UN Catch-Up Dateline Geneva

In this week’s podcast, aboriginal art custodians from the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia come all the way to Geneva to tell us they’re facing cultural genocide, while in Haiti, gang violence is creating a serious problem for UN relief teams. Across Africa, we find out why there’s serious concern about the spread of animal-to-human disease, and in the Philippines, a court ruling on Press freedom hero and Nobel winner, Maria Ressa, has sparked alarm from one leading human rights expert.

This week’s top stories include action at the Human Rights Council on Eritrea, Myanmar and a push for all countries to take early action to stop violence against women and girls. In Ukraine, UN Refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi has been offering support to communities devastated by the Russian invasion, and we’ll also hear the latest hard-hitting findings of the UN Fact-Finding Mission in Libya.

It’s been an intense week of face-to-face meetings in Geneva - just like the good old days, before COVID…Among the top stories we’ve been covering, there’s been grim but important news from Ethiopia and Syria in the Human Rights Council, a moving update from UN humanitarians in Ukraine, and significant progress towards holding elections in Libya - although they’re still proving elusive. In Afghanistan, communities are still struggling to recover, a week after last week’s deadly earthquake – and we’ll be hearing from a UN Children’s Fund worker who’s been to see the human impact for herself.

In this week’s show, the UN ramps up aid for eastern Afghanistan, where communities are reeling after its deadliest earthquake in decades. In Nigeria, the humanitarian crisis in the northeast still needs all our attention, as we’ll hear aid chief Matthias Schmale – but it’s far from the only place where that’s the case, according to a new UNICEF alert. And in Ukraine, the targeting of cultural treasures must stop, says UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet has been particularly busy this week, as the Human Rights Council 50th session got underway in Geneva. She’s spoken about her visit to China and also issued alerts on the devastated Ukrainian city of Mariupol. This week the world celebrated albinism awareness day, and to find out more, we’ll be hearing from Harry Freeland, director of a powerful documentary filmed among people living with the rare genetic condition in Tanzania, In The Shadow Of The Sun.

Four failed rainy seasons in the Horn of Africa, are tearing families apart –we hear one veteran humanitarian’s heart-breaking testimony from a displacement camp in Somalia. Climate shocks are also playing their part in undermining vital investment in developing countries, according to trade agency UNCTAD, and we’ll also hear that food prices are going to be increasingly difficult to stomach this year, as millions of people in Sri Lanka – in the midst of its worst crisis since independence - are already finding out.

Having a stroke is something many of us associate with older people, but that’s not always the case, as we find out, in this week’s interview with a courageous stroke activist who’s been telling staff at UN Geneva how he managed to learn to speak again. In Yemen, the UN migration agency IOM, has issued a warning about the tens of thousands of migrants from Africa who continue to be trafficked, shot or worse; in Geneva, North Korea’s missile tests have prompted strong words at the UN’s top disarmament forum; while 100 days of war in Ukraine have had predict ably awful results for most of the country’s youngsters. Last but not least, we’ll also hear a potentially promising COVID immunity update from the WHO.

In this week’s show, monkeypox has been dominating the headlines, and we’ll have the latest from the World Health Organization. Also, the link between despair and poor mental health couldn’t be clearer in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the UN Relief and Works Agency tells us, while in the world of work, the ILO reckons that we’ve lost well over 112 million full-time jobs globally, since the COVID pandemic began. There’s far more positive news from agriculture agency FAO, that’s been working with herders in Ethiopia, Kenya and beyond, to offer a brighter future than cattle raiding.

In this week’s show, ever-deepening concerns about life in Afghanistan where the national rights body is no more, while in Mexico, more than 100,000 people are now officially disappeared. Stay with us too, if you can stand the heat, for a climate update from UN meteorologists - no spoiler alert necessary - and also for an inspiring interview with Cameroon women’s land rights activist, Cécile Ndjebet, who’s just won the Wangari Maathai Forest Champions Award.

This week we spotlight the Human Rights Council’s special session on atrocities happening in Ukraine, post Russia’s invasion. We’ll also be heading to Afghanistan for the latest alarming UN assessments on food insecurity there, and to the Occupied West Bank - after the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh - and to DPR Korea, where health agency WHO, is committed to do help stop the spread of COVID-19. We also have some good news about successful malaria vaccine pilot schemes in Africa, which could save tens of thousands of children’s lives.

In this week’s show, two in three children in Ukraine have now had to flee the war since the Russian invasion, UNICEF takes no pleasure in telling us, while UN humanitarians have confirmed they’re now helping some 300 evacuees who’ve been bussed out of the devastated Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. And as refugee numbers rise globally, we’ll be finding out what soul legend Dionne Warwick thinks about this growing global emergency. Also, to mark World Press Freedom Day earlier this week, we got in touch with pencil-sharp political cartoonist Patrick Chappatte, for his assessment of the dangers facing journalists. As ever, co-host Solange Behoteguy Cortes will be on hand to wrap things up, with a little help from Roger Rabbit.

In a week that’s seen the UN chief push for peace and justice in Ukraine with visits to Moscow and Kyiv, the Security Council has also been hearing that fighting in Syria is still raging – and that we mustn’t forget it. We’ll also highlight the UN’s work to help stop a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while in Afghanistan, it’s never been more urgent to unblock billions of dollars of assets, top rights experts say. And, we hear from Sri Lankan pop star and advocate for children’s rights Ridma Weerawardena, who’s lent his talents to the UN International Labour Organization, to help end child labour.

Hello, as reports emerge that four busloads of civilians managed to leave Mariupol on Wednesday, we hear from UN humanitarians who continue to plead for safe and sustained access to the besieged city. Also in this week’s show, we visit the UN Satellite Centre UNOSAT, which is tracking the devastation caused by shelling across Ukraine – how does it fit into the international calls for accountability, following Russia’s invasion on 24 February? Away from Europe, the Horn of Africa needs all our attention too, say aid agencies, who’ve raised the alarm – once again – over the many millions of people who face catastrophic food insecurity after three failed rainy seasons. Stay with us too for closing comments about defiant poets in Spain, Russia and in space – sort of - from our regular guest, Solange Behoteguy-Cortes.

Seven weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the global food and energy crisis that’s followed, the UN Secretary-General has explained what needs to happen to get help to the most vulnerable. Climate shocks and chronic violence have also created famine-like conditions and desperate scenes in Somalia and South Sudan, humanitarians tell us, while in Brazil, activists, women journalists and others, face appalling violence, a top rights expert has said. In more positive news, we hear how a small town in Italy played its part in the global “slow food” movement.

Hello, first we heard that cluster bombs had been used in residential areas of Ukraine, now there are reports that civilians have been run over by tanks while trying to flee Russian troops in Bucha. We’ll hear more from the UN rights office on what steps it’s taking to verify those claims, on a day when the General Assembly decided to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council. The war in Ukraine has also caused a food crisis for hundreds of millions of people in the Middle East and North Africa, the UN Children’s Fund tells us, and it has also issued an alert about unrelenting violence in eastern DR Congo. We’ll have closing comments too from Solange Behoteguy Cortes; stay tuned to hear the powerful Ukrainian war poetry that she’s unearthed.

The UN’s rights chief tells us Russian forces have used cluster bombs in built-up areas in Ukraine – and that Ukrainian forces, may have used them too. Meanwhile in Afghanistan, Martin Griffiths tells us millions of ordinary people’s lives are hanging by a thread. In South Sudan, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has put the spotlight on the communities who’re using mud and anything else they can find, to keep floodwaters at bay. We’ll hear the latest research on migrant journeys, plus a more positive initiative from the WHO, to beat mosquito-borne sickness.

It’s a month since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we’ll hear what impact it’s had on the country’s children – more than half of them are now on the move - and the global economy. We’ve also got news of a lean, green and wonderfully healthy farming initiative in Kenya, that’s offering former tobacco growers a much brighter and more prosperous future. And, we find out about a super sustainable development goals book club for young readers – we’ll be talking to 6-year-old Leo Rolf, from Amsterdam, he’s got lots of interesting things to say…

Did you know that food grown in Ukraine feeds 400 million people around the world? Since Russia invaded its neighbour three weeks ago, Ukrainians need outside help to keep from going hungry, and that’s where the UN World Food Programme comes in, as we’ll hear. Away from Europe, earlier this week, we heard UN Secretary-General António Guterres implore donors for funds to help Yemen, where two in three people need aid just to survive. Myanmar’s been in the spotlight too, one year since Tatmadaw generals staged their coup, with chilling results, as we’ll hear from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. And stay with us for comments from Solange BC, who’s taking us on a literary Odyssey at the end of the show.

Hello, two weeks since Russia attacked Ukraine, more than 2.3 million people have fled the country - no easy journey of course, but for the trans community whose passports don’t match their identities, escaping the war is proving even harder. Find out why, in this week’s interview with NGO Transgender Europe (TGEU). We’ll also hear the latest from a refugee shelter in Berlin that’s now helping those fleeing the Ukraine crisis. Stay with us too, to hear about how Shakespeare’s Rosalind fits into the mix, with the show’s co-host, Solange Behoteguy-Cortes.

In this week’s show, as people in Ukraine face a second week of Russian hostilities, we hear how UN humanitarians and rights bodies are doing as much as they can to help, from those aid workers on the ground in Lviv, near the Ukraine- Poland border, to the Human Rights Council, which has been holding an urgent debate on the crisis. Stay with us for some tough testimony on the impact that the crisis is having on health workers, and also for always-relevant commentary - and a nod to Bertolt Brecht’s “Refugee Conversations” - from Solange Behoteguy-Cortes.