By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK | PORT VILA (IDN) – One month old Joy Nowai has become the world’s first child to be given a vaccine delivered commercially by drone in a remote island in the South Pacific country of Vanuatu, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on December 18. The vaccine delivery […]
Possibility of Peace in Afghanistan Was Never More Real Than It’s Now – UN Envoy
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – The possibility of a negotiated end to the conflict in Afghanistan has never been more real in the past 17 years than it is now, according to the United Nations top envoy in Afghanistan. Tadamichi Yamamoto told the Security Council on December 17 he is encouraged by several […]
UNDP Welcomes Significant Rise in German Funding
Berlin a ‘Launch Partner’ to UNDP’s Accelerator Labs in 60 Countries By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has greeted the German government’s decision to raise a further 25 percent in funding from its 2019 core resources, which follows a 60 percent increase for 2018. Germany is currently […]
Participatory Development is a Humane Alternative to Migration
Viewpoint by Yossef Ben-Meir and Manon Burbidge While Yossef Ben-Meir, Ph.D. is a sociologist and President of the High Atlas Foundation, based in Marrakech, Manon Burbidge is a post-graduate studying Human Ecology at Lund University, Sweden and currently interning at the High Atlas Foundation. MARRAKECH (IDN) – December 2018 is gearing up to be a […]
European Parliament Hails the Global Compact for Migration
By Robert Johnson BRUSSELS (IDN) – Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) regret “the campaign of disinformation” that has led to several countries withdrawing their support from the United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). They emphasize that the migration compact is a non-legally binding framework that does not create new […]
Survivors and Activists Spotlight Solutions to End Violence Against Women
By UN Women LOS ANGELES (IDN-INPS) – Commemorating Human Rights Day and the global advocacy campaign “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence”, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) held a fundraising luncheon in Santa Monica, California, on December 10. In the hometown of the #MeToo movement, the event […]
Experts Urge Respect for Human Rights in Climate Actions
By Aleksandra Gadzinski KATOWICE (IDN) – Independent experts of the UN Human Rights Council, are calling on States to fully integrate human rights standards and principles in the rules for implementing the Paris Agreement on climate change (the Paris Rulebook) adopted by the international community. In the run-up to the 70th anniversary of the Universal […]
Sri Lanka Chaired UNCTAD Commission Boosts Multilateralism
By Jamshed Baruah GENEVA (IDN) – “We need to look at how best multilateralism can be advanced and strengthened rather than at theories that suggest a ‘doomsday’ scenario or the ‘dawn of an era of post-multilateralism’,” said Ambassador A.L.A. Azeez, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to United Nations in Geneva. He was addressing the 10th […]
Blue Economy Conference: Kenya Keen to Stimulate Global Conversations and Partnerships
By Jaya Ramachandran NEW YORK | NAIROBI (IDN) – The first ever Sustainable Blue Economy Conference (SBEC) opens on November 26 in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Canada and Japan are co-hosts of the three-day landmark event. It builds on the momentum of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development comprising 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), […]
UN Reviews Education Programme on Slave Trade, Warns of Racism
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – The Ark of Return by Rodney Leon, an American architect of Haitian descent, at the UN Headquarters in New Yok honours the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade that was perpetrated for over 400 years. The permanent memorial was erected on March 25, 2015 – […]