UN Interviews

With more than 120 armed conflicts in the world right now, there is a high prevalence and intensity of sexual forms of torture being committed.

That’s according to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, who was in New York on Friday, to present her report to the General Assembly.

Expressing alarm over the situation, Alice Edwards told UN News’s Nargiz Shekinskaya that with torture, “the likelihood of peace becomes more and more remote because it instils, and it’s caused, by hate”. 

Access to high-quality education is a human right that not only greatly benefits individuals but also uplifts entire communities.

Millions of children, however, remain out of school due to a variety of factors including gender, location, social background or conflict.

With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Farida Shaheed, has prepared a report to the General Assembly exploring the challenges and benefits of incorporating AI in school settings.

With a third of the world still offline or without access to devices, she told UN News’s Ana Carmo that AI is “bound” to increase inequality, intensifying the so-called digital divide. 

The International Court of Justice, or ICJ, is currently dealing with an unprecedented number of cases from around the world, particularly as the Middle East continues to be mired in conflict.

That’s according to Belgian jurist Philippe Gautier who has held the post of Registrar of the ICJ since August 2019, giving him the title of the senior-most official who heads the Secretariat of the Court.

In an interview at the UN Headquarters in NY on Friday, he told UN News’s Julia Foxen that today’s profound geopolitical tensions require the UN’s principal judicial organ – commonly known as the world court – to maintain its autonomous and independent role “without taking sides in the political arena”.

Around 890 children have been injured in the past year in Lebanon, according to the country’s Ministry of Public Health, with 75 per cent of those injuries occurring in the last month. As the conflict escalates, the number of child casualties has risen rapidly.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is working to assist children across various affected areas, including Tyre, Rmaich, Marjaaoun, Beirut, and the Bekaa Valley. Their efforts include providing shelter, medical supplies, mental health support, and access to education and essential goods.

Tess Ingram, Communications Manager for UNICEF Middle East and North Africa, told Nancy Sarkis of UN News: “Above everything else, the children of Lebanon need peace.”

From women activists feeding thousands of vulnerable families amid the brutal war in Sudan, to young Bangladeshis working to stamp out child marriage, human rights defenders worldwide are helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In fact, they are integral to ensuring that the 17 Goals – which include ending poverty, reducing inequality and protecting the environment – become reality, said Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

She was recently in New York to present her latest report to the UN General Assembly.  She spoke to UN News’s Dianne Penn about her mandate and the need to advocate for human rights defenders, hundreds of whom are killed each year over issues such as land rights. 

With just days to go until world leaders, scientists, and climate action advocates convene for the UN Climate Change Conference in Baku, COP29, the host country Azerbaijan is fully prepared to welcome the key annual summit - despite having only ten months to prepare.

That’s according to UN Resident Coordinator Vladanka Andreeva who has been speaking to UN News’s Liudmila Blagonravova about the preparations and objectives for the COP, including the role played by the UN’s country team in Azerbaijan, consisting of 18 different agencies.

Ms. Andreeva emphasized that the host nation is leading by example, setting itself the target of achieving over 30 percent renewable energy production, as well as a 35 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, despite being a country rich in oil and gas reserves.

There are now 1.2 million internally displaced people in Lebanon because of the Hezbollah-Israel conflict which has created a new humanitarian crisis that UN aid agencies are responding to as best they can.

One immediate problem is that there’s not enough room for everyone in collective shelters, so many people are sleeping out in the open.

Keeping sickness at bay is another challenge, after a first case of cholera was confirmed in northern Lebanon this week. Other diseases are also spreading, such as rabies.

To find out more about the situation on the ground, UN News’s Nancy Sarkis has been speaking to the UN refugee agency’s Representative in Lebanon, Ivo Freijsen in Beirut. 

As crises mount, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has told UN News there needs to be greater openness and accountability, warning that the world faces a critical turning point in the fight for human rights.

While human rights mechanisms have played a crucial role in preventing conflicts and atrocities, he expressed deep concern over the speed of escalation, emphasising that it is not rights themselves that are in crisis, but a lack of political leadership to enforce them.

In an interview with UN News’s Nargiz Shekinskaya at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Türk discussed the impact of current crises, including the erosion of international law, the role of technology and rising authoritarianism.

The recent series of incidents targeting the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, alongside daily bombing in the region, is a major threat to the safety and security of the peacekeepers deployed there.

Despite the difficulties the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, is committed to remaining along the “Blue Line” of separation with Israel, in keeping with its UN Security Council mandate, UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said, speaking to UN News’s Vibhu Mishra.

From Beirut, he described the operational challenges the “Blue Helmets” are facing and how they have been dealing with the attacks on UN positions along the line of separation in recent days. 

Augustina Tufuor is a healthy snacks entrepreneur from Ghana who’s on a mission to help rural food producers make a better living and it’s working a treat.

Her business is thriving now, but it wasn’t like that at all when she was starting out, a) because she’s a woman and b) because farming is seen as a big risk by lenders, she says.

Thankfully, the Food and Agriculture Organization has tailor-made projects and training programmes to help businesses like Augustina’s overcome these systemic barriers so they can grow – as Lauren Phillips, FAO’s Deputy Director of the Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, explains to Daniel Johnson.