Welcome to the press briefing of the Information Service here in Geneva, the United Nations.
As you all know, today, 25th of November, the international community commemorates a terrible, terrible scourge, the violence against women and girls.
Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women's and Girls.
Every 10 minutes, a woman or a girl is killed by someone she should be able to trust.
Last year, 50,000 women were killed by a family member or intimate partner.
137 every single day in the world.
It's one of the most devastating truths of our time.
And today's new 2025 UNODCUN Women Femi side report shows that this reality has not changed in 2025.
These are not isolated tragedies, tell us UN women they sit on a continuum of violence that too often begins with control, threats and harassment, including online.
And this year's theme for this International Day, for the 15 days that will follow of activism against gender based violence is exactly violence online, digital violence.
So I will read you now the message of the Secretary General for this day.
The Secretary General tells us violence against women and girls is a global scourge and in our digital age it is being amplified by the reach and speed of technology.
That is why Online Protection is the focus of this year's International Day for the Ammunition of Violence against Women and Girls.
Online harassment, deep fakes and hate speech are proliferating.
Misogynistic content is moving from the margins to the mainstream.
And violence that begins in the digital world can spill over into the physical in the form of stalking, abuse, even femicide.
And in this crisis, demands action from us all.
Governments must criminalise digital violence and strengthen support for survivors.
Technology companies must ensure their platforms are safe and accountable, and communities must come together in 0 tolerance for online hate.
We cannot allow digital spaces to be yet another place where women and girls are unsafe.
On the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, I call on the world to unite to end violence against women everywhere.
Together we can build a world free of fear, where every woman and every girl can thrive.
And to commemorate this day and to inaugurate the 15 days of activism, which as you know, will last until 10th of December, which is Human Rights Day, we will have a, an event in all 14 today organised together with UN Women, the EU Delegation.
And you know, and we will get together in all 14 to show our objection our, our to say no to the digital violence online.
I will invite you to come and also join us on this, on this occasion.
But I've spoken about you and women, and we have the privilege to have today with us Sophia Caltrup, who is, as you know, the director of the UN Women Office here in Geneva, who has news on women and girls in a terrible situation, which is the situation in the Gaza Strip.
Sophia, you've just come back from a trip there.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the situation of women and girls there?
Thank you, Alessandra and good morning everybody.
So I just returned from Gaza with RU and women team on the ground.
I travelled the entire length of the strip, from Jabali in the north to Almasawi in the South.
We have all seen images of Gaza on our screens, but they fall far short of reality.
Entire towns and neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble.
Streets that once led to homes now lead to ruins.
And everywhere we went, I met with women in schools, turn into shelters, in tents turned into safe spaces, and in the ruins of their own homes.
I am not a woman in Gaza, and I cannot claim to know their pain.
But I can carry their voices here with you today.
To be a woman in Gaza today means facing hunger and fear, absorbing trauma and grief, and shielding your children from gunfire and cold nights.
It means being the last line on protection in a place where safety no longer exists.
It means living for a ceasefire, but not living in peace.
Women in Gaza told me again and again.
There may be a ceasefire, but the war is not over.
The attacks are fewer, but the killings continue.
Women also told me they are surviving not only a military war, but a psychological war, one they say is even harder.
Every woman I met had lost at least two close family members, children, siblings, parents.
We arrived in Gaza just after a weekend of severe rain and cold.
Women showed me how water soaked through their makeshift tents, leaving the children shivering throughout the night.
This is what it means to be a woman in Gaza today, to know that winter is coming and to know you cannot protect your children from it.
Women also told me they have been displaced countless times.
Every move means packing the little they have, carrying their children, their elderly parents, choosing between 1 unsafe place and another.
One woman that I met told me she had been displaced 35 times during the war.
To be a woman in Gaza today, it means to face life or death choices alone.
More than 57,000 women now had their households struggling to rebuild in the impossible.
Even with a ceasefire, food is still scarce and four times more expensive, completely out of reach for women with no income.
One woman told me her home was destroyed, but every morning she returns to the rubble to gather wood, burning the doors that once sheltered her family, just to make breakfast for her children.
That is what it means to be a woman in Gaza today.
The endless bombing has left behind another crisis that we rarely speak of.
But that is everywhere you go in Gaza and that is the crisis of women and girls newly disabled by this war.
Today over 12,000 women and girls are living with long term war related disabilities that they did not have two years ago.
Like this 13 year old girl that I met who lost her leg in a bomb attack that killed her father and her four brothers.
She's been waiting for a wheelchair for months.
Her life, her future, everything she once knew has been shattered by this war.
This too, is what it means to be a woman or a girl in Gaza today.
Everywhere, women told me the same things.
They need the ceasefire to hold.
They need food, they need cash assistance and they need winterisation supplies, health services and vital psychosocial support.
They asked for work, for justice, for dignity and for the restoration of their rights.
They asked for the children to return to school.
But what I heard from women in Gaza went far beyond survival.
Everywhere women speak spoke about the desire to work, to lead and to rebuild Gaza with their own hands.
Across from the ruins of her home, where her family is buried under the rubble, I met a woman who opened a community oven where she cooks food for others against a small fee while looking directly at what is left of her life before the war.
There is no clear testament to the will and the power of Gaza's women to rebuild their lives.
And it is in this leadership and in this resistance that we must invest now.
This is exactly what UN Women is committed to do, standing with women's with the women of Gaza today so they can lead Gaza's recovery tomorrow.
UN Women has been on the ground in Gaza for more than a decade.
We have stood with women and girls throughout every crisis, worked hand in hand with women, LED civil society and invested in the resilience and leadership.
What it means to be a woman in Gaza today should compel us all into action, because no woman or girl should have to fight this hard just to survive.
We need more aid to enter into Gaza systematically and safely, and we need the killings to stop.
We need a ceasefire to hold.
And we need peace for every woman and girl, for everyone.
To be a woman in Gaza today, it means holding the line between life and loss with nothing but courage and exhausted hands.
And if that is what it means to be a woman in Gaza today, then it must also mean that the world cannot look away, not for one more day.
Thank you very much, Sophia.
And I will now open the floor to questions.
First in the room if any don't see any hand up.
So let me go to the platform.
Alessandra, I have two questions, one for you and women and then for you that you were talking about digital violence against women.
My question is what what is the situation regarding in Gaza access to food and and water for women and and children is that, you know, are regularly coming for them or not and your aid, is it a free passage?
Well, those are my questions.
And then for Alessandra, do I ask the question?
Yeah, go ahead because ask them both, OK.
Yeah, because there's a lot of violence against women, both especially digital violence against women journalists.
So we we are facing a lot of of, you know, violence in Twitter, in social media and especially Mexican journalists.
So if, you know, the organisation could have an eye on that issue in our country.
Thank you very much, Sophia.
Access to food and water in Gaza is extremely scarce.
I mean, we have seen, we have seen a slight increase in humanitarian aid coming in.
But but as I mentioned, it's extremely scarce.
And, and, and the markets that do exist with, with commodities are extremely expensive as, as, as I said, food cost 4 times higher than than before the war.
And it's completely impossible for, for many of the women that I met to, to, to feed their families.
As an example, an egg cost $2.00, which I think says something about the, the difficulties to access food and water in Gaza today.
Yeah, and absolutely, Gabriela, the what you said about women journalists is absolutely true.
I'm sorry, I don't want to speak for you and women.
Maybe you have numbers, but definitely this is something that as is clear and and is getting worse.
I don't know the situation in in Mexico.
Maybe we can, Sophia will ask maybe her colleagues to say more, but definitely journalists stop writing after having received that threats is is becoming quite current and I know that you are doing something in that and UNESCO.
And, and I can come back with concrete numbers.
But as you said, Alessandra, the situation for, for women journalists is, is, is extremely difficult in, in, in many, many contexts.
And, and, and, and actually many, many countries, they, they have laws protecting them from cyber harassment or cyber stalking, but it's less than than half, half of the countries in the world, actually only only 40%.
So that leaves 44% of the world's women and girls without access to legal protection.
And I think, of course, for women journalists reporting on the difficult circumstances, this, this is a, a key, a key issue, but but happy to come back with some specific numbers on, on the journalists.
Thank you very much, Sophia.
Thank you, Sophia for the briefing.
I was wondering if you could give us a bit of an insight if you had the opportunity to meet with the US State Department and Department of Defence officials who are expediting the humanitarian side in Gaza in the coming weeks through the ochre civil military.
Did you have a chance to talk to the American officials and to highlight what are the needs for women in Gaza?
During this visit, I I I met with with our women civil society partners on the ground with women and girls affected by the conflict, but not with any any officials.
Is there any other question for Sofia?
Yes, Alicia Gar from Spanish News Agency.
I am wondering if you are being able to assess the specific needs of women in Gaza if you are trying to enter sanitary parts in the Strip or if sanitary parts.
And that that was my mission to to together with our team on the ground, assess, assess the needs of women and girls and, and how we can scale up our protection to them.
And indeed, you know, sanitary pads is just one example of, of, of what women and girls in girls are completely lacking.
They, they, they don't know how to wash themselves during their periods and to, to protect themselves.
So I think that's an extremely good example on how women and girls are having specific needs and, and specific concerns that we very much now need to attend to.
My question is about pregnant woman.
How hard is it to be pregnant and to to deliver a baby in Gaza?
I mean to, to deliver a baby in Gaza today.
I, I don't think any one of us can can imagine how difficult it is.
I, I met with a woman who had lost two babies during her pregnancy.
She had to deliver in the middle of the street while fleeing the bombs and, and she lost that baby and then than a year after she lost another baby.
So, so the, the, the, the, the conditions for, for pregnant women are just unimaginable.
Oh yes, there are more questions.
That's the question actually about women in prison in in Israeli prison, if you have any reports on that, any figures on that, especially after, you know, those two years of the war.
So much and the condition they they are facing there.
So, so my my visit was to to the Gaza Strip.
So I have no, I have no, no further information on on the situation in the Israeli prison.
Maybe let me let me turn to Tamim.
I don't know if you have anything on the prisons.
In fact, we are facing a big problem in accessing information about the situation of detainees in general in the in Israeli prisons.
We have said that all those arbitrarily detained must be immediately and unconditionally freed.
But we do not have specific information about the cases of those who are in detention, including, you know, the breakdown of numbers in terms of gender or age, unfortunately.
Thank you very much for taking my question.
I don't know how it works, but if you are sending your reports to the court penal internal ICC court international panel I I can't translate International Criminal Court Yes, yes exactly.
So if you are sending your reports to to be an evidence in case one country wants to to go against Israel, Thank you.
So this mission was was an assessment mission together with my UN women colleagues on the ground, very much focusing on on the needs of women and girls and how we as international community can, can scale up and support them in this very, very dire situation.
Thank you very much, Sophia.
And before I don't see other hands up and before we we we turn to another subject, I just wanted to remind you again so to join us today for the kick off event for the for the 16 I said 15 before 16 days of activism against gender based violence at 12:30 at the whole 14.
Your colleague Adriana Quinones will also participate in the ceremony of the lanterns that will take place every year at the initiative of civil society organisations at the Bande ****.
That's going to be Sunday at 5:00.
And I think Adriana will be there together with many other activists to homage the women victims of missiles and by by putting London's in the water.
And just just to explain why I'm wearing this.
You may remember that in 2008, the Secretary General of the United Nations launched Unite by 20-30 to end violence against women.
This is a a long term campaign to raise awareness on gender based violence.
And the colour is orange.
So that is why I have got this orange scarf.
And I invite you to wear orange as a bright and optimistic colour representing the future, free from violence against women and girls during the 16 days.
So thank you very much, Sophia.
And we'll stay on the Middle East with Tamim, who's going to tell us about increasing Israeli attacks killing civilians in Lebanon.
Almost a year since the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel was agreed, we continue to witness increasing attacks by the Israeli military resulting in the killing of civilians and destruction of civilian objects in Lebanon, coupled with alarming threats of a wider intensified offensive.
The Israeli military's attacks have result have resulted in the killing of at least 127 civilians in Lebanon since the ceasefire agreement came into effect on the 27th of November 2024 and up until the 24th of November this year.
In one of the latest and deadliest attacks, at least 13 civilians, including eleven children, were killed and at least six civilians injured last week in an Israeli strike on the **** Helway camp for Palestinian refugees near Sidon.
All the fatalities we have documented as a result of this strike were civilians, raising serious concerns that the Israeli military's attack may have violated international humanitarian law principles on the conduct of hostilities.
There must be prompt and impartial investigations into the **** Hellware strike, as well as all other incidents involving possible violations of international humanitarian law by all parties, both before and after the ceasefire.
Those responsible must be held to account.
In addition to killing and injuring civilians, Israeli attacks in Lebanon have destroyed and damaged civilian infrastructure, including housing units, roads, factories and construction sites.
They have also severely Hanford reconstruction efforts and attempts by internally displaced people to go back to their homes in southern Lebanon.
For example, on the 16th of November, an Israeli strike hit a cement and asphalt factory in the town of Ansar, destroying dozens of concrete mixes, cranes and fuel tanks.
Over 64,000 people, mostly residents of southern Lebanon, remain displaced.
In other parts of the country, Israel started constructing a wall crossing into Lebanese territory that makes 4000 square metres inaccessible to the population.
That's affecting people's right to return to their lands.
All those internally displaced must be able to go back to their homes and reconstruction should be supported, not tampered.
It is now urgent that the parties show their commitment to comply with the ceasefire in good faith.
A genuine path towards a permanent cessation of hostilities is the only way to protect the human rights of civilians on both sides from the devastating effects of new hostilities.
Accountability for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law must be realised.
Thank you very much, Tamim.
Thanks for this important update.
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Yes, thank you for taking my question.
I, I would like to know if you have a comment on freedom of expression in United States.
The President Trump said that he will.
I mean, he threatened journalists who ask who says questions against him.
Criticise him or something like that.
And then he he called Miss Piggy to one of the journalists that ask a question.
So if you have something to say on that issue.
I mean, you want to answer this now or because you still have one item you want to answer this now?
And then we go to Nigeria.
Freedom of the press and freedom of expression must be respected anywhere, everywhere, and any response to to any allegations against journalists.
Journalists must be handled through proportionate response and fully consistent with the particular importance to international human rights law places on freedom of expression in all matters of major public interest.
Thank you very much and stay here please.
I mean, because I don't see the questions from that, but we are now going to another important situation that no.
Thank you for taking my question.
For an investigation in Lebanon, who according to you, should make that investigation?
The the state of Israel and the Israeli military is responsible for its actions.
So when we're talking about strikes conducted by the Israeli military, the Israeli military should investigate its own actions and there should be accountability for all violations that happen.
Of course, the the Lebanese state has the responsibility to investigate similar violations that can occur from its side.
OK, so let's move now to Nigeria also with the mean, but we also have online Chile who is the World Food Programme Communications officer in Nigeria.
I think you are connecting from Abuja Chi and both of you would like to speak about the situation in Nigeria.
Tamim, you wanted to comment the mass abductions that we have seen recently in the country, while she will tell us about the surging instability in Nigeria that is driving hunger to unprecedented levels.
So maybe I'll start with you, Tamim, and then we'll go to Qi.
We are shocked at the recent surge in mass abductions in North Central Nigeria.
We urge the Nigerian authorities at all levels to take all lawful measures to ensure such vile attacks are halted and those responsible are held to account.
At least 402 people, most of them school children, have been abducted in the states of Niger, Kebi, Kwara and Borno since the 17th of November.
Only 88 of them have reportedly been freed or have escaped from their captors.
We call on the Nigerian authorities to ensure the safe return of all those still in captivity to their families and to prevent further abductions.
They must also hold prompt, impartial and effective investigations into these abductions and bring those responsible to justice.
So Nigeria has released the latest Khadra Harmonise.
It's food security analysis and it shows a rapidly worsening situation across the country, particularly in the northern Nigeria.
But we've seen an increase in insurgent attacks.
It's this instability that's driving hunger to levels that Nigeria has never experienced before.
Nearly 35 million people could face food insecurity in the next 6 months.
That would be the highest number recorded in the country and the highest on the continent.
Throughout this year, attacks by insurgent groups have intensified.
Just last month, Nigeria witnessed what was reportedly the first attack by JNIM, an Al Qaeda affiliated group.
At the same time, ESWAP continues to expand its presence across the North and the wider Sahel.
Most recently, a a soldier was killed in the North East.
In the North Central and Northwest regions, 2 schools were attacked, children kidnapped in the same week.
These incidents illustrate a clear and deeply worrying trend.
Communities are under severe pressure from repeated attacks and economic stress.
Families are being pushed to the edge and the need for support is rising.
NE Nigeria, where WFP operates, is now facing its most severe hunger crisis in a decade.
Rural farming communities are among the hardest hit.
Nearly 6 million people are food insecure in the conflict zones of Borno, Adamawa and your based states.
In Borno alone, 15,000 people are projected to reach catastrophic conditions.
Women and children are once again at the greatest risk of severe malnutrition.
But funding cuts have forced us to scale down nutrition programmes since July, affecting more than 300,000 children.
We found that where clinics closed, malnutrition levels worsened from serious to critical within months.
Almost 1,000,000 people depend on WFP to survive.
Food and Nutrition Assistance remain one of the few stabilising forces in northern Nigeria.
Without it, there is a real concern that insurgent groups could exploit people's hunger and desperation to strengthen their own influence, creating a security threat that extends far beyond Nigeria's borders.
The dire situation has been compounded by funding shortfalls that diminish WF PS ability to provide life saving assistance.
We have to point out that WFP will run out of resources for emergency food assistance in December.
In a few weeks time, without confirmed funding, millions will be left without support next year.
The consequences for stability, for security and for human life will be severe.
Yeah, thank you very much.
So I'll open now the floor to question on Nigeria in the room.
Nick, Nick coming, Bruce.
She is our correspondent of The New York Times.
Nick, you have the floor.
I just wonder if she could give.
Relation to what WFP has been spending in in Nigeria and.
To meet the crisis in the North.
So WFP requires about $115 million for the next 6 months.
That will take us up to May 2026.
That will be the beginning of the lean season when people's ability to feed themselves well drastically diminish.
This year, we've raised about 150 million.
It's why in July we sort of rang the alarm to tell everyone that we were running out of funding because it just wasn't enough to meet the needs.
For the last two to three years, the scale of the needs and our resources just haven't kept pace.
And so we're constantly finding that while the needs are growing, the funding we have to support people is is much lower than what's required already.
We are concerned that by January we won't be able to provide assistance to the 900,000 people we've been assisting in November, December, October, and that we may have to reduce either the ration sizes or reduce the number of people we assist to just 450,000 people.
That is a drop in the ocean compared to the 6 million people who really need assistance, who rely on WFP for food, for nutrition.
And so apart from just letting everyone know that the hunger situation is getting worse, we really need people to know that resources are required immediately if we're going to be able to help people in the next few weeks.
Let me see if there are other questions for you, Emma Reuters, Emma Farge or to I mean, I don't know.
I was wondering if you could tell us a bit more about what you meant when you said there's a concern that insurgent groups could exploit people's hunger to strengthen their own influence.
Seeing that happening, people told you about that and and how could that pan out in the months ahead?
So a few months ago, some of the northern governors raised concerns that in their states young people were being recruited for as little as 30 to $0.50 per day, recruited because they were giving young people money to buy food which they didn't have on their own.
And So what we're saying is, is that if it costs as little as 30 to $0.50 to recruit a young person, as soon as you take away food assistance, it is so easy or that much easier for alternative or sort of bad actors to come in and take root.
Because what's needed to turn somebody is so small right now.
People are desperate for 30 to $0.50 a day just to survive.
If we had money to provide food assistance that would keep people out of harm's way, it would ensure that people were engaged in WFP activities or the wider humanitarian programme.
But in the absence of humanitarian assistance, the fear is that other actors or other forces could take place.
FF you you had you're in.
This is Alicea from Spanish news agency.
Do you have any information of which could be the groups that are behind these mass abductions?
Do you mind to just step a little bit farther from your camera because we don't have your whole image.
Yeah, I'm told by the OK, go ahead if you if you can answer.
Oh, you want to you want to add something?
I I don't know if this question is for me or for our colleague in the room.
This is about the abductions.
We know that we have seen reports that there are groups acting to abduct people for ransom.
We are not sure about the identities of these groups.
For now, we are continuing to to follow the situation.
Any other question, Laura?
Yes, when you say that it can be the worst food crisis in Nigeria, you you mean also compared to Biafra crisis?
So if we take the civil war, that was a 2 1/2 year war, 1967 to 1971, that was different.
And in that time 2 to 3 million people died of starvation that we know.
That was 2 to 3 million people died in that war.
What we're saying today is that in Nigeria, 35 million people face severe hunger in the next 6 months, and that means that they have one, maybe two months worth of food supplies left.
It means that they have exhausted all their other usual mechanisms of sourcing food, borrowing from people, taking on extra jobs.
Typically now those extra jobs aren't available.
The people they would borrow from are also out of money, and so they really don't have.
Places or many ways to make money or to buy food.
So this is very different from the Nigerian civil war.
That was something specific to the Southeast region.
This latest report looks at the entire country and is reporting on what is happening in 27 of the states, including the Federal Capital.
And what we're seeing here is that in conflict zones today, particularly in the Northwest and in the North East, hunger is rising at a rapid scale.
And if we look back a year ago, there were 5 million people hungry in the Northeast.
If we look at the Northwest today, 6 million people are food insecure.
A year ago, it was 5 million.
So we can see that this number is rapidly rising and it's having an impact on the entire country because the northern part of the country was the bread basket.
It's where most of the food was grown that fed the entire population.
And now with all of these attacks, the resurgence of groups, we're seeing that people can't go to farm.
They're either too afraid or their farms have been taken over.
And so if the region that is supposed to grow the food isn't, it affects the entire country.
And so you see right across Nigeria, places that depended on the north for the stable crops, they just don't have them.
And so people are out of jobs, but they're also out of the food that they survived on.
Many people think of Nigeria, and there are a few capitals that come to mind, but actually 70% of the population are farmers.
They're into agriculture, but most of those people are in the north and most of those people are in regions that are facing daily attacks.
And so farming is no longer an option, which means they don't have a means to feed themselves, but they also don't have a means to feed the rest of the country.
So thanks a lot Chief for this.
Oh, sorry, is that for to her?
OK, so I'd like to free T now.
Thanks so much for for telling us more about the situation food in Nigeria.
You can stay if you want, but I think we'll go to another subject now, Mohammed.
Thank you so much, Alessandra.
There was a Ukraine peace talks in.
And my question is, was any UN.
Was the United Nations briefed on these talks or this plan after this meeting?
Yeah, the short answer is no, no.
So this this talks were as you know between delegations and we were not involved in the in the discussion.
So we the answer is that for the moment, of course, if there is anything that change on that, we will let you know.
Any other question for me.
If not, please stay tuned because I have a few announcements for you and then an important announcement.
So let's go to the announcement of the press conferences.
Just to be reminded that today at 2:00 PM, you will have the press conference of UN AIDS with Winnie Vienema, Sorry, the Executive Director, who will be physically here in the press room to present you the World AIDS Day 2025, Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response Report.
That's for the 1st of December, International Day of World, World AIDS Day.
Sorry, I think this is the right name on the On the 1st of December, Monday at 9:30, Unidel will launch the Landmine Monitor 2025 report together with the three members of the impact team that prepares the Landmine Monitor report.
On behalf of UNICO, I'm asked to inform you that on the 27th of November, from 10:00 to 12:30, the UNICO Lizona office will host the event titled UNESCO from Santiago to Geneva, Advancing Inclusive Sport and Physical Education.
That's going to be at the restaurant via Y.
You're all invited to join this event which will bring together experts in the field of sports and physical education to explore strategies and best practises for fostering more inclusive and accessible sporting environments.
You have to register in order to go there to the link that the that is provided in the press briefing document that UNESCOV has sent you.
Of course, I don't forget the meeting updates of the committees.
So the Committee against Torture is going to close it's 83rd session on Friday and we'll issue the concluding observation of the reports of the four countries they reviewed, which were Israel, Argentina, Bahrain and Albania.
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is concluding this morning.
The the report, the review of the report of Burundi, which will be followed by New Zealand, Tunisia.
And then on the 4th of December, the committee will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the convention which was adopted in December 1965.
And then finally, just an invitation to to you all.
As you know, the the 29th of November, the international community commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
This year it comes on a Saturday.
So the UN office at Geneva invites you to the observance of this International Day.
On Friday, 28th of November at 3:00 PM, there will be the commemoration in Room 12 of the Paladin.
Assume this will be webcast and it will seem the participation of the Director General of, you know, Mrs Tatiana Barovaya, together with representative of many of our member states.
And this concludes my announcements, formal announcements, usual announcements, but we have a very special announcement and a little bit sad one too.
I'd like to ask Elise to come to the podium.
We just would like to have you one last time on the podium, Liz, on this podium and the old ones, because you've been here for such a long time that you know that you've known the other press rooms, Room 3 and the other rooms.
And I'd like to welcome Liz Russell that I don't need to introduce to you, of course, one of the pillars of the communication system in Geneva and of course, one of the most important voices for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
At least you've been with us so many, so much time, I can't even remember.
It doesn't make us any younger.
But I would like to really thank you very, very much on behalf of all the community here in Geneva, the journalist, unis, I think all also the colleagues, spokesperson and I see a few here for the incredible work you have done.
You have brought the voice of not only the office, but in general of the human rights loud and far and around the world.
I can't even count the number of videos that we have clipped of you that have done incredible numbers on social media.
You've been really a a fantastic colleague and I would really like to thank you on behalf of all the community communication community here in Geneva.
And before we clap, I know that the journalist also want to say something to you.
So maybe, Emma, I'll give you the floor on behalf of Akano.
Just to say thank you so much for being available for us all these years.
You've always been very reactive and very articulate, so thank you for your contribution to our work.
Thank you very much and maybe now we can club.
But you have the word I, I give the floor and that's unfortunately will be probably the last time.
But I I I just think you have a right of response.
It's, it's everybody's nightmare.
You know, when you're a radio journalist, you, you have nightmares that you're going into the studio and you don't have your news bulletin to read out.
And I'm now being expected to brief without any briefing notes.
You saying how many years they've absolutely flown by.
But for for those of you, you old timers and I think I can say is that now sort of an officially old person?
There are some old timers in the press corps and around.
I actually washed up in Geneva in April 2013 as the first ever media officer for the treaty bodies.
And I, I was, you know, the fact that you read out the announcement of the treaty bodies, I mean they are so important.
Some of you might remember we used to have our press conferences mainly in press room one.
That was a hoot with a lot of the the committees.
You said you spoke about the press briefing rooms.
I kind of missed press briefing room 3.
Then there were the kind of the the smaller rooms that we had to go into the library.
That was really, really hot.
And now of course this, this bespoke state-of-the-art briefing room.
I have really had an amazing 12 1/2 years, both as a media officer for the treaty bodies, doing a little time at World Health Organisation, obviously my time with the wonderful colleagues from refugees.
And of course with the wonderful colleagues from your own Human Rights.
I, I really want to pay tribute to the coverage that you give to human rights, to the questions you ask, well, most of them.
And you know, I, I really cannot stress how important the work is of Eunice, of the spokespeople and of course you, the journalist who covers I'm, I'm going away.
I will possibly follow every now and then what you're doing here.
I go away with the fondest of memories.
I've learnt so much from you, from fellow spokespeople.
It's been an absolute honour and privilege.
And thank you so much for your kind words.
It's it's these are these are these moments where you feel, you know, sort of bittersweet because sweet because you've been fantastic.
And we really have been fantastically happy to be with you.
Bitter because we see another old time going and and yeah, we feel sorry.
But I'm pretty sure, as you said, journalist or spokesperson one day journalist or spokesperson the rest of your life, I'm pretty sure you will continue to follow us.
And don't hesitate to come and say hello from time to time.
Thank you very much to you all for having follow this press briefing.
Thanks again, Liz, for your fantastic contribution and I'll see you on Friday.
