OK, let's, let's start this press briefing.
Today is Tuesday, 15th of October.
We're here in Geneva, the United Nations at the briefing of the Information service.
We have a long list of speakers today, So I will ask everybody's indulgence to be and try to be quite brief and lots of external guests.
And I'd like to start straight away with Sarah, who's on my right, and with Jacques Cillier, the resident Resident representative from Ukraine for Ukraine UNDP, who is calling in from Brussels.
Mr Cillier, you would tell us about the mine action ahead of the conference that will take place in Lausanne next week.
Thank you very much colleagues and it's really a great privilege to be here.
As was mentioned also, we are launching a UNDPA report to coincide with the Ukraine Mine Action Conference that will play take place from the 17th to the 18th of October in Luzon.
It's indeed very large scale conference that will look at the demanding challenges in Ukraine and also what can be done, can be done both in terms of innovation, but also new ways of looking at the challenges that mine clearance, the mine clearance challenges that will be faced in Ukraine.
Maybe let me just say a little bit more about why this is such a big challenge and why this report that we're launching is also so important.
So first of all, just to say that approximately 157,000 square kilometres of Ukraine were suspected about a year ago of being either contaminated by mines or unexploded remnants of war or Erws.
This is approximately 4 times the size of Switzerland and quite a significant territory.
It is about 1/4 of the territory of Ukraine that that figure has been reduced to about 139,000 square kilometres at the moment, which is quite a significant reduction, but still quite a lot in terms of the damages and economic challenges that is faced for Ukraine.
With these areas being demanded.
Maybe just to mention that it means that basically that farmers can't grow the crops and to work the land that they need to in many areas of Ukraine.
It means that rescuers can't go and restore the energy systems that have been damaged because they are unexploded ordinances from the attacks and the missiles, and that can't be cleared.
And it also means that civilians can't really return to their homes, which is a massive challenge for returnees.
And also bringing people back to Ukraine.
So mines and unexploded remnants of war cost Ukraine.
It's estimated about $11 billion in gross domestic product.
This is a report that was launched by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
The damage needs assessment that was jointly done by by the United Nations, the World Bank, the government of Ukraine and the European Union estimates that about $34.6 billion will be required to finance de mining efforts in Ukraine, which is a significant amount, keeping in mind that the country is already going through a lot in terms of its recovery efforts.
So what does this report say or what is what is captured in the report?
I'll just very quickly summarise it because the report just trying to say and come up with alternative mechanisms of how mining efforts in Ukraine can be financed and looking at innovative financing mechanisms.
The report had a significant study both directly in Ukraine, online studies but also interviews with many stakeholders including the DE mining community in Ukraine.
And it basically came up with two innovative financing mechanisms that can be used also to fund some of the DE mining efforts.
The first is sustainability linked bonds or SLS and the second is outcome based public private partnerships, which which basically means two things.
One is these efforts and these financing efforts will combine mine action with actually the Ukrainian transition to sustainable agriculture.
Specifically under the the outcome based public private partnerships, it will look at organic wheat production and how these bonds can also be used to fund not only organic wheat production, but also note note Tilt Farm, which is allowing the soil to basically stay intact to protect soil by leaving the crop residue on on the soil surface.
Now these bonds is anticipated that it will also significantly increase agricultural, agricultural production in Ukraine while also looking at sustainable farming practises that can really areas that have been de mined and that can be used for agricultural use.
The second is really also to look at outcome based public private partnerships and this is really integrated mine clearance by looking at areas that can be used for solar, solar energy development.
And these financing mechanisms really combine also new opportunities to generate energy.
Obviously much needed now in Ukraine to also in areas that have been cleared and through private investment and public financing mechanisms that will be utilised.
We can really kind of develop and in and and generate solutions that can that can that can construct a large solar, solar power plants that that funding can then we cloud back into the government if loans and other guarantee.
The what it really means from these two financing perspective is that there will be further studies required for this.
There will be significant sector wide diagnostics done to path the way forward.
It will include various stakeholders, including the government, investors, finance institutions, the mine action community, but also people from the energy and agricultural sector.
It will really also significantly help Ukrainians in terms of the need to address mine action, but also the energy and agricultural sectors, which will be vital for the economic recovery of the country.
It really will require broad based political support and interdisciplinary collaboration across these actors.
But the financing mechanisms, just one of the ways that these innovations will also be used to also accelerate the demining efforts that is really challenging the country in so many ways.
Thank you very much, Jaco for this, for this briefing.
I open the floor to questions.
Is there any question for you NDP in the room?
It's the correspondent of Reuters.
I was wondering about the reduction of the area that was mined.
Was that due to mine clearance or was there a reassessment to show that it wasn't as bad as you previously thought?
I'm also wondering if sometimes the same areas have had to be demined a few times given the shifting front lines.
Yeah, it's a very good question actually.
The, the, the, the surface area that I mentioned originally was 157,000 square kilometres and those are suspected or have areas where either fighting or the war has occurred, where there might be mines or they might be unexploded ordinances because of the war.
So these are often areas which have been under under, you know, fighting or where where there have been lots of ammunition used that have exploded or not exploded in certain areas.
Now what the government have started to do is to reduce that number as quickly as possible and basically to focus on the areas that they can identify as being contaminated or having mines or unexploded ordinances.
Now about only we estimate that about 10% of that territory would be demand or would be affected by unexploded ordinances.
So the government has done is actually very innovative mechanisms.
UNDP has also supported them with that.
They've used satellite imagery, they've also used drones and new sensor technology that looks at how to how to detect mines on the surface, which can much more quickly clear some of the areas or at least the areas that don't contain mines can be much more quicker identified through some of this actually large computer networking mechanisms that they've also installed.
The the land area has been significantly reduced.
This reduction is actually one of the sharpest reductions ever recorded through any de mining efforts globally.
So it's quite significant how much land have already been re reprogrammed for effective use either for agriculture or other industries.
Lisa Schlein, Voice of America.
Yes, I'm curious to know whether land mines have been laid in the Russian occupied territories.
I don't imagine that this is that, that the mine clearance is involved in those territories regarding your financial needs, but I would like to know whether this is a fact.
And also when do you anticipate that landmine clearance could go on it?
It seems as if as long as the war is going on, there will always be landmines unfortunately planted in the soil.
Yeah, the observation is, is 100%, right.
It's quite challenging at the moment.
So there's basically 2 forms of the mining.
The one is military, the mining that is done on the front line where the fighting is occurring and that's done by the military and military forces of Ukraine.
Obviously a lot of mines are planted, yes, throughout the war affected area and the lands of Ukraine where the fighting is occurring, the humanitarian demining is done by by national agencies, but also through the humanitarian community and development organisations that are actively involved in demining efforts.
And that is done usually away from the front line, but maybe being reoccupied by Ukraine that they were fighting before so many areas even close to Kiev where the neutral, but we're also suspected of having unexploded ordinances.
So those had to be cleared.
Houses that have have been destroyed either through mortars or other ammunitions have to be, have to be demined and also looked at for unexploded ordinances.
So there's a, there's mines and unexploded ordinances, which are both throughout the country.
But usually the humanitarian demining is not done on the front line where the fighting is occurring, where they definitely are.
A significant amount of mines and unexploded ordinances as well.
The challenge, you know, looks at traditional ways of demining through, you know, through human deminers or other areas.
It's estimated that it can take up to, you know, up to a long, long period of times.
You know, even decades, many, many decades is what the mining efforts can take.
However, with the introduction of new technology and new efforts that the government is also bringing in that we're also supporting through UNDP, it is anticipated that it can take up to a decade if everything goes well, to demand areas in Ukraine that have been affected by unexploded ordinances and mines.
Jamie Keaton, Associated Press.
Hi, Mr Cheerless, thank you very much for speaking to us.
I, I just want to make sure, I mean, this is still a very active war and the and the areas that are cleared of mines, you know, they could still be relevant.
I mean, we're still seeing movements and territory, as Emma alluded to earlier.
I mean, is there any concern that the humanitarian clearance of mines may be a little bit premature because the lines may actually shift and those mines actually could be useful to prevent further incursions later on in the conflict?
So I think there's two factors.
You know, it's not only mines that is being cleared, but also, you know, unexploded ordinances.
As I mentioned, these are mortars that have been shot at houses or at certain buildings that are exploding.
These are the missiles that are daily still coming into Ukraine.
So it's not only mines that is being cleared.
It's also unexploded ordinances, which often, you know, we've, we've, we've had to have education programmes for young people because young people in war affected villages and towns and areas where the war was before often picked pick up some of these, these unexploded ordinances, not realising that they are still, can still explode.
And a lot of people actually lose their limbs and lives often through these actions as well.
So the demining efforts, yes, there's still a lot of minefields being cleared even from the from the from the liberated areas of Ukraine, but it will be an ongoing challenge to clear the space, especially if the war ends.
And those areas, you have access to those areas, it will take a significant amount of time to clear where specific mines have been laid on the front line.
Those demining efforts, as I mentioned, at the moment is mostly done by the military and not by humanitarian demining.
But it's important for people to return to the country that effective demining efforts occur throughout the country wherever possible.
Christian Erich, Germany News agency.
I I think the question was still open.
Have there been areas that were demined and have been reoccupied and had to be demined for a second time?
I think that was open from Emma.
And my question is, do you have figures on how many people have been maimed or, or killed through unexploded ordnance and mines?
Yeah, The figure for the the second figure is about 1600 people have either been mined or killed.
There's about 380 that have been have been killed.
The others are, you know, people affected and, and as you mentioned, have been mined and and have become become disabled.
It's really a massive challenge.
We see this throughout different parts of Ukraine where this number keeps on increasing as I mentioned for a number of reasons.
Education campaigns are so important that has to be done.
On the previous question, again, you know, as the front line moves back and forth, you know, there there is a number of changes that actually happened in the country and you know, mined areas, obviously as the front line moves across those areas will either be do you mind if it if it has been, but if it's recaptured, again, mining will take place.
So that's just the reality and unfortunate situation of the challenges that the country is faced with while the war is still continuing inactive.
You know, there's a huge amount of weapons being fired every time these explosions happen.
There is dangers of contamination and explosive remnants of war will continue to be a big part of the Ukraine clearing up process.
Yeah, I don't know how to thank you for having taken time, sorry, from your meeting to brief the journalist in Geneva.
Also ahead, as we said of the Ukraine Mine Action conference that will take place on the 617, sorry and 18 of October in Lausanne.
And I know UNDP will be represented along with other UN agencies.
Good luck with your important work.
And Sarah, as to me that you should have his notes or are going to have his notes very quickly, isn't it, Sarah, thank you very much.
So let's move now to our second cluster of invitees.
I'd like to ask them to come to the podium and we have some more connected.
So now let's move to Lebanon and midway, please come, come, come to the to the podium.
First of all, I have the great pleasure to have on my right Rima Yamus Insys, who's the UNHCR Director for the Middle East.
Rima, you are here of course for the Executive committee.
And yesterday, I have to say, the nonsen award ceremony was extremely touching and and moving and incredible, a beacon of open this in this very dire landscape.
And so we have taken the opportunity when CR community colleagues have taken the opportunity to bring Rima here to tell us.
I think you've been there very recently in Lebanon.
So you'll tell us about what you've seen and also in general, how the crisis is intensifying with the air strikes.
And on my left, Tomazu, who is here from IFRC, he has brought us Lotte Rupert, who is the IFRC Head of Operations in Lebanon and Lotte is connecting from Beirut.
So we will hear the two colleagues and then we will open the floor to question.
And I'll start with Rima here on my right, please.
Good morning, colleagues.
I know you've assembled here on many occasions recently to hear about the situation in Lebanon and Syria, and sadly, it's not over.
And so we're compelled to continue to ring the alarm and share with you the latest as the situation continues to escalate and deteriorate.
As you know, the **** Commissioner was in Lebanon just last week.
He was there as an expression of solidarity with the Lebanese people and to really shine a spotlight on what's happening there.
The massive escalation has had dramatic humanitarian consequences, as you can imagine.
And so maybe that's where I'll start with Lebanon.
Just to correct, I was not in Lebanon, but I was in Syria.
Sorry, no, not a problem.
Also last week, and I'll come to that shortly.
As you're all aware, the death toll in Lebanon continues to climb as the situation becomes more dramatic and we see continued Israeli airstrikes and people on the move seeking shelter and safety.
Over 2000 people, over 2200 Rather, have now been killed by Israeli airstrikes, and we have over 10,000 people who have been injured as a result of the conflict.
Over 1,000,000 people have now been displaced in Lebanon.
And I just want to stress that in a country of that size, which is relatively small and a population that's estimated around 5 million people, you can imagine how dramatic it is that over 1,000,000 people are now without shelter and on the move, or not rather without shelter because they are being housed in in collective centres but are being forced to flee their homes in search of safety.
And Israeli air strikes and Israeli evacuation orders continue to increase the areas impacted.
So now that we have over 25% of the country under a direct Israeli military evacuation order, just yesterday we had another 20 villages issued with an evacuation order in the South of the country.
People are heeding these calls to evacuate and they're fleeing with almost nothing.
Many of them are being forced out into the open.
They're sleeping under the skies as they try to find their way towards safety and support.
We also have challenges as humanitarians reaching people who are in need of our assistance.
For the last three days running, we've had to endorse and approve and reapprove an interagency convoy movement which is now scheduled to take place today to deliberate to deliver urgent food assistance and other items.
So hopefully that will proceed today as scheduled.
But it is a very dangerous situation and and our staff at a very **** risk.
Conducting these movements, shelter is obviously a big concern as people are forced to flee their homes.
We have over 1000 government assigned collective shelters and over 800 of those have now reached full capacity.
We are working as UNHCR with the authorities to rehabilitate and equip these areas to receive these large numbers of people.
As you can imagine, it's, it's quite an, an intensive movement and a lot of pressure on these facilities, most of which are actually schools that have been now used for this purpose.
So we're working on things like water and sanitation.
And maybe for if I say a word about schools, over 70% of them have now been used as shelter spaces to house people who are displaced.
So you can imagine that means children are not in school and education is being interrupted.
Healthcare facilities of likewise been directly impacted and over 200 of the over 200 primary healthcare centres we have in conflict areas, over 100 have been forced to close their doors to people.
So we're trying our best, along with other humanitarian partners, government authorities on the ground to meet the immediate needs in shelter and basic relief items that people need when they flee conflict, mattresses, blankets, cash, assistance and and other things.
But the needs are immense, They are growing daily.
And we need the international community to now rally around the people of Lebanon and to be there for them in their hour of need.
The only way this nightmare will end is if we have a ceasefire.
And that is what the entire world is now hoping will happen in hours and not days, because the people of Lebanon cannot afford it and the region cannot afford a further spill, A spillover escalation of the conflict.
Quickly, just turning to Syria, I was there last week with the **** Commissioner.
The latest count is that we have over 283,000 people who have crossed from Lebanon into Syria seeking safety, fleeing Israeli air strikes.
About 70% of those people are Syrians.
Roughly 30% of them are Lebanese.
The situation is is quite critical at many border crossings.
But I'm going to pause for a moment just to describe what's happening at the main artery that connects the two countries.
And and that area was hit by an Israeli air strike just over a week ago, and it left a massive crater in the road.
And we visited this area last week where we saw people disembarking from vehicles or walking towards the crater and literally scrambling over this area with children in tow with very little belongings and trying to to get across this area to then enter into Syrian territory and seek safety.
The scenes were nothing short of of dramatic.
You had women, many women with several children.
I was stopped by one woman who was hobbling along with her cane, calling to me to see if I could help her husband who was trailing behind her, having difficulty keeping up carrying their belongings.
We saw women with two women with about nine children between them, who described their journey on foot for 10 hours to reach that point.
They had seen directly the impact of the violence.
An air strike had hit a home 100 metres from their own and they fled, literally with just the clothes on their backs, no food, no water and you can imagine how gruelling A10 hour journey would have been for adults, let alone having nine children trailing behind you.
Now our colleagues are on the ground there and they are there with representatives of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent who are there meeting the needs.
They are literally the people carrying the bags and helping people across this crater, carrying babies, trying to help shepherd them to safety.
We're also present at four other border crossings.
We're providing immediate humanitarian relief and we're also providing legal assistance and support there and further afield as Syrians continue their journeys.
Now, it must be said, when we we spoke to people and asked them what their plans were, understandably they had no plans.
They couldn't determine what they were going to do in the next few hours, let alone the next few days and weeks.
But the one thing that was very clear was that they were coming with almost nothing, and they were being hosted mostly by extended family and friends who had almost nothing.
So it it is a dire situation, one with layers of crisis that's accumulated over the years and the vulnerability of those hosting the people is as acute as those who are seeking safety and shelter there.
We are doing our best to meet those needs.
But again, we need the support of the international community because we are talking about a situation of of desperation that has, over the last 13 years become chronic and critical.
And now on top of it, you have a massive influx of people seeking safety in Syria that also need support.
So maybe I'll leave it there.
We'll hear more from Lotto now.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for being here.
As we just heard, we have hundreds of thousands of people displaced in Lebanon since the escalation of violence last month.
And these people are really broken.
And some of them are now staying along the sea front of Beirut, which is normally a place where people go to enjoy the sunset.
And this is also where I usually would go for my afternoon run.
But when I walk there now, I see families sleeping in, in tents or on mattresses on the street.
And it's really inhumane to see children, the elderly, lying on the ground without care, without sanitation and without a roof above their head.
And as we just heard from you in HER, this is important to say that Lebanon was already going through really difficult times with an economic crisis leaving more than half of the population living below the poverty line.
And this latest escalation of violence has left people even more uprooted, traumatised and scared.
And it's really pushing their resilience to the limit.
This is why I am very grateful personally to be working closely together with volunteers from the Lebanese Red Cross, whose work on the ground is essential to relieve the burden as much as they can.
So since since last month, since mid-september, the situation in Lebanon, as you know, has worsened significantly and we're now seeing widespread attacks, mass displacement and immense humanitarian needs.
And with hundreds of thousands of people on the move amongst use hostilities, the need for protection, shelter, food and medical assistance is crucial.
And as the Red Cross, we're currently facing barriers to procure or to transport humanitarian goods into the country, which is leading to severe shortages.
And as we just heard from you in HR, the attack on the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria has further hindered our ability to transport by land.
On top of that, it's becoming more and more challenging for the Red Cross to reach all people in need because of the deteriorating security situation.
One of the major concerns is the increase in attacks that's impacting directly our humanitarian work.
And last Sunday I received a call from our teams that two of our ambulances were hits and that four of our companies Red Cross tears were injured in the in the strikes.
Fortunately, minor injuries, but things could have easily turned out much worse.
And for us, this is an unacceptable situation and humanitarians, including our ambulance teams, need safe and unhindered access to perform their life saving work, be protected at all times.
I think it's important to highlight to all of you that the Lebanese Red Cross has been at the front line of this response since the very first day because they are the primary provider of urgency medical services and blood transfusion services in the country.
So in the past year alone, their ambulances have responded to more than 60,000 calls from people in need and that includes people who are injured because of the conflict or people who call us because they need to be evacuated from conflict zones and and need to reach safety.
On top of that, we are also distributing food and essential supplies to all the displaced families in collective shelters.
So we've handed out 270,000 meals, 100,000 water bottles and many more blankets, mattresses and hygiene kits.
Nevertheless, the challenges are immense and we are facing severe shortages of medical supplies, ambulances, fuel and essential items to support displaced families.
And we are also facing a severe shortage of funding.
We are bringing in a lot of international goods into the country like mobile health units and ambulances.
And we're also releasing some emergency funding from our Global Disaster Response Emergency Fund.
But the family situation is, is really bad in Lebanon and we currently only have 13% funding to for our appeal.
And moreover, as just mentioned by you in HR, the impact of this conflict is also felt across the border as more than 280,000 people have fled to Syria, where the Syrian Arab Red Crescent is providing all types of critical support.
And this also includes psychological first aid to help people who are in distress.
So to continue our operations in Lebanon and in Syria, the IFSC urgently asked for international solidarity.
But what we need most of all is for this violence to stop any pressure from governments on those able to introduce some restraints to end these hostilities.
We call on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law because humanitarians and civilians should never be a target, and safe and unhindered access must be granted to our volunteers and to all humanitarian staff.
So the Lebanese Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, with the support from IFRC, will remain committed to provide critical humanitarian assistance under incredibly challenging circumstances.
But our response cannot continue without international support.
Thank you very much and I'm happy to take any questions.
Thank you and Rima for this briefing.
I'll open the floor to question.
There are quite a few and we have got so many speakers afterwards.
So I'd like to ask everybody to be brief.
So I go to the room first.
So let me go to the the platform Musa ASI and Maiden Musa.
My question for Rima, please, about the building that was targeted by Israeli airstrike yesterday in that village of I2 north of Lebanon.
What is the nature of the residents in the in this building?
Are they displaced or what exactly?
Thank you for the question.
I saw those reports myself this morning, but don't have any further information beyond what was reported in the press, I'm afraid.
Emma Farge, Reuters, Good morning.
I was wondering if the lady from IFRC could elaborate a bit more on the barriers to getting humanitarian goods into Lebanon at the moment.
Is it like Gaza where Israel is actually turning back clamboys, or the other types of barriers?
No, I don't think it's comparable to Gaza.
It's different type of barriers.
One of them is just the fact that the demand now is so ****, so there's not enough suppliers in Lebanon to meet the growing demand.
Another barrier is related to the border crossing with with Syria that was already mentioned, which means that if we use land transport, we have to choose a longer route if if it comes from Jordan or from Dubai.
And another barrier is related to the airport and the fact that there's less and less commercial flights arriving in Beirut and we are have severe concerns that if the airport were to close fully it would have a big impact on our supply chain.
Musa, you have a follow up maybe for Rima.
We we are on fact that the same question for your guest in Beirut.
Maybe you have some or more information about that.
What we do know is that our Lebanese Red Cross teams are usually the first teams on site to do urban search and rescue and to to get people from the rubble.
So we can try to get more information from you on on this incident.
Yeah, that would be great.
So if you have anything you can, you can share with the with the journalist.
OK, so let me see, because I OK, OK, maybe we have an answer from Liz.
Liz Russell for you, for the Office of the Human Rights **** Commissioner is connected, Liz.
I've got Liz names and and and Jeremy connected.
So whoever wants to speak on OHCHR behalf, Jeremy, go ahead.
Thanks Alexander and Moussa.
Yes, we're we're aware of these reports and and what we're hearing is that amongst the 22 people who were who were killed were twelve women and two children.
We understand it was a four Storey residential building that was that was struck with these factors in mind.
We have real concerns with respect to IHL.
So the laws of war and principles of distinction, proportion and proportionality in this case, we would our office call for a prompt, independent and thorough investigation into this incident.
Thank you very much for coming in, Jeremy.
I had some several hands in the room, but I don't see them anymore.
So is that means that there are no more questions on Lebanon?
So thank you very much, Rima.
Thanks for for coming here on the occasion of your visit to Geneva.
Thank you very much, Tommaso for bringing lot in.
Keep us informed please on the developments of the situation.
And I go now to our next cluster, which is on food as we have, we are going towards the the commemoration of Word for Day on the 16 of October.
And we have a few colleagues here to talk to you about that and online.
So first of all, let me introduce, well, I don't need to introduce Dominique, you know, Dominique Bourgeon, the Director of the FAO Geneva office.
And I have the incredibly incredible pleasure to say hello again to Tomlinson and that you will all remember from his time in Geneva.
We are so happy to have him here to tell us about the food situation in Southern Africa.
And then ICRC is connected from Nigeria with Ian Bonzon, who's the head of the delegation for Nigeria by ICRC to tell us about the situation of malnutrition rates among children in North East Nigeria.
So we have, as I said, the World Food Day coming up.
The secretary General has issued a message on World Food Day.
I think I could start from that before giving you the floor, Dominique, just to say that as the Secretary General points out, something is very wrong with the world in which hunger and malnutrition are effect of life for billions of children, women and men.
So on this particular day, which as you know is commemorated on the 16th of October, we amend ourselves as the Secretary General of the 730, three, 33 million people who are short of food because of conflict, marginalisation, climate change, poverty and economic downturns.
And we will hear more about some of these people from our speakers today.
And the secretary General concludes on World Food Day.
Let's step up the fight against hunger and malnutrition.
Let's take action to uphold the right to food for a better life and a better future.
And you have the complete message in your mailbox.
And I give the floor to Dominique.
Thank you very much indeed, Alessandra.
As you said, tomorrow, 16 October, which is the day FAO was established 79 years ago, we will celebrate the World Food Day under the theme Right to Foods for a better life and a better future.
As you know, of course, food is a basic human right like air and water, and this year we really want to highlight the importance of the right to food, which is realised when every man, woman and child alone are in community with others as physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.
The right to food encompasses not just freedom from anger, which is, by the way part of the FAO Constitution when it was established, but also the access to safe, nutritious and culturally acceptable food.
That means dietary needs for an active and healthy lives.
Unfortunately, as Alessandra reminded us, and even if the world farmers produce more than enough food to feed the global population, we continue to witness severe imbalances across the world.
As you said, 733 million people, which is 1 in in 11 people in the world go to bed angry everyday.
Over 2.8 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet, meaning that even if they have enough energy, calories for their life, they don't have the the diversity they need for to be healthy.
We have also the, the issue of standing and wasting basically where we have in the world as we speak about 148 million children and the five being too short for their age and 45,000,000 children being too thin for their age.
So which is a really show with all the cognitive impacts that you know about.
And then on the other hand, we have about 890,000,000 adults.
Living in the world today with obesity.
So of course, there is no one-size-fits-all in terms of what needs to be done in this in this complex world.
But some of the I would say big orientation that that can be followed relate to the role that the government should play in integrating the right to to food in into Agri food system policies, ensuring equal access to an adequate, diverse range of safe, nutritious and affordable foods for all, particularly for vulnerable population.
Also second, that government and relevant non non state stakeholders should foster global cooperation and ensure and something I'm sure Thompson has repeatedly mentioned to you and ensure safe and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid for population in needs and by humanitarian agencies involved in the delivery of life saving assistance, being food assistance or emergency agricultural assistance that meets people and nutritional needs.
Business of course have a role and should play their role in positively influence the food environment by prioritising the diverse range of nutritious food, investing responsibly in sustainable agriculture and ensuring decent working conditions, creating truly inclusive, accountable and transparent business models and market.
Consumer organisations also have a role and need to to channel consumer needs and rights into negotiation with the food industry and government and engage with national initiatives for food security, nutrition and food safety.
Consumer organisations should also be reaching out to consumer in the most vulnerable situation to ensure that they have a voice that their voices heard and finally very important.
And this week in Rome we have to work food for home where really the youth is at the centre.
And we must therefore engage the youth in advocacy on the for the right to food and make sure that we fully mobilise their IDs and passion for driving right to food at the forefront of global efforts.
In short, basically this is a whole of society effort.
We all have a a role to play in building a future where everyone can enjoy the right to food by challenging inequalities, speaking up about anger and engaging decision makers, making healthy food choices, reducing food loss and waste, and caring for natural resources.
And this is this year a world World Food day call.
There will be event all across the world celebrated this week as a matter of affecting more than 100 events will be taking place around the world.
And and please relay those efforts to the challenge being at a unprecedented, unprecedented scale.
So thank you very much, Alison.
Really important to underline this.
And we will hear more now about the situation, food and hunger in Southern Africa.
Thompson, thank you so much and it's good to be here and good to see you all.
I hope I I had better news but sadly I don't.
Well millions of people thank you.
Millions of people risk going hungry as Southern Africa enters lean season.
the United Nations World Food Programme is today calling for urgent assistance to prevent a widespread drought triggered by the El Nino phenomenon from deepening into a full scale humanitarian catastrophe.
A historic drought, the West food crisis, yet has devastated more than 27,000,000 lives across the region.
Some 21 million children in Southern Africa are malnourished.
For many communities, this is the West food crisis in decades.
October in southern Africa marks the start of the lean season, and each month is expected to be worse than the previous one until harvest next year.
In March and April, crops have failed, livestock has perished and children are lucky to receive one meal per day.
The situation is dire and the need for action has never been clearer.
A record 5 countries, Lesuto, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe have all declared their hunger crisis a state of disaster and called for international humanitarian assistance.
Angola and Mozambique are severely affected as well.
At the request of governments, the World Food Programme has started to provide food assistance and critical support in transport, logistics and food procurement against soaring global needs.
We have only received 1/5 of the 369,000,000 needed to provide assistance to millions in Southern Africa.
While the funding received so far has allowed WFP to begin relief food distributions, a significant funding gap remains which threatens to jeopardise plans for a full scale response through to the end of the lean season in March next year.
We had been hoping to have scaled up seasonal relief operations in the coming months with distributions of food and in some areas cash to more than 6.5 million people in the seven hardest hit countries until March.
Our plans now **** in the balance due to massive funding shortfalls.
Unless we receive additional resources, millions of people risk going through the West Linn season in decades without assistance.
Thank you, thank you, Thompson, thank you for being here.
And unfortunately, we have to hear a similar story from Ian Bonzon, the Head of Delegation for Nigeria of ICRC, who is going to tell us that the situation is also very dire in North Eastern Nigeria for children in particular.
Thank you very much for having me.
I just want also to, to, to inform that the Secretary General of the Nigerian Red Cross is, is, is together with us today listening to us in another room.
But very much thank you for for this moment.
As you know, the consequences of the protracted armed conflict in the region of the Leichad, compounded by the effect of climate change, continue killing people and especially the most vulnerable, the young children.
Every day, doctors and nurses in health facilities we support in Northeast Nigeria receive and treat severely malnourished kids.
Desperate mothers tell us every day how healthy children become weak and fall sick and how putting food on the table has turned into a daily struggle.
Admission of severally malnourished children in health facilities supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross in North East Nigeria have increased by 24% between the third quarter of 2023 and 2024.
Humanitarian organisation estimate that nearly 6.1 million people across the Lake Chad will suffer pages in the coming months.
This is the highest number in the past four years.
Farmers tell us how the rampant insecurity due to the conflict prevents them from accessing their farmland and planting crops.
Tension between herders and farmers have also increased after armed violence confined them to smaller space in areas with dwindling resources.
The climate shocks damage crops, contributing to a food crisis across Lake Chad, in Cameroon, in Chad, in Niger and in Nigeria.
In northeast Nigeria, the harvest season conceded with heavy floods that washed away seeds and the hope of harvest ever after an arid lean season.
This will unfortunately increase the number of people in need of food for the coming months from 3.6 million to 5 million people.
In September, we boosted our efforts to curb malnutrition by extending our support to two additional health centres for malnourished children in Your Bay and Adamawa states in the Northeast Nigeria, bringing the number of centres the ICRC is supporting in Nigeria to 9.
We have helping local medical team provide key services like consultation, nutritional screening and also treatment.
Between June and October, together with the Nigerian Red Cross Society, we also distributed cash and seeds to almost 187,000 people to help them survive.
The we also supported the resilience of herded communities by vaccinating cattle.
But people will continue going hungry unless we see a decrease in the violence and better respect for principle of international humanitarian law.
It is the responsibility of the parties to the conflict to ensure that people living in the territories under their control can meet their essential needs, including food, water, medical care and that they can access life saving humanitarian aid.
Allowing access to fields and pastures, transumance corridors and commercial routes, producting natural resources and civilian infrastructures and serving the removal of land mines and explosive remnant of war.
These measures can make a true difference for people trying to survive the combined strain and conflict and climate change.
I would I would add that if you allow me that all this is reflecting the situation of the conflict.
This rise in the number of people without enough food mirrors an increase in violence which has severely impacted communities ability to grow crops and access to market.
Violent incident in the Lake Chad region in the first half of 2024 rose 8% compared with the same.
I will leave it and I'm very happy to answer question.
And indeed, as you said, Abubakar Kende, the Secretary General of the Nigerian Red Cross is also connected in case you have questions.
So let me ask to the room if there's any hand who's going up.
I don't see any on the platform.
I see that Lisa Schlein is asking to all the speakers if they can share their notes, especially because we have heard a lot of figures and and the journalists have not necessarily marked them all down.
So thank you very much to all the speakers.
He's been extremely interesting and timely as as we said before, the World Food Day and yeah, and come back and especially love to see you back again.
So let me go to our next speaker, who's Liz, Liz Russell.
Liz Fernie Pacochim, you are online, not in the room.
And we're happy to welcome you.
We're happy to welcome you for a briefing on the situation in Tunisia.
Sorry, we can't hear you.
OK, unmute the problem now.
Yes, as I was saying, as I was saying, thank you very much, Alessandra, and good morning, everyone.
As you may have seen, earlier this morning, we issued a press release on Tunisia, and I'd like to highlight a few points from that, if I may.
UN human Rights chief Ford Katouk today called on the Tunisian authorities to protect the country's democratic processes and uphold fundamental freedoms after a presidential campaign marred by a crackdown on the opposition, independent activists and journalists.
In the weeks leading up to the election, which was held on the 6th of October, over 100 prospective candidates, members of their campaigns and other political figures were arrested on a variety of charges ranging from falsification of electoral paperwork to charges related to national security.
Out of 17 prospective candidates, the Independent **** Authority for Elections, only accepted 3A number of presidential hopefuls have been arrested and received lengthy prison sentences on various charges.
Such cases are troubling.
Their trials indicate a lack of respect for due process and fair trial guarantees.
In another concerning development, the electoral authorities refused on the 2nd of September to apply a ruling by the Administrative Court to readmit 33 excluded candidates.
Subsequently, in an extraordinary session just days before the election, Parliament passed a law removing electoral disputes from the court's jurisdiction.
The rejection of a legally binding court decision is at odds with basic respect for the rule of law.
This development comes within a broader context of increasing pressure on civil society over the past year, targeting numerous journalists, human rights defenders and political opponents, as well as judges and lawyers.
Since 2011, Tunisia had been a pioneer in efforts to ensure accountability and redress for past abuses, including through the work of the Truth and Dignity Commission.
However, a number of these gains have been lost, of which the recent arrest of the former head of the Commission is an example.
We strongly urge Tunisia to recommit to transitional justice in the interests of victims and to embark on much needed rule of law reforms in line with international human rights law, including with regard to freedoms, expression, assembly and association.
We also call for the release of all those arbitrarily detained.
Thank you very much, Liz, for this briefing.
Any question to OHCHR in the room or online?
Could you just tell us exactly what the you say you urge Tunisia to recommit to trans transitional injustice?
Can you tell us what communication you've had with the government?
Well, we have an office in Tunisia and of course we have been engaging years on a number of subjects with the government.
We have been engaging regularly highlighting our concerns with the Tunisian authorities and that is something that we will continue to do.
I'm just as some housekeeping.
We still have to hear from the colleague of UNECE.
And then I know there are some questions for some of our colleagues.
I'll give the floor now to Ivana Miosynovich.
Sorry for some announcement for UNECE.
I have two events to draw your attention to.
They're coming up next week, the first major event where UNICE is organising with UN women.
It is a a regional review convention actually meeting on Beijing 30 and the progress in the region on gender equality.
We can call this event historic because it's happening just one year ahead of the 30th commemoration of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
So this meeting is going to take place next week in Geneva, here at the Palais on the 21st and 22nd of October.
Ministers, senior officials, regional organisations and international organisations, together with academia and civil society will get her here in Geneva to deliberate on the priorities for improving gender equality across the region.
Some of the themes that they will focus on will be primarily accelerating women's economic empowerment, also women in leadership and their full and equal participation in decision making.
Ending violence against women and girls will also be one of the priority themes of discussion, as well as leveraging financing for gender equality and in the end, closing the gender gap, that is deliberating on effective policies to deliver on SD, GS and on gender equality across the region.
The full press release, actually the link to the full press release on this event is included in the briefing notes that I shared, so you will be able to consult more figures and trends across the region in terms of women's empowerment.
The second event, important event that we are organising with the government to Slovenia is also taking place next week.
It is a three day event from 23rd until 25th of October in Lubiana and Slovenia.
It is a meeting of the parties to the UN water convention.
This meeting comes at a time where it's urgent to respond to the devastating floods in Central and Eastern Europe as well as a drought emergency in Southern Africa.
So water cross-border, water management obviously comes a pressing issue on the global political agenda.
Against this backdrop, the meeting of parties in Ubiana in Slovenia will consider some of the key issues, which are mainly to do with leveraging water for peace as well as responding to the global environmental crisis.
Participants will also focus on topics such as climate change adaptation, water, food, energy, ecosystem Nexus, and we've just also heard from our colleagues from FAO and WFP.
About the problems we have in global as well as regional food production and distribution and procurement.
One of the key outcomes expecting from this, expected from this meeting in Ljubljana is the adoption of an innovative work programme for the next three years.
That's the period of 25 to 27 as well as including a more financial stability for the convention.
Just for your information, since the adoption of the UN water convention more than 30 years ago, 55 countries have ratified the convention, out of which 12 from Africa.
Since this instrument has been open to accession to all UN Member States in 2016, we had mostly countries from Africa joining this convention and we have more than 20 others in the process of accession.
Again, full press release on this event is available in the briefing notes.
Ivana, any question to you?
I don't see any on the line neither.
Thank you very much and thanks for the notes.
And I think I've exhausted my list of speakers, so I'll give the floor to Emma now, who wanted to ask question.
I understand on Gaza, right, Emma?
I had questions for WHO and WHOI think Tariq and and James are connected.
So the first one was, has Israel actually violated the terms of the humanitarian pause for the polio campaign in the central areas given the strikes on Al Aqsa?
And for James, he sent on XA message saying that it has been the worst month for children of the war so far.
What gives you grounds to say that?
Why is it so bad right now?
I'm afraid we've lost James in the meantime.
OK, So let me start with Tariq.
So I can give you the numbers of children vaccinated yesterday.
It was the first day of a second round of vaccination and you will remember how we did in September for the first round.
We started with a three days vaccination in Central area of Gaza, then South area of Gaza came in the second, the 2nd place and then the at the last it was in North Gaza.
So we plan to do the same same way this this time for the second round.
So yesterday the vaccination has started in the central area and according to preliminary reports, 92,821 children under 10 received the the second dose of novel oral polio vaccine.
Now the the the estimated target for the central area is something over 179,000.
The overall estimated number for all Gaza is over 590,000.
So what we have received from from from colleagues is that the vaccination went without major issues yesterday.
And we hope it will continue the same way in central Gaza in today and tomorrow.
But also that this humanitarian pose will will be observed in in South and in north of Gaza in next 6 to 8 days.
Because you will remember after three days, we always have one extra delay to do any catch up activities and also to do to do a monitoring of of what has been done.
Thank you very much, James.
Simple sense, we are now at a point of a cumulative effect on children.
Of course, now we have more than 12 months of, let's go back 13 months where children were living in homes, living in **** rises and going to schools every day and having all the access to food, water, medicine.
Now, of course, every single day those deprivations increase.
That alone enables us to speak to the situation of children.
What children need though of course to try to ameliorate these things in a war zone is 2 things.
One is for the attacks to end.
The other is for the amount of humanitarian aid and commercial aid commercial trucks rather the lifeline is coming to Gaza to to increase to try to meet their needs.
August was the lowest amount of humanitarian aid that came into the Gaza Strip of any full month since the war broke out.
And over several days in the last week, no commercial trucks, no commercial trucks whatsoever were allowed allowed to come in.
So children now have multiple deprivations having moved many Times, Now living in 85% of the Gaza Strip is down to some form of situation order.
So now living in conditions that are essentially unlivable in that context.
And with the strike continuing and with this now continued force or deprived lack of aid as we say, no, there seem to be now no constraints, no limits.
This is why day after day, the situation for children becomes worse than the day before, and that's going to continue so long as we see our ongoing strikes and so long as we see now what is probably the worst restrictions to be seen on in Badgerian Aid.
Emma, there was so much discussion around this in March and April when the IPC came out with those imminent famine, famine warnings, and then there was a real push to have to have new routes and access points open.
We've seen an absolute reversal of that ever since Rafa closed in May.
We've seen consistent entry points blocked.
We know now the north hasn't had food, any food aid at all coming in all of October, and there's a great lack of access routes and roads and security in Gaza.
So cumulatively today is worse than any other day and as it continues like this, continue to be placed by the occupying power and the bombardments continue tomorrow, as hard as it is to imagine, tomorrow will be worse for children than today.
Thank you very much, James.
And I see that Beza has a question also.
I also wanted to ask on Gaza to James, especially we already mentioned about the Alexa strike and we saw tense, tense were on fire and especially there were some videos saying showing that a family of three burning alive, including a kid.
I wanted to ask James, like do you have any words on that specific event?
What would like to say on that?
Well, yes, so there are there are multiple horrors befallen children simultaneously.
Many of those found, I know Alexa hospital, I have hospital complex very well and there are hundreds and hundreds of families who seek shelter there who have been told, you know that it is bad safe, safe.
So now the United Nations has made it very clear from the onset of this one party cannot unilaterally declare a safe zone.
And we have tried to explain now for for almost 12 months that two things make a safe zone.
The first thing is ensuring that there is enough food, water, medicines and protection for civilians.
That's the role of the occupying power, Israel.
The second, of course, wouldn't think it would need to be stated.
The second, of course, is that such zones, usually unilaterally declared as they've been, would not be bombed.
Now, many, many people who have been in that space have actually come from Jabalia and come from the north.
So we've seen three forced evacuation orders in the past five or six days from Jabalia.
Office of **** Commission of Human Rights have spoken very clearly about the conditions with people in which people are fleeing, people are being shot at whilst they flee.
We've seen water wells destroyed, we've seen shelters sit to speak to Emma again about why, why this is now the worst time for children.
On average one school per day and every every day of October has been struck well this month.
So families have fled from Jabalia under great force, not wanting to go to the South because they are well aware of the unlivable situation which people have been crammed into the South.
And some of those families found themselves at Alexa Hospital.
And then of course, Alexa Hospital, that hospital complex is struck.
That is a hospital complex that cannot possibly endure more casualties.
There is probably not a time I've been there, and I think I've been there more than 10 times, where there are not wounded children on the floor, despite the the best, bravest efforts of tireless Palestinian doctors.
It's simply overflowing, heaving with the casualties of war.
And there are far too many children there with burns and with burn wounds that simply need that that to which that hospital does not have the medicines and the antiseptics and the painkillers that are requires.
Well, my last mission to Gaza earlier this month, I discovered such a thing as 4th degree burns.
I met a little 6 year old boy, Hamid HAMIDI mean with 4th degree burn.
So what we saw last night will have again been large numbers of people, including children with horrendous burns to which that hospital simply doesn't have the resources to treat.
Thank you very much Jamie.
Alessandra, my question is for Tarek.
I just, you mentioned the 92,821 children in Central Gaza.
Could you just tell us and you said that you hope that you'll get access to North and South as well.
First of all, 92,000, is that roughly on track for what your projections were for the first day?
Is it higher, lower and or or right on target?
And then the second is for the moment, do you see any potential obstacles in either the north or South Gaza that have appeared in terms of continuing the campaign in those areas?
So, so yeah, as as I said in central area of Gaza, we estimate that we need to vaccinate 1079 hundred children.
So the number of 92 falls within this category for the first day.
We hope that parents will keep, keep coming.
Now really it's, we always try to stress that having polio vaccination is important, that polio is just one of many trips that that people of Gaza are facing when it comes to health.
And, and, and James was just talking about people not receive medical care.
There is more than 15,000 people who should be ever created outside Gaza to receive, to see necessary medical care.
We estimate that there is a more than 24,000 people who, who had a who have a need for long term rehabilitation that is not available in Gaza.
And we had a press conference on that.
You have seen that on Sunday we finally managed to get after 9 failed attempts, we managed to get north of Gaza to deliver some supplies and fuel to a Kamala Dhawan and Auda hospital.
So we, you know, it's again doing, no one wants to see any, any child paralysed.
But there are so many other problems that people in Gaza are facing and we need sustained access.
We need to be able to move from point A to point B and do our best.
Ministry of Health of Gaza reported that 1000 health workers have been killed last year.
That's, that's, that's, that's a huge loss And, and, and it's really difficult to replace a trained Dr or trained a surgeon.
So, so really again, we do what we can, but what need what we need is the access.
And this has to stop and there has to be as we as we keep repeating a ceasefire.
Thank, sorry, thank you very much.
Sorry, no, Nick had raised his hand, but I don't see it anymore, so probably got his answer.
OK, so thank you very much.
Just before we leave completely the issue of the Middle East, you should have in your mailboxes right now an invitation to Yeah, I see people nodding.
So you have received it, an invitation to the International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East.
This, as you know, is a mandated meeting organised every year by our Department of Global Communications.
They normally do it around the world.
This is the second time they, they, they come to Geneva recently.
The last one was in 2022.
I don't know how many of you participated, but it was incredibly important.
And of course, in the current context, international context is even more important.
It's going to be held on the 1st of November.
You are all invited to eat together with the other media professionals, diplomats, scholars, civil society to discuss two key issues that should be really important for you, safety of journalists, key tenet of press freedom and behind the headlines of Gaza media challenges and perspective.
So we really hope you will join us for this seminar.
It's going to be held in Room 26 and we will send you the detailed programme as soon as we have it.
You don't need, of course, to register, you know, to Indico because you've got the the badge.
But it would be appreciated if you could let my colleague Peter Heckler know that you are planning to come.
It's just just for, for organisational purposes.
Otherwise, I do have a couple of other announcements, one from Kathleen on behalf of Ang Ted to inform you that to remind you that on Thursday, 17th of October at 10:30, there will be the hybrid press conference on the publication of the Trade and Development Report 2024.
The title of the report this year is Rethinking Development in the Age of Discontent and everything is embargoed until 17th of October at noon.
So you'll have the Secretary General of Ankta, Rebecca Greenspan, and Anastasia Niswetelova, the head of the Micro, Macroeconomic and Development Policies branch of Ankhtad to brief you on this report.
And Katrina is of course, available for questions if if you need her.
And the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is reviewing today the report of Chile.
Next to be examined will be Canada, Japan, Cuba and Benin.
And the Human Rights Committee will begin this afternoon the review of the report of Iceland, to be followed by Pakistan, Greece, France, Turkey and Ecuador.
A very, very last announcement to remind you that on the 17th of October, the international community will commemorate the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
You have the Secretary General's message in your mailboxes too.
Any question to me I don't see ends up.
So thank you very much for being here at the briefing today and I'll see you on Friday.
