Category: UN INSIDER

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.

Analysis by Jacques N. Couvas

ANTALYA | Turkey (IDN) – Commitment to continue the effort by the United Nations and the developed economies to help least developed countries (LDCs) overcome poverty and hunger was the main conclusion of the Mid-Term Review (MTR) conference for the Istanbul Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries (IPoA), held in Antalya, Turkey, from May 27 to 29.

The purpose of the meeting was to assess whether and how the targets set by the IPoA in 2011 were being met. The results were mixed.

In six plenary sessions, four thematic round tables and 26 side events, officials from 75 countries and international organisations reviewed the progress made by the LDCs towards stimulating growth and improving living conditions in their respective jurisdictions.

GYEONGJU – Addressing the UNDPI/NGO Conference in Gyeongju, South Korea, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on May 30: “This is a powerful gathering of representatives of non-governmental organizations, or NGOs.

“You have such a positive impact – to my mind, NGOs really stands for Networks of Global Opportunities! NGOs are on the vanguard of international action. Throughout history, when governments reach a stalemate, NGOs work to break it.

“Your tireless advocacy helped the world adopt international bans on landmines and cluster munitions. Your relentless drive has promoted gender equality, climate [action] and human rights.

“. . .Without the participation of non-governmental organizations and civil society groups, no initiative, however visionary, is not possible, can be fully achieved. That’s a very valuable lesson I have learned.

Analysis by J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – As countdown begins for the election of five non-permanent members to the UN Security Council for 2017-2018, Kazakhstan – an unrelenting campaigner for a nuclear weapons free world and diverting funds to sustainable development – is strengthening its bid for a single seat reserved for the Asia-Pacific Group. The Central Asian country is pitted against Thailand.

Kazakh diplomats argue that as a regional leader and global partner, Kazakhstan supports peace, prosperity, individual opportunity and economic development, and that its government upholds these values and beliefs both in word and deed.

In matters of energy security, and a valuable contributor to international peacekeeping missions, Kazakhstan wishes to bring its “unique experience and expertise” to bear on some of the pressing challenges currently facing the UN Security Council.

Analysis by Jacques N. Couvas

ISTANBUL (IDN) – While most of the world’s political leaders shunned the United Nations’ first World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) on May 23-24, the international religious community was alive and kicking in the congress halls and exhibition grounds of the event in Istanbul.

A series of meetings and activities gathered personalities representing a variety of faith movements from the very first hour of the Summit, with the WHS Side Event on ‘One Humanity, Shared Responsibilities: Evidence for Religious Groups’ Contributions to Humanitarian Response’.

Two panels of experts, coordinated by Jean Duff, president of the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities (JLIF&LC) and Manu Gupta, head of the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN), examined the evidence for the contributions made by faith-based organizations (FBO) to humanitarian assistance.

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – The first UN climate change meeting since governments adopted the landmark Paris Agreement in December 2015 concluded on May 26 with “a set of positive outcomes that will support the treaty’s widely anticipated early entry into force and stronger, sustained action world-wide into the future”.

Affirming this optimistic claim by the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), David Waskow, International Climate Director of the World Resources Institute (WRI) said: “This is the only formal round of international negotiations between the Paris climate summit last December and the forthcoming climate summit in Marrakech, Morocco (COP22) in November.”

The nearly two-week long gathering saw countries push ahead with implementing stronger climate action and constructing what the UNFCCC called the global climate regime “rule book” in order to guarantee the treaty’s fairness, transparency and balance between nations.

By Jaya Ramachandran

ISE-SHIMA | Japan (IDN) – Stressing that the empowerment of women and girls and gender equality are indispensable for their equal participation as agents of economic, social and political changes in their societies, the Group of 7 industrial nations have pledged to promote Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP) of UN Women, the organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.

A declaration by the leaders of Japan, USA, Canada, Britain, France, Germany and Italy noted that “globally, women and girls still face barriers and discrimination that prevent them from realizing their full potential”.

The Leaders’ Declaration comprises decisions of the two-day G7 summit that concluded on May 27. It focussed to a significant extent on the ways and means of implementing the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aiming at 17 Goals and 169 targets.

Analysis by Ramesh Jaura

ISE-SHIMA | Japan (IDN) – Despite President Barack Obama’s call for a “world without nuclear weapons” during his ‘historic’ visit to Hiroshima, the city where the first ever atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945, causing over 140,000 casualties, the United States is nowhere close to prohibiting nuclear weapons.

This was also underlined by ‘Leaders’ Declaration’ emerging from the two-day summit of the Group of Seven (G 7) major industrial nations that concluded on May 27 on Kashiko Island located in Ise-Shima area of Mie Prefecture in Japan.

The Summit’s host, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, chose the venue for its rich culture, beautiful scenery and close proximity to one of the country’s most honoured historical sites: the Ise Jingu, or the Grand Shrine, built nearly 2,000 years ago.

Analysis by Jacques N. Couvas

ISTANBUL (IDN) – The gaping absence of a large number of world leaders, including those of most of the Group of 7 (G7) industrial nations, undoubtedly caused profound disappointment. But the first World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in the 70-year existence of the United Nations will not go down in history as a shameful debacle for international diplomacy, nor will it be the last conference of its kind, according to experts.

While G7 leaders were conspicuous by their absence, with the exception of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, some 9,000 participants from 173 countries joined the event in Istanbul. They included some 60 heads of state and government, mostly from the developing world.

Analysis by Rodney Reynolds

ISTANBUL (IDN) – The first-ever World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proposed as far back as 2012, failed to meet its lofty expectations despite four years of consultations with 23,000 people in over 150 countries.

“This is a 21st century United Nations gathering,” Ban boasted to delegates in his opening remarks. But the two-day summit, which concluded May 24, did not generate any significant funding nor did it receive the whole-hearted political support of the UN’s Big Five – the UK, U.S., France, China and Russia – whose leaders were conspicuous by their absence.

Besides UK, U.S. and France, even the remaining G-7 leaders were missing in action: heads of government from Canada, Italy and Japan shied away from the summit. Only German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Istanbul to represent the world’s seven industrialized democracies.