United Nations

Photo: UN Secretary-General Guterres (left) and General Assembly President Thomson at the high-level dialogue on January 24. Credit: UN

Search For 'Hopeful Spots' As Funding Cuts Threaten UN

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – While a drastic cut in U.S. contributions is hanging like a Damocles' Sword over the head of the new UN Secretary-General António Guterres, senior Government officials and civil society representatives have stressed the "nexus" between enduring peace and sustainable development, urging the need to raise awareness about such a link beyond the world body's headquarters in New York.

Goal 16 of the Agenda for Sustainable Development that highlights the importance of the need to "promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies" underlines such an innate bond, they say, but it has escaped wider public and diplomatic attention – one year after the United Nations started implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endorsed by 193 member states in September 2015.

: Ramesh Jaura; UN INSIDER; 28 January 2017

Photo: International Meeting on Syrian Settlement. Credit: Kazakh Foreign Ministry.

Outcome of Syria Meeting a Feather in Kazakhstan's Cap

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | ASTANA (IDN) – UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has commended Russia, Turkey and Iran for their decision to establish a trilateral mechanism to observe and ensure full compliance with the ceasefire in crisis-torn Syria endorsed by the UN Security Council on December 31, 2016.

This is "a concrete step" towards further implementation of Security Council Resolution (SCR) 2236, he said. "The UN stands ready to assist the parties to the trilateral mechanism, develop it, and ensure that it helps strengthen the quality of the ceasefire," De Mistura added, commenting the two-day 'International Meeting on Syrian Settlement' in the Kazakh capital Astana on January 23-24, 2017.

: J Nastranis; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; United Nations; 24 January 2017

Photo: The ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

The Importance of the UN as a Moral Compass

By Jayantha Dhanapala*

COLOMBO (IDN) - Throughout my life I have had an abiding faith in the United Nations Organization which, three years hence, will celebrate its 75th anniversary. The foundation document of that unique world body – the Charter – is not only the bedrock of international law, but also the most inspiring document that can hold the international community together amidst its diversity and conflict.

Individual countries and Governments are dominated by their separate concepts of national security whereas the UN has to weave 193 of these national security concepts of member states into a tapestry that will serve the common security of the global community in a co-operative and credible manner.

: Jayantha Dhanapala; UN INSIDER; 23 January 2017

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 19 January 2017. Credit: World Economic Forum/Valeriano Di Domenico.

Conflict Prevention Needs UN Reform and Much More

By António Guterres, UN Secretary-General

"The best prevention for conflict and the best prevention for other negative impacts on societies is, of course, sustainable and inclusive development," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in remarks at the special session on “Cooperation for Peace: Tackling the Root Causes of Global Crises” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 19. He also urged the need for "a new generation of partnerships, partnerships not only with governments, not only with civil society and academia but equally partnerships with the business community". Following are detailed excerpts from his remarks.

DAVOS (IDN-INPS) - We live in a dangerous world. We see a proliferation of new conflicts; old conflicts seem never to die. Conflicts are becoming more and more interlinked, more linked with the new threat of global terrorism.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 20 January 2017

Photo: Handover of next UN World Data Forum to UAE. Credit: Stats SA

Harnessing the Data Revolution for Achieving SDGs

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | CAPE TOWN (IDN) - The unprecedented scope of the UN’s 2030 Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), calls for reliable data without which progress in implementing those goals cannot be tracked. “We cannot achieve what we cannot measure,” said Dr Pali Lehohla, South Africa’s Statistician-General and head of Statistics South Africa (STATS SA).

STATS SA hosted the first ever United Nations World Data Forum in Cape Town from January 15 to 18, with support from the Statistics Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), under the guidance of the United Nations Statistical Commission and the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 19 January 2017

Bonn To Host Global Festival For Sustainable Development

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN | BONN (IDN) – The UN SDG Action Campaign, an Initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General, is launching the first Global Festival of Ideas March 1-3 in Bonn with a view to ensuring the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Bonn, former West German capital in divided post-World War II Germany, hosts 22 UN secretariats, including those of the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC), UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and UN Volunteers (UNV).

: Jutta Wolf; UN INSIDER; 18 January 2017

Photo: IOM Office to the United Nations.

Photo Exhibit at UN Focuses on Vulnerabilities of Migrants

NEW YORK (IDN) - A photo exhibit launched at United Nations Headquarters in New York on January 16 by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations TOGETHER initiative seeks to draw attention to the plight of migrants in vulnerable situations around the world.

“The photo exhibit serves to highlight how crisis-related migration flows are growing in scale and complexity and inducing new forms of migration-related humanitarian challenges both internally and across borders,” said Ashraf El Nour, Director of IOM’s Office to the UN in New York. “Migrants need protection as their vulnerability to exploitation, trafficking, and violence heightens during crises,” he added.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 17 January 2017

Photo: Syed Akbaruddin, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider

UN Reform Vital To Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace

By Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin

Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin is India's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York. Following are excerpts from his statement to the Security Council in an open debate on January 10 on 'Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace' in connection with the agenda item 'Maintenance of International Peace and Security'- an agenda that relates to one of the first purposes of the UN's charter and one which is listed in the first article.

UNITED NATIONS (IDN-INPS) - The wisdom of the age-old adage, "Prevention is better than Cure" is self-evident . . . Dag Hammarskjöld is said to have first introduced the term "preventive diplomacy" more than 50 years ago into the lexicon. Boutros Boutros-Ghali's "Agenda for Peace" unveiled in the 1990s comes to mind as another milestone in this saga.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 15 January 2017

Photo: Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov addressing the Security Council Open Debate on 'Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace' on 10 January 2017. Credit: The Astana Times.

Plea For Proactive Link Between Security Council and UN Chief

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Kazakhstan has made a strong plea for a close and proactive working relationship between the United Nations Secretary-General and the Security Council. In doing so, Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan – which began its two-year term as non-permanent member of the Security Council on January 1 – concurred among others with Sweden's Foreign Minister and Security Council President for January, Margot Wallström.

She said such a relationship "is the cornerstone of this Organization's ability to deliver lasting peace and security" – "not least to improve the UN's capacity to take early action to prevent violent conflict". Though conflict prevention had been discussed "many times before . . . progress is meager".

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 15 January 2017

Photo: UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants on September 19, 2016. Credit: UN

UN Prepares for Global Compact on Migration with UNU Backing

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) - UN Member States will engage in broad consultations throughout 2017 to inform negotiations on a global compact on safe, regular, and orderly migration in 2018. In this, the Global Migration Group (GMG), headed by United Nations University (UNU) Rector and UN Under-Secretary-General Dr David M. Malone since January 1 will play a crucial role.

GMG, a forum of 21 agencies and entities from the United Nations system, promotes norms relating to international migration so as to work towards improved global governance of this issue. UNU formally joined the GMG in 2014, placing UNU’s expertise on migration at its service.