Category: OPINION

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte The writer is President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. NEW YORK (IDN) — On January 3, the five nuclear-weapon states party to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) issued an important Joint Statement on “preventing nuclear war […]

Viewpoint by Dr Ram Puniyani This article is the 17th in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship of the International Press Syndicate. The writer is a former professor of biomedical engineering and former senior medical officer affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (now Mumbai) and meanwhile […]

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) — We had much to be glum about as we came to the end of 2021. We are brainwashed with bad news. “If it bleeds it leads”, say the wags in the newsroom. One plane crash or celebrity’s death or royal family transgressions or Russian military manoeuvres are […]

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf* “The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is an essential pillar of international peace and security, and the heart of the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime. Its unique status is based on its near-universal membership, legally-binding obligations on disarmament, verifiable non-proliferation safeguards regime, and commitment to the peaceful use of nuclear energy”. UN Secretary-General […]

Viewpoint by M K Bhadrakumar * NEW DELHI (IDN) — A Kyodo News agency report on December 23 cited Japanese government sources to the effect that Tokyo and Washington have drawn up a draft joint operation plan that would enable the setup of an attack base along the Nansei island chain in Japan’s southwest in […]

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the UN Following is the text of a brief homage on December 26 for the Culture of Peace global network. Dear co-activists! Today the world has lost a precious treasure of humanity with the demise of Desmond Mpilo Tutu, globally respected and loved as […]

Viewpoint by Chulanee Attanayake and Chirayu Thakkar This article was issued by Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. COLOMBO | SINGAPORE (IDN) — On December 3, 2021, the South Asian headlines were dominated by the unfortunate lynching of a Sri Lankan factory manager, Priyantha Kumara. An Export Manager working in Pakistan […]

THEKCHEN CHÖLING, Dharamsala, India (IDN) — Immediately on being informed that his “respected elder spiritual brother and good friend” Archbishop Desmond Tutu had passed away, His Holiness the Dalai Lama composed a letter to the Archbishop’s daughter, Rev. Mpho Tutu. “Please accept my heartfelt condolences,” he wrote, “and convey the same to your mother and […]

Viewpoint by Yanis Iqbal ALIGARH, India (IDN) — The 2021 presidential election in Chile has resulted in the victory of the Left candidate Gabriel Boric. With nearly 56% of the vote, he has won by a margin of more than 10 percentage points—most presidents had hitherto secured only four or five point leads. In absolute […]

Viewpoint by Louis Charbonneau The writer is United Nations Director of Human Rights Watch. UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — United Nations member countries currently haggling over the organization’s 2022 budget should stand firm against Russia and China-led efforts to slash funding for UN human rights work. Every December, diplomats on the UN General Assembly’s fiscal body, […]