Inside Geneva

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...

Send us Fan Mail By the end of this month, the UN will have a new human rights chief. It’s sometimes called the UN’s toughest job. Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes talks exclusively to the leaders of the world’s top human rights groups, and asks them how they see the job.    Ken Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch: "The High Commissioner has no aid budget, they have no army, they ha...

Send us Fan Mail UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet will leave office at the end of August. The hunt is on for the world’s new human rights leader. Podcast host Imogen Foulkes asks former United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein what it is like to do the job. “Most of my time I was writing to governments, talking to them, calling them, but I had no hesitation of...

Send us Fan Mail Millions of people are going hungry due to severe droughts in the Sahel and in East Africa. The Inside Geneva podcast looks at how the international community should help, now and in the future. Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by climate and humanitarian experts. “Two boys, twins, they’re one year old. They’re severely malnourished, the children and the mothe...

Send us Fan Mail Europe has shown a big welcome to refugees from Ukraine. The Inside Geneva podcast asks whether this generosity will be extended to others. Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by refugee policy experts. “The Ukraine crisis has really humanised the refugee issue, people have been able to see women, children, men in extremely difficult circumstances,” says Jeff Cri...

Send us Fan Mail This week on Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes discusses NATO, neutrality, and the new world order. Is neutrality even possible in response to the invasion of Ukraine? Sara Hellmüller, Geneva Graduate Institute: "The law of neutrality is very clear, so the law of neutrality applies to the military domain and says that a country is not allowed to participate in an armed confli...

Send us Fan Mail Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by global health experts. “We should look at why zoonotic events happen, and maybe start banning wildlife trading. A new pandemic treaty should address the way we grow food and breed animals,” says Nicoletta Dentico, head of the global health programme at the Society for International Development (SID). Zoonotic diseases involv...

Send us Fan Mail May 3rd is Press Freedom Day, but around the world, journalists are being harassed, oppressed, even attacked. This Inside Geneve podcast looks how at what more can be done to better journalists.  Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this by episode by journalists and NGOs that defend press freedom.  “We need to work on ending the culture of impunity that governments seem to en...

Send us Fan Mail Evidence of atrocities in Ukraine has been met with accusations of war crimes and tougher sanctions against Russia. The Inside Geneva podcast looks at what this means. Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by human rights and sanctions experts. “Putin has made Russia a pariah, we have to deal with that at this moment. There are no humanitarian or human rights laws...

Send us Fan Mail In a few short weeks, a quarter of Ukraine’s population has been displaced. The Inside Geneva podcast asks what this means for other refugee crises. Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by humanitarian experts.    “We will respond wherever there are humanitarian needs, regardless of where they are, and we urge that this compassion really be extended to all people...

Send us Fan Mail The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will visit China, but can she get an accurate picture of the situation? Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by experts on China and human rights. Rights groups accuse Beijing of having interned over a million Uyghurs in so-called “re-education camps” in Xinjiang. “Michelle Bachelet will be the first UN High Commissioner f...

Send us Fan Mail Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by international history and human rights experts. “If Russia tries to occupy all of Ukraine, that’s going to end up in a total disaster, and an ongoing civil conflict for years on end. If they divide the country, that’s just going to breed new conflict,” says Jussi Hanhimäki, professor of international history and politics at...

Send us Fan Mail Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by human rights defenders and investigators. Human rights advocates bring their testimonies of atrocities to the UN – often at great risk to themselves – because it often is their last and only hope. “I survived, I was able to finally leave the country, but if I hadn’t been able to do that, I would have ended up in jail, or tor...

Send us Fan Mail In January the ICRC was hacked, compromising the data of half a million vulnerable people. But how vulnerable are aid agencies themselves to cyber-attacks? Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by cybersecurity and humanitarian experts. “It’s an attack on people who are already living in the anxiety of being separated from their family members and their loved ones....