UN Insider

A Push to Further Bolster the Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime

By Reinhard Jacobsen

VIENNA (IDN) — The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, has launched an initiative to convince more countries to join the majority of states in giving Agency inspectors wider access to locations and information as part of a push to further bolster the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

The Director General's move is intended to support the full implementation of a long-standing annual resolution adopted by IAEA Member States on strengthening Agency safeguards activities carried out to verify that nuclear material is not used for weapons purposes.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; Nuclear Weapoms; 04 February 2022

Photo Bethlehem: part of the barrier between Israel and the West Bank. UN News/Reem Abaza

Amnesty International, In A Landmark Report, Accuses Israel of Apartheid

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The term “apartheid”, describing institutionalized racial discrimination, was widely prevalent both in white-ruled South Africa and in Southwest Africa (now Namibia), beginning in 1948 until it ended with the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994 in Pretoria.

But elsewhere it was treated as a four-letter word—and largely shunned both by the United States and the United Nations—particularly when it was tagged onto Israel to describe its treatment of Palestinians.

: Thalif Deen; THE WORLD; Middle East; 02 February 2022

Photo: This photo provided by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's government shows what it says a test launch of a hypersonic missile on Jan 11, 2022 in DPRK. (KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY / KOREA NEWS SERVICE VIA AP)

North Korea, Perpetual Victim of the US Military-Industrial Complex

Viewpoint by Alice Slater

The writer is a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. She is also the UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. www.warbeyondwar.org

NEW YORK (IDN) — It seems hard to believe that in these possible end times in the midst of a global pandemic with an endless succession of catastrophic climate disasters and thousands of nuclear weapons poised and pointed in the US and Russia, ready to destroy life on earth, we are beset by a bought, corrupted mainstream media that assaults us with the “wrongdoings” of Russia and China, and most recently North Korea, with barely a mention in their assaultive reporting of how the US might be a cause.

: Opinion Editor; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 31 January 2022

Photo: North Korean farmers in a field. Wikimedia Commons.

A Politically Isolated North Korea Garners Support from two Nuclear Powers at the UN

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — North Korea, long described as a “hermit kingdom”, apparently isn’t living in total political isolation or is cut off from the rest of the world.

Or so it seems, judging by the failure of the US and some of its UN allies to impose sanctions on five North Korean officials—sanctions really aimed at a country that continues to defy the West with its multiple ballistic nuclear tests.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 30 January 2022

Photo: A young woman carries water in a camp for displaced people in Tillaberi region, Niger. © UNOCHA/Michele Cattani

UN Warns of Food Insecurity in 20 Countries and Regions

By Jaya Ramachandran

ROME (IDN) — A new report by two UN agencies has identified "hunger hotspots" across 20 countries and regions where parts of the population are expected to face a significant deterioration of acute food insecurity in the coming months that will put their lives and livelihoods at risk. This warning of spiralling uncertainty relates to areas where conflict, economic shocks, natural hazards, political instability, and limited humanitarian access, are hard-hitting.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 30 January 2022

Photo: A student volunteer tutors a young refugee woman hosted by ECAR. Credit: Cheryl Diaz Meyer

Resettlement Campuses are the Future of Higher Education

Dr. Diya Abdo, Founder of Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR)

The writer discusses in this article how institutions of higher education can support the successful integration of refugees. It was issued by the United Nations Academic Impact.

GREENSBORO, North Carolina, US (IDN) — Universities have the necessary physical facilities and human resources to provide much needed temporary housing and community support for refugees.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Quality Education; 28 January 2022

Image: Nuclear weapon programmes worldwide. Wikimedia Commons.

Six Country Coalition Criticises the Modernisation of Nuclear Weapon Programmes

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — On the eve of the opening of the Tenth Review Conference* of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the five states recognized as possessors of such armament—China, United States, France, United Kingdom and Russia—issued a Joint Declaration recalling the affirmation by presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that “a nuclear war cannot be won a should never be fought”, adding that those weapons should serve defensive objectives, prevent aggression and avoid war.

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 28 January 2022

The Covid Endgame and Digital Colonialism: Cyber War Simulacra in An Upside-Down World

Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

The writer, Dr Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, is a Sociocultural and Medical Anthropologist based in Colombo. Her latest publication is 'Multi-religiosity on Contemporary Sri Lanka: Innovation, Shared Spaces, Contestation".(Routledge 2022.

COLOMBO (IDN) — The greatest transfer of wealth in human history took place during Covid-19 lockdowns with Covid masks and Personal Protection Equipment. The rest of the world was impoverished.[i] But the tipping point is here now: Two years of Covid 'panicdemic' and WHO staged ‘Permanent Emergency’ has shown us that 'the Emperor has no clothes', comprehensively.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 28 January 2022

Photo: Protest in Bonn, West Germany against the nuclear arms race between the U.S./NATO and the then Soviet Union. Wikimedia Commons.

Clarion Call for Policies to End the Nuclear Arms Race

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | PRAGUE (IDN) — On January 24, 1946, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus its very first resolution Resolution 1 (I), which established a commission of the UN Security Council to ensure "the elimination from national armaments of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction". The Resolution is entitled "Establishment of a Commission to Deal with the Problems Raised by the Discovery of Atomic Energy".

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 26 January 2022

Photo: A young man with a heap of debris. Credit: UNDP Yemen

Devastating Loss of Civilian Lives in a Middle East War Fuelled by Western Arms

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen on January 21, which killed at least 70 civilians, has shifted the focus once again to the festering seven-year-old conflict in the Middle East, which the UN has described as “the world’s worst humanitarian disaster”.

The disproportionate retaliation was a response to a drone attack by the Houthis based in Yemen, which killed about three in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), an integral partner of the Saudi military coalition.