UN Insider

Photo: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of the Republic of Turkey, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s 74th session on 24 September 2019 at the United Nations in New York. UN Photo/Cia Pak

President Erdogan Muses Over Turkey Owning Nuclear Weapons

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN-INPS) – Complaining that nuclear-armed nations retain an unacceptable monopoly on nuclear weapons, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a recent Turkish holiday to seemingly suggest that his nation acquire its own nuclear arsenal.

“Several countries have missiles with nuclear warheads, not one or two. But [they tell us that] we can’t have them. This I cannot accept,” Erdogan said on the centennial of the Turkish independence movement. “There is no developed nation in the world that doesn’t have them.”

: Arms Control Association; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 21 October 2019

UN Women Is Criticized for Appearing to Take Sides on Decriminalizing ‘Sex Work’

By Barbara Crossette, PassBlue

NEW YORK (IDN) – A group of civil society organizations is warning that a growing global movement to decriminalize and rebrand prostitution as "sex work" could lead to more, not less, violence against the world's most vulnerable women and girls.

The critics are petitioning UN Women, which is leading a review of the results of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, alleging that many dissenting voices against decriminalization have been shut out of the discussions.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 20 October 2019

ACP-FAO Step Up Actions to End Hunger and Malnutrition

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) –The ACP Secretariat joined with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to observe the World Food Day 2019 with the aim to step up actions to end hunger and malnutrition in all its forms possible by 2030.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 20 October 2019

Photo: UN Day Concert of 2018 entitled “Traditions of Peace and Non-violence” featuring Sarod Maestro Amjad Ali Khan with The Refugee Orchestra Project. UN Photo/Loey Felipe

Renewal and Reform Are Challenges of the UN Day

Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) – The dreams of vast horizons of the Soul
                            Through dreams made whole,
                            Unfettered free ... help me!
                            Help me make our world anew – Langston Hughes

The United Nations remains the only universally representative and comprehensively empowered body the world has to deal with threats to international peace and security, to promote human rights, and to foster ecologically-sound development worldwide.

: Rene Wadlow; OPINION; 19 October 2019

Ribbon-cutting ceremony opens ‘Everything You Treasure…’ exhibition (from left to right): Sapar Akhmetov, member of the Mazhilis (lower house) of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, Amerkhan Rakhimzhanov, Director of the Library of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan – Elbassy, Kuanysh Sultanov, Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Kazakhstan under the First President of Kazakhstan, Tatsuhiko Kasai, Ambassador of Japan to Kazakhstan, Bizhanova Gulnara Kadyrzhankyzy, member of the Mazhilis of Parliament of Kazakhstan, Hirotsugu Terasaki, Director General of Peace and Global Issues of the SGI. Photo credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | IDN-INPS.

Nuclear Abolition Exhibition Boosts Japan-Kazakh Relations

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (IDN) – 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the end of nuclear weapons testing in Semipalatinsk, the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons, the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia, and the ratification by Kazakhstan as the 26th country to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Kazakhstan is known for its commitment to ridding the world of nuclear weapons. An estimated 1.5 million of its people suffered the effects of the testing of 456 nuclear weapons at Semipalatinsk over four decades.

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 17 October 2019

Photo: Air pollution from a coking oven. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Breaking New Ground in the Fight Against Air Pollution

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – Air pollution is by far the world’s largest single environmental health risk and a leading cause of death by cancer. It kills 7 million people every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Closely linked to climate change, air pollution is a major cause of environmental degradation. It is also threatening almost two-thirds of Europe’s ecosystems. This makes air pollution a critical barrier for sustainable development.

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 15 October 2019

EU Enhances Support for FAO to Benefit ACP States

By Jaya Ramachandran

ROME (IDN | ACP) – European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, Neven Mimica, and Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Qu Dongyu, signed on October 14 a new agreement enabling the EU to provide an additional €9 million to support the UN agency's work in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The funding will boost in particular the efforts of countries in the targeted regions to bring about sustainable changes in agricultural policies and practices to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and natural resources.

: Jaya Ramachandran; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 14 October 2019

Photo: A woman dressed in blue rides a white donkey through open vast terrain surrounded by mountains. Credit: UN.

UN Focuses on Rural Women’s Role in Ensuring Food Security

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the first International Day of Rural Women was observed on October 15, 2008, there is agreement that rural women and girls, including indigenous women, play a critical role in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty.

In fact when the UN General Assembly established the new international day in its resolution 62/136 of December 18, 2007, it called for “attaching greater importance to the improvement of the situation of rural women, including indigenous women, in their national, regional and global development strategies”.

: Santo D. Banerjee; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 13 October 2019

UN Concerned that the World Is Off-Track to End Hunger and Poverty by 2030

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Ahead of the World Food Day on October 16 and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17, the United Nations Is warning that the world is not on track to end hunger and poverty by 2030 – and hence missing the deadline for achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in September 2015.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 13 October 2019

Photo: Representatives from indigenous peoples speak at PreCOP25. Credit: Julieth Mendaz/unfccc.int

Costa Rica Triggers Climate Ambition towards COP25 in Chile

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK | SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica (IDN) –- On the road towards the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to be held in Santiago, Chile, from December 2 to 13, delegates have called for “more climate ambition”.

The three-day preparatory conference – PreCOP25 – concluded in San José on October 10 emphasizing climate finance and the gender agenda as transformational focus areas of climate solutions.