When you add up the regular UN Secretariat and peacekeeping budgets, the annual average cost of the UN for each person on the planet is about $1.25; that’s about the cost of a bag of chips in New York. — UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq. UNITED NATIONS | 7 January 2024 (IDN | UN News) […]
The Problem of Refugee Camps in the Middle East and North Africa
By Saurav Sarkar* This article was produced by Globetrotter. NEW YORK | 5 January 2024 (IDN) — In 2024, 12 percent of “forcibly displaced and stateless people” are expected to be from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, said the United Nations. This displacement will be caused due to war, humanitarian crises, and […]
Migrants Can Be Climate Action Champions
By Shoko Noda The writer is the UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Crisis Bureau Director. NEW YORK | 4 January 2024 (IDN) — When we think of migration in the context of climate change, it is most often in relation to the thousands, or even millions, of people displaced by extreme weather. The numbers, while […]
COP28 – Massive Disappointments, Slight Glimmers of Hope
By Volker Boege* Toda Peace Institute issued this article, and it is being republished with their permission. BRISBANE, Australia | 4 January 2024 (IDN) — At the closing plenary of COP28, Anne Rasmussen from Samoa, the lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS), expressed her disappointment about the conference’s outcome in no […]
In Pursuit of Eliminating Hamas, Israel Might Bring Forth Something Worse
By Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA | 3 January 2023 (IDN) — After futile attempts by others to get the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate allegations of genocide against the parties in the war in Gaza, South Africa raised the […]
Controversies Mar the Reputation of Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus
By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury DHAKA | 2 January 2024 (IDN) — For many decades, Muhammad Yunus succeeded in remaining in the attention of international media and global celebrities and leaders by continuing self-promotion as the ‘savior of the poor’, ‘father of microcredit’ etc. Interestingly, many leaders in the West, including former US First Lady […]
One Man’s Fight Against the Madness of Missiles
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 2 January 2024 (IDN) — The nuclear weapon missile business is contradictory, full of missteps, highly dangerous and prepared in its madness (Mutually Assured Destruction, aka MAD, they used to call it in Cold War days) to plunge the world into a nuclear war that will reduce most of […]
Peace and Security: Homage to a Buddhist Spiritual Leader and a Great Writer
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | 1 January 2024 (IDN) — “Even an old fountain pen, if it happened to have belonged to some great writer, is looked on with awe and reverence by the people of later times, for they feel that somehow it is capable of revealing the secrets of the great man’s masterpieces,” […]
Yet Another Challenge for 2024
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | 31 December 2023 (IDN) — The New Year marks our 15th anniversary. Since going online in 2009, we have devoted ourselves to in-depth news and analysis of issues that impact the world, particularly the countries of the Global South. Our focus has been on promoting the bold and transformative 2030 […]
Cold War Politics at the Security Council—and its Lighter Side
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 29 December 2023 (IDN) — The devastating battle between Israel and Hamas has proved once again the ineffectiveness of the 15-member Security Council which is mandated to ensure international peace and security. But that mandate has not helped either in resolving some of the longstanding civil wars and military […]