UN GENEVA PRESS BRIEFING

3 September 2024

Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the World Health Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Refugee Agency, and the United Nations Trade and Development.

Polio vaccination in Gaza

Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, speaking from Gaza, informed that the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip had commenced on 1 September, with the objective of vaccinating the total of 640,000 children under ten years of age. A minimum of 90 percent of those children needed to be reached in order to stop the spread of polio in Gaza and prevent its international expansion. In the first two days of the campaign, in the central zone, over 161,000 children had been reached, surpassing the WHO’s own target. Day 3 of the campaign was currently underway to ensure that any children missed in the central zone would be reached. Dr. Peeperkorn said that over 2,200 health and community workers were engaged on this campaign, working in both fixed and mobile vaccination teams. He had visited a number of vaccination spots, to which parents had readily brought their children, and the overall atmosphere was rather positive. Gaza had historically had very high immunization rates, reminded Dr. Peeperkorn. It was estimated that one more day would be needed to complete the campaign in the central zone, after which the effort would move to the southern zone for three to four days, and eventually to the north. WHO welcomed area-specific humanitarian pauses, and it was critical that the parties continue to respect them.

Dr. Peeperkorn then reminded of the dire conditions of the overall health system in Gaza, inadequate water and sanitation, which had led to hundreds of thousands of cases of various diseases, including Hepatitis A and diarrhea. WHO was continuing with its other work, trying to get its missions to the north, but only four out of the eight planned missions in recent days had made it. An emergency medical team had been deployed to Indonesian Hospital on 2 September, and a new emergency department with 70 beds had been inaugurated at the Al-Shifa hospital. WHO had supported this new department with medical supplies, 20 ICU beds and mattresses, medical disposables, dressing kits and medications, and five hemodialysis machines.

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), reminded of the statement by Tom Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, distributed the previous day.

Replying to numerous questions from the journalists, Dr. Peeperkorn, for the WHO, explained that children in Gaza used to be very well vaccinated until a year ago, but with a confirmed case of vaccine-derived polio virus type 2 in an eleven-month unvaccinated boy, further surveillance and eventually vaccination drive had been put into place. Given the enormous amount of population movements in Gaza, estimates of the numbers of children in each of the three vaccination zones were just that – estimates. Dr. Peeperkorn explained that under normal circumstances, polio vaccination was done house-to-house, which was impossible to do in Gaza now. The area-specific humanitarian pauses had worked until now, said Dr. Peeperkorn, expressing hope that this would continue to be the case. The campaign was made possible thanks to negotiations; it was not happening under ideal circumstances, but the negotiated conditions were workable.

Dr. Peeperkorn reminded that polio was a very easily preventable disease, and stopping its spread both in Gaza and internationally was an objective that could unite various parties. WHO considered there to be a high risk of variant poliovirus type 2 both within Gaza and internationally, given gaps in children's immunity due to disruptions in routine vaccination, a new birth cohort, decimation of the health system, constant population displacement, malnutrition and severely damaged water and sanitation systems. He explained that oral polio vaccines were the primary tools to stop circulation of poliovirus because they had a unique ability to confer gut immunity needed to interrupt person-to-person spread of the virus. Dr. Peeperkorn hoped that if the current campaign was proven possible and successful, it would have effect on future humanitarian activities in Gaza. Each reported case of paralysis had to be checked to establish whether it was caused by polio. He emphasized that the current vaccination campaign was a partnership of several UN Agencies, the Ministry of Health, and several NGOs.

James Elder, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), added that previous warnings of infectious disease breakouts had been ignored. Talks of a ceasefire were still just talks, unfortunately.

Update on UN staff detention in Yemen

Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), reminded that 6 September would mark three months since six OHCHR staff in Yemen had been arrested by the ‘Ansar Allah’ de facto authorities. The six staff – one woman and five men – had been arrested on 6 June together with seven other UN personnel. Two UN Human Rights and two colleagues from other UN agencies had been detained by the de facto authorities since 2021 and 2023 respectively, bringing the number of UN staff arbitrarily detained in Yemen to 17. Their whereabouts remained unknown, and the Houthi de facto authorities had not permitted physical access to any of them, despite OHCHR’s repeated requests. Once again, the High Commissioner demanded their immediate and unconditional release, and the release of all human rights and humanitarian workers similarly arrested and detained without legal protections.

The detained OHCHR staff were accused on various sorts of fabricated, false grounds, said Ms. Shamdasani in a response to a question. The United Nations unequivocally rejected those spurious accusations. The filmed confession by a staff member had been clearly made under duress. No evidence had been presented, she reiterated. Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), reminded of the Secretary-General’s Spokesperson’s statement in this regard on 19 August, in which it was stressed that the UN and its partners should never be targeted, arrested or detained while carrying out their mandates.

Human rights situation in Nicaragua

Thameen Al-Kheetan, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), spoke of the new OHCHR report on Nicaragua, which highlighted the seriously deteriorating human rights situation in the country, including a steep increase of cases of arbitrary detention, intimidation of opponents, ill-treatment in custody, and attacks against Indigenous peoples. Persecution of Government opponents, or those perceived as dissenting voices, had progressively been extended and intensified. The authorities also continued to persecute any individual or organisation that operated independently or did not fall directly under their control.

The report documented 12 cases of torture and ill-treatment in detention. OHCHR continued to receive reports of violence, committed against Indigenous peoples and people of African descent, in the Caribbean Coast regions, with at least two documented killings by settlers, who did not belong to these communities, and seek to control their lands. Attacks, including gender-based violence, were carried out in a context of widespread impunity. It was distressing to see how civic space continued to be severely eroded in Nicaragua, and how the exercise of fundamental civil and political rights was becoming more and more difficult. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for “an urgent change of path from the Government” of Nicaragua. The 2026 elections offered a new opportunity, and it was crucial that the right to political participation be fully respected for Nicaraguans to be able to safely, and freely, decide the future of their country.

Full statement can be seen here and the OHCHR report can be accessed here.

Replying to questions, Mr. Al-Kheetan said that some Nicaraguans in exile could not return to the country as they had been stripped of their nationality. Some left the country voluntarily, but many were forced to do so because of the circumstances, going primarily to the United States and Costa Rica. Large numbers of Nicaraguans continued to leave the country. In Costa Rica, for example, close to 9,000 asylum applications had been received in the first six months of 2024.

Situation in Venezuela

Responding to a question, Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), reminded that the OHCHR still did not have a presence in the country, but the engagement with the authorities continued. OHCHR urged all parties to resolve the post-electoral disputes in peaceful means amidst the increasing climate of fear.

Banning of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine

Replying to a question, Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that the law banning the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, adopted on 20 August and published on 26 August, was being analyzed by the OHCHR. It could already be said that the law raised concerns regarding its compliance with human rights standards.

Banning of X in Brazil and arrest of Telegram’s CEO

Answering a question, Ravina Shamdasani, for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that the proliferation of hate speech, mis- and disinformation on social media was nothing new. There was clear guidance in this regard. Blocking X in Brazil, as well as the arrest of Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov, raised a number of relevant and complicated questions. Principles of legality, necessity, and proportionality needed to be taken into consideration by States when taking action. Ms. Shamdasani reminded of the open letter sent by the UN Human Rights High Commissioner to the owner of X Elon Musk in November 2022. Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), reminded of the United Nations Global Principles for Information Integrity, published in June 2024.

New global guidance aims to curb antibiotic pollution from manufacturing

Kate Medlicott, Team lead, Sanitation and wastewater in the Department of Climate, Environment and Health, at the World Health Organization (WHO), informed that today, the WHO was launching first-ever guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for manufacturing of antibiotics. The guidance had been developed collaboratively with the UN Environment Programme and its launch is timed ahead of the UN General Assembly high level meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) happening on 26 September. This new guidance was needed because high antibiotic pollution levels had been widely documented downstream of manufacturing sites.

Pharmaceutical waste from antimicrobial manufacturing could act as a petri dish for new drug-resistant bacteria, which meant that new resistance to antibiotics could emerge from the very same sites that produced them. Such events were rarer than AMR transmission, but the consequence of emergence and spread of new and successful resistance might be vast and global. Therefore, stressed Ms. Medlicott, it was crucial to control pollution from antibiotic production to ensure those life-saving drugs remain effective for everyone. Yet, currently the issue was largely unregulated and quality assurance criteria for medicines typically did not address environmental emissions. Voluntary industry-led initiatives had made important inroads towards addressing the problem; the new guidance went further, providing an independent scientific basis for regulators, procurers, inspectors, and industry themselves to include robust antibiotic pollution control in their binding standards. It also included greater rigor some aspects – in particular stipulating greater use of chemical analysis of polluted effluent and allowing less leeway for dilution in water bodies. Crucially, the guidance had a strong focus on transparency, and it should equip buyers, investors, and the general public to make decisions that accounted for manufacturers’ efforts to control pollution.

Responding to questions, Mr. Medlicott explained that manufacturers would need to prepare robust risk management plans, doing chemical analyses of wastewater, and focusing on transparency, for example by making internal audit information available to public. Regulators needed to put both pressure and binding regulations on the manufacturers.

Also responding to questions, Dr. Valeria Gigante, Scientist, AMR Lead, in the Global Coordination Partnership (GCP) Department in the AMR Division at the World Health Organization (WHO), said that bacteria had learned how to survive in the presence of antibiotics, and it could undermine the efficacy of medicine. High-level of antibiotic pollution was recorded around the world. Globally there was a lack of information about environmental damage, and it was hoped that this guidance would help increase awareness and lead to necessary action. Ms. Medlicott said that another guidance on what to do with unused medicine would be published the following year. The problem was solvable, she stressed.

Further details are available here.

Announcements

Christian Lindmeier, for the World Health Organization (WHO), informed that on 4 September at 4 pm, the WHO Director-General would hold a press briefing. On 5 and 6 September, the WHO would be closed because of the Jeûne genevois holiday.

Matthew Saltmarsh, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), informed that the Refugee Paralympics team had won two medals at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris so far, its highest achievement since the team’s inception at the Rio Games in 2016. The refugee laureates were Zakia Khudadadi, who had won a bronze medal in the para taekwondo women’s 44 -47kg, and Guillaume Junior Atangana, who had won a bronze in the men’s 400m. Interviews with the athletes could be arranged.

Catherine Huissoud, for the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD), informed that on 10 September at 9:30 am, UNCTAD would present "Developments in the Economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory” report. The report would be under embargo until the end of the press conference. Full report in four languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic) would be shared with the media on 6 September.

Alessandra Vellucci, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), informed that on 4 September at 10:30 am, there would be a hybrid briefing to launch the “World Employment and Social Outlook: September 2024 update” report. Speakers would be Celeste Drake, Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), and Steven Kapsos, Head of the Data Production and Analysis Unit at the ILO.

On 4 September at 3 pm, Ambassador Omar Zniber, President of the Human Rights Council, would hold a hybrid press conference ahead of the 57^th session of the Human Rights Council (9 September- 11 October).

On 6 September at 9:15 am, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan would launch its first investigative report. Mohamed Chande Othman, Chair, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, and Mona Rishmawi, Members of the Mission, would address the media.

On 9 September at 2 pm, the Cluster Munitions Monitor 2024 report would be launched. Speakers were to include Mary Wareham, Landmine Monitor 2024 Ban Policy Editor, Katrin Atkins, Landmine Monitor 2024 Impact Team Senior Researcher, Loren Persi, Landmine Monitor 2024 Impact Team Lead, and Charles Bechara, ICBL-CMC Communications and Media Manager.

Ms. Vellucci also informed that the Committee on the Rights of the Child was concluding this morning its review of the report of Argentina and would begin this afternoon its review of the report of Israel.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities would have an informal meeting with States Parties on 5 September, at 11:30 am, and would close its 31^st session at 3 pm the same day, issuing its concluding observations on the nine countries reviewed during this session: Burkina Faso, Benin, the Netherlands, Ghana, Belarus, Belgium, Denmark, Mauritius, and Ukraine.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

UNCTAD Catherine Huissoud (PR)

· UN Trade and Development – Publication of the "Developments in the Economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory Report 10 September at 9:30 am

TOPICS

OHCHR Ravina Shamdasani (PR)

· Yemen: Update on UN staff detention

Thameen Al-Kheetan (PR)

· Nicaragua: new OHCHR report on human rights situation

WHO Christian Lindmeier (PR) with Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territories (from Gaza)

· Update on the Gaza polio campaign

Kate Medlicott, Team lead, Sanitation and wastewater in the Department of Climate, Environment and Health (PR) and Dr Valeria Gigante, Scientist, AMR Lead, in the Global Coordination Partnership (GCP) Department in the AMR Division (PR)

· Tackling antibiotic pollution from manufacturing