Thank you again, colleagues, and once again, good morning.
Thank you for joining us at this press briefing here at the UN office at Geneva today, the 29th of October.
We just heard from Amy Pope, the Director General of the IOM.
Now we're going to hear from our colleagues safe from the Human Rights office, the UN Human Rights office.
And as I mentioned earlier, I just wanted to make sure you're all aware and saw the statement that we shared with you yesterday from the Secretary General on Sudan.
Among other things, he's calling up both sides of the conflict to immediately agree to a cessation of hostilities, that civilians must be protected.
And the third priority he outlined is the flow, the urgent flow of humanitarian aid.
And we just heard a very dire report from Miss Pope on the situation in Sudan.
We're going to hear more on the human rights angles on the situation here then Sudan from safe.
UN **** Commissioner for Human Rights Volka Turk is extremely concerned by the escalating hostilities and violence in Sudan.
The violence is taking place in Al Jazeera State and his father, exacerbating the risk of attacks against civilians, ethnically motivated violence and atrocity crimes.
Since the defection of Abu Akla Kaikal, a commander in the Rapid Support Forces to this Chinese armed forces on 20 October, attacks by the RSF on villages in Al Jazeera State have increased, apparently in retaliation for the defection and targeting members of his ethnic group.
On Friday 25 October, at least 124 people were reportedly killed in in an attack by RSF ground forces on a Sharia village, with unconfirmed videos showing dozens of bodies lined up for barrio.
This incident follows at least two other attacks by RSF ground forces on the nearby towns of Tambol and Rufa earlier in the week.
Reports suggest hundreds of people were killed in Tambol amid widespread lootings.
They indicate at least 25 cases of sexual violence in multiple villages in Shark Al Gazeera locality, including three medical personnel and an 11 year old girl who died as a result.
Women and girls were also reportedly abducted.
In addition, there are concerning reports that the RSF detained and I'll treated civilians from the targeted villages and confiscated Internet devices and telephones in some 30 villages, cutting off vital channels of communication.
Further, there are reports of burning of crops at a time when over 25,000,000 Sudanese are facing acute food insecurity because of the ongoing conflict.
Destruction of crops in a region considered the country's bread basket can only exacerbate an already catastrophic situation.
As a result of the violence, thousands of families have reportedly been displaced from a Jazeera state into neighbouring states of Gadarif and Kasala, adding to the already dire displacement crisis in the country.
An estimated 8 million people have been internally displaced across Sudan since the armed conflict broke out in April 2023.
We are also concerned by the increased calls for mobilisation by civilians in Al Jazeera state and reports of hate speech circulating on social media.
The leaders of both sides must promptly take all measures to de escalate the situation.
The UN **** Commissioner for Human Rights for Qatar, Create, reiterates his call on all parties to strictly respect the obligations on international human rights law, international interior law in particular, in particular by ensuring the protection of civilians.
They must also, they must also put an end to the violations committed by their forces.
All alleged violations must be investigated and those responsible brought to justice following fair trials to break this horrendous cycle of violence.
And I note that you've shared the statement with colleagues.
You should have the statement that was just read out in your inbox.
And I should also mention that we have colleagues online who are able to address and also in the room here who are able to address the situation with the ends, Tara from WHO, James, UNICEF and also Babar from UNHCR, should you have questions for them.
OK, we'll turn now for general questions on safes briefing.
I don't see any hands raised here, OK.
And colleagues, if you want to add anything, just put your hands up.
I think Miss Pope was actually very exhaustive, very comprehensive on the very dire situation.
And again, I point you to the SG statement we shared with you yesterday.
We have a question from Gabby of El Proceso.
Yes, thank you very much.
I would like to ask about the funding for for Sudan, how we say if, if, if it's.
Yeah, what is the situation on the funding for the crisis there?
I think Jens is making his way to the podium.
I think he's best placed to answer this question.
We heard a little bit of course about the funding situation from IOM, from his Pope, but Jens will add from the Archer perspective.
So we have, as you know, a humanitarian response plan for Sudan for 2024.
It's asking 2.7 nearly 2.7 billion U.S.
dollars and it's currently 56% funded, which means that it has received about 1.5 billion U.S.
dollars, so slightly over half funded.
But we also very late in the in the year, let me just add also from from our side, from the humanitarian side on, on this development.
We are seeing in Aljazeera state that the acting on the Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Joyce Muzuya has said that the UN has received horrific reports as we have just heard of civilian killed, detained and displaced in huge numbers.
And she knows noted that many need urgent medical attention.
We have also heard from from the humanitarian coordinator there who said in a in a statement that was issued over the the weekend and the humanitarian coordinator there being Clementine and Qatar Salami, that she is shocked and deeply appalled that human rights violations of the kind we have witnessed in Darfur last year, including ****, targeted attacks, sexual violence and mass killings are seemingly being repeated now in Al Jazeera state.
So a very, very concerning development and spread of that kind of warfare, which is utterly unacceptable indeed.
Thank you very much, Yens.
We have a question from Emma of Reuters.
I'm not sure if it's for Yens or maybe safe Emma.
Can I ask a question to Yens about Unreal as well?
Let's stay with Sudan just for the moment.
But I just wanted to exhaust the situation.
Sudan is this, do you have a question on Sudan or anyone else for that matter?
OK, Gabriella, perhaps Gabby, is this a follow up?
No, it's not a follow up.
I, I, I just wanted to ask something to the human rights office.
But after that we finish with Sudan.
Let's just if there are no questions on Sudan, maybe since SAFE is here, we will address Unruh and other colleagues may chime in on Unruh.
So let's maybe if you could pose your question to SAFE on, on other subject as there are no other questions on Sudan.
So, Gabby, please go ahead.
I would like to ask about Mexico and the new judiciary reform that the officialist party gave to the Senate and the parliamentarians and this this reform attacked the the independence of the judiciary system.
So democracy in Mexico is kind of a very weak.
So I don't know if if you have any comments on that or if you can say something.
Hi, Gabriela, thanks for your question.
No, we don't have comments yet on that, but we can get back to you in writing from the office.
Thanks in advance for that.
Safe, Do we have further questions for SAFE?
No, I don't see that's the case.
OK, So what maybe what we'll do is I appreciate that many of you have UNRWA on your minds.
Of course, we do as well.
So maybe we'll we'll take your question, Emma.
And we do have colleagues from WHO and FAO who are online who will brief us.
Tarek is also online to brief us on the situation of food safety and nutrition.
But Emma, maybe if you want to pose your question to Jens and of course, afterwards, maybe I'll just recite parts of the SG statement that we shared with you last night.
But your question first, Emma, go ahead.
Sorry, I couldn't unmute myself.
Yeah, I'm wondering, Jens, but also WHO or whoever do you think there is an immediate risk then of shutting down it's remaining operations in Gaza?
There was some question about that, whether it just applied to Israel or whether it would impact Gaza.
And just if you could respond on Jamie's question to Amy Pope, what is your position on whether you can fulfil some of the functions of UNRWA, presumably not the infrastructure roles, but some of the kind of emergency support roles?
Could OCHA or WHO or others step in at least temporarily to take on that role?
Actually on, on your first question, I think I will let Rolando, I'll go to the SG statement which addresses that.
Colleagues, you did receive a statement that we shared with you last night actually was early this morning from the Secretary General following the announcement at the Knesset of Israel.
I'm just going to recite some some of it for for the record here as it came in rather late in New York time.
Secretary General is deeply concerned by the adoption yesterday by the Knesset of Israel of two laws concerning the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, otherwise known as UNRWA, which, if implemented, would likely prevent UNRWA from continuing its essential work in the occupied Palestinian territory, including E Jerusalem, as mandated by the UN General Assembly.
UNRWA is the principal means by which essential assistance is applied to Palestine refugees in the occupied Palestinian Territory, and there is no alternative to UNRWA.
The implementation of the laws could have devastating consequences for Palestine refugees in the occupied Palestinian Territory, which is unacceptable.
The Secretary General calls on Israel to act consistently with obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and its other obligations under international law, including under international humanitarian law and those concerning privileges and immunities of the United Nations.
National legislation cannot alter those obligations.
The implementation of these laws would be detrimental for the resolution of the Israeli Palestine conflict and for peace and security in the region as a whole.
And as the Secretary General has said before, UNRWA is indispensable.
Secretary General is bringing this matter to the attention of the UN General Assembly, and we'll keep the Assembly closely informed as the situation develops.
This was a statement we did share with you last night.
And of course, since then there's been an outpouring from various principal agencies, heads of agencies on the decision yesterday.
Indeed, an outpouring from principles in the United Nations system.
I'm just looking at some of them calling UNWA.
There is no alternative crucial.
Only UNWA has the mandate, A vital lifeline and so on and so forth from from my boss George Musua, the acting on the secretary General, she said last night.
Full solidarity with UNWA and it's brave teams whose work is essential to millions of Palestinians.
The decision is dangerous and it is outrageous.
There is no alternative to UNWA.
So I think that that answers the question.
OK, colleagues and our apologies for our next briefers because we do have a number of hands.
This is an important issue.
So if you can indulge us and be patient, we start with Jamie AP Thanks.
I'm going to move my mouth away from the microphone.
I was told I speak too loudly and the could you just tell us what concrete implications right now that this this decision by the Knesset has had?
Is there is there anything that you've seen that has changed physically on the ground since this Knesset decision has been made?
And yeah, I mean, yeah, that's, yeah.
I, I think we, we, we can read in the STS statement that he is, we're trying to not have an implementation of this because it's not been, the decision has has been made.
We have seen an output of protests and not only from the UN, but I, I dare say from very prominent government officials and, and heads of states actually around the world, you know, calling this out as, as this is wrong for, for a number of of reasons.
I would say first and foremost for the millions of, of Palestinians who, who, who require Unwa's help.
So I would, I would refer to the STS statement about the work that is, that is ongoing now.
I think it, it also mentions that he will be in contact with the General Assembly.
As you all know, the, the, the mandate of UNWA, it's a General Assembly resolution like the mandate of my organisation, for example.
So that that is where the, the, the decisions are are made and discussed.
Thank you very much for that, Jens.
And let me throw to James of UNICEF and Tarek also from WHO have their hands up.
So I suppose it's reacting to this situation.
Thanks so much, everyone.
Yeah, just from a UNICEF point of view in terms of the amount of aid that we distribute across the Gaza Strip so much with the support of UNRA.
So to be very clear, if UNRA is unable to operate, it would likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza.
UNICEF would become effectively unable to distribute life saving supplies here.
I'm talking vaccines, I'm talking winter clothes, I'm talking hygiene, kids health, kids water, water and sanitation.
RUTF on malnutrition and we know again we're knocking on the door of famine and all range of of nutrition supplies.
So a decision such of this suddenly means that a new way has been found to **** children.
Thank you James Tarek WHO thanks, thanks really just to give some figures to explain how important Andrea is when it comes to delivery of health services.
3000 out of 13,000 Andrea staff are health workers.
They basically provided more than 6,000,000 medical consultations last year in the health centres that are run by Ankh and they have been providing this consultation for more than half of Gaza population.
They are also doing immunisation of children, they are doing screening for disease surveillance, screening for for malnutrition.
They have been active in a polio campaign.
1/3 of of team members for polio are unreal.
So really, if you think like that, 3000 of their staff are health workers.
It's it's really unmatched.
It could be, it couldn't be matched by by any agency including WHO.
Jeremy, Human rights, Yes, thanks, Rolanda.
The **** Commissioner this morning actually just spoke on this.
He says this decision is deeply troubling for many reasons.
He says this is having a potential dire impact on human rights of those deep, depending on Unrwa's assistance.
If I may go one step further and just say our office has repeatedly raised concerns about Israel's compliance with international law, but can also point to its obligations under a range of human rights treaties, including the cornerstone International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Israel is party to.
To this extent, without UNRUN, the delivery of food, shelter, healthcare, education, amongst other things, to most of Gaza's population would grind to a halt.
Civilians have already paid the heaviest price of this conflict over the past year.
Cruelly, this decision will only make matters worse for them.
Thank you very much, Jeremy and colleagues.
And these are just a few of the comments that were the reactions from the the decision yesterday at the Knesset.
So we have other comments from UNHCR, from UNDP and many others too, too many to recite here in fact.
But we do have a couple of questions.
So I'll just take those online unless there are those in the room, I don't see that's the case.
So we'll turn to Gabby La Processo.
I think you had another question on this subject.
Yes, it it's not on Gaza, but since chance is there, let's let's Sorry, Gabby, I'm just going to cut you off.
Let's just finish because I think other colleagues want to let's discuss their own situation 1st and then we'll move on to other subjects.
We still have other briefers online, just to remind you.
So, Christian DPA, my question is to Yens on Gaza.
Would it not be possible to put a different hat on that organisation?
If all the people who work for Anra now would then be employees of OCHA, this problem would be solved?
Or is that a naive suggestion?
Because yeah, I I really don't want to speculate in that what and if and but and we can rehab this and that and the other.
UNWAR is and has been for decades, since 1948, the backbone of what the UN is providing to to the Palestinian refugees in in Gaza and other countries in the region.
It is indispensable and there is no alternative to it at this point.
James, I'd, I'd like to follow up on your comment about the decision of the Knesset to, to impede the work of UNRWA or to ban UNRWA.
The, and you, you mentioned that decisions like this mean that it means that a new way has been found to **** children.
Could you elaborate on that?
James Yeah, yeah, sorry colleagues, same old amuse issue.
What I mean is that reports at a conservative level are of 14,000 girls and boys having been killed.
OK, that's an unprecedented number becomes ever more so if you look at the duration of this war and if you look at the population of children, so 14,000 girls and boys being killed.
And we've seen, of course, ferocious attacks in the North very recently, showing clearly that this level of attacks of what has now been accepted are indiscriminate attacks lacking all sorts of proportionality have not stopped.
So that's always been the case, but we'll just outline it to put it there anyway.
The second part is, of course, is the warnings that came from as far away as November that if you devastate the health system, the water system, the sanitation system, then there is such an enormous risk.
We heard from medical experts WHO across the board, doctors on the ground, such a huge risk of a disease outbreak.
And now, of course, we've seen the devastation to the health system, the water and sanitation system.
We see, we've seen famine on the doorstep.
We see polio now for the first time in 1/4 of a century.
So we have disease and we have bombarded disease on the ground, bombardments.
Then of course if you recall Jamie, when I briefed last week, another way children are dying, children are being killed if you will, is this wilful neglect to get medical evacuation.
So for any of those children who have somehow miraculously survived a shelling or a bombing on their homes and find their sit themselves with wounds that none of us could possibly imagine, just imagine the last time you burnt yourself.
And then imagine, you know, your 4 year old child having 4th degree burns and that hospital not being able to have the the burn cream or anaesthetics or, or painkillers that are required.
And then that child not being allowed to leave the country.
Those kind of injuries we are seeing children dying from being killed from despite our best efforts.
Now this way, as you've heard from so many principles and the most senior people in the United Nations, and I think Tariq explained it so well, in terms of healthcare workers, you take away the healthcare workers, you take away the nutritional support, you take away the people who will provide the life saving supplies for a population that is physically, physically, absolutely on death's door and psychologically, of course in uncharted territory.
You take away these healthcare workers, you take away the nutritionists, then we will see many more children die.
So that's that's my my reasoning for that statement.
We have a questionnaire from Satoko of Yomiori Shimbun.
This is a question to Tariq.
Could you tell us the the status of the polio campaign in nose Gaza, if there is any updates since Friday last week and then also the implication of the Knesset decision on Ottawa, if on the on the polio campaign?
Yes, I was briefing you last Friday on the postponement of the second round of polio vaccination in the north.
And then day after that there was a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital and a number of staff have been detained and let me just update you on that.
Our teams managed to get back to Kamal Adwan yesterday.
They have found basically one orthopaedic surgeon, one paediatrician, chief nurse and a handful of young doctors, junior doctors and nurses trying to attend some 100 and 150 patients.
So really this shows how difficult it is to provide any sort of aid in north of Gaza.
Out of 25 requests for missions this month, only seven of them managed to to take place.
Others were either denied or were were impeded.
So in this setting, while we don't have agreement on humanitarian polls that would cover areas where children are, it is difficult to imagine you have this second round of, of the of the polio vaccination.
But but again, we will be doing our best as we do, trying every day to get some sort of agreement on that, but also agreement on our movements to bring to to help those health facilities that are still working what they need.
Thank you very much for the later beration.
Thank you very much, Tarek.
OK, I think we've finished questions on this subject.
Gabby, you have a question for Yens who's still with us and then we'll have to turn immediately thereafter to our colleagues in Rome.
No, I just wanted to to say, if this decision on Anwar, it will be for like a pun, collective punishment for the people of Palestine because you know, children are going to die, but also people are going to suffer.
So if this can be catalogued as that.
And then I have another question for James.
Well, if implemented and I stress if implemented, I think it is a fair description of what they have decided here if implemented, but this would add to the acts of collective punishment that we have seen imposed on Gaza.
Yens, you want to pose your other question now, Gabby?
Rolando, elections are coming in in the USA and if Trump wins, if Donald Trump wins, how affected will UN humanitarian operations be?
Because we know that during his term, Trump reduced funding for the UN, so now he also threatened to do so.
So are you worried about this or not?
We survived the last one.
So that would be my comment on that.
OK, just on the collective punishment issue, I should mention that Philip Lazzarini did tweet last night shortly after this, this this legislation act with the Knesset and and he does refer to these bills increase the suffering of the Palestinians and nothing less than collective punishment using those words precisely.
So colleagues, to take a look at all the the utterances on this decision.
I think we are now done with this subject.
Thank you very much, Yens and colleagues, for for chiming in on this important, important subject.
And again, apologies, Mr Branca and Miss Alberto Francesco Branco, who you know, is a director of the Department of Nutrition, Food Safety.
And Miss Nancy Alberto is FAO deputy director for for the Food and Nutrition division of FAO.
But I think, Tarek, you maybe wanted to add something before we throw to our colleagues in Rome.
TAREK Yeah, Thank you very much, Rolando.
And and we have just sent a joint statement.
WHFAO And and we just heard about millions of people living in a food insecurity, being hungry in Sudan.
People in Gaza are hungry too.
So some of you may wonder and be surprised that we are talking about a healthy diet.
But if you really think about it, the food security is about healthy diets.
And if you think that nutrition is one of the main risk factors for non communicable diseases that are killing two out of three persons and it's a huge burden on a on a health system in all countries, not only in developed countries, but also in a lower middle income countries, but also in humanitarian emergencies.
It is important that we talk about a healthy diet.
And that's why we propose this topic today with Doctor Francesco Branca that you already know and Nancy Abuto from FAO.
So I'll give the floor to to to Doctor Branca first.
Thank you very much, Tarek, and good morning to all.
Indeed, a static was saying, you know, the scourge of food insecurity still effects 733 million people in the world, as the latest report on the state of food security nutrition says.
But the same report also says that 3 billion people cannot afford the healthy diets in in the world.
And we know that consumption of unhealthy diet, as Starek was already saying, is responsible for many deaths every year, is responsible for 8 million deaths every year, largely due to non communicable diseases.
But it's also the second worst cause of disability and disease, you know, among all causes in the world.
So FAO and WHO wanted to clarify what healthy diet means and have put together all the guidance in this year's on the different elements to define healthy diet.
You know, why do we need healthy diet?
The healthy diets are needed to promote health, to prevent communicable and non communicable diseases, to support healthy lifestyle and really promote well-being and and development and this has to be defined across the life course.
We need healthy diet since the very beginning.
This statement indicates that healthy diets can be achieved in any part of the world.
So we have the adequate foods available in all parts of the world as long as this principles are respected.
The statement basically says that healthy diet should first and foremost be adequate in nutrition.
Provide all the necessary nutrients in the right amount, not in excess the the the essential nutrients.
Second, the diets should have a balanced intake of macro nutrients which means protein, fat and carbohydrate.
We shouldn't eat more than a third of our energy are diet from fats and we should largely provide energy from carbohydrates, complex carbohydrate.
The third element is about moderation.
There are elements which we need to limit first.
Salt is actually one of the greatest killer at the moment.
We shouldn't exceed 5 grammes per day.
We should also limit the consumption of free sugars to less than 10% of the energy.
We should limit the amount of saturated fat to less than 10% of the energy.
We should limit the consumption of highly processed food.
We should limit the consumption of bread and processed meat.
And finally, Dutch should be diverse.
We should eat food from different food groups and from many foods within a food group.
So these are the main elements that can, of course, be translated.
And I'll give the floor to my colleague, Nancy Abuto from FAO.
Good morning, colleagues.
It's a pleasure to be here with you today also showing the partnership that FAO has with our valued collaborator of WHO and with our longtime colleague and friend Francesco Branca.
Francesco has already outlined the content of this FAOWHO joint statement on healthy diets and we feel it's an extremely important contribution to the efforts to unlock the power of nutrition for sustainable development.
Good nutrition is dependent on on many factors.
I think we we have reflected on that actually throughout today's conversation interestingly enough.
But we know that healthy diets are are absolutely essential and they are where good nutrition starts.
There were good health starts and achieving good nutrition.
Based on these core principles, adequate, balanced, moderate and diverse and consisting of safe foods and beverages has the power to drive at least 11 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
For example, achieving good nutrition based on diets that include adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals such as iron, can support addressing anaemia in women and therefore allow more than 500 million women who suffer anaemia today to have a better opportunity at experiencing an improved quality of life so that they can reach their full potential and personal fulfilment, and this can drive SDG 5.
Achieving good nutrition based on diets that include balanced energy across protein, fat and carbohydrates can enable child development so that all children everywhere at all times can reach their full potential for health and productivity, which data has shows has shown can add billions to national incomes and pull millions out of poverty.
Achieving good nutrition based on diets that include diversity can support reducing maternal and child malnutrition, potentially saving more than two million lives of children under 5 every year and allowing children and families to live in good health and well-being.
Driving SVG 3 Achieving good nutrition based on diets that include moderation of foods and nutrients of public health concern can reduce the burden of non communicable diseases responsible for the vast majority of premature mortality globally.
Allowing millions more people to be free of disease to reach their full potential as productive members of society and healthy, productive people drive action needed to reach targets across all of the SDGS.
Therefore, enabling healthy diets for all is a core not only the food systems transformation agenda, but also to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
And we hope that this joint statement with its simple 4 core principles of a healthy diet can support that critically important effort.
Very, very important messages is indeed.
And I believe that Key shared these statements with you.
We have a couple of questions for you, John Zaracostos of Franz Foncott in The Lancet.
I was wondering if you're following initiatives at the moment to have flexibility on food labelling designated for food aid.
Is that something FAO and WHO support or are against?
I think maybe I can I can start, Francesco, maybe I think, I think John, you refer to discussion which is taking place at the moment that the Codex committee on food labelling in in Canada.
And we have we have a concern that the the, the the labelling there might actually impair the the, the distribution of of the right food.
But we are looking at the situation and the discussion at the at the Codex element.
Francesco Gabby of El Proceso of Mexico.
My question is who is responsible of the access to a healthy diet, the governments and also the situation in Venezuela, I heard that 5 million people are hungry there.
So I don't know if you have something to say about nutrition in in Venezuela.
Do you want to start, Nancy?
I can start with this one.
Thank you, Gabby, for the question.
Who's responsible for access to healthy diets?
I think it's a shared responsibility.
We'd like to support a strengthening of the entire food system, which begins with producers and actually begins before producers.
It begins with our ecosystems.
And so I think we all have a shared responsibility in supporting healthy ecosystems, helping producers that can produce the foods needed for healthy diets and the actors across the food supply chains, the retail markets, all the way to consumers ourselves that need to also have our own agency so that we can participate in what is our access and ability to consume healthy diets.
And the second question on Venezuela, I think.
So maybe I can, I can comment there indicating that indeed the situation of access to food is related to the economic situation of the country and you know the ****, the **** food cost.
We, we don't have recent information around the integrated face classification.
You know, there is a system to monitor the access to food.
So we don't have recent analysis around Venezuela, but certainly what the analysis of state of food security nutrition has indicated is that the combination of economic downturns, climate change and conflicts are the situations that are responsible for are the reasons that are responsible for for food insecurity.
So clearly the the situation of Venezuela is affected by by the economic situation.
Do we have further questions for our colleagues in Rome?
No, I don't see that's the case.
So once again, sincere thanks to you both Mr Barranca and Miss Alberto for joining us.
And thank you also for your patience.
OK, so almost finished here.
Just wanted to thank you both.
I just wanted to recite a couple of things as usual to make sure you're all on track.
OK, so starting with the Secretary General's travels, of course, the statement that I shared with you earlier to write out Anurag and Sudan as well.
I refer to those statements.
I should mention that the Secretary General is currently in Cali, Colombia, where he is scheduled to deliver remarks at the opening of the plenary session of the COP.
In his remarks, he's expected to highlight that nature is life and yet we are waging war against it.
These comments will be we figure in his statement, which we will share with you later today shortly after the ad delivered version, shortly after they are delivered.
I should mention that the secretary general lost in in Colombia will also meet and engage in discussions with indigenous people and local communities.
So we will keep you up to speed on his travel to Colombia at this important event.
Other events taking place here in Geneva.
We have the Human Rights Committee which is concluding this afternoon.
It's review of the report of Ecuador and the Committee Against Torture, which began its 81st session yesterday, this morning is reviewing situation in Kuwait and in this room, in this seat.
In about 40 minutes from now, we will have Rebecca Greenspan, who is the Secretary General of UN Trade Development, together with Anastasia Nesvitalova, who is Unktad's head of Macroeconomic and Development Policies branch.
They're going to be briefing you.
It's an embargoed press conference on the publication of the Trade and Development Report 2024, Rethinking Development in the Age of Discontent.
That's the report which should have been shared with you.
It's embargoed till 2:30 PM.
So the press conference in this room at noon, there is a meeting, the seminar rather that we have announced here.
Alessandra has announced that to you from this seat and it's called the International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East.
It's an event which the Department of Global Communications is organising with support from UNIS, of course, taking place this Friday, the 1st of November.
And Room 26, we have Melissa Fleming, Under Secretary General for DGC Tatianavalovaya, who's our director general at UNAG, and Ambassador Riyad Mansour, who is a permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations based in New York.
We have messages from the Secretary General and the chair of the Committee on the exercise the available rights of Palestinian people.
These are the messages that will open this this important full day event with Sessions speaking to the situation of press and safety of journalists in a time of war.
And another session is just titled Behind the Headlines of Gaza Media Challenges and Perspectives.
We encourage you all to show up at this important event this Friday, the 1st of November starting at 10:30 in room 26.
And lastly, just to mention that this coming Thursday, the 31st of October is World Cities Day.
There is a Secretary General message that was shared with you.
This year's observance is themes to youth climate change makers catalysing local action for urban sustainability.
So there is a message which we shared with you on this important observance.
Do you have any questions for me?
No, on that note, I wish you a good afternoon and see you here on Friday.
