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[Other language spoken]

Welcome to the press briefing of the UN Geneva Office.

Today is Tuesday, 26th of August and we are going to immediately give the floor to our colleague of you OHC Chart.

I mean, you have a briefing item on Egypt, just you've seen the the, the, the agenda and I mean is actively briefing today, but we have lots of colleagues connected.

So afterwards I'll open the floor to question if there are questions to other colleagues.

But let's go now for human rights and Egypt.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning, everyone.

You will have received the press release about Egypt this morning.

We call on Egyptian authorities to put an end to the practise known as rotation, which allows government critics to be held arbitrarily and for prolonged periods, even after serving their sentences or completing maximum pretrial detention.

Human rights defenders, activists, lawyers, journalists, peaceful protesters and political opponents have been targeted by this rotation practise.

It entails the authorities bringing new charges against individuals who are about to complete their prison sentences or who reach the maximum legal period of pretrial detention, thus preventing their release.

The latest case concerns poet Jalal El Beheri, who was arbitrarily detained after completing a prison term on the 31st of July 2021 for writing songs and poetry critical of the government.

Since then, he has faced similar charges in two different cases under the Counterterrorism Law and the Penal Code.

The latest charges were brought against him on the 19th of August 2025, extending his detention for at least 15 more days.

In addition to Al Bahiri's case, this this practise has been used in the case of writer and activist Tala Abdelfatah, lawyer and former member of the National Council for Human Rights, Huda Abdel Munyam, lawyer and coordinator of the Association of Families of the Forcibly Disappeared Ibrahim Mitwelli Higazi and political activist and former spokesperson for the 6th of April Youth Movement Muhammad Al Fahmy Ali.

All of them remain in pretrial in arbitrary detention.

Most of those targeted by rotation should not have been detained in the first place, as the charges brought against them are often related to the exercise of their legitimate rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

It has become a tool by which the Egyptian government represses those perceived to be critical of its policies.

The Egyptian government must immediately stop this practise of rotation and release all those who were subjected to it.

All those arbitrarily detained for exercising their fundamental freedoms or defending human rights must be released immediately.

It is crucial that Egyptian authorities ensure that the application of counterterrorism or other criminal laws is never used to punish people for exercising their basic rights.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

I'm sorry.

Thank you very much, Tamin.

I'll now open the floor to questions.

[Other language spoken]

Is that a hand?

[Other language spoken]

Anybody let me look at the platform.

I don't see any.

And yes, I confirmed that the press release is in our mailboxes.

So thank you very much.

So I'll give you the floor.

Nina, if you have a question for Tamin on another subject?

[Other language spoken]

I was wondering if you could about the, the strike yesterday on Al Nasser Hospital, confirm that if you've seen that it was a double tap, if you would define it as a double tap attack.

Also, like the how many different war crimes if you have, do you think should be looked into in this case?

Because it seems like there were quite a number that may have been been committed.

And then also, I think Rivino was saying yesterday that it was 246 journalists who've been killed since the start of this conflict, making it the, I think it's the deadliest conflict on record for journalists.

Would you say that Israel appears to be targeting journalists?

Can you say something about that?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for that, Nina.

As Ravina mentioned yesterday, the killing of journalists in Gaza should should shock the word not into stunned silence, but into action demanding accountability and justice.

In the case of yesterday's strike, we, we can, we can say that the Israeli military reportedly launched multiple air strikes on the Nasser medical complex and there was 2 air strikes in in a short period of time.

We know that one of the five journalists appears to have been killed in the first air strike, while three others, including the woman journalist, appear to have been killed in the second air strike.

This is a shock and this is unacceptable.

We know that the Israeli army has announced that there will be an inquiry.

This incident and the killing of all civilians, including journalists, must be thoroughly and independently investigated, and justice must follow.

[Other language spoken]

So in your description of the the strike yesterday is, is, isn't that sort of the definition of a double tap strike?

Would you define it as such or do you think that's one of the things that should be investigated?

And also my last question about whether does it appear to you that that Israel in this conflict more broadly, because there's so many journalists who've been attacked, is, is this a fear that that I mean, Israel is not allowing any international journalists into into Gaza and the local journalists there are are dying, You know, is this an attack on on journalists and on press freedom?

[Other language spoken]

We have sorry, we have seen and documented many attacks on journalists which are unacceptable.

At least 247 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Gaza since the 7th of October 2023.

These journalists are the eyes and the ears of the whole world and they must be protected.

And as I said, this raises many, many questions about the targeting of journalists.

And all of these incidents must absolutely be investigated and those responsible must be held accountable.

Now, our colleagues are continuing to corroborate information about yesterday's strikes.

Of course, as I said, targeting journalists is forbidden, but also target, targeting hospitals is forbidden.

The investigations, I mean, the, the, the Israeli authorities have in the past announced investigations and such killings.

It's of course the responsibility of Israel as the occupying power to investigate.

But these investigations need to yield results.

There needs to be justice.

We haven't seen results or accountability measures yet.

We have yet to see in the results of these investigations.

And we call for accountability and justice.

Thank you and maybe sorry.

And maybe let me add, Nina, I'm sure you've seen yesterday there is a strong condemnation that the secretary general has pronounced on the killings of the Palestinians as, as Tamin said, both, of course, medical personnel and journalists.

And we have extended our condolences to the families and to the colleagues of the journalist killed, of course, in particular those from Associated Press, Reuters and agency that are following us today and online.

The killings of journalists, as you know, it's been, it's been condemned by the resolution of the Security Council 20 to 20 two, 2015.

It it is very clear that we call for the protection of journalists.

We call on journalists to be allowed to do their work.

We called on media facilities to be treated as civilian infrastructures and for journalists to be protected as civilians.

[Other language spoken]

It has been decided.

It's been being adopted, this resolution by the Security Council.

And of course, we ask everyone to abide by this resolution.

And I think the secretary general's statement, I'll invite you to have a look.

It's extremely strong and we really want to underline it.

Let me see if there is any other questions.

I mean, on other subjects in the room or online, I don't see any.

So thank you very much.

Thanks for this update.

I have a few announcements for you and maybe if you want to prepare your question, if any, also to other colleagues.

As I said, first of all, we have the usual announcements on the treaty bodies of the Human Rights Council.

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will conclude this afternoon at 5:30.

[Other language spoken]

It's concluding observation on the four countries reviewed during this session, the PRK, Kiribati, Maldives and Finland 2 press conferences.

Press conferences to announce the first one is on Wednesday 3rd of September at 10:30 is by the Ambassador Hugh Lauber as President of the UN Human Rights Council.

He will be with you on the 60th regular session of the Human Rights Council that as you know, will start very soon in the beginning of September.

Also on Wednesday, 3rd of September at 2:30 PM, UNHCR will give you a press conference on Asylum policy and Law Unit share guidance to states.

This will be with Ruendrini Manik Diwala, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection of the refugee agency.

This is what I had for you in terms of announcements.

So if there are no other question, and there are, that's good.

We have grown accustomed to very long briefings, but it doesn't have to always be the case.

So thank you very much for being with us this morning.

I'll see you on Friday and don't hesitate to let us know if you have further questions later on.

[Other language spoken]

UN Geneva Press Briefing - 26 August 2025