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Interviews

617 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago - ★★★★ - 4 ratings

UN News interviews a wide range of people from senior news-making officials at Headquarters in New York, to advocates and beneficiaries from across the world who have a stake in helping the UN go about its often life-saving work in the field.

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Gaza: Rafah invasion would ‘break the back’ of UN aid response warns veteran aid coordinator

March 25, 2024 20:16 - 16 minutes - 13.4 MB

Israel’s planned invasion of Rafah would “break the back of our response” when it comes to preventing the aid crisis in Gaza from getting even worse, said the UN Deputy Special Coordinator in the region on Monday. In an interview with UN News, Jamie McGoldrick who is the number two in the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said politics aside, it is crucial to get more aid to those who need it.  He told Ezzat El-Ferri that in decades of frontline aid wo...

‘Paper thin’ children of Gaza leave helpless parents in despair: UNICEF’s James Elder

March 22, 2024 18:42 - 5 minutes - 8.37 MB

The north of Gaza is utterly devastated while “paper-thin” children cling on to life, even when they are in hospital, said the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Spokesperson James Elder, in an interview with UN News on Friday. He’s been seeing the reality of malnutrition and dehydration up close on a recent mission to Gaza and told Daniel Johnson that the only way to end the desperation is to ensure a regular supply of aid. Mr. Elder said the people he met on the ground had only one message for ...

WMO chief to youth: Engage in climate action for a better future

March 21, 2024 15:15 - 5 minutes - 7.42 MB

Weather and climate indicators were “off the chart” last year according to the latest report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) but it’s not too late for humankind to live in balance with nature. That’s according to the Secretary-General of WMO, Celeste Saulo, speaking to UN News ahead of World Meteorological Day on 23 March.  She told Nathalie Minard that adopting a ‘net zero’ approach with a transition to renewables “at the core level of decision-making and action” is a must,...

Suffering in silence: Gaza’s malnourished babies are dying ‘in their tens, in the 20s’

March 19, 2024 16:42 - 5 minutes - 6.92 MB

The entire Gaza Strip now has just 12 partially functioning hospitals where cases of severe acute malnutrition among newborns in northern governorates are likely already “overwhelming” medical teams, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. Backing repeated international calls for a ceasefire to allow more desperately needed aid into the enclave, WHO spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris warned that many “horrifically” underweight infants “are now dying”, after nearly six months of...

WATCH: Unexploded bombs in Gaza will take years to clear

March 18, 2024 19:24 - 10 minutes - 52.1 MB Video

The residents of Gaza have faced unimaginable horrors since October. The massive bombardments that pummelled the territory over the last five months have flattened entire neighbourhoods, and when reconstruction eventually begins, the costs are likely to be in the tens of billions. That reconstruction will be hampered by an unwelcome, deadly, hangover from the conflict: unexploded bombs, missiles, and other types of munitions. The UN’s Mine Action Service has warned that “an extraordinary v...

Unexploded bombs in Gaza will take years to clear, says Palestine UN Mine Action chief

March 18, 2024 19:24 - 10 minutes - 52.1 MB Video

The residents of Gaza have faced unimaginable horrors since October. The massive bombardments that pummelled the territory over the last five months have flattened entire neighbourhoods, and when reconstruction eventually begins, the costs are likely to be in the tens of billions. That reconstruction will be hampered by an unwelcome, deadly, hangover from the conflict: unexploded bombs, missiles, and other types of munitions. The UN’s Mine Action Service has warned that “an extraordinary v...

Ordeal of Ukrainians revealed after full-scale Russian invasion

March 15, 2024 16:28 - 6 minutes - 8.56 MB

It’s been a full two years since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine which gave rise to “horrific” abuses and likely war crimes, including systematic torture and rape. These grave violations are detailed in a new report to the UN Human Rights Council by the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine which was published on Friday. Leading the inquiry is independent rights expert and Commission Chair Erik Møse. UN News’s Daniel Johnson in Geneva sat down with him after the report launch and be...

Gaza: More than 40 per cent of agriculture sector totally destroyed

March 14, 2024 18:10 - 8 minutes - 12.4 MB

The entire agriculture sector of Gaza which was already under strain before the Israeli offensive “collapsed many weeks ago”, especially in the most damaged northern areas of the enclave. That’s according to AbdelHakim ElWaer, Assistant Director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) speaking exclusively to UN News, who called for immediate international action to prevent starvation and malnutrition from spreading. He told Khaled Mohamed that around 55 per cent of agricultural l...

After losing 150 relatives in Gaza, US doctor says ‘those left are waiting to die’

March 13, 2024 19:13 - 6 minutes - 2.94 MB

Dr. Rola ElFarra, a physician from Houston, Texas, has family in the Gaza Strip. Some 150 of her relatives have been killed during the Israeli incursion and bombardment of the besieged enclave. Among a group of Palestinian women who met with the UN Secretary-General last week, Dr. Elfarra shared stories and family photos of some of those killed, over 90 of whom were women and children, at a virtual event, War on #Gaza: Impact on Palestinian Women and Children, held on Wednesday on the margi...

UNRWA deputy chief: ‘More aid has to come in at scale’

March 13, 2024 15:24 - 10 minutes - 14.3 MB

On her return from a visit to Gaza, her first since 7 October, Natalie Boucly, the Deputy Commissioner-General of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), described the “shocking conditions” she had witnessed in the Strip. Speaking to Khaled Mohamed from UN News, Ms. Boucly said that the population is “literally besieged”, with limited health and sanitation and no access to electricity, and is only receiving “a trickle” of aid. The Deputy Commissioner-General called for more land cros...

Why rural women pay the highest price of climate change and how to change it

March 08, 2024 14:12 - 8 minutes - 11.4 MB

Climate change is not equal. Across all developing countries, rural women are facing worse challenges due to the changing climate and paying a higher financial toll than men. A recent UN study has for the first time revealed empirical evidence of these disparities. Ahead of International Women’s Day, Laura Quinones from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) spoke with gender expert Lauren Phillips about the main findings of the report and what can countries do to close the clima...

Mongolian Dzuds: Unravelling a climate change crisis and how space tech can help

March 07, 2024 19:38 - 8 minutes - 6.04 MB

The Dzud – literally meaning disaster in Mongolian – is a recurring and damaging weather event in the landlocked northeast Asian country, devastating its unique nomadic and pastoral way of life and wiping massive numbers of livestock. Tiziana Bonapace, Director of Disaster Risk Reduction Division, ESCAP But this season, the winter phenomenon is particularly extreme, affecting nearly 250,000 people and tens of millions of heads of cattle, horses, goats and sheep. To find out more about this ...

Gloves are off in fight against online drug sales, says anti-narcotics body

March 05, 2024 12:18 - 9 minutes - 12.8 MB

Drug dealers aren’t afraid of using popular social media and e-commerce platforms to sell their narcotics which is why countries and internet giants should join forces to fight the disinformation they peddle, a UN-partnered International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) report said on Tuesday.  In an interview with UN News’s Khaled Mohamed, the board’s President, Professor Jallal Toufiq, describes the nature of the online drug threat and offers insight into how to counteract it. He also expla...

UNDP supports building homes and breaking stereotypes in Ukraine

March 03, 2024 18:21 - 8 minutes - 3.45 MB

Roughly two million homes have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine, where the full-scale Russian invasion has entered a third year. A recent UN-backed assessment estimated that overall reconstruction and recovery will cost $486 billion over the next decade.  The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is working with the authorities and civil society on recovery efforts, which includes supporting a project called Velyke Divnytsvo that encourages women to take up tools and rebuild their country, o...

UN agency for Palestinians is a lifeline in Gaza, says General Assembly President

March 01, 2024 21:42 - 12 minutes - 27.6 MB

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees – UNRWA - is a lifeline for Gazans and should have the continued support of donor nations, the President of the United Nations General Assembly has insisted. In a wide-ranging interview, Dennis Francis insisted that investigations into allegations of collusion between UNRWA and Hamas militants were ongoing; and that until these findings are made public, the UN must not be seen to be “walking away” from Gazans. Here’s Mr. Francis now, speaking to UN Ne...

Rights experts alarmed by reported violations against Palestinian women and girls

February 29, 2024 14:34 - 8 minutes - 11.6 MB

Independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council are calling for an investigation into credible allegations of continued violations against Palestinian women and girls in Gaza and the West Bank against the backdrop of the current war between Hamas and Israel. Reports allege that Palestinian women and children have been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, including when seeking refuge or fleeing bombardment, while hundreds more have been arbitrarily detained. Reem Alsalem, UN Special ...

Climate change: Saving nature from rising temperatures and conflict around the world

February 28, 2024 18:37 - 8 minutes - 11.6 MB

Climate change has become such a major factor of global instability that even the UN Security Council has added it to its agenda.  At the UN Environment Assembly taking place in Nairobi this week, experts including Christophe Hodder, climate peace and security advisor to UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), have been meeting to discuss the complex link between climate change and conflicts.  Mr. Hodder highlighted the environmental damage caused by war and its consequences, explaining ...

We will never leave the people of Gaza, says UN’s top aid official

February 14, 2024 17:26 - 9 minutes - 15.6 MB

An all-out Israeli invasion of Rafah could force the closure of the aid lifeline from Rafah, “but we will never leave the people of Gaza”, UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths said on Tuesday. His expression of solidarity with Gazans came amid deepening concerns among humanitarians and the international community about the fate of some 1.5 million civilians uprooted by more than four months of heavy Israeli bombardment in the enclave, sparked by Hamas-led attacks in Israel on 7 Octobe...

World Radio Day interview: UN radio in South Sudan, a channel for peace

February 13, 2024 00:00 - 7 minutes - 1.78 MB

Radio Miraya has been broadcasting across South Sudan since 2006 and in that time its core message of peace hasn’t changed – and it must be a successful formula, since seven in 10 people in the country listen to it. For World Radio Day, celebrated on 13 February every year, we caught up with Ben Dotsei Malor who’s just returned to UN Headquarters in New York from a posting to Juba, where Radio Miraya is based. Here he is now, sharing his thoughts on his time there, with UN News’s Daniel Jo...

UN and Egyptian Red Crescent join forces to bring aid to Gaza and Sudan

February 12, 2024 19:17 - 39 minutes - 32.7 MB

Sharing borders with Gaza, Israel, Libya and Sudan, Egypt has taken a lead role in providing lifesaving aid in the region. Since the outbreak of conflict in Sudan last April and the four-month-old war in Gaza, both the Government and the Egyptian Red Crescent Society have been key actors in helping to assist millions of civilians caught in the crossfire. The sheer volume of aid delivered to Gaza has led Egypt to introduce innovations and strategies to get emergency supplies and services to ...

World’s migratory species in decline, UN report warns

February 12, 2024 14:48 - 8 minutes - 12 MB

Nearly half of the world’s migratory species are in decline and the global extinction risk is increasing, a new UN report has revealed.  Some whale species, sea turtles and jaguars are among the animals at risk, according to the first-ever State of the World’s Migratory Species report, launched at the opening of a major UN wildlife conservation conference taking place this week in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.  The report was issued by Secretariat of the Convention on the Conservation of Migrator...

De-escalation zone: The UN peacekeepers trying to stop Gaza war spreading

February 07, 2024 17:15 - 8 minutes - 20 MB

As war rages in Gaza, another simmering conflict risks escalating on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon – which is why the UN peacekeeping mission there is so important. UNIFIL – the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon – has three important responsibilities: helping civilians affected by the war, protecting the so-called “Blue Line” that separates both countries and maintaining a channel of communication between them. The task isn’t easy though, amid daily exchanges of fire that hav...

UNRWA will ‘come to a halt’ in March, warns agency director in Lebanon

February 06, 2024 17:53 - 8 minutes - 11.3 MB

The UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNWRA) serves almost six million Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.  UN News’s Khaled Mohamed spoke with Dorothee Klaus, who’s the top official for the agency in Lebanon, which is home to around 250,000 Palestinians. Explaining the dire, immediate impact of funding cuts and the current suspension of aid by many key donors, she said UNRWA operations could ‘come to a halt’ in March.

Dreaming of home, Gazans determined to stay inside shattered enclave

February 05, 2024 20:50 - 5 minutes - 4.19 MB

The UN agency assisting Palestinians, UNRWA, will continue delivering services as best it can to the people of Gaza and will play no part in “pushing” them across the border into Egypt. That’s according to UNRWA Spokesperson Adnan Abu Hasna, who told UN News he hoped there would be no ground operation by Israel inside the now densely populated border town of Rafah, where around 1.5 million are sheltering. Ezzat El-Ferri asked him to explain why it was not feasible to move Gazans across the...

FGM costing ‘$1.4 billion per year,’ says global coordinator

February 05, 2024 19:55 - 6 minutes - 1.58 MB

February 6 marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, or FGM. In 2024, some 4.4 million girls are still considered at risk from this horrific act of gender-based violence. “Even one mutilation is one too many” said UN chief António Guterres in his message marking the day.  According to Dr. Wisal Ahmed, the UN reproductive health agency’s (UNFPA) Global Coordinator for the FGM Trust Fund, health complications due to the barbaric practice add up to around $1...

Madagascar prepares for effects of El Niño as humanitarian crisis continues

February 01, 2024 19:26 - 4 minutes - 3.65 MB

Thanks to careful forward planning, Madagascar is better prepared now to deal with the impacts of the current El Niño phenomenon and climate change, as the south of the country endures a long-standing humanitarian crisis, says Reena Ghelani, the UN’s Climate Crisis Coordinator for the El Niño response. More people are expected to go hungry in February as the food security situation deteriorates, mainly due to an expected lack of rain as an impact of El Niño.   The UN says that more than 26...

UN trade agency assesses economic impact of Gaza devastation

January 31, 2024 19:41 - 6 minutes - 8.31 MB

Restoring the social and economic conditions that existed in Gaza before the current conflict will take tens of billions of dollars and several decades, according to the UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD. Its latest report revealed that Gaza’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by $655 million last year, roughly 25 per cent, mainly due to the onset of war following the 7 October terror attacks.  UN News’s Khaled Mohamed spoke to Rami Al Azzeh, an economist with the Assistance to t...

Organized crime gangs in Southeast Asia grow networks through innovative use of technology

January 27, 2024 15:10 - 7 minutes - 10.7 MB

Criminal networks in Southeast Asia are growing their illegal operations in through the innovative use of technology, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The trafficking of people and drugs as well as money laundering and fraudulent scam activities are being boosted by the use of cryptocurrencies, the dark web, artificial intelligence and social media platforms, as criminals continue to base their operations in parts of the region where the rule of law is weak or non-exis...

Small scale, reliable and renewable: Clean electricity is changing lives in Madagascar

January 25, 2024 17:27 - 10 minutes - 9.15 MB

According to energy industry experts, we’re in the middle of a massive expansion of renewable energy sources, and it’s likely to continue. At the UN climate conference in Dubai at the end of last year, governments committed to tripling global capacity by 2030, and the International Energy Agency, for one, is bullish about that goal being achieved. But will developing countries benefit?  Moritz Brauchle is the managing director of Africa GreenTec Madagascar, a social enterprise which provid...

UNICEF warns of looming ‘learning catastrophe’ in war-torn Sudan

January 24, 2024 22:23 - 8 minutes - 12.1 MB

Sudan is “on the brink of a learning catastrophe” as war is preventing 19 million children from continuing their education, which could translate into a staggering $26 billion lifetime earning loss.  The warning comes from Mandeep O’Brien, Representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Sudan, where rival military forces have been battling since last April.  She said UNICEF and partners are working to get schools to re-open safely, where conditions allow, in addition to providing e-le...

‘These are not conditions meant for human beings’: UNRWA official on Gaza visit

January 22, 2024 17:26 - 7 minutes - 4.14 MB

No food, water, or health care facilities, no communication with the outside world, and the constant threat of bombardments. These are the desperate conditions under which Gazans are living, says Juliette Touma, the spokesperson for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, who visited Gaza in mid-January. On her return, she spoke to Conor Lennon from UN News, and described what she saw in the congested refugee camps of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Congo floods forcing some women to give birth ‘in the water’

January 19, 2024 21:53 - 3 minutes - 1.94 MB

Entire villages in the Republic of Congo have been affected by recent flooding, leaving more than 350,000 people in need of food, shelter, clothing and other basics. People are living on top of their houses and some women are even giving birth in rafts, said Chris Mburu, UN Resident Coordinator the country, speaking to UN News’s Alexandre Carette in Geneva. Mr. Mburu said the UN and partners are supporting the authorities to respond to the emergency as aid workers continue to try to reach ...

Gaza is ‘hell’ for newborns and mothers, warns UN Children’s Fund

January 19, 2024 17:50 - 7 minutes - 1.68 MB

Emirati Hospital in southern Gaza is one of last functioning maternity facilities in all of Gaza where “there aren’t enough staff and not enough medicine” for women about to give birth, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday. Amid ongoing active conflict that has killed tens of thousands, UNICEF is doing its utmost to help, by delivering essential relief supplies to health teams, formula milk, clothes and food for women too weak to breastfeed.  But much more needs to be done to s...

IOM official in Sudan fears war could reach UN bases

January 16, 2024 21:52 - 8 minutes - 4.79 MB

Nine months ago, UN teams in Sudan were forced to evacuate from their headquarters in Khartoum, as heavy fighting between government and rebel forces raged in the capital. The impact on the civilian population has been catastrophic, with half of the population in need of aid and more than seven million people forced to flee their homes. The security situation is so bad that humanitarian workers have been unable to bring aid to the areas worst hit by fighting. Peter Kioy, the head of the UN...

Gaza: ‘Mammoth task’ to scale up aid warns veteran humanitarian

January 15, 2024 16:39 - 13 minutes - 18.6 MB

With only ‘one door’ open on Gaza’s southern border at Rafah, for aid to reach more than two million Gazans who need lifesaving aid, Israel must provide greater and more reasonable access, said the veteran humanitarian official who is the interim Resident Coordinator for the enclave, in an exclusive interview with UN News. Jamie McGoldrick, who’s also serving as Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told Ezzat El-Ferri on Saturday that better shelter, more food suppl...

Red Sea emergency hits consumers worldwide: UNCTAD

January 04, 2024 18:18 - 8 minutes - 18.6 MB

Houthi rebel attacks on ships using the Red Sea trade route off the coast of Yemen, are bad for global business and consumers everywhere but have also exposed a chronic shortage of vessels in the supply chain. That’s according to Jan Hoffman, chief of the trade logistics branch at the UN trade and development body UNCTAD. He’s been talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson about the impact of the action taken by the Houthis in protest at Israel’s continuing offensive in Gaza, the repercussions o...

Will the world get to grips with AI in 2024?

January 01, 2024 06:00 - 24 minutes - 13.9 MB

The enormous potential of GPT4 caught the popular imagination in 2023, with its ability to generate texts in a range of styles, in response to written prompts. But many expressed concern about the jobs that might be lost, the ease with which bad actors could produce highly convincing misinformation and, in a coming year full of elections, the risks AI could pose to democracy itself. Conor Lennon from UN News asks Carme Artigas, Spain’s first-ever Secretary of State for Digitalization and A...

Award-winning journalists highlight UN as ‘global body’ advancing reparations

December 29, 2023 21:17 - 12 minutes - 16.6 MB

Earlier in December, the UN Department of Global Communications hosted Knowledge, History and Power, an event featuring noted journalists Nikole Hannah-Jones and Laura Trevelyan. The event was organized by the Department of Global Communications Outreach Programme on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery in collaboration with the Universities Studying Slavery Consortium. Pauline Batista from UN News talked to both award-winning journalists about the challenges, hopes and dreams for “the...

‘Solidarity’ as UN humanitarians visit frontline in Ukraine on Christmas Day

December 29, 2023 13:55 - 9 minutes - 12.7 MB

Humanitarian workers visiting the frontline in Ukraine are showing solidarity with the people affected by the almost two-year-long conflict as “war does not stop on Christmas Day”, according to the UN’s most senior humanitarian representative in the country. Denise Brown, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator led a convoy of aid to Kupiansk in the east of the country. Saviano Abreu began by asking her what support the UN is providing on the frontline and elsewhere. 

Intense escalation in Gaza bombardment leaves medical teams facing impossible choices

December 26, 2023 16:37 - 9 minutes - 16 MB

UN humanitarians carried out an emergency fact-finding mission to central Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital on Christmas Day, in response to fears of mass casualties after reports that three refugee camps were hit by Israeli airstrikes. Doctors at the hospital, which was already at full capacity, reported seeing “100-plus patients” brought in with serious injuries in just the first 30 minutes, with around the same number of dead bodies. With ever decreasing space in the Strip to treat men, women and...

UNRWA: Supporting the civilians of Gaza caught up in a ‘brutal war’

December 19, 2023 22:28 - 10 minutes - 6.56 MB

Since the military incursion into Gaza, which followed deadly attacks by Hamas on Israel on the seventh of October, 135 staff members of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, are known to have been killed, the most ever in one incident. Despite the danger and extremely difficult working conditions, UNRWA is continuing to assist those caught up in the fighting through no fault of their own. And the task is monumental. Nearly two million people have been displaced across the Strip, man...

Gazans search for firewood in cemeteries in ‘catastrophic’ situation

December 19, 2023 17:00 - 4 minutes - 6.73 MB

Cemeteries in Gaza are being raided for wood as people affected by the ongoing bombardments look for ways to cook food and feed themselves; that’s according to the World Food Programme’s Samer Abdel Jaber who has just visited the south of the enclave.  The conflict in Gaza began after the October 7th attacks by Hamas on Israel which left at least 1200 people dead. Khaled Mohamed of UN News asked Samer Abdel Jaber what he witnessed on his visit.  

From Gaza to Ukraine, accountability vital to end horrific cycle of rights violations: Türk

December 15, 2023 22:38 - 15 minutes - 14.3 MB

In an exclusive interview with UN News, Volker Türk, High Commissioner for Human Rights, underlined that accountability is key and a fundamental “missing link” in most conflicts around the world which simply perpetuates cycles of violence. “It is absolutely critical that accountability is part of any future arrangement because we know that if impunity reigns, and if the facts are not told and if the truth is not told, we will have grievances going on and on and on,” he said, referring to th...

Supporting peaceful and inclusive elections in DR Congo

December 13, 2023 22:24 - 9 minutes - 10.1 MB

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is poised for elections on 20 December, when votes will be cast for a new president and well as national and provincial legislatures. In a historic move, this election marks the first time that local representatives will be on the ballot, a significant stride towards enhancing community participation in the whole electoral process. “This is in my view, a very good step,” Bintou Keita, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the DRC...

Gaza: Trauma rooted in ‘scourge of war’ impacting women and children alike

December 13, 2023 10:39 - 8 minutes - 11.1 MB

Sixteen year-olds in Gaza are now in the middle of the fourth war of their short lifetimes, a leading UN humanitarian has told UN News, pointing out that for the youngest, it’s causing unimaginable trauma. Gemma Connell of UN humanitarian coordination office OCHA, is in Rafah, where she has spent the past week and says that for mothers, they’re also enduring terrible suffering and loss of dignity that is life-altering. Abdelmonem Makki asked her what she had seen, as local health authoriti...

‘Everyone was asking about a ceasefire’: Malta’s UN ambassador reports back on visit to Gaza border

December 12, 2023 22:25 - 5 minutes - 4.01 MB

Vanessa Frazier, Malta’s Permanent Representative to the UN, has told UN News that the Security Council must insist on the release of all Hamas hostages in Gaza, and the unhindered and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid into the Strip. As part of an unofficial fact-finding trip organized by the United Arab Emirates, Ms. Frazier along with other UN ambassadors representing their countries on the Security Council, were taken on Monday close to the border between Egypt and Gaza to see for the...

Human rights are a solution to the climate crisis

December 10, 2023 13:03 - 10 minutes - 14.4 MB

Clear and unequivocal language on the phasing out of fossil fuels is the only way forward to prevent the human rights crisis that is caused by climate change.  This is the message from Benjamin Schachter, the UN human rights office Environment and Climate Change Team Leader, who is coordinating the OHCHR delegation at the COP28 climate conference, now underway in Dubai, UAE. The climate summit is in its final stretch, coinciding with the annual observance of Human Rights Day on December 10...

When farmers go hungry, innovation to the rescue

December 10, 2023 00:07 - 6 minutes - 8.69 MB

As the focus at COP28 turns to food and agriculture, the spotlight is on smallholder farmers in developing countries on the frontlines of climate change, clinging on to their livelihoods amid drought and floods. Bernhard Kowatsch, the head and founder of the UN World Food Programme’s Innovation Accelerator, told UN News’ Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer that innovation is the key to helping climate-proof their businesses – not just tomorrow, but right now. He called for more investments in sma...

It’s time to reprioritize our resources to focus on the climate crisis

December 09, 2023 14:26 - 8 minutes - 12.3 MB

Taking 5 per cent of global military expenditures and directing it towards education and the climate crisis, would free up $100 billion a year to respond to climate change. Speaking to UN News on the sidelines of COP28 conference in Dubai, Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of the UN global fund for education, sent a strong message to countries as she launched an appeal for $150 million to empower teachers and millions of children affected by forced displacement and climate change. Ms. She...

‘Everybody is grieving’ in Gaza: UNRWA

December 08, 2023 19:23 - 12 minutes - 17.5 MB

The war has taken a huge toll on Gaza, leaving “everybody” grieving, said the Director of the UN Palestinian refugee support agency, UNRWA, in an interview with UN News on Friday. Tom White warned that staffers are overwhelmed while people continue dying in and around some shelters, due to Israeli airstrikes, where they are seeking UN protection.  “We are essentially starved of the resources that we need to provide for people”, he told Abdelmonem Makki.