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By Caroline Mwanga
NEW YORK (IDN) – An independent survey prepared by the Global Policy Forum and Social Watch, comprising the Global Policy Watch, shows that civil society organizations (CSOs) have "a very high level of commitment to United Nations (UN) values and principles, much dissatisfaction with the actual operations at the country level and articulation of areas for improvement".
By Ramu Damodaran
The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd first appeared in the #WhyWeCare, @ImpactUN on February 5.
NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) – “Nostalgia for the present“ is a phrase I once heard (or think I have), and it came to mind when reading a response received to last week’s (January 29) column and its looking back on CTAUN’s quarter-century of affirmation and affection. The question asked was straightforward; had CTAUN (Committee on Teaching) been able to “convene” over the past year? The answer, which I missed noting in my nostalgia for the past, is yes…three times actually.
By Radwan Jakeem
NEW YORK (IDN) – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has told the UN’s 193 Member States that in the wake of an “annus horribilis” of death, disaster and despair, 2021 must be a year of transformation. “We need to move from death to health; from disaster to reconstruction; from despair to hope; from business as usual to transformation.”
Mr Guterres outlined his four priorities for the months ahead. Now is the time to secure the well-being of people, economies, societies and the planet, he accentuated, speaking from the podium in the General Assembly Hall in the UN Headquarters in New York on January 28.
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – "Addressing climate-related security risks to international peace and security through mitigation and resilience-building" will be the focus of a high-level open debate which the UK plans to host in February.
According to the Security Council Report, the meeting is expected to consider conflict risks, peacebuilding approaches and ways to support adaptation and resilience in climate-vulnerable contexts. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to chair the meeting. Secretary-General António Guterres is an anticipated briefer.
By Caroline Mwanga
NEW YORK (IDN) – Rejecting the existential threat to humanity that nuclear weapons pose, a wide coalition of faith-based communities from around the world has hailed the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), the first international treaty to comprehensively ban nuclear weapons. Over 160 organizations endorsed a joint interfaith statement coordinated by the Faith Communities Concerned About Nuclear Weapons, which include Soka Gakkai International (SGI).
By Ronald Joshua
ROME (IDN) – Director-General QU Dongyu of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has declared 2021 a key year to move forward the transformation of agri-food systems, marked by big events, particularly the UN Food Systems Summit in New York, the Pre-Summit in Rome, and FAO’s Youth World Food Forum.
By Radwan Jakeem
NEW YORK (IDN) – "Our world has reached a heart-wrenching milestone: #COVID19 has now claimed two million lives. Sadly, the impact of the pandemic has been made worse by the absence of global coordination. In the memory of those two million souls, the world must act with far greater solidarity," tweeted UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte
The author is Ambassador, President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.
NEW YORK (IDN) – Seventy-five years ago, in January 1946, the United Nations General Assembly met for the first time after the signature of the Charter. Its first resolution was adopted on the 24th of that month. The developments mentioned and commented below come to mind as we recall the outcome of that inaugural session of the Assembly.
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly pointed out, humanity is faced with a "defining moment", a warning that is highlighted in the 30th-anniversary edition of the Human Development Report (HDR), The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene. Though humankind has achieved incredible progress, we have taken the Earth for granted, destabilizing the very systems upon which we rely for survival.
By Ramu Damodaran
The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd first appeared in the UNAI Weekly Newsletter – January 8.
NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) – Graffiti is terse but truthful and even if I failed in identifying the specific trigger for a carefully executed scrawl on a boulder by the water in New York, that read “Beware of Locals,” it resonated with lessons the last 75 years of the United Nations, and the very last one in particular, have offered, that there is no purely “local” any longer and that those who see themselves as insulated from or immune to the world beyond are eminently bewareable.
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