By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 8 May 2024 (IDN) — Napoleon warned us that China was a sleeping giant best left, undisturbed. No longer. As is clear from the visit of President Xi Jinping to France this week, the giant is well awake, even happy to pay a ceremonial visit to Napoleon’s tomb, affirming […]
A Mixed Reception at Talks on an Anti-Pollution Plastic Treaty
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU Nepal | 5 May 2024 (IDN)– The fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4), negotiating a draft treaty against plastic pollution, one of the growing environmental hazards, was held in Ottawa, Canada, 23-29 April. But how did the talks end? It depends. Certainly, you do not need to be an […]
UN Conference to Assist Small Island States to Defy Multiple Crises
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | 4 May 2024 (IDN) — “Charting the Course Toward Resilient Prosperity” is the overarching theme of the fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS4) to be held from 27 to 30 May 2024 in St John’s, Antigua and Barbuda at the American University of Antigua. The Conference has […]
Indian Ocean “Zone of Peace” Sinking in Troubled Waters
By Thalif Deen* UNITED NATIONS | 8 April 2024 (IDN) — Just after a group of mercenaries tried to unsuccessfully oust the government of the Maldives in 1979, I asked a Maldivian diplomat, using a military jargon, about the strength of his country’s “standing army”. “Standing army?”, the diplomat asked with mock surprise, and remarked […]
UN’s Ocean Treaty Cries Out for Ratifications
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 6 March 2024 (IDN) — When the UN finalized the text of a long-drawn-out Global Ocean Treaty on 4 March 2023, Secretary-General António Guterres described it as a major breakthrough because it marked “the culmination of nearly two decades of negotiations and builds on the legacy of the United […]
A High Seas Treaty Aimed at Protecting Polluted Oceans is Now a Reality
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS. 16 September 2023 (IDN) — A historic new international treaty, described as “a monumental win for the protection of the world’s oceans”, will be open for signature by member states beginning September 20 during the high-level meeting of world political leaders at the UN General Assembly (UNGA). The treaty will […]
Rainbow Warrior Sails the Pacific to Gather Evidence for World Court
By Sera Sefeti SUVA, Fiji. 14 August 2023 (IDN) — International environmental campaign group Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior is currently sailing across the Pacific waters, calling at ports collecting evidence to present to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), also called the World Court, during a historic hearing in The Hague next year. Rainbow Warrior staff […]
UN Adopts Historic Global Treaty on Oceans
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS, 20 June 2023 (IDN)— After years of negotiations, the United Nations has reached an agreement on a Global Ocean Treaty aimed at ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity which covers over two thirds of the world’s high seas. “You have pumped new life and hope to give […]
Strategies Grounded in Scientific Research: Restoring Marine Ecosystem
By UN Academic Impact (UNAI) NEW YORK, 12 April 2023 (IDN) — Covering more than 70% of the planet, the oceans are arguably Earth’s most powerful resource. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States, close to six hundred thousand kilometers of coastline edge them, and almost one-third of the […]
A New UN Treaty Seeks to Protect One-third of World’s Oceans
By J Nastranis NEW YORK, 5 March 2023 (IDN) — After two weeks of tough negotiations at the UN Headquarters in New York, the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction—better known by its acronym BBNJ—has agreed on a text to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of […]