Thank you for listening to Pictures Media Radio. Welcome to Policy and Rights,
the show about government policy and human rights. Welcome about the Policy and Rights
here in Depictions Media Radio. I'm your host, Michael Cloggs. As you
know, as a company and as as journalists that we on Hold, we
stand against hate, and a lot of our messaging outside of just trying to
report, we try to add commentary about how we can spread the love around
the planet and how our human race needs to spread that love in order for
us to survive. That by celebrating our diversity and our differences, that we're
going to create a stronger, more durable human race. There are those that
that that do not agree with that, and there are those that believe that
suppression, depression is the way to go that by going to war with other
people and suppressing the ideas that oppose yours is the way to act and the
way to control the world. So we have a statement from Switzerland in Japan
and the ICC CO focal points in the UN Security Council on behalf of other
members. They're making a statement about how the ICC needs to move into Libya
and prosecute those who have committed crimes more specifically hate crimes, gender based crimes,
and war crimes. So hear that in a second, But let's move
on and we're going to have eventually have a speaker from Chad focused on gender
based crimes and how it is being dealt with. And the gender based crimes
do not necessarily mean that it's all against women. It could be turned against
a man because of his sexuality, how he dresses, things like that,
and the problems behind trying to report such acts against men as well as the
problems of trying to get reports on what's happening against women, because we also
know that in many African states that they believe in female circumcision, which actually
mutilates the female anatomy and can cause problems later on not only with sexual activity,
but also child bearing. That there This has also been one of the
missions of trying to spread healthcare through the education systems in Africa that has now
been limited to take to taking in many areas taking women or girls back out
of the school system. So there are issues around that as far as gender
base aggression is concerned. So we're gonna hear more about that, and that
may be one of our main focuses today about gender based crime and how it's
affected chat, especially because the United Nations had a specific spokesperson come and talk
about that. But let's go back to Canada. There was an environmental report
released and it was too let's say, grade how the Liberal government is handling
climate change an environmental based of issues. Well, the Liberal government didn't do
so well. But what you're going to hear is the Minister of the Environment
for the for the Canadian Liberal government, tried to spend it as Hey,
we're the heroes and we're doing a great job. But basically in the report
it said that they weren't doing a good job, that they weren't being transparent
about all of their numbers, their pitfalls, their failings, that they're trying
to cover them over, that there are shirtcomings in their programs. I'm going
to propose this when I remember way back when I was in school that if
I got a failing grade, I had to come up with a plan to
shore up my shirtcomings, the areas that I was weak. I had to
strengthen them and not try to just simply brush them under the rug. It
would seem that the Liberal government is not taking this idea to heart. That
they're trying to sweep their weaknesses under the rug so that no one can see
them, and they don't want to deal with the things that are a problem
within their environmental plan. It would seem that we need to well, let's
put this way. In Canada, we have a we have a simple problem
that the only party that really wants to deal with environmental issues and and deal
with with with climate change, regardless of profit or not, is the Green
Party. Well, the Green Party is extremely small right now. I believe
that that they may have two at best two members of parliament in here in
a British columber where we're broadcasting from that there is a handful of members that
managed to be elected as members of legislation. Well, it's time to wake
up that the NDP is going to side with the oil companies, to side
with with the big industries, the corporations which want to keep polluting, as
well as the Conservatives still want to still want wanted to lie in bed with
these these same polluting companies. And on top of which, the liberal plan
of carbon taxing only managed to raise the prices for the average consumer, making
it hard for most of us to live affordably. We need to look for
a different solution. The Liberals, the Conservatives and NDP they all subscribe to
the same exact solution of let's do what the corporations want so they can keep
making profits. Only one party wants to throw the profits to the wind and
actually deal with the environmental changes that are coming from our planet. So we
have we basically have choices of the same of the same, the same old,
same old, just with a different sticker on it, or we can
actually go out there and try to find a different way, a different path.
Then it's going to be at first a lot rockier, but hey,
when our great grandchildren are are thriving in a new environment, I worth it.
So when we start there, we're going to start with the with the
environmental report card as headed to the liberal government and what they have to actually
say about the great that they got and how they try to spend it so
that it looks like, hey, we're doing a great job. Guys,
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fair plus. I'll do that rapidly in English. Thank you so much for
for being here. I won't repeat the colleagues that they have the same name
in French in English that they do in French. So thank you for being
here. We're here to respond to the report by the Missioner of Environment and
Sustainable Development in twenty twenty three. If you're a political party and you hope
to form a government and you have no plan to fight climate change, after
we've gone through the worst summer in the history of our country in terms of
climate impacts, We've seen the worst force fires, We've seen some of the
worst droughts, floodings, the worst tropical storm last year, Fiona, if
you don't have a plan to fight climate change, you don't have a plan
for the economy, and you don't have a plan to keep people safe in
this country as well as around the world. Since we presented our emissions reduction
plan last year, our government has put in place a number of new measures.
I'll name a few. We've tabled draft regulations for the zero emission vehicle
mandate. We've tabled draft regulations for the Clean Electricity Regulation to have a net
zero grid by twenty thirty five. We have eliminated fossil fuel subsidies. We're
the only country in the G twenty to have done that, and we've done
so two years in advance of that. On top of that, we have
a number of measures that are coming in the coming weeks, the final regulations
on the z F mandate. We will have new methane regulations so that the
oil and gas sector will have to reduce their methane emission by at least seventy
percent by twenty thirty and we will have the framework for the cap on the
oil and gas emissions. That being said, the report we tabled to the
UN last December show that we're at thirty four percent towards achieving our forty percent
emission reduction target by by twenty thirty. So I agree with the commissioner.
We need to do more, we need to do it faster, and that's
exactly what our government is doing. And having no plan to fight climate change
and not even be willing to recognize that you want to do something about climate
change or even adhere to the Paris Agreement target is frankly immoral by the leader
of the opposition, Mexiku. So first of all, I just want to
start by saying that we welcome the Commissioner's report and thank him for the work
that he and his office have done. Le ben nou vesier le commisser ad
que news Revois veble good news pu de mi ch and uh. And so
that's good news, and I think the Commission's report underline that we are on
track. He made a number of recommendations, of which with which I agree
with all of them. A number of the recommendations he's made we've actually been
working on for some time, including things like ensuring a broader distribution of electric
vehicle charging across the country. We have seen great progress, particularly in British
Columbia, in Quebec and a few other regions in the country. That is
in part because the provinces there have actually stepped up to help us to invest
in the development of electric vehicle infrastructure. He also made some recommendations with respect
to the reliability of the infrastructure. That is very important. That is something
we have been discussing with the Department now for some time, and there need
to be improvements in that regard and so I have no disagreement with what he
said. The last thing I would say, perhaps following on with what Minister
Bilbo says, is electric vehicles and the infrastructure obviously an important part of climate
and addressing the climate crisis. Transportation is the second largest source of emissions in
Canada, and so it is an important component of reducing in line with what
we have committed to the world that we will do. I have to say,
watching mister Poliav's event yesterday where he essentially refused to commit to working towards
achieving climate targets is pretty shocking. We'll put Canada back on a path to
becoming the dinosaur in the room that we used to be under Stephen Harper.
And to be honest with you, it is both reckless and it is taking
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Commissioner said many times in his report that that your emissions reductions plan is not
getting you where you need to go. It's not transparent enough, and it's
based on a lot of rosy assumptions. You seem to think the third or
suggests the thirty four percent is a good start and even though you have to
do more. But he seems to think that that this report almost isn't worth
the weight of the paper it's printed on. I believe he said it's the
best plan that we've ever seen in Canada as well. So I think,
as as the end said, better is always possible. And for example,
he did talk about modeling. We've just finished a modeling exercise with independent stakeholders
to help us and to make some proposal to the Department of Environment and Climate
Change in terms of how we can be more transparent when it comes to presenting
modeling information that we use to prepare the emissions reduction plan or the updates that
will be that will be tabled in the House of Commons by the end of
the year target. He raised a lot of questions about the modeling that that
puts the existing measures towards thirty four percent, So he still stand by that
and stand by this plan is something that could incredibly get us to even that
shortt follow the target. As I said, I think we can always do
better. But if you're to believe the modeling when it's said we wouldn't get
there, then if the modeling is saying the same modeling is saying getting there,
then I don't see why we shouldn't believe it. You can't have it
both ways. You can't only believe the modeling when it says you're not getting
there, and when it says we're actually getting there, then oh no,
we don't believe in the modeling anymore. That being said, that that thing
he's he's the one is saying it. That's what I'm said. That being
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specifically will you do to close that six percent? Yeah? Well so,
as I said that the commissioner based his analysis on on last year's a mission
Reduction report, there's a number of new things that have been presented since.
No, no, no, that's not what I'm saying, but we will
be. We will be tabling by the end of the year in the House
of Common the progress were on the emission reduction plan that was that was presented
last year, and we will have some good news to tell Canadians on that.
We're fine, we're finalizing it. So I can't go further than that
at this point. But in terms of new measures clean buildings, Minister Wilkinson
and I are working on on on a greening building strategy as well as a
new building code for Canada. The cap on the mission of the oil and
gas sector, finalizing the zero mission vehicle regulations, new methane regulations. So
these are these are all new elements that the that the Commissioner could not have
have looked at because we haven't been we haven't finalized him. But we are
in the process of doing that. So we're we're confident that we can get
there. There's still seven years before twenty thirty. But we can't. We
can't. We can't go back. We can't do like Piopo llev say and
show up here to this microphone and say I have no plan to work on
climate change. I won't even commit to respecting the Paris Agreement. I and
you and lie to you to say that there's no price on productrian for for
larger meters in Canada, which we all know is not true. So we
can't do that. We in order to meet our targets, we need to
keep moving and keep working hard every day to ensure that we get there.
Who's that for? Who's absolutely Montre Mont Croissance Economic Augmunt, Thank you so
much. Next up, a brief statement from in Japan and ICC about what
has been happening in the briefings about Libya and the International Court Art. Good
morning. We would like to make this statement on behalf of the following members
of the Security Council, as well as incoming members that are states parties to
the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Albania, Ecuador, Friend Gabonu,
Ghana, Guyana, Malta, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia,
United Kingdom and our own countries, Japan and Switzerland. We thank the
ICC Prosecutor Mister Karim Khan, together with his team, for presenting the twenty
sixth report of his office United Nations Security Council on the Situation in Libya in
a court with the mandate provided by Security Council Resolution nineteen seventeen. We recognize
the efforts made by the Prosecutor's Office to advance the implementation of the renewed Strategy
for Action on the Situation in Libya submitted in April of twenty twenty two.
In particular, we welcome the significant progress made in the four lines of inquiry
identified in the strategy and note that the Office anticipates to be in a position
to outline a potential roadmap for the completion of its activities and Resolution nineteen seventy
in its next report. We also welcome that the office's continuous presence in the
region has enabled it to further intensify contact with victims, victims associations, and
civil society organizations, thus enriching its investigations and providing access to key potential evidence.
Moreover, we recognize the support provided to the Prosecutor's Office by the United
Nations Support Mission in Libya, and welcome the coordinated investigative activities and international cooperation
with third states and international agencies. We note the recent positive engagement by the
Libyan authorities and express our hope for continued cooperation, including on visa issuance,
access to documents, engagement with relevant technical authorities, and responses to requests for
assistance. We take note of efforts to this end, including towards establishing a
liaison office in Tripoli. We retrait that we will continue to comply with our
cooperation obligations under their Rome Statute and encourage all states to fully support the Court
in carrying out its important mandate of enjuring justice for the victims of the most
serious crimes under international law. Finally, we reconfirm our unwavoring support for the
Court as an independent and impartial judicial Institution of last Resort. We reiterate our
commitment to uphold and defend the principles and values and shrined in the Room Statute,
and to preserve its integrity, undeterred by any threats or measures against the
Court, its officials, and those cooperating with it. And we renew our
resolve to stand united against impunity. Thank you very much. Violence of itself
is a problem, and usually it is targeted, no matter how we want
to spin it, but it usually is targeted. And we're going to hear
from a spokesperson from the United Nations about gender based violence, and what that
really boils down to is that the violence is targeted because of gender or a
sexual diversity. It doesn't necessarily stop at rape. It may not always include
rape, but it does include a act that is based on the fact that,
Hey, I don't want you to feel strong because you are the person
that you are, because I want to have power over you because I'm not
secure in my gender or sexual identity. So why don't we listen to what
doctor Natalia Kanem has to say. She's the director of the United Nations Population
Fund or the un FPA, and we're going to hear about her recent findings
from a visit to Chad. Good afternoon. We are delighted to be joined
by doctor Natali Kanam, who is the executive director of the UN Population Fund,
who has just returned from Chad and who is here to brief you.
Please welcome and you have the floor, and then we'll take some questions.
Thank you Stefan for the invitation to speak today. It's true. I'm just
back from Chad and there I met with President Mohammad Idris Debbi and the Prime
Minister Sally Kabzabo. We discussed progress on the sustainable development goals and the very
real challenges facing women and girls in that country and why Chad. I went
there because it risks becoming a forgotten priority and we shouldn't let that happen.
Chad today faces multiple challenges and a humanitarian emergency, instability, violence in neighboring
countries, and the disproportionate impact of a climate crisis not of its own making,
not to mention socioeconomic and other development challenges. Despite being one of the
poorest countries in the world, Chad now hosts more than a million refugees,
including newly some half a million who fled the conflict in Sudan over the past
six months. Most women and children, more than forty percent of the population
around seven point six million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. And yet,
however, the nine hundred and twenty one million dollars appeal for humanitarian operations
to respond to identified needs has met only with a quarter response. Only twenty
six percent has been met, so more support is urgently needed for essential needs.
Today, around one in seventeen people in Chad is a refugee according to
the United Nations Refugee Agency, and with women and children in need of urgent
aid, the government of Chad, with support from the international community, is
doing its best to provide the basics of support. Pertinent to UNFPA, many
of the women are victims of gender based violence in the countries that they fled
and or in the camps where they're now living. In my visit to a
UNFPA run one stop center for violence survivors in Mundu in the south of Chad
on Friday, i spoke to girls and young women who shared heartbreaking stories of
pain and suffering, and in particular, a thirteen year old girl told me
about the assault that she suffered at the hands of a neighbor. Luckily,
her parents believed her and took her to this center, which is one of
eight in the country. There, she and other survivors are receiving medical and
psychosocial support, as well as referrals for legal services and dignity kids, and
of course a safe space where they can feel supported and protected. And it's
all in a complex under one roof. And since we opened that center in
June, already we've treed. We did more than thirty cases of gender based
violence, including physical and intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and rape.
And tragically, one of the counselors told me that now they see that it's
the youngest girls who are reporting the instances of rape, and my own experience
as a doctor tells me that these cases represent the tip of the iceberg because
typically people will not come forward and report. So UNFPA, as the lead
agency for the coordination of gender based violence response in emergencies, is working to
prevent violence and also, if it happens, to restore agency and power to
survivors. And we do this through effective, integrated and coordinated programming and life
saving services and again and again everywhere in the world. We are seeing women
and girls forced to confront the worst of wars that they did not start,
and what they need is peace in their homes and communities. Events such as
in the Middle East over the past month and again Soudan, which is at
the six month mark of that conflict, are showing us just how fragile peace
is, how easily it can be shattered, and how devastating this is for
the most vulnerable, particularly women and children. So stopping the cycle of conflict,
of course, is possible, and that will be hastened when women have
a voice and a choice, when women are economically empowered, and when women
and young people participate in security and justice systems. So I'll end by informing
you that during my visit, in meeting with women leaders who are deeply committed,
who are trying to strengthen the participation of women in these peace and prosperity
processes towards building a better future for Chad, they tell me that they want
to leave a path for their daughters to follow. And at this fraught moment
in human history, it is clear that the fate of humanity does not belong
in the hands of men wielding bombs. Indeed, it rests with women and
allies standing together waging peace. I left that country with a sense of what's
possible for UNFPA programs assisting government to improve quality of life, resilience and even
in the face of adversity. I saw our personnel, those midwives, the
noble midwives, the doctors, the nurses, the psychosocial counselors, other health
workers, the civil society trying to change the fate for women and girls.
And I felt very touched in speaking to that thirteen year old who did manage
a small smile at the end of our conversation over fifteen or twenty minutes when
I asked her about school, and she said yes, that she's determined to
continue her education and she wants to keep working so that she can have a
better future. I call on the international community to increase financial and humanitarian support
to this country and others in the region, and to respond not just to
immediate events, but also to lay the foundations for sustainable development so that the
women and girls and all the people in Chad can reach their full potential.
Thank you stef Thank you to Tyllia Edie. Thank you very much. Doctor
Cunyn from on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association for doing this briefing Edith
Letterer from the Associated Press. Three follow ups to what you said, why
do you think it's young women who are reporting sexual violence and not older women?
And what are these refugees from Darforth saying about the situation in Darforth?
And I assume they're still flooding across the water the border because it hasn't ended
yet. And what did the President and the Prime ministers say to you about
what they're doing? Thank you well, thank you very much, indeed good
to see you. The answer to the question of why younger women versus older
women we don't have the best handle on I will hazard a guess that for
one thing, and the example I gave. Some of the work that we've
done over the course of the months and years are making it easier for people
who can be stigmatized to believe their daughters and to bring them for care.
A lot of what we try to do on the prevention side is human rights
oriented, to say that this is not something that we overlook and sweep under
the rug that everyone has rights. But I believe that we would actually have
to go and look at the incidents in order to understand maybe there is more
attacks on younger girls who can be vulnerable as they're going to get the firewood,
or as they're walking around the community, or if they're going out to
the latrine at night. So these are factors which I think we need to
look at in order to understand for the issue of darfour. It has been
absolutely horrendous to know that as traumatic as it's been in that region of Sudan
over the years, right now we are seeing that women indeed are reporting appalling
instances of sexualized gender based violence and the protection is really flimsy because of the
nature of the conflict, so as they pour across the borders. UNFPA working
as part of the IASC and we're actually meeting across the street right now ed
UNFPA has deployed specialists on GBV on the Chadian side of that Sudan border and
working with the International NGO Humanitarian sector. We're taking report, we're doing clinical
management services the medical side, but we're also trying to proceed on the impunity
side so that there will be eventual accountability for this perpetual issue of women being
victimized in Sudan, and I might say the same thing about DRC. Both
the President and the Prime Minister of Chad express two things. One is that
they're doing more than their share in terms of keeping the borders open and accepting
people who were crossing. But they did express the fatigue, the sense that
as a host government they have enough problems trying to cater to their own population,
as you know, high maternal mortality, as you know, the nutrition
issues with the desert coming closer, etc. And so while expressing a willingness
to be hospitable neighbors, they were also frankly challenging me as an official of
the UN, how can we increase the resources that are given to the host
country population alongside our appeals for the refugees in the South of Sudan. I'm
sorry in the south of Chad where I was, it's an area where Central
African Republic, Cameroon and other countries in the neighborhood are also contributing to the
refugee and IDP issues. Thank you, thank you, really thank you.
Amili Boutonier from AFP News Agency. You mentioned a number of casey that were
handled by your support center in Chad, but do you have any kind of
idea how widespread these attacks against women are in Chad and whether it's more important
in the refugee population or in the common I mean, the Chadian population,
Thank you very much. The cases that I'm speaking of are both within Chad
and also in refugee populations who have come across borders. Even as recent as
last week, this issue of perpetrators of sexual violence as almost becoming routine in
conflict was the subject of a meeting in Comoros where Ellen Johnson's SURLEIF and her
initiative on Positive Masculinities as the African Union is calling It was a subject of
discussion because of the high levels of incidences that we see for the background issues.
It's clear that conflict aggravates gender based violence, rape, instances of sexual
assault. As you know, even during COVID, any stressor on the family
tends to aggravate and in flame what is probably a baseline level of disrespect for
the bodily autonomy of women. And as a humanity Carrian sector, we're also
insisting that this must now be prioritized. The problem with GBV gender based violence
is that when it goes unpunished and becomes derrigure. The acts get so heinous
and so widespread that the ability to cope of the individual, of course,
but also of the system gets destroyed. This is a human rights violation and
we want it to be taken seriously, and we want prevention measures, but
also for measures of amelioration. It's a PTSD type syndrome that's going to affect
this woman or this child for the rest of her life. Parenthetically, men
too can be subject to sexual violence and assault, and there it's an even
tougher problem to come forward. But we have to bear in mind that bodily
autonomy is sacrisact and the this should not be exploited in a time of community
conflict. Thank you, thank you, and I'll deserve English. Thank you
so much. I actually have a follow up question on Amilie's initial question.
You mentioned that their eight gender based violence centers in the country. Can you
tell me a little bit about their geographical distribution. I think what I'm trying
to figure out is their proximity to refugee camps, refugee communities. How accessible
are these eight centers? Well, thank you very much, and we can
get you the details because I'm not really so aware of the exact locations,
but the purpose of the centers of which I spoke was actually initially to serve
the chatty and population, and this is a strategy that UNFPA uses in concert
with local communities, typically with an NGO and with the Midwiffrey community which is
very close to the ground, and a lot of our staff, our local
staff are drawn from those communities. So in the particular one where I went
to visit, which was new, and that was I think one of the
reasons that they chose for me to go and see this inaugural center, the
government cooperation and the local governor there, who actually is thirty six years old,
one of the youngest governors in the country, have made it a center
which not only works on what I've explained, but there's also a bona fide
Fistula hospital that does pretty advanced repairs when the uterus is torn during prolonged labor.
This is an issue usually for a woman who is not a woman,
she's a child who was too young to be pregnant to begin with, or
a woman who's already on her seventh, eighth, ninth child and the musculature
of the womb is weak. So because fistula, which I believe you're aware,
is also an embarrassing condition for many women, especially in an environment where
being un clean does not allow you to participate in society. You're leaking urine
VCS. Lord knows it's a pretty debilitating condition. So the ability of this
magnificent surgeon who spends a lot of his time in doing these complex repairs on
site, has really transformed the ability to repair damage once done. I hasten
to say that UNFPA's goal is to assure that people know about the dangers of
prolonged labor. Usually this is after you've been in labor for two three days
when the universe will rupture, and that the basic services of prenatal care are
accessible to people. Chad has a very high fertility rate, so contraception is
also important in terms of spacing children. This is something women are aware of
and we're doing our best to bring those resources of contraception to their doorstep.
But again takes resources, it takes planning, and I believe it also takes
women and girls knowing their rights from a very early age. Thank you Eva,
Thank you Evelyn Leopold. Is good to see you again. And FGM
what is the trend? Is it staying the same or is it rising in
some areas. You know, I'm really happy that you're asking about female genital
mutilation because this is something that we can all do something about, quote unquote
in our lifetimes. Changing culture may be difficult, but it can be done.
And it's been wonderful to see the resolve of so many countries. And
we add to the list each and every year where UNISEF and UNFPA jointly work
on ending female genital mutilation. The trend was going pretty well COVID disrupted the
education system and kept girls at home. So we're anxiously looking at the data
now and disaggregating it to see if, as we suspect, the fact that
girls were not at school meant that they were home and available for FGM to
be performed. Yet, and still, this is one where governments and in
particular women led organizations have declared the end of FGM. We have a whole
host of traditional leaders who have signed up to say that this is not only
not required by religion by practice, but that it is indeed harmful. And
so I think the movement against FGM is picking up steam and as part of
the thirtieth anniversary of Cairo ICPD next year. This is going to be one
of the top ambitions that we have as a sexual and reproductive health sector worldwide.
Thank you. Any more questions, yes, Margaret is shir I will
just ask you one on Gaza. Since we're at the end, I can't
let you leave the room without asking you about all the pregnant women who are
in Gaza and many do to give birth this month. What's U NFPA doing
to try and get birthing kits to them and assistants to them, even just
I guess educational assistance on the basics of midwiffree specifically on Gaza, And thank
you for that question. Yes, we have assessed that there are fifty thousand
pregnant women in Gaza, none able to access regular maternal health care at this
moment, and fifty five hundred newborns were born during the course of the last
month. I have to stress, as I just have in the meeting we're
having of the humanitarian sector across the street, that if you have one hundred
and eighty women giving birth every day under these conditions, food, water,
medicines, the access to cesarean sections and to care for the newborn depend on
fuel. If you are a pregnant woman, you actually need double the amount
of fluid and water than the regular person, and if you're a lactating mother
it's triple. So UNFPA joins the rest of the un in the concern about
the quality of the water. Brackish water is not a solution and so for
these deceel plants to operate, fuel is essential, and I believe you would
have seen that we had a joint statement from the humanitarian sector a day ago.
I also feel that while we have had some supplies enter over the last
couple of days, it's a drop in the bucket, and I think our
Secretary General has spoken to having the flows of relief at the scale that's required
when you literally have two point two million people in need and women and children
bearing the brunt of the situation. While we've had truckloads two truckloads of reproductive
health kits arriving in Gaza, with the clean delivery kits and the medications and
the emergency obstetric care supplies, again this is minuscule compared to the need,
and so we're very eager to see those entry points open and for the humanitarian
pause cease fire. The semantics don't matter. The conflict must stop so that
people can access aid. Thank you very much. Could I just ask you
on that one follow up on you say there's been two trucks with maternal supplies,
how many would you normally send or how many are needed? How much
do you have waiting at Alriche for instance. I mean, just give us
a little bit of a context. Well, in fact, let me get
back to you on what's in the pipeline, because we do participate in a
joint convoy that's waiting in that line on the Egyptian border. However, I
have to stress that for my UNFPA colleagues and you know for whom I'm responsible,
who are in Gaza, some of them have lost multiple members of their
families in one day. Civilians and hospitals should never be targets. So while
we've had the two truckloads, and of course you know, something is always
better than nothing, my anxiety is that these supply save lives. They're vital
and the fact is that life goes on even during conflict, and we do
owe it to these women to be there for them during the time of pregnancy
and childbirth. So when I hear from my staff that they're sitting at home
and having breakfast and the house gets bombed and the rubble is there, and
you know, in this particular instance, the pregnant woman survived, as did
the newborn. But it's very, very harrowing to know that it's in our
hands to be able to change that dynamic, and I do hope that all
efforts will succeed to change that. And immediately, thank you very much.
Definitely, Okay, thank you. One follow up on that, you said
that about a hun and eighty women are giving births every day. Do you
have any indication of the survival of those women and their babies since October seventh?
The truth is that it is impossible to be able to assess what happens
to these nearly two hundred pregnancies on a daily basis. For the ones who
are delivering at home and where our midwives have access. The reports are coming
in, but you know the level of disruption that's taken place there. So
I wouldn't say that we have trustworthy data beyond the estimates that we made at
the beginning of the period. Certainly we know that for those who are in
the hospital. We have seen losses of life, and we also understand that
if you are a premature newborn, and we would expect that the levels of
prematurity rise when stressors rise, you need your incubator. You're a little baby
who has to have oxygen. All of this depends on fuel supply. So
I think this is part of our very sincere plea that civilian life must be
protected and for us as UNFPA, the road to peace really depends on opening
these avenues of compassion and following humanitarian and international law. Thank you, thank
you so much. Like I said before, here Depictions Media Radio, we
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