UN Insider

Image: Sri Lanka is strategically located as an important island in the heart of the Indian Ocean. The country has been in the middle of international attention as a crucial destination between the East and West shipping routes that attracted three maritime superpowers trading in that route for economic benefits to the said motherlands. Source: Daily News, Sri Lanka.

Should Sri Lanka De-Dollarize? Beyond Bananas, Beaches, Bases and Dependent Development

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) — Necessity is the mother of invention: Protests are mounting by people from all walks of life in all parts of Sri Lanka against the soaring cost of living, food and fuel shortages, black outs, lockdowns, forced Covid injections, and the sale of national assets by the ruling dual US citizen Rajapaksa led regime in Colombo.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 20 March 2022

Photo: A group of school children walk hand in hand after school in rural Nepal. © World Bank/Aisha Faquir

Ukraine War Threatens Development Aid to World’s Poorer Nations

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the current devastating war in Ukraine has an equally destructive impact on the outside world: an assault on the world’s most vulnerable people and countries.

The worst affected are the world’s poor as food, fuel and fertilizer prices are skyrocketing while one of the world’s major bread baskets, Ukraine, is being bombed—a country which alone provided more than half of the World Food Programme’s (WFP) wheat supply.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Global Partnerships; 18 March 2022

Photo: UN General Assembly. Source: The Daily Star

Bangladesh’s Abstention from The UN Resolution on The Ukraine War Is Justified

Viewpoint by M Rafiqul Islam

The writer is Emeritus Professor of Law, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. This article was issued by The Daily Star of Bangladesh and is being republished with their permission.

SYDNEY (IDN) — The UN General Assembly emergency session adopted a resolution against Russia's aggression in Ukraine on 2 March 2022. It was adopted by 141 votes of total 193 members with 5 negative votes and 35 abstentions of which Bangladesh was one. Given the highly polarised geopolitical orientation of current international relations and UN operational narratives, this write-up argues that the pragmatic decision of Bangladesh was justified.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 17 March 2022

Tiny Pacific Atolls Battered by King Tides as IPCC Makes Big Waves

Viewpoint by Volker Boege

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

BRISBANE, Australia (IDN) — On 25 February, the government of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea (PNG) declared a State of Emergency in the Atolls Constituency of the region. On 28 February, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest climate science report.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 16 March 2022

Photo: Shelling killed six-year-old Milana's mother. She is now recovering after surgery at a children's hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine. © UNICEF/Oleksandr Ratushniak

Ukraine: ‘We Need Peace Now’ Declares the UN Chief & Warns of Global Hunger Meltdown

By UN News

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — Ukraine is being “decimated before the eyes of the world” with Russia’s military offensive against civilians “reaching terrifying proportions”, said the UN chief on March 14, warning that a resulting meltdown of the global economy is provoking a hunger crisis that is hitting the poorest, hardest.

Secretary-General António Guterres addressed correspondents outside the Security Council chamber in New York, and said that with each passing hour in Ukraine, the death and destruction is getting worse: “Whatever the outcome, this war will have no winners, only losers.”

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 15 March 2022

Photo: 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine—i

Never Too Late for Peace in Ukraine

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa

NEW YORK (IDN) — Once again, destruction, bloodshed, migration of millions of people, shattered economies, and hardship for average people all over the world.

Russia attacked Ukraine though Russia’s President Vladimir Putin reiterated that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukraine, and that the "special military operation" is directed at "demilitarization" and "denazification" in Ukraine.

: Somar Wijayadasa; OPINION; 14 March 2022

Photo: Sikorsky HSS-2 Sea King US helicopter whose production has been licensed to manufacturers in UK, Italy, Canada and Japan. Credit: US Navy

World’s Largest Arms Importers Include Nuclear Powers

By Thalif Deen

NEW YORK (IDN) — A significant spike in arms imports by Europe, East Asia and Oceania during the last five years has reaffirmed the continuously sharp increase in global arms sales—a rising trend undaunted by a faltering world economy or the two-year-long pandemic lockdown.

According to a new study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released March 14, Asia and Oceania remained the largest importing region for major arms, receiving 43 per cent of global transfers during 2017–21.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 14 March 2022

Photo: Two newborn babies being cared for at a makeshift maternity clinic in Ukraine. Credit: UNICEF/2022/Ratushniak

Three UN Agencies Call for Stopping Attacks on Health Care in Ukraine

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | NEW YORK (IDN) — Three UN agencies have called for an immediate ceasefire in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, enabling unhindered access so that people in need can avail of humanitarian assistance. "A peaceful resolution to end the war in Ukraine is possible,” says a joint statement issued by UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell, her counterpart at UNFPA, Dr Natalia Kanem, and WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 13 March 2022

Photo: A 30-foot-high monument entitled 'Turn off the plastics tap' by Canadian activist and artist Benjamin von Wong stands outside the venue for the UN Environment Assembly that concluded on March 2, 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya. Credit: UNEP/Cyril Villemain

Striving for a Global Treaty to Combat Plastic Pollution, 'One of the Greatest Human-Made Threats our Planet Faces'

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — In the 1967 Hollywood box office hit “The Graduate”—a romantic comedy directed by Mike Nichols and based on a novel by Charles Webb—the newly-graduated Dustin Hoffman gets an unsolicited piece of advice: “The future is plastics”.

The widely disseminated one-liner was hailed as a boost for the world’s plastic industry. But 55 years later, the industry is under fire because of the environmental hazards it generates.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 11 March 2022

Photo: TS Tirumurti, India's permanent representative to the UN, said India chose to abstain on the UNSC resolution on Ukraine because the path of diplomacy was given up. Credit: ANI | HT_PRINT

Ukraine-Russia Conflict: India Re-Asserts Strategic Autonomy

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran *

NEW DELHI (IDN) — Washington has failed to push India into taking a stand against Moscow in the ongoing US-Russia confrontation, where Ukraine is a victim of both the superpowers. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is indefensible, as war or the use of military force is unacceptable as a means of dispute resolution. Equally indefensible is the US and the US-led West using Ukraine as bait to set the bear trap of the war, in which Russia has now got snared.