UN Interviews

Two teenagers from opposite sides of the world made a special trip to the UN in Geneva recently to help mark 30 years of the Convention of the Rights of the Child – an international treaty that protects children from discrimination, violence and neglect. More important, perhaps, Maria, from Mexico, and Zycrel, from the Philippines, have also been advising UN rights experts on a “child-friendly” version of the Convention, too.

The UN Industrial Development Organization, UNIDO, works towards poverty reduction, inclusive globalization and environmental sustainability, and that mandate is crucial to the battle against global warming.

As estimated 260 million children are not receiving an education, and the crisis is hampering their access to vital life skills and the jobs market. Leaders at the non-profit, TheirWorld, have committed to closing the education gap.  

When it comes to finding out about the latest science on global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – with its 195 Members – is a leading international authority. In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, IPCC Working Group chair Valérie Masson-Delmotte explains how important it is for Governments to act now to protect hundreds of millions of people in at-risk communities, from coastlines to mountain regions.

There are positive signs that the Government-led effort to end the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has turned the corner, but there’s no room for complacency.

That’s according to the UN’s Emergency Ebola Response Coordinator, David Gressly, who was at UN Headquarters on Wednesday to take part in a ministerial-level meeting to assess the more than year-long effort to end the second-worst outbreak ever.

He spoke to UN News’s Matt Wells.

As a UN Ambassador for Peace, renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma inspires young people to support the Organization’s efforts to address climate change and other pressing issues such as hunger and HIV/AIDS.

Liling Huang asked Mr. Ma about his message for the nearly two million members of what he affectionately calls “Gen Z”: the biggest generation of young people in the planet’s history.

On this year’s Day of Peace, young people from around the world have been invited to take part in a ceremony at UN headquarters in New York

On Friday, Conor Lennon from UN News went to meet with two of the youth delegates, who are raising awareness of peace and climate change.

The UN’s first Youth Climate Summit takes place in New York this Saturday where participants will include hundreds of young advocates from around the world. One of them is 23-year-old Marie-Claire Graf from Switzerland, where  her “Sustainability Week” initiative aims to turn universities into sustainable role-models.

Back in June, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, was elected by acclamation to preside over the 74th session of the General Assembly, which begins on Tuesday.

In his first major interview with UN News, Mr. Muhammad-Bande told Cristina Silveiro that poverty eradication, inclusion and quality education would be his top priorities in office.

Calling education “a complex matter”, he spelled out that “whoever is denied an education is denied almost everything”.

We “need more women in power positions”, the outgoing President of the 73rd General Assembly, María Fernanda Espinosa has told UN News, saying that gender parity and women's rights are not only about justice, but “about common sense”.