Inside Geneva is a podcast about global politics, humanitarian issues, and international aid, hosted by journalist Imogen Foulkes. It is produced by SWI swissinfo.ch, a multilingual international public service media company from Switzerland.
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Pushback on human rights: defenders speak out
Send us Fan Mail UN investigations have documented war crimes in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan. So why is no one being held accountable? Why do some political leaders talk about human rights as though they were an optional nuisance? In this episode of our ‘Inside Geneva’ podcast, we speak with Phil Lynch and Pooja Patel from the International Service for Human Rights. We discuss impunity, scapegoating,…
Send us Fan Mail Philippe Stoll, the Red Cross’s ‘techplomat’, is Inside Geneva’s Summer Profile this week. “I studied economics and I think I could have been a banker or something like that. A good Swiss indeed! But my mother was a volunteer at the Red Cross, and I think she influenced me a lot about maybe being human or taking care of humans,” he says. He’s helping the International Committee of…
Send us Fan Mail Trish Newport of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Switzerland is Inside Geneva’s first summer profile this year. “My grandma was a humanitarian she had worked in Malawi and I remember when I was about 10 years old she said to me, ‘When you grow up and you become a humanitarian, you should work for MSF because they really have strong values and ethics that you will appreciate,’” says…
Send us Fan Mail On Inside Geneva this week, we look at the race to be the next UN Secretary-General. Is it time for a change? Susana Malcorra, candidate for UN Secretary-General 2016: 'I am deeply convinced this is a moment that requires a different type of leadership, and we have tested leadership nine leaders throughout 80 years that were all men.' Geneva recently hosted three of the candidates…
Send us Fan Mail This week, Inside Geneva presents the newest instalment of our “Books to make you think” series. We talk to an author who had a ringside seat as the US development agency USAID was being destroyed. “The people who so recklessly tore down the agency [...] are still sitting in high government positions and have not been held accountable for their actions, so I intentionally named…
Send us Fan Mail On our Inside Geneva podcast this week, we host a debate on a key question: what’s the point of foreign aid? “What’s the point of mobilising taxpayers’ money and sending it to faraway countries to assist vulnerable people? And how do you sell that to your own taxpayers?” says Gilles Carbonnier, former Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). There are…
Send us Fan Mail On this week's Inside Geneva podcast episode, we take stock of aid cuts and what they mean for new crises such as Ebola. “It is a catastrophe. It is not an opportunity. But now we have an obligation to transform the system: there’s no other way the humanitarian system can survive this crisis without any change,” says Professor Karl Blanchet from the University of Geneva. A new…
Send us Fan Mail On Inside Geneva , we look at weapons contamination and the harm it causes. “We have at least one casualty every single day in Afghanistan – someone killed or injured –and it is most likely a child,” says Nick Pond, from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. From old conflicts to new. “Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe and billions of square metres of land are suspected to…
Send us Fan Mail On Inside Geneva this week, we mark Press Freedom Day. Is there anything to celebrate? Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression: “The role of journalists has never been under such pressure, and the sector itself is suffering. So these are very, very important times to take a deep breath and make sure that freedom of expression, and media freedom as part of that,…
Send us Fan Mail On Inside Geneva this week, we ask: in a world of violent conflict, is the UN – which was founded to keep the peace – doing its job? “On many fronts the UN is doing indispensable work every day, bringing food to hungry people and ensuring practical standards for how we cooperate on the planet. Most countries follow the UN’s rules and principles on an everyday basis, so not too…