Interviews

It would be a stretch to describe Jaime Lannister, the character in the hit TV Show Game of Thrones, played by Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, as a positive role model.

In real life, Mr. Coster-Waldau couldn’t be more different. As Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), he raises awareness and support for the Global Goals, with a focus on empowering women and fighting climate change.

The global explorer Bertrand Piccard piloted the first balloon to traverse the globe in 1999, and in 2016 he was at the controls of the first plane to fly around the world powered only by the sun: Solar Impulse.

But his next challenge might be his toughest: Mr. Piccard, a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), has launched the World Alliance for Efficient Solutions, a not-for-profit project endorsed by UNEP and several other UN Agencies.

Winston Duke, best known for his role as M’Baku in the hit film Black Panther, is an avowed activist and feminist.

On Wednesday, he joined Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan and award-winning actor Anne Hathaway at an event organised by UN Women, on the side-lines of High-Level week at UN Headquarters in New York.

Sea life, and the ocean that sustains it, is in “very deep trouble”, says the UN Special Envoy tasked with helping the world reach Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, but it’s not too late to get there.

Peter Thomson has spent the last year travelling the world, galvanizing Governments, institutions and individuals, to follow up on the outcomes stemming from the 2017 Ocean Conference, which he championed in support of the SDGs.

Don’t give up on the people of the Central African Republic, or CAR, or the chance that a lasting peace can finally be established there.

That’s the plea from Najat Rochdi, who is UN Deputy Special Representative in CAR, as well as humanitarian coordinator there.

In an interview with UN News on Wednesday, she explained that 64 per cent of people there need assistance this year, and the humanitarian budget for the year is less than 40 per cent funded.

As former President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet knows the hard realities of politics that Heads of Government face as they try to push through their agenda.

Her earlier life was very different: she was detained and tortured under the Chilean dictatorship and later worked as head of the medical department for an NGO helping child torture survivors.

And now, Ms. Bachelet is the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, tasked with co-ordinating human rights activities across the UN, and supervising the Human Rights Council.

Migration “is a force for good” for host nations, but more could be done to offer migrants economic opportunities closer to home, the head of UN trade agency UNCTAD has said.

In an interview with UN News to coincide with an event held at the UN on migration in Africa, Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, tells Daniel Johnson how Ethiopia and Rwanda have successfully tackled the issue with their own job-creation schemes.

When it comes to tackling migration, climate change or seemingly intractable conflicts, the doctrine of collective responsibility, embodied by the UN, is the only way forward, according to Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed.

She spoke to Conor Lennon, in the UN’s VIP Social Media Studio – where dozens of world leaders have been taking part in Facebook Live interviews during High-Level week – who asked her what should be done to strengthen multilateralism.

A focus on the benefits of fighting climate change is one of the best ways to engage more people.

This is the message that Erik Solheim, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), has been spreading at UN Headquarters in New York during High-Level week at the General Assembly.

Conor Lennon spoke to Mr. Solheim in the UN’s VIP Social Media Studio and asked what needs to be done to make climate change, one of the biggest challenges facing humanity, a day-to-day political priority.

The President of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Monday it was important not to be distracted by threats from the United States, whose National Security Adviser earlier this month described the ICC as “illegitimate”, adding that US sanctions against judges and prosecutors may be forthcoming.