Inside Geneva

Send us Fan Mail On Inside Geneva this week, host Imogen Foulkes asks if the United Nations (UN) should still work in Afghanistan, now the Taliban are banning women from work, and girls from secondary school?  Karima Bennoune, professor of International Law: ‘Anyone who believed in something called Taliban 2.0, had never actually spoken to an Afghan woman human rights defender. Because the Afghan...

Send us Fan Mail This week Inside Geneva starts a new series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Born out of the terrible cruelty of World War II, millions hoped the declaration would prevent atrocities.  "This Universal Declaration of human rights may well become the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere," said Eleanor Roosevelt.  But the...

Send us Fan Mail Inside Geneva was at the World Health Assembly over the last week, finding out what lessons are being learned from Covid-19 now that the WHO says the global health emergency is over – even if the pandemic isn’t.  Suerie Moon, co-director, Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute said: "Every single country is vulnerable to pandemics. Every single country can have its e...

Send us Fan Mail The Sudan conflict began over a month ago, and the consequences for the population are getting more and more serious.  In this episode we take a long hard look at the conflict in Sudan, and what the UN and humanitarian agencies here in Geneva – the ones whose very purpose is to either prevent such conflicts happening, or at the very least help ease the suffering – can actually do....

Send us Fan Mail This week, Inside Geneva goes behind the scenes with the ICRC’s prisoner exchange in Yemen. Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC: "I look at my kids, I look at my family, and I say ‘imagine now there is a frontline between us, and my son, my brother, my mother, my father are captured and I can't see them for a year, or two, three, four". Can the move help bring peace to Yemen? Da...

Send us Fan Mail Russian President Vladimir Putin has been indicted for war crimes. This week, Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes asks whether international law can really bring justice. “The real crime of crimes in this story is the decision to go to war. Every other crime – the deportation of children, the crimes against humanity, the war crimes – is a consequence of the decision to go to...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Inside Geneva we take a long hard look at how aid is delivered, and why it is often obstructed. Did UN aid agencies fail Syria after the earthquake? Marco Sassoli from Geneva University speaking to Inside Geneva says: "The UN being a club it represents its members, and therefore it considers that it cannot do anything on the territory of a member state with...

Send us Fan Mail This week Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes talks to authors who have written about humanitarian topics. What is it like to track down human rights violators? “Each day in court, seeing Hissène Habré I would pump my fist: ‘my God, we got him.’ But you never knew, and I have to say when they started reading the verdict it was such joy, but it was also a relief. I mean I fel...

Send us Fan Mail The UN Human Rights Council is set to discuss Ukraine, Ethiopia, Iran, and more. Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes asks: what about China? “If there’s no pressure coming from the international community, if there’s no scrutiny over China, if there’s nothing happening, China is basically going to take it as a sign that they’ve got the green light to continue their abuses,”...

Send us Fan Mail One year on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined by conflict resolution experts to discuss what the prospects for peace are, and how it can be won. “The fact that we’re talking about the possibility of using nuclear weapons, the fact that we’re talking about the possibility of the United States and China going to war over Taiwan; i...

Send us Fan Mail After two devastating earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria, Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes looks at the challenges aid agencies face when compassion and humanity run up against the obstacles of geopolitics. In Syria, the disaster comes on top of 12 years of conflict. “My teams ask me, the people ask me, our partners ask me: why is this happening to us? They just came out of...

Send us Fan Mail This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, host Imogen Foulkes has an in-depth conversation with Volker Türk, the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. “I have had a lifelong commitment to the human rights cause,” says Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, about what attracted him to a job some call the UN’s toughest. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights t...

Send us Fan Mail The war in Ukraine is almost a year old. Inside Geneva asks what role cyberwarfare has played. Christian-Marc Lifländer, head of NATO Cyber Defence Section: "Cyberspace has been central to the war in Ukraine. It has been used to shape the battle space. Cyberattacks were used to lay the ground for the invasion." Its influence has been stealthy… Charlotte Lindsey, CyberPea...

Send us Fan Mail The Taliban have banned women from working for aid agencies. This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, host Imogen Foulkes asks humanitarians what this means for Afghanistan’s future. “How can women be able to receive healthcare when there are no women doctors?” asks Adam Combs of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Afghan women and girls are banned from secondary school and univer...

Send us Fan Mail The year has seen huge humanitarian challenges: war in Ukraine, looming famine in Somalia, protracted crises in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria. This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, aid agencies reflect on the year. “One of the things we see is that wars are not ending, they’re lasting, they’re enduring,” says Jason Straziuso, spokesperson at the International Committee of the Re...

Send us Fan Mail 2022 has been a momentous year: the war in Ukraine, unprecedented droughts and floods, new disease outbreaks. This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, journalists reflect on the past year. “It was quite shocking waking up in the morning to that news. I remember the UN Refugee Agency already on the first day was saying 100,000 people had been displaced,” says Nina Larson of Agence F...

Send us Fan Mail Nuclear weapons have only been used twice. Now Russia has hinted they could be used again. In this podcast episode, Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes asks experts how big the threat is. “This is the reality of nuclear deterrence: that there is a nuclear armed country that can hold the rest of the world hostage,” says Alicia Sanders-Zakre of the International Campaign to Abolish Nu...

Send us Fan Mail This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, we answer questions from our listeners about migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees.   Our listeners asked us the following questions: What’s the difference between asylum seekers, stateless populations, and undocumented migrants? How does third country resettlement work? Does the United Nations Refugee Agency, or the International Organizat...

Send us Fan Mail The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) is due to start this Sunday in Egypt. Evidence shows too little is done against climate change. What does this mean for our health? In this podcast episode, host Imogen Foulkes is joined by health and climate experts. “A 1 degree or 0.5 degree [Celsius] increase has an exponential direct impact on the number of cases of cholera...

Send us Fan Mail In this podcast episode, host Imogen Foulkes together with Swiss Solidarity ask: what are the challenges of delivering aid to Ukraine? “In the early days, it just looked like, five or six days, and Ukraine will be taken,” says Zuzana Brezinova, Ukraine country director at Swiss Church Aid HEKS. How do neutral, impartial humanitarian organisations really work in a war zone? “Becaus...

Send us Fan Mail Russia is diplomatically isolated. In this podcast episode, host Imogen Foulkes asks: what about Russian human rights defenders? “Right now, in Russia there are few means left to defend human rights, and to address human rights violations. It’s really hard,” says Violetta Fitsner, a Russian human rights defender. In Geneva, Russia has been expelled from the UN Human Rights Council...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, host Imogen Foulkes explores the most important UN agency most of us have never heard of.    Malcolm Johnson, deputy secretary general, ITU: ‘Telephony, radio and tv broadcasting , satellite communications, the internet, they wouldn’t have developed.’    So what has the International Telecommunications Union ever done for us?    Fiona Alexander, IT expert: ‘If you...

Send us Fan Mail For more than 150 years the ICRC has been re-uniting those separated by war and natural disaster. Inside Geneva visits the Central Tracing Agency.    Florence Anselmo, Head of the Central Tracing Agency: "People going missing, families getting separated, families not knowing what has happened to their loved ones."     Now it’s busy letting Russian and Ukrainian families...

Send us Fan Mail While the spotlight is on Ukraine, the UN says humanitarian needs in Syria are greater than ever.  Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by humanitarian experts. “The World Food Programme had to reduce by 13% their food rations because of funding,” says Sanjana Quazi, head of office at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in...

Send us Fan Mail From war to food insecurity and climate change; would the world be a better, safer place if women took more decisions? Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by women peace and security experts. “Participation of women in peace and security, obviously must go beyond an ‘add-women-and-stir’ approach,” says Julia Hofstetter, president of Women in Interna...