UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 06 July 2021

46:24

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384.2 MB

06-07-2021

Press Conferences | UNOG

UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 06 July 2021

ENG

Human Rights Council update

Rolando Gomez, for the Human Rights Council, said that a number of draft resolutions had been submitted on topics including the Syrian Arab Republic, Myanmar, Belarus, Eritrea, Tigray, digital technology and human rights, climate change and human rights, and the human rights implications of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic; they would be considered on 12 and 13 July.

That morning, the Council would hold a panel discussion on the human rights of women, with a focus on gender-equal recovery from the pandemic. Opening remarks would be given by the High Commissioner and the Minister for Women and Gender Equity of Chile. The interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner regarding the situation in Venezuela would continue as of noon, to be followed at 3 p.m. by an oral update by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and an interactive discussion and, at 5 p.m., by an interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner regarding Myanmar.

On 7 July, the Council would hold its quadrennial panel on sport and the Olympic ideal on the theme of leveraging sport to promote the human rights of young people. The President of the International Olympic Committee and the Director-General of the Tokyo Organizing Committee would give opening statements, and the panelists would include Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston marathon. The dialogue on Myanmar would resume at noon, followed by the oral progress report by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar and, time permitting, a report by the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises on the ninth session of the Forum on Business and Human Rights.

Worsening humanitarian crisis for children in South Sudan

James Elder, for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said that despite a new peace agreement and transitional government, the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan was affecting 4 out of every 5 children. It was against that backdrop that UNICEF was launching its report “Respond to our cry”.

Christine Saida, UNICEF South Sudan child reporter, said that South Sudan would be marking the tenth anniversary of its independence on 9 July. Based on her experience and observations, most recently in Pibor, children’s rights were not respected in her country, and children faced many dangers, including abduction, child labour, displacement, and malnutrition. Most people in South Sudan survived on humanitarian assistance, hence the current need for additional support. Ensuring a brighter future for South Sudanese children was a collective responsibility.

Mads Oyen, UNICEF chief of field operations in South Sudan, said that the overall situation for children had not improved over the past 10 years and the country was experiencing its worst humanitarian crisis since independence, triggered by ongoing political and intercommunal violence, insecurity and the impact of climate change. Of the 8.3 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, 4.5 million were children. Yet, the crisis was forgotten by the world. UNICEF and its partners had scaled up their multisectoral response since late 2020, with some positive results, including a 95 per cent recovery rate from severe acute malnutrition. However, it was vital – and more cost-effective – that they received the necessary resources to act quickly. The $180 million Humanitarian Action for Children was only one third funded, as was the South Sudan humanitarian response plan for 2021. State safety nets being nonexistent, humanitarian assistance for South Sudan was critical and should not be subject to cuts.

Replying to questions from journalists, Ms. Saida said that the Government was not doing enough to support education, which was a major avenue for change in the country. While she was currently working to voice the views of children, her dream was to be an engineer.

Death of prominent human rights defender in India

Elizabeth Throssell, for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that OHCHR was deeply saddened and disturbed by the death of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy, a human rights defender and Jesuit priest, in Mumbai, following his arrest in October 2020 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. While in pretrial detention, Father Stan’s health had deteriorated, and he had reportedly contracted COVID-19. His repeated applications for bail had been rejected. High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet and United Nations independent experts had repeatedly raised the cases of Father Stan and 15 other human rights defenders associated with the same events with the Government of India, urging their release from pretrial detention. In the light of the continued, severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was even more urgent that States released every person detained without sufficient legal basis. She stressed the High Commissioner’s call on the Government of India to ensure that no one was detained for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.

The full briefing note is available here.

Replying to questions from journalists, Ms. Throssell said that Father Stan’s treatment and his death in prison despite repeated calls for his release was another example of why it was so important that all States released persons being held without sufficient legal basis, especially in the context of COVID-19. Several special mandate holders had issued a detailed legal analysis of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in May 2020, which raised some concerns, notably with regard to the definition of the commission of terrorism.

Protests in Eswatini

Elizabeth Throssell, for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that the eruption of violence in the Kingdom of Eswatini in recent days was deeply concerning, amid reports that dozens of people have been killed or injured during protests calling for democratic reforms. OHCHR had received allegations of disproportionate and unnecessary use of force, harassment, and intimidation by security forces in suppressing the protests and was concerned at reports that Internet services had been disrupted. OHCHR urged the authorities to fully adhere to human rights principles in restoring calm and the rule of law. It called on the Government to ensure that there were prompt, transparent, effective, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of human rights violations and that those responsible were held to account. It also urged the Government to initiate a longer-term dialogue to air and address the underlying public concerns that had given rise to the recent protests. OHCHR remain committed to working with the Government of Eswatini to strengthen human rights promotion and protection, including guaranteeing the right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association and to participate in the conduct of public affairs.

The full text of the briefing note can be found here.

Announcements

Margaret Harris, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator Facilitation Council would be holding a meeting with States that afternoon, which the media could attend, though there would be no opportunity for questions.

She added that WHO would be hosting a side-event at the high-level political forum on sustainable development, to which the media were also invited.

Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said that the next public meeting of the Human Rights Committee would be held on 16 July, at 4 p.m., to consider the progress report of the Rapporteur on follow-up to concluding observations on State party reports. The Committee’s 132nd session would close on 23 July.

The next plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament was scheduled for 27 July, still under the presidency of Ambassador Leslie Norton of Canada.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) would be holding a virtual press conference today, at 2.30 p.m., on the publication of the 2021 Commodities and Development Report: Escaping from the commodity dependence trap through technology and innovation, which was under embargo until 7 July, at 7 a.m. Speakers would include Teresa Moreira, Officer-in-Charge, Division on International Trade and Commodities, UNCTAD, and Janvier Nkurunziza, Officer-in-Charge, Commodities Branch, Division on International Trade and Commodities, UNCTAD.

Teleprompter

[Other language spoken]

Good morning, everyone.

[Other language spoken]

Welcome to this press briefing of Tuesday, the 6th of July.

In our new briefing room, Room 27 in Building E, We are going to start with a couple of announcements.

We have Rolando Gomez from the Human Rights Council who's going to give us an update, an update on what's happening at the council.

Is Rolando there?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Rael, and have a warm welcome to you and good morning to all of you.

I will address the programme of the Human Rights Council for today in a moment.

Just before I do so, I just wanted to draw your attention to the various resolutions, draught resolutions that were tabled yesterday per the deadline for the submission of draught resolutions, which will be considered by the Human Rights Council on the last two days of the current session, that's 12 and 13 July.

These texts include those on Syria, Myanmar, Belarus, Eritrea, the Tigray region and Ethiopia and and various themes such as emerging digital technologies and human rights, climate change and human rights, the human rights implications of COVID and the rights of people of African descent in the excessive use of force by law enforcement.

So various draught resolutions which are all available on the HRC extranet.

Now today's programme at the Council.

At 10 AM, the Council began a panel discussion on human rights of women with a focus on gender equal socio economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

We heard opening statements by the **** Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, as well as Monica Monica, sorry, Monica Zeliget Saeed, who is the Minister for Women and Gender Equity of Chile.

Now, this panel is taking place against the background of Earth profoundly negative impact on gender equality and women's rights caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For example, more women lost their jobs than men as a result of the pandemic and women's labour force participation continues to decline more rapidly than that of men.

So the panel will discuss concrete ways to ensure mid and long term, longer term socio economic recovery plans from the COVID-19 pandemic that can advance gender equality.

So the details on the panel itself and on the panellists are in the concept note I shared with you last night at noon.

After the panel, we will continue the interactive dialogue with the **** Commissioner on the human rights situation in Venezuela.

There are just a few NGOs remaining to speak, and they will have the concluding remarks by Michelle Bachelet, **** Commissioner.

[Other language spoken]

This afternoon at 3:00 PM, the Council will hear an oral update by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, whose report or update rather covers recent developments in the country fall.

And this will be followed by concerned country statement and an interactive discussion that should last about two hours.

And then at roughly 5:00 PM, we'll hear the presentation of an oral update by the **** Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bashley, on the human rights situation in Myanmar now with a particular focus on accountability regarding the alleged human rights violation since the 1st of February this year.

And this will be followed by an interactive dialogue and will continue to tomorrow.

Very briefly, just turning to tomorrow morning, the Council will hold another panel discussion, it's quadrennial panel on sport and the Olympic ideal in view of the in the site of the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo.

Now, this year's panel will address the potential of leveraging sport and the Olympic ideal for promoting human rights for young people and will feature opening statements by Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee.

This is a video message, as well as Toshiro Muto, who is the director general of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, also a video message.

And there's an impressive cast of panellists, including, if I may say, one of my heroes, Catherine Switzer, who is an athlete and social advocate who defied authority.

You might know her story.

She defied authorities in 1967 and ran the Boston Marathon when women were not allowed to run in marathons, but she went ahead and did so.

And she really set a landmark occasion and has since been advocating for not just young women and women in in general, but for youngsters to get involved in sports.

So she'll be speaking tomorrow as well.

So at 12 O clock, at the end of that panel, we'll have the continuation of the dialogue in Myanmar, which I mentioned with the **** Commissioner.

And then in the afternoon tomorrow on the same subject, the Council will hold, will rather hear an oral progress report from the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, and he will present the latest situation in the country.

Similar to the **** Commissioner's comments, he will also be developed, focusing on the development since the 1st of February this year and time permitting, at the end of the day tomorrow we'll hear from the Working Group on Human Rights in Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises, presenting a report on the ninth session of the Forum on Business in Human Rights held in November last year.

That's all I have for all the full programme you have there.

[Other language spoken]

We have the question from Christian Erlich.

Thank you, Real.

[Other language spoken]

Did I understand correctly that the statement on Myanmar by Madame Bachelet is at 5:00 PM today?

And could you, could you alert us because some of us might not be allude to our television sets to see when it starts.

I wonder whether there might be a delay.

And I think you might be aware of the bad quality of the sound on the new system.

So it's, it's, it's a bit of a tricky problem to really follow that properly.

[Other language spoken]

Absolutely, Christian.

I will send you updates.

We do expect it to take place just maybe just before 5.

I would suggest if you're interested in that discussion on Myanmar to tune in just a little bit earlier.

I will be sending you updates.

And just a reminder to check SCEDSCHED.

It's it's our app which we're using to really in real time.

It keeps you up to date on the movings, movings and comings and goings in the Council because it is a very live programme.

But thanks for the question and I, of course, I will share with you whatever statements I can get in advance.

[Other language spoken]

Are there any other questions for Rolando from the room or online?

I think that's all for you today.

Thank you very much, Rolando.

We are going to continue Margaret Harris from WHO would like to just make a couple of quick announcements.

So Enrico, if we could connect to Margaret Harris from WHO?

[Other language spoken]

Hello everybody and nice to be with you all.

Just wanted to let you know that we've got the ACT Acceleration, ACT Accelerator Facilitation Council is going to do a briefing this afternoon.

Now, normally they have meetings that are closed, but this one is open.

They're briefing member states, but media can join as well.

There will be AQ and A, but my understanding is media won't be able to ask the questions, but there will be a lot of interesting stuff about use of the vaccines, also accelerating use of medicines and other things for COVID-19.

So I wanted to let you know that's happening.

I'll send you the links so that you can join that meeting.

It's this afternoon.

And the other thing is it's a side event going on at the **** level political forum on accelerating the SDGS toward the health SDGS.

It's a WHO side event and you can also join that.

So I'll send the links.

So that's over for me.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much.

Margaret, are there any questions?

I see Tama has his hand raised.

Good morning Tama, is this for Margaret or I saw that it was he raised and before she started or is it for Orlando?

[Other language spoken]

Reality is for Doctor Harris.

[Other language spoken]

Doctor Harris, I wonder if you have a comment in what happened in Tunisia as the official media announced that 33 children under nine years old are infected with COVID and some of them died efficiently.

I wonder if you have a comment on that and if if there are similar cases in different places in the world.

Thank you very much.

OK, we will take this question, but if there are other questions for Margaret, we'll we'll have to wait until after we've gone through our agenda.

But Margaret, if you want to answer this one question, tell me, do you mean they died from COVID itself or?

I'm sorry, I don't have details on that particular incident.

Would you mind sending me a quick e-mail so I can follow up with colleagues in the region to get you more information?

[Other language spoken]

And Stephanie Nabe from Reuters also has her hand raised.

[Other language spoken]

Just I may have missed it, but did you say what time this this meeting is, please?

The it's the facilitation council, right?

Or anyway, I didn't hear a time, a time, time in for that, please.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, you didn't because in fact, I have to check the time.

[Other language spoken]

They gave me this information just at 10:00 and that's why I jumped in and said, listen, I I think it's about it's this afternoon, mid afternoon.

I'll send you the exact time with the links.

OK, Maybe you could send when you send your the time, you can send it to all the correspondents.

So they all, they all know exactly when this is happening.

Exactly.

[Other language spoken]

I don't see any more hands raised.

[Other language spoken]

I believe you'll stay on the line with us a little bit.

[Other language spoken]

All right.

We're going to move right ahead, right along with our agenda.

Then we have James Elder from UNICEF with us this morning.

He's got 2 guests, Mads Oyen, the UNICEF's Chief of Field Operations in South Sudan, and Christine Saida, who is UNICEF's South Sudan child reporter.

They're joining us from Juba.

And I'll let James do a brief introduction.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning, everyone.

Look, many of you will, I'm sure, been in and out of South Sudan over the past 7 1/2 years of of conflicts.

And at times, we saw that hope burn, you know, burn bright.

At the moment, however, despite a new peace agreement, despite A transitional government, we have a humanitarian crisis affecting a pretty staggering 4 out of five kids.

So today UNICEF has launched a new report around what that looks like, what needs to be done, what we are doing called respond to our cry.

I'm going to send that out with the press release and with of course, this briefing.

As we all said, you're going to hear from our chief of field operations.

You're also they're going to hear.

And I'm delighted to introduce now a 17 year old S Sudanese being very pertinent given more than half her life has been during South Sudan, South Sudan's conflict.

Christine Seider, she's a UNICEF child reporter in South Sudan.

That means she reports on climate change.

She reports on girl child marriage and of course, a lot on COVID and closure of school.

[Other language spoken]

As I say, she's just finished secondary school with about one in 14 girls in South Sudan and in secondary school.

So she's just finished secondary school.

She's waiting on her results.

[Other language spoken]

But we hope the connectivity is OK.

Christine, are you there?

Christine is not connected yet, I think.

Mads, are you still there?

[Other language spoken]

I see that you're here right now.

[Other language spoken]

My name is Christine Andrea.

[Other language spoken]

For two years, UNICEF Chair report of programme was set for children to express their opinions on any matters affecting them across South Sudan.

It will be celebrating our 10th anniversary, our independence here in South Sudan next Friday.

I would like to share some few words with you based on the situation analysis of children and my messages are based on what I've seen around here in South Sudan and on a recent mission I did to Bibor.

Now Bibor is one of the counties most affected by the crisis.

Our country is growing is going through.

In South Sudan, the rights of children are not respected.

The rights to go to school, the right to aid, the right to protection and security, there are many rights that are not given to us children here in South Sudan.

Children are facing a lot of crisis here in South Sudan.

Child abduction, child marriage, child labour, the many violence, the many child ***** problems that children are are going through in South Sudan.

Most people survive from humanitarian assistance and that is why we need more support at this particular time because many children, more people could die if Donald do not support us in our education, in our agriculture, in our food and in our medication.

So it is a collective responsibility of everyone to ensure a better future for every child.

So we are saying give us our rights, respect our to raise his children and respond to a cry.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Christine.

[Other language spoken]

James, do you want me to step in?

[Other language spoken]

Go right ahead.

Right.

And I do apologise for the audio and video quality.

We just had a terrible downpour here and that tends to happen, so that's perhaps appropriate.

So the country is now celebrating its 10th anniversary of independence and the overall, the overall situation for children has not really improved.

And children, as we heard, remain in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

And that is the message of the report that UNICEF South Sudan is issuing today called Respond to Our Cry.

As I said, we are actually going through the worst humanitarian crisis since independence 10 years ago.

There are many factors for this crisis, but triggering factors include the continuous violence and insecurity, both political violence and armed conflict, as well as intercommunal violence with breakdowns of law and order at local levels, with cycles of revenge killing rates and so on, as well as the impact of climate change and flooding.

So it's appropriate that that we have this incredible downpour now we have changing weather patterns that are extremely disruptive to to many people and in especially in the most difficult areas.

Again, 8.3 million people need humanitarian assistance and 4.5 million of those are children.

Those numbers have never been higher.

So South Sudan is really one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and one of the most forgotten.

And we have the highest percentage of children in need in the in the world that as part of the total population.

And we still have 2.2 million refugees outside the country and 1.6 million internally displaced people.

So to prepare for this and to respond, we have and partners have scaled up multi sectorial response since the end of 2020.

We started in January, sorry, in December 2020, January 2021, focusing on on the 10 counties that have been most affected by the crisis and we had some positive results.

I think it's important to emphasise that, emphasise that we can actually achieve things if we act early and if we are given the resources.

Collectively, 90,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition throughout the country were treated and we have a recovery rate more than 95%.

So a child who is severely acutely malnourished is a disaster.

But the treatment is, is very effective.

Although of course we also need to focus on the prevention.

This should never happen in the 1st place.

So the it's not a success story that it happens, but the treatment at least is a success story.

I think we're now faced like many countries with budget cuts for humanitarian assistance.

And this is really the core of our message is that in South Sudan, given the weakness of state safety Nets which are in many areas non existent, in many areas, no public resources go to provide the safety Nets for children and.

Therefore, any cuts in humanitarian assistance will have an immediate impact.

There is nothing between humanitarian assistance and no assistance.

And that is why we are appealing for to donors to really put South Sudan in a separate category where we don't cut because any cuts again will result in immediate impact because there is no, it is not a question of a weak government safety net.

There is no safety net on nutrition, on health, on water and sanitation, on, on child protection.

So, so the so the impact will help immediately.

And that is not just for what UNICEF does, it's what for we all do as humanitarian actors.

And that's again our key message here is that it's important that humanitarian assistance is maintained at the current level because the impact will be so swift and so and have such a severe negative impact.

For our Humanitarian Action for Children appeal, we are appealing for 180 million.

We have about 1/3 of the funded at this stage and the a similar percentage is funded for the South Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan for 2021.

We have received additional funding from various donors for which we are very grateful for and we hope that we can reach that 100% target again.

Getting funding early is critical now that we've actually had a bit of a delay in the rainy season, which speaks to the unpredictability of the weather patterns which has allowed us to pre position more supplies to the field.

But with if, if the rains now start properly, then that becomes very difficult.

It can be done, but it's slower, more expensive.

So always early funding is far, far more efficient than late funding.

I think that that covers pretty much our weight.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Mr Roy and and Christine for this briefing.

[Other language spoken]

And I have Christian Ulrich from the German Press Agency waiting to ask a question.

[Other language spoken]

I I hope she's still online.

[Other language spoken]

First of all, congratulations on finishing school and we all keep our fingers crossed so that you have good results.

Congratulations also that you are speaking out so eloquently to an audience far away in Geneva.

Thank you for that.

My question is, you said that you're rights are not respected.

Who is not respecting your rights?

Is there someone that you blame for this situation and connected with that beyond the age?

What do you as a young person, what does the young generation, what kind of support do you need to make sure that the situation gets better in the future and that the younger children do not have to go through the same problems?

[Other language spoken]

The government actually is not doing enough to support us in our educational field because I believe education in South Sudan is the strongest weapon to fight poverty crisis and the challenges that we're facing.

So we as children, we have fully developed a great desire for education because we want to change our country.

We want our country to be a better place for the next generations.

Very well said, Christine.

We have another question from Peter Kenny.

Thank you for taking my question.

And Christine, thank you for your testimony.

I just wanted to ask you that now that you've graduated from **** school, can you tell us what you to envisage your future as being and the fact that you are practising as a journalist now?

Can you explain why journalism is so important?

[Other language spoken]

In the future, I want to do engineering.

This is my my career.

But for right now, I'm working hard to express our modest as children in South Sudan that our government, the humanitarian actors, our donors get to hear us, to help us in all the challenges we are facing.

That's the main point now.

[Other language spoken]

Are there any final questions for Mr Oyen or Christine?

I don't see any.

But to both of you, thank you so much for being with us.

And Christine, all the best with your future endeavours.

As Christian said, we hope you reach very good results in **** school and that you you will pursue your dream of becoming an engineer.

Although being a reporter would have been nice.

All the best to to both of you and we look forward to hearing more about how the situation is evolving in South Sudan.

[Other language spoken]

All right, let's go now right back here to the room with Liz Throssell from the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights, who is here to brief you about human rights defender Father Stan Swami in India, who who died and also about protest in Eswatini.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning everyone.

I'll start with the item on India.

We are deeply saddened and disturbed by the death of 84 year old Father Stan Swami, a human rights defender and Jesuit priest in Mumbai on Monday following his arrest in October 2020 and India's Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

Father Stan had been held in pretrial detention without bail since his arrest.

Charged with terrorism related offences in relation to demonstrations that date back to 2018, he was a long standing activist, particularly on the rights of indigenous peoples and other marginalised groups.

While in Mumbai's Taloja Central Gaol, his health deteriorated and he reportedly contracted COVID-19.

His repeated applications for bail were rejected.

He died as the Bombay **** Court was considering an appeal against the rejection of his bail application.

**** Commissioner Michelle Bashley and the UN's independent experts have repeatedly raised the cases of Father Stan and 15 other human rights defenders associated with the same events with the Government of India over the past three years and urged their release from pretrial detention.

The **** Commissioner has also raised concerns over the use of the law the UAPA in relation to human rights defenders, a law Father Stan was challenging before Indian courts days before he died.

In light of the continued severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is even more urgent that states, including India, release every person detained without a sufficient legal basis, including those detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting views.

This would be in line with the Indian judiciary's calls to decongest the prisons.

We stress once again, the **** Commissioners call on the Government of India to ensure that no one is detained for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, of peaceful assembly and of association.

[Other language spoken]

Are there any questions for Liz on this particular issue?

Yes, I see that Ravi Kant wants to take the floor.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for this.

You know it's a very huge shock because having known stand, it's sort of I breakdown because it's an outstanding person.

Such huge contributions for the lights of the tribals.

Having made his complaints to the Indian government about the Bhima Karegaon prisoners who were all illegally detained without a pre trial until now, has there been any response from the Indian government to the kind of appeals as well as statements made by the **** Commissioner as well as the reporter on this issue?

Yes, thank you for that Will Will indeed.

I mean the the the death of Father Stan who who was such a major human rights figure has shocked many people in India and beyond and that is one of the reasons why we are speaking about it today.

As I indicated, the **** Commissioner and and UN independent experts have raised his case in the case of the other human rights defenders repeatedly and we would continue to do so with regard to to the others who who remain alive.

Just to give you a flavour of of what Father Stan went through when he was arrested in November last year.

He filed to the court to get permission to use a straw and a beaker in order to be able to take in liquids properly.

And it took almost a month for him to be granted that.

We, we are very concerned with the way he was treated and with the way the others were treated.

And, and that is why, of course, it is so important that as we say that that states, including India should release every person detained without sufficient legal basis.

And I did make reference to the fact that he reportedly contracted COVID-19.

I mean, the COVID-19 situation in prisons has been stressed time and time again by by the **** Commissioner, not just with relation to India, but worldwide.

[Other language spoken]

Do you have a follow up question?

[Other language spoken]

Yes, Madam, you have not answered my question as to what exactly has there been any response from the Indian government to these particular appeals you made as well as statements you made until now over the last three years?

Well, I think it's for the Indian government to to say what its response has been.

[Other language spoken]

There has been this, this, this call for Father Stan to be released.

He died in prison, in pretrial detention.

It is something that the **** Commissioner has repeatedly said.

She said in in in October 2020, she raised the case.

She urged the government to ensure that no one else is detained for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and to do it utmost in law and policy to protect India's robust civil society.

So it's clear we've we've made repeated calls.

The **** Commissioner has made repeated calls and unfortunately, Father Stan died in prison.

[Other language spoken]

Do you still have another question?

Madam, can you please release what you said that the press statement or whatever it is today so that it will be important I can quote from that as as per usual practise, we send out our briefing notes and I think they have actually just been issued.

So you should have a written copy of what I've just said.

[Other language spoken]

Kenny is also on the line with a question.

[Other language spoken]

Liz, I just wanted to ask you, is this a sign of a an erosion of civil rights in India under this BJP government?

Could you comment on that please?

I think what is important is, is what the **** Commissioner said back in October that that it was really important for that the Indian government should do its utmost to to protect India's robust civil society.

Clearly there are concerns about this, this law, India's Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, the UAPA and in fact the Special Rapporteurs issued a detailed legal analysis of this law in May 2020.

It covers many aspects.

It's very detailed, it runs to 14 pages.

But but to summarise, one of the the concerns really was that they were concerned about the designation of individuals as terrorists in the context of ongoing discrimination directed at religious and other minorities, human rights defenders and political dissidents.

It is a detailed analysis.

It looks at various issues with regard to the the definition and Commission of terrorism.

It talks about the right to privacy.

It talks about the threats to human rights defenders or religious and other minorities, as well as restrictions on freedom of expression that we do have that document.

It is available if you're interested.

It goes into a lot of detail.

[Other language spoken]

I don't see any further questions on this issue.

So shall we move on to protest in Eswatini?

The eruption of violence in the Kingdom of Eswatini in recent days is deeply concerning amid reports that dozens of people have been killed or injured during protests calling for democratic reforms.

The unrest first began in May when students took to the streets to call for accountability for the death of a 25 year old law student, allegedly at the hands of the police.

[Other language spoken]

These protests grew into daily pro democracy marches in several locations in Eswatini, with protesters voicing deep seated political and economic grievances.

We have received allegations of disproportionate and unnecessary use of force, harassment and intimidation by security forces in suppressing the protests, including the use of live ammunition by police.

Some protesters were reported to have looted premises and set buildings and vehicles on fire and in some areas they barricaded roads.

Although the situation is now reported to be calmer, we remain concerned at the potential for further unrest.

We urge the authorities to fully adhere to human rights principles in restoring calm and the rule of law, in particular the obligation to minimise any use of force in the policing of protests only to that absolutely necessary as a measure of last resort.

We also call on the Government to ensure that there are prompt, transparent, effective, independent and impartial investigations into all allegations of human rights violations, including those by law enforcement personnel, in the context of the demonstrations, and that those responsible are held to account.

We remind the authorities that peaceful protests are protected under international human rights law, including Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Kingdom of Eswatini is a State party.

We're also concerned at reports that Internet services were disrupted last week and urged the authorities to take all steps to ensure that Internet access is not blocked.

We urge the Government of Eswatini to open up a longer term dialogue to air and address the underlying public concerns that have given rise to these recent protests.

We remain committed to working with the Government of Eswatini to strengthen human rights promotion and protection, including support and guidance in implementing recommendations by UN human rights mechanisms, including guaranteeing the rights to freedom of expression of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association, as well as the right of people to participate in the conduct of public affairs.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much, Liz.

I see Peter, Peter Kenny has a question for you.

[Other language spoken]

Kenny has had similar protests to these in the past.

Is there any indication that S Watini is opening up as a society or is it remaining as a closed monarchy?

[Other language spoken]

I think what has been happening sort of stemming from from the the protests that that began in in May, as I indicated over this death by a student and then has has developed in recent days in into really sort of calls for for pro democratic reforms is an indication of underlying frustrations by the people of the population of the Kingdom of Eswatini.

The protesters are calling for for pro democratic reforms.

They are calling for some change.

They are also, as I'm saying, voicing deep seated economic grievances as well.

So it is hugely challenging.

One of the things of course, that the, the, the Kingdom of Eswatini is facing as as well as many other countries is of course, the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic on the measures that it's had to take to try and, and protect the population.

But I think one of the reasons why we, we're, we're voicing our concern now is the issue of accountability, because there clearly are reports that, that, that people were killed during the protests, people were injured and there needs to be accountability for that.

There needs to be investigations on those responsible, need to be held to account.

So I would say that really what we're seeing here is a country where the, the, the median ages is actually very young of about sort of 21.7 years.

The protests in May were led by students.

They in fact have continued to be led by by younger people.

It is really a situation where there are lots of issues to be addressed.

That's why we're we're saying that we do remain committed to working with the government of the Kingdom of Espartini with regard to all these human rights obligations they have under the various conventions that they've signed up to.

We are also calling for for for dialogue.

We think it is really important that there there is a possibility for people to air their grievances.

One of the issues that happened was, was in fact that people were trying to petition sort of their local administrations, their local traditional administrations.

And that was then stopped by the government that then put in place an e-mail to do it.

That again, I think seemed to sort of trigger people to say no.

We want the right to be heard, to to protest, and we want to our, our demands to be to be heard and to be listened to by the authorities.

Are there any final questions for Liz on this topic?

Don't see any.

So thank you very much.

And I can assure you that the, the notes have been distributed.

I've received them myself.

So they're out there.

[Other language spoken]

There's a question by Christina Gallego from FA in case it's for you.

[Other language spoken]

This is for OOHTHR.

[Other language spoken]

I was wondering if if they have a comment on what recently happened in Spain.

A 24 year old boy was killed by a group of people because of his sexual orientation.

And this isn't something that usually happens in Spain.

There has been protests organised and many people are wondering if this is related with the increase of homophobic ideas and intolerance in the world.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for that.

I don't have specific information with regard to that particular incident, so maybe if you you would want to follow up with an e-mail on that.

I will also check with colleagues to see if we have any more information.

Obviously just stepping more more generally and the whole issue of, of person sexual orientation, we repeatedly say, I mean, that that shouldn't matter.

You know, the, the human rights of, of one person is the same as the human rights of others.

So without being able to comment on this incident because I don't know what what transpired, but I will check and reiterate that that we repeatedly call for for the rights of of LGBT people to to be respected in the same way that everyone's human rights should be respected.

[Other language spoken]

I don't see any more questions for you, Liz.

[Other language spoken]

And this brings us to the end of our agenda.

I just have a few announcements for you.

A reminder that today at 2:30, UNCTAD will be holding a press conference on the publication of the 2021 Commodities and Development report, Escaping from the Commodity Dependence Trapped through Technology and Innovation.

That will be with Teresa Moreira, who's Officer in charge at the Division on International Trade and Commodities at UNCTAD and Javier in Gurunziza, the Officer in charge of Commodities branch at UNCTAD as well.

A reminder that this press conference will be held under embargo until tomorrow, 5:00 AM GMT or 7:00 AM Central European Standard Time.

In terms of meetings that we are covering this week, the Human Rights Committee will next week meet in public on 16th of July at 4:00 PM to consider the progress report of the rapporteur on follow up to concluding observations on state party reports.

This 132nd session of the committee will then close on the 23rd of July and the next plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament is scheduled for the 27th of July, still under the presidency of Ambassador Leslie Norton of Canada.

And that's all I have for you, buddy.

I think you have a question.

Yeah, I have a question for you.

I think all all colleagues reconstructed that this room has been changed.

My name is the pre the briefing room has been changed, but no journalist has been involved.

No journalist has been informed that on the floor we have AFP and me two medias and we were not get any emails from you side.

So that's I suspected your concession of your work because that me and the AFP had to call so long to get the new room.

No, Well, I'm not sure if why you didn't get the information, but we did send a reminder note yesterday afternoon and it's been mentioned that the last two press briefings of last Friday and the previous one before that.

So we've tried to communicate that I'm sorry you didn't on the ASP side.

We have no problem with sorry with the changing of the room.

I just not checked my my emails, but there was no problem on my side.

You got the e-mail.

OK, I think so, but I haven't checked.

OK, Well, sorry, it's probably just just we we need to get we need to get used to it.

But we did communicate on it.

Sorry if you didn't get the e-mail body, but hopefully everybody gets the message that the press briefing are now being held here until at least the end of August.

So, but we're happy that you're here.

Are there any other questions before we close off?

I don't see any.

OK, Thank you very much.

And we'll see you again on Friday.

[Other language spoken]