Category: UN INSIDER

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has applauded Argentina for its strong partnership with the UN and its cooperation with and support to other countries.

“You are a standard bearer for United Nations values and principles,” said Ban in his remarks to the Argentine Council for International Relations on August 8.

“I count on Argentina’s support in the critical years ahead as we work together to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and provide peace and prosperity for all on a healthy planet,” he added.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Under the overarching theme of ‘One Humanity’, the World Humanitarian Day (WHD) to be held – as every year – on August 19, will explain how the world came together in Istanbul around the Agenda for Humanity.

It will also stimulate how the commitments made at the WHD from May 23 to 24 in Istanbul will help the 130 million people around the world who need humanitarian assistance to survive.

One Humanity speaks about shared human experiences bind us across divides, and create a common responsibility to demand action for the most vulnerable and at risk of being left behind.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The UN General Assembly is coming under strong pressure to declare 2017 as the International Year to End Israeli Occupation of Palestine, particularly in the aftermath of the July 2016 report by the Middle East Quartet – comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

Ambassador Feda Abdelhady-Nasser, Deputy Permanent Observer at the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations, told the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) on August 4 that Gaza would be uninhabitable by 2020 if its humanitarian situation was not addressed.

By Franz Baumann * | Reproduced courtesy of PassBlue

The author is a former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and special adviser on environment and peace operations. This article originally appeared with the headline: A Sorry State of Affairs: The UN Secretariat Has No Climate Plan.

NEW YORK (IDN | Passblue) – How green is the United Nations’ own environmental policy?

Shepherding the Paris climate agreement to conclusion in December 2015 has been a major achievement of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The agreement got more than 190 states to commit to hold the increase in the global average temperature to below 2 degrees centigrade, above pre-industrial levels.

TORONTO | NEW YORK (IDN) – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has commended Kazakhstan for signing the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The signing comes as Kazakhstan prepares to host EXPO 2017, which will focus on sustainable energy for the future.

In a meeting with Kazakhstan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erlan Idrissov, Ban congratulated the Central Asian country on its June 28 election as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is concerned about the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) facing “a desperate funding shortfall” and has asked Governments to help achieve a funding target of $300 million at its pledging conference in September.

The Fund was established in 2005 through resolutions of the General Assembly and Security Council to stand alongside the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) and “support activities, actions, programmes and organizations that seek to build a lasting peace in countries emerging from conflict”.

NEW YORK (IDN) – “Kazakhstan always stands ready to build peace in Africa as a steady and trusted mediator and partner”, the country’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Barlybay Sadykov told the Security Council during an open debate on ‘Peacebuilding in Africa’.

Kazakhstan was elected on June 28 as non-permanent member of the Security Council for 2017 and 2018.

In a statement on July 28, Sadykov urged the international community to develop and implement a coherent assistance strategy to rebuild Africa and declared that as a Member-Observer of the African Union and strong supporter of Africa’s revival, “Kazakhstan fully supports the vision of Africa 2063 to make the region conflict-free”.

Analysis by Dr Palitha Kohona

Ambassador Dr Palitha Kohona is former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York- He chaired the negotiations on the Colombo Declaration on Youth.

COLOMBO (IDN) – On July 15, the United Nations observed the UN World Youth Skills Day designated by the General Assembly to highlight the need to rapidly develop marketable youth skills. On the same day, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) released the World Youth Report on Youth Civic Engagement. There were many events held around the world to mark this special day.

The UN event was an important milestone in a process that began in 2013 when the then President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, in his address to the General Assembly, with great foresight, called on the world body to allocate a special day to highlight the need to develop youth skills.

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – Does ‘the inalienable right to self-determination for countries and peoples living under colonialism and foreign occupation’ sound relevant to the 21st century? Yes, says an overwhelming number of 193 member states of the United Nations.

It is not surprising therefore that those member states have expressed “deepest disappointment” at a landmark omission in the UN General Assembly’s resolution on ‘follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the global level’.

The resolution, which was adopted in “consensus action” on July 29, disregards reference to the inalienable right to self-determination for countries and peoples living under colonialism and foreign occupation.

Analysis by Jaya Ramachandran

BERLIN | ROME (IDN) – The UN Security Council is faced with a critical if not an unprecedented situation: it has been warned that “protracted conflicts affecting 17 countries” have now driven more than 56 million people into either “crisis” or “emergency” levels of food insecurity and are hindering global efforts to eradicate malnutrition.

At the same time, according to a recent report by UNEP and the World Resources Institute (WRI), about one-third of all food produced worldwide, worth around US$1 trillion, gets lost or wasted in food production and consumption systems.