Category: UN INSIDER

By IDN-INPS UN Bureau

NEW YORK (IDN) – Ahead of the first-ever high-level summit for refugees on September 19 at the UN Headquarters in New York, UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, has drawn attention to the fact that women represent almost half of the 244 million migrants and half of the 19.6 million refugees worldwide.

The remittances sent by women migrant workers improve the livelihood and health of their families and strengthen economies, says UN Women. In 2015, international migrants sent $432.6 billion in remittances to developing countries – nearly three times the amount of Official Development Assistance, which totalled at $131.6 billion.

Interview by Ramesh Jaura with UNCCD Executive Secretary Monique Barbut

NEW YORK | BONN (IDN) – “Migration associated with natural resource depletion and climate change is much wider in scale than previously appreciated,” Monique Barbut, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), has warned in an interview.

“Close to 100% of the irregular migrants crossing from the Mediterranean into Europe are from arid regions,” she told IDN, adding: “Climate change will exacerbate land degradation in many regions, with both direct and indirect effects on rural household incomes, increased risks of crop losses and fluctuating commodity market prices. Under these conditions, we can expect an increase in the flow of migrants from drought-prone and degraded areas,” she cautioned.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – South-South cooperation has come to stay as an important element of international cooperation for development – not as a substitute for, but rather as a complement to North-South cooperation.

According to the UN, it offers viable opportunities for developing countries and countries with economies in transition in their individual and collective pursuit of sustained economic growth and sustainable development.

To mark the importance of South-South Cooperation, the General Assembly decided to observe this Day on September 12 every year, commemorating the adoption in 1978 of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for Promoting and Implementing Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries.

By Rodney Reynolds

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – Despite five nuclear tests by a defiant North Korea, the United States continues to maintain it will not recognize the belligerent and reclusive nation as a legitimate “nuclear power”.

Elizabeth Trudeau, U.S. State Department spokesperson and Director of the Press Office, reiterated the U.S. stance when she told reporters September 9: “We’ve been consistently clear we will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state, nor will we accept North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons.”

By Lowana Veal

BERGEN (IDN) – Norway is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), enjoying the Alliance’s protection as a nuclear umbrella state and yet widely known for its association with peace issues: not only for hosting the first international Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons in Oslo in March 2013.

“Norway (also) took the lead in the Oslo Process which culminated in the signing of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in 2008,” said Hitotsugu Terasaki, director general of peace and global issues at the Soka Gakkai International (SGI).

By Ronald Joshua

ROME (IDN) – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have signed a $15 million agreement aimed at boosting the capacity of developing countries to track key agricultural data – information that is essential to good policymaking and that will help track progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

FAO said in a news release on September 7, the USAID donation will cover the first phase of an FAO-led project that will run from 2016 to 2021, starting with pilot efforts in four developing countries – two in sub-Saharan Africa, one in Latin America and one in Asia. A dialogue is under way with eligible countries.

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK | NEW DELHI (IDN) – The implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will top the agenda of Peter Thomson of Fiji who assumes office as President of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly, when it begins on September 13.

In an interview with The Hindu during a visit to New Delhi, Thomson said he had discussed realisation of SDGs in talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “This was the basis for my candidacy, and it will be my utmost effort to ensure that in the 71st session we do whatever we can to get the wheels turning on the SDGs. India and the PGA’s (President of the General Assembly) office will work closely on this.”

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In the face of violence and terrorism affecting many parts of the world, the United Nations and its members are faced with a challenge, the challenge of building a culture of peace and non-violence, outgoing General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft told a high-level forum on the ‘Culture of Peace’ at UN Headquarters on September 1.

“The UN is both a reflection of the world as it is and as we want it to be,” he said, calling on stakeholders to discuss and identify concrete ways to strengthen intercultural and interreligious dialogue and the role that the UN can play to that effect.

Viewpoint by Jayantha Dhanapala*

This is a slightly modified text of Jayantha Dhanapala’s address to the Astana Conference on August 28-29 to mark the 25th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.

ASTANA (IDN-INPS) – As the 550th anniversary of the Kazakh Khanate is celebrated we are fortunate, as invited participants of this important conference, to have the pleasure and privilege of being visitors in this ancient land – the Land of the Wanderers – heir to a centuries old traditional culture; a land which is at the same time a vibrant modern nation. It is a nation which since 1991 has been a trailblazer in international relations and in the specific area of building a nuclear-weapon world – the theme of our conference.