrument under the International Health Regulations, WHO has an internal monitoring system for all emergency events and considers that this global impacts outbreak is still an emergency in for our own internal functional processes.
So WHO continues to monitor the epidemiology of the outbreaks globally as well as in the African region and in each country.
And if, if any change is needed that will be determined through a comprehensive risk assessment which which is developed every few months to update our understanding of the situation.
I think Jimmy, you have a follow up.
It was a, it was a not the transmission, but the case fatality rates.
And, and I think if I understood you correctly, you, you explained why the case fatality rate is higher.
So it's higher in part because of the, we think because of the cleave one, but it's also higher in part because in the endemic areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, most of the people are affected on fat children.
3/4 of the cases are among children and 88% of the deaths are among children.
And so there is an age gradient with respect to case fatality ratio.
Those most at risk of severe disease and death are in fact the youngest, the infants and the under 5 are the next most at risk overall, and then under 15 and so on.
So that adults in endemic areas are less at risk for different possible reasons.
They're less vulnerable to begin with.
Perhaps they've been exposed to Mphox in the past.
We don't really have the answers to all these questions yet, but we do know that children are higher risk of severe disease, as are separately immunocompromised persons, regardless of the reason for their immune suppression.
So the epidemiology is complex and we continue to monitor and are proposing to investigate further, supporting the country to investigate further, particularly endemic areas to understand how children are acquiring in this.
What we can say, I can just add one point perhaps is that clinical care is critically important.
We saw at the beginning of 2024 that the case fatality ratios for children in DRC were extremely ****.
And with intervention of the Ministry of Health and partners with provision of clinical care, simple things, rehydration, nutrition, control of fever, treatment of secondary infections, taking care of the skin so it doesn't develop secondary infections.
That basic optimal clinical care is critically important in reducing death rates, particularly for infants and children.
And so clinical care is an essential part of the response as well as the other strategies I've mentioned.
Wondering, you mentioned the risk of of this spreading to neighbouring countries and and I guess internationally as well.
Do you think that is that these, that this very large outbreak will will be spreading further?
Well, what we've seen so far is that increasingly, for example, in South Africa, those who are most affected are already severely.
I'll what that suggests is, is that this virus is circulating but has so far found those who are most vulnerable.
In that case, it's adult men with HIV infection who are already suffering from advanced HIV disease.
So what we know because of that unusual picture is that the virus is circulating and that's why South Africa is stepping up its response to enhance its surveillance and contact tracing.
But it does mean that neighbouring countries in that situation, for example, may be having circulation of virus without yet realising it.
The similar situation can apply, for example, in in eastern, in East Africa, in the countries neighbouring eastern DRC where the virus may also not be picked up.
Not all cases are picked up.
There is circulation that is either possibly silent, although that's less common, but also possibly simply just not detected or reported.
Patients do not come forward if they don't know that there is care for them, regardless of the demographic group we're talking about.
Mempox is a very stigmatising disease.
It causes lesions on the face which are very disfiguring and on the rest of the body.
And so whether you're a younger woman or an older man, it doesn't matter.
People feel very stigmatised when they when they have mpox and so there's often a delay in seeking care.
They prefer to stay home and sometimes they arrive looking for care when it may be late in the in the process of the of the illness.
And so we are also continuing to advocate for destigmatizing care and and supporting communities regardless so that people can come forward and cases can be detected and we can better understand transmission.
I see there is one question in the chat, but I understand it's not on box.
Christian, you have a question, right?
Maybe Christian can answer Christian Ulrich if you can unmute Christian, I spoke to Christian already, but I just want to put this on the public record here.
The reports that who has put out yesterday and today on alcohol and trans fat and that are sold as as new reports that reveal new figures.
Both of those figures are old one from January 1, from December last year.
And this is a huge problem for me and I guess for other people too, because we are losing credibility if we put out stories about supposedly new figures that that have already been published before.
I I see a big problem here, and I'm asking WHO to specify from now on when they put out reports, whether what's in them is actually new or it's just rehashed old information.
Yeah, it's a credibility question.
That's that's is is a problem for us and for WHOI guess, too.
I guess, Christian, you want to take this?
But first thanks Cristiano for flagging this and also thanks for Rosamond, for her, for her briefing.
But yeah, on that particular point, the way I understand it that the the specific figures were used already before as preliminary figures.
That seems right, but without any further details.
And hence now when the the technical unit decided to bring out a final definite report with all more with more information.
Of course, inside they also reuse that figure.
But I, I fully hear you and I agree it would be ideal to flag which of these figures are had been published before and which are absolutely new figures.
We'll, we'll keep that in mind and we'll bring that forward.
But on the larger context, that reminds me of a press briefing we have today coming still and that's at 3:00, a briefing on then embargoed virtual press briefing on the launch of physical activity estimates.
And you should have also received embargoed material for this one before.
So that also doesn't work always very well, but in this case it worked.
So 3:00, a press meeting today on physical activities and the launch and that material has been sent.
Thank you very much, Christian and Christian, both statements are noted.
And thanks so much, Doctor Lewis, for this update on mpox.
I'll thanks the colleagues from WHO and turn to my left.
We have Thomas Crawl Knight for UNECE who has to announce you I guess a press conference right in a forum.
So tomorrow, as you know, there is a press conference on autonomous vehicles, international developments in regulating autonomous vehicles.
So this is an important area of work under the World Forum of Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations, the UNEC body, which gathers this week.
This is the only global platform for harmonisation in this area and the only dedicated UN body.
Now in particular, we will be explaining to you with the help of our experts, the updates and the current state of play and next steps from the work of the Working Party on Autonomous, Automated, Autonomous and Connected Vehicles, which was established in 2018 and continues to advance its regulatory work in this complex area.
There were already regulations on cybersecurity and on certain automated driving functionalities in force, and they will update you on on what's coming next.
Just for your background.
So this working party known as GRVA for short, it brings together all countries that are willing to work together on this complex area, including the USA, Canada, the EU, Japan, Republic of Korea, India, China and G7.
Transport Ministers, as a reminder, are calling consistently for regulatory work in this area to be conducted under the auspices of this working party, including the last occasion just this spring.
So that will be with the Secretary of the Working Party, Francois Guiche and the Chair of the working party, Richard Dam of Germany, together with our Deputy Executive Secretary, Dimitri Mariassen.
Now on the second note, there is this week in Limassol, Cyprus, the UNECE Forum on Education for Sustainable Development.
That's the 27th and 28th of June.
And that's where the focus on empowering youth for sustainable futures, entrepreneurship education and youth empowerment.
Now, this is held in response to recognition that to address many interconnected sustainable development challenges we're facing that education is key there.
Now by prioritising entrepreneurship, employment and innovation as key policy directions, the aim is to bridge education for sustainable development with economic and social issues and tackling the business, financial and policy landscapes in these areas.
Now this will be the occasion to launch, to to update and to to initiate a three-year project aimed at promoting the implementation of this priority area.
Now the forum will shape the development of a comprehensive guiding framework for 21st century competencies tailored to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in the pursuit of sustainable development.
So this is part of the the 20-30 framework of implementation on on Education for sustainable development, which is developed under a steering committee here at UNECE.
Now this is a region wide body encompassing the 56 countries of North America, the entire European continent, Central Asia and the Caucasus, supported also by a dedicated youth platform that's organised by the government of Cyprus with UNECE in partnership with the Swiss government, UNESCO, UNAP and other partners.
Thank you very much, Thomas.
Questions in the room, I don't see any hand up or on the platform.
So thank you very much and good luck.
Tomorrow it'll be my seat for the press conference.
And the last speaker today is Susanna Park.
Since you don't know Susanna very well, we've prepared a a name plate for her and she has to announcement.
Susanna, go ahead, please.
OK, Thank you very much, Alessandra.
I'm here to share with you two things that are coming up for this week.
This Thursday on the 27th of June is UN Micro Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Day or MSME Day.
And this is also the day that we at the International Trade Centre will celebrate our 60th anniversary.
First on the reason why we celebrate this day, small businesses make up 90% of all companies and 2/3 of jobs worldwide.
They form the backbone of many economies, especially of developing countries.
And as our Executive Director has said, you can't have sustainable development without trade and you can't have trade without small businesses.
So as we mark our 60th anniversary, we're hosting A celebratory session on MSME Day this Thursday.
It'll be a fast moving event marking how we've been investing in core services like our trade intelligence and technical assistance for developing countries, while also looking at how we've been innovating to make trade more digitally connected, sustainable and inclusive of women and young people.
So some highlights that may be of interest.
The UN Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed will be coming to Geneva from New York to deliver the keynote.
We have the AU Trade Commissioner, Albert Muchanga, who will come to talk about how they're working to make One Trade Africa a reality.
We'll have Elaine Boudiger, who's the State Secretary of Economy of Switzerland to talk about our long standing partnership with Switzerland as our host country.
And we'll have some entrepreneurs of course, since we're talking about small businesses.
For example, we have a Moroccan CEO who produces reusable sanitary products for women.
And we also have a representative of a cocoa cooperative representing 10% of all cocoa producers in Ghana who will come to speak.
And that may be of interest because recently, we've seen record **** cocoa prices, which also has an impact eventually on chocolate purchasing.
And we also have a Ghanaian chocolate company owner who's a woman in case that's of interest for an interview.
Our session will wrap with an Afro Caribbean reception on the WTO terrace with food, music and dancing.
The only stipulation here is I think you have to be registered with the WTO for the Global Review of Aid for Trade this week in order to access the premises to come to the to the session and the reception.
So that session is again this Thursday from 4:00 to 8:00 in the CR Room at the WTO and the reception starts immediately afterwards.
But even if you can't come to the reception, you can watch online.
I can share the link with Alessandra and her team.
And if you'd like more information or to interview our Executive director or any entrepreneurs, please feel free to reach out.
And I just reminded that we have sent you the message of the Secretary General on the Micro, small and medium Sized Enterprise Day.
And I won't read it because you have it in your e-mail boxes, but I'll open the floor to questions if you have any on this event.
So it seems very clear to everyone.
Hopefully they'll all be there.
Just one announcement on behalf of Jennifer, who was here until a few minutes ago, but it's always available for you if you have questions.
She has asked me to inform you that the deputy special envoy for Syria, Mrs Nejad Rushdie, will be the Security Council at 3:00 PM New York Times.
So that's 9:00 here in Geneva.
9:00 PM Her briefing will be distributed when she concludes as usual and just maybe as a as a save the date, because this is at the end of the month.
But it's not that far away though.
The preparatory the second meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty of Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons will be held at the Paladinacion in room 19 from the 22nd of July to the 2nd of August.
And the Chair designate of the second session is Ambassador.
I can recommend tooling of Kazakhstan.
You should have received or your will soon receive a media advisory.
But I wanted to just note that the members of the media are embedded for a press briefing with the Chair designate on Monday, 22nd of July at 1:15 PM.
Those of you who want to cover the conference will should apply for accreditation in advance through the UN Indico platform.
Of course, if you are a journalist accredited here, you don't need to do that.
It will be, there will be a media gallery in the in the room.
You will be able to follow the proceedings.
So that is what I had for you.
If there are no other question, we only have about one hour to grab something to eat.
And I'll see you again here at 1:00 with Philippe Lanzarini.
