UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People
In conversation with Matthias Schmale, UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza
“The COVID-19 pandemic in Gaza and ways to mitigate its impact on Palestine refugees”
Tuesday, 14 April 2020
10.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. (NY Time)
The Chair of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People Mr. Cheikh Niang (Permanent Representative of Senegal to the United Nations in New York) will be in (virtual) conversation with Mr. Matthias Schmale, UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza, on the topic “The COVID-19 pandemic in Gaza and ways to mitigate its impact on Palestine refugees”. The event will be held with the participation of the Mission of Palestine in New York and will be livestreamed on the Committee Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/UN.palestinianrights/. Viewers can pose questions via the Committee Facebook page and the email dpr-meeting@un.org.
The conversation will address the recent and current developments in the occupied Gaza Strip during the Global Coronavirus Pandemic, the UNRWA assistance to Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip, and the need for continued international resolve to support the Agency including with emergency funding.
During his more than 24 years of professional experience in international humanitarian and development organizations, Mr. Schmale has held numerous senior management positions; he served in the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the British Red Cross, and the International Save the Children Alliance. For UNRWA, he has served as the director for Lebanon, for Syria, and for its Representative Office in New York. In October 2017, he was appointed as Director of Field Operations in Gaza. Mr. Schmale holds a PhD in development economics from the Free University in Berlin, Germany.
All Member States and Observers, United Nations organizations, intergovernmental and civil society organizations are invited to attend.
For further information, please visit https://www.un.org/unispal/ or contact the Division for Palestinian Rights of the United Nations Secretariat, email: dpr-meeting@un.org. Viewers are encouraged to use the hashtag, #Rights4Palestine on social media and to tag the Committee’s social media pages.
For a video introduction to the work of UNRWA in Gaza: https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/videos/unrwa-responds-covid-19-gaza-concerns-matthias-schmale-director-unrwa-operations