UN Insider

Photo: An Indian Agni-II intermediate range ballistic missile on a road-mobile launcher, displayed at the Republic Day Parade on New Delhi's Rajpath, January 26, 2004. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

India Ready to Work with Signatories of the Nuclear Ban Treaty in Multilateral Forums

By Amandeep Singh Gill

Ambassador Amandeep Singh Gill is Permanent Representative of India to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. Following are extensive excerpts from his remarks at the Thematic Debate on Nuclear Weapons in the First Committee, 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly on 12 October 2017. – The Editor.

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) –India remains committed to universal, non-discriminatory and verifiable nuclear disarmament and to multilateralism in pursuit of that goal. Our position has been firm and consistent over the years.

We support the proposal for the negotiation of a Comprehensive Nuclear Weapons Convention in the Conference on Disarmament (CD). Without prejudice to the priority we attach to nuclear disarmament, we also support the immediate commencement of negotiations in the CD of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty on the basis of CD/1299 and the mandate contained therein.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 19 October 2017

Photo: UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Credit: Marco Grob.

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.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 19 October 2017

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres addresses a high-level event inaugurating Africa Week on 16 October 2017 at the UN headquarters in New York. UN Photo/Cia Pak

Strategic Alignment of Global, African Agendas a Must

By António Guterres

Note: Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the high-level event inaugurating the Africa Week (October 16-20) at the UN on the theme: “Supporting an Integrated, Prosperous, People-Centred and Peaceful Africa: Towards the Implementation of Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. – The Editor

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - In recent years, the continent has made headway in reducing poverty, diversifying economies, building the middle class and nurturing growth in a variety of growing sectors such as banking, telecom and retail. More children – and especially girls – are in primary school. More women are serving in parliaments. Child and maternal deaths have been reduced – as has the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 16 October 2017

Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office

Will U.S. Congress Legally Restrain a Nuclear World War III?

By Shanta Roy

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – U.S. President Donald Trump's highly erratic behavior on nuclear weapons – and his public threats to "totally destroy" North Korea – have triggered a strong political backlash from anti-nuclear and anti-war activists.

"A central problem is that Donald Trump seems ignorant about what nuclear weapons really are, and the humanitarian catastrophe that would be unleashed if he fired even one at North Korea – or anywhere," said Dr. Rebecca Johnson of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, a founding co-Chair of the International Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Laureate.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 16 October 2017

Photo: Since the Nobel Committee painstakingly scrutinizes the words and deeds of all nominees, it was cognizant of President Sirisena's failure to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. UN Photo/Cia Pak.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2017 Finally for a Legitimate Cause

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) - “Commiserations, Mr. President” in the Sunday Times of October 8 noted that President Maithripala Sirisena was “nominated and short listed” but missed the coveted Nobel peace prize.

The article provided an impressive historical perspective of our democracy – a must read by all who love our country. Bravo! to the writer. It is unfortunate that we, Sri Lankans, lost a jubilant moment.

Though no small feat to hit the short list, we are unable to know the details and opinions related to the award as the statutes of the Nobel Foundation restrict disclosure of information about the nominees for 50 years.

: Somar Wijayadasa; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 15 October 2017

Photo: (left to right): Austria's Permanent Representative to the UN, Jan Kickert (standing); Brazil's Permanent Representative to the UN Mauro Luiz Iecker Vieira; ICAN Asia-Pacific Director Tim Wright; ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn; ICAN Steering Group member Ray Acheson: and Costa Rica's Permanent Representative to the UN, Juan Carlos Mendoza. Credit: UN

Nuclear Nightmare Persists As UN Treaty Awaits Ratification

By Ramesh Jaura

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – "They will continue to be guided by their solemn conviction that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," says the historic Joint Statement U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his counterpart from the then Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, signed on December 10, 1987 in Washington.

Thirty years on, Gorbachev – who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1990 "for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community" – is "deeply concerned about the fact that military doctrines once again allow for the use of nuclear weapons".

With this in view, he has welcomed the announcement of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize 2017 to the Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 14 October 2017

Photo: In the Harat Al-Masna’a slum in Sana’a, Yemen, a man walks with his three-year-old daughter. On the left is a former textile factory which hosts 231 families of former factory workers. Photo: Giles Clarke for UNOCHA

UN Worried about Persistent Humanitarian Disaster in Yemen

By Santo D. Banerjee

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – As Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, enters the third year of a cruel military conflict with no end in sight to the suffering of the people caused by a humanitarian catastrophe, a senior UN official has urged the Security Council members to use their political and economic powers to pressure warring sides to commit to a path of peace.

7,600 people have been killed and 42,000 injured since March 2015. According to the UN, more than 60% of civilian deaths have been the result of air strikes by a Saudi-led multinational coalition that backs President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi against the Houthi rebel movement.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 12 October 2017

Photo: The United Nations Complex in NYC. Photo via Outlook

Sudanese Diplomat at the UN Accused of Sexual Harassment

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights organization, has called for the removal of the Sudanese diplomat Hassan Salih, who in May was elected vice-chair of the UN committee that oversees the work of 4,500 human rights NGOs.

Salih grabbed a 23-year-old woman's buttocks and breast while dancing at Third Avenue’s Bar None around 2:25 a.m., the New York Post reported. While police were interviewing him and the woman, he tried to escape. The police chased and handcuffed Salih and put him in a police cruiser, according to media reports. But Salih invoked diplomatic immunity, and was allowed to go free after police confirmed his credentials as a diplomat at the United Nations.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 11 October 2017

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres addresses Security Council meeting on Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Preventive Diplomacy and Transboundary waters. To his right is President Evo Morales Ayma of Bolivia. UN Photo/Kim Haughton

UN Chief Opts for Preventive Diplomacy Over Post-Conflict Peacekeeping

By Shanta Roy

NEW YORK (IDN) – Faced with an increasing number of unresolved political and military crises – including in Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Kashmir, Palestine, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – UN Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed a High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation to guide him on the road ahead.

The primary mandate of the Board will be preventive diplomacy – based on the age-old axiom that prevention (diplomacy) is far better than the cure (post-conflict peacekeeping).

The creation of the new Board has been prompted mostly by the paralysis of the 15-member Security Council – the UN”s most influential body with power to declare war and peace – which remains deadlocked even as the five veto-wielding permanent members, namely the U.S., UK, France, Russia and China, are more pre-occupied protecting their own political, economic and military interests than saving the world at large.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 10 October 2017

Photo: Sergio Duarte, incoming President of Pugwash, and his predecessor Jayantha Dhanapala who headed the organisation for ten years, with a painting by Kazakh artist and anti-nuclear activist Karipbek Kuyukov in Astana end of August 2017. Credit: Pugwash

Nobel Peace Prize for ICAN Significant for Nuclear Disarmament

By Sergio Duarte, President of Pugwash

NEW YORK (IDN) - For the third time since the creation of the Nobel Peace Prize a civil society organization dedicated to nuclear disarmament has received this prestigious honor. The 2017 Prize has been awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a coalition of non-governmental organizations in 101 countries launched in 2007. Before ICAN, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs also were recipients of the Prize, respectively in 1985 and in 1995 for their actions in favour of peace and nuclear disarmament.