GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Photo: CTBTO Youth Group with Executive Secretary Dr Lassina Zerbo. Credit: CTBTO.

Youth Determined to Push Through UN Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

By Ramesh Jaura

This is the first in a series of two reports on the Science and Technology Conference of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) from June 26 to June 30, 2017 in Austria's capital Vienna. – The Editor

NEW YORK | VIENNA (IDN) – “As youth, we are the future leaders of the world, the ones who will inherit and live in the world left behind for us, and the bearers of the hopes and dreams for our children and their children after them," declared a group of young people who are members of the CTBTO Youth Group.

"Twenty years after the opening of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) for signature, we regret that this Treaty, which would establish a legally binding, comprehensive prohibition on nuclear explosive testing, has yet to enter into force," said the Group in a joint statement.

: Ramesh Jaura; UN INSIDER; 04 July 2017

Photo: Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten.

Working Together to Achieve the Africa We Want

By Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General

Following are extensive excerpts from Amina J. Mohammed's remarks on July 3 as prepared for delivery to the African Union Summit (June 27 to July 4) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investments in Youth as thematic focus. She was Minister of Environment of Nigeria from November 2015 to December 2016. Prior to this, she served as Special Adviser to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, where she was instrumental in bringing about the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goals. – The Editor

ADDIS ABABA (IDN-INPS) - Our organizations are embarking on two extremely ambitious agendas – Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – along with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 03 July 2017

Photo: UNESCO DG Irina Bokova. Credit; UNESCO

UNESCO Crucial to Achieving the SDGs in their Totality

By Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO

Following is the text of the Foreword the UNESCO Director-General wrote for the '2017 Report of the Joint Media Project' of the International Press Syndicate Group, with IDN-InDepthNews as its flagship agency and the Soka Gakkai Internationa (SGI). The Report can be accessed on line at http://www.sdgsforall.net/documents/Striving_for_People_Planet_and_Peace_2017.pdf. - The Editor

PARIS (IDN-INPS) - The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), charts a new vision for cooperation over the next 15 years, to ensure prosperity and well-being for all societies, while protecting the planet and strengthening peace. Inclusivity, integration, and universality. These are three hallmarks of the SDGs, and they represent the most ambitious and comprehensive agenda ever seen – to leave no one behind.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 02 July 2017

Photo: President Juan Manuel Santos; Special Representative of the Secretary-General Jean Arnault; and head of the FARC-EP Secretariat Timoleon Jimenez at a ceremony for the final laying down of weapons in Colombia. Photo: UN Mission in Colombia

Security Council Pledges Support to Colombia in Transition

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Security Council has greeted the handover of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army’s (FARC-EP) remaining weapons to a United Nations-backed team as a “true example” of courage and commitment to peace, and pledged to support Colombia as it transitions out of its five-decades-long civil conflict.

Briefing the Council on those recent developments, Jean Arnault, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission in Colombia, said on June 30 that, with the June 27 handover of its remaining weapons, the FARC‑EP had officially met its obligations under the May 29 road map.

: Santo D. Banerjee; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 01 July 2017

Photo: Dag Hammarskjöld medal ceremony. International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers 2017. Credit: UN Photo/DPKO-DFS/Steven Bornholtz, May 24, 2017.

Peacekeeping Remains a Challenging Task for the UN

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - The United Nations is often scapegoated for the falling short of its peacekeeping troops and deployments. Why are they not in Syria or Yemen, Libya or along the Palestinian/Israeli border? Why did the U.S. and the UK make it impossible for the few UN troops present at the onset of the genocide in Rwanda to have their numbers significantly augmented? As a result those few on the ground had no choice but to withdraw when some of their members were killed and their genitals stuffed in their mouths.

All good questions if not easy to answer. In Syria, for example, where exactly would they be deployed? But a better question is why didn’t they go in at the beginning of the civil war when things weren’t so complicated and Al Qaeda and ISIS were not around?

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 27 June 2017

Photo: Jayathma Wickramanayake. Credit: UN

Sri Lanka's Jayathma Wickramanayake New UN Envoy on Youth

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) - Jayathma Wickramanayake of Sri Lanka is the new UN Envoy on Youth. She succeeds Ahmad Alhendawi of Jordan. Announcing this appointment, Secretary-General António Guterres said he was grateful for Alhendawi's dedicated service in addressing the needs and rights of young people, bringing the work of the United Nations closer to them.

The success of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development depends on empowering young people as rights-holders, agents of change and torchbearers, Guterres said.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 26 June 2017

Photo: An opium poppy field in Afghanistan, the country which supplies 90 percent of the world’s heroin. Credit: Public Intelligence

Opium Production Up and Cocaine Market Thriving

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – Global opium production increased by one-third in 2016 compared with the previous year, primarily due to higher opium poppy yields in Afghanistan, and coca bush cultivation increased by 30 percent mainly as a result of increased cultivation in Colombia.

Following a period of decline, there are also signs that cocaine use is increasing in the two largest markets, North America and Europe.

These are among the findings reported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in this year’s World Drug Report, released on June 22.

: Phil Harris; UN INSIDER; 25 June 2017

Photo: Deputy Premier of the British Virgin Island, Dr. Kedrick Pickering (left), with President of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson (centre), and Director of the BVI London Office, Benito Wheatley (right). Credit: BVI London Office

British Virgin Islands Leads International Advocacy for Islands

By Desmond Brown

TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands (IDN) – On the heels of the UN Ocean Conference held in New York between June 5 and 9, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) – a tiny British overseas territory – is highlighting the common challenges faced by islands as it calls on international partners to support the efforts of islands to address their unique challenges.

As co-Chair of the Global Islands Partnership (GLISPA), the British Virgin Islands has been at the forefront of United Nations efforts to raise awareness about the challenges faced by islands.

“I take great pride as a GLISPA leader in lending my voice to the cause of islands and the sustainability of the ocean in which islands must exist,” Deputy Premier and Minister for Natural Resources & Labour Dr. Kedrick Pickering told IDN.

: Phil Harris; UN INSIDER; 23 June 2017

Photo: Violence results in dozens – if not hundreds – of violent deaths and thousands of displacements each year in Papua New Guinea, says Mark Kessler, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) chief official in PNG, seen here speaking to members of the Foreign Correspondents’ Association (Australia & South Pacific) in Sydney. Credit: Neena Bhandari

Violence Surfaces in Papua New Guinea Elections, But Not Only

By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY (IDN) – As Papua New Guinea – one of the world’s most ethnically and linguistically diverse nations – prepares for national elections from June 24 to July 8, authorities are calling for peace and calm.

Historically, tensions during polling, vote counting and the announcement of winners has erupted into widespread violence, but the phenomenon is not limited to election periods in this south-western Pacific island country.

“Increased access to high-powered guns such as military style M16s and homemade shotguns, and the breakdown of traditional rules of warfare, has amplified the effects of violence, resulting in dozens – if not hundreds – of violent deaths and thousands of displacements each year, especially in the Highlands. We are seeing wounds that one would see in war zones,” says International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) chief official in PNG, Mark Kessler.

: Phil Harris; UN INSIDER; 22 June 2017

Photo: Radionuclide Station RN73. Palmer Station, Antarctica. Credit: CTBTO.

CTBTO Conference to Focus on Nuclear Test Verification

By Jamshed Baruah

BERLIN | VIENNA (IDN) - While UN member states are negotiating at the United Nations headquarters in New York a legally binding instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons, experts from around the world will be gathering in Vienna from June 26 to 30 to review monitoring and verification technologies crucial to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT),

The forthcoming gathering – officially known as 'The CTBT: Science and Technology 2017 Conference (SnT2017)' – is the sixth in a series of multidisciplinary conferences designed to "further enhance the strong relationship between the scientific and technological community and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty Organization (CTBTO) as well as with policy-makers."