UN Interviews

Climate change has continued to drive hunger and displacement in 2022, as ever more frequent extreme weather events – drought, floods, heatwaves – have been threatening the very existence of vulnerable communities.

In a new report, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) shows that last year, humanity’s “war on nature” – in the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres – has resulted in several alarming records, while the years 2015 to 2022 have been the eight warmest ever.

Omar Baddour, WMO’s head of climate monitoring and policy, has been talking to Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer about the key trends identified in the report.

The UN Secretary-General has appealed for the military rivals in Sudan to lay down their arms for at least three days so that people trapped in their homes can get desperately needed food, supplies and medical help. 

Six days of fighting have been extremely devastating for civilians, including thousands of pregnant women now cut off from care, or hospitals where they can safely deliver their babies. 

The UN’s reproductive health agency, UNFPA, estimates that there are at least 219,000 mothers-to-be in the capital, Khartoum, alone. 

UNFPA Regional Director Laila Baker spoke to UN News’s Abdelmonem Makki about how staff there – who are mostly Sudanese nationals – are supporting expectant mothers amidst the crossfire and frustrated hopes of a ceasefire. 

A new report from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) shows that immunization rates are in crisis, with 67 million children missing out on life-saving vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases are now on the rise, and it’s getting harder to play catch-up, as a surge in misinformation has dented the public’s confidence in the importance and efficacy of childhood shots.

UNICEF’s Global Head of Advocacy, Lily Caprani, has been talking to Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer about restoring vaccine confidence, and what needs to be done to accelerate immunization efforts now.

A senior World Health Organization (WHO) official has condemned the reported military occupation of at least one hospital in Sudan as a base for attacks, as “an incredibly concerning development.”

Dr. Richard Brennan, WHO Emergency Director for the Eastern Mediterranean region which includes Sudan, told UN News that the use of any health facility by either side in Sudan’s current military power struggle, would be a gross violation of international humanitarian law.

He told Abdelmonem Makki of our Arabic news service, that WHO was in regular contact with hospitals in Khartoum and other areas affected by the fighting, and despite careful pre-positioning of medical supplies to treat civilian casualties, they were fast running out.

Humanitarian needs are skyrocketing today, and the vast majority of people requiring aid, live in rural areas.

But while more than 70 per cent of all those affected in food crises are farmers or working in the fishing industry, only 4 per cent of emergency assistance targets their needs.

The Director of Emergencies of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Rein Paulsen, has been talking to Michele Zaccheo about ways to improve emergency responses, and put resources in the hands of farmers themselves.

In April 1994, a sinister call was broadcast over radio stations across Rwanda, triggering the start of 100 days of genocide that left more than one million people dead. Henriette Mutegwaraba heard that call over the radio.

“Every time I talk about it, I cry,” she told UN News, describing how propaganda spread messages of hate that sparked a deadly wave of unspeakable violence. She lost 60 family members and friends in the genocide.

Ahead of the UN General Assembly’s commemoration of the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, Ms. Mutegwaraba spoke with UN News about hate speech in the digital age, the 6 January attack on the United States capitol, how she survived the genocide, and how she explained what happened to her daughter.

Future Olympic events are poised to drive sustainability in sport and fight climate change, led by a set of game-changing measures adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and supported by the UN.

Speaking to UN News ahead of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, observed on 6 April, IOC’s legacy director, Tania Braga, explains how the 2024 Paris Games will be the first time that new sustainability guidelines will be fully implemented, aligning sport with development and climate action.

Eileen Travers asked Ms. Braga how compatible the Olympics are with sustainable development.

Latest data shared by the UN World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that one in two frontline health workers suffered burnout during COVID-19.

To help protect these key staff in the event of another pandemic, the WHO has convened its Fifth Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, in Geneva.

Participants include Dr Emma O’Brien from The Royal Melbourne Hospital, whose celebrated music therapy ensemble known as the Scrub Choir, most recently provided comfort to 1,000 under-pressure health workers, as she tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

First, though, we’ll hear from the WHO’s Workforce Director Jim Campbell, who explains why an action plan is needed so urgently to strengthen the global health workforce.

Record numbers of people are on the brink of famine today in Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen, northeast Nigeria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Burkina Faso and Haiti.

Conflict and armed violence are among the root causes of these complex emergencies, while climate shocks are compounding vulnerabilities, especially in the Horn of Africa, which has had four years of consecutive drought with no end in sight.

UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator, Reena Ghelani, has been talking to UN News’s Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer about what she’s been seeing in the affected regions.

The transatlantic slave trade was a global phenomenon – directly affecting Africa, Europe and the Americas, with implications for Asia - and the UN can be a leader in promoting dialogue to addresses its complicated legacy.

That’s the opinion of renowned American lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson, Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a non-profit working to end mass incarceration in the United States, which mainly impacts people of colour and the poor.

He was at UN Headquarters on Thursday for an event to examine how museums can deal with the colonial past and include the voices of people of African descent.

Mr. Stevenson spoke to UN News’s Dianne Penn about what inspired his fight for justice, how slavery is linked to past atrocities such as lynchings and present-day violations such as police brutality, and why wider engagement by cultural institutions is needed to usher in a “new era” of greater inclusion.