GLOBAL ISSUES – Page 149 – IDN-InDepthNews

Nuclear Weapons2017-05-242023-07-10

U.S. Prepares To Confront Nuclear Ban Treaty With Smart Bombs

Analysis by Rick Wayman*

WASHINGTON, D.C: (IDN) – On May 23, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued a press release celebrating President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget. DOE specifically lauded the proposed “$10.2 billion for Weapons Activities to maintain and enhance the safety, security, and effectiveness of our nuclear weapons enterprise.”

Less than 24 hours earlier, Ambassador Elayne Whyte of Costa Rica released a draft of a treaty banning nuclear weapons. Ambassador Whyte is President of the United Nations Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination. Over 130 nations have participated in the ban treaty negotiations thus far. A final treaty text is expected by early July.

USA and Canada2017-05-242023-07-10

Trump 2018 Budget Proposes Hike in Arms Spending

WASHINGTON, D.C.(IDN | NAPF) – The U.S. Department of Energy released Trump’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget request on May 23. The budget includes a $54 billion increase in defence spending, including $10.2 billion for supposed “Weapons activities to maintain and enhance the safety, security and effectiveness of our nuclear weapons enterprise.” Details of exactly what is included in the $10.2 billion increase have not yet been released.

While the overall budget includes significant increases to defence spending, it also includes significant cuts to scientific research, medical research, disease prevention and health insurance for children of the working poor. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current funding would be cut by more than 30 percent. Planned Parenthood would not receive any Health and Human Services Funding.

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-05-232023-07-10

Ecuador Annuls 16 Investment Treaties To Duck Costly Disputes

By Daniel Uribe*

GENEVA (IDN | SOUTHNEWS) – Ecuador has unilaterally withdrawn from its remaining 16 bilateral investment treaties (BITs). With this decision, Ecuador has concluded the termination of 26 BITs signed by the country since 1968.

The 16 BITS which Ecuador is withdrawing from had been signed with the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, China, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, and Chile.

The Ecuadorian move is part of similar measures taken in recent years by a growing number of developing countries to withdraw from their bilateral investment treaties. These include South Africa, Bolivia, Indonesia and India.

EU & Europe2017-05-232023-07-10

Uzbekistan Shows the Way for Dealing with Cultural Legacy

By Shastri Ramachandaran

TASHKENT | SAMARKAND (IDN) – Cultural legacies, with their inevitable potential for controversies compounded by competing claims between contending nations, can be fraught affairs. Disputes over art works and artefacts of one country being found in another are legion. The UNESCO convention, which mandates return of illegally acquired objects to country of origin when provenance is established beyond doubt, is actually an acknowledgement that disputes are bound to persist and, therefore, require a basis to be addressed.

Although there are numerous instances where countries have resolved disputes over cultural objects in an amicable manner, many a long-running controversial case remains unresolved. One of the best-known cases is that of India’s fabled Kohinoor diamond.

Nuclear Weapons2017-05-162023-07-10

Get On With Disarmament, Don’t Rant About North Korea

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – During the French election no candidate talked about France’s nuclear weapons. In Britain, the subject has been raised in its election in an attempt to undermine the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. But the long-time anti-bomb activist compromised his views, saying in effect he was against them but Labour Party policy was for them.

Meanwhile, the Western nations worry and rage about North Korea’s nuclear weapons development. There is a lack of principle and honesty as well as an overdose of self-delusion as to their effectiveness as a deterrent in this whole bomb game.

Middle East & North Africa2017-05-052023-07-10

Suspense Abounds in Iran’s Presidential Elections

By Mortezagholi Raissi

BONN | TEHRAN (IDN) – In the run-up to the Presidential elections in Iran on May 19, all but six of the 1600 women and men who were registered as presidential candidates for the twelfth poll since the ‘Islamic Revolution’ that resulted in the toppling of the monarchy on April 1, 1979, have been axed.

The spokesman of the powerful ‘Guardian Council’ announced in an interview with the Iranian television on April 26 that only the six approved candidates fulfilled the requirements for standing for elections to the office of the President.

The Guardian Council consists of 12 persons, 6 of whom are scholars appointed directly by Ayatollah Khamenei, the country’s Supreme Leader, and the other 6 are jurists, who need to be confirmed by the Parliament. However, the chairman of the Council is a confidant of the leader. But all candidates are requited to be local to the regime.

Nuclear Weapons2017-05-042023-07-10

Nuclear Risks in North East Asia Call For A Mutual Pullback

By Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

This is the text of a statement issued on May 4 by Pugwash President Jayantha Dhanapala, Secretary General Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, Executive Committee Chair Steve Miller, Council Mark Suh and Executive Committee’s Tatsujiro Suzuki. – The Editor

KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN-INPS) – The mounting confrontation with North Korea is raising grave dangers. Both sides have made potentially escalatory moves. Indeed, the combination of harsh rhetoric and threatening military actions has produced a situation that has been characterized by some in the United States as a Cuban missile crisis in slow motion. As was true in 1962, there is an unusual sense that events can slip out of control, that disastrous outcomes could result from the dynamics now underway in Northeast Asia.

Nuclear Weapons2017-04-292023-07-10

Preparing for 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – The States party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) convene every five years to review the implementation of this nuclear disarmament regime in three sessions. In run-up to the 2020 NPT Review Conference, the first session of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) will meet from May 2-12 in Vienna.

The Austrian capital, which serves as the associate headquarters of the UN, has come to play a historic role in the world body’s efforts for a legal treaty aimed at ushering in a nuclear-weapons-free world. In December 2014, it was the venue of the third Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons – after Nayarit (Mexico) in February 2014 and Oslo in March 2013 – which paved the path to the ‘Austrian Pledge’, also known as the ‘Humanitarian Pledge’, to “stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons”.

Nuclear Weapons2017-04-282023-07-10

In Memoriam: Remembering Miguel Marin Bosch*

Pugwash President Jayantha Dhanapala reflects on the life of Pugwash Council Member Miguel Marin Bosch.

KANDY – I am personally grieved to learn of the death of Ambassador Miguel Marin Bosch, a redoubtable champion of disarmament throughout his distinguished career as Mexico’s Disarmament Ambassador in Geneva and other multilateral fora.

Miguel Marin Bosch was closely associated with me in several Review Conferences of the Treaty for the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) where he stood steadfast against any compromise on fundamental principles. With his prodigious expertise and mordant wit, he was the bane of some of the nuclear weapon states who shamelessly lobbied to silence him, especially at the NPT Review and Extension Conference of 1995.

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-04-272023-07-10

Barbados Takes Legal Stride on Gender Equality

By Desmond Brown

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (ACP-IDN) – The tiny Caribbean island of Barbados has taken a major step towards ensuring gender equality in its judicial system with the development of a draft gender equality protocol for magistrates and judges.

The document, being hailed as the first of its kind within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), will support the judiciary in using gender analysis to ensure that both women and men have equal access to justice.

“If gender stereotypes are unconsciously held, if they are not the product of a deliberate intention to discriminate, how can we as judges avoid falling prey to them? This is where the establishment of this protocol is so important,” said Justice Adrian Saunders, a judge at the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).