Category: UN INSIDER

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Women, United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, has drawn attention to three “historic firsts” achieved this year in combatting sexual violence in conflict. At the same time, the organisation’s Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri has stressed that “realizing gender equality has a deadline, and it is 2030”.

In run-up to the first International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict on June 19, UN Women said all three historic firsts were “long overdue and all had one thing in common: the unstoppable force of women’s voice and leadership”.

By Jaya Ramachandran

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Over 1.2 billion people – one in five of the world’s population – do not have access to electricity. The majority are concentrated in about a dozen countries in Africa and Asia. Another 2.8 billion rely on wood, charcoal, dung and coal for cooking and heating, which results in over four million premature deaths a year due to indoor air pollution.

Without electricity, women and girls have to spend hours fetching water, clinics cannot store vaccines for children, many schoolchildren cannot do homework at night, and people cannot run competitive businesses.

Analysis By J. Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Fiji’s man at the UN, who has been elected as President of the 71st of Session the General Assembly in “a rare secret ballot”, plans to be particularly vocal on the issue of climate change.

It is the first time that a representative of a Pacific small island developing State will serve as head of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the world body.

The selection of its President follows a geographical rotation system, with respective regional groups putting forward a consensus candidate each year. In this case Asia-Pacific States could not reach consensus on a single nominee.

Subsequently, on June 13, Peter Thomson was pitted against Andreas Mavroyiannis of Cyprus, who was defeated by a secret-ballot vote of 94 to 90, with one abstention.

GENEVA – With a multitude of conflicts and crises causing record displacement around the world, more than 1.19 million people are projected to be in need of resettlement in 2017, the UN refugee agency said on June 13.

According to the Projected Global Resettlement Needs 2017, released June 13 by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, more than one million refugees were submitted by the agency to over 30 resettlement countries in the past decade, and the number of people in need of resettlement far surpasses the opportunities for placement in a third country.

The number of people in need of resettlement in 2017 will likely surpass 1.19 million, up 72 per cent on the projected needs of 691,000 in 2014, before large-scale resettlement of Syrians began.

Analysis by Reinhardt Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – As border clashes between Eritrea and Ethiopia continued into the second day on June 13, observers recalled UN Secretary-General’s remarks in January 2008 that he was “worried about the growing militarization, on both side(s) of the boarder, which could lead to a war”.

That concern is shared by civil society organisations in the two countries. They are warning that the border clahses that triggered on June 12 in the Tsorona area on the border of Ethiopia and Eritrea “can easily escalate into full-blown war”.

While calling for an end to fighting, the civil society organisations are urging the African Union to step in with its peace and Security Council; and the European Union and the United States to step in as witnesses to a peace process.

Analysis by Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – While campaigners for a world free of nuclear weapons are confident that “a ban is coming”, the annual nuclear forces data launched by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on June 13 gives little hope for optimism.

“Despite the ongoing reduction in the number of weapons, the prospects for genuine progress towards nuclear disarmament remain gloomy,” says Shannon Kile, Head of the SIPRI Nuclear Weapons Project. “All the nuclear weapon-possessing states continue to prioritize nuclear deterrence as the cornerstone of their national security strategies.”

But for the Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), “it is now clear beyond doubt that an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations are ready to start negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons”. By putting in place a ban, they hope to stimulate much-needed progress towards the total elimination of nuclear forces.

Analysis by J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Though 22 gay and transgender rights groups were excluded at the behest of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting resolved to put an end to the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

The three-day meeting that concluded at the UN headquarters in New York on June 10 adopted what is being touted as a “progressive, new and actionable Political Declaration” that “includes a set of specific, time-bound targets and actions that must be achieved by 2020 if the world is to get on the Fast-Track and end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals”.

ROME – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has announced that a groundbreaking international accord aimed at stamping out illegal fishing went into effect on June 5 and is now legally binding for the 29 countries and a regional organization that have adhered to it.

“This is a great day in the continuing effort to build sustainable fisheries that can help feed the world,” said FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva in a press release.

The Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA) – adopted as an FAO Agreement in 2009 after a years-long diplomatic effort – is the first ever binding international treaty that focuses specifically on illicit fishing. The threshold to activation of the treaty – which called for at least 25 countries to adhere to it – was surpassed last month, triggering a 30-day countdown to today’s entry-into-force.

Analysis by Jaya Ramachandran

BERLIN | PORT MORESBY (IDN) – The heads of State and Government of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries are asking the United Nations to take two important initiatives commended by their eighth Summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

The Group is calling for earliest adoption of a United Nations General Assembly Resolution to develop an international legal framework governing human rights and climate change with a view to protecting the human rights and interests of people displaced by impacts of climate change internally and across borders.

It is also proposing that a joint conference be convened by the UN and international financial institutions with the support of the European Commission and its Member States to discuss “strategies for financing multiannual development programmes of the ACP countries”.

Analysis by Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

GYEONGJU, South Korea (IDN) – Five months after the international community began implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endorsed by world leaders in September 2015, representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academia have finalized and adopted a global education action agenda.

The agenda affirming the importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4 – ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong opportunities for all – is spelt out in the Gyeongju Action Plan.

It was agreed at the 66th United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) / NGO Conference that concluded on June 1, 2016 after three days of deliberations in Gyeongju, a city on South Korea’s southeast coast.