Thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva for this press briefing today, the 13th of December.
We have a very packed agenda for you today.
We'll start off immediately with our colleague Pascal from the Human Rights Council Secretariat.
We also will have briefings from colleagues on Syria as well as from our colleague from UNRWA in Gaza and announcements from the ILO in WHO.
So immediately over to Pascal for an update from the Council.
This afternoon at 3:00 PM, the UN Human Rights Council will hold a meeting on Venezuela.
The Council will hear an oral update by **** Commissioner Volcker Turk on the human rights situation in the country.
An interactive dialogue with UN member states will follow.
Right after this coming week, we have two meetings by Human Rights Council subsidiary bodies, first with the Advisory Committee who will hold its 32nd session.
The 18 independent experts of the Advisory Committee who serves as the Council think tank, will continue their discussion on the human rights implication of new technologies in the military domain.
The experts will also discuss the implication of plastic pollution for human rights, the impact of artificial intelligence and disinformation on human rights and the issue of technology facilitated gender based violence and its impact on women and girls.
The second meeting that we have next week is the Intergovernmental working Groups on Transnational Corporation and other businesses enterprises.
As you may remember, the mandate of this working group is to draught a binding instrument regulating transnational corporation under humanitarian law.
**** Commissioner Turk will open this working group meeting on Monday.
I told you a week ago that the meeting on Ukraine that was originally scheduled this morning has been postponed.
We now have the confirmation of a new date and time.
It will take place on January 8th, 2025.
At 3:00 PM, the Council will hear a presentation by Deputy **** Commissioner Nada Al Nashif.
Thank you very much, Pascal.
Questions for Pascal either online or in the room.
No, I don't see that's the case.
Good luck this afternoon.
Maybe if I can ask our colleagues, Christian and William to join us on the podium.
We're going to shift now to Syria.
As mentioned, we have 3 briefers.
Start off immediately with a Jennifer Fenton of the Office for the Special Envoy.
She'll read out a statement and then William and Christian will introduce colleagues who join us from Damascus.
So Jennifer, over to you.
We are closely monitoring developments and the Special Envoy continues to work to ensure that the Syrians are in the lead in charting the way forward and that there is a common and unified message coming from the international community.
Since the Special Envoy spoke to you on Tuesday, he's continued his engagement, including with the foreign ministers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, the Netherlands, and senior officials from a range of other countries.
And the office has continued contacts with actors on the ground.
The office has also continued daily engagement with a broad range of Syrian civil society actors both inside and outside the country.
Mr Patterson is travelling to Jordan today for **** level engagements.
He expects to meet over the weekend with Arab foreign ministers and other senior officials from the region and the foreign Ministers of Turkia and the United States Secretary of State.
It is critical to continue to emphasise the protection of civilians.
We continue to appeal to all armed actors to maintain law and order, protect civilians and preserve public institutions in line with international humanitarian law.
While there have been developments towards interim stabilisation in some aspects, there continue to be many challenges.
No single group holding a monopoly on violence and the situation remains very fluid.
The UN urges de escalation, calling for an end to escalatory attacks, including Israeli strikes, and for the end to conflicts in the northeast in particular and elsewhere, which have a destabilising effect in an already very volatile country.
We continue to stress the importance of preventing conflict also between various armed groups.
Further, it will be key for public services to continue to function and for credible and inclusive transitional arrangements to be established in Damascus.
You have also have seen that our Deputy Special Envoy made a note regarding her engagement with a broad range of Syrian women in areas of Syria, Syria and Syrian women who've been forced into exiles.
Those conversations have highlighted the profound and complex challenges of this.
These women seek protection from retribution and harm.
They also seek assurances that their public and private roles and statuses will be respected, solidified and built upon by Syria's negotiating parties throughout transition and beyond.
They seek assurances that the political process will continue to ensure their rights moving forward.
Finally, you will have seen our statement on detention from the Special Envoy, which I will read to you now.
It goes without saying that our office continues constant engagement with the families of the missing and detained and the relevant bodies within the UN.
As Mr Peterson said, the images from Said NYA and other detention facilities starkly_the unimaginable barbarity Syrians have endured and reported for years.
Despite extensive documentation and testimonies, they only scratch the surface of the carceral system's horrors.
These images are profound, testament to unspeakable suffering and pain beyond comprehension endured by those detained, their families, and their loved ones.
Now is the time for decisive, compassionate action.
Families of the detained, missing, and recently freed need our urgent support.
This includes medical care, psychological support, legal assistance, and safe shelter.
Detention sites, mass graves, and related documentation must be secured to aid families in their search for justice and accountability.
We must prioritise accounting for the missing, ensuring the families receive the clarity and recognition they desperately need.
Evidence of the atrocities must be preserved and thoroughly documented to ensure accountability under international humanitarian law.
Justice for the victims and their families is not only a right, but it's also essential for healing and for preventing further violations.
The Special Envoy calls for all parties and relevant specialised organisation to prioritise the humanitarian needs of those recently freed and to their families still searching, granting independent monitors unfettered access and adhering to international law obligations.
Countless children, women and men are still held in arbitrary detention in facilities under various authorities.
They must be immediately released.
The Special Envoy calls on all parties to cooperate with the UN specialised bodies as well as relevant international and national bodies addressing these issues.
Jennifer, I noticed some hands are already going up, but if you could just hold off a bit.
We're going to take the three briefers first and then we'll cluster this, all the questions and answers afterwards.
So right now, I'm going to turn over to William, who's going to introduce the speaker from the refugee agency.
Thank you so much for Orlando.
And this morning we are very pleased to have joining us from Damascus, the UNACR representative in Syria, Gonzalo Vargasiosa.
Gonzalo has briefed you in the past, but this time he has just been to Aleppo and other field locations where he has had the opportunity to talk to many Syrians, including displaced people and also humanitarian actors.
So I will pass on the floor to Gonzalo.
Thank you very much, William.
Perhaps first a few words about the, the, the borders, including some of the returns happening during the period of, of, of intense fighting that led to the change of hands in, in, in power.
We had to suspend activities at the, at the border.
But now this is, this presence is, is, is is resuming in terms of some of the, the, the numbers Yesterday we had about 2000 returns of of Syrians from the main border with with Lebanon, which is about 45 minutes drive from from here.
There were Syrians going back to several parts to Italy, to rural Damascus, to Damascus to Dara, to Aleppo, etcetera.
There were also some Syrians leaving, leaving Syria and going into Lebanon.
Small, small numbers, but nevertheless.
So you had this two way movement.
I think one of the main problems at the border at the moment is that there is no immigration on the Syrian side.
The immigration officials who were operating there during the, the, the, the, the previous regime basically all left their, their positions and the new transitional authorities have not yet been able yet to establish immigration procedures, which creates of course, some challenges and, and, and, and difficulties from Turkey.
Also we are seeing some returns again, not, not not very large.
UNHCR has been able to monitor on the Turkish side in the past few days about 3000 returns or so.
We expect that figure to to to to grow.
We have not been able on the Turkish side to monitor all returns.
So that figure of 3000 is likely to be slightly higher.
As I said, likely to to to grow, but again, not not large numbers returning yet.
As UN Asia stated before, there's clearly, you know a lot of of Syrians who are in a wait and see attitude on the Jordan border side because this border is closed.
But the Jordanians are allowing some Syrians to, to come back.
And again, we're seeing rather small numbers moving away from the borders.
Resumption of activities in general in in Syria again, most of our activities during the intense a period of of of of fighting were suspended.
Fortunately, in the past 72 hours, we have been able to to to resume through our local partners.
Also quite a lot of our activities in those areas which are now more secure.
Just to give you an example, Eun Asia supports 114 community centres all over Syria, which provide a whole range of of services to destitute Syrians, to internally displaced, but also to those who are coming back.
We have been able, as of yesterday to reactivate 75% of those of those community centres.
As William mentioned in the past couple of days, there was a UN team from, from Damascus, including myself that visited Aleppo and homes.
And we were able to, to, to see the resumption of some of those activities in addition to, to meeting with our colleagues in both locations who of course went through some very harrowing days during the intense fighting.
And, and we were also able to have some contact with the, with the interim authorities.
That type of interaction with the interim authorities are taking place.
It's of course, very, very early days.
They have been there literally for, for for a very, very short time.
But those contacts are beginning and they're taking shape in slightly different forms and, and levels depending on, on, on on each location.
But I would say that in general, the signals that they are sending us, the initial signals that they are sending us are, are, are constructive.
They are constructive in the sense that they say that they welcome us to stay, that they want us to stay in Syria, that they appreciate the work that we have been doing now for, for, for many years, that they need us to continue doing that work.
And that most importantly for us, that they will provide us the necessary security to carry out those, those activities.
I mean, of course, you, you, you are part of the media.
So you, you, you know very well, I think what, what, what is happening in general, the security is, is, is, is getting better.
Of course, the situation in in the northeast is, is, is, but maybe as an illustration on a personal note, this UN interagency team that travelled to Aleppo and Holmes, we went to Aleppo through Holmes, through Hama, through Idlib and there were almost no checkpoints.
We did more than 800 kilometres of travel in a period of less than two days and we almost encountered no checkpoints.
Now, to anybody who has been in Syria, of course they will know that checkpoints were a critical feature of the previous regime.
And I think that there is a sense among some of those Syrians that we interact with that this is a very positive development.
The fact that, you know, we saw the roads as we travelled, there were Syrians moving from one location to another and without the, the, the, the type of constant checkpoints that that we saw during the previous regime.
Of course, we will need to see whether that type of freedom of movement that is being witnessed at this moment will, will, will continue.
So one more thing to add.
Perhaps there is an issue of law and order, a vacuum of law and order.
We have seen some lootings, including of UN property.
Unfortunately, over the past week.
We have been reassured by the interim authorities that they want to address this gap as soon as possible, that they are trying to do everything possible to restore that law and order.
But they've also asked for a little bit of of patience on, on on our side as they complete this this very, very important task of, of guaranteeing security, not only for their own citizens, of course, but also for the UN partners.
Maybe final note on funding, very, very quickly, the, the, the flash, the appeal, the interagency flash appeal that was launched in, in October, as I think you all know, requested $324 million for activities up to March of, of next year.
At the moment, between contributions and projections, the, the, the total is 88 million.
So there's an urgent, urgent need for additional financial support.
Many thanks, indeed, urgent need.
Thank you very much, Gonzalo.
Now throw to a Christian of ICRC to introduce his colleague.
So in a minute, we'll hear from Stefan Sakhalion.
He's our head of delegation in Syria, among a quite important response.
As you can imagine, nowadays and but also in previous years, the focus will be very much on the people who went missing and the families, but also very clear connection to the, to the detention work, including the work that ICRC has been doing over the the last years.
Just as a as a quick reminder, also ICRC has been present in Syria before the conflict, has been very active during the 13 years of conflict.
It was definitely the, the, the biggest ICSC operation, continue to be among the the three biggest operation of the organisation.
And we've been working very closely.
Obviously with the Syrian Red Crescent.
We have around 500 staff all over Syria, not only in Damascus, but also still present in Aleppo, also in Homs and obviously also in, in Hassaki.
And we've been able to continue activities and actually stepping up activities as we speak.
Yes, very well, over to you.
Thank you very much for having me.
First and foremost, what I would like to say is that, as you know and as Christian said, the the question of the missing and the question of the right to know of the families has been here in Syria, as it is the case everywhere in the world, very much at the centre of the work we have been doing during this past 13 years.
You may know that for the last 13 years, through our teams not only present in Syria and meeting families, but also through our network of delegation in neighbouring countries such as Jordan, such as Lebanon and even further in Europe and beyond, we have been approached by 10s of thousands of families who have come to us with what we call a tracing request or with a demand on trying to help them to identify the whereabout and the fate of their missing beloved ones.
During these thirteen years, the ICNC, through these direct contact with families, has documented over 35,000 cases, and there are all reasons to believe that they are much more than that, of course.
And the last days I've seen that there is probably a lot of those people missing that were neither documented and not known or for which or for whom simply the families didn't have a chance to approach the ICRC to file one of those tracing requests.
During the 13 years, we have been doing our best every time we could to support those families in finding their relatives.
It was sometimes possible, but most of the time very difficult, if not impossible.
And many of the people that we have met and for whom we have filed such requests have remained, have remained without answer.
And you can imagine, of course, which pain, which suffering and which anxiety it can create when it is not one day, one week, one month, even one year that you have to wait for such news.
But decayed an entire decade, if not more, with the opening of the prisons and with the taking over of many institutions.
During the past days, of course, a lot of records have been appearing and a lot of hope, of course, has been triggered among these families and among all the families of missing, but also a lot of distress.
On Tuesday I was in Sydney and myself together with a team and as we arrived literally at the prison, the first person I met was an old lady in her 70s who just came to us because she could see the emblem of our Red Cross.
And told us that she had been in the prison since 7:00 in the morning, trying to identify if her son was there and that she had not managed to see if he was still alive or if he was still in this prison.
When we arrived on the prison with our teams, we have seen that many of the very of the many records, the registries, the death certificates and many important other documents were scattered all around the prison without any type of protection.
And as soon as we arrived, we have tried to spare some of them, to gather some of them, and before leaving the place we have given the custody of the rooms where those documents were to the authorities which were in charge of the security of the prison.
The problem of course, and it is a great concern for us and for many families and for many association of missing people or civil society members, is that they are more and more, as you could see, records and reports according to which this kind of situation in Sydneya is not an exception.
It is rather what we have seen in most of the cases, unprotected important data and the data that could make, of course, that could give precious information to identify the whereabout and the fate of many of the missing people I have mentioned before.
So right now, as we speak, we have done a call to all the parties in the country to take all the possible measures to secure these important data.
And I'm not talking of course only about Sydneya or only about prisons.
We are talking about morgues, we are talking about hospitals, We are talking about any security branch or any military branch where such precious information could be found because they need to be protected, they need to be safeguarded in a systematic way so we can use them to answer hopefully to the many questions of the families of the missing.
We, we are in the process of offering the services of ICRC to the authorities, but also to other organisations who are here on the spot and asking for our guidance and advice on what to do to safeguard these documents.
And we are willing to put our expertise in forensic matters, in missing matters, our information at the service, of course, of the people who are looking for answers for for their disappeared beloved ones.
In the same time, we are asking the authorities and we are ready to help them for that.
To secure not only all the registers and the data, but also to secure all the grave sites, all the burial sites, all the places where during the past days some people have seen potential mortar remains appearing.
And where, of course, there is also an important work to do in forensic terms to preserve those sites and then at a later stage try to identify them and again bring a possible answer to the families.
There is a huge work to be done and meanwhile we have really been doing our best to try to help the prisoners or the families of the missing on an emergency mode, if I may say.
We have opened a few days ago 2 hotlines, one for the prisoners who have been released and was seeking some help to be reunited with their families.
It is an ICRC hotline and if the people contact us, we can provide them with mental health and psychosocial support.
We can help them with family links.
We can even help them financially if they need to be reunited.
And there is another hotline created by the ICRC for the families who are seeking news about their beloved ones.
But let's make no mistake, giving answer to people will take weeks, months and maybe years, given the amount of information to be processed, given the number of burial sites that have been identified and given the tremendous work that will not only require the work of the ICRC in support of the authorities, but the work of many other actors, international and national, civil society and other bodies.
Because the work is tremendous and everybody will have to work on those very important issues.
I will finish maybe in terms of what help we can provide to the people with some emergency support we have provided to several hospitals in Damascus.
Here we were called by several hospitals because there were some weapon wounded people following the chaos of the last days, but there were also a lot of prisoners coming from different prisons were in search of medical assistance.
So our teams have immediately responded to the calls of those hospitals and provided emergency medical assistance every time possible given the prevailing difficult security conditions here in Damascus.
I will conclude by saying that, of course, not only for the issue of the missing and not only for the issue of the prisoners, we are mentioning and calling and urging again all parties to the different conflicts in this country to respect their obligation under international humanitarian law to spare the civilian population.
Of the many things happening as we speak now, in terms of ongoing law and order problems, in terms of ongoing shifting front lines, in terms sometimes of continuing hostilities in some parts of the country.
We also call for unimpeded, swift and total access of international organisation to reach the people who need our help.
Some, some people before me mentioned that there were problems of access.
We need to solve them as early as possible to resume work and to scale up our response in the country.
And finally, as we did during those many years since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, we have never stopped asking access to all places of detention, to all the detaining authorities.
And we are, of course, putting ourselves at the service of any authority detaining people to visit them and to potentially provide them with assistance and check their conditions and detention, detention and treatment.
We have done that for the last 13 years and we will continue to do it as long as required.
Thank you very much, Stefan.
Before we take questions, let me just remind you that of course, Secretary General echoed many of these messages that we just heard.
And I just wanted to draw your attention to the statement that we did share with you last night on behalf of the Secretary General, through which he notes that he is deeply concerned by the recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integratory.
And he underscores that while maintaining public order, it is imperative to support credible, orderly and inclusive transitional arrangements in Syria.
A statement from the secretary General.
So we'll take your questions now.
And if you could kindly indicate to whom you are directing your question.
Nina Larsen, AFP, thank you.
So first for Jennifer, I had a question about whether Mr Peterson is planning on meeting with Mr Giuliani or any of the anyone from the transitional government while he's in the region and also about plans for bringing Syrian actors here for for talks.
I had a question for for UNHCRI, was wondering if you could say a bit more about the amount of looting that you've been seeing.
And also given that there is so much free movement at the moment, are you taking advantage of that to move in more supplies perhaps before things turn more difficult potentially?
And just on and one final question for ICRC.
Sorry, you had a lot of good speakers today.
I was wondering about the, the safeguarding of the documents you, you said that you've been in contact and proposed ICR CS services to help with that.
I was wondering what kind of response you've received, if there's an indication that you'll be permitted to, to help guide, guide this work because it seems like it is a very vital thing to do.
We'll start with Jennifer.
So I won't get get into any specific engagements with Mr Patterson except to reiterate what he has already said, that he intends to engage with all actors to meet the aims that I have laid out.
If I have readouts from any meetings moving forward, I will note that he intends to be in Damascus as soon as feasibly possible.
But again, no dates for that yet and no update on any convening here in Geneva, but I'll make sure to get that to you when I have it.
Gonzalo on the looting, we've we've we've we've had some some looting in, in, in, in Damascus, also in, in Latakia.
This was during the initial days.
We've also said taken up this in very clear terms with the interim authorities.
I'm glad to say that in the past 72 hours there has not been any, any looting of our of our of our supplies.
So we're very much hoping that that continues to be the case.
As I said before, the the interim of authorities made it clear that they want to provide us with security not only to our staff, but also to our property, our equipment, our, our supplies and that they needed a bit of time.
I said in the past 72 hours there has not been any.
So it is critical that this that this, that this continues.
We will need to bring a lot of of additional supplies for which of course we will need funding.
The needs are absolutely huge.
Not only do we have 16,000,000 Syrians who are in need of humanitarian aid before this latest crisis, there's also been 1,000,000 internally displaced as a result of the fighting.
Some particularly of the internally displaced are coming back to places like Aleppo as I saw for myself in the next couple of days, last couple of days.
And there's enormous need to deliver supplies.
As I mentioned before, particularly over the past three or four days, we have made a great effort with our local partners to resume our activities and that also involves the deliveries of supplies which of course will need to be to be replenished.
Thank you very much, Councillor Stefan, can you hear me?
So to enter the, the, the question on, on, on the, on the reaction of the authorities, I mean, everybody needs to understand that during the past days there has been quite a **** level of disorganisation here and not always the necessary clarity on who to call, depending on the urgent matters we need to discuss.
So we have not wasted time for the moment.
We have used all the available channels we had to convey the messages I passed to you earlier to either some members of the caretaker government, either people in different armed groups.
And we have of course engaged with different civil society organisations, one of them being the Syrian Arab Red, Croatian volunteers and people on the ground who are sometimes receiving questions and this morning with the White Helmets that I met personally to discuss this precise issue.
So for the moment what we have is a call to everyone.
It is some messages conveyed to everyone who is in a need to know the emergency to deal with this issue, but we are now waiting and I hope it will be imminent, a more formal meeting with the right authority to propose the ICRC services and to be able to pass the key messages.
We wanted to pass on the need to preserve information and burial sites as well as any other element that may help the families in the future to identify the whereabouts and the fate of their beloved ones.
Thank you very much, Stefan.
Okay, we have a couple more questions in the room before we go online.
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A simple question for you on the situation of Jordan's Syria border.
So if I understand the close of the border, is that the two way restriction or only one way?
And what's the new challenge on the border of Lebanon, Syria about?
How could they face into the Syrian return refugees?
Yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll let Consalo answer from from his perspective and I complement if necessary.
On the border with Jordan.
We we we had a mission yesterday to the border.
I said the border is is officially closed, but the Jordanians are allowing some Syrians to cross into some some series to cross from Jordan into Syria.
They are they are allowing that.
I said the numbers so far are are very small on the Syrian Lebanese border.
I said the main problem now the the flows are not, are not large in either direction.
But the main problem I said is that there is no immigration on the Syrian side of the border.
And that means that that people are just waved through when they get to the Lebanese side of the border to Mazna.
There are some who are allowed in because they have the right documentation.
There are other Syrians who don't have the right documentation and then they are stuck there.
Again, they are not large numbers, but some Syrians are getting stuck, getting stuck at, at, at, at at the border.
But perhaps just to add also, if this might be the, the, the last remarks on my side, what are the Syrians who are returning to Syria, for example, from Lebanon with whom I interacted a couple of days ago, What are their expectations?
I mean, of course, there is a sense of jubilation, even I would say of celebration among those that we talked to, that I spoke to.
But they are expecting three things now that they are back in Syria and if they're going to stay in Syria and all of them in perhaps with different words, but they have the same message, we expect three things.
One, we expect a peaceful political transition at the top.
Second, in the communities to which we're going back, we expect tolerance, reconciliation and acceptance.
Very, very importantly, they are expecting not just immediate relief, not just a bottle of water and a little bit of food, They're expecting an injection of international support so that they can resume a dignified life.
And that means, if I can put it in very simple terms, that means having a job and being able to fend off for themselves.
Thank, Thank you, Gonzalo.
Maybe I'll just compliment with a few words on the situation of the Syrian refugees.
As we know, the situation is very complex and very fluid and volatile.
We have seen many Syrian refugees rushing back to Syria.
Others are, you know, taking a wait and see approach.
They might be apprehensive.
They want to see what happens on the ground first.
They might also be concerned about conditions on the ground, whether they'll be able to support themselves, what they will find in terms of access to services, whether their property or their house is still there or not and so on.
And also some Syrians are leaving the country.
So the situation is very fluid.
We need, because of this, we need to continue to ask countries that are hosting Syrians to continue to give them protection.
Syrian refugees who are registered in host countries continue to have their refugee status.
They should be allowed to decide when they want to go back at their own time without any pressure.
And for those who decide to go back, we are ready to help and facilitate that return.
But also, as we heard just now, the situation in Syria is very difficult.
The country has been devastated by 14 years of, of, of war.
So we need to make sure that people who are going back can actually go back to a place where they can, where the return will be sustainable and in safety, dignity, and and for that, we need the support of the international community.
Thank you very much, William.
We have a few hands on up on on line.
Just to remind you, do we still have Louise Waterbridge of UNRWA who's joining us from Central Gaza afterwards?
So we'll turn now to John Zaracostos, Franz Foncat in The Lancet.
My question is to Stefan from the ICSC and to Jennifer.
I was wondering how many people?
I saw the statement by Mr Peterson, Jennifer and it says countless children, women and men are still held arbitrarily in detention facilities on the various authorities.
Do we know which are these authorities?
How many armed groups are there, any still in the government facilities that haven't been discovered?
And secondly, to Stefan, I was wondering if you have any good news to report on the personnel that went missing on 13 October 2013?
I'm going to defer to ICRC on this, but I think the short answer is no.
While Mr Peterson, that is one of the reasons Mr Peterson is calling for immediate action, immediate support and immediate engagement from all actors as a matter of priority.
Stefan yes, regarding the, if I understood well the question, there are different places of detention across Syria nowadays and indeed they are not under the responsibility of the same parties to the conflicts.
So, of course, now we need to reassess what is happening with all the former prisoners of the prisons that were under the former government authority and that it is what we discussed before.
There is an urgent need to to help Israelis, detainees and their families.
We will of course continue to see if there is any other places of detention where people may not have been released so far and ask immediate access to them if any places of this kind are made known.
And in the same time, I, I, I need to remind that the ICRC is the only organisation in the North East of the country, in the territories under the, the, the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces, to visit some places of detention where people are held, and not only in prisons, but also in camps and in juvenile centres, So far within a total legal limbo, which is in this case an extrajudiciary detention.
So again, ICRC is trying to visit all the places.
ICRC will ask to all parties to have access to their prisoners.
There are people being arrested as we speak most probably, and there are some reports coming.
And we'll continue to do our work as we always do with all parties in a neutral and impartial way.
As for our three colleagues who disappeared in 2013, unfortunately I have to say that we do not have news at this stage.
Like everyone, we want to have hope and, and, and, and seek any signal or any news that may bring back some closure to their families.
But to the for the moment, we do not have any, any news about these three colleagues that we lost several years ago, over a decade ago.
Thank you very much, Stefan.
OK, we'll have a take a question from Yuri from Rio Novosti.
First of all, thank you very much for the for the briefing.
But it will not be great to to have a separate briefing on Syria because right after we have a lot of story to write because we have really good speakers today.
But right after we have to turn to Gaza.
It is really hard for journalists to turn from a conflict to another and to still write stories about one conflict hearing.
Secondly, question is for Jennifer, the first one, are you worried by the multiplication of videos showing the executions on the streets of Syria?
The executions are almost for the case against soldiers and officers of the Assad army.
There are some videos showing, for example, in the resort, Kurdish fighters killed in their bed, hospital beds by Russian speaking jihadists.
Are you seeing this kind of video?
And can we still speak about northern in the country despite these images?
And I have a sort of question for ICS.
While yes, we're aware of videos and other such material circulating, but we're not in a position to verify them.
I'll just reiterate what I've said and what I think All the speakers have reiterated, that we need to see law and order.
We need to see proper institutions put in place that secure civilian protection at its core, and that any forms of accountability move forward in line with international law.
And I believe OHCHR and the **** Commissioner Volcker Turk noted those measures as well earlier this week.
I was just going to say the same thing.
Jennifer, do do consult the statements that were issued from the human Rights office earlier this week on this point.
Stefan over to you as concern like questions surely so the different combatante la families on the prison the Syrian Democratic Forces le premier focus do say say say say say person sotrette the first one humane a axe alordo sakina paite to roll a car, accorded anezane.
And process legal didn't concern.
Not available effective Monday 's example.
In some Part 2 development people who have valued on the men population etcetera or large community OC male C Stefan.
And maybe if I can just interject to remind you for further context and background.
As you know, the Commission of inquiry on Syria has over the last 13 plus years been issuing a number of reports, including on the treatment of prisoners, including a pointed report, if I recall correctly a couple of years ago on said Nya prison.
So these are useful breeding material to look back to give some further context into the conditions in, in prisons throughout Syria.
Further questions, We'll now turn to Albert of German News Agency.
I have a question, 2 numbers questions.
First to Mr Vargas Josa on the numbers of returnees.
You said from Turkey in the last few days, there were around 3000 returnees.
Do you mean 3000 per day or over several days?
And the second question to Mr Sakalian, you said there were about 3035 thousand cases of missing persons brought to you.
But what would you say is your current estimate?
How many people are are unaccounted for or missing?
Is it in that order of magnitude?
Yes, though that that that that figure was since the 8th of of December.
But what I also said is that these are figures of the returnees that we have monitored from the Turkish side and we have not, we do not monitor all returns.
And that's why I said that the figure of of of 3000 is likely to be somewhat higher, not a lot higher, but but but higher.
If you could unmute yourself.
Sorry, I was just saying that I will refrain from speculating on figures.
The only one I'm presenting are the one for which we are sure that the families has filed A tracing request.
As I said before, we can imagine that there are many more than the one that were collected by the ICRC, but I would refrain from giving figures.
There will a lot of things that are still uncertained.
There is a lot of information we'll discover in the coming weeks and months.
And I think that there are also other organisations who have their their their own data and it will be very important to gather all this information, somehow centralise it, hopefully under the new authorities.
And indeed at this moment we will know what we can speak about in terms of number.
Yeah, thank you for the briefing.
A question really for Stefan Sakalin.
There's been a lot of references to interim authorities in this.
When you ask for protection of documents and and other sites, are you addressing these to HTS people who are sitting in former government ministries?
Could you give some clarity on on who it is you're able to talk to and whether there is some coherent kind of internal security structure emerging that produces a response to your request for action?
As I said, we have been trying to liaise and to outreach with all the available person with a level of power that seemed to be useful to to try to secure these documents.
So, as I said before, it included both channels leading to people from the interim government, but also people from different armed groups.
I will not start naming them, but we have been trying indeed with with different people that we thought may help us with that.
What we need now is, of course, a more structured and an urgent discussion with the interim government to see with them what is the best way to coordinate these efforts and to preserve not only the documents but also the mass graves and any other information that may be made available by the people themselves.
Because you could see during the past days that many people collected what they found thinking it was the best way to spare them.
And there will be a a need to have a repository for collecting this information.
Such a repository does not exist yet.
And it is precisely the services we are offering to the authorities to discuss with them on the best way to proceed with this important matter.
Thank you very much again.
I think Nick, let's before we go to you Musa, you have a follow up.
Yeah, just to press you on that you're you're asking for a structured dialogue.
I'm just trying to get a sense of of who is available to provide you with a structured dialogue and whether there is any sort of coherent structure that you already see taking shape to deal with and provide you with that structured dialogue.
So if I understand well, it is Nick coming back with the same question.
Well, let's have a little more clarification.
I think he's seeking from Nick, yes, yes, no, I mean, as far as I can say because you know, we we also have to to be careful with with stating things about authorities and parties with whom we are dialoguing, especially when it is such an important and sensitive issue.
So you know the idea ICRC, we are quite discreet on who we approach and what we talk about.
But what I can tell you again is that at the present moment, we did not find the level of the proper level to address these issues in a structured way.
We are pushing a lot for that.
And we are indeed in a scenario when it is not clear for us, but also for many other organisations like the UN and others to know who they can address their respective humanitarian concerns.
So we we do not have yet identified channels if it's answering your question better.
I think that that helps a lot.
Thank you so much, Stefan.
The only question the Musa Al Mayadin TV.
So the multiple demand security failure?
The family, the public monk.
Yeah, you see the declaration the the white.
I explore HTS group on particular international properly, see Stefan at Jen's going to add something just on the designation of HTSI want to just reiterate what Mr Patterson has said that the UN has taken notes of the statements and actions by HTS and other armed groups in recent weeks.
The situation, as I noted earlier, has obviously changed since HTS was listed and the US acknowledges these developments.
The designation of HTS does present significant challenges.
However, it's critically important now to witness concrete developments on the ground, as the colleagues have also said, that demonstrate progress towards a meaningful transition that paves the way for democratic and inclusive future of Syria.
Regardless, all parties still have an obligation to comply with international law.
On the humanitarian front, I want to reiterate what UNHCR said.
It is essential that all sanctioning states assess the potential humanitarian impacts of any sanctions in line with international law and adjust accordingly in the coming.
The needs of Syrians are extraordinary and those needs need to be met.
I think most of you have a quick, quick follow up, please.
We still have Louise on the line.
The different nationality.
La response parapo or no more the person Liberia, no more the national, the different in the hotline Mel C uncle Stefan and and to all our speakers, thank you very much on Syria, Yuri, I take your note.
Sorry, we really need to move on body.
We have Louise who's joining us from Central Gaza, but just in terms of something tells me we'll have more opportunity to speak on Syria.
We'll try to do stand alone press conferences on this important issue.
But now I'd like to thank you once again for joining us very much.
And now I throw to Louise Waterridge, our friend from UNRWA, who is a senior emergency Officer.
He's joining us again from Nisarata Central Gaza.
So thank you very much for your patience and for participating at this briefing.
So I'm joining you from the Sarah in the middle area of the Gaza Strip.
Local media reporting here that last night 30 people were were killed in this area in, in strikes.
We've seen absolutely horrific images from the scene.
There are parents looking for their children, children covered in dust and blood looking for their parents.
Multiple injuries on top of the the casualties reported and, and, and people still buried under the rubble.
It's, it's absolutely sickening that this daily pain and suffering has become the norm here.
It's been a very deadly week in the middle area as UNRWA.
We have had colleagues killed, my colleagues have had family members killed.
So this suffering just just continues.
Um, it's very difficult to, to continue operating under these circumstances for everyone, for all humanitarians and all people on the ground.
Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world.
Many are losing their limbs in, in scenarios such as this.
They're undergoing surgeries without anaesthesia.
I spoke to doctors at NASA Hospital.
This is the largest semi functioning hospital in in the Gaza Strip now.
And they're absolutely beside themselves.
They are beside themselves because not only are they still dealing with the daily trauma of patients coming in without limbs being being killed, being hit, being injured in in these strikes and these relentless bombings, they also have a situation.
They're explaining to me that so many patients now are dying from treatable illnesses.
They don't have what they need.
They don't have the suppliers they need.
They don't have the machinery that they need.
They don't have the sanitation for the equipment that they need to stop the infection spreading.
We're seeing this throughout hospitals and health centres across the Gaza Strip, 26,000 people is the latest estimate we have for people who have suffered life changing injuries during the course of this war.
And a lot of the doctors were saying in addition to all of these horrific injuries, now that most of the population are sheltering in tents and sheltering in, you know, these makeshift shelters under pieces of fabric, they're seeing an increase when these strikes happen in the ratio of people who are killed to injured because there's no protection.
They don't have buildings to protection.
They don't have structures to protect them.
Children are being injured over a kilometre away from the strikes, from the shrapnel because they simply don't have anything but but pieces of fabric around them.
So the damage from from this ongoing bombardment is is having a horrific effect on the population.
So I'll go on to say, you know, access to basic services continue to be severely constrained.
UNRWA here remains one of the largest health actors operating in the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA is providing 6.7 million medical consultations during the course of this war.
Our lab services are now limited to just three tests out of nearly five that were at 35 that were available before the war.
So that's three tests out of 35 before the war and 70% of UNRWA medical supplies are at 0 or less than a month quantity left in stock.
So not only are the the doctors and and the health workers at the hospital reporting this for the UNRWA colleagues at the the clinics at the pharmacies are also reporting that they just don't have what they need to provide very basic health care to the population is the lack of cancer treatment.
People continue to die of these treatable illnesses because of this insulin supplies.
We have some insulin supplies, only 7 to 10 days of supplies left and no insulin syringes.
We are completely out of stock of insulin syringes and this type of insulin and syringes along with other medication.
They're stuck at Ala Rish.
So we have the supplies ready.
We're waiting for them to come in, but with with a lot of supplies that we're having here.
We just don't have them inside the Gaza Strip and with the population.
Our medical team continues to provide care.
An average of 500 post Natal and pregnant women at **** risk.
The doctors again are reporting that they're losing the lives of premature babies on a daily basis because of the lack of ventilation.
A rise in premature babies who need special milk, special formula that the milk is not available and also the result of mothers being so malnourished.
People here really are surviving on bread, lentils, food in in tin cans.
We're not seeing fruit and vegetables around.
We're not seeing people with families.
Children get the nutrients that they need in terms of fruit and vegetables.
And this is also having a huge effect on the on the health of the population.
In the past four months alone, nearly 19,000 children were hospitalised due to acute malnourishment.
And this is nearly double the cases that we had in the first half of the year.
So things continue to be as awful as they ever have been.
We're not seeing much progress in the situation.
There is a lot of hope for a ceasefire.
This week there have been a series of evenings where people around us have started whistling and cheering because they think that they've heard a rumour about a ceasefire or a truce.
The connection is still pretty, pretty bad here.
So rumours spread quite quickly.
You hear cheering, you hear whistling, people come out and celebrate and then eventually it calms down again as they realise that that's not the news.
So the needs continue to be ****.
Everybody I speak to, they, they can tell me for hours what they need, you know, basic supplies, food, water, medicine, sanitation, hygiene, but everyone continues to tell me what they want is to go home and what they want is the, is the war to end.
So I'll, I'll leave it there.
Thank you very much, Louise.
It's, it's hard as it is to hear this.
So we need to hear this And, and we thank you very much for for sharing these, this update with our colleagues here in Geneva.
Yes, Nina from AFP is a question for you.
Yeah, hi, thank you for taking my question.
First I was wondering if you mentioned the amputees, the children amputees.
If you, I was wondering if you had numbers of how many children among those who have suffered life altering injuries, how many of them are are children?
I was also, I also wanted to ask about the attack that that killed a number of guards on aid trucks that were heading to inter warehouses yesterday.
If you had any, if you could provide us with some details on that and what the impact has been.
And finally, we saw that Mister Lazzarini has, has posted a message about, I think it was Inura staff who are in dire straits and having to eat animal feed.
I was wondering if you had a comment and could provide some details.
So the first question, I'll have to get back to you on the exact number of child amputees.
I think UNICEF will have that latest number and I wouldn't want to give you the incorrect 1.
So I'll come back on that.
Regarding the incident with the convoy yesterday, I this is beyond devastating, not only because the loss of life, but just the day before we had a successful convoy mission.
This is the joint United Nations mission from the Kerim Shalom Kerubusalem crossing along the Philadelphia corridor and, and to bring urgent supplies in.
So we went from having a very successful convoy where 105 trucks of food and flour did reach the the population and, and were distributed all of these supplies to the complete opposite situation where again, criminal looting and, and, and, and safety risks prevented this convoy from reaching its intended destination.
Only one truck of 70 made it to the final destination.
And, and it's, it's beyond frustrating.
The the last eight months I've been here, it's felt like when it comes to humanitarian response, it's pushing a boulder up a hill.
And now also it feels like you go one step forward.
This is the first positive outcome of aid distribution we've had in, in a few months.
And then it's, and then it's immediately met with, with steps backwards.
So we will continue to try to to find these safe passages or safer passages of, of aid distribution, but it continues to be a huge challenge here on our Commissioner General's tweet.
We still have colleagues remaining in the besieged north of Gaza Strip.
We are frequently denied access to these areas.
There has been very, very little aid supplies that have been able to reach these areas.
And this is the areas where people are surviving on animal fodder.
They're they're surviving on anything that they can basically find in scavenge.
People are sheltering in not only on the schools, but also in, you know, residential buildings.
They've, they've been hiding from the very active military operations around them.
But because there are so few supplies facilitated to this besieged north area, people are are eating anything they can, anything they can.
It is absolutely disastrous.
There needs to be more supplies reaching this area.
We need a lot of patients up there, need medical supplies, medical evacuations.
The doctors when we're able to reach the and the speak to and contact the hospitals, they, they just don't have anything they need.
They don't have any sterilising equipment.
They don't have medication, they don't have blood supplies, no ambulances.
So you can just imagine everything that you possibly need, people need in this besieged area.
Thank you, Louise colleagues, we don't have UNICEF online, but Christian from WHO, in case you have anything on the amputees of please do chime in.
But first, we'll take a question from Emma Farge of Reuters.
Louise, just to clarify the details of that, that convoy that was looted, did you say 1 of 77 Zero or one of 17?
And what was in the convoy and where was it supposed to go?
So 1 of 77 Zero trucks were in this convoy, Joint United Nations.
The convoy had supplies of food, it also had supplies of hygiene kits and some tents.
That was what was on the the convoy SO11 truck made it to the intended destination.
Thank you so much, Louise.
Further questions for our colleague.
No, I don't see that's the case.
So on this note, I'd like to thank you once again, Louise, for your patience, for your your passion, your dedication, for your work and that of your agency.
So thank you, thank you very much for joining us here.
Now we'll turn to our colleague from ILO, Isabel, who has an update and then event then afterwards to a Christian of WHO Isabel, thank you.
So very short announcements.
The the ILO will launch its new report on the global estimates on international migrant workers next Monday the 16th.
The report focuses on the evolution of global labour migration.
It gives a detailed picture of how international migrant workers are an integral part of the world economy.
It also includes regional estimates for Africa, the Americans, Arab states, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia.
So the findings will be presented by Manuela Tomei, which is who's the ILO Assistant for Director General for Governments, Rights and Dialogue, so at an online press briefing next Monday at 10:30 Geneva time.
We are in the process of sending you the embargo material that you should receive shortly.
Thank you very much, Isabel, for that.
We have one, yes, I believe for you, Yuri, from Rio Novosti.
Orlando, my question is just relative.
Do you know when globally if we will receive it today or tomorrow?
You will receive, sorry, you will receive it today in in a couple of one hour, I mean around lunchtime, yes.
And do you know if this time you will have the Russian language for the press release thing?
I don't know, but I'll get back to you on that.
Thank you, Isabel for the questions.
No, no, thank you very much, Isabel.
Once again, we'll turn out to Christian of WHO, who has a couple of announcements for us.
Christian Yeah, not too many too.
Thank you very much for London.
Thanks everybody for these really, really important, interesting updates.
So today at an international hearing or of the International Court of Justice on Climate Change and Health, our Director General, Doctor Tedros, will deliver an oral statement on the intersection of climate change and global health and the urgent need for global action.
The the hearings are ongoing all day as much as I understand, but his intervention is scheduled for 1500 to 1530 Geneva time, so 3:00 to 3:30 Geneva time.
So the DG and Derek Walt, now at WTO Legal Counsel will address the Court in the context of these public hearings on the request for an advisory opinion on the obligations of states in respect of climate change.
We will post his intervention later on this on the on the website.
The proceedings can also be followed on when web TV in general and the WDH intervention is also available on the various social media challenge of of channels of WHO.
Second, the launch of The Who global status report on drowning prevention is scheduled also for today.
So the the there was an embargoed virtual press briefing yesterday and today is the launch event.
This is at 2:30 to 4:00, 14-30 to 1600 hours at the Interconti in Geneva.
You're free to go, of course, in case you want to go.
Please let give us a give us a heads up so, so we can tell the colleagues there on the ground who we should expect.
Thanks to you, Christian.
Do we have questions for Christian?
No, I think you were abundantly clear.
So thank you very much to you, Christian, as always, for joining us here.
Just a couple of announcements from me as usual.
Just to make sure you're on track.
We have just to mention firstly that I mentioned, I rather refer to the SGS message on Syria, which you have at your disposal.
We shared with you last night the SG Antonio Guterres is currently in Lesotho.
Lesotho, he's there to his visit to the the country coincides with the Kingdom celebration of the bicentenary of the Bisoto Nation.
And we shared with you a number of statements, including a readout with His Majesty the King of Lesotho, his address to the Parliament.
That was actually yesterday, so that is contained in your inbox.
We also issued last night a statement on behalf of the Secretary General concerning Ethiopia and Somalia through which he welcomes the announcements of the so-called Ankara declaration.
Excuse me, Ankara declaration.
This is between President Hassan Sheikh Mohammed of Somali and President Minister ABI Ahmed about Ethiopia who's who have agreed to work towards resolving their differences in the spirit of friendship in mutual respect.
So this is an important development and which we marked through this statement yesterday.
Terms of meetings we have in here in Geneva.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this afternoon will conclude its 114th session, after at which point it will issue its concluding observations for Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Monaco, Armenia, Greece and Kenya.
As you know, they were meant to the committee, that is, was meant to hold a press conference that was cancelled.
However, I should note that we shortly before this briefing started the committee, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, did issue a statement concerning Gaza, which we just heard from Louise, about Gaza, of course, through which the committee expressed its alarm at Israel's blatant disregard for binding international orders.
This is a statement that just came out a short while ago.
Another committee, the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families will conclude this afternoon it's 39th session.
After having reviewed the reports from Benin, Egypt, Peru and the Seychelles earlier this week, we issued rather yesterday, we issued statements from colleagues, Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Tom Fletcher for Relief Coordinator on Afghanistan, as well as one from the Special Representative, the Secretary General for Afghanistan, Rosa Ottoman Beva.
These are two statements that were shared with you yesterday.
And beyond that, no press conferences to announce.
So I think that's it for me.
If you don't have any questions, I wish you a good afternoon and a nice weekend.
