INTERVIEW – Angela Me, chief of UNODC’s research and trend analysis branch.

Published: April 12, 2021

Cited by: Urdu Point

UN Seeks Greater Cooperation to Protect Women at Risk of Violence Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

MOSCOW, April 12 (Sputnik), Jonathan Rowson – The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is hoping to see greater cooperation between national agencies to protect women from violence, Angela Me, the chief of the agency’s research and trend analysis branch, told Sputnik, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic had turned many “fragile” domestic situations violent.

“What seems to have happened is that situations that were fragile before COVID-19 became much more violent during the pandemic,” Me said.

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UNODC Observing Spike in Counterfeit Medicines, Medical Products During COVID-19 Pandemic

MOSCOW, April 12 (Sputnik), Jonathan Rowson – The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has observed a significant increase in the proliferation of counterfeit therapeutics and medical products throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Angela Me, the chief of the agency’s research and trend analysis branch, told Sputnik.

UNODC issued an initial warning over the trafficking of falsified medical products this past July, and Me said that the problem was still one of great concern for the agency.

“This has been a market that has always been managed by organized crime groups but with the pandemic, the market became much more global and more profitable because then you started to have a market in rich markets, where they can pay a lot more than you usually get from developing countries by selling falsified medicines. There clearly has been an increase, a very sudden increase,” Me commented.