Interviews

The “free, informed consent” of Indigenous Peoples over how their historic territory is used, is a key demand arising from the latest UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which ended on Friday.

That’s according to the chairperson of the Forum, Mariam Wallet Aboubakrine, who is a medical doctor from Mali, who told Liz Scaffidi how the two-week event had gone.

The explosions at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exposed around 8.4 million people to life-threatening radiation, and the three countries affected are still living with the consequences today.

In an interview with UN News to mark the anniversary of the disaster, which took place on 26 April 1986, the Permanent Representative of Belarus to the United Nations in Geneva, Yury Ambrazevich, told Sandra Miller that around 70 per cent of the radioactive fallout spread across his country, affecting some 2.2 million.

A quarter of all thyroid cancer cases among patients who were children at the time of the Chernobyl accident 32 years ago, are “probably” due to high doses of radiation received during and after the event.

That is the conclusion of the latest study undertaken by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), which looked at cancer rates between 1991 and 2015.

Despite an upturn in the global economy there are “clouds on the horizon” which need to be addressed if the world it to reach the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

That’s the view of the Chief Economist in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), Elliott Harris, who is also Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Development.

The traditional knowledge indigenous people have about land and natural resources is key to preserving the world’s biodiversity, according to an expert with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Dianne Penn has been speaking to Yon Fernandez de Larrinoa, Global Advocacy Officer on Indigenous Issues with the agency.

The decision by an independent international jury to nominate an Egyptian journalist who has been incarcerated for nearly five years for a top UN award, helps “shine the light” on press freedom at a “pivotal moment”.

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine believes the grinding four-year conflict in the east is being “forgotten” with thousands of ceasefire violations being recorded each month.

Africa’s Cabo Verde islands are facing a “formidable” agricultural and economic challenge in the form of an invasive pest known as the Fall Armyworm.

But now, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has joined forces with authorities there to combat the threat, without damaging the environment or farmers’ livelihoods – especially in vulnerable rural areas.

Greg Delaney has this special report from Cabo Verde.

“There is no development, there is no protection of human rights, if there is no peace.” 

That, according to the United Nations General Assembly President Miroslav Lajĉák, is one of the key reasons why he convened this week’s landmark meeting, devoted to strengthening UN peacebuilding.

A technological breakthrough, whereby radiation-treated mosquitos are released by drone to limit the spread of diseases such as malaria and Zika, will not have any damaging effect on other wildlife.

That’s the verdict of senior UN scientist who is part of a team which has been using radiation to sterilize male mosquitos which are then released to limit breeding.