UN steps-up action against gender-based violence
The UN has released $25m in emergency funds to tackle escalating levels of gender-based violence (GBV) and protect the lives of women and girls during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Paula Dupraz-Dobias
Paula Dupraz-Dobias is an award-winning investigative journalist and news and documentary producer with over 30 years of experience in all forms of media in Europe, North America and South America. She is based in Switzerland, but works regularly in Peru and the United States.
Swiss-Peruvian climate deal pioneers international cooperation
Switzerland and Peru have become the first signatory states to conclude an international carbon offsetting deal under the Paris climate agreement. But not everyone sees the bilateral treaty as the perfect way forward in slowing climate change.
Gold industry’s reform efforts marked by fears and finger-pointing
With a pandemic driving up gold prices and a looming Swiss vote over corporate responsibility, gold refiners are under increasing pressure to guarantee a clean supply chain. But they say they can’t do it alone, and that the Swiss initiative to involve the courts goes too far.
Swiss refiner breaks industry silence on sourcing gold from risky areas
In a rare interview, PX Precinox CEO Philippe Chave defends his company’s record in Peru and says abandoning artisanal miners is not the way to achieve more sustainable and transparent mining practices.
Nicaraguan asylum seekers face hunger in Costa Rica or dangerous returns
While the exodus of millions of Venezuelans has garnered much media and humanitarian attention over recent years, a large migration in Central America has been taking place under most people’s radar: from authoritarian Nicaragua to comparatively booming Costa Rica.
What to look out for at UNGA 2020
In contrast with a manic year in which the spread of COVID-19 has set off cascading social and economic emergencies around the world, the UN General Assembly’s main debate week opened on Tuesday in unusually calm fashion at the world body’s headquarters.
Are paid interns a sign of change at the WHO?
The embattled World Health Organization has promised more diversity in its Geneva internships and this year started paying young interns for the first time. But internships in Geneva, one of the most expensive cities in the world, have now been suspended amid the coronavirus crisis, and after a row over whether the cash-strapped WHO should pay interns for working online from developing countries.
High gold prices spur more illegal mining in Peru
The boom in gold prices during the Covid-19 pandemic has kept Swiss refineries in business but has also boosted illegal mining, imperiling lives and the environment.
Tough times for aid groups in Nicaragua
President Daniel Ortega is making life increasingly hard for aid and human rights groups in Nicaragua even as poverty, malnutrition, and emigration due to political strife are on the rise, and as he is criticised for a dismissive and reckless response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Leading expert assures Geneva ‘under control’
Despite the immediate closure of all nightclubs following a spike in coronavirus cases linked to the establishments, Didier Pittet, head of infection prevention at Geneva’s University Hospital, said the situation was under control.
UN human rights specialist Baskut Tuncak weighs risks of workplace hazards and chemical pollution
As worldwide shortages of protective equipment persist for health-care staff caring for COVID-19 patients and others returning to work, calls continue for governments to do more to increase supplies to preserve the health of workers. One of those appeals comes from chemist and environmental attorney Baskut Tuncak, who works on behalf of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
COVID-19 shifts Peru’s internal migration into reverse
After welcoming nearly 900,000 Venezuelan migrants fleeing political and economic strife in recent years, Peru is now experiencing a migrant crisis of its own. Some 200,000 Peruvians have been trying to return to their original homes from Lima, since strict lockdown measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 cut them off from their jobs.
Coronavirus and dead body management
Gaps in dead body management have been left badly exposed by COVID-19: bodies left outside homes for days before being collected; family members picking through piles of decomposing corpses outside hospitals to try to identify loved ones; mass, unmarked graves dug for the poor and the homeless.
COVID-19 fears grow for Amazon indigenous communities
Indigenous leaders are warning that a combination of neglect, inadequate preparations, and a lack of lockdown measures is exposing remote and vulnerable communities in the Amazon to potentially devastating outbreaks of COVID-19
Coronavirus in Guatemala compounds a long list of problems
Aid groups worry that Guatemala, long one of Latin America’s most unequal countries, will be hit hard by the effects of COVID-19, piling further hardship on a population already suffering extreme poverty, violence, and years of climate change-driven drought.
Swiss oil traders and banks burned by Venezuela ties
Several Swiss companies and banks have found themselves in the line of fire as the United States ramps up pressure on the Venezuelan government. Washington has sanctioned numerous top officials for money laundering and drug trafficking in the oil-rich but economically flailing Latin American nation.
Swift Covid-19 vaccine within reach, say Swiss scientists
A team of researchers at the University of Bern is hoping to be the first to produce a vaccine against Covid-19 and inoculate the entire Swiss population in October.
“We have a realistic chance of being successful,” said Martin Bachmann, head of immunology at the Swiss university via a web conference with ACANU, the United Nations press association. “Switzerland has a history of being pragmatic and is more interested in finding a compromise to get the vaccine faster.”
Q&A: How to keep children fed and healthy as the pandemic ends school meals
With classrooms in 195 countries now emptied to help contain the spread of the coronavirus, school meals programmes are on hold, too. And that is raising concerns that millions of children who depend on school meals will become increasingly susceptible to malnourishment and other health risks.
Why COVID-19 has humanitarians really worried
With borders now closing around the world and health services coming under huge strain as COVID-19 spreads, the humanitarian sector is scrambling to adapt to new challenges while continuing to provide assistance in ongoing emergencies and disasters.
Why climate finance may be ‘displacing’ lifesaving aid
Climate-linked disasters are unleashing greater levels of damage, but billions of dollars in climate change commitments may be eating into regular aid budgets that poorer countries rely on, campaigners say.
Load More Articles
