By Kareff Rafisura, Ladislav Charouz and Elena A. Pronina* BANGKOK | 26 October 2026 (IDN) — Cities in North and Central Asia are growing quickly, bringing them face to face with the interlinked challenges of rapid urbanisation, rising population density, and heightened vulnerability to disaster and climate risks. World Cities Day is a good opportunity to consider these […]
Why Doesn’t the US Implement Its Treaties?
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 21 October 2026 (IDN) – The US Senate—usually the Republican members—rejects multilateral treaties as if it were a sport. Others it rejects through inaction—the Law of the Sea Treaty, for example, negotiated under President Jimmy Carter and fruitlessly pushed for ratification by every president since. Republicans justify their blocking […]
Hunger Amid Plenty Is a Political Failure, UN Rights Chief Warns
The world produces more than enough food, yet conflict, inequality, waste and the concentration of farmland leave billions without an adequate diet. By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | 20 October 2026 (IDN) — The world’s farms produce more food than ever before. The average global supply now exceeds 3,000 calories per person a day. Yet more than […]
UN Experts Warn FAO Against Sidelining Human Rights
By Jaya Ramachandran Independent UN experts say the right to food and international humanitarian law must remain central to FAO’s work, warning that staff should not face reprisals for documenting starvation and famine in Gaza. GENEVA | 14 October 2026 (IDN) — A group of United Nations human rights experts has called on the Food […]
The International Year of Volunteerism: an Opportunity for a Profound Reset
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU, Nepal 14 October 2026 (IDN)— A lost opportunity. I can’t find better words to describe the rollout of the International Year of Volunteerism 2026, a rare opportunity to embed and experience the best humanity can offer. Volunteerism and civic engagement, the latter a broader concept that encompasses a variety of forms […]
Why Shift Mental Halth Care from Institutions to Communities
By Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (WHO Director-General) and Anura Kumara Dissanayake (Sri Lanka President) TIME first published this commentary on 12 October 2026, and it is reproduced with WHO’s permission. GENEVA | 13 October 2026 (IDN) — In recent decades, many countries have made meaningful progress in developing community-based mental health services. Moreover, rights-based approaches […]
A Nobel for Justice as Washington Moves Against the World Court
Navi Pillay’s Peace Prize and sweeping US sanctions on the International Criminal Court place two opposing views of international law before the world. By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | THE HAGUE 13 October 2026 (IDN) — On the same day that the United States announced sanctions against the International Criminal Court as an institution, the Norwegian […]
UN and The Hague Confront Impunity for War Crimes
By Nicolas J. S. Davies NEW YORK | 12 October 2026 (IDN) — On 9 October 2026, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navi Pillay, the South African international lawyer who defended Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid political prisoners on Robben Island, and went on to serve as a judge on the UN International Criminal […]
Two African Wars Put Civilians—and the UN’s Authority—at Risk
Ethiopia and Eritrea trade accusations before the Security Council as another deadly strike hits displaced families in Sudan. By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | ADDIS ABABA | KHARTOUM (IDN) — Wars in Ethiopia and Sudan are testing how far the United Nations can act when appeals for restraint are ignored. Ethiopia and Eritrea have carried their […]
The Slow-Motion Erasure Of The West Bank
By Dr Alon Ben-Meir* A people are being erased not in a single cataclysm, but through daily terror: bulldozers, armed settlers, night raids, demolished homes, and stolen water. The West Bank’s suffering is not a security policy—it is a warning of Israel’s own moral collapse NEW YORK | 10 October 2026 (IDN) — There are crimes […]