The United Nations Office at Geneva
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UN Geneva Press Briefing - 28 June 2024
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53:40
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MP4
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3.2 GB
UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING
28 June 2024
Urgent Need for International Solidarity
Cecilia Bailliet, Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), outlined the new revised draft Declaration on the Right to Solidarity, which defines solidarity as an enabling right to focus on trends among civil society and to voice concern for marginalized groups all over the world. Ms. Bailliet stated that the first report on civil society and international solidarity had underscored various measures taken against groups acting in solidarity both in the physical space and in cyberspace.
While Ms. Bailliet’s second report would focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and international solidarity, further reports would address indigenous peoples and solidarities. These would be based on her visits to Inuit communities in Denmark and Greenland, and focus on the impacts of unresolved issues from the age of colonization, the denial of equal rights in private and public spaces, as well as pressures related to natural resource extraction.
Ms. Bailliet announced that the final report would be shared at the United Nations General Assembly and would deal with the infringement of the rights of solidarity actors by corporations that had not established transparent mechanisms of communication.
In answer to a question, Ms. Bailliet stated that the second report focused on AI due to civil society groups' lack of access to infrastructure, and to their marginalization by AI algorithms. This was why the report called for the UN to create a digital solidarity platform, which would serve as a forum enabling civil society groups to exchange solidarity ideas with representatives from governments and business.
David Diaz Martin, for the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), shared an update on the Council’s activities, which was finalizing its second week of its 56th regular session. The Council would hold its full-day discussion on human rights and women that same day, and on Monday, 1 July there would be a panel discussion on human rights and the Olympic ideal. This would include participation of the President of the International Olympic Committee, Mr. Thomas Bach. Also on 1 July, the HRC would include a panel discussion on climate change, featuring the new Special Rapporteur on Climate Change, Ms. Elisa Morgera.
Humanitarian Update from Central Gaza
Louise Wateridge, Senior Communications Officer at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), joined the briefing online from central Gaza and said that she had just returned to the Gaza Strip after four weeks. Ms. Wateridge stated that in that period, conditions had deteriorated significantly, with very limited access to fuel on the ground, restricted movement, and few - if any - waste management services in operation. The living conditions were extremely dire, the weather was extremely hot, with very few resources and limited water. UNRWA was desperately seeking support and looking for help to assist Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip.
Answering questions, Ms. Wateridge stated that people in Gaza were hungry and malnourished after enduring 8 months of food insecurity. The physical appearance of many colleagues and local people whom Ms. Wateridge knew personally had changed due to a lack of access to sustained, healthy food, fresh fruit and vegetables, she said.
On a question about the US-backed pier, Ms.Wateridge affirmed that UNRWA had always welcomed any aid that entered the Gaza Strip but underscored that UNRWA’s position was for the entry of humanitarian aid trucks through border crossings, stating that this was both safer and more cost-efficient than any air drops or using the pier.
Daniel Johnson, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, reminded reporters of the statement by the spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, on Thursday: that in spite of UN efforts to get fuel into Gaza there was still not enough reaching UN agencies inside the Strip.
In response to a question on health risks for associated with heat, Tarik Jašarević for the World Health Organization (WHO), stated that summer weather could lead to number of communicable diseases appearing in Gaza for several reasons, including water contamination, food spoilage, mosquitos and flies, dehydration and heatstroke.
WHO had recorded a number of 470,000 cases of diarrhea since the beginning of the conflict, with a majority due to lack of clean water. Mr. Jašarević emphasized that, for children under the age of 5, this combination of lack of food and water, coupled with diarrhea, could be a lethal combination.
Speaking to questions about amputations, Mr. Jašarević stated that while estimates were not available, an entire system would need to be in place for health workers to be able to save a limb, and adequate conditions were currently unavailable in Gaza with the ongoing hostilities. Consequently, if someone currently suffered an injury, they would not only risk losing their limbs and their capacity to live normally, but quite possibly their lives.
Answering a question on evacuations, Louise Wateridge of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) stated that the situation was as dire as it had ever been and was getting worse every day. She called for the immediate resumption of medical evacuations. In response to the same question, Tarik Jašarević for the World Health Organization (WHO), welcomed the previous day’s evacuation of 21 patients from Gaza. Mr. Jašarević noted that this was the first evacuation since the Rafah crossing’s closure on 7 May, after which it had become difficult logistically to receive approvals and evacuate people,which meant that an estimated 2000 people had not received critical life-saving specialized health care. He echoed Ms. Wateridge’s call, emphasizing that medical evacuations must be facilitated through all possible crossings.
On a question regarding looting, Ms. Wateridge confirmed that it had been on the rise and pointed to factors such as the lack of food and supplies after 8 months of war. She also underlined that money was not being printed or distributed, and most salaries had stopped being distributed. People had nowhere to obtain money, and with limited access to humanitarian aid supplies, they were desperate. She emphasized that because of the siege on the Gaza Strip, it had become a very dangerous and lawless situation on the ground, and the only answer was to provide more aid, more food, more medicine, to the people of Gaza.
Climate Change Pounding Refugee Communities
Andrew Harper, Special Advisor on Climate Action at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), opened by expressing solidarity with UN colleagues in UNRWA.
Mr. Harper stated that UNHCR had been seeing the latest iteration of climate change and how it impacts those most vulnerable in Brazil. At the same time, what was occurring in Africa, Southeast Asia, and almost every part of the world was demonstrating that extreme weather events and natural disasters were shattering many refugee and other displaced communities worldwide, worsening their plight, and, in some cases, displacing them again.
While Mr. Harper acknowledged that the impacts of climate change were affecting every society, it was often those populations that were the most vulnerable, that lacked the resources to resist, that were suffering the most.
He stressed that, when climate records were being consistently broken, there were no existing models that could accurately anticipate what the world would go through in the future, and that "all the worst-case scenarios need to be reworked." This proved challenging for UNHCR in its operations with millions of people who lived on the peripheries of society and were so reliant on external support, he said.
Mr. Harper emphasized the importance of the support from host communities, be it in Brazil, Bangladesh, Kenya, or Chad. He highlighted the need to reinforce the support for these countries, particularly as climate challenges become more evident in these areas.
Mr. Harper mentioned the UNHCR climate-resilience fund , established with the aim of finding support for forcibly displaced people fleeing from or living in climate-vulnerable countries. He stated that one displacement was occurring every second, not just due to conflict, but also due to natural disasters.
According to Mr. Harper, it was no use having early warning unless there was early action. Moreover, it was difficult to do what was required at a time when resources were so limited.
Answering questions, Mr. Harper said there had been a transition from El Niño to La Niña. He also pointed to the extremely high numbers of food insecure people in Sudan, estimated at 25 million people. He specified that this is ranked as an IPC3+-level crisis, which meant they were very food insecure, potentially moving towards a famine-type situation, at a time when flooding and other extreme weather events could also occur.
Mr. Harper pointed to the multiplier effect of human emissions causing climate change and stressed that tipping points would likely be crossed. This, coupled with other issues, such as biodiversity loss, impacts on nature, pollution, and the triple planetary crisis, all needed to be taken into account.
The full UNHCR statement is available here.
Announcements
Daniel Johnson, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, said the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres would be launching The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024 at 11:30am that morning. The Secretary General would be joined by Yongyi Min, Chief of the SDG Monitoring Section. The report would assess progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, 6 years before the 2030 deadline for their achievement.
On Monday, 1 July at 3:00pm, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) would hold an online launch of a report on innovation trends in the development of generative AI (GenAI). The report would be launched by Daren Tang, Director General of WIPO, and Christopher Harrison, Patent Analytics Manager of WIPO. The report would remain under embargo until Wednesday, 3 July at 10:00am.
Mr. Johnson announced that on 4 July at 2:00pm, there would be a hybrid launch of a joint International Organization for Migration (IOM), Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) and UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) the report entitled “On this journey, nobody cares if you live or die”. Outlining risks faced by refugees and migrants on the Central Mediterranean route, the report would remain embargoed until 5 July at 10:30am.
Mr. Johnson informed that the Human Rights Committee would open its 141st session the following Monday at 10:00am.
The date of the next plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament would be announced at a later stage, under the Presidency of Ireland.
29 June was the International Day of the Tropics; whereas 30 June would celebrate both International Asteroid Day and the International Day of Parliamentarism.
Teleprompter
Right, good morning.
It is Friday and the the shock of the day is today's Eunice Agency briefing.
It's my pleasure to be here with with you Merci de Trella on our pleasure Zorator Parmi Louise Watridge Quinoa Juan Dupil Gaza El Tyre Vie Yasuo dock.
So the chilled update the the the Sapa Olga a William de Escher Avec Andrew Harper, who is the UN Special Adviser on Climate action and we are looking forward to hearing his comments on the climate change effects pounding refugee communities.
But before that, it's my pleasure to introduce Cecilia Bahia, who is the independent expert on human rights and international solidarity, joining us here after her intervention at the council.
Over to you.
Thank you.
It's a pleasure to be here and I'm very excited to begin this mandate I began in October.
And we have a brand new revised draught declaration on the right to solidarity, which shows solidarity to be an enabling right to focus on the trend we see among.
Civil Society.
To voice the concern for the oppression of marginalised groups all over the world, be they refugees or women or the environment or the situation in Gaza.
We've seen students having solidarity marches and needing the world to protect them against retaliation.
So my first report is on civil society and international solidarity, and it underscores the various measures that are taken against groups acting in solidarity, which is not just in the physical space but also in cyberspace.
So we had a whole chapter on digital solidarity and my next report then we'll focus on AI and international solidarity.
Further reports will address indigenous peoples and solidarities.
And this is because I had my first country visit was in Denmark and Greenland.
So I was able to visit with the Inuit communities and realise how they were impacted by unresolved issues regarding the age of colonisation and the denial of equal rights in the areas regarding discrimination both in public places and in private places.
But this led me to understand that there's a need to see how solidarity is interpreted by indigenous communities in marginalised areas and how they relate from the north to the South, as they're both pressured by companies seeking extraction of natural resources and a need for attention to these issues.
And the final report I will report on in the General Assembly will be on corporations because we see that many of the rights affecting solidarity actors are infringed by corporations that haven't created transparent mechanisms of communication.
So these are the key areas I'll be looking at and I look forward to your questions.
There you go, you heard it.
Thank you very much indeed.
Cecilia.
I'm looking for questions in the room.
I I see one from Robin.
AFP.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Why, why the focus on on AI and and how do you feel, what do you feel that solidarity plays into this, this quite sort of tech issue?
Thank you.
It came because in the call for information from civil society, they started complaining, Complaining that they are lacking access to infrastructure they can't get online or algorithms are used against them when they're trying to send solidarity messages.
So my report actually calls for the UN to create a digital solidarity platform where we can bring civil society groups to exchange solidarity ideas and maybe meet company representatives, state representatives, in order to have a safe forum for exchange of those messages.
Thank you.
I see no further questions.
So Many thanks for coming to give us this briefing.
And maybe David, you'd like to give us an update on the Council's activities today.
Yeah, thank you, Daniel.
Thank you everybody.
Good morning and thank you for your interest also on the work on the Council.
Just a quick update on the 56 session on the Council.
We are finishing the second week and today the Council holds its annual full day discussion on human rights women.
We will have two panels, 1 is already started in the morning and 1:00 in the afternoon.
And this year both panels have an economic theme and details have been shared with with you on the media, Media daily update, including the name of the panellists.
The Chair of the Working Group on Violence against Women and Girls will continue her interactive dialogue in at noon after after the panel and at 5:00 PM, the Council will hear from Gina Romero, the new Special Rapporteur on the rights of freedom and peaceful assembly and the rights to association.
After hopefully sunny and restful weekend on Monday, and as we're at the doors of the of the next Summer Olympic Games, we will begin the weekend with a panel discussion on the human rights and the Olympic ideal, with the participation among all the speakers, the President of the International Olympic Committee, Mr Thomas Bach.
And we will conclude Monday with the panel discussion on climate change, where we'll hear from the new Special Rapporteur on climate change, Elisa Morchera.
You have any questions?
I'm looking.
Thank you, David.
I, I see none from the room or virtually.
So I think that was comprehensive.
Thanks so much.
Thank you, Daniel.
Thank you.
OK, have a good weekend.
Right.
So with luck, we will have Louise Waterage from the UN relief, excuse me, UNRWA, you know what it is who is joining us online from Central Gaza.
There you are.
Very good to see you, Louise.
Thanks for sharing your time with us today.
I know you have plenty of things to do.
So without further ado, please give us an update on the humanitarian situation that you've encountered after arriving back just yesterday, I believe.
Thank you, Daniel.
Yes, arrived back in the Gaza Strip yesterday.
The last time I was here was 4 weeks ago.
So things had significantly changed and moved from entering even you can see we have no access to Rafa anymore.
The last time I was here, we were all based in Rafa.
This is the UN and all NGOs.
Everybody was down there and now there is absolutely no access at all.
It's very limited movement for us.
There is no fuel on the ground today.
We are in the guest house as well because we don't have fuel to be able to go out and do these missions.
I think one of the most shocking things I'm seeing is just about 150 metres away from where we're staying, there's around 100,000 tonnes of waste piling up.
And this is really the case now across the Gaza Strip.
There is no waste distribution, there is no solution to the waste distribution.
And so it's incredibly difficult for the population of Gaza here to continue the living conditions that are extremely dire.
And as you can see, you know, perhaps across even the video, it's extremely hot here.
There's very few resources.
There's there's very limited water.
So even just to say case of a few weeks, it is significantly deteriorated.
And with the ongoing siege and with the lack of access restrictions, there seems to be no solution that we need.
And we are desperate for any kind of support and any kind of ability to to do our work because that's why we're here.
There's, you know, hundreds and thousands of UN and NGO staff here, you know, wanting to provide treatment, wanting to to help the population.
And with the current situation, it's just incredibly difficult.
Thank you very much, Louise.
You're coming through loud and clear.
And thanks for those opening comments.
I see Emma Farge is online and that's there.
Any questions in the room?
I think.
Emma, can you hear me?
If you can, please go ahead.
Thank you.
Just wanted to get a little bit more detail on some of the things that you raised.
Why don't you have any fuel and how long has that been the case and how can you continue?
Your work without it.
And secondly on the sewage, that really sounds awful.
Can you?
Say why it can't be cleaned up and.
And what are the consequences of this?
Thank you.
Yeah, absolutely.
So on the fuel, this has been a reoccurring issue since the war began.
There has never been enough fuel, enough diesel received in the Gaza Strip.
There's always been either access limitations from the Israeli authorities into fuel and diesel entering the Gaza Strip, but also we have extreme restrictions once the the fuel is received to then distribute it across the Gaza Strip.
There are checkpoints all around.
As you're very well aware, Rafa is now a a very dangerous and and highly militarised area.
So receiving and moving fuel in this area is extremely difficult.
I know over the last few days there's been a continued back and forth to try and receive fuel safely and and get fuel to where it needs and we have not done this.
So we really need more coordination and less access restrictions to the fuel.
Fuel is part of the reason that we can't, you know, clear the sanitation because of course, the trucks, everything that we do here requires fuel, whether it's hospital generators, you know, any kind of distribution we're doing.
It all requires fuel.
So without the fuel, the humanitarian response really grinds to a halt.
But in addition to that, there's also access restrictions to the landfill sites.
Our colleagues have, you know, applied almost on a daily basis to have movement from the Israeli authorities to access the landfill sites where we can safely remove some of this solid waste.
And these, these are always denied.
These movements are denied.
So what we have is temporary landfill sites.
And this is really among the community.
When I look outside now, like I said, 150 metres away, there is a huge landfill temporary site, but there are also tents around it.
The, the population is living among it.
And these just the temporary sites, you have to understand they're also between the makeshift shelters.
It's not, it's not coherent.
It's not like there's just one place where all this trash is going.
It's among the population and it's building up and without anywhere to go, it just keeps getting worse.
And with the temperatures rising, it's really adding misery to the living conditions here.
We can smoke this pile of trash from just a few metres away.
You know, people are living among it, People are living around it.
It's a very, very difficult situation here right now because of the heat, because of the summer.
Also, these makeshift shelters, people are living under plastic sheeting.
Therefore, the temperatures inside the plastic sheeting is even higher than it is outside the plastic sheeting.
It's, it's, it's unbearable.
It's really unbearable for people to live in these conditions.
Thank you Louise, I think that answered it.
I don't see a follow up from Emma.
Jamie also had his hand up Jamie from AP Thank you, Miss Waterich.
It sounds positively terrible.
The could you just give us an update about what you're expecting in terms of aid deliveries that may be coming in, what's in the pipeline and particularly whether or not you're expecting any movement from the pier that the US has has put in place off the off the coast?
Thank you so much.
So the US backed pier, that's something that I believe the, you know, other UN agencies have tried to work because as we've always said, we will take any aid that can come into the Gaza Strip.
It's very welcome.
Unraya, the agency I work for, has not been working with or towards this pier.
We continue to insist and to advocate that the best way to get any aid into the Gaza Strip is through the trucks.
It is absolutely most important that we use the entrances and we use the borders that we have and that Israel allows and facilitates the, you know, all of this aid that needs to be distributed into the Gaza Strip through these border crossings.
It's the safest way for aid to be received.
It's far more safe.
It's far more cost efficient than any of the, you know, air drops proposed or, or the pier that's proposed.
And we really advocating now more than ever, we just need to get more aid in.
We do receive on food, but the problem that we have when we do receive these supplies like medicine, like food, it's very unpredictable.
We don't know when it's going to come.
We don't know how much is going to come.
We don't know until it is actually in our distribution centres what we're going to to have to give to the population.
We cannot plan.
You know, you might think tomorrow we're planning for so many trucks of food to come in, but until they are actually here, it can be delayed after days after days, after weeks and we just can't plan on that.
So when you have an entire, the population reading absolutely everything, it's very difficult without these access, you know, all these access restrictions that we've, that we face for our colleagues to be able to do their jobs.
Thanks, Louise.
And that underscores what the spokesperson for the Secretary general said yesterday.
Very little is coming in in terms of fuel.
Generators are running low and the QAT Field Hospital reportedly had to shut down a generator earlier this week.
So they have to be cut for a number of hours.
And it impacts hospitals, Desalina, tion plants and the UN is obviously trying to get more fuel in, but we're not getting enough.
So that is basically the the, the simple truth of it.
A question now from Robin Millard from AFP.
Thank you.
22 questions for me.
Firstly on the, on the trash that's building up, what would, what would normally happen with that?
What would be the normal procedure?
Where would that normally go and how would it normally be dealt with?
And secondly, you have no access to to Rafa at the moment.
You said, what does it, what does that mean for you practically?
What what what is the difference that that makes for you that you're not able to go there?
I'll start with the Rafa question.
So you know, just a few weeks ago I arrived in Gaza around May 22nd and the entire humanitarian response was being run from Rafa.
The humanitarian agencies were based there for several months.
Rafa is actually a very small area itself.
There was around 200,250 thousand people there before the war.
And as you, as you may remember, it got up to 1.4 million displaced people who were forcibly displaced and then sheltering in that area.
So already Rafa was overwhelmed, but nonetheless the humanitarian people based there.
It was very near the border crossing.
There was never enough aid.
Never has there been near enough aid entering the Gaza Strip throughout this war.
But there were systems in place.
People were getting food, people were getting water.
There was a daily rhythm to people's survival.
If you go to after May 6th, it became chaos.
It was absolutely chaos.
1.4 million people forcibly displaced from that area again, many of them for multiple times and for the humanitarian operation, you can imagine if we are already set up in this area, everyone is working out of this owner health centre, We have systems in place, we have processes in place.
All of that needs to start again.
All of that moves.
And your next question may be, well, where does that move?
It's a great question.
Gaza Strip is destroyed.
You go back to Kan Unis.
I was shocked going to Kan Unis yesterday because the last time I was in Kan Unis, the buildings are skeletons, if at all.
Everything is rubble and yet people are living there again.
I've seen nothing like it.
When the last I was there, it was a ghost town because people had fled for their lives from communists.
There is nothing there.
There's no water there, there's no sanitation, there's no food.
And now people are living back in these buildings that are empty shells of themselves.
You can see where the walls have been blown out and blasted out.
There are, you know, sheets in place, there's blankets in place, people trying to protect themselves from the sun.
So you know, when you talk about the humanitarian response and and how it's moved from Rafa, we're in the same position.
I've learnt from my colleagues that in Jabalia camp, one of the biggest health centres that we had there was completely torched some months ago and now they're already going back in there trying to rehabilitate the situation and rehabilitate the facility so that we can once again use it as a health facility.
This health facility was absolutely started, you know, rubble everywhere, there's nothing left, there's there's hardly any walls.
And so we're also in the desperate situation, similar to the population, where we are just trying to move from place to place and make best of what we can.
Temporary health centres, You know, when I left there were there were, you know, permanent health facilities in Rafa.
Now there are none.
There are more temporary facilities in the middle areas and in other areas.
But emphasis on the word temporary.
These are temporary solutions to a war that keeps changing and people keep doing whatever they can.
We keep adapting the humanitarian response, but we need, you know, ceasefire, We need humanitarian pause.
We need supplies.
We need so many things.
We need safe access.
We need all of this to make this happen.
Your question on the trash, before the war, there were sanitation officers.
ONRA itself, the largest agency in the Gaza Strip, had a whole sanitation unit.
We have sanitation workers, we have truck drivers.
We would, you know, clear the all the trash and rubbish from the refugee camps.
And we had a safe process for doing this.
There are sites that we used to have access to remove this trash.
Now all of that once again is gone.
I went to a sanitation office in April and the one of the trucks was blasted into the office wall.
You know, so once these trucks are gone, we don't have anything.
There are no supplies coming in.
I talked to my colleagues about the water wells in Jabalia.
There's three now working.
We don't have the materials.
We don't have the supplies.
We don't have the mechanical equipment to repair what has been damaged.
And all of this really prevents any kind of humanitarian, humanitarian response.
Excuse me?
Yeah, thanks.
That was pretty comprehensive and plenty of questions now.
Lisa Schlein, Voice of America.
Yes, sorry.
Good morning.
Morning Daniel, good morning.
Sorry, don't have your name any.
Anyway, I would like to ask you what the health impact of having so much trash all around.
There must be a lot of disease perhaps which is occurring.
I know you have some people from WHO there they could perhaps flesh out some of that afterwards.
In terms of the health impacts, how many people actually remain in Rafa?
Fair number of them have left and I'm wondering how many are remaining actually in the area.
And when you say no supplies are getting in, I assume that means that no food is also getting in.
So what is the situation if if you know about people starving, whether people are actually dying, whether you're getting closer to a famine, if you're not already there?
Thank you.
Yeah.
So there was a recent IPC report that said 96% of the population are actually facing acute food insecurity.
And you're really seeing that you're experiencing that.
You know, this has knock on effect if there's no food, if there's very limited food coming in, people are hungry, people are starving, people are malnourished.
And this isn't something that's happened overnight.
This is now around 8 months of people with food insecurity.
So when you see people, when I see my colleagues, when I see my friends here, you know, they're visibly unrecognisable because having such unsustained food, access to food for so long, you know, you, you start to aid you, you look unhealthy, your skin changes colour.
So you have a entire population who are suffering from this long term problem.
And this is not something started from the Rafa invasion.
Of course, it was heightened by this.
But through the entire duration of this war, it has been very, very difficult for people to have access to sustained healthy food, you know, fresh fruit and vegetables, all these things that people need very, very limited through the borders.
So you'll have to remind me of the the follow up question.
Yeah, I was asking about the health impacts of having so much trash around when people.
Are at fault If, if, if I may, we do have the World Health Organisation online, maybe Tarek, Christian Louise, if you may, might you defer to them for the health aspects?
Yes, please.
Please go ahead.
Hi, Hi.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I mean, it's it's a really difficult combination of not having access to clean water, having garbage all around and and and basically having the the the **** temperature.
So, So what can it it can lead to to number of of communicable diseases appearing and for several reasons.
First is water contamination.
So when you have a hot weather and you have a lack of clean sanitation, the water sources can become more easily contaminated and and that will that will bring more diseases like diarrhoea.
Diarrhoea can be can be caused by a number of pathogens.
You have also the issue of food that can be spoiled much more faster and that can bring food borne diseases.
You will have more mosquitoes and, and fly, especially in a, in a in a warm weather and, and mosquitoes and flies obviously can, can spread disease.
And then there is also issue for heat that brings the dehydration and, and heat stroke.
And then obviously people who are already having a problem of accessing, accessing food and having a proper nutrition, having, having a heat stroke that that can, that can aggravate the situation.
We have recorded a number of of diarrhoea cases.
There's a 470,000 cases of diarrhoea since since the beginning of the war and majority of of of those were happening because of the of the lack of of clean water and sanitation.
Now when it comes to children under 5, this combination of malnutrition and lack of proper food together with diarrhoea can be can be lethal over for me.
Thank you very much, Derek.
I hope that answers your question, Lisa.
So I see that Emma Fauche has a follow up.
Thanks.
Just a quick one, Louisa, if you could just clarify the the pile of waste that you described near you that was shocking.
Was that human waste or trash or a combination?
And also a hybrid question for you and WHO is there any update on medical evacuations?
I understood some cancer patients finally would be getting out somehow.
Has has anything moved on that really important issue this week?
Thank you.
So on the trash, the the pile I can see outside is visibly trash.
But what I will say is with all these people, all these displaced people moving back to these areas, back to these buildings that are rubble, there's no bathrooms.
There's absolutely no bathrooms.
So people are relieving themselves anywhere they can in the in the corner of Rubbles, in areas, there's there's no bathrooms available.
The facilities are absolutely unbelievable.
So at this point, there's really not a lot you can say about how how awful it is.
I feel like we have been communicating the duration of the war, how dire the situation is, how it's getting worse.
And, and, you know, sitting here today, it has to be the worst it's ever been.
And I don't doubt that tomorrow again will be the worst it's ever been.
Every day that we're here, it's the worst it's ever been.
It's never getting better.
The situation is never getting better.
And the people are suffering.
They're suffering so much.
I will defer to through on the medical evacuations because I believe they were they were involved in this.
Go ahead, Tarek.
Hi.
Hi.
Thanks.
So you've seen the the tweet from Doctor Tadros, but also from our regional director.
So yesterday there was a evacuation of 21 children with the cancer.
This is obviously welcome.
This evocation has been led by Saint Jude Cancer Hospital.
Now there are more than 10,000 people who need to be evacuated and receive medical care outside of Gaza.
6000 of them having trauma injuries, more than 2000 of them also having having chronic diseases and they need this treatment.
Since the closure of forever, we did not have any medical evacuation until yesterday.
And this 21 children with, with cancer.
We need to reopen Rafa and any other border crossing to, to get these people out so that their lives can be saved.
So really more than 10,000 people are awaiting to receive medical care and it's not available in Gaza to be evacuated to Egypt, to West Bank and and elsewhere.
So, so we really need to to to advocate for resumption of of a medical evacuations.
This is this is welcome what happened yesterday, but more needs to be done.
If, if I may add to that, just to say also, you know my colleague Abdullah, he has, he was injured in a strike.
He had his legs amputated.
This was at the end of February and he sat in a medical tent for two months, 2 entire months, for two weeks.
He was in Al Shifa when it was under siege and he wasn't evacuated.
It took two months for the arranged medical evacuation and multiple times he very nearly lost his life.
This was pre May 6th.
So even before the the border crossing you know which has changed so much since May 6th and is not functioning anymore.
But even before this for a for Aun staff member and my UN colleague 2 months sitting waiting, you know some days waiting for death.
I would visited him at the end of April and the doctors gave, you know, horrific diagnosis for him and my colleague who was with me who happens to be the same blood type, donated her blood on the spot to him to keep him alive.
This is the situation that people are facing.
It is it is not acceptable for people to be experiencing this and be treated like this.
Medical evacuations for these thousands of people need to happen.
They need to happen now.
Thanks.
Thank you, Louise.
Thank you very much, Tarek indeed.
And yes, it was good news on the medical evacuations.
John Sarah Costas.
John, can you hear me?
I can hear you.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Good morning.
Yes, good morning, Louise.
Thank you for the briefing.
I was wondering if you could give us some update on the number of children in Gaza that are receiving life saving treatment because of suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
And secondly, if you have data from your organisation on a number of children who have been amputated to date.
The other day Mr Lazzarini was telling us because of lack of reliable data, they were not collecting, for instance, amputation of hands but only of legs.
Thank you.
Yeah.
So we currently don't have this data, but I'll be able to get something to you.
I can I can find you in the in the chat for this and and find you the most information that we have at the time.
Thank you very much.
Louise and Tarek, maybe do you have anything if I, if I may add, just because this question of amputation is coming.
So we don't have really, we don't have estimates of amputees, amputations that are performed in, in Gaza.
But what we know that we need an entire system be in place for health workers to save a limb from a child or from a, from an adult.
And that, that really includes expertise, staff, supplies, trauma care, really referral system.
So you, you need to get an injured patient very fast to the hospital and then you need like early and proper wound cleaning.
You need initial surgery, then you need a, a more a follow up surgery that that will focus on vascular tissue, soft tissue, bone reconstruction and then obviously you need physiotherapy and rehabilitation.
So none of this is available in Gaza.
So someone who has a trauma injury, as Louise just was referring to to her colleague, it's really difficult to get the proper care.
And that's why we need these people to be evacuated and receive the care elsewhere.
Otherwise people will lose lives.
They will lose their their capacity to live normally.
They will lose their limbs.
Thank you, Tarek.
I think that's answered John's question.
Satoko Adachi, are you with us?
Hello.
Can you hear me?
Yes, I can.
Go ahead.
Thank you very much for doing this.
There are reports of increased looting and gangs or criminal activities in Gaza.
So could you talk about this issue and have you talked about this problem with Palestinian civil forces?
Thank you.
On the looting, what I can tell you is, yes, this is increasing and this is in direct correlation to there being lack of food supplies and lack of everything.
Like I said, it's been 8 months of war.
People really don't have anything.
Not only do they not have anything, they don't have any money.
There's no money here because it's not being printed, It's not being disputed.
We go to our health clinic there and and the colleagues tell us they haven't received a salary for the entire duration of the war because there's nowhere to physically get the money.
This is causing desperation, it's causing panic.
Entering the Gaza Strip yesterday, you know, we saw this first hand, very different from when I entered a few weeks ago, where the situation was somewhat more stable in Rafa before the incursion um, you know, we entered through the border crossing at the end of April, um, everything was was quite calm.
Now it's a very different situation.
There are hundreds of people waiting for the trucks to enter.
Um, they're desperate.
People are desperate.
These are very desperate times.
People need everything And when very little trucks and very little amount of aid comes through, of course there's going to be a huge rush from the population to go and get it.
So that is the situation that we're facing now.
And the only answer to that is to provide more aid to provide more food to provide more medicine, everything that people need.
If it comes through, this will prevent this situation from happening.
But right now, yes, it's, it's, it's a very dangerous and a so lawless situation on the ground because of the, the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Thank you, Louise, for sharing your experiences of arriving yesterday through Cam Shalom.
No follow-ups there, Nick ******* Bruce, New York Times.
Yeah, thank you.
It's really a question for Tarek here.
I'm trying to figure out where is this discussion on medical evacuations?
I mean, at one point, there were 2000 people waiting to be evacuated.
The number has been creeping up progressively with the duration of the war.
We've had briefings from Peter Cornyn in recent weeks talking about the need for evacuation.
And the discussions were taking place.
Where are these discussions?
And we we kind of lost sight of where they are.
Why is there no progress?
Where are they stuck?
At what level are they stuck?
Thank you.
Thanks.
Thanks, Nick.
Well, my understanding that that we need really it's a complex process.
We need, we need to get approval from, from, from Israeli side, we need approval from from Ministry of Health.
There are, there are lists of approved, OK.
We need also to find a place where these people will go.
So now, since the, since the border crossing is being closed, it's very difficult even logistically to get to get people out.
And we also need all, all these approvals.
I will, I will check with the, with the, with the, with the Doctor Peppercorn and see where we are with that.
But, but obviously there hasn't been any, any evocations, as I have said since since early May.
And, and and that's, that's needs that needs to change.
I'm sure that our colleagues, Dr Peppercorn and his team are doing their best to, to get to get these approvals.
But if you don't really have a logistical possibility to move through through that, then it's that it's complicated, obviously.
Thank you, Tarek.
John, you have a follow up.
Yes, good morning, Terry.
I'd be grateful if you could give us at least the estimates that The Who health cluster in emergencies in the OPT has on the amputations.
Whatever estimates you have, if you can share with us and also the people who were suffering from amputations before the conflict started I think was about 1700 from earlier conflicts, if their support and physiotherapy has also ceased because of the conflict.
Thank you.
I think the thanks, John.
As I said, we don't really have estimates now.
You have heard this from Doctor Peppercorn as well.
Surely we will try to, to, to get some numbers and we'll come back to just two because you asked the question on the, on the, on the malnutrition.
So currently there are 4 stabilisation centres treating malnourished children in Gaza and Han Eunice and these are Med Global, Kamala Advan Hospital, IMC Field Hospital and Med Global at Patient Friends Hospital and the MSF Spain in Nassau Hospital.
I don't really have a have an exact number of children that are being treated right now in these in these centres, but many children have been cut from the treatment for moderate and severe malnutrition in southern Gaza and colleagues in UNICEF may may give more on that.
Thank you, Tarek, I see no further questions online, but Robin from AFP has a follow up, has a question for for Tarek about Doctor Ted Ross's visit to visit to Cyprus.
Will he be travelling further in the in the Middle East region?
Will he be for example, going to visit the Rafa crossing?
If you could just tell us a bit more about his programme.
Thank you.
Hi Robin.
I don't really have information about the programme of of travels of Doctor Tetris right now.
OK, I think that brings in, in this segment.
I'd like to thank Louise Wateridge who joined us live from Rafa, not from Rafa, excuse me from Central Gaza clearly and also Tarek for joining us today.
And thanks for your questions.
So now we're going to move on to the climate and climate shocks are the field of Andrew Harper, who's the UNHCRUN Refugee Agency Special Advisor on Climate Action.
But first, I'll give opening remarks to Olga from the agency too.
Now, just very briefly, I mean, we, we are bringing today with us Andrew Harper.
He's as, as Daniel was saying, a unitary special advisor on climate change.
He's just visited Brazil and met with communities that have been impacted by the latest floods.
So yeah, over to Andrew.
Thanks, Olga and thanks Daniel for the opportunity.
And firstly, I'd just like to express solidarity with our, with our colleagues in, in UNRWA, like what was described them was just horrific.
But again, it also just reflects like a, a growing international ignorance of, of, of what is going and what, what humanitarian values mean.
As Olga just mentioned, I've just come come back from from Brazil where we're seeing obviously the the latest iteration of the climate impacts on those populations which are particularly vulnerable.
Just as I was preparing for the briefing here, we then get more information in terms of what's happening in East East Africa, what's happening in Bangladesh, what's happening in South Asia, what's basically happening in almost every part of the world.
And what I wanted to do was just again emphasise that while we've got the impacts of climate change affecting every part of the world and every element of society, it's those people who are particularly vulnerable, who often lack the capacity, who lack the resources, who lack the assets to to resist.
And this is something which we which we need to take very much into account.
The other thing which which was quite obvious when I was in Rio Grande Soul in Brazil, was that when I spoke to one of the meteorologists there, he said that all the worst case scenarios which have currently been modelled need to be reworked because they current, they don't currently reflect reality.
And when you have records after records being broken, there is just no scenarios which can basically fully anticipate what the world will be going through in the future.
And so this is particularly challenging for an agency like UNHCR where we have millions of upon millions of people living on living on the peripheries of societies who are so reliant on external support.
And so the engagement of UNHCR in times of the worst in climate challenges is something which is becoming more and more evident and something which was seen very much to reaggrand us all.
One thing which again is particularly important to be noting is that just the support from host communities, whether it be in Brazil, whether it be in Bangladesh, whether it be in Kenya, whether it be in Chad, needs to be reinforced because these populations are also being impacted.
Just over the last year.
Look, if we look at Rio Grande de Sol, they experienced the worst storms in living memory.
But at the same time, Brazil's also being impacted by cyclones.
It's being impacted by fires in the Pantanal, It's being impacted by drought.
We spoke to the federal government in in Brasilia and they were saying that they were very concerned that this could be the worst drought in Brazil's history.
And the impact on the Amazon is basically unmeasurable because we've never actually seen the potential collapse of such a huge ecosystem.
And what will be the impact on on other areas.
One example in terms of the refugees who have been displaced in Port Alegre was that I spoke to a woman who had lost her home.
Her she'd been forced to the to escape death by climbing to the top of the roof of her shanty.
Basically, it was just a wooden building which was almost near collapse.
And she was telling her children that they're going to live.
And the children were saying we're going to die, we're going to die.
One of the their pets pets drowned while they're waiting for help.
She was on that rooftop for two nights waiting for rescue.
And this is almost just epitomises what many refugees are facing around the world.
They don't know what's going to happen.
They're not receiving the help that's required and the situation is just going to deteriorate even even further.
So when we when we also again Brazil was an example, but we're seeing this again across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, East Africa.
We're also launching an appeal just today because all evidence suggests that the situation in East Africa is going to deteriorate further.
We're asking for $40 million.
But again, that's just touches the, the very like just the just, it's almost just the facade of what is required.
Just to give you an example, there's what I think it's about 9.4 million Sudanese have been displaced.
6 or 700,000 people have gone to Chad.
And for those people who know about climate terminology, Chad is rated probably the most climate vulnerable country in the world, and it's accepted 6 to 700,000 people.
And how much funding has it received in support of that 10%?
Like, it's just embarrassing that we're asking countries to continue to open their doors, provide the protection and international community who's doing so much in order to look after itself, but not look after the countries that are most in need.
So we've got this going out, the $40 million appeal.
There's also a fund which UNHCR has established, a climate resilience fund, which we're looking for $100 million.
Again, this is to try and provide support for shelter, provides for support for water, just build the resilience of those communities who are who are being most impacted.
Again, we're also very much trying to ensure that we've got the funds to keep the field, to keep our staff in the field who are very much in the front lines of the climate emergency who and, and from what I saw in Brazil or what I see in, in Kenya or Somalia or elsewhere, they're doing the impossible with very little.
And it's again, it's not just you and HCR, it's also our sister agencies who are just struggling to deal with increasing demands, increasing needs when the the financial resources being reduced.
And if you just look at the recent figures, there's basically one displacement occurring per second.
It's not just due to conflict, but it's due to climate change to due to disasters.
And so just during this one hour panel, we're almost looking at three, 3600 people being displaced.
And so do we expect the money to to come and commensurate sides?
No, but we have to just try and make keep doing whatever we possibly can to provide that projection.
I'll leave it basically at that to, to any questions that you may have.
Just that it's nice having early warning unless there's early action.
We know floods are going to be hitting South Sudan.
We know floods are going to be hitting Sudan.
We know that Chad will continue to receive more people.
But it's very, very difficult to do what is required at a time when resources are so limited.
Thank you.
Thanks ever so much.
I saw a fleeting question online, but it seems to have disappeared now.
Unless I'll just **** on for five seconds in case there is a question.
Yes, you're back Yanjiang from Xinhua.
Can you hear us?
If so, please ask your question.
Yes, I can hear you.
My questions go to WMO.
Firstly is could, could the WMO comment on this year's extreme weather events, especially saying this summer across the world?
Second, what are the primary factors contributing to this fact to this weather events?
Is El Nino still in in play?
The the third is how does WMO evaluate the role of climate change in this in in the intensity and frequency of this extreme weather events?
Thanks.
That sounded quite a technical one.
But listen, Andrew Harper will give it his best shot, I'm sure.
Just like in the main focus, which I got there was is El Nino still in play?
No, there's been a transition to our Nina.
I think one of the major challenges have been that generally there, there is a bit more of a transition period.
But again, I'm not a meteorologist, so I'm just reiterating what what I've been told.
And that is the, that there's been quite a sharp transfer transition between La Nina, sorry, between El Nino and La Nina, which we would then expect from the modelling will lead to additional floods in those areas in particularly in in East Africa.
And something which was mentioned to me again by colleagues just last night was that the numbers of people who are food insecure in South Sudan, sorry, in Sudan at the moment it's 25 million people.
And this is like if people again, know the food security side, it's, it's IPC 3 plus, which then means that they're, they're very food insecure, potentially sort of moving towards famine type of situation in a, in a time when we're expecting increased flooding.
So again, the, the warnings there, early warning, mid warning, late warning, whatever you want, but the, the funding is not necessary there to avoid deterioration in the, in the food security.
What was the other question?
Because I missed it because I thought it was the double heat wave.
And the the final question, I'm sorry, I didn't catch it myself.
How would I evaluate the role?
I didn't hear the rest I'm I'm sorry.
And the final question is how does the human HRCR or WMO evaluate the role of of the climate change in this frequency and the intensity of this extreme weather events?
Because I see on the e-mail that Claire and Alice from WMO is also available for questions.
Thanks.
No, I'm afraid Claire is away.
She's not available to connect, but she will be back next week, I believe.
Andrew talk on behalf of WMO.
But we do know, for instance, that WMO has reported that the floods in southern Brazil were were twice as likely due to climate change.
So there's lots of different figures in relation that the the multiplier effect of human emissions have caused to to global warming.
But whether it's 2 * 2 or times 10 or whatever, what we have to see is that there will be not just a lineal change, it's quite possibly there will be tipping points which will be crossed which we need to take into a very much into account.
And if I dare also move into areas which is sort of may not necessarily be front and centre on climate change, is that we've also got to look at the other issues too.
Biodiversity loss, what will be the impacts on nature, on pollution, the triple planetary emergencies, all these elements come into play are causing increased vulnerability and increased human insecurity.
Many thanks.
I hope that's answered your question in part.
And I can certainly pass on your your queries to Claire at the WMO if that's agreeable to you.
So I see no further questions for Andrew Harper.
Many thanks for coming in and good luck on your travels and please come back and see us.
Great.
Thank you, Olga.
OK, so we are going to wrap this up.
I have a few announcements including the fact that the UN Chiefs, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is going to be giving the Sustainable Goals Report 2024 launch a great card today.
So he's going to be telling us how successful or not we are six years from the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
We have a report for you which you can have under embargo.
You may have received it.
If not, please get in touch.
It's embargoed till what, Another hour, I believe So.
He'll be joined by Lee Xiaomi, who's the UN Under Secretary general for Economic and Social affairs, Stefan Schweinfest, director of the Statistics Division from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Yonggi Min, who's the chief of the SDG monitoring unit.
And so that information is going to be available for you and important, the SG GS, we, we do talk about them, the sustainable development goals.
Why are they important?
Well, every country signed up to them in 2015.
And we do need to achieve them if we are going to leave nobody behind from things like climate action, food insecurity and health issues, which we've heard plenty about this morning.
I encourage you to read that report.
Press announcements for next week.
We have a wiper conference on intellectual property innovation trends in the development of generative AI.
The report which this press conference will be revealing on Monday at 3, hosted by WIPO, not by us.
It will be under embargo until Wednesday at 10.
The Director General downtown will be speaking as well as the patent analytics manager, Christopher Harrison.
So that's about AI at WIPO, which you can join online next Monday.
There will also be next Thursday a virtual conference with the UN Refugee Agency, the UN Migration agency, IOM and MMC on the launch of risks faced by refugees and migrants on the Central Mediterranean route.
And the tagline quote for this is, which sadly we've heard before, is on this journey, nobody cares if you live or die.
More details on that from the UNHCR and that report again is embargoed until next Friday.
So a day after at 10:30, giving you plenty of time to listen to Vanson Kochetel, who is the Special Envoy for Western and Central Mediterranean and Lawrence Hart from IOM and Bram Frowse from the Mixed Migration Centre.
So three excellent speakers to listen to there.
Very last one before lunchtime early lunch is an update on the Human Rights Council continuing its third week of this 56th regular session.
There are reports next week on, if I'm not mistaken, Belarus, Syria and among others.
The work continues on Monday morning.
The Human Rights Committee will open next Monday at 10 with a review of several countries, including Croatia, Malta, Honduras, Maldives, Surinam, Syria and India.
So those details will be available from the OHCHR website or indeed from Web TV because it will be webcast.
The date of the next plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament, I'm told, will be announced at a later stage.
The presidency is still with Ireland.
That is pretty much all I have for you this morning.
If there are any questions, I'd be very happy to try to answer them.
I see none and so I'm going to wish you a very pleasant weekend and stay safe and stay with your loved ones if you can.
Bye.