Welcome to the press briefing of the UN Information Service here in Geneva.
Today is Friday 20th of February and we speak again with several colleagues of Ukraine.
Four years since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine and 12 years since the illegal annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, the work continues to inflict untold suffering on the Ukrainian people.
And we are going to hear today from our colleagues of UN Women what is the situation of women and girls in this conflict scenario situation.
Then we will have Christian to tackle the issue of health and the health issues and IFRC, Thomas to get stay with us together with Jamie Wall, who's the deputy head of delegation for FRC in Ukraine and was talking to us from Kiev.
So I'll start by giving the floor to Sofia and to her colleague, Sabine Fraser Gunes, who is the representative of UN Women in Ukraine.
You want to start and then we go to Sabine.
Thank you very much, Alessandra, and good morning, everybody.
I'm delivering this briefing not only on my own behalf, but on behalf of the extraordinary Ukrainian women that I met just a week ago in Kiev and in Kharkiv, just 30 kilometres from the front line.
And during this mission, I met with women leaders, activists and UN women partners.
Women who since the start of the full scale invasion, have led with courage and with resilience in the face of loss, displacement and constant insecurity.
Those women are carrying this country forward.
They are sustaining communities, keeping businesses and services running, and they are holding families together.
Since the 24th of February 2022, more than 5000 women and girls have been killed and 14,000 injured, with 2025 being the deadliest year yet and the real toll likely far higher.
And as we mark four years since the full scale invasion began, their message could not be clearer.
Those brave and resilient women of Ukraine that I met, they told me that they need a just and lasting peace.
And right now, they need our support more than ever.
As Valentina, who I met in Kharkiv at one of those collective sites that we support as UN Women, she told me the only thing I have left is the key on my house.
That does not exist anymore.
And for many women and girls across Ukraine, this is the reality of the war.
Lives reduced to what they can carry, homes destroyed, futures put on hold.
And yet even now, they continue to lead.
But resilience does not run on empty.
Today, Ukrainian women are facing another emergency.
And that's the emergency of dramatic international funding cuts that are severely weakening their ability to cope with the war and to support the communities that depend on them.
During my visit, I saw first hand how women LED organisations remain at the heart of humanitarian response.
They provide vital protection, psychosocial support, emergency assistance and livelihood opportunities to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians.
Yet these organisations are now under serious threat because of the funding cuts.
And my colleagues, Sabine, our representative in Ukraine, will give you more details about this specific situation.
At the same time, Ukraine's energy crisis is deepening the even turn situation.
With 65% of the country's energy generation capacity destroyed by deliberate attacks, families are left without heating, electricity and reliable shelter, especially during those brutal winter conditions.
And those energy blackouts.
They are not just technical disruptions.
They directly undermine women's safety, protection and economic security, extend the darkness, lack of St lightning, non functioning elevators and disrupted transport, severely restrict women's mobility and increase exposure to harassment and accidents.
And in sectors that are among the hardest hit by extended power cuts, that's education, health, social services and retail.
Women are over represented and hence they are losing their jobs.
Small and medium sized businesses, many of them are women LED.
They are increasingly at risk and those are not abstract statistics.
They are daily realities in Kiev in a heated tent that have been set up to support citizens across the street.
I met with Arena and she told me no electricity means no school for my children and no electricity means no job for me.
We often speak about the resilience of Ukrainian women and girls, but resilience alone, It is not enough.
They deserve warm homes and they deserve safe streets.
They deserve secure livelihoods and full, meaningful participation in every sphere of life.
It must be matched with long term investment in women's leadership and empowerment so that Ukrainian women and girls are not only surviving this war, but they are shaping recovery and building a just and lasting peace.
They must remain at the heart of our humanitarian efforts, of recovery processes and of peace discussions.
They need our support more than ever.
And on this note, I would like to invite Sabine Faiser, who is our UN Women representative in Ukraine, and she's been guiding our team through the immense challenges of this war.
If Sabine can come in and share some reflections, I can see her.
Sabine, you have the floor.
I'm speaking to you today from Kiev, a city that has endured 4 years, a relentless bombardment and where much the population is cold because of this year's devastating attacks on energy infrastructure.
As my colleague Sophia said, more than 5000 women and girls have been killed and 14,000 injured, with 2025 being the deadliest year yet in this war.
This is how Ukraine meets the four year mark of Russia's full scale invasion.
Behind these numbers are real lives, Women grieving, loved ones grow, girls growing up under constant threat and communities struggling to survive.
But I'm here today to talk about another emerging crisis impacting women and girls.
Women's rights and women LED organisations in Ukraine providing life saving services for women and girls are being driven towards collapse with deep funding cuts, dismantling frontline protection systems and forcing to scale back or shut down.
These organisations have been the backbone of Ukraine's humanitarian response from the very beginning.
UN Women, along with the Gender and Humanitarian Action Jihad Working Group today has released the report The impact of foreign assistance cuts on women's rights and women LED organisations in Ukraine.
This report is available on our website and it documents the scale of the funding crisis and its impact on the lives of women and girls.
One in three women LED organisation surveyed warned that they may not survive beyond six months under current funding levels.
Due to the funding reductions in 2025 and 2026, organisations in Ukraine are projected to lose at least $53.9 million by the end of the year.
The staffing crisis for these organisations is deepening, with 570 positions already lost in 2025 and up to 340 more positions expected to be cut in 2026.
This is going to severely constrain organisational operational capacity.
Staff employed are first to work in cold and dark offices, battling mental and physical health challenges.
If this continues, an estimated 63,000 women in 2026 will lose access to services.
As a women's civil society leader recently shared with us, prolonged existence on the edge of survival leads to exhaustion, illness and burnout among those who are working in civil society.
We urgently need support to continue the work of our organisations.
So what does this mean in practical terms?
It means that more survivors of conflict related sexual violence and gender based violence will not have access to proper services.
Access will be limited, advocacy will be interrupted, there will be more women in need of psychosocial and legal support.
They'll be less political participation for women, less economic opportunity and less economic growth in Ukraine.
Weakening women's organisations at this moment risks weakening the entire humanitarian and recovery architecture of Ukraine.
So we need 2 basic things that can make a big difference, financial and other support for women's rights and women LED organisations and investment in women's leadership for gender responsive recovery and for a just and lasting peace.
As we enter the fifth year of the full scale invasion, You and Women calls for solidarity for Ukraine's women and girls, not only in words but also in action.
Thank you very much, Sabine, and thanks to Sophia for this briefing.
Let me turn now to my right to Tomaszo.
And I don't know if Tomaszo, we could direct me to Jamie, OK.
To Jamie Wah, who's also in Kiev and deputy head of delegation of the IFRC, thank you for the opportunity to brief you this morning.
As Ukraine enters the fifth year of the escalation of the international armed conflict, humanitarian needs remain severe.
For many, the situation today is the worst it's ever been.
Millions are living through a bitterly cold winter without heating or reliable electricity.
Constant attacks on energy systems, rolling blackouts, freezing temperatures and growing financial pressures have left whole communities struggling to stay warm, keep the lights on and trying to maintain some sense of a normal life.
We speak often about the energy crisis and damage to infrastructure.
But this is not only about infrastructure, it's about people.
The energy crisis is a humanitarian crisis.
When the power goes out, generators allow for some of us to continue working, but they cannot power every apartment, every stove, every radiator or every elevator.
It is often the most vulnerable who carry the consequences.
For older people, people with disabilities and those with chronic illnesses, this is life threatening.
With the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, the IFRC has distributed generators in communities.
We've set up tents where people can come warm up, get a hot meal and rave and receive psychosocial support.
These are life lines in the community.
But you cannot run a country on generators forever.
To give one example, our driver lives with his family and two children in one of the hardest hit districts in Kiev.
The local heating plant was destroyed in a missile attack.
There will be no central heating or hot water until at least the summer.
They are fortunate to still have gas for cooking.
When the electricity returns.
They use electric heaters, but Even so, it's freezing cold in their apartment.
Health needs, including mental health, are skyrocketing.
Cold homes increase illness.
The psychosocial toll is equally serious.
Prolonged darkness, isolation and constant uncertainty are exhausting communities.
Many people have experienced traumatic events, yet access to specialised mental health and psychosocial support remains limited.
Throughout the past four years, the IFRC and its network of partners have supported life saving work of the Ukraine and Red Cross.
From emergency assistance at site of attacks, to support for heating and electricity, home repairs, health services and psychosocial care, this work is essential to help people rebuild their lives with dignity.
Despite an extremely difficult situation, people are continuing to support each other.
At the heart of our work are the volunteers.
Neighbours helping neighbours, risking their own safety to bring relief to others.
More than 8000 Ukrainian Red Cross volunteers continue to support their communities, often while living in the same difficult conditions themselves.
But the stark reality today for humanitarian organisations is alarming.
International financial support for Ukraine is dwindling.
Despite the immense needs.
The IFRC revised emergency appeal for 2026 to 2027 bases A funding gap of more than 260 million Swiss francs.
Without sustained support, assistance will be reduced, repairs delayed, and vulnerable families left with fewer options.
As people worry about how they're going to get through another winter, we urge governments and donors to invest in sustained humanitarian action and longer term recovery.
And let's close with WHO or Christian.
Thank you very much, everyone.
Attacks on healthcare widespread and severe in Ukraine.
W Joe has verified more than 2870 confirmed attacks, resulting in 233 deaths and 937 injuries among healthcare workers and patients.
Facilities operate beyond surge capacity, with the workforce depleted and infrastructure damaged.
The beginning of 2026 has been particularly alarming.
In just the first six weeks, already nine people were killed, reportedly in the attacks on healthcare.
While these absolute figures may appear low in a war, there's much more to it.
In the most affected regions, about 60% of people assess their health as poor or very poor, compared to 47 in non front land areas based on WTO assessments.
In 2025, WTO reached 1.9 million people in front land and hard to reach communities through mobile outreach, delivering nearly 20,000 consultations while strengthening health systems capacity through medical supplies, infrastructure support, evacuations, health worker training and winterisation of hospitals.
Mental health needs remain high with 72% of people surveyed experiencing issues in the past year, including anxiety and depression.
In 2025, W Joe strengthened mental health services by training of 1000 primary healthcare workers and embedding mental health into medical education across 18 universities.
At the same time, WHL supported more than 2000 refugees and displaced people through mental health and psychosocial activities.
The reported number of people with disabilities has increased by nearly 390,000, or more than 10% since February 20, 2522.
Excuse since February 2022.
Access to medicines remains one of the most persistent barriers to health in Ukraine.
In the early months of the full scale invasion, 84% of households reported that high prices and lack of pharmacies limited access to medicines they need.
W Jo's work in Ukraine goes beyond emergency response to building long term resilience.
W Jo combines emergency preparedness with sustains investments in mental health, the health workforce, diagnostics, surveillance and essential health services.
Double Job provides medical supplies, prefabricated units for health centres and heating units to hospitals.
By strengthening core foundations such as financing equipment, immunisation and water and sanitation, we ensure the health system can endure, respond and recover across all challenges.
Now a couple of key data.
Double Job provided 319 metric tonnes of medical supplies.
They were delivered to 954 health facilities reaching over 1,000,000 people.
Through interagency convoys and direct W Joel deliveries.
28 modular fabricated units were installed to replace damage to destroyed facilities, expanding primary and emergency care capacity to improve the winter resilience.
22 heating units and 13 water stations were installed in hospitals.
Nearly 10,000 over the counter medicine kits were delivered benefiting more than 30,000 people.
Over 2500 healthcare professionals were trained in trauma care, mass casualty engagement and emergency life support including 106 certified national trainers.
Capacity building conducted nearly 20,000 consultations across more than 130 hard to reach locations.
And last but not least, capacity building included infection prevention control training for 50 facilities, non communicable disease training for 300 clinic, more than 300 clinicians and mental health and psychosocial support training for over 1400 people with the Mental Health Gap Action Programme training delivered to nearly 350 health workers in more than 100 locations.
And yes, these data were all sent to you.
So because there are many, I hope that helps.
And before opening to question, let's just remind that the 2026 humanitarian needs a response plan, which seeks $2.31 billion to deliver life saving assistance to 4.12 million people is facing the most that are facing the most various needs is not very funded for the moment.
As of 19 February, only 14% of this plan was funded.
And I'll open the floor to questions now.
First in the room, I start with Alexander.
Yeah, thank you for taking my question.
We'd like to know if it's possible at this stage.
Have you been able to assess the number of people, households or even building that have without electricity?
Maybe you have figures on Kiev or even the rest of the country?
Timmy, we answer one question after the other.
So the situation in Kiev, it is quite concerning.
There are the last update that we've had.
There is a number I think Kiev we're facing in terms of energy at least on average outages of about 22 hours of outages per day and the people affected are around 1.8 million.
This came from a report yesterday from the from OCHA.
I know that we were discussing the different blocks of communities that have no heating and electricity.
But the problem is, is that there's a constant rolling and those numbers are quite fluctuating from from day-to-day, depending on the overnight situation of attacks.
But also because of the freezing temperatures, the freezing water are bursting pipes, which also affect the heating situation, kind of rolling out of the electrical situation in, in Kiev as well.
And I'm sitting in an office today with no heating, electricity as well.
So there's, there's millions of people affected across Ukraine.
In Kiev itself, I think it's one of the communities that have the highest number.
But other areas that also affect heating and blackout situations are Kharkiv, Dinipro, Odessa, as well millions of people across Ukraine.
Thank you very much, Ethy.
Yeah, thank you, Alicia from the Spanish news agency.
First is for Sabine Fraser.
I wanted to know about this organisation, organisations that are at risk, what specific things these organisations provide to women in Ukraine.
Also to IFRCI wanted to know if you told us that generators are not enough.
I wanted to know if with more generators the situation could be sustainable or you are demanding other different thing.
And also for the for Christian you talk about the people with disabilities that they increased.
I wanted to know how many were because of the war.
Let's start with Sabine that thank you very much for the question just to say that.
So this is the the detailed report which you'll be able to find on our website, which is already available today.
So in response to the question, so the survey was with 108 women, right, And women LED organisations around the country, many of the organisations working in frontline communities in places like Harrison and Zaporisia.
So they are the ones who are directly affected by these funding cuts.
What I would like to say is that more than 1/3 of the surveyed organisations reported that they may not be able to continue work after six months.
So we're very worried that a significant part of the women's rights organisations across Ukraine will no longer be functioning if the funding situation remains the same in six months.
Now these organisations are the type of organisations that are providing on one hand urgent humanitarian assistance, but on the other hand are providing services to survivors of gender based violence.
They are providing very desperately needed mental health support, but they're also providing support such as support to women economic empowerment.
And most recently when I was in Zaparasia, I heard about a women's centre which worked on women economic empowerment which had to close.
So this is also going to have an effect over the recovery and economic growth.
About the generators, you need to unmute.
So the the situation with the generators, it was generators are always a temporary solution.
The problem these days is that the power outages are sometimes going beyond the 24 hour mark.
So this means that generators are not sustainable to be run over long periods of time.
And the, the energy crisis right now and there's an emergency energy order in place, which means there's energy rationing across businesses, across municipalities.
But this also means that the cuts are unpredictable.
We've experienced many months where we have electricity cuts, but there was a schedule and we were, we knew when those electricity cuts happened.
These days the electricity cuts are quite unstable.
And in my experience, I experienced 48 hours with two, two hours of electricity.
And so the use of generators was a good solution in in earlier years when we had scheduled electricity cuts.
But with the situation today with prolonged cuts, with unpredictable cuts, generators are not able to fully run over beyond 24 hours on a constant basis.
And so this is where the challenge happens.
I think generators can be a solution, but this again is a short term solution and we need to look for longer term solutions.
So since February 2022, so since the four years alone, 390,000, nearly 400,000 disabilities were added, which could be attributed to to the war.
But the figures alone don't don't do it because it's the support that is missing.
The freedom of movement for people, the lack of supplies, the lack of any support necessary to support people with disabilities is decreasing.
So the numbers are one thing, the story behind it are a much bigger one.
Other question in the room.
So John, I had seen your hand up, but it's not there anymore.
OK, probably got his answer.
So if there are no other questions, I'd like to thank all our, our colleagues for for briefing us on this.
Very dire for your Mark and also the colleagues from Kiev, Sabine and and Jamie.
And let's go to let's go to the WFP item, which is about the deteriorating monetarian situation in Somalia.
We have with us Ross Smith, who is the WFP Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response.
Ross, nice to see you again.
Thank you for briefing the journalist here in in Geneva.
And then we will go to UNICEF and OHCHR.
Thanks very much and thanks for having me back and the opportunity to talk a little bit about the situation in Somalia.
I will say that, you know, we are very concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country.
Somalia is in the midst of a very complex hunger crisis.
2 rainy seasons have failed and conflict and insecurity persist.
Millions of people have been forced to flee their homes in search of shelter, food and basic services and all of these have pushed the Somali humanitarian response to the brink.
Making matters worse is the lack of severe lack of resources and our life saving WF PS own life saving emergency food and Nutrition Assistance in Somalia will come to end to an end in a few weeks time unless new and urgent funding is secure.
So I'm here today to to really issue an alert.
The world must pay attention to the millions of vulnerable women, men and children suffering in Somalia.
And sadly, we've been down this road before in Somalia.
In November, the Somali government declared a national drought emergency, which was triggered by severe water shortages, crop and livestock losses and large scale displacement.
We've seen very similar conditions in Somalia in 2022 when famine was narrowly averted thanks to large scale international support.
So today most of the food security data points are flashing red.
Our early warning systems, which we manage alongside partners different counterparts in government, indicate that we are on the same path as previous food crises in Somalia in 2022 and 2020.
Today, what we're seeing is 1/4 of the population, so 4.4 million people are facing crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, including one million men, women and children experiencing severe hunger.
Nearly 2 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition, including over 400,000 with severe acute malnutrition, and half a million people have been displaced in the last five months alone.
A detailed IPC update will be released.
We expect that to be released and published next week.
And in there I expect we'll see a further deterioration of those numbers.
WFP and its partners have been for many years a lifeline for the people of Somalia.
We have remained the largest humanitarian operator in the country, but right now we are only able to reach one in seven people in need.
A lack of resources has meant we've been forced to repeatedly reduce this vital assistance.
We've had no choice but to reduce food and Nutrition Assistance by more than half in 2025 due to funding shortfalls.
And so today, just to give you a few numbers, we're currently assisting only 640 thousand of those 4.4 million people I mentioned that are facing crisis levels of hunger.
And this is down from 2.2 million that we were supporting with emergency food assistance this time last year.
We've also had to reduce by more than 75% life saving nutrition services from approximately 400,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women and children that were being receiving support every month.
Now we're less than 100,000 per month.
Cash transfers also have also been significantly reduced and cash, I will say is is the only option in some areas of the country where access is limited, that markets are functioning.
And across Somalia, our reach has decreased from 64 districts down to 42, leaving entire areas of the country without food assistance.
So I'll just conclude by saying that scaling up our response is critical right now to meet urgent food and nutrition needs for the millions of Somalis to prevent famine and to build resilience, of course, to further withstand food security shocks and instability that continues to to face Somalis continue to face year on year with growing insecurity and increasing extreme weather events.
When the drought conditions began late last year, we provided emergency cash transfers through the government LED systems to more than 380,000 people that that we were able to access to buy food on local markets.
And this helps help to address urgent needs and reinforce the national social protection capacity.
We have the teams on the ground and we have the capacity to push back extreme hunger.
If there's any country in the world where we can predict what's going to happen, where we have good data, we have good partners, we have the capacity, we have the collaboration with government.
This is the place where we've been down this road before.
We've had a major famine in 2011.
We have successfully averted that famine with improved tools and the lessons learned in 2022, and we're in that situation again.
So we're calling on everybody's support.
We're on the precipice right now of another decisive moment.
Without urgent action, we may be able to unable to reach the most vulnerable people in town and most of them are women and children.
So I'll conclude and just to say that WFP and our partners, other agencies, the government, we are ready to deliver, but we need urgent support to prevent preventable catastrophe.
Thank you very much, Ross, for putting this pot light on this very dire situation.
We need to continue talking about that.
So I'll open the floor to questions now in the room.
So John, John, is that I saw your hand before.
Is that a question for Ross?
I had a question earlier, but somehow I couldn't get access to the studio even though my hand was up.
But the first question in the Ukraine was about the number of the people with disabilities.
How many of those are amputees?
The government of Ukraine have given some big numbers in the in the past and I was wondering if who had an update on how many of those are amputees?
Smith, I was wondering, Ross, if you could bring us also up to speed on you put out an alert in January on the risk of severe malnutrition in West and Central Africa.
If you have an update since your January situation, what's the situation especially in Northern Nigeria and also Niger?
Ross, I think maybe you want to answer this because I don't see other questions specifically on Somalia.
So if you want to go ahead and answer John's question.
I, I, I mean that we'll, we'll share some information with you bilaterally on that.
I was more focused on Somalia today for this briefing, but happy to share more information on the nutrition situation in West Africa bilaterally.
Are there any other questions for WFP?
So Ross, thank you very much for this important update.
Really Christian want to answer now or?
Yeah, thanks a lot for for coming and briefing the journalist here.
And yeah, if you can follow up with John bilaterally.
Your question, your answer on Ukraine and then we go to thank you try.
Thank you very much John for that.
So sources indicate that more than 100,000 amputations have been performed since the beginning of the war.
Thank you for your answer.
Go yes, Christian, thank you.
The number you just cited, if I recall rightly, that was put out by who in June 2024.
Do you have an update on that estimate of more than 100,000 amputees?
But that's the figures I have.
I need to get back to the country office to see if there's there's different figures now what, what this exactly means.
Thanks Christian for coming back and and answering.
So let's go now to UNICEF.
UNICEF Ricardo is here with me and he has brought us Muzzon Almelahan in February as well.
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, who's reaching us from Newcastle.
You want to tell us a little bit before Ricardo?
We wanted to talk about the situation of children in Syria one year after the political transition.
I'll pass it to Muzun right away.
She's joining us after returning to her home country, Syria, last week for a mission, the first time she's gone or she's returned since the political transition.
And thanks for waiting patiently.
Thank you and good morning.
I left Syria as a child, clutching my school books, searching for safety and thinking home would never be a reality for me again.
Last week I again returned to my country, not as a refugee, but as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.
And yet, the moment I landed in Damascus, I was that girl from Daraa again, carrying the same questions millions of Syrian children is still carrying.
These are questions that don't go away.
They are questions millions of Syrian children carry.
But now we are starting to have answers.
In a classroom in rural Damascus, I met the girl I will call Tala.
She told me she had been displaced 3 times before her 10th birthday.
Each time her education was interrupted.
Each time she had to start again.
When I looked at her, I saw my younger self with the same fears, with the same hopes and the same fierce determination.
To learn is not an exception.
A recent UNICEF survey found that one in three Syrian adolescents is 15 to 19 has been displaced at least twice, with the search for safety the most common reason for fleeing.
For these children, school is not just a place to learn.
It is hope Syria stands at the profitable moment.
Across the country, I witnessed something I didn't expect to feel so strongly hope.
There is a renewed sense of determination among parents, teachers, young people and local authorities to rebuild.
Communities are coming back together, but that hope is a fragile.
While large scale fighting has reduced in some areas, the children still face daily risks from explosive reminence of war.
Damaged infrastructure offer stretch surfaces.
Nearly 1000 explosive ordinance incidents have been recorded, resulting in a close to 1800 casualties, among them at least 193 children killed and 466 children injured.
The scale of what the children have injured is the staggering more than 4 million Syrians remain internally displaced outside camps.
Another 1.35 million live in camps.
One in four Syrians live in extreme poverty and 2/3 of the population fall below the lower middle middle income poverty line.
And yet in every community I visited, I saw young people who refused to be defined by what they had lost.
They spoke with the strength and dignity.
They don't see themselves as victims, They see themselves as the future of Syria.
Young people across this country reminded me of the Jasmine that grows throughout Syria.
Resilient, rooted, and determined to bloom again.
Like Jasmine that grows even in the harshest conditions, Syria's children continue to rise.
But resilience should never have to replace support and investment, and right now millions of children are being asked to be strong without the resources they saw the separately need.
Education remains the most urgent priority.
Without safety, children cannot learn.
Without the school there is no future.
Yet millions of Syrian children remain out of school because of the facilities were damaged or destroyed, because their families are too poor, because they were displaced again and again.
In Spain, some 14 kilometres South of Damascus, I met 18 year old Fatima, who was displaced in Aleppo for many years and struggled to continue her studies.
Now, with peace consolidating it is passed across Syria, she managed to retain to her community and back to school.
Inspired by the possibility to contribute to a new future for her country, Fatima dreams of becoming a doctor to treat sick children so she can help prevent their suffering.
But the situation remains very challenging and not all girls are lucky as Fatima.
Many classrooms are overcrowded and the children are being pulled into labour just to help their families survive.
Girls are especially at risk of dropping out of early marriage, of losing the future they deserve.
When girls learning, families recover faster, communities grow stronger and economic improve.
Investing in girls education is investing in serious recovery and they urge the international community to step and forward and do this.
International investment is imperative to strengthen recovery and reconstruction across Syria.
Sustained support is foundational to restore systems to deliver essential bases services like education, water and sanitation, health, nutrition, social welfare and social protection.
Syrians cannot do this anyone.
UNICEF is working across Syria and in neighbouring countries to reach these children.
We are rehabilitating the schools, restoring water systems, providing health and nutrition services, supporting mental health and psychosocial care and helping the children retain to learning with local partners on the ground.
We are also investing in skills development, vocational training and employment pathways for young people because serious recovery will be built by it is youth.
What struck me most in this visit is that young people here are not waiting for him.
They are ready to rebuild their country.
They are not asking for a charity, they are asking for opportunity, for education, for skills, for a seat at the table where decisions are made about their futures.
But here is the harder truth.
The funding gap is now one of the biggest threats to Syrian children.
Needs remain immense while funding is declining.
We know how to rehabilitate schools, restore essential services and support a children's recovery.
What we lack is the sustained investment.
To do it at the scale recovery requires A predictable long term funding, not short term fixes.
As Syria transitions from emergency to recovery, support must be flexible so partners can strengthen national systems and move beyond the stopgap responses.
Without the investment, the progress I witnessed will not hold.
Let me be clear, Syria is not only a story of needs, it is a story of potential.
Every young person I met on this mission confirmed that this country's greatest resource is it is people and it is a children and youth are ready to drive recovery and the growth if given the chance.
At the heart of it is recovery and reconstruction.
This generation of Syrian children should not inherit the hardships of the past.
They should not relief the circle of loss and displacement that defined my childhood and the childhoods of millions of others.
For me, this visit was a homecoming, but it was a homecoming with a purpose.
I return to Syria to listen to children, to amplify their voices and to carry their message to the world.
They have not given up on their future and we must not give up on them.
Peace and safety are not the privileges.
They are the starting point for every child of the future.
If the child in Syria deserves to grow up safe, to learn, to dream and to rebuild, that's their right.
And it is our responsibility to make it a reality.
Thanks a lot, Muzun, for telling us what you saw.
And what are your hopes and the hopes for the children of Syria?
Open the floor to question the Spanish news agency.
I wanted to know if you have any numbers of the escolarization figures and also if it's UNICEF, who is in charge of the escolarization or is the government also putting up initiatives?
Unfortunately, in Syria there is actually at least like 2.45 millions of children still out of school and this is a huge number.
There is damaged and destroyed infrastructure resulting in millions of children to be deprofied from their right to education, UNICEF and partners, they are on the ground trying their best to rehabilitate school schools to reach children in need, to provide to provide health and nutrition and support mental health.
Because bringing children into classrooms is what gives the Syrian children a future.
Because if there is no education, there is no future for Syria.
And I saw every child and every young person I met in Syria.
They are really determined to learn, even at the hardest times, they want to go to school because they know if we want to rebuild Syria, we can only do that by educated generation.
However, the destroyed infrastructure and there is also risk of 1.6 millions of children to drop out from schools.
That's why it is important to act now and to act quickly to give more attention to education and have a flexible and sustained investment for education, because if if we don't have that investment, it will be really hard to protect the children and to have recovery in Syria.
Also, it is really important to highlight the importance of peace and safety, because if there is no peace and safety, children cannot learn, families, they cannot recover communities, they cannot grow and go ahead in this important moment in the in Syria's future.
So we need to work on that.
And UNICEF is in the ground calling on all partners to provide safety, peace and education for children.
I don't see other hands up.
So thank you very, very much, Muzumu for this, for this briefing.
Ricardo, before I let you go, I think you have one more point on Iran.
I just wanted to read quickly to all, all of you in the room and online, a statement by our UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Big Bader, issued late last night about the issue of children arrested in the latest public unrest in Iran.
UNICEF is deeply concerned by the reports that children arrested in connection with the recent public unrest in Iran remain in detention.
While the number of children currently detained or the conditions of their detention cannot be verified, we we urge that immediate independent access be granted to all detained children to assess their situation, treatment and well-being.
The adverse impact of detention and incarceration on children is well documented.
They require special care.
Deprivation of liberty entails life lasting consequences to the development of the child, but also for the future of society overall.
Children deprived of their liberty must be treated with humanity and dignity and enabled to maintain regular contact with their families.
These are binding obligations under international law and must be upheld at all times.
UNICEF urges urges an end to the detention of children in all forms and the immediate release of the children detained in Iran following the most recent public unrest.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is a party to the Convention of the Rights of the Child and has an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of children.
If I don't see any hands up for UNICEF, so Jeremy, can you please come with your invite?
Thank you very much, Ricardo.
And thanks again to Muzun to for her briefing and Marta, maybe if you want to come or you want to sit here.
So Jeremy, you, you came with Pierre Oberoi today with senior human human rights officers to tell us about the abuses in the scam centre.
This is a terrible story, is that?
Thanks Alexandra and good morning everyone.
This morning, our office published a report on the grave human rights abuses injured by hundreds of thousands of people trafficked from dozens of countries into into working in scam operations, mostly in Southeast Asia as well as far beyond.
This updates a report on the same topic we issued in 2023.
Victims describe being lured into scamming jobs under false pretences and then being coerced into perpetrating online fraud, ranging from impersonation scams, online extortion, financial fraud, as well as romantic scams.
Satellite imagery and on ground reports show that nearly 3/4 of the scam operations are in the Mekong Delta.
Sorry, the Mekong region, which have also spread to some Pacific island countries and South Asia, as well as Gulf states, West Africa and the Americas.
The the operations described are fluid with some survivors sharing experiences of being held in immense compounds resembling self-contained towns, some over 500 acres in size, made-up of heavily fortified multi Storey buildings with barbed wire topped high walls guarded by armed and uniformed security personnel.
The report details the experiences of some of the victims.
One from Sri Lanka relates how those who failed to meet monthly scamming targets were subject to immersion in water containers known as water prisons for hours on end.
Others recounted being forced to witness or even conduct grave abuse of others as a means to ensure compliance.
1 Bangladeshi victim said that he was ordered to beat other workers, and the victim from Ghana recounted being forced to watch his friend being beaten in front of him.
They told people losing their lives as they attempted to escape, including falling from balconies and roofs in the compounds.
Failed rescue attempts were also punished severely.
One Vietnamese victim describes how her sister was beaten, Tasered and locked in a room with no food for seven days after his sister had tried to engineer her escape.
It found traffickers would video call family members to watch their loved one being abused and mistreated in order to pressure families to pay extortionate ransoms.
While most victims described receiving some wages, all those interviewed by our office experienced a range of escalating deductions and none received the entirety of the promised salary.
A Thai victim reported that they were ordered to meet steep scamming targets of some $9500 a day to avoid fines, beatings or even being sold to another compound with even harsher conditions.
We urge States and regional bodies to act effectively against corruption, which is deeply entrenched in such lucrative scamming operations, and to prosecute the criminal syndicates behind them.
We also recall the importance of independent media, human rights defenders and civil society organisations being able to carry out their vital anti trafficking work free from interference.
The report uniquely applies a behavioural science and systems analysis to explore why people continue to fall prey to fraudulent recruitment into scam operations and to suggest rights based and effective prevention responses.
This stage I'd like to now pass over to my colleague Pia Oberoi, one of the authors of the report, who can elaborate more on this aspect of our of the report and our work and she can take your questions.
In its practical application, behavioural science can be used to identify what drives people's decisions and behaviours.
So why people do what they do rather than relying on assumptions of how people should or would act?
And as you may know, behavioural sciences part of the United Nations Secretary General's Quintet of Change.
So the question we sought to answer was more than two years after the alarm was first raised, why are people continuing to be fraudulently recruited into scam operations in the region?
Understanding how and why people make decisions can help explain why they make what could be unexpected or undesirable choices.
In the case of victims drawn into scam operations, the most felt that they had few options when making the recruitment decisions.
Survivors told us that they were under severe economic pressures, including to pay off familial debts, to send children or siblings to school and afford medical treatment for elderly parents.
Facing facing stagnating prospects at home, many sought to move to urban areas or across borders in search of more stable jobs and decent work.
The role of trust was also significant in this recruitment, we found In our research, nearly 3/4 of survivors reported being recruited through someone they trusted.
We also examined existing deficits in labour migration recruitment in and to the region and found that people seeking urgent livelihood opportunities were unlikely or even unable to distinguish between legitimate pathways to labour migration on the one hand, and illicit pathways into scam operations on the other.
This left young people at high risk of predatory and fraudulent recruitment practises both online and offline.
Powerful behavioural drivers are drawing victims into these violent and coercive scam operations.
We found that information campaigns on their own are therefore unlikely to prevent this fraudulent recruitment.
Other important interventions should include increasing the availability and accessibility of safe labour migration pathways and improving the oversight of online recruitment by the social media platforms that host the job postings.
So we are calling for holistic and right space responses that address prevention and protection aspects as well as law enforcement and prosecution, rather than efforts that address these issues in isolation.
Thank you very much to both of you for this briefing.
Let's see if there are questions in the room or online.
I don't see any hands up.
Thanks for bringing again this story to the attention of the press.
It's it's really important matter to continue.
You want to come on the other side, Marta?
Then I'm going back again to the issue of children, this time in IIT.
Marta has an update on child trafficking there.
This morning, the Human Rights Office published a report that details the brutal and widespread trafficking of children by Haitian gangs, warning their actions threaten not only the well-being of today's children but also of future generations.
The report issues jointly by the UN Integrated Office in Haiti and the UN Human Rights Office.
It states that most of the 26 gangs currently operating in Haiti are involved in child trafficking.
It describes the different forms of exploitation to which children are subjected, ranging from running errands, monitoring security forces or collecting extortions payments to more violent acts like destructions, property kidnappings, target killings and sexual violence.
The report emphasises that both structural factors such as poverty with institutions and social exclusion, and situational factors like armed violence contribute to an environment where children are increasingly at risk of being trafficked by gangs.
They are either enticed by what they perceive as power, social status, protection or rule through violence, threats, food or drugs.
This risk is particularly acute for children from extremely poor and marginalised families, as well as those living on the streets or in displaced persons sites, says the report.
The report also says that despite some initiatives, insufficient attention is given to preventing child trafficking before it occurs, including by addressing the economic, social and educational roots causes that place children at risk of trafficking, while also ensuring accountability for traffickers to prevent future violations.
It highlights that law enforcement officials often view children trafficked by gangs as perpetrators rather than victims.
In some circumstances, some children accused of gang associations have been summarily executed by police officers or killed by so-called self defence groups, stresses the report.
The report calls for a comprehensive Human Rights Centre strategy built around several pillars, expanding social protections programmes for vulnerable families in the capital, reinforcing schools as protective spaces, developing child friendly spaces outside schools, increasing youth vocational employment opportunities, strengthening rights compliance and law enforcement, prioritising rehabilitation over punishment and improving accountability for child traffickers.
Thank you very much Marta.
Thanks for this briefing.
So we'll go to the last item of which HR Yes, thanks again.
High Commissioner Volcker Turk has just returned from a trip to India where he was attending the AI Impact Summit in Delhi at the invitation of the government.
This is the first time that an AI Impact Summit was held in the Global South.
The High Commissioner delivered 2 addresses to the summit on the importance of human rights as guardrails and as inspiration in the drive for innovation using artificial intelligence.
During his two day visit, the High Commissioner also met with the External Affairs Minister Jay Shankar as well as the National Human Rights Commission, civil society actors, journalists and industry leaders.
The speeches delivered by the High Commissioner are available online.
The statement of the Secretary General to the summit where he's also going to participate in a roundtable organised by the UN to discuss renewable energy and energy transition and afterwards go back to the summit to take part in a panel on the role of science in international AI covenants.
This is all happening today.
So thank you very much to all colleagues.
We're brief to you today.
I have a few announcements for you.
First of all, as you know, Monday will be a very busy day at the at the parlay, as it will probably be the whole of next week.
We, of course, are talking mainly about the Human Rights Council, which will open at 9:00, at 9:00, it's 61st session, which would last until the 31st of March under the presidency of Ambassador Sidarto Reza Surio di Puro of Indonesia.
Delivering statements at the opening will include the ones of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, the President of the UN General Assembly, and Elena Berbock, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Worker Turk, as well as the Chief of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland in Yatio Cassisa.
As you surely know, the council is going to meet in the assembly hall here, so the configuration is a little bit different from the usual one, but we've gone through this already in the last session, so you know how it goes.
Speaking about the President of the General Assembly, Mrs Anarena Beibach will start, We will start the briefing on Tuesday with her.
We will start a little bit earlier at 10 AM exceptionally to hear from her about her address to the Human Rights Council and her priorities for the remainder of the 80th session, including the UN80 reform initiative, the selection and appointment process of the next UN Secretary General, and how defending the UN Charter.
You will have a, of course, complete agenda of the briefing on Tuesday morning as usual, but please be informed already that we will wait for you in person here in the room to start the briefing at 10 instead of 10/30 with the President of the General Assembly.
There will be also some press conferences next week.
We'll start by reminding you the one of the Permanent Mission of Israel Ambassador Daniel Marron, who will brief you at 2:00 PM at this take out position.
In all 14 on Monday, Thursday, 26th of February, at 1:00 PM, we'll have a press conference by the special OHCR special procedures.
It will be given by Nicholas Livrat.
And so it's a series of a special procedure special rapporteurs.
The subject is the attacks against the UN system, special procedures, and the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The Special Rapporteur on this situation, Francesca Benes, will be online.
We'll talk online at the press conference, where we will also have in person Nicola Livaja, Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Richard Bennett, Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and then two other special reporters online, George Katralogos, sorry, Katrue.
Katrue Gallos, independent expert on the promotion of the Democratic and Equitable international Order, and Fernanda Oppenheim, member of the Working Group on Business and Human Rights.
So these two will be online, Mrs Albanese will be online, and the other two special rapporteurs will be here in person at 1:00 PM on Thursday.
I also wanted to announce that on the 25th of February the you know, on the occasion of Social Justice Day 2026, there will be a special event on this matter with the title Exploring Fanon, the Colonisation, mind and Social justice from 2:30 to 6:30 in the afternoon, Room 14 at the Palais.
For this third edition, Social Justice Day 2026 will be dedicated to the figure and legacy of France.
Fanon, the revolutionary thinker and psychiatrist was idea on decolonization, systemic oppression and social justice remain profoundly relevant today.
Co organised by Unrist and Shop Shop in collaboration with the City of Geneva, Geneva Youth Service, the University of Geneva as the G Solution space and you know the day will feature an exclusive screening of the film Phenom in the newly renovated UN Cinema of the Palace.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the director of Film, director Jean Claude Burnie, the lead actor Alexandre Boyer and educator and activist Faris Barcat.
They will be exploring the relevance of finance idea at the intersection of the colonisation, psychiatry and social justice and what that means for the world today.
And I think this is all I had for you.
Just maybe a reminder that at 3:00 on Monday, the Secretary General will also address the Conference on Disarmament.
The there will be a press gallery.
We'll give you a little bit more information on this today, I hope, or Monday morning at the latest, if there are no other questions for me.
So I thank you all very much for following the briefing.
Have a nice weekend and brace yourself for next week.
