Good morning, dear colleagues.
Welcome to this press briefing of the UN Information Service in Geneva.
Today is Friday, 19th of February.
We have a long list of briefing issues and announcement.
And I would like to start immediately with UNICEF.
Marikse Mercado, our spokesperson for UNICEF has brought us Edua Big Bidet, who's the representative of UNICEF in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
And we have them on Zoom.
Marrick, see you are connected.
And Mr Beck, the day is also connected.
So you have the floor to tell us about the impact on militia violence on displaced children in the RC.
I think we go directly to Eduard.
Big was you are unmuted was that was that.
Thank you very much for giving me the time to speak about our report Fear and Flight and for for this report.
It tends to to give the voice of of children and children of GRC are are are telling us dramatic testimonies and the words of fear flights and leaves in limbo come back each time we we speak with children displaced children in in the same time, children know exactly what they they want.
They want peace, they want normal lives, they want education, they want health and they want protection.
It is true that the problem of displacement due to conflict in the ERC is not new, but over the past case the number of people affected has increased enormously.
In 2010, the Internet Space Monitoring Centre recording 1.7 million ID PS As we are speaking, there is there are 5.2 million displaced people in the DRC, more than any country except Syria.
According to official data, 91 children were confirmed killed in Ituri province.
The violence between January to August 2020, actually the actual number was certainly much higher due to the difficulty to get all of the information.
In some of these areas, thousands of children are trapped within armed groups or subjected to sexual violence and forced labour.
There was a 60% increase in the recruitment of children as militia fighters in the first six months of 2020 compared to 20/19.
As you know, the most violence affected the provinces are Ituri, N Kivu, S Kivu and Tanganika and where we find more than 8 million people which are accurately food insecure.
All these displacements are taking place amid the climate of insecurity.
About 10 humanitarian workers were killed pro 2020 and 42 were kidnapped.
The GRC remain one of the poorest country in the world.
As you know, in 2018, 70 + 2% of the population, especially in the northwestern Kasai region, was living in extremely poverty of less, one of less than $2.00 per day.
And actually this situation is exacerbated in eastern Congo.
Many families have been displaced repeatedly in waves of violence purchased by armed groups, some of whom operate across the borders with neighbouring Uganda.
The levels of violence are barbaric.
Entire family are hacked to death, including children, **** and others.
The act of violence against girls and women are rampant.
Violence is taking place in a country but have the highest numbers of people in the world who are food insecure and more epidemic outbreaks than any other country in the world.
When UNICEF with its partner continued to deliver life saving emergency assistance to families in the days after they have been displaced, working alongside with local NGO partners, we delivered emergency supplies to nearly half a million ID PS in between January to November 2020.
Children need child protection.
We need to rehabilitate former child soldier across the east of the DRC.
Children need health and wash to, to, to be able to survive and they need definitely education to be able to build a future.
There is and I, I believe that you know what, what they want.
It's it's quite, quite very clear.
And this is reason why this report have a call of action at at the end of of its report.
We call on all parties to the conflict in eastern Congo to end the the the fights and the killings as they are to the internationally monitoring laws and ensure safe and restricted access of humanitarian actors.
We need to end Britain's assaults including **** and other form of gender based violence, cease all attacks and threats against health facilities, school and their staff and naturally end the recruitment and use of children and to hold paper theatres accountable.
We could as well call on on the government of DRC to redouble efforts to bring peace to eastern provinces and all are affected by ongoing conflict.
To take firm measure to stem the flows of funds which has allowed armed groups active in eastern DRC to expand their activities at the expense of local communities.
To allocate increased resources from the national budget to extend to the provision of essential health cares, nutrition, immunisation services, education and others.
Finally, we call on the international community to support children in DRC through humanitarian and Nexus assistance in 2020.
You mentioned a response plan was only one third funded and the the risk of further budget cuts is very real, especially when the attention and financial resources of the international community has been focused on the battle against COVID.
They're a troubling sign that global celebrity with DRC is waning.
We must reverse the strength a failure to continue to obtain the mentoring intervention risk containing thousands of children to die from malnutrition and disease.
Moreover, failing to permit multi year resources could finally extinguish the hopes of the DRC of whelming youthful and fast growing population of ever seeing the country reach potential fulfil.
I will stop here because I believe it's it's more interesting to a mature question and answer, but I think it's as I say that in my introduction, it's true that the problem of displacement is not new, but we don't see the incredible increase of displace person that we had faced the last year when at the same time, the support from all belligerents, government, international community need to to be brought to a different level to be able to cease the fire and and get hope for all these children.
I'll open now the floor to question.
Then we have Lisa Schlein from Voice of America who would like to ask you a question.
Thank you for the briefing.
There are short questions, but there are a few.
So if you could take some notes, wondering how how many children in total are at risk of being killed?
How many have been killed?
I think you said 91, is that all last year and how many displaced?
And then could you elaborate on the situation of malnutrition regarding children, how many have are are malnourished and the kind of treatment that they need?
Are you, are they dying from related causes to malnutrition and child soldiers?
Have you had any success in freeing any of them or is this a great difficulty?
And lastly, is the Eastern DRC the worst affected province in terms of risks to children?
Thank you very much for for these questions.
Well, actually one of the major difficulties what we have is to have the real numbers.
We with MONUSCO having a mechanism for for reporting to the Security Council and but for each of the reports that we we have, we have to ensure that we have all the documentation and, and so on.
So when we are speaking about this numbers of 91 for a period of six months and so forth, it's largely under reported because naturally during the time of a violence itself, there is very few people on the ground when the displaced or when the attacks are taking place during the night or, or or during in or in a very in the in the in the area where there is no access.
But we could definitely believe that the children who are at risk, most of the children who are displaced in in the east.
So in in the East you have enough Kilo, you have about 11 million children ID PS and you have 900 1000 in injury.
They are not always at the same type of risk during the attack.
They have the risk of being killed and being lost and and and and so on.
They have they have as well risk to be taken as a child soldier and so forth or to be raped during the attack.
Then there is different risk when they are in camps which are not to to to get to about gender based violence on malnutrition and other kind of of situation regarding malnutrition.
Well, we have a very difficult situation in the AC.
Overall, we we have a rate of malnutrition of 42% in the country and about 6% of severe of a moderate and severe severe malnourish and the 2% of severe in for the Idps, I believe it will be more or less for the double of the numbers itself, about 3 to 4% of severe malnourished children.
When you have severely malnourished children, you need medical type of food, which is a kind of clampy net and actually you need to ensure that you you have access to, to, to them.
Regarding the, the child soldier.
I don't have all the figures.
I would be happy to, to, to send some of them.
But in eatery alone, we have an estimated of 4000 children were recruited into armed groups during the first half of 2020.
I have a report of MRM, but I will be very happy to, to, to, to send you so that you have the figures.
I believe it's about 3500.
But I'm, I'm saying that on, on my just my memory.
So I just, I just need to to to to make sure I just for for Italy alone in the 1st semester 2020, we had 400 children were recruited.
And your last question about Eastern DRC, the risk, it was a risk too.
Could you repeat the last fourth question, please?
Lisa, you want to take the floor again?
The, the, the last question was whether children are most at risk both from being killed because of conflict and also because of diseases, malnutrition and diseases, whether the eastern DRC is the most vulnerable area, the most dangerous area.
And of course, right now there is a new Ebola outbreak, which is bad.
And then also I was wondering you were talking about funding, how much money do you need and how much have you received?
OK, so, well there, there there is East India Sea and, and the, the overall East India Sea is receiving support and we have, for example, better immunisation rates and, and, and some of the rates on on services for the overall population compared to let's say the central Congo, which is very much forgotten.
But eastern Congo have this violence with dozens of group of of of of militia which are creating pockets of of malnutrition of non immunisation and and others.
And This is why the, the, the figures for the Idps is very, it's very much dire to be an IDP children because during the attack, the displacement and then when you are confined without your parents having possibility to get revenue, then your, your, your, your, your success or your chance to survive is, is very complicated.
As we are speaking today in DRC, nearly one out of of 10 children will not reach the age of, of five years.
And and this is naturally more higher for the IDP children.
Thank you very much, Viva.
Any problem to the security?
Thank you very much, Alessandro.
I'll walk you through the programme for the Human Rights Council 46 session, which as you know begins on Monday.
I'll just spend a few minutes to give you some details.
So the month long session will last from the 22nd of February into the 23rd of March.
As far as Monday is concerned, the session will open at 9:00 AM with opening remarks by the President of the Council, that's Ambassador Nasat Shamim Khan of Fiji.
Now her address will be followed by addresses from the President of the General Assembly, that's Mr Volkan Bozkir.
Then the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres will will brief the council, followed by the **** Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.
And then Ignacio Cassis, as you know is the federal Councillor and head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.
So with the exception of the Council President, who will be presenting her remarks in person at the Assembly Hall, where where the meeting will be based, all other speakers will be participating remotely.
After this opening segment, we'll hear.
We'll start off the **** level segment.
There are 53 dignitaries scheduled to speak for Monday, and among them are 9 heads of state and government.
You can consult the list of speakers that I shared with you on Wednesday.
Incidentally, there is a slightly revised list, which I will share with you this afternoon.
The **** level segment will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday, So three days, 2 1/2 days in total.
Actually for the **** level segment in total we are there are 134 dignitaries, 134 dignitaries in total inscribed to speak.
Now this is the highest number of dignitaries that we have had at a **** level segment of the Human Rights Council.
All **** level speakers will participate by video message.
And again, please consult the list that I'll share with you this afternoon after the on Monday afternoon, after the first portion of the **** level segment, the Council will hold its annual **** level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming.
Now, this year, the panel will focus on the effects of COVID-19 on the fight against racism and discrimination.
And as the president of the council pointed out on at her briefing on on Wednesday, you know, COVID-19 will indeed be a dominant feature throughout the entire session.
This panel will feature opening statements by the **** Commissioner for Human Rights as well as the president of the General Assembly and the secretary general.
So that's a Monday afternoon.
And panellists with this, this panel will include the executive director of UN Women, that's Fumzile Malambo Nubeka, and then the director general of World Health Organisation, Tedros Gabriel Jesus.
So those are video messages.
We're waiting for a speaker from UNESCO to be confirmed to take part in this panel discussion.
I'll send you details on that panel in a concept note later today.
Overall, just a general note, this is incredibly heavy session as as you know this will be the meetings will all be webcast in six languages and press summaries will be producing English and fresh and French courtesy of UNIS.
Statements will be available on the HRC extranet.
However, in anticipation of questions you might ask, we will be sending you statements of UN officials and experts.
So in other words, **** Commissioner, ideally the Secretary general experts presenting reports throughout the session.
We will be sharing these with you in advance.
We're also arranging to share videos on request.
We'll work out details with you on TV.
So we'll, I'll send you details later on this afternoon.
And, and just a last note is to point out, of course, with COVID restrictions, we are encouraging all of you to, to follow the meetings on webcast.
And also given the COVID measures, we will not be hosting side events.
However, States and NGOs may wish to do so organise virtual events in parallel to the session.
If they approach us, the information that is shared with us, we will find a way to post this on the extranet.
So you can at least take a look at those side events where they're happening and links to them.
And then of course, I'll be sending you updates regularly starting this afternoon, as I mentioned, and do visit us in that update I'll send you this afternoon.
There will be a link to app that we use called SCED SCHEED.
We've been using it for nearly a year now.
And this is where you can up get updated on the information as it changes quite often.
And beyond that, follow us on Twitter.
And to Matt Brown and I will be at your disposal throughout.
So please don't hesitate.
Thank you very much, Rolando.
And I take this opportunity to remind you, I've sent you a reminder this morning and invitation yesterday that you are invited to a background briefing to preview the UN Secretary General's remarks at the opening of the 46th regular session of the Council, whose programme we've just heard from.
Rolando in his remarks scheduled to be delivered by video message on Monday.
As Rolando said, the Secretary General will highlight the impact of the pandemic on human rights around the world and will call for concerted action, including a call to combat racism and xenophobia and fight for gender equality.
The background briefing will be given by Folker Turk, the Assistant Secretary General for Strategic Coordination, as it's namely says is a background briefing.
He will be there to give you more details on the remarks and will be available to answer questions.
This briefing will take place virtually this afternoon at 3:00 PM Geneva time.
In the invitation we've shared with you, there are all the information to connect, please and as we pay to either us or the colleague in New York whose name is on the invitation.
So I have just a few questions for you, Orlando, if you can stay with us a couple of more minutes.
Please be brief because Orlando has another meeting now.
So Jamil, yes, very briefly.
My question is about the other meetings outside the Council room basically, and especially the presentations and negotiations of resolutions.
How are we going to be able to follow that?
It is the centrepiece of of the council, as you know, for us at least.
Thank you Jamil for the question.
In fact, we are working and as you know, we are in favour of transparency.
The council prides itself as being one of the most transparent UN bodies whereby journalists, NGOs and others can sit in on these informal consultations on draught resolutions.
We're doing what we can to facilitate access for you into these meetings.
We are still in the process of figuring out those details.
But rest assured I will share this with you and it is a priority for us to see to it to that you are able to access.
So we'll share those details.
Rolando, very quickly, I think you mentioned that you were going to have a press release, an overall press release on the session.
Is that forthcoming, you know, like the highlights, lights, all the lights?
We shared with you is quite, I shared with you on Wednesday in advance.
I mean that you usually have a synthesis and overall press release about what's coming up.
You're not going to have that anyway.
Think about it then I'm wondering whether the statements that you're going to be sending us, will they come before the speeches, I hope, And would you make sure that you also send the names and the titles of the representatives of concerned countries that I always have to chase after that?
And then lastly on COVID, you say that the, I'm sorry, I didn't attend the President's press conference, but you said that COVID was going to be a big issue on this session.
Could you elaborate a bit, a bit upon that?
I mean, it's a huge topic, but is it 1 panel discussion or does it philtre through everything?
OK, well, let's take it one by one.
If I remember this synthesis as you call it, there was a press release, a background press release as usual, prepared by units we shared on Wednesday.
I also shared lots of background information which I'm going to update and refresh in an update this afternoon.
So you will have hopefully everything you need to get you on on track for the session.
The statements certainly will endeavour to get those to you as early as possible.
It all depends on when we receive them.
We have been working on a good system here.
The good news is the extranet is working very well these days, so please consult that as a first stop.
If you don't see anything there and you're really pressed for time, contact myself or Matt and COVID this yes, there are lots and lots of things happening.
Indeed, as I mentioned, the annual **** Level panel on Monday, this is a central theme for this panel where the Secretary General himself and the President of the General Assembly and, and The Who Director General will be participating in this.
In this, we'll be talking about the the effects of COVID, the exacerbating effects COVID has had on the efforts to combat racism and discrimination.
And this is in the context of the, the anniversary, the 20 year anniversary after the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action.
So that's just one example.
Beyond that, I just can cite that there are at least 2 rapporteurs and another expert human rights expert, the Secretary General's representative of violence against children.
We'll be talking about the effects of COVID-19, children in particular.
We have a repertoire in cultural rights.
We'll be addressing COVID-19 in, in, in how it affects culture and cultural rights.
Another rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children, the impact of the corona disease on, on in this context and in others.
So I would remind you to consult the the ADA said guide.
There it is, which I did share with you.
Everything is laid out in this document.
And of course, during the **** level segment itself, we expect maybe not all 134 speakers, but the vast majority of them will certainly address COVID-19 through their statements throughout.
One question, what about the possibility to interview special rapporteurs or experts?
Yeah, that's the question.
Well there was always that opportunity that usually quite amenable.
My suggestion would be to contact and interview Rapper tours, this so-called special procedures.
Please do contact Jeremy Lawrence working in the media section in Rupert's office.
He is principally charged with as a media handler for the rapper Tours.
You can always contact me as well, but Jeremy would be a good first stop.
Roland, if you have one more minute, Lisa has a follow up and Peter has a question.
Hi, I didn't have a follow up.
Peter, this is a very quick question.
Rolando, you mentioned that there will be a lot of dignitaries participating in the station.
Is this the greatest number of heads of state that you had?
Yes, Yes, it is the largest number of dignitaries overall 134 and 9 heads of state and government as I mentioned.
And this is also a record for the Council.
So do consult the list to the updated list that I'll, I'll send you this afternoon for the details.
Thank you very much, Rolando, and thank you and good luck for next week.
And I'll turn to my left.
Thank you for your patience.
In fact, we start with Yemen.
Maybe just before I, I, I give you the floor, I just would like to remind the journalist that yesterday the UN special employee of the Secretary General for Yemen, Mr.
Martin Griffiths has addressed the Security Council.
We have distributed the the remarks to you.
And in this speech he has repeated his call.
The attack on Marib must stop.
It puts millions of civilians at risk, especially with the fighting threatening to reach camps for internally displaced persons.
The quest for territorial gain by force threatens all the prospects of the peace process.
And on this, Liz is giving us more on the human rights side.
Liz Yes, thank you very much.
Nice to be sitting up here with you.
Yes, indeed, we are speaking this morning about the situation in Marib, which has been very clearly evoked and described by Mr Griffiths and others.
And we, the the UN Human Rights Office, are increasingly concerned for the fate of civilians in Marib Governorate in northern Yemen, including at least 800,000 internally displaced people amid an escalation in hostilities as Houthi forces, also known as Ansar Allah, trying to seize control of the region from the Yemeni government.
With the fighting intensifying, IDP sites in the mountain district of Serwa have been left without water or and electricity, as well as health and education services.
As a result, several 1000 people, many in need of humanitarian assistance, have been fleeing Serwa towards Marib city.
And that's about 15 to 20 kilometres away.
And Marib city itself is coming under attack from Ansar Allah forces.
If the front lines continue to move east towards the city and other populated parts of Marib governorate, it is likely hundreds of thousands civilians will be forced to flee the area which has only one main road to the east and a more precarious 1 towards the South.
Given the potentially disaster humanitarian consequences, we call on all parties to the conflict to de escalate the situation and remind them of their obligations under international law to protect civilians from the adverse effects of the armed conflict.
This includes ensuring freedom of movement for the safe passage of civilians, including ID PS and migrants who are trying to leave Marib, as well as allowing humanitarian workers and assistance to reach civilians in the area at all times.
Marib, relatively unaffected by the conflict until now, is the governorate with the biggest number of ID PS in Yemen.
We urge the authorities to protect all civilians.
These include thousands of migrants from East Africa, the majority stranded on their way N to Saudi Arabia.
We're also concerned about the situation of 501 detainees in Marib's central prison, as the Yemeni authorities have indicated that they have no contingency plan for them.
We are in the progress of verifying information about recent civilian casualties in Marib, where over the last week Ansar Allah forces launched an offensive on several fronts.
Forces affiliated to the government of Yemen have fought back with the support of the Saudi LED coalition, which has carried out more than 100 air strikes since the 10th of February.
We're also concerned by reports of drones and missiles allegedly launched by Ansar Allah striking civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
We were We urge all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law principles on the conduct of hostilities, in particular the principles of distinction which prohibits the targeting of civilians and civilian objects and infrastructure, as well as the as the principles of proportionality and precautions in attack and against the effects of attacks.
We also call on all parties to the conflict to agree to a ceasefire and return to the negotiating table.
As has been stressed on many occasions, only a political solution can end a conflict that has brought untold suffering to Yemenis.
Thank you very much, very, very much.
The words of Mr Griffiths yesterday.
And just to remind the journalist that we also have pulled in for IOM and Boris Chashikov on the line for UNHCR in case you want to ask questions on the side of the IBPS.
I will now look at the journalist if there is any question for Liz on this matter.
Yeah, I may, may have missed it.
I, I, I came in a little late for your briefing there, but you said that that this city, Bharat has been relatively unaffected until now.
Why the the fighting, the attack?
What's going on here now?
Thank you for that, Lisa.
Well, the information I have is that for for much of the conflict, Marib itself had been relatively unaffected and that's why a lot of people fled to it and it therefore has so many internally displaced people.
What I don't have and I can't really give is, is an analysis of why the conflict dynamics have changed.
What is really important to to stress and has been stressed by by other UN agencies is precisely the precarious nature of civilians living there, the dangers that they may become trapped, that it is very difficult to flee, that some people are in tremendously difficult circumstances.
This is an ongoing conflict.
You are seeing the, the Ansar Allah forces launching an attack on several fronts and the forces affiliated with the, the Yemeni government responding.
Our concern, as ever, is the plight of civilians who are caught up in this conflict.
And This is why we are repeating again and again our call for this conflict to stop and for the suffering of the Yemenis to end.
I, I have a quick follow up and that is how many displaced people are are there currently and is there any sort of protection for them or not?
Well, I think my colleagues from, from IOM might be able to give you more details on that.
But what we understand is that according to UN figures, there's at least 800,000 internally displaced people in Marib.
And, and clearly many, many of them are, are living in very precarious circumstances.
While we're staying on figures, just to remind you of the, the, the, the scale of the Yemeni conflict.
As you know, the UN human rights office does monitor civilian casualties.
And I just have the the latest update today is that since March, since the 26th of March 2015, which as you know is the time frame for our monitoring.
We have 8063 civilians killed and we have 12,946 injured.
Those are the figures that, of course, the UN Human Rights office has itself verified.
Thank you very much, Liz.
So maybe you want to go to Haiti.
OK, our second item is on Haiti.
We are very concerned by the latest attacks against judicial independence in Haiti, all the more so given the current political and institutional instability gripping the country.
A judge of the Supreme Court, the Court de Casacion, as well as at least 22 other people, were arrested on the 7th of February in circumstances that may amount to an unlawful or arbitrary arrest and detention.
The judge has been released, but seventeen others are still in pretrial detention.
In addition, three Supreme Court judges, including the one who was arrested, were forced to retire and later replaced, apparently through an irregular procedure.
In response, justice system personnel started an indefinite strike on Monday the 15th of February.
These developments cause concerns about judicial independence and have further eroded the separation of powers in Haiti.
Respecting the rule of law and the system of cheques and balances at all times is paramount, but it's even more crucial now given the growing political tensions and the increasing expression of dissent in demonstrations.
We call on the authorities to ensure respect for the established legal and institutional framework and to comply with their obligations under the Haitian Constitution and international human rights treaties.
We urge the government and opposition to engage in a meaningful and inclusive dialogue to avoid further escalation of tensions and to resolve the current political and institutional deadlock in a manner that is both lasting and sustainable.
The UN Human Rights Office stands ready to continue supporting state authorities in their fulfilment of international human rights obligations and expresses it's continuing willingness to strengthen it's human rights engagement with all sectors in Haitian society.
I have a question, but it's not on Haiti.
So maybe others want to to ask before on, on, on this.
It's a little bit complicated on the on the platform.
Just go ahead if it's OK with lead.
OK, So my question is about the Princess Latifah in the Emirates.
I wanted to know if you have had any information about the about the her fate and if you have been able to discuss her fate with the Emirates.
Anyes, what I can say is that we did raise the case yesterday with the permanent mission here in Geneva.
And as you know, that's the normal step in this sort of case.
Liz, there's a question from Nick.
Are you going to get, have you asked for direct access to her and are you going to get it and or is somebody stopping you from doing that specifically given that she was expressing fears to her life, Have you had any proof of life?
And are you aware if you can't have direct contact with her, whether there is any credible independent third party that have had direct contact with her since this whole thing business came for light this week?
With regard to to your question, what we did is that we raised our concerns about this situation in light of of the disturbing video evidence that emerged this week.
We requested more information and clarification about Sheikhar Latifah's current situation.
Just to stress that's a standard role of our office to seek clarification from the concerned government on individual cases within our mandate and that includes cases for whatever reason have attracted wider focus.
Given the serious concerns about Sheikhar Latifah, we have requested that the government that the government's response comes as a matter of priority and we look forward to receiving and considering this response and in the meantime, of course, we will continue to monitor and assess the situation closely.
I believe that you also asked about the fear for her life.
We did ask for proof of life and then yes as a follow up.
It was a follow up because you said you, you raised the case.
Was it by e-mail or by phone?
And did you have when you ask for a proof of life or when you ask for fate, did you have an immediate reply?
Because if someone asked me, do you have a proof of life of this person?
I, I should be able to answer yes, No immediately.
So did you get an immediate response?
I, I don't know the, the actual process by which we raised the, the concerns whether it was in person, unlikely whether it was how it was done.
But what I can say is that we did raise our concerns with the permanent mission here on Thursday and we did ask for proof of life.
Now the the response, well that is obviously for, for, for, for them to, to, to say.
But as I've said, we, we have requested further information and clarification about her situation.
Nick, as a follow up again.
Yeah, well, Liz, I mean, in light of this, does the OHCH are confused that Latifah is arbitrarily the same?
And if So, what further action are you going to take?
Well, first of all, as as I've said and I will repeat is we, we did raise the case and we have requested further information.
As you may know, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council have been, have been mentioned in relation to this.
Now these are fully independent.
As you know, they operate under their own processes.
So we don't speak for them.
So, so if you want more questions about the specifics of that, I, I suggest that you need to address it to them.
Now what we can say, however, is that it is on the public record that two months ago, and that was in December 2020, the working group on info store involuntary disappearances reported that.
And I quote it decided to clarify the case of Shekhar Latifah Mohammed Al Maktoum, who is reportedly being held in incommunicado detention at her family home in Dubai.
And that's on the public record.
There are other documents that are on the public record that that you may be interested in looking at.
That includes a communication from from the Working Group on enforced disappearances, the special Rapporteur on summary executions and extrajudicial killings on the 6th of December in 2018.
So there are public documents there that you may be interested in.
Yes, a follow up on and yes question.
What do you consider as an an evidence of life?
How can you be sure that the the evidence given is is a real one?
What are what is considered as a a real evidence?
What I can say is that we have asked for proof of life.
We have asked for further information.
That really is all that I can tell you at this point.
Just to stress that we will have to see how the situation develops.
And that concludes the list of questions.
I go now to Catherine Wissu, who has an announcement for Ankhad Catrine.
A Tuso Axis Sibler online, which was already a document attached for Voyage Anecdoila.
Siboko, Catherine, Rosalind, you also have an announcement.
I think he's also on the on the press conference that has been rescheduled.
And due to the opening of the Human Rights Council on Monday, we've rescheduled next week's virtual embargoed press conference on the Ilo's World Economic and Social Outlook 2021 thematic Report.
And the press conference will now take place on Tuesday the 23rd of February at 09/15 with the main findings being presented by the Director General, Guy Ryder and the main report author, Umar Rani.
And the embargo will lift up 1400 Geneva time on Tuesday the 23rd.
So you should have already received the media advisory yesterday and you will receive the all of the materials we're hoping this this afternoon.
And just by way of reminder, the the report examines how digital labour platforms are transforming the world of work and how that affects employers and workers.
It focuses on 2 main types of digital labour platform, online web-based platforms where tasks are performed online and remotely by workers and location based platforms where tasks are performed at a specific physical location by individuals such as taxi drivers and delivery workers.
And this will be a pioneering and comprehensive overview of the platform business model.
And it draws on findings from surveys conducted amongst around 12,000 workers in 100 countries around the world.
And it also draws on interviews conducted with representatives of 70 businesses of different types, 16 platform companies and 14 platform worker associations around the world in multiple sectors.
And the report explores regulatory gaps and reviews multiple initiatives undertaken by governments and social partners to bridge these gaps.
As I said, you should get the full embargoed report, press release and executive summaries later today.
And our experts are always already also available for interview in English, French or Spanish either prior to the press conference under embargo or after.
So you can contact me or e-mail news from ilo.org if you want, if you want to set up any interviews.
Thank you very much, Rosalind.
Any question for Aiello, the room online?
So thank you very much and thanks for to both Katherine and Rosalind for the flexibility in rescheduling these important events.
And now last but definitely not least, we have Margaret Harris on the line to brief us to give us a brief announcement on COVID-19.
Margaret, you have the floor.
I'm sure there will be questions afterwards.
Margaret, thank you very much.
I've got a few announcements.
First of all, the strategic preparedness and response plan for 2021 will be posted today along with and you will also be provided with the press release.
I know the Director General mentioned it yesterday at our global press briefing.
It's it's, if you will recall, the first strategic preparedness and response plan was issued in the first week of February last year 2020.
This one had builds on that.
It's got 6 objectives, suppressing the transmission between people, reducing the exposure of people, especially healthcare workers, countering misinformation and disinformation, protecting the vulnerable, reducing death and illness, and of course, accelerating equitable access to new tools including vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.
The financial need to meet all of this is 1.96 billion.
A lot of that 1.2 billion will be going to The Who component of the ACT accelerator 643,000,000 will go towards supporting people in need of humanitarian assistance in fragile conflict and vulnerable settings.
This, these sort of plans are really, really important because they do set objectives and we're seeing that they, the previous plan 2020 achieved the objectives that we were able to raise.
1.5 billion covering 19,000,000 tests and 19.7 million respirator masks shipped to countries, 243,000,000 sets of PPE were shipped to to all the countries in need.
12,000 ICU beds were provided by WHO through surge mechanisms.
509 technical publications, 191 international emergency teams were deployed, 150 online trainings were provided, and 58 countries and territories were supported to implement 0 epidemiological studies.
So that's just a few of the things that were achieved by previous the previous plan.
And of course, we're now building on this one.
That will all be posted this afternoon is the expectation.
So you'll have much more detail there, including a document on what was achieved last year.
I've got a second announcement on Monday.
There'll be a virtual visit by the German federal president to WHO the Pele press call.
Call will be invited exclusively to be part of an interesting bilateral press conference because even though it's a visit, the federal president, this is President Frank Walter Steenmeyer, will meet virtually and then they will hold a press conference, uh, in Germany and we will hold it here in Geneva.
And the Pele press conference, the call will be exclusively invited to the Geneva press conference and the German press call to the German press conference there.
There will be limited number of questions.
And because it's the two different, we're not expecting you to have more than two questions.
So please decide among yourselves who or what questions you won't ask.
We expect that they'll be allocated one to an Anglophone outlet and one to a Francophone outlet.
So if you're a a, a German outfit, address your question through the German platform, if that makes sense.
We will send you a media advisory with all the details on that.
Lastly, there's a very good package on vaccine safety, a question and a good Q&A, a video for the general public and also information for health workers that that package has been posted today as well.
So a lot of stuff coming from that US and I think that's enough for me for the moment.
Thank you very much, Margaret for all this important announcement.
Just one thing I'm not sure, maybe you mentioned, but it couldn't be heard the time of the press conference on Monday.
In fact, I didn't tell you.
The time of the press conference is at 12:30.
We're going to send 2 media advisories.
We'll send one this afternoon to tell you about it, but we'll also send one on Monday because it's a bit confusing.
We'll have our global press conference in the afternoon.
So that's why we're going to send you the advisory today, OK.
I have a questions for you.
Let's start with an OK, now, let's start with the room for once.
Christiane Ulrika, she is here and I give her the first floor.
Just to let you know, it's a nice idea that the press corps decides amongst themselves who asked the question, but that is totally unrealistic and impossible to do.
So I don't know how you want to proceed, but we are certainly not going to call a meeting now and then negotiate who might or might not be allowed to ask a question.
And I think Christian for you, because you're representing a German speaking outlet, you may want to do it through the the the German side of the the German platform.
It was just a comment on comment on behalf of the Geneva based press that this is an unrealistic suggestion that is not going to be OK.
Well, back in the day interviewed Margaret Thatcher, we did this negotiation and it worked very well, but up to you.
OK, I'll go now to the platform.
And yes, yes, this is not on WHO, but for it's partners Gavi, it's more a suggestion because Gavi is is giving a lot of news those days and sending emails quite late.
And as we have asked WHO to be here present at the briefing, I thought that maybe it would be a good idea to have Gavi also present like other non UN agencies are coming time to times like the Red Cross.
And given the the situation, given that we, we are talking a lot about COVAX.
And I thought it would be good that someone from GAV is coming also at the briefings because for example, for the press release yesterday evening, which came very, very late, we had questions and it would be good to to be able to talk about that here at this platform.
And yes, this gives me the opportunity to thank Margaret and WHO to be indeed at the briefing and for Gabby, we will pass the suggestion to them for sure.
It would be good to have them.
Yes, thank you, Alessandra.
Good to see you, Margaret.
We will discuss all this question.
The publication of the What You're going to Post post this afternoon.
Would you be kind enough please, to send us a link to your website?
So like that it will be easier, much easier for the Geneva press to directly have access to the, the, the document that you post.
And that would be also very nice to do so if possible in the future when you post something new, just send us the link by mail.
So it will keep us updated easier.
It's an easier way to, to keep us updated.
And regarding the press conference of Doctor Tedros, the global press conference of Doctor Ted Rose Monday, please don't forget that it is the opening of the human rights session.
And please to try to avoid that we have the the press event at the same time that the head of state is is taking the floor.
Thank you so much, Margaret.
First question, question then yes, I'll send you that link, Jamil.
Yes, thank you, Margaret.
First, I understand that Doctor Tedros will take part today in a panel with Bill Gates, if I'm not wrong at the Munich conference.
Will we get his speech as well?
Would that be available to us?
And second question, when you mention the two questions on Monday, the Anglophone and the Francophone, I'm hoping you're mentioning only languages, right and not the origin of the media.
Otherwise we would have to re discuss the the part that says World Health Organisation.
So yes, certainly I I get your point.
I think the idea was to try to cover the the main language groups.
And and I'll mention we should be looking at Luciferne as well.
You have another question from him.
Oh, yeah, the speech on the speech.
I'll check for you, Jamil.
He certainly is attending the Munich Security Council, the meeting this afternoon.
That's that was the main reason we didn't have the global press conference this afternoon.
I'll check for you if there's a speech and indeed we'll send it out with a link.
Hi, Margaret, thank you so much.
One question the I know if I am correct that when a person already had COVID, the person has to use the mascara, you know, the mask because it could be, it could have another infection.
So the president of Mexico, he already had COVID, he doesn't wear a mask.
I think he's the only leader in the world who doesn't wear a mask.
And there are 1000 people dead in Mexico, you know, last month every day.
So do you have a message for that President?
So Gabriella, your question is about whether or not people who have already had COVID should be concerned about being re exposed.
And certainly our advice is mask wearing in particular conditions, especially in crowded conditions, in conditions where you have poor ventilation and also of course following what the local authorities have assessed as the necessity.
So different, different countries do have different practises and regulations, but ideally the purpose of wearing a mask is twofold, is mostly to prevent you from spreading the the virus to other people.
Thank you, we have Gabriella.
No, thank you, thank you, perfect, thank you.
We have a follow up from Katherine and then from Christian also in the room.
Yes, Margaret, I have a question.
I don't know if if you would be able to answer that one.
If I understood well through the the global press conferences that we got and what Doctor Sumiya Swaminathan told us, in order to be protected by a vaccination with two doses, you need the two doses, the first one and then a couple weeks later the second one.
If I understood well now in certain countries, France for ex, for for example, they are saying that if you got, you've been affected by COVID once already been affected by COVID, only one dose is enough.
So could you please clarify that if possible?
Certainly now the reason there are different regimes are that the different developers tested the vaccines using specific regimes.
So if you've got a 2 dose regime with a certain number of weeks apart, the reason you we would be making that recommendation is because the data on how effectiveness, how effective it is, has come from those trials, those phase three trials where half the group were given the vaccine, half were not given the vaccine and where they also did earlier trials looking at what levels of antibodies were stimulated by particular doses.
Now further along we're going to get different vaccines that will have different regimes.
So it's not a hard and fast rule for all the COVID vaccines.
But on your separate question, which is about whether people who have already been confirmed to have had COVID, what sort of regime do you use with them?
This at the moment is something that is being assessed by the scientific community and and looking very much at whether or not indeed the the first dose acts as a booster or not.
But this is something that's a matter of ongoing scientific study.
Thank you very much, Christian.
Yes, Margaret, maybe a very quick one.
Do you have a date yet for when the China Mission is going to publish their report?
What we do know and continue, it won't be today.
We're expecting this to be finalised ideally next week, hopefully early next week, but we do not have a firm date.
We're bringing all the reports together.
There were quite a few reports.
So this is to ensure that you get absolutely everything you need.
I don't see any other hands up.
So thanks, Margaret, and thank you very much for this, for answering all these questions.
I'm just giving you a couple of final announcements.
The first one is about the fact that the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will join the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry at an event marking the United States re entry into the Paris Agreement this Friday.
The discussion will take place during the opening session of the UNAUS as virtual 2021 Global Engagement Summit.
We have distributed to you the embargoed remarks.
Please note that the remarks are strictly embargoed until this afternoon at 9:00, this evening at 9:00 PM Geneva time and you will be able to watch the events on UN web TV and also on our platforms.
Secondly, on Monday, we don't have only the **** level segment of the Human Rights Council, but also on of the Conference on Disarmament.
It will take place as usual in the same time of the Council, one that's next week from 22 to 26th of February.
Today we have 48 dignitaries from both member States and observers to the conference that have inscribed the list to the list of speakers.
This include 33 foreign ministers confirmed and seven deputy foreign ministers that will address the conference.
During the **** level segment.
We will publish the daily list of speakers of the conference on the website of the CD, and members of the press can follow the proceeding through our audio live stream service.
We will send you a note with the links then.
I would like to remind you that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women will meet in public next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 12:30 to 2:30 to review the report of Denmark and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
We'll meet in public next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2:00 to 4:00, sorry, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM.
Sorry to review the report of Latvia.
And lastly, I would like to remind you that as announced on Tuesday, today we celebrate International Modern Language Day.
We have sent you the programme of the events, which include an online screening by our backs of the award-winning feature documentary film Colours of the Alphabet.
The event will be opened by our Director General with a number of other people.
The movie is also freely accessible for viewing in several modern languages on the UN Geneva website.
Until the 21st of February.
You will also have an online quiz and and some other activities.
So you have received the programme of that commemoration, which I think concludes my announcement.
If you don't have any question for me, I'm looking at the platform at the room.
Have a nice weekend and see you next week for a very intense week of activities here at you and Geneva.
