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This week on Inside Geneva, we take the pulse of the United Nations as it turns 80.

“Someone celebrating their 80th birthday cannot be expected to be in tip-top shape. The UN is an old lady,” says Corinne Momal-Vanian, executive director at the Kofi Annan Foundation.

Some world leaders don’t have much time for the UN.

“All I got from the UN was an escalator that stopped halfway on the way up and a teleprompter that didn’t work,” said US President Donald Trump.

Others think it needs an injection of fresh ideas.

“We have to reimagine the UN, and reimagine multilateralism, from the point of confidence. And this confidence only comes once we account for the lived realities of people from the Global South,” says Prathit Singh, project coordinator at the Geneva Policy Outlook.

“It’s just not the right answer anymore to have all these men in dark suits in conference rooms deciding the future of humanity,” continues Momal-Vanian.

But we shouldn’t forget its successes: from eradicating smallpox, to reducing maternal mortality, to supporting the most vulnerable every day, all over the world.

“It’s important to keep our optimism, and maybe realise that the UN is what we make of it,” says Fuad Zarbiyev, professor of international law at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

“What would happen if we don’t cooperate? If we look at Covid, if we look at a potential climate disaster? People will be forced to cooperate and I think that’s something we should never forget,” adds analyst Daniel Warner.

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Host: Imogen Foulkes
Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain
Distribution: Sara Pasino
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On our Inside Geneva podcast this week, we ask: are other countries following Russia’s lead in cracking down on freedom of expression?

“I feel as though I’m monitoring a repression handbook used by the Russian government against its own civil society and, unfortunately, this handbook has been copied by other leaders in some democratic countries,” says Mariana Katzarova, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia.

Russian journalists warn us not to take our freedoms for granted.

“It’s been more than a year since I was released from prison. Every morning I open my eyes and I’m so thankful. I know ‘democracy’ and ‘press freedom’ can sound vague to people living ordinary lives but when it comes to your door and rings your bell, it’s too late,” says Alsu Kurmasheva, Russian journalist freed in a 2024 prisoner swap.

They urge us not to stay silent in the face of authoritarianism.

“Through our silence, we have lost our country, Belarus. Those who remain silent really need to act, otherwise, what they’re leaving to their children is… silence,” says Svetlana Alexievich, author and Nobel Prize winner from Belarus. 

Silencing the media isn’t new – but is it spreading? 

“This issue about the media has long been part of the authoritarian rulebook: go after the press if you want to stay in power. What is happening now is that, in more and more countries, we see an authoritarian trend coming into politics,” says Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression.

“Just be aware of the danger. Don’t let it happen. I’m watching closely what’s unfolding in the United States with the closure of these programmes. How will society respond? What will happen? Because this is how it begins,” says Boris Akunin, Russian author now living in exile in London.

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Host: Imogen Foulkes
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This week, in the final episode of our Summer Profiles series on the Inside Geneva podcast, host Imogen Foulkes talks to Irish physiotherapist Rieke Hayes, who now works in Gaza for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“I think I went into physio with the classic idea – I’d have a little clinic, do outpatients, you know, back pain, neck pain. Turns out I really, really didn’t enjoy that setting at all once I was in it,” says Hayes.

Her first posting was unexpected.

“I got this email: would you be willing to go to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in two weeks’ time? I didn’t know what DPRK was, so, yes, North Korea, and I went, of course, yes.” 

Now, she works in Gaza, treating patients with spinal injuries. 

“It’s very complicated for someone with a spinal injury to get off the ground and to mobilise with a walking frame – if they had one. But you don’t have a walking frame, you don’t have a wheelchair and you don’t have a raised bed. You’re in a tent and you might be sharing it with 20 relatives.” 

Can her patients recover, given the situation in Gaza?

“Many patients leave our hospital and I say: we did a good job, we’ve done the best we can. I don’t know if they’re still alive or if they’re still walking, but we do what we can. But yes, they’re very dependent on friends and family – if they have any left, of course.” 

Join host Imogen Foulkes on our Inside Geneva podcast for the full interview.

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Host: Imogen Foulkes
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Distribution: Sara Pasino
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The United Nations General Assembly has officially opened and the organisation marked its 80th anniversary. Inside Geneva asks whether the body remains relevant. 

“If you're a refugee in Bangladesh, or seeking protection in South Sudan, the UN may be imperfect but it’s still relevant,” says Richard Gowan from the International Crisis Group.

The UN is bigger than many of us think.

“We do sometimes forget that the UN still has 60,000 peacekeepers deployed around the world and that it continues to run vast humanitarian operations. So the UN isn’t dead, but I think it’s drifting,” he says.

But what about the UN’s original role – resolving conflicts and promoting peace?

“US President Donald Trump said he wants the UN to refocus on peace and security. But in reality, the US, along with other major powers, hasn’t been working through the UN to address any of today’s major crises.”

Are world leaders making a mistake by leaving the UN out?

“What UN mediators and other conflict resolution specialists have learnt over the past few decades is that peace is a slow business,” Gowan says.

“Trump likes to present himself as a master dealmaker, but what he’s talking about isn’t constructing lasting peace. It’s about grabbing headlines on a few occasions.”

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On World Humanitarian Day, Inside Geneva spoke to a man who has dedicated his life to humanitarian work. He grew up in a quiet Swiss village – so what inspired him to take this path?

“When I was young, I quickly realised that many people didn’t have the same opportunities, they didn’t have equal chances. And to me, that felt fundamentally wrong,” says humanitarian worker Stéphane Jaquemet.

His first posting was to Gaza in the 1980s.

“Gaza was already in a bad state at the time. I think there were nightly curfews and raids by the Israeli army. They would break into homes and mainly arrest young people,” he says. 

Then came the 1990s and the conflict in Yugoslavia.

“A conflict in the middle of Europe: I don’t think we were ready for that, or for witnessing the same kinds of violations. It was a truly horrific conflict; we saw real ethnic cleansing.”

Aid workers today face big challenges and serious personal risks. Yet Jaquemet remains committed. “I would encourage young people to remain interested in humanitarian work, ” he says.

Would he do it all again? “Yes, I would. I’m still motivated.”

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Inside Geneva’s fourth summer profile – not a person, but a much-loved museum.

“In this museum, we ask an essential question: what does humanitarian action have to do with me, in my life, here and now?” says Pascal Hufschmid, director of the Red Cross Museum.

This month there’s a special exhibition, “Tuning in” … to the sound of humanity. 

“It’s an exhibition conceived as an exploration of sound archives – particularly humanitarian sound archives – preserved here in Geneva at the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) and at the museum,” says curator Elisa Rusca.

“It’s also a way of saying that, no matter who we are or where we come from, the way we feel is the same and our internal voice is just as important as the one that comes out,” Rusca says.

The museum reminds us of our shared humanity.

“We really bend over backwards to explain humanitarian principles, international human rights and humanitarian law, and to show that these are lived experiences we can all relate to.”

Listen to the full episode on our Inside Geneva podcast hosted by Imogen Foulkes.

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Rachael Cummings of Save the Children is Inside Geneva’s summer profile this week.  

“When I went into nursing, I also wanted to travel, so nursing gave me that opportunity. That was sort of an 18-year-old thinking, ‘Okay, I can use this to travel with’,” says Cummings.

Since taking her nursing skills to humanitarian work, she’s been all over the world.

“I think one of the things I’m most proud of is Save the Children’s role in the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014 and 2015. We were able to establish – literally build, together with our Sierra Leonean colleagues – an 80-bed Ebola hospital and everything that went with it.”

Now, she’s in Gaza, grappling with desperate shortages of aid.

“Nothing came in for months, and since mid-May the UN has only managed to bring in a trickle of humanitarian supplies. But in this context, people are being starved and are on the brink of famine. They’re absolutely desperate – some are jumping onto the trucks and pulling off the aid supplies. And I know I’d do the same,” she says.

Wherever she is, Cummings’s priority is always the children.

“We’re driven by humanity and the desire to alleviate the suffering of children, wherever they may be. It’s about giving them hope, because they’re living through the worst experiences imaginable, the most desperate of times, and of course, they’re entirely innocent. They’re children who have the right to a childhood.”

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Inside Geneva brings you our second summer profile, with international lawyer Dapo Akande.

“I’m one of those boring people who actually always wanted to be a lawyer. I’m not sure exactly what the motivation was when I was younger, but I think I was very argumentative as a child. And everyone used to say, ‘You should be a lawyer,’” says Akande.

As a child in Nigeria, he also took a keen interest in world affairs.

“I was brought up in Nigeria and my parents had the BBC World Service on the whole time when I was growing up. So that engendered in me a big interest in world affairs. And when I saw that there was an area of law that actually dealt with international affairs, I thought, yes, that’s the bit I’m interested in.”

Once he’d qualified, he assisted on cases at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where he saw how the court peacefully resolved disputes between United Nations member states, including one between his native Nigeria and neighbouring Cameroon.

“This source of real tension, which had occasionally led to flashpoints and the use of force between those two countries, was resolved on the basis of the judgment by the ICJ. I think that’s an amazing achievement and it’s made all the more amazing by the fact that we actually don’t know much about it. If there had been a war, we’d know all about it.”

Now, Akande is a candidate to be a judge on the ICJ – at a time, he believes, when international law is more important than ever.

“It’s clearly the case that, in far too many cases, international law is disregarded. I think that’s true. There are many instances where the law is not followed and you only have to turn on the news to see that. What I do know is that international law is increasingly seen as relevant, and actions today are judged more often by reference to international law than they were in the past.”

Join host Imogen Foulkes in conversation with Dapo Akande on Inside Geneva.

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Host: Imogen Foulkes
Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain
Distribution: Sara Pasino
Marketing: Xin Zhang

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Get in touch!

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Host: Imogen Foulkes
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Inside Geneva’s Summer Profiles are back! In this episode we talk to Tammam Aloudat, doctor, aid worker and now journalist. 

“I was born in Syria, and I spent most of my life there until my mid-20s. I studied there; I went to medical school there,” says the CEO of The New Humanitarian.

Was being a doctor in Syria his first choice? 

“One of the first side effects of autocratic dictatorships is that there isn’t really work outside a few private enterprises, one of which is being an engineer, a lawyer, or a doctor,” he says.

A chance meeting with a British Red Cross official led him into humanitarian work.

“And a couple of years later, when I wanted to go out and work for the Red Cross, it was him who gave me a contract with the British Red Cross and sent me to Iraq. I mean, arguably not the nicest thing to do to someone, but it was exactly what I had asked for.”

But the disastrous consequences of that conflict made him question his work, and the traditional neutrality of humanitarianism. 

“Can we afford to only put roofs over people's heads and do nothing about the system? If your house was bombed for the first time, I understand. If it was bombed for the 17th time, and instead of a house you have a tarp, and instead of food, you have animal feed or grass to eat,” Aloudat says.

Join host Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva for a fascinating discussion. 

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Host: Imogen Foulkes
Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain
Distribution: Sara Pasino
Marketing: Xin Zhang