OK, Well, warm welcome and thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva for this press briefing.
Today, the 19th of November, we have another very packed agenda.
We have the situation in Lebanon, we have Ukraine.
We have an update on the COP 29.
We also have an announcement to mark World Children's Day, which is tomorrow.
We also have announcements from FAONWHO on the Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week.
So we have colleagues to speak on that as well as a colleague from the ITU.
So very, very packed agenda.
Will, without further ado, I'm going to throw it to my colleague and friend, Andrea Tenente, who's as you know, the spokesperson for UNIFIL EU, NS peace peacekeeping force in in Southern Lebanon, who's going to give us an update on the situation on the ground.
And then I'm going to go immediately to James from UNICEF for to also address Lebanon.
Thank you very much Rolando and thank you for hosting UNIFIL.
I, I will start with a few minutes of, of remarks that I hope then will be distributed to to the media after the briefing.
Since my last briefing over a month ago, tension across the Blue Line has has increased.
While hostilities continued with renewed intensity.
Israeli grand incursions have entered deeper inside Lebanon.
Ground clashes inside Lebanon are getting more violent, including some of them taking place very close to our positions.
Daily Israeli air strikes in Lebanon, as well as missile and drone attacks by Hizbollah into Israel have caused widespread destructions of towns and villages on both sides of the of the Blue Line.
Just giving a figure from the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, as of yesterday, more than 3000 five 3500 people have been killed and nearly 15,000 injured since the conflict started one year ago.
Most of these casualties were recorded after the dramatic escalation that started two months ago.
The international reputation for migration has also recorded nearly 900,000 people displaced internally.
It's estimated that more than 500,000 people of the total displays are from UNIFIL air of operation, so almost 60% since the facility started last year.
UNIFIL has also suffered numerous hits on his assets and personnel, a total of 162 impacts with more than 1/3 in less than two months.
More than 20 peacekeepers have been injured so far, fortunately none of them must life threatening conditions.
Unifield has also been playing a crucial role in facilitating life saving work of humanitarian actors in set of operations, coordinating daily with the ADF, LAF as well with Lebanese authorities and humanitarian agencies.
For example, in the last four months, UNIFIL has facilitated around 1200 civilian and humanitarian activities in areas close to the blind.
Among the humanitarian activities include facilitating work of the Lebanese Red Cross, Civil Defence, humanitarian organisations, journalist as well as force protection for UNIFIL and for the Lebanese Army.
Unified of Mission and Force Commander Lieutenant General Lazaro continues to maintain an open channel of communication with the parties.
The focus of this contact is geared towards de escalating tensions, recommitting the parties to Resolution 1701 and returning to the cessation of hostilities.
The posture of our more than 10,000 peacekeepers from nearly fifty countries remain unchanged.
Since the 23rd of September's we have not left our positions.
All of them remain in all our 50 positions across the Arab operations, monitoring and reporting the situation on the ground.
UN Under Secretary general for peace Operation Lacroix visited Lebanon and UNIFIL last week.
One of the objective of the visit was to show solidarity with UNIFIL peacekeepers and also meeting with Lebanese authorities before travelling to Israel.
He also took the opportunity to renew calls for the escalation and the return to the cessation of hostilities.
I understand that Mister Lacroix will be briefing New York at the noon briefing later on.
Resolution 17 One has been significantly challenged in this 14 months, but its key provisions of safety, security and long term solutions remain valid.
While its full implementation still remains one of the most viable political road map to peace, UNIFIL stands ready to support any framework.
The parties agree to end the hostilities.
Thank you and ready to take take your questions.
Thank you very much, Andrea, for that very comprehensive overview.
I'm going to throw right now to James Elder of UNICEF and then we'll take questions after.
Despite more than 200 children killed in Lebanon in less than two months, a disconcerting pattern has emerged.
Their deaths are being met with inertia from those able to stop this violence.
For the children of Lebanon, it's become a silent normalisation of horror.
Now, in an effort to break that, we just want to go back just simply over the last 10 days in Lebanon for children, Sunday, November 10, seven children were killed from an extended family.
The family of 27 who were all killed were seeking shelter in Mount Lebanon after fleeing violence in the South.
On Monday, two more children were killed with their mother.
On Tuesday, 13 children were killed, 13 more were injured, including an 8 year old boy, Ahmed, who is now the sole surviving member of his family.
On Wednesday, four children were killed again having sought to flee violence in the South.
On Thursday, three children were killed, 13 were injured.
Last Saturday, 16 November, five children were killed, including three from the same family.
Among the injured there was Celine Hadar, a young football player with the Lebanese National Football side.
She's currently in a coma from shrapnel to her head.
And on Sunday, 2 twins, 4 year old girls were killed.
Indeed, over the last two months in Lebanon, an average of three children have been killed every single day.
Of course, many more have been injured, many more traumatised.
Now we must hope that humanity never again allows the ongoing level of carnage of children in Gaza.
Though there are chilling similarities for children in Lebanon.
One the hundreds of thousands of children who've been made homeless in a very, very short period of time, the last six weeks in the country.
2 The disproportionate attacks, many of which are hitting infrastructure that on which children rely, so medical facilities have been attacked.
Health workers are being killed at an increasing speed.
As of November 15, more than 200 health sector workers have been killed and 300 injured, all according to Lebanon's Ministry of Health.
3rd Despite efforts in November to open some schools and get children back into learning, given the widespread attacks over the past weekend, all schools are again closed.
The 4th Chilling similarity to Gaza, The grave psychological impact on children.
Again, we are seeing alarming signs of emotional turmoil across child populations.
And perhaps the most worrying parallel to Gaza, the escalation of children being killed is eliciting no meaning from meaningful response from those with influence.
Now as UNICEF seeks to tackle this humanitarian crisis, we've provided 10s of thousands of blankets, of sleeping bags, of mattresses, of hygiene kits, meals, showers, toilets.
That's all for the displaced.
When we talk about 400,000 children displaced, I think there's a, there can be a, a sense that displacement means being moved for one other displaced.
It's quite a gentle word.
Of course, displacement for a child involves a very tumultuous upheaval, usually amid violence.
And then the great irony, they then find themselves in classrooms as the last line of resort, sleeping in classrooms, not learning in classrooms.
Our work has meant 450,000 people again have access to safe water.
We are providing psychosocial support to children.
We are supplying tonnes and tonnes of medical support to a health system under attack.
All of this despite the fact that UNICEF's latest appeal is less than 20% funded.
And as the attacks intensify, so too does the level of need.
Indeed, in Lebanon, much the same that is the case in Gaza.
The intolerable is transforming into the acceptable.
The appalling is slipping into the realm of the expected.
And once more the cries of children go unheard.
The world's silence grows deafening.
And again, we allow the unimaginable to become the landscape of childhood, A horrific and unacceptable new normal.
Thank you all very much, James.
It's very hard to hear this.
I can't imagine what it's like for the people on the ground to endure this.
But we'll take questions now.
And we'll start for with any questions in the room perhaps before we turn online.
And if you can kindly just indicate who you're pointing your question to, Emma, It's for UNIFIL, please.
I had a question after on Gaza for UN agencies generally.
Let me know if this is the time.
Probably not, but let me know the first one.
There have been some reports of some governments, including Argentina withdrawing troops from UNIFIL.
I believe they were officers.
Have you had any withdrawals since the escalation 2 months ago?
And is this impacting your operations at all?
Thank you for your question.
Argentina has asked their officers to go back.
There are three Argentinian officers in in UNIFIL.
So our capabilities, operational capabilities have not changed.
All the other contingents, all the other group contributing countries have shown their commitments to stay, especially after we were asked a month ago by the idea of to move from our positions close to the line was a unanimous decision from everybody to, to remain to stays.
We are still there in all our 50 positions in very difficult situation.
As I said, it's important to stay, to be there to monitor, to assist as much as we can the, the, the population in South Lebanon and be here also for the future of, of, of Unifield.
So nothing has changed nor other countries have asked to withdraw their peacekeepers from, from UNIFIL.
I just saw the cable and just ask to the return.
I think that's maybe a questions would be maybe good to ask to them to the Argentinian authorities.
Further questions in the room before we go online.
So we'll turn that to Musa of Al Mayadin.
My question for Unifil, can you please tell us about the size of the areas occupied by Israel since the beginning of the current war, the villages and the distance from the blue line?
And I have a question for UNICEF.
When we say the 200 children killed in Lebanon, this is from the beginning of the war in October 23 or just from two months?
Yeah, the, the difficult to say because our monitoring capabilities have been very limited, but we did see a incursions and enter deeper inside Lebanese territories, not sure how many kilometres, but like 2 or 3 kilometres inside, but not permanently.
So then, then they withdraw, they go back to their to their positions.
So there have been entering deeper inside the the the territory, but not permanently.
The destruction nevertheless has been huge, as you know, shocking what we see across the line, along the line in village like Cafequila, Maruna, Ras and others that have been completely destroyed by the incursions of the of the IVF in these areas.
But as I said, our monitoring capabilities have been very limited because of the ongoing shelling.
But we have seen entering deeper inside Lebanese territories.
But as I said, also going back after, after the military operation.
No, the, the number of just over 200 is just in the last two months.
It's at least 231 since the start of the war last year.
Again, in the last two months, it's around just over 1100 injured children.
Just just briefly to give a sense of that, because it's not you can't overlook children being killed.
But the, the attacks on children when I was in Lebanon last week and was in a hospital and seeing a little girl who was wounded, a six year old girl, Salson SAWSAN.
And she's just lying there, but just all the back of a hair shaving because of the shrapnel in her head, not moving in the slightest, cannot walk, cannot speak, cannot hear.
And and what do you say you can hear in her room is just her gritting of her teeth because she's in such pain.
And she has some mental issues, psychological mental issues now brain injury.
And but I asked her mum, how was she before this?
And her mother showed me a photo of her a month earlier.
And it's a six year old girl with pink hair, braids and dancing like any of you know, a six year old girl.
So, you know, when we talk of 1100 wounded, injured children in the last two months, this is what we mean when we say attacks on childhood.
We'll take a question of from well, let's maybe take a question back in the room and then we'll go to Nick afterwards.
So this would be a question to to James Elder from from UNICEF about those more than 200 children killed in Lebanon in less than two months.
Could you be a little more specific about in which circumstances and and if you are appointing any, any of the parties who, who, who has killed the majority of them?
Yeah, UNICEF, given where we work, given our frontline, given we work with state actors and non state actors we don't name, but anyone who follows the media should have a fairly strong indication of how these children have been killed, where the Rockets have been fired from where these children were, where they were fleeing, where they the same, the same as Gaza.
Now we'll turn to Nick, New York Times and we'll go back to you Jeremy afterwards.
I just want to check how much of the South is, is, is still populated, you have an estimate of the number of Lebanese still living in southern areas?
Secondly, is UNIFIL still able to maintain controls in in the Blue Zone or is the presence of Israeli troops essentially restricting that?
And are you, you've had several observation towers that have been attacked.
Are these being replaced?
Is your capacity, your monitoring capacity is still the same.
In terms of population in the South, as I said, there are the usual population in South Lebanon in our area of operation is around 600,000 people and over 500 thousands have left.
So really fewer, maybe more than 500,000.
So the figures I had was a bit over 5060 thousand people left in, in South Lebanon.
So and they're still in need of of assistance.
So that's the figures we have.
In terms of monitoring capability, as I said, very, very limited because of the ongoing conflict.
We are able to do some operational activities along the line, logistical support, trying to assist also humanitarian aid agency to bring assistance to the local population.
But as James was mentioning before, some similarity with Gaza and the fact that we cannot ensure the safety and security of the convoys because safety and security is not granted.
So we try to do whatever we can, our utmost to provide this support, but has been very difficult.
The same for providing monitoring activities.
But it's important to be there and to be able to provide this information to the Security Council.
Our towers and our some of our positions have been attacked and and heavily damaged.
We have been able to repair most of them.
We are still working on fixing some of the positions, but this has been definitely a very difficult moment because we have been also deliberately attacked by, by, by, by the IDF in recent months.
And we're doing our utmost to rebuild the, the areas and the places and, and tea walls have been destroyed by, by these attacks.
Andrea, I should mention, since you mentioned the Security Council, I, I meant I'd note that the Security Council will hold consultations behind closed doors on the situation in Lebanon this afternoon, New York time.
Jeremy, you had a question.
Hi James, Talking about the the casualties, you you, you mentioned the similar similarities for children in Gaza and and Lebanon, yet maybe the difference is that you don't have famine yet in Lebanon.
I'd like to know, among those 231 children, are you starting to see casualties because of other consequences than direct attacks, meaning lack of healthcare?
Lack of food, lack of water, lack of hygiene, lack of, you know, are you seeing those yet in Lebanon OR is it yet to come?
No, thankfully we're not.
There is no doubt that the Poly crisis, if you will, I mean, I spoke to people who've had their home destroyed, who also saw their pension five years ago, you know, be reduced by 99% in the economic collapse.
So people have been hit in ways that that most of us hope we never experience one of those crises and they've had three or four.
No, the health system is very strong organisations WHO, UNICEF supply supply, you know, with with in a robust way.
But we have seen again this continuous and ongoing or escalating attacks on services that children rely on water points particularly.
So at the moment we're able to to respond accordingly and a distribution is not anywhere like Gaza.
But again, these signs and I think it was interesting listening.
Now one of the other parallels, talking to colleagues on the ground over the weekend who were very shaken by the big attacks in central Beirut, people talking about nowhere is safe.
And this again just becomes a phrase that we use very, very easily now as if nowhere is safe.
Of course, we started talking about it a year ago to really explain, despite the statements made, that nowhere in Ghazra is safe.
That's why children are being killed everywhere.
That's becoming the case in Lebanon.
The frontline shifts everywhere.
Families are moving, they're told to move.
They don't know where to move to.
So it's important we sit on this phrase, nowhere is safe for a moment and understand what that means to a family who's lost a home and is living in a shelter.
But doesn't that shelter does not represent any form of real safety to them.
Thank you very much, James and Andrea.
Jamie question AP Hi, Mr Tenanti, thank you for coming back to see us.
I'm Jamie from Associated Press.
I wanted to just ask you, you sort of alluded to the answer.
You sort of answered my question in responding to Nick.
But I guess my real question is, given the circumstances on the ground right now in southern Lebanon, how much consideration is actually being given?
And in light of what the the Argentine Argentinians are doing, how much consideration is being given to the possibility of a broader drawdown of forces in UNIFIL to in the current state of affairs?
I understand that, you know, in in times of relative peace compared to right now, UNIFIL has a has a very important role.
But given the, the, the heat of the conflict right now, how much consideration is being given to the possibility of, of drawing down or, or pulling back into from, from your positions?
And if you could just also tell us, give us a little bit of a flavour as to what might be said today to the Security Council if UNIFIL is going to be presenting.
And yeah, well, I think it was very clear two months ago when the IDF asked UNIFIL to withdraw from all their positions close to the blind and the the the answer was immediately a no, we are staying.
There was a strong support from commitment from all the group contributing countries, from the Security Council and also a strong support also for the mission when we have been attacked deliberately several times.
So there is no discussion of, of withdrawing at all.
So we are here not only because we need to be here to monitor and to be present and to do as much as we can to support humanitarian organisation, to assist the local populations, but also for, for the day after to see what will be the role of, of, of the mission.
We are ready to support any agreement that can be decided by both sides and and that's why we're here.
So there is no discussion of withdrawing.
We're still there in very difficult and challenging situation, especially for peacekeepers and positions close to the blue line where they're really having very difficult conditions, especially now that the weather is, we are entering into, into, into winter.
In relation to the Security Council, I, I really, we have to wait for the Security Council to to meet and for USG Lacroix and and also Ansco to brief the, the, the council.
I've at the moment no much information, but we have to wait for this afternoon.
And I'm sorry, Nick, I think you had you wanted some further clarification on your previous question.
Well, it's actually a follow up very similar to Jamie's questionnaire in the sense that Mister Tenanti, what could you just give us a word on who Mr Lacrosse saw in Israel?
And if you could just sort of say did he get any reaffirmation of an Israeli willingness to apply, comply with 1701?
Was there any tangible outcome that you can allude to at this point?
Well, I, I can just say that 17 O1 remains the mainframework for any peace agreement negotiations.
I'm not going to preempt Mr Lacrosse briefing later on in New York at the noon briefing.
So I will leave this to up to him to to answer questions and and brief the media on his recent strip to to Lebanon and and and to Israel.
Nick, is that still like your hand up or is that from before?
Could you just tell us who who he met in Israel?
I mean, was he meeting Minister of Defence?
Did he meet Mr Netanyahu?
Can can we at least see global engagement was yeah, I, I, I think I don't have much much information.
That's a question to be asked to to New Yorker now know that he met with people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also with the with with the IDF.
And that's what he did also going to the north of Israel.
But details about all these visits would be something that he will brief all of you in, in, in, in in a few hours, I guess.
I think it's 3:00 PM New York time.
So that's 9:00 PM here in Geneva.
I think we've exhausted the questions on Lebanon.
So with that, big thanks to you, Andrea.
And please do join us anytime here for this briefing.
And thanks again to you, James.
I know that you need to run.
Emma, We have a question on Gaza.
We do have some briefers online as well as some in the room.
But let's take your questions since it's in the same same region.
Maybe James or maybe WHO would be best placed to answer.
As you probably know, there was a big looting incident, maybe the biggest since the war began over the weekend in Gaza.
And I'm wondering if you have managed to get in any aid since that incident.
How worried are you and how is it affecting your planning?
For a long time we have spoken about a whole range of issues more times than I can recall, which have resolved focused around more entry points, more consistency when it comes to delays and denials.
More roads within Gaza, more roads within Gaza would help security, more security on the ground in Gaza.
Once you create a level of desperation and as has in Gaza, then there there is no obvious police force there.
But as we all know, the the the legal responsibility for the safe distribution of aid in Gaza does remain with Israel as the occupying power.
We haven't seen, we haven't seen the entry points, we haven't seen the access.
We've seen a war of words.
I mean, truth has been a casualty of this war from the very beginning.
That history will be very clear on actions actually taken.
But for me, having been to Gaza quite a few times and sat with colleagues and been on convoys, the evidence is very, very clear on what needs to be done.
And it's been clear time and again we've seen that from the highest levels of advocacy.
And each time we've seen little or no action, certainly no meaningful action.
And now we have situations like this on the at the onset of winter, at the onset of winter.
I mean last month in October, around 10% of the supplies for the shelter cluster got to those people in the north coming through their second winter.
So those people have been displaced 3 or 4 times.
Again, that word displacement, living in a tent, the tents ripped, they've lost blankets as they've moved.
So there is a grave lack of winter supplies for people in the South and of course a lethal lack of nutritional and medical supplies for people under siege in the north.
Thank you very much, James.
And we're Margaret want to chime in on this point.
Yes, indeed, it's a really important question.
We are very, very concerned.
It's getting harder and harder to get the aid in.
It's getting harder and harder to get the specialist personnel in at a time when there is greater and greater need.
We are particularly concerned about Camel Adwan Hospital.
There are still 78 patients there, including 58 adults.
Of them there are 6 in intensive care unit and there are 14 children in there.
There's a lack of food and drinking water, shortage of medical supplies.
It's really only enough for two weeks at the very best.
But a lot of the specific supplies are just not there.
There's like a medical staff.
There's only one paediatrician and one resident orthopaedic volunteer doctor.
Between the 8th to the 16th November, full missions were WHO missions we tried to get up to go were denied.
And the 9th and 10th missions on the 9th and 10th were only for they only.
It was only permitted for us to deploy an emergency medical team.
We wanted to also provide fuel and supplies and water, but we were only allowed to to do patient referral and delivery supplies, but we were not allowed to bring fuel.
So we urgently, urgently need to to be able to bring in the correct aid to do the work to keep Kamal AD One hospital functional.
And that means regular unobstructed access, not arbitrary denials.
Just as James said, the denials are arbitrary.
It's impossible to plan, it's impossible to bring the things in, and we need to be able to bring in the emergency medical teams.
There are wonderful people who are willing to risk a very dangerous situation to help those children, but we're not being able to get them in.
Thank you very much, Margaret.
Before we move to Ukraine, do we have any other questions on Gaza or the Middle East?
Well, I know we're going to come back to you, Marg, in a bit.
You're welcome to stay here or go back as you like.
But we're going to go now to Ukraine and then COP and then back to Margaret and a colleague from WHO to mark Children's Day.
But let's let's go right now to Jeremy Lawrence of the UN Human Rights Office for an update on Ukraine as we mark 1000 days since the Russian armed attack.
Thanks, Rolo and good morning, everyone.
Today marks the grim milestone of 1000 days since the Russian Federation launched its full scale armed attack on Ukraine.
Our office has verified that at least 12,162 civilians have been killed since the 24th of February 2022, among them 659 children.
At least another 26,919 civilians have been injured.
Over the past two days, at least 30 civilians have reportedly been killed in a series of deadly strikes in residential areas in Sumi city, Odessa and Hu Kiev.
In the very latest attack in Ku Kiev, which occurred late last night, 9 civilians, including a child, were reportedly killed and 11, including two children injured.
Search and rescue operations are ongoing.
On Monday, the head of the UN human Rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, Daniel Bell, visited several locations in Zaporicha that had been struck by Russian glide bombs.
These carry large amounts of explosive material which when deployed in cities and other populated areas, cause extensive civilian casualties and damage to civilian property.
Among the sites visited was an oncology centre hit by a glide bomb on the 7th of November at 2:30 PM where cancer patients were undergoing chemotherapy at the time of the attack.
The medical centre sustained severe damage and is now undergoing repairs.
Bell also visited the site of an apartment building where half of the structure was destroyed by another glide bomb, also on the 7th of November.
In this incident, 10 people lost their lives.
Colleagues in our human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine later spoke with a man whose home had been destroyed after two vehicles thrown through the air by the blast wave on the same day struck his house.
A family suffered A devastating loss.
Their 20 year old son was killed in the attack.
His mother, who was severely injured, remains in hospital.
The family's two Storey home, the largest in the neighbourhood, was almost completely levelled by the glide bombs.
As the **** Commissioner has said, it has been 1000 days too many of senseless pain and suffering.
Violations of human rights have become the order of the day, both in the conduct of hostilities and in areas under occupation.
We call on all parties to ensure the safety and protection of civilians.
Effective measures must also be taken to fully and impartially investigate where there are credible allegations of violations.
The violence must stop for the sake of the people of Ukraine, the people of Russia and the world.
The **** Commissioner repeats his call on the Russian Federation to cease immediately its armed attack and to withdraw all of its military forces from Ukraine.
Russia must meet its international obligations under the UN Charter, the order of the International Court of Justice and other applicable law.
Thank you very much, Jeremy.
And I just draw your attention to the statement that we did share with you yesterday from the Secretary General to the Security Council that was actually delivered on his behalf by Rosemary De Carlo's Under Secretary General for Political and Peace Building Affairs.
And as we just heard the Secretary General, I could very strongly those those comments about this increase in the significant increase in civilian casualties over the last two months alone, noting that October and November saw some of the most intense and large large scale missile and drone attacks during the war.
And this is all contained in the statement that we shared with you yesterday.
We have a question from Christian front Row German news agency.
I understand that the 12,000 deaths are verified.
Can you give us an estimate?
What what percentage is that of the actual figure?
That's a hard question to answer.
1000 days has a long time where people there are obviously people missing.
This is obviously just, it's just the first figure that we've we we can provide and we will continue the verification process.
But for sure you're talking more probably a lot more indeed.
Thank you very much, Jamie.
AP Hi, Jeremy, Thank you for coming to see us.
I wanted to just ask you, we've over the last thousand days, we've had any number of times people like you from the human rights office and others calling on Russia to respect international law, calling for an end to the violence.
Is there anything right now that gives you hope that this might be coming to an end?
Jamie, we've we've always got hope.
That's obviously I think the, the, the the testimonies that I shared today from Danielle are obviously dire the situation.
But we have an international system.
We're sitting here today as as with my colleagues from the UN and we will continue to speak out when there are violations and remind states of their obligations, whether it be under the UN charter or whether it be applying the standards set by international humanitarian law or human rights laws.
So we will continue to to, to speak up when when we need to, in the hope that yes, we will have influence and we will persuade states to stop the violence and to abide by their obligations.
Maybe maybe just to also remind you, I mean, for 1000 days now, the Secretary general and colleagues have been saying that the war must end, that this untold suffering of the Ukrainian people needs to come to an end.
And this is something we've been saying, you know, without pause for 1000 days now.
So it's, it's absolutely abhorrent that this situation is continuing as such.
I think we have one more question actually before we turn to the next subject, Antonio of FA, Thank you very much.
So I, I want to ask if you are concerned about even even more escalation of hostilities, more effects for, for civilians in Ukraine now that President Biden has has given Ukraine permission to.
To strike targets in, in Russia.
And just today Russia in in in response to that has updated it's nuclear doctrine.
If I may just echo what other colleagues within, within the UN have already said, the the protection of civilian lives, civilian objects, civilian infrastructure has to be the priority in the conduct of any all hostilities, as simple as that.
The the use of weapons in conflict must prioritise the the prevention of harm to civilians.
That's first and foremost.
Actually, we do have one more question, Nick, New York Times.
This isn't, in fact, on Ukraine, it's on Hong Kong.
I wanted to ask if OHCHR has a reaction to the sentences that have just been handed out to in Hong Kong.
And secondly, I'd like to ask what the sentences tell us about the effectiveness of the dialogue that Mister Volker Turk has been maintaining with the Chinese authorities in terms of producing any improvements in human rights.
Yes, Nick, I can give you a response.
So we, as in the UN Human Rights Office, along along with UN Special Procedures, have repeatedly brought the cases of the Hong Kong 47 and of Jimmy Lai to the attention of the Government of China, including directly with the Hong Kong authorities.
We are gravely concerned by the use of the security laws and the breadth to criminalise conduct protected by human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.
Beyond the large numbers of accused directly impacted by criminal proceedings, these laws have major chilling effects on others in Hong Kong SAR, including the media, political dissidents, legislators, human rights defenders, lawyers, students, academia, bloggers and artists.
Well, thank you so much, Jeremy and thanks for the question, Nick.
I don't see well nothing on Ukraine and maybe yeah, go ahead on Hong Kong.
Jeremy, I think if I understood Nick's question correctly also he alluded to the **** Commissioner in your office's communications with the Beijing.
Can you address that issue?
I mean, you know, there has been some serious concerns and the advocacy community that the, that the arrangement that you've set up with the Chinese government is not bearing any fruit.
And does this, these these sentences in in Hong Kong now testify to the fact that your channels of communication are not being effective.
We will continue to engage with the with the Chinese authorities as we have done in the past.
Nothing changes in that respect.
Having said that, as I said earlier, we are gravely concerned by the use of this security law.
Thank you very much, Jeremy.
I think we will now stay with you on different subject entirely before we come to you, Margaret.
I know we have a few other briefers as well as lined up for you, but Jeremy is going to give an update on the COP 29 in the urgent need for human rights based climate action.
With COP 29 in Baku now in its second and final week, the UN human rights chief Volcker Turk has reiterated his call for urgent human rights based climate action.
We need COP 29 to mobilise trillions, not billions of dollars in climate finance to keep the increasing global average temperature under 1.5°C and to catalyse more ambitious national climate commitments.
We should expect and demand that those that have contributed the most to climate change to date pay more.
Those most affected by climate change must have the funds they need to build resilience to climate change as well as access to effective remedy.
These are urgent human rights priorities.
This makes it all the more concerning that there has been a discernible lack of progress on many vital issues so far at COP 29, and even some efforts to backtrack on previously agreed human rights language.
The UN **** Commissioner for Human Rights stresses that the COP 29 negotiations are about our collective future.
Remain on the current devastating trajectory for the planet and humanity, or work for a rapid, equitable and just transition to sustainable economies and societies with human rights at their core.
Very important messages indeed.
Do we have questions on this subject for Jeremy?
No, I don't see that's a case.
So thank you once again for those 3 briefings.
And now it's time for me to come back to Margaret, who's going to introduce her colleague and our guest from The Who.
So, Margaret, over to you.
I'm delighted to bring Doctor Martina Panazzotto, who you haven't met before, but she leads on something really important.
It's finding the right formulations people for children's medicines.
You may or may not know this, but there is a serious lack of that.
So while we've heard of the awful things that have been done to children, there are also some very good things we can do for children.
Over to you, Doctor Panazzotto.
And it's really a great opportunity to share with you today a few of the numbers and and a little bit of the situation that we're facing with providing medicines to children because we know that despite the progress in reducing child mortality, there is still a substantial lack of medicines that children face globally.
That is because the medicine might not be approved for use of children.
They might not be available in age appropriate formulations or they might simply not be available where they need to be used.
So I know that everyone is being a child.
So we all know that children are not small adults.
We know that they can't take capsules.
They can't, they can't necessarily swallow big tablets.
And So what we need is, is really formulations that are adaptable to them.
We need the sprinkle, the formulation that can be sprinkled, that can be crushed, that can be dissolved in water or in breast milk so that these children can in fact take the medicines that they need.
I'll give you a few figures just to give you a bit of a size of the issue that we're facing.
We know that today a child can wait 10 years and in the case of cancer, even 20 years before a novel medicine approved for an adult is actually available in age appropriate formulations for children.
We also know that less than 10% of the research and development work that the pharmaceutical sector leads on addresses the needs of children and that triggers and, and, and an issue that it's not just of long middle in countries, but effects all children globally.
For example, in the antibiotic space, the WTO antibacterial pipeline that was published recently show that we're not doing enough for children and only six out of the 32 antibiotics that are in the pipeline are actually being investigated in children living 3,000,000 newborns every year, getting sepsis and potentially risking their life because of antimicrobial resistance.
The gap is even greater when we think about neglected tropical diseases where less than 1/2 of the treatment that are available for adults are actually investigated and approved for children.
If you look at visual Eichmanniasis, for example, half of the population affected by this disease is in children.
Yet the formulations that we have available are capsules or injectables that are very difficult to administer to children, that are malnourished and have very poor muscle mass.
I think we need to remember though that when these formulations, better formulations are developed, often they also don't get to countries as they should.
For example, looking at the essential medicine list for children at WHO updates every two years, we can see that very few countries adopt this list.
And even when they do, they very rarely mention paediatric formulations.
And so there's really greater action that needs to happen at the country level to ensure that essential medicines are available for children.
Now can we do this differently?
Is is there a brighter future ahead of us?
Yes, there is, because we know that a number of stakeholders have done work on this, have focus on key projects that have been tremendously important for a number of disease areas.
But what we need now is those stakeholders to join forces to work together and we need new investments.
We at WHO have sort of recommitted to this era work by launching the Global Accelerator for Paediatric Formulations back in 2020, which is a WHO network that gathers more than 30 partner organisation and that is there to unlock barriers, promote collaboration and ensure that we can more rapidly investigate, develop and introduce better medicines for children.
So ahead of World Children's Day, we as GAP have partners very much call on investment and greater action and greater collaborative action around the world to make sure that children have access to the medicines that they need.
Thank you very much, Doctor.
Very, very important messages indeed.
Do we have questions for our colleague?
No, I don't see that's the case.
You were very comprehensive.
And thank you very, very much.
And I oh, sorry, I didn't see you in the front row there.
I have a question, but not on this topic, on another.
Let's just make sure we have no questions on this subject before we take yours.
OK, go ahead, Christian, over to you.
Yeah, General, the generalities about them, sure, sure.
As you know that what what Chris John's referring to is the emergency committee on the mpox public health emergency of national concern.
And under the International Health Regulations, that committee meets every three months after we've declared a public health emergency of international concern to look at the issues and decide whether or not it that situation continues and and to look at new recommendations.
So indeed they will meet on Friday.
The the meeting starts at officially 1:00 PM and goes basically until the decision is made usually, but generally ends around 5:00.
Now we have been discussing among ourselves and we'd very much like to give you a result by Friday because indeed you don't want to have to **** around for the whole weekend.
So the aim is to give you a result.
But I promised that we'd have something at the end of I and B last Friday and we didn't.
So that is the game, but I'm not going to set it in concrete.
It's a virtual, well, virtual and in the room hybrid.
Most, most of the emergency committee meetings are pretty much online because we aim to have people from all around the world attending to maximise participation.
Margaret, any further questions for WHO?
Well, I'd like to thank you very much Doctor Panazzotto for joining us here and do I'll come back anytime.
And thanks for sending the notes.
We're going to stay on the health sector colleagues.
We have briefers from FAO and WHO as well.
Well, actually you're going to stay here with us, of course.
We have Shunsha Song, who's FAO senior animal health officer and addressing World AMR Awareness Week.
It's actually antimicrobial resistance.
And we also have a colleague from WHO who's going to brief his doctor, Philip and Matthew.
But first, Shunsha, over to you and joining us from Rome.
Thank you very much, Chair.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for being here during World AMR Awareness Week, a time to spotlight one of the most pressing challenges of our time, antimicrobial resistance.
AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites be becoming resistant to medicine, making infections harder or even impossible to cure.
The silent crisis doesn't just threaten human health, it impacts animals, agriculture and the environment.
The misuse and the overuse of antomark ***** in agriculture production, whether in livestock, aquaculture or crops, accelerates the spread of resistance.
Resistance microbes can spread through value chain and also their environment, creating ripple effect that endanger global health and food security.
This year's UN General Assembly **** level meeting on AMR reinforced the urgency of action.
If you play the leading role in implementing the declaration adopted during the meeting, emphasising sustainable solutions to safeguard good systems.
As part of this effort, if you reduce the need for anti mark ***** on farms for sustainable agrifood system transformation.
Renal Farm tenure initiative as helping farmers to reduce enter marketable use through sustainable practises.
A few EMR surveillance system called in Farm is gathering global data on EMR and Aqua systems to guide evidence based actions.
Hackling EMR requires a comprehensive warehouse approach that connects human, animal, plant and the environment.
Health I feel alongside with UNAP, WTO and WUHA is driving coordination efforts to reduce reliance on anti market views while protecting livelihoods and ecosystem.
World EMR Awareness Week is your opportunity to take action.
As a journalist, you're playing a pivotal role in forming the public and the driving changes.
Use your platforms to raise awareness.
Highlight a solution and inspire leaders to uphold their commitments.
This week, explore the stories of farmers, innovation to reduce antimicrobial use, communities affected by AMR, and global collaboration tackling this crisis.
Together, we can ensure that antimicrobial use remain effective too, for future generations, protecting both public health and our food system.
AMR is a global challenge, but through awareness and action, we can build a safer, more sustainable future.
Thanks to you, Miss Song.
We'll now turn to Doctor Philip Matthew of WHO.
He's a technical officer.
AMR awareness campaigns and advocacy.
So over to you, Doctor Matthew.
So thank you so much, and good morning to all.
As my colleague Jung Sia mentioned, AMR makes antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become difficult or impossible to treat, and we see an increase in disease spread, severe illness and disability, and also death.
There were 1.27 million deaths directly attributable to AMR in 2019 alone, and according to a recent publication, The Lancet, that number could rise to 1.91 million by 2050.
AMR threatens our ability to treat common infections and to perform life saving procedures including cancer chemotherapy, Caesarean sections, hip replacement, organ transplantation and other surgeries and also procedures.
The cost of inaction would be serious for the global economy.
AMR is expected to exclude health expenditures, with the total expenses related to treating antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections alone projected to reach 412 billion annually by 2035.
Increased morbidity and mortality from these infections will lead to lower workforce participation and productivity losses to the tune of 443 billion per year again by 2035.
But it's actually a Best Buy.
Investing in AMR is expected to give us a return of between 7:00 and $13 for every $1.00 invested.
As Jung Sia mentioned, during the second UN General Assembly **** level meeting on AMR, the world leaders approved the political declaration which was quite ambitious.
There was a commitment to reduce the debts associated with bacterial AMR annually by 10% by 2030.
The Jeddah commitments from the just concluded 4th Ministerial Conference on AMR reiterate the need for strengthened country level action with actions including establishing an independent panel for evidence on action against AMR by 2025.
The World AMR Awareness Week was launched in 20/20/15 to engage critical stakeholders and raise awareness among the public.
The team for 2024 is Educate, Advocate Act Now and the team calls on the global community to educate the critical stakeholders on AMR, advocate for bold commitments and take concrete actions in response to AMR.
Throughout the week there's so many in person and virtual events taking place across the world.
WHO and its fellow quadripartite organisations, Foul, UNAP and the World Organisation Animal Health are supporting the World AMR Awareness Week with numerous resources and campaign products.
We invite active and wholehearted participation of the media in these events and your kind assistance in popularising this campaign.
Thank you both very much.
Do we have questions for our colleagues from FEO or WHO?
I don't see that's the case.
And Margaret mentions that she has shared notes and I believe he has done the same.
Both of you are very comprehensive.
So I'd like to thank you very much for joining us at this press briefing, and we will now move on to our last brief.
Thank you very much, Margaret, as always for joining us here.
Our last briefer, our friend David Hirsch from the ITU has update for us.
So I'll just leave it to you to announce.
Just a quick scheduling announcement if I could.
Then on Wednesday 27 November next week, ITU will release the next edition of its annual Facts and Figures report.
Every year, Facts and Figures provides estimates of the number of individuals that are connected to the Internet.
This is in support of IT OS overall objective of of achieving universal and meaningful connectivity.
Beyond reporting on overall global connectivity, Facts and Figures will report on the progress that is being made to bridge the world's digital divides, including those related to gender and urban rural living.
The report will also have information on issues such as Internet affordability and broadband subscriptions.
We hope to have an embargoed version of the report to share prior to the lease.
We'll be in touch on that.
So just a quick announcement on that.
Thank you very much, David.
Any questions, clarification for David?
No, I think that was crystal clear.
So thank you, as always, for joining us here at David.
Just a couple of announcements as usual, just to make sure you're on the right track, We have shared with you a number of statements, as you know, from the Secretary General on his activities in Rio de Janeiro.
I should at the G20 Summit.
And I should mention that the SGA is expected to deliver remarks today at a session on sustainable development and energy transition.
And we will certainly share those remarks with you as soon as we have those delivered.
In terms of other statements, just to mention or rather draw your attention to a statement that we shared with you from the Security Council on Yemen concerning the one year in today's, the anniversary, in fact the one year mark of the unlawful detention of the Galaxy leader crew.
This is the the big ship in the Mediterranean that was seized by the Houthis.
I'm sorry, the Red Sea, excuse me.
So the Security Council called for the immediate release of the vessel and his 25 crew members who will remain unlawfully detained for one year to today.
So that's a statement shared with you.
We have a Committee against Torture which will wrap up its 81st session this coming Friday the 22nd of November, after which it adopts the concluding observations for the following six reports it reviewed for Kuwait, Namibia, Thailand, Jordan, Mongolia and Cameroon.
So those will be adopted this coming Friday the 22nd.
We have a number of observances as we always like to highlight the SG messages.
We heard a lot about children here at this briefing, sadly.
And of course, on a brighter note, we heard from our colleague from WHO, But largely there's a lot of trauma that we hear about, which is really hard to listen to.
But children around the global, around the globe rather are facing enormous challenges.
And this is precisely one of the things that the Secretary General highlights in his message, recognising the enormous challenges that children face in our deeply divided, tumultuous and often violent world.
It's a stain on humanity's conscience when children's lives are caught in the grinding wheels of poverty or upended by disasters or violent conflicts that are killing and maiming children.
This is a message from the Secretary General for Children's Day, which is observed tomorrow, the 20th November.
Today is World Toilet Day, a very important day as well.
And this is there is a message to this effect which highlights, among other things, that the toilets are fundamental to promoting human health, spurring development and helping all people, especially women and girls, live their lives in dignity.
So this is a message from the Secretary General.
And lastly, tomorrow is also the 35th anniversary of Africa Industrialization Day.
So there is a message to that effect, which we shared with you in the six official languages.
And I have an announcement on behalf of our colleagues of the Office of the Special Envoys for Syria to mention that at 4:00 PM today, sorry, 10 AM New York time, 4:00 PM Geneva time.
The Deputy Special Envoy for Syria, Miss Najah Roshti will brief the Security Council and her remarks will be distributed when she concludes.
Lastly, but certainly not least, we have a lot of generations running around different generation gaps in the office rather in the building today we have the bizarre which many of you, the women's bizarre which is taking place in the E building.
So do grab some nice cuisine from the various cultures that are represented in the E building.
And as we all also have a meeting which is just about to wrap up, it's a young activist summit which is really quite a nice event which highlights the role of these young activists.
5 young activists are being honoured from Solomon Islands, from Bangladesh, from France, from the United States and also from Mexico, speaking to very, very important issues on human rights, climate justice, cyber sexism, among other very, very homelessness.
Lots of very important issues at these youngsters between aged 19 and 30 are, are addressing in this important summit which takes place here annually.
It's at a tail end, but certainly if you wish to catch the last 15 or 20 minutes, do make your way over to room 18.
No, on that note, I wish you a good afternoon and see you here on Friday.
