By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | 31 December 2023 (IDN) — The New Year marks our 15th anniversary. Since going online in 2009, we have devoted ourselves to in-depth news and analysis of issues that impact the world, particularly the countries of the Global South. Our focus has been on promoting the bold and transformative 2030 […]
Cold War Politics at the Security Council—and its Lighter Side
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 29 December 2023 (IDN) — The devastating battle between Israel and Hamas has proved once again the ineffectiveness of the 15-member Security Council which is mandated to ensure international peace and security. But that mandate has not helped either in resolving some of the longstanding civil wars and military […]
Agriculture Recognised as a Factor in Climate Change
By Arul Louis UNITED NATIONS | 27 December 2023 (IDN) — While attention has been focused on greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and power generation, agriculture is only now getting due attention as a factor in climate change even as hunger stalks hundreds of millions and the global population is set to rise. The UAE […]
Homicide Is a Bigger Killer Than Armed Conflict and Terrorism Combined
By Aurora Weiss VIENNA | 26 December 2023 (IDN) — More people were killed due to homicide than armed conflict and terrorism combined. It is estimated that there were roughly 458,000 victims of intentional homicide worldwide in 2021, meaning that an average of 52 individuals lost their lives to homicidal violence every single hour around […]
The Future Role of Youth in Climate Action
By Simone Galimberti* KATHMANDU | 24 December 2023 (IDN) — The recently concluded COP 28 in Dubai has been heralded as the beginning of the end for fossil fuels. Though criticized by many activists, scientists and representatives of the most climate vulnerable nations, the decision taken at the end of negotiations of “transitioning away” from […]
Journalists an Endangered Species in War Zones
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 23 December 2023 (IDN) — The devastating war in Gaza has proved once again that journalists are an endangered species—particularly when covering civil wars and military conflicts—where scores have been targeted or killed. Perhaps it is the second most dangerous profession after the military, followed by UN peacekeepers and […]
UN’s Forced Retreat from Countries Mired in Deadly Conflicts Shows Limitations
By Arul Louis UNITED NATIONS | 23 December 2023 (IDN) — While in the outgoing year, attention was focused on the world organisation’s paralysis in Ukraine and Israel, the UN was forced to retreat from other countries riven by deadly conflicts in a stark display of its limitations. Unlike Ukraine and Israel, these were countries […]
Guyana-Venezuela Border Controversy: Caribbean Dialogue & Diplomacy Avoids Annexation
By P.I. Gomes The writer is a former Cooperative Republic of Guyana Ambassador to the European Union and ACP Group of States, Brussels. These remarks are made as a citizen of Guyana residing in the Diaspora. PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad & Tobago | 22 December 2023 (IDN) —The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 8 […]
UN Mission Chief Calls for Taliban’s Return To ‘International Norms’
By J Nastranis NEW YORK | 20 December 2023 (IDN) — A lack of progress in resolving human rights issues is a key reason behind the current impasse between Afghanistan and the international community, the UN Special Representative to Afghanistan told the Security Council on 20 December. Ms. Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the UN Assistance […]
One State Out of Israel and Palestine Could be the Solution
By Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden | 19 December 2023 (IDN) — It’s almost unbelievable that 106 years have passed since the Balfour Declaration when the British colonial government decided to give the Jews their own homeland- but also promised that “it be done without infringing on the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish […]