Author: InDepthNews

By Santo D. Banerjee

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Six days after the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – the first multilateral legally-binding instrument for nuclear disarmament to have been negotiated in 20 years – opened for signature on September 20, the General Assembly held a high-level meeting to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

Ministers and representatives of 46 Member States, delegations, the United Nations system and civil society took the floor on September 26 against a backdrop of rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, stressing the urgent need for firm political will to advance towards the total elimination of all nuclear weapons by taking to an inclusive, step-by-step approach.

By Jaya Ramachandran

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Though more than 80 former colonies have gained independence since the creation of the United Nations 72 years ago, 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories (NSGTs) across the globe, home to nearly 2 million people, remain to be decolonized. The issue will draw the focus of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) of the UN General Assembly from October 2 to 10.

The Committee Chair Rafael Darío Ramírez Carreño of Venezuela said he had received an aide-mémoire containing 159 requests for hearings on French Polynesia, Gibraltar, Guam, New Caledonia, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Western Sahara, which had been circulated to delegations by email. The President of French Polynesia, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, the Governor of Guam and the President of New Caledonia, or their representatives, would address the Committee, he told the Committee on September 28.

By UN Women

UNITED NATIONS (IDN-INPS) – African advocates, pioneers, and thought leaders of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, together with the Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende, took stock of the achievements and challenges for women building sustainable peace on the continent at a high-level event on September 22 during the 72nd General Assembly.

“If peace processes do not include women, civil society and youth, they are not sustainable,” Børge Brende summarized the common understanding motivating all panellists in their endeavour.

When the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) in 2000 and acknowledged the multifaceted role women play for peace and conflict, it was a milestone. In the aftermath, advocates all around the globe pushed Member States for its tangible implementation via National Action Plans (NAPs).

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | COLOMBO (IDN) – Sri Lanka has refrained from signing the landmark UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that was adopted by 122 countries on July 7, 2017 and opened for signature on September 20 at the UN headquarters in New York.

The decision not to sign the Treaty has triggered questions and concern at home and abroad. “Sri Lanka voted for the resolution adopting this very same Treaty [. . .], when we had a different Foreign Minister and Foreign Secretary. Has there now been a change of policy after a new minister assumed office?,” wonders the Friday Forum, a think tank based in Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka.

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – The President of the United States, Donald Trump, made an unprecedented speech to the UN General Assembly endorsing nationalism around the world, and called for a “great reawakening of nations, for the revival of their spirits, their pride, their people and their patriotism”.

Trump told the UN delegates on September 19 that he was going to put America First and that “sovereign nation-states should also put the interests of their own citizens first”. He suggested that governments should cooperate within the UN to make the world better, and to deal with certain rogue regimes.

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda

GENEVA (IDN) – Securing a fourth term as German Chancellor is not an easy feat. But Angela Merkel is returning to a different Bundestag (German Parliament) after the dramatic rise of the far right in the German election on September 24. Its emergence as the third largest force in Germany is a wake-up call signifying the erosion of trust in the political establishment.

The AfD or Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) in many ways comes close to Donald Trump’s White Supremacists in the United States, the PiS (Law and Justice) right-wing nationalist Party in Poland, and the “Knicker-Dharis” of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India. (The Knicker-Dharis is the term coined by the historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam in “Is Indian Civilization A Myth?“, are the extreme right-wing nationalists in India who are known for their “fear-mongering against minorities and immigrants.”). They all have a common ideology and political mission: “Getting back our country and our Volk!”

By Adriano José Timossi*

NEW YORK (IDN) – A review of the economic situation with a focus on the recent developments in the world and the economic, social and environmental challenges faced by developing countries in particular was the main topic in the deliberations and declaration adopted at the 41st Ministerial Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 (G77) and China on September 22 at the UN headquarters in New York on the side-lines of the UN General Assembly.

Ministers were deeply concerned about the uneven progress achieved in fulfilling the interrelated internationally agreed commitments made at numerous UN conferences in the economic, social and environmental fields and by the lack of satisfactory progress in this regard.

By Devendra Kamarajan

NEW YORK (IDN) – Ecuador plans to host a Dialogue on Culture of Peace, according to President Lenin Moreno of Ecuador and Chair of the Group of 77 (G77) and China. This event will gather personalities of the South to “reflect on the aspirations of unity and solidarity that motivated the 77 countries to unite their voices in 1964,” he told the meeting of ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group that meanwhile represents over two-thirds of the 193 United Nations membership.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group gathered in New York for their annual meeting on September 22, traditionally held on the sidelines of the high-level week of deliberations by world leaders at the UN General Assembly during its 72nd session that convened on September 12.