• Prevention and treatment of noncommunicable diseases ‘severely disrupted’
• UN Women launches ‘shadow pandemic’ public awareness campaign
• New Bangladeshi Goodwill Ambassador for World Food Programme

• UN’s rights chief condemns ‘caste’ killing in Nepal
• UN human rights office welcomes online action to remove misinformation
• Nine in 10 smokers start before they are 18 years old, warns WHO

• COVID-19: African nations urged to remain vigilant as lockdown easing begins
• UN migration agency IOM lauches $206 million Syria appeal
• Rohingya refugees ‘stranded at sea’, warns IOM

• ‘Lockdown generation’ of young workers will need extra help after COVID-19, urges UN labour chief
• COVID-19: temporary halt announced on use of key anti-viral hydroxychloroquine
• Rights experts appeal over abortion obstacles linked to COVID measures in US states

• Yemen aid lifeline nears breaking point as UN food agency appeals for $870 million
• Governments must boost COVID-19 aid to vulnerable urban populations – UNHCR
• Indian heatwave highlights coronavirus risks to national health systems: WMO

Female Peacekeepers add an extra dynamic to teams in the field, breaking barriers that allow women civilians to describe what’s really going on inside their communities.

That’s the view of Major Fiona Bruce, from the Australian Defence Force, who served in the UN’s Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) in both Lebanon and Syria.

In an interview ahead of UN Peacekeeping Day marked on 29 May, Major Bruce highlights the fact that people going through crisis and conflict still ‘view the UN in high regard’.

Julia Dean from our UN Australia Country Team, spoke to her online, and began by asking about her old daily routine, serving in Lebanon.

• COVID-19 transmission ‘already happening widely in Yemen’
• Bangladesh storm Amphan affects 10 million people, spares refugee ‘megacamp’
• As world’s forests continue to shrink, UN echoes call for sustainable conservation

UN humanitarians and partners are working hard to assist the people of Bangladesh and India suffering from the impact of Cyclone Amphan, which left dozens dead, causing widespread destruction.

According to the UN Country Team in India, Cyclone Amphan, with more than 2.4 million people and 500,000 livestock evacuated to cyclone shelters., is now considered even more destructive than Cyclone Aila, which slammed the region in 2009.

Due to flooding and the extensive damage caused, the risk of disease outbreaks is high, and further environmental risks remain, due to the large amounts of debris and waste.

Ranjini Mukherjee, Disaster Risk Reduction Specialist, from UN India, described the situation to UN News’s Anshu Sharma, and told her that efforts continue to be implemented in shelter homes to minimize risk of infection and prevent COVID-19 from spreading.

• UN launches new campaign to counter ‘lies, fear and hate’
• UN calls on European States to rescue stranded refugees, migrants
• Malaysia urged to ‘stop crackdown on migrants, journalists and civil society’

The teaching of traditional tattooing  underlines the important role indigenous people can play in the modern world; according to Hawaiian tattooist Keone Nues.

He  spoke to Kevin Cassidy, the Director of the ILO’s office for the US, and began by explaining what it means to be Hawaiian.

• Guterres: health of Africa ‘hangs in the balance’ from COVID, $200 billion stimulus needed urgently
• Child food insecurity set to rise by 20 per cent because of COVID
• Bees, the unsung heroes of sustainable development

• Syria’s warring parties agree to resume talks in Geneva, says UN envoy
• Bachelet leads appeal for help for South Sudan survivors of sexual violence
• China urged to lift charges against Tibetan minority human rights defender

Somalia is a land facing problems on many fronts, from severe floods to desert locust swarms and terrorist attacks, but there’s an even darker threat, too: rising sexual violence amid the coronavirus crisis.

After the horrific rape of a young girl last week in the capital Mogadishu, it’s something that the UN wants to help the Government put a stop to more than ever, as Anders Thomsen from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

After the first Rohingya refugee had tested positive for the new coronavirus late last week, in an overcrowded refugee camp in Bangladesh, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) announced additional measures and appealed for funds to prevent further spread of the disease. 

Sheltering around 860,000 mainly Muslim Rohingyas who’ve fled neighbouring Myanmar, the camps have a population density one and a half times higher than New York City, raising serious concerns about the potentially severe impact of the virus. 

Communications Officer for UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, Kasita Rochanakorn, described to UN News’s Anshu Sharma, what action the agency was taking. 

Set piece speeches need to be set aside by world leaders attending the World Health Assembly this week, in favour of “bold and daring” action to end the coronavirus pandemic, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Health.

In an interview with UN News, James Chau, told Maoqi Li, what he expected from the truncated annual meeting of the WHO in Geneva.

• UN chief renews call for solidarity as WHO warns ‘majority’ of world still at risk
• Outrage over rape of four-year-old girl in Somalia
• Connecting us all, a beacon of hope, says UN’s Guterres

• Bangladesh: First case of COVID-19 infection confirmed in Rohingya camp
• UNICEF alert on vaccination and protection gaps in DR Congo linked to pandemic
• Libya refugees and migrants ‘desperate’ amid food price spike: UNHCR

• UN leads call to protect most vulnerable, from COVID mental health crisis
• Presidents and Prime Ministers lead call for ‘people’s vaccine’
• Chemical industry must step up, to prevent more Bhopal-like disasters: UN expert

It may seem obvious to an adult, but to a child it may not be so clear that they aren’t to blame if they get sick with COVID-19.

That’s one of the key messages that the World Health Organization - WHO - wants to convey as part of the UN campaign to promote good mental health during this incredibly stressful pandemic, full of unknowns.

Just ahead of the UN’s major update on mental health during the crisis, Daniel Johnson, spoke to Dr Fahmy Hanna, from the WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Use. 

• Global trade values fell by three per cent in the first quarter of 2020
• People living longer, healthier lives but COVID-19 threatens progress: WHO
• Tuberculosis prevention gains must be protected against pandemic

• Tropics, northern hemisphere facing hotter temperatures
• COVID-19 pushes millions more in Middle East, North Africa into food crisis
• Nigeria violence forces 23,000 refugees into Niger in a month

Since COVID-19 emerged in central China in late December, health officials have raced to locate where and how the virus was first transmitted from its likely animal origins, to humans.

As the main international regulator dealing with the wildlife trade - both legal and illegal - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, CITES, is highlighting the crucial importance of developing a better balance in the relationship between people and the natural world.

Calling for further regulation of a trade which millions around the world rely on, as a source of income and protein, Ivonne Higuero, Secretary-General of CITES, has been speaking to UN News’s Siwen Qian, about the risks and opportunities involved.

• Three UN peacekeepers killed in improvised explosive attack in Mali
• Myanmar extends agreement with UN on access to Rohingya’s embattled home state
• Gains made against desert locusts in East Africa and Yemen but food security crisis remains

As the world marks 75 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany, an Israeli director has been talking to UN News, about latest film, which takes us inside the prosecution of the notorious Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann.

The chief of UN News's Russian service, Elena Vapnitchnaia, talked to Yoav Halevy back in January, when the film was shown in Vienna.

• Syria is a ticking time-bomb that must not be ignored, says UN human rights chief
• Conflict and floods force tens of thousands to flee in Somalia, amid COVID-19 threat
• Virus hunters continue search for animal link to COVID-19 infections in people

• Poverty likely to rise by nearly 60% for workers in informal economy
• UN launches $6.7 billion humanitarian appeal to stem COVID
• World tourism likely to plummet by up to 80 per cent, warns UN agency

• Thousands stranded in Andaman Sea blocked from port, agencies warn
• Coronavirus measures expose human trafficking victims to more abuse
• Action needed to halt ‘drive-through’ child abuse spawned by COVID-19 restrictions

• Alert over rapid spread of COVID-19 in Latin American prisons: OHCHR
• Eight in 10 Afghans could be infected by new coronavirus, officials warn
• Food insecurity in West Africa could leave 43 million at risk as COVID hits: WFP

• None of us is safe until we all are, says UN chief at EU push to end COVID
• Air bridge operation gets underway for ‘most fragile’ countries
• Welcome for Sudan’s decision to ban female genital mutilation

If you’re among those working from home, you may well have noticed an increase in the number of online scams when you open your inbox or shop on the internet? The disturbing trend is linked to the COVID-19 lockdown, says the UN agency for trade and development, UNCTAD.

It wants to see more countries adopt tougher measures to protect people using the internet, particularly in least developed countries, as Shamika Sirimanne, director of technology and logistics at UNCTAD, tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

With cancelled concerts, postponed festivals, and closed cinemas and theatres, artists across the world are struggling to make ends meet due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit the cultural and creative industries worldwide.

• Vaccine bottlenecks from COVID lockdown leave children’s lives at stake
• Refugee agency helpline overwhelmed as COVID-19 impacts hit
• IOM helps migrants caught up in truck tragedy, return home

• Disabilities are no reason to deny people their rights during COVID: Bachelet
• Cuba sanctions is obstructing aid response to coronavirus, say rights experts
• Greta Thunberg adds voice to child rights driven coronavirus campaign

If you’re an avid follower of COVID-19 developments, you may have wondered what the phrase, “PCR equipment” means. It stands for polymerase chain reaction, which is the process that labs use to check whether someone with COVID-19 symptoms has the new coronavirus, after taking a medical swab, usually from both nostrils. 

In line with World Health Organization advice to countries to test as many cases of suspected infection as possible, the race is on to find enough PCR machines for everybody. And that’s where Paul Molinaro comes in; he’s the cool, calm and collected head of logistics at the WHO, which with other UN partners is part of a major new initiative to help kit out 135 countries trying to see off the pandemic.

He’s been talking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

• Myanmar: possible war crimes and crimes against humanity
• Cybercrime and online fraud, heighten privacy and data threats amid pandemic
• Rights experts appeal for Lao victims of dam disaster who lost everything

Countries must not forget routine lifesaving immunizations for diseases like measles, while racing to find a vaccine that will save millions of lives and end the COVID-19 pandemic.

That’s the message from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) vaccination programme director, Professor Kate O'Brien, who’s been talking in-depth to UN News for this latest Lid is On podcast, stressing also the importance of getting the facts, as misinformation rages online.

Music credit: Ketsa, ‘Live With No Fear’

• Sudan at ‘tipping point’ amid sanctions as pandemic approaches 
• WFP plea to keep borders open as Horn of Africa faces doubling in food insecurity
• UN’s new COVID-19-busting taskforce gears up to boost frontline supplies

The COVID-19 pandemic is adversely affecting everyone, everywhere, with lockdown restrictions hitting the development and humanitarian relief sectors especially hard.

Malo Meshack is UN Representative for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in South Sudan. In this interview, he tells FAO’s Andre Vornic, how his team has adjusted to this new reality.

• ‘Toxic lockdown culture’ of repressive measures affects most vulnerable
• Yemen needs cooperation between parties more than ever, says UN negotiator
• Immunization week focuses on 20 million children who lack lifesaving vaccines

The Breadfruit Institute in Hawaii is promoting the local foodstuff as a response to “critical global food security issues,” especially for developing island states.

Daniel Dickinson met research technician and farmer Noel Dickinson at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens on the island of Kauai and began by asking her to describe what the plant looks like. 

• Cash help needed now to help world’s informal workers
• Challenges for multilateralism - and optimism - revealed in UN-led global debate
• Refugee healthworkers step up for coronavirus response in Latin America

• Libya: Heavy shelling, COVID-19 pandemic creates ‘perfect storm’
• Developing countries crippled by debt need urgent relief
• Message of solidarity from UN chief as millions of Muslims begin ‘very different’ Ramadan

• COVID-19 will only give brief respite to climate crisis
• Planet hotter than ever: UN weather agency on Earth Day
• Top rights official condemns Iran child offender executions

• COVID-19 could cause acute food insecurity for 250 million people, say UN agencies
• Massive floods in DRC’s South Kivu impact 80,000 people, kill dozens
• Iron deficiency guidelines unveiled for pregnant women and infants

• COVID-19 response could stutter to a halt, warn aid chiefs in appeal for $350 million
• Displaced, stateless women and girls face must get essential help, says UNCHR
• WHO launches safe Ramadan guidelines during COVID-19

Young, creative and bold minds, who are helping redefine their own areas of expertise, are highlighted every year by the US business publication, Forbes.

This year, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) youthful health economist Swathi Bhargav Iyengar, made the “30 under 30” list, for developing the WHO’s MedMon mobile application.

The app is the first low-cost, rapid data collection and analysis tool to determine price, availability and safety risks of medicines worldwide.

Ms. Iyengar helped to bring MedMon to more than 25 countries, including in emergency settings such as the Rohingya refugee camps.

In an interview with Mehboob Khan from the UN News Hindi service, the young economist explains how she started developing the tool and the impact it’s had on lives so far.

“New York City has always been proud to host the United Nations”, Penny Abeywardena, New York City’s Commissioner for International Affairs told UN News.

• Ceasefire needed to protect 250 million children: UNICEF chief
• Recession will likely cause hundreds of thousands of child deaths
• World has enough food to withstand COVID crisis, says UN agency

In this special edition of our Lid Is On podcast, from UN News, we hear from independent UN human rights expert, Tendayi Achiume, who warns that apart from the coronavirus that’s destroying so many lives and transforming societies around the world, a virulent xenophobia and tide of racial hatred has also been unleashed, aided by what she calls “entrepreneurs of intolerance”.

Music credit: Ketsa: “Within the Earth”, and “Awaiting Her Return”

Facemasks – a million of them - are just some of the precious cargo being dispatched to all corners of Africa by the UN, as the continent braces for the spread of COVID-19. Managing this huge task is Amer Daoudi, Senior Director of Operations for the World Food Programme.

In an online interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, Jordanian national, Mr. Daoudi, takes us behind the scenes at the agency’s humanitarian hub in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where a UN-wide supply chain operation is now in full swing.

• UN chief expresses solidarity for Africa as continent ‘braces’ for pandemic
• Europeans remain in midst of storm, warns region’s UN health chief
• ‘No evidence’ polio vaccine prevents COVID-19

• Relaxing lockdowns without boosting care could lead to new COVID spike: WHO
• New coronavirus infections have yet to peak
• Protection appeal for children facing online threats during stay-at-home confinement

While the COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc around the globe, the remoteness of the Pacific Islands has left people living there vulnerable in many different ways. 

UN Resident Coordinator Sanaka Samarasinha said in an interview with UN News, that with borders and airports shut down, protection gear, specialist personnel, and life-saving medical supplies have been unable to reach many areas in need.

Making sure that information about COVID-19 is accurate, and how to stay protected, is crucial to getting the pandemic under control.
Conor Lennon from UN News spoke to Moez Chackchouk, Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, and started by asked him how to describe the scale of the so-called “disinfodemic”
 

Even in the overcrowded places like refugee camps, the UN is working towards potentially life-saving behavior change, asking people to stay ‘home’, because social distancing will mean at least some “family protection”.

Referring to the low number of cases in Gaza so far as “good news”, Matthias Schmale, director of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) has warned in an interview with UN News, that local hospitals would not have the capacity to deal with coronavirus and there are not enough tests to go round.

Mr. Schmale, spoke to UN News Arabic’s Hazem Balousha, who’s based in the Israeli-controlled enclave.

• COVID-19: major relief airlift reaches ‘most vulnerable’ African nations
• New Ebola virus infections dash hopes of an end to DR Congo epidemic
• Lifesaving aid funding released to help cyclone survivors in Vanuatu

While performing their mandated duties “24/7” on land, in the air, and at sea, UN peacekeepers in Lebanon are also supporting local communities in preventing the spread of COVID-19, according to their Force Commander.

Major General Stefano Del Col spoke to May Yaacoub about activities during what he has described as “a challenging period”, and the measures UNIFIL took after one peacekeeper was found to have the disease. 

• Detained children at ‘grave risk’ of contracting coronavirus – UNICEF chief
• Middle East envoy warns COVID-19 could jeopardize Palestinian Authority
• UN offers support to Pacific island nations hit by Tropical Cyclone Harold

• COVID-19: Yemen ceasefire announced in bid to contain coronavirus
• UN Deputy chief launches blueprint to protect poorer countries from coronavirus
• The fight against desert locust swarms goes on in East Africa despite COVID-19 measures

Supplies of personal protection equipment (PPE), masks and other medical items made in China are being sent to developing countries to support health workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in the country has said. 

Beate Trankmann spoke to Siwen Qian about the complications of securing supplies, how UNDP is ensuring the quality of the items being procured, and the pandemic’s impact on China’s economic development and its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In Africa’s central Sahel region, millions of people do not have enough to eat – and between the lean season and the encroaching COVID-19 pandemic, there are real fears that the situation is spiralling out of control. 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, Chris Nikoi, the World Food Programme (WFP) Regional Director for West Africa, says that he can’t sleep at night for worrying about the potential impact COVID-19 restrictions will have on humanitarian operations. 

• COVID-19: impact could see 195 million job losses, warns UN labour agency chief
• More than 10,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Africa
• Rights experts warn over South Sudan COVID-19 spread

• Personal message from UN chief applauds health professionals putting lives on line
• Nurses’ vulnerabilities made worse in fight against COVID-19
• ‘Say no to hate speech and xenophobia’, urges UN chief marking 26 years since genocide in Rwanda

How are elite athletes coping with being stuck indoors? 

Conor Lennon spoke to Brad Snyder, a multiple medal-winner with the US Paralympic team, about the importance of sport and exercise for everyone currently stuck inside for most of the day.

• ‘Horrifying’ surge in domestic violence must be addressed – UN chief
• Arab region’s women and girls need protection too, say UN economic, social experts
• COVID-19 risks are greater for people of African descent – rights experts

Echoing the UN Secretary-General, the head of the UN office in Papua New Guinea, Gianluca Rampolla, has appealed to the world's developed countries to support the most vulnerable nations.

Mr. Rampolla warned of the devastating impacts that outbreaks could have on countries such as Papua New Guinea, noting that the landscape could shift rapidly, and dangerously, from a health emergency to a humanitarian disaster.

The southwest Pacific nation is supporting the Government by providing technical assistance and vital equipment in preparation of a possible COVID-19 outbreak. 

Julia Dean from our office in Canberra spoke to Mr. Rampolla via Skype, and began by asked about the current situation there.

• Political prisoners should be among first released, says UN rights chief
• Relief supplies boost for Sudan, to COVID-proof vulnerable populations
• UN General Assembly adopts first resolution since COVID-19 emerged

• Key COP26 climate summit postponed to ‘safeguard lives'
• Spike in hunger across Africa’s central Sahel as COVID-19 looms
• Address challenges facing migrant workers in India: UN rights chief

Imagine you’re an aid official in a massive developing country where COVID-19 is just the latest in a long list of life-threatening challenges to millions of people. The question is: what do you do first?

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson by Skype, UNICEF’s representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Edouard Beigbeder, explains what his priorities are and what kind of threat the new coronavirus poses so far.

• Now COVID-19 disruption casts cloud over weather alerts 
• Migrants stranded by COVID-19 lockdown in Niger  
• Displaced people affected by coronavirus have rights too, says rights expert  

Lockdowns and school closures around the world due to COVID-19, are affecting children’s learning, mental health, and access to basic health services.

In the Pacific Islands, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are working with governments and partners to stop transmission and keep children and their families safe.

In an interview for UN News, UNICEF Pacific Representative, Sheldon Yett, painted a grim picture of parents and caregivers losing their jobs, compounding the problem of shuttered classrooms.

Speaking to Julia Dean from the UN’s Australia office, Mr. Yett highlighted the importance of focussing on how the pandemic is impacting children, and vulnerable families who rely on social services.

• Aid agencies push for workarounds in Libya as COVID-19 hampers distributions
• Syria’s vulnerable not forgotten as UN food relief agency adjusts to pandemic precautions
• DR Congo healthcare weaknesses exposed as never before by coronavirus – UNICEF 

Six billion people – that’s the bulk of the developing world – look set to suffer from the economic impact of the new coronavirus pandemic, the UN trade and development organization, UNCTAD, says. 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson by Skype, UNCTAD economist Richard Kozul-Wright outlines how a radical plan worth a staggering $2.5 trillion, could help avoid some of the worst financial consequences of COVID-19.

• Release prisoners and detainees in Yemen, urge UN rights experts
• Assistance ramped up to Pacific islands facing COVID-19
• 2.5 trillion dollar rescue package needed for emerging economies: UNCTAD

The COVID-19 pandemic is not being taken lightly in India as people comply with a complete lockdown to prevent further spread of the disease.

That’s the opinion of Argentina Matavel Piccin, Representative for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in India.

Anshu Sharma from UN News asked Ms. Piccin what the 21-day lockdown means for India and the world.

• Abandoning elderly at risk from coronavirus is ‘criminal’: OHCHR
• Asylum-seekers’ concern over #COVID-19 restrictions – UNHCR
• ‘Social bomb’ could explode as those on society’s margins struggle under COVID-19

Amid rising numbers of COVID-19 infections and deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) stressed on Friday that the solution to beating the pandemic lies in having clean hands, more than hopes for a speedy vaccine.

That’s not so easy in countries with poor access to clean water, as WHO’s Dr. Margaret Harris tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson, before providing an update on the human drug and crucial vaccine trials, now under way. 

Early indications from the economic fallout of COVID-19 are that it could cost up to 25 million job losses globally, that’s more than during the global financial crisis in 2008-9.

Speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson, Sher Verick from the International Labour Organization (ILO), explains how governments can help soften the impact for vulnerable workers.

Pandemics tend to affect men and women differently, and specialists in gender issues are warning that the COVID-19 coronavirus may hit women in negative ways that have a more profound impact on families.

Women make up the majority of caregivers, at home and in our communities. Existing trends show they have less access to sexual and reproductive health and domestic violence rises during crises.

But women have also the power to be ‘change makers in the response agenda’ playing a central role in communicating with their families, and with their communities.

UN News’s Anshu Sharma spoke to UN Women’s Deputy Country Representative in India, Nishtha Satyam.

In Mozambique on Tuesday, 14 “deeply traumatized” male migrants were rescued from a sealed shipping container on a lorry bound for South Africa. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 64 other men on the truck, died from asphyxiation.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, IOM’s Sandra Black explains where the migrants came from and what the agency is doing to raise awareness about the dangers of such journeys.

• Philippines ceasefire welcomed after Guterres COVID-19 appeal
• ‘Double-digit’ percentage of global GDP is needed to avert COVID-19 catastrophe: UN chief 
• Latest Kabul attack comes amid growing insecurity in Afghanistan 

The COVID-19 pandemic shows that global challenges can only be solved through global solutions, according to the head of the UN Office in Geneva.

Director-General Tatiana Valovaya spoke to Michele Zaccheo about the critical need for solidarity as countries battle what she described as a “common enemy”.

Here’s a job you don’t see advertised every day: irradiating the COVID-19 virus.

It’s just one of the extraordinary tasks on the to-do list right now of Gerrit Verjoen  from the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is doing whatever he can, to help countries overcome the deadly pathogen.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, he shares his assessment of the new coronavirus and explains how nuclear-derived techniques could save hospitals precious time, when treating sick patients.

A new assessment by the International Labour Organization (ILO) shows the COVID-19 pandemic could increase global unemployment by around 25 million.

ILO is calling for an internationally coordinated policy response, which would be of particular benefit to South Asian countries like India, since a large part of its work force lacks social security and employment benefits.

UN News’s Anshu Sharma spoke to the Director of ILO’s Decent Work Team for South Asia based in the UN’s India office, Dagmar Walter.

• Massive humanitarian response plan mobilized to aid ‘ultra-vulnerable’ in COVID-19 fight
• Protect health and safety of prisoners, urges UN rights chief
• Immediate ceasefire needed in Yemen, urges UN chief

As countries all over the world restrict the flow of goods to halt the spread of the COVID-19 virus, one UN agency has come up with a plan to keep vital food and medical supplies on the move. 

That agency is the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and it has just launched an online Observatory on Border Crossings all over the world. 

The tool can be used by transport companies to keep goods flowing as smoothly as possible as UNECE’s Jean Rodriguez tells Daniel Johnson. 

• UN Syria envoy appeals for nationwide ceasefire to halt COVID-19  
• Countries must keep cross-border transport of food, medicines going, during pandemic 
• UN Geneva Director-General urges greater international cooperation in face of coronavirus  

• UN chief calls for global ceasefire to take on common enemy - COVID-19 
• Rights expert raises alarm over migrant ‘pushbacks’ at Turkey-Greece border  
• Measuring water ‘more essential than ever to tackle climate, boost development’ 

The UN in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza is doing all it can to put supplies in place, including testing kits, in preparation for the expected rise in COVID-19 Coronavirus cases over the coming days. 

Jamie McGoldrick, UN Development and Humanitarian Coordinator covering Palestine, said in an interview with UN News that his office and the Palestine refugee relief agency, UNRWA, were working closely with Israeli authorities which control access to Gaza, in what’s been a “very positive collaboration” so far, along with Palestinian authorities. 

Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, UN agencies have raced to ensure that millions of vulnerable people continue to receive the emergency support that they need.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, Cécile Pouilly from the UN refugee agency UNHCR outlines some of the many challenges created by the virus – and why it’s crucial that refugees are involved in fighting the virus too.

• UN aid teams work round the clock to ensure humanitarian support to millions  
• UN aid teams race to assess emergency needs, ensure supplies continue  
• Airlift flies relief to Sudanese refugees in Chad  

• UN health agency does not recommend against using ibuprofen for COVID-19 
• Israel has ‘legal duty’ to ensure that Palestinians in OPT receive essential health services 
• ‘No justification’ for information restrictions by Governments during coronavirus outbreak 

The UN migration agency, IOM, is highly concerned about the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on migrants.

In an interview with UN News, spokesperson Joel Millman insisting that the stigmatization of migrants must be avoided.

• Africa should wake up to COVID-19 epidemic, the says UN health agency chief 
• Pandemic could mean 25 million jobs threatened – ILO 
• Blueprint launched to manage Earth’s fragile peatland carbon sinks 

Shortly after the outbreak of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), UNICEF was among the first United Nations agencies to step up and deliver much-needed medical supplies including masks to China.  

UN News spoke to Ms. Luwei Pearson, Acting Director of UNICEF’s Health Programme Division, about the agency’s quick response to the outbreak, and other issues including the possible physical and mental impact on millions of children faced with school closures.  

UN News’s Maoqi Li spoke to Ms. Luwei Pearson, via skype.  

• Millions of people in crises will need UN humanitarian aid in midst of COVID-19 pandemic 
• New locust swarms add to South Sudan food hardship 
• UN chief condemns attacks on peacekeepers in Central African Republic, urges probe 

A decline in COVID-19 cases in China demonstrates that containment efforts can help alter the course of the pandemic, f according to Dr. Gauden Galea, the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in the country. 

 spoke to UN News’s Siwen Qian about cooperation between China and the UN, the value of strong public health systems, and why people everywhere should not panic and simply follow practical advice to limit spread of the virus.

• Tedros renews call to countries to ‘test, test, test’ all cases of suspected infection 
• COVID-19: WFP sends lifesaving medical equipment to worst-hit Chinese province 
• Rights experts urge countries to respect people’s rights when tackling virus 

The largest humanitarian agency on the planet, the UN World Food Programme, or WFP, has sent lifesaving medical equipment to China to help treat COVID-19 sufferers in the worst-hit area of the country. 

In an interview with Daniel Johnson from UN News, WFP spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs gives an update on key priorities. 

• COVID-19: Europe is the new virus hotspot, says WHO 
• As Syrian conflict enters 10th year, ‘brutal truth’ is there is little protection for families  
• Central Mozambique a year ago are facing devastating hardship 

Although the COVID-19 virus outbreak has been designated a pandemic, containment is still possible, and there is no need to panic. This is the official advice from the World Health Organization (WHO). 

The UN health agency’s spokesperson Tarik Jašarević spoke to Daniel Johnson in Geneva about the need for everyone to be prepared and follow WHO guidelines. 

The UN’s Victims’ Rights Advocate who champions the rights and dignity of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), has urged more women to come forward in Haiti, if they have paternity claims against UN personnel serving in former peacekeeping missions there. 

In an interview with UN News, Jane Connors acknowledges that around 28 women already have outstanding claims, relating to 34 children.

The COVID-19 outbreak has caused unprecedented disruption in many areas of our lives, and that’s true of a key UN forum as well: the Human Rights Council.

On Thursday, it announced the suspension of its current inter-governmental session in Geneva, meaning that voting on Resolutions is on hold, until it can resume its work, promoting and protecting people’s human rights across the world.

• Countries free of COVID-19 must be better prepared
• Yemen at ‘critical juncture’
• UN human rights experts celebrate release of Bolivian Government critic

• A decade of conflict in Syria 
• Brazilian mountain farmers honoured 
• Educate children in their mother tongue – UN expert 

• Flagship UN study shows accelerating climate change 
• Nicaragua: after two years of crisis, more than 100,000 have fled 
• Burundi heads to elections as rights concerns persist 

Several climate records were broken in 2019 across the world, including unprecedented temperature highs and extreme weather events.

WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas sat down with Ben Malor from UN News, and started by outlining some of the main points from the study.

Children are born innocent, “regardless” of their relationship to extremist fighters from the terrorist group known as ISIL or Da’esh, “and they should be treated with kindness and love”.  

That’s one of the key points emphasized by religious leaders in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Monday, in an unprecedented joint declaration, calling for justice on behalf of victims of the terrorist group, which once controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria.

Wrapping up a two-day visit to the northwest part of Syria last week, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore, and World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley stressed the urgent need to provide families with basic services.  During their trip, they met nine-year old schoolchildren who were born the year the war started and are catching up on their learning after years of missing out. 

• ‘Yawning gender power gap’: UN chief
• ‘Serious rights violations’ in Iran: UN rights expert
• Further isolation of DPRK during COVID-19 outbreak, ‘not the answer’

• COVID-19: countries, businesses must protect people as virus spreads, urges UN rights chief 
• Europe sees warmest winter on record – UN weather agency 
• Americas first region to show more than 30 per cent of women parliamentarians – IPU  

With COVID-19, an on-going global concern, satellite imagery can play a powerful role in tracking where we are and how we’re responding to “restrictions on movement” due to the coronavirus.

That’s according to Robert Chen, co-chair of the Thematic Research Network on Data and Statistics, known as TReNDS, who was at UN Headquarters this week to discuss his initiative, which is part of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

The streets of China’s capital having gone eerily quiet, following the COVID-19 outbreak, Beijing is now slowly returning to its usual vibrant self.  The UN offices in Beijing will reopen on Monday, and in an interview with UN News, Resident Coordinator in China, Nicholas Rosellini, said good communication was vital to avoid panic, and unwarranted stigmatization around the world.  

The former Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, who has died aged 100, was responsible for a series of diplomatic breakthroughs that were “perhaps without parallel, in the history of the UN.”

That’s according to his most senior aide, Chef de Cabinet Virendra Dayal, in an interview on Thursday by phone from his home in Delhi. Mr. Dayal praised the “inherent decency and integrity” of the former UN chief, who served two terms that saw the end of the Cold War, telling UN News’s Matt Wells that Mr. Pérez de Cuéllar played a key role in the transition, “in an absolutely masterly manner.”  

 - Tributes pour in for former UN chief Javier Pérez de Cuéllar

 - 290 million students out of school amid COVID-19 measures 

 - Lower food prices linked to coronavirus concerns 

 - Young women and girls ‘still most at risk from HIV’

Why is it so difficult to make gender equality a reality? 

Our UNcomplicated podcast hosts, Sinduja Srinivasan and Jason DeWall, discover that one major reason is the prevalence of violence against women.

For this show marking International Women’s Day 2020, we’ll hear from Kalliope Mingeiorou, a top UN official working to end violence against women, and also from a survivor of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Maryum Saifee, who’s become a tireless campaigner against this ritualistic and global human rights abuse against women and girls.

As deaths continue to rise from the coronavirus outbreak, its economic consequences are becoming clearer, too.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, Pamela Coke-Hamilton from the UN Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD, highlights how the challenge posed by the disease to China’s key role in global manufacturing, will likely affect rich and poor countries alike.

- Progress aside, world still a violent place for girls and women: UN report

- Iraq religious leaders working to prevent COVID-19 spread

- Countdown to end of Ebola underway in DR Congo 

The massive Australian wildfires have scorched millions of acres in the country since July last year, and the country remains highly vulnerable to further natural disasters.

In an interview with UN News, Jennifer Pierson, Wildlife Program Leader at the Tidbinbilla Nature Park, told Julia Dean from our UN Information Centre in the Australian capital, how the park was evacuated.

• Myanmar doing too little to ensure return of displaced Rohingya, says UN refugee agency chief
• No country is free from child sexual abuse, exploitation, UN’s top rights forum hears
• Bright sparks help UN South Sudan mission curb global warming

 - Seven UN agencies conduct cross-border mission to Idlib, Syria

- Syrians suffering 'unprecedented' levels of displacement: Commission of Inquiry

- Rights expert urges countries to repeal gender discriminatory laws

It’s time that humankind realizes “that nature doesn’t exist for us”, the Head of the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) office in New York has said, just ahead of World Wildlife Day.

Assistant Secretary-General Satya Tripathi described 2020 as a “super year for nature”, warning that we are currently standing on “the precipice of complete annihilation”.

• COVID-19: Risk now 'very high', but containment still possible
• 'Mayhem' in Idlib as Turkey-Syria tensions escalate
• New truce violation threatens Libya talks

The recent sentencing of militia members in the Central African Republic for the 2017 killing of civilians and UN peacekeepers, has sent a strong message that impunity will not be tolerated.

That’s the assessment of Lieutenant General Balla Keïta of Senegal, outgoing Force Commander at the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the country, known by the French acronym MINUSCA.

During a recent visit to New York, he spoke to Dianne Penn about the verdict, and his 45 years of military and peacekeeping experience.

• COVID-19: UN rights chief warns against stigmatization
• Social media hate speech is poisoning minds
• Northwest Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe

-  WHO chief: ‘No time for complacency’ on coronavirus disease
-  UN health and tourism agencies cooperate on COVID-19 response
- Hyperinflation affecting food access in Venezuela: WFP
 

- World must tackle 'relentless' displacement crisis: Guterres

- Geneva event for youth aims to give voice to 'We The Peoples' 

- UN rights chief on 'daunting' challenges to women's equality

- UN chief outlines 7-point Call of Action on human rights
- COVID-19 is not yet a pandemic, says head of WHO
- Syria: Senior aid official warns of potential 'bloodbath' in Idlib

• Fleeing violence in Syria, families now forced to burn clothes to stay warm 
• Escalating Burkina Faso violence brings wider Sahel displacement emergency into focus
• UN chief offers sympathy to German people after racist shooting   

Questioning details and attempting to distort actual history – its chronology or statistics – are just a few examples of Holocaust or genocide denial.  Often, that “leaves a window open ... creates oxygen in the room for extremism” and it is a signal of “prejudice, racist and antisemitic beliefs”. 

That’s the view of Sara Brown, Executive Director of Chhange, the Centre for Holocaust, Human Rights and Genocide Education, in New Jersey, United States.  She spoke to Ana Carmo of UN News about the importance of education and counter the hate narratives.

• ‘Deliberate starvation’ tactics used in South Sudan could be a war crime
• 19 children among dead in Yemen strikes
• UN refugee agency chief appeals to Syria’s civilians trapped in Idlib

UN-backed report finds no country offers 'flourishing' future for children

More than 3 million in Niger, mainly children, need aid relief: UNICEF

UNAIDS and China work to ensure people living with HIV receive treatment amid COVID-19 outbreak

• UN rights chief appalled at civilian toll in war-torn Syria’s northeast
• Cameroon killings: Bachelet urges independent investigation
• Libya talks resume at UN Geneva as negotiator seeks to overcome sticking points

• Pakistan’s solidarity and compassion for refugees is remarkable, says UN chief  
• Yemen’s opposing sides agree to ‘large-scale’ prisoner exchange 
• Cameroon violence continues with killing of 22 villagers 

• Vital Idlib aid deliveries resume after ‘heavy bombing’, say UN humanitarians  
• Horn of Africa to Yemen is world’s busiest sea route for migrants – IOM 
• Drop in Ebola infections encouraging but fragile says WHO 

Uncomplicatedhosts, Sinduja Srinivasan and Jason DeWall, talk to UN peacekeeping officials Ken Payumo and Nick Birnback, and learn more about the challenges faced by peacekeeping staff, keeping millions safe with limited resources.

• Celebrating the diversity of radio, the most used medium
• Mounting Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria
• DPR Korea: Missing hijacked plane 

• Countries and airlines should react to COVID-19 risk proportionally, urges UN aviation organization chief 
• Libya’s cities ‘re-contaminated’ by months of fighting, warn UN mine experts 
• International Support Group for Lebanon calls for comprehensive reforms 

A world without landmines is possible - and sooner than you think. 

That’s the message from mine clearance experts helping to make communities safe with the UN Mine Action Service, or UNMAS. 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, they explain that although contaminated land is being cleared in more than two dozen countries, this fulfils only a small part of their future development needs. 

• Top scientists gather at UN to speed up coronavirus response  
• Appeal for long-term help for Madagascar as child emergency worsens 
• Eastern DRC displacement leaves thousands in dire conditions – UNHCR 

Locust swarms of a magnitude not seen in decades are devastating crops and placing millions at risk of hunger in the Horn of Africa. 

Keith Cressman, Senior Locust Forecasting Officer with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told Dianne Penn the agency is seeking $76 million to scale-up aerial spraying against the “voracious” locusts and protect livelihoods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. 

The way children and teenagers behave online has profoundly changed, and if societies ignore the need to rethink child safety issues, then “we are sticking our heads in the sand”. 

That’s according to Neil Walsh, Chief of the Cybercrime and Anti-Money Laundering Section at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).  

Highlighting the role of parents and caregivers in understanding and explaining the risks involved in using the internet, Mr. Walsh told UN News’s Elena Vapnitchnaia that it’s essential to “empower the kids”, enabling them to talk about what they feel and see online.  

While the Internet has given children access to a world of information, including by providing a platform for their voices to be heard, it has also exposed them to cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, hate speech and other dangers. 

That’s according to  Najat Maalla M’jid, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Violence against Children, who advocates for Governments, civil society and other stakeholders to put children at the heart of their policies.   

• Coronavirus containment ‘still the priority’ as cases rise 
• Locust threat ‘increases further’ in Horn of Africa 
• Plea for action to stop 3,700 people dying every day on world’s roads 

• Coronavirus: demand for facemasks has created shortfall for those in real need 
• Thousands forced to flee violent gangs in Mozambique 
• Climate crisis fears fulled as Antarctica posts record temperature reading of 18.3°C 

• Faster action needed to stop 61 million girls facing FGM
• Millions of CAR children still at risk
• UNESCO calls for investigation into death of Mexico butterfly experts

If young people can be mobilized worldwide to help stamp out the practice of Female Genital Mutilation, it can be ended within the next ten years.

That’s according to UN reproductive health agency UNFPA’s joint programme coordinator on eliminating FGM, Nafissatou Diop, in an interview with Cristina Silveiro of UN News, just ahead of the International Day of Zero Tolerance to end FGM.

• 'Tremendous gap' between refugee resettlement and placements: UNHCR
• UN refugee chief wraps up visit to three countries in the Sahel
• WHO and UNICEF support massive measles campaign in South Sudan

Rosemary DiCarlo, a veteran diplomat, has been in charge of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) since 2018.

She spoke to Conor Lennon from UN News about the role of the department, and her hopes for the future of global security.

• Both sides in Libya conflict agree need for ceasefire that lasts 
• WHO moves fast to tackle coronavirus ‘infodemic’  
• Daily bombing leaves northwest Syrian civilians nowhere to hide 

• Libya talks begin in Geneva 
• Sick patients airlifted from Yemeni capital
• WHO highlights worsening health threats to Syrian civilians

Some were workers, some teachers, some neighbours. Many ordinary people enabled the Holocaust simply by doing their jobs. Some made the choice to help, while others decided to join in with the persecution, betraying Jewish friends and classmates.  But what “fuelled the Holocaust was antisemitism” which didn’t end with the defeat of the Nazis, and “continues today”, affecting all of society.

That’s according to Tad Stahnke, William and Sheila Konar Director of International Educational Outreach, part of the William Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education, at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.  He was at the United Nations Headquarters in New York for the Holocaust Remembrance Week and spoke to UN News’s Ana Carmo.

Mr. Stahnke started by talking about the Memorial Museum’s exhibition “Some were Neighbours”, which examines the role of ordinary people in the Holocaust, and the variety of motives that influenced individual choices. The traveling exhibit will be on view at the UN in New York, until 23 February, and across the world through the UN Information Centres.

The Desert Locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa could provoke a humanitarian crisis, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.  

Charlotte Lomas asked FAO senior locust forecasting officer Keith Cressman to provide an update on what he described as “a very, very scary phenomena”. 

• $1.4 billion needed for UNRWA budget
• US Middle East plan a ‘one and a half State solution’
• Do not confuse food charity with ‘right to food’, UN expert tells Italy

The challenges facing cities will be highlighted at the World Urban Forum, held in Abu Dhabi between February 8 and 13.

Before he left for the conference , Haoliang Xu, Director of the UNDP's Department of Policy and Programme Support, sat down with Matt Wells from UN News.

• UNHCR suspends work at transit site in Libya 
• End political deadlock in Iraq, top UN official urges 
• Rights experts commend safe return of Irish woman associated with ISIL 

• Boosting pneumonia fight could save lives of 9 million children
• ‘Unprecedented threat’ from rising numbers of Desert Locusts
• DR Congo can rise above ‘deadly cocktail’ of conflict, rights violations

Following a five-day visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where instability, inter-communal violence and disease continues to take a heavy toll, the human rights situation there is showing signs of improvement, said High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet.  At the end of her visit this week, the High Commissioner spoke exclusively to Radio Okapi, the Francophone radio station run by the UN Mission in the country, MONUSCO. 

• Iraq: Rights report expresses concerns over ISIL fighter trials
• Sudan: Violence pushes thousands to flee
• New financial panel to push Global Goals forward

Dan Pavel Doghi, Senior Adviser on Roma and Sinti issues for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) says the Roma people should finally receive the justice they deserve.  Mr. Doghi attended a United Nations Holocaust Memorial event at UN Headquarters in New York where he spoke about the importance of education to help fight racism and discrimination against vulnerable minorities. 

UN News’s Ana Carmo started by asking him about the fate of the Roma under the Nazi regime.  

• Societies must unite against ‘global crisis of antisemitic hatred’
• Libya: UN report urges accountability for deadly migrant attack
• UNESCO chief demands justice for killing of Iraqi reporters

Yuriko was just a 12 year-old growing up in Hiroshima, when the devastating mushroom cloud enveloped the city in the morning of 6 August 1945. Kathleen Burkinshaw’s novel The Last Cherry Blossom, tells Yuriko’s extraordinary survival story, a journey inspired by the life of the author’s mother, laying bare the importance of nuclear disarmament.

For this edition of our podcast show, The Lid is On, Ana Carmo spoke to Ms. Burkinshaw when she came to talk about the book, at the UN Bookshop in New York last year.

Although women make up half the global population, they are often disregarded in the increasingly important world of big data: from measuring economic growth, to disaster response and recovery, or key public transportation planning,  award-winning author Caroline Criado-Perez said at the United Nations on Friday. 

Nahla Valji, the UN’s first Senior Gender Advisor in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, asked Ms. Criado-Perez what inspired her to write the book Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, and how the UN can learn from her research on ‘default male bias’.   

• 258 million out of school 'unacceptable': UN General Assembly President
• UN assisting hundreds affected by intercommunal attack in Abyei
• UN refugee agency calls landmark climate asylum ruling a 'wake-up' call

All societies are undermined without quality schooling for all said the President of the UN General Assembly (PGA), in an interview just ahead of the International Day of Education.

Tijjani Muhammad-Bande has convened a high-level meeting to mark the day on Friday, and he firmly believes education “helps strengthen self-esteem”.

The leading Nigerian academic and diplomat told Liz Scaffidi that nobody should be left without access to a quality education in the classroom.

The United Nations has been involved in the divided island of Cyprus for more than half a century, policing and monitoring a buffer zone between the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Conor Lennon asked Elizabeth Spehar, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Cyprus, to explain why the UN is still needed on the island.

• Top UN court orders Myanmar to protect Rohingya from genocide
• 75 years post-Auschwitz, antisemitism still threatens democracy
• Global forestry gets a boost

The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs recently released two major reports on the global economy and inequality.
Hear the UN Chief Economist Elliott Harris and lead authors Marta Roig and Dawn Holland discuss the solutions to get us back on the right track.

• Independent UN rights experts call for investigation into alleged Saudi hacking
• UN chief welcomes formation of new Lebanese Government 
• Somalia: Humanitarian response plan calls for $1 billion in aid  

Following a rise in attacks on civilians allegedly committed by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), coupled with attacks against Ebola workers, an independent assessment of the UN peacekeeping response by the MONUSCO Mission, was established last December.  Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz, who led the assessment team, was at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday to brief the Security Council and told UN News’s Monica Grayley that the armed groups main agenda is criminal, not political.   

• China confirms coronavirus transmission between humans
• Lebanon: UN rights office calls for de-escalation of protest violence
• Game-changing tool on hunger

• WHO-backed study outlines benefits of quitting smoking prior to surgery
• UNESCO laments impunity for journalist killings
• Top humanitarian officials urges continued support for occupied Palestinian territory

2020 marks the beginning of the UN’s Decade of Action.

In an interview with Conor Lennon from UN News, Amina Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary-General, outlined the many reasons to be positive about the impact the Agenda is having on people’s lives, even if progress has not been as fast as hoped.

• Libya: ‘Dire and untenable’ situation for children: UNICEF chief
• Syria: Ceasefire fails to protect civilians
• Cambodia treason trial tainted, say UN experts

In the days following the earthquake ten years ago that killed around 220,000 Haitians, the sounds of praying, shouting and yelling filled the streets and a sense that “this was the end of the world”.

That’s one of the powerful memories from survivor Michèle Montas, the former UN Spokesperson who had just returned home to live in her native country, when disaster struck. She spoke to UN News’s Cristina Silveiro.

• Syrian conflict has ‘erased’ children’s dreams: new UN report 
• 45 million going hungry in southern Africa: World Food Programme 
• UN ‘deeply relieved’ following release of abducted aid workers in Nigeria

The top UN emergency relief coordinator in the Philippines said on Thursday that his team is anxious to see the full evacuation of vulnerable citizens completed as the Taal volcano continues to erupt.

Sunday’s major eruption caused widespread destruction, and it’s feared that there could be a “catastrophic” eruption over the coming days or weeks, said humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA’s team leader, Mark Bidder, talking to Julia Dean.

• Peace agreement remains only path for peace in Mali: Lacroix 
• UNICEF opens African ‘drone academy’ to aid youth  
• Darfur: Resort to violence, a ‘lose-lose’ option says UN mission chief

More than 100 wildfires are still raging across Australia, with record-breaking temperatures and drought contributing to the loss of more than six million hectares of land that is home to some of the most unique plants and animals in the world.  In an interview with UN News, John Scanlon, Special Envoy for the African Parks non-profit organization and former Secretary-General of CITES - the UN-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - said that the increasing threat to biodiversity must be “lifted up to the international agenda”.  

• Investigation continues into mystery virus
• Hundreds of migrants sent to Libya detention centres
• UN launches multi-million funding appeal for refugees in Sudan

• Case of new China coronavirus surfaces in Thailand
• Six countries lose voting rights in General Assembly
• Yemen: Security Council renews mandate for UN Hudaydah Mission

• DR Congo killings ‘may amount to crimes against humanity’
• A victory for forced displacement victims: UN refugee agency
• UNHCR honoured with Olympic Cup

An Iraqi woman who was forced to marry as a teenager and denied access to formal education, is speaking up for victims of human rights abuses. 

Jamila Mahdi  spoke to Shirin Yaseen about her incredible journey, her work with Yazidi women victims of ISIL, and her hopes for an Iraq where everyone enjoys their human rights. 

• UN strongly condemns attack on Mali peacekeeping base
• 2020 must be 'year of change' on refugee protection in Europe
• UN envoy welcomes Russia-Turkey ceasefire call in Libya

For their first podcast of 2020, our UNcomplicated hosts, Sinduja Srinivasan and Jason DeWall, celebrate a milestone year for the UN, as it turns 75.

They’ve been talking to Fabrizio Hochschild, who’s leading the world body’s birthday mission, to listen to the concerns of a new generation of global citizens, and keep the UN relevant in the decades ahead.

Music credits: 'The Veil', by the band Signal and Report, written by Chris Hall and Noah Miller; plus their track, 'Abbey Minor'

• UN chief continues engagement to avert Gulf war
• International community supports aid delivery to West Darfur displaced
• Livelivehood project in Pakistan to benefit Afghan refugees, host communities 

• Humanitarian situation worsening in Syria's Idlib
• UN chief concerned over latest Venezuela standoff
• West Darfur clashes in Sudan displace 40,000

While nations continue to grapple with major global issues as the new year dawns, such as disarmament and climate change, there is reason to hope that they will work together to resolve the biggest threats to humanity. 

That’s the message from Tatiana Valovaya, Director-General of the United Nations in Geneva. 

In a wide-ranging interview recorded last year with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, Ms. Valovaya explains how she sees the geopolitical situation from her vantage point at the UN’s European headquarters. 

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, the world must first address critical challenges affecting nature.   

That’s the opinion of Ola Elvestuen, president of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment.  

Mr. Elvestuen, who is Norway’s environment minister, spoke to Ben Malor and laid out the critical reasons why everyone must mobilize to protect the planet. 

• Australia bushfires: UNICEF offers help
• New shipping regulation cuts harmful sulphur oxide emissions
• Cambodia: Building collapse leaves dozens dead

• Latin America and Caribbean world's second most disaster-prone region
• Humanitarians monitoring displacement following West Darfur clashes
• Chef with UN climate project urges support for smallholder farmers

• UN envoy commends successful conclusion of Guinea-Bissau presidential election
• UN kicks off 75th anniversary dialogues, everyone urged to ‘join the conversation’
• Investing health works yields ‘triple dividend’, WHO chief says

A photography project to document the ‘humanity, and quiet dignity’ of workers in the United States has been launched by the UN’s specialized agency, the International Labour Organization (ILO). 

The aim of the project, which comes as ILO celebrates its 100th birthday, is to look at the working lives of Americans across the country and listen to their hopes and fears for the future. 

For this edition of our flagship podcast show, The Lid is On, Daniel Dickinson joined ILO on the road as it reached the southern US state of Louisiana.   

Music credit: Audio Binger, Rise and Shine 

• Rights expert welcomes ICC decision on Palestine
• 2020: Year of the Nurse and the Midwife
• UN chief's New Year's Message highlights young people

• UNICEF reports three-fold rise in attacks on children this decade
• Eight million face hunger in Zimbabwe, FAO calls for international support

• Pakistan blasphemy death sentence a 'travesty of justice': UN experts
• UNICEF reports rise in young migrants crossing dangerous jungle between Panama and Colombia
• WFP to expand cash transfer programme for vulnerable people in Zimbabwe urban areas

• Ending war only ‘real hope’ for prosperous Afghanistan: UN mission chief
• Independent UN rights experts raise alarm over ‘incommunicado detention’ of Chinese scholar
• Violent attack in Burkina Faso leaves dozens of women dead, draws censure of UN chief

“Passion and story-telling” are two of the key ingredients to become a wine expert according to Michelle Gueydan, a certified sommelier based in New Orleans in the United States. Ms. Gueydan transitioned from politics to event management and then became one of the minority of female sommeliers currently working in the US. 

She spoke to the International Labour Organization (ILO) as part of a photography project to mark the centenary of the establishment of the UN agency. The project called “Dignity at Work: The American Experience” documents the working life of people across the United States. 

Kevin Cassidy, the Director of the ILO’s office for the United States, sat down with her during a tasting event at a wine bar in New Orleans. 

• UN chief's concern over military escalation in north-west Syria
• Nigeria urged to protect civilians and aid workers
• WFP and Myanmar partnership to end hunger

• Quality immunization, surveillance help stop polio in three African countries: WHO
• UN concerned for over three million in Idleb
• Much work needed to target racism in Ecuador: UN experts

A woman chef in New Orleans in the United States has been telling UN News how the restaurant business and cooking over a hot stove, has been a lifelong ‘labor of love’ for her. 

Roseann Rostoker decided she wanted to be a chef at age 14 and ultimately opened her own restaurant nine years ago.  

She spoke to the International Labour Organization (ILO) as part of a photography project to mark the UN agency’s centenary. The project called “Dignity at Work: The American Experience”, documents the working life of people across the United States. 

Kevin Cassidy, the Director of the ILO’s office for the United States, sat down with her following a busy shift at her restaurant, Red Gravy, in New Orleans. 

What does a crawfish farmer have in common with a taxidermist, or a voodoo priestess, or a long-haul heavy-load truck driver….?  

The answer, according to the Director of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) office for the United States, is a quiet dignity and pride in their job. 

The ILO is currently undertaking a photography project called “Dignity at Work: The American Experience”, which is documenting the jobs of hundreds of American workers in around 100 cities across the United States.  

The ILO, a specialized United Nations agency, which is celebrating its centenary this year, focuses on advancing social justice and promoting decent work not just in the US but across the world. 

Daniel Dickinson spoke to the ILO’s US Director Kevin Cassidy during a visit to the southern US state of Louisiana and asked him to explain what the project is hoping to achieve. 

• UN chief pays tribute to Pope Francis for defence of “most vulnerable” 
• Lesotho: tens of thousands ‘one step away from famine’ as drought impacts harvests 
• Targeted killings of rights activists in Iraq continue with complete impunity 

• Tobacco use falling at last among males, says WHO 
• Cholera cases decreased globally by 60 per cent in 2018: WHO 
• Terror threat in Nigeria’s north-east inspires musical of hope 

• Asia-Pacific trade decline
• Protect children standing up for rights for all: UNICEF
• More women could soon access breast cancer drug: WHO

• World must ‘reboot’ approach to refugees: UN chief
• Niger needs far ‘greater attention’ says deputy UN relief chief
• Minority rights needs strengthening in Kyrgyzstan: UN expert

• Global Refugee Forum opens in Geneva
• WFP reports 50 per cent scale-up in Yemen
• Harness youth potential to end hunger: FAO chief

The UN is committed to fighting corruption, which affects all countries.

Ahead of a conference in Abu Dhabi, to discuss issues relating to the Convention, John Brandolino, Director of the Division of Treaty Affairs for UNODC, spoke to Elena Vapnitchnaia, about the ways that thinking about corruption has evolved.

One of the major challenges in eradicating the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is the threat from numerous armed groups preventing health teams from reaching at-risk communities.  In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, Dr. Michel Yao from the World Health Organization explains how the agency is deploying helicopters to remote areas, as it adapts to the volatile situation.  

• Air bridge vaccination operation begins in Ebola-hit DR Congo 
• India’s citizenship act ‘fundamentally discriminatory’, says UN rights office 
• 40th anniversary of smallpox eradication marked on Friday 

A year has now passed since the Government of Yemen and Houthi rebels met in Sweden for UN-sponsored talks, aimed at ending a brutal conflict that has generated the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Supporting Mauritania’s efforts to protect its eastern border from jihadists and other destabilizing elements is just one aspect of the UN’s work in this “quiet” corner of North Africa.

That’s according to UN Resident Coordinator for Mauritania, Anthony Ohemeng-Boamah, who spoke to Dianne Penn about UN assistance there, and the need to “clear the air” over negative reports about slavery and gender equality.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres took questions from around the world alongside youth activist Marie Christina Kolo from Madagascar during the on-going COP25 climate conference on Thursday. The Facebook Live event was hosted by Karin Orantes from our UN Social Media team. 

• South Sudan: Famine warning after catastrophic flooding 
• More than 5,000 Somalis have opted to return home from wartorn Yemen
• ‘Alpinism’ added to list of cultural treasures needing urgent protection 

• Malnutrition sweeping Asia-Pacific region
• Palestinian aid plan for those in ‘greatest need’
• Egypt: UN experts fight for Coptic Christian rights defender

Every day, 33,000 girls under the age of 18 are married, often against their will and one in three women will face sexual violence.  Ending these scourges is the aim of the 16 Days Against Violence campaign, led by the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, which ended on Tuesday 10 December, Human Rights Day.  Here’s the agency’s Executive Director Dr Natalia Kanem, speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson in Geneva.  

• Samoa measles outbreak claims 70 lives, majority are children under five  
• Protecting indigenous people ‘our responsibility’ says activist 
• World economy ‘in grip of global slowdown after 2018 surge’ 

An American teenager is using his voice to raise awareness of how climate change is having an impact on his small indigenous village of Akiak, Alaska. 

Carl Smith, 17, spoke to Dianne Penn prior to travelling to New York  to participate in a panel discussion for Human Rights Day, which this year focuses on youth activism. 

• Inequality risks splitting society apart ‘on scale not seen since industrial revolution’ 
• Bachelet: mobilize everywhere to protect climate and dignity for everyone 
• Official: it’s now a war crime to intentionally starve communities in civil wars 

The 2019 Human Development Report (HDR) – entitled Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st Century - was launched on Monday, in Bogota, Colombia.  This year’s report shows that a new generation of severe inequalities in human development is emerging, even as the gap is narrowing, on many of the unresolved inequalities of the 20th century.  Achim Steiner, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator, talks about the Human Development Report’s main messages to the world.  

• Spike in Syria attacks on civilians
• Australia’s end to medical evacuation for refugees may put lives at risk
• Haitians facing ‘dramatic’ food crisis

Measles deaths and infections are spiking again globally, and Governments everywhere should do more to convince parents that it is safe to vaccinate their children.

That’s the message from the World Health Organization’s Dr Kate O’Brien, Director of Immunization and Vaccines.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, she describes the impact of a major outbreak of measles on the Pacific island nation of Samoa, where thousands of children have contracted the disease. 

• At least 58 lives lost off coast of Mauritania
• Measles epidemic continues in Samoa
• Around 2.3 Zambians facing food insecurity

UN agencies are assisting authorities in Samoa as they battle a measles outbreak which has killed more than 60 people, mainly babies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has flown in emergency medical teams from across the globe who are working alongside local colleagues in a mass inoculation campaign using vaccines supplied by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The UN also is supporting a national awareness campaign aimed at rebuilding trust following the deaths last year of two babies during routine vaccinations.

Simona Marinescu, the UN Resident Coordinator in Samoa, discusses these developments and plans for long-term recovery with Julia Dean from the UN Information Centre in Canberra.

With Mali facing what one UN rights expert’s called dire political, economic and social upheaval, the UN-led humanitarian efforts in the country are vitally important to much of the population.

Mbaranga Gasarabwe is the UN Deputy Special Representative in Mali, where she oversees the work of 21 UN humanitarian agencies.

During a visit to UN Headquarters in November, Ms. Gasarabwe, who has more than 20 years of experience with the United Nations in development and humanitarian assistance, spoke to Conor Lennon, and explained that the current situation in Mali is very different, and more difficult, than it was when she first started working there.

• Humanitarian plan aims to assist 109 million vulnerable people in 2020
• Transport-related emissions from tourism on the rise
• Leaders urged to increase people’s participation in meeting the SDGs

Volunteerism opens doors and impacts peace and development throughout local communities as well as on a national and global level, according to the chief of UN System Affairs and New York Office of UN Volunteers (UNV). 

Particularly for those excluded, it provides a concrete way to “impact their own lives and play a constructive role in their communities”, Naoual Driouich said, in an interview with UN News ahead of International Volunteer Day.

She knows her way around the UN system, having previously served with UN Women and the UN Development Programme, UNDP, in Iraq, Yemen and other hotspots, seeing “first-hand” the difference volunteering can make.

Ms. Driouich began by telling Liz Scaffidi what the UN Volunteers programme is all about.

• Eight children among dead in attack in Syria’s Aleppo province
• Only one in five countries has strong health strategy against climate change
• Zimbabwe ‘facing worst hunger crisis in a decade’

Can you imagine going to the gym for a 24-hour workout?

That’s what Peter Koopmans did between Sunday and Monday, to raise awareness and funds for child victims of sexual abuse, doing thousands of pull-ups, push-ups, and squat thrusts at UNAIDS in Geneva, starting at midday on Sunday – World AIDS Day.

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, the tireless ironman explained what the achievement means for him, and for the human rights organization in South Africa, Operation Bobbi Bear, that’s helping abused youngsters, many of whom have been at risk of contracting HIV.

• COP25: Guterres calls for ‘path of resolve, sustainable solutions’
• $48 billion and counting, the cost of Israeli occupation for Palestinians
• AIDS agency worker raises the bar in 24-hour record-breaking challenge

• Violence in DR Congo Ebola hotspot leaves people ‘caught in crossfire’
• Iraq: Guterres, Bachelet express concern at continued protester deaths
• UN-appointed panel urges Colombia to do more to stop human rights defender murders

• Zimbabwe facing man-made starvation, says UN expert
• UN expert on human rights in North Korea visit to Japan
• Ebola health workers pay highest price in eastern DRC amid attacks by armed groups 

If you were passionate about a cause, would you give up a well-paid job for it – even if it drove your parents mad?

That’s what Ya Wang from Beijing, China, did, and now he’s helping other volunteers to promote youth empowerment through concerts, through the organization, Up With People.

They’re on tour in Switzerland, which is where UN News’s Daniel Johnson caught up with Ya, along with fellow cast member Ahmed Hassan from Aleppo, Syria, who has his own story to tell.

• UN Mission in Afghanistan supports child sex abuse allegations
• Thousands of children killed by measles in DR Congo
• Eat the Mediterranean way: UN food agency

The UN is working in Iraq on many fronts, including assisting the rebuilding of northern areas devastated during the war against ISIL terrorists, says the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator there.clennon

Marta Ruedas cites the World Bank and Iraq Government in estimating that reconstruction will cost $88 billion - but just over $1 billion has been received so far.

“It’s a drop in the ocean”, she said, while acknowledging that international funding has already helped “to improve the situation for millions of people”.

In a recent visit to UN Headquarters in New York, she spoke to Liz Scaffidi, and began by addressing the recent political upheaval across Iraq, which has seen thousands of protesters killed and wounded.

• HIV in decline worldwide but thousands of children still being infected
• ‘Climate procrastination’ means we now need to cut emissions by more than half, urge UN climate experts
• Yemen’s warring parties must de-escalate, urges UN head of ceasefire mission

If we told you that greenhouse gas emissions are measured in gigatonnes, how many of them do you think we need to stop producing, if we’re to keep the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius in line with the Paris Agreement?

For the answer to that question – and some advice on how countries like Denmark and South Africa are doing their bit - here’s John Christensen, lead author of the UN Environment Programme’s Emissions Gap Report, speaking to UN News’s Daniel Johnson.

• UN chief praises peaceful Colombia protests, condemns violence 
• UN Mission, community leaders, condemn South Sudan rioting
• Mine action champion, Norway hosts anti-landmine summit 

With unemployment in Gaza standing at 54 per cent, young people there are living “a daily existence in a nightmarish scenario”, according to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.

Jamie McGoldrick said Palestinian youth gaze across the Mediterranean at the lives of their European counterparts and wonder why they too cannot have a job, or buy a car, or afford to go on holiday.

Mr. McGoldrick was in New York this week and spoke to May Yaacoub about challenges facing UNRWA, the UN agency that assists the Palestinian people, which continues to face a staggering $200 million funding shortfall.

He began by addressing recent developments at the agency, whose chief resigned this month pending the outcome of an investigation into alleged misconduct.

• New DRC Ebola virus transmission chain risks reversing major gains: WHO
• Venezuela: WFP makes urgent appeal for US$196 million to help millions of refugees, migrants
• Libya: 600 migrants discovered on at least nine boats in Mediterranean Sea