The United Nations Office at Geneva
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UN Geneva Press Briefing - 15 November 2024
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UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING
15 November 2024
Rolando Gómez, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, and the spokespersons of the World Health Organization and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Humanitarian situation in Ukraine
Matthias Schmale, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, said that, as the 1,000-day mark was approaching since the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion in 2022, more than 12,000 people had been killed and almost 40 per cent of the people in Ukraine were in need of humanitarian assistance, including 3.6 million internally displaced people. The Humanitarian Response Plan aimed to deliver assistance and protection to 8.5 million people. Civilian infrastructure had been decimated, with over 2,000 attacks on health-care facilities and two million damaged homes since February 2022. The prolonged war had led to widespread trauma and psychological distress among civilians, emphasizing the need for mental health support as the war continued. The systematic attacks on energy infrastructure might pose an additional risk in winter (with an estimated 65 percent of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure affected), especially for already vulnerable people, if power cuts extended more than a few days in subzero temperatures.
The UN, national and international NGOs and volunteer organizations had reached 7.2 million people with at least one type of aid thanks to the USD 1.8 billion received for the humanitarian response in Ukraine. As temperatures started to drop, the humanitarian actors in Ukraine were implementing the Humanitarian Winter Response Plan, to address emergency needs by delivering solid fuel, ensuring water systems can continue to work and providing cash for winter, among other activities to ensure people can stay warm. Mr. Schmale said that increased hostilities along the front line posed severe security risks for civilians and humanitarians working in those areas. In 2024, nine humanitarian workers had lost their life in the line of duty and humanitarian facilities had been damaged. There was a high concentration of people with disabilities and older people remaining in front line communities in Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions that needed humanitarian assistance, whether they stayed or chose to evacuate. Mr. Schmale said that he was impressed by the commitment of the authorities and the people of Ukraine to rebuild and move forward. He gave an example of a demined field where the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme were helping with replanting seeds and restarting food production. The war in Ukraine could not be normalized, concluded Mr. Schmale.
Answering questions from the media, Mr. Schmale stated that large numbers of people in big cities lived in high-rise buildings where fuel could not be easily delivered. There existed so-called « invincibility points » in big cities where people could gather, have warm drinks, and be safe. There were a lot of worries that the Russian military might strike the energy sector again, which could be another tipping point for mass movement both within and outside the country. Mr. Schmale reminded that recently an ICRC truck had been hit, and three Ukrainian employees had been killed. The donor supply was inevitably waning, explained Mr. Schmale, but while the trend was downwards, the Ukraine crisis appeal still received enough money compared to some other crises. It was hoped that the significant humanitarian support from the United States, individually the largest contributor, would continue under the next administration. Responding to another question, Mr. Schmale reiterated that 65 per cent of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had been damaged, but there had also been a lot of rebuilding and identifying alternative solutions. The UN was working with the Ukrainian authorities on scenario mapping, trying to prepare for various developments.
The increased use of drones created by the Russian forces would have an increasingly damaging impact on the civilian population in Ukraine, said Mr. Schmale. The central government and regional governments were all preparing for various winter scenarios; the main concern was more massive attacks on the energy infrastructure which would further deteriorate the situation. The conditions were already much worse than the previous winter, given the significant damage inflected this year. Deliberately attacking energy infrastructure on which civilians depended was a violation of international law and it had to stop. There was war-weariness among people in Ukraine; they all wanted the war to end, but not at all costs; he was not sure that the Ukrainian people were ready to bring the war to an end if it meant giving up the Ukrainian territory.
Answering a question on the health situation in the country, Margaret Harris, for the World Health Organization (WHO), confirmed that attacks on healthcare in Ukraine were an ongoing problem. Health was not a target, but it was increasingly, and worryingly, under attack in conflicts around the world. Mental health of Ukrainians was also a matter of serious concern.
Questions to the World Health Organization
Responding to a question on the announcement that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be nominated for the Health and Human Services Secretary in the United States, Margaret Harris, for the World Health Organization (WHO), stated that it was up to each Member State to decide whom to appoint to senior posts. The United States was a vital partner of the World Health Organization, and their cooperation had contributed to improving the health of both Americans and people abroad. It was hoped that such cooperation would continue in the coming period.
On a question related to measles, Ms. Harris explained that it was not clear whether the surge of measles was due to vaccine hesitancy or limited access, partly related to the COVID19 pandemic. The causes were multiple, but vaccine hesitancy was a problem that the WHO was working to address.
Speaking of Gaza, Ms. Harris reminded that Gaza used to have an excellent vaccination record. Vaccines were the reason so many people around the world had survived to adulthood than they otherwise would, she stressed. Vaccine-preventable diseases had disappeared from communities where vaccinations were widely implemented, reminded Ms. Harris.
Questions to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Answering questions, Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that from OCHA’s perspective, all possible indicators in Gaza were going in the wrong direction. Access was at a low point, while chaos, suffering, displacement, and death were all at a high point. Humanitarians were expected to deliver and help alleviate the suffering but were not allowed access or guaranteed safety.
The new head of OCHA, Tom Fletcher, was scheduled to take up his new position on 17 November.
Announcements
Rolando Gómez, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that the UN Secretary-General was on the way to Rio de Janeiro, where he would address the G20 summit.
He reminded of the statement about the visit of UN Peacekeeping chief Jean Pierre Lacroix, who was visiting Lebanon and Israel this week.
On 18 November at 1 pm, Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) would hold a hybrid press conference to provide an update on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. Mr. Lazzarini would be joined by Antón Leis, Secretary General and Executive Director of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development.
The Committee Against Torture would hold on 18 November at 10 am a public meeting devoted to the follow-up of concluding observations, views on individual complaints, and the question of reprisals.
The Universal Periodic Review was ending its 47th session today.
Today was the International Day against Transnational Organized Crime, while 17 November would be the Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
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Teleprompter
Well, a very good morning.
Thank you for joining us here at this press briefing.
It's his prequel to the regular press briefing today, the 15th of November, here at the UN office at Geneva.
I'm very pleased to have with us here Mr Mattias Shmali, who is the Assistant Secretary General and Resident Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, who is going to provide a humanitarian update on the situation of Ukraine as winter approaches.
So I'll turn immediately to Mr Shmali and then to you for your questions.
Mr Shmali.
Yes, good, good morning and thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to talk to you in the media as we are not only approaching winter, but also the sad, sad 1000 day marks since the Russian Federation's full scale invasion in 22, we of course are thinking of the more than 12,000 people that have been killed and almost 40% of the people in Ukraine that are in need of humanitarian assistance.
But this is not just about numbers.
I remember vividly, I'm approaching about 100 days in Ukraine, standing in front of a building that was impacted by a strike by the military forces of the Russian Federation in her Kiev in the in the east.
And two things are in my mind.
One is an elderly gentleman who came up, he saw the UN that you know, stuff that we were wearing and thanked us for the work and asked for further help.
So that was nice that a person from the public who had been in that building when it was struck was appreciative of the UN.
More dramatically, I also came that morning from a place called Kopyansk on the border near the frontline.
I had accompanied an interagency convoy there bringing vital supplies, and I was told that quite a few people had left there, had evacuated from there to greater safety.
And the tragic part of what I was told on that day, standing in front of this building was that a 14 year old girl had come from Kupansk a few weeks earlier to greater safety in her Kiev.
And she was killed in this inner strike, not on that building, but a building not too far away.
So instead of being in a school, it was the first week of the new school year, she was being buried that day.
And I think that hits home the enormous damage that this full scale invasion is doing not just to people but also to infrastructure.
Civilian infrastructure has been decimated with over 2000 attacks now on healthcare facilities and 2,000,000 damaged homes.
There is also back to people sort of hidden crisis.
I think this prolonged war, almost three years in February has led to widespread trauma and psychological distress and I think the need for mental health support is very evident and it will take years to help people deal with their traumas.
As we are approaching winter, we are prioritising winterization support both to people close to the frontline as well as to the thousands that have evacuated in recent weeks and months.
A particular worry, as I'm sure you are aware, as the the systematic attacks on the energy infrastructure.
I'm told that by now 65% of Ukraine's own energy production capacities has been destroyed.
And so as we approach winter, we are of course particularly worried about this.
We are trying to help people with, for example, solid fuel, those who have stoves at home, solid fuel as it's called with winter clothes and so on.
A particular worry is people in big cities and in **** rise buildings.
Several of the governors I've visited multiple times and met with multiple times along the front line are particularly worried about vulnerable people in **** rise buildings in their cities like Zaporicha, Kiev and Dinipro.
Now the UN and with our national and international partners, NGOs and volunteer organisations has reached this year 7.2 million people with at least one type of humanitarian aid, thanks to the 1.8 billion people received from the international community for our humanitarian response.
Our winter response plan requires about $500 million, for which we've received half.
We've so far reached about half of the 1.7 million people we were intending or are intending to reach.
And so of course, part of my visit here in Geneva is to appeal to the international community to, to give us more resources to help people get through the winter.
The work along the frontline is dangerous.
What we are observing.
And again, many people have told me during my visits that's they feel civilians and civilian infrastructure and civil society are increasingly targeted by drone attacks.
And drone attacks are terrible.
I don't need to describe that to you.
But so protection remains also a major concern of ours.
I talked about the people that have evacuated from the frontline.
There is a particular or particular groups of people that are particularly vulnerable that we're worried about.
Those are people with limited mobility and older people.
And then finally, allow me to highlight that among the many that are suffering as a result of this war are the ID PS the internally displaced people.
There are estimates that there are now 3.6 million people and the point I want to make around this is that of course some of them have come recently, have become Idps recently and need immediate, at times life saving aid, particularly the vulnerable I've mentioned.
But about 3 million people have been in this protracted situation for at least two years.
I remember vividly meeting an old lady, I think it was in Sumi, who had been in one of the so-called collective centres for two years.
That's not a decent life.
And again, the governors along the frontline are increasingly talking to me and to others in the international community about what we call durable solutions in UN language.
So the longer this crisis sadly lasts, the more Idps are in a situation of not life saving aid, but finding more dignified ways of supporting them, including, for example, social housing.
And let me end on another personal story.
I think as we concentrate on humanitarian aid, I've also been very impressed by the determination of the authorities and the people of Ukraine to rebuild as soon as there is an opportunity.
And I was particularly struck standing in the mined agricultural field a couple of weeks ago near her Kiev, because not only had that field been demined, WFP and FAO are involved.
And I first thought that must be mission creep.
Why would 2 food organisations be involved with demining?
But it was very compelling because FAO is supporting the farmers whose fields are being demined with seeds and agricultural tools.
Because, of course, demining is not enough.
They need to get back into agricultural production and WFP, with its huge logistics experience and capacity, is coordinating the effort with government, with the NGOs doing the demining and with FFAO.
We must not normalise the war in Ukraine.
We must continue to support this country to the best of our abilities.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr Shamali.
That was very poignant.
And of course, strong messages, very comprehensive overview.
So now we'll turn to our platform unless we have a question in the room from Nina Larson of AFP.
Thank you for taking my question and thank you for the briefing.
I had a couple of questions.
Actually, I was, I was wondering first in terms of the winterization, if you could say a little bit more about your your concerns when it comes to to urban areas and cities and what specifically it is you're concerned about there.
I was also hoping that you could say something about whether humanitarian infrastructure has is being targeted and also what you're seeing in terms of donor support if that seems to be waning.
Yeah, if you could start that thing.
The concerns on winterisation in big cities have to do with, as I mentioned earlier, huge numbers of people living in **** rise buildings and you can evidently not deliver a tonne of solid fuel to a **** rise building.
That won't do the trick.
What the authorities are doing is 2 things.
One is they have so-called invincibility points.
I think they call them would be the correct translation.
All over big cities, these are shelters basically where people can come have a warm meal, take a warm shower and drink some warm tea.
But that's of course not enough that helps you through crisis moments.
But the second major concern, so one concern is how do you reach these people in **** rise buildings that are vulnerable.
And we are, we are talking to the international community and to the authorities on what might be good solutions.
The second concern is there are a lot of worries that the Russian Federation military forces might strike the energy sector again.
So a lot of rebuilding has been done, but not enough.
And the real concern is if they were to target the energy sector again, this could be a tipping point, also a tipping point for further mass movements both inside the country and outside the country.
So this is not just about technical solutions, it's about urging the international community to do its bit to stop this war and particularly the destruction of civilian infrastructure, which the NRC sector is humanitarian infrastructure.
We've not seen large scale direct targeting of humanitarian infrastructure unless you call schools and health centres and hospitals part of humanitarian infrastructure and to some extent at least health centres are.
And because they don't just provide Primary Health care, they also help the war wounded and so on.
You might know that the ICRC was hit a couple of weeks ago and three ICRC Ukrainian staff members were actually killed and the, the convoy they were accompanying and delivering food I think was, was destroyed.
So we've had incidents like that.
We've had nine, if I remember correctly, 9 humanitarian workers killed.
So it's less the infrastructure, it's more it's extreme remains extremely dangerous work to to deliver humanitarian aid near the front line, donor support waning.
Inevitably this happens in all major crises.
We had to put this in figures numbers.
In 2022, we had a staggering plus $4 billion for humanitarian work in Ukraine.
The country had not all of that went through the UN.
In 23, it was down to 2.6.
That's of course a lot of money.
This year we're standing at 1.8 out of 3.1 billion that we've asked for.
So the trend is clearly downwards, but we we still get a lot of money compared to other crisis situations.
And our plea is that this is maintained because the war is not over.
Yeah, go ahead.
So just in light of the the the changing administration in the United States, for instance, I'm just wondering if how concerned you are about further diminishing of, of funds there and if there's any sort of contingency plans in place.
So our hope obviously is and I think the UN leadership starting with the Secretary General has expressed this clearly that the significant support, humanitarian support of the United States will continue.
There have been by far our biggest individual country supporter at country level.
We have excellent relationships with the embassy there and with officials for including from USAID.
So I can only hope, you know, it's, I think it's too early and not my place to speculate on what the new administration would do in humanitarian terms.
The hope is that they understand like the present administration, that there are huge humanitarian needs that need to continue to be addressed.
Thank you very much for the questions in the room.
Before I go online.
No, that's not the case.
So we'll start off with Yuri Upperliff of Rio Novosti or Yuri over to you.
Yes, thank you and thank you for the briefing.
I have only one question.
I just wanted to know if, what, what are your forecasts for the duration of the daily blackout during the winter in Ukraine because we've saw different datas, some are speaking about 8 hours of blackout during the day, some are speaking about 11 hours.
So if you have forecast from the UN, thanks.
Sorry, what we are doing is looking at various scenarios.
No one knows and it's linked to the point I made earlier, meaning there has been a lot of damage, 65% to the energy production capacities but also quite a bit of rebuilding including interestingly I've seen this in some cases, for example in her son in the South.
Solar panels that are driving pumps at what for water wells.
And of course, clean water is 1 important bit to get through the day.
I cannot really, I could only speculate about the numbers of hours of blackouts so far in my first three months.
There have been blackouts.
There have at times been several hours.
But what we are doing with the authorities is scenario mapping.
And it goes from, as you sort of implied, 8 hours to much longer to let's say 16 hours.
And we're trying to figure out, as I said earlier, in particular, what sorts blackouts will mean for city dwellers and the most vulnerable amongst those.
Thank you once again.
OK, Yuri, is that old hand or is that a follow up?
No, it's all Ed, sorry.
OK, No problem.
Jeremy, launch Radio France, Radio Front International.
Jeremy.
Yes.
Thanks, Rolando.
2 questions for you, Mr Schmal.
The first one is you mentioned drone attacks.
We heard that North Korea is scaling up the production of explosive drone that could be used by Russia in in Ukraine.
So how worried are you that this might be a a game changer, let's say, in terms of civilian casualties in Ukraine?
That's the first one.
And the second one will be about the winterisation of, of the yeah, the conflict.
I'd like to know if Ukraine is better prepared to survive the, the, this winter.
It's, it's the second one.
Third, if we, we come to the 2022 second or third winter than that the war is going on during winter time.
So I'd like to know if it's if the country is better prepared or not considering the 65% of damage on the energy capacity.
So on the first one, yes, it is a huge concern that not only I have as resident and humanitarian coordinator for the UN, but many in the international community and indeed in government.
I think I mentioned earlier that during my many visits to the frontline, civilians are have increasingly described to me being targeted.
You know, not just a perception, but describing in very vivid terms how drones follow them.
And some of this is also psychological terror because part of the drones is that you never quite know, will they strike or are they just observing, I think the sound alone of drones in the sky.
And I've been to other places in the world where this is part of psychological terror.
Yes.
So I I am very worried with many others that the increased use of drones by the armed forces of the Russian Federation will have an increasingly damaging impact on the civilian population.
Your second question is the country better prepared for winter?
Of course you learn from experience.
So in some ways, yes, I mentioned these so-called invincibility points.
So of course the authorities are trying to do their bit to be more ready than before to help people with acute needs.
I also know that there is at central government level and in the governors in the regions, the oblast some thinking around contingency planning.
If there were huge numbers of people sitting in, in cold apartments where I think the country would not be prepared, as I indicated earlier is if the fear that there will be further targeted attacks against the energy production capacity of Ukraine.
This would tip the scale.
So I I think the hope is that with it's a race against time.
But with everything we're doing, including the UNS winterization support I described earlier, we will help people get through the winter somehow, not with the greatest dignity, and avoid the big movements of people.
The main concern is further significant attacks that would obliterate, obliterate what's already been repaired and make the situation far worse.
Thank you once again.
We have a question now from Lisa Schlein, Voice of America.
Lisa, thank you, Rolando.
Good morning and good morning to you.
Mr Schmolly, I'd like to ask you, there are a number of members of the incoming Trump administration who would say that the war has reached a stalemate and that there's absolutely no point in continuing with it, that a negotiated agreement should be reached.
And there's this, even though it appears as if this would be to the advantage of Russia.
Do you have a sense that the suffering among the Ukrainian population has reached such an extent that many of them wanted to see an end to this war at any cost?
Or do you have the sense that that that it's their land and their sovereignty and that they must continue fighting?
Thank you.
So the sense I get from talking to quite a number of Ukrainians, but the population is more than 30 million.
So I have of course a limited insight at the end of the day is that yes, there is war, wariness, you know, almost three years, 1000 days next Tuesday, 12,000 people killed and many injured and maimed for life.
Of course you, you have to expect that people are wary of the war and I have not met anyone who doesn't want the war to end, but not at all costs.
And I have to say as a senior UN official, we've made it very clear through our secretary general and others that what the further the full scale invasion is a violation of the UN Charter and a violation of territorial integrity.
So that's the tricky bit.
I I don't think Ukrainians, rightfully from my perspective, are ready if at any cost means giving up territory they consider their own.
Thank you very much.
We now have a question from Emma Farge of Reuters.
Emma, hi, good morning.
It's a simple question that I think Jeremy was trying to get at.
Would you know, is the 65% of the energy capacity that's been destroyed, is that worse than previous winters in this war?
Thank you.
Yes, it is worse.
The worries about this winter are not so much that the temperatures would be lower that it in those terms climatically would be a more harsh winter.
In fact, some people think it won't be.
The main worry is the level of destruction and a lot of the destruction of the energy production capacity has happened over recent months since last winter.
So my sense is I wasn't there last winter.
As I mentioned, I've been there almost 100 days now.
But what I'm told is that it is far worse than last winter.
And as I mentioned earlier, it's a race against time.
So that quite a bit has been repaired.
I don't know percentages here, but the hope of the of the Ukraine officials and government is that it's enough that has been done with international support to get through the next winter.
This would be to repeat.
We were significantly changed and would make this the harshest winter to get through if there are further attacks on the infrastructure.
You might be aware one more point if I may, that our human rights colleagues in the UN published a report a few weeks ago where they clearly demonstrated with evidence that attacks against the energy infrastructure is attacks against the civilian population because you need energy to heat, to cook etcetera.
So deliberately attacking and destroying energy infrastructure that the civilian population depends on is, is a violation of international humanitarian law and has to stop.
Indeed.
Thank you very much.
We have another question of Lisa Schlein, the Voice of America here.
I forgot to ask you on on the energy front, there have been reports of bombings or attacks occurring in Zaparisha, I think near the nuclear power plant.
Is, is this going on is they haven't heard much about this, but is there ongoing concern that the nuclear power plant could actually be attacked, whether accidentally or deliberately and what the ramifications of that would be?
Thank you.
That's, that's an important question.
The fear of a nuclear fallout because of either deliberately or accidentally hitting a nuclear power plant such as the one in Zaporicha that you've mentioned is there all the time.
You know, I think I mentioned earlier that in relation to winter and energy, we are looking at different blackouts, we're looking at different scenarios.
And the worst scenario is if energy gets destroyed and part of that destruction is, is nuclear.
The nuclear energy, I don't remember the numbers, the percentages, but nuclear energy is an important part, remains an important part of supplying energy in the Ukraine.
If not only the energy is not longer available to keep homes warm, to allow people to cook, but there's also nuclear radiation because a nuclear power plant has been hit, This would be extremely devastating and the worst case scenario.
So unfortunately, we have to consider that possibility.
And again, I think many in the UN leadership, including the IAEA leadership, has consistently been monitoring this and warning all sides, but particularly the Russian Federation, from refraining to hit near nuclear power plants.
Thank you once again, Misses Shimali, do we have further questions?
No, I don't see that's the case.
So on that note, I'd like to thank you very, very much.
This was supremely important, these messages.
Please come back whenever you're here in Geneva and of course, brief us as you like.
And thank you.
And I forgot to acknowledge our colleague against who's who's here with us.
And we'll stay on for the regular briefing, which will start in just a few minutes.
So we'll just pause for a few minutes and come back to you.
Thank you again, Shmali.
Welcome back and thank you once again for joining at joining us at this regular press briefing here at the UN Office of Geneva today, the 15th of November.
We just heard from Mr Mathias Shmali, who is Assistant Secretary General in Resident Humanitarian Court in Ukraine.
We're very grateful to have heard his his update on the situation in Ukraine.
In terms of the regular press briefing today, we we don't have any proactive briefers, but I do have a few announcements.
But I just wanted to mention we do have a number of colleagues who are online.
We have Yens here on my left, of course, for OCHA and we have colleagues from FAO, UNCTAD, UNHCR, Refugee Agency and World Health Organisation who are in line.
Should you have any questions that could be pointed to them, but perhaps just to make sure you're on track, just wanted to highlight a couple of things, a few announcements.
Firstly on the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres is actually on route to Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro where he will be heading rather addressing the Group of 20 to G20 meeting.
We will share with you his plans as we get them whilst in Rio.
So look out for the various statements that we'll share with you from the Secretary General.
And in terms of statements from the Secretary General, of course, we shared with you a slew of his statements that were delivered in Baku at the COP 29.
So that was quite a number of statements which you have in your inbox throughout the week.
So in terms of Secretary General, lots of reading material, Yeah.
And just wanted to make sure you saw the statement we shared with you yesterday on behalf of UNIFIL in terms of Mr Jean Pierre Le Cual, who as you know is the Under Secretary General for Peace Operations, who concluded his three day visit to to the area to Lebanon yesterday.
Mr Lacroix is currently in Israel.
We'll share any updates we receive from our colleagues at the Peace Operations office.
The statement itself, he did refer to a number of important points his meetings that he had with Lebanese officials, including the parliament speaker, Minister of Defence, foreign minister, Lebanese army commander, etcetera.
And this is just citing a quote from from the statement that we did share with you.
Quote, peacekeepers from almost 50 contributing countries continue to do their utmost to implement their mandated task in a very difficult situation, in challenging conditions, he said.
Now he of course, as we have been doing here, we are calling again for a cessation of hostilities and of course the UN supports A diplomatic efforts towards that goal and in full implementation of resolution seventeen O 1.
So there's a statement that addresses these important messages in terms going shifting to meetings here in Geneva.
I wish to point out that the Committee Against Torture will, this coming Monday, that is 18th of November, the Committee Against Torture will have a follow up meeting on concluding observations and views adopted, adopting of individual complaints and will actually address a question of reprisals.
Sorry, reading through my notes here, the question of reprisals, which is obviously a very, very important one, In other words, threats and intimidations, acts of intimidation against those who cooperate with the various human rights mechanisms, including the Committee Against Torture in this case.
So that's an important meeting on a Monday morning.
The UPR Universal Periodic Review is concluding its 47th session this afternoon after adopting the last three reports for this session, which commenced the last Monday, the 4th of November.
So the adoption scheduled for this afternoon are Equatorial Guinea, Qatar and Nicaragua, and that's this afternoon at 4:00 PM.
But then the session will conclude press conferences, as we sent you the media advisory for the press conference we'll have here in this room with Mr Philippe Lazzarini, who, as you know, is the Commissioner General for UNRWA.
Now, this is at 1:00 PM on Monday the 18th, and he'll provide an update on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in the activities of UNRWA.
He will be joined, and this is just in.
He'll be joined by Mr Anton Leis, who's the Secretary Journal and executive director of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development.
And as you know, Mr Lazarini is here with the advisory committee, which is taking place on Monday and Tuesday next week.
Should point out this is diplomats only, but he is making time, as he usually does, to speak with members of the press, which is obviously an important encounter for you and for us.
Few observances and then I will stop speaking.
Just a couple just announcing today.
In fact, 15th of November is the International Day against Transnational Organised Crime.
It's an important day which highlights the urgent need for global solidarity to counter the rising ****** of organised crime which undermines peace, security and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
So very important day to observe.
And lastly, this coming Sunday, the 17th of November, is the World Day of Remembrance for Rd traffic victims.
So we do have a Secretary General's message, which among other things, highlights that some 1.19 million lives are lost every year on the world's roads.
Each death represents A profound tragedy for families, communities and societies.
So this is quite an important message that we are this day, rather that we're observing this coming Sunday, the 17th of November.
I think that is it from me.
So we'll turn to any questions you might have, starting with Nina Larson, AFP in the room.
Yeah, thanks.
I had a question for WHO which was on.
It was made clear yesterday that in the US that Trump will be appointing RFK Junior in as health secretary.
I'm wondering if there's any reaction to that or any concerns.
And I also had a question.
I see that, I see that the human rights people aren't online, but maybe someone else could comment on the decision for who will be Israeli ambassador in and the implications that we'll have, especially since there's an Israeli minister who has been talking about annexation of of the West Bank.
How concerned the the UN is about such comments?
Thank you.
Thank you, Nina.
We'll turn maybe Margaret, if you're online, I believe Margaret is online.
Yes, I'm here.
Hi, Margaret.
So you got the question from Nina?
Yep, yeah, Thanks Tina.
And now as you know, of course it's, oh, sorry, it's for WH OS Member states to make their decisions on the direction, implementation of their own national policies, agendas, who they appoint, etcetera.
But it is important to reiterate that the United States is a vital partner of the World Health Organisation and our collaboration, as you have seen over and over, has significantly improved the health of Americans at home and people around the world.
And obviously, WHO continues to work closely and productively with the United States government on many, many fronts in order to protect and promote public health.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Margaret.
OK, thank you very much for that.
Yeah, that's right.
There are no human rights colleagues online.
Maybe if anyone else wants to address this point, we can.
But of course, you know, we, as you know that we've been pushing for A2 state solution for a de escalation of the conflict.
Any, any annexation would be a violation.
So we're really we're really echoing that message repeatedly here.
So we hope and of course, other colleagues can chime in on this important point.
And Nina, but I note that there are no human rights colleagues who I think you initially pointed your question to.
They're not online, but maybe you can pose your question to them afterwards.
You have a follow up.
Go ahead.
It was just a follow up for Margaret.
It was.
I understand the the delicacy of the situation, but I'm just wondering, this is a person who's a renowned vaccine sceptic and who has pushed a number of, a number of, or at least promoted some of the conspiracy theories around around health issues.
I'm just wondering if there aren't concerns when one of the the the most powerful countries in the world is will have such a person in the as heading their health department.
Margaret, go ahead.
I just reiterate, you know, it's for member states to make their own decisions about who they appoint.
But again, I would point out the importance of the fantastic work that the US has done and I'm sure the US will continue to do fantastic work.
Thank you again, Margaret.
OK, we have a few hands online and in the room.
I'm Eva Kyodo News.
Thank you very much.
It's also for Margaret.
So tonight is the end normally of the IMB process.
Just a technical question.
When can we expect a press release from WHO and even more important, who is responsible tonight as a spokesperson if we need to contact you late at night?
I don't know.
Thank you.
So good point.
We're hoping to put sort of something short out as you know you had, we had a press conference on Monday, knowing the importance of this meeting and what was happening.
We will ideally have something late this evening after it's finished and of course just come through media enquiries.
We're all always monitoring it and we'll do our best to find you somewhere.
We've got several people on it and who will be awake at night making sure that we're in contact.
We're we're reachable.
Thanks very much, Margaret.
OK, we have a bunch of hands up online, starting with Emma Reuters.
Hey, a couple of questions for Jens, please.
There's obviously been a lot of bluster around whether Israel met or did not meet the conditions that the US delineated on improving aid to Gaza.
Has there been any improvement at all from your point of view?
And then just a second one, Tom Fletcher starting soon.
I'd love to know what the plans are in his first week.
Where will he be going and how can we ask him questions, meet him and find out about his priorities?
Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Emma.
On on the first question, that part I, I think that's, that's an issue between those setting the conditions and those being asked to meet them, right.
So between the United States and and Israel, whether they have been met or not, but from our perspective, but on all indicators you can possibly think of in a human response of all, all of them are going in the wrong direction, right?
Access is at a low point.
Chaos, suffering, despair, death, destruction, displacement is at a **** point.
We have seen, as you know, I've been particularly concerned about the situation in in the north of Gaza, which is now effectively on the siege.
And it is near impossible to deliver aid in there.
So the operation is being stifled.
It's being, you know, the knees are being shot at, if you can put it like that.
One of my colleagues described it as from a human, from for humanitarian worker, which which is when you are faced with a situation like that, you want to jump, you want to jump up and do something.
But what he added was but our legs are broken.
So we've been asked to jump, but our legs are broken.
That is the picture of it right now.
You can see Emma in our daily updates that we shared with you the details of the numbers of what I'm talking about here.
That will give you a wider picture.
Tom Fletcher, our new Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has announced that he will officially start on the 17th.
So that will be on Sunday.
And on that occasion we will issue, of course, some public announcement.
I believe that there's a press release in the making.
And at that point we will we will tell you where we're at and where we're heading.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Yen's well noted.
OK, Couple more questions.
Lisa VOA.
Yeah, thank you.
This is for Margaret.
Hello, Margaret.
I'd like you to put on your Ukrainian cap, please.
And could, could you talk about the health situation in Ukraine?
Mr Shmali made a mention of the depth of mental health problems that people have and we'll be going through and so forth.
But if you could give some more information about the general health conditions situation in the country, What?
Let's see what, what?
Yeah.
And and about attacks, whether attacks are still occurring against the medical care and if you have numbers regarding that.
Thank you.
Back to you, Margaret.
Just struggling with the unmute.
Yeah, Lisa, I do not have the latest numbers in front of me.
Apologies.
I should have knowing that we would have this briefing.
But indeed, attacks on health are an ongoing problem.
We've seen this.
Over and over.
And it's one of our concerns that worldwide in the conflicts we're seeing, health is no longer respected as as it should be, as clearly indicated.
It is not a target, it is never a target.
And yet we are seeing hospitals targeted.
We're seeing people, doctors, nurses, patients losing their lives while in the sanctuary, the supposed sanctuary of hospitals.
And that's that includes in Ukraine.
We're particularly concerned about, as was mentioned, winter, the arrival of winter, winter and preparing people for that being making it possible for people to have access to healthcare, health services.
And indeed, you're quite right to raise the mental health issues.
That was something that we are working right from the beginning of the conflict.
In fact, with the First Lady, Madam Zelenska set up a mental health programme to reach everybody at community level for numbers.
I will have to get back to you to give you firm numbers.
But indeed, the health situation is massively impacted by the conflict because people are continuing to suffer from the, the attacks, the uncertainty, the the the lack of shelter and people, so many displaced people.
So all those issues are ongoing.
Thank you so much, Margaret.
And if you don't mind, just of course, we'll wait for those details from you, Margaret.
But just concerning, or rather referring to a note that I had before me then in fact, The Who has confirmed close to 2000 attacks on healthcare since 24 February 2022, which is just a staggering number.
So I just wanted to mention that to put things in context.
And of course, Margaret will provide more, more granularity with some of the details on this very, very important sector.
Imogen.
BBC Hi Sir, thanks for taking my question.
It's for Margaret again.
The Who published its annual measles stats last night and you saw a surge in in 2023, I think 20% upon 2022.
Does vaccine, vaccine misinformation fuelling this this surge?
How concerned are you about vaccine misinformation?
So my, the experts who prepared that report actually asked these questions very well in our press conference yesterday.
So I'm, I'm well prepared.
It's a mixture of things.
In fact, where we're seeing a lot of the surges, the surge that was often looks huge in Europe is, was coming off a pretty small base.
So it's not clear whether it's vaccine hesitancy or more simply lack of access because we've been through the Covic 19 pandemic where a lot of people couldn't actually get the routine health services.
And in many of the countries where we're seeing still far too many deaths.
But again, it's more sometimes financial lack of access to even just get on a bus and get to the health centre or the health centre not being open or the health or the health system really not being able to deliver at the level it needs to deliver.
So the essentially the causes are multiple, but vaccine hesitancy is something that is a problem and is something that we do certainly continue to do our utmost to address.
Thanks again, Margaret, Lisa, VOA.
Yeah, just a quick follow up.
First of all, thanks, Margaret.
And yeah, I would appreciate getting whatever material you have in terms of the numbers and so forth.
But I'd like to ask you whether health providers are running into problems in terms of accessing people and the kind of problems that people who are ill, especially in the front line areas, are having on reaching any kind of a facility, Primary Health care or whatever it is in order to get the medical care that they need.
Again, that's a highly specific question, so I will have to get back to my colleagues on the ground to give you detailed answers.
But I think we can all understand when you've got a conflict going on, you are not only it's not possible for people to go physically out because of the danger, but also again, it's not possible for the healthcare workers necessarily to be in the facility because of the danger.
Or you also have limitations on supplies and all those other issues.
So you may need your ****, you know your blood pressure medications, but you can't get them because they're not there or you can't actually get to the the health facility.
So particularly wherever there's ongoing conflict, you've, you've got limitations on your ability to provide healthcare.
But having been there and having seen how extraordinary the healthcare workers are, the minute they get a chance to rebuild and get back in there and, and provide what's needed, they do.
So it's it's not ideal, clearly not ideal, but it is quite extraordinary the efforts that the healthcare workers go to to ensure the health of the people is served.
Absolutely.
One last question from Jamie of AP Good morning.
Thank you, Rolando, and good morning, Margaret.
I just wanted to ask you, The Who, of course, has just come off of a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza.
I just wanted to ask you if you could tell us what WH OS position is on vaccination in general and specifically, do you believe that all vaccinations, all vaccines that have been authorised by WHO are safe and effective?
Thank you.
Goodness, Jamie, We certainly wouldn't authorise A vaccine unless we felt it was safe and effective.
We use three different.
But by authorise are you talking about?
Yes, the vaccines have to meet three different criteria for us to authorise them and that's and and I think by authorise your are you talking about our pre qualification, are you talking about our emergency use listing?
But essentially they have to, they have to either have been authorised by a, what we call a stringent regulatory authority that's an authority whose procedures meet the safety, the efficacy and the good manufacturing practises standards that make it a, a vaccine that we would consider appropriate for use.
So I think that's what you're you're asking.
And indeed, we don't use, we use the vaccines that meet those criteria.
And of course, in Gaza, we want to be able to continue the vaccination.
And it was, for instance, all the unrar staff who would, who were providing Primary Health care were doing a lot of what they were doing was providing vaccination.
And I think you've heard over and over again from our representative in Gaza, Doctor Rick Peppercorn, that Gaza had one of the best records, one of the highest levels of a child vaccination in the world.
It was really a model.
Now that's dropped.
We've got a cohort of of babies who've been born who've not been able to get their vaccination because of the conflict.
But there has been every effort to reach provide vaccination wherever possible.
Thank you, Margaret.
I think Jamie wanted to clarify the question.
Go ahead, Jamie.
Margaret, I didn't want to get bogged down into the sort of PQ issue or whether or not it's authorised or approved.
I basically, I mean, who supports the rollout of certain numbers of vaccines across the country, across the world.
And my question, really my basic question is just how important are vaccines for protecting lives and ensuring good health outcomes for people around the world?
Absolutely critical and very good question, Jamie.
In fact, vaccines are the reason so many more of us have survived to adulthood than we ever did before.
They are so effective that they're almost a victim of their success that the, the diseases they prevent aren't seen in many communities, such as polio, but many of the other childhood diseases that it, you know, it was an expectation people had 1015 children expecting only two to reach their 5th birthday.
And, and what has changed is the, the, the, the vaccine preventable diseases have been, have disappeared in their communities where there has been effective and **** levels of where, where vaccination has been widely available and has been widely taken up.
Well said, Margaret, I think that clarifies point that this point.
Do we have further questions on this or any other issues before we wrap up the press briefing?
No, that is not the case.
So I have read out my announcements.
We've heard from various colleagues and I'd like to thank you once again for joining us.
I wish you a good weekend.
See you here on Tuesday.