Inside Geneva

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Narratives from the frontlines of human suffering Dec 26, 2023

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In the last Inside Geneva of 2023, UN correspondents look back at the year..and what a year it’s been.

Emma Farge, Reuters: ‘This year has felt like lurching from one catastrophe to another.’
Earthquakes, climate change, or war –the UN is always expected to step in.
Nick Cumming-Bruce, contributor, New York Times: ‘This is a multilateral system that is absolutely falling apart under the strain of all the extreme events it’s having to deal with.’

Aid agencies have struggled to cope.

Imogen Foulkes, host, Inside Geneva: ‘You feel like they’re being squeezed and squeezed and squeezed between the warring parties, and the Security Council which will just never agree.’

And now, war, again, in the middle east.

Dorian Burkhalter, Swissinfo: ‘The UN has never lost that many humanitarian workers, and just seeing their helplessness you can really tell that they’ve lost their protection, and they’re totally desperate.’

Emma Farge: ‘It’s been personal for everyone, and it;s been difficult for journalists to navigate this information war and to really navigate it with your composure.’

What will 2024 bring?

Nick Cumming-Bruce: ‘We still have potentially months of conflict, and we then have the whole issue of post conflict. Well, 2024 is really going to be where we see where the rubber hits the road on that one.’

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For more stories on the international Geneva please visit www.swissinfo.ch/
Host: Imogen Foulkes
Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain
Distribution: Sara Pasino
Marketing: Xin Zhang

Beyond declarations: UN voices reflect on 75 years of human rights advocacy Dec 12, 2023

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The world is marking an important anniversary: the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
After the Second World War, this was supposed to be our "never again" moment. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights promises us the right to live, to freedom of expression, the right not to be tortured, to equality regardless of gender, race or religion.
So how’s that working out?
Throughout 2023 SWI swissinfo.ch has been talking to the men and women who have led the United Nations' human rights work. In this edition of Inside Geneva, we highlight those exclusive interviews.
Please have a look at this video interview of Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Why does protecting human rights matter more than ever?

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Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en

Baptism of fire for UN's new human rights chief Nov 28, 2023

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This week Inside Geneva sits down for the last in our series of exclusive interviews with UN human rights commissioners.

Volker Türk has a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that he was given at school more than 40 years ago. Growing up in his native Austria, he focused his mind on human rights.

"In light of the history of my own country, Holocaust, its own atrocities committed by Austrians during the Second World War, it was very formative for me to actually really say OK what has to happen in this world so that we come to this never again attitude," he told host Imogen Foulkes.

Today, there are 55 conflicts worldwide – not the best atmosphere to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the universal declaration. But Volker Türk has a compelling analogy of why it is still important.

"We actually have traffic regulations, and they exist because otherwise people would get killed. That's the same on the human rights front, and that's why the Universal Declaration of human rights is so important. Yes there are people who are violating traffic regulations, as there are people who violate human rights law, sometimes egregiously, as we see now. It doesn't mean that this takes away the fundamental centrality of the norms."

He also believes that if warring parties could really see the suffering they cause each other, peace might be easier to achieve.

"I was at the border to Gaza in Rafah, on north Sinai. I met Palestinian children, who had injuries that I have rarely seen in my life. Spine injuries, some of them couldn't even talk, because they were in such deep trauma and shock. I also met families of hostages, Israeli hostages and I saw their pain, and I can see that there is immense suffering out there and that suffering is created from humans to humans."

Is there anything to celebrate on this 75th anniversary? Perhaps not, but we can learn.

"We cannot afford just to stay in the present. We need to learn from our crisis today to make it better in the future, and I hope that if there's one single message that comes across: that the centrality of human rights has to be much more pronounced than ever before."

Join host Imogen Foulkes on the Inside Geneva to listen to the full episode.

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Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch
Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en

The UN, Peace Week and the Middle East Nov 14, 2023

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Geneva recently hosted the Peace Week annual forum. Inside Geneva asks what’s the point, especially when there seems to be so much conflict still going on.

“What we have to deal with is the immense stupidity of the wars that currently are in place. And here we are having to deal with wars of a sort that were better found in the history books devoted to the 20th century and ought not to have a place in the 21st,” says Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, former United Nations Human Rights Commissioner.

The UN is supposed to be able to prevent, and end conflict. How is it doing?

Richard Gowan, UN director at the International Crisis Group: “I think the UN high command on the one hand, and the Israelis on the other hand, have just decided that in rhetorical terms their relationship cannot be saved. And they are laying into each other in very firm language.”

What about individual governments, including Switzerland’s?

“Now is simply not the time to be further suffocating the human rights community in Israel and Palestine. The presence of armed conflict makes human rights defenders work more, not less, important. This is the exact wrong moment to stop supporting civil society,” says Erin Kilbride, a researcherat Human Rights Watch.

Are politics getting in the way of humanity?

“There are two problems here: the first is the difference between humanitarian and political. And in a situation of war, which we’re in now, it’s very difficult to make that distinction,” adds Daniel Warner, a political analyst.

Join host Imogen Foulkes on the Inside Geneva podcast to listen to the full interviews.

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Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en

Michelle Bachelet's personal fight for human rights Oct 31, 2023

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On Inside Geneva this week: part six of our series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Imogen Foulkes talks to Michelle Bachelet, who served as UN Human Rights Commissioner from 2018 to 2022. She was a young woman during Chile’s military dictatorship, and experienced human rights violations first hand.

“You needed to be as strong as possible, and not to fail and not to... how could I say confess things that could harm other people.”

When democracy returned to Chile, Bachelet served as her country’s president twice. Valuable experience, she believes, for later, persuading world leaders to respect human rights.

“I could put myself in the shoes of that person who was making those decisions, and tried to think which could be the arguments that would convince them to respect human rights. That it's not only the right thing to do but also the smart thing.”

She came under huge pressure for a much delayed but hard-hitting report on human rights in China.

“I used to tell them look if you ask me not to publish this then tomorrow, another big country will call me and say don’t publish this. And then another big country will come so then the only thing I can do is to go back home. Because I have to do my job. So there was lots of pressure, lots of criticism.”

Now, she feels the world has failed civilians in Gaza.

“You have people there that need a humanitarian corridor, so they can get food, medicines, water, electricity and I feel that the international community has been slow to respond. Slow and weak.”

And what about the Universal Declaration at 75?

“The Universal Declaration is still valid. Because it gives sort of a minimal, I would say, standard of how we can live together.”

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Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en

How the Israeli-Palestinian war challenges humanitarian aid Oct 24, 2023

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The current conflict in the Middle East is the most violent in decades. An Inside Geneva special asks what the rules of law allow, and what they forbid.

Marco Sassòli, Professor of International Law at the University of Geneva, says: “the massacre Hamas committed among those festival visitors are clear violations of international humanitarian law. [...] The entire northern Gaza Strip is not a military objective. So, an attack is a specific act of violence against one target, and the entire northern Gaza Strip is not possibly a target.”

What are the challenges for aid workers?

“We need to ensure safety of civilians and safety of health workers, humanitarian workers on the ground. Our colleagues from the Palestine Red Crescent were telling us, yes we have no food, yes we have no water, yes we have none of these. But we don’t even know if we’ll be alive tomorrow,” says Benoit Carpentier from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Can anything prevent a humanitarian disaster in Gaza?

“We’ve heard about 20 or 30 trucks only being allowed in, which obviously for a population of 2 million people is a drop in the ocean,” says Carpentier.

Do we expect too much of humanitarian law?

“We shouldn’t misunderstand humanitarian law, for instance humanitarian law does not prohibit Hamas to attack Israel, and does not prohibit Israel to attack Hamas fighters, military objectives and so on in the Gaza Strip, and other cities. And humanitarian law was never meant as saying wars are wonderful. No, wars are terrible, but they are much less terrible if the parties make an effort to comply with humanitarian law,” concludes Sassòli.

Join host Imogen Foulkes on the Inside Geneva podcast.

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The future of human rights in Russia Oct 17, 2023

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It’s more than a year and a half since Russia invaded Ukraine. The war shows no sign of ending, and Moscow is cracking down on all opposition.
This week, Inside Geneva asks how we can support human rights inside Russia.

"Since the full scale invasion of Ukraine had been launched in February of last year, the regime has brought back the entire arsenal of Soviet style repressive techniques, used to eradicate all dissent within the country, and scare people into silence," says Evgenia Kara-Murza, Russian human rights defender.

Supporting dissent in Russia is important for all of us.

Host Imogen Foulkes also talkes to Mariana Katzarova, UN special rapporteur for Russia. She said: "I do care what kind of Russia will be there next to our borders of Europe and of Eastern Europe. Whether it will be a black hole where people will be disappearing, being tortured. being arbitrarily detained."

"I have a message for the international community: please see us as your partners. We want a different Russia, a Russia based on the rule of law and respect for human rights. That is our goal," concludes Evgenia Kara-Murza.

But how far away is that goal? How long will it take to reach it?

Louis Charbonneau, United Nations director at Human Rights Watch says: "It takes a lot of effort to suppress the truth, to destroy and muzzle every possible critic, and to circulate absurd propaganda the way the Russian government does. It takes a lot of energy. Time is against the oppressors like Vladimir Putin, like Xi Jinping, and others. They will not last, but that doesn't mean that we're not in store for a rough ride."

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Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch
Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en

The journey of Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein: the sixth UN Human Rights Commissioner Oct 03, 2023

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On Inside Geneva this week: part five of our series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Imogen Foulkes talks to Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, who served as UN Human Rights Commissioner from 2014 to 2018.
He became the first Asian, Muslim and Arab to hold the position. But did he plan a career in human rights from an early age?

"No, I was far too immature and delinquent to be thinking lofty ideas and profound thoughts," he said.

But two years in the former Yugoslavia during the conflict there focused his mind.

"The senselessness of it all, there’s nothing that can justify killing, or destruction like that. Nothing at all," he thinks.

When he took the job as UN human rights commissioner, he became famous for his tough approach.

"I knew from my experience in the former Yugoslavia, that if the UN secretariat believed, I think mistakenly, that it’s in the friends business, it produces catastrophic results. The UN is not there to become friendly with the member states."

He spoke out wherever he saw injustice or abuse, from Myanmar, to Libya, or ISIS, and even world leaders.

"Someone asked me, possibly you, asked me about Donald Trump, and I said ‘yes, I think he’s dangerous.' And that became the headline out of the press conference," he said.

Today, his commitment to universal human rights remains firm.

"What we’re aiming at is to create a better human being. That’s what we’re trying to do with the human rights agenda, to improve ourselves and our conduct. To speak out and use non-violent means to protest conditions which are fundamentally unjust and unfair, and who can argue with that?"
Listen to the full episode to find out more about Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein's life and career.

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Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en

Inside Geneva's 100th episode: the war in Syria, killer robots and justice in Myanmar Sep 19, 2023

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Inside Geneva is marking its 100th podcast episode this week. In this episode host Imogen Foulkes looks back at some of the podcast highlights.

This episode starts with an assessment of how humanitarians coped with the war in Syria.

Jan Egeland, former head of the United Nations humanitarian taskforce for Syria says: "Syria was a real setback where these besiegements, the bombing of hospitals, the bombing of schools, the bombing of bread lines, it was horrific."
Inside Geneva also looks at the lively debate about whether humanitarian aid needs to be decolonised.

"If we were to think of aid as a form of reparation, as a form of social justice for historical and continuing harm," says Lata Narayanaswamy, from the University of Leeds.

And it delves into the complex discussions over ‘killer robots’.

Mary Wareham, from the Human Rights Watch adds: "Do you hold the commander responsible who activated the weapons system? There's what we call an accountability gap when it comes to killer robots."

And we ask whether human rights investigations can really bring accountability.

Chris Sidoti, from the UN Independent Fact Finding Mission on Myanmar, told Imogen Foulkes: "I still know that the Myanmar butchers who are responsible for what happened may never individually be brought to justice. But I certainly live in hope that one day they will."
Help us celebrate our 100th podcast – and let us know what topics you’d like to hear more about.

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Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch
Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en

From Apartheid to the UN: Navi Pillay's experience as Human Rights Commissioner Sep 05, 2023

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On Inside Geneva this week: part four of our series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Imogen Foulkes talks to Navi Pillay, she served as UN Human Rights Commissioner from 2008 to 2014, she started life in racially segregated South Africa.

"We grew up under apartheid and we’re realised there’s something very unfair here. Our teachers were afraid to talk about…you know they would teach us democracy in Greece, but not why don’t we have democracy in South Africa."

She became the first woman of colour to have her own legal practice in South Africa.

"It was so lonely, and so scary. I had very little choice, because I went looking for jobs after I’d qualified, at law firms, they were mainly white law firms, and they would say ‘we can’t – you’re a black person, so we can’t have our white secretaries taking instructions from you.’’

She served on the international tribunal for the Rwandan genocide – but hesitated when Ban Ki Moon asked her to become UN Human Rights Commissioner.

"You have to respond to a call that’s made to you, a trust that people place in you. So if you ask me what moved me from where I wanted to go to this, it was the secretary general saying ‘we need you now’.’

Today, she believes the universal declaration on human rights is as relevant as ever – as long as we use it.

"No state has distanced itself from that treaty. So I see hope in that and I feel these are the tools that civil society has. You have the law, now push for implementation."
Join Imogen Foulkes on the Inside Geneva podcast to find out more.

For more insights and discussions from Switzerland's international city, subscribe to Inside Geneva wherever you get your podcasts.

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Email us at insidegeneva@swissinfo.ch
Twitter: @ImogenFoulkes and @swissinfo_en

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