UN Catch-Up Dateline Geneva United Nations

In this week’s podcast, aboriginal art custodians from the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia come all the way to Geneva to tell us they’re facing cultural genocide, while in Haiti, gang violence is creating a serious problem for UN relief teams. Across Africa, we find out why there’s serious concern about the spread of animal-to-human disease, and in the Philippines, a court ruling on Press freedom hero and Nobel winner, Maria Ressa, has sparked alarm from one leading human rights expert.

This week’s top stories include action at the Human Rights Council on Eritrea, Myanmar and a push for all countries to take early action to stop violence against women and girls. In Ukraine, UN Refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi has been offering support to communities devastated by the Russian invasion, and we’ll also hear the latest hard-hitting findings of the UN Fact-Finding Mission in Libya.

It’s been an intense week of face-to-face meetings in Geneva - just like the good old days, before COVID…Among the top stories we’ve been covering, there’s been grim but important news from Ethiopia and Syria in the Human Rights Council, a moving update from UN humanitarians in Ukraine, and significant progress towards holding elections in Libya - although they’re still proving elusive. In Afghanistan, communities are still struggling to recover, a week after last week’s deadly earthquake – and we’ll be hearing from a UN Children’s Fund worker who’s been to see the human impact for herself.

In this week’s show, the UN ramps up aid for eastern Afghanistan, where communities are reeling after its deadliest earthquake in decades. In Nigeria, the humanitarian crisis in the northeast still needs all our attention, as we’ll hear aid chief Matthias Schmale – but it’s far from the only place where that’s the case, according to a new UNICEF alert. And in Ukraine, the targeting of cultural treasures must stop, says UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet has been particularly busy this week, as the Human Rights Council 50th session got underway in Geneva. She’s spoken about her visit to China and also issued alerts on the devastated Ukrainian city of Mariupol. This week the world celebrated albinism awareness day, and to find out more, we’ll be hearing from Harry Freeland, director of a powerful documentary filmed among people living with the rare genetic condition in Tanzania, In The Shadow Of The Sun.

Four failed rainy seasons in the Horn of Africa, are tearing families apart –we hear one veteran humanitarian’s heart-breaking testimony from a displacement camp in Somalia.
Climate shocks are also playing their part in undermining vital investment in developing countries, according to trade agency UNCTAD, and we’ll also hear that food prices are going to be increasingly difficult to stomach this year, as millions of people in Sri Lanka – in the midst of its worst crisis since independence - are already finding out.