By Rosemary DiCarlo UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Following are extensive excerpts from Ms DiCarlo’s briefing to the Security Council on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on peace and security. NEW YORK (IDN) – It is sobering to realize that the risks the Secretary-General identified to this Council on 2 July are […]
UN Report Presents A Unified Assessment of The Critical State of Our Earth System
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – As global temperatures continue to hit new highs, the choice, according to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, is between “business as usual, leading to further calamity, or using the recovery from COVID-19 to provide a real opportunity to put the world on a sustainable path”. Speaking at […]
World Leaders Call for Funds to Stop COVID-19 Generation from Being Locked Out of the Classroom
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK (IDN) – As country lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic come to an end, an immediate priority is the fate of 30 million children who may never return to school, warns a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report. With this in view, former world leaders, […]
Feminism in The Spotlight at South African Book Fair 2020
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – “Feminism: Our Bodies, Our Truths” will take centre stage at the upcoming South African Book Fair taking place virtually from September 11-13 at the culmination of South Africa’s National Book Week. Featured speakers include Mishumo Maduma, Terry-Ann Adams, Jen Thorpe and Anelile Gibixego in discussion […]
Cameroon Decides to Save Last Intact Forest in Central Africa
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Good news is rare for those toiling to save the environment, but environmentalists could finally share the excitement of hard-won success. The government of Cameroon announced on August 14 it was cancelling plans to log some 170,000 acres of the Ebo Forest, home to hundreds […]
Media and Artists Join UN in Fighting COVID-19 Fake News
By Franck Kuwonu * NEW YORK (IDN) – Aissata Diop, a Senegalese mother of four, living in Pikine on the outskirts of the capital city Dakar, had long heard that consuming garlic and lemon could have health benefits. So, when her friend, Ramatou, displayed a message on her phone saying that drinking a daily bowl […]
The Elders Urge World Leaders to Take Action or Risk Nuclear Catastrophe
By Jutta Wolf BERLIN | LONDON (IDN) – A group of eminent world leaders, comprising The Elders, has called on the heads of states of five permanent members (P5) of the UN Security Council to use the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki “as a moment to reflect […]
Southeast Asia Rejects Confrontation to Tame ‘Increasingly Aggressive’ China
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) – Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne during a joint press conference in Washington on July 29 with her U.S. counterpart Mike Pompeo bluntly remarked that although the two countries often hold common positions because they share fundamental values, yet “we don’t agree on everything”. She not only refrained from echoing […]
A German Law Might Put an End to Human Rights Violations in Supply Chains
Viewpoint by Franziska Korn, Friedich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES)* BERLIN (IDN) – For over half a decade, the German government has been working to enact mandatory compliance for companies regarding human rights and environmental protection in their supply chains. The United Nations has also pushed for this measure. Adopted in 2011 by the UN Human Rights Council, the […]
UN Gathering To Call for Robust and Urgent Actions to Advance Gender Equality
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK (IDN) – Twenty-five years after its adoption the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, member states and observers, civil society organizations, gender equality leaders, CEOs, and heads of academia will gather virtually on July 21 in a multi-stakeholder hearing. The purpose is to bolster priority actions at the global and […]