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Photo: Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative (centre front) to the UN in Geneva addressing the Second PrepCom for the NPT Review Conference 2020. Credit: The Sunday Leader.

A World Free Of Nuclear Weapons Remains The Ultimate Goal

By Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez

Following are extensive excerpts from the Statement by Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, at the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 NPT Review Conference from April 23 to May 4, 2018. He called on all nuclear-weapon states to commit to the principle of disarmament to ensure a world free of nuclear weapons and "enhance their support for, and investment in, disarmament training and education provided by the UN and other organisations." – The Editor

GENEVA (IDN) – It is imperative that all our efforts be geared to ensuring that the 2020 Review Conference will lead to a consensus outcome, which galvanizes the commitments made in the 1995 Review Conference. Securing a world free of nuclear weapons should remain our first and foremost priority.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 26 April 2018

Photo: The Allée des Nations, with the flags of the UN member countries. Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0

U.S. Charm Offensive Takes Center Stage in Geneva

Viewpoint by Rick Wayman

The writer is Programs Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF). In April 2016, he received the 'Activist of the Year' award from the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) for "dynamic leadership in bringing the Marshall Islanders' Nuclear Zero litigation to world attention, activating the next generation of peace leaders, and guiding ANA as board member and tech guru." – The Editor

GENEVA (IDN) – In February, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was widely and, I would say, unfairly criticized by the U.S. media, politicians, and even diplomats for its participation in the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. By sending high-level, suave officials to the Olympics, the narrative went, the DPRK was engaged in a “charm offensive” to win over the world and make us forget about its serious human rights violations.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 26 April 2018

Photo: An EU-backed private equity fund plans to invest in renewable energy firms across sub-Saharan Africa. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

ACP Facility Helps Fight Energy Hunger in Southern Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

MWENEZI (IDN) – Sixty-seven-year old Sarudzai Msipa heavily blows air in and out of her mouth, seated in the open-air on a goat skin mat outside her hut as she battles to revive a dying fire on her cooking place set up in the middle of her yard at her remote home in Mwenezi district in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo Province.

Just three sticks are in the fire to keep it alive and there is no sign of leftover firewood nearby. To Msipa, this means times are tough for her and many other villagers as the energy hunger takes a knock on them in this part of Southern Africa.

Even getting solar for lighting, is a non-starter for the Southern African region's many rural dwellers like Msipa who have to bear the brunt of the region’s deepening energy hunger.

: Jeffrey Moyo; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 26 April 2018

Photo: An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 3, 2017. (U.S. Air Force photo by 2nd Lt. William Collette)

US Launches Minuteman III Missile Test in Cloud of Secrecy

NEW YORK (IDN) – With little prior notice from military officials, the U.S. launched a Minuteman III Ballistic Missile on April 25 morning at approximately 5:26 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Civilians and residents living near the base, who regularly receive ample notice of missile tests, were left in the dark this time as the missile raced through the early morning sky, according to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

The U.S conducts three or four ICBM tests each year. These are the same class of missiles for which the U.S. has been highly critical of the North Koreans for developing and testing, the Santa Barbara based Foundation said.

: Ramesh Jaura; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 25 April 2018

State of Emergency for Press Freedom in Europe

By ECPMF

BERLIN (IDN) – The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) in Leipzig, Germany, is warning against the dismantlement of freedom rights and the increasing threat against journalists in the EU.

"Demagogues and autocrats are fighting the free press because they cannot stand democratic control. Under a corrupt administration the work of an investigative journalist is life-threatening," says Lutz Kinkel, ECPMF's managing director. "We have to defend ourselves with all our might to protect journalists. Otherwise the EU will lose its democratic substance."

The ECPMF was founded in 2015 to publicise violations of the European Charter on Freedom of the Press.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 25 April 2018

From Nairobi to Brussels with New Impulses for ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly

By Devendra Kamarajan

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – Members of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly from the East Africa Region of the ACP Group and their European Parliament counterparts have called for aiming at "stronger South-South and triangular cooperation and maintenance of the ACP Group’s unity and solidarity" in a successor treaty to the Cotonou Agreement that expires in 2020.

The communiqué emerging from the 15th Regional Meeting of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) from April 11-13, 2018 in the Kenyan capital Nairobi stressed agreement among JPA members from the East Africa region that "a future agreement should build upon the acquis of Cotonou and integrate new global realities and in particular regional specificities, including for small island developing states."

: Devendra Kamarajan; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 25 April 2018

Photo: Makoma Lekalakala (left) and Liz McDaid (right). Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize.

South African Women Honoured For Anti-Nuclear Effort

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Using the knowledge gained in the anti-apartheid struggle, two South African women challenged a secret, multibillion-dollar nuclear deal that would have dotted South Africa with nuclear power plants from Russia.

The women, Makoma Lekalakala and Liziwe McDaid, waged a five-year court battle against the plants. Against all odds, including a secret agreement between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and former President Jacob Zuma, the High Court ruled on April 26, 2017 that the $76 billion nuclear power project was unconstitutional – a landmark legal victory that protected South Africa from an unprecedented expansion of the nuclear industry and production of radioactive waste.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 24 April 2018

'Fire and Fury' in Danger of Becoming Trump's 'Mantra'

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – A speech of General George Patton, a famous World War 2 warrior, has an uncanny resemblance to the philosophy of Donald Trump. “All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser – Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win – all the time. That’s why Americans have never lost, not ever will lose a war, for the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.”

Then came the Korean War (a stalemate), Vietnam (a loss), Afghanistan (mired in unconquerable mountains), Iraq 2 (a quagmire).

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 24 April 2018

'Sri Lanka Unites' Prepares Leaders for Tomorrow

By Jayantha Dhanapala

This article was first carried by The Island, a Sri Lankan newspaper, on 21 April 2018.

KANDY (IDN-INPS) – On a hot Saturday afternoon, I sat in the Father Mervyn Fernando Auditorium at the Subodhi Institute, Piliyandala to observe the concluding session of the Sri Lanka Unites Leadership Development Program "Let Them Lead". A portrait of the saintly Father Mervyn looked down on the audience benignly – and perhaps secretly chastising us all for not recognizing the depth of the thinking of the Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin for whom he held a life-long admiration in the midst of his own social welfare and mentoring.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 24 April 2018

Photo: High Representative Izumi Nakamitsu at the 16th UN-Republic of Korea Joint Conference on Disarmament and Non-proliferation Issues. Credit: UN

Nuclear-Weapon States Leading 'A New Qualitative Arms Race'

By Izumi Nakamitsu

Following are extensive excerpts from a statement by Izumi Nakamitsu, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs to Second Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2020 NPT Review Conference from 23 April to 4 May 2018 in Geneva. – The Editor

GENEVA (IDN-INPS) – Secretary-General Guterres is currently developing his agenda for disarmament, which is aimed at re-energizing the international discourse. It will seek to offer new perspectives on the traditional agenda in order to mobilize new constituencies. It will seek to identify areas where more coherent and collaborative efforts within the United Nations system can better support Member States' responsibilities for advancing disarmament.