UN Insider

Photo: Miroslav Lajčák, President of the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly (l), stands with ambassadors Juan José Gómez Camacho of Mexico (c) and Jürg Lauber of Switzerland (r), co-facilitators of negotiations on the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, at UN Headquarters in New York, 13 July 2018. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

Global Compact on Migration Agreed Despite Differences

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – When Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the agreement an all-encompassing Global Compact to better manage international migration, address its challenges, strengthen migrant rights and contribute to sustainable development, calling it “a significant achievement” and General Assembly President Miroslav Lajčák described it as a “historic moment,” it was far more than a rhetorical posture aimed at giving themselves a pat on the back.

Though, the Global Compact presents a non-legally binding, cooperative framework, it is the first time ever that the text of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration has been agreed after discussions and consultations among member states, local officials, civil society and migrants themselves, spread over more than one year.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 15 July 2018

Photo: The Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Plant in Þingvellir, Iceland. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

UN University Supports Iceland in Facilitating Developing Countries' Access To Geo-Energy

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – 439 million Asians and 588 million sub-Saharan Africans lack access to electricity, according to the International Energy Authority’s Energy Access Outlook. The situation is worse for those living in rural areas: although 98 percent of urban Filipinos have access to electricity, this is only true for 84 percent of rural dwellers.

Aware of what millions have to forego and such wide gaps between the urban and rural populations, the Geothermal Training Programme of the United Nations University (UNU-GTP), the Government of Iceland and the National Energy Authority are assisting developing countries in capacity building for geothermal exploration and development.

: Lowana Veal; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 14 July 2018

Photo: UNAMA/Fraidoon Poya. Women learning to code at a technology centre in Herat, western Afghanistan.

UN Chief Asks Melinda Gates and Ali Baba's Jack Ma To Head Digital Experts Panel

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Noting that "the scale, spread and speed of change made possible by digital technologies is unprecedented, but the current means and levels of international cooperation are unequal to the challenge," UN Secretary-General António Guterres has announced the launch of a High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation.

As Guterres told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York on July 12, this is the first such Panel of its kind. It is comprised of women and men at the frontiers of technology, public policy, science, and academia.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 13 July 2018

Photo: Martin Krause, Director of the Division of Programme Support and Coordination, IAEA Department of Technical Cooperation, attends the UN event on sustainable development in New York. Credit: D. Shropshire/IAEA.

UN Nuclear Watchdog Promotes Global Development Agenda

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – At the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, concluding on July 18 in New York, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has highlighted its contributions to promoting the Sustainable Development Goals.

Capacity building to 'ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all' as envisaged by SDG 7 was the focus of a training course organized by the IAEA, the world's central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical cooperation in the nuclear field.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 13 July 2018

Photo: OSCE parliamentarians voting in plenary session in Berlin on10 July 2018. Credit: OSCEPA.

300 Parliamentarians Call For Commitment To UN Charter

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN (IDN) – More than 300 parliamentarians representing the collective voice of one billion people from Vancouver to Vladivostok adopted a 76-page declaration on July 11 expressing deep concern about unresolved conflicts and nuclear weapons threats, and proposing measures that should be taken to rebuild peace and security in Europe.

The members of 53 participating States and four partners for co-operation were in Berlin for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which was held in the Reichstag building, the seat of the German Bundestag, from July 7-11, in the run-up to the NATO Summit in Brussels and the Trump-Putin Summit in Helsinki.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 12 July 2018

Photo: The United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Development, Bonn. Credit: UNSSC

UN Summer Academy Brings 2030 Development Agenda To Life

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – In 2015, countries from around the world adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. In November 2016, the Paris Agreement on climate change entered into force, addressing the need to limit the rise of global temperatures.

Since January 2016, governments, businesses and civil society together with the United Nations have been mobilizing efforts to achieve the SDGs. Meanwhile 12 years are left for the 2030 Agenda goals to become a reality. The UN Summer Academy in Bonn is offering an engaging five-day programme from August 27 to August 31, 2018 aimed at 'Bringing the 2030 Agenda to life'.

: Rita Joshi; UN INSIDER; 11 July 2018

Photo: Eritrean Prime Minister Afwerki (left) and his Ethiopian counterpart Ahmed in Asmara. Credit: africanews.

Eritrea and Ethiopia End Two Decade Long War

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ASMARA (IDN) – “And into ploughshares beat their swords. Nations shall learn war no more.”

With those words of Isaiah, Ethiopia and Eritrea announced the end of a futile war and agreed to normalize ties, drawing the curtain on a 20-year military standoff on the Horn of Africa that cost over 70,000 lives and hundreds of millions of dollars.

This was 10 years after the Security Council decided to end the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) terminating the mandate of the eight-year-old peacekeeping force monitoring the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea in response to lack of fuel supplies following Eritrean government restrictions.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 July 2018

Worldwide Shipping Could Jeopardise Climate Goals

By Sean Buchanan

LONDON (IDN) – Worldwide, shipping contributes an estimated 2.5 percent of global emissions, but left unchecked this could grow to 17 percent by 2050, warns Transparency International – an international non-governmental organisation based in Berlin.

Failure to dramatically reduce the sector’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, says the NGO, will jeopardise the pledges signed by 195 states in the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit planetary warming to “well below” 2°C, and ideally to no more than 1.5°C.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 08 July 2018

Photo: Alice Slater | Credit: channel.tv

Trump-Putin Summit A New Opportunity To Ban The Bomb

By Alice Slater, World BEYOND War

The writer serves on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War. Following is the text of her article first published with the caption Watch Out World: Peace May be Breaking Out!! https://worldbeyondwar.org/watch-out-world-peace-may-be-breaking-out/

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Less than a week or so before Donald Trump's groundbreaking meeting planned with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, to take place after the July 11-12 NATO summit, the new Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons celebrated its first birthday on July 7 when 122 nations voted a year ago in the UN General Assembly to ban the bomb, just as we have banned biological and chemical weapons.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 08 July 2018

Photo: UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN Will Continue Support Of Africa's Transformation Under Way

By Amina Mohammed

Following are extensive excerpts from UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed's remarks to the 31st ordinary session of the African Union in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on July 1, 2018. – The Editor.

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (IDN-INPS) – The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, places great importance on our long-standing but new-found strategic partnership with the African Union. Sustainable development is at the centre of that work. Africa's Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development share a common vision and, together, they provide the basis for the African Union-United Nations Partnership framework for development informing the action plan to be launched in Addis Ababa in the coming days.