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Photo: Women from all ethnic groups in Gao and the surrounding villages come together in the Peace Hut. Credit: UN Women/Sandra Kreutzer

Women's Peace Hut Develops into a Driver of Economic Growth

A UN Women News Feature

This feature first appeared on May 7, 2019 with the headline A place of peace, reconciliation and growth.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – The air is dry and hot in Gao. Here, in the north of Mali, the temperatures rarely fall below 30 degrees even in colder months. Around 1 million people live in the largest northern city, who have suffered tremendously as a result of the violent conflict through 2012 and 2013 and the occupation by militant Islamist groups.

Thousands have been displaced, the economy had almost collapsed and is now recovering slowly. Much has been destroyed during the fighting – the airport, markets and public buildings – infrastructure and services that make life normal. Gao is still one of the most dangerous places in Mali.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 20 May 2019

Photo: Colonel Channy Vongvannak, Commander of the Cambodian Force Military Police of UNMISS, inspects a water purification plant within the Cambodian quarters. Credit: UNMISS/Isaac Billy.

Cambodia, Recipient in 1993, Gives Back to UN Peacekeeping

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK | JUBA, South Sudan (IDN) – “Cambodia received peacekeeping troops in 1993, and we feel that we have to contribute in the same way as other countries did when they worked in the UN mission in our country,” remembers Colonel Channy Vongvannak. “So, we understand that countries and people suffer during conflict – and they need help.”

UN peacekeepers from around the world were deployed to Cambodia between February 1992 and September 1993 as part of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) which was established to ensure implementation of a political settlement of the conflict in the south-east Asian country.

: Santo D. Banerjee; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 20 May 2019

Photo: Prof. van Reisen addressing the Pan African Parliament. Credit: EEPA.

Europe Must Begin to Recognise the Dark Side of Its History

Viewpoint by Prof Dr Mirjam van Reisen

The following are extensive extracts from Prof Dr Mirjam van Reisen's presentation to the Pan African Parliament, Midrand, part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan, South Africa on May 13, 2019. She is Tilburg University's Chair ‘International Relations, Innovation and care’, Leiden University's Chair ‘Computing for Society’, Coordinator Research Network ‘Globalisation, Accessibility, Innovation and Care’, Member of the Advisory Council on International Affairs, The Netherlands, and Director and Secretary General of EEPA (Brussels).

JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – The courageous founders of the liberated African continent had a dream for a united Africa, from which the scars of European colonisation could be erased.

: Mirjam van Reisen; OPINION; 19 May 2019

Photo: Chair Syed Hussin addresses the 2019 NPT PrepCom. Photo: Alicia Sanders-Zakre, Arms Control Association.

Fiddling While the Nuclear Arms Control Architecture Collapses

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf

Just as the senators of Rome fiddled away while the city burned, today’s diplomats seem helpless in averting the total collapse of nuclear arms control thus paving the way for a dangerous new nuclear arms race with increased risks of accidental or deliberate use of nuclear weapons. Tariq Rauf was Alternate Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) NPT Delegation 2002-2010, and has attended all NPT meetings as an official delegate since 1987 through 2019. Personal views are expressed here.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The third and final session of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) for the 2020 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) fizzled out in disagreements over the pace and extent of nuclear disarmament at United Nations headquarters in New York.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 19 May 2019

Photo: 2020 NPT Review Conference Chair Argentine Ambassador Rafael Grossi addressing the third PrepCom. IDN-INPS Collage of photos by Alicia Sanders-Zakre, Arms Control Association.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference Could Hit a U.S. Roadblock

By Shanta Roy

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Trump Administration, which has been recklessly wielding a wrecking ball against multilateral treaties, will be put to a test next year when the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) will be up for review at the 2020 conference scheduled to take place in New York in April-May.

"We have a lot of work to do, especially since next year is the 50th anniversary of the NPT," Malaysian Ambassador Syed Mohamad Hasrin Aidid, who chaired the preparatory committee (PrepCoM) sessions, which concluded May 10, told the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the sidelines of the PrepCom.

: Shanta Roy; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 18 May 2019

Photo: Tulips garland Mt Daisen. Credit: Palitha Kohona

Are the Japanese Really Different? Maybe

Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona

The writer was on an extended visit to Japan recently. He returned from a four week trip in April 2019. Some his observations might provide some clues for their phenomenal success despite being devastated by War. There might be useful lessons for other countries following the path to development.

TOKYO (IDN) – Arriving in Japan after a long and tiring flight is such a pleasure. Polite immigration officials in neat uniforms are there to guide you and to organise the orderly rapidly moving immigration queues.

: Dr. Palitha Kohona; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 17 May 2019

Graphic credit: Coalition for Peace Action

Human Survival Lies in the Balance as the Charade of NPT Diplomacy is Wearing Thin

Viewpoint by Dr Joseph Gerson*

NEW YORK (IDN) – Expectations for the outcome of this year’s NPT Preparatory Committee were low at best. Not surprisingly, given the nuclear powers’ reliance on their genocidal and omnicidal arsenals and pressures building for nuclear weapons proliferation, these expectations were not exceeded. As the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has warned, humanity is now as close to nuclear apocalypse as it was at the height of the Cold War.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 16 May 2019

Photo: Seven presidential candidates (clockwise): Sadybek Tugel, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Amirzhan Kosanov, Toleutai Rakhimbekov, Amangeldy Taspikhov, Daniya Yespayeva and Zhambyl Akhmetbekov.

7 Candidates Mark Kazakh Passage Through Historical Transition

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan is living through an historical transition. For the first time since the country adopted the Constitutional Law on the independence of the Republic and held the first presidential election in 1991, Nursultan Nazarbayev is not contesting the forthcoming polls on June 9, 2019.

He was elected for a fifth term in the 2015 elections and was entitled to hold the office of the President until 2020. But he stunned the nation March 19, announcing during a nationally televised address that he would be relinquishing the office he had held for nearly three decades.

: Jaya Ramachandran; CENTRAL ASIA; 15 May 2019

Photo: Girl on roof of a factory in India. Source: UNFPA © Andrea Bruce/Noor

In Quest of a More Equal World

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Maybe, after all, there is an argument for saying that the world needs more violence not less if we are to make its societies more equal. This is one conclusion one can derive from Walter Scheidel’s new book, The Great Leveler.

He starts from what we all know by now: the richest 62 persons in the world own as much net wealth as the poorer half of humanity. This is the number that could fit inside a London double-decker bus.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 14 May 2019

Photo: Rejoicing at Ex-President Omar al-Bashir's arrest. Source: Internet

Ex-President of Sudan Faces Formal Charges of Murder

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – From the presidency to prisoner behind bars, former President Omar al-Bashir now faces formal charges of murder in the latest development to spring from a massive turnout of Sudanese people demanding civilian rule.

"Omar al-Bashir and others have been charged for inciting and participating in the killing of demonstrators," the office of Sudan's acting prosecutor general, Al-Waleed Sayyed Ahmed, announced on May 13.