{"id":242490,"date":"2020-11-24T18:59:10","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T23:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=242490"},"modified":"2020-11-27T19:00:17","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T00:00:17","slug":"unrwa-24-november-2020-daily-press-briefing-excerpts","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/unrwa-24-november-2020-daily-press-briefing-excerpts\/","title":{"rendered":"UNRWA \u2013 24 November 2020 Daily Press Briefing \u2013 (Excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"
24 NOVEMBER 2020<\/strong><\/h6>\n

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary\u2011General.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

UN Relief and Works Agency<\/u><\/p>\n

Turning to UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East]: \u00a0Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, has told the Agency\u2019s Advisory Board that the agency still desperately needs $70\u00a0million in contributions to avoid painful measures in the coming weeks and to limit the amount of liabilities carried over into\u00a02021. \u00a0He said that, if it does not secure the funds for November and December salaries, the Agency will continue to lack the cash needed to operate in January, according to the currently available information on 2021\u00a0contributions.<\/p>\n

UNRWA this year faces a shortfall of $115\u00a0million \u2014 including the $70\u00a0million which is needed to cover November and December salaries of over 28,000\u00a0staff. \u00a0The Commissioner\u2011General was compelled last week to secure an additional $20\u00a0million from the Central Emergency Response Fund\u00a0(CERF) to help with cash flow and cover part of the November payroll. \u00a0Based on funds available, he will decide later this week if UNRWA proceeds with partial payment of salaries at the end of the month or delays full payment.\u00a0 With decreased contributions by several donors, UNRWA\u2019s shortfall in 2020 is the lowest the Agency has had since 2012, while the needs of refugees are huge, especially, obviously, with the socioeconomic impact of COVID\u201119.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Questions and Answers<\/u><\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Hi, Steph. \u00a0I have two question\u2026 two subjects. \u00a0The first one is a follow\u2011up on your UNRWA statement and $70\u00a0million that are still needed. \u00a0My question is, why don\u2019t you call on Israel, as the occupation Power, to fill this gap and pay this money?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Look, UNRWA, obviously, operates in a limited area, but it remains as a UN agency that operates partly on an assessed contribution but broadly on voluntary contributions, and we call on all Member States to help fund UNRWA.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 But\u2026 I mean, I understand that. \u00a0The thing is that, according to the UN resolutions and Geneva Conventions, the occupying Power is responsible for the people who are under occupation, and isn\u2019t it very normal to ask the party and the country who is responsible for this to finance the refugees and solve this problem that you constantly have?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 International\u2026 I mean, obviously, international law is what it is, but there are funding mechanisms for UN agencies. \u00a0This has worked for quite some time with UNRWA, although it\u2019s always been and especially in the last few years in a more precarious financial situation. \u00a0And we hope that those who have always given to UNRWA will continue to do so in even greater amounts.\u00a0 Your second question?<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

For information media. Not an official record.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

24 NOVEMBER 2020 The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary\u2011General. \/… UN Relief and Works Agency Turning to UNRWA [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East]: \u00a0Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2573],"document-source":[5352,6169,1817],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1945,1741,2185,1805,1745],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-242490","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-highlights-of-the-noon-briefing","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-department-of-global-communications","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-subject-assistance","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-legal-issues","document-subject-occupation","document-subject-refugees-and-displaced-persons","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/242490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/242490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=242490"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=242490"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=242490"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=242490"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=242490"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=242490"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=242490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}