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.

The New Humanitarian • 15th June 2020

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.

The New Humanitarian • 11th May 2020

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

The New Humanitarian • 4th May 2020

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch • 29th April 2020

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch • 21st April 2020

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.”

The New Humanitarian • 8th April 2020

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.

The New Humanitarian • 24th March 2020

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.