Inside Geneva artwork

Inside Geneva

124 episodes - English - Latest episode: 9 days ago -

A podcast from SWI swissinfo.ch, a multilingual international public service media company from Switzerland, where Imogen Foulkes puts big questions facing the world to the experts working to tackle them in Switzerland’s international city. 

Government News Politics switzerland politics languages swiss culture science travel
Homepage Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed

Episodes

Is AI a risk to democracy?

March 19, 2024 08:00 - 39 minutes - 26.8 MB

In 2024, four billion of us can vote in elections. Can democracy survive artificial intelligence (AI)? Can the UN, or national governments, ensure the votes are fair?  “Propaganda has always been there since the Romans. Manipulation has always been there, or plain lies by not very ethical politicians have always been there. The problem now is that with the power of these technologies, the capacity for harm can be massive,” says Gabriela Ramos, Assistant Director-General for Social & Human S...

What’s the future of UNRWA? The Struggle for Balance in Gaza's Aid Operations

March 05, 2024 08:00 - 35 minutes - 24.6 MB

Israel has accused the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) of being involved in the October 7th attacks.  “October 7th was a game-changer. Because the involvement, direct involvement, of those 13 UNRWA employees in the October 7th attacks on Israel changed everything,” said Nina Ben-Ami, Head of Bureau, International Organizations and UN Division, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Inside Geneva looks at what’s at stake.  For more stories on the international Geneva please visi...

The war in Ukraine – what’s next?

February 20, 2024 08:00 - 39 minutes - 27.3 MB

The war in Ukraine is two years old. Inside Geneva discusses the latest military developments in Ukraine, the chances of peace and where the war will go from here. “Isn’t there a limit when there are so many civilian deaths so you as a state have a responsibility to stop?” asks journalist Gunilla van Hall.  How will this war end? Ukraine, with the West’s support, is fighting a regime that poisons, imprisons, and kills its political opponents. Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes says: “Putin...

Reflecting on Ukraine's Struggle and Perseverance Two Years into the Russian Invasion

February 20, 2024 08:00 - 39 minutes - 27.3 MB

The war in Ukraine is two years old. Inside Geneva discusses the latest military developments in Ukraine, the chances of peace and where the war will go from here. “Isn’t there a limit when there are so many civilian deaths so you as a state have a responsibility to stop?” asks journalist Gunilla van Hall.  How will this war end? Ukraine, with the West’s support, is fighting a regime that poisons, imprisons, and kills its political opponents. Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes says: “Putin...

Humanitarian and business alliances in disaster response

February 06, 2024 08:00 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MB

It’s one year since devastating earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria. Inside Geneva talks to search and rescue teams who were there:   Filip Kirazov, from Search and Rescue Assistance in Disasters (SARAID) says: “Every member of SARAID is a volunteer. So no one gets paid for any of the work we do. Our sole aim is to minimize human suffering, due to the impact of natural or manmade disasters.”   And to local business leaders who had tried to prepare for such a disaster.   “We were expecting...

Humanitarian and business alliances: Reflecting on Earthquake Rescue Efforts in Turkey and Syria

February 06, 2024 08:00 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MB

It’s one year since devastating earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria. Inside Geneva talks to search and rescue teams who were there:   Filip Kirazov, from Search and Rescue Assistance in Disasters (SARAID) says: “Every member of SARAID is a volunteer. So no one gets paid for any of the work we do. Our sole aim is to minimize human suffering, due to the impact of natural or manmade disasters.”   And to local business leaders who had tried to prepare for such a disaster.   “We were expecting...

A look into South Africa’s genocide case against Israel

January 23, 2024 08:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MB

The International Court of Justice (the United Nations’ top court) is considering charges of genocide against Israel. The case was brought by South Africa. Adila Hassim, the lawyer for South Africa, says: “Palestinians are subjected to relentless bombing. They are killed in their homes, in places where they seek shelter, in hospitals, in schools, in mosques, in churches and as they try to find food and water for their families." Israel is defending itself with vigour. “What Israel seeks b...

Israel, Gaza, and the challenge to humanitarianism

January 09, 2024 08:00 - 29 minutes - 20.3 MB

The bitter conflict in Gaza has polarised opinions. Aid agencies are caught in the middle. Fabrizio Carboni, Regional Director of the Near and Middle East division of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): “People tend to believe we can do things that actually we can’t. I mean we have no army, we have no weapons.” Some say the ICRC hasn’t done enough to help Israeli hostages. “If we could release them all we would do it as soon as possible. If we could visit them we would vi...

Narratives from the frontlines of human suffering

December 26, 2023 08:00 - 35 minutes - 24.3 MB

In the last Inside Geneva of 2023, UN correspondents look back at the year..and what a year it’s been. Emma Farge, Reuters: ‘This year has felt like lurching from one catastrophe to another.’ Earthquakes, climate change, or war –the UN is always expected to step in. Nick Cumming-Bruce, contributor, New York Times: ‘This is a multilateral system that is absolutely falling apart under the strain of all the extreme events it’s having to deal with.’ Aid agencies have struggled to cope. Imog...

Beyond declarations: UN voices reflect on 75 years of human rights advocacy

December 12, 2023 08:00 - 40 minutes - 27.8 MB

The world is marking an important anniversary: the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After the Second World War, this was supposed to be our "never again" moment. The  Universal Declaration of Human Rights promises us the right to live, to freedom of expression, the right not to be tortured, to equality regardless of gender, race or religion. So how’s that working out? Throughout 2023 SWI swissinfo.ch has been talking to the men and women who have led the U...

Baptism of fire for UN's new human rights chief

November 28, 2023 13:00 - 23 minutes - 15.9 MB

This week Inside Geneva sits down for the last in our series of exclusive interviews with UN human rights commissioners. Volker Türk has a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that he was given at school more than 40 years ago. Growing up in his native Austria, he focused his mind on human rights. "In light of the history of my own country, Holocaust, its own atrocities committed by Austrians during the Second World War, it was very formative for me to actually really say OK w...

The UN, Peace Week, and the Middle East

November 14, 2023 08:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MB

Geneva recently hosted the Peace Week annual forum. Inside Geneva asks what’s the point, especially when there seems to be so much conflict still going on. “What we have to deal with is the immense stupidity of the wars that currently are in place. And here we are having to deal with wars of a sort that were better found in the history books devoted to the 20th century and ought not to have a place in the 21st,” says Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, former United Nations Human Rights Commissioner.  ...

Michelle Bachelet's personal fight for human rights

October 31, 2023 08:00 - 24 minutes - 16.5 MB

On Inside Geneva this week: part six of our series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Imogen Foulkes talks to Michelle Bachelet, who served as UN Human Rights Commissioner from 2018 to 2022. She was a young woman during Chile’s military dictatorship, and experienced human rights violations first hand. “You needed to be as strong as possible, and not to fail and not to... how could I say confess things that could harm other people.” When democracy ret...

How the Israeli-Palestinian war challenges humanitarian aid

October 24, 2023 07:00 - 29 minutes - 20 MB

The current conflict in the Middle East is the most violent in decades. An Inside Geneva special asks what the rules of law allow, and what they forbid.  Marco Sassòli, Professor of International Law at the University of Geneva, says: “the massacre Hamas committed among those festival visitors are clear violations of international humanitarian law. [...] The entire northern Gaza Strip is not a military objective. So, an attack is a specific act of violence against one target, and the entire...

The future of human rights in Russia

October 17, 2023 07:00 - 28 minutes - 19.8 MB

It’s more than a year and a half since Russia invaded Ukraine. The war shows no sign of ending, and Moscow is cracking down on all opposition.  This week, Inside Geneva asks how we can support human rights inside Russia. "Since the full scale invasion of Ukraine had been launched in February of last year, the regime has brought back the entire arsenal of Soviet style repressive techniques, used to eradicate all dissent within the country, and scare people into silence," says Evgenia Kara-M...

The journey of Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein: the sixth UN Human Rights Commissioner

October 03, 2023 07:00 - 26 minutes - 18.1 MB

On Inside Geneva this week: part five of our series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Imogen Foulkes talks to Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, who served as UN Human Rights Commissioner from 2014 to 2018.  He became the first Asian, Muslim and Arab to hold the position. But did he plan a career in human rights from an early age? "No, I was far too immature and delinquent to be thinking lofty ideas and profound thoughts," he said.   But two years in the for...

Inside Geneva's 100th episode: the war in Syria, killer robots and justice in Myanmar

September 19, 2023 07:00 - 34 minutes - 24.1 MB

Inside Geneva is marking its 100th podcast episode this week. In this episode host Imogen Foulkes looks back at some of the podcast highlights. This episode starts with an assessment of how humanitarians coped with the war in Syria.  Jan Egeland, former head of the United Nations humanitarian taskforce for Syria says: "Syria was a real setback where these besiegements, the bombing of hospitals, the bombing of schools, the bombing of bread lines, it was horrific." Inside Geneva also looks ...

From Apartheid to the UN: Navi Pillay's experience as Human Rights Commissioner

September 05, 2023 07:00 - 28 minutes - 19.3 MB

On Inside Geneva this week: part four of our series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Imogen Foulkes talks to Navi Pillay, she served as UN Human Rights Commissioner from 2008 to 2014, she started life in racially segregated South Africa.   "We grew up under apartheid and we’re realised there’s something very unfair here. Our teachers were afraid to talk about…you know they would teach us democracy in Greece, but not why don’t we have democracy in So...

Humanitarian Heroes: Personal Tales of Tragedy, Triumph, and the Search for the Missing

August 22, 2023 07:00 - 34 minutes - 23.6 MB

August marks two important days in the humanitarian calendar  First, the International day of the disappeared. Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC: ‘I look at my kids, I look at my family, and I say ‘imagine now there is a frontline between us and my son, my brother, my mother, my father, are captured and I can't see them for a year, two, three, four.’’   Inside Geneva hears how the ICRC reunites those divided by conflict, and visits the Red Cross Central Tracing Agency.   Anastasia Kushleyko, Centra...

Championing Human Rights: The Story of Louise Arbor

August 08, 2023 07:00 - 31 minutes - 21.6 MB

On Inside Geneva this week: part three of our series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Host Imogen Foulkes talks to Louise Arbour, who served as UN Human Rights Commissioner from 2004 to 2008. She arrived in Geneva with a formidable track record. As a prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia, she had indicted Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes. In Rwanda, she secured convictions of rape as crimes against humanity. "The work I did both with the tribunal ...

Governing artificial intelligence: Ethics, Risks, and Possibilities

July 25, 2023 07:00 - 44 minutes - 30.5 MB

On Inside Geneva this week we take a deep dive into the pros and cons of artificial intelligence. Should the United Nations (UN) help to regulate it? Could it even do that? Across the UN there are different views.  Tomas Lamanauskas, deputy secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) says that "the technology in itself has a huge potential to help us resolve a lot of challenges of today, from climate change, to helping education to, helping in the health sector. It...

Do we need rules for AI?

July 25, 2023 07:00 - 44 minutes - 30.8 MB

On Inside Geneva this week we take a deep dive into the pros and cons of artificial intelligence. Should the United Nations (UN) help to regulate it? Could it even do that? Across the UN there are different views.  Tomas Lamanauskas, deputy secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) says that "the technology in itself has a huge potential to help us resolve a lot of challenges of today, from climate change, to helping education to, helping in the health sector. It...

Human rights and those who defend them: Mary Robinson

July 11, 2023 07:00 - 28 minutes - 19.8 MB

On Inside Geneva this week: part two of our series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Imogen Foulkes talks to Mary Robinson, the second person to serve as UN Human Rights Commissioner. Even as a schoolgirl in Ireland, she was already passionate about human rights.  ‘I was a bit of a bookworm, and I found a book with a photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt holding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That iconic photo.’ She became a campaigning lawyer...

What now for women in Afghanistan?

June 27, 2023 07:00 - 34 minutes - 23.8 MB

On Inside Geneva this week, host Imogen Foulkes asks if the United Nations (UN) should still work in Afghanistan, now the Taliban are banning women from work, and girls from secondary school?  Karima Bennoune, professor of International Law: ‘Anyone who believed in something called Taliban 2.0, had never actually spoken to an Afghan woman human rights defender. Because the Afghan women human rights defenders, they knew what was going to happen. They did their best without a loud microphone ...

Universal human rights at 75: who defends them?

June 13, 2023 07:00 - 21 minutes - 14.7 MB

This week Inside Geneva starts a new series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Born out of the terrible cruelty of World War II, millions hoped the declaration would prevent atrocities.  "This Universal Declaration of human rights may well become the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere," said Eleanor Roosevelt.  But there was no UN human rights chief until the cold war ended in the 1990s.  José Ayala Lasso, first UN human rights commissi...

What became of the pandemic treaty?

May 30, 2023 07:00 - 35 minutes - 24.3 MB

Inside Geneva was at the World Health Assembly over the last week, finding out what lessons are being learned from Covid-19 now that the WHO says the global health emergency is over – even if the pandemic isn’t.  Suerie Moon, co-director, Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute said: "Every single country is vulnerable to pandemics. Every single country can have its economy, its society fundamentally undermined by a pandemic. We know this." Member states are supposed to be working ...

Sudan’s tragedy

May 15, 2023 14:00 - 28 minutes - 19.3 MB

The Sudan conflict began over a month ago, and the consequences for the population are getting more and more serious.  In this episode we take a long hard look at the conflict in Sudan, and what the UN and humanitarian agencies here in Geneva – the ones whose very purpose is to either prevent such conflicts happening, or at the very least help ease the suffering – can actually do.  Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have been operating in Sudan for decades and Vittorio Oppizzi, the project coor...

ICRC reunites families, Swiss neutrality and weapons exports

May 02, 2023 07:00 - 38 minutes - 26.3 MB

This week, Inside Geneva goes behind the scenes with the ICRC’s prisoner exchange in Yemen. Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC: "I look at my kids, I look at my family, and I say ‘imagine now there is a frontline between us, and my son, my brother, my mother, my father are captured and I can't see them for a year, or two, three, four". Can the move help bring peace to Yemen? Daniel Warner, analyst: "Confidence building is the most important thing in all negotiations, and in any kind of situation, suc...

Ukraine, war crimes, and Putin

April 18, 2023 06:00 - 36 minutes - 25 MB

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been indicted for war crimes. This week, Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes asks whether international law can really bring justice. “The real crime of crimes in this story is the decision to go to war. Every other crime – the deportation of children, the crimes against humanity, the war crimes – is a consequence of the decision to go to war,” says Philippe Sands, lawyer and author of East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against...

Aid Access Dilemmas

April 04, 2023 07:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MB

In this episode of Inside Geneva we take a long hard look at how aid is delivered, and why it is often obstructed. Did UN aid agencies fail Syria after the earthquake? Marco Sassoli from Geneva University speaking to Inside Geneva says: "The UN being a club it represents its members, and therefore it considers that it cannot do anything on the territory of a member state without the consent of the member state." But are there ways to get aid in immediately? Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Re...

Books to make you think

March 21, 2023 08:00 - 40 minutes - 28 MB

This week Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes talks to authors who have written about humanitarian topics. What is it like to track down human rights violators? “Each day in court, seeing Hissène Habré I would pump my fist: ‘my God, we got him.’ But you never knew, and I have to say when they started reading the verdict it was such joy, but it was also a relief. I mean I felt like after 16 years, this weight had been lifted off me. I could finally recover my life,” says Reed Brody, a...

How to hold China to account

March 07, 2023 09:00 - 25 minutes - 17.8 MB

The UN Human Rights Council is set to discuss Ukraine, Ethiopia, Iran, and more. Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes asks: what about China? “If there’s no pressure coming from the international community, if there’s no scrutiny over China, if there’s nothing happening, China is basically going to take it as a sign that they’ve got the green light to continue their abuses,” says Zumretay Arkin, spokesperson at the World Uyghur Congress. Last year a UN report suggested China may have ...

How to make peace? The first anniversary of war in Ukraine.

February 23, 2023 13:00 - 42 minutes - 29.3 MB

One year on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined by conflict resolution experts to discuss what the prospects for peace are, and how it can be won. “The fact that we’re talking about the possibility of using nuclear weapons, the fact that we’re talking about the possibility of the United States and China going to war over Taiwan; it’s frightening,” says Katia Papagianni, director of Policy and Mediation Support at the Centre for Humanitarian...

Earthquakes, aid, and politics

February 14, 2023 13:00 - 28 minutes - 19.9 MB

After two devastating earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria, Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes looks at the challenges aid agencies face when compassion and humanity run up against the obstacles of geopolitics. In Syria, the disaster comes on top of 12 years of conflict. “My teams ask me, the people ask me, our partners ask me: why is this happening to us? They just came out of a bitter conflict that’s been taking place for years,” says Wael Darwish of Caritas Switzerland in Syria. The...

Challenges for the new UN Human Rights chief

February 07, 2023 08:00 - 23 minutes - 16.4 MB

This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, host Imogen Foulkes has an in-depth conversation with Volker Türk, the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “I have had a lifelong commitment to the human rights cause,” says Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, about what attracted him to a job some call the UN’s toughest. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 75 in 2023. Where do we stand? “We’re losing the essence of what the Universal Declaration of Human Right...

Cyber Wars

January 24, 2023 09:00 - 28 minutes - 19.4 MB

The war in Ukraine is almost a year old. Inside Geneva asks what role cyberwarfare has played. Christian-Marc Lifländer, head of NATO Cyber Defence Section: "Cyberspace has been central to the war in Ukraine. It has been used to shape the battle space. Cyberattacks were used to lay the ground for the invasion." Its influence has been stealthy… Charlotte Lindsey, CyberPeace Institute: "Everybody was expecting when cyber was used in warfare that there would be some cataclysmic, major humani...

Afghanistan: aid without women

January 10, 2023 09:00 - 25 minutes - 17.3 MB

The Taliban have banned women from working for aid agencies. This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, host Imogen Foulkes asks humanitarians what this means for Afghanistan’s future. “How can women be able to receive healthcare when there are no women doctors?” asks Adam Combs of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Afghan women and girls are banned from secondary school and university too. “If there is no woman attending school, and then university, who will be tomorrow’s doctors, tomorro...

Aid agencies reflect on 2022

December 27, 2022 09:00 - 34 minutes - 23.5 MB

The year has seen huge humanitarian challenges: war in Ukraine, looming famine in Somalia, protracted crises in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria. This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, aid agencies reflect on the year. “One of the things we see is that wars are not ending, they’re lasting, they’re enduring,” says Jason Straziuso, spokesperson at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “There is no health without peace, so the only solution is peace, in these countries,” says Tar...

UN correspondents look back

December 13, 2022 09:00 - 30 minutes - 20.7 MB

2022 has been a momentous year: the war in Ukraine, unprecedented droughts and floods, new disease outbreaks. This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, journalists reflect on the past year. “It was quite shocking waking up in the morning to that news. I remember the UN Refugee Agency already on the first day was saying 100,000 people had been displaced,” says Nina Larson of Agence France-Presse (AFP). There is a new war in Europe. What does it mean for the UN and multilateralism? “The UN wa...

Inside Geneva: What is the nuclear threat?

November 29, 2022 09:00 - 34 minutes - 23.9 MB

Nuclear weapons have only been used twice. Now Russia has hinted they could be used again. In this podcast episode, Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes asks experts how big the threat is. “This is the reality of nuclear deterrence: that there is a nuclear armed country that can hold the rest of the world hostage,” says Alicia Sanders-Zakre of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Have we forgotten how devastating these weapons are? “Blast, high-velocity projectile, ...

What is the nuclear threat?

November 29, 2022 09:00 - 34 minutes - 23.4 MB

Nuclear weapons have only been used twice. Now Russia has hinted they could be used again. In this podcast episode, Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes asks experts how big the threat is. “This is the reality of nuclear deterrence: that there is a nuclear armed country that can hold the rest of the world hostage,” says Alicia Sanders-Zakre of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Have we forgotten how devastating these weapons are? “Blast, high-velocity projectile, ...

Inside Geneva: Q&A on migration, asylum, and refugees

November 15, 2022 09:00 - 38 minutes - 26.3 MB

This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, we answer questions from our listeners about migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees.   Our listeners asked us the following questions: What’s the difference between asylum seekers, stateless populations, and undocumented migrants? How does third country resettlement work? Does the United Nations Refugee Agency, or the International Organization for Migration, have the power to prosecute countries if they violate their obligations to UN conventions? P...

Q&A on migration, asylum, and refugees

November 15, 2022 09:00 - 37 minutes - 25.8 MB

This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, we answer questions from our listeners about migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees.   Our listeners asked us the following questions: What’s the difference between asylum seekers, stateless populations, and undocumented migrants? How does third country resettlement work? Does the United Nations Refugee Agency, or the International Organization for Migration, have the power to prosecute countries if they violate their obligations to UN conventions? P...

COP27, climate change, and health

November 01, 2022 08:00 - 30 minutes - 21.1 MB

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) is due to start this Sunday in Egypt. Evidence shows too little is done against climate change. What does this mean for our health? In this podcast episode, host Imogen Foulkes is joined by health and climate experts. “A 1 degree or 0.5 degree [Celsius] increase has an exponential direct impact on the number of cases of cholera or the number of people dying from heatwaves,” says Ninni Ikkala Nyman of the International Federation of Red C...

Helping Ukraine: lessons and challenges

October 18, 2022 08:00 - 43 minutes - 29.8 MB

In this podcast episode, host Imogen Foulkes together with Swiss Solidarity ask: what are the challenges of delivering aid to Ukraine? “In the early days, it just looked like, five or six days, and Ukraine will be taken,” says Zuzana Brezinova, Ukraine country director at Swiss Church Aid HEKS. How do neutral, impartial humanitarian organisations really work in a war zone? “Because we’re a neutral organisation we cannot sign memorandums of understanding with military organisations,” says ...

Defending human rights in Russia

October 04, 2022 09:00 - 28 minutes - 19.5 MB

Russia is diplomatically isolated. In this podcast episode, host Imogen Foulkes asks: what about Russian human rights defenders? “Right now, in Russia there are few means left to defend human rights, and to address human rights violations. It’s really hard,” says Violetta Fitsner, a Russian human rights defender. In Geneva, Russia has been expelled from the UN Human Rights Council (HRC). “Excluding Russia from various organisations: Council of Europe, Human Rights Council. Are you isolati...

What is the ITU and why does it matter?

September 20, 2022 07:00 - 27 minutes - 18.7 MB

In this episode, host Imogen Foulkes explores the most important UN agency most of us have never heard of.    Malcolm Johnson, deputy secretary general, ITU: ‘Telephony, radio and tv broadcasting , satellite communications, the internet, they wouldn’t have developed.’    So what has the International Telecommunications Union ever done for us?    Fiona Alexander, IT expert: ‘If you’re a beneficiary of any modern day communications network, you have benefitted from something that the ITU has d...

Day of the Disappeared

September 06, 2022 09:00 - 30 minutes - 21.2 MB

For more than 150 years the ICRC has been re-uniting those separated by war and natural disaster. Inside Geneva visits the Central Tracing Agency.    Florence Anselmo, Head of the Central Tracing Agency: "People going missing, families getting separated, families not knowing what has happened to their loved ones."     Now it’s busy letting Russian and Ukrainian families know what has happened to their sons.     Anastasia Kushleyko, CTA: "I’m calling from the ICRC, I’m calling from Geneva and...

Syria: the forgotten crisis

August 23, 2022 09:00 - 34 minutes - 23.7 MB

While the spotlight is on Ukraine, the UN says humanitarian needs in Syria are greater than ever.  Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by humanitarian experts. “The World Food Programme had to reduce by 13% their food rations because of funding,” says Sanjana Quazi, head of office at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Turkey. The UN budget for Syria is underfunded and further devalued by rising food and fuel prices. “What we...

Women, peace, and security

August 09, 2022 08:00 - 34 minutes - 23.8 MB

From war to food insecurity and climate change; would the world be a better, safer place if women took more decisions? Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by women peace and security experts. “Participation of women in peace and security, obviously must go beyond an ‘add-women-and-stir’ approach,” says Julia Hofstetter, president of Women in International Security, Switzerland. How well are women represented in security discussions? “Thirty per cent of the...