Inside Geneva
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.
Episodes
On Inside Geneva this week, aid agencies count the costs of funding cuts.
“I am most sad for all the millions of people living with HIV and affected by HIV whose lives have been upended. They have lost access to life-saving medication. They have showed up at clinics for support, only to find no one there to help them,” says Angeli Achrekar, Deputy Executive Director for the Programme Branch at the Joint United Nations...
On Inside Geneva this week, we ask whether the United Nations (UN) and multilateralism have a future.
“Is the UN anachronistic? I mean, it was formed after the Second World War. Obviously, it’s getting a little bit dusty,” says political analyst Daniel Warner.
Younger generations from the Global South tell us where
they see the UN’s flaws.
“The countries of the Global North have not stood up to the ideals that they ...
The world is changing fast. Are democracy and human rights under threat? Our Inside Geneva podcast takes a deep dive.
“Donald Trump is unravelling the constitution, where I believe we could describe this as a coup d'état,” says human rights lawyer Reed Brody.
What happens when Big Tech gets involved in politics?
“It is fine for Instagram or TikTok to realise that I am into biking and then try to sell me bikes. That’...
In Ukraine, and in the Middle East, men say they are negotiating peace. But are they?
“Ending war is necessary to peace without a doubt, but ending war does not mean peace. So, whenever these men use the word ‘peace’ in order to say ‘ceasefire’ and ‘stop the guns’, this is not peace,” says Deborah Schibler from PeaceWomen across the Globe (PWAG).
“What the US is doing right now is an extractivist assertion of power, arg...
On Inside Geneva this week, we take a step back from the breaking news and talk to the authors of two books about the better side of humanity.
“The defence of human rights is not a matter of holding a candle and singing Kumbaya. The defence of human rights is about playing hardball. It's about putting pressure on governments, making them realise that repression isn't paying because the consequences are so sev...
On the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Inside Geneva has some big questions about the US-Russia talks this week on ending the war in Ukraine.
“Is this really a peace deal or is it just a deal about money? Or is it even some kind of capitulation or a power grab?” asks Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes.
What does US President Donald Trump want?
“Do you want to just stop the war, or do you want to win it?...
On Inside Geneva, we take a deep dive into the United States’ cuts in foreign aid.
“In Colombia, they’ve just had to lay off 200 staff who were doing the demining in the south of the country. So, all of a sudden, these families have no work. And the alternative in the area, you know what it is: coca plants. So how is that in the US interest?” asks Tamar Gabelnick, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines...
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 Foulkes
Production assitant: Claire-Marie Germain
Distribution: Sara Pasino
Marketing: Xin Z...
With Israel banning UNRWA and the US planning to withdraw from WHO, our Inside Geneva podcast reports on a turbulent couple of weeks for United Nations agencies.
In Gaza, Israel’s ban on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has come into effect.
“UNRWA is what we call the backbone of the humanitarian operation. Meaning that they not only bring in aid themselves, b...
In this week’s Inside Geneva podcast episode, we ask: what makes a good peace agreement?
“Peace is not just a status. Peace is a process, and it’s a process that is part of politics in general,” says Laurent Goetschel from Swisspeace.
So, are quick peace deals possible?
“When someone says, ‘I want to have an agreement in 24 hours,’ my response as a professional is, ‘Okay. What are our ideas? What is possible ri...
For our planet, each year brings new climate records, and they’re not good ones.
“We now know that 2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record. At the same time, we have accumulated more CO2 than ever in the history of human life on Earth,” says Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization.
On Inside Geneva this week, we look at the damage from the perspective of United Natio...
In 2024 there are more than 100 conflicts ongoing, worldwide. A record number of aid workers have been killed.
Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator: ‘It’s not just the ferocity of these conflicts, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria. It’s about that wilful neglect of international humanitarian law. And as a result we seem to have lost our anchor somehow. That scaffolding, that we felt was there, international humanit...
In this week’s Inside Geneva episode, UN correspondents in Geneva and New York look back at 2024.
Dorian Burkhalter, journalist, SWI swissinfo.ch: ‘Wars everywhere, climate change, deepening inequalities, AI…it’s just threats everywhere. But it just seems like the more global our problems are becoming, the weaker the UN is also becoming.’
But is the biggest event of the year the US election?
Nick Cumming-Bruce, contri...
Is the world still committed to human rights? Our Inside Geneva podcast is in Strasbourg, where the Council of Europe is discussing how to defend the fundamental principles we agreed upon after the Second World War.
“We can’t just say, ‘Do it because it’s a human right’ or ‘Do it because it’s in a treaty.’ We have to demonstrate: ‘Do it, and this is how it will make your society better and stronger,’” says Mi...
This week Inside Geneva goes to New York. The United Nations (UN) General Assembly is hearing multiple reports of serious human rights violations.
“I think it’s more difficult to get the human rights message [across] here in New York at the General Assembly. But hopefully we will be heard,” says Mariana Katzarova, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Russia.
Ukraine, the Middle East and Sudan are on the agenda. But ...
On Inside Geneva this week we talk to the people behind a new book about life in Gaza, told through the words of those who live there.
“People are actually travelling in the middle of a war, in the middle of Gaza at midnight – the peak of the risk, if you like – to get somewhere where they can get a better internet so they can actually talk to us,” says Mahmoud Muna, editor of Daybreak in Gaza.
Thi...
The presidential elections in the United States (US) are just a couple of weeks away. What will they mean for international affairs, for Ukraine, for the Middle East, for humanitarian work, for international law and for the United Nations (UN) in Geneva?
“When I was in the US, I definitely saw that there is no interest for anything called multilateralism or collaboration globally. Because it’s a matter of support – pol...
It’s been one year since the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. Twelve months of violent conflict have followed, with tens of thousands dead. We look back at our coverage over the past year.
“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...
For 40 years, there has been an absolute ban on torture. But it still happens…
“Horrific things can happen to you. Nobody is there to help you. Nobody is there to document it, etc. And I think sometimes we speak about torture without putting ourselves in the shoes of what this is,” says Gerald Staberock from the World Organisation Against Torture.
On our Inside Geneva podcast this week, host Imogen Foulkes finds out how...
This month the United Nations (UN) will host the ‘Summit of the Future’ in New York. What's the point of this high-level event? Inside Geneva investigates.
“The UN is not an entity that does anything. I mean, we can all blame it, but what is the UN? It’s just the sum of its parts: the governments,” says Christiane Oelrich, journalist for the DPA German Press Agency.
Is the UN’s 1945 structure even fit for...
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