UN Interviews

The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed progress towards gender equality and put women in a dire and vulnerable situation in many parts of the world, according to the World Health Organization’s Assistant Director-General.

WHO, along with UN Women, lead the Action Coalition on Gender Based Violence and will announce concrete commitments this week in Paris, at the Generation Equality Forum.

Dr. Princess Nothemba Simelela, better known as ‘Dr. Nono’ has dedicated her life to women’s health, with more than 30 years of experience as an obstetrician, academic, advocate and government official.

She spoke to UN News’s Laura Quinones and said it’s time to leave the ‘empty promises’ behind, and give women a real seat at the table.

Rape is widespread all over the world, and all countries, as well as the UN, need to do more to improve legislation to improve conviction rates and protect women, Dubravka Šimonović, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, has told UN News.

In her last report for the UN in the role, entitled: Rape as a grave and systematic human rights violation and gender-based violence against women, Ms. Šimonović, a highly experienced independent human rights expert, calls for governments to ensure that rape laws are in line with international human rights legislation which, she says, has evolved significantly over recent decades.

Speaking to UN News’s Conor Lennon, Ms. Šimonović said that impunity remains a major problem.

As the world continues to battle COVID-19, yoga offers a “unique” way to destress and boost immunity, allowing the mind and body to connect in a state of “cellular quiet”.

That’s according to Doctor Krishna Raman, who’s taking part in a major International Day of Yoga event on Monday, organized by the Indian mission to the UN.

He spoke to UN News’s Sachin Gaur, and explained his work on integrating Western medicine with yoga, and how the practice helps support wider social well-being.

In recognition of their efforts to raise awareness about the reality of climate change in the Czech Republic, the UN Information Centre in Prague, awarded the “The Facts on Climate” group its annual Climate Communication Prize, for 2020.

The volunteer-based organization, said the jury, has also cultivated “reliable and science-based discussion” about the issue. Its founder, Ondráš Přibyla, a young Czech physicist and a lecturer in the field of communications focussed on non-violence, says that his aim has been to build bridges between science and the general public.

UNIC Prague’s Michal Broza spoke recently with Mr. Přibyla and his team colleague Kristýna Zákopčanová, in their native city of Brno, in the Czech Republic. 

When Lieutenant Colonel Ján Hric took command of what’s known as Sector 4 in the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, UNFICYP, he realized that he had “big boots to fill”. 

The Cabo Delgado region of Mozambique has been plagued by insecurity since 2017, but this year has seen “multiple crises” impact the population there, after militant extremists overran the area around Pemba, killing dozens and displacing a third of the population.

Nearly 700,000 people are displaced,  46% of them children.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is one of the UN agencies providing relief on the ground, and in an interview with UN News while he’s assessing conditions there this week, Regional Director, Mohamed Malick Fall, said he’s most concerned about nearly 2,000 unaccompanied or separated children, whose survival is on the line.

He spoke to Alexandre Soares, of our Portuguese team.

In just a matter of two months, India’s second wave of COVID-19 infections overwhelmed the second most populous nation in the world, with 100,000 deaths recorded during May.

Behind the massive health crisis lurks an unprecedented threat to the job and food security of millions, and although India has one of the world’s largest food safety nets, the pandemic has created additional challenges that will need to be addressed.

UN News’s Anshu Sharma spoke to World Food Programme (WFP) Representative and Country Director to India, Bishow Parajuli, for an overview of measures being taken to help the country recover.

The world will recover from the economic shock of the COVID pandemic, the International Labour Organization (or ILO) said on Wednesday in a new report, but only if poorer nations receive some financial assistance to get back on their feet.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, ILO chief Guy Ryder, explains that unlike the last global financial crisis in 2008-9, that affected mainly wealthier countries, the current downturn has hit developing nations hardest.

Aid workers are usually sufficiently prepared to overcome whatever challenges they face, but what about a volcanic eruption?

That’s what happened to the UN refugee agency’s (UNHCR) team in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, when lava started pouring from Mount Nyiragongo on 22 May.

To talk about the experience from Goma, here’s Jackie Keegan, head of the agency’s office in the city, speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

With some 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10 and 24 around the globe, young people have a “key role” to play in forging lasting peace agreements, according to UN Youth Envoy, Jayathma Wickramanayake.

They’re important to maintaining peace and security in communities, and to “building social cohesion”, she explained in an interview with UN News.

With half the world under the age of 30, young people must be an integral part of the UN peace and security agenda too she says, adding that “you cannot build peace without engaging half the world’s population”.

She began by explaining to Liz Scaffidi how the youth, peace and security agenda has evolved.