Welcome to the press briefing of the UN Information Service here in Geneva.
Today is Friday, 6th of February.
I know many of you are covering the Conference on Disarmament which is taking place this morning, but we have a very interesting briefing today and need one with Tamin, who is here for OHCHR to tell us about the situation in the occupied West Bank.
A series of new Israeli operations and settlement plans in the occupied West Bank, including E Jerusalem, risks seriously undermining the viability of a Palestinian state and the realisation of the Palestinians right to self determination.
On the 12th of January, Israeli security forces launched a campaign in occupied E Jerusalem, including at least two major operations targeting 2 Palestinian communities in the Shafaat refugee camp.
They raided dozens of homes and shops, detained at least 25 Palestinians, confiscated goods and seized 10 private vehicles.
In another large scale operation targeting Kafr Aqab neighbourhood and the boundaries of Qalandia refugee camp, Israeli security forces reportedly demolished 70 Palestinian structures.
This appears to be in preparation for major settlement projects in the area since the 23rd of January.
The Israeli authorities issued eviction orders to 22 Palestinian homes in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City and in Al Bustan and Button al Hawa areas of Silwan.
This follows a series of similar notices over the past two months, affecting hundreds of Palestinians who remain at risk of forced displacement in the larger area of Silwan.
The unlawful deportation or transfer of a population living under occupation is a war crime and under specific circumstances, may constitute a crime against humanity.
Relentless violence by Israeli settlers with the support and participation of Israeli security forces, as well as the movement restrictions are accelerating the forcible transfer of Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the killing of Palestinians continues with generalised impunity.
For example, on the 10th of January, Israeli security forces shot and killed a 58 year old man in Hebron city while he was driving his daughter and her four children.
The Israeli authorities initially claimed the man had accelerated 2 Ram soldiers, but later said there was no evidence of that.
The shooting raises concern of unlawful killing.
Accountability and justice must be achieved for all the victims of unlawful killings and other human rights violations.
States must act immediately to stop the aggressive Israeli expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, including E Jerusalem.
Further expansion of settlements will only entrench the racial segregation against the Palestinian people.
Are there are there any courses of, are there any courses of redress which are open to Palestinians who have been given these eviction notices?
What, what are their options in these circumstances?
In fact, there can be and there should be ways of, you know, challenging these decisions in, in court.
In some cases I have seen we, we have received information that the, the, the, the Israeli authorities have given some of these people, especially when we're talking about the owners of 11 houses in the Silwan area, They have been given 20 days to evacuate their houses.
And this is a very short period, of course, in order to, you know, challenge the decisions at court.
And we have seen that more often than not, there are challenges when they go to court.
They are not, they do not lead to protecting their rights to have their homes.
Thank you very much, Mohammed, Tim, and thanks so much for the briefing.
Do you have any data that shows how many people died or displaced in West Bank since the beginning of this year?
We have some information about forcible displacement in the West Bank since this year.
I do not have specific figures since the beginning of the year, but as you may recall, it has been almost a year since the Israeli militarised campaign known as the Iron Wall started in three refugee camps in the occupied West Bank.
So the camps of Jinanpur, Karim and Urshams, 32,000 Palestinians have been displaced in that context and most of them have not been able to go back to their homes.
And in fact, many of, for many of them, their homes have been destroyed by the Israeli authorities.
So we're talking about at least 32,000 people who who are displaced.
But of course, when we add the people who are displaced from other areas, the figures are certainly higher.
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Maybe I could just add yesterday the spokesperson of the Secretary General answered, I mean made a comment on this, on this matter, which I'm going to read here.
So that's yesterday evening.
We are aware of reports that the substance dropped over areas near the Blue line on 1st February is an herbicide.
The use of herbicides raises questions about the effects on local agricultural lands and how this might impact the return of civilians to their homes and livelihoods in the long term.
As also Tamina said, we remind the parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law and other possible legal frameworks.
Any activity by the IDF north of the Blue Line is a violation of Resolution 17.
UNIFIL will continue to be in contact with the Lebanese authorities on this matter.
We just talked about that before these these press releases that you put out repeating themselves all the time.
What else can your office do other than pointing out that these are violations as there is no consequence or has has been no consequence in the past to putting out those statements?
Is your office thinking about other avenues to to achieve the result that you aiming for?
Thank you so much, Christiane for that question.
I mean, as you pointed out it, it is really, really frustrating when we when we keep having to say and repeat the same messages all over the all over again.
But it's because the situation is, it is not only repeating itself, it is worsening.
In fact, for the Palestinians living in the West Bank and including E Jerusalem.
What our office can do, we are continuing to document the violations that happen as far as we can with the with the resources that we have.
And we continue to report on these violations to the Human Rights Council, to the Security Council, to the General Assembly, to the media, as I am doing here.
And it is really for states, for the international community to act immediately to stop this aggressive Israeli expansion of illegal settlements and all the violations the the international community should take its responsibility indeed.
I'd seen their hands, Robin.
Otherwise I'll go to the platform.
There are more questions.
On the on the subjects of evictions, what is what is your office's position on the E1 expansion development to the east of Jerusalem?
Thank you for that question.
It's very, it's very worrying and we have been very clear that all settlements, all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including E Jerusalem are illegal and they must, this activity must end and the settlement must be evacuated because the occupation must end.
So the E1 project is also very concerning because it risks separating Palestinians, Palestinian communities from each other and thus affecting seriously the viability of the Palestinian state.
So this one is is really concerning.
But the bottom line is that all settlements must be evacuated and the settlement activity must stop.
I'll go to the platform Imogen.
Related to the West Bank, do you know anything about the supposedly private executive jets hired by ICE to deport Palestinians from America?
And apparently they're just being dumped at a checkpoint close to the West Bank.
I am not aware of these reports, but we can check and revert back to you if we have more information.
Any other question to Tamim?
Let me see if there's anything with the problem.
It's on a slightly different subject, notably around.
I'm just wondering if you have reached a conclusion on the casualty count from the Reikis protests and what kind of judicial action has been taken against protesters since?
As you can imagine, it is still very difficult to verify the number of casualties with respect to the protests in Iran.
The authorities recently released a list of more than 2900 names.
Other sources suggest that the total number is much higher.
So the full verification process remains very difficult because of many factors, including the the problem with the, the, the shutdown on communications and the Internet.
There must be independent, impartial and transparent investigations into all the allegations of killings and, and serious human rights violations.
And of course, those who are arbitrarily detained must be released immediately and unconditionally.
So this is something that we have been calling for and we keep calling for.
Other questions on this or other subject to come in.
No, I don't see any also on the platform.
Thank you very much, Tamim, for all these briefings.
Joanna, you have a couple of announcements for UNECE this morning.
Good morning, colleagues, and thank you for your attention.
the United Nations have has announced a draft global regulation on automated driving systems, which will allow deployment of autonomous vehicles with no supervision by driver on public roads.
This development regulatory development comes after 10 years of technological maturation and regulatory developments, as well as two years of intensive consultations and drafting.
The proposal, which was adopted by the UNIC Working Party on Automated Vehicles at its last meeting in January this year, establishes uniform safety provisions and the harmonised methodology for validating vehicles with automated automated driving systems.
This is also anchored in a safety case approach and robust research and development processes.
The adoption of this draft UN regulation demonstrates the global relevance of UN LED regulatory platforms.
Harmonised vehicle rules developed at UNICE are essential to avoid fragmentation at national level and also maximise economies of scale and to support safety, market access and innovation in the automotive industry.
By working globally, UNICI provides clarity to the industry and confidence to consumers.
Going forward, the UNICI Working Party on Automated Vehicles will continue elaborating regulations on automated driving functionalities.
We will publish full press release on this regulatory development after this press briefing and we'll share with you by e-mail.
I don't know if you have any questions on this before I move to my announcement.
Could you just clarify, So is the has the draft been adopted or or is that going to be something that happens later and once like when will this process be finalised and how many countries will it apply to?
Yes, thank you for that question.
The formal adoption is expected at the end of June this year at the World Forum for Harmonisation of Vehicle Regulations.
And then immediately afterwards, it would enter into force.
As to how many countries would implement the global regulations, it really depends on how they proceed at the national level with the transposition in their laws and regulations.
But just to give you an idea that there is a widespread interest by countries in adopting such a regulation, I'll mention that the regulatory activities on this issue were led by United States, Canada, UK, China, Japan and European Union.
So as you can see, there's quite a wide coalition behind this regulatory effort.
Emma, is this a question on the regulation?
I was just wondering why are you telling us now when it happened in January?
It's just it's a really interesting topic, but could you not have told us then?
And a little bit more background, please.
Can you tell us how long it took to get here and the challenges you had along the way?
Yeah, thank you for your questions.
So just to answer your second question, as I mentioned, this comes after 10 years of work on the issue and two years of intensive consultations and drafting within the working party itself.
As for your question of why it was not adopted earlier in January, well, this is a quite a complex task.
So there were many, many aspects of this regulatory work.
And let me just mention that the working party is still finalising technical provisions regarding data collection for automated driving systems.
So there are quite many pieces of this regulation and the answer is simply took that long because of the complexity of the issue.
I hope this answers your questions.
Yeah, I don't see Ms hands up.
So maybe you want to go to your second item.
Yes, I saw you also wanted to draw your attention to the 88 session of the UNICE Inland Transport Committee, which will take place here at Paladinacion from 17th to 20th of February.
Unisys Inland Transport Committee is the main UN regulatory body for Rd inland transport.
It has a role which is equivalent to that of the International Civil Aviation Organisation for Air Transport and to International Maritime Organisation for Sea Transport.
The Committee brings together all United Nations Member States and overseas more than 60 international legal instruments that cover vehicle regulations, transport on dangerous goods, border facilitation, infrastructure, networks and multimodal transport.
The focus of this year's session will be on driving innovation for the future of inland transport.
This means focusing on accelerating the responsible adoption of innovative technologies in inland transport and promoting efficiency and interoperability across borders and sectors.
Over 4 days of the event, more than 20 ministers from all regions of the world, alongside senior government officials and heads of international organisations, as well as leaders from industry and civil society will discuss strategic priorities and consider a wide range of policies and governments and technical issues in the sector.
The central part of the discussion will take place on Wednesday 18th of February.
There will be 3 ministerial panels focused on innovation and automation in inland transport, connectivity, mobility and trade, as well as infrastructure, data and digitalisation.
Let me also draw your attention to a live demonstration that will be held also on Wednesday 18th of February during lunchtime.
This live demonstration will showcase how next generation intelligent transport systems can protect cyclists and improve the safety of of vulnerable road users.
The demonstration will take place just next to the Assembly Hall, where this main high level segment of the event will take place.
And it will feature out of sight detection, which allows vehicles to receive warnings and predictive data from external sources through connected devices.
So I hope that if you're interested, you can attend this demonstration.
Also just to wrap up this announcement, let me just say that in a testament of the practical value of multilateral treaties that are under the purview of Inland Transport Committee, Brazil has just succeeded to the Tier Convention.
This is the convention that governs the global customs transit system for road and multi model transport of goods.
Brazil's accession marks a fundamental step for the customs and regional trade integration in South America.
And the Tier Convention will enter into force for Brazil on 30th of July this year.
Any further question, Robin?
Yeah, just just on that subject of Brazil joining the the convention, what could that mean for the the transport of goods from the Pacific to the Atlantic, from the Atlantic to the Pacific?
So yes, we have published this press release yesterday and let me just give you some of the figures that also comes from OSCDS research.
So the adoption or accession by Brazil to tier connection will help movement of goods across the bioceanic corridor.
So this is a corridor that connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans from the ports in Chile going to Paraguay and Argentina to the port of Santos in Brazil near Sao Paulo.
And let me just stress that Santos is Latin America's busiest port and handles almost 30% of Brazil's foreign trade, which is valued at 629 billion U.S.
So it is estimated this the discorder could move more than 8.6 million tonnes of products annually.
And once the Tier convention is adopted, implemented by Brazil, this adoption can reduce the cross-border transport times for goods by up to 92% and costs by up to 50%.
So I think these figures give you an idea of the importance of the tear adoption or accession by Brazil.
Thank you very much Giovanna for for this information.
I just have a few more announcements for you.
First of all, we have online Charlotte sector from UNAIDS.
They have, you've probably seen the press release that they published yesterday welcoming the new US funding package for HIV.
So if you have any questions, Charlotte is online to answer.
Also online to answer Marcelo Ricci, who can answer questions of related to the press conference detected is going to give on the 10th of February at 9:30, just before the briefing.
The subject of the press conference is the publication of the Least Developed Countries Report 2026, whose title is our services, the New Path to Structural transformation.
This is under embargo, including the press conference.
And Rebecca Greenspan, the UN Trade and Development Secretary General, will be there to brief you together with the Directorate Interim for Asia, sorry for Africa.
And this is a special programme and an Economic Affairs officer.
So if you have questions for Marcelo, he's also online.
The secretary general is in Milan at the moment where he is going to attend the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.
And we'll also meet with the new president of the International Olympic Committee.
There will be a video message from the secretary general which will be played during the opening ceremony.
In that message, he's expected to_that the Olympics And the Para Olympics Are beacon beacon, of hope as well as celebration of human potential teamwork, fair, play and mutual respect and.
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Been asked by the colleague at the Council To read you this announcement.
The Human Rights Council will hold an organisation and meeting on its upcoming 61st session on Monday morning 9th of February.
Council members will adopt the programme of work and hear from states on their initiative initiatives for this session.
The same day after the organisational meeting, the Human Rights Council will hear an oral update by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for Kerr Turk on the situation in and around Alpha Share in Sudan.
This oral update is requested by a resolution of the Council adopted at it's 38 Special session on Sudan last November.
And of course Pascals and his team are available to answer your question on this.
Also on human rights, the Committee on Elimination and Discrimination against Women is reviewing today the report of the Netherlands, following will be Argentina, Czech Republic, El Salvador and Lizotto.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights will open next Monday at 12:30, it's 79th session which will last until the 25th of February.
They will be reviewing the reports of Kenya, Uruguay, Georgia and Australia.
And as I said before, the Conference on Disarmament is meeting this morning in temples is a planning meeting under the presidency of Mongolia.
We have sent you about examament with a sent you a statement of the Secretary General yesterday on the issue of the START treaty, the dissipation of the New START treaty.
And that is all I had for you.
So if there is no further question for me, let me see on the platform.
I understand that Tarek is on the line.
I have a question for him regarding the discussions this afternoon or expected this afternoon at The Who Executive Board.
Just wondering if regarding the the issue of membership, the discussion about membership, there's reports that had been presented by the by Doctor Tedros on on membership regarding the the US and Argentinian withdrawals.
Just wondering if resolution can be expected or is expected and and otherwise if the board will simply be approving the report.
So Tariq, I give you the floor to answer.
Look, as we speak, the executive board is starting discussion on the item 29 and that's the collaboration within the United Nations system and with other governmental organisations where these issues will be discussed.
So I, I, I really can't say what the EB will will decide.
So if you want to, you can immediately now go on a WHO website and listen to discussions.
Any other question to The Who, I don't see hands up.
So I think that concludes our briefing of today.
I thank you very much for following it.
Wish you a very good weekend, an Olympic weekend, and we'll see each other on next Tuesday.
