UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : UN Geneva Press Briefing

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva today, the 12th of May, for this press briefing.

Another important agenda for you, we have the situation of women and girls in Ukraine.

A colleague from UN Women, we'll hear from her momentarily.

We have James in the room from UNICEF, who is just back from the West Bank and he's going to brief us on the situation of children in the West Bank.

We also have colleagues from The Who speaking to the situation of Hauth in Gaza.

We have a colleague from UNDP speaking to the situation in South Sudan as well as colleagues from UNEP who you heard from earlier today.

But we'll also provide some follow up information to UNEP's report on sand and sustainability.

But without further ado, I'm going to throw to our colleague Sabine Fraser Gunness, who's UN Women's Representative Ukraine, joining us from Kiev.

We're very happy to have you here with us.

Miss Gunness, over to you for your brief.

Thank you very much for having me this morning.

Umm, so uh, I am speaking to you today from Kiev, uh, where the people of Ukraine have lived through more than 100, sorry, more than 1500 days of full scale war, a war that is becoming deadlier for women and girls.

The first three months of 2026 was the deadliest winter for women and girls in Ukraine since the first year of the full scale.

Since the first year of the invasion by the Russian Federation, some 199 women and girls were killed between January and March 2026.

This is more than the number of women and girls reported killed during the same.

In 20/25/2024 and 2023.

According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, we have already seen casualties among women increase significantly between 2025 and 2024, with an increase by 27%.

Each woman and girl killed was someone who had plans, purposes, had people who loved them deeply and who deeply depended on them.

In addition to the terrible death toll, attacks on civilian infrastructure have made life so much more difficult for women and girls in Ukraine.

Preliminary findings from Aun Women Assessment show that these energy attacks significantly increased the household load, the stress, the financial burden for women across the country, and worsened physical and mental health.

The impact have been particularly hard and devastating for women in caregiving roles, those with constrained resources and limited access to stable electricity.

Women are significantly more likely than men to report having no backup energy supply during disruptions.

73% of women say that they have no alternative energy sources.

Lesser seen than the immense destruction is the response to the war that women are leading.

The women keeping public transport running, teaching children in underground classrooms, caring for older relatives, demining contaminated land, repairing energy systems, and holding their families and communities together.

One of these women's is Tatiana Moruzenko, an energy worker whom I met last month from Sloviansk, A frontline city in the Donetsk region.

Tatiana leads a team of 27 energy workers responsible for repairing energy infrastructure following attacks to ensure that the city's homes, hospitals and schools can regain light and heat.

Tatiana and her All Men team work around the clock.

She told me What is damaged at night needs to be repaired in the morning and I stay here to do it.

Women are also leading the response through women LED organisations which are also under threat.

Nearly eight in 10 women organisations in Ukraine told You in Women that funding reductions have seriously affected their work, including some organisations reporting having to reduce the number of women and girls supported by their services.

Official donor assistance for recovery in Ukraine is also being reduced, while at the same time inequalities are increasing.

Women and girls in Ukraine cannot afford for the world's attention to fade.

They need sustained support, protection, investment and financing.

UN Women continues to work across Ukraine to provide protection services, humanitarian aid and guidance on laws, policies and budgets to make sure that women's needs are addressed.

We are also working to make sure that women are part of the political processes and the decision making on Ukraine's future, because at this moment they are largely sidelined.

But we know that lasting peace can only be reached when women are exploring are included in the negotiations.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Miss Goodness.

I take this opportunity just to remind you that colleagues, we shared with you over the weekend a statement from the Secretary General echoing some of these points and these important issues in calling, calling for a ceasefire.

As EU has been saying repeatedly, the Secretary General calls for immediate, full, unconditional, lasting ceasefire as a just, sustainable and comprehensive piece for a comprehensive piece.

So this was a statement that we shared on behalf of the SG earlier this week.

Over to your colleagues for any questions, starting from those in the room.

OK, I don't see any hands in the room.

[Other language spoken]

Give it a second.

[Other language spoken]

I don't see further.

I don't see any questions for that matter.

But I think your briefing was indeed very comprehensive.

So thank you very much for joining us, Miss Gunness.

And do keep up the great work and, and stay safe.

And, and do feel free to join us at any point in time.

Thank you very much.

Oh, sorry, I say corrected.

There is a question for you from our colleague from AFP, Alexander.

Yeah, sorry for the late reaction now just wanted to know if you have any idea of the percentage of those tools represent within the total population of civilians.

You, you get the figure of the woman and, and, and girls, but which percentage does it represent of the total of civilian killed during the same?

Let me see if I can get that for you right now.

These figures are all these figures on casualties are coming from the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine.

So it's they are the best source for this.

But one second please.

So what they in terms of women, women represented 40% of all civilian casualties in Q1 of 2026.

So if you so there's a differentiation that's made between women, girls, men and boys.

And so women represent 40%.

OK, thank you very much.

Is that clear?

Any further questions?

No, Alexand colleagues.

[Other language spoken]

So Bean, thank you once again, really appreciate your briefing and we'll certainly do what we can to spotlight this situation, particularly of women and girls in Ukraine.

So thank you very much.

James, if you can join me here on the podium, we're going to shift to the situation in the West Bank where James has just returned from speaking specifically of the situation of children.

And then thereafter we'll we'll do together.

We'll have Tara join us from WHO along with the guest joining us from Jerusalem.

Over to you, James.

Thanks so much, everyone.

[Other language spoken]

Children are paying an intolerable price for escalating military operations and settler attacks across the occupied West Bank, including E Jerusalem.

So between January 2025 and today, at least one Palestinian child has been killed on average every single week in the occupied West Bank, including E Jerusalem.

So that's 70 Palestinian children killed in this time frame.

Now 93% of those were killed by Israeli forces and a further 850 Palestinian children were injured.

Most of those killed or wounded were were done by live ammunition.

All this comes amid historic levels of settler attacks.

Ocher said last month that March 2026 saw the highest number of Palestinians injured by settler attacks in the last 20 years.

And we're seeing attacks become increasingly coordinated.

So documented incidents include children shot, stabbed, children beaten and children pepper sprayed.

Now, these are not isolated incidents.

They point to a sustained pattern of the worst kind of violations against children, as well as attacks on children's homes, on their schools and on the water that they rely on.

What is unfolding is not just an escalation in violent against violence against Palestinian children.

It's the steady dismantling of the conditions children need to survive and grow.

Homes are demolished, education is destroyed.

Water systems are attacked, Access to Healthcare is obstructed.

Movement is restricted.

Over the past thirty months, more than 900 additional barriers and restrictions have been imposed across the West Bank.

As a result, children in the West Bank, including E Jerusalem, are routinely cut off from schools, from hospitals and other essential services.

As movement becomes increasingly restricted or altogether denied, homes have become the front line of attack attacks on children.

In the first four months of this year, more than two and a half thousand Palestinians, 1100 children have been displaced.

That surpasses the total displacement recorded in 2025.

Now to recount just a single story from my most recent mission to the West Bank.

[Other language spoken]

He was asleep when settlers attacked his village.

Now his family home had been demolished 2 months earlier, so he was sleeping outside.

Little 8 year old Ezaldine was beaten with a piece of wood and hospitalised for head injuries.

His mother his mother had both her arms broken when she reached across to protect her four month old baby, putting therefore her arms between her baby and the attackers.

[Other language spoken]

For thousands of children across the West Bank, daily travel to school has become a walk through fear.

I walked with school children through the West Bank so as to try and help them avoid any any attacks and it's interesting to watch them walk.

They don't walk in a straight line because they're constantly looking over their shoulder.

This is a walk through to school.

It's become a walk through fear.

There have been 99.

There have been 99 documented education related incidents this year alone, including the killing, injury and detention of students, the demolition of schools, military use of school buildings and denial of access.

In just over 2 years to the end of 2025, more than 550 such incidents have been documented.

So schools, which should be places of safety and stability, are increasingly becoming places of panic attacks on schools.

And the denial of children's access to education are of course grave violations against children with long term consequences for their safety, for their well-being, for their future.

As I say, it was harrowing to walk with 12 year old Rua through her, through her school that was destroyed by settlers and Israeli forces.

It was a place where just months ago she was studying and we're just in months time she should have been celebrating her 6th grade 6 graduation, not morning demolition.

Once again a school turned to rubble.

She was able to show me every aspect of education in that place, from her grade, her first grade classroom where she used to study, to her final year papers, to a now broken school heater she said the teacher would use when they got cold.

Amid the wreckage, Rua asked a question that should haunt every one of us and demand not just condemnation but actual action.

I quote when I saw my school destroyed, a heavy feeling overwhelm me and I asked myself why was our school demolished?

In addition, according to Whatcher, in 2026 more than 60 water and sanitation structures were vandalised, including pipelines, irrigation systems and water tanks, further limiting already fragile access to clean water.

This of course has serious implications for both the economy, the Palestinian economy and Children's Health, their hygiene and their dignity.

Livestocks, livelihoods rather, are further dismantled through the theft of livestock.

All of this occurs amid a sharp rise in the arrest and the detention of children.

The latest data indicates that 347 Palestinian children from the West Bank are being held in Israeli military detention for alleged security related offences.

This is the highest number in eight years, alarming.

Alarmingly, more than half of these children, 180, are held under administrative detention and without the procedural safeguards, including detention without regular access to legal counsel and the right to challenge detention.

Taken together, these patterns reveal an overarching reality.

Children are being targeted both through direct violence and through the dismantling of essential systems and services.

Their suffering cannot be normalised.

UNICEF is seeking to support children and families in the West Bank access to safe waters and sanitation to healthcare by providing cash, learning materials and psychosocial care.

UNICEF calls on Israeli authorities who have legal obligations to uphold child rights in all areas within it's jurisdiction or effective control, including occupied territories, to take immediate and decisive action to prevent further killing and maiming of Palestinian children and to protect their homes, their schools and their access to water in line with international law.

UNICEF also calls on Member States with influence to use their leverage to ensure that international law is respected.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you James, a very important briefing indeed.

And thanks also for sharing the notes with us.

Lots of important figures there.

Before we go to Gaza, let's let's take questions.

Let's stick to the situation of West Bank first and then we'll exhaust Q&A on this and then we'll go to Gaza afterwards.

So let's start with Alexand.

[Other language spoken]

The, the figures is, is very important, but did you, did you manage to see the, the rate of the child death remained unchanged since the October 25 ceasefire?

Say one more time, I beg your pardon, one more time.

Did I manage to see is the rate of the child death hasn't changed since the October 25 ceasefire?

[Other language spoken]

And this is, of course, is, is the West Bank.

So it's a consistent #1A week since January 1, 2025, that's remained consistent for what is now 1617 months.

So that's just the West Bank.

Of course, if we were, if we were to move to Gaza, since that ceasefire in Gaza, the UNS documented at least 229 children killed since that ceasefire and 260 are injured and 60% of those have occurred in locations near the so-called yellow line.

[Other language spoken]

But no in the West Bank, sadly, consistent, consistent in the last 15 months, whether it be demolition of homes, of schools, of systems children rely on or of a girl or a boy being killed on average once a week.

Thanks very much for that, James.

Further questions in the room.

[Other language spoken]

So we'll take a question online from Nick, New York Times.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks for the briefing.

Jim, the figure of 347 children you said are being held in military detention, are they purely West Bank?

And over what period of time are these children detained?

This doesn't include children arrested in Gaza since October the 7th.

And I wonder if you could say a word about what kind of access children in military detention have to any kind of legal repose.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, so 347 from the West Bank as you know administrative detention means imprisonment and how and the 180 with under administrative detention that means imprisonment without charge or trial.

It's often based on you know secret evidence or renewable detention orders.

In terms of the time frame, if I average detention time, people often look at you can only get clarity of that from the prison service once someone's been sentenced.

Unfortunately that's a very small percentage of cases.

So given that high rate of administrative detention, then then getting a time frame is something of a, a legal and administrative black hole.

It might be 3 months, it might be 6 months, it might be 9 months.

And it might then Nick be when they turn 18, they're then moved into an adult prison and stay detained.

And that's something that to to, you know, United Nations Children's Fund is highly concerning because the, the CRC, the Convention of the Rights of the Child says that detention must be a last resort for the minimum appropriate time.

And the child must have the right to challenge the case in court and to expedient proceedings and to prompt judicial determination for whatever that child is accused of and to alternative detention.

That should be the the, the target for, for any state respecting the CRC.

Last part, Nick, related to your question is that we're also seeing in the last year maybe 2, a total deterioration of detention conditions for these children.

So not only are children being held longer and more of them are being held in administrative detention, but the sanitation of cells, the hygiene items children receive, time they're allowed outside their cell, these have, these have all deteriorated considerably.

[Other language spoken]

And of course, colleagues, you know that our colleagues at UN Human Rights have also delivered some sobering data on these points of administrative detention in a situation of prisoners overall.

Let's take further questions if there are.

Nick, I think you have a follow up for James.

[Other language spoken]

I wonder if you had something on the age profiles of of the children who have been killed and on the age profiles of the children who are detained.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks Nick of killed.

Yes, we will get that.

This is all through the MRM.

So everything of course I've explained to you has BeenVerified.

Yes and yeah.

So I we will get you both those things.

I mean I sat with a lot of children who'd been released from detention and it was a very similar, it it seemed, you know, the vast majority had been detained when they were 1415.

They also shared very similar stories in terms of, you know, in terms of the way they are calfed, the way they are interrogated, etcetera, etcetera.

But we'll come back to you on that.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, James.

Let's check online for the questions in the room perhaps.

No, I think it was crystal clear.

As always, James, thank you so very much and look forward to additional information.

Of course, one child being detained is too much, but thank you very much for sharing this information.

OK, colleagues, we're going to move to the situation in Gaza.

As mentioned, we have WHO connected online.

Tarek, I'm going to throw it to you to introduce your guest who's joining us from Jerusalem, I believe.

Over to you.

Thank you very much, Rolando.

[Other language spoken]

You will remember we issued in September 2025 a report on the needs for rehabilitation for people with severe life changing injuries.

We have update on that on that report and it's we will present it today.

You have with us our representative Occupy posting territory doctor Rene Van de Wert, who spoke to you a couple of weeks ago.

She will talk about this report.

We also have online colleague Pete Skelton who is in Beirut and who is our lead on rehabilitation work on rehabilitation.

So he may also jump in to answer some of your questions.

We are sending notes, but we are also in the notes that I will send now.

There will be a link to the to the report itself and we may also send it to our global media list later.

So with this, I'll give the floor to the doctor, Doctor Renee to tell us.

Great, thank you.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning colleagues.

As was just mentioned today WHO we released the latest estimates on conflict related injuries in Gaza.

An estimated 43,000 people of the more than 170,000 people injured in Gaza since October 23 have sustained life changing injuries and up to 1/4 of those with life changing injuries are children.

[Other language spoken]

Since the last report in September 25, almost 5000 additional injuries have been recorded and nearly half of these 5000 additional injuries occurred after the ceasefire announced in October of 25.

Severe injuries span multiple categories.

Major injuries to the limbs account for the largest chair with over 22,000 cases.

This is followed by limp amputations with more than 5000 recorded 2000 cases of spinal cord injuries, 3400 people affected by major burns and last but not least traumatic brain injuries affecting more than 1300 people in total.

More than 50,000 contact related injuries require long term rehabilitation.

Nearly 14,000 patients have registered for review by the Limb Reconstruction Service between July last year and today and of those assessed, almost half require further surgery at the same time.

Of the 2277 people that have had a limb amputated, less than 25% have been fitted with permanent prosthetics.

This due to severe shortage of pathetics in Grassi.

As I said at the beginning of my intervention, this report only reflects on conflict related injuries.

People with chronic conditions, pre-existing disabilities or age-related needs face the same overwhelmed and constrained system, and their rehabilitation needs removed as urgent.

Despite the scale of the needs, rehabilitation services in Gaza remain critically constrained.

Not one rehabilitation facility is function, and today there are fewer hospitals providing specialist rehabilitation than before the conflict.

Access to rehabilitation equipment and assistive products and technology remains severely restricted.

In December last year, we estimated that nearly 33,000 assistive technology and mobility products were needed to meet the demand and so far we've only been able to cover 1/3 of the need.

As of today, 18 shipments of rehabilitation related supplies are pending clearance to anther Gaza, with waiting times ranging from 130 days to more than a year.

Funding items include things such as wheelchairs, prostatic limbs and basic rehabilitation equipment such as stationary bicycles and everyday that rehabilitation services in Gaza remain under resourced as a day that preventable disability risks the component.

WTO together with her partners continue to support the amazing health workers that work relentlessly to address the huge rehabilitation needs in Gaza.

But urgent priorities must be addressed to ensure that all those suffering from injuries receive the treatment and care they deserve.

First and foremost, they needs to be sustained Pete to prevent additional conflict related injuries and health needs to be protected.

We call for essential medical supplies, including rehabilitation equipment, prosthetics and assistive products to anti Gaza without delay or rejection.

And we urge for sustained involvement in Gaza's health system to support restoration of services, reducing reliance on medical evacuations.

The people of Gaza have endured unimaginable suffering.

They deserve not just emergency care, but the sustained support needed to recover and to reclaim the advice.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Doctor Evander Vert.

It's hard to imagine the situation, colleagues, but thank you very much for for sharing these these stories with us to try to come up with some sort of response.

OK, let's see if there are questions in the room before we go online.

[Other language spoken]

I'm not sure what to tell you here, but we, I think our colleagues are a little, I think that coupled with a very comprehensive briefing.

Let me just give it another second before we turn.

No, there are no questions for you, doctor.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you so very much for joining us from Jerusalem.

Thank you very much for painting this this picture.

And of course, do share your notes with us, Tarik.

Thank you very much.

And again, to you, James, thank you for that.

OK, colleagues, we're going to go South.

We're going to shift to South Sudan.

Specifically, our colleague from the UN Development Programme, Mohammed Abchir, who is the Resident Representative in South Sudan is joining us here.

We're very pleased to have you with us, Sir.

I know that your time is precious here, but you wanted to take this opportunity to brief journalists, so we're very grateful to have you here.

So over to you for your brief.

Is it on?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for having me here today.

At a time when global attention is shifting to multiple crises, South Sudan is facing a dangerous combination of declining donor financing, political uncertainty, localised violence, climate shocks, displacement and rising humanitarian needs.

Despite these pressures, communities across the country are still choosing peace building over division, livelihoods over dependency, and dialogue over violence.

South Sudan is not destined to relieve its past.

A more stable feature is being built, but only sustained investment can keep it on course.

This year alone, we supported 20,220 people to access justice and legal aid services, many for the first time in their lives.

More than 303,000 sorry 400 and young people, most of them women, receive vocational and business management training.

[Other language spoken]

179 peace committees were established across communities.

Nearly 7 local conflict incident were addressed.

More than half of those disputes were resolved peacefully.

What does that mean?

In one of the world's most fragile environment, communities are resolving conflicts through dialogue instead of violence.

We are seeing measurable progress in health system.

More than 88,000 are now receiving HIV treatment.

AIDS related deaths have fallen from over 8000 in 2022 to 5100 and in 2025 all across the country.

Distribution of oxygen cylinders to hospitals increased by 300% and over $23 million worth HIV and TB medicines and laboratories supplies were delivered to 265 health facilities across the country.

These investment save lives, but they also strengthen systems and that communities rely on every day.

In 2025, UNDP and partners supported over 8.25 million people with information on constitutional process, justice, human rights through community engagement and radio outreach.

Why that does that matter?

Because when people understand their rights, institution become more accountable.

And when institutions become more accountable, peace as a chance.

Supporting electoral process is not about supporting one political actor over another, so it's about supporting the South Sudanese people right to participate peacefully and inclusively in shaping the future.

UNDP role is to help create conditions for transparency, participation, civic engagement and institutional readiness while continuing to advocate for dialogue, restraint and confidence building measures among all stakeholders.

Development cannot wait for perfect political conditions.

If you wait for absolute stability before investing in institutions, livelihoods, woman youth and local resilience, we will wait forever.

Fragile countries do not become stable 1st and develop later.

Very often, development itself is what creates stability, so the reduction in development financing is becoming a serious concern because the cost of disengagement will ultimately be far greater than the cost of sustaining sustained investment.

When development finding disappears, fragility deepens.

Local institutions weaken, community loose services and humanitarian needs expand even further.

Despite all the challenges, I remain cautiously optimistic.

It's easy to look at South Sudan and see only fragility, but this is not the full story.

Across the country, communities are working together, resolving disputes and investing in their future.

These are early but real signs that a different path to where stability and peace is not only possible, but that is the only that is already under way.

So this progress is fragile and sustaining it depends on continued investment.

I thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you very much, Mr Abchir.

Very important messages indeed.

Let's see if there are questions for you either in the room or online.

No, I don't see any.

[Other language spoken]

It's a quiet day for engagement, but thank you very much nevertheless.

We'll make sure to amplify this.

And thank you again for.

You're based in Juba, I think.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, I'm based.

You're based in Juba.

Thank you very much for taking the time.

[Other language spoken]

All the best.

[Other language spoken]

OK, colleagues from UNEP are going to join us here.

I'm very happy to have Pascal Pedusi, who is the director of GRID Geneva.

And I think, Mark, you're going to join us as well on the podium.

[Other language spoken]

Why not?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much Sir for joining us.

[Other language spoken]

Of course.

And this is a follow up to the press conference that UNEP gave this morning at 9:30.

But I think there is some additional messages which they wanted to share with you.

So over to you, Pascal.

Yes, Many thanks.

So today we are launching our third sand and sustainability report and this report is now focusing on the dual tension that we have and the dependency that we have on sand as a building materials for making concrete and sand that we depend on in nature.

Once it's providing all these services such as filtering water, maintaining the the river flows, protecting our shorelines, supporting biodiversity.

So the problem is that we have, we want sand both in his dead form.

When you transform sand into concrete, it's no longer sand, you cannot go back.

[Other language spoken]

And we need sand in his life form when it's in nature supporting all the ecosystem services.

So we want sand dead and alive.

And of course that's that's not possible.

We have to choose very wisely.

We have to use it with care because sand is the second material used by human after water.

So it's actually the first solid material used by by human.

We are using the staggering amount of 50 billion tonnes per year just to give an ID 50 billion tonnes is enough material to make a wall of 27 metre wide, 27 metre high or around the equator every year.

So it's you cannot extract that amount of material without having a large impact in depends.

The impact will depends where you extract it from.

If you extract it from static places like on crunching rocks or in quarries, it's actually not as bad because the the sand does not interact as much with the ecosystems.

But when it is extracted from rivers, from lakes, from beaches, from marine environment, their sand plays a very important role in sustaining these ecosystems for biodiversity.

Think about turtles, crabs, birds, fishes, all of that needs sand as part of the ecosystem, but we human as well As for filtering water, protecting our shoreline, we sea level rise, we have the risk of salinations of coastal aquifers.

And for that, if you take sand away from the beach, you're making it even more vulnerable.

So this, this report is bringing these pictures of the dual need for sand in terms of material for building material and also sand as services provided in the for supporting the biodiversity.

We are, we've been working 14 months on that with 27 lead authors.

It brings lots of new fact.

And for example, we know that sand is going, demand is going to increase for building by 45% from now to 2060.

It will increase mostly in Africa because we have a population growth associated with migration from rural to urban area, catching up on development and economic growth that those factors are going to drive further, exacerbate further the demand for building material and sand and gravels in the first place.

And in Africa, like in many other places in Asia as well, sandy is extracted by artisanal workers.

They only have a shovel and a truck.

So they cannot go in in queries or crunching rocks that request too much expensive, too expensive tools.

So they can only go where it's easy to find.

Unfortunately, where it's easy to find, it's where it hurts the most because it's in the rivers, in lakes and beaches and cause close to the coastline.

So this is the the challenge which we have.

We need to shift from informal sector to formal sector, investing in taking sand sourcing in a better way.

And this report examine through various systems and framework how we could better manage the sand resources for using it with care and we use it more wisely.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks to you, Pascal.

Any questions for our colleague?

[Other language spoken]

We do have a question actually from Kyodo News.

[Other language spoken]

So thank you for this briefing.

Very interesting topic indeed.

[Other language spoken]

My first one would be related to like more geographical purposes, like could you describe a bit in which continent we are seeing maybe less sand or where the needs are the higher but like the supply is the lowest?

My second question would be related to the involvement of Member States.

Have you seen any Member States willing to take the lead to find a solution or is any member states having any ideas or is willing to engage more about this topic?

And my third one would be related to like in which meetings or in in which context could you discuss that?

Remember states, do we have a meeting?

I'm not so, so much aware about it.

So that's why I would like to ask more questions about that.

Like in which forum would you discuss about this problematic?

Thank you very much.

Thanks for your question.

So geographical, it's actually a global issue because sand is being used everywhere.

So if you look where you see large urbanisation processes, this is where the need's going to be the biggest in terms of access to sand resources.

It's true that you have difference in geography and some places have more sand than others.

It depends on the past activities, geological activities such as glaciers.

Actually sand is produced through slow geological time scale processes, whereas we're using at 50 billion tonnes per year.

So that's there's a same gap because where we use it, we are using way faster that it can replenish itself.

So in Southeast Asia, it's mostly taken out of rivers, but those rivers have been now really dredged in a in in a very intense way and we start to see problems like riverbanks, erosions and change in river flows.

It's not only happening in developing countries.

We see shortage looming in in North Europe in countries where they don't have mountains such as Belgium, Netherlands and Denmark where these countries resulted in mountains only rely on mine sand And Belgium has done their assessment.

They've got until 2080 to at the paste of what the extracting sense from marine environment and the Netherlands even less so.

Small islands have more in the target because small islands to have a very small territory, they are affected by sea level rise.

So the most of the infrastructures is very close to the coastline.

So the they will need sand to replenish their beaches and to protect themselves from salination of their coastal aquifers.

And we see shortages in, in places where people are doing 2 large investment, two large infrastructures very recently about not that recently for media.

About a year ago, we saw that in Manila International Airport had to stop the development of the new airport because they're lacking sand, because the, the sand extraction was forbidden in Manila Bay.

And so they had to find alternative sources.

And the, the, the work has to stop for months.

So we start to see that we are reaching a limit.

Of course, we have a vast amount of sand, but a vast amount has to be compared to what we are taking out of the environment.

And that's 50 billion tonnes.

On your question of which Member States have been interested in this, in this topic, actually very many.

We run a very large consultations in 2023 with conferences being held in Geneva, Paris, Bangkok, Dakar and Santiago de Chile.

We had a global consultation here in Geneva and 120 Member States were supporting actually to have more information regarding Sands.

The the forum that we are using is the United Nation Environment Assembly, which is happening every two years in Nairobi.

And since 2019 we have resolutions that were taken in 2019 was resolution Nineteen, 2022 was resolution twelve, 2024 was resolution 5 and 2025 was resolution resolution three.

While mentioning that it's climbing up the agenda, 19125 and 3 Member States do get more interest in this topic because they see the points they they start to reach the limits of the access to the resource.

This is definitely the case in Africa.

When we run the meeting in Dhaka, every single African countries were saying we don't know how to deal with this issue.

So it's getting more and more present.

The good news is we do have solutions.

We can build with less sand, we can use alternative material.

So we, we try to explain that we can build for longer time, but it's really a change of attitude and a change that we have with these resources.

We should be, as I say, use it more wisely.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for entering on good news.

That's something we certainly can use here.

And thank you indeed.

This is an interesting subject.

Thanks for informing and educating us on this.

Do we have any questions?

For the questions, I think you want to add something.

Yeah, go ahead in the press release and you can find here in the box you have reports in the press release.

In the press release we did, there is a link to media kit.

[Other language spoken]

In the media kit.

You will access the report, the figures, the contact of the lead authors, the presentation I just did this morning as well as the press release itself.

So and and free pictures to to use directly are free of licence if you want to use the media kit.

Excellent, that's good to know.

I think you will have received, I think Mark shared that with you earlier today.

Of course, if you have any questions, you can follow up with Mark.

And thank you again, Pascal.

I think that does it for the question.

So thank you for joining us again, nearly done colleagues.

Just a couple of announcements before we wrap up.

Just to mention as you well know, the Secretary General Antonio Guterres is in Nairobi today.

Short while ago he delivered remarks at the opening of the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi.

At the UN office in Nairobi, the Secretary General said quote, Africa is not Whiting, Africa is moving, Africa is leading.

Secretary General stressed that Africa is driving solutions on global financial reform, climate action and sustainable development, while calling for a more just international system and stronger global solidarity.

Those comments are contained in the statement which we shared with you about an hour ago.

So the SG is as mentioned in Nairobi.

He arrived there yesterday and he gave a press conference.

We shared the transcript with you earlier.

He also delivered remarks at an important groundbreaking ceremony to to launch the new conference centre at our office in Nairobi.

Those comments you also have whilst in Nairobi, he also met with the President Ruto of Kenya and we shared the readout as well as with the the President of Sierra Leone.

So those readouts are shared with you.

He's moving, that is the Secretary General will be heading to Addis Ababa this afternoon, where tomorrow he will address the 10th African Union United Nations Annual Conference.

So that's tomorrow and we'll surely send those comments to you as well.

Just a couple of more things.

The meetings taking place here in Geneva.

We have the Conference on Disarmament, as I mentioned last week, it kicked off this yesterday, in fact, the 11th of May.

There are no public meetings until the end of the month as the the Review Conference of the NPT is taking place in New York.

So there are no public meetings for them, The Conference of Disarmament, yet the session is opened just to note that the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council continues this week.

Today the countries under review are Sierra Leone and Singapore.

And almost last, we have a press conference to announce while it's not taking place here, it's at Pele Wilson, the office of the headquarters.

One of the headquarters, I should say, for the UN Human Rights office, will be hosting a press conference this coming Monday, the 18th of May at 2:00 PM on the situation.

We just heard about the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ajit Sungai, our colleague from the Human Rights, and he's the head of the human rights office in the OPT.

We'll be speaking to you at 2:00 PM and this is in person only, so do take a look at the media advisory we shared with you yesterday at Pelley Wilson 2:00 PM on Monday.

Last but not least, there's a press statement that you should have received in your inbox from the International Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar concerning the This headline is one year after deadly school attack, Myanmar children continue to be the victims of military's of the military's AR campaign, an important subject that continues to concern us and certainly should be spotlighted situation in Myanmar.

So do take a look at that press release and that is all I have for you if you have any questions.

No, that's not the case.

So I wish you a good afternoon.

See you here on Friday.

Oh, sorry, Alex.

Alex, just a question, are we going to have a briefing on Friday?

Yeah, we will have a briefing on Friday.

I know that Thursday is Ascension and there is a floating holiday as we call it here in the UN.

Some colleagues will be away, but we are business as usual on Friday.

So hope to see you there.

[Other language spoken]

UN Geneva Press Briefing - 12 May 2026