UN Insider

Photo: A view of the sculpture – Good Defeats Evil – on the UN Headquarters grounds, presented to the UN by the Soviet Union, predecessor of the Russian Federation, on the occasion of the Organization’s 45th anniversary. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias.

Middle Eastern States Are Back on The Path to A WMD Free Zone

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is President of Pugwash and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The establishment of a nuclear weapon free zone in the region of the Middle East has been one of the most frustrating undertakings in the field of arms control and non-proliferation at the United Nations. Over the past few decades it has been possible for States in other regions of the globe to successfully negotiate and adopt treaties that establish nuclear weapon free zones that greatly enhance peace and security.

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 01 December 2019

Photo: Mario Marazziti, co-founder of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty in 2002 and Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | INPS-IDN Multimedia Director.

Papal Visit to Japan Revives Debate About Death Penalty

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – An international conference "No Justice Without Life" has called on Japan to halt all executions next year, the year of the Olympic Games. Japan is one of the 56 nations which retains capital punishment, also known as the death penalty or death sentence for capital crimes. In fact, Japan, the United States and South Korea are the only nations in the group of developed economies that meet out death penalty.

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 30 November 2019

Photo: United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, Mr. Adama Dieng, addressing the 12th International Meeting of Justice Ministers. Source: www.santegidio.org.

Defeating Hatred: For a World Without Death Penalty

Viewpoint by Adama Dieng

The following are extensive excerpts from the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, Mr. Adama Dieng, to the 12th International Meeting of Justice Ministers, on 29 November in Rome. The meeting focussed on ‘Paving the Way: Defeating Hatred for a World Without Death Penalty’. Mr. Dieng is former board member of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) and a former registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 30 November 2019

Photo: Collage of portraits of ESCAP Executive Secretary Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana (left) and UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (right). Photos by ESCAP.

A Lot More Needs Be Done to Achieve Gender Parity

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Government Ministers and senior officials from the Ministries of Women, National Planning, and Finance, representatives of civil society and other key stakeholders from across the Asia-Pacific region have gathered at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand for a three-day Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on the Beijing+25 Review concluding on 29 November. The following is a joint viewpoint of Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN Women.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 27 November 2019

Communities at The Forefront in the HIV/AIDS Response

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the first identification of HIV/AIDS in the United States of America (USA), in 1981, approximately 80 million people have been infected with HIV, and over 40 million have died of AIDS – the highest global death toll of all time – and also one of the world’s most serious public health challenges.

Each year, on December 1, the world commemorates World AIDS Day to show support for people living with HIV and to remember those who have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

: Somar Wijayadasa; OPINION; 24 November 2019

Image: Cyber security. Source: Eurocontrol

Action Needed to Face Looming Danger of Cyberwar

By Arul Louis *

NEW YORK (IDN) – The terrifying potential for cyberwar between nations and also asymmetrical cyberwar by non-state actors now looms over the world with the same intensity of the threat of a nuclear holocaust.

The danger was writ large in a recent cyber intrusion into a nuclear power plant in India and the planting of a virus in an Iranian nuclear facility.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 23 November 2019

Photo (L-R): Quit Nukes Director Margaret Peril, Australian Ethical Acting CEO Steve Gibbs, ICAN Australia Director Gem Romuld. Source: Quit Nukes.

Australia’s ‘Quit Nukes’ Campaign Targets Superannuation Funds

By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY (IDN) – A new campaign is encouraging Australians to urge their superannuation funds to exclude nuclear weapons producers from their investments, consistent with the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which has been ratified by 33 states and needs another 17 ratifications to become enforceable under international law – 90 days after the fiftieth instrument of ratification.

: Neena Bhandari; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 November 2019

Image: Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones (Blue); Nuclear weapons states (Red); Nuclear sharing (Orange); Neither, but NPT (Lime green). CC BY-SA 3.0

Anxiety Looms Over the 10th NPT Review Conference Next Year

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is President of Pugwash. Former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The contentious start of the 74th Session of the First Committee of the General Assembly last October in New York was a harbinger of the difficulties to be faced in the run-up to the forthcoming 2020 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and in United Nations multilateral organs devoted to disarmament.

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 21 November 2019

Photo: Collage of Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is Executive Director of UN Women and Generation Equality. Source: Kea Taylor | UN Women.

End Rape and Usher in A Far-Reaching Shift for Our Society

Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

The following statement by Executive Director of UN Women is for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November 2019. [Also available in ar, es, fr, ru]

NEW YORK (IDN) – If I could have one wish granted, it might well be a total end to rape. That means a significant weapon of war gone from the arsenal of conflict, the absence of a daily risk assessment for girls and women in public and private spaces, the removal of a violent assertion of power, and a far-reaching shift for our society.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 21 November 2019

Photo: A mother and her baby at the IDP Pissila campsite in Burkina Faso. Credit: WFP/Marwa Awad

The Humanitarian Emergency the World is Ignoring

By Kwame Buist

ROME (IDN) – Almost daily violent attacks in the Sahel nations of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have displaced nearly one million people and caused emergency levels of malnutrition, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.

“Conflict is moving forward and moving fast,” says Margot van der Velden, Director of WFP’s Emergencies Division, referring to the three countries, where it is estimated 20 million people are living in areas affected by conflict and 2.4 million people are in need of food assistance – a figure that could rise due to continued displacements.