Interviews United Nations

Millions of women and girls saw no progress in their reproductive rights simply because of who they are or where they were born, according to the new 2024 State of World Population report, released on Wednesday by UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency.
Agency chief Dr. Natalia Kanem spoke in depth to UN News about her main priorities, noting that women and girls are often the most vulnerable in conflict zones such as Gaza and Ukraine.
She told Nathalie Minard that “the ability of human society to prosper really depends on looking at who's vulnerable. When you fix that, you fix the issue for so many others.”

The gangs which now control up to 90 per cent of Haiti’s capital must be persuaded to end their campaign of violence which has left the children of the Port-au-Prince region without safety, schooling and sufficient food to eat, the UN’s top envoy for Children and Armed Conflict has told UN News.  
“One of my biggest fears is that the youngest of the young in Haiti might also become victims of trafficking, particularly girls, for sexual purposes,” Special Representative Victoria Gamba, said, telling Cristina Silveiro that she is determined to visit the crisis-wracked nation “at the first opportunity” and confront the gang leaders face to face.

Even before the war erupted in Sudan on 15 April last year, the country’s economy was already faltering, heavily reliant on international aid. 
Now, the situation is rapidly deteriorating. Over 25 million Sudanese are in dire need, the healthcare system is in ruins, schools work in only one state, famine is looming. 
Justin Brady, head of the UN aid coordination office OCHA in Sudan, told Anton Uspensky of UN News, how his team was continuing to keep aid flowing to around 14 million people amid military action, disrupted transportation routes, looted warehouses, communication blackouts and “negligible” funding.

Technological advances have transformed space exploration, making it more accessible but also more commercially driven, a senior official with the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) has been telling UN News, ahead of the international day that marks the first manned space flight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. 
Thanks to private capital, missions to study the Moon have surged, accompanied by a significant rise in space launches over the past decade. 
But these developments raise questions about the regulations governing space, increasing space pollution and diversity within space agencies, UNOOSA Director Aarti Holla-Maini, tells Anton Uspensky.

A vehicle filled with UNICEF humanitarians was hit by live fire earlier this week while waiting to enter northern Gaza. UN News on Thursday spoke with one of them, Tess Ingram, who said there’s a similar incident almost every day, "not always to us, but to the children as well." 
Restrictions to aid access by Israel have increased, so civilians have limited access to the care they need, the UNICEF spokesperson said, telling Ezzat El-Ferri that children in the enclave are experiencing repeated trauma, every day, which is likely to impact them long into the future. 

At least 38 migrants, including women and children, lost their lives in a shipwreck off the coast of Djibouti on Monday and although 22 people were saved by local fishermen, six others remain missing and are presumed dead.
UN migration agency, IOM, which is assisting survivors with treatment and other support, told UN News this was far from an isolated tragedy.
Much more needs to be done to avoid such tragedies impacting those in search of new opportunities said IOM’s Yvonne Ndege, who gave Vibhu Mishra the latest on the disaster and the ongoing relief effort for survivors.