Interviews United Nations

Small island developing States (SIDS) gathered in Antigua and Barbuda this week for the SIDS4 conference should not be afraid to stand up to companies seeking short-term profit at the long-term expense of human health and the environment – especially in the tourism sector.
That’s the message from the Seychelles-born Executive Secretary of the UN-administered Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions Rolph Payet. He told UN News in Antigua that pollution – from chemical waste or cruise ships – is a “time bomb” for vulnerable countries unless they band together and take more action.
He told Matt Wells that while fighting climate change is a complex challenge for small islands, they can collaborate better to reduce pollution and promote sustainability through achievable and tangible goals such as water harvesting.

Youth activists have been meeting on the twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda this weekend to ensure their voices and call for action is heard loud and clear by world leaders assembling for the SIDS4 conference.
With their personal “wall of commitment” around 80 passionate young changemakers attending the SIDS Global Children and Youth Action Summit have been committing themselves to more action and taking the long view that the climate crisis is make or break for their generation of small islanders.
UN News’s Matt Wells who’s in Antigua, spoke to organizer Ashley Lashley and one of the youngest attendees, Noah Herlaar-Hassan, about what they hope SIDS4 will achieve and why it’s vital to listen to young voices.

Following the 7 October terror attacks led by Hamas, thousands of Palestinians have been detained in what the Israeli Government has dubbed an “incarceration emergency” allowing them to fill prisons beyond official capacity. 
The overcrowded detention facilities and reports of alleged degrading treatment and even torture, prompted Alice Jill Edwards, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, to call for a full investigation into the overcrowding and reports of alleged abuses.
In an interview with UN News’s Anton Uspensky, she gave more details on what she’s learned.

UN agencies and their partners are providing support to thousands of people from the Kharkiv region in Ukraine who have been evacuated from frontline areas where intensive Russian air strikes continue.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said vulnerable boys and girls are among those arriving at a humanitarian hub in the main city, Kharkiv.
They include children with disabilities and those who had been living with foster families and will now need to be placed in new homes.
UN News’s Nargiz Shekinskaya asked Munir Mammadzade, UNICEF Head in Ukraine, about the challenges displaced families face. 

Without immediate action to protect biodiversity, a million species could be at risk, warns David Cooper, Acting Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
Due to unprecedented threat levels, he told UN News that coral reefs, amphibians, pollinating insects, and many large mammals are all on the brink of extinction due to rising temperatures, deforestation, pollution, and other factors. 
Speaking on the International Day for Biological Diversity, he told Anton Uspensky that most people support climate action, even if they don’t express it – and it’s time to leverage the power of this “invisible majority”.

As the war in Gaza continues, health facilities and healthcare workers are struggling to provide care to civilians amidst unfavourable circumstances, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) team lead for emergencies communications Nyka Alexander said on Monday. 
In an interview with UN News’s Khaled Mohamed, she said nowhere is safe in the enclave with only one third of its hospitals – about 12 out of 36 – still functioning at limited capacity.
In addition, medical supplies are low, workers are stressed and it has become difficult to treat many of those displaced.