Welcome to the press briefing at the UN in Geneva.
Today is the 26th of September, Tuesday, and we have quite a long list of speaker.
As usual, we have two colleagues here with me on the podium who are going to give you some short announcements and then we will go to the briefing topics.
I start with Pascal for an update on the Council.
the United Nation Human Rights Council is holding a panel discussion on young people's engagement with climate change and global environmental decision making processes.
**** Commissioner Volcker Turk is participating in this panel discussion, as well as Miss Adrian Amira, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador.
And we also have the participation of representative of youth civil society organisations involving climate action and the protection of the environment and biodiversity.
And at noon today, **** Commissioner Turk will take the floor for the second time.
He will present the latest UN human rights report on Myanmar.
The report is currently available on the HRC 54 Sessions reports page.
And this afternoon the Council will begin item four of its agenda, which is dedicated to human rights situation that deserves its attention.
This general debate will continue tomorrow and on Thursday morning and tomorrow morning, the Human Rights Council will hold a panel discussion on cyber bullying against children, which is a new topic on the agenda of the Council.
Deputy **** Commissioner Nadel Nashif and Philippe Jaffe, member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, will be among the panellists, as well as representative of the children's organisation, civil society organisation and the private sector.
And on Wednesday, Wednesday afternoon, sorry, the Council will begin a series of meetings on the rights of Indigenous people, starting with a panel discussion and continuing on Thursday with interactive dialogues with the expert mechanism and the Special Rapporteur on the right of the Indigenous people.
On Thursday afternoon, the Advisory Committee, which is the think tank of the Human Rights Council, will present two different reports, one on the impact of new technologies intended for climate protection, and the second one on racial justice and equality.
And we will close Thursday with the report of the Secretary General and reprisal, which will be presented by the Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights, Ilse Brent Karis.
Thank you very much, Pascal.
Questions in the room online.
Akiko, you're here for the 60th anniversary of UNITAR.
Today I would like to inform you inform you of the upcoming events in the context of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research unit.
This year, UNITA is celebrating its 60th anniversary of commitment to match auto diplomacy, training, research and empowerment.
To mark the 60th anniversary, UNITA is organising a series of events and initiatives worldwide in Geneva, starting on the 2nd of October.
A photo exhibition displayed on the Roton Duque de Mont Blanc will illustrate 60 years of history as well as stories of Unita Almi who made a positive change in the community.
The Almani featured in the panel exhibition come from Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kenya, Maldives, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, United Arab Emirates and Vanuatu.
The opening ceremony of the 6th of October at 4:00 PM of the photo exhibition will be attended by Mr Nikhil Seth, the Executive Director of UNITAR, Mr Tatiana Valovaya, Director General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, His Excellency Mr Ramon Lauretton, President of the Diplomatic Club of Geneva and Mr Alfonso Gomez, Mayor of Geneva.
On the 4th of October at 99 AM at the Paradinacion in Room 17, UAE Room, the United Nations Climate Change Learning Partnership for UNCC LEARN, hosted by UNITAR, will organise a hybrid youth climate dialogue connecting 6 **** schools.
This event will provide students with a platform to exchange with and learn from each other about climate change, its impacts on various parts of the world and different solutions for it.
This special edition will feature schools from four countries, France, Japan, Kenya and South Africa that were part of the Institute's initial Board of Trustees, as well as Switzerland, the main donor of the partnership, and United Arab Emirates, a long standing partner in the YCD initiative.
To conclude, the celebrations and exceptional concert will bring together artists from Ecuador, India and the African continent on the stage of the Conservatoire to Munic de Geneva on the 16th of November, with the JIDDU eliminated in unit of blue on the same night.
And the unit of flux will be displayed on Mont Blanc Bridge during the week of the 13th November.
Please find out more information on our special website 60 years dot unit on dot org and I'll be happy to provide further information.
Thank you very much, Akiko.
Questions in the room don't see any end up.
Let me see you on the platform.
James, you want to join us on the on the podium together with your colleague, Mr Pierre Ingom, who is the UNICEF representative in Mali.
You've come to tell us about the situation of children in this conflict, in this situation.
Look, I'm going to hand straight to Pierre, who is the head of office based in Bamako, but is in Geneva for a couple of days.
So given just an increasingly poor security situation for all Malians, but particularly children, we thought we would take the opportunity of him being here to speak in person.
Today I would like to talk to you about the recruiters of insecurity in Mali and how children are paying the highest price.
Children continue indeed to pay the the the the highest price of gravely worsening security crisis in Mali.
Dozens have been killed this month alone in the north and the centre of the country.
Shrinking humanitarian access and growing internal displacement of populations are fuelling a child malnutrition crisis.
With 1,000,000 under five children at risk amid the residual sense of polio and measles epidemic, elements of non state armed group have claimed series of attack against Malian security forces positions in GAO as well as recurrent shelling of the airport and military outpost in Tombuktu.
Since August 8, some elements of non state non state armed groups are imposing a blockade on Timbuktu by cutting of the main supply routes.
On September the 7th, 2023, an attack on a boat in the Gaut Timbuktu axis resulted in the death of at least 24 children.
The ongoing attacks and and security are really creating a chaos for children.
With just a few weeks until the start of the 2023-2024 academic year, more than 1500 schools are still closed and 9000 teachers are affected, partly because of insecurity.
And half a million children will not be in school when the school opens in a few weeks.
This heightened and security is somehow amplified by Mnuzma ongoing departure.
And this is also a clump to the Algiers Accord and the Anti Milan Dialogue.
To conclude, I would like to say that investment in peace and security must go hand in hand with getting all children in school and learning fully vaccinated, protected from grave violations and free from malnutrition.
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Carla, if you have more information about polio in Mali, just raise your hand and and I can give you the floor.
In the meantime, let me see if there are other question, Chris.
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I have a couple of questions for you Mr Ngom.
I wanted dealing with the security situation in the country.
It seems as if security or insecurity has increased since the withdrawal or it's ongoing of the UN peacekeepers.
But could you talk more about the presence of the Wagner militants?
The government supposedly believed that its security would be enhanced by having this group dealing with insecurity while chasing out the UN peacekeepers.
And of course, we've heard that terrorism has increased in the northern part of the country.
If you would elaborate a bit upon this situation as you see it.
And then secondly, and allied with this situation is what impact, if any, are the other coups which seem to be popping up all over the area having upon the situation in Mali in terms of possible greater people fleeing to other countries or the displaced people within the country itself?
Thank you, Mr Governor, thank you very much.
The presence of Wagner, it kind of goes outside the the mandate of of UNICEF in Mali, but all the non state armed grouped in in in Mali in the situation of conflict are dealt with within international humanitarian law, within international human rights law.
Currently we are not dealing with with with Wagner.
As you know we deal with non state armed group that are listed in the Secretary General report on children in armed conflict.
Have some prevention plans that UNICEF is supporting so that grave violation on children are prevented and ultimately eradicated.
That is really what I can say about your first question on, on Wagner, on the impact of Azuku.
I I must say that when it comes to to the most recent one in Niger, following the the coup in Niger, ECOWAS has imposed quite a number of restrictions on the country which has affected the route to go and in Manaca in terms of our humanitarian supplies.
But the UN was very quick in working with ECOWAS to issue exemption letters, asking countries to make sure that humanitarian supplies are not affected.
Those routes are not affected because the coup is in Mali.
But what is affecting really the route, The supply route to Mali is in Niger, but what is affecting the supply route to to Mali is the border closure with Benin because of the Echoa's sanction.
But that is now it doesn't have really much effect because we have exemption letters for the supply route.
However, if this deteriorates, it is more likely that you will see, as you mentioned, quite a number of quite substantial displacement of populations which has not occurred for now.
As you know, recently last week, the three Syrian countries of Central Sahel, Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigeria have signed a new agreement to replace the GS, not to replace the GS5, but something that looks like the GS5 sail, they call it an alliance, alliance de Zeta de sail between these three countries.
So this will affect positively I assume coordination between the two the three countries and maybe we lessen the negative impact on on humanitarian access.
And I see Lisa as a follow up.
What about the situation of child soldiers?
Is I, I believe this is happening, Is it increasing?
And also could you speak a bit more about the exploitation of children, the sort of ***** of children which is resulting from the instability in the country and the poverty of course.
In June 2023, this past June, the UN Secretary General released the report on children in armed conflict.
Miley was featured, as you know, in in this report.
And in 2022, the report says that there were 1020 four, 120, four, 1024 violate, create violation on children.
These included issues on child soldiers on, on abduction, on ****, etcetera.
I don't have the the exact figures for each category, but I have the report.
What UNICEF has been doing is to make sure that any organisation that is listed on Annex 2 of that report has a prevention plan to address the grave violation that are mentioned in the report.
It's not a very easy work, but we have been doing this with the two platforms, the two organisation, the CMA, the coalition, the movement Lazarwad and then the platform.
As you know, also the government of Mali is not listed in in this report, but has taken voluntarily the initiative to develop a prevention plan to prevent grave violation on on, on children.
So yes, some of these violations on child soldiers on on use of children are still occurring, but work is ongoing because each of these organisation has a prevention plan to make sure that these violations don't occur and are prevented and ultimately eradicated as I mentioned earlier.
Thank you very much, Missable Commission Government.
Mercy James, for this briefing and good luck for your work in Mali.
And I'll ask Martha to come to the podium.
We have, you have two points, Martha, right?
Should we start with Brazil?
While we are getting ready, Carla put in the chat that she's going to check the situation of Pauline, Mallika, Katrina and come back to to the journalist.
The recent ruling by Brazil's Supreme Court against efforts to impose a time limit for demarcation of indigenous lands is very encouraging.
The landmark decision, reached by 9 of the 11 justices of the Supreme Court supremo tribunal Federau, was against what is known as the Marco Temporal argument.
Under the law theory, indigenous peoples who were not living on their ancestral land in 1988, when Brazil's current constitution was adopted, would have been blocked from applying for demarcation of their land.
Limiting demarcation in such a way would have cut extremely serious consequences, including preventing these communities from returning to lands they had been driven off and from enjoying the associated human rights.
It would also have perpetuated and aggravated historic and justices suffered by Brazil's indigenous peoples.
We know that the Supreme Court is due to further deliberate the issue of compensation for those who had acquired indigenous land in good faith.
We urge a speedy resolution of this issue, but it is also important that effective access of indigenous peoples to their lands is not impeded.
We remain concerned that the Draught Bill is currently being discussed in Congress, which seeks to establish through legislation the same temporal restriction which has now been rejected by the Supreme Court.
The Draught Bill also includes further obstacles to demarcation processes.
The UN Human Rights Office stresses that while demarcation of ancestral land is essential, it is not itself sufficient to comprehensively protect Indigenous people's rights.
There needs to be, in particular, an active systemic policy to protect Indigenous peoples from violence, including violence carried out by those who illegally invade their lands.
The clear need for such a policy is under scored by recent examples of violence inflicted by illegal miners on the Yenomami Indigenous peoples in the state of Rhode Island, in a territory that was demarcated as Indigenous land more than three decades ago.
Thank you very much, Marta.
Let me see questions in the room.
What is the message that the office sends to the Congress in Brazil regarding these bills?
The message we sent to the Congress is the same message that the Supreme Court has percent.
It's just that there should not be any limit to demarcation of unsent ancestral lands for indigenous peoples.
Other questions in the room.
So let's go to the platform.
Yes, good morning everybody.
I have a question on another issue.
So I think there are no other questions on Brazil.
Let me you have you have a question on Brazil, Mohammed, also another subject.
Any other question on Brazil?
So well I'm seeing now names hands up on in the platform.
Yes, actually, just to to send to your notes, please.
And Gabrielle, colleagues might be sharing in front.
Yeah, it might be already in your in your mailbox.
Gabrielle, is that on Brazil too?
No, no, no, it's not another issue.
So I don't see other questions on this matter.
So I'll start with Isabel, who had the floor before.
Isabel to Marta, Yes, it's on a, on the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh.
I would like to know what the what is the office doing to to monitoring the situation there?
If the office have any presence on the on this in this area?
And if not, what are the efforts that the office is doing to in this sense?
We don't have physical presence neither along the line of contact or in the areas where the mandate of the Russian peacekeepers.
That's why we don't have any way of verify or confirm all the various claims and allegations of human rights violations over there.
But what we should say is that the affected population needs to have access to humanitarian assistance and on all their human rights might be addressed.
And as well, we would like to to emphasise that all the internally displaced people or the people that in in refugee like situations, they have to be able to exercise the right to to return in safety and dignity.
And just to add to that, that of course the UN is following very closely the mass movements in towards Armenia and we are very concerned about what's happening there.
We stand ready to as, as as you said Marta to conduct humanitarian needs assessment and provide assistance to the affected people.
We have counter teams in Armenia and Azerbaijan in both countries and we stand ready to to support relief efforts if we if we are given the space to to do it.
And I see that Isabel has a follow up.
Yes, thank you very much.
So is the office actively seeking to have a presence in the area through contacts with Armenia, a Serbian or Russia?
We are in contact with through the missions here with all the parties involved.
And as always, we are trying to to get as much information and if possible access, but it's something that it's not concrete right now.
I would like to ask on another subject.
As you know, French athletes are banned from wearing headscarves in the next Paris Olympic Games.
I would like to ask, would the UN human rights criteria the would confirm the legitimacy of such a ban?
How would you evaluate it in terms of democratic norms and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
On what I would say is in general, according to the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, SIDO, any state party of the Convention, in this case France has an obligation to take all the appropriate measures to modify any social or cultural patterns which are based on the idea of inferiority or superiority, or if either sexist, having so that the discriminatory discriminatory practises against a group can have a harmful consequence.
That is why, according to international human rights standards, restrictions of expressions of religions or beliefs, such attire of choices are only acceptable and they're really specific circumstances that address legitimate concerns of public safety, public order or public health or morals in a necessary and proportionate fashion.
So in this regard, can we clarify that are you, are you disapprove this ban or are you just criticising it can clarify that in general, the human rights office, what it says that no one should impose on a woman what she needs to wear or not wear.
Just to confirm that the notes from Brazil have been distributed in the, in the, in the e-mail boxes.
Yes, thank you very much.
It's so nice to see you in that beautiful room.
I can say I, I want to say we wait for you to join us, Gabriella and everybody else.
I will, I, I, I want to ask 2 questions 1 is that in Mexico there is this emblematic case of enforces appearances of the 43 students of Ayotzinapa.
Today is the anniversary of, of that, of that issue of that case and the parents of the 43 students met with the President of the, of Mexico and still they don't have all the information that they need to know what happened with their kids.
So the president, the president of Mexico said that he shared all the information.
But we know and the experts of the group of experts that were in Mexico, they know that there's more information that the army, it's, it's, is not giving to them.
So my, my question is what, what is your reaction to this if you have comments on this issue?
Because it's a really serious, serious issue in Mexico and the, the, it's, it's not clear what happened with these students.
And then the second question.
Yes, first of all, we would like to to recognise the relative of the 43 forcibly disappeared students for, for their struggle and they fight and, and their sustained efforts through all these nine years.
We want to recognise as well the efforts of the authorities which whom we have regular dialogue, some authorities and, and let me remind you that when the former **** Commissioner Bachele went to Mexico, she met with both of the authorities but met with a representative of their families as well.
So we are as an office very involved in this case and let me as well emphasise the importance on of handing over without obstruction all available information in possession of the security and intelligence, civilian and military corporations regarding this case.
And we will call as well on the authorities to to keep the the search and to sustain and strengthen the the process to try to find the truth on the fate of the students.
And Gabriella, your second question, yes, thank you very much.
Well, it's for Martha and and also for the refugee agency, the situation of migrants in Mexico that the migrants coming from South America, migrant migrants coming to the United States in one day, 8000 migrants were detained in the USA.
It looks like a humanitarian crisis is coming to to, to the country.
And I don't know what recommendations you have as a United Nations to Mexico to USA to I mean, this is a like a regional prices.
And I would like to know what, what do you stand for and what, what is your opinion on this situation?
Marta, I'll give you the floor without first reminding everyone of the very strong commitment of the Secretary general for an orderly migration.
But I also see we have Shabia on the line, but we don't have anybody from IUM.
So maybe you want to start answering Marta.
Yes, what we would say that everyone and people on the move are entitled of their human rights and regardless of their migration status or their nationality, authorities have to do their most their most to upheld their their human rights and these should be throughout.
All their journey being it the countries of origin, transit or arrival.
If you want to add anything, just just raise your hand.
Yes, she has opened your her mic.
Sorry, I'm just having a bit of difficulties with the with the camera.
But just to reiterate Martha's comments, you know, I think we know it's a complex and multicores of human mobility context.
But what is really important to always maintain access to asylum for people in need of international protection to ensure that people are treated humanely, that their rights are protected and respected and that they can access the the protection and safety that they need.
And that there's also support to countries that are at the front, front lines that are receiving people who are in need of protection.
We need also alternatives for, for legal stay and expansion of regular and safe pathways so people don't have to risk their lives.
And that we don't see these types of, you know, of, of backlogs and, and pressures.
So it does require a regional response that requires international solidarity and a concerted effort by all States and stakeholders.
And just let me use this opportunity to inform you, you should have received the invitation, but still inform you that on Monday, the 2nd of October at 10:15 AM in this room, Mrs Amy Pope, the new Director General of IOM and Coordinator of the UN Network on Migration.
We'll give you a press conference.
It's her first day in office and she started to start it with many things, but including talking to you.
So I think this is an occasion to ask these questions, Gabriella, to her too, and also, of course, many others.
Just wanted to tell you that if you want to contact IOM on this press conference and on the follow up, you can contact the Italy, the spokesperson for at your end.
So we've already sent you the invitation, but of course we are happy to to send more information if you need.
Alessandra, very quick question, but you you will send the details no of this press conference, it's going to be there.
I think we've already announced it.
We've already announced it and the announcement there is also Italy's contact details.
So, so my question is, is, is the is the answer to send more army to the border?
Is that is that a good response from Mexican government that they sent army to the border to stop migration?
Is that the response that you do you want to see or what?
I think the only answer to your question is that the UN have put on a framework for safe migration and every country should join that framework and that compact and implement it.
I now would like to see if there's there are no other questions for Marta.
Are you, That's right, you had the announcement.
It's on the open day, right?
Yes, something a little bit lighter.
We will be opening up our headquarters at Bally Wilson to the public this Saturday.
You are all invited as part of our Human Rights 75 initiative to mark 75 years since the groundbreaking Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948.
On Saturday this Saturday 30th September, visitors will have access to the iconic Bally Wilson and to enjoy an array of fun and informative activities of the human rights, including a self-guided audio tour of the Majestic building, exhibitions on the work of the Office, a quiz that I'm sure you're all will win and a selfie time machine booth.
They will also be able to print copies of the Universal Declaration on a replica of the Gutenberg Press.
Plus a team of radio presenters from One FM will host a four hour live show from The Office Aesthetic.
And then in on Friday, we will also be hosting children from schools around Geneva for a fun filled day of learning about human rights and the special role played by the city.
More information, you can find it on the web or just contact us.
Thank you, Thank you very much.
So let's go now to our next speaker, WHO Carla is here and she's brought a doctor, Kirsten Shotte.
Madam, you have you're going to launch a school garden toolkit on nicotine and tobacco free schools.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to brief you this morning.
So we are going back to children in our discussion and the relationship to tobacco.
So tobacco is a product that kills 8 million people every year.
This is one person every 4 seconds and 1.3 million people of this group of people that die of tobacco.
They don't even use the product themselves, but they're unfortunate enough to be bystanders.
They breathe in second hand smoke and we see 1.3 million people each year that die of as a consequence of tobacco use.
Also very shockingly, half of the world's children are reported to breathe in air polluted by tobacco smoke and as a consequence, 51,000 children die each year as a consequence of this exposure to tobacco smoke.
Also, very, uh, shockingly, children are targeted by the tobacco and by the nicotine industry with their products, with their marketing.
And this is if you put yourself in the shoes of the tobacco industry, something that they have to do because tobacco is the only legal product that kills half of its users.
So the industry continuously need to replicate or we replace the users if you want that they use every year, uh, by targeting new users and they do that in children and young people because 95% of smokers start smoking before they are 18 years of age.
So this is where the tobacco sees the mar, the tobacco industry, uh, sees the market.
Also we see the nicke nicotine industry is trying to expand new users, trying to recruit new users and they do that again the children and young people population.
And you see all these flavours coming up, bubble gum, dragon blood, really flavours that target children to recruit them as new users with their addictive products.
Also, what we see is that these products become more affordable to children, for example, by single use vape sticks as they are called, they are more affordable.
They usually don't bear any health warnings and children often don't know that they contain nicotine and are dangerous.
So we are therefore very happy today to launch 2 new public publications.
This is a guide schools to become tobacco and nicotine free.
This guide is also accompanied by a toolkit and this provides best practise examples from countries and from cities and from schools how what have they done to become nicotine and tobacco free.
And then this toolkit provides very detailed step by And we think this is so important because schools are in a very unique position to create this healthy and tobacco and nicotine free environment because children spend 1/3 of their waking time in schools and also schools they this is the place where children encounter a lot of this peer pressure about using these products.
And This is why it's important that schools provide this self and healthy environment for children.
So we really hope that this guide and the toolkit will empower students and school administrators and also teachers to create this safe and healthy space for children so that in the future we can protect the future generation of these products and create a healthier world.
Indeed, Doctor, thank you very much.
Let me see if there's any question in the room for you.
So let me go to Isabel Sacco Essay, our correspondent of the Spanish News Agency.
I am sorry, but I wrote in the chat that I have a question for for Sharia UNACR.
Peter, have you got a question for WHO?
I'm just wondering if this campaign has any linkage to programmes to help countries in thinking, especially in Southern Africa, that are dependent on the tobacco industry for the economies.
Doctor Schott, Well, we, we unmute you, but you also have to mute you.
Yes, Yeah, I was not able to unmute me.
So we don't have a special programme in South Africa.
We have at the moment 2 programmes in Zambia and Kenya where we support farmers to substitute tobacco growing with more sustainable crops that are also less harmful for the environment.
I was actually asking for the whole of Southern Africa and not South Africa specifically, but OK, thank you.
And your question is about tobacco farming?
So we have identified this as a big problem because in the world, 4 million hectares of land are used every year to grow tobacco, which is a crop that is not sustainable.
It's destroying the environment.
It depletes the soil of water, of fertile, fertile nutrients.
So we try to encourage governments to end subsidies on tobacco growing.
This is our political asks as to governments and we also show that it is feasible to substitute with more sustainable crops that can feed people because we know millions of people around the world face food insecurity and hunger.
So it's really a paradox that we use fertile land to grow something that kills people.
So we have shown this in Kenya and uh, now we have expanded to Zambia.
It's a collaboration with UMM, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, where we Subs, where we encourage farmers to substitute tobacco growing with **** iron beans and this has been a very successful campaigns.
Farmers are very happy to do that because tobacco is a very labour intensive crop and if they grow these **** iron beans, some of the farmers told us.
I'm so happy because for the first time my children can go to school because I don't need their help anymore to grow tobacco.
So there is more information on this from our this year, here's World No Tobacco Day campaign for May.
So you will find all this information on our website.
I was wondering if you knew anything about Switzerland which hosts tobacco companies.
Is there any sign that they're more LAX on some of these rules on advertising than other countries because of, you know, this conflict of interest with with business?
And then secondly, do you have anything to say on, on the state of regulation for, for the vaping industry and where The Who stands on that and what the key issues are?
Yes, thank you for the question.
So, yes, Switzerland is, I think traditionally very liberal country and maybe more open to supporting businesses and and international corporations.
So the Switzerland is one of the few countries that is not a party to The Who Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
We have 182 parties and we have 194 member states.
So the majority of our WHO member states have ratified this international health treaty to combat tobacco use and, uh, Switzerland has not ratified that treaty.
We also see that Switzerland is lagging behind in protecting its population from, uh, tobacco use, including children.
Umm, tobacco advertising is still allowed in many forms.
There was a referendum, umm, and the majority of people, umm, asked the government if you want to regulate tobacco advertising more.
And there has been a bill.
We think this bill is not strong enough.
It still has a lot of loopholes.
So we think the government of Switzerland has some room for improvement to protect the population from tobacco use.
And yeah, it's clear why this is the case.
From the rooftop of WHO, for example, you see the JTI building here in Geneva and then if you go to Lusan, you have the European headquarters, so Philip Morris.
So yes, there is a conflict of interest.
So these are marketed as products to help adult smokers to end cigarette smoking.
The evidence around this is still evolving.
We think there is not enough evidence to say for sure that these products can help smokers to quit.
And if anything, we see a lot of double use.
The majority of smokers who try to quit with the smoking device, with these devices don't quit for all products, but they just switch to these products.
And our definition of quitting is not that you switch to another addictive product.
So that's the first thing and then the second thing is that in any case, children and young people should be protected from being targeted by the industry to use these products.
And this is what we think is happening.
The industry is telling us the story that they try to help adult smokers switch, but in fact, with all these flavours, with the marketing on social media, with social media influences, they target a new generation of users.
That's the guidance toolkit.
Katherine, Catherine CIANCO, France 24.
I'd like to come back on what you mentioned about substitution, substitution of crop.
You mentioned African countries.
I would like to know if you also reach out to Latin American countries like Brazil, Cuba, Argentina and also to India, I mean the big tobacco producers.
So we would like to extend this product to more, this project to more countries.
At the moment, the scope of the funding that we have received and the scope of our collaboration with Sao is just Zambia and Kenya.
But if we prove this concept that this is really something that also is economically viable for tobacco growing farmers that they switched to something, we think this will expand to more countries.
But at the moment we we we only work in Kenya and Zambia.
If you could kindly put in the chat the link to the former report you mentioned, Carla, maybe you could do this, You could help with that.
Lisa Schlein, Voice of America, Is that a question for WHO?
I'd like to know whether the vaping is now the major way the industry wants to get children hooked on tobacco rather than cigarettes itself.
And if this is the case, many of the recommendations in the Framework Convention which are there to discourage smoking, would they not be applicable?
And should they not be applied to vaping as such?
I don't know whether there are bans on advertising them or making them illegal in any way.
And how young are these children, you know?
Would age also be a factor in this?
And then if you could elaborate a bit upon the guide, I'm not quite clear on what it is that you want the schools and other areas where children might be congregating to get off to discourage them from vaping.
If you would be a little bit more specific about about some of that.
And how much is the price of vaping?
I mean you say the price is gone down quite a bit and so are children in developing countries more at risk of being enticed to smoke than children in the developed world?
Yes, thank you for this question.
So maybe I start with the guide to clarify more what it is.
So we would like children to be in a safe space.
So schools should be completely smoke and nicotine free indoors in any case.
And 149 countries have already put legislation in place to make educational facilities smoke free indoors.
But we also suggest in the guide that school, the whole school campus should be smoke and nicotine free so that uh, children and also the teachers and visitors parents should not use the products on the campus of the school.
What we want is we want to denormalize the act of smoking in public places.
So that is 1 concrete ask.
The other is that the on the school campus and in the surrounding areas tobacco and nicotine products should not be sold and should not be advertised for.
And then the other other ask is that there should be no funding from the tobacco and nicotine industry for any projects at schools.
We see this something sometimes in low and middle income countries that tobacco and nicotine companies, they offer sponsorship to schools for some arts project and I think this is a, a wrong message.
Umm, so these are some concrete steps that we suggest in the guide.
Umm then on your question on uh vaping and how important it is worldwide.
So the majority of the problem is still smoking of cigarettes and tobacco use in in India and other Southeast Asian countries.
The majority of these deaths that that we see, the 8.7 million people that die each year die as a consequence of tobacco use.
The whole use of E cigarettes and heated tobacco products is still in many countries below the 5% mark in adults, but we see raising increases in prevalence of these products in young people.
We see this mostly in **** income countries, but the industry is trying always to expand its markets and try to market these products also in low and middle income countries.
And what I said about the affordability is not by reducing the price of these products, but by producing single use products that are cheaper than the products that you can refill all the time.
And this is not only happening in E cigarettes, but also in cigarettes where on the street, you see, especially actually in Southeast Asia, a lot of vendors sell the single sticks of cigarettes, and they often never have the health warnings that usually the packages have.
And they're very affordable to kids, of course.
Does that address all of your questions or you think it does?
Thank you very much, Doctor Shotti, for this presentation and for telling us about this school guide and toolkit.
I like to now go to my colleagues on the podium.
Lisa is only saying if you can send the notes, Carla, of the of the doctor.
I think we've already asked.
I'll give you the floor for the question to Shabia as soon as we finish with our colleagues here.
Jean, you have the third forum of mayors coming up.
Pleasure to be with you in this beautiful new press room for the first time for me physically.
So thank you for that to to our colleagues in UNOC.
So we will host our third forum of mayors next week on Monday and Tuesday, 2nd and 3rd of October.
And the forum will bring to Geneva some 50 city leaders from around the world and the meeting will take place in Room 17.
We've sent you yesterday an announcement with a full list of participants.
So I will only stress a couple of points.
Today, as the world is becoming more urbanised, cities are the on the front line of addressing humanity's most pressing challenges, from climate change to migration, as well as natural disasters and socio economic inequality.
As a unique mechanism within the United Nations systems that links local and national authorities in a normative intergovernmental framework, the Forum of Mayors is helping to put into practise a stronger, more networked and inclusive multilateralism.
The Forum proceedings and recommendations will be submitted to the UNEC Committee on Housing, Land Management and Urban Development, which we'll meet subsequently next week from 4:00 to 6:00 October.
UNEC Executive Secretary Mrs Tatiana Moshan commented on the forum.
While 75% of the population of the Pan European Union and North America already is living in cities, UNEC Member States have consolidated the Forum of Mayors as a platform to deepen collaboration between different levels of government, both within and between countries.
The participation of over 10 mayors from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa further underscores the relevance of the Forum in a multi polar global context where all regions stand to benefit from dialogue and knowledge transfer.
The forum will be chaired by Sami Canal, Deputy Mayor of Geneva and Ihor Terekov, the mayor of Khakif in Ukraine.
Architect Lord Norman Foster will deliver a keynote address on Monday morning.
So we've sent you the lists.
I don't come back to that.
I would just like to stress an interesting fact is that 18 mayors of or deputy mayors from capital cities in our 56 member countries of the UNEC will be represented.
So a large number of capital cities will be there.
Just mention a few, Tirana, Vienna, Baku, Nicosia, Prague, Tallin, Helsinki, Bilisi, Bishkek, Athens, Dublin, Scopia, San Marino, Bratislava, du Chambe, Rome, Rome, Oswell.
And in I draw your attention on an inter regional segment on urban regeneration that will bring mayors from the Unity region and their counterparts from cities and other continents, including in particular the mayors of Kotonou in Benin, Amman, Rabat, Kigali as well as cities in Asia and Latin America.
I also want to draw your attention to a special side events on the under representation of women in city councils in the region, which will take place on Monday at lunchtime between 1:15 and 2:45.
And finally, one more word on the committee session on the following days, alerting you on a session on 6th October in the morning that will take place in Tempest that will present updates on the reconstruction plans for Ukrainian cities that are supported by UNECE under the UN for Ukrainian Cities project.
We will count on that in that session with the participation of the Deputy Minister for Development and Communities, Territories and Infrastructure of Ukraine, Natalia Koslovska, the Mayor of Mikolayev, Dmitro Falco, and the teams of architects working on the master plans for the cities of Kharkiv and Mikolayev.
We will send you details about that session and the entire committee as well after this press briefing.
And we remain, of course, at your disposal for any question or any, any interest for interview you might have with any other participating participating mayors.
Questions to UNECE in the room or in the platform?
So thank you very much, Katrine.
Like we said, you conference the press, Yes, So we have a press conference tomorrow.
The World Maritime Day is on Thursday 28 and that is putting on the table the review of maritime transport.
Tomorrow the 27th there's a press conference.
You've all received the invitation.
The link was on the invitation.
I understand that there were some problems with the documents I wanted to share with you, so I'm going to resend everything.
We have all the the UN languages except the Russian press release, which will be available later today or very early tomorrow morning.
So I will share it with our Russian colleagues.
So this report is on the embargo until one PM, 1:30 PM Geneva time tomorrow.
The whole set is already available in the on the in the online newsroom.
But I will send it send everything again on his attachment to the to the invitation.
So please connect the UNCTAD SG will be presenting the report and she will be accompanied by Shammi Kassiriman, who is the Head of the the Director of Technology and Logistics at Ontel.
Any questionnaire request for interviews are welcome, of course, and I'm happy to help you cover this report.
Questions to Ontel, don't see any.
Thanks to Jean and Catherine.
And since we're speaking about next weeks programme, I also would like to remind you of the Building Bridges Week, Building Bridges 2023, the joint initiative by the Swiss public authorities, the finance community, the UN and other international partners to accelerate the transition to a global socio economic model aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.
As you know, this is an event we do, we organise every year.
It takes place from the 2nd to the 5th of October at the ICA, the CICG.
We have sent you a press release and a media kit already.
There is an opening press conference at on the 2nd of October and Monday at the SEG from 1:00 to 1:45 PM.
In the invitation that we have sent you.
There is also the e-mail of the lady Nada, Sorry Nora Sada, but with whom you have to register.
There will be a media lunch with speaker and partners at the CSCG just before the press conference at 12.
And then the conversation with the speakers for the press on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of October, every day at from 1:00 to 1:30 at the building which is connect area, always at the ICG.
And I think this is what we have for next week.
Just couple of more before I go to Isabel.
They had also a couple of announcements for the committee's.
The Committee on Enforced Disappearances will have a public meeting with National Human Rights Institution this afternoon from 3:00 to 4:30 and it will also have a public meeting on the 28th of September in the afternoon to launch its general comments on enforced disappearances in the context of migration.
The Committee will then close its 25th session next Friday, 29th of September and issued concluding observation on Mauritania, Mexico, Netherlands and Nigeria Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Right which opened yesterday.
It's 74th session will conclude this afternoon the review of the report of Chad.
They will still have to review the reports on State of Palestine, Brazil, France, Qatar and Armenia.
And we have two International Day coming up in addition to the World Money Time Day that you mentioned on the 28th of September.
Today is the International Day for the total elimination of nuclear weapons and tomorrow, World Tourism Day.
This year the theme is Tourism and green investment.
And we have sent you the messages of the Secretary General for these two days.
So thank you very much for your patience, Isabel.
I'll, I'll give you the floor.
I'm sorry, Shavia, for for the wait.
It's also regarding the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh.
Because I would like to, to know to have a comment on this situation, to know if a UNACR is being able or is preparing to help the refugees, the Armenian refugees or ethnic Armenian refugees that are living the the area of Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia.
Because there are many thousands and there are also fears that every Armenian will have to leave at certain moments.
So what do you can you comment on all this?
Thank you, Isabel for your question.
And yeah, good morning again everyone.
Well, your nature is calling on all sides to protect civilians and to fully respected to national humanitarian refugee law allowing a safe passage of civilians.
We are concerned with the increasing number of people fleeing to Armenia and we call on all parties to refrain from actions that would cause displacement of civilians and ensure their safety, security and human rights.
And nobody should be forced to flee their homes.
We UNHCR do have teams on the ground in southern Armenia and we're closely monitoring the situation.
What we know is that we, as of this morning, the government has reported some 13,515 new arrivals, including many vulnerable people such as older people, women and children.
While arrivals are continuing and people are suffering the effects of trauma and exhaustion and need urgent psychosocial support, the government of our of the Republic of Armenia is leading the response and indicated it will reach out to the international community to request support as and when needed.
And so far, upon the request of the the government, UNHCR has provided some assistance.
What we call non food items, including foldable beds, mattresses and bedding items and has prepositioned further items.
So there is also a need for for shelter, warm clothing and other essential non food items.
And we're mobilising further assistance and coordinating with local government and partners to respond to the increasing needs.
And we're also Co leading the interagency contingency and response plan with the office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Armenia.
So that's what I have for you.
And I'm pretty sure that everybody would appreciate if you could send your notes, Shabia, any question to Shabia on this subject or others, I don't see any hand up.
So thank you very much, Shabir.
Thanks to everyone for following this briefing and bon appetit.
