Welcome to this briefing of Friday the 12th of February on behalf of the Human Rights Council.
Fernando Gomez is like busy at the moment as the Human Rights Council is currently holding its special session on the human rights situation in Myanmar that started at 10 AM this morning in the Assembly Hall here at the Palais.
Although most speakers obviously are participating virtually.
So you can follow the meeting on UN webcast and statements are available on the HRC extranet.
The Council is expected to take action on the draught resolution shared with you yesterday at 3:00 PM today.
They will take that action at 3:00 PM today.
And of course, as usual, Rolando will be sending you updates.
Also this afternoon, the Conference on Disarmament will have it's public plenary meeting at 3:00 PM.
This will be the last one under the presidency of Ambassador Mark Pextine of Belgium.
And while I'm at it, I may as well tell you about the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which will be opening next Monday.
It will be a virtual one and during this session they will be reviewing the reports, the report of Denmark on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th of February.
They will be only meeting 2 hours per day to discuss the report of Denmark on these dates and also here to make an announcement.
Catherine Reso from UNCTAN.
Let's go to Catherine for a quick, quick announcement.
Katrine, are there any questions for Katrine on Intel activities?
Thank you, Katrine, for being with us this morning.
Let's go now to Fadela Shahib from the World Health Organisation, who joins us virtually with Doctor Janet Diaz, who is the team Lead of Healthcare Readiness at The Who.
Who will give a little bit of information, a bit of a briefing on to expand our understanding of post COVID-19 conditions.
Fadela, do you want to say something beforehand or we go directly to Doctor Diaz.
Let's go directly to Doctor Janet Diaz.
Good morning, good afternoon.
And it is a pleasure to be here and thank you for the opportunity to give you the update on our on our activities to date on the work on post COVID condition.
As you may have heard, on the 9th of February, we convened a global meeting where we brought together key stakeholders, researchers as well as patients to really try to advance our understanding of the post COVID-19 condition.
Well, we know that this post COVID 919 condition or as patients, some patients also call it long COVID and some clinicians call it long COVID is a, is a heterogeneous group of symptoms that occur after the acute illness.
So these are symptoms or complications that can happen potentially a month after, three months after or even 6 months after.
And as we're learning more, we we're trying to understand the real duration of this condition.
Some reports are showing that some of the more common symptoms of the post COVID-19 condition can be fatigue, post exertional malaise and cognitive dysfunction.
And so and, and sometimes you may be hearing patients describe that as as brain fog.
Other complications have also been described as well such as shortness of breath, cough, neurological complications, mental health complications and other physical limitations.
So there is, like I said before, a heterogeneous group of of symptoms that we're trying to better understand.
And unfortunately we have also heard that some people who have the post COVID condition, who have a prolonged recovery period may not have not been able to go back to work.
And so that obviously is of of great concern.
So who is being affected?
What we know thus far is that patients experiencing post COVID-19 condition could have been hospitalised patients, those in the ICU.
So we do know that that is that has happened in patients who were very sick, but also in patients who were not managed inside the hospital.
Those patients that were deemed to have, you know, what we thought was mild illness as and were treated in the ambulatory outpatient setting.
But in fact, they'd have complications and they'd have persistent symptoms or new symptoms, you know, or persistent symptoms or symptoms that waxed and waned that came and went after their acute illness.
And so we still need to better understand what many things about this condition.
One thing is who's at risk for this?
So we have seen it in all patients, you know, in in different subgroups of patients.
We don't know that answer.
What we don't know is why is happening.
So what is the pathophysiology or the aetiology of this condition?
And so the researchers are really working hard to get to the answers of these questions.
You know, is there regional variation in the condition?
Are certain areas more affected than others?
And why this is so important to understand better is so we can better target prevention, treatment and management, because what we want to do is is to to to not have this condition.
We we are concerned obviously with the numbers of patients infected with SARS COV 2 virus that the numbers even if it's we don't know how how common it is or how uncommon it is, but the numbers just by the magnitude of the pandemic will impact health systems.
Again, the main message from us is prevent infection with SARS COV 2.
So the the public health measures are the number one interventions right now that we know will prevent this is that is that the public does not get infected with SARS COV 2.
So that includes, you know, physical distancing when appropriate, wearing your mask, correctly washing your hands, and those are, you know, our public health messages are most important.
And so finally, what I can say, the actions from this meeting were many, but the wonderful collaboration amongst all the stakeholders, the patients, the academics, the researchers was also incredible.
So what we call for is, you know, coordinated global research response that that research gets done both in the outpatient setting and in the communities as well as in the hospital so that we can best understand the condition that we advocate the use of The Who case record form.
This is a standardised data collection tool that was published on the day of the meeting.
This allows researchers and clinicians and health systems to try to collect standardised data so that we can aggregate, analyse and report.
We do ask for more research in pathophysiology, the mechanism so we can better understand and then target treatments.
And of course that health systems, as you already are forgetting, are already managing many patients with COVID-19 in all sectors of the health system.
But now also be ready to manage patients with post COVID-19 condition and that includes getting your clinicians ready and your systems ready from the primary care setting to the specialist.
But it's important that it is what seems to be require a multidisciplinary approach, different types of expertise working, but has to be in a coordinated fashion to ensure patients get access to the care that they need.
So, so thank you for this opportunity.
Thank you very much, Doctor Diaz.
And we'll take a few questions.
I see we have one, a couple of questions already on the line.
Let's start with Tamah from the Kuwait News Agency.
Yes, good morning, good morning, Rihanna and good morning Doctor Diaz.
I have a question about the terminology.
What do you mean exactly with post COVID?
It is the period of the time because I have to translate it to Arabic.
It is the period of the time after COVID-19 or do you mean those persons who are affected by COVID-19 and the time of the treatment after the the infection?
The definition, my question is about the definition of this term.
So, so this term is actually coming from our ICD 10 coding system.
So it is after the acute illness, COVID-19.
So these are the constellation of symptoms that occur after the acute illness.
We don't have a time frame specific yet.
We're not saying is it 4 weeks or 8 weeks or 12 weeks because we're seeing, we, we, we're not fully sure what, you know, the time when the acute illness ends, when you go into the recovery period and these symptoms that happened during that time.
Just to follow up, because there is a study from the University of Zurich about this issue, but they hold it long COVID because the people are still suffering from some symptoms, but it is not COVID anymore.
It is OK for you also this term long COVID.
So, so, so yes, the long COVID is a term that's much used by many, you know, different groups around it is it is.
I think we're discussing the same thing, but from our terminology at WHO for the coding also in medical records, it is called post COVID-19 condition.
We may evolve the definition over time as we learn more about this condition in order to maybe make it a little bit more specific, but for now, that's the that's the formal name.
We also have Robin, Robin Millard from AFP.
I just, I just wanted to know what will happen next?
What do you see the next steps and the next phases are will in terms of future follow up seminars and also is is post COVID-19 condition now?
Is that now the settled name that The Who is going to use?
Thank you so much for the for the important question.
So the next steps, yeah, we have to keep going.
So we will continue with a series of webinars and on different topics and hoping that each time we have a webinar it can go a little bit in a deeper dive to the topic that needs to be further described.
So this the session we had last on the ninth was focusing on the clinical description.
So when our report comes out of that, you will have at least a preliminary working clinical description that we've achieved by consensus.
And that will really help, I think both the care aspect and also the researchers so that we can make sure that we're looking at the same group of patients.
But it will be a very inclusive condition definition because that will help us better understand the condition.
So we anticipate more webinars in the near future.
Again, the topics have not yet been settled.
And then regarding the name, the name is the name as it is now.
This actually was named I think in September in our ICD coding system.
So that's a very formal process that's done by the division that does naming at WHO.
And over time we will see if the name gets changed based on our understanding of the condition, you know, how patients are, what are the patients experiencing?
Can we better define it to something that's a little bit more, you know, maybe seem more appropriate, but that will happen over time.
Are there any final questions for her?
I don't see any other hands up.
So thank you so much for joining us this morning, Doctor Diaz.
And we'll follow this issue very carefully in the future.
One final question it seems, Sorry, just if you could hold on for one second.
Sorry I joined late because I was listening to other thing.
But I would like to ask if WTO plans to have a press conference with with us, with a Geneva press Corp and with the experts that went to Wuhan to China, if, if they are going to speak with us in another press conference because we couldn't ask questions in on that occasion.
I think this might be more a question for Fadela.
I don't know, Fadela, if you Fadela, you just need to unmute yourself.
You may have received the invitation to attend the press conference this afternoon at 4:30.
We will update you also about the You the International China Mission and are also planning to have several interaction with the media.
Tariq is the focal point for this.
So just keep in touch with him you we will inform you if we are planning any media for the Palais journalist around the international mission to China.
I think that's it for you, Doctor Diaz.
Thank you very much for joining us this morning and Fadela as well.
We're going to move to our next topic.
We have Thompson Ferry from the World Food Programme as well as Adrian Adriano, Timothy from the FAO with a guest, Luca Russo, the Senior Food Crisis and analyst and strategic Advisor on resilience at FAO to talk to you about the Yemen IPC nutrition analysis or IPC report.
Please go ahead, Thompson.
Good morning, colleagues.
I believe you're now all in receipt of a joint news release that we've just circulated.
The news release is coming from the War Food Programme, FAO, UNICEF and WTO on that analysis that was conducted in Yemen.
From all that we can see, Yemen is teetering on the brink of a major catastrophe as child malnutrition rats reach record levels.
Half of all children under 5 in Yemen, equivalent to 2.3 millionaire, projected to face acute malnutrition in 2021.
Of these, nearly 400,000 are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition and unless they receive urgent treatment, they risk becoming a lost generation.
Malnutrition rates have increased in Yemen with each passing year since the escalation of the conflict in 2015, driven by armed conflict and economic decline.
Over half the population, 16.2 million, are unable to meet their daily food needs, whilst others are just one step away from famine.
The first time famine like conditions have been identified in Yemen in two years now.
Malnutrition can have enormous economic and health consequences for generations.
The fact that 2.3 million children are facing acute malnutrition is devastating to say the least.
And we need to remember that behind these numbers, our young children whose lives have been turned upside down by conflict and are now facing long term consequences through no fault of their own.
WFP provides nutrition support to both prevent and treat malnutrition in nearly all the districts of Yemen, about 333 districts.
In 2021, WP is targeting over 3,000,000 children and mothers with these services.
However, our staff repeatedly tell us that access and implementation is the most difficult in frontline areas where coincidentally some of the highest levels of malnutrition have also been recorded.
Areas like Mharib Al Jov, Sada al Delhi and parts of Hajja.
And then there are areas of Rhyma and Dhamma which are also challenging to access because of difficult terrain and poor infrastructure that has been neglected due to years of fighting.
Since April 2020, WFP has been providing reduced rations to 8 million people due to funding challenges.
WFP needs at least 1.9 billion United States dollars in 2021 to provide the minimum amount of assistance necessary to prevent famine in Yemen now between February and July of 2021.
WFP needs 519,000,000 United States dollars.
Whilst we are optimistic that some forthcoming contributions will allow us to avoid immediate cuts to assistance, WFP has around 1/3 of that amount that is needed just to sustain already prioritised assistance.
That is between the period of February and July Now.
Funding that allows us to support these families, you will agree with me, is essential to build a better future for people in Yemen.
We need the world to act and we need the world to act now.
Thank you very much, Thompson.
Let's go now to Luca Russo from the FAO who will also add his perspective on this on this report.
Good morning to everyone.
I think every colleagues said most of what are the finding of the of the analysis.
So I will just add a couple of points under, let's say more analytical perspective.
First of all, I mean the point is that Yemen remains the largest humanitarian crisis in the world and one war is that there is a bit of fatigue, you know, in the sense that this has been on the on the highline for 6-6 years now.
And we have, we are under impression that the public attention to this crisis is coming, is coming down and this is very easy.
The second point is why we are doing, we are doing as a sexual body and analysis of acute malnutrition and not only of acute food insecurity because we want really to focus on the most vulnerable that are children under 5.
The point is that the effects of acute malnutrition on children under 5 are irreversible.
And therefore, these analysis put a special focus except on these children as as is already being said, this is 50% of these children over 50 S of this point of this case.
And there is from our analysis, there is somehow a difference between the North and South part of the of the country with the north where the people in the in the most severe sequential is is is is most prevalent and accurate?
Two more things from my side.
One is, yes, there's nothing coming declaration in in Yemen, but at the same time, when you are in an ITC phase four, which is the case for 5 million people in the in the Yemen, there is already an excess mortality.
So therefore people are already dying.
You don't have to wait for if I'm in declaration to to act on this.
And the second point and is my last speech is that in addition to all the points that, that have been raised by the risk in terms of the the need to scale up treatment assistance.
I would say that in a long term perspective also intervention that looks at integrating programme to improve the levels of of the affected families by by humanization is a way to ensure long term solution to the problem.
But the most important things of anything else is the is the stop of the of the conflict unless it is stop or reduce and we don't see really major way out from this situation.
Thank you very much, Mr Russo.
We'll take a few questions now and we have Catherine Fiancon Bukonga on the line.
Real good morning, Thompson.
Thank you for briefing us on Yemen.
I'd like to Thompson to know in your statement, your press release, you said that 400,000 children could die.
Is they could die if they there is no help?
I mean, when do you need the help to, to, to reach the field?
And I would like also to ask a question to all of you regarding the help and particularly the food delivered in Yemen.
We recently had a briefing about Yemeni NGOs saying that the help is not reaching the good hands.
Could you please elaborate a little bit on that?
Who are you giving the food to local NGOs and which are the those NGOs?
I can take the first step on the question of the figure of children who are at risk of dying.
Sadly, yes, 400,000 children are at risk of dying without treatment.
In terms of whom we are assisting, there are approximately 24 million people who are in need of some kind of assistance in Yemen.
Approximately 16.2 million people are food insecure.
That is IPC Phase 3 going upwards, people who can't put food on their tables.
We have been reaching 8 million people in 2020 and up to now we reach people and we work through a number of partners.
Assistance is targeted on needs only basis.
We work in all areas across Yemen.
Like I alluded to, we are in 332 districts.
Let me just confirm that figure again, 332 districts of the country's 333.
That means we're just not in one district there.
That is with our Nutrition Assistance.
The biggest challenge has always been access.
In the last year, we have seen an increase of the front line where active conflict is taking place and whenever you have conflict, access is hindered, access sometimes is denied and assistance is delayed or in some cases suspended.
We continue to appeal for unfettered access so that we can rescue this situation in Yemen.
If I may add something on, on the children at risk of dying.
I think it's very important and and to understand that when you are and we are not talking if I mean situation that is IPC phase five.
But in IPC phase four and already mentioned to this, there is what we call excess mortality due to lack of access to food.
But to declare if I mean you, you, you need to have an excess mortality that is twice the normal.
But when you are in this range between twice the normal and more than the normal that is IPC phase four, that means that people are already dying.
So that is maybe something that is very important to underline.
And today in Yemen, there are 5 million people in IPC phase four, which means that this in this 5 million people, we already see that a number of them, they are dying, but not to the level that is required to declare if I mean, but they they do die.
And maybe you should maybe look at there was an article from Alex the wall on, on, on the BTC just two days ago.
Just important to the fact that you don't need to wait for a funny declaration to understand that there is already people dying because lack of access to food.
So that is a very important point.
And this is a typical situation for women, not only for children, but also for all those.
My follow up is regarding what you just said, Thompson, about the biggest challenge is access.
Who is stopping you to to get in certain places, certain districts?
And could you please if possible be a bit more precise about the places that you don't have access to?
We are struggling for access and implementation in in Marib, in Aljof, in Sada, in Adali as well as in parts of Hajja.
We are also struggling for access in Rhema and Dhamma, but that's also because of the neglected infrastructure and very difficult terrain.
Whilst we generally enjoy access, sometimes implementation is delayed when we don't get access.
What humanitarians need is not access some of the time.
We need access all the time to be able to mount effective responses.
We have another question from Tamil from the Kuwait News Agency.
Rial and Thompson, when you say we, that means that you are on the ground there or are you in cooperation with some local NGOs or organisations to facilitate the axis?
It is a smart mix of both.
WFP has field presence and in some cases, we also work with local and international partners to gain access into certain areas.
Unless there are other questions for Thompson or our colleague from FAO, we will close this topic here.
Thank you very much to both of you, Thompson Ferry, Adriano Trimosi and Monsieur Russo from the FAO in Rome to brief us on this Yemen IPC report.
We will move right along now to Boris Cheshvkov from the Refugee Agency, who will talk to you about its appeal for humanitarian access in the Central African Republic.
Good morning to you and to everyone on the call.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is appealing for humanitarian access to reach 10s of thousands of people in dire need after they fled violence, clashes and military operations in the Central African Republic, a country where almost 1/3 of the population is now forcibly displaced.
Increasing attacks against humanitarian workers and blocked supply routes are hampering UNHCR and other organisations ability to assist the internally displaced Central Africans.
The humanitarian situation was deteriorated, increasing the suffering of an already vulnerable population.
Humanitarians have been targeted and have had their offices looted and their vehicles stolen.
According to UN OCHA, 66 such incidents occurred in January.
This was the highest number ever recorded in a single month in CAR.
In December 2021, humanitarian worker was killed and five others were injured.
Clashes, military operations and blockades along the main road connecting CAR to Cameroon of preventing the delivery of supplies, causing prices in in affected areas to skyrocket as much as 240% for imported staple foods and up to 44% for local goods.
This also impacts the delivery of humanitarian relief from the capital Bongi, with dire consequences for people in urgent need of food, health care products, water and sanitation, essential household items and shelter.
Despite these challenges, UNHCR is working closely with national authorities, humanitarian partners and the United Nations peacekeeping operation Menuska to continue distributing life saving items at accessible sites.
Last week, our supplies reached more than 4600 people from over 740 households in war, a town that is 450 kilometres away from Bundy.
Since December when the crisis began, ACHA estimates that more than 100,000 people have been displaced inside CAR.
Most are living in deplorable conditions in the Bush for fear of fresh attacks on their villages.
According to figures from state authorities in neighbouring countries, at least 107,000 people have fled across borders into the DRC, Cameroon, Shihad and the Republic of Congo.
This brings the total number of Central Africans displaced inside their country and across the region to over 1.5 million, nearly 1/3 of the country's total population of 4.8 million.
Inside CARUNHCR continues to receive reports of grave human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, illegal detention, extortion, armed robbery, *******, restricted movement, expropriation and looting.
Sexual violence, including against young children, is on the rise as insecurity creates a climate of lawlessness and impunity.
UNHCR teams have reported recurrent violations of humanitarian principles in IDP sites.
We reiterate our call for meaningful dialogue to deescalate tensions as well as sustained and robust support from the international community to ensure that the effect of humanitarian response is resumed and prospects for solutions are strengthened.
Thank you very much, Boris.
Are there any questions on this issue?
Escapito Sartandra amelioration de la condition de vie Mercia Freddy Boris, if you if I can help you Freddy Malongo is asking about this the condition, the humanitarian condition of refugees from central Africa in Bangui.
He believes there's about 92,000 of them and he knows that their the the the humanitarian conditions for them are are quite bad.
Is there any hope for an improvement of their their humanitarian the the humanitarian situation for these refugees?
Many thanks and and good morning Freddy.
Indeed, the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to be quite difficult for those that have arrived.
We know from state authorities and local authorities that there are around 92,000 refugees since displacement began in mid-december.
We are conducting biometric registrations to improve those estimates.
Already we've been able to register around 22,000 refugees.
That pace is at around 1000 a day, so we hope to have more estimates in the coming days and weeks.
We are delivering assistance in the three most affected provinces in especially an undue village in Baswele, but also in North and South Ubangi.
The difficulties are that some areas are accessible, others are very remote and hard to reach, and most of the people that have arrived are along the riverbanks in around 40 villages and other localities.
This is one of the reasons why we're focusing.
We already have identified 2 locations for sites where people can be transferred and these relocations will hopefully start to take place soon.
But the conditions are difficult especially for food for health and and other basic needs that need to be met.
And here the funding requirements again are quite significant for the whole Central African Republic situation for 2021 before these latest developments occurred was 155.5 million U.S.
That is only a 5% funded right now and the needs are increasing and we will likely be launching an appeal soon.
We also have a question from Robin Millard from AFP.
Just a question on the numbers.
So if more than 100,000 are displaced inside the country and more than 107,000 fled across the border and there's more than 1.5 million displaced, does that mean that there was there was already 1.3 million people were displaced?
And and also are the numbers fleeing following the December election unrest, are they continuing to go up at the same rate as is the rate dropping down?
What what's the sort of the flow?
Thanks, Robin, and good morning to you.
Indeed, the numbers that we have, these are based on ultra estimates for inside the country where we we know from them, there are over 100,000 ID, PS and then those that have fled across borders as refugees, mostly into the DRC are estimated at 107,000 refugees.
These are estimates coming from state authorities.
We are working hard to to get our own estimates through the registrations that are taking place.
For those that have been fleeing from CAR into the neighbouring countries, but we know that there there is new displacement almost on a daily basis inside CAR.
People are fleeing mostly in nearby forests and in the Bush, but they they fear that there might be fresh violence against their villages, that groups might be occupying the locations, that there might be human rights violations.
Some are fearing that they might have to pay legal taxes or they might be subject to to sexual violence or young boys being recruited.
So the situation is is very concerning and we are hoping to have more access soon and we're calling for the international community to support us.
Are there any final questions for UNHCR on this?
I don't see any questions.
So Boris, thank you very much for joining us this morning and have a a good rest of the day.
This concludes our agenda for this morning, giving you the announcements and there are no press conferences that I can mention for next week.
Unless there are any final questions.
We'll close the briefing here and I wish you a good afternoon and a good weekend and we'll see you next week.
