The United Nations Office at Geneva
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UN Geneva Press Briefing - 08 April 2025
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Press Conferences | BRS , COPS , UNDP , UNHCR , WMO
UN Geneva Press Briefing - 08 April 2025
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- BRS/COPS - María Cristina Cárdenas-Fischer, Senior Policy and Strategy Advisor: “Make visible the invisible BRS COPS” - theme of the upcoming conference
- WMO - Clare Nullis: State of the European Climate 2024
TOPICS
- UNDP - Sarah Bel with Titon Mitra, UNDP Regional Representative in Myanmar (from Mandalay): Moving fast from relief to recovery, a priority
- UNHCR - Matthew Crentsil, UNHCR Representative in Uganda: Rapid influx of Congolese refugees strains threadbare response capacity in Uganda
UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING
8 April 2025
Myanmar recovery
Titon Mitra, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Representative in Myanmar, speaking from Mandalay, said that the death count in the country had exceeded 3,000 people, with thousands of people injured. The search-and-rescue operations had now turned into recovery efforts. With short medical supplies and urban waterpipe systems broken, water-borne diseases were a growing threat. Numerous people were defecating in the open, and many people were still sleeping on the streets, afraid to go back home. Eighty percent of buildings in Sagaing were reduced to rubble, and critical infrastructure, including sections of the railway bridge over the Irrawaddy River, was severely damaged. People were living on the streets in extreme temperatures, with scarce clean water and outdoor defecation leading to outbreaks of cholera, hepatitis, and typhoid. Hospitals, already strained by civil war, were overwhelmed, understaffed and operating in car parks, explained Mr. Titon. Local markets were mostly closed, inflation was rapidly growing, and transport links were severely affected, making food both scarce and expensive.
UNDP, in collaboration with UN partners, was working to address both immediate and early recovery needs. Cash-for-work programs were supporting the poor, and efforts were underway to safely remove debris and clear access for response. In addition to immediate shelter material support, UNDP teams were assessing the damaged homes and preparing to initiate their repair in collaboration with local tradespeople. The focus was also on laying the groundwork for recovery. Mr. Mitra stressed that this crisis had a major impact on urban areas, and the relief phase had to turn into a sustainable recovery phase as soon as possible. Aid had to be provided impartially, he emphasized. The declared ceasefire should provide conditions to reach everyone in need. It had to be recognized that Myanmar was a compounded crisis, with many people having already been food insecure because of the conflict, civil disobedience and hyperinflation. The earthquake had simply compounded the already existing crisis. He hoped that Myanmar would not turn into a neglected crisis once cameras turned off.
Answering questions from the journalists, Mr. Mitra said that in many crises first responders came from community groups, which was unfortunately often done in an uncoordinated way. In Myanmar, road traffic was hard to manage, and coordinating both official assistance and local charitable organizations remained a challenge. Military authorities were in control of many affected areas, and the UN was very dependent on those authorities for aid coordination. Efforts had to be made to ensure that aid was not politicized. On another question, Mr. Mitra said that the day after the earthquake and the unilateral ceasefire announcement, some air strikes had still continued, but there had been a significant slowdown, nonetheless. Bias in aid distribution was not obvious, he said. UN was doing its best to make sure that aid would be delivered to those who needed it the most.
Rolando Gómez, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), sad that United Nations Special Envoy for Myanmar, Julie Bishop, was in Myanmar, and more information would be available soon.
Influx of Congolese refugees in Uganda
Matthew Crentsil, United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Representative in Uganda, speaking from Kampala, said that the situation in Uganda was becoming increasingly dire with refugee reception centres overcrowded and funding cuts. Some 41,000 refugees had arrived from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to Uganda this year. UNHCR was speeding up transportation of refugees from the reception centres, which hosted six times the number of people over their capacity. Critical shortages of water, latrines and bathing facilities, particularly at the Matanda and Nyakabande transit centres, were putting people at dire risk of deadly diseases, warned Mr. Crentsil.
More details can be found in UNHCR’s press release.
Answering questions from the media, Mr. Crentsil explained that 41,000 refugees had arrived from DRC to Uganda in 2025, 80 percent of whom were women and children. The total number of Congolese refugees in Uganda now stood at over 580,000. Some nine children had died since the beginning of the year because of the malnutrition they had suffered from in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many refugees were reporting extreme violence, including sexual violence and killings. On some days, there could be as many 1,000 new arrivals, a significant increase compared to 2024, and fully attributable to the conflict in Goma.
On another question, Olga Sarrado, also for UNHCR, explained that the numbers of arrivals from DRC to Burundi had decreased in recent weeks, and the stadium in Rugombo was now serving primarily as a registration centre. Between Burundi and Uganda, there were currently 113,000 registered refugee arrivals from the DRC, of which over 70,000 in Burundi and some 41,000 in Uganda. Mr. Crentsil explained that, because of the funding cuts, UNHCR had had to give up on some services it used to provide, such as decreasing numbers of childcare givers and teachers. Refugee reception centres, water, sanitation and health were now being prioritized at the expense of some other activities. The funding was going down at a time when they needs were increasing. The budget planned for the entire year was being already used because of the high influx of refugees. Uganda hosted a total of 1.8 million refugees and was Africa’s largest refugee hosting country, reminded Ms. Sarrado.
Conferences of Parties of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions
María Cristina Cárdenas-Fischer, Senior Policy and Strategy Advisor at the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions Secretariat, informed that the BRS Conference of Parties (COP) 2025 would be held in Geneva from 28 April to 9 May, under the theme “Make visible the invisible”. She reminded that the three Conventions addressed some of the most serious pollutants and provided a framework for a lifecycle management of waste. BRS Secretariat wanted to increase the awareness of the Conventions and their ever-important role. The 2025 meetings would, inter alia, focus on the illegal traffic of waste; waste containing nanomaterials; listing of hazardous characteristics; listing of certain chemicals as hazardous; technical assistance; and listing three additional chemicals as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). This year, the BRS COP would have a high-level segment from 30 April to 1 May, with over 30 ministers registered and probably more coming. The high-level segment would focus on circularity, means of implementation, and interlinkages with climate change and biodiversity. Finally, the speaker informed about the exhibition by the lake in Geneva which showed the impact of the three Conventions on daily life.
More information about the BRS COP 2025 is available here.
Replying to questions, Ms. Cárdenas-Fischer explained that the United States was not a party to either of the three BRS Conventions. Many of the chemicals under the Stockholm Convention were used in cell phones or furniture’s upholstery, for example. She emphasized that the chemicals under consideration had undergone a thorough technical review, after which they had been nominated for consideration by the COP. Countries were allowed to opt in or opt out, she explained; some countries needed to go through a ratification process. Parties had two years after the amendments entered into force to come up with practical implementation strategies. Under the Stockholm Convention, there was a deadline to eliminate polychlorinated phenols (PCPs) by 2028, reminded Ms. Cárdenas-Fischer, which were used in electrical transformers, which could cause harm to human health and nature over time. On another question, she explained that the Basel Convention covered electrical vehicle (EV) batteries and provided guidance on how to handle transboundary movement on any kind of waste. Consumer organizations would be represented as observers in the upcoming events, said Ms. Cárdenas-Fischer. BRS Secretariat did not keep the list of pollutant countries as such.
Announcements
Clare Nullis, for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), informed that the report European State of the Climate 2024, compiled by the European Union Copernicus Climate Change Service and the WMO, would be launched on 15 April at 1 pm. An embargoed press conference would be held online on 10 April at 1 pm; WMO Secretary-General would be among the speakers. Journalists could register by 9 April by sending a message to copernicus-press@ecmwf.int. Ms. Nullis said that 2025 was unfortunately continuing where 2024 had left off. Figures for March, just released by Copernicus, showed that March 2025 had been the warmest ever March in Europe, and the second warmest March globally. The Arctic Sea ice maximum was the lowest on record, she said.
Rolando Gómez, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that the UN Secretary-General was expected to speak on Gaza at a stakeout following a Security Council meeting this afternoon.
Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrants Workers and Members of Their Families would end this morning its review of the report submitted by Mexico, while the review of the report of Niger would begin at 3 pm.
This week, the Committee Against Torture was reviewing the reports of Monaco and Mauritius.
Finally, the Conference on Disarmament would resume its 2025 session on 12 May.
Responding to a question, Mr. Gómez confirmed that the Director-General of the UN Office at Geneva Director-General, Tatiana Valovaya, had briefed Member States on the impact of the budget and liquidity crisis on UNOG. The list of cost-saving measures was available here. While there were no current plans to abolish any posts, the liquidity crisis did indisputably affect UNOG’s operations. Various factors, including the COVID19 pandemic and the liquidity crisis, had all affected the ongoing Strategic Heritage Plan, explained Mr. Gómez.
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Teleprompter
Very good morning.
Thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva on this, at this press briefing hosted by the UN Information Service today, the 8th of April, we have another important agenda for you.
We have the situations in Uganda, Myanmar.
We have an update from WMO on the European climate for 2024.
And we have an update announcement rather from colleagues who will speak to the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm COPS.
So we'll start off right away with Olga from the UNHCR, who's going to introduce the speaker who is joining us from Uganda.
Olga.
Good morning, everyone.
So as the violence and insecurity continues in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we have observed an increased number of arrivals in Uganda.
So we have with us today Matthew Krensiel, who is our representative in the country.
He's joining us from Uganda.
Matthew, over to you.
OK, Good morning.
Happy to be here with you to give you an update on the situation of Congolese refugees here in Uganda.
Since the beginning of the year, we've had over 41,000 of them coming, bringing the total number of Congolese refugees in Uganda to 14593 thousand and the number keeps going up.
Last year around the same time, we had just about 1/5 or so of new arrivals from Congo.
So the situation is becoming dire and dire with all our transit and reception centres overcrowded amidst the severe funding cuts.
So we, we are having to prioritise the healthcare and screening at the reception centres as well as relocation, transportation of these refugees as quickly as possible to the settlements to avoid the risk of disease outbreaks in the in the reception centres.
In natural fact, the reception centres are now hosting about 6 times beyond their capacity.
And this is, this is quite serious for us now.
OK, thank you very much, Mr Krenzel.
Thank you for those introductory remarks.
We'll turn over to colleagues for questions, starting in the room we have Christophe of AFP.
Hello, Christopher de Jean France Price, thank you for taking my question.
Could you just tell us a little bit more about those refugees, the number of kids and women and also maybe describe the the situation there a little bit for us?
Thank you.
OK, Like I said, about 41,000 of them have come, of whom about nearly 80% are women and children, and they are arriving in very dire conditions.
In fact, from the beginning of the year till now, I had about 9 deaths of children as a result of malnutrition and malaria.
They come in in very poor shape due to what they have suffered already in Congo before getting here.
So that is the situation, I mean, and they report extreme violence on their on their way from rural by Sisi and Goma areas to to Uganda, extreme violence, including sexual violence, killings and all sorts of atrocities metered upon them before they get here in Uganda.
So like I said, I mean, when they when they get here, they're already in in very, very vulnerable health conditions.
And that is what has resulted in in the deaths of nine children since the beginning of the year and the reception centres.
Thank you very much, Mr Krenzel for the questions.
Yes, Emma from Reuters.
Good morning.
Sorry, I didn't catch the the total number, if you could just clarify that.
So 41,000 of them coming and then the total number was if you could repeat that.
And you mentioned concerns about diseases.
Is Ebola one of those diseases that you're concerned about?
Is it affecting the transit camps?
And do you have the funding to put the right prevention measures in place?
Thank you.
Yeah, the numbers are over 41,700 who have come this year, adding to those who are already here and bringing the total number of Congolese refugees in Uganda to 593,500 refugees here in in Uganda.
Yes, Ebola is a concern, but we have a robust health screening exercise at the reception centres.
So so far it has not become a problem.
It's not been a problem.
And this is what has been our priority to ensure that there is no outbreak, especially considering the the overcrowding and the reception and transit centres.
So there's there's going to be a press release as well that is going to be shared and it includes some additional details on on the situation in some of the locations as well as some services that have to be the prioritise in other parts of the country.
And it will also include some B roll of the of the situation at the borders and the transit centres in case you need it.
Thank you very much, Alga.
We still have a couple of questions.
Antonio from FA Spanish Transition.
OK.
Thank you.
I would like to know if you have the number of what's the daily influx of refugees to Uganda now and in the beginning of the year so we can compare.
And also I remember a few weeks ago, most of these refugees were in a stadium which was so full of of refugees that there was also many people around the stadium.
Is that situation still going on?
Thank you.
Maybe Matthew, you can reply in terms of the of the daily arrivals, I can take the question on the stadium as it refers to Burundi.
Thanks.
It is.
We've had on on very bad days we've had.
I'm afraid we lost your audio, Mr Krenzel.
Let's try this again.
Mr Krenschel, we we can't hear you.
Let's, let's in that case maybe Olga, if you can refer to the stadium question and then we'll try to reconnect the audio with you, Sir.
So Antonio and your question actually it's it's not in Uganda.
It's you hear me?
OK, let's let's try that again.
Sorry, Olga for you could.
Yeah, go ahead, Sir.
Go ahead on the on the arrivals.
Yes, I said on, on, on very bad days you can have over 1000 coming in a day, but it has been fluctuating sometimes 200 a day, 400 a day and reaching about 1000 a day on on very bad days.
So this has been the trend like I said earlier on last year it wasn't like this at all.
I mean it was about a faith or exist of the numbers coming this year.
So this is fully attributable to the conflict in Goa area.
Thank you, Sir.
Olga and and on Burundi, the number of arrivals to the country have reduced over the past couple of weeks and we see increases towards Uganda.
The, the stadium that we refer to several in several briefings in the past few weeks now is actually serving as a registration area, especially also for Burundi from for Burundi and returnees.
And there is an effort to relocate those refugees toward other settlements that were put in place by the authorities as well as some of them.
They have moved with the host community.
There is there is an effort from from the authorities and also from, from the humanitarian patterns to try to move those, those refugees that are willing to do so to areas where they can provide, where we can provide better services that in in the stadium.
Thanks for that clarification, Olga.
Let's go back to Antonio.
I think you have a follow up.
Yes, please.
Olga, can you remind us the current numbers of refugees in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi from Congo?
So today there is about 113,000 refugee arrivals in neighbouring countries, the majority in Burundi, which is about 70,000 at the moment, new arrivals.
And then in in Uganda 41,000.
As Mr Currency just mentioned, I will be able to share the full breakdown on numbers about Rwanda and other neighbouring countries with you after the briefing, if that's OK.
That would be most appreciated.
Thank you very much.
Olga, we have another question.
Yomiri Shatoko, Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Go ahead.
Yes.
Because of the funding cut, you said you have to prioritise the healthcare and screening at the reception centre.
So could you tell us what services you have given up?
Thank you, Mr Krensel.
Fortunately, being at the beginning of the year, we've had to fork load certain activities which were planned for the entire year and that is that has been a saviour to ensure that we don't have health disaster at the reception and transit centre.
But we've had to forgo certain activities, education and killed child caregivers, for example, we we are unable to cover the cost of of childcare givers, the latrines and so on and so forth.
Are we are we are quite overwhelmed with that as well.
But we are trying as much as possible to prioritise it.
Like I said, in the process, registration and quick transfer of refugees from from the reception centres has also been affected.
But this is where we are stepping up, trying to deprioritize other activities in the regular refugee programme, including construction of health for sorry, construction of shelter for vulnerable refugees and so on and so forth to ensure that the health aspect which is the most critical health and and, and water and sanitation aspect which is most critical discovered.
So even though we are able to cover it now, we are going to experience a gap downstream.
Like I said, activity that had been planned for the full 12 months of the of the year and the budget that had been set aside to spend for the entire year is being used up now because of the influx.
So now we may not experience funding crisis at the at the moment immediately, but downstream if we don't get an injection of funds, we are going to experience close to disaster.
And, and just to compliment if I may and and you'll find some concrete details on on the note, but for instance, early childhood caregivers having discontinued, this is about 332 of them.
And there's also reductions in teaching and school assistant staff, which means that there are less teachers for per per child.
There is also the shelter for construction.
The construction of shelters for personal with specific needs has been halted as well.
And there's been a 30% fuel cut for partners fleets, which is affecting, of course, logistics and and service delivery.
That that that are some of the activities that have been deprioritised.
And as and as Matthew mentioned, health, especially health screening and attention in transit centres is being prioritised.
But across the country, some health facilities and also about 250 health workers have been having also cannot be supported at this, at this stage.
So of course it's, it's a, it's a balance about what's life saving and what's still urgent and needed.
But it needs to be the prioritise at this stage.
We just need to remind and and Matthew, if you want to complement into that, that Uganda is Africa's largest refugee host country.
It hosts 1.8 million refugees.
And it's not only responding to this emergency from the DRC, but also responding to arrivals from from Sudan, which is soon.
We're we're going to mark 2 years of the ongoing conflict.
And Uganda, even if it's not that neighbouring country has welcomed already 70,000 Sudanese that have moved onwards, onwards looking, looking for opportunities until the conflict is resolved in their country.
Thank you very much.
Please go ahead.
Just to just to compliment like Olga said, we have this active influx of refugees into the country over the past three years.
There has been an average of about 10 to 12,000 refugees entering the country every month non-stop since 2022.
And this is putting a lot of strain on the resources that we have.
At the same time, funding is going down.
So like I said that we are doing our best to avert a disaster at the reception and transit centres.
I mean for now, but if we don't get immediate injection of additional resources, we are going to crash from the middle of the year onwards.
I don't want to even mention that the shortage that WFP is experiencing in providing food.
There is no assurance of funding for the BFP to provide food for these in Uganda beyond June of this year.
So this is all exacerbating the already precarious situation that we have here in Uganda.
Thank you very much, Mr Krensel.
Indeed, you're doing an extraordinary job under an extraordinary circumstance.
And maybe take take this opportunity to echo what the Secretary General has been saying since the beginning of this recent conflict, this renewed conflict, I should say, calling all the parties to agree to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the DRCI.
Don't see any further questions in the room or online.
So I'd like to thank you very much, as always, Olga, for joining us here.
And Mr Krenzel, pleasure to have you join us here and speak with our journalists here in Geneva.
Thank you again, Sir, and good luck to you.
Thank you.
OK, colleagues, we're going to move to Myanmar and Sarah Bell from UNDP is connected.
And I think, yes, we have our ICU on the screen, Sir.
Titon Mitra, who's a UNDP Regional Representative in Myanmar, speaking from Mandalay.
We're very pleased to have you with us, Sir.
So I'm going to throw immediately to you for your remarks and then we'll take questions.
Over to you, Sir.
Thank you very much and good morning.
Apologies, I literally got out of the car from Sagayan into into Mandalay, so I'm a bit rushed here.
I just wanted to go through some of the numbers which I think you're quite aware of, which is that at the moment, the latest death count is now exceeded 3500 and is likely to to rise.
There's well over 4000 people injured and 80% of buildings are are damaged.
Probably half of those in the major townships of Sagai, Mandalay and Monwa are severely damaged.
To put this in perspective, the scale in terms of what has happened to Myanmar is probably the second most deadly and devastating in disaster since 1900 following Nagas.
Unfortunately, we've moved into a tragic phase where search and rescue operations are pretty well ended and they've shifted to search and recovery.
The major and needs remain as you will in most of the crises in these early phases, the health system is completely over overwhelmed.
Hospitals are unable to cope with the number of patients they're dealing with.
There's an incredible short supply of medicines and medical supplies, very **** risk of waterborne diseases with the urban water pipe systems broken, water storage facilities damaged.
And sanitation is now becoming a big issue as people who have been forced out of their homes are resorting to open defecation with very little in the way of latrines for them to use.
Shelter is a really big issue.
And we've had recent rains, so people who are really fearful to go back into their homes are sleeping on the streets at night and they're often without any any sort of cover.
Food is an immediate issue.
Markets are severely disrupted, not operational, certainly in Sagai and long way, and people don't have incomes and we're seeing pretty ready signs of hyperinflation in place.
So the UN system as a whole has now mobilised its teams doing rapid needs analysis assessments and we have distributions already commenced.
UNDP for its part have started distributing non food items.
We're using cash for work to start some of the smaller debris clearance.
We're also undertaking rapid building and integrity assessments just to see which buildings can be used.
For example, the hospital in Sagai, all the patients are in the car park and 40° heat.
And if we consider the building can be cannot accommodate them, then we want to move them back as quickly as possible.
And we're also working with private entities who are doing debris clearing and they're doing debris clearing without adequate protective gear.
Not really much science to it.
And with the risk of asbestos in, in elation.
I, I just want to make 3, three key points beyond the overall context.
1 is that this crisis is one that has major impact in urban areas.
So we really have to ensure that we avoid creating unnecessary dependencies and limit limit the relief phase and and move to a recovery phase as soon as.
Possible.
So linking the peripheries where agriculture production is still taking place to the urban areas, getting the markets operating, getting people in jobs and getting income in their hands as a priority.
The second point I want to make is that aid has to be provided impartially, so there is a ceasefire that's been announced by the resistance groups and the military.
We're hoping that creates a space to be able to reach everyone in in need, irrespective of their affiliations.
And the Third Point I want to make is that we have to recognise that this is a compounding crisis.
Before the earthquake hit, nearly 40 million people were living on or below subsistence levels.
Nearly 20% of the rice fields were already lost to conflict and food security was insecurity was created because of hyperinflation, hyperinflation impacting on the cost of inputs and and the cost of purchase.
And the civil disobedience movement had certainly completely disrupted the delivery of social services as people had chosen to leave public service institutions.
So the point I really want to make here is the earthquake has really compounded an existing prices with the very deep vulnerabilities.
And if we look to situations like Turkey where the recovery process is still taking place three years on, you can just imagine what is required here.
And I hope that's my last point, that when the cameras turn away from Myanmar, as they inevitably will and have in the past, that this, this doesn't return to being a neglected crisis.
Thank you.
Thank you very much and thanks to your efforts.
So that hopefully won't be the case.
We need the spotlight bright on on the situation there.
So thank you very much for those comments, Sir.
Do we have questions for Mr Mitral?
Are there in the room or online?
We have a question from Gabriella of Proceso of Mexico.
Gabby, thank you.
Thank you very much.
Rolando, do you hear me?
Yes, we do.
It's OK.
OK.
OK.
You know, when when there were another earthquakes like in Turkey and you know, in other places, there's a lot of willing to help from the people.
They they send a lot of, you know, things.
But the problem, for example, in Mexico is that the aid it was, I mean, a lot of people help, but the aid wasn't arrive to the place of the, of the earthquake.
So I don't know if you have any, if you saw something like this, because sometimes there's a lot of corruption in the countries that supposedly have to, to help and send all the things that they have to, to set to, to send to the place.
Do you have any, any kind of, you know, like protocol or something that you can do to to to be sure that the things are are getting to the place that they they should to?
Thank you.
Should I answer the question now?
Yes, Mr Mitra, go ahead.
OK, thank you.
So one point to make.
And as you've observed in in many crises, the first responders are actually community groups who out of the goodness of their heart trying to gather as much relief items and provide support.
So one of the issues is that that is often provided in an uncoordinated way.
And, and in a situation like this, we've got many, many trucks arriving at one time.
So traffic is very hard to manage.
Distributions aren't organised and and people are probably getting assistance that they may or may not need.
So coordinating both official assistance that from the UN and international NGOs and that from charitable organisations is a big issue.
The challenge of course here is that it is the military authorities that are in control of many of the areas, so we are very dependent on those authorities to coordinate the support.
But the concern, of course, is that that coordination has to be done in a way where aid does not become politicised and those in need receive it.
And as you know, with an active civil war, we have to make sure that the aid, if it's coordinated by military authority, is, is going to areas which may be in resistance control.
Thank you very much, Mr Mitra.
We have a question from Christophe of AFP.
Roger France Press, Christopher France Press, Thank you for taking my question.
It's I want to come back on what you just said about how partisan.
The question is how partisan is the military in the distribution.
You were asking a question, but maybe you also have the answer.
Do you see that aid has been redirected to areas that are more poor government or I don't know exactly how to say that.
And also there were reports earlier at the beginning of just after the earthquake that military was kept it's military operations going.
Is that something that you still see despite the ceasefire?
Yeah.
So let me answer in in reverse order.
So as you know, with the announcement of the, the ceasefire, in fact on the day after the earthquake, there was still a number of incidents of aerial bombardment.
And even after the announcement of the unilateral ceasefire, there have been military action.
So we're, we're not necessarily seeing a complete cessation of hostilities, but certainly a very, very significant slow down.
And we hope that does translate into a, a cessation of hostilities across the board.
The, the, the sort of bias in, in aid, you know, this, this is something that is not readily apparent at this point.
And, but it's a qualified statement in the sense that as I've just said, I've come from Sagai and had no issues.
Our distribution teams are working in the urban areas and and so distribution there is not a not a problem.
Distribution in areas controlled by the SAC so far has not been a problem.
We are aware of a number of non government organisations that have been trying to deliver assistance in let's say mixed control or resistance controlled areas.
But whether that translates into full and free access, I think it's too early to say.
What I can say is that, you know, we have to ask and ensure that the response is a +1 that aid is delivered to those people in need irrespective of location and, and the SAC have an opportunity to demonstrate that they are willing to do so.
Thank you very much, Sir, for the questions.
No, maybe I'd take this opportunity to echo what the spokesperson in New York mentioned yesterday.
He did refer to the special envoy of the Secretary General, Julie Bishop, who was in the region.
She was expected to be in Myanmar today.
I don't have an update for you at the moment, but certainly should we receive updates, we'll, we'll share those with you, the important meetings that she is expected to have.
Julie Bishop, Sir, I don't see any further questions for you.
So I'd like to thank you very much.
I know you're extremely busy jumping out of cars, doing all sorts of important work.
So we really appreciate you making this time for us here in Geneva and good luck to you in these continuing efforts.
Thank you very much for the opportunities.
Thank you.
Bye.
Thanks to you.
OK, colleagues, I'm going to turn to yes, please Miss Christina Cardenas Fisher, if you could join us here on the podium.
Maria Christina Cardenas Fisher.
He's a senior policy and strategy advisor.
He was going to talk about the Basel Rotterdam, Stockholm cops goodness.
So very pleased to have you joining us here about this upcoming conference whenever you're ready.
Over to you, ma'am.
Thank you very much and thank you for giving us the opportunity to convey our message this morning.
It is a great pleasure to be here to brief you on the upcoming meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotherham and Stockholm Conventions, which will be taking place here in Geneva from the 28th of April till the 9th of May.
They will be convened under the theme Make Visible the Invisible.
Many of you are probably not very familiar with our Conventions, but the they are three global legally binding instruments that address some of the most significant chemicals and waste pollution that has been identified over the last several decades, and they are contributing to the protection of human health and the environment.
Together, the three conventions provide a framework for the life cycle management of chemicals and waste.
As we prepare for this critical upcoming meetings of the conferences of the parties, we would like to emphasise the importance that we have in raising awareness on what the conventions do and therefore why.
The theme making visible the invisible.
And I'll just take a little parenthesis.
When we talk about making visible the invisible, it means that our lives are surrounded by chemicals.
We use them every day.
We have them in our computers, in the phone that you carry in your pockets, in the upholstery that you have where you're sitting just to prevent from fire, etcetera.
Our food also, you know, it's food production increases with the use of pesticides.
So we have them around and this is what we want to make to raise visibility on the conventions is that we are there to protect the environment and our human health and just to raise awareness that chemicals are not just something that are controlled under legally binding conventions, but that we need to do something about them.
This year our meetings will be focusing on key elements for the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their disposal, a very long name.
The discussions will focus on enhancing the conventions role in preventing illegal traffic of waste.
It includes advancements in the electronic approaches for notifications and the progress in the implementation of partnerships which address plastic waste, electronic waste and household waste, everything very relevant to our daily lives and also waste containing nano materials.
The the conferences of the parties will look at amending some of the annexes to the Convention and that would be annexes 1-3 and four.
These are annexes that they or the amendments are focused on, providing legal clarity on the categories of waste that are controlled under the Convention.
The listing of a hazardous characteristics and the disposal operations under the Rotterdam Convention and the Rotterdam Convention is about the prior informed consent procedure on certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides that are subject to international trade.
There will be 4 chemicals that will be considered for inclusion under Annex 3 of the Convention.
This means that it should they be listed, this chemicals will be subject to the prime form procedure.
Those chemicals are thorpiperous, methyl bromide, mercury and paraquite.
In addition, the Conference of the Parties will also be looking again at some chemicals that have not been listed yet but have been considered by the Conferences of the Parties.
There are six of them, and there are.
They include some very complex names.
I'll just list them quickly.
Acetylchlorocarbosulfan, chrysothal asbestos, Pentium formulations, ipridone and paraquite formulations.
In addition, the conference's the Conference of the Parties to the Rotham Convention will also consider amending annex sorry amending Article 16 to the convention.
It's a proposal that has been submitted by the African countries and it is Article 16 focuses on technical assistance and it they would actually like to increase the type of technical assistance and access to funding that there is under the convention.
And lastly, but we'll be addressing the Stockholm Convention.
And under the Stockholm Convention, which is some persistent organic pollutants, we will be considering the listing of three new chemicals to become Pops or persistent organic pollutants.
And they are the pesticide chlorpyrifos and chlorinated paraffins as well as long chain per perflucorinacilic acids.
And by listing this chemicals under the convention, it means that several or overall all parties to the conventions will need to take measures to either eliminate the production and to eliminate the use of those products.
And I would say that this are it is quite important because many of these chemicals are used nowadays in many of the products that we purchase and in sort of industrial facilities.
As a parenthesis, the initial list of chemicals that was covered by the Stockholm Convention, which were 12 chemicals, always known as The Dirty dozen, were namely chemicals that were out of use and they didn't have much relevance.
But the ones that are being listed nowadays are chemicals that are in use.
And so it is quite tricky sometimes.
This year, our conferences of the parties will also have a **** level segment.
It will be from the 30th of April to the 1st of May.
We expect that there will be over 80 ministers attending.
Those are the ones that have registered already but we know that more are coming.
There will be also heads of agencies that will be present including the unit Ed and the FAODDG.
So there will be quite a lot of activity.
The discussions at the **** level segment will be focusing on three sub themes and that is circularity, means of implementation and the interlinkages with climate change and biodiversity.
Last but not least, I would like to invite you all to visit an exhibition that we have by the lake here in Geneva.
It's it consists of 16 panels that showcase what the conventions have done and what they do and why they're relevant to our lives.
So thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
And I, I obviously a lot of information to to unpack here and I appreciate that you'll be sending some media advisories closer to the date.
Thank you so much.
And sounds like a very action-packed three days, 30 April to one May.
Is that right?
That's the cop.
That's a **** level.
That's a **** level.
And the cop is 2 weeks.
OK.
Cops is 3 cops, three cops.
So it's from the 28th of April to the 9th of May.
OK.
So, yeah, thank you so much for that briefing and of course, for the material.
Thanks in advance for sharing the material.
We'll start off with Christoph then Emma.
Sorry, Christian, you had your hand up third.
So it's in that order.
Christoph.
Emma, I think.
Christian.
Christoph, thanks for taking my question and I apologise in advance for my practically total ignorance about the conventions.
So my question is, are the United States party of the conventions?
And 2nd, will there be a delegation at what level if they are?
And 3rd, how concerned or how much of a hole does it put into the conventions if the US are party with the actual dismantling of the EPA, for example, PFAS coming back?
Those are my 3 questions.
Thank you very much for your question.
And actually the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions are three conventions to which the US is not a party.
So, yeah, so that answers.
Thank you.
That answer.
And it's one of the one of the few countries that are that is not a party to either of the three conventions.
Yeah.
OK, that's short.
Sweet an answer.
OK.
Emma, Reuters.
Hey, good morning.
Thanks for this briefing.
Can you tell us which sort of household items will be affected by these elimination measures?
And since you mentioned that this can be tricky, is there any lobbying from the industrial sector against the elimination of these products?
Thank you.
Thank you for the question.
So many of the chemicals that are listed under the Stockholm Convention are chemicals that are used, for instance, in cell phones, in your, in the coating of your frying pan at home, in the upholstery of your furniture, just for flame retardants.
And so that's why I said they're quite tricky because they're everywhere.
So they're, they're quite the in many places from the new chemicals.
They also appear in different applications.
I don't have all the details now, but I'll be happy to share them with you.
The there are, there's always lobby, but I would like to emphasise that this chemicals that are being considered by the conference of the parties have actually gone through the persistent organic review Committee.
So it's a technical subsidiary body that actually reviews all the nominations of chemicals and then decides whether or not they meet certain criteria listed under the convention.
And when they do, they get nominated and proposed for consideration by the conferences of parties.
Sometimes there are some exceptions for some of the chemicals and and parties.
One thing that is very important is that parties under the Stockholm Convention have a some time to consider whether or not they want to be covered by the new changes amendments to the convention to buy time.
They can either opt out just by declaring that they do not wish to be bound by the new amendments, or they can always also opt in afterwards if they haven't been a party.
But there are some countries that right from the beginning have announced that they for any amendments under the convention, they would need to go through a ratification process.
So it gives them time to to consider and often what does happen is that the majority inform us whether or not just very few, sorry, I should say, opt out.
And when they do, they will opt in again as soon as they have in place their legislation.
But parties have quite a number of years to put their legislation in place.
Parties have two years after the entry into force of an amendment to the Convention to actually develop a national implementation plan which explains how they will be able to address the chemical that has been listed under the convention.
And to that you add that usually any amendment to the convention takes at least a year to enter into force.
That's most interesting.
Thank you very much for that explanation.
I think Christian, German news agency, you got a question as well.
Go ahead, Christian.
Thank you.
I had a similar question to Emma's.
What does it mean for people on the ground?
You explained that for the Stockholm Convention.
I think I got lost with the other two.
Is there anything in the basil?
I mean, the gist of what you said is it doesn't really make a difference to anyone because everyone can opt out or not do it or it takes forever.
Is that correct?
And what about the other two convention?
Is there anything in it that will change life as we know it once you've taken decisions that you are planning to take?
Thank you.
Thank you.
So I'll just take a step back.
For instance, under the Stockholm Convention, there are some chemicals like PCBS that were included when the convention was first adopted.
There is a deadline for the elimination of the use of PCBS by 2028.
And right now, parties are all putting their effort to ensure that PCBS are no longer used.
PCBS are used, for instance, in **** tension Transformers in electrical grid.
They don't really affect you once they're up there.
But when they're dismantled and they come in, you come into contact with them, they do affect you and pops under the Stockholm Convention do affect you because they last forever.
Persistent organic pollutants, you know, they stay in the in the cycle life cycle and they accumulate, they buy accumulate and so over time they do cause harm to your health and to nature.
They tend to to stay longer for longer in cold areas, but they also travel long distances.
So they travel with birds that emigrate from one place to another in the fish that we eat in, you know, in the and we find them in our food and as we eat them and we pass, we do also pass it on to other generations.
So, so that's why why pops are a problem.
Now for the Rotism convention.
The Rotimon Convention is a convention about information exchange, and it allows parties to make sound decisions as to whether or not they want to continue to import certain chemicals and it gives them the right to decide whether or not they wish to import them.
Now, by doing so, it does actually raise awareness at the national level as to what you should do or not with certain chemicals.
And so, you know, they do matter to us because at the end of the day, it's consumers that actually play a huge role in ensuring that some of these chemicals are no longer used for the Basil Convention.
The Basil Convention deals with the end of life of articles.
So it's about the disposal of a waste disposal overall and also the transboundary movement.
But it does have an impact on the at the beginning of the life cycle of any product because by making changes to the end of the life by the disposal opportunities, then you actually have a way to influence how production should be done or not.
And so, you know, the purpose of why we have used this theme of making visible the invisible is just to raise the awareness that, you know, we do have a say in what we can do or not about chemicals.
Important to say indeed, another question economic daily please.
Thank you.
Thank you for your briefing.
My question is with regards to the EV batteries or to use the EV batteries when they reach the end of their life.
I'm a right in understanding because I learned this from the WTO last year they held a trade for climbing session in which they say they use the battery of the EV vehicles are kind of covered by the Basel agreement.
There is a huge amount of ambiguity.
Different jurisdictions have argument disagreement about whether they qualify as chemical waste.
I don't know what I'm right in understanding it like this way.
So would you please kindly elaborate to us how the EV used back, they use the EV batteries qualify in the Basel agreement.
And do you see the prospect of the used EV batteries being legally tradable in the future?
Because I know a lot of countries are boosting up their recycling capabilities.
Germany is doing this, Chinese doing this.
And if this item is tradable, it could do a better class to the World Economic efficiency.
So how do you see the Basel agreements being a facilitation or impediment in this thing?
Thanks very much.
Thank you.
So I would say that the Basel Convention is a facilitating mechanism.
It actually it does.
The Basil convention does cover EV batteries.
And under the Basil convention, you have the rules of what you need to do in order to ensure the transbound removement of a of any type of waste.
So that's where the EV batteries would go.
Thank you very much for that clarification.
We still have a question online and Boris in in 3rd row.
No, go ahead.
Boris, over to you.
Yes, Boris angers on a freelancer.
I have two questions.
First, in this kind of highly technical FORA, the best interface for journalists for non focused journalists are side events.
So why is it always so difficult for accredited and accredited journalists to access the forum If each time there is a technical focused forum, we have to fill in lengthy forms and collect all kind of credential just to to attend a side event.
It's it's AI mean it's not feasible.
The second question in the field of pollutants stakeholders can be roughly divided into into three groups.
Suppliers which who have no direct incentive to check the issue, governments and advocacy group who have an indirect interest and consumer and patient organisation, the only one who have a direct interest in controlling fighting pollutants and usually even American ones.
But they usually have a very low profile in the civil society.
Consumer organisation are not very visible segments of NGOs and advocacy groups.
So can you tell us something on that count, especially since American organisations, whatever their government does, could be attending for the civil society representation?
We do have a broad base of the civil society participation in our meetings of the Conference of the Parties.
You can actually look online all the accredited organisations, but they're all invited as observers, not only in the meetings of the Conference of the Parties, but to the subsidiary organs.
So there is a participation.
Yeah.
But my question was on consumer organisation, because civil society can be part of the problem as much as of the solution.
Yeah, consumer society.
Consumer organisations are also represented in the observers under the conventions.
Yeah.
Thank.
Thank you very much.
I'll, I can take that, Boris.
In fact, colleagues here in the 2nd row, you can maybe liaise with them afterwards to talk about accessibility side events, among other events on the sidelines.
I should mention that the fact that Miss Katarinas Fisher is here is trying to make this information accessible to you well ahead of this important conference is gathering.
The idea is for you to report on it.
So I'm sure colleagues here will actualize that to the extent possible.
So do liaise with our colleagues Farai and and OK, well, I agree to disagree.
We, we are here to brief you.
So thank you very much.
We do have a lot of question for you.
Gabby Proceso Gab yes, thank you very much.
Orlando.
I, I, I remember that the Secretary General Kofi Annan used to say that polluters must pay.
So my question is, which are the countries, the list of the countries?
I, I, I was out of the briefing, so I don't know if you already say it, but which are the countries that most polluters countries.
And if you have a list of the 10 chemicals, I mean with a commercial name, I mean a name that we can relate to that you know to report because with these technical names is is so difficult.
Thank you.
Thank you.
On the list of chemicals and the sort of easy to remember names, we can provide you links to the fact sheets that we have.
And we're we have recently produced or in the process of producing some cards that would facilitate our lives to as well as yours to understanding what this chemicals are and what their users are.
So happy to share that.
And in terms of the polluters, we don't actually keep a list of polluting countries as such.
OK.
I think I think that should answer your question.
Gabby, thanks very much.
And and we would certainly benefit from that fact sheet as well.
I know complicated names, complicated issues, but super leanly important issues, issues that affect all our aspects of our lives.
So thank you so very much for joining us here, Miss Cardenas Fisher.
And we'll certainly hear more from your colleagues in the course of the next days.
So thanks again for joining us.
Thank you very much.
Perfect.
OK, so now we have Claire.
I see that you're still online.
Claire.
Claire of the World Meteorological Organisation has a update the state of the European climate for 2024.
Claire, over to you.
Yes, Sir.
Good morning, everybody.
The World Meteorological Organisation and the EU Copernicus Climate Change Service will be next week releasing the European State of the Climate 2024 report we released.
If you recall, we released the global state of the climate report in March.
Last week or the week before was the state of the climate in Latin America and now it's the turn of Europe.
In the series of regional reports, Copernicus Climate Change Service are coordinating all the the the launch arrangements.
We will be sending out a reminder to journalists on our mailing lists today.
But basically there is an embargoed press conference, an online press conference on Thursday, the 10th of April at 1:00 PM Central European time.
There are a number of speakers at that, including WMO Secretary General Secretary Celeste Salo.
And as I said, we will be sending out a media advisory on that today.
The report itself will become public next week, Tuesday the 15th of April.
So, you know, obviously if you are interested in it, it does give you some time to, to to do your reporting.
So there will be some duplication.
I think you know, some of you will have received it directly from from Copernicus, but we're just trying to make sure that you know that everybody is, is covered.
2025 is obviously and unfortunately continuing where 2024 left off and Copernicus ECMWF Climate Change Service has this morning released the figures for March and that shows that March was the warmest March on record for Europe.
Globally it was the second warmest behind March 2024.
And what is should be of concern is that Arctic sea ice for the month of March was the lowest to March extent on record.
This was the 4th consecutive month of record-breaking low ice extent.
And March also sees what we call the annual sea ice maximum.
So it's the sea ice extent after the winter freeze and before the summer melt.
And in 2025, the Arctic sea ice maximum was lowest on record.
If you want more details of that, I can send you the report that it's from.
The monthly report is from Copernicus.
There are also other monthly reports from other climate to climate centres use using slightly different data that these these are the facts and the figures from Copernicus.
Thank you.
Thanks to you Claire.
And better to receive it twice and not at all.
So thanks very much for for sharing that with with our colleagues here.
Do we have questions for Claire?
No, I don't see any hands UPS.
You are very, very clear.
So thanks very much in advance and good luck on the the launch of this report next week.
Thanks as always for joining us.
OK, that exhausts the agenda.
Just very briefly wanted to put a couple of things on your radar for today.
We do expect the Secretary General to speak at a stakeout on Gaza later today.
I don't have the precise time it would be a stakeout outside of the Security Council in New York at headquarters.
So I'll, I'll certainly, certainly, we'll certainly share information with you on that.
Just a couple of the things this your hand up, Emma.
Just wanted to mention that the two committees that are underway, the Committee on the Rights of All Migrants, Migrant Workers and Members of the family today is reviewing the sorry, let me just take a look at the report this morning.
It's ending its review of Mexico, I should say, and then the review of the report of Niger will begin this afternoon at 3:00 PM.
And then afterwards, later this week, we tomorrow and Thursday, it's time for the review of Jamaica.
The Committee Against Torture, which I announced began yesterday, We'll review today the report of Monaco.
And just to put on your radars ahead of time, the Conference on Disarmament will resume its 2025 session on the 12th of May, still some time away.
And as you heard, of course, yesterday at the press conference and at the press briefing here on Friday, our colleagues at the UN Mine Action Service are running this important event over the CICG.
So you'll have all the information in the media advisory that we shared with you.
So do take a look at that and if you can make your way over there across the street.
Emma, good morning.
I understand that Director General of UNOG brief Member States recently on the impact of the budget cuts on the UN in Geneva.
Can you tell us as much detail as possible about what the new measures are and what she told Member States?
And can you explain why we are in this position?
Is it just the US not paying this year or is it also China changing its payment schedule?
Or why are we in this situation?
Thank you.
Emma, you're, you're right.
The director general, Tatiana Volovaya, did brief member states last week.
And this, I presume, will be 1 of many briefings to come.
You know, the situation we've, we've been in a budget crisis, liquidity crisis for some time now.
And there are measures that are that are being taken here, specifically at the UN office at Geneva.
Of course, other measures are being taken at other duty stations here.
Of course the impact differs across the agencies and we've heard from several agencies here from this podium on some of the measures that are being taken at their respective agencies here.
I mean, we have impacts on programmes and services.
Of course we have cost saving measures have been put in place including limited travel for staff, more virtual meetings rather than travel of you know participants here in Geneva, which is obviously costs money.
Essential only equipment to being only essential equipment will be replaced.
You've seen the measures yourself visibly some of the other, you know, the lights off at night.
We're all asked to leave early to save our our electricity bill.
So we're doing what we can under these dire circumstances.
It's you know, we're not out of the woods.
There are no plans to abolish any posts.
You know, there are a lot of been a lot of people have been asking this here at the UN office at Geneva for as it stands for the moment.
But you know, the liquidity crisis has affected our activities.
And this is precisely what the director general has been saying to states.
The idea is to to obviously recover, do what we can with what we have.
You know, the US budget cuts indeed have had a major impact.
You know, we've heard from other agencies and how it's impacted their work.
I mean, we operate on different types of budgets.
We have a regular budget, extra budget, involuntary contributions, of course.
And of course it would be remiss of me if I didn't say and repeat what has been said here.
the US has been incredibly, incredibly generous in their contributions for years and years.
And we would hope that that that that vital that that important contributions continue.
But it's not exclusively the USI mean, we're in a situation which we're trying to contend with and we're taking these measures I've announced, you know, should we have more information?
If we can provide more, of course, we'll be the first ones to share that with you.
Do ask and we'll provide what we can.
But thanks, thanks for the interest.
And that goes to all of you colleagues, because many of you have been asking the same questions, other questions.
No.
Oh, Gabby processor, yes, thank you very much.
Is that the reason why the remodelling of the Palais is so slow?
I mean, we have been like years, you know in this process.
So I don't know if it's if it's the reason is that you don't have enough money to continue or what is happening.
This is listen, this the remodelling as you put it, it's the strategic heritage plan as arise known as the SHP.
This has been going on for years.
And yes, the as we say, the goal posts on the end date have been moving.
And this is partly due to the budget situation.
Of course, that has its own separate budget and and they're trying to do what they can to complete this important project, which will be in the long run a more efficient, cleaner energy wise and will save the organisation and money.
You know, it can't precise.
It would be too simplistic for me to say it's simply because of the budget situation.
There's a lot of other factors, there's contractual issues.
It's not an easy time.
Of course, COVID was a major, how do we say a monkey wrench in the works, if I can use that, cliche, that was a major factor as to why the process didn't go according to plan from the onset.
But you know, of course, like I said before, in terms of other measures we're taking, including on the process of the SHP, should we have more information, We'll we'll, we'll share that with you.
We do what we can under these circumstances.
So thanks for the interest, Gabby.
I think that's it unless last call.
No.
OK, thanks very much.
See you here on Friday in Bon Appetit.