Interviews

Communities and religious leaders have come together to call for peace and calm in Sri Lanka, following the deadly church and hotel suicide bombings, on Easter Sunday.

With nearly 300 killed – including 45 children – the Indian Ocean island nation is in a state of mourning and living through a “national trauma”.

That’s according to the UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka, Hanna Singer, who also warned that beyond the “fear and shock” there was rising concern over a possible “backlash”.

In an ideal world, all jobs would be “green,” decent work that contributes to protecting the environment.

For the International Labour Organization (ILO), millions of green jobs must be created in the coming years, if countries are to put commitments made to minimise climate change into action.

Dan Dickinson from UN News called up Moustapha Kamal Gueye, coordinator of the Green Jobs Programme at the ILO in Geneva, and started by asking him what kind of green jobs exist already.

The reality of working today is that people are “continuously asked to do more and more and have no time to rest”, often with grave consequences for their health and wellbeing, an expert from the UN labour agency, the ILO, said on Thursday. 

In an interview with Daniel Johnson from UN News, occupational safety and health specialist Manal Azzi, discusses the pros and cons of technological innovation at work, as well as sustainable solutions to combat climate change, highlighting that prevention really is the key. 

Since before the era of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the arts have been used to confront slavery, and honour those who made freedom possible.   

As an artist who grew up in “a culture that was shaped by that particular history, making it part of his work’s DNA”, Christopher Cozier, from Trinidad and Tobago, has often drawn attention to the power of the arts, to deliver justice.  

Despite progress by the Afghan authorities in tackling torture of conflict-related detainees, much more needs to be done, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Wednesday. 

In an interview with UN News’s Daniel Johnson, UNAMA’s Richard Bennett, outlines a new report’s key findings and explains how accountability for perpetrators would help eradicate the practice. 

At least two-thirds of the roof of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris “is gone” after the devastating fire in Paris, but UN cultural experts have told UN News they are standing by to help the French Government rebuild the iconic structure. That’s according to UNESCO World Heritage Centre Director, Mechtild Rössler, who made several visits to the site on Tuesday, and spoke by phone to Daniel Johnson about what she had seen, and how the UN can play a role in restoring one of the world’s most famous and historic buildings.

Irish military personnel serving under the UN flag in the Golan have been “well trained to deal with challenging situations,” according to the head of the contingent there.

There are 130 Irish nationals, including seven women, currently deployed to the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF); a UN peacekeeping mission which was established in 1974 to monitor a ceasefire between Israel and Syria.

Many have served previously in other UN missions including in Liberia, Lebanon, Kosovo and Western Sahara.

With more than half the world’s population now living in urban areas, it’s increasingly understood that cities can drive sustainable development.

But that’s not so easy in places where heavy industry has left a toxic legacy that developers are unwilling to pay to clean up, as Glasgow Council Leader Susan Aitken told Daniel Johnson from UN News, at an Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) event in Geneva.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, Maria Ribeiro, raised major concerns on Monday for the safety of civilians and others who are being affected by the uptick in fighting between warring factions across the country, in particular, “migrants and asylum seekers who may find themselves in detention centres close to the main areas of conflict”.

Speaking by phone from Tripoli, Ms. Ribeiro told UN News that the United Nations had called for a “humanitarian truce” to allow emergency services access to newly-affected areas under fire.

The lack of basic water and sanitation facilities in health centres affects two billion people around the world and is particularly dangerous for women in childbirth and newborns, according to a new UN report.