Good morning, good morning colleagues.
Welcome to this press briefing of the UN Information Service.
Neither on Tuesday 9th of March.
We have a few items related to human rights this morning.
I will start with OHCHR as Rolando had a little technical problem, so he's coming to brief from here.
Before I give the floor to Ravina, I would just like to remind you that following so many requests from all the journalists, we have sent you yesterday an extensive note on the issues related to the strategic heritage plan, the renovation plan of the Paledinacion, where you have all the necessary information to plan for the next two months and the eventual move.
For those of you who have offices or booths here at the Palace.
So Real is in charge, Leblon is in charge of this activity together with transfer issues.
If any of you are still problems or have questions on the note or any other information that is needed in addition to the those we have provided yesterday with the note, please don't hesitate to call us to Coreal or Francois and we will try to help you as much as possible.
So this is just a little note I wanted to give you ahead of the briefing.
And now I will turn to my left to Ravina, who has two items for the briefing.
Ravina, you have the floor.
The first item is on the Philippines.
We are appalled by the apparently arbitrary killing of nine activists in simultaneously simultaneous police military operations in Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal provinces surrounding the Metro Manila area in the Philippines in the early hours of Sunday morning.
According to information we have received, the eight men and one woman were killed in joint police and military operations that reportedly began around 3:15 AM on Sunday to execute search warrants issued by a Manila court.
We understand that among those killed were labour rights activist Emmanuel Asuncion, as well as a husband and wife, Chai Lamita Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista, who worked on issues relating to the rights of fishing communities and were reportedly shot inside their homes.
Two others, Melvin Sorry, Melvin Dezigao and Mark Lee Corros Bakasno, were activists advocating for housing rights of people rendered homeless.
Two Indigenous peoples activists and two housing rights activists were also among those killed.
Six people were reportedly arrested during the operations.
Now the government has informed us that the operation was based on search warrants issued in the context of counter insurgency campaigns against the New People's Army.
The execution of the search warrants, often conducted at night time, has resulted in killings on previous occasions as well.
On the 30th of December 2029 to Mundock, Indigenous people's rights activists were killed during joint operations to execute search warrants in Panay.
We welcome the government's commitment to investigate these cases, which will be a critical test for the domestic investigative mechanisms that it has established for cases of this kind.
The UN is working with the government to strengthen these mechanisms, but we stress that these investigations must be prompt, transparent and effective to be in line with international human rights standards.
The **** Commissioner's June 2020 Human Rights Council report on the Philippines documented a serious lack of due process in police operations and near total impunity for the use of lethal force by the police and the military.
We urge the police to take urgent measures to prevent the use of excessive force resulting in loss of lives during law enforcement operations.
We also call on the government and members of security forces to refrain from rhetoric that may lead to violations and instead make public commitments to uphold human rights and the rule of law.
We are deeply worried that these latest killings indicate an escalation in violence, intimidation and harassment and red tagging of human rights defenders.
There is a history of human rights advocates being red tagged or being accused of being fronts for the armed wing of the Communist Party in the Philippines.
In our June 2020 report, the **** Commissioner warned that such public labelling has proved extremely dangerous, and she urged the protection of human rights defenders, journalists and others at risk.
In recent months, there have been dozens of other activists and several journalists arrested, including on Human Rights Day on the 10th of December 2020.
Thank you very much, Ravina, for this.
For this brief, I have a question from Nick.
Hi Ravina, You say an escalation.
Do you have then numbers that indicate the the escalation and these kinds of killings in in the course of the current year?
And just to sum up, since the June report last year and the government's pledge of cooperation with OHCHR, has it seen improvements in the way the government has responded to that request?
And are you getting serious cooperation in these kinds of inquiry?
On numbers, we don't have a comprehensive number, but what we have seen is that 9 activists were killed on the 30th of December 2029 were killed yesterday.
We also have other reports of a journalist who had been killed.
Sorry, I've got the wrong paper in front of me.
Let me just pull out the details.
Yeah, 4 journalists who were killed between May and November, on the 5th of May, the 14th of September, 10th of November and 14th of November.
2 lawyers who were killed on the 17th of December and the 23rd of November.
And we have a few other cases.
I can send you details on some of these other cases.
The trouble is that these are just cases that we're able to document that are being reported.
So in many cases these are prominent human rights defenders who are connected with well established organisations.
There may be many more that we are unaware of.
So from what we can tell, this appears to be an escalation, and it also appears to be a modus operandi that they're using where they obtain search warrants and then they use those search warrants in the middle of the night to go and either arrest or **** these kinds of activists.
So this is obviously a very worrying development.
And, you know, those who haven't been killed or arrested are living in fear on improvements or cooperation.
Since our report, there has been quite a bit of cooperation.
There's been a lot of engagement.
We are working with the UN in the Philippines on a joint programme, joint meaning within the UN system with different agencies joined up to advise the government to provide technical assistance, capacity building.
This is in line with the resolution that was passed in I believe it was October this past year.
So we have seen cooperation and engagement with the UN.
Having said that, we haven't seen concrete progress in accountability and we are seeing continued killings, both in the context of the so-called drug war and, as you've seen today, of human rights defenders.
Yes, good morning, everybody.
First, I'd like to know whether.
It was this a rogue police action?
I mean, you say that you welcome the government saying that it's going to investigate what happened.
Is it really credible that the government didn't know anything, doesn't know anything about about this horrific crime?
And you say that the police got search warrants.
On what basis did they get search warrants?
What did they tell the judge was the reason for this?
That they were looking for, you know, to have this kind of invasion in people's homes in the dead of night?
On how they obtained the search warrants.
Well, a court granted the search warrants that this was presented as part of the government's counterinsurgency operation and this is something long standing.
We covered this extensively in our report as well, where a lot of human rights defenders who are critical of the government or who are working on issues that are sensitive, including land rights issues, they get tainted with the implication that they're affiliated with the armed wing of the Communist Party, and this is called red tagging.
In the Philippines, where human rights defenders are tagged as communists, quite often there are posters that are put up publicly, lists that are published with the names of these human rights defenders, calling them communists and implying that they are armed members of the Communist Party.
So these search warrants were obtained in this context to conduct searches for weapons held as part of the communist insurgency.
However, as you, as you pointed out, these operations were carried out in the middle of the night and those who were killed were working on issues such as the rights of fishing communities, indigenous peoples rights, housing rights of people rendered homeless or people who've been evicted from urban slums.
And that's on the search warrants, on the credibility of investigations.
Unfortunately, so far there, the investigations that have been conducted by the Commission on Human Rights have been credible.
The problem is that that's where it stops.
There is no further action taken to actually, you know, prosecute the people who are identified to be the alleged perpetrators.
So This is why, you know, we do welcome the fact that the government has said they will investigate, but these investigations need to be in line with international standards, which means they need to be transparent, they need to be credible, they need to be effective and they need to be conducted with a view to accountability, which is something that unfortunately we are not seeing much of.
You will have noted that I believe it was the Secretary for Justice who came to the Human Rights Council during this current session.
He spoke about an assessment of cases where drug operations, anti drug operations have resulted in the use of lethal force by police.
He spoke about a review of these cases and the review did find that there were lots of, it raised a lot of questions about whether due process was used in the context of these investigations.
Now, it's welcome that the government did conduct this review, but there needs to be much more done.
The fact remains that most of the perpetrators of these human rights violations are enjoying impunity to this day.
Yes, my question is on another topic.
If someone has a question on the Philippines, I can wait.
Actually I don't see any other hand up.
So I think you can go ahead.
Ravina, I was wondering if you have any talking points from the **** Commissioner on the number one issue in the world, access to COVID-19 vaccines?
And what is the position of her office on calls by some heads of UN agencies for patents to be waived on the C 19 vaccine so there can be an increase in global production and more equitable availability, especially for the world's poor?
If you have a position on that, I'd be appreciated.
I I'll let Robina answer and remind you that Margaret Harris is on the line also for WHO Robina?
I can probably send you more lines that are, you know, grounded in human rights law later.
I don't have those papers in front of me right now.
But what I can tell you about the **** commissioner's position on this, you know that she's a former doctor and a former head of state.
So she understands public health very deeply.
And she has pointed out that no one is safe until we are all safe.
It is very important that vaccine distribution does not suffer from the same inequities globally that we're seeing in in many other areas that countries have access to vaccines regardless of of where they are based, regardless of what their GDP ends up being.
Hoarding vaccines is counterproductive and to successfully defeat COVID, it's clear that we need to have mass immunisation and I'm sure that The Who will be able to to weigh in on this.
So she has called for countries to engage in a coordinated global effort to share vaccines, not to strike deals to secure vaccines for their own populations.
She's also called for the COVAX initiative to be supported by all states.
And she has, you know, said this time and again.
I can send you some more points after this briefing if that's helpful.
Margaret, if you want to interview and just raise your hand, Tamir, yes, good morning.
I have a question about the position of the Office of the Commissioner on adding dress codes in the Constitution to target religious minority.
It is compatible with the Human Rights Declaration.
If I understand correctly, your, your question is probably intended to ask about face coverings.
Is that, do I have that right?
So no, I do, I do have some some points on those from our office.
Now, this is, it's a tricky issue.
So I'm actually going to read out in, in quite some detail what our position is.
Now, the use of the law to dictate what women should wear is problematic from a human rights perspective.
Women should not be forced to cover their faces.
At the same time, the legal ban on face coverings will unduly restrict women's freedom to manifest their religion or belief, and it has a broader impact on their human rights.
Article 18, bracket three of the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights provides that such freedom can only be subjected to limitations that are necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.
Vague justifications on how the wearing of face coverings would be a ****** to the safety, health or rights of others cannot be considered a legitimate reason for such an invasive restriction of fundamental freedoms.
Arguments in favour of such bans in various European countries, including Switzerland, on the one hand question the free agency of some of of the women who wear face coverings, and on the other hand they punish them further for something that in those cases where the argument is true, is beyond their control.
Irrespective of whether the veil is imposed on a woman by her spouse or family members, or self-imposed by her own wish to adhere to her religious or cultural beliefs, banning it will lead to further marginalisation and exclusion from public life.
And this comes at a time when Muslim women in Europe in particular, are already reporting increased discrimination, stereotyping, hostility and in some cases even physical violence because of their clothing.
We note and appreciate the fact that the Swiss federal government in this case has opposed this initiative and has proposed an alternative, acceptable solution.
But now that the initiative has passed in the wake of a political publicity campaign with strong xenophobic undertones, Switzerland is joining a small number of countries where actively discriminating against Muslim women is now sanctioned by law.
And this is deeply regrettable.
Yeah, I mean, I think it would be good if you could share this with the, with the journalist as, as you said, it's important that the whole position of the office be made known.
Katherine, you had raised your hand, but it has disappeared.
Do you still want to ask a question on that?
I don't see your hand up anymore.
So you still have an item on the Central African Republic where the UN Mission Minuska continues to support the preparations for the 14th of March legislative elections.
As part of the mission's efforts to facilitate to facilitate a conducive environment to hold these elections missions, colleagues in Markunda met on Friday with the local commander of the CPC, FPRC groups.
The commander expressed his commitment to facilitate peaceful legislative election in Markunda and the surrounding areas.
Also during this week, the mission will be completing the deployment of election materials in all the 16 prefectures of the Central African Republic.
And the mission is providing security in the context of the election.
But this raised some worries on the part of the OHCHR, and Ravina will tell us more on that.
Indeed, we are very worried about the volatile situation in the Central African Republic and the risk of renewed violence in the context of the second round of the legislative elections, which is due to take place on Sunday.
The electoral process in December, which included the first round of the parliamentary vote and the presidential election, was marked by violence linked primarily with the new coalition of armed groups known as the CPC.
The Coalition de Patriot Bourgh Le charges Mon, who opposed the holding of elections and launched a violent boycott of the process.
As a result, there has been a steep increase in documented human rights violations and abuses before, during and after the elections, including in the enforcement of the state of emergency and curfew.
From the 1st of October to the 31st of December last year, the Human Rights Division of Minuska documented 185 incidents of human rights violations and abuses.
Armed groups, in particular the CPC that I referred to earlier, were responsible for more than 86% of them.
They killed and abducted civilians, fired live ammunition to intimidate the population, attacked UN peacekeepers, killing seven in December and January.
And they burned down polling stations and destroyed election materials.
Has also been characterised by counter offensives and retaliatory actions against armed groups by the CAR defence and security forces and their allies, in the course of which human rights violations and abuses have been committed.
State agents and their allies have reportedly arbitrarily killed civilians as well as tortured, ill treated and arbitrarily arrested people.
In addition, they are alleged to have looted and confiscated supplies belonging to humanitarian organisations as well.
We are extremely concerned by allegations of such human rights violations and abuses by national security forces and by armed groups.
In this context, the imposition of a nighttime nationwide curfew from the 7th of January and the decision to extend the state of emergency, which began on the 21st of January, have resulted in a fragile situation in which human rights may be further at risk.
We remind the authorities that security forces must protect civilians, prevent violence, and act in conformity with international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
Any allegation of violations must be thoroughly, impartially and effectively investigated, and those responsible must be held accountable.
Victims and their families have the right to justice, truth and reparations.
All the allegations of human rights abuses committed by armed groups must be also independently and effectively investigated and the alleged perpetrators prosecuted.
Accountability for past and recent human rights violations and abuses is the only way to break the cycle of violence in the CAR and to bring peace and stability to the country, without which it will not be able to recover from its dire economic situation.
Ravina, I have a question from Emma, Emma Farge.
Good morning, Ravina, thanks for that.
I was wondering, do you have you documented any involvement of international powers in human rights abuses in Central African Republic given their involvement?
And I'm wondering about Russia or Rwanda or?
This of any concern to you.
So there are reports of militia that has been involved in the fighting and there are reports of the part, you know, there are reports of where this militia comes from.
Now, I don't know if we have verified reports of the the countries that are involved, so I can get back to you on that.
But it is clear that there are overseas militia that are involved in some of these crimes.
Yeah, first Alexandra, could you?
Please send what the the the little.
Bit that you read out before the introduction to Ravenna.
Just to to have this situation in context.
Thank you and Ravenna for you.
Should the election be suspended?
Not that that might be feasible, but what actions do you think should be taken in order to try to damp down the the kind of violence that you seem to expect that is surrounding this?
And do you, does your organisation, your agency have monitors on the spot in, you know, looking at the situation, I mean you don't sound very optimistic about the security that is available.
The situation is very worrying.
There's a lot of lawlessness, a lot of gaps in in, you know, the imposition of law and order.
We, first of all, what we're doing here today with you is raising the alarm that we have documented a steep rise in human rights violations around the elections.
We are drawing the attention of the international community to this.
And we are stressing to the government that it is their duty and their responsibility to ensure that people are protected, that these elections are able to go ahead with, you know, people able to exercise their rights to freely participate without fear of violence.
The in the case of document documented violations by defence and security forces.
We are urging the government, I mean we do recognise the challenges on the ground of course, but we are urging the government to take all necessary measures to speedily bring to trial all individuals who are suspected, accused or charged with involvement in serious human rights violations and abuses.
In particular during the electoral context, as you've seen in in many different situations around the world, impunity can fuel further violations and can embolden the perpetrators.
So it's very important that the government sends a clear message that such violations will not be tolerated and people will be held accountable.
We do have a human rights division within Menuska, so we do have people on the ground.
Monitoring is not always easy given the size of the country and given the security situation.
But yes, our monitoring is ongoing and this is how we've managed to document the violations that I've presented to you today.
Thank you very much, Regina.
This concludes the questions from the journalists.
So thank you for this extensive briefing.
And before we leave the issue of human rights, we have an update from Rolando Gomez on the Human Rights Council session in Rolando.
Before I turn to the Human Rights Council, it may just pick up on a couple points that Ravina mentioned.
Just to note that the Central African Republic is very much on the the Human Rights Council's agenda.
And during this session on the 19th of March that we have a scheduled interactive discussion on the CAR with a special emphasis on the fight against impunity.
We expect to have representative from government, representative from civil society, from the Mission Menuska as well as from the office here.
So very important discussion on the 19th of March.
And maybe just another pick up on what Ravina mentioned in terms of Philippines.
Of course, Philippines is very firmly on the Council agenda as well.
And lastly, to John's question, COVID access to to vaccines, equitable access to vaccines is in fact the subject of of a draught resolution that is currently being negotiated.
There were in fact informal consultations this morning on this subject.
And this is one of the key messages that came across during the **** level segment the week before last.
All in 130 states that have participated in the **** level segment referred to COVID-19.
And one of the key messages that echo the loudest was equitable access to vaccines.
So I just wanted to remind you of that.
Turning to today's programme, so the Council started off at 10 AM this morning with the continuation of the interactive discussion with the Special Rapporteur in torture, Nils Meltzer, who presented his report yesterday that has now concluded.
And we recently, we just heard from the Office of the **** Commissioner, presented a series of thematic reports under item 3.
This is civil and political, economic, social, cultural rights, a very broad subject, very broad agenda item.
This this presentation was delivered just a short while ago and the Council is currently engaged in a very long general debate on the same agenda item, Item three, we have approximately 70 states inscribed to speak and over 100 NGOs.
This general debate will last today and tomorrow.
This afternoon we will have the continuation of the interactive discussion with the special representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba.
She presented her report yesterday.
We still have a few speakers remaining to deliver their interventions this afternoon.
And then at approximately 3:45, we'll hear from the first of a series of country specific rapporteurs, starting off with the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Javed Rahman.
So that's around 3:45 Iran.
Now that interactive discussion followed by concerned country statements should last roughly 2 hours.
So around 5:30 or so, we'll hear from the next rapporteur.
That's a special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
So that's at a roughly 530 and that's Mr Thomas Ohea Quintana.
Both those reports, Iran rapporteur and DPRK rapporteur, both those reports are available online.
If you have difficulty finding them, please let me know.
Turning quickly to tomorrow in the morning.
Tomorrow we'll continue with the general debate on Item 3.
Again, a very long list of speakers and that will last all of tomorrow morning.
And then in the afternoon, we will continue with the interactive discussion on the DPRK with Mr Quintana.
And then after that we hear from the fact finding mission on Venezuela.
And this is an oral update and not a written report, but I do encourage you to listen to that.
That should be around 4:00 tomorrow afternoon.
And just just to mention that the reason why we're doing the country specific rapporteurs in the afternoon is simply because of the practicalities, the time difference, most of them are presenting from the Western Hemisphere, for example, Michigan, Quintana is in Argentina.
So it would be a little bit cruel to have him wake up early in the morning.
So the idea is to do these things in the afternoon to have the allow for the maximum encounter.
Last note before I end is to simply inform you that the deadline for the submission of draught resolutions for consideration of the Council this session is this Thursday, 11 March.
So we expect a usual wave of draught resolutions to be coming in sometime between tomorrow and Thursday.
We expect over 30 draught resolutions in total.
I'll provide you with the details.
They'll all be posted on the externet, so I'll leave it at that.
Nick has a question for you.
Just wanted to ask which country holds a pen on the vaccine resolution?
That is the key pen holder is Ecuador but there is a cross regional group of states I'd have to consult.
Oh just one last note on SCAD.
If you haven't visited our app SCAD do I do encourage you to do that.
That's where you'll see all the lists of the informal consultations and if you click on the informal consultations button, you'll see all the list of Co sponsors and contact information to access the meetings as well by Webex.
So it's Ecuador leading that, but a number of other states involved.
Catherine, yes, good morning, good morning, Alessandra and good morning Orlando.
It is to have some information regarding.
The round table, is it going to take place in the afternoon or in the morning?
Do you have some clarification to share with us on that one or is it too early to know?
It's scheduled for the afternoon.
And I think, I think that's probably because what I mentioned earlier that some of the participants while it's in Cari think some of the participants may be joining from from the other side of the pond compared to where we are.
So I'm pretty sure that it's in the afternoon, but it's, it's still maybe a little bit early.
I can give you the details, firmer details as we approach that date.
All right, I don't see any other question.
Oh, yes, go ahead, Katrina.
I have a short follow up.
It's just if Orlando already knows who is going to participate the side of the government.
No, too early, too early.
Sorry, they haven't confirmed that yet, but of course I'll include that in my update.
I don't see other questions for you.
So let me now go to Claire Nullis, who's with us on on the platform.
Claire, you have two updates for the journalist.
I'm trying to stop my video, but I'm not allowed.
If somebody could let me start my video.
I understand from my colleague in the room that the problem is not from us.
We have had a problem this morning with the videos also with Rolando.
So I don't know what the matter is, but maybe you want to start briefing just with your audio starter.
So good morning everybody.
You, you can't see me, but you can hear me, I hope, just loud and clear.
OK, just a very quick announcement right at the start.
The WMO Hurricane Committee will be meeting next week from Monday the 15th to Wednesday the 17th of March.
As you recall, 2020 was a record-breaking season in the Atlantic.
So the committee will meet virtually to review the season and to prepare for 2021.
We're getting a lot of media enquiries, a lot of media interest and so we will be issuing the press release both at the start and at the end of the meeting.
So that's just something for for, for next week.
Now, taking a look back, normally when I take part in these briefings, I talk about new heat records and heat waves.
February was a different story.
We've just received the sort of monthly and seasonal reports from different parts of the world and they show that the Northern Hemisphere winter and the Southern hemisphere summer, you know, had very, very mixed temperature climate patterns for the Northern Hemisphere winter, North Eastern Canada, Greenland and the Arctic Ocean were above average Siberia.
And this is in contrast to what we saw last year.
Siberia stands out as the region with the most below average temperatures.
And this is according to the monthly report from Europe, Europe's climate change service.
So Copernicus, which was issued yesterday, right.
And you can see me good, we can.
February was much colder.
So the month of February was much colder than the 1991 to 2020 average over much of Russia and North America, much warmer than average over parts of the Arctic and in, in, in other parts of the world.
I'll send you the briefing note and including a, a map of this and you can see that the the temperature differences are really very, very, very striking.
Obviously we saw and heard a lot about what happened in the United States in February, in Texas in particular.
So the contiguous US had its coldest February since 1989.
This is according to a report issued by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Last night it saw 62 all time daily cold minimum temperature records in a space of just February the 11th to the 16th.
So that is something we really don't see very often these these days.
Quite a long complicated reason and there will be more explanation in the briefing notes on this.
Basically to do with the polar vortex.
This is an area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the the poles.
It normally keeps cold air in the Arctic, warm air in the lower latitudes.
And so it meant that the cold air came spilling out of the Arctic into, you know, parts of the world where people live, in particular, you know, the United States and as I've said, parts of Russia.
Warm air, by contrast, went into parts of the the Arctic.
Just to say the fact that we had a relatively cold month does not negate climate change.
It does not reverse the long term trend in rising temperatures due to, you know, global warming, climate change, cold records, cold waves are becoming rarer.
We can see this from the statistics.
Heat waves, heat records are becoming much more frequent.
And I was just looking just this morning, greenhouse gases which are obviously what's driving the, the, the temperature increase, climate change, greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise.
Mauna Loa station in Hawaii, which is sort of the oldest established station in the world.
It's a benchmark station.
They Mauna Loa measured a average carbon dioxide concentrations in February of 416.75 parts per million, and this is up from 413.4 parts per million in February 2020.
So climate, you know, the fact that we have a relatively cool month, the fact that we've got COVID, which temporarily put a brake on emissions last year, does not, you know, mean that the need for climate action is, is is diminishing.
Now Please don't worry, I will send you all of these notes.
Just an explanatory note because we are getting questions on it.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service figures which were released yesterday, they use 1991 to 2020 as the baseline for calculating whether the month was warmer or cooler than average.
This is new, it's an update.
Before Copernicus and other meteorological services used 1981 to 2010, so now we're moving to 1991 to 2020.
It's a 30 year average baseline.
The reason we have these baseline periods is to calculate the average climate, to tell people, well, you know, was it above normal?
And this is for operational reasons, for climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, health, transportation, infrastructure.
You know, people need the most up to We've had comments from people saying, well, this then downplays the impact of climate change.
And our response to that is that for historical monitoring.
So for climate change comparisons, we as WMO will continue to use a well established baseline.
It's 1961 to 1990 will use both in effect and then for the purpose of the Paris Agreement on climate change and it's temperature targets, we will continue to use the pre industrial era as the baseline.
So thus the average temperature in 2020 was about 1.2°C above the pre industrial level.
It's quite complicated, it's quite technical, but we have been getting quite a few media enquiries about it.
So I thought I'd try and explain it and as I said, there will be more explanation in the briefing note to you.
It is technical but very interesting.
I have Emma on the line for to ask you a question.
I would like to know a little bit more about what to expect from the hurricane committee.
Might they talk about names or might they release a forecast for the 2021 hurricane season?
Yeah, so the hurricane committee and we will you know, explain it in the press release which which which will come out for the start of the meeting.
Most of the session is it's divided between reviewing the previous season.
So they look at the country reports from all the members in the, you know, in North America, the Caribbean and Central America.
It's, it's, it's this particular region.
So the hurricane committee, it's it's not a global committee, it's, it's a regional committee.
So it's comprised of meteorological services from that specific reason region.
So part of the meeting will be to review the previous season and obviously it was a record-breaking one.
Part of it will be to look at the operational plan.
You know what, you know, new measures are coming into effect in terms of, you know, warnings this season.
We're always refining warning, early warning products such as on on storm surge, for instance.
It's the water which kills most people and part of the meeting, and this is always the part which attracts the most interest will indeed be to look at the retirement of names of hurricanes which were particularly damaging or, or, or deadly.
And we will address that issue at the at the, you know, at the at the end of the meeting.
Oh, and sorry, the forecast, sorry for the forthcoming season.
We as WMO don't issue those forecasts.
the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration does.
And those forecasts tend to come out a little bit closer to the start of the season.
So it's normally, it's normally about May.
Claire, just from what you've said, there seems to be an implication or an assumption that climate change is global warming.
But actually can climate change B changes in the cold temperatures as well as the warm temperatures.
Could you elaborate a bit on that?
Yeah, that's, that's why we as the World Meteorological Organisation, lots of other scientific bodies, we don't talk about global warming.
We do talk about climate change.
Climate change unit has many, many different effects.
Extreme weather is one of them.
Melting of glaciers is another one.
Ocean heat is is another one.
But there are lots of different effects.
That's why we don't say global warming.
We do talk about climate change.
There is research being conducted into whether the fact that the Arctic is heating more than twice the global average Arctic ice is melting.
There's a lot of research going on into whether the melting of the Arctic ice is affecting atmospheric circulation patterns.
So the jet stream, whether it's affecting ocean circulation patterns, which then, you know, would have an impact on, on the weather in, in, in, in parts of the world where, where, where, where we live, the jury's still out on that.
But it, you know, it is actively being being investigated.
And certainly what we are seeing, what we saw this year, what we saw last year, what we've seen in recent years is we've seen what we call blocking patterns.
So it's when you get, you know, very, very cold air as we saw this year sitting over the United States and not moving.
That was because the jet stream had had had weakened.
It had let that cold air, you know, into the United States.
It then didn't move on because of what we call a blocking pattern meant that other parts were at that stage were warm and usually warm.
We saw that last year in particular with Siberia, there was a big blocking pattern, which meant that, you know, large parts of Siberia we're very, very warm for an exceptionally long period of time.
So it is, it is something which is being considered, you know, whether the weakening of the jet stream might be linked to reduction in Arctic ice and whether that is going to lead to more blocking patterns.
But as I said, it's it's one part of research into, you know, in climate science and there's a lot of other research going on at the same time.
But yeah, basically that's why we don't use global warming.
We do talk about climate change.
It's got many, many first sets, many impacts.
I just wanted to to know a little bit more about some any weather patterns that you may have noticed since the the Hurricanes in Central America, Yotan ETA?
I mean, there have been reports in coastal areas in Central America that there's they have had unseasonal, unseasonable rainfall till now.
I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about that, please.
We've had a La Nina event.
El Nino and La Nina are two of the major naturally occurring climate to climate drivers.
And La Nina doesn't have an impact everywhere in the world, but certainly it does impact Central America.
It does affect rainfall in Central America, effects temperature in Central America.
So possibly what has been happening in different countries in the region is linked to La Nina.
So that's one of the one of the things that's that's been happening.
It started I think it was in the autumn last year.
But the way these things works is that, you know, the the impact certainly on temperature will, will, you know, will, will continue.
It doesn't disappear overnight, but the the event itself has has peaked and we expect it to revert to to more neutral conditions by, you know, by, by the Northern Hemisphere summer.
Thank you, Claire, Christian.
Can you just clarify again who's changed the reference frames for these temperature times 81 to 2010 and 91 to 2000?
Well, it WMO or is it someone else in WMO is following?
It's no, it's, it's, it's WMO.
And as I said, it's for operational reasons.
At the start of every decade we recommend that our members, so national meteorological and hydrological services should switch to the new 30 year base.
As I said, you know, climate sensitive sectors like agriculture, they need the most up to date information.
They, they, you know, they don't need information from, you know, a few decades previously.
Construction infrastructure, you know, they need the most up to date accurate climatological data.
So that's why we say to our members at the start of every decade they should update their 30 year baseline.
Which is what has happened in Europe, as far as I know.
I think the United States, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are going to be updating their baseline periods in the next couple of months.
It's, it's, it's a lot of work.
So it's not something, you know, that you just click your fingers and the whole baseline.
And all the data is updated.
It's, it's a lot of work.
So that means why meteorological services in the in developed countries tend to be quicker than those in the developing part of the world.
So we as WMO, we just had a meeting a couple of weeks ago and we've sort of said, you know, members in developing countries which need technical assistance in updating those baselines, you know, we will, we will try and give them that that assistance.
As I said it, you know, it really is operational decision making reasons for climate change monitoring as WMO, we will keep the 1961 to 1990 baseline plus the pre industrial era baseline as well.
Thank you very much Claire.
I don't see other questions for you.
So thank you for this briefing and that concludes basically I have a briefing today.
I just have a couple of very quick announcements for you.
Just to remind you that the Conference on Disarmament is not only meeting now in a public plenary, but also will this afternoon at 3:00 PM, both meeting under the Presidency of Brazil.
The Human Rights Committee, starting today at 4 O clock.
The review of the report of Kenya and the Committee on the Rights of Person with Disabilities has started yesterday, 24th session, during which he will review the report of Estonia.
A couple of press conferences today.
I remind you of the press conference at 3:30.
This is a virtual press conference by FRC.
As you remember last Friday we found out there was a little bit of a problem with the timing because WHO had also planned a press conference at that time.
I understand that now while both agency could not just change the date of the press conference of their own press conference, they have moved slightly the timing so that you can follow hopefully both.
So the IFRC press conference today is at 3:30 PM on the UNIS platform.
The subject is 12 months of COVID-19.
IFRC to warn of deadly gap in global plans to equitably roll out COVID-19 vaccines and share updates on achievements over the past 12 months.
And this is, Please remember Andrew Embargo until the 10th of March as at midnight 01 Central European time.
The speakers will be Francesco Roca, the President of the IFRC and Emmanuel Capobianco, Director of Health.
And I understand that The Who press conference will be at 4:15.
And maybe if you have question, Margaret, we'll be able to answer on that.
Also, let me remind you tomorrow, Wednesday 10th of March, at 11 AM, another virtual press conference by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The subject is the 10th anniversary of the Great E Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
And the speakers will be Mami Mitsutori, the Secretary General Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, and Dr Vladimir Ribi, Sorry, Riabinin, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO.
And this is what I had to tell you on my side for announcement.
I see that Jamil has raised his hands.
Just a very quick question.
You mentioned the Human Rights Committee, is that if I if I didn't get it wrong, are they meeting in person here in Geneva?
If they're in zoom, how can we contact them?
It's the Human Rights Committee I mentioned.
This is the 131st session, which will last until the 26th of March.
To the best of my knowledge they're meeting meeting virtually and I think the easiest would be to contact them through the OHCHR.
But I can try and get you the name of a person and so that you know directly who to call.
As you know OHCHR service this committees and has a focal point in in their office for each of these treaty body meetings.
Any other question for me or for other colleagues?
I see John Sarah Costa as a resident.
Can you hear me Alessandra?
My question is for Margaret Harris.
From WHO, what I'd like to know is if Doctor Tedros will be speaking at the event on vaccines, the virtual summit.
And secondly, on Friday, one of The Who officials said that WHO was involved and participating.
It was a Co sponsor in this summit.
But the flyer that has gone out yesterday only shows SEPI, one of the Covex partners.
It doesn't show WHO on the letterhead.
And I'm wondering if WHO is no longer a sponsor of the event or is that a misprint by the organisers?
Thank you very much, John.
Margaret is connected and we'll answer you.
Good morning, Margaret, Good morning.
You're talking about the event that SEPI and the IFPMA are holding in today and tomorrow I think or in the couple of days this week on vaccine supply, if that's what you're referring to.
And on on Friday's briefing we were told that WHO was involved and a Co sponsor along with Garbi and and no.
We of course have WHO people there because it's it's one of our big technical areas.
It's a an event run by SEPI and.
By IFPMA, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.
So I guess to them, sorry, no, I think John was also asking whether Doctor Tedros was speaking at this event and not that I'm.
Aware, I think Sumiya and and and our other experts are scientists, but not I'm not aware of Doctor Tedros speaking there.
Margaret, you have a question, I don't know if it's for you actually Peter has resistant.
Let's see who's the question for, OK, it is Margaret.
The question is for you, but I don't know whether you're going to be able to answer it.
The bi weekly WHO webinars have a tendency to start not on time.
And I was just wondering if this press conference with Doctor Tedros and Mlango and Guka is, is going to be starting on time because there is going to be an overlap with this IFRC press conference on COVID.
Yeah, No, I expect that this will very, very much be on time because one of the problems with the clash with the IFRC press conference is that because indeed we've got very **** level external participants, we'd struggled for months to get that time.
But they all agreed to move it 15 minutes later in order to get give you the opportunity to attend the IFRC, but we couldn't make it any later.
So yeah, I would expect it will start on time and IFRC accepted to move it half an hour earlier so that you had at least 45 minutes to follow both press conferences.
Thank you very much, Margaret.
I don't see other hands up for you.
Thank you for having been with us, all of you, and.
I wish you a very good day.
