Thousands of women and children who remain in “arbitrary detention without end” in camps in northeast Syria must be helped home to their countries of origin, a top independent rights expert has insisted. 

In an appeal to well over 50 countries whose nationals are languishing in Al Hol and Roj centres because of their alleged links to ISIL extremists, Special Rapporteur Fionnuala Ní Aoláin told UN News’s Daniel Johnson that many western Europeans countries could do more to bring them home. 

Some cancer patients are at higher risk from COVID-related illness or even death, but the World Health Organization’s (WHO) advice is clear: do not stay away from going to see your doctor if you need treatment or a professional diagnosis.

In an interview with Daniel Johnson, the UN health agency’s Dr André Ilbawi from WHO’s Department of Noncommunicable Diseases, explains how the coronavirus has had a “profound” impact on cancer care in rich and poor countries – and how some are coming up with solutions to this potentially deadly trade-off.

In this week’s show, the week’s top stories from the UN covering new coronavirus developments and Myanmar at the Human Rights Council - we also hear how COVID-19 has had a “profound” impact on cancer care everywhere from a World Health Organization (WHO) expert, who explains what that has meant for sufferers - and doctors grappling with a “treatment trade-off” and questions over vaccination…

And, not forgetting piercing insight from regular guests Solange Behoteguy-Cortes and Alpha Diallo. Thanks for listening. 

At the time of this interview, Veronica Phillips revisited the question, why and how she survived the Holocaust whilst some six million other Jews did not.

Ms. Phillips passed away on 24 February, 2021 at the age of 94, shortly after we first published what will now stand for posterity as her final interview, in which she graciously shared her deeply personal account of survival.

As a teenager, Ms. Phillips endured appalling treatment, designed to kill Jews and other groups systematically targeted under the Nazi regime. After more than 70 years of silence, she began to share her testimony in hopes future generations would learn from her tragedy. 

For this podcast episode, she told Natalie Hutchison her moving story once more; from narrowly escaping death in the gas chambers of Ravensbrück, to rebuilding her life after the war. 

Music Credit: Ketsa

The work of the UN and its partners never stops against human traffickers in West and Central Africa, who force people to risk their lives on dangerous journeys across the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea. 

Even the COVID crisis hasn’t stopped the smugglers – they’ve just resorted to taking bigger risks to cross borders that have been closed to others.  

So says Vincent Cochetel – he’s the UN refugee agency’s (UNHCR) Special Envoy for the Western and Central Mediterranean. 

He’s been talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson about the many ways the agency helps vulnerable people in the Sahel. 

In this week’s 15-minute catch-up, we hear from the UN Refugee Agency on efforts to stop human traffickers from exploiting vulnerable people who’ve lost their jobs because of COVID-19, plus the week’s top stories from the UN and comments from regular guests Alpha Diallo and Solange Behoteguy-Cortes – with poetry to boot from Uruguayan scribe Eduardo Galeano. Enjoy the show!  

Vered Kater knew from childhood that she would become a nurse. Not due to any special knowledge of the profession, but a desire to provide to others the type of intense care that delivered her from the Holocaust.

Before Ms. Kater built a legacy as a health worker, traveling to developing countries to administer aid to the needy, her early years in her native Holland, were spent in hiding. Living under cover with her “war parents'', who shielded her from the Nazis, Ms. Kater was spared from the horrors of con-centration camps.

She shared her testimony during the annual observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the Holocaust at the UN information Center (UNIC) in Yangon in 2019, and now gives an in-depth recount of her story of survival.

She speaks to Natalie Hutchison for this first edition of In Their Words: Surviving the Holocaust. Finding hope from her home in Jerusalem, with a message of warning on discrimination that goes unchallenged.

Photo Credit: UNIC Yangon

Music Credit: Ketsa

Featuring the week’s main top stories from the UN – including an interview with ILO’s Dorothea Schmidt-Klau on how COVID-19 has created the greatest crisis faced by the world of work since the Great Depression. 

We have the latest on fighting Yemen, and the rusting supertanker Safer, off the Hudaydah coast, plus an appeal from UN-appointed independent rights experts over the cremation of coronavirus victims in Sri Lanka. Host Daniel Johnson will be joined by regular guests Solange Behoteguy-Cortes and Alpha Diallo.

India has embarked on one of the largest COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in the world, with more than 2,600  WHO staff training nearly half a million team members.

That’s according to Dr. Roderico H. Ofrin, Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in India, which is one of the main UN agencies supporting the government-led drive. 

Anshu Sharma asked Dr. Ofrin about WHO’s work there, including efforts to counter hesitancy and misinformation surrounding vaccination.

The equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs were lost in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recovery next year is likely to be slow – but it’s not all bad news, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, ILO’s Dorothea Schmidt-Klau maintains there is hope that the crisis will lead to new opportunities in the green economy, which is where young jobseekers in particular, should seek work.