UN Interviews

Half a century ago, the United States and the Soviet Union united on a text to ban biological weapons and it has remained a foundation of international law ever since.

The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)– which came into force on 26 March 1975 - prohibits an entire category of arms including viruses and toxins. All but nine UN Member States are party to the treaty.

Critics point out that the convention has no enforcement mechanism – that was something that Russia and the United States couldn’t agree on.

But this is perhaps understandable, as many active agents that could be used in biological warfare exist in nature, says Daniel Feakes, head of the Biological Weapons Convention unit at the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs.

Here he is now, speaking to UN News’s Juliette Maigné in Geneva.

One week after a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, hospitals remain overwhelmed, medical supplies are running low and emergency teams are struggling to meet growing healthcare needs.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that the crisis has pushed an already fragile health system to breaking point, with over 5,000 injured Burmese requiring urgent trauma care amid the looming threat of disease outbreaks like cholera.

The most urgent needs include trauma and surgical care, essential medicines for chronic illnesses and disease outbreak prevention, as Elena Vuolo, WHO Deputy Representative in the country, explained to UN News’ Vibhu Mishra.

Click here to read the text story.

Civilians continue to bear the brunt of violent clashes between rival forces in Sudan, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Thursday, after “credible” videos surfaced of killings in cold blood, linked to the recapture of Khartoum by the Sudanese Armed Forces.

“There is likely an ethnic element” to the killings too, said Seif Magango, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

He told UN News’ Daniel Johnson that sexual violence remains widespread in the war-torn country, before calling for UN Member States to intervene to stop almost two years of heavy fighting that has uprooted nine million people across Sudan and left an estimated 24.6 million facing acute hunger.

Specific measures that could bring the rival forces to the negotiating table include an extended arms embargo for Sudan that encompasses the whole country and not just Darfur, and a wider mandate for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to cover all of Sudan, he said.

Following last Friday’s massive earthquake in Myanmar, UN humanitarians are on the ground to support survivors and affected communities.

The World Food Programme (WFP) started its first distributions in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, within 48 hours of the quake. It is also on the ground at the epicentre in Sagiang – and in Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay - assisting thousands of families in desperate need.

But the UN needs much more funding from the international community to address the enormous needs, as WFP’s Country Director Michael Dunford tells UN News’s Vibhu Mishra.

Click here to read the text story.

Poet and activist Salome Agbaroji was awarded the prestigious role of National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States in 2023.

A fighter for social justice, her identity is centred on being “an artist at its core”, aiming to inspire others through words.

Earlier this week, Ms. Agbaroji sat down with UN News’s Pooja Yadav at UN Headquarters in New York after taking part in commemorations for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Art has the power to transform she told us, including the ability to “heal what’s been broken”. 

As violence escalates in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 looking to gain more territory, UN peacekeepers are working flat out to protect civilians amid a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Speaking to UN News’ Jérôme Bernard in New York, the chief of the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), Bintou Keita, outlined the mission’s role in any ceasefire, protecting the displaced and confronting sexual violence and child recruitment.

She also shared why – despite mounting pressure – now would be the wrong time to withdraw from the most volatile regions.

Around a third of the 12 million Sudanese displaced following nearly three years of brutal conflict are women and girls of reproductive age, according to data from the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA).

Aside from the brutality of rape, coupled with other physical and mental traumas, some of the 300,000 pregnant women who are running for safety “end up giving birth on the roadside”.

That’s according to UNFPA’s Representative ad interim in the country, Argentina Matavel Piccin, who told UN News’s Khaled Mohamed that more support is urgently needed to curb the impact of gender-based violence.

Reparations for the crimes of the transatlantic slave trade “can’t be quantified” given the vast historical sweep of human history, according to the first Black African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka.

The longtime Nigerian democracy activist was at UN Headquarters in New York to take part in commemorations for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery, telling the General Assembly that it remains crucial to confront centuries of wrongdoing.

Ana Carmo sat down with him in our UN News studio following the event and asked him to outline his main message to the international community.

Chad is seeing an influx of Sudanese refugees whose numbers are expected to pass the one million mark in coming months.

Multiple UN agencies including the UN Development Programme, UNDP, have joined forces to help the most vulnerable; one example is the construction of a women’s centre that doubles as a safe haven.

Francis James, the UNDP Resident Representative in Chad – said that the centre in Adre in eastern Chad is due to be inaugurated next month.

Further initiatives include establishing schools close to the camps housing Sudanese refugees, Mr. Francis explained to UN News’s Daniel Johnson in Geneva.

Growing up just a few blocks from the United Nations in New York City, Sarah Lewis was drawn to narratives that shape who belongs and who counts – often reflecting on what schools were neglecting to teach.

An Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, Ms. Lewis is also the founder of the Vision & Justice programme there, which bridges research, art and culture to foster equity and justice.

Speaking to UN News’s Ana Carmo while at UN Headquarters to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Ms. Lewis highlighted the importance of education in the fight against racism, emphasizing that ignorance is a key enabler of racial injustice.