UN Catch-Up Dateline Geneva

In this week’s show, inspiring messages from disability activist Irena Valarezo Cordova from Ecuador, who features in the UN Population Fund’s (UNFPA) World For One Billion exhibition.

And UN humanitarians remind us of the likely heavy human cost of the Ukraine crisis in Europe, while on other continents, a new biotechnology hub to make COVID vaccines, insulin and more is announced for South Korea, as African nations take stock, one year after coronavirus vaccines starting arriving in the country via the UN-partnered COVAX initiative.

In this week’s show, a wonderful coral reef discovery in the South Pacific, and the far from wonderful country-wide jobs crunch in Afghanistan, as the economy nosedives. In Africa, there’s been a “significant drop” in new cases of COVID, the UN health agency has said, but it’s no time for complacency.

And searing memories of the Holocaust from the last remaining survivors, as told to film producer Sophie Nahum; plus a famous poem by Mario Benedetti to put everything into context for us.

 

In this week’s show, the latest on the emergency relief effort in the Philippines after the terrible destruction caused by Super Typhoon Rai; deep concern about the blockade of medicines to Ethiopia’s Tigray from the World Health Organization (WHO), a “landmark” judgment against a Syrian interrogator who’s been found guilty of crimes against humanity, and Omicron on the African continent, where infections look to be plateauing, but not everywhere.

In our first show of 2022, the fight goes on for oil-rich Marib in northern Yemen, where the UN’s migration agency IOM is doing its utmost to help all those who’ve been repeatedly displaced by the conflict.

Journalists are under fire, too, UNESCO tells us, while on the COVID front line, the World Health Organization (WHO) has just announced that – for the moment at least – there’s no particular risk associated with holding next month’s Winter Games in Beijing.

And after days of nationwide protest in Kazakhstan, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet has appealed for calm.

In this final show of 2021, climate wars and how the UN refugee agency is trying to help the world’s most vulnerable communities including those in the Sahel; a “COVID tsunami” alert from the WHO's Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; and Security Council condemnation for gruesome killings in Myanmar. Plus, an end-of-year message of solidarity and hope from UN chief António Guterres, while Brecht’s Mother Courage sets the tone for closing comments from regular guest Solange Behoteguy Cortes.

Following resolutions on climate and COVID vaccine equity, this week’s show highlights why the UN’s top rights forum is more relevant than ever, according to outgoing President Nazhat Shameem Khan from Fiji, who has been overseeing the work of the Human Rights Council in Geneva for a year. 

And, an appeal to “fight like hell” for vaccine equity, from the World Health Organization’s Maria Van Kerkhove.  

This and other top stories from the week, with closing comments from regular guest, Solange Behoteguy-Cortes.

In this week’s show, we’re in touch with a very busy COVID-19 call centre in the Central African Republic; we’ll also hear from the Human Rights Council where Ukraine’s unresolved crisis has been in the spotlight. An alarming heat record has been declared in the Arctic and we’ll hear some plain speaking from World Health Organization chief Tedros, on the issue of boosters and vaccine inequity. Not forgetting closing comments from the show’s regular guest, Solange Behoteguy-Cortes. That’s all coming up, in this week’s UN Catch-Up Dateline Geneva.

In this week’s show: there are 40 million slaves today around the world - find out what the UN is doing to help them; also, real concerns about COVID vaccine hoarding linked to the rise of Omicron, and an alert over a desperate hunger crisis that’s affecting millions in the Sahel, which is driving violence and displacement, that’s being felt as far away as the West African coast. 

Stay with us too for closing comments from regular guest, Solange Behoteguy-Cortes – and Gabriel Garcia Marquez - you’re in good company.  

In this week’s show: drought in Afghanistan to add to farmers’ woes, and how the UN is helping. Strong words from António Guterres and WHO's Tedros about Omicron travel bans, “travel apartheid” is the charge levelled by the UN chief; and the connectivity gap that’s widening – COVID-19 is a key factor of course, what else…

And, closing comments from regular guest, Solange Behoteguy-Cortes.

Hello, in this week’s show: an alert over fighting in Yemen’s north and the inevitable toll on the country’s war-weary people, grassroots solutions to gender-based violence among refugees and the latest from the UN health agency about rare multi-organ inflammation in children with COVID.

Stay with us too to hear about progress on the global eradication of landmines, and not forgetting closing comments from regular guest, Solange Behoteguy-Cortes.