Inside Geneva

Send us a textOn Inside Geneva this week, host Imogen Foulkes asks if the United Nations (UN) should still work in Afghanistan, now the Taliban are banning women from work, and girls from secondary school? Karima Bennoune, professor of International Law: ‘Anyone who believed in something called Taliban 2.0, had never actually spoken to an Afghan woman human rights defender. Because the Afghan women human rights defenders, they knew what was going to happen. They did their best without a loud microphone to tell governments, to tell international organisations, what was going to happen.’Is the UN becoming complicit in what some call gender apartheid?Fiona Frazer, UN human rights, Kabul: Despite the fact that it does seem, every month, or three months or so on a new decree comes out that pushes women further back into their homes, we have to keep being here. That's what women and girls tell us: they want us to be here. They feel the need to have the UN be here, to be present, and to keep going back.It’s now almost two years since the Taliban seized power again. What do Afghan women think? Fereshta Abbasi, Human Rights Watch: If there is a resistance in Afghanistan, it’s definitely coming from the women of Afghanistan. That 12-year-old girl who's still attending an underground school in Helmand is the resistance of Afghanistan. The Taliban will never be able to erase their minds and erase the knowledge that they have already gained. Join Imogen Foulkes on Inside GenevaGet in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en Thank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/Host: Imogen FoulkesProduction assitant: Claire-Marie GermainDistribution: Sara PasinoMarketing: Xin Zhang

Send us a textThis week Inside Geneva starts a new series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Born out of the terrible cruelty of World War II, millions hoped the declaration would prevent atrocities. "This Universal Declaration of human rights may well become the international Magna Carta of all men everywhere," said Eleanor Roosevelt. But there was no UN human rights chief until the cold war ended in the 1990s. José Ayala Lasso, first UN human rights commissioner says: "Yes, it is an impossible mission to try to guarantee the effectiveness of all human rights: social economic and political cultural, even the right to development of the whole people of the world."UN member states still differ on what the universal declaration even means. José Ayala Lasso continues: "If you see human rights through the lens of communism, probably you see them in a different manner when you see them through the eyes of democratic governments. I do not think that we should be permissive in order to accept violations. But we should try to understand the reasons of the other: why the regime, the totalitarian regimes act in a way. Why?"But some principles are non-negotiable. "The basic principle is the human being. Human beings are to be respected, they are equal in dignity and in rights as the declaration says in the first article. We should believe, we should not lose our faith in the capacity of human beings to act correctly," concludes José Ayala Lasso.  Join Imogen Foulkes for an in-depth interview with the first ever UN human rights chief.  Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en Thank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/Host: Imogen FoulkesProduction assitant: Claire-Marie GermainDistribution: Sara PasinoMarketing: Xin Zhang

Send us a textInside Geneva was at the World Health Assembly over the last week, finding out what lessons are being learned from Covid-19 now that the WHO says the global health emergency is over – even if the pandemic isn’t. Suerie Moon, co-director, Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute said: "Every single country is vulnerable to pandemics. Every single country can have its economy, its society fundamentally undermined by a pandemic. We know this."Member states are supposed to be working on a pandemic treaty – so we cope with the next one better. Fair access to medicines is a key issue. Barbara Stocking, chair of panel for a global public health convention added: "On medicines and so on, I think this is the most difficult issue to be handling. I hope most countries are signed up to the view that there should be equity. I don’t think the developing countries will sign up to any treaty, when they don’t see that there are plans to get much nearer to equity."Can medicine producers be persuaded to be generous? Thomas Cueni, Director General, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (IFPMA) said: "You cannot coerce know-how sharing, because either you’re willing to share your wisdom with me or you’re not. IP waivers, which means ignoring patents, would actually be a huge barrier."Transparency and rapid information sharing are on the agenda too: Imogen Foulkes, Inside Geneva host asked: "We still don’t know exactly how and where and from what Covid-19 came. Will we find that out do you think? Is investigation still going on?"Maria van Kerkhove, World Health Organisation concluded: "We’re certainly going to do everything we can to figure out how this pandemic began. And it does depend on collaboration, scientific collaboration, collaboration from member states, sharing of information, sharing data, and we need more collaboration from China, we’ve been very vocal about that.’ Listen and subscribe to the podcast to find out more. Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en Thank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/Host: Imogen FoulkesProduction assitant: Claire-Marie GermainDistribution: Sara PasinoMarketing: Xin Zhang

Send us a textThe Sudan conflict began over a month ago, and the consequences for the population are getting more and more serious. In this episode we take a long hard look at the conflict in Sudan, and what the UN and humanitarian agencies here in Geneva – the ones whose very purpose is to either prevent such conflicts happening, or at the very least help ease the suffering – can actually do. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have been operating in Sudan for decades and Vittorio Oppizzi, the project coordinator in Sudan, says that this conflict "adds on a situation that was already critical." Another member of MSF, Melat Haile, says that "it's the poor, the innocent, the medical people who will suffer from this." She explains that in 2022 alone, they conducted more than half a million medical consultations, "and now the need is going to be much more." Then what can be done about this situation? Paula Gaviria, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, thinks that "the first responsibility we have as a nation is to stop violence, suffering and targeting the civil population."Listen to this episode to find out more about the conflict in Sudan and why Mohamed Osman, from Human Rights Watch, said they had already warned about this dangerous situation escalating. Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en Thank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/Host: Imogen FoulkesProduction assitant: Claire-Marie GermainDistribution: Sara PasinoMarketing: Xin Zhang

Send us a textThis week, Inside Geneva goes behind the scenes with the ICRC’s prisoner exchange in Yemen.Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC: "I look at my kids, I look at my family, and I say ‘imagine now there is a frontline between us, and my son, my brother, my mother, my father are captured and I can't see them for a year, or two, three, four".Can the move help bring peace to Yemen?Daniel Warner, analyst: "Confidence building is the most important thing in all negotiations, and in any kind of situation, such as prisoner exchange, but in any development of finding peace".And we look at Switzerland’s tricky position over Ukraine, neutrality, and the arms trade.Keith Krause, Geneva Graduate Institute: "German officials have expressed their dismay that Switzerland would not allow re-export of munitions that Germany had bought several years ago, so Switzerland finds itself in a very delicate position".Daniel Warner, analyst: "A Russian diplomat said that Switzerland is no longer considered a neutral country. When you think of the summits: Reagan Gorbachev, Biden Putin, it's difficult to imagine in the future Geneva or Switzerland will be a centre for negotiations".Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en Thank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/Host: Imogen FoulkesProduction assitant: Claire-Marie GermainDistribution: Sara PasinoMarketing: Xin Zhang

Send us a textRussian President Vladimir Putin has been indicted for war crimes. This week, Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes asks whether international law can really bring justice.“The real crime of crimes in this story is the decision to go to war. Every other crime – the deportation of children, the crimes against humanity, the war crimes – is a consequence of the decision to go to war,” says Philippe Sands, lawyer and author of East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity (2016).Will we ever see Russia’s leader in court?“People are very impatient to say: ‘Why hasn’t Putin been put in jail? How can this war continue?’ It will take time, hopefully something will happen, but we all have our doubts,” says analyst Daniel Warner.What does the focus on Ukraine mean for accountability in countries such as Ethiopia or Myanmar, where war crimes are alleged too?“The response to Russia’s aggression against the people of Ukraine stands out: in investigation of human rights violations, the delivery of justice and accountability. It could serve as a model, and it could help the world imagine a new international order,” says Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International.Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en Thank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/Host: Imogen FoulkesProduction assitant: Claire-Marie GermainDistribution: Sara PasinoMarketing: Xin Zhang

Send us a textIn this episode of Inside Geneva we take a long hard look at how aid is delivered, and why it is often obstructed. Did UN aid agencies fail Syria after the earthquake?Marco Sassoli from Geneva University speaking to Inside Geneva says: "The UN being a club it represents its members, and therefore it considers that it cannot do anything on the territory of a member state without the consent of the member state."But are there ways to get aid in immediately?Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council says he is "a fundamentalist on the need to go straight to the victims, the people in need cross border cross line, cross mountain, cross desert, the shortest route."But with armed groups on the ground, how do aid workers persuade them to let them in?Thaer Allaw, from the Center for Competence on Humanitarian Negotiation explains this difficulty: "We think that we have a good cause, and we think that those humanitarian principles are universal. And then when you hit the reality they are not."Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en Thank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/Host: Imogen FoulkesProduction assitant: Claire-Marie GermainDistribution: Sara PasinoMarketing: Xin Zhang

Send us a textThis week Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes talks to authors who have written about humanitarian topics.What is it like to track down human rights violators?“Each day in court, seeing Hissène Habré I would pump my fist: ‘my God, we got him.’ But you never knew, and I have to say when they started reading the verdict it was such joy, but it was also a relief. I mean I felt like after 16 years, this weight had been lifted off me. I could finally recover my life,” says Reed Brody, author of To Catch a Dictator (2022).What are the dilemmas facing journalists covering humanitarian crises? Why should one particular crisis have more attention?“The more coverage of Ukraine, or the recent earthquake in Syria and Turkey; the more coverage a crisis gets the more likely audiences are to be aware of it, to care about it, and to donate to it,” says Martin Scott, author of Humanitarian Journalists (2022).What is the dark reality of fortress Europe’s migration policy?“Suddenly you’re in direct communication with a person who is telling you they’ve been locked up indefinitely, they’re being tortured, they’re seeing people raped or seeing people die as a result of European Union migration policy. And that’s the moment when you go: ‘wait a second, something has gone desperately wrong,’” says Sally Hayden, author of My Fourth Time, We Drowned (2022).Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en Thank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/Host: Imogen FoulkesProduction assitant: Claire-Marie GermainDistribution: Sara PasinoMarketing: Xin Zhang

Send us a textThe UN Human Rights Council is set to discuss Ukraine, Ethiopia, Iran, and more. Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes asks: what about China?“If there’s no pressure coming from the international community, if there’s no scrutiny over China, if there’s nothing happening, China is basically going to take it as a sign that they’ve got the green light to continue their abuses,” says Zumretay Arkin, spokesperson at the World Uyghur Congress.Last year a UN report suggested China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. UN member states voted – narrowly – not to debate that report. “Of course, there’s a geopolitical understanding of what’s happening, but we have to get back to the essence of human rights, and we have to get back to the essence also of the treaties that this system was created to uphold,” says Raphaël Viana David, China and Latin America advocate at the International Service for Human Rights.This week on the Inside Geneva podcast: human rights activists say what they think should happen now.“The fact that we came so tantalisingly close to having a resolution on China adopted at the council has actually shattered a really important taboo about the ability to take on China and any state, no matter how powerful,” says Hilary Power, UN Geneva director at Human Rights Watch.Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en Thank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/Host: Imogen FoulkesProduction assitant: Claire-Marie GermainDistribution: Sara PasinoMarketing: Xin Zhang

Send us a textOne year on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined by conflict resolution experts to discuss what the prospects for peace are, and how it can be won.“The fact that we’re talking about the possibility of using nuclear weapons, the fact that we’re talking about the possibility of the United States and China going to war over Taiwan; it’s frightening,” says Katia Papagianni, director of Policy and Mediation Support at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.“There is a concept that has been floating around in academia for many years called a hurting stalemate, when the two parties decide that enough is enough. And we are clearly not at this hurting stalemate,” says Keith Krause, director of the Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding at the Graduate Institute Geneva (IHEID).What does a lasting peace look like?“Peace is beyond the absence of violence. It’s really about access to justice, economic opportunities, security, and pluralism,” says Hiba Qasas, executive director of the Principles for Peace Initiative.“Sustainable peace needs to include the youth, it needs to inform the youth, and it needs to educate the youth; so inclusion, information, and education,” says Shefali Kaur Nandhra, a graduate student in sustainable development at IHEID.Are there good examples from the past? “There are, of course, some success stories. I think the Colombian process, we have a lot to learn from that, and not just because it was locally driven,” says Krause.“As someone who grew up in conflict, my concern is not only about the battlefield, but also about all the insidious impacts that come after the guns have been silenced,” says Qasas.Get in touch! Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en Thank you for listening! If you like what we do, please leave a review or subscribe to our newsletter. For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/Host: Imogen FoulkesProduction assitant: Claire-Marie GermainDistribution: Sara PasinoMarketing: Xin Zhang