By Radwan Jakeem NEW YORK (IDN) — UN Children’s agency UNICEF has pledged to continue to support children and families facing humanitarian crises across the globe in 2023. “Today, there are more children in need of humanitarian assistance than at any other time since the Second World War,” says UNICEF. Worldwide, children and their families […]
Alarm Bells Ringing for Endangered Indigenous Languages
UN Launches 10-year Survival Plan By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) — Indigenous Peoples are guardians to almost 80 per cent of the world’s remaining biodiversity, said Csaba Kőrösi, the incumbent President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), while launching on December 16 the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
Of Pele, of Brazil, of Rio
By Ramu Damodaran The author is the first Director of UN Academic Impact and a Senior Fellow at the New Delhi-based Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP). NEW YORK (IDN) — It was 55 years ago that those involved in the Nigerian civil war paused their hostilities to watch a much-anticipated football match starring […]
Realising Safe Cities for Sanitation Workers in India
By Sameer Unhale, Dr Simi Mehta, Dr Arjun Kumar and Kushgara Khatri NEW DELHI (IDN) — World Toilet Day is held every year on November 19. It has been an annual United Nations observance since 2013, which celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the 3.6 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. It […]
Religious & Civil Society Call for An End to Crisis in Korean Peninsula
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A coalition of over 700 religious and civil society organizations (CSOs) is making a collective appeal to end the crisis in the Korean peninsula and avoid “military action provoking war”. In a recently released statement, the coalition says: “We are here today in a great sense of crisis. […]
Developing Nations Risk Missing Development Goals Long Before 2030
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The late Everett McKinley Dirksen, an American politician. once famously said: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”. Perhaps that remark may be applicable to the funding of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where developing nations continue their relentless search […]
Palestine Reeling Under COVID-Impact, Enduring Poverty and Unemployment
By Jaya Ramachandran* GENEVA (IDN) — The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has urged the international community to extend sufficient and predictable financial support to the Palestinian people to alleviate suffering and prevent a deep socioeconomic crisis from worsening. The latest report by UNCTAD on its assistance to the Palestinian people shows […]
UN Development Goals Can be Best Achieved with Civil Society Participation
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — A coalition of over 1,000 civil society organizations (CSOs) from 127 countries, under the umbrella of the Global People’s Assembly (GPA), has declared that the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be best achieved—and on its 2030 deadline—only with the active participation of civil society. “Seven years […]
Culture of Peace: An Answer to Intolerance, Hatred, Conflicts & Terrorism
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – A High-Level Forum on the Culture of Peace, which took place on September 6, had an explicit message to the world at large. The Forum underlined the importance of peace at a time when Ukraine, a sovereign nation-state, is being annihilated by Russia, one of the world’s major […]
UN Seeks to Protect Critical Infrastructures Against Terrorist Attacks
By Radwan Jakeem with UN News NEW YORK (IDN) — The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) has launched five new specialized guides (modules) aimed at the protection of particularly vulnerable targets against terrorist attacks. “Vulnerable targets” refers both to critical infrastructure (for example, public transportation systems, energy sector) and public places or ‘soft targets’ […]