By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – Kazakhstan is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018. Ambassador Kairat Umarov, the Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the United Nations, chairs the Council’s Committees 1988 on the Taliban movement and 1267 on ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida. Nearly two months ahead of Kazakhstan assuming the […]
New UNESCO Director-General Aims to Bridge Divides
By A.D. McKenzie PARIS (IDN) – “May the force be with you” was one of the comments by an ambassador at the investiture ceremony of UNESCO’s new director-general, Audrey Azoulay of France, on November 13. The “Star Wars” quotation was meant to evoke the many challenges that lie ahead for Azoulay as she takes over […]
France Puts Focus on Funding with ‘One Planet Summit’
By A.D. McKenzie
PARIS (IDN) – A day after the latest UN Climate Change Conference (COP 23) began in Bonn, Germany, the French government upped the momentum by announcing concrete plans for its own “One Planet Summit” to be held December 12.
This summit will have more than 100 countries represented and will focus on financing to combat climate change, according to the organisers.
French officials said that “for the moment” U.S. President Donald Trump had not been invited, but that “numerous American players” who are mobilising for climate action will be present. In June, Trump announced plans to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, to international criticism.
Cataclysm Looms Large As UN Climate Talks Convene
By Franz Baumann | Reproduced courtesy of PassBlue
The author is a visiting professor at New York University and a former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations (and special adviser on environment and peace operations). This article originally appeared with the headline: As UN Climate Talks Convene, the Earth Veers Toward Catastrophe. – The Editor
NEW YORK (IDN | Passblue) – Two years ago, the governments of the world unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a remarkable blueprint of the world’s most pressing long-term predicaments that the United Nations is good at lifting into the global conscience. Cataloguing 17 goals and 169 targets, the agenda contains an inventory of the remedial activities that are expected of all countries, and that includes climate change.
No Real Progress Toward Gender Equality Since October 2000
By Santo D. Banerjee
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – While normative frameworks to empower and protect women in conflict situations have made steady advancement in the last 17 years since the adoption of a landmark resolution by the Security Council, real progress in women’s meaningful engagement in all phases of peacebuilding and their protection from abuse and exploitation are seriously lagging.
The representatives of UN member states at the ministerial and diplomatic levels agreed during a 10-hour Security Council debate on October 27 on ‘Women, Peace and Security’ that progress on the ground must be accelerated by way of more funding for gender expertise in peacebuilding.
Growing Support for Ending Political Marginalization of Women
Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
The writer is UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. Following are extensive excerpts from her statement at the Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security on October 27, 2017, commenting the Report of the Secretary-General on women and peace and security. – The Editor
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Although women’s absence from peace tables is no longer easily brushed off as normal, it is still commonplace. Every year, we track women’s overall participation in peace processes that are led by the UN. We track the inclusion of gender expertise and gender-sensitive provisions in peace agreements, and the requirement to consult with women’s civil society organizations. In all of these indicators, we performed slightly worse than a year ago.
Climate Change Spares Neither the Rich nor the Poor
By Achim Steiner, Patricia Espinosa and Robert Glasser*
BONN (IDN) – From Miami and Puerto Rico to Barbuda and Havana, the devastation of this year’s hurricane season across Latin America and the Caribbean serves as a reminder that the impacts of climate change know no borders.
In recent weeks, Category 5 hurricanes have brought normal life to a standstill for millions in the Caribbean and on the American mainland. Harvey, Irma and Maria have been particularly damaging. The 3.4 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico have been scrambling for basic necessities including food and water, the island of Barbuda has been rendered uninhabitable, and dozens of people are missing or dead on the UNESCO world heritage island of Dominica.
NEPAD Critical to Africa’s Development, Peace and Security
By Ronald Joshua
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Despite instability and security challenges, ranging from human and drug trafficking to terrorism and the illicit flow of resources away from the continent, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development – now fully embedded in the development paradigms of both the United Nations and the African Union – remains the “rallying point” in Africa’s pursuit of growth.
The partnership, known as NEPAD, is particularly critical in the areas of social and economic development. The recent finalization of the Tripartite Free Trade Area agreement is an important step that would harmonize three sub‑regional blocs, which previously had their own rules and models for trade.
UN Rapporteur Stresses Everyone’s Right to Development
By Kanaga Raja
The author is the editor of the South North Development Monitor (SUNS). This article was published in the SUNS #8540 dated 27 September 2017.
GENEVA (IDN) – More than 30 years after the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development, business-as-usual will not be sufficient to achieve progress, a United Nations human rights expert has said.
In his first report to the Human Rights Council since being appointed to the new mandate of Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Saad Alfarargi (of Egypt) said that in order to ensure the implementation of the Declaration, there is need to re-invigorate the advocacy process.
In a landmark resolution adopted at its thirty-third session in September 2016, the Council decided to establish the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to development for a period of three years.
Bringing an End to Impunity Through Shared Outcry
Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
The writer is UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women.
UNITED NATIONS (IDN | UN Women) – The pain and anger of more than a million people who tweeted #MeToo in the last week have crowded social media with personal stories of sexual harassment or assault. This virtual march of solidarity marks both the urgency of finding a shared voice and the hidden scale of assault that did not previously have a register. When women are almost invisible, when they are not really seen, it seems that people do not have to care what happens to them.
This online outcry is important because it is giving voice to acts that are public, but that are silenced and neutralized by convention. It is a cruel privilege to be able to harass a girl or a woman with impunity, but in so many cases this is the norm.