Inside Geneva

Send us a textAfter two devastating earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria, Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes looks at the challenges aid agencies face when compassion and humanity run up against the obstacles of geopolitics.In Syria, the disaster comes on top of 12 years of conflict.“My teams ask me, the people ask me, our partners ask me: why is this happening to us? They just came out of a bitter conflict that’s been taking place for years,” says Wael Darwish of Caritas Switzerland in Syria.The conflict in Syria is ongoing. How will aid get to everyone in need?“As a humanitarian of course, frustration is part of my work. We always face these situations where people’s needs are not necessarily the priority,” says Miren Bengoa of Swiss Solidarity.Humanitarian agencies are rushing to help. Will they be able to do their job?“We stick to being independent, impartial, neutral, but there is a lot of politics involved, unfortunately,” says James McDowell of Medair.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 on the Inside Geneva podcast, host Imogen Foulkes has an in-depth conversation with Volker Türk, the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.“I have had a lifelong commitment to the human rights cause,” says Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, about what attracted him to a job some call the UN’s toughest.The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 75 in 2023. Where do we stand?“We’re losing the essence of what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was and was meant to be in response to cataclysmic events during the Second World War,” Türk says. “In so many situations around the world there is once again this contempt for the other, the contempt for the human being, the contempt for human dignity,” he adds.A UN report points to grave rights violations committed by China against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. What can the UN Human Rights Office do about it?“It’s a very important report that was issued. It has raised very serious, very pressing human rights concerns, and it is my duty to follow up on them with the Chinese authorities,” Türk says.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 war in Ukraine is almost a year old. Inside Geneva asks what role cyberwarfare has played.Christian-Marc Lifländer, head of NATO Cyber Defence Section: "Cyberspace has been central to the war in Ukraine. It has been used to shape the battle space. Cyberattacks were used to lay the ground for the invasion."Its influence has been stealthy…Charlotte Lindsey, CyberPeace Institute: "Everybody was expecting when cyber was used in warfare that there would be some cataclysmic, major humanitarian impact of the use of cyber."But worrying…Max Smeets, Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich: "In the case of Russia, what we have seen are very specific efforts to make sure that some of the key parts of the Ukrainian internet will be connected to the Russian internet, that then provides them with new ways of ownership, control and monitoring."And far reaching…Charlotte Lindsey, CyberPeace Institute: "What has come out clearly from the conflict in Ukraine and Russia is just the scale and extent of cyber operations which are happening way beyond the boundaries of those countries and are affecting many others."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 Taliban have banned women from working for aid agencies. This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, host Imogen Foulkes asks humanitarians what this means for Afghanistan’s future.“How can women be able to receive healthcare when there are no women doctors?” asks Adam Combs of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).Afghan women and girls are banned from secondary school and university too.“If there is no woman attending school, and then university, who will be tomorrow’s doctors, tomorrow’s midwives, nurses?” asks Filipe Ribeiro of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).28 million people in Afghanistan need humanitarian aid, 6 million are close to famine. Why is the focus on restricting what women do?“These are acts committed for the purpose of establishing dominance and systematic oppression by men over women in all aspects of public life as well as private life,” says Pooja Patel of the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR).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 year has seen huge humanitarian challenges: war in Ukraine, looming famine in Somalia, protracted crises in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria. This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, aid agencies reflect on the year.“One of the things we see is that wars are not ending, they’re lasting, they’re enduring,” says Jason Straziuso, spokesperson at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).“There is no health without peace, so the only solution is peace, in these countries,” says Tarik Jasarevic, spokesperson at the World Health Organization (WHO).“It just seems that we are in a situation of crises after crises,” says analyst Daniel Warner.How hard is it for aid workers to keep going?“It is frustrating to go back to a place and talk again about a place year after year and things are not getting better,” says Jasarevic.Is the work of humanitarian organisations even sustainable?“Humanitarians can’t substitute for the state. We can’t step in for the medical system, we can’t step in for the water system. We do in fact do that kind of work, but eventually the state has to take over because this is not a job in the long term for humanitarians,” says Straziuso.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 text2022 has been a momentous year: the war in Ukraine, unprecedented droughts and floods, new disease outbreaks. This week on the Inside Geneva podcast, journalists reflect on the past year.“It was quite shocking waking up in the morning to that news. I remember the UN Refugee Agency already on the first day was saying 100,000 people had been displaced,” says Nina Larson of Agence France-Presse (AFP).There is a new war in Europe. What does it mean for the UN and multilateralism?“The UN was here to prevent new wars from happening. I think we can clearly say this part of the UN failed,” says Dorian Burkhalter of SWI swissinfo.ch.“I think there’s a big challenge on the Geneva Conventions and many other multilateral organisations,” says Christiane Oelrich of Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA).The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 75 next year. Will 2023 see an ideological battle over it?“There’s a reason they call UN Human Rights Commissioner the toughest job at the UN. You can’t do nice things like bring food to hungry people,” says Imogen Foulkes, host of the Inside Geneva podcast.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 textNuclear weapons have only been used twice. Now Russia has hinted they could be used again. In this podcast episode, Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes asks experts how big the threat is. “This is the reality of nuclear deterrence: that there is a nuclear armed country that can hold the rest of the world hostage,” says Alicia Sanders-Zakre of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).Have we forgotten how devastating these weapons are?“Blast, high-velocity projectile, trauma, burns, including bodies just melting into the ground,” says Ruth Mitchell of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).What happens if a small tactical nuclear weapon is used?“There is no small nuclear weapon. All nuclear weapons have devastating, lasting, generational humanitarian consequences,” says Sanders-Zakre.What are the chances of a nuclear-free world now?“The abolition of nuclear weapons seems to be much more difficult and problematic than the fact of just saying: ‘it’s against human rights, it’s against humanitarian law’,” says analyst Daniel Warner.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 on the Inside Geneva podcast, we answer questions from our listeners about migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. Our listeners asked us the following questions: What’s the difference between asylum seekers, stateless populations, and undocumented migrants? How does third country resettlement work? Does the United Nations Refugee Agency, or the International Organization for Migration, have the power to prosecute countries if they violate their obligations to UN conventions? Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined by experts to provide answers on a topic that is often controversial.  “Refugees are forced to leave their countries because of war, conflict and human rights violations. Basically, their lives are in danger,” says Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). “Most people don’t want to leave. They leave because they feel like there’s no other option but to leave,” says Paul Dillon, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM). “You just can’t push back people at borders if they’re seeking international protection. They need to be afforded that right to seek asylum,” says Mantoo. “The conversation is toxic, divisive, and dangerous. Those conversations are not really fact-based, they’re emotive,” says Dillon.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 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) is due to start this Sunday in Egypt. Evidence shows too little is done against climate change. What does this mean for our health?In this podcast episode, host Imogen Foulkes is joined by health and climate experts.“A 1 degree or 0.5 degree [Celsius] increase has an exponential direct impact on the number of cases of cholera or the number of people dying from heatwaves,” says Ninni Ikkala Nyman of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).“Climate change is bad for our health. This is not some distant future threat that’s going to happen to poor people, or farmers, or only in developing countries, or that’s only an economic issue,” says Lachlan McIver of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).How committed are we to net-zero climate objectives?“I was looking at the immediate energy crisis, and some of the countries are solving the problem of having less oil and gas from Russia, by starting using coal again,” says analyst Daniel Warner.The COP27 climate conference is taking place in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh from November 6-18.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 podcast episode, host Imogen Foulkes together with Swiss Solidarity ask: what are the challenges of delivering aid to Ukraine?“In the early days, it just looked like, five or six days, and Ukraine will be taken,” says Zuzana Brezinova, Ukraine country director at Swiss Church Aid HEKS.How do neutral, impartial humanitarian organisations really work in a war zone?“Because we’re a neutral organisation we cannot sign memorandums of understanding with military organisations,” says Damon Elsworth, senior global emergency response team officer at Medair.What happens to the millions of Swiss francs donated, especially when donors expect quick results?“People who have been donating, they call our office, they want to know what happened,” says Tasha Rumley, head of humanitarian aid at Swiss Solidarity.And after that first rush of solidarity, is the support really there for the long haul?“As we all know I think, this conflict will not be over by the end of the year,” says Andrea Schmid, emergency aid expert at the Swiss Red Cross.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