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UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 8 December 2020
Situation in Tigray, Ethiopia
Responding to a question, Alessandra Vellucci, for the UN Information Service, said that the UN Secretary-General was very concerned about the current situation in the Tigray province in Ethiopia. He felt that it was essential to quickly restore the rule of law, in full respect for human rights, promote social cohesion, an inclusive reconciliation, as well as to re-establish the delivery of public services and guarantee unfettered humanitarian access. The UN remained totally committed to supporting the African Union initiative.
Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), responding to a question, said that OCHA was aware of the reports on an alleged incident involving UN staff in Tigray. For the sake of safety and security of UN staff on the ground, no comments on this issue would be currently made.
Babar Baloch, for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said that the humanitarian situation was increasingly critical. The principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and operational independence needed to be implemented. Sadly, humanitarian access was still not possible and there was no real-time information for a month now. UNHCR remained very worried for the safety of refugees in Tigray. Lack of access meant that refugees and others in need could not be reached. UNHCR still used the figure of some 96,000 Eritrean refugees in the region who could not be reached. Meanwhile, while Ethiopian refugees continued to arrive to Sudan, the numbers of new arrivals were going down, and stood at 400-600 per day. The refugees were reporting an increased number of checkpoints along their way. Over 49,000 people had been registered as having crossed from Ethiopia into Sudan so far.
COVID-19
Responding to a question, Margaret Harris, for the World Health Organization, said that vaccines were a great tool and would be very helpful, but their effect was still far off. In the meantime, public health measures such as distancing, wearing masks, hand washing, and contact tracing needed to be conducted with great rigor in order to slow down and control the spread of the virus.
Announcements
Vincent Defourny, Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office in Geneva, informed that the World Press Freedom Conference 2020 would take place on 9-10 December. Organized jointly by UNESCO and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the event would take the form of a digital conference to be streamed live from the World Forum in The Hague. The theme of the 2020 celebration was ‘Journalism without Fear or Favour‘. The event would explore issues related to the protection of independent journalism around the globe, overcoming the obstacles of media capture and guaranteeing journalism that provided reliable information and a diversity of views. It would jointly commemorate World Press Freedom Day (3 May), and the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists (2 November). Participation was free but online slots were limited and registration was necessary.
The World Press Freedom Conference would be one of the subjects of the hybrid press conference on “World Press Freedom & Public Service Journalism in the Viral Age”, organized by UNESCO today at 1:30 p.m. in cooperation with the Geneva UN Information Service and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Liz Corbin, EBU Head of News, informed that at today’s press conference, the Union would present its News Report for 2020. “Fast Forward: Public Service Journalism in a Viral Age” explored how newsrooms reinvented themselves in the throes of the global pandemic to ensure accurate and impartial information was there for audiences when they needed it most. In turn, audiences had rediscovered public service media, turning to it in huge numbers for trusted news. Presenting the findings of the report would be co-author Maike Olij, who had spoken to 20 leaders from newsrooms across Europe as the crisis was unfolding, to find out what they experienced and the lessons they had learned for 2021 and beyond.
Speaking about media accreditations for 2021, Alessandra Vellucci, for the UN Information Service (UNIS) said that the renewal of accreditations would only start in January, as the UN Office at Geneva was going to roll out then a new version of the accreditation system Indico. The current badges would be valid through January. A note to correspondents on this matter had been shared with the press corps by UNIS.
Tomson Phiri, for the World Food Programme (WFP), informed that the WFP would be accepting the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize on 10 December at 1 p.m. WFP Executive Director David Beasley would receive the award on behalf of the agency and its 20,000 staff in a virtual ceremony that could be viewed worldwide here. WFP would also be hosting a Facebook Live event The People’s Prize here - a celebration of the remarkable history, people and partners who were behind WFP winning the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as reactions from WFP staff around the world.
Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), announced the high-level pledging event for the Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) at 4 p.m. Geneva time. It would be broadcast at webtv.un.org. Achievements in 2020 would be discussed, and pledges made for 2021. Mr. Laerke reminded that CERF had been around for 15 years and was used for rapidly developing emergencies. The ambition was to reach USD one billion.
Ms. Vellucci, speaking on behalf of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said that UNCTAD would publish its annual Handbook of Statistics on 9 December and on the occasion would publish its latest nowcasts on 2020 global trade in merchandises and services.
This morning, at 10:30 a.m., a hybrid virtual Special Meeting was taking place at the Palais des Nations, Room XX to mark the annual observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (which was celebrated every year on 29 November).
Alessandra Vellucci, speaking on behalf of UN Women, informed that today at 3 p.m. (Nur-Sultan time) the Spotlight Initiative Regional Programme for Central Asia and Afghanistan would be officially launched and bring together dignitaries and senior leadership of the European Union and the United Nations, governments of Central Asia and Afghanistan and envoys of women’s movements to give a start to the programme designed to deliver on gender equality commitments. The Initiative was the EU-funded programme with an initial budget of more than USD 4.3 million for Central Asia and Afghanistan. All the information was available here.
Today at 2:45 p.m., the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would present latest figures from UNDP Climate Promise covering 114 countries national determined contributions (NDCs): What has been achieved since 2015 and how to keep up with climate ambitions? The speaker would be Cassie Flynn, UNDP Climate Advisor.
Finally, Ms. Vellucci said that on 9 December at 10:30 a.m., Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, would hold a press conference on “Reflections on 2020 and looking ahead to 2021” – on the eve of Human Rights Day, she would speak about the need to recover better and stand up for human rights.
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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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