Inside Geneva

Send us a textRussia is diplomatically isolated. In this podcast episode, host Imogen Foulkes asks: what about Russian human rights defenders?“Right now, in Russia there are few means left to defend human rights, and to address human rights violations. It’s really hard,” says Violetta Fitsner, a Russian human rights defender.In Geneva, Russia has been expelled from the UN Human Rights Council (HRC).“Excluding Russia from various organisations: Council of Europe, Human Rights Council. Are you isolating them from all concepts like universal human rights?” asks analyst Daniel Warner.There are now moves at the HRC to appoint a UN special rapporteur on Russia.“We want to ensure that the Russian human rights community feels part of the universal human rights movement,” says Gerald Staberock, secretary general of the World Organisation Against Torture.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, host Imogen Foulkes explores the most important UN agency most of us have never heard of.  Malcolm Johnson, deputy secretary general, ITU: ‘Telephony, radio and tv broadcasting , satellite communications, the internet, they wouldn’t have developed.’  So what has the International Telecommunications Union ever done for us?  Fiona Alexander, IT expert: ‘If you’re a beneficiary of any modern day communications network, you have benefitted from something that the ITU has done.’  And why are Russia and the United States competing to lead it?  Simon Manley, UK ambassador to the UN in Geneva: ‘We want to see an internet that is open, that is peaceful, that is secure, that enables the sharing of knowledge, the sharing of ideas.’  Can different countries really unite around best standards for the internet? And can they work together to bridge the digital divide?  Fiona Alexander, IT expert: ‘Every member state has a different perspective on what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate online.’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 textFor more than 150 years the ICRC has been re-uniting those separated by war and natural disaster. Inside Geneva visits the Central Tracing Agency.  Florence Anselmo, Head of the Central Tracing Agency: "People going missing, families getting separated, families not knowing what has happened to their loved ones."   Now it’s busy letting Russian and Ukrainian families know what has happened to their sons.   Anastasia Kushleyko, CTA: "I’m calling from the ICRC, I’m calling from Geneva and this is the Central Tracing Agency. As of last week he was safe and well. He’s healthy."   The tracing agency keeps its records forever.  Jelena Milosevic Lepotic: "A grandchild of someone who was in the second world war, you would be able to find information on your grandfather: when he was captured, where he was held, and what happened to him."   Because families will always need to know.  Florence Anselmo: "Families do not stop searching. The need to know crosses generations. If parents do not have answers their children will look for answers and their grandchildren will look for answers."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 textWhile the spotlight is on Ukraine, the UN says humanitarian needs in Syria are greater than ever. Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by humanitarian experts.“The World Food Programme had to reduce by 13% their food rations because of funding,” says Sanjana Quazi, head of office at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Turkey.The UN budget for Syria is underfunded and further devalued by rising food and fuel prices.“What we’re seeing is a trend towards negative coping mechanisms. Early marriage, child labour, and what’s really alarming is increased attempted suicide rates,” says Tanya Evans, country director at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Syria.Has the world forgotten about Syria?“If I read the English newspapers, it’s all about Ukraine. How can we put what’s happening in Syria back on the radar?” asks 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 textFrom war to food insecurity and climate change; would the world be a better, safer place if women took more decisions?Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by women peace and security experts.“Participation of women in peace and security, obviously must go beyond an ‘add-women-and-stir’ approach,” says Julia Hofstetter, president of Women in International Security, Switzerland.How well are women represented in security discussions?“Thirty per cent of the delegates negotiating arms control and disarmament are women, so 70% are men,” says Renata H. Dalaqua, head of the Gender and Disarmament Programme of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research.Is increasing numbers enough?“The world needs not only participation of women but also the feminist analysis on peace,” says Maria Butler, executive director of the Nobel Women’s Initiative.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 textBy the end of this month, the UN will have a new human rights chief. It’s sometimes called the UN’s toughest job. Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes talks exclusively to the leaders of the world’s top human rights groups, and asks them how they see the job.  Ken Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch: "The High Commissioner has no aid budget, they have no army, they have no way to influence anybody, other than through their public reporting and their public voice."  What’s the legacy of outgoing commissioner Michelle Bachelet?  Agnes Callamard, Secretary General, Amnesty International: "She stood up to the United States on the issue of systemic racism, as she should have."  What about the controversial trip to China? Ken Roth: "If you look at for example Madam Bachelet’s utter failure during her recent trip to Beijing, the blame really beings with Guterres." What are the challenges for the new commissioner?  Agnes Callamard: "If you cannot stand up to China, you may as well stop doing human rights work."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 textUN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet will leave office at the end of August. The hunt is on for the world’s new human rights leader.Podcast host Imogen Foulkes asks former United Nations human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein what it is like to do the job.“Most of my time I was writing to governments, talking to them, calling them, but I had no hesitation of going public when I felt we needed to go public,” says Zeid.  Does he have any advice for a new commissioner?“Navi Pillay (former high commissioner) said the worst mistake you can make is to privilege any country. Don’t privilege any particular group or country,” he recalls.  And how risky is calling countries to account?  “Rather than you worry about how they may react to your statements, they ought to be worrying about what you might be saying about them,” answers Zeid.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 textMillions of people are going hungry due to severe droughts in the Sahel and in East Africa. The Inside Geneva podcast looks at how the international community should help, now and in the future.Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by climate and humanitarian experts.“Two boys, twins, they’re one year old. They’re severely malnourished, the children and the mother. And she walked 160 kilometres to reach an area where there is some food distribution,” says Rania Dagash, deputy regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa at UNICEF.Four consecutive rainy seasons have failed in the Horn of Africa. Climate experts say the next one could fail too.“We have observed decreases in rainfall over the last few years. We see a decreasing amount of rainfall from 2 to 7% per decade,” says Bob Stefanski, chief of the Agricultural Meteorology Division at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).The war in Ukraine has disrupted supply chains and sent the prices of food commodities up. Millions on the African continent, which relies heavily on imports, are on the brink of famine.“Could we imagine countries and regions actually fighting over access to water as water becomes more and more precious?” asks 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 textEurope has shown a big welcome to refugees from Ukraine. The Inside Geneva podcast asks whether this generosity will be extended to others.Podcast host Imogen Foulkes is joined in this episode by refugee policy experts.“The Ukraine crisis has really humanised the refugee issue, people have been able to see women, children, men in extremely difficult circumstances,” says Jeff Crisp, an expert on refugee policy with the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre.“As someone who understands the horrors of war very well, I was so happy to see countries in Europe opening their borders to Ukrainian refugees. But the question is: what was happening before that?” asks refugee and activist Nhial Deng.According to the UN, 100 million people worldwide are currently forcibly displaced. Are we really honouring the 1951 Refugee Convention, which outlines the rights of refugees and the obligations of states to protect them?“We do need to continue education and commitment to these principles, because we never know when they’re going to be needed,” says Gillian Triggs, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at the UN Refugee Agency.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 Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes discusses NATO, neutrality, and the new world order.Is neutrality even possible in response to the invasion of Ukraine?Sara Hellmüller, Geneva Graduate Institute: "The law of neutrality is very clear, so the law of neutrality applies to the military domain and says that a country is not allowed to participate in an armed conflict either directly or indirectly."Neutral Finland and Sweden want to join NATO. What does that mean for their neutral status?Daniel Warner, analyst: "Neutrality changes over time, it’s not written in stone. Not only does it have legal and political but it also has moral implications."And does strict neutrality have any benefits at all?Jean-Marc Rickli, Geneva Centre for Security Policy: "There will come a time when negotiations will have to take place, and neutral states are very well positioned to basically offer mediation possibility to rebuild bridges."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