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 […]
New South-South Health Cooperation Initiative Launched Linking Africa and the Caribbean
By WHO Joint Press Release BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS, GENEVA | 19 December 2023 (IDN) — The Health Development Partnership for Africa and the Caribbean (HeDPAC), a new initiative to strengthen South-South health cooperation between Africa and the Caribbean, was launched today. The initiative stems from the recognition that the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic fell most […]
Iran Deal Off the Table as Nuclear Tensions Rise
By Kelsey Davenport The writer is the director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association (ACA). This article first appeared in ‘Arms Control Now’ of the ACA and is being reproduced with their permission. WASHINGTON, D.C. | 14 December 2023 (IDN) — A top U.S. official said that restoring the 2015 nuclear deal with […]
COP28: Little to Celebrate, More to Lament
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS | 13 December 2023 (IDN) — When the much-ballyhooed climate change “conference of parties” —COP28—concluded on December 12 in the bustling Emirati city of Dubai, it reflected an old Greek proverb: the mountain that laboured to produce a mouse. The London-based Nafkote Dabi, Climate Change Policy Lead at Oxfam International, […]
Gaza War: A Moment of Honor for the UN and Shame for the US
By Jeffrey D. Sachs* This article was published in Common Dreams and is being republished with the author’s permission. NEW YORK | 12 December 2023 (IDN) — The nearly unanimous vote in the UN Security Council on Friday (8 December) calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza is a moment of honor for the United Nations […]