UN Interviews

Disturbing new data released on Tuesday from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has highlighted concerns that most human trafficking victims who manage to escape, do so without the help of law enforcement. 

The worry is that the COVID pandemic has forced governments to divert resources away from law enforcement activities that include tracking smuggling rings and locating victims.  

The coronavirus is also believed to be responsible for a reported 11 per cent drop in the number of trafficking victims, but the devil is in the details, as UNODC’s Fabrizio Sarrica tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson. 

Sexual exploitation and abuse of vulnerable communities have “absolutely no place” in the United Nations and more needs to be done to help victims raise the alarm. 

That’s the message from the top UN official tasked with eradicating sexual and gender-based violence, Christian Saunders. 

In an exclusive interview, Mr. Saunders explains how he wants all peacekeepers, humanitarian and development workers to understand, respect and implement the Organization’s zero-tolerance stance on sexual and gender-based abuse. 

Victims’ needs must come first, but there are lots of other practical measures that can be implemented across UN operations to reduce the risk of abuse from happening at all, he told Daniel Johnson at UN News. 

The prospects of a political agreement between the Sudanese military and civilian groups, including civil society organizations, has moved a step closer, with the launch of the final phase of the Framework Agreement in Sudan, a process brokered by the UN and partners.

May Yaacoub from UN News spoke to Volker Perthes, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Sudan, about the progress so far, and the efforts being made to ensure that different sectors of society, including youth and women, are represented.

The rapid 10 degree Celsius rise in temperature across large parts of Europe before Christmas was “brutal” but it could be the shape of things to come, the UN Meteorological Organization WMO, said on Friday. 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, Cyrille Honoré, head of the UN agency’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Public Services Branch, explains the science behind unusual weather patterns in Europe and elsewhere. 

The son and former wife of Brazilian football legend Pelé, have been talking to UN News about the father and husband they knew, recalling his big but soft heart - and love for children from all walks of life across the country.

His son, Joshua Nascimento joined his mother, Assíria Lemos, in conversation with Monica Grayley, head of our Portuguese service, to talk about the legacy of the footballing great and three-time World Cup winner, who died in hospital in Sao Paulo, on Thursday.

Hate speech has cost the lives of UN peacekeepers and civilians on the ground they are there to protect in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the head of MONUSCO, the UN mission there, has said, but new initiatives to counter the scourge are making a difference. 

Bintou Keita, who’s also the UN Special Representative in DRC, told UN News MONUSCO was countering fake-news and intolerance online, and the Government is working effectively to crack down on hate. 

She began by telling Alban Mendes de Leon about the growing instability in eastern DRC caused by the many armed groups operating in the area, including M23 and the ADF – noting that despite the fighting across three provinces, most of the country was relatively secure and peaceful.  

Fifty-one point five billion dollars: that’s the staggering amount that UN relief chief Martin Griffiths has asked donors for, to help 230 million extremely vulnerable people in nearly 70 countries next year.

Although relief needs are growing, Mr. Griffiths is under no illusion that less than half of what he’s requested will be provided.

Which is why he’s convinced that the money should come from other sources, including non-earmarked development funding, and even a windfall tax on energy companies, as he explains to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

Forty years into the battle against AIDS, a new UN report spotlights fundamental inequalities as the key reason why the disease has yet to be eradicated. 

Just ahead of World AIDS Day, César Núñez of UNAIDS, the UN agency leading the fight against the virus, told UN News that gender inequality is “a key driver” of the epidemic – along with other prevailing inequalities, especially those impacting vulnerable sex workers, prisoners, and intravenous drug users. 

Mr. Núñez began his conversation with Liz Scaffidi by reflecting on the many years spent struggling to contain the disease worldwide. 

The current review of the world’s primary biological weapons treaty taking place in Geneva needs to “break the deadlock” over a verification mechanism, the top diplomat presiding the talks has told UN News.

Even if that thorny issue remains unresolved, there are other proposals on the table that could make it harder to produce lab-made threats in future, Ambassador Leonardo Bencini explains to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

Although several groundbreaking treatments for diabetes are in the pipeline, some patients still cannot get access to lifesaving insulin, which was discovered over a century ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports. 

Diabetes is rising across the globe, in part due to population ageing but also obesity and other lifestyle factors.  Currently, more than 420 million people are living with the disease, which impacts blood sugar levels, mainly in low and middle-income countries. 

In connection with World Diabetes Day marked this week, on 14 November, Andrei Muchnik of UN News’s Russian Language Service spoke to Slim Sluma, head of WHO’s Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Department.