UN Interviews

In northern Gaza, nearly 200 people were killed and injured following attacks this weekend on the UN-run Al-Fakoura school, according to Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA).

As the Israel-Palestine crisis continues, he told UN News’s Reem Abaza that “things are getting worse.”

Speaking to us from Gaza, Mr. Hasna gave an update on the developing situation and what’s to come as the intensifying humanitarian crisis continues amidst fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.

The world needs a “strong, ambitious and just” treaty to cut down on the mass-produced plastics which are helping fuel the climate crisis, said the head of the UN-backed secretariat steering international negotiations towards a binding agreement to end the scourge, in an interview this week with UN News.

The negotiations process is at its midpoint now. And for the first time, a text of the future treaty is being discussed by the Member States in its ‘zero draft’. The negotiators’ ambition is to have the final text ready by the end of next year and open for signing soon sfter that.  

From Nairobi, Ms. Mathur-Filipp told UN News’s Anton Uspensky that the momentum is there, and explained why tackling plastic pollution is so vital to protect human health and the environment. 

Food systems in Gaza are collapsing and the food aid entering the enclave is barely 10 per cent of the amount needed for the 2.2 million people there.

The warning comes from the World Food Programme (WFP) which says Gazans are not getting enough to eat, making them more susceptible to diseases that can be easily spread.

UN News’s Abdelmonem Makki asked Alia Zaki, WFP Palestine Head of Communications, how the agency is responding now to the immense needs. 

Five weeks into the Gaza-Israel crisis, the UN’s top emergency relief official on Wednesday reiterated growing international calls for the warring parties to de-escalate, while expressing solidarity with hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced by bombardment and an order from the Israeli military to leave the north of the enclave.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, Martin Griffiths highlighted the plight of patients at Gaza City’s embattled Al-Shifa hospital, amid reports that medics have been trying to keep newborns warm in swaddling blankets because power for incubators has failed.

The top UN official also called for fuel to be allowed into the Strip so that humanitarian convoys can operate.

“Our role and our pledge and our message is, we are right there sitting in front of those people on the borders of Gaza in Rafah, ready to go at the right scale if we get the means to do so,” he said.

ends

The UN-appointed independent human rights expert on racism and xenophobia said on Tuesday that the United States is suffering a form of “selective amnesia” when it comes to “enduring systemic racism”.

Special Rapporteur Ashwini K.P. has just finished a 14-day fact finding mission across the US where she had conversations with marginalized groups from Black, Brown, and Latino communities and lawmakers, among others. 

In an interview with UN News’s Pauline Batista at UN Headquarters in New York, where she presented some initial findings, she outlined the many challenges human rights activists face as “racism very much persists and has manifested in different forms.”

The heavy fighting that erupted in Sudan on 15 April has forced more than six million people from their homes and created a humanitarian catastrophe that the world must not continue to ignore.

That’s the urgent message from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR’s) Dominique Hyde, who’s just back from White Nile state, where she witnessed the deadly impact of months of conflict on the country’s most vulnerable people, who are now sheltering in hundreds of displacement camps.

Here she is now, speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

Thursday saw five new judges elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at UN Headquarters in New York, a reminder of its central role as the principal judicial organ for the world body.

In addition to disputes brought before the “world court”, intergovernmental bodies can also submit petitions seeking advice on key issues.

That’s according to Philippe Gautier, ICJ Registrar, who highlights that these “advisory opinions” do not deal with a judgement to settle a dispute between nations, but to help bodies such as the General Assembly make important decisions.

Mr. Gautier spoke with UN News’ Jerome Bernard, and started by explaining one of the 18 cases currently on its docket, brought by Ukraine against Russia. 

A major challenge for humanitarians in Nepal supporting those impacted by last Friday’s devastating earthquake, is accessing remote and high-altitude areas that are the worst hit.

UN agencies and humanitarian partners must rely on helicopters to ferry personnel and relief supplies as there are no roads, according to Rafeeque Ahmad Siddiqui, Head of Karnali Field Office at UNDP-Nepal.

The weather is also posing challenges, he says, adding that there are limited times the helicopters can fly as high winds often pickup cutting areas off.

Mr. Siddiqui spoke with UN News’ Vibhu Mishra shortly after arriving in Jajarkot, one of the districts affected by the earthquake, and described what he was seeing. 

Some 50,000 pregnant women are among the 2.2 million people in besieged Gaza, and 5,500 are due to give birth in the coming weeks, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has reported.

As the conflict between Israel and Hamas enters a second month, UNFPA is working round the clock to provide support to pregnant women and hospitals, which face a lack of electricity, water, medicines, supplies and personnel.

Laila Baker, UNFPA Regional Director for the Arab States, said a humanitarian ceasefire is needed now to allow aid in and to protect both civilians and aid workers.

Speaking from Cairo, she told UN News’s Khaled Mohamed how the agency continues to deliver for women and girls in Gaza, including mothers-to-be.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some households missed out on food aid “simply because their family looks different,” such as members of the LGBTQI community.

That’s according to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, who recently presented her latest report to the General Assembly in New York.

UN News’s Cristina Silveiro asked her to explain her findings, which examine how the link between food and health goes beyond nutrition and can also determine who gets excluded or included in social programmes.