Awake At Night

Monique Sokhan survived the Cambodian genocide, having fled the Khmer Rouge terror when she was just a small child. Now, working as Senior Protection Coordinator, at UNHCR's Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, she is still searching for answers about the atrocities that killed many of her family members. " It's difficult because you're wondering why others have died and you're alive. And for...

Osnat Lubrani knows first-hand the horrors of war. As UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, she has witnessed the dramatic changes since the Russian invasion and rapidly mounting needs as the war tears lives apart across the country. "What is keeping me awake at night is the horror of knowing that it hasn't ended yet and that there are more people alive today that are ve...

Vladislav Kaim is dedicated to protecting the environment. A member of the UN Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change, he promotes green jobs, the energy transition, and generous climate finance - urgent priorities for our rapidly warming world. Yet the war in Ukraine has blown apart regional and global networks working towards a livable future.  "The war is affecting the sustainable development of...

What does it take to stay calm in the crossfire? Unaisi Vuniwaqa has witnessed terrible suffering. As the Assistant Secretary-General for Safety and Security, she has worked as a UN peacekeeper in some of the world's most dangerous places. "Sometimes it can be very overwhelming, you really feel for the people and the suffering that they're going through." Peacekeepers have one of the toughest role...

What would it take to make that happen? Bo Viktor Nylund has always been drawn to complex, difficult places. As the Representative of UNICEF in Syria, he is a passionate advocate for the rights of children growing up in one of the world's most thorny and protracted crises. "When I meet with children, I just see that there's always that glimpse of hope in their eyes and that drive to make a future...

What is it like living and working in Afghanistan as a woman leader of a UN Agency?  Mary-Ellen McGroarty witnessed the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in August 2021. As Head of the World Food Programme in the country, she has seen first hand the seismic shift in the economic, political and cultural landscape.  "Some days, I sometimes wish I hadn't been here before the 15th of August, because the...

When war and catastrophe hit, the United Nations is there. Hear from more of the extraordinary people working at the frontlines of the world's most pressing crises in the new season of Awake at Night, coming on 20 May.

How did a boy raised in a small village in Barbados become one of the top United Nations officials tackling climate change?   In this episode of Awake at Night , Selwin Hart takes us on his inspiring life journey -- from growing up in a home without electricity to being at the centre of global negotiations to tackle the climate emergency.   The first person in his family to attend university, Selw...

"How obscene it would be for a country…that still has poverty, that still has all these problems, to spend billions in nuclear weapons. What for?"   IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has specialized in non-proliferation and disarmament issues for more than 35 years – ever since he began his career as a diplomat in his native Argentina, when the country's then military dictatorship announ...

What is a day like in the life of the epidemiologist heading the global response to COVID-19?  For the past 21 months, WHO COVID-19 Technical Lead Maria Van Kerkhove has been working around the clock with thousands of scientists to try to keep all of us safe. In this personal and insightful episode, Maria shares her memories of the first moment she became aware of COVID-19 – before most of the wor...

"I've seen horrible things. I've seen massacres. Human suffering. These are not easy sights to see. The best way I found to deal with that is just to be determined to fix it in some fashion."   UN Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Coordinator for Yemen David Gressly has seen some of the worst of man's inhumanity to man during a career of more than 40 years in peacekeeping, humanitarian assista...

"Every trafficking story is a story that can shake you to your core. We're talking about children sometimes, about babies… We're talking about women at very vulnerable ages. We're also talking about men that desperately seek employment and find their hands into criminal gangs that would exploit them for sexual purposes to any other purposes." Ilias Chatzis heads the team fighting human trafficking...

"We took around seven children back to the UNICEF compound here in Kabul… there was a little boy called Mudares who was just three and he came in and he kept saying, 'Where's my mother? You know, 'why is my mother not here?' … We put him on the seesaw, he'd never been on the seesaw before, so I was on one end of the seesaw, and he was on the other… And at one point as he went up high, he shot his...

"We know that whenever you have these sort of atrocity crimes that happened here [Bosnia and Herzegovina], they're often preceded by hate. They're often preceded by individuals and responsibility, whether they're political leaders, whether they're religious leaders, whether they're average population, putting out hate or putting out 'the other' so that religious community is evil, or they're respo...

"When I could no longer pursue the dream of being an artist because my hands became too weak to hold a pencil, I needed to dream, a new dream, and I realized that that is, in itself, a gift to be able to sort of pivot and change direction and ask yourself, what else? That I still have my spirit. I still have my mind and I still have a deep desire and yearning for an extraordinary life. And I still...

"The women and the girls of Afghanistan have earned the right to be heard, to take their place in society openly, as they have done behind the scenes for decades, if not centuries."    Nada Al-Nashif is Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights and has been serving the United Nations for almost 30 years. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, her life was turned upside down with the Iraqi invasion...

"Going to space will become like taking a plane today; working in space, living in space, having a one-week holiday in space." Simonetta Di Pippo is the Director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs. Trained as an Astrophysicist in her native Italy, Di Pippo was the first female director of the European Space Agency. Since then, her work has been integral in using space for our common wellbein...

"If anything works for women, in any country, it is most likely to work for most people. If you want to address the majority of the people who really need you, target women." A voice of deep authority on this subject, with a lifetime of activism and service, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is the Executive Director of UN Women. She was born and raised in South Africa, and as a young teacher, joined the str...

"I understand the people I speak to in my current job, because I've been in their shoes: I've been arbitrarily detained. I've experienced enforced disappearance." Michelle Bachelet was the first female President of Chile for the Socialist Party of Chile (2006–10; 2014–18). She is now the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Michelle's father served in the Air Force and, in 1973 after...

"Not just tolerance. I don't like the word tolerance. Tolerance means I am superior than you are. I don't want to be tolerated. I don't want to be a second-class citizen. I want respect. Mutual respect and mutual understanding." Rabbi Arthur Schneier is a Holocaust survivor and a human rights activist. He shares harrowing memories of his childhood in Vienna and later in Hungary after the Nazis cam...

"What we're seeing is the desperation out there in the hospitals. We're seeing desperation in the communities. We're seeing even among our team being affected directly by it. At the same time, you know, we've seen communities come together."   Yasmin Ali Haque has worked for the UN's Children's Fund, UNICEF for almost 25 years and is now the Country Representative in India. She explains how the cu...

"I returned from Bangladesh...and sent all of my dresses for dry cleaning. I have not worn these dresses again. I can't wear them. There's too much pain...because I came out and I was wet with all the women crying. I like to open the wardrobe and remind myself of the survivors at all times. They are my moral compass and I have to keep fighting for them. This is what keeps me going."   Pramila Patt...

"[There are] two iconic images of the 20th century: Diana walking through the minefield in body armour and then with a little girl who lost a leg to a mine. I was proud to...highlight the incredible work that's been done by deminers around the world by hosting that visit."   Paul Heslop is the Head of the UN Mine Action Team in Afghanistan and has been clearing mines in conflict zones for nearly t...

"As long as they are treated in hospital, you see them communicating. And as soon as they get out of the hospital, they are pointing a gun at each other."   Aboubacar Kampo is UNICEF's Director of Health Programmes but he has also worked as a physician and surgeon in some of the world's most complex emergency zones, from Afghanistan to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Abou shares his experiences...

"I remember sitting on the porch… with the local principal and I said, 'You need food and you need medicines. Why exam papers?' And he said, 'Look, that's for now. But the exam papers are our future. Our kids are our future. This is more important to us than food and medicines.'"   David Shearer is the UN Secretary General's Special Representative for South Sudan but has also served in crisis area...