UN Insider

Image: 2030 SDGs Game. Credit: Imacocollabo

'2030 SDGs Game' Arouses Growing Interest in Japan

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) – Reports have it that when Albert Einstein was some five years old and confined to bed, his father gave him a magnetic pocket compass to play with. He twisted and turned it, wondering how the needle always knew to point towards the north.

Takeo Inamura and Nobuhide Fukui share a similarly profound curiosity about how the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, world leaders adopted in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit in New York, could really transform the world.

And, what could be done to bring home to the common man and woman that there is no magic wand to realize the grand vision of SDGs, to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind?

: Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 23 August 2018

U.S. Goes for 'Space Force All the Way'

Viewpoint by Alice Slater*, The Hill

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – […] Vice-President Mike Pence announced the Trump administration’s plan for a new military command, the U.S. Space Force, emphasizing President Donald Trump’s urging that “It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space: we must have American dominance in space.” Pence’s announcement was greeted by Trump, tweeting in response, “Space Force all the way!”

Pence’s rationale for this disturbing expansion of U.S. militarization to the heavens is that “our adversaries”, Russia and China, “have been working to bring new weapons of war into space itself” that pose a threat to American satellites.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 21 August 2018

Photo: Boy drinks from a tap at a NEWAH WASH water project in Puware Shikhar, Udayapur District, Nepal. Photo by Jim Holmes for AusAID. Source: Wikimedia Commons

'Right To Water' Should Be A Major Human Right, Say Indonesian Women Activists

By Kalinga Seneviratne

JAKARTA (IDN) – Indonesian women activists, fighting an uphill battle to reverse a 20-year old water privatization project signed by former authoritarian ruler Suharto with French and British companies with the support of a $92 million loan from the World Bank, argue that the United Nations and the international human rights community need to prioritize ‘right to water’ as a major human right.

"We are seeing that a lot of communal resources like land, water, even the air, are not belonging to the community anymore. It’s a shifting of the perspective," argues Dinda Nuur Annisaa Yura, National Program Coordinator, the Coalition of Jakarta Residents Opposed to Water Privatization (KMMSAJ).

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 20 August 2018

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres (front left) views an exhibit at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum on 9 August 2018. UN Photo/Daniel Powell

73 Years On, a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World Remains a Mirage

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN (IDN) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda recall a quote from Martin Luther King Jr – "We are always on the threshold of a new dawn" – and aver that the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in July 2017 is such a 'threshold'.

In a joint appeal 'To the Youth of the World', released to the media and wider public in Rome, and handed over to Pope Francis, they note that the Treaty "is an international legal instrument that establishes the absolute illegality" of nuclear weapons.

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 20 August 2018

Photo: Students in Marrakech planning change for their university community. Credit: The High Atlas Foundation.

Morocco Provides 'Safe Spaces' for Youth

By Julia Payne

MARRAKECH (IDN) – As a society, we have hopes and dreams for the future; for our children, our countries, and the global community. These aspirations rest on the shoulders of the young generation. August 12, 2018 marked the 18th celebration of the UN's annual International Youth Day.

This awareness day was a unique opportunity to reflect on youth's challenges and to celebrate and support the world’s future leaders. This year’s theme, 'Safe Spaces for Youth' highlighted the importance of youth’s engagement, participation, and freedom of thought.

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East & North Africa; 19 August 2018

UN Determined to Protect Civilians, Humanitarian Aid Workers

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Fifteen years ago, a bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Iraq's capital Baghdad killed 22 humanitarian aid workers, including the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. The Brazilian United Nations diplomat had been working for the world body's humanitarian and political programs for more than 34 years.

"The Canal Hotel bombing was," according to Secretary-General António Guterres, "a massive loss for the United Nations and the humanitarian community, and it marked a turning point for the need to increase the protection of humanitarian operations in Iraq and worldwide."

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 18 August 2018

Photo: Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

The Indigenous Peoples, TRIPS & Biodiversity Convention

By Victoria Tauli-Corpuz

The writer is the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and a Member of the South Centre Board. She has served as chairperson of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2005-2010). Following are extensive extracts from her presentation at the International Conference on the TRIPS-CBD Linkage: Issues and Way Forward, held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva on 7-8 June 2018. South Views carried the full text. The conference was jointly organized by the South Centre, the Centre for WTO Studies, New Delhi and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, and co-sponsored by the Permanent Missions of Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa to the WTO. - The Editor

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 17 August 2018

Photo credit: The University of Lincoln.

UK University Launches Distance Learning PhD For Diplomats

An affordable Professional Doctorate for G-77 diplomats and personnel of international organizations

By Robert Johnson

LONDON (IDN) – Personnel of United Nations agencies and international organizations as well as accredited diplomats now have an excellent opportunity to pursue a globally recognized postgraduate academic degree DProf (Professional Doctorate) that has the same status as a PhD, while attending to their fulltime professional and personal commitments.

The University of Lincoln, a public research university based in the cathedral city of Lincoln in England, has launched a two-year distance learning Professional Doctorate to empower the next generation of international scholar practitioners. With origins tracing back to 1861, the institution achieved university status in 1992.

: Robert Johnson; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 17 August 2018

E-Government Favours Sustainable and Resilient Societies, Finds UN Survey

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – Almost two thirds of 193 United Nations member States demonstrate a high-level of e-government development with EGDI (the E-Government Development Index) values above in the range of 0.5 and 1, finds a new survey, which also draws attention to the widening 'digital divide' between the industrialized and least developed countries.

The share of countries with low e-government levels, in the range of 0 to 0.25, has dropped by a significant 50 percent, from 32 countries in to 16 countries in 2018, says the 2018 UN E-Government Survey.

: Santo D. Banerjee; SUSTAINABILITY; Sustainable Cities & Communities; 13 August 2018

Photo: UN Peacekeepers serving with the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) patrol the city of Bangui in 2017. UN Photo/ Hervé Serefio

Security Council Calls for Better UN Agency Cooperation in Central Africa

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In view of "the volatile and fast‑evolving nature of the political, security and social situation" in Central Africa, the United Nations Secretary-General has asked the Security Council to extend by three years from September 1, 2018 to August 31, 2021 the mandate of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA).

Created on January 1, 2011, and operating under the purview of the Department of Political Affairs, UNOCA covers the 11 member States of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS): Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, and Sao Tome and Principe.