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Interviews

UNFCCC/James Dowson

‘Time for all of us to wake up’ and save the planet: goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc at COP24

When Hurricane Maria devastated Domenica last year, it was a wake-up call for Canada’s former international goalkeeper, Karina LeBlanc to step in to the climate change fight.

With many family ties to the Caribbean island, she changed the way she eats and began biking to work, and says that “it’s time for all of us to wake up” and be part of the solution.  

Audio
8'39"
UNICEF/Chiara Saturnino

Education ‘the key to social inclusion’ says Côte d’Ivoire refugee in Marrakech

If countries help educate incoming migrants and refugees, they will no longer be viewed as a problem, but a valuable resource, said one 20-year-old from Côte d’Ivoire, speaking on behalf of young people, ahead of the adoption of the new UN Global Compact for Migration in Marrakech, Morocco.

Kader Diabate made the voyage alone to Italy on one of the world’s most dangerous routes – through Niger and Libya, and across the Mediterranean Sea.

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10'
UNFCCC/James Dowson

COP24: Cleaning up industries which pollute, biggest financial opportunity of our time, says Bertrand Piccard

Phasing out pollution and changing inefficient industries which damage the environment for greener systems and solutions, represents the biggest financial opportunity “of the century”.

That’s according to Bertrand Piccard - psychiatrist, UN goodwill ambassador, chair of the Solar Impulse solar-powered aircraft project, and the first person ever to make a non-stop balloon flight around the world, back in 1999.

Audio
7'7"
WHO/Lindsay Mackenzie

‘Still confident’ deadly DR Congo Ebola outbreak can be stopped, despite ‘negative’ factors: WHO

Overcoming an outbreak of one of the deadliest diseases on the planet is a complicated prospect at the best of times.

But imagine how you would go about it in a place where there’s frequent fighting that prevents you from reaching some of the sick and dying.

That’s what’s facing the World Health Organization (WHO), which has 300 workers on the ground helping 800 national staff fight the epidemic in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has seen more than 270 deaths so far.

Audio
6'39"
UN Geneva/Violaine Martin

Papua demonstrators must be allowed freedom to assert their rights: OHCHR

The mass arrest of demonstrators in Indonesia who were attempting to mark a national day for indigenous people in the east of the archipelago, has been condemned by the UN human rights office, OHCHR.

More than 500 activists were detained at the start of the month - though they’ve since been released.

Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani explained to UN News' Daniel Johnson on Friday, what’s behind these latest developments.

Audio
4'21"
World Bank/Simone D. McCourtie

Rising traffic-related deaths and injuries ‘a real issue of inequality,’ says WHO

Road traffic crashes have become the leading killer of young people, aged five to 29, with most deaths happening in lower-income countries.

This data comes from World Health Organization's latest global status report on road safety, which indicates that road traffic deaths are on the rise, totally 1.35 million a year now, over 90 percent of which occur in poorer parts of the world now.

Dr. Etienne Krug, Director of the WHO Department that handles violence and injury prevention, said high level political will must be applied to take on the problem.

Audio
3'54"
UN News/Paulina Greer

Human Rights declaration 'wasn’t going to be much of anything', men said

Women have left an indelible mark on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but when they first started working on it, men were “thinking that the declaration wasn’t going to be much of anything”, a leading author and researcher told UN News this week.

It was the strength of women such as Minerva Bernardino from the Dominican Republic, Begum Shaista Ikramullah from Pakistan, and Hansa Mehta from India that proved them wrong, said Stockholm University researcher, Rebecca Adami.

Audio Duration
7'46"