UN INSIDER Archives - Page 108 of 114

UN INSIDER2016-03-182023-07-10

Strong Plea for a Female UN Chief, Kudos for Ban Ki-moon

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – United Nations General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have expressed their support for choosing a woman as the next UN Chief.

Speaking on ‘women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development’ at the opening of the sixtieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) on March 14, Lykketoft said: “. . .the drive for Gender Equality has been the business of this Commission long before the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“And the empowerment of women and girls has been advanced by courageous feminists, women activists, government officials and others long before the 2030 Agenda was agreed.” So what exactly has changed since September 2015?

UN INSIDER2016-03-182023-07-10

High-level Talks in Brussels to Adopt ACP Climate Action Plan

By Reinhardt Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – In an unprecedented move, representatives from the 79 member states of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group are meeting with top officials from the United Nations agencies as well as other influential international and regional groupings to accelerate work towards implementing the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.

High level participants in the gathering in Brussels on March 22-23 include: the European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, Miguel Cañete, who will deliver the keynote address; UN Environment Programme Director Achim Steiner; the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director General José Graziano Da Silva; and Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Petteri Taalas.

UN INSIDER2016-03-172023-07-10

Nuclear Weapons Challenge the World’s Highest Court

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | THE HAGUE (IDN) – After ten days of public hearings involving teams of eminent international lawyers – some backed by staunch proponents of ‘nuclear zero’ and others clinging to the doctrine of ‘nuclear deterrence’ – the world’s highest court is faced with a challenging task of far-reaching significance.

Not the least because this year marks the twentieth anniversaries of the 1996 ‘advisory opinion’ by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the opening for signature of the CTBT, the treaty banning all nuclear tests everywhere – nuclear tests that are at the heart of nuclear proliferation.

Explaining the core subject for ICJ’s deliberation, a famous Dutch lawyer Phon van den Biesen said, “from a legal perspective”, the issues presented by the three legal cases “are ordinary ones, but a positive outcome will, spectacularly, change the world”.

UN INSIDER2016-03-162023-07-10

Reminiscences of the United Nations and Japan’s Asia Strategy

By Prof. Makoto Taniguchi*

TOKYO (IDN) – When the United States was bashing the United Nations as an ‘Useless presence’ in the 1980s, young bureaucrats of the rank of Minister-Counsellors, who were dispatched as government representatives to the UN in New York, were using a deprecating term – a “zombie” group －to describe the situation in which they found themselves.

Counsellor Mr. Sergey Lavrov of the Soviet Union, who was like a leader among his peers, was convinced that something needs to be done about the world body. Otherwise he and others will not be respected back home. So he was inspiring the group that was otherwise beginning to lose sight of a vision to strengthen the United Nations. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE

UN INSIDER2016-03-142023-07-10

2016 Crucial for Promoting a Nuclear Weapons Free World

By Jamshed Baruah

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN | INPS) – The 25th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site and the twentieth anniversaries of the opening for signature of the treaty to ban all kinds of nuclear tests as well as of the unanimous advisory by the world’s highest court are three significant hallmarks of the year 2016.

“These historical dates are an important occasion for pooling the efforts of all countries to promote a nuclear-free world,” said Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on March 2 during a meeting in Astana with the heads of foreign diplomatic missions accredited in the republic.

The Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS or Semipalatinsk-21), also known as “The Polygon”, was the primary testing venue for the then Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons. The Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk from 1949 until 1989 with little regard for their effect on the local people or environment. The full impact of radiation exposure was hidden for many years by Soviet authorities and has only come to light since the test site closed in 1991. READ IN JAPANESE

UN INSIDER2016-03-132023-07-10

World’s Highest Court Addresses Nuclear Disarmament

By Ramesh Jaura

THE HAGUE (IDN) – Aided by a team of eminent international lawyers and backed by staunch proponents of ‘nuclear zero’, the tiny but resolute Pacific Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) wants the International Court of Justice (ICJ), principal judicial organ of the United Nations, to hold the nine nuclear weapons states – U.S., Russia, UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea – accountable to their disarmament commitments.

These are the first contentious cases about nuclear disarmament to be brought before the world’s highest court, said Rick Wayman, Director of Programs at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

The Marshall Islands filed lawsuits against all nine nuclear weapons countries in April 2014. But the U.S., Russia, China, France, Israel and North Korea do not accept the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ and are ignoring the cases brought against them. Only India, Pakistan and UK accept. READ IN JAPANESE

UN INSIDER2016-03-122023-07-10

Campaign for a Female UN Chief Gathers Momentum

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – As the selection process for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s successor begins on April 12 and 14, with member countries’ and partly public participation, a new initiative is warning that if a woman is not elected to the post this year, the next opportunity may not come until 2026. A UN Chief can serve two consecutive five-year terms.

Since 1946, the United Nations has had eight Secretaries-General, all of them men. The “UNSG LIKE ME” campaign is not leaving it to chance but actively campaigning that after eight men – Trygve Halvdan Lie (Norway); Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden); U Thant (Burma); Kurt Waldheim (Austria); Javier Perez de Cuellar (Peru); Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt); Kofi Annan (Ghana); and the incumbent Ban Ki-moon (South Korea) – it is high time to have a woman lead the UN, thus marking a watershed in the world body’s 70-year history.

UN INSIDER2016-03-112023-07-10

Food Situation Worsening in North Korea and Southern Africa

ROME (IDN | INPS) – A new UN report warns that with a reduced harvest in 2015, the food security situation in North Korea is likely to deteriorate compared to the situation of previous years, when “most households were already estimated to have borderline or poor food consumption rates”.

The report, released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations on March 9, explains that poor rains coupled with reduced supplies of irrigation water, sharply decreased the 2015 early and main season food crops production.

Heavy rains from late July to early August 2015 reportedly caused some localized floods across North Hamgyong and Rason provinces, located in the northeastern part of the country, causing severe damage to housing and infrastructure, including schools, roads and bridges.

UN INSIDER2016-03-092023-07-10

UNIDO and CTBTO Express Support for 2030 Gender Equality Target

BERLIN | VIENNA (IDN) – The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) are determined to undertake necessary steps to make “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality”, the theme of the International Women’s Day 2016, a reality.

Director General, LI Yong, said: “UNIDO recognizes that investing in the economic empowerment of women sets a direct path towards gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive industrial development.”

He added: “Women make an enormous economic contribution, whether in businesses, as entrepreneurs, as employers or as employees, or by doing care work at home. But they also remain disproportionately affected by poverty, discrimination and exploitation.”

UN INSIDER2016-03-092023-07-10

UN Vows to End Child Marriage by 2030

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations has launched a new multi-country initiative to speed up action to end child marriage by 2030 and protect the rights of millions of the most vulnerable girls around the world.

Announcing the joint initiative on the International Women’s Day March 8, the UN Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said the Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage will involve families, communities, governments and young people.

The UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage is being supported by Canada, the European Union, Italy, Netherlands, and the UK.