By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – Moments after the UN General Assembly unanimously agreed on August 10 to appoint Chile’s former President Michelle Bachelet as the seventh UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Secretary-General António Guterres tweeted: “Ms. Bachelet is a pioneer, a visionary, a woman of principle, and a great human rights leader […]
Advancing Disarmament Within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu The author is Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. This article first appeared in UN Chronicle, Vol. LV No. 2 2018 | August 2018. NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – The idea that disarmament and arms control are connected to development is not new. Article 26 of the Charter of the United […]
Empower Indigenous Women, Strengthen Communities
No More Hiroshimas, No More Nagasakis, No More Hibakusha
Viewpoint by António Guterres The survivors of the atomic bombings, known in Japanese as the hibakusha, have become global “leaders for peace and disarmament”, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony in Japan on 9 August 2018, commemorating the 73rd anniversary of that devastating day. Following are extensive extracts from […]
Trump and Putin Can Put the Brakes on a New, Potentially More Dangerous, Arms Race
Viewpoint by Thomas M. Countryman, Kingston A. Reif and Daryl G. Kimball The following analysis is the Arms Control Association’s latest Issue Brief with the caption Can Trump and Putin Head Off a Nuclear Arms Race? authored by Thomas M. Countryman, former Acting Under Secretary Of State for Arms Control and International Security and Chairman of the […]
Empower Indigenous Women, Strengthen Communities
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – August 9 is International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. On this occasion, UN Women calls on each of us to commit to making the voices of indigenous peoples, and indigenous women, louder and more impactful than ever before: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/8/statement-un-women-international-day-of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples. At a time of unprecedented human mobility, indigenous […]
The ACP Group Deepens Ties with the EU for Global Actions
By Phil Pascal The writer is a Caribbean journalist and Commentator on development issues. This is the second article in a two-part Series on the next stage of ACP-EU relations in the Post-Cotonou Agreement with the EU. In the earlier commentary the writer explained the principles and processes by which the ACP Group has set […]
The ACP Group Reinventing for a Stronger Post-Cotonou Agreement with the EU
By Phil Pascal The writer is a Caribbean journalist and Commentator on development issues. This is the first article in a two-part Series on the next stage of ACP-EU relations in the Post-Cotonou Agreement with the EU. BRIDGETOWN (ACP-IDN) – The historic partnership agreement between 107 industrialized and developing nations – known as the Cotonou […]
New Study Warns Of ‘Hothouse’ Threatening Planet Earth
By Rita Joshi BERLIN (IDN) – Planet Earth is inching towards crossing the Rubicon by passing a tipping point and entering an irresistible “Hothouse” state. Rivers would flood, coasts would vanish, storms would wreak havoc on coastal communities, coral reefs would be eliminated, and numerous people would perish because of food scarcity and inescapable lethal […]
Israel Stepping Into An Apartheid State
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Recall Shakespeare’s great work of dramatic art, the Merchant of Venice, where Shylock was treated as an unpleasant Jew (with a lovely, self-effacing daughter) who dealt mainly in shady usury. His speech to the court is one of Shakespeare’s most remembered: “Hath not a Jew eyes? / Hath […]