Statement at the 62nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council By Hussen Hubadin Zamzame GENEVA | Switzerland| 6 July 2026 (IDN) Good afternoon Excellencies distinguished delegates colleagues and friends My name is Hussen and I am a human rights journalist. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today on the […]
Eritrean Human Rights Mandate Renewed as UN Council Defies Opposition
By Daniel Tesfa and Filmon Gebremikael ANTWERPEN | Belgium | 6 July 2026 (IDN) — The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has voted to renew the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Eritrea for another year, following strong advocacy from the European Union and Eritrean civil society […]
Battle Intensifies Over UN Eritrea Rights Mandate
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA | 6 July 2026 (IDN) — For thousands of Eritreans worldwide, the UN Special Rapporteur’s office is more than an international appointment. It remains one of the few channels for victims, political prisoners, and families separated by exile to reach the international community. For this reason, the Worldwide Eritrean Community has […]
Africa’s Security at a Crossroads: A Continent Confronts a Changing Worl
By Ramesh Jaura This article was first published on https://rjaura.substack.com/ BERLIN | 4 July 2026 (IDN) — There was a time when Africa was often portrayed as standing at the margins of international politics—its conflicts treated as regional crises, its development challenges largely divorced from the wider currents shaping the global order. That perception no […]
Durable Solutions Must Be Defined by Those Who Live Them
By Shabnam Baloch The writer is the Country Director at Oxfam in South Sudan. JUBA, South Sudan | 2 July 2026 (IDN) — As experts gathered in New York earlier this month to discuss the future of the humanitarian landscape and durable solutions for displaced people, the conversations touched on linking humanitarian response to long-term […]
Malawi Has No Coastline. We’re Fighting for The Ocean Anyway
By Dr George Chaponda The writer is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Malawi. LILONGWE, Malawi | 1 July 2026 (IDN) — When Malawi became the first landlocked country to ratify the BBNJ Agreement, we affirmed a simple but powerful principle: stewardship of the global commons is a shared responsibility, not a […]
Whither the Law of the Sea?
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 1 July 2026 (IDN) — David Attenborough said in his wondrous documentary film, Ocean, that it had taken him a long time in his 99 years of life to understand that for the survival of our planet the oceans are more important than the land. This past four months, as […]
The US Occupation of the Indian Ocean ‘Zone of Peace’, the Next UNSG and the World’s First Woman Head of State
By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake* COLOMBO, Sri Lanka | 30 June 2026 (IDN) — America’s war of choice on Iran has spread across the Indian Ocean World and maritime Silk Route. Starved of oil and gas, South and Southeast Asia’s emerging economies have seen their local currencies fall against the ‘exorbitantly privileged’ Petrodollar as public and private […]
The Ceasefire in Gaza: A Deadly Illusion
By Somar Wijayadasa* NEW YORK | 30 June 2026 (IDN) — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has described the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza as a “cruel and deadly illusion” as Israel continues to attack the besieged enclave. “During a period supposedly defined by restraint and protection, a child has been killed, on average, every […]
Food Security in Mozambique Begins with Empowered Coastal Communities
By Dr Atanasio Brito* MAPUTO, Mozambique | 28 June 2026 (IDN) — Mozambique’s Indian Ocean coastline is 1,500 miles (2,470 kilometres)—as long as the combined coastlines of France and Spain. With three out of five Mozambicans living near the water, fish and fishing play a central role in our diets and incomes—fish supplies 50% of […]