Interviews

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 so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The mission is headed up by Elizabeth Spehar, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Cyprus, and is the first to have an all-women leadership team, in charge of the mission, military forces, and the police component.

Climate-induced fires, rising inequalities, political unrest and a bleak economic forecast; last year was a very turbulent one. How can we make sense of it?
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.

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.  

2020 marks the beginning of the UN’s Decade of Action, a final push to hit the goals of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, and also the 75th anniversary of the Organization.

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, and the momentum that is growing around the world.

Ms. Mohammed accepted, however, that progress towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals has not been as fast as hoped.

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.

Within hours, she was working with the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSTAH, helping coordinate a huge international aid effort, the UN having lost 102 of its own staff on that fateful day.

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.

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. 

Some estimates suggest that around half a billion animals have burnt to death in the state of New South Wales alone. 

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 was only 13 when her father married her off to a relative. She literally spent the next 12 years a slave:  working the land, tending livestock and caring for her four children in dire poverty. 

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.