UN Interviews

Following the 7 October terror attacks led by Hamas, thousands of Palestinians have been detained in what the Israeli Government has dubbed an “incarceration emergency” allowing them to fill prisons beyond official capacity. 

The overcrowded detention facilities and reports of alleged degrading treatment and even torture, prompted Alice Jill Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, to call for a full investigation into the overcrowding and reports of alleged abuses.

In an interview with UN News’s Anton Uspensky, she gave more details on what she’s learned.

UN agencies and their partners are providing support to thousands of people from the Kharkiv region in Ukraine who have been evacuated from frontline areas where intensive Russian air strikes continue.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said vulnerable boys and girls are among those arriving at a humanitarian hub in the main city, Kharkiv.

They include children with disabilities and those who had been living with foster families and will now need to be placed in new homes.

UN News’s Nargiz Shekinskaya asked Munir Mammadzade, UNICEF Head in Ukraine, about the challenges displaced families face. 

Without immediate action to protect biodiversity, a million species could be at risk, warns David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

Due to unprecedented threat levels, he told UN News that coral reefs, amphibians, pollinating insects, and many large mammals are all on the brink of extinction due to rising temperatures, deforestation, pollution, and other factors. 

Speaking on the International Day for Biological Diversity, he told Anton Uspensky that most people support climate action, even if they don’t express it – and it’s time to leverage the power of this “invisible majority”.

As the war in Gaza continues, health facilities and healthcare workers are struggling to provide care to civilians amidst unfavourable circumstances, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) team lead for emergencies communications Nyka Alexander said on Monday. 

In an interview with UN News’s Khaled Mohamed, she said nowhere is safe in the enclave with only one third of its hospitals – about 12 out of 36 – still functioning at limited capacity.

In addition, medical supplies are low, workers are stressed and it has become difficult to treat many of those displaced.  

The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda is leading the charge for more climate action paving the way for “resilient prosperity” as host of this month’s upcoming International Conference on Small Island Developing States, SIDS4.

In an exclusive interview with UN News’s Shanaé Harte, Gaston Browne said the very survival of small island nations is increasingly at stake due to rising waters, extreme weather, crushing debt and lack of basic resources.

People living in countries rich in the minerals needed for the transition to a net-zero carbon global economy could find themselves victims of a new “resource curse”, remaining in poverty despite the new-found wealth of their leaders. 

This is one of the findings of economists at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), in their latest prediction of the state of the world economy in the coming months ( the World Economic Situations and Prospects mid-year update), which was released on 16 May.

Hamid Rashid, an economist at DESA and the lead author of the report, explained to Conor Lennon from UN News how nations can prosper from the cleaner energy future, and why the economy is still all suffering from a COVID-19 hangover.

Civilians in Gaza have been dealing with conflict and crises for seven months – a catastrophe that no word in the dictionary could describe, according to Yasmina Guerda, a Humanitarian Affairs Officer with the UN emergency relief coordination agency, OCHA.

In an interview with UN News’s Jerome Bernard, Ms. Guerda spoke about the unmissable destruction, the lack of basic necessities for civilians, and their daily battle to survive. 

Additionally, she said, challenges derived from the war have resulted in difficulties in bringing staff and supplies into Gaza, leaving many without much-needed aid.

Ms. Guerda called on people everywhere to reach out to decision-makers to demand that international law, human rights, and dignity be respected and to play any role in aiding civilians in Gaza. 

Daily attacks by the Russian military in Ukraine have damaged dozens of towns and villages in the south and east of the country but also in central areas - including the city of Dnipro, which was shelled again early this Friday, UN humanitarians said.

An array of military hardware has been deployed against heavily populated areas, such as drones and a new, frightening threat: relatively inexpensive glide bombs that can fly up to 80 kilometres and cause heavy damage.

The effect has been to reduce the ability of humanitarians to reach vulnerable communities who are unable or unwilling to leave their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The UN agency says that 80 per cent of energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, has now been damaged and that 14,000 people have been forced to evacuate from frontline areas and border communities in the east in just the last week.

With more on the worrying situation, here’s IOM Eastern Area Coordinator Leila Saleiravesh , speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson just after a fresh attack on the city in Dnipro, where she and her team are based.

Amidst ongoing armed conflict in Sudan, where millions of civilians are left displaced and food insecure, Deputy Executive Director for the World Food Programme (WFP), Carl Skau, visited the nation where he said a window of opportunity to reach civilians is rapidly closing as the rainy season approaches. 

Mr. Skau noted that the Sudanese want to see an end to the conflict. He further warned that famine may be approaching and WFP is currently only able to reach about 30 per cent of about 18 million acutely food-insecure people.

WFP’s Leni Kinzli asked Mr. Skau about his visit and he said that internally displaced people (IDPs) are desperate for basic needs and want to return to their homes. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly developing and raising concerns on the battlefield, particularly lethal autonomous weapons systems, commonly known as “killer robots”.

The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) works to increase understanding of the risks and implications of AI for international peace and security. 

UN News’s Sachin Gaur spoke to Shimona Mohan, UNIDIR Associate Researcher, who focuses on the intersection of gender, disarmament and emerging technologies such as AI.