Category: UNITED NATIONS

By J Nastranis | IDN-InDepthNews Report

NEW YORK (IDN) – An independent team of 12 advisors headed by two former senior UN officials has been tasked with making the United Nations development system fit for supporting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that took effect on January 1.

The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Bureau – headed by Oh Joon, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea – announced on February 12 the establishment of the team to support the second phase of the ECOSOC Dialogue on the longer-term positioning of the UN development system in the context of the 2030 Agenda.

By J Nastranis | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since all the world’s governments adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015 and it took effect on January 1, two important questions being discussed around the world are: How will we measure progress in translating the Agenda into practice, and who is responsible for achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund (PGTF), managed by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), has partnered with the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA) to map current trends, share best practices and promote sound and cooperative policies for ports in Latin America and the Caribbean.

By Ramesh Jaura | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Representatives of governments, civil society, and the private sector as well as global development partners have pledged to build new South-South and triangular partnerships to empower women and youth through jobs and entrepreneurship with a view to ensuring integrated rural development.

While South-South cooperation (SSC) is between and among developing countries, triangular cooperation (TrC) involves a traditional donor from the ranks of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), an emerging donor in the South, and a beneficiary country in the South.

IDN-InDepthNews Interview with CTBTO Chief Dr Lassina Zerbo

BERLIN | VIENNA (IDN) – Twenty years after it was opened for signature, the CTBT has come to stay as a de facto global treaty banning all nuclear testing – “if we take North Korea outside of the scope” – but Dr Zerbo Lassina wants to see it de jure because he is concerned that the longer it takes for its entry into force, the greater is the risk of a “fatigue” creeping in that could lead to people saying: “Why are we investing in something if we don’t know when the treaty will come into force?”

By Jayantha Dhanapala* | IDN-InDepthNews Essay

KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN) – The International Peace Institute, since its inception as the International Peace Academy in 1970, has focused on strengthening the multilateral process in the conduct of international affairs with the United Nations as its focal point. It is appropriate that in the 70^th anniversary year of our indispensable global institution, the UN, an Independent Commission on Multilateralism should be established by the IPI to address 16 topics of relevance to the global agenda.

It is a necessary corollary to the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals that the international community has agreed to pursue. I welcome especially the Commission’s choice of “Weapons of Mass Destruction, Nonproliferation and Disarmament” as one of them.

Seventy years ago on January 24, 1946, the United Nations General Assembly meeting in London adopted its very first resolution and, significantly, by consensus. This historic resolution established a commission of the UN Security Council to ensure:

By Rodney Reynolds | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – When the 15-member UN Security Council (UNSC) met at an emergency session on February 7, a non-working Sunday afternoon, to discuss the most recent defiance by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the outcome was predictable.

After “urgent consultations”, the UNSC “strongly condemned” DPRK for launching a rocket which could lead to the future development of intercontinental ballistic missile technologies.

VIENNA (IDN) – While several member states have been withdrawing their support to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) over the years, Japan agreed on January 27 to replenish its financial contributions to the agency for encouraging the utilisation and dissemination of new low-carbon technologies particularly in Africa.

Japan’s Permanent Representative to the international organisations in Vienna, Ambassador Mitsuru Kitano, and the UNIDO Director-General Li Yong, signed an agreement on the second replenishment of about $2.5 million for the Low Carbon Low Emission Clean Energy Technology (LCET) Programme implemented by UN agency, among others, in Ethiopia and Kenya.

By Rita Joshi | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

BERLIN | ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – Within less than a week of African leaders rejecting repeated demands to deploy troops of the African Union in strife-torn Burundi, the 54-nation group has appointed a high-level delegation of five African presidents to negotiate with factions in the East African country over the possible deployment of an African peacekeeping mission.

By Anusha Meyer | IDN-InDepthNews Report

PARIS (IDN) – The Timbuktu mausoleums, destroyed by radical Islamists four years ago, are back on their feet now, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Irina Bokova told the people of Mali on February 4.

The UNESCO chief’s message coincided with a consecration ceremony of the Timbuktu mausoleums, last held in the 11th century, celebrated at the initiative of the local community. It marked the final phase of the United Nations-backed cultural rebirth of the age-old Sahara city after the destruction wrought by radical Islamists in 2012.