Interviews

Deployed with the UN Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, since March 2017, after serving in Darfur and Mali, UN Police Officer (UNPOL) Seynabou Diouf from Senegal, helps empower women and survivors of sexual violence across the region.

Ensuring her door is always open, Major Diouf is in charge of the Gender Task Force, where she’s proud there have been “zero allegations” of sexual exploitation and abuse this year where she serves.

One billion children—or half the world’s youngsters—are victims of violence, ranging from conflict and humanitarian crises to cyberbullying and recruitment by terrorist groups.

That’s according to UN expert Najat Maalla M’jid who advocates for governments, civil society and other stakeholders to put children at the heart of their policies. Ms. M’jid began her appointment as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Violence against Children in July and recently presented her first report to the UN General Assembly.

The unbearable levels of air pollution in India’s New Delhi, declared a public health emergency by the local government as of Monday, have made “the invisible killer, visible”. 

La Guajira, Colombia’s northernmost region, is dry with desert landscapes. It’s prone to drought and food insecurity particularly in rural areas.

In recent years, the economic crisis in neighboring Venezuela has pushed over a million migrants across the border, including 165,000 people into La Guajira.

The influx  has put a strain on host communities, where food is limited and natural resources scarce, so the UN Food and Agriculture Organization decided to take action.

Discrimination and violence towards members of the LGBTI community continues to be pervasive in every region of the world, with same-sex marriages still considered a crime in 69 countries. 

That’s from Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, who presented a new report to the General Assembly last week outlining how negative notions of LGBTI people manifest, and how best to stop them.  

UN human rights expert Agnès Callamard has been involved in some of the most talked-about stories of the past year, from investigating the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, to condemning the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Ms. Callamard has also been highly critical of Malta’s response to the killing of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, and in October, alongside fellow Special Rapporteur David Kaye, she called on the Maltese authorities to do more to find those responsible for her death.

Although it is situated far from the UN’s HQ in New York, the International Court of Justice – based in The Hague, in  the Netherlands – is as integral a part of the United Nations as the Security Council or General Assembly.

Conor Lennon from UN News caught up with Philippe Gautier, the newly appointed Registrar of the ICJ, and former Registrar of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, during a visit to headquarters in October.

He started by asking Mr. Gautier to explain the crucial role the ICJ plays on the world stage.

As the first human rights issue to provoke wide international, slavery is perpetuated by traditional practices such as child and forced marriage, and by the fact that almost half the countries in the world have yet to criminalize it.

According to the latest UN figures, 40 million people were living in a state of modern slavery in 2016. One in four children are in forced labour, and about 98 per cent of women who are in forced labour have also been subjected to sexual exploitation.

There are clear benefits to keeping the earth’s temperature below two degrees; and the “choices we make now will be critical for the future of our oceans and cryosphere”.

London’s Crystal Palace provided the venue for the first ever World Expo back in 1851, and next year, the Arab region hosts the iconic global event for the first time, which will include a United Nations pavilion, the Organization announced on Thursday.

Under the theme “We the peoples shaping our future together”, the space will focus on “the people the United Nations serve, rather than the institution”.