UN Interviews

Presiding over the UN Human Rights Council this year has felt like captaining a ship in the middle of a tsunami, Federico Villegas has told UN News in an interview in New York, with three world-shaping events threatening the very future of the Council itself.

The COVID pandemic, climate change, and the war in Ukraine, have tested the rights system to its limit, but the fact the Council could take action over war in the heart of Europe by an “overwhelming majority”, while the Security Council was gridlocked with Russia using its veto, shows its value.

Council President Villegas, spoke to Jerome Bernard of our UN News French service.

On Friday, Judge Leonardo Brant was elected to serve on the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principle judicial organ of the UN, which settles legal disputes between Member States.

The Brazilian jurist joins a bench of 15 eminent justices from around the world, who hear cases that can often take years to work their way through the system, with profound consequences for not only the countries involved, but entire regions.

UN News recently sat down with the Registrar, or head of the ICJ, Philippe Gautier, at UN Headquarters in New York, who told us without the Court, there would be “no trust” in the international legal order, and “terrible consequences” for international peace and security.

Philippe Coste of our French service, began by asking him what role the Court could potentially play in bringing Russia to account for its illegal invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, on 24 February.

Just as racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination should have no place in the world, “povertyism” – or negative attitudes and behaviour towards poor people - should also be illegal. 

That’s the hope of Olivier De Schutter, the UN expert working to give greater prominence to the plight of the millions of people across the globe who are living in extreme poverty. 

Together with the head of the UN’s labour agency, ILO, he also advocates for supporting low-income countries to provide social protection for their populations, such as unemployment benefits and old age pensions. 

Mr. De Schutter, whose official title is Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, was at UN Headquarters recently to present his latest report to the General Assembly. 

He told Florence Westergard from UN News’s French Language Unit why abandoning a “charity” approach to poverty is the only effective way to eradicate it. 

Countries in the ‘Global South’ recognize Israel’s “settler colonialism” manifested through its illegal occupation of the West Bank and other Palestinian territory, said the UN's independent expert for human rights there, after delivering her first report to the General Assembly.

Francesca Albanese told UN News that many Western States on the other hand, are living behind a “wall of denial” over the issue, and essential rights are non-negotiable when it comes to forging a lasting peace.

She took up her post as Special Rapporteur for Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, earlier this year, and Shireen Yaseen of UN News's Arabic service, began by asking Ms. Albanese why she wanted to take on the Human Rights Council-appointed role.

Devastating flooding – the worst in a decade – has affected millions of people in west and central Africa, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, warned on Friday.

It’s appealed to all donors to step up their support for the most vulnerable, from Burkina Faso to Nigeria, where fields, farms and roads have been flooded.

With the latest, here’s UNHCR’s Olga Sarrado, speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

Despite the global prohibition against torture, it still “permeates many aspects of our lives”, impacting police conduct, conflict and even climate response, the newly appointed UN expert monitoring violations worldwide has said. 

Dr. Alice Jill Edwards, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, has presented her first interim report to the General Assembly in New York. 

She is the seventh person to hold the mandate, and the first woman in nearly four decades.  

UN News’s Heyi Zou spoke to Ms. Edwards, who began by explaining her “breakthrough” appointment.  

Propaganda and disinformation are nothing new in war, but digital technology and social media are fuelling it like never before, creating an ‘extremely dangerous’ situation in Ukraine and other warzones, for vulnerable civilians exercising their rights.

That’s according to the independent UN human rights expert on freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, who tells us the “information blackout” inside Russia itself has wiped out any news independent of the State, offering encouragement to other aggressors around the world.

The UN News Russian service’s Nargiz Shekinskaya began by asked Special Rapporteur Khan if she saw any common themes in how information is being abused in warzones across the world today.

The Chair of the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has found reasonable grounds to believe war crimes have been committed there, since Russia’s invasion of 24 February.

On Tuesday, the Commission presented its first detailed written findings to the UN General Assembly.

Chair Erik Møse says there’s an undeniable need for accountability for the crimes which have been committed - the vast majority by Russian forces, although there are several instances involving Ukrainian troops.

In an interview with UN News, he told Dina Neskorozhana that the contents are report are simply “the truth as we have observed it”.

In this episode of the UN Conference on Trade and Development’s Weekly Tradecast, Sarah Toms talks to Richard Kozul-Wright, Director of UNCTAD’s Globalization and Development Strategies team, about their major report out this week. He argues that despite the looming recession due to the Ukraine war, COVID and other crises, the world can change course, if countries put the right policies in place.

Amid catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, UN humanitarians have raced to offer support to the Government, in the crucial early days of the relief effort. 

Beyond the immediate challenge of reaching all those stranded by the high waters, fears remain about next season’s harvest, if the waters do not recede in time for planting. 

With more, here’s the UN World Food Programme’s (WFP) Country Director for Pakistan, Chris Kaye, who’s been talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.