UN Interviews

Attacks on schools in northeast Nigeria and elsewhere are “a way of life” and their impact is “devastating” on children’s mental health. 

Despite the dangers, boys and girls are returning in their thousands to places that were previously in the grip of Boko Haram extremists, according to UN Children’s Fund UNICEF. 

UN News’s Daniel Johnson spoke to the agency’s representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins.  

In this week’s show we’re covering: Belarus, Eritrea and the US at the Human Rights Council, during the first week of its month-long new session in Geneva.  

And after gunmen abducted around 40 students and teachers from a boarding school in rural Nigeria, an interview with UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) country representative Peter Hawkins; such attacks are a way of life, he tells us... not forgetting closing comments from regular guests Solange Behoteguy-Cortes and Alpha Diallo.  

Broni Zajbert was six years old when Nazis forced his family into the Łódź Ghetto where he, his brother and parents witnessed the hunger, sickness and death that preyed upon Jews in their living quarters.

For five years, the family of four watched anti-Semite SS officers deport thousands of Jews on trains, never to return. Mr. Zajbert’s parents did everything in their power to keep their family alive, despite the nightmarish conditions in which they lived. 

At 87 years old, Mr. Zajbert hopes this stain on humanity can serve as a warning to future generations on the dangers of hate and discrimination in all its forms. His testimony has served as the basis of Spanish-language Holocaust educational materials developed by the United Nations educational agency, UNESCO, in Mexico. 

He speaks to Natalie Hutchison for this edition of In Their Words: Surviving the Holocaust. Finding Hope.

Music Credit: All tracks by Ketsa

This week we cover the top stories from across the UN, including: an update on COVID-19 variants from the World Health Organization (WHO), an alert over a new Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a the first-ever woman chief of the World Trade Organization (WTO) who hails from Africa – another groundbreaker. 

Stay with us too for an interview with top rights expert Fionnuala Ni Alouain, who throws light on the miserable situation for thousands of mainly women and children with links to ISIL extremists who are stuck in camps in Syria’s northeast ... and not forgetting a very welcome appearance from regular guests Solange Behoteguy-Cortes and Alpha Diallo.  

When Halina Wolloh was four, her grandfather hid her from the Nazi regime – behind a stack of textiles. 

When her father decided to move the family from the Warsaw Ghetto, she learned The Lord’s Prayer in Polish, in case her identity was questioned.

As a young woman, she lived for years with her Jewish identity invisible to the world, finding refuge in the homes of non-Jewish Europeans in Poland, until finding safety across oceans. 

Today, the 84-year-old mother of three and grandmother to six lives in Peru, where she and her parents arrived more than seven decades ago. 

Having previously participated in a UN Holocaust remembrance event, Mrs. Wolloh sat down with Natalie Hutchison to detail her testimony in this edition of In Their Words: Surviving the Holocaust. Finding Hope about how, even in the darkest of times, expressions of humanity emerge.

PRODUCTION NOTES: 

From India’s Maharashtra state, super educator Ranjitsinh Disale was awarded a $1 million Global Teacher Prize for his exceptional impact on the lives of hundreds of students, especially girls.  

From more than 12,000 teachers from over 140 countries, Mr. Disale was selected for the annual award – sponsored by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, and a UK-based non-profit organization working to improve education access to underprivileged children.

Recognized for going above and beyond, he changed the way parents perceive education and innovated classrooms to engage students and spark their interests. This extraordinary teacher even had a hand in helping to call off underage marriages.  

Speaking to UN News’ Anshu Sharma, Mr. Disale began by telling what it means for him to have received this accolade.

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