HUMAN DEVELOPMENT – Page 101

USA and Canada2017-04-242023-07-10

U.S. to Test Launch an Unarmed Minuteman III ICBM

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – At a time of extraordinary tension between the U.S. and North Korea, with each side flexing its military muscle and making implicit and explicit threats, the U.S. has announced the test launch of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on April 26.

Commenting the announcement, David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF), said: “When it comes to missile testing, the U.S. is operating with a clear double standard: It views its own tests as justified and useful, while it views the tests of North Korea as threatening and destabilizing.”

EU & Europe2017-04-212023-07-10

UN’s First Female Force Commander Talks Gender Equality in the Military

By Shana L. Childs* | Reproduced courtesy of PassBlue

NEW YORK (IDN | Passblue) – Maj. Gen. Kristin Lund made history in 2014 when she was appointed the first female force commander of a United Nations peacekeeping mission – in this case, Cyprus. Still in active duty in the Norwegian military, General Lund, 58, gives lectures and advises the Norwegian Defense University College in Oslo. Although she is proud to have made history and wants to see more women in the world’s militaries, General Lund has no silver bullets for peace.

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-04-152023-07-10

Sport as a Tool for Achieving SDGs

By Desmond Brown

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (IDN) – Investing in sport can help reduce spiralling health costs and promote education, social cohesion and gender equality, says a new guidebook published by The Commonwealth.

The recommendations of the guidebook, titled ‘Enhancing the Contribution of Sport to the Sustainable Development Goals’, are important to the Caribbean, where chronic and communicable diseases are devastating to individuals and community, threatening the quality of life and becoming an increasingly negative factor in the region’s development.

USA and Canada2017-04-112023-07-10

Trump Shows His Muscles

Analysis by Pier Francesco Zarcone*

LISBON (IDN) – Not knowing what will happen next, commenting in the immediate wake of the U.S. missile attack on the Shayrat airbase in Syria on the night of April 7 is risky but not sterile, at least to try to understand a bit more than the pre-packaged “petty lessons” of the mouthpieces of the United States, in Italy and elsewhere, were quick to recite.

Coincidentally, the muscular display of [U.S. President Donald] Trump comes shortly after the publication by IDN of an article the essence of which was the substantial uselessness of international law, given that the great powers violate it continually

Middle East & North Africa2017-03-302023-07-10

Yemen, a Hushed Up Imperialist War

By Pier Francesco Zarcone*

ROME (IDN) – The US government intends to increase military aid to Saudi Arabia in its war against Yemen, according to recent reports. For the vast majority of the general public the news may be surprising, given that the ongoing conflict in Yemen is almost “non-news” as a result of the almost complete silence of the mainstream media. More importantly, most people probably do not know the causes.

From monarchy to republic

A summary reconstruction of the troubled and bloody history of Yemen can start in 1962, when a military coup backed by Egypt deposed the last monarch, Zaydi Shiite Muhhammad al-Badr, and the Republic was proclaimed.

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-03-282023-07-10

Jamaica’s ‘Tambourine Army’ on the Gender Violence Warpath

By Desmond Brown

KINGSTON, Jamaica (ACP-IDN) – In the wake of an alarming upsurge in domestic violence and abuse of women and girls, a new group has emerged here with the promise of a revolution for social change, combating gender-based violence in particular – the “Tambourine Army”.

On its Facebook page, the Tambourine Army describes itself as a radical social-justice movement committed to uprooting the scourge of sexual violence and safeguarding the rights of women and girls.

The group first came to public attention on Sunday, February 8, when 14 women staged a peaceful protest at the Nazareth Moravian Church in the central parish of Manchester, rallying support for a 15-year-old St Elizabeth school girl allegedly abused by the pastor of the congregation.

EU & Europe2017-03-232023-07-10

Nuclear Disarmament, Trump and the Nordic Countries

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – When asked what Sweden thought the Trump Administration should do by way of contributing to nuclear disarmament, the Swedish ambassador in Iceland, Bosse Hedberg, replied: “At this point in time, I am not aware of any common Nordic position being prepared in response to the new U.S. administration’s view on this issue. As one can gather from the media, the new president seems rather inclined to invest more in U.S. nuclear capacities than in scrapping part of U.S. weapons.”

Sweden was the only Nordic country to attend the UNOG Conference on Disarmament held March 21-22 in Geneva, although Finland and Norway are also members.

EU & Europe2017-03-152023-07-10

The Erosion of International Law – Who Cares?

By Julia Rainer

VIENNA (IDN) – “In Syria we have an attack on hospitals every 17 hours, in fact we say the most dangerous place in the country to be in is a hospital. So I ask you, does anyone still believe there is something like international humanitarian law?”

With these sobering words, Zedoun Al-Zoubi, CEO of the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations (UOSSM International) which operates in Syria, addressed the audience during a panel discussion at the fourth Humanitarian Congress held on March 3 in the Austrian capital.

USA and Canada2017-03-132023-07-10

Trump Administration May Downgrade Human Rights Issues

By Rodney Reynolds

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – There is widespread speculation in the U.S. capital that the Trump administration may play down human rights violations worldwide and even withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The speculation has been prompted by several factors, including a proposed 37 percent cut in the annual State Department budget, a low-profiled release of the annual U.S. human Rights Report on March 3 (with no briefings, breaking traditions, by the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson) and his refusal to condemn the civilian killings ordered by the Philippine President Rodrigo Duarte, during Senate confirmation hearings.

EU & Europe2017-03-112023-07-10

Calais Migrant Camp Closure Drives Refugees To Paris Streets

By Melissa Chemam*

Note: This article is being reproduced courtesy of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s online Journal ‘International Politics and Society’ published on March 7, 2017 with the headline Refugees Welcome?

PARIS (IDN-INPS) – Since the destruction of the informal settlement of refugees and transitional migrants in Calais – now known as the “Jungle”– in October 2016, the French government promised to find housing for all three to four-thousand people forced to leave the area. They have opened about 500 welcome centres to redistribute the fleeing population across the country, away from Calais, neighbouring Hauts-de-France and saturated Paris.