Category: UN INSIDER

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – As the delegations prepared to reconvene the Conference on Cyprus on June 28 in Switzerland, the United Nations envoy Espen Barth Eide said the reconvening of the deliberations was “not the last chance” but the “the best chance” of reaching an agreement between Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots.

The talks are taking place following a meeting between the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders early June, when the UN Chief announced that they had agreed on the need to reconvene the Conference on Cyprus in June, in line with the January 12 statement of the conference.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Jayathma Wickramanayake of Sri Lanka is the new UN Envoy on Youth. She succeeds Ahmad Alhendawi of Jordan. Announcing this appointment, Secretary-General António Guterres said he was grateful for Alhendawi’s dedicated service in addressing the needs and rights of young people, bringing the work of the United Nations closer to them.

The success of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development depends on empowering young people as rights-holders, agents of change and torchbearers, Guterres said.

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – Global opium production increased by one-third in 2016 compared with the previous year, primarily due to higher opium poppy yields in Afghanistan, and coca bush cultivation increased by 30 percent mainly as a result of increased cultivation in Colombia.

Following a period of decline, there are also signs that cocaine use is increasing in the two largest markets, North America and Europe.

These are among the findings reported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in this year’s World Drug Report, released on June 22.

By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY (IDN) – As Papua New Guinea – one of the world’s most ethnically and linguistically diverse nations – prepares for national elections from June 24 to July 8, authorities are calling for peace and calm.

Historically, tensions during polling, vote counting and the announcement of winners has erupted into widespread violence, but the phenomenon is not limited to election periods in this south-western Pacific island country.

“Increased access to high-powered guns such as military style M16s and homemade shotguns, and the breakdown of traditional rules of warfare, has amplified the effects of violence, resulting in dozens – if not hundreds – of violent deaths and thousands of displacements each year, especially in the Highlands. We are seeing wounds that one would see in war zones,” says International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) chief official in PNG, Mark Kessler.

By Ramesh Jaura

This is the fourth in a series of articles from Kazakhstan which being geographically located both in Asia and Europe, considers itself a Eurasian country. The articles are based on information gathered during a visit from June 7 to June 15 on the occasion of the opening of EXPO 2017 in Astana. Video clips accompany the articles in this series. – The Editor

ASTANA (IDN) – Twenty-five years of independence marked by 25 major achievements leading up to EXPO 2017 that focuses on ‘Future Energy’ have catapulted Kazakhstan on to the world map, firmly challenging the prevailing view that this, the world’s largest landlocked transcontinental country, is still part of the Eurasian steppes.

Touted by some as the ‘Disneyland for Adults’ and ‘a virtual reality beyond science fiction’ by others, EXPO 2017 shows the ways to access affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. It is seventh of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to transform our world by 2030, by way of ending “poverty in all its forms” as envisaged in Goal 1. – WATCH THE RELATED VIDEO –

By Jamshed Baruah

BERLIN | VIENNA (IDN) – While UN member states are negotiating at the United Nations headquarters in New York a legally binding instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons, experts from around the world will be gathering in Vienna from June 26 to 30 to review monitoring and verification technologies crucial to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT),

The forthcoming gathering – officially known as ‘The CTBT: Science and Technology 2017 Conference (SnT2017)’ – is the sixth in a series of multidisciplinary conferences designed to “further enhance the strong relationship between the scientific and technological community and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty Organization (CTBTO) as well as with policy-makers.”

By Yury Fedotov

The author is the Executive Director of the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Following are extensive excerpts from his remarks – made available by the UN Information Service – at the UN General Assembly side event on transnational organized crime challenges and responses in Southeast Asia on June 19, 2017. – The Editor

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Transnational organized crime is a growing challenge to security and development in Southeast Asia. It threatens the very foundations of the rule of law, the integrity of public institutions, and the basic security and health of people and communities.

By Ramesh Jaura

This is the third in a series of articles from Kazakhstan which being geographically located both in Asia and Europe, considers itself a Eurasian country. The articles are based on information gathered during a visit from June 7 to June 15 on the occasion of the opening of EXPO 2017 in Astana. Video clips accompany the articles in this series. – The Editor

ASTANA (IDN) – Kazakhstan, which is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018, played a crucial role in the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), chaired by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, on June 8-9 in Astana.

The United Nations drew much of the focus of the SCO heads of state gathered in the Kazakh capital city. But they also underlined the importance of the Organisation’s further consolidation as an effective full-fledged regional platform aimed at active participation in building a more equitable, polycentric model of the world order.

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – Questioning Saudi Arabia’s membership on the Human Rights Council is a “distraction,” a “gross oversimplification,” and an “attempt to stigmatize”, according to Philip Alston, a prominent New York University (NYU) scholar who serves as the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

Alston, who presented a report on June 8 on Saudi Arabia, was responding to a question posed in the plenary of the 47-nation Human Rights Council by Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights group monitoring the world body.