The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
UNOG Bi-weekly press briefing 03 August 2021
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1:09:54
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MP4
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935.5 MB
Rhéal LeBlanc, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the World Food Programme, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Situation in Lebanon
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said that 4 August marked the first anniversary of the explosion at the Port of Beirut. Commemorations would include the observance of a minute’s silence at ground zero and a message of mourning. Furthermore, an international conference in support of the people of Lebanon, co-chaired by France and the United Nations, would be held on 4 August. The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, was expected to speak at the conference.
Tomson Phiri, for the World Food Programme (WFP), said that since the explosion at the Port of Beirut, the living conditions of millions of Lebanese citizens had deteriorated, and WFP was now assisting more people in the country than ever before. Half of the Lebanese people and almost the entire Syrian refugee population were now classified as living in deep poverty. The impact of the explosion, a weakening local currency and the effects of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic had plunged many people into poverty and food insecurity. The Lebanese currency had plunged to one fifteenth of its former value, and inflation had put food out of reach for much of the population. Moreover, Lebanon had the highest refugee-to-host population ratio in the world, with refugees making up a quarter of the population. Over 90 per cent of the Syrian refugee population were currently food insecure and unable to survive without WFP food assistance.
WFP was scaling up its assistance to provide food and cash support to 1.4 million people. In June, it had assisted almost 400,000 vulnerable Lebanese, approximately 987,000 Syrian refugees and nearly 21,000 refugees of other nationalities. In the immediate aftermath of the Beirut blast, WFP had given out food parcels to 11,000 people and had supported communal kitchens through local partners and non-governmental organizations. It had also imported 12,500 metric tons of wheat flour to boost food security, had provided cash assistance to 90,000 people, and had supported over 200 businesses. WFP required USD 107.4 million to continue its assistance activities in Lebanon from August 2021 to January 2022.
The full WFP news release can be found here.
Marta Hurtado, for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that according to official figures, the explosion in Beirut had left more than 200 people dead and more than 6,000 injured. The explosion had caused appalling devastation and had changed the lives of thousands of people forever. Initially, a powerful spirit of national solidarity had emerged as society had come together and the Government had initiated judicial proceedings. But 12 months on, the victims and their loved ones were still fighting for truth and justice. Investigations appeared to have stalled amid a worrying lack of transparency and accountability.
Amid deepening despair and mounting anger, the United High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, had stressed the urgent need for the Lebanese Government to ensure a transparent, effective, thorough and impartial investigation into the cause of the explosion and to hold those responsible accountable. She was also calling on the authorities to uphold the right of victims to effective remedies and reparations. One victim, who had lost her husband, her brother and a cousin in the blast, had said that she would keep seeking the truth to her last breath. The authorities should pursue the investigations with similar resolve.
UNAMI-OHCHR report on torture in detention in Iraq
Marta Hurtado, for OHCHR, said that the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and OHCHR had published a report entitled Human Rights in the Administration of Justice in Iraq: legal conditions and procedural safeguards to prevent torture. The report highlighted the need to translate the country’s legal framework for preventing ill-treatment into effective measures to tackle torture in detention centres. According to the report, torture and ill-treatment remained a problem in the country, despite the explicit criminalization of torture and the adoption of procedural safeguards to prevent it.
The report, which covered the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 April 2021, was based on interviews conducted with 235 people deprived of their liberty, as well as with prison staff, judges, lawyers and the families of detainees, among others. Besides providing an analysis of the main risk factors leading to ill-treatment, the report described how interrogations by security forces were generally aimed at eliciting confessions, while those undertaken by investigative judges often focused on confirming the statements made to security forces, without examining whether were obtained under duress.
The report stated that legal procedures designed to bring interrogations and detention under judicial control within 24 hours of the initial arrest were not respected and that access to a lawyer was systematically delayed until after interrogation by the security forces. Medical screening of detainees on arrival at detention centres was not standard practice and there were often significant delays before detainees were permitted to call a person of their choice. In addition, the locations of official detention sites remained opaque. The report also raised concerns that the authorities ignored complaints and signs of torture and that the systems established to address official complaints were neither fair nor effective.
The full press release can be found here.
Replying to questions from journalists, Ms. Hurtado said that more than half of the interviewees had provided credible accounts of being subjected to torture or ill-treatment while in custody in 17 different governorates. Sadly, it appeared therefore that torture and ill-treatment were occurring in detention facilities throughout Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region. It did not appear that a specific group of people were being targeted.
OHCHR had noted some encouraging developments. The Government had passed laws that in theory should prevent torture and it had established a mechanism for victims to file complaints. Only last week, the authorities had launched a five-year human rights plan. Unfortunately, the new legal framework was not being implemented. OHCHR called on the Iraqi authorities to prevent violations and impunity and stood ready to assist them in the implementation of the human rights framework.
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
Jonathan Lynn, for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said that the Panel’s role was to examine the scientific research that had been published on climate change and to provide Governments with a picture of the state of knowledge on climate change. Since its establishment in 1988, it had published five comprehensive assessment reports and it was currently working on its Sixth Assessment Report. One contribution to that report, prepared by the Panel’s Working Group I and entitled Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, was due to be released next week. All the contributions to the Sixth Assessment Report would be brought together in a Synthesis Report, to be released in September 2022.
The Working Group I contribution would be comprised of 12 chapters and an interactive atlas. It would include new information about the attribution and causes of climate change, including chapters on human influence and the extent to which climate change contributed to extreme weather events. The authors had also focused on regional information, which was particularly relevant and useful for policymakers at the local level. The interactive atlas would allow users to enter different parameters to look at changing climate conditions in different regions of the world.
The contribution had been drafted by 234 authors from 66 countries and it contained over 14,000 citations. During the drafting process, the authors had addressed over 78,000 comments from experts and Governments. The contribution included several novel aspects. It considered the scientific advances made since the publication of the Fifth Assessment Report, including better historic data, better climate models and better ways of combining different lines of evidence. It used five new emissions scenarios and provided improved timelines for future warming.
IPCC was currently holding a virtual approval session that was due to run from 26 July until 6 August. In that context, the authors of the contribution were working with Governments on a high-level summary for policymakers, based on the contribution.
A virtual press conference for the launch of the Working Group I contribution was scheduled for 10 a.m. CEST on 9 August. The launch would be accompanied by a press release in all six official languages. Media registration had opened and would give journalists access to embargoed materials. An advisory had been issued on how journalists could request interviews with the authors. Outreach materials, including statistical information, a brochure and a video had already been published on the IPCC website.
In response to journalists, Mr. Lynn said that it was unlikely that many substantive changes would be made to the contribution during the approval process. Governments were now focusing on the summary for policymakers. The participants in the discussion were working by consensus – all Governments had to agree to changes to the draft. The authors retained overall responsibility for the scientific accuracy of the summary and its consistency with the underlying report.
Mr. Lynn explained that the approval session was taking place in closed meetings because Governments preferred to hold free and frank discussions. However, the process was highly transparent. Everybody was entitled to register as an expert reviewer, in which case they would be given access to the draft. Moreover, after the release of the final text, earlier drafts, together with the comments received and the authors’ responses, would also be published.
Announcements
Rhéal LeBlanc, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS), said that on the occasion of World Breastfeeding Week, the heads of the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization had issued a joint statement in which they noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had highlighted the fragility of the gains realized in breastfeeding rates in past decades. Both organizations were calling for measures to prioritize breastfeeding-friendly environments for mothers and babies.
Mr. LeBlanc also said that the Conference on Disarmament would hold a plenary meeting on Thursday, 5 August at 10 a.m. The Conference would discuss a linguistic and technical update of its rules of procedure to reflect the equality of men and women.
Teleprompter
Welcome to this Eunice Hybrid press briefing of Tuesday 3rd of August.
A few topics on the agenda this morning, Lebanon, then the IPCC 6 assessment report and also something on Iraq from our colleague at OHCHR.
We're going to begin with Lebanon.
As you know, tomorrow we will be marking the first anniversary of the blast at the Beirut port.
And on this occasion, what I can give you in terms of what's going to be happening is that our colleagues at Munich, Beirut, I believe, have plans to commemorate the one year anniversary of the tragic August 4th explosion.
The commemoration will be twofold.
There will be 1 by the Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework partners, This is the UN, the EU and the World Bank.
And then there would be another commemoration by the UN Lebanon with the Agency's funds and programmes that are operating in the country.
The UN Lebanon will be organising A1 UN event with ambassadors and donors.
This will entail observing a minute of silence on August 4th at Ground Zero at the Beirut port where the blast took place.
The Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator is expected to give a short introductory message of mourning that will be live streamed on UN Lebanon's social media platforms and tweeted and shared with UNCG for amplification.
Then of course tomorrow there will be an international conference in support of the population in Lebanon called Conference International de SU Tien a la Population Duliban, which is Co chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and the UN.
What I can give you in terms of additional information on that is, let me just find it, our Deputy Secretary General, Amina Mohammed is expected to address the International Conference in support of the Lebanese people.
So I'm sure this will be of great interest tomorrow.
Uh, but to brief us more on this topic, uh, we have, uh, Thompson Ferry from the World Food Programme, who's going to tell us how the WFP is assisting more people, uh, than ever before in Lebanon.
And then Marta Ortado from the Office of the **** Commissioner for Human Rights will also brief on this topic.
So let's go to Thompson and then we'll come back to Martha here in the room.
Good morning, Thompson, good morning, real Bujua juice.
Good morning to you all.
Indeed, we too have an update on Lebanon.
As the first anniversary of the Beirut explosion approaches, millions of Lebanese people have.
Seen their living conditions deteriorate.
And the World Food Programme is assisting more people in the country than ever before.
Half of Lebanese people and almost the entire Syrian refugee population is classified as living in deep poverty.
WFP continues to scale up its assistance to reach 1.4 million people in the country with food and cash support.
The impact of the blasts, A weakening local currency, and the effects of COVID-19 have sent more people into poverty and food insecurity.
Families purchasing power continues to shrink rapidly as food, medicine, and rent have become increasingly unaffordable.
Now the situation in Lebanon has affected everyone living in the country, especially refugees who are the most vulnerable in any society.
Lebanon, as you will know was the highest refugee to host population ratio in the world with refugees making up 1/4 of his population.
Over 90% of the Syrian refugee population are currently food insecure and unable to survive without WFP food assistance.
Just in the past month, in June, WP assisted nearly 400,000 vulnerable Lebanese, nearly 987,000 Syrian refugees and about 21,000 refugees of other nationalities with food and cash support.
My colleagues in Lebanon tell me that they have seen families lose their homes and jobs, with the result that many are now unable to buy enough food for themselves.
In the year since the explosions in Beirut port, the currency has plunged to a 15th of its former value.
And.
Inflation has put food out of reach for much of the population.
In the immediate aftermath of the blast last year, WFP gave out food parcels to 11,000 people and supported communal kitchens through local partners and NGOs.
WP also imported about 12,500 metric tonnes of wheat flour into Lebanon to boost food security in the in the country.
In the following weeks, 90,000 people were given aid in the form of cash.
We also provided support to over 200 businesses who were reeling from the devastating impact of the blast.
Including fifty.
Three women owned firms.
They received resources needed to cover salaries for workers, rehabilitate damages to make repairs, buy new equipment and rest to restock with products and raw materials.
WP also established Lebanon's Food System Grant Facility which is a new and innovative tool for supporting crisis affected micros for a medium sized enterprises across the Lebanese food system.
Now these.
[Other language spoken]
Role in supporting food security in Lebanon.
They range from grocery shops, butcheries, bakeries, fruit and vegetable shops, cafes and home based catering services as well as some small restaurants.
Now for us to be able to continue the this important work at a time when Lebanon needs support, WP requires hundreds and $1,000,000 to provide food and basic assistance in Lebanon from August 2021 to January 2022.
I am going to share my notes as well as circulate a news release that has just gone out of Rome with you all.
I'll stop here real.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much, Thompson.
We're going to hear now from Marta Rivitado from OHCHR on the same topic and then we'll take some some questions.
[Other language spoken]
Good morning real and good morning everyone.
A year ago, the Lebanese capital Beirut was rocked by explosions that left, according to official figures, more than 200 people dead and more than 6000 injured.
Explosions on 4th of August 2020 ripped through the city, causing appalling devastation and changes the lives of thousands of people forever.
There was initially a powerful spirit of national solidarity as all elements of society came together in response and the government initiated judicial proceedings.
But 12 months old victims and their loved ones are still fighting for justice and truth.
Investigations appear to have stalled and meet a worrying lack of transparency and accountability.
As the spark deepens and anger mounts in Lebanon, UN **** Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is today stressing the origin need for the Lebanese government to ensure a transparent, effective, thorough and impartial investigation into what happened last August and to hold those responsibles accountable.
The **** Commissioner is also calling on the authorities to uphold the right of victims to effective remedy and reparations.
One victim who lost her husband, her brother and a cousin in the blast said she would keep seeking the truth to her last breath.
The authorities must pursue the investigations with similar results.
Thank you, Marta on this.
Let's see if there are any questions for both of you on the topic of Lebanon.
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I had a a static emergency here.
[Other language spoken]
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And you, especially Marta, you're talking about the injustice and so forth.
There's been a huge problem, political problem in the country.
I think it still continues.
But I I gather that a Prime Minister finally, finally, after several years, has been appointed.
Does this give you some sense of encouragement that perhaps something might actually get done, that the investigation that your agency is calling for might finally get underway?
Or how do you see the political process unwinding here?
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
We do hope that the political advances on the political front would help get finally achieve some accountability because as you said there is a huge political problem in the country but as well deepening economic crisis.
That's the impact of COVID-19 and we acknowledge all these challenges.
We know that they are there.
But what we are asking that Despite that some efforts, much deeper efforts should be done to to really do an investigation that as I said is thorough, it's effective, it's impartial.
And that give results for the the victims that are looking for the truth of what happened, justice for what happened and remedy for what happened.
[Other language spoken]
Are there any further questions on this topic?
I don't see any more hands raised.
So thank you very much.
Thompson.
I understand you've already sent out your notes as you said.
And thank you, Marta for briefing on this on this topic.
We're going to stay with Marta, who has another topic to brief you on the topic of Iraq.
[Other language spoken]
Yes, as you have my thing, we issued earlier a press release on Iraq, on doctor in detention in Iraq and I'm going to read some of these press release.
Iraq's legal framework to prevent I'll treatment develop over several years now needs to be translated into effective measures to tackle torture in detention centres and prevent further violations.
AUN report published on Tuesday's highlights the report of the UN Assisted Mission for Iraq, UNAMI and the UN Human Rights Office entitled Human Rights in the Administration of Justice in Iraq, Legal Conditions and Procedural Safeguards to Prevent Torture describes how although the Iraqi legal framework explicitly criminalises torture and sets out procedural state wars to prevent it, the practise continues throughout the country.
I acknowledge some advances achieved by the Iraqi authorities on the legal front to prevent torture, said UN **** Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
However, the authorities need to effectively implement the provisions written in the law in each and every detention centre.
If not, they remain at that letter.
Eradicating torture will be one of the most effective tools to start to build public trust in the state's ability to deliver justice and uphold the principle of fairness, she added.
However, when the authorities themselves break the law, it has the opposite effect.
The report draws on its finding to provide an analysis of the main risk factors leading to I'll treatment.
It describes how interrogations by security forces are generally aimed at the leasing confessions and those undertaken by investigative judges are often focused on confirming the statements made to security forces with without examining whether or not they were obtained under duress.
The report states that legal procedures designed to bring integrations and detention under judicial control within 24 hours of the initial arrest are not respected.
An access to a lawyer is systematically delayed until after suspects have been interrogated by the security forces.
Medical screen of detainees on arrival at detention centre is not a standard practise and there are often significant delays before the detainees are granted permission to call a person of their choice.
In addition, the report says the location of official detention sites remains opaque.
The report also raises concerns that the authorities ignore complaints and signs of torture and says that the system established to address official complaints appear to be neither fair nor effective.
The report also says that the limited accountability for such failures on their part of the authorities suggests acquiescence and tolerance of these practises.
The fact that many detainees choose not to report such treatment due to lack of trust of fear of reprisals indicates their lack of trust in the system, said the **** Commissioner.
The report recommends the adoption of a comprehensive anti torture law and national actual plan, which should be fully aligned with international human rights law, particularly the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
There's more details in the press release that you can read.
Thank you very much.
Martha, are there any questions in the room?
OK, Then we will go to Lisa Schlein from Voice of America, who has a question for you.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Hi, I got a little bit distracted here.
Did you give the numbers of victims, people who you know of have been been tortured and are in detention waiting for this?
And I'm mainly interested in knowing who these victims are.
I mean are they suspected members of terrorist groups or ISIS or political opponents?
I don't know if you could sort of flesh out the issue to give us some sense of of the people who are being subjected to this horrible situation that would really be helpful.
[Other language spoken]
Yes, Lisa in the report is having down of the people that said to us, to our colleagues, the word torture specifically more than half of the interviewees.
So 122 out of 235 provided accounts as assessed as credible for us as being torture or or ill treated.
And while they were in custody, let me remind you that we're talking about torturing custody in 17 different governorates.
So it's what I said, it's something it's happening sadly throughout the the country.
And regarding your second question, it's all of them.
There's no specific different of who it's submitted to the treatment or not.
It's something that it's happening throughout the country in all the detention centres in pre, in pretrial detention, as afterwards once the detainees have been tried.
But we've seen this specific problem of detainees being detained before having been taken to before the judge.
So by the police officers or Metari or the security officers that firstly integrated them, they did it the rest and they did it without following the norms and standards.
So it's happening everywhere all the time sadly, and especially before they have been driven before a judge.
[Other language spoken]
I think Lisa has a follow up question and then we'll take a question from Tamir.
[Other language spoken]
Do you, do you have any information about people dying as a consequence of this torture?
And as, as far as you know, is the government actually trying to do something in order to stop it or I, I don't know.
I, I, I get a sense that that this is going on in an ad hoc manner throughout the country and that there is no sort of discipline or central, central authority to organise what's going on or even to know what's going on.
That perhaps in different areas, different people who are in charge of doing whatever it is that they want to do.
[Other language spoken]
Sorry, indeed, Lisa, I was saying that that's why we are issuing this report because yes, the authority have done something, yes, have done a lot.
And they over the years they have drafted and passed all these laws that in theory they should prevent tortures for happening.
And they have this Organism that where victims should and sometimes do.
Present their complaints, the authorities have drawn and passed five years Kumar White's plan and that was launched only last week.
And it's a really encouraging development and that that we welcome.
But all of that have to be implemented the same when they pass the UPR there were 250, two 199 recommendations and they accept 255, among them some relating to preventing torture.
So the the lost, the the are there, but they are not implemented don't.
So as I said in in the press release, no basic safeguard procedure of like having access to a lawyer, ones you are detained are not complied with medical screening.
If the detainees are presented to a doctor right before entering the detention centre, doctors might see that there are signs of torture and they could trigger the process to investigate why this happened.
This is not happening.
Some of the centres are not, they are not know where are they located.
There's plenty of of problems that could be fixed if the provisions included in the law would be implemented.
So what we are saying is we are here, the human rights office in Iraq as well, our component in UNAMI, we can help you trying to implement all these laws and norms and organisations that you don't implement sufficiently.
So what we are asking is please hands on, try to prevent this for happening and of course, of course investigate what happened before and accountability is a problem, impunity is a problem.
So we are calling to the authorities to focus more on solving all cases and at the same time preventing new ones.
We're going to go to Tamir and then I think James in the room has a question as well.
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I wonder if I can ask it if it's OK, maybe we go to James.
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There doesn't seem to be.
Go ahead Tamil to ask you a question and we'll see.
[Other language spoken]
Is the **** Commissioner following situation there and how do you see the situation?
How do you evaluate the situation?
And second question is, the Tunisian Foreign Minister has said that they contacted the Office of the **** Commissioner.
[Other language spoken]
You can you confirm that and on which level they contacted the your office?
It is the Office of the **** Commissioner, It is the **** Commissioner herself or it is a regional person who is in charge of the North Africa and the Middle East.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you for your question, Tamer, and, and good morning to to you.
Yes, we can confirm that the foreign minister called the office and spoke directly with the **** Commissioner.
So they have a talk at the highest level.
And how do we see the situation?
It's a worrying situation.
We are following really, really closely and we know the challenges that the country is facing and what we hope is that all the the achievements and towards democratic reform that they have been doing over the last 10 years that they can be maintained and and preserved and there's no any regression on on in way.
[Other language spoken]
All right.
[Other language spoken]
OK, Christophe, let's take that.
[Other language spoken]
Just a quick question on what what did they talk about?
What did they say to each other?
The foreign minister and the **** Commissioner And you?
You said the foreign minister called, not the other way around.
Yes, the the foreign minister called and we were following it before of course.
And I cannot go into the details of our private conversation, but basically the **** Commissioner said what I, what I said to, to the authorities, what I just said, she said to the foreign minister that we are here to support them.
We have an office on the ground in, in Tunisia and we are, we are closely following the situation and we are there to help should they ask for it.
Of course we are concerned of what is happening, but we trust that the the authorities have the capacity to, to deal with it.
But we are open to to any request that they might have for help.
All right, let's go to James and then we'll come back to Nick on a line.
[Other language spoken]
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I was hoping that you might be able to give us the status of your inquiries into the death of Vitali Shishov in Ukraine, if you've got any information on that and whether or not.
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As you, we knew this morning what I should say that did at another level to our concerns and our worries about what is happening in, in Belarus.
The situation is deteriorating.
Clearly we've seen it and and we've seen it over the last week with the, the intimidation against organisations of civil society organisations and then against journalists and the dissolutions of of dozens of civil society organisations in Belarus and the harassments to any dissent.
So yeah, it's it's one more layer.
What we say is, as we have been saying up until now, this have to cease, this intimidation have to stop.
And again, suicide made it work.
And anyone expressing different view than the one the government has.
And of course, we reiterate our call for any arbitrary detention.
Any person detained arbitrarily should be immediately released.
The So right now an investigation has been, has been launched by police in, in Ukraine.
And, and I'm just wondering what information, what are you trying to do to try to find out more about it?
And I mean, there's the connection between the Belarus, but I mean, it's not clear just yet whether or not this was a suicide or not, right?
I mean, so I mean, what's the connection to the situation of Belarus?
The connection was the fact that he was a dissident, Belarusian dissident living in in Ukraine.
Regarding the investigation in Ukraine, we asked Ukrainian authorities, as we ask all the authorities, we hope the authorities, they are going to conduct a thorough, impartial and effective investigation on to what happened and see if it was just suicide, it was a regular criminal ******, or it does a relation with his activism.
At this point, a few hours later, we knew that the event happened.
[Other language spoken]
Christophe is this on on this topic.
So go ahead and then we'll go to Nick.
Yes, Marta, I just wondered when you, when you say this adds another layer to, you know, what the Bela Russian regime does.
You seem to make the link already.
Okay, sorry then I refrain to that.
[Other language spoken]
But what I said that there adds another layer is because we all see saw yesterday as well the athlete in Tokyo asking for asylum, claim asylum in Poland.
So what I'm saying is like they they, yes, they know there's news about Belarus and people being allegedly harassed.
So I don't know in the case of this morning if there's a link or there's no connection.
And as I said, if it was a suicide or it was just a ******, a regular ******, or there's a connection there, I don't know.
I, there's not even our people have not been able to speak with anyone at this stage.
It happened an hour ago.
So let me be clear, I'm not making any connection whatsoever.
I'm just saying that we are worried about the situation in general in Belarus.
[Other language spoken]
We're going to go to Nick Cummings.
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I have a couple of questions actually.
[Other language spoken]
Just going back to that report, I haven't read it, but I'm just wondering is there a sectarian dimension to what you're describing here?
Are we talking about detainees who are predominantly Sunnis who have been detained in relation to a counter insurgency activity or is there also a broad mix of of sheer detainees who are picked up perhaps as a result of the demonstrations in in recent months?
And I'll have a follow up on.
I'll take the different question.
Regarding the, the, IT has a your first question, no, as I said, sadly it happening throughout and it's happening in Iraq, but it's happening as well in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region.
So we cannot say that there's a specific group that have been has been targeted for that.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Well, my, my second question relates to Afghanistan.
And we're getting a lot of reports about the atrocities that have been committed in the course of the current Taliban offensive.
To what extent have you been able to collect details that indicate whether in fact we are seeing a rise in atrocities and the kind of offences that are being reported, and whether you've been able to validate any of those?
I don't have any details with me regarding the latest operations by the by the Talibans, but I have to recall to you that last Monday, UNAMA issued the protection of civilian reports with very detailed information regarding attacks and and civilian casualties.
I'm not in a position to, to they and when it was the cut day and how close they came to, to recent movement and developments.
But I, I would suggest you, you, you check and of course we have the human rights component in UNAMA.
So I would reach out to them and and ask them if they have any recent information I can share with you.
[Other language spoken]
Just to follow up on that, I mean, the UNAMA report looked very much at at, as you say, civilian victims of hostilities.
I'm more interested in whether you can you're getting detail on extrajudicial executions and revenge attacks that are targeting people in the course of this offensive.
[Other language spoken]
I will ask and I will come back to you.
[Other language spoken]
Catherine, Fiona has a question as well.
Yes, good morning, Marta, but it's not on this topic, so maybe I can wait.
There are no other hands raised, so go ahead.
OK, My my topic is related to DRCDR Congo.
I'm coming back on cases that I already mentioned during briefings about children that are sent to gaol gaols.
The the principal, the main gaol in Kinshasa called Makala, MAKALA where you find adults.
And I spoke about the case a couple months ago.
But there's there seems to be other cases.
And there there is a young boy that is between 8:00 or 10 years old.
He's an orphan and he appears to be mentally ******** and he is in gaol for now approximately a month or a month and a half and I would like to know how is it possible?
That again and again you have children that are gaoled.
In in these kind of places without any support from not only your office but also from UNICEF.
So how do the teams work?
How is it possible that journalists are aware about those cases and everybody is apparently aware about those cases and the people that are supposed to defend them are not?
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Catherine, as you well known, last time you asked for a case like that, you were in touch with as this to a our representative in DRC and you spoke with other colleagues, among them the reporting officers, how they do.
So it's not that we are not doing anything, you'll be talking with them.
And one of the things they pointed out to you that DRC is huge, there's many prison centres and we are aware of many situations and we are working on the shadows many times not publicly engaging in many cases, not only cases with children but adults as well.
So it's not that we are not doing anything.
We're doing as we do throughout the in an entire world.
[Other language spoken]
We do a lot of work that we don't publicise.
Regarding this case, I don't know.
This is a specific case.
I'm going to again address you to my colleagues.
I will contact them.
But in the meantime, if you can please send me the details of this case specifically and I will ask them.
Having said all that, of course, in principle we are against of putting children together with adults in detention centre.
[Other language spoken]
Catherine, you have a follow up question on this.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you so much, Marta, for all those details.
I know that it's very difficult to work in a country that is five times the size of France.
But the the the children I'm talking about, they are in in the capital, in Kinshasa, where the the office, the offices are based.
And I would.
[Other language spoken]
How you are working with the authorities because what happens with those children is that most of the case they arrested, they sent to the main gaol.
And they have no files.
That means that if you look into the files, you don't find them.
They they don't appear.
In fact it is we get the journalists get the information from inside the gaol.
[Other language spoken]
Work with with the authorities.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Specifically on how my colleagues work with the DRC authorities regarding the gaols.
I don't have a specific answer for you at this stage, but I will ask them and we will give you a thorough answer.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Any final questions for Martha on I don't see any hands up.
So Martha, thank you very much for being with us this morning and we will continue following these issues very closely.
Give you time to no, it's OK.
[Other language spoken]
And we'll then go to.
We're pleased to welcome Jonathan Lynn from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who's here to give you a bit more information on the 6th assessment Report, and we will just switch places.
[Other language spoken]
I hope you didn't have too much difficulty finding this place.
I'm glad to have you.
So I think we all, Jonathan has some slides, but since we can't show them, we did distribute them to all journalists.
I hope you received them so that when he refers to them, you can follow at the same time.
[Other language spoken]
Yeah, thank you very much, Royale, and hello, everybody.
So a couple of weeks ago, we briefed you about the logistical and practical arrangements for covering the report.
And today I'd like to tell you a little bit about some of the things that will be in it to help you repair your coverage.
So as Rael said, we've distributed some slides.
The first, the first few are really background.
So I'll go through those very quickly and then we'll get on to details of the report.
So the first one, just a reminder that the IPCC was set up just over 30 years ago not to do climate change research.
We don't do original research and this is very important.
What we do is we look at all the science, the research that's being published and provide an assessment of it to primarily to policy makers, to governments.
So our aim is to tell governments this is what we know about climate change, this is what we don't know.
This is where scientists agree, this is where more research is need and so on.
So we provide regular pictures of the state of knowledge on on climate change.
And in those thirty, 3233 years we've produced 5 big comprehensive assessment reports covering everything, a number of special reports as well.
And we're now working on the 6th assessment report, the first part of which will come out next week.
The second slide is an excerpt from our rules and procedures.
Again, a reminder that we're an assessment body, not a research body that we cover the full range of, of scientific disciplines and indeed human activities that are affected by climate change or, or contribute to climate change.
So we cover everything and of course we're neutral with respect to policy.
[Other language spoken]
We don't have a particular axe to grind.
We are policy relevant without being policy prescriptive.
We don't tell people what they should be doing or that we might might provide governments with options for action and layout the implications of this.
There's a picture of the Nobel Prize that we won after the 4th assessment report in 2007.
The next slide then shows you the structure of the IPCC, a reminder that we're an organisation of governments.
It's the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate change members are 195 governments.
They mobilise the scientific community through a Bureau of scientists that they elect.
And those scientists are grouped into different working groups that carry out different parts of the the assessment.
And we're looking now at the first one of those, working Group 1, which will, it looks at the physical science basis of, of climate change.
Is the climate changing?
[Other language spoken]
What, what is going to happen next?
Then so far in this assessment cycle, we've already produced 3 special reports, including the one on 1.5° in 2018, which you're familiar with.
And after this report that comes out next week, the the Physical Science Basis will have one in February on impacts and adaptations of climate change.
And then in March, the 3rd Working Group on Mitigation of Climate change.
What can we do to stop climate change happening in the future?
And it's all brought together in a synthesis report in September next year.
And the next slide shows you some higher the key findings of those three special reports.
And then we get on to the the report that's coming out next week.
And we've given you the the agreed outline, effectively the table of contents of that report, so 12 chapters and an interactive Atlas.
And I'd just like to highlight now the some of the new elements in that report from that list of chapters.
So there there's a lot more information about the attribution of climate change, what's causing it, in particular, the effect or the impact of human activities on on climate change.
There's a whole new chapter on that Chapter 3.
And then also I think a particular interest, Chapter 11, where this is really gets into a very cutting edge area of science where we can increasingly say to what extent climate change is responsible for extreme weather events, disasters and so on happening around the world.
So that's in in Chapter 11.
So that air of human influence is highlighted.
And then there's a very big push in this report to have more regional information.
So we're not providing only global information, but regional information, which of course is particularly useful and relevant to policy makers on the ground.
So you can see, for instance, Chapters 10 linking global to regional climate change and Chapter 12 climate change information for regional impact and for risk assessment, where we particularly specifically bring out how that regional climate information can help policy makers at the local level deal with building more resilient communities, assessing risks, for instance, early warning systems and so on.
And another part of that is the interactive Atlas, which will enable people to put in different parameters and look at different regions of the of the world to see how the climate is changing there under different conditions.
So the just some statistical information about the report on the next slide, 234 authors from 66 countries and a snapshot of the diversity there.
The report includes over 14,000 citations of scientific works.
And as you may know in the IPCC process, each report go through several formal draughts which are put out to experts and governments.
And in that and in that process we received over 78,000 review comments from those experts and governments.
And the 234 authors have to address each and every one of those in preparing the next or final draught of the, of the report.
So the next slide then summarises some of those novel aspects of the report, which I some which I've already mentioned.
So generally speaking, we're building on the, the science that we already had in the 5th assessment report in 20/13/2014 and the three special reports in 2018-2019.
Science has advanced since then.
We have better better understanding of past warming, we have better climate models and we have better ways of combining multiple lines of of evidence.
I've already mentioned our greater understanding of human attribution.
We're using 5 new emission scenarios in in this report.
We've got a better understanding of future warming when certain levels might be might be crossed.
And I've already mentioned the regional focus and the interactive Atlas.
Now what's going on last week and this week is governments are working together with the scientists who prepared it this we're looking at the summary for policy makers of the report.
So we're not, we're not going through those 12 chapters in interactive Atlas in detail, but we're going through the summary for policy makers, which is supposed to be the **** level summary of that report.
So governments are going through it line by line, discussing how to make it clearer, how to improve it and, and in discussion with the scientists about what changes they, they could make to, to improve it.
And this is the first time we're doing an approval session virtually.
It's very, very challenging.
And we, we've worked very hard with our governments to find a process to make that work.
[Other language spoken]
We're running the approval session for two weeks instead of the usual one.
And we've had to change the way we work to ensure that there's inclusivity, that every, every voice of the government's gets heard and there's time for all the questions to be considered by the scientists and to finalise the document.
We've, we opened media registration for the report a couple of weeks ago and there's the link to that there on the slides.
The although the deadline has has passed for that you can you know if you haven't registered already, we will still take last minute registrations that will give you primarily access to the embargoed material.
So the press conference will be at 10:00 in the morning Geneva time also virtual on Monday the 9th of August.
But we will make the materials available under embargo.
But we can't tell you when, because it depends when the meeting ends.
The meeting is due to end on Friday, this this Friday, the 6th of August.
But often IPCC approval sessions overrun.
So as soon as the meeting is over, probably sometime on Saturday, maybe earlier, maybe later, we'll get out the embargoed materials for you.
I'll go into a bit of detail about this in a minute.
We've also issued an advisory on how you can request interviews with the authors of the report after the the press conference.
So which will be probably running from midday Geneva time into the the evening.
There's some the materials that are already out on our website.
In particular draw your attention to the brochure on the six assessment report which provides you with statistical information about all three working group reports and again what's what's novel and interesting in them based on the agreed outlines of those reports.
There's also a video and some information about the statistical makeup of the of the author teams.
So we've made those outreach materials already available and we've been doing, we will provide embargoed materials to the accredited media once the report or the summary for policy makers is is gobbled down.
And we'll, we've also put up on our website dedicated web page for the report with the media essentials.
And there'll be the press conference will start with a video trailer which will go up there and a press series in all six UN languages.
And we'll be sharing the slides used in the press conference afterwards.
So that embargo package will include the agreed summary for policymakers, the main outcome of the meeting these these two weeks, the headline statements extracted from that and the figures used in in that summary for policymakers.
There'll also be the English language per version of the press release.
And we'll be providing the frequently asked questions extracted from the main report, which I think will be useful to media at this time, and also a dozen regional fat sheets.
So looking at some of those regions that are covered in the interactive Atlas to provide already that stage regional information about the the report and that embar the embargo lifts at 10 AM at the start of the press conference on Monday the 9th.
Once the embargo lifts and the press conferencing place the full report, subject to corrections, copy edits and some other tweaks will be made available on the website as well.
The slides I mentioned the Media Centrals page on our website and you got a picture of me and my colleagues from the communications team.
If you need to contact any of us.
We also have colleagues from the IPCC Working Group One.
They also have a small communications team.
We're working together with them and that's it.
I look forward to your questions, if any.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Thanks very much Jonathan for this very useful background information.
We'll all be looking forward to the to the report next week.
A couple of people have their hands.
Ray James, you have a question here in the room and then we'll go to Jamil Online.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Thank you for that briefing.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Bit about, you mentioned the number of chapters and whatnot and obviously they've been some draughts, you know, making various iterations.
How much does the can the can the draughts change, you know, in the process that's going ongoing now?
And yeah.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
That's that's a very useful question.
So as I said, what they're looking at now is the summary for policy makers.
The main report is hardly going to change at all.
Now, what they're doing in this process now is governments looking at the text, and it's a summary for policymakers.
It's a document that should be useful to a minister, a president, a Prime Minister.
So they're saying my, my minister won't understand this.
Can't we simplify the language or there's some interesting material in the main report that ought to be in the summary for policymakers or this is too long.
We don't think you need to have this in the Summary for Policymakers.
So there's that discussion going on.
We're part of the UN system and we work by consensus.
So if a government wants to make a change to the draught text they're considering at this meeting, all the other governments have to agree to it.
[Other language spoken]
And in the process of that discussion among themselves being chaired by the scientists who lead, who led the work on, on the report, the authors of the Summary for Policy Makers are also called in to comment on the on the changes that the government's suggesting or even to suggest other other changes that get get to the same place.
Because the authors must vouch for the general scientific accuracy of what's going into the summary.
But also it must be based on what's in the underlying report.
Because you can't introduce new material into this into this summary for policy makers.
It's supposed to be a reflection of that underlying report.
And in in that discussion, the the authors, the scientists have the have the last word in the end.
I guess my my question is putting this summary for policymakers aside for a moment because I understand what you just described.
And thank.
You for that?
At what point do you have the sense that the final draught was finalised?
I mean, was there a specific moment where it's finalised?
And there have obviously been some reports out there already on this.
You know, how much new are we actually going to see?
Are we going to see next week or is it actually just going to be a reiteration of what we've already seen in the media?
[Other language spoken]
What what you've seen in the media wasn't based on this report.
It was based on the an early draught of the report that's coming out in February on impacts and adaptation and that that will go through more iterations.
The, the main report was finalised a couple of months ago and was sent when it was sent to governments for their final comments on the summary for policy makers based on the whole report ahead of this meeting, if I'm being clear now.
So the main report, the 12 chapters is more or less already now.
But there are if for instance, if in the work on the summary for policy makers, they agree on some changes in terminology but still reflect the underlying science in the chapters, but word something slightly differently.
So a textual change, not a substantive change that it might need to be reflected back into the underlying report to keep it consistent.
But you can't change the underlying report at this stage.
It's only those textual consistency changes which are known as trickle back that would happen.
Plus copy editing, layout and also being reviewed for corrections.
It's a huge report, it's currently about 3900 pages, but once it's laid out it will probably come down to about 1300, something like that.
So there'll be further cheques for corrections.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Jonathan, a couple of questions as well.
First of all, on, on the issue of the registry in order to receive the embargo, just to make it clear, once registered on your website, that is the insurance that we will have access on Friday or Saturday when, whenever there will be.
Is that correct?
Is that the correct procedure?
Yes, when you register you can.
You're basically registering for access to the embargoed materials.
You were also registering for to follow the OR the.
There was also information about the opening session, but that's passed and you're also registering for the press conference, which will be live streamed.
There's no, in fact no need to register for it, although you have the option.
You wouldn't need to check the box and register if you wanted to ask questions in the press conference because there was a slightly different process for joining it there.
But the main thing is for access to the embargoed materials.
And once you've registered and that's confirmed, you're, you're, you'll get them, We'll send them, you'll be sending them automatically.
And what we'll try and do is send out a few emails once we get a sense of when the meeting is either overrunning or likely to end to keep you informed.
[Other language spoken]
Second question, And will it be only in English or will you have translation in other languages?
And so, yeah, sorry, go ahead.
Sorry.
So the, the, what will be translated, uh, but not in, in the embargo package.
But when we release the report at the beginning of the press conference will be the press release.
So that will be in all six official UN languages.
The summary for policy makers is, is only in English at that stage.
And in the embargo package, the press release is only in English because it's, it has to be revised.
It will have been revised in the translators who are already working on it have to make any last minute revisions that came out of the end of the approval session.
The summary for policy makers will only be in English, but it will be translated into the official UN languages in the coming weeks or months as long as that takes.
And then typically other governments or institutions in other countries undertake translations.
They're not official translations, but I'm pretty sure there'll be one in in in Portuguese done either by Portugal or Brazil or together.
That's happened in the past.
And the last question, with such an important issue and absolutely fundamental to all of us, how is it that it's still done behind closed doors with no access of the public whatsoever and none and with us not knowing what kind of pressures there has been on the content on of the report by governments which are not scientists.
And obviously they will and they have done that in the past, try to put on or extract elements that are not pleasing them.
So how is it that we still have in the 21st century with such a existential issue being dealt behind closed doors?
Well, the the approval session is, is a free and frank discussion among governments and with with, with in dialogue with scientists who wrote the report in the summary for policy makers.
And if it was exposed to the glare of the of public coverage, it might inhibit those discussions.
And so governments prefer to have those meetings closed.
And that's the case with with many negotiations of international bodies.
They're not they're not open to the public.
But as far as the process is concerned, it's actually extremely transparent.
So for the the two of the three main reviews we do, two of them are open to expert reviewers and anyone can register as an expert reviewer, anyone you don't need specific qualifications and then you get access to the draughts, but you're those draughts are works in progress.
So we asked the reviewers not to, not to share them around, not to publish excerpts from them and so on.
But at the end, when the full report is published, we do publish all the draughts that went that were put out for review.
We publish those and all the comments that we've received and all the responses of the of the authors.
So it's a very transparent process and you can trace how the how the report has developed Now when governments review the.
The reports, I mean, typically they're drawing on their own scientific experts to to do that.
So it's, you know, the governments use scientists to do to conduct those reviews too.
And the they make comments and suggestions about how they think the reports can be approved.
Those report, those comments are sent to the authors.
The authors must address each of those comments, but they don't have to agree with them.
And as I say, all their the responses to the authors are collected and published.
So you can see how they are acted.
So it's not possible for governments simply to say we don't like that to take it out.
And as I say in this discussion that's going on over these two weeks, we're working by census.
So the governments have to not only work with each other to get a text, but also with the authors of the report.
[Other language spoken]
That's very useful information.
Jamelle, do you have another question?
Your hand is still raised.
Yeah, just the last one.
Once this is all over, could we have access to the transcript or to the audio of all of these meetings?
Sorry, no.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Why not?
Why not?
Well, you'd have to ask the member governments of the IPCC.
Why not?
But let's let's these are meetings that are conducted behind closed doors.
The only thing that's open is the opening session of the of the meeting.
Where, you know, various speeches are made as to start the meeting off that that's open and media invited to to that.
But the meeting itself, whether it's an approval session of a of a report or whether it's a business meeting discussing our budget or something like that, those those those are closed now, there's still some access to what's going on there.
So firstly, one of the items on the agenda of every meeting is the approval of the report of the of the last meeting.
So there are minutes of the meeting prepared and those are like all the, all our documentation are published.
So those go on the website and month or so before the meeting.
So you'll be able to see an account of this meeting, the official minutes of it about a month before the next one, which on the current schedule would be in mid February.
So the report of this meeting should be on our website in mid January or things being equal.
And I'm sure you're aware of the report stand of international environment environmental meetings by the a group called IISD.
[Other language spoken]
They published something called Earth News Bulletin and they they work with the organisers, organisers of our meetings and the other meetings such as the climate negotiations, the COP and they produce daily summaries and a week weekly summary at the end, though those those aren't official, but they are widely used by participants and the in the meeting.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
Jonathan, final question from James on that.
Hey Jonathan, not to belabour the point, but I think Jamil's point is a good one and and, and merits further consideration.
[Other language spoken]
You could presumably have a number of countries that are stalwarts in terms of obfuscating, covering up, not being transparent among those.
So those holdouts are going to make it even for countries that might be in favour of transparency, might, might have to bend to the will of the country.
So my question really is, umm, uh, what structure does the IPCC have in terms of like an ombudsman or something like this?
Or is it your own office?
Is the media team that is pressing on for someone, Is anyone pressing on these Member States to be more transparent?
About this information, well, as I said, we're an organisation of governments and the 195 member governments set the rules and if they, if they decided they want to do it one way that's the way we would do it.
If they want to do it another way that's the way we'll do it.
And we work by consensus so they don't have to agree on any change of the rules.
The rules are reviewed or at the end of each or towards the end of each assessment cycle.
There has been, for instance, a discussion about whether the the draughts of the of reports should be, should not be confidential, whether they should be published.
And you know, and people could still make register to review them, but the documents would be out there.
And there are different views on that.
Some people think, yes, in the interest of transparency, let's do that and we publish them at the end anyway.
Other people say let's do it.
And then we wouldn't have this, this sort of thing where people are, you know, you guys are sort of trying to get hold of the draught and publishing a leak of the, of the report, which is, and you know, it's quite understandable from a journalistic perspective, but from a perspective of general understanding, it's, it's, it can be misleading because if you provide stories and promote a discussion based on unfinished work, it, it, it's, it can just be misleading.
But so other people say, no, the authors are working and they need the space to do that work.
And umm, if, if every time they if they draught something and it's held up to ridicule or criticism, that's going to discourage them.
So that, that discussion for sure is taking place and I, I could imagine that at some point we would move to, not, to not having confidential draughts.
I I would be very surprised if we move to opening the meetings to to the public.
I'm sorry not to believe in the point, but I mean, just, you know, I think Jamil also mentioned, you know, could we have a, a transcript of the deliberations after the fact, even just to help explain, you know, the reasoning, the rationale, the debates, etcetera, on such an important topic?
You know, you know, that presumably wouldn't compromise anyone's ability once the report has actually been financed.
But again, my my question was really about who, if anyone, is trying to advise governments or encourage umm this in any way?
Or maybe that maybe it doesn't exist at all?
Well, there's, there's no, there's no ombudsman as you, as you say.
I mean, ultimately this is a, a decision for the panel.
So all 195 governments meeting in in plenary session there, it would prob the process would be it would be discussed at various by the Bureau of the IPCC or there's a committee called the executive committee, which manages business in between, in between sessions of the panel.
If, if, if they wanted to do it, they could.
I mean, the from my role is simply to advise them on, on communications and I've, you know, I've laid out what the pros and cons of confidential draughts are from a communications point of view, but that ultimately that's just a decision for the government's good.
Very interesting discussion, but also very useful information that you've provided.
[Other language spoken]
And we'll look forward to this new report coming out next week.
Thanks for joining us this morning.
We are going to close off the briefing what I in terms of meetings that Eunice is covering this week.
The Conference on Disarmament will be holding a plenary meeting this Thursday, the 5th of August at 10 AM.
They will be discussing A linguistic and technical update to its rules and procedure to reflect the equality of men and women.
Other than that, we have no other press conference confirmed just as of yet, but if there are, we will obviously inform you as soon as we can.
And just a reminder that no UN International Days this week, but it is World Breastfeeding Week.
And in a joint statement, the heads of UNICEF and WHO that said that the COVID-19 pandemic had highlighted the fragility of the gains realised in breastfeeding rates in the past decades.
Both organisations are calling for measures to prioritise breastfeeding friendly environments for mothers and babies.
I'm sure our colleagues at WHO and UNICEP will be happy to speak with you about this important topic.
If you have any questions about that, that's all I have for you.
Unless there are questions, we will close off here.
I don't see any.
So thank you very much.
Have a nice afternoon and a good week.
[Other language spoken]