Welcome to the press briefing of the Information Service here in Geneva.
The UN, we are today, on Tuesday, 19th of March, the Human Rights Council is going on.
I think this is the third or fourth week.
We'll give the floor to Pascal for an update on the Council.
The United Nation Human Rights Council has just begun it's meeting with the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine on its latest report.
And we're a bit late on our programme of work, but we wish we should have Deputy **** Commissioner and that on the shift, presenting the latest **** Commissioner's overall update on the human rights situation in Venezuela, either around 12:15 or in the afternoon, if we don't manage to start it this morning.
And this afternoon, around 3:30 PM, Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews will present his latest reports on Myanmar.
And Mr Andrews will hold a press conference tomorrow in this room at 1:30 PM.
At 5:00 PM this afternoon, the Council will hear again from Deputy **** Commissioner Nadal Nashif on the latest **** Commissioner's reports on Belarus.
And tomorrow she will present an oral update from the **** Commissioner on the human rights situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
And Thursday morning, the Council will hold the debate with the new Special Rapporteur, minorities, Mr Nicola Leva, who's also Professor of Law here at the University of Geneva.
And starting on Thursday afternoon and continue continuing until Tuesday morning, the Council will consider the outcome final reports of the Universal Periodic Review of 14 countries.
And just to remind you that this Thursday at 1:00 PM is the deadline for all delegation who wish to submit a draught resolution to be considered for adoption at the end of this 55th session.
So far, we have 29 draught resolution that have been announced by Member States.
Pascal, is there any question?
I look in the room, I don't see any online either.
So thank you very much and more continuation.
Zaina, you want to come to the podium with your invitees?
Maybe just just as a reminder, you remember that our colleague Zaina Award is the Head of News and Media at the ILO.
You come today with two colleagues that maybe you want to introduce.
Thank you for joining us today.
The ILO has just released its annual Its Profit and poverty, the Economics of Forced Labour report which has which was under embargo until about 1/2 an hour ago.
This is the second edition of this report.
The first had come out in 2014.
We build on the findings of that initial report, as well as the 2021 Global Estimates of Forced Labour to present you with our findings today.
The department that has produced the study is our Fundamentals branch of the ILO, which is dedicated to realising the fundamental principles and rights to work.
This is a global study and I'm pleased to introduce my colleagues who will be briefing you today.
We have with us Federico Blanco, who is our Senior Research Officer in Fundamentals at the ILO, as well as Scott Lyon, Senior Policy Officer, also Fundamentals at the ILO.
And with that, I give the floor to my colleague Federico, over to you.
So today we are pleased to present the new estimate of the illegal profits generated through forced labour.
Building on the 1st edition of the study produced by the ILO in 2014.
This study arrives at the critical juncture in the fight against forced labour.
The recent global estimates published by the ILO in 2021 show a deterioration in the forced labour situation in the world, moving us away from achieving the SDG commitment to a relic at forced labour by 20-30.
I want to take you quickly through some of the key findings of the study before opening for questions.
The headline result is that the total annual illegal profits from forced labour amount to a staggering figure of $236 billion annual annually.
This translate to an average of about $10,000 in illegal profits per forced labour victim annually.
What is the significance of these numbers?
These profits are at the heart of the existence of forced labour.
They are so vast that represent a major driving force behind the perpetration of forced labour crimes.
The human toll is also incalculable.
These illegal profits represent wages, resources, livelihoods effectively effectively stolen from workers.
This not only affects the workers themselves, but also their families and the flow of migrant remittances, disrupting entire communities.
Also, for governments, these illegal profits represent lost tax revenue, crippling many development policies, including those that could be taken to eradicate for slavery.
More broadly, these profits matter because they serve to strengthen criminal networks, encourage corruption and undermine the rule of law.
The message of this report is clear.
Shorting off the profits from for forced labour is essential to ending this human rights violation.
In a decade, forced labour profits surged by by about $64 billion, which is a 37% increase vis A vis the 2014 estimate.
2 main factors are driving this trend.
The number of forced labour victims in the private economy has increased by 27% in the last decade, from 23.6 million, from 18.7 million to 23.6 million.
Also, the average profit made from each victim of forced labour has increased 21% since 2014.
There are important there are significant, significant profits generated from forced labour in all regions of the world.
The total profits are highest in Europe and Central Asia with 84 billion, followed by Asia and the Pacific with 62 billion, America's 52 billion, Africa 20 billion, and Arab states 18 billion.
There are also massive regional disparities in average profits per victim.
In Europe and Central Asia and in the Arab states, each victim of forced labour generates roughly about twenty $20,000 in profits annually.
The figure falls to 15% in the Americas in less than 6000 U.S.
dollars in Africa and Asia.
These numbers are important because they can influence the future trends in forced labour.
One key finding of the report is that the largest share of illegal profits from forced labour is due to forced commercial sexual exploitation rather than forced labour exploitation.
Although forced commercial sexual exploitation accounts for 27% of all people in privately imposed forced labour, it accounts for 73% of total illegal profits, meaning $173 billion annually.
This result is explained by the huge difference in profit per victim between forced commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour exploitation.
Forced commercial sexual exploitation yields 7 times more illegal income per victim than other types of forced labour exploitation.
In terms of branch of economic activity, what is not forced commercial sexual exploitation industry, which includes construction, manufacturing and mining, is the sector where illegal profits are highest in both relative and absolute terms, yielding annual predicting profits of nearly 5000 and annual total profits of about $35 billion.
Predicting and total profits are next highest in the services sector, followed by agriculture and finally domestic work.
Another critical source of illegal profits from forced labour comes from the unlawful recruitment fees.
This is not included in the $236 billion estimate the the main figure of the report.
So these fees are charged by employers, recruitment agents, travel intermediaries, and through bribes and kickbacks by corrupt officials and even by traffickers.
Unfortunately, there is a data limitation that makes very difficult for us to get to a estimate of of these illegal profits from recruitment fees.
So we had to conduct a separate exercise targeting a smaller population of international migrant victims of forced labour.
The thing with this I conclude for this group of international migrants.
Results from the study indicate that illegal profits from recruitment fees and related costs account for 15% of total annual illegal profits from international migrants in forced labour.
These are the key headlines of the of the report and if you want you can proceed with the questions.
OK, so let's now go to questions and I start with the room.
If there is any question for a yellow on this report, I don't see any.
So let me go to the platform.
I've got a question from Jamie Keaton, our correspondent of Associated Press.
Alessandra, I would like to know if you could tell us two things.
The 1st is the government imposed forced labour was not considered in this report.
There have been complaints about what people call modern day slavery in places like the US state of Alabama in the penitentiary system.
So why are you not talking about government imposed forced labour?
Also second question is about the examples.
I wish you could give us some examples of.
We just heard in a Brussels conference, a lawmaker, an EU lawmaker, just mentioned how, for example, the 1/4 of the bicycle frames that are sold in the European continent or in the EU zone are made in Cambodia, and that some of those are made from forced labour.
So could you please give us some specific examples, types of industries, whether it be fishing or bicycles or whatever else, where this forced labour is actually happening so that people can get a real sense as to where this forced labour is happening.
Thank you, Jamie, I give the floor to Federico and I don't know if Mr Lyon also wants to answer, please.
Thank you for your very important question.
The fact that that's a very good point.
We only consider for this estimate privately imposed forced labour.
The estimate does not include profits, illegal profits from state imposed forced labour and the reason is data limitations.
This is a very important issue is 1 in which we want to continue conducting research that are close to 4 million people, according to a latest global estimate in a state imposed forced labour and we need to get better data in order in order to come up with an estimate.
I want to stress the issue about the data.
Data on forced labour is extremely scarce resource and that that is that makes our task of generating national, regional and global estimates really difficult.
This is particularly the case of a state imposed forced labour as well when it comes to ***** of military conscription and also other types of state imposed forced labour such as prison labour.
The data on the profits of these illegal forms of of exploitation are not ready available.
I don't know if Scott if you want to add anything on that.
Now just in terms of the the second question relating to specific examples of forced labour.
For the purposes of this study, we were really interested in illustrating not the examples of forced labour per SE, but the examples are manifestations of underpayment or the sources of profit within different sectors where forced labour occurs.
So we talked just by way of example for in the fishing sector where share of the catch payment seemed schemes are controlled by vessel owners or skippers or supervisors can be manipulated in some context leading to the underpayment of of of fishers.
And in context of much fishers are are in a situation of forced labour.
That's going to be an example of how profits are generated from those fishers in a in a situation of of forced labour in construction, documented forms of underpayment include unpaid overtime or wages lower than what has been agreed on excessive or illegal deductions on the withholding of wages.
Again, these aren't examples of forced labour per SE, but there's examples of how profits can be generated from workers who find themselves in situations of, of forced labour.
So we, we try in this report to give some illustrations of, of underpayment and concrete ways in which profits can be generated from workers who are in situations of forced labour.
I see that Jamie has a follow up.
Your report does mention begging, for example that.
Could you just explain how that could be a form of forced labour?
I mean that was one example that you used and I would really like you to be specific as possible the case of Alabama where there is, you know, quote unquote forced labour in the penitentiary system.
Would you decry that kind of a practise?
Is that a problem for you?
Would you consider that forced labour?
Thank you so much, Federico.
The issue of begging is really important.
It is actually mentioned in many resolutions on the measurement of child labour.
And I I mentioned children because children are usually used by third parties to back in many places of the world.
And this certainly, although it doesn't constitute an economic activity in its own, it does represent a worse form of child labour and it does represent a form of forced labour.
Also, it can happen in the context of adults that are forced to back.
So, so definitely and very important activity and one that we do emphasise when when it comes to the implementation of research and surveys.
As to your question on the state of Alabama, I don't have enough details to provide a deeper answer on that, but I'm very happy to follow up eventually.
I don't know if you have any knowledge on that.
No, I won't go into the specific details, but of course the ILO certainly decries instances of, of state imposed forced labour wherever they occur and whether that's in prison systems or the ***** of military conscription or other forms or manifestations of of state imposed forced labour.
And in the Global Estimates report we published 2 years ago, we in fact have a detailed chapter on state imposed forced labour and estimates of state imposed forced labour broken down by the the various specific manifestations of of that broad category of forced labour imposed by the state.
Thank you very much, Scott Christophe Vogt, IFP, the French news Agency.
Hello, thank you for taking my question.
I was just wondering you, you alluded twice to the difficulty of getting solid data, and I was just wondering if you could walk us a little bit through your methodology and how you get to those numbers.
But please bear in mind that I'm no mathematician and statistician, so if you could keep it as simple as possible.
But I would just like to understand how how we get to those very precise figures, given that this is a very shady area of business most of the time where there's no interest in publishing accurate data at all.
So obviously we use different sources of data to come up with this estimate.
One which is very the main source of information regarding the number of victims of forced labour is the global estimate of child labour that is produced by the ILO.
And I was produced in 2021.
That is one of the key anchors in which these estimates of profits are based.
Then in terms of the profit calculation we use for we divide it into two.
To estimate the profit calculation for forced labour exploitation, we use the difference between actual pay.
You know, what is the pay that people in forced labour get and what should constitute a fair pay?
In order to determine a proxy for the salaries of what victims of forced labour get, we use a global database called the Noma database, which is a vast survey on a specific migration corridors that accounts and interviews people and gets numbers in terms of what the people are actually getting that are always of forced labour.
We use that difference between the actual pay and what would constitute a fair pay multiplied by the number of victims which come from the global estimate of forced labour to come up with.
I mean, that's a simple explanation to come up with, with the number on the profits.
Do you want to give it a try to the forced commercial sexual exploitation and the forced commercial section?
The first forced commercial sexual exploitation, because of the very different nature of the phenomenon, we, we adopt A slightly different methodology where we're essentially looking at the revenues accrued through forced commercial sexual exploitation minus any eventual costs borne by the perpetrators of this of this of this crime.
So it's a much more basic sort of business model, if you will, looking at revenues generated through this practise minus any eventual costs.
And I should say the eventual costs include the tiny amount of payment that might actually trickle down to the victims themselves.
But that is included in the cost.
Revenues minus cost model to estimate the profits from forced commercial sexual exploitation.
Perhaps perhaps one element to be added is that we are likely underestimating the total profits that are made from forced labour.
And this is because the 236 billion figure exclude profits from recruitment fees, which is a critical aspect on this equation, tax evasion from perpetrators and social contributions that the perpetrators should provide to the system which are not giving.
So this estimate is likely to be a very conservative estimate on the total profits from forced labour.
It's your two corner with your view on assistant in poverty, a press screen.
You you understand the question?
OK, so maybe Fredriko, you want to take the first one and then I'll give you the floor to Zaina for the one on the Optis.
The report provides a series of recommendations for governments.
These recommendations steam from our Protocol 29 of the ILO associated to the Convention 29 of forced labour and their recommendation 203.
Basically, in terms of policy measures, the report stresses the urgent need for investment in enforcement measures to stem these illegal profits flows and hold perpetrators responsible.
Holding perpetrators responsible of these forced labour crimes is an important part, but not the only part of the equation.
Also, besides enforcement, there needs to be a comprehensive policy approach and emphasises addressing the root causes and the protection of victims.
The root causes of forced labour are multiple.
It includes poverty, It includes lack of access to decent work, lack of access to social protection.
When we make families and individuals less vulnerable, they are going to be much less likely to get involved in forced labour.
Other policies that are part of the DNA of the ilaw include the promotion of freedom of association and collective bargaining so that people have workers have a greater voice formalising the informal economy.
And of course, for those countries that have not ratified I law conventions on forced labour, the in the protocol, this is going to give them the strategic framework necessary to address this problem, not only enforce commercial sexual exploitation, but also enforce labour exploitation.
Zena, maybe as as our findings yesterday have shared, the ILO expects the unemployment rate and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to reach 57% and estimates that the job losses are 507,507,000.
Jobs that have been lost since the end of January 2024, which of course has had a devastating impact on the economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
If you have any more specific questions, I'd be very happy to put you in contact with our Beirut office, which is the regional office for the Arab states.
And it is the office that in partnership with the with our colleagues in the OPT has released, has released the the findings.
Thank you thank you very much I don't see other questions for you but Lisa.
Oh sorry it's in the room Yeah body body have your Phoenix TV.
Thank you for question is.
I follow my the question of my colleagues to improve redress for victims.
So what exactly the mechanism ensures that owner fulfilled to to pay reparations and could you well could you also provide what is effectiveness that all those mechanism in practise.
OK, Scott Light, you're referring to the series of, of, of measures to address forced labour.
I mean, I, I think it's, I think we, we, we published research looking at the, the impact of various policy approaches to addressing forced labour.
And certainly there's no perfect answer, there's no one-size-fits-all answers, and it's an area where we need much more information.
But having said that, clearly we know that there are some measures at work.
Clearly we know that extending access of workers to social protection helps to reduce the pool of workers who are who are vulnerable to to forced labour.
Clearly we know that providing workers with the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining enables them to exercise their collective voice to defend their collective rights and clearly creates work workplaces that are inimical to to to forced labour.
Clearly we need a legislative framework that is consistent with international legal standards as a as a starting point for efforts against forced labour.
So all of these areas I I think are are quite clear in terms of being effective in forced labour, but they need to be applied obviously in different ways in different contexts.
Certain contexts, some policy measures will be important that more important than than others.
But I think in terms of the overall policy prescription, the answers are are are are fairly fairly clear in terms of what works.
I don't see other questions, but Lisa Schlein of Voice of America on the line was asking for the notes Zaina.
So if you could distribute this to all the journalists, the notes that Fidelico and Scott of views.
So thank you very much to to our ILO colleagues.
Thanks for coming to present this important report.
I would like to stay on Gaza, but I'm, I'm suspecting there will be a lot of questions on that.
So maybe if Jeremy was come.
No, I was just, I'm going to ask for your patience for five more minutes.
I'd like to give the floor to Claire and Sarah for their announcement.
So afterwards we go together and we answer all the questions on that.
So if Sarah and Claire can come to the podium for they have a short announcement and then we will go to famine in Gaza.
But let's, let's go to that first morning everybody.
The World Meteorological Organisation will be releasing its State of the Global Climate in 2023 report this afternoon.
There will be a press conference in this room with our Secretary General Celeste Salo and the report's coordinator, Omar Badour.
We've sent you everything under embargo.
The press releases are available in all languages.
If you've got specific interview requests in English, Spanish, Arabic and French, please let me know.
We'll try and accommodate them.
So that's for today and then on Thursday and I'll just make a a few remarks and then pass it over to Sarah.
We are very excited to be working with the UN Development Programme on a new climate action campaign.
This will be unveiled at the ceremony for World Meteorological Day.
World Meteorological Day actually this year falls on Saturday.
This ceremony will be held obviously ahead of time on the 21st of March.
We do have a dedicated website with all the details, details of the ceremony with with press and media information.
We have a Trello board which I can send to you Journalists obviously are invited to the ceremony.
I know it's, it's busy time with with human rights, but you know, you are you are, you are very, very welcome to to to join us.
So with that, I'll pass to to Sarah.
Thank you very much, Claire.
So as Claire mentioned, UNDP will leverage well made day celebration this first day, 21st March and we're going to launch an incredible climate action campaign with WMO.
The campaign aims at creating a movement to prompt climate commitment and move the needles so that we can keep the 1.5 goal of the Paris Agreement to life.
I'll send you the the press release and a very, very strict embargo just after the briefer.
You will see it's, it's really exciting.
And and as Claire mentioned, the event itself is going to be exciting, lots of exciting segment.
It's going to be an incredible event from 3:00 to 5:00 PM.
You can also if you can't join physically, if you can't be at WMO with us, you can join online as the the event will be webcast through the platform.
We don't have time and I'll put the link as well in the notes you're going to get from this briefer.
Thank you very much to both.
In fact, any question in the room, I don't see any either in the room or in the platform.
We'll see you in a little while there.
And Jeremy, thank you for your patience.
As you know, yesterday the Secretary General said spoke about the latest integrated food security phase classification report, in particular the data referred to Gaza.
He said that the report's finding on food insecurity in Gaza are an appalling indictment of conditions on the grounds for civilians.
He he recalled that more than half of all Palestinian in Gaza, which is 1.1 million people, have completely exhausted their food supplies and are facing catastrophic hunger.
According to this report, this is an entirely man made disaster, said the Secretary General.
And the report makes clear that it can be halted.
He called on the Israeli authorities to ensure complete and affected access for humanitarian goods throughout Gaza and for the international community to fully support our humanitarian efforts.
And on this matter, you have an update on the human rights side, Jeremy, please.
Yes, thank you and good morning everyone.
So the **** Commissioner has issued a statement concerning this this morning.
You should have it by now, I hope.
The projected imminent famine in Gaza can and must be prevented.
The alarm bells sounded over the past months by the UN, including our office, have not been heeded.
This catastrophe is human made and was entirely preventable.
The situation of hunger, starvation and famine is a result of Israel's extensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, displacement of most of the population, as well as the destruction of crucial civilian infrastructure.
Dangerous coping strategies are already emerging in the face of starvation.
Law and order is breaking down as people become increasingly desperate.
And children have reportedly been sent to make the dangerous journey from northern to southern Gaza unaccompanied in the desperate hope that they will find food and support among the 1.8 million people already displaced there.
Israel's 16 year old blockade of Gaza already had a severe impact on human rights for the severe civilian population, leaving the local economy devastated and creating a dependence on aid.
The extent of Israel's continued restrictions on entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime.
Israel, as the occupying power, has the obligation to ensure the provision of food and medical care to the population commensurate with their needs and to facilitate the work of humanitarian organisations to deliver that assistance.
Israel must ensure that the population can access this aid in a safe and dignified manner.
International human rights law imposes a similar obligation.
Everyone, especially those with influence, must insist that Israel acts to facilitate the unimpeded entry and distribution of needed humanitarian assistance and commercial goods.
To end starvation and avert all risk of famine, there needs to be full restoration of essential services, including the supply of food, water, electricity and fuel.
And there needs to be an immediate ceasefire as well as the unconditional release of hostages.
And I see Imogen in the chat is saying that the Gaza statement is not being sensitive.
Yeah, everybody's saying the same.
I don't know your colleagues if they can take action on that.
OK, so let's go to the questions.
Apart from the availability of the statement, do you have any question for Jeremy?
With respect to your question, it's it's ultimately up to a competent court to make any judgement on the genocide aspect.
We will and continue to provide information to the the relevant courts if if requested.
And there of course other apart from the ICJ and ICC, of course there's the Commission of inquiry as well, which is investigating incidents which have occurred in Israel and Gaza.
So it ultimately is up to the those competent authorities.
What you was having the same question.
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So it would be the UN suing 1 member states because of it's Yeah, I, I don't think I would be really in a position to comment on a action either by either by the UN or other states in that respect.
I'm not I wouldn't be here to speak on another state's behalf with respect to that with respect to the UN writ large.
I think that'll probably is more of a political question which you which should be directed towards New York maybe with a view in this question working in this Jeremy Amsterdam.
Yes, we, we are aware of this incident that you're talking about and it is very concerning to watch the incident captured on video.
It impacts the, the, the rights of children to education and to be protected from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or *****.
I'd like to also point out that in in 2023, the Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination expressed serious concern at the increase in the number of racist hate crimes and the significant gap between reported cases and successful prosecutions in the UK.
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I'll continue in the room.
No, no, in English, definitely.
Two questions referring to your statement to this statement.
When you mention potential war crimes, we have an agreement that is could be war crime.
You're not saying that it is a war crime, but it's said that it could lead to a war crime.
And what I was wondering is that I have the, the, the wrong status of, of the International Criminal Court right here.
And I'm just reading that when it comes to crimes against humanity, it says that it is an act that can cause great suffering or serious injury to body or mental or physical health.
Considering that it is fair to say that it could also lead the situation right now in Gaza, could also lead to crimes against humanity.
Is it something that you're in a position to to to express?
Thanks for your question.
So both collective punishment and starvation of the civilian population as a method of war are war crimes.
So, but when it comes to it becomes then becomes slightly more complicated.
We tend to to leave the definitive pronouncement of clear indications that starvation is being used as a weapon of war to the courts in to the competent courts.
That wouldn't be for us to make that judgement.
We've we've mentioned crimes against humanity more broadly within the context of atrocity crimes.
We've raised the aspect of war crimes, crimes against humanity on right from the from, from the start, from October 7th with respect to events that happened in Israel.
And we continue to say that that there are serious concerns with respect to atrocity crimes.
So there are no other questions in the room.
The a large parcel on general pool facility.
So just to reiterate what I, what I said earlier with respect to any of these atrocity crimes, what our, our position is that we follow what is happening in Gaza and Israel and the West Bank and we raise issues and concerns with how hostilities and actions have been conducted.
Then it is up to a competent court or organisation to make a ruling.
Now with respect, if I may just revisit the, the where, where we started from with this, with this **** Commissioner's comment.
There needs to be some sort of Commission of intent which must be which must be applied for it to be considered a war crime.
And now that Commission of intent, it will be up to a competent court to make that decision if the intent is there.
So it's, we provide information from what is happening on the ground and our observations and provide sound the alarm, what is what is happening and then that information is shared with the with the authorities.
Alexandra, this is Bianca Hotier from Global TV in Brazil.
In fact, I have a very basic question.
I don't know if someone could help, maybe Margaret from WHO, if she's there because she's like, oh, thank you.
Is it correct to say that 1.1 million people are already facing catastrophic hunger?
Or is it a projection is for me, it's not very clear.
And I see different medias as well, some saying that they are already facing hunger, catastrophic hunger, some, some saying that this is a projection until July.
So if you could just clarify.
I understand from the brief, sorry.
I understand from the brief of the Integrated Food Security classification face classification report that 1.1 million people, half of Gaza experience catastrophic food insecurity.
So that is the words that I've been using.
Now I'm looking at Margaret and Yence.
I don't know if you want to compliment or to expect Yence, you want to come or Margaret.
I mean, you're, you're welcome on the podium too.
I'm sure there will be questions for all of you Yence.
Good morning and thank you for your for your question.
The, the, the IPC data that we got yesterday, of course the, the science that that team or consortium of, of experts were able to gather that data was reviewed by the family review committee.
As you know, that is a completely independent body of nutrition and food experts who review the data and they came out and clearly said that the they confirm that famine is now projected and imminent in North Gaza and Gaza covenerates.
So I want to make the distinction.
When we talk about famine imminent, it is the 2 northern covenerates.
They say that the threshold for food insecurity there have already been reached.
Actually it has been overreached more than three times the the the scale that they put for famine.
They also say that the second indicator, which is malnutrition has most likely been reached.
But the death rate, the crude death rate of non trauma causes meaning not people killed by war, but people killed by food insecurity, they have been unable to determine but it's likely to happen.
So what I want to say is that they are looking at a total at a population size in north in the 2 northern covenerates of of Gaza where they say that 210,000 people, that is 70% of the estimated population there are basically facing famine.
Now what is important to to understand is that these numbers are not the worst case scenario.
This is the most likely scenario.
These are also not projections whereby they say this is probably going to happen by the end of May.
They say it is most likely happening within a period that started 2 days ago, mid March.
So famine, what they're saying clearly is that famine thresholds may already be the case in northern Gaza.
Now they also have the projection for a longer period and that's where we come to the 1.1 million people that may face catastrophic food insecurity.
One of the three famine indicators with extreme like a food and we're all coping mechanisms have been exhausted and mind you the coping mechanisms we have seen the past weeks even months are people eating bird seeds, animal fodder, wild grass and weeds.
So they have consumed that already we are beyond that there's literally nothing left so that's what it means that all coping mechanisms have been exhausted.
So if we get and now we're in the projection, now we are looking, looking ahead, not a state of facts today, looking ahead for a famine projection with 1.1 million at risk and you look at the crude death rate, then you're looking at more than 200 people dying from starvation per day.
And it's also striking that there is absolutely 0 people in this strip that is in food security now.
So I hope, Bianca, that we've given you the event that Yance has given you the elements to understand it.
I don't know, Margaret, you want to add anything on this?
Just that our teams are regularly sending missions, particularly to the north, but wherever they can, whenever they're permitted, we are often have our missions denied.
And increasingly what the doctors and medical staff are telling us is more and more they're seeing the effects of starvation.
So they're seeing newborn babies simply dying because they're too low birth weight.
They're seeing the pregnant women who are coming in are also underweight and and suffering the complications that occur.
If you are trying to carry a pregnancy and you are, you lack the nutrition.
Increasingly we're seeing children that are at the point brink of death through starvation that need a refeeding.
And our work now is setting up stabilisation centres, malnutrition stabilisation centres.
We've set one up in the South, we're looking at doing this in the north, but also we are looking at setting up refeeding throughout the community.
But the problem is we have to be able to bring the materials in.
We cannot bring them in at the scale and and to the people without the access and the safety.
So there is no answer to this.
But you know, until you start, until there's a ceasefire and until the our aid is allowed to come in at huge, huge scale.
I think Martin Griffiths said it really well.
Gaza has to be flooded with aid that, that and that will that will only start.
At the moment, the desperation is so great indeed.
Jeremy, recently Israeli army raided at Al Shifa hospital and detained some journalists.
Reportedly, some journalists were were released and the others fate of others is unknown.
My question is, are you aware of the latest situation at El Shifa Hospital and how do you react to the attention of journalists?
Yes, thanks for your question.
So the bottom line is, is this when it comes to when it comes to Al Shifa incident, is that there are laws of war and that's the international humanitarian law and they must be respected.
Now, as you know, IHL extends special protection to to medical units which must be protected and respected at all times.
Now, what I would say is Israel has alleged that Hamas is using some hospitals in violation of IHL, but even if Israel contends that those facilities have accordingly lost their protection under IHL, any attack by Israel must comply with the principles of precautions in attack and proportionality.
So it's always from a human rights perspective, we always go back to the law and in this case IHL.
And maybe I can add for Muhammad, yesterday, the deputy spokesperson of the Secretary General referred to this issue that you have described and he said we stand against any harassment of journalist anywhere in the world and certainly we do in.
So in this instance, our sympathies go to our, to your colleague, as well as to all the other journalists who suffered from any violence during the course of this incident.
Thank you, Alessandra, for giving me the floor.
I'd like to come back on what Jeremy said.
He read the comments by Volcker Turk on the risk of famine when he can Jeremy, be a bit elaborate a little bit about the sentence that mentions everyone, especially those with influence, must insist that Israel acts in respect, in fact of the international human rights laws.
So I'd like to know, as the UN as an international organisation cannot take the lead on on action, would it mean that countries or a group of countries like European Union go together and take the lead of actions?
As they took the lead on actions against Russia, so should they take action against the state of Israel in order to force them in fact, to allow help to enter?
And I guess I'll revert to what I had just said earlier.
And it it goes circles back to the law.
So under article one comment to all the four Geneva Conventions, states have an obligation to respect and ensure respect for rules laid down by those conventions.
I'll just go back to it and say it again, respect and ensure respectful rules laid down.
So this obligation includes taking all available steps to ensure full compliance by parties engaged in hostilities and that states must not through their own policies or actions facilitate Commission of violations of IHLI think that's quite clear.
It's it's beyond it's all states, all States and the secretary General.
As you've seen, Katrine has also called for the international community to fully support our efforts.
Alessandra Jeremy, I did not have the answer to my question.
My my question was clear.
I would like your reading of the Convention for the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide.
Putting a population in the face of famine is part of a crime of genocide or not.
If I may, I'll just return to maybe I wasn't quite clear.
So the determination of genocide is undertaken by a competent court and it can take years.
It is a determination that is especially difficult in the midst of hostilities.
But it is clear that war crimes and possibly other crimes under international law have been committed and they must stop.
Thank you very much, Alessandra.
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Not that I think that my personal feelings about this matter at all, because I don't think they do.
But I've been working in conflict for conflict disaster countries in or with these kind of issues for almost 20 years.
And I think it's fair to say that I and and my colleagues have rarely seen anything develop into a situation that we are briefing about today this fast, this brutally.
And where one asked the question, where did humanity go?
The outcome of that is not despair from us.
I think it's determination.
It's determination to do something.
Today we're talking about an imminent famine.
We are determined to do everything in our power to stop that from happening.
Yes, listen, it's heartbreaking, preventable and must stop the suffering.
The, and you've heard us say this before, the suffering of the people in Gaza is unconscionable.
It is a collective stain on humanity.
That's, that's, that's the, the nuts and bolts of it here.
We've we've watched malnourished children suffering.
We know of amputations without anaesthesia.
Children, as the **** Commissioner said are being are heading South unaccompanied.
Could you imagine the fear?
Can you imagine the desperation?
It's the war crimes are being committed and they must stop.
And this is entirely man made.
Everything we're seeing, everything we're seeing medically, this was a territory where the health system functioned well.
Malnutrition was .8% non existent that that we see .8% anywhere.
It was a population that could feed itself.
So none of the things we are seeing existed before these hostilities began.
And it's going to take a flood of aid to reverse it.
But it can be reversed as of now if the hostilities stop.
And I would ask those who say that there's some sort of military objective that they think they need to achieve.
I would ask them to look into the face of a a child in Gaza and explain to her why their military objective is more important than her life.
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They will review the report of Guyana.
The Committee on the Rights of Person with Disability will conclude on the 22nd of March, 30th session and the Conference of Disarmament is having this morning a public plenary meeting, which is the first under the presidency of Ambassador Ali Bahraini of Iran.
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