Category: UN INSIDER

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | COLOMBO (IDN) – Sri Lanka has refrained from signing the landmark UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that was adopted by 122 countries on July 7, 2017 and opened for signature on September 20 at the UN headquarters in New York.

The decision not to sign the Treaty has triggered questions and concern at home and abroad. “Sri Lanka voted for the resolution adopting this very same Treaty [. . .], when we had a different Foreign Minister and Foreign Secretary. Has there now been a change of policy after a new minister assumed office?,” wonders the Friday Forum, a think tank based in Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka.

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – The President of the United States, Donald Trump, made an unprecedented speech to the UN General Assembly endorsing nationalism around the world, and called for a “great reawakening of nations, for the revival of their spirits, their pride, their people and their patriotism”.

Trump told the UN delegates on September 19 that he was going to put America First and that “sovereign nation-states should also put the interests of their own citizens first”. He suggested that governments should cooperate within the UN to make the world better, and to deal with certain rogue regimes.

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda

GENEVA (IDN) – Securing a fourth term as German Chancellor is not an easy feat. But Angela Merkel is returning to a different Bundestag (German Parliament) after the dramatic rise of the far right in the German election on September 24. Its emergence as the third largest force in Germany is a wake-up call signifying the erosion of trust in the political establishment.

The AfD or Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany) in many ways comes close to Donald Trump’s White Supremacists in the United States, the PiS (Law and Justice) right-wing nationalist Party in Poland, and the “Knicker-Dharis” of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India. (The Knicker-Dharis is the term coined by the historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam in “Is Indian Civilization A Myth?“, are the extreme right-wing nationalists in India who are known for their “fear-mongering against minorities and immigrants.”). They all have a common ideology and political mission: “Getting back our country and our Volk!”

By Adriano José Timossi*

NEW YORK (IDN) – A review of the economic situation with a focus on the recent developments in the world and the economic, social and environmental challenges faced by developing countries in particular was the main topic in the deliberations and declaration adopted at the 41st Ministerial Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group of 77 (G77) and China on September 22 at the UN headquarters in New York on the side-lines of the UN General Assembly.

Ministers were deeply concerned about the uneven progress achieved in fulfilling the interrelated internationally agreed commitments made at numerous UN conferences in the economic, social and environmental fields and by the lack of satisfactory progress in this regard.

By Devendra Kamarajan

NEW YORK (IDN) – Ecuador plans to host a Dialogue on Culture of Peace, according to President Lenin Moreno of Ecuador and Chair of the Group of 77 (G77) and China. This event will gather personalities of the South to “reflect on the aspirations of unity and solidarity that motivated the 77 countries to unite their voices in 1964,” he told the meeting of ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group that meanwhile represents over two-thirds of the 193 United Nations membership.

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group gathered in New York for their annual meeting on September 22, traditionally held on the sidelines of the high-level week of deliberations by world leaders at the UN General Assembly during its 72nd session that convened on September 12.

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – When the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Resolution to declare 2016-2025 as the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA III) in August 2016, it stated: “Africa remains the poorest and the most vulnerable region in the world.” And this despite the two previous decades.

The Resolution A/RES/70/293 noted “the need for the continent to take urgent action to advance sustainable industrialization as a key element of furthering economic diversification and value addition, creating jobs and thus reducing poverty,” and contributing to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

By Shanta Roy

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The international community took its first significant step towards a world free of nuclear weapons when over 50 countries signed a landmark treaty, which was adopted by UN member states on July 7.

The signing ceremony, which began September 20 on the sidelines of the 72nd session of the General Assembly, is expected to continue, as more countries will join the list of signatories to a treaty that was overwhelmingly voted on by 122 countries, with one against (Netherlands) and one abstention (Singapore).

The treaty has taken added significance against the backdrop of a possible military confrontation – and triggered by nuclear threats – by two nuclear powers, the United States and North Korea.

By Jaya Ramachandran

BERLIN | ORDOS CITY, China (IDN) – Land degradation is one of the planet’s most pressing global challenges. A third of the world’s land is degraded. But the good news is that by the end of the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on September 16, 2017 in China’s Ordos City, 113 countries had agreed to specify concrete targets, with clear indicators, to reverse degradation and rehabilitate more land.

A new global roadmap to address land degradation was also agreed. The UNCCD 2018-2030 Strategic Framework is regarded as the most comprehensive global commitment to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) in order to restore the productivity of vast swathes of degraded land, improve the livelihoods of more than 1.3 billion people, and to reduce the impacts of drought on vulnerable populations.

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – For the first time in twelve years, the UN General Assembly has included – with the recorded vote of 113 in favour to 21 against, and 17 abstentions – “The Responsibility to Protect” in the agenda for its 72nd session that kicked off on September 12.

The protractors of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) consider it a global political commitment, which was endorsed by all member states of the United Nations at the 2005 World Summit to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Yet, as a “not an official record” of the General Assembly’s plenary on September 15 points out, several delegations took the floor to express their concerns about formally adding the item to the agenda.

By Julia Rainer

VIENNA (IDN) – “Smuggling of migrants, trafficking in persons and contemporary forms of slavery, including appropriate identification, protection and assistance to migrants and trafficking victims,” was the title of the Fifth thematic session of the UN General Assembly hosted on September 4-5 by the United Nations Office in Vienna (UNOV).

The event aimed at supporting the inter-governmental process designed to lead to the adoption in 2018 of a global compact on safe, orderly and regular migration – a goal agreed by the member states when adopting the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants in September 2016.