Inside Geneva

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In August 2021, the Taliban took back control in Afghanistan. Women face unprecedented repression. 
They can’t go to school or work; public parks are banned to them; they are not allowed to speak or sing too loudly. Are we turning away?
“This is the time for the international community and for other countries, especially the EU, to step in and to make sure they respond to the crisis in Afghanistan and stand with the women of Afghanistan and to do everything they can to protect their rights,” says Fereshta Abbasi, from Human Rights Watch.
Diplomats in Geneva have backed a powerful UN fact-finding mission for Afghanistan.
“As an ambassador, and as a woman, [I know that] women have fought for decades if not centuries for their rights, and I also personally do not want to see a back-peddling on those rights that we, and generations of brave women before us, have fought for for so long,” says Deike Potzel, EU Ambassador to the UN in Geneva. 
Women inside Afghanistan need to know there is support.
“Women and girls in Afghanistan resist in ways that don’t form a single movement. It’s about 1,000 quiet and important uprisings and day-to-day revolutions: a resistance that is fierce and creative to show that they exist and that they will never accept that kind of domination,” says Sahar Fetrat, an Afghan campaigner for women’s rights.
The fact-finding mission can gather evidence and hold Afghanistan’s government and individual Taliban leaders to account. But ordinary women across Europe can help too.
“Here in Europe, in Geneva, we have the wonderful opportunity to actually make our voices heard and to be heard. So use that chance, get engaged. Open your eyes and then do something,” says Potzel. 
Join some inspiring women talking to Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva.
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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

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On Inside Geneva this week, we unpick the divisive topic of migration and asylum. Why are some countries closing their doors?
“In Europe we are seeing one country after another erect barbed wire around their country and around a continent,” says Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
When does restricting immigration turn into human rights violation?
“We believe it’s within the rights of any government to set immigration policies that they believe make sense for their country and electorate. But setting lawful immigration policies does not mean that you have the right to mistreat migrants,” says Philippe Bolopion, executive director at Human Rights Watch.
Is immigration really a threat to our jobs or services?
“Overall, most studies are clear that migrant workers are not in competition with national workers in the labour market. [...] In Western countries, the medical sector depends on migrant workers,” says Vincent Chetail from the Global Migration Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute.
Why are some of us so angry about immigration?
“We are reaching a peak in violent anti‑migrant rhetoric, which has nothing to do with reality,” continues Chetail.
Many countries are cutting foreign aid and limiting immigration. A recipe for disaster?
 “If you want to live in a stable world without uncontrolled migration, pandemics and insecurity, then you invest in hope for people who have been displaced,” says Egeland.
Join host Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva for the full interview.
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Email us at [email protected]
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 Zhang

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On Inside Geneva this week, we take an in-depth look at US President Donald Trump’s new ‘Board of Peace’. Experts on conflict resolution are sceptical.
“The US circulated an invitation to about 60 countries to join a new board of peace that would not just focus on Gaza but would instead be a global conflict prevention organisation, complete with a pre-baked charter that looks a bit like President Trump took the protocols for a golf club in New Jersey,” says Richard Gowan from the International Crisis Group.
Still, the new board could be a challenge to the United Nations (UN).
“I don’t really think this is a credible international institution that will have the capacities of the UN, but I do think that it is a very worrying signal for the UN,” Gowan says.
We also hear about a new report on growing disrespect for international law.
“People only have to look around at the conflicts that they’re seeing today, and the extent of devastation both of civilian life and of civilian property, to know that we are in very bleak times. Disregard of international law is not new. What I think is new is the extent to which it’s being flouted,” says Stuart Casey-Maslen from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law.
Are governments swapping international obligations for short-term political gain?
“We look at what’s happened in Gaza. We see the destruction of hospitals in Sudan. We see that people do this and are not held to account. We have institutions, we have the International Criminal Court, but even there, there’s an attempt to undermine it. It becomes a political decision rather than simply a legal one: respect for the law,” says Casey-Maslen.
Join host Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva to listen to the full episode.
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Email us at [email protected]
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 Zhang

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On Inside Geneva this week: world leaders are gathering in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos, but do they have any answers?
“I think we are at an amazing moment in history. We have in our hands the opportunity to do well, to save our own environment, the planet, to take the right decisions to bring humanity onto a good path,” says Marilyne Andersen, Director General of the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA).
But will they take that path? Technology is racing ahead.
“Human rights, like every other field, are very much under the influence now of what’s happening in technology and science. It’s one of the destabilising factors right now,” says Jürg Lauber, Swiss ambassador to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva.
“I was absolutely sure that a robot can kill a human. We are living in a situation where we don’t even have these AI ethics,” says Tatiana Valovaya, Director-General of the UN Office at Geneva.
“If we just do things when they have already happened, then it’s too late and technology has already evolved to the next stage,” says Sylvie Briand, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO).
International law is being abandoned.
“War is a terrible thing, but at some stage in the past, human beings decided to write the Geneva Conventions to at least reduce a little bit the horror of war,” adds Sami Kanaan, former mayor of Geneva.
In Geneva, a group is pushing for partnerships between science and politics, so we’re ready for the challenges ahead.
“Let’s take advantage of knowing what is coming to act on it now and not be in reactive mode, not in catch‑up mode,” says Andersen.
Join host Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva.
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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 Zhang

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2026 has started with some momentous events. Israel has banned dozens of aid agencies. What are the consequences?
“We’re supporting one in five of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip, and one in three babies that are born in Gaza are assisted by our staff on the ground. We’re doing surgical support, wound care, physiotherapy, maternity and paediatric care,” says Chris Lockyear, Secretary General of Medecins sans Frontieres.
The US cut billions from foreign aid, then announced $2 billion for selected projects.
“[We saw] Tom Fletcher next to Jeremy Lewin, a 28-year-old with no experience in the humanitarian sector, who said, ‘Well, the humanitarian organisations have to adapt or die,’” adds Dorian Burkhalter, Swissinfo journalist.
The money has strings attached, humanitarian crises in Afghanistan or Yemen get nothing.
“There was talk about the radical ideologies perpetrated by some of the UN agencies, which had undermined American interests and peace, bizarrely enough,” continues Nick Cumming-Bruce, contributor for The New York Times.
Part of that $2 billion goes to several Latin American countries, meanwhile the US says it’s now “running” Venezuela.
“Central and South America, obviously Washington views as its domain. And we’re all here in Geneva muttering to ourselves ‘but you just violated international law’. Does it matter to anyone?” says Inside Geneva host Imogen Foulkes. 
Are we seeing a bonfire of international laws?
“The fundamental commitments to some form of international law that have underpinned western security since the Second World War are being completely abandoned by an administration that doesn't acknowledge any accountability to anyone except itself,” says Cumming-Bruce. 
And what does it mean for the world’s most vulnerable?
“All around the world, whether they’re in Gaza, in Sudan, in Ukraine or Venezuela, there are real people who are living through the consequences of these decisions that are made in places like Washington DC and New York or in Geneva,” says Lockyear. 
Join host Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva. 
Get in touch!
Email us at [email protected]
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 Zhang