Inside Geneva

Send us Fan Mail Henry Dunant witnessed the horrors of the battle of Solferino in 1859. This gave birth to his vision for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the first Geneva Convention. But how relevant is his vision in the 21st century? Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by humanitarian and international law experts. “Outer space, cyberspace and information...

Send us Fan Mail Millions of Afghans have not been paid for months as foreign aid – which used to fund 75% of Afghanistan’s public spending – was frozen following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by humanitarian aid workers. “You see girls being essentially sold, girls as young as six, seven, eight. You see children being s...

Send us Fan Mail It’s been a tough year: Covid as well as crises in Afghanistan and in Myanmar, to name but three. "You see the kind of populist rhetoric, and the xenophobia and racism and so on infecting what were supposedly advanced democracies," Rupert Colville of UN Human Rights tells host Imogen Foulkes. Despite the grim events of the past year, Geneva-based aid agencies do have hop...

Send us Fan Mail The Covid-19 pandemic, a Biden-Putin face-to-face summit and record humanitarian crises: Geneva-based journalists reflect on a busy year and offer a glimpse into the future. Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by fellow Geneva-based correspondents who work for international news outlets. Covid-19 dominated the news for the second year in a row. As the world prepa...

Send us Fan Mail Covid-19 has dominated our lives for almost two years. Vaccines have been developed in record time, yet nearly half the world’s population has not received a single dose. What has gone wrong? Imogen Foulkes is joined in this podcast episode by global health and policy experts. “How do you solve this in the longer term? You don’t want to be in this situation when this happens again...

Send us Fan Mail Decolonization has become a buzzword of late, especially in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and the toppling of statues of figures tied to a nation's colonial past.  Humanitarian work is also being more closely scrutinized. What does it tell us about our colonial history? Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by policy experts and aid workers.  "If we were...

Send us Fan Mail The increase in extreme weather events worldwide is evidence that climate change is already impacting our lives. The hardest hit of the global population are people in developing countries. Host Imogen Foulkes puts the spotlight in this episode on what humanitarian agencies are expecting from leaders at COP26, the UN Climate Change conference taking place in Glasgow.  "Ninety...

Send us Fan Mail In 2015 the world set itself 17 very ambitious targets: the Sustainable Development Goals. To end hunger, eradicate poverty, ensure health and education for all. But are the SDGs over ambitious? And who decides who is meeting them, and who is backsliding? These are just two of the questions that host Imogen Foulkes puts to: Martin Gutmann , Editor of a multi-author research projec...

Send us Fan Mail Diplomats and scientists often live in different worlds and don’t have open access to each other’s community. A new foundation known as the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA) hopes to bring the two sides together. It took a first step by holding its first summit in the Swiss city from October 7-9. Host Imogen Foulkes went to the event and spoke to Peter Brabeck-Letma...

Send us Fan Mail Covid 19 has changed the way we work. But has it changed how we value work? Host Imogen Foulkes asks if our old workplace habits and hierarchies are about to become extinct. She speaks to Chidi King, head of gender diversity and inclusion at the International Labour Organisation.   "Re-examining what we deem as a true value of a job has to be one of the outcomes of this pande...

Send us Fan Mail In Geneva, complex negotiations are underway to decide if a treaty is needed to control, or even ban, lethal autonomous weapons – or killer robots. Imogen Foulkes talks to experts, lawyers, and campaigners. "It’s about the risk of leaving life and death decisions to a machine process. An algorithm shouldn’t decide who lives or dies," says Neil Davison, Senior Policy Advi...

Send us Fan Mail How have our attitudes to human rights changed since 9/11? What about our laws? Imogen Foulkes is joined by Fionnuala Ni Aolain, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism, and Gerald Staberock, Secretary-General of the World Organisation Against Torture.  Has it become harder to defend human rights? Fionnuala Ni Aolain: The criminalisation of lawful acts: speech,...

Send us Fan Mail The troops have left Afghanistan but aid agencies say they’re staying. How will that work, with the Taliban back in control? Join host Imogen Foulkes and regular analyst Daniel Warner who are joined by Marie Lequin of Geneva Call, an NGO that works to protect civilians caught up in armed conflicts, Ken Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, and Irwin Loy, Asia Editor of T...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Imogen Foulkes is joined by Susan Misicka, host of sister podcast The Swiss Connection. We take a deep dive into what one country – Switzerland – is doing to honour the United Nations principles on business respecting human rights. How much child labour is used to produce Swiss chocolate?  Why is so much gold refined in Switzerland? And what happens to that gold be...

Send us Fan Mail Some call the war in Afghanistan "the forever war". But now the US and NATO are leaving. The conflict is escalating. Inside Geneva tries to figure out what the future might look like. In this episode, host Imogen Foulkes talks to Firouzeh Mitchell, acting head of mission in Afghanistan for Geneva Call; Forozan Rasooli, Deputy Director of Equality for Peace and Democracy;...

Send us Fan Mail Ten years ago, the United Nations adopted a landmark set of guiding principles on business and human rights. "Those who have been harmed by business activity have a right to seek effective remedy through effective process." (Lene Wendland, Chief, Business and Human Rights Section, UN Human Rights Office) But how can we make sure guiding principles are followed? "The...

Send us Fan Mail How do we bring war criminals to justice? Who can bring prosecutions? The country where the crimes took place? The International Criminal Court? Or anyone? In this week's episode, Imogen Foulkes talks to Philip Grant, executive director of Trial International, Gerald Staberock, secretary-general of the World Organisation against Torture, and swissinfo.ch journalist, Julia Cra...

Send us Fan Mail Geneva is welcoming two of the most powerful men in the world: US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. What do they hope to gain? In this episode host Imogen Foulkes talks to former US ambassador to Finland Charles Adams, Professor of International Relations Jussi Hanhimaki, and analyst Daniel Warner. Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter...

Send us Fan Mail Education is fundamental to the life of every child. Not being in school puts children at immediate risk and it ruins their futures. So why does education seem to come a poor second during humanitarian crises? In this episode of Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes talks to experts on education in emergencies, including Yasmine Sherif, Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW), Julienn...

Send us Fan Mail The 194 members of the World Health Organisation will meet for the annual World Health Assembly from May 24. The body decides global health policy. What could be more important in this pandemic year? In this episode host Imogen Foulkes looks at the challenges that lie ahead. Her guests are Suerie Moon of Geneva’s Global Health Centre, Maria Guevara of Medecins sans Frontieres and...

Send us Fan Mail Not knowing the fate of a loved one causes unimaginable heartbreak and anxiety for families. People go missing in wars and natural disasters, but they are also forcibly disappeared. What can families do? In this episode host Imogen Foulkes looks at the United Nations Convention on Enforced Disappearances. How does it work? Does it help prevent disappearances? And why are so many c...

Send us Fan Mail The United Nations is 75 years old – but there has never been a woman Secretary General. Now Antonio Guterres is standing for a second term, so it will likely be another five years before a woman candidate can have a chance at the UN’s top job. Why is it taking so long? Does Guterres’ record even merit a second term? And why are some senior UN positions traditionally reserved for...

Send us Fan Mail It is regarded as the worst of all crimes, but what constitutes genocide? How does it differ from crimes against humanity? How are the atrocities of 1970’s Cambodia different from 1990’s Rwanda? What about Myanmar, or Xinjiang in China? Why have so few people ever been convicted of genocide? And why do human rights groups themselves use the term so carefully? In this episode host...

Send us Fan Mail The war in Syria began 10 years ago this month. Throughout that decade, Geneva has been at the heart of diplomatic efforts towards peace, and at the heart of the humanitarian operation. Were chances for peace missed? Did we expect too much from the aid agencies? Host Imogen Foulkes is joined by Fabrizio Carboni of the ICRC, Jan Egeland, former head of the UN’s humanitarian taskfor...

Send us Fan Mail Billions of us use social media – but how much control do we have over how it uses us? Big tech giant Facebook could block news content for its users in Australia without asking anyone. Authoritarian regimes use social media to promote their sometimes violent policies. Has the information sharing we once thought so liberating become a danger to democracy and to human rights? In th...