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UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 14 July 2020
Human Rights Council
Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section at the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), speaking on behalf of the Human Rights Council, informed that this morning the Council was holding a panel discussion on COVID-19 and women’s rights. At noon, there would be an oral briefing by the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi, followed by an interactive discussion, to be followed by the continuation of discussion on Myanmar and the presentation of the report by the Commission of Inquiry on Syria and a discussion.
More information on the forty-fourth session of the Council can be found here.
State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2020 report
Maximo Torero, Chief Economist and Assistant Director-General for the Economic and Social Development Department at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said the world was off track to achieve SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), and, at this pace, in 2030 more than 800 million were expected to be undernourished. In addition, between 80 and 120 million more people could this year go chronically undernourished because of COVID-19. If all forms of malnutrition were counted, as many as two billion people in the world did not have access to all the food they needed. If the world wanted to achieve zero hunger and combat malnutrition, the key was to address the quality of diets; currently, 57 per cent of countries in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia could not afford such diets. Hidden costs behind the production of foods ought also to be considered; if the pattern of nutrition was changed towards healthier options, those hidden costs could be significantly reduced.
The current situation was not on track, and COVID-19 was making things worse, stressed Mr. Torero. The report urged a transformation of food systems to reduce the cost of nutritious foods and increase the affordability of healthy diets. While the specific solutions would differ from country to country, and even within them, the overall answers lay with interventions along the entire food supply chain, in the food environment, and in the political economy that shaped trade, public expenditure and investment policies.
Full FAO press release can be read here.
Elisabeth Byrs, for the World Food Programme (WFP), referring to the report, reiterated that
the world was not on track to achieve zero hunger by 2030. For WFP, FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the three Rome-based UN agencies engaged in the fight against hunger, that was extremely worrying. WFP worked on the frontlines of hunger around the world and was focused on responding to “acute” hunger needs. WFP estimated that the number of acutely food insecure people in the world could increase by 80 per cent - from 149 million in 2019 to 270 million before the end of 2020 – largely due to the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The shifting battlefront of the pandemic was currently being felt most keenly in Latin America, where there has been a 269 per cent rise in people facing severe food insecurity. Spikes in food insecurity were already evident in West and Central Africa (135 per cent increase) and Southern Africa (90 per cent increase), estimated the WFP.
The virus was changing the face of hunger by dragging urban populations into destitution, and compounding the effects of climate change, conflict and socioeconomic shocks in regions of the world that had previously escaped severe levels of food insecurity. Ms. Byrs informed that the WFP was mobilising to meet the food needs of up to 138 million people in 2020 – the biggest humanitarian response in its history. This unprecedented crisis required an unprecedented response, and the WFP was appealing for USD 4.9 billion over the next six months to carry out this life-saving work in 83 countries.
Responding to a question, Ms. Byrs said that in 2020, the WFP aimed to assist 138 million acutely malnourished people. Other humanitarian agencies, NGOs and governments were naturally also involved in this monumental task. Mr. Torero explained that it was important to understand the difference between acute and chronical malnutrition; in the global north, thanks to social and unemployment insurance, people who lost jobs usually still had the capacity to feed themselves. Mr. Torero, in response to another question, said if the process of economic recovery did not accelerate in the north, we could also witness a broader problem of access to food. FAO expected that even in developed countries there would be spots of food insecurity.
Stranded migrants in Yemen
Paul Dillon, for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that COVID19-related restrictions that had reduced the number of migrant arrivals in Yemen by 90 per cent in recent months had also left tens of thousands of Ethiopians stranded there, subject to forcible relocation, arbitrary detention and abuse, and exposed to the spread of coronavirus with little access to support services. Transportation through the country had been blocked and at least 14,500 migrants had been forcibly transferred between governorates, left stranded in Aden (4,000), Marib (2,500), Lahj (1,000) and Sa’ada (7,000) governorates. In 2019, over 138,000 migrants – an average of 11,500 per month – had arrived in Yemen from the Horn of Africa according to IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix, bound for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in search of work. In May 2019, 18,904 people had made the crossing, whereas this year only 1,725 arrivals had been recorded.
Agencies like IOM were continuing to assist stranded migrants, but major funding shortages jeopardized the response, putting lives at risk. IOM’s appeal for USD 155 million to support over 5.3 million people by the end of the year was just half-funded, endangering displaced Yemenis and migrants who would be left alone to face the devastating fallout of nearly six years of conflict and the worsening COVID-19 outbreak. Mr. Dillon also informed that soon the IOM would be releasing some new B-roll and photo materials from Yemen.
Full IOM press release can be read here.
It was very difficult to estimate how many migrants there were in Yemen in total, and how many of them were in detention, said Mr. Dillon in response to a question. COVID-19 did make access more challenging, he explained.
Geneva announcements
Fadéla Chaib, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that Dr. Tedros was in Paris today to attend the Bastille Day celebrations, at the invitation of the French President. This year, the ceremony was primarily dedicated to health professionals fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. On 16 July, at the invitation of the King of Spain, Dr. Tedros would be in Madrid to participate in events honoring health workers and those who had lost their lives to COVID-19. It was not planned for Dr. Tedros to visit health facilities in Madrid, nor would he be delivering formal remarks in either Paris or Madrid.
Ms. Chaib also announced that a PAHO press conference would take place at 11 a.m. Washington time today. Ms. Chaib said the next WHO press briefing with Dr. Tedros would take place on Friday, 17 July, at 5 p.m, but from next week the plan was to have those briefings on Monday and Thursday afternoons.
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the UN Information Service (UNIS), reminded journalists about the “Women Rise for All” online event starting today at 8 a.m. NYC time, which would be hosted by Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General.
The Human Rights Committee, which was pursuing its 129th session online, would hold during this session several public meetings (the next ones today from 4 to 6 p.m), all devoted to the review (second reading) of its General Comment 37 on Article 21 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Right to peaceful assembly).
The Committee Against Torture had held a brief 69th session the previous day – the first online session so far – during which it had decided it would postpone its November-December session to next year, unless it could be carried out in-situ.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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