GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Photo: A UNAMID peacekeeper from Tanzania interacts with children in Karbab village, South Darfur, during a routine patrol. Credit: UN Photo/Albert González Farran

UN Faults in Peacekeeping but Billions Allocated for 2016/17

Analysis by J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) - The United Nations has been spending billions on assisting in navigating the difficult path from conflict to peace in different parts of the world. But with little or no success on the whole, as senior officials of the world body admit.

“Success is never guaranteed, because UN Peacekeeping almost by definition goes to the most physically and politically difficult environments. However, we have built up a demonstrable record of success over our 60 years of existence, including winning the Nobel Peace Prize,” says United Nations Peacekeeping.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 20 June 2016

Photo: Baobab tree in a degraded, arid landscape in Kenya's Eastern province. Credit: World Bank/Flore de Preneuf

UNESCO and China Support UNCCD in Combating Desertification

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | BEIJING (IDN) - Aware that 2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture, but 52 per cent of the farm land is affected by soil degradation, not only UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the specialised agency UNCCD but also UNESCO have stressed the compelling need to rehabilitate every year at least 12 million hectares of degraded land.

At the same time, during the global observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification – this year in Beijing – China and the UNCCD launched the Joint Action Initiative to combat desertification, rehabilitate degraded land and mitigate the effects of drought (JAI).

: Devinder Kumar; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 17 June 2016

Photo: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (right) and Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji, President-designate of the General Assembly’s 71st session (March 2010). UN Photo/Evan Schneider

Climate Change Top Priority of General Assembly’s Fijian President

Analysis By J. Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) - Fiji’s man at the UN, who has been elected as President of the 71st of Session the General Assembly in “a rare secret ballot”, plans to be particularly vocal on the issue of climate change.

It is the first time that a representative of a Pacific small island developing State will serve as head of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the world body.

The selection of its President follows a geographical rotation system, with respective regional groups putting forward a consensus candidate each year. In this case Asia-Pacific States could not reach consensus on a single nominee.

Subsequently, on June 13, Peter Thomson was pitted against Andreas Mavroyiannis of Cyprus, who was defeated by a secret-ballot vote of 94 to 90, with one abstention.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 15 June 2016

Eight States Blocking a Global Legal Ban on Nuclear Testing

Analysis by Jamshed Baruah

BERLIN | VIENNA (IDN) - When will the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) enter into force and become international law? This was the question on the minds of senior officials from around the world who had gathered in Vienna on June 13 to mark the 20th anniversary of the treaty, which is crucial to ushering in a world free of nuclear weapons.

The answer to the question is simple. CTBT has so far been signed by 183 States and ratified by 164. Its demanding entry-into-force provision requires 44 particular “nuclear technology holder” States to ratify the Treaty for it to enter into force.

Eight of them have yet to ratify: China, DPRK (North Korea), Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, and the United States (China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the United States have already signed the Treaty).

: Jamshed Baruah; ARMAMENTS; 13 June 2016

Photo: A view of the UN General Assembly Hall during the High-level Meeting on HIV/AIDS. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

UN Excludes 22 NGOs But Vows to End AIDS Epidemic by 2030

Analysis by J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Though 22 gay and transgender rights groups were excluded at the behest of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting resolved to put an end to the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

The three-day meeting that concluded at the UN headquarters in New York on June 10 adopted what is being touted as a “progressive, new and actionable Political Declaration” that “includes a set of specific, time-bound targets and actions that must be achieved by 2020 if the world is to get on the Fast-Track and end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals”.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 11 June 2016

Photo: A view of the ACP Summit. Credit: CTA

79 Countries Crave Influential Role at the UN and Elsewhere

Analysis by Jaya Ramachandran

BERLIN | PORT MORESBY (IDN) - The heads of State and Government of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries are asking the United Nations to take two important initiatives commended by their eighth Summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

The Group is calling for earliest adoption of a United Nations General Assembly Resolution to develop an international legal framework governing human rights and climate change with a view to protecting the human rights and interests of people displaced by impacts of climate change internally and across borders.

It is also proposing that a joint conference be convened by the UN and international financial institutions with the support of the European Commission and its Member States to discuss “strategies for financing multiannual development programmes of the ACP countries”.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 04 June 2016

Photo: President Nursultan Nazarbayev at the 29th session of the Foreign Investors Council in Astana on 27 May 2016. Courtesy: kazinform.kz

Countdown Begins for Kazakhstan’s Election to Security Council

Analysis by J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) - As countdown begins for the election of five non-permanent members to the UN Security Council for 2017-2018, Kazakhstan – an unrelenting campaigner for a nuclear weapons free world and diverting funds to sustainable development – is strengthening its bid for a single seat reserved for the Asia-Pacific Group. The Central Asian country is pitted against Thailand.

Kazakh diplomats argue that as a regional leader and global partner, Kazakhstan supports peace, prosperity, individual opportunity and economic development, and that its government upholds these values and beliefs both in word and deed.

In matters of energy security, and a valuable contributor to international peacekeeping missions, Kazakhstan wishes to bring its “unique experience and expertise” to bear on some of the pressing challenges currently facing the UN Security Council.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 30 May 2016

Photo: High-Level Leaders’ Roundtable on “Managing Risks and Crises Differently”. Source: WHS

Humanitarian Summit in Perspective: Disaster Prevention is Feasible

Analysis by Jacques N. Couvas

ISTANBUL (IDN) - The gaping absence of a large number of world leaders, including those of most of the Group of 7 (G7) industrial nations, undoubtedly caused profound disappointment. But the first World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in the 70-year existence of the United Nations will not go down in history as a shameful debacle for international diplomacy, nor will it be the last conference of its kind, according to experts.

While G7 leaders were conspicuous by their absence, with the exception of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, some 9,000 participants from 173 countries joined the event in Istanbul. They included some 60 heads of state and government, mostly from the developing world.

: Jacques N. Couvas; UN INSIDER; 27 May 2016

Photo: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (right). Source: WHS

Humanitarian Summit in Perspective: Falling Short of Lofty Expectations

Analysis by Rodney Reynolds

ISTANBUL (IDN) - The first-ever World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proposed as far back as 2012, failed to meet its lofty expectations despite four years of consultations with 23,000 people in over 150 countries.

“This is a 21st century United Nations gathering,” Ban boasted to delegates in his opening remarks. But the two-day summit, which concluded May 24, did not generate any significant funding nor did it receive the whole-hearted political support of the UN’s Big Five – the UK, U.S., France, China and Russia – whose leaders were conspicuous by their absence.

Besides UK, U.S. and France, even the remaining G-7 leaders were missing in action: heads of government from Canada, Italy and Japan shied away from the summit. Only German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Istanbul to represent the world’s seven industrialized democracies.

: Rodney Reynolds; UN INSIDER; 26 May 2016

Image: The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, launched on the 11 January, 2010 by Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. Source:seci.gov.in

India Challenges WTO Ruling Against Climate Action

Analysis by Ravi Kanth Devarakonda *

GENEVA (IDN | SOUTHNEWS) - India along with other developing countries appears now to be facing an acid test in global climate change negotiations and at the WTO on how to ensure that their efforts to build robust domestic industries for manufacturing solar cells, solar modules and other products for renewable energy takes precedence over profits-driven trade rules framed by the United States and other developed countries, according to several negotiators.

On April 20, India took the first step by challenging a WTO panel ruling in favour of the United States that overly dismissed the domestic content requirements adopted by India for promoting solar cells and solar modules industries for producing renewable energy.