UN Geneva Press Briefing: UN Women, UNICEF, WHO, UNDP, UNEP

Very good morning. Thank you for joining us here at the UN office at Geneva today, the 12th of May for this press briefing, another important agenda for you. We have the situation of women and girls in Ukraine, a colleague from UN Women. We'll hear from her momentarily. We have James in the room from UNICEF, who is just back from the West Bank and is going to brief us on the situation of children in the West Bank. We also have colleagues from the WHO speaking to the situation of health in Gaza. We have a colleague from UNDP speaking to the situation in South Sudan, as well as colleagues from UNEP, who you heard from earlier today, but will also provide some follow-up information to UNEP's report on sand and sustainability. But without further ado, I'm going to throw to our colleague Sabine Fraiza-Gunas, who is UN Women's Representative of Ukraine, joining us from Kyiv. We're very happy to have you here with us, Ms. Gunas. Over to you for your brief. Thank you very much for having me this morning. So I am speaking to you today from Kyiv, where the people of Ukraine have lived through more than a hundred, sorry, more than 1,500 days of full-scale war, a war that is becoming deadlier for women and girls. The first three months of 2026 was the deadliest winter for women and girls in Ukraine since the first year of the full-scale, since the first year of the invasion by the Russian Federation. Some 199 women and girls were killed between January and March 2026. This is more than the number of women and girls reported killed during the same period in 2025, 2024, and 2023, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring mission in Ukraine. We have already seen casualties among women increase significantly between 2025 and 2024, with an increase by 27%. Each woman and girl killed was someone who had plans, purposes, had people who loved them deeply and who deeply depended on them. In addition to the terrible death toll, attacks on civilian infrastructure have made life so much more difficult for women and girls in Ukraine. Preliminary findings from a UN Women Assessment show that these energy attacks significantly increased the household load, the stress, the financial burden for women across the country, and worsened physical and mental health. The impact had been particularly hard and devastating for women in caregiving roles, those with constrained resources and limited access to stable electricity. Women are significantly more likely than men to report having no backup energy supply during disruptions. 73% of women say that they have no alternative energy sources. Lesser seen than the immense destruction is the response to the war that women are leading. The women are the women's lives to respond to the war. And the women are the women to prepare for women. The women keeping public transport running, teaching children in underground classrooms, caring for older relatives, demining contaminated land, repairing energy systems and holding their families and communities together. One of these women's is Tetyana Moruzenko, an energy worker whom I met last month from Slovyansk, a frontline city in the Donetsk region. Tityana leads a team of 27 energy workers responsible for repairing energy infrastructure following attacks to ensure that the city's homes, hospitals, and schools can regain light and heat. Tityana and her all-men team work around the clock. She told me what is damaged at night needs to be repaired in the morning, and I stay here to do it. Women are also leading the response through women-led organizations, which are also under threat. Nearly 8 in 10 women organizations in Ukraine told U.N. Women that funding reductions have seriously affected their work, including some organizations reporting having to reduce the number of women and girls supported by their services. Official donor assistance for recovering Ukraine is also being reduced, while at the same time inequalities are increasing. Women and girls in Ukraine cannot afford for the world's attention to fade. They need sustained support, protection, investment, and financing. U.N. Women continues to work across Ukraine to provide protection services, humanitarian aid, and guidance on laws, policies, and budgets to make sure that women's needs are addressed. We are also working to make sure that women are part of the political processes and the decision-making on Ukraine's future. Because at this moment, they are largely sidelined. But we know that lasting peace can only be reached when women are included in the negotiations. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Ms. Gunis. I take this opportunity just to remind you that colleagues we shared with you over the weekend, a statement from the Secretary-General echoing some of these points and these important issues in calling for a ceasefire. As the EU has been saying repeatedly, the Secretary-General calls for immediate full, unconditional, lasting ceasefire as a just, sustainable, and comprehensive peace for a comprehensive peace. So this was a statement that we shared on behalf of the SG earlier this week. Over to you, colleagues, for any questions, starting from those in the room. Okay. I don't see any hands in the room. Let's go online. Give it a second. Okay. I don't see further, I don't see any questions for that matter, but I think your briefing was indeed very comprehensive. So thank you very much for joining us, Ms. Gunis, and do keep up the great work. And stay safe and do feel free to join us at any point in time. Thank you very much. Oops, sorry. I stand corrected. There is a question for you from our colleague from AFP, Alexandre. Yes, I have a late reaction. Now, I just wanted to know if you have any idea of the percentage of those tolls represent within the total population of civilians. You get the figure of the women and girls, but which percentage does it represent of the total of civilians killed during the same period? Let me see if I can get that for you right now. These figures are all, these figures on casualties are coming from the human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine. So they are the best source for this, but one second, please. So what they, in terms of women, women represented 40% of all civilian casualties in Q1 of 2026. So if you, so there's a differentiation that's made between women, girls, men, and boys. And so women represent 40%. Okay. Thank you very much. Is that clear? Any further questions? No, Alexandre? Colleagues? Okay. Sabine, thank you once again. Really appreciate your briefing. And we'll certainly do what we can to spotlight this situation, particularly of women and girls in Ukraine. So thank you very much. James, if you can join me here on the podium. We're going to shift to the situation in the West Bank, where James has just returned from, speaking specifically of the situation of children. And then thereafter, we'll do together, we'll have Tarek join us from WHO, along with a guest joining us from Jerusalem. Over to you, James. Thanks so much. Hi, everyone. Good morning. Children are paying an intolerable price for escalating military operations and settler attacks across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. So between January 2025 and today, at least one Palestinian child has been killed on average every single week in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. So that's 70 Palestinian children killed in this timeframe. Now, 93% of those were killed by Israeli forces and a further 850 Palestinian children were injured. Most of those killed or wounded were done by live ammunition. All this comes amid historic levels of settler attacks. Ocha said last month that March 2026 saw the highest number of Palestinians injured by settler attacks in the last 20 years. And we're seeing attacks become increasingly coordinated. So documented incidents include children shot, stabbed, children beaten, and children pepper sprayed. Now, these are not isolated incidents. They point to a sustained pattern of the worst kind of violations against children. As well as attacks on children's homes, on their schools and on the water that they rely on. What is unfolding is not just an escalation in violence against Palestinian children. It's the steady dismantling of the conditions children need to survive and grow. Homes are demolished. Education is destroyed. Water systems are attacked. Access to health care is obstructed. Movement is restricted. Over the past 30 months, more than 900 additional barriers and restrictions have been imposed across the West Bank. As a result, children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are routinely cut off from schools, from hospitals, and other essential services, as movement becomes increasingly restricted or altogether denied. Homes have become the front line of attacks on children. In the first four months of this year, more than 2,500 Palestinians, 1,100 children, have been displaced. That surpasses the total displacement recorded in 2025. Now, to recount just a single story from my most recent mission to the West Bank, eight-year-old El Zedin, he was asleep when settlers attacked his village. Now, his family home had been demolished two months earlier, so he was sleeping outside. Little eight-year-old El Zedin was beaten with a piece of wood and hospitalised for head injuries. His mother had both her arms broken when she reached across to protect her four-month-old baby, putting, therefore, her arms between her baby and the Attackers Club. Education is also under sustained assault. For thousands of children across the West Bank, daily travel to school has become a walkthrough fear. I walked with schoolchildren through the West Bank so as to try and help them avoid any attacks. And it's interesting to watch them walk. They don't walk in a straight line because they're constantly looking over their shoulder. This is a walkthrough to school. It's become a walkthrough fear. There have been 99 documented education-related incidents this year alone, including the killing, injury and detention of students, the demolition of schools, military use of school buildings and denial of access. In just over two years, to the end of 2025, more than 550 such incidents have been documented. So schools, which should be places of safety and stability, are increasingly becoming places of panic. Attacks on schools and the denial of children's access to education are, of course, grave violations against children with long-term consequences for their safety, for their well-being, for their future. As I say, it was harrowing to walk with 12-year-old Ruah through her school that was destroyed by settlers and Israeli forces. It was a place where, just months ago, she was studying and where, just in months' time, she should have been celebrating her grade 6 graduation, not morning demolition. Once again, a school turned to rubble. She was able to show me every aspect of education in that place, from her grade, her first-grade classroom where she used to study, to her final-year papers, to a now-broken school heater, she said the teacher would use when they got cold. Amid the wreckage, Ruah asked a question that should haunt every one of us and demand not just condemnation but actual action. I quote, When I saw my school destroyed, a heavy feeling overwhelmed me, and I asked myself, why was our school demolished? In addition, according to OCHER in 2026, more than 60 water and sanitation structures were vandalised, including pipelines, irrigation systems and water tanks, further limiting already fragile access to clean water. This, of course, has serious implications for both the economy, the Palestinian economy and children's health, their hygiene and their dignity. Livestock's, livelihoods rather, are further dismantled through the theft of livestock. All of this occurs amid a sharp rise in the arrest and the detention of children. The latest data indicates that 347 Palestinian children from the West Bank are being held in Israeli military detention for alleged security-related offences. This is the highest number in eight years. Alarmingly, more than half of these children, 180, are held under administrative detention and without the procedural safeguards, including detention without regular access to legal counsel and the right to challenge detention. Taken together, these patterns reveal an overarching reality. Children are being targeted both through direct violence and through the dismantling of essential systems and services. Their suffering cannot be normalised. UNICEF is seeking to support children and families in the West Bank access to safe waters and sanitation to healthcare by providing cash, learning materials and psychosocial care. UNICEF calls on Israeli authorities, who have legal obligations to uphold child rights in all areas within its jurisdiction or effective control, including occupied territories, to take immediate and decisive action to prevent further killing and maiming of Palestinian children and to protect their homes, their schools and their access to water in line with international law. UNICEF also calls on member states with influence to use their leverage to ensure that international law is respected. Thank you. Thank you, James. A very important briefing indeed. And thanks also for sharing the notes with us. Lots of important figures there. Before we go to Gaza, let's take questions. Let's stick to the situation of West Bank first and then we'll exhaust Q&A on this and then we'll go to Gaza afterwards. So let's start with Alexandre. Question for James. Go ahead. Yes, thank you. Just a quick one. The figures is very important. But did you manage to see if the rate of the child death remained unchanged since the October 25 ceasefire? Say it one more time. Did I manage to see? I beg your pardon. One more time. Did I manage to see? Is the rate of the child death hasn't changed since the October 25 ceasefire? Well, no. No. And this is, of course, is the West Bank. So it's a consistent number. One a week since January 1, 2025. That's remained consistent for what is now 16, 17 months. So that's just the West Bank. Of course, if we were to move to Gaza, since that ceasefire in Gaza, the UN's documented at least 229 children killed since that ceasefire and 260 injured. And 60% of those have occurred in locations near the so-called Yellow Line. That's Gaza. But no. In the West Bank, sadly consistent. Consistent in the last 15 months, whether it be demolition of homes, of schools, of systems children rely on, or of a girl or a boy being killed on average once a week. Thanks very much for that, James. Further questions in the room? No. So we'll take a question online from Nick, New York Times. Nick. Yeah, thank you. Good morning. Thanks for the briefing, Jim. The figure of 347 children you said are being held in military detention. Are they purely West Bank? And over what period of time are these children detained? This doesn't include children arrested in Gaza since October 7th. And I wonder if you could say a word about what kind of access children in military detention have to any kind of legal recourse. Thanks, Nick. Yes. So 347 from the West Bank. As you know, administrative detention means imprisonment and 180 under administrative detention. That means imprisonment without charge or trial. It's often based on, you know, secret evidence or renewable detention orders. In terms of the time frame, average detention time people often look at, you can only get clarity of that from the prison service once someone's been sentenced. Unfortunately, that's a very small percentage of cases. So given that high rate of administrative detention, then getting a time frame is something of a legal and administrative black hole. It might be three months. It might be six months. It might be nine months. And it might then, Nick, be when they turn 18, they're then moved into an adult prison and stay detained. And that's something that, you know, the United Nations Children's Fund is highly concerning because the CRC, the Convention of the Rights of the Child, says that detention must be a last resort for the minimum appropriate time and the child must have the right to challenge the case in court and to expedient proceedings and to prompt judicial determination for whatever that child is accused of and to alternative detention. That should be the target for any state respecting the CRC. Last part, Nick, related to your question, is that we're also seeing in the last year, maybe two, a total deterioration of detention conditions for these children. So not only are children being held longer and more of them are being held in administrative detention, but the sanitation of cells, the hygiene items children receive, time they're allowed outside their cell, these have all deteriorated considerably. Absolutely. And it covers colleagues. You know that our colleagues at UN Human Rights have also delivered some sobering data on these points of administrative detention and the situation of prisoners overall. Let's take further questions if there are. Nick, I think you have a follow-up for James. Yeah, just a quick one. James, I wonder if you had something on the age profiles of the children who have been killed and on the age profiles of the children who are detained. Thank you. Thanks, Nick. Of killed, yes, we will get that. This is all through the MRM, so everything, of course, I've explained to you has been verified. Yes. So we will get you both those things. I mean, I sat with a lot of children who'd been released from detention and it was a very similar... It seemed, you know, the vast majority had been detained when they were 14, 15. They also shared very similar stories in terms of, you know, in terms of the way they are cuffed, the way they are interrogated, et cetera, et cetera. But we'll come back to you on that age breakdown. Thank you very much, James. Let's check online for the questions in the room, perhaps. No, I think it was crystal clear. As always, James, thank you so very much and look forward to additional information. Of course, one child being detained is too much, but thank you very much for sharing this information. Okay, colleagues, we're going to move to the situation in Gaza. As mentioned, we have WHO connected online. Tarek, I'm going to throw to you to introduce your guest, who's joining us from Jerusalem, I believe. Over to you. Thank you very much, Rolando. So let's speak now about Gaza. You will remember we issued in September 2025 a report on the needs for rehabilitation for people with severe life-changing injuries. We have update on that report and we will present it today. We have with us our representative for Occupy Possible and Territory, Dr. Rene Van Der Wirt, who spoke to you a couple of weeks ago. She will talk about this report. We also have online colleague, Pete Skelton, who is in Beirut and who is our lead on rehabilitation, work on rehabilitation. So he may also jump in to answer some of your questions. We are sending notes, but we are also in the notes that I will send now. There will be a link to the report itself and we may also send it to our global media list later. So with this, I'll give the floor to Dr. Rene to tell us. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, colleagues. As was just mentioned, today, WHO, we released the latest estimates on conflict-related injuries in Gaza. An estimated 43,000 people of the more than 170,000 people injured in Gaza since October 23 have sustained life-changing injuries. And up to a quarter of those with life-changing injuries are children. That is more than 10,000 children in Gaza. Since the last report in September 25, almost 5,000 additional injuries have been recorded. And nearly half of these 5,000 additional injuries occurred after the ceasefire announced in October 25. Severe injuries span multiple categories. Major injuries to the limbs account for the largest chair with over 22,000 cases. This is followed by limb amputations with more than 5,000 recorded. 2,000 cases of spinal cord injuries. 3,400 people affected by major burns. And last but not least, traumatic brain injuries affecting more than 1,300 people. In total, more than 50,000 conflict-related injuries require long-term rehabilitation. Nearly 14,000 patients have registered for review. by the limb reconstruction service between July last year and today. And of those assessed, almost half require further surgery. At the same time, of the 2,277 people that have had a limb amputated, less than 25% have been fitted with permanent prosthetics. This due to severe shortage of prosthetics in Gaza. As I said at the beginning of my intervention, this report only reflects on conflict-related injuries. People with chronic conditions, pre-existing disabilities or age-related needs face the same overwhelmed and constrained system. And their rehabilitation needs were no less urgent. Despite the scale of the needs, rehabilitation services in Gaza remain critically constrained. not one rehabilitation facility is functioning. And today, there are fewer hospitals providing specialist rehabilitation than before the conflict. Access to rehabilitation equipment and assistive products and technology remains severely restricted. In December last year, we estimated that nearly 33,000 assistive technology and mobility products were needed to meet the demand. And so far, we've only been able to cover one-third of the need. As of today, 18 shipments of rehabilitation-related supplies are pending clearance to Andrew Gaza, with waiting times ranging from 130 days to more than a year. Pending items include things such as wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs and basic rehabilitation equipment such as stationary bicycles. And every day that rehabilitation services in Gaza remain under-resourced is a day that preventable disability risks become prevalent. WHO, together with our partners, continue to support the amazing health workers that work relentlessly to address the huge rehabilitation needs in Gaza. But urgent priorities must be addressed to ensure that all those suffering from injuries receive the treatment and care they deserve. First and foremost, there needs to be sustained needs to prevent additional conflict-related injuries. And health needs to be protected. We call for essential medical supplies, including rehabilitation equipment, prosthetics and assistive products to enter Gaza without delay or rejection. And we urge for sustained investment in Gaza's health system to support restoration of services, reducing reliance on medical evacuations. The people of Gaza have endured unimaginable suffering. They deserve not just emergency care, but the sustained support needed to recover and to reclaim the noise. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. van der Wirt. It's hard to imagine the situation, colleagues, but thank you very much for sharing these stories with us to try to come up with some sort of response. Okay, let's see if there are questions in the room before we go online. It's a bit of a quiet day. I'm not sure what to tell you here, but we think our colleagues are a little... I think that, coupled with a very comprehensive briefing. Let me just give it another second before we turn. No, there are no questions for you, doctor, but again, thank you so very much for joining us from Jerusalem. Thank you very much for painting this picture. And of course, do share your notes with us. Tarek, thank you very much, and again to you, James. Thank you for that. Okay, colleagues, we're going to go south. We're going to shift to South Sudan, specifically our colleague from the UN Development Program, Mohamed Abchir, who is the resident representative in South Sudan, is joining us here. We're very pleased to have you with us, sir. I know that your time is precious here, but you wanted to take this opportunity to brief journalists, so we're very grateful to have you here. So over to you for your brief. Is it on? Yes. Okay. Yeah, thank you for having me here today. At a time when global attention is shifting to multiple crises, South Sudan is facing a dangerous combination of declining donor financing, political uncertainty, localized violence, climate shocks, displacement, and rising humanitarian needs. Despite these pressures, communities across the country are still choosing peacebuilding over division, livelihoods over dependency, and dialogue over violence. South Sudan is not destined to relieve its past. A more stable future is being built, but only sustained investment can keep it on course. This year alone, we supported 20,220 people to access justice and legal aid services, many for the first time in their lives. More than 3,000, sorry, 400 young people, most of them women, receive vocational and business management training. Inside prison, over 1,800 inmates receive reintegration and vocational support. 179 peace committees were established across communities. Nearly seven local conflict incidents were addressed. More than half of those disputes were resolved peacefully. What does that mean? In one of the world's most fragile environment, communities are resolving conflicts through dialogue instead of violence. We are seeing measurable progress in health system. More than 88,000 are now receiving HIV treatment. AIDS-related deaths have fallen from over 8,000 in 2022 to 5,100 in 2025. all across the country. Distribution of oxygen cylinders to hospitals increased by 300%. And over $23 million worth HIV and TB medicines and laboratories supplies were delivered to 265 health facilities across the country. These investments save lives, but they also strengthen systems that communities rely on every day. In 2025, UNDP and partners supported over 8.25 million people with information on constitutional process, justice, human rights through community engagement and radio outreach. Why does that matter? Because when people understand their rights, institutions become more accountable. And when institutions become more accountable, peace has a chance. Supporting electoral process is not about supporting one political actor over another. So it's about supporting the South Sudanese people's right to participate peacefully and inclusively in shaping the future. UNDP's role is to help create conditions for transparency, participation, civic engagement, and institutional readiness, while continuing to advocate for dialogue, restraint, and confidence building measures among all stakeholders. Development cannot wait for perfect political conditions. If we wait for absolute stability before investing in institutions, livelihoods, women, youth, and local resilience, we will wait forever. Fragile countries do not become stable first and develop later. very often development itself is what creates stability. So the reduction in development financing is becoming a serious concern because the cost of disengagement will ultimately be far greater than the cost of sustained investment. When development funding disappears, fragility deepens, local institutions weaken, community lose services, and humanitarian needs expand even further. Despite all the challenges, I remain cautiously optimistic. It's easy to look at South Sudan and see only fragility. But this is not the full story. Across the country, communities are working together, resolving disputes and investing in their future. these are early but real signs that a different path towards stability and peace is not only possible, but that is already underway. So this progress is fragile. And sustaining it depends on continued investment. I thank you very much for your attention. Thank you very much, Mr. Abchir. Very important messages indeed. Let's see if there are questions for you. either in the room or online. Now, I don't see any. Okay. It's quite for engagement. But thank you very much. Nevertheless, we'll make sure to amplify this. And thank you again. You're based in Juba, I think. No, yes, I'm based in Juba. Thank you very much for taking the time. Thank you, sir. All the best. Thank you. Okay. Callers from UNEP are going to join us here. I'm very happy to have Pascal Pedusi, who is the director of GRID Geneva. And I think, Mark, you're going to join us as well on the podium? Yeah, why not? Come on up. Come join me. Thank you very much, sir, for joining us. Thank you. Of course. And this is a follow-up to the press conference that UNEP gave this morning at 9.30, but I think there are some additional messages which they wanted to share with you. So, over to you, Pascal. Yes, many thanks. So, today we are launching our third sand and sustainability report. And this report is now focusing on the dual tension that we have and the dependency that we have on sand as a building material for making concrete and sand that we depend on in nature. Once it's providing all these services, such as filtering water, maintaining the river flows, protecting our shorelines, supporting biodiversity. So, the problem is that we have, we want sand both in its dead form. When you transform sand into concrete, it's no longer sand, you cannot go back, so it's dead. And we need sand in its life form when it's in nature supporting all the ecosystem services. So, we want sand dead and alive. And, of course, that's not possible. We have to choose very wisely. We have to use it with care. Because sand is the second material used by humans after water. So, it's actually the first solid material used by humans. We are using the staggering amount of 50 billion tons per year. Just to give an idea, 50 billion tons is enough material to make a wall of 27 meters wide, 27 meters high, all around the equator every year. So, you cannot extract that amount of material without having a large impact. It depends, the impact will depend where you extract it from. If you extract it from static places like on crouching rocks or in quarries, it's actually not as bad because the sand does not interact as much with the ecosystems. But when it is extracted from rivers, from lakes, from beaches, from marine environment, the air sand plays a very important role in sustaining these ecosystems for biodiversity, think about turtles, crabs, birds, fishes, all of that needs sand as part of the ecosystem. But we, humans, as well as for filtering water, protecting our shoreline, we still have a rise, we have the risk of salinations of coastal aquifers, and for that, if you take sand away from the beach, you're making it even more vulnerable. So this report is bringing these pictures of the dual need for sand in terms of material for building, material, and also sand as services provided for supporting the biodiversity. We are, we've been working 14 months on that with 27 lead authors. It brings lots of new facts, and for example, we know that sand demand is going to increase for building by 45% from now to 2060. It will increase mostly in Africa because we have population growth associated with migration from rural to urban area catching up on development and economic growth. Those factors are going to drive further, exacerbate further the demand for building material and sand and gravel in the first place. And in Africa, like in many other places in Asia as well, sand is extracted by artisanal workers. They only have a shovel and a truck, so they cannot go in inquiries or crouching rocks that request too expensive tools. So they can only go where it's easy to find. Unfortunately, where it's easy to find is where it hurts the most because it's in the rivers, in lakes and beaches and close to the coastline. So this is the challenge that we have. We need to shift from informal sector to formal sector, invest in taking sand sourcing in a better way. And this report examined through various systems and frameworks how we could better manage the sand resources for using it with care and using it more wisely. Thank you. Thanks to you, Pascal. Any questions for our colleague? No? Okay, we do have a question actually from Kyoto News. Meva. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Thank you so much. So thank you for this briefing. Very interesting topic indeed. I have three questions. My first one would be related to like more geographical purposes. Like could you describe a bit in which continent we are seeing maybe less sand or where the needs are the higher but like the supply is the lowest? My second question would be related to the involvement of member states. Have you seen any member states willing to take the lead to find a solution? Or is any member states having any ideas or is willing to engage more about this topic? And my third one would be related to like in which meetings or in which context could you discuss that with member states? Do we have a meeting? I'm not so much aware about it so that's why I would like to ask more questions about like in which forum would you discuss about this problematic? Thank you very much. Many thanks for your question. So geographical it's actually a global issue because sand is being used everywhere so if you look where you see large urbanization processes this is where the need is going to be the biggest. In terms of access to sand resources it's true that you have difference in geography and some places have more sand than others. it depends on the past activities geological activities such as glaciers. Actually sand is produced through slow geological time scale processes whereas we're using it at 50 billion tons per year. So there's a sand gap because where we use it we are using way faster that it can replenish itself. So in Southeast Asia it's mostly taken out of rivers but those rivers have been really dredged in a very intense way and we start to see problems like river banks erosions and change in river flows. It's not only happening in developing countries we see shortage looming in North Europe in countries where they don't have mountains such as Belgium, Netherlands and Denmark where these countries without having mountains only rely on marine sand and Belgium has done their assessment they've got until 2080 to at the pace of what they're extracting sand from marine environment and the Netherlands even less so. Small islands have more in the target because small islands have a very small territory, they are affected by sea level rise so most of their infrastructure is very close to the coastline so they will need sand to replenish their beaches and to protect themselves from salination of their coastal aquifers and we see shortages in places where people are doing too large investment, too large infrastructures. Very recently about not that recently for media about a year ago. We saw that in Manila International Airport had to stop their development of the new airport because they're lacking sand because the sand extraction was forbidden in Manila Bay and so they had to find alternative sources and the work has to stop for months. So we start to see that we are reaching a limit. Of course we have a vast amount of sand but a vast amount has to be compared to what we are taking out of the environment and that's 50 billion tons. On your question which member states have been interested in this topic, actually very many. We ran a very large consultations in 2023 with conferences being held in Geneva, Paris, Bangkok, Dakar and Santiago de Chile. We had a global consultation here in Geneva and 120 member states were supporting actually to have more information regarding SANS. The forum that we are using is the United Nations Environment Assembly. which is happening every two years in Nairobi and since 2019 we have resolutions that were taken. In 2019 was resolution 19, 2022 was resolution 12, 2024 was resolution 5 and 2025 was resolution 3. While mentioning that it's climbing up the agenda, 19, 12, 5 and 3. Member states do get more interest in this topic because they see the points, they start to reach the limits of the access to the resource. This is definitely the case in Africa when we run the meeting in Dakar. Every single African country was saying we don't know how to deal with this issue so it's getting more and more present. The good news is we do have solutions. We can build with less sand. We can use alternative material. So we try to explain that. We can build for a longer time period. But it's really a change of attitude and the change that we have with these resources we should be, as I say, use it more wisely. Many thanks. Thank you for ending on good news. That's something we certainly can use here. And thank you indeed. This is an interesting subject. Thanks for informing and educating us on this. Do we have any questions for the questions? I think you wanted to add something. Yeah, go ahead. In the press release, and you can find it here in the box, you have reports in the press release. In the press release, we did a link to a media kit. I also made a tiny URL slash send 2026 media. In the media kit, you will access the report, the figures, the contact of the lead authors, the presentation I just did this morning, as well as the press release itself. And free pictures to use directly, free of license, if you want to use the media kit. Excellent. That's good to know. I think you will have received, I think Mark shared that with you earlier today. Of course, if you have any questions, you can follow up with Mark. And thank you again, Pascal. I think that does it for the questions, so thank you for joining us again. Nearly done, colleagues. Just a couple of announcements before we wrap up. Just to mention, as you well know, the Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, is in Nairobi today. A short while ago, he delivered remarks at the opening of the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi at the UN office in Nairobi. The Secretary-General said, quote, Africa is not waiting, Africa is moving, Africa is leading. The Secretary-General stressed that Africa is driving solutions on global financial reform, climate action, and sustainable development, while calling for a more just international system and stronger global solidarity. Those comments are contained in the statement which we shared with you about an hour ago. So the SG is, as mentioned, in Nairobi. He arrived there yesterday and he gave a press conference. We shared the transcript with you earlier. He also delivered remarks at an important groundbreaking ceremony to launch the new conference center at our office in Nairobi. Those comments you also have. Whilst in Nairobi, he also met with President Ruto of Kenya. We shared the readout as well as with the President of Sierra Leone. So those readouts are shared with you. He's moving. That is the Secretary-General will be heading to Addis Ababa this afternoon, where tomorrow he will address the 10th African Union United Nations annual conference. So that's tomorrow. We'll surely send those comments to you as well. Just a couple more things. The meetings taking place here in Geneva. We have the conference on disarmament, as I mentioned last week. It kicked off yesterday, in fact, the 11th of May. There are no public meetings until the end of the month as the review conference of the NPT is taking place in New York. So there are no public meetings for the conference of disarmament, yet the session is opened. Just to note that the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council continues this week. Today, the countries under review are Sierra Leone and Singapore. And almost last, we have a press conference to announce. While it's not taking place here, it's at Palais Wilson, the office, the headquarters, one of the headquarters, I should say, for the UN Human Rights Office, will be hosting a press conference this coming Monday, the 18th of May, at 2 p.m. on the situation we just heard about, the occupied Palestinian territory. Ajis Sungai, our colleague from the Human Rights, and he's the head of the Human Rights Office in the OPT, will be speaking to you at 2 p.m. And this is in person only, so do take a look at the media advisory we shared with you yesterday at Palais Wilson, 2 p.m. on Monday. Last but not least, there's a press statement that you should have received in your inbox from the International Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar concerning this headline is, one year after deadly school attack, Myanmar children continue to be the victims of the military military's AR campaign, an important subject that continues to concern us and certainly should be spotlighted, situation in Myanmar. So do take a look at that press release. And that is all I have for you. If you have any questions, no, that's not the case. So I wish you a good afternoon. See you here on Friday. Oh, sorry, Alex. Just a question. Are we going to have a briefing on Friday? Yeah, we will have a briefing on Friday. I know that Thursday is the Ascension and there is a floating holiday, as we call it here in the UN. Some colleagues will be away, but we are business as usual on Friday. So hope to see you there. Thanks. Thank you.