The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 21 July 2020
/
47:14
/
MP4
/
660.8 MB
Global Forests Resources Assessment
Anssi Pekkarinen, Senior Forestry Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said that the Global Forest Resources Assessment just launched by FAO was the most comprehensive report of that kind, covering more than 60 variables and the period from 1990 to 2020. The main message of the assessment was that the forest loss was continuing but slowing down, even if not nearly enough. The world had lost 178 million hectares of forest since 1990, which was an area about the size of Libya. There were some 4.08 billion hectares of forests globally. The loss of forests was continuing globally, with Africa being the hot spot, followed by South America. Since 1990, some 420 million hectares of forests had been lost to other uses, such as agriculture. More than 700 million hectares of forest were currently in the legally established protected areas, and globally, some 18 percent of all forests had sustainable management plans in place, informed Mr. Pekkarinen. All the data was now available, by countries, territories and variables, in an easy-to-use digital format.
Responding to a question, Mr. Pekkarinen said that the data was available in French and other languages, whereas the report was being translated. The related press release with Mr. Pekkarinen’s contact details would be shared with the media shortly.
The 2020 Global Forest Resources Assessment is available here.
COVID-19 and internal displacement in Yemen
Paul Dillon, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that COVID-19 had emerged as a new cause of internal displacement and misery for thousands of conflict-weary Yemenis. IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix reported that more than 100,000 people had been forced to flee due to fighting and insecurity since January. The situation was especially dire in places like Aden where hospitals were turning away suspected cases, and news reports had shown large numbers of graves being dug.
Displaced people in Yemen who had been the worst affected by nearly six years of conflict were now leaving virus hotspots. Some were moving from Aden and Lahj to areas within the same governorates less affected by the outbreak, while others were going to districts in Abyan, despite active fighting in other parts of that governorate. Many of those displaced as a result of the outbreak had been already living in displacement and were moving for the second, third or fourth time. While the official number of COVID-19 cases in Yemen remained low, given limited testing capacity and concerns among the local population about seeking treatment, the humanitarian community was working under the assumption that the actual numbers were much higher.
Alessandra Vellucci, for the UN Information Service (UNIS), recalled that aid agencies required 385 million USD in funding to support COVID-19 operations, including $304 million for health. As of yesterday, 20 July, the operation had received only $55 million – a mere 14 per cent of what was actually needed.
Responding to a question, Mr. Dillon said that nearly half of the health infrastructure in the country had been destroyed as a result of the long-lasting hostilities.
Full press release, including B-roll and photos, is available here.
Other announcements
Fernando Puchol, for the World Trade Organization (WTO), informed that on 22 and 23 July there would be a session of the General Council, the last one under Roberto Azevedo as the WTO Director-General. The previous week, the eight candidates for next DG had made their presentations to the Council and addressed the media. This week the Council would also decide, by consensus, which of the current Deputies Director-General would become the acting DG once Mr. Azevedo left on 31 August. The Council would also discuss the request of Turkmenistan to receive an observer status.
On 22 July, the WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell would brief the media in Room B at the WTO, and on 23 July, Roberto Azevedo would give a press conference at the WTO at 1 p.m.; details on the logistics of both conferences would be sent out to the media shortly.
Tarik Jašarević, for the World Health Organization (WHO), informed that today at 3 p.m. there would be a webinar on the “infodemics” conference. The webinar would discuss the results of the closed sessions of the conference, which had taken place over the past two and a half weeks. The webinar was open to everyone, who could ask questions in the chat format. There was huge interest in the topic, which was why the webinar would be open to the general public. If there was media interest in the topic, a separate press briefing could possibly be organized. The use of any medical products in any country was authorized by national health regulatory agencies which regulated their use, said Mr. Jašarević in a response to a question; WHO hoped that any potential treatment would go through a rigorous process. Mr. Jašarević also said that the regular WHO press conferences should, in general, now be taking place on Mondays and Thursdays.
Alessandra Vellucci, for the UN Information Service (UNIS), informed that the Human Rights Committee was still holding its 129th session online, which could be followed live at UN WebTV. The session would end on 24 July in the afternoon.
Ms. Vellucci also informed that UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen would address the Security Council on 23 July, the first part of which would be webcast at UN Web TV.
Ms. Vellucci said that the next Ciné-ONU, organized jointly by UN Brussels, Vienna and Geneva, would take place with an online screening of “Wake up on Mars”, to be followed by a panel discussion on 22 July at 5 p.m.
Finally, Ms. Vellucci said that a virtual exhibition on UN@75, "75 Years, 75 Documents" prepared by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, could be accessed now. The exhibition highlighted key documents that had shaped international relations and featured UN accomplishments and action on recent global issues such as climate change, gender equality, migration, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition could also be accessed through the UN75 website: https://www.un.org/un75
Teleprompter
So good morning, everybody.
Nice to see you all again here in the room.
And virtually, I would like to start this briefing with a very short announcement from Jennifer Fenton from the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria.
Jennifer asked me to tell you that the UN Envoy for Syrian is the Guyer of Peterson will address the Security Council on Thursday.
His briefing will be distributed as usual.
And I understand that the first part is also webcast as usual on webtv.un.org, first announcement for you.
And then also on the announcements part, I have the pleasure to welcome Mr Ansi Pecarinen, who's the Senior Forestry Officer and Coordinator of the Global Forest Resources Assessment, who is with us on the platform.
Mr Pecarinen, good morning.
You are connected with the Geneva Press Corps.
At the Geneva press briefing, you have an announcement for for our journalist.
I believe you are talking from Rome, right?
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you and good morning.
Good day, everyone.
I will start by sharing my screen.
Let's see, can you see it now we can.
OK, perfect.
Good morning.
Good day.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Ansibek Kerrigan and I'm the coordinator of Global Forest Resources Assessment here at the FAO Rome.
And it is my great pleasure to to introduce you to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 that we have released today.
I'll speak briefly about the, the history of the assessment, then about the key findings and then about the communication products we have made available today.
So Global Forest Resources, thank you very much.
You have about 5 minutes, so just to, to frame your presentation.
Thank you.
OK, I will need to speed it up a little bit then because I thought it'd sell it.
Global Forest Resources assessment is something that FAO has done for a long time in cooperation with under at the request of the member countries.
The first global assessment was released in 1948.
It is the most comprehensive assessment of world's forest resources, their management and use.
It is based on official country statistics that are reported to FAO through a global network of over 300 national experts.
It covers more than 60 forest related variables and 236 countries and territories of the world and the period from 1990 to 2020.
It is important to stress that although this is called Forest Resources Assessment 2020, it does cover the time series from the 1990s.
What is the main message from this assessment then?
Forest loss is slowing down, but not nearly enough.
If we look at the current extent of forest resources, they cover 31% of the global forest area.
That means that we have 4.06 billion hectares of forests globally, which is half a hectare for each and every one of us.
Most of the forests are in the tropics.
They are followed by burial, temporary and subtropical domains.
But we are losing our forests.
We have lost 178,000,000 hectares of forest in the last 30 years.
The good news is that the rate of net forest loss in last decade has dropped to about 60% to what it was in the 1990s.
But still we are continuing to lose forest.
The forest loss hotspot is now in Africa where the situation is actually getting burst.
As you see from the right hand side of this slide, in Africa we are losing 3.9 million hectares of forest every year.
It is followed by South America, but there the forest loss has been successfully halved in the last decades.
Currently Asia has has highest net gain of forest area.
When we look more closely into that and just the deforestation which means conversion of forest to other land use such as agriculture, infrastructure, mining and etcetera, we have lost 420 million hectares of forest since 1992 other land use, but again the deforestation has declined substantially and during the last five year.
It's 10 million hectares per year.
In the 90s it was 16,000,000 hectares per year.
That's some good news.
We are moving towards more sustainable management of forests.
Now more than 700 million hectares of forest are found within legally established protected areas and this means that we have actually globally reach the IG biodiversity target 11 to protect 17% of terrestrial ecosystems.
For forests, the highest proportion of protected areas is found in southern area.
Sorry.
Another good news is that more than half of the world's forests have now long term management plans.
This is good news because that implies that these forests, there is an intention to manage these forests in a sustainable way.
And this has the the area of forest that has these plants has increased by 13% within the last 20 years.
Then a little bit about the communication product products today.
Actually already now at our website, we have made available a global assessment main report.
This is a comprehensive analysis of more than 60 variables.
There are status and trends that have been collected through this access.
We have also made available to detailed country reports or reports for the 236 countries and territories in the digital report.
But then we are really excited to tell you that we have now made this data available in an easy to use manner.
All the data reported by the countries and territories can now be accessed through a digital platform that allows you to select any country you wish any and visualise the the key variables as well as select the variables and download them on your computer.
So the time is short.
The take home messages from this presentation are the global forest area continues to shrink and halting the forestation remains a challenge.
But we are losing the the sorry, the forest loss is slowing down, forest management is moving towards sustainability.
More than half of the global forest area is now covered by such plants and globally 18% of the world's forest area is now found with illegally studies protecting the damage.
And finally, the country reported data to FAO are now easier to access and use than ever before.
And I would like to invite you to visit our website and test these tools and have a view on this reports.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr Brick Carlin.
And I now look at my screen to see if there's any question.
First of all, any question from the room.
No, I don't see any.
So, Lisa, you have the floor.
Lisa Schlein from Voice of America.
Yes.
Good morning.
Thank you.
Alessandra.
Yes, I have a few questions.
I would you make you make a sound almost as if we shouldn't worry about forest loss.
Should we continue to worry?
Could you perhaps be a little bit more precise about the consequences of losing the forest?
We hear terrible stories about the Amazon and what is happening there.
And then if you would be a little more specific, you know, I'm tired to climate change, please.
And then would you be more specific about Africa?
You say that Africa is the hotspot.
What do you mean by that?
Which forests are most at risk?
And then do you have notes that you can send us on on this situation 'cause it it, it would help guide us in writing your story.
Thank you, Mr Peck.
Karen.
Yes, don't, don't take me wrong.
We should continue worrying about the forest.
And the worrying thing is that, you know, if we if the deforestation continues to slow down with the current rate, it will take another 20 years before the deforestation has been halted.
And that was one of the objectives for actually for 2020 in the context of the SD chiefs.
So certainly we should continue worrying.
But what I'm saying is that there are encouraging signs that we can actually achieve this if we strengthen these efforts to manage the forest more sustainable.
What comes to the Africa?
It has been shown earlier that globally in the tropics, 40% of the forest loss can be.
It's basically caused by agricultural expansion, large scale agricultural expanse and another 33% by small scale agriculture.
In Africa, the main driver is the small scale agriculture and the need to to feed the families and the growing population.
And most of this deforestation and forest degradation happens in South Saharan sub-Saharan Africa.
Sorry, but all the, and we are happy to share more information, of course.
And all the, all this information is actually in this main report that was focused today.
Yeah, if, if I know that Adriano is not here, but Maria de Christopher Roy is accompanying you in this briefing.
And maybe if she can send us information, we can share it with the with the journalist or you can send it directly.
OK, so I have another question now from Emma Farge, Reuters.
Emma, you have the floor.
Hello.
Good morning.
Thank you for sharing those findings.
I was wondering if you could comment on on how much of the loss was actually caused by fires and also because that's what's happening now in the Arctic.
Does this report cover the latest fires in the Arctic?
And if not, do you have any information about the scale of the destruction there?
Thank you, Mr Bricker, thank you.
These data that we published now were collected.
The last ones were collected basically last year.
So it doesn't really have the latest news regarding, regarding the fires.
You know, this is that we do collect data on disturbances, but those data are not as recent as we would wish at the moment.
We are trying to improve that in the future, but unfortunately there's not much I can say about this fibres in US.
The next question is from Paula to press.
Paula.
Yes, hi, thank you.
I just wanted to know whether what you thought about the impact of COVID on deforestation.
I mean, in in Brazil, for instance, there there's been a resumption of deforestation.
And I'm just wondering with the expect, well, the economic downturn, whether some people may be encouraged to start resuming deforestation.
Thank you.
That's, that's again a very, very good question.
But unfortunately it is from the global forest resources assessments point of view, it is too early to, to assess what will be the impact.
And I think that this holds true true for the other assessments as well.
This is something that we need to follow very carefully and analyse within the within the coming months and years when more data will become available.
But certainly it will have an impact.
There are different estimates now that what kind of impact it will have in different parts of the world, but as said, remains to be seen.
Isabel Sacco FA yes, good morning.
I I would like to know if Paul has organised any press event in Rome to present this report or this is the only contact you have had right now with journalists referring this information.
And I would like also to have, if this is the only press event, I would like to have your contact details, your e-mail and phone, because I would like to maybe to do an interview more.
I mean, bilateral, Mr Pekerin.
And this is important for the for the agencies because they can, they need to know if they can cover from Geneva or if you're having an event in room.
We are not going to have a separate event.
We had the key findings launched and this main report launched organised in a similar manner because of the COVID-19 pandemic that we just have a basically a pre recorded launch video.
And we have made all this information available at our website.
But I'm happy to organise bilaterally to use us.
We'll be happy to give the journalist your contact, the journalist who need it, Isabel.
And if anybody else would like to get in contact with you directly, please let us know.
I also have another question from Gorky.
Gorky, What is our correspondent?
From Senegal, From lisolate Dhaka, a continent premier?
Basi Gugri.
I'm seeing that your colleague, Mr Mrs Maria de Christopher, is asking for the floor.
Maybe this is to organise the distribution of the information.
OK, OK, let's go to.
No, I don't.
I'm sorry.
OK, no problem.
OK, no problem.
I would like to know if we can have also this report available in French and the question regarding deforestation in West Africa.
My question is, is it related to Chinese to to have African lands or what are the main explanation of that?
Mister Pekarina, did you get the questions from Gorgie?
Did.
Could you understand what he said?
Yes, I could.
Thank you.
OK, go ahead.
Yes, thank you.
What comes to the French translation?
Yes, we are working on that.
Unfortunately, I can't tell you the exact date when that will be published, but it won't, I hope, take more than a couple of months or so.
I said we are working on that.
What comes to the tribers of deforestation, we did not collect information on that in the current assessment.
As I said that most important driver in these areas sub-Saharan Africa is the population growth and the the subsistence agriculture.
But we are conducting another survey at the moment which is called Global remote sensing survey which is a very participatory assessment.
We are doing it with all the countries and that will also look into the into more, more details of the drivers of the forestation in different parts of the globe.
Mercy, thank you.
And Maria, would you would like to add something?
Just wanted to add that we just released the press release, which we can make available also to everyone.
So we'll send that after the the briefing.
And of course, Andy will be available for any interviews.
OK, we can go through you, Catherine.
Catherine Shaco Yes, good morning, Sir.
Good morning, Alessandra.
Just also if you could share, I mean globally the contact details of Mr Pekkahinen, that would be helpful.
And did I hear well that the French version won't be available before a couple of months?
That is, that is the other thing that I wanted to, to, to make sure.
And thank you, Mr Pekkahinen.
Yes, let me double check that.
I don't know the exact status of the French translation.
We are basically struggling in getting all this, this data and information online.
But what I can tell you is that that FRA database is now available already in French and in other languages.
Also, we have a digital report that was of the key findings that is available in a number of languages.
Thank you very much.
I'll take the last question from Isabel.
You had a follow up, Isabel.
Yes, yes, thank you.
Yeah.
It's just to say that it's very important for us to have this press release mentioned as soon as possible.
And if there is a link the the link to the to the report that so this is save time for us and as soon as in the press release also on the same e-mail the the contact details.
Thank you.
OK, we'll organise this with Maria and with Mr Pekarinen.
Thank you very much to everybody.
Thank you, Mr Pekarinen with for being with us today.
And I will now go to my right where I have our colleague Tariq Yasarevich from WHOI would like to remind you that in addition to the people who are connected or listed on the attendance list, we also have in the room Katherine Miso, Franccta Barbarochon, Boris Kashirakov.
Kashirakov, thank you for UNHCR Alien Slerke for OCHA who are available and Rosalind is also available on Zoom from ILO.
So Tariq, your turn.
Thank you for coming.
Oh, thanks.
Thanks.
Hello, everyone.
So just to to tell you what you have just received a few minutes ago from from from my colleagues and it's invitation for today's webinar at 3:00.
And this is following the infodemology conference that we have announced.
We had one public webinar at the very beginning that some of you have followed.
So today is the public webinar following the end of the of the conference and basically there will be a summary of the conclusions of this scientific conference and next steps in the context of COVID-19 pandemic.
The phenomenon of infodemic as we have defined or overabundance of information has escalated to the level that requires A coordinated response.
Today's webinar will discuss the results of the closed session that took place over past 2 1/2 weeks.
And this summary that will be presented will include a draught public health research agenda for managing infodemics in the future.
So this event is not press conference, it's webinar.
It's open to everyone.
Any participants may ask questions in a chat section and experts will try to answer that.
So you are welcome to follow that today at 3:00 for hour and a half.
And the details how to register have been sent to you in the media advisory.
Thank you.
Thank you, Tariq questions.
I see Christian has raised our hand and then Nina in the room.
Christian.
Hi, Tariq.
Christian.
I'm here DPA.
Could you share the conclusions before the start of this webinar at 3:00 so that we can have a look at that to think about our questions?
Thank you.
I doubt it's possible because I'm think I think that the, the you know, there's still like drafting going on, but I will I will ask the question if it's possible.
I'll definitely do that for, for, for pale press, but I have to go back to the technical unit.
Nina, hi Tarek, just wondering why the decision not to do any actual press conferences on this and opening it up to the the full public because for to get information across properly and have a professional questions that would have been useful because there's a huge interest of this.
I think there will be 5000 people on a on a webinar today from around the world.
It's not only for generally this is really like a huge topic for for lots of different professionals around the world.
But if there is a if there is, we have been talking about this topic several times, including on a separate press briefings.
But if Pali press corps would like to have something on that, we can we can definitely try to to organise.
Yeah.
I mean, I just think that like Christian said, it would have been helpful to have the information in advance to be able to ask, ask informed questions and perhaps have a press briefing before opened up to the entire world.
As I said today we have a webinar.
I will ask about the possibility to have something in advance in terms of conclusions and for the press briefings.
We will, we want, if there is a interest, we will organise Borla.
But can you hear me?
Hello.
Hello, We can, we can go ahead.
Yes, yes, hi.
So Ashley, I just wanted to know yesterday Doctor Tedros was commenting about the situation of indigenous people, particularly he mentioned the the case of an isolated tribe in Peru.
And I'm just wondering whether, you know, what the role of traditional medicine is in, in treating COVID-19 patients and, and whether The Who is endorsing that type of, of treatment?
Well, I don't really have much to add on this topic from what Doctor Tedros has said yesterday.
And we're going to come when it comes to treatments, we as always we've been saying we hope that any treatments will go through the appropriate scientific process for validation.
Catherine Yes, good morning, Tarek.
In fact, a question that is quite related to the one that has just been asked now about traditional treatments.
I'd like to to, to, to have some more information about the one of Madagascar that you know has been spoken a lot about during the month of April.
And I would like to know what is in fact the proper process for traditional treatments to be, I would say maybe, I don't know, tried by I suppose experts from WHO in order to be validated.
And the second thing I wanted to say is that there is a **** interest as we said several times for the Geneva press corps to have a special briefings with you guys before the webinars, because in webinars because it's so popular, we don't have much the opportunity to ask maybe a lot of questions.
So it would be really nice to think about the fact that there is a **** interest from the Geneva press corps for that.
Thank you.
That's that's noted.
I don't have information on this particular treatment that that you mention.
But again, the process is that the use of any medical products in in any country is being authorised by the national regulatory agencies.
Now National Laboratory agencies normally look into scientific evidence that's being presented by manufacturers of medical products and it usually are being peer reviewed in a wider scientific community.
Thank you, Catherine.
Yes, my follow up is about, I mean, not going through the, the pharma it, it is, you know, traditional medicine like the one in Madagascar has been made out of plants and there's no factory, there's no big international company handling that.
So what is the process or and if you don't know, would it be possible to send a contact of someone that would be able to answer the question?
Thank you.
I was not mentioning pharma at any moment.
I was talking about national regulatory agencies who regulated the use of medical products on a territory of the, of the country.
Traditional medicine obviously has, has its place and it has been recognised as such in in various ways by WHO.
But again, what, what we have been saying so far that we hope that that any, any treatment would go through through rigorous processes that are being put in place for, for vaccines and therapeutics.
Thank you very much, Tariq, and thanks to all the journalists.
I'm oh sorry I'm not looking at the room too much Zoom.
Dunker scundisia de piulu de music set proportion don't ratio de mortality le mortality vary the situation a lot Donkel vary or cord the epidemi or de la pandemi OC Bianca El pero a lot don't pay a lot.
Remember send under the epidemia pasqua Anwar unicomua a majority legende santom SE Verde qui quin bezon de hospitalisation onto our cassette sector de mortality ET ellevi E of fua mesur que on teste place de Jean en en Contra place de California de de de de sante de de.
I'm sorry, I speak to English, and I'm happy to give the floor now to Paul Dillon, who's also going to speak about COVID-19 in Yemen as a driver of Internet displacement.
Paul, you have more on this morning.
Good morning.
Go ahead.
Yes, so Dateline Aiden COVID-19 has emerged as a new cause of internal displacement and misery for thousands of conflict protected Yemenis.
The International Organisation for Migration's Displacement Tracking Matrix reports that more than 100,000 people have been forced to flee due to fighting and insecurity since January and between 30 March and 18 July.
However, ETM reported that over 10,000 people citing fear of contracting the virus and the impact of the outbreak on services and the economy as their reasons for moving.
While the official number of COVID-19 cases in Yemen remains low, humanitarian community is working from under the assumption that the actual numbers are much higher.
The situation is especially dire in places like Aden where hospitals are turning away suspected cases and news reports have shown large numbers of graves being dug.
Displaced people in Yemen have been the worst affected by nearly six years of conflict are now leaving virus hotspots.
Some are moving from Aden and Lodge to areas within the same governance less affected by the outbreak, while others are going to districts in Abiyan despite active fighting in other parts of that government.
Due to access constraints, the data is only being collected in 12 of the 22 governance, so the overall number of displacements in 2020 is likely to be much higher than what has been reported.
The impact on the most vulnerable has been immediate.
A woman named Salaam in Aiden told our staff about people selling their mattresses and blankets and children's clothing in order to meet their basic needs.
Displaced women who used to work as maids are forced to beg in the streets because potential employers are afraid they are carrying the virus.
Many of those displaced as a result of the outbreak are already living in displacement and are moving for the second, third or fourth time.
COVID-19 and massive funding shortages pose major challenges to the humanitarian community working to assist internally displaced people living in overcrowded informal sites with little access to essential services.
In addition to collecting information on the movement and needs of internally displaced people in Yemen, IOM last year reached over 5 million people, healthcare, clean water, safe sanitation, shelter materials and household items.
Without immediate donor support, IOM will reach half that number this year.
I should add that the press release that went out a little earlier today has a quite a wide selection of B roll photographic content and testimonies from Yemen.
Thank you.
Thank you, Paul.
And I would like to add that as of yesterday, IT agencies said that they require, as I mean, as you know, they require 385,000,000 in funding to support COVID-19 operations in Yemen, including 304,000,000 for health.
And but as of yesterday, the operation had received only 55,000,000, which is only 14% of what we actually need.
So just wanted to remind you the numbers about the funds.
Lisa has a question.
Yes, thank you.
Good morning.
Paul, I have a couple of questions here.
And now you're talking about people fleeing because of the affair of COVID.
But I've also read reports that that many of the Yemenis are afraid to go to hospitals for any kind of an ailment because of fear of getting COVID-19, being affected by it in the hospitals.
What what do you know about that?
And now, what sort of precautions are being taken in order to protect both the displaced, the Yemeni people and those who are helping them?
I don't know.
What sort of aid is it that the IOM in particular is extending to the Yemeni displaced, these people about whom you're speaking?
And Alessandra gave us the overall figure of what is needed in terms of funding.
What does IOM need?
Yeah, thank you, Lisa.
Maybe I'll cover those off in in reverse order.
IOM appealed for $155,000,000 to continue our work in Yemen through the end of the year.
And thus far we received roughly 50% of of that appeal in terms of the of what's being done on the ground.
I mean, obviously access constraints are having a knock down effect on operations, but we are continuing to deliver for example, medical assistance and materials to people who are living rough whether they be migrants or internally displaced people within Yemen.
So that's a major focus of what we're doing.
On the issue of of a reluctance to go to hospitals, I can't speak specifically to that particular issue except a note that some hospitals are are turning people away who are suspected of carrying the virus.
Roughly half of the entire medical infrastructure for the country has been, has been ruined as a result of nearly six years of conflict in Yemen.
And one of the drivers, I think one of the key concerns that we have, one that's shared by the broader humanitarian community, not just in Yemen, but elsewhere, of course, is the emergence of these false narratives about about COVID-19.
The false information that's being circulated in different areas about, about the, the virus and the sort of and the emerging and very clear examples of xenophobia and xenophobic attacks being directed at displaced people, migrants and otherwise in Yemen and other contexts as a result of these false narratives.
Thank you very much.
Peter has got the trick.
He asked the question on the Zoom, but he's in the room.
So I give him the floor.
Peter.
Yes, this is for Tarek about.
OK.
Let me see if there's any other question for Paul.
Then.
It's about Yemen.
It's about Yemen.
OK, go ahead.
I mean, I was just wondering if WHR has any statistics on Yemen and any assessment of the COVID-19 situation there.
Thank you.
Don't have right now in front of me, but I'll definitely have a look and come back to you, Peter.
Yeah, thank you.
I'm looking at the room, I'm looking at the screen.
There are no more questions.
Thank you very much.
But I see there is a question on the platform by from Dagmar Michelle.
I don't know if we can give the floor a question for Tariq.
I read it.
I read it for you, Tariq.
Dagmar Michelle is asking whether the next rhythm of press briefings on COVID-19 will be Monday and Thursday.
Thursdays In principle, yes.
So we would try to have from now on Mondays and Thursdays, but obviously we have to be flexible and and changes are possible depending on the schedule of speakers.
Indeed.
Then you keep us informed.
Thank you very much.
So I go now to my last speaker, who is Fernando Puschol.
Fernando, you are should be online.
I'll ask my colleague to give you the floor for your updates on the WTO General Counsel's briefing and press conference by Director General Azevedo.
You are there.
I can see you.
Go ahead.
Thank you, Alessandra.
Good morning to everyone.
Just a quick heads up about the events that we're having in the coming days here.
The WTO tomorrow and Thursday, it's the General Counsel.
As many of you know, this will be the the last General Counsel of Roberto Esaveido as Director General of the of the organisation.
It's a General council with quite a few agenda items.
I will just point out to the report that the Chair of the General Counsel, David Walker, he will read about the process of the selection process for the new Director General.
We have the 8 candidates last week here at the WTO doing their presentations before the General Counsel, the membership and then meeting with the press over three days.
Also, we will have a decision and members will discuss which one of the Deputy Directors General may be the next Acting Director General.
As you know, Roberto El Salvador, he will step down on 31st of August and then one of the Deputy directors generals will have to step in as Acting Director general.
Members will have to take a decision on this.
There's also one of the of the last former Soviet space state, Turkmenistan that will be submitting a request for observer status.
As I say, this is the the last of the former Soviet space stage, which either it's not in an accession process to the WTO or has an request of service status.
So this we we will have in the General Council.
Keith Rockwell, the spokesperson for the WTO, will be briefing on what happens at the meeting tomorrow at 5:00 PM here at the WTO in Room B.
Following that, on Thursday, Director General Roberto Cerrado will give a press conference that will be at 1:00 PM in Room S1A.
Journalist wanting to attend the briefing.
They can do so here at the WTO.
At this press conference, we will there will be a webcast and also journalists will be able to join via Webex.
We will be sending a note with further details on the logistics for the press conference in the coming hours.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Fernando, let me see, is there any question?
Yeah, Peter, let's start with you.
Hi, Fernando.
Peter, Kenny here.
I just didn't hear which room Keith Rockwell's briefing will take place in and also which director general would step into Roberto as a bed of shoes on a temporary basis.
Is there a procedure for this or will it just be decided by the general counsel?
Thank you.
Thank you, Peter.
Yes, that the press briefing by Keith Rowell will be in Room B tomorrow at 5:00 PM Regarding the Deputy Director General that will step in to act as acting director or General from September 1st, it is something that will have to be decided by the membership at the General Council.
Catherine, good morning, Fernando.
My question is in fact a follow up of Peters.
Is there a process in order to choose the director, the deputy director general?
Do the countries, the member states have to vote?
How does it work?
Thank you.
Thank you, Katherine.
As you know, this is a consensus based organisation, so members will have to reach a consensus and decide which one of the deputy directors, generals will have to step in as acting Director General, the exact procedure.
I think we will know more after tomorrow's meetings in the General Council so that we can give further details on how this will be decided and how members want to go about it.
But I, I repeat, this is a consensus based decision that will be taken by members.
And also Emma has a question.
Good morning, Fernando, the briefing in room B.
Can we also join virtually tomorrow, please?
I, I think so.
I don't want to say yes 100%, but they, as I said before, we will be sending for the details later in, in the day.
I think both options via Webex both for the press briefing tomorrow and and for the press conference will be available for, for journalists.
But please just keep an eye on the information that we'll be sending on logistics for both the press briefing and the press conference later today.
Thank you, Shane.
Thank you.
Hi, Fernando, this is Shane from CCTV.
A question for tomorrow's briefing, will there will there be any specific details about this briefing like what topics or it's just an introductory to the press conference for for Thursday and for Thursday, will there be announcement that some deputy General director it will be working as a acting DJ, Will that be elected at the end of the Thursday?
Will that be announced or it's just the starting of the procedure and you are not sure when this candidate will be announced or decided?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Shane.
I think we have to wait until tomorrow.
I mean, this is one of the issues that it's part of the of the agenda of the general counsel and it's up to members to decide exactly how they want to move forward in terms of electing one of the deputy directors generals.
So I would highly recommend that you attend tomorrow's press briefing by by Keith Rowe at 5:00 PM.
By that time, I think we we will have further details on that.
Thank you very much, Fernando.
Thanks.
I think this was the last question.
Thank you.
And then good luck for the next two days.
I am left to to give you a couple of announcements.
First of all about the Human Rights Committee, which is still holding it's 129th session online.
The session will end this Friday, 24th of July in the afternoon and have several sessions this several meeting this week.
This week we also have a special edition of CNN Geneva Brussels.
Zambian have joined forces to show you to give you the opportunity to watch a documentary called Wake Up on Mars.
The documentary takes us to Sweden, where a family from Kosovo faces the rejection of their asylum application.
We've sent you the link.
You can watch the movie until for two days, until Wednesday, I think morning in the morning.
And then at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, we will have the discussion with the panel that which will include that they are, you know, she, you know, see director of Wake Up on Mars, the doctor, Elizabeth Hood Kranz, who is professor emerita of the Lynn Hopkin Hopping University, Peter Vent Vogel, senior mental health officer of UNHCR.
And the discussion will be moderated by my colleague Martin Izirke, who's the director of the UN Information Service in Vienna.
And my last announcement concerns a new exhibition, which has been prepared by the Daga Marshall Library in New York.
It's it's an exhibition about so it's called 75 years, 75 documents.
It's been prepared in the context of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, and it highlights key documents that have shaped international relations and feature also UN accomplishments and action on recent global issues such as climate change, gender equality, migration, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
You can access this exhibition on the that commercial sites at the address research.un.org/EN/UN 75 or on the UN75 website www.un.org/UN 75.
These were the announcements I had for you.
If there is no question and I didn't see any in the room or online, I thank you very much and I'll see you on Friday.
Thank you.