Chemical & Engineering News • 4th May 2021

New WHO Science Council takes on genomic technologies

A scientific advisory body set up by the World Health Organization met for the first time April 27 and began discussing how genomic technologies could be better used in global health.

SWI swissinfo.ch • 24th April 2021

China's food security policy is shaking up commodity trading

Reports of China’s biggest food and agricultural company merging operations with its Geneva-based trading division have sent reverberations through a sector long dominated by four major players.

The New Humanitarian • 21st April 2021

Root causes and the real migration crisis in Central America

In March, a record number of children travelling alone entered the United States from Mexico irregularly, and the US federal agency tasked with preventing irregular migration carried out the most apprehensions at the country’s southern border in a single month for 15 years. But far from being the main crisis in the region, the sharp uptick in numbers is a byproduct of humanitarian emergencies playing out in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador – collectively known as the Northern Triangle of Central America – where choosing to stay or leave is often a question of life and death, according to experts.

The New Humanitarian • 24th March 2021

Why some Indigenous leaders in the Amazon are going it alone on vaccines

COVID-19 vaccines are trickling in to the Amazon region, but public mistrust in official responses and rollouts is high, prompting some Indigenous leaders in areas hit hard by the pandemic to look for their own procurement solutions as fears grow over a new variant.

SWI swissinfo.ch • 16th March 2021

Are Swiss banks really chopping environmental devastation from trade financing?

As awareness of the Amazon rainforest’s role in balancing the global climate builds, banks financing Switzerland’s important commodity trading sector are starting to re-evaluate the environmental impact of their business.

The New Humanitarian • 24th February 2021

Latin America’s shadow pandemic of GBV

When a 12-year-old girl was allegedly raped last year in Peru, she became one of the youngest victims in a shadow pandemic of gender-based violence that has skyrocketed around the world as the coronavirus crisis has unfolded.

10th February 2021

Fetisov Journalism Awards

I am so thrilled to have won second prize in the category Excellence in Environmental Journalism. The FJA Steering Committee is honored to announce the names of the winners for the Fetisov Journalism Awards 2020 in 4 categories: Outstanding Investigative Reporting, Outstanding Contribution to Peace, Excellence in Environmental Journalism and Contribution to Civil Rights. In 2020, over 280 entries from 77 countries were submitted for the worldwide competition.

SWI swissinfo.ch • 26th January 2021

How a mining corruption trial could be a turning point for dodgy offshore companies

More than seven years after his former Geneva home was searched, Franco-Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz was sentenced last Friday to a five-year prison term on charges of corruption and document forgery in a landmark case that will resonate far beyond Geneva’s Palais de Justice.

Geneva Solutions • 2nd December 2020

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch • 20th November 2020

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch • 17th November 2020

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch • 8th October 2020

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.

The New Humanitarian • 28th September 2020

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.

The New Humanitarian • 22nd September 2020

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch • 9th September 2020

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch • 3rd September 2020

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.

The New Humanitarian • 2nd September 2020

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch • 3rd August 2020

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.

Chemical & Engineering News • 13th July 2020

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.

The New Humanitarian • 8th July 2020

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.