UN Interviews

Somalia could provide valuable “lessons learned for other mission set ups”, according to the UN police commissioner there.

In New York for UN Police Week, Meinolf Schlotmann, Police Commissioner of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) said that the country is on “a very positive trajectory”.

Although East Africa has been experiencing impressive economic growth for nearly a decade, it has not enabled the creation of enough decent jobs for the region’s rapidly growing population.

That’s according to a new study by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), which estimates that more than eight million new jobs are needed annually to meet the demand.

Although almost nine in 10 people in developed countries use the internet, in poorer regions, only a fraction of that number goes online. That’s the latest finding from ITU, the International Telecommunications Union, which in a new report, highlights how more women than ever are missing out on potential digital gains.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, the agency’s Dr​ Susan Teltscher explains why it’s often women in rural areas who suffer most.

Mami Mizutori, the UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR),  says proper allocation of disaster funds means “a hazard doesn’t necessarily have to become a disaster.” 

She spoke to UN News’s Natalie Hutchison, to mark World Tsunami Awareness Day, explaining how her Office is helping implement disaster risk management efforts around the world. 

Deployed with the UN Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, since March 2017, after serving in Darfur and Mali, UN Police Officer (UNPOL) Seynabou Diouf from Senegal, helps empower women and survivors of sexual violence across the region. On Tuesday, she received the 2019 United Nations Female Police Officer of the Year Award at UN Headquarters in New York. Speaking before the ceremony, Major Diouf told UN News’s Pascal Sim, that it’s essential to have more women serving UN Peacekeeping, and that “what a man can do, a woman can do better”.

One billion children—or half the world’s youngsters—are victims of violence, ranging from conflict and humanitarian crises to cyberbullying and recruitment by terrorist groups.

That’s according to UN expert Najat Maalla M’jid who advocates for governments, civil society and other stakeholders to put children at the heart of their policies.  May Yaacoub asked her about progress in the global effort to protect children.

The unbearable levels of air pollution in India’s New Delhi, declared a public health emergency by the local government as of Monday, have made “the invisible killer, visible”. 

That’s from Valentin Foltescu, Senior Programme Management Officer for the UN Environment Programme in India, UNEP, who said that current levels of toxic particles in the capital are 40 times higher than the upper limit of exposure, recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

La Guajira, Colombia’s northernmost region, is dry with desert landscapes. It’s prone to drought and food insecurity particularly in rural areas. In recent years, the economic crisis in neighboring Venezuela has pushed over a million migrants across the border, including 165,000 people into La Guajira. The influx  has put a strain on host communities, where food is limited and natural resources scarce, so the UN Food and Agriculture Organization decided to take action.

From FAO, Anais Hotin and Charlotta Lomas have this special report. 

Discrimination and violence towards members of the LGBTI community continues to be pervasive in every region of the world, with same-sex marriages still considered a crime in 69 countries. 

That’s from Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, who presented a new report to the General Assembly last week outlining how negative notions of LGBTI people manifest, and how best to stop them

UN human rights expert Agnès Callamard has been involved in some of the most talked-about stories of the past year..

Shortly after she called on the Maltese authorities to do more to find those responsible for the death of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, Conor Lennon from UN News asked her if she was surprised that the investigation into the death of Ms. Galizia has not made more progress.