UN Interviews

The International Court of Justice is an integral part of the United Nations.

Conor Lennon from UN News caught up with Philippe Gautier, the newly appointed Registrar of the ICJ, and started by asking him to explain the role the ICJ plays on the world stage.

As the first human rights issue to provoke wide international, slavery is perpetuated by traditional practices such as child and forced marriage, and by the fact that almost half the countries in the world have yet to criminalize it.

According to the latest UN figures, 40 million people were living in a state of modern slavery in 2016. One in four children are in forced labour, and about 98 per cent of women who are in forced labour have also been subjected to sexual exploitation.

Deeply rooted in fear, with victims often “not realizing” they’re enslaved, it becomes "invisible", and "clandestine”, leaving victims unprotected, said Urmila Bhoola, Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, who sat down with UN News's Ana Carmo to talk through its causes and consequences.

There are clear benefits to keeping the earth’s temperature below two degrees; and the “choices we make now will be critical for the future of our oceans and cryosphere”.

That’s the message from Anjal Prakash, Coordinating Lead Author of the latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC report, on the havoc being unleashed on the earth’s oceans and ice caps. He spoke to UN News’s Sachin Gaur.

London’s Crystal Palace provided the venue for the first ever World Expo back in 1851, and next year, the Arab region hosts the iconic global event for the first time, which will include a United Nations pavilion, the Organization announced on Thursday.

Under the theme “We the peoples shaping our future together”, the space will focus on “the people the United Nations serve, rather than the institution”.

That’s according to Maher Nasser, Director of Outreach for the UN’s Department of Global Communications, who’s leading the UN team at Expo 2020.

He spoke to UN News’s May Yaacoub.

Because impairment is widely seen as a natural part of the ageing process, many older people with disabilities are shut out from receiving the support they need, according to a UN human rights expert.

UN Special Rapporteur Catalina Devandas Aguilar is encouraging governments to ensure older persons with disabilities have a voice in any policies to make cities more inclusive, particularly as the global population ages.

As the first  woman to command a UN peacekeeping operation, and until very recently the Organization’s highest-ranking female commander, Major General Kristin Lund knows better than most, the importance of engaging women in the field.

Maj. Gen. Lund, now stepping down from the field, spoke to Stéphanie Coutrix about what it means to hang up her uniform, and what plans she has on the horizon.

Some countries are defining “whomever they like” as terrorists and exhibiting “deep and problematic” inconsistencies over how they treat family members of suspected extremists in places like northeast Syria and Iraq. That’s according to Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, the UN independent human rights expert dealing with counter-terrorism.en.

The growth of antisemitism worldwide is a sign that other forms of hatred and xenophobia are becoming more destructive and widespread, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Ahmed Shaheed, warned on Friday.

Speaking to Conor Lennon from UN News, Mr. Shaheed began by confirming that the global rise in antisemitic violence is significant and worrying.

Providing academic enrichment programmes, as well as health and wellness services which empower students and address community needs, is the goal of a New York City school that is working to break the cycle of poverty.

Alexandra Teitel brought students from the Gregory “Jocko” Jackson School of Sports, Arts and Technology in Brooklyn to UN Headquarters on Thursday for an event commemorating the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Low-cost initiatives such as insecticide-treated mosquito nets and child de-worming programmes are proof that the world can take effective action to reduce poverty, a Nobel Prize-winning economist has said, as the world marks the International Day dedicated to its eradication.

Michael Kremer, alongside fellow professors Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics for their research in fighting poverty.