GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Ensuring EU Development Cooperation Is Sustainable

By Seamus Jeffreson

Following is a slightly abridged text of the presentation by Seamus Jeffreson, Director of Brussels-based CONCORD, at the high-level Conference – titled 'Sixty Years and Beyond: Contributing to Development Cooperation' – in Rome on 27 April 2017 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. CONCORD is the European Association of NGOs for relief and development, advocating sustainable development based on human rights, justice and gender equality.

ROME (IDN-INPS) - Before looking to the future, it is instructive to recall the origins of EU cooperation – enshrined unexpectedly and at the last minute in the Treaty of Rome.

Reading the memoires of Dieter Frisch – one of the doyens of EU cooperation over the years – it is striking how the concept of working together characterized the relationship between the African Caribbean and Pacific partners and the European Community from the beginning.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 04 May 2017

Photo: Fourth Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development. Credit: ESCAP.

Exercising Power Fairly More Important SDG Yardstick than Democratic Accountability

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – In its 2017 Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific, the Bangkok-based UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) makes an interesting argument in regards to achieving the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in seemingly downplaying the importance of democratic accountability and emphasising that how power is exercised is more important.

“In the Survey for 2017 political dimensions, such as democratic accountability, are avoided, and governance is framed in terms of how power is exercised instead of how it is acquired,” the report says in its executive summary.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; UN INSIDER; 03 May 2017

Photo: ACP Secretary General Dr. Patrick I. Gomes.

Building ACP-EU Development Cooperation on a Heritage of Genuine Partnership

By Dr Patrick I. Gomes, ACP Secretary-General

Following are extensive excerpts from a statement by the Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) at the high-level Conference – titled 'Sixty Years and Beyond: Contributing to Development Cooperation' – in Rome on 27 April 2017 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. – The Editor

BRUSSELS (IDN-INPS) - The Treaties of Rome provided the historic foundations that enabled the fatal conflicts of war to be overcome by the spirit of peace and solidarity for the common good of all Europeans. Among the most undeniable success of the Treaties of Rome is the European Integration Project with its four freedoms - of goods, capital, services and people. We can together rightly celebrate one of the greatest landmarks of the post World War II era.

: Dr. Patrick Gomes - ACP Seretary-General; OPINION; 02 May 2017

Photo: UN Secretary-General António Guterres (left) swears in Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. 12 April 2017. United Nations, New York. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas.

UN Peacekeeping Missions Face Threats of Cuts – and Extinction

By Shanta Rao

NEW YORK (IDN) – The UN’s 16 peacekeeping operations (PKOs), funded by a hefty $7.9 billion budget for the current 2016-2017 biennium, are in jeopardy facing threats of drastic cuts – and in some cases, even extinction.

The United States, the largest single contributor accounting for about 28% of that budget, has not only threatened to reduce funding, possibly down to 25%, but is also calling for a downgrading – or even the total elimination-- of some of the ongoing missions.

Addressing the Council on Foreign Relations in March, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley gave an advance warning when she challenged the current state of peacekeeping operations.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 28 April 2017

Photo: UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova (second from left), participated in the first ever G7 Culture Ministers’ meeting held on 30 and 31 of March 2017 in Florence, Italy. Credit: UNESCO.

G7 Takes Unprecedented Move to Protect Cultural Heritage

By A.D. McKenzie

PARIS (IDN) – For the first time, leaders of the world’s seven major industrialised countries have adopted a common declaration for the protection of cultural heritage, recognising the “distinctive role” that culture plays in promoting dialogue and reconciliation.

Culture ministers and other cultural representatives from the G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and the European Union, adopted the “Florence Declaration” at an unprecedented meeting in Florence, Italy, at the end of March.

: A.D. McKenzie; UN INSIDER; 24 April 2017

Photo: Nikki Haley (front, centre right), U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN and President of the Security Council for the month of April, chairs the Council's meeting on the maintenance of international peace and security: human rights and prevention of armed conflict. Secretary-General António Guterres sits to her right. (18 April 2017). Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Cutbacks May Reduce U.S. Weight in UN, Trigger New Thinking

By Ramesh Jaura

This is the third in a series of reports analysing U.S. policy towards multilateralism in general and the UN in particular. The first was published on 16 March 2017, and the second on 4 April 2017. – The Editor

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – Will the 'Axis of Adults' that has reportedly emerged as the new power centre guiding national security encourage President Donald Trump to disavow his plans to slash U.S. contributions to the United Nations?

The answer is simply 'No'. The Axis of Adults, as reported by the Daily Beast and the Washington Post, comprises Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and Homeland Secretary John Kelly. Republicans who had been apprehensive about President Trump are celebrating the trio’s influence.

: Ramesh Jaura; UN INSIDER; 23 April 2017

Photo: Families displaced by drought in Baidoa, Somalia, gather around Secretary-General António Guterres (white cap), who was in the region urging action to help them. Photo: UNSOM

Invest More in Averting and Resolving Conflicts, Chair of the Security Council Committee Says

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The UN Security Council is concerned about the situation in the Horn of Africa and in light of the threat posed by Al-Shabaab terrorist group, drought and the on-going humanitarian crisis, "the region demands a high proportion of UN peacekeeping resource."

Reporting on the activities of the Security Council Committee and on the assessment of recent developments based on the latest reports of the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group, the Chair of the Committee – pursuant to resolutions 751 (1992) and 1907 (2009) concerning Somalia and Eritrea – urged the UN's influential body to "invest more in preventing and resolving conflicts".

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 22 April 2017

Photo: UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. Credit: UNEP

Steiner's Choice as UNDP Chief Is a Big Deal for Germany

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – The appointment of Achim Steiner as head of the prestigious United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is of profound significance for the German government, which declared its candidacy in 2016 for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council for the 2019‑2020 two-year term.

The announcement of Steiner's selection came amid unconfirmed reports that UN Secretary-General António Guterres wishes to appoint former German President Horst Köhler, a vocal advocate of Europe-Africa relations, as his personal envoy on Western Sahara. a disputed and partially Moroccan-occupied territory in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has been on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories since 1963.

: Ramesh Jaura; UN INSIDER; 22 April 2017

Photo: Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, with Liu Jieyi, China’s ambassador, before the April 18 Security Council meeting focused solely on human rights. Rick Bajornas/UN Photo

Haley’s ‘Historic’ Human Rights Debate Left a Small Impression

By Dulcie Leimbach* | Reproduced courtesy of PassBlue

NEW YORK (IDN | Passblue) - Nikki Haley, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, presided over what she was determined to sell as “an historic meeting exclusively on human rights” in the UN Security Council. But her brief speech in the April 18 meeting fell far short of introducing innovations to confront violations of human rights or prevent them in such places as Syria, Burundi and Myanmar.

“If this Council fails to take human rights violations and abuses seriously, they can escalate into real threats to international peace and security,” Haley began. “The Security Council cannot continue to be silent when we see widespread violations of human rights.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 19 April 2017

Photo: UNESCAP Executive Secretary Dr Shamshad Akhtar. Credit: UNESCAP

ESCAP Chief Stays On, 3 UN Regional Outposts Have New Heads

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed new leaders of the world body's regional outposts in Africa, Europe and Western Asia, but asked the head of Asia and the Pacific to stay on.

Announcing senior appointments on April 13, he said he had asked Dr Shamshad Akhtar of Pakistan to continue in her role as Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Dr Akhtar, who also serves as the UN Under-Secretary-General (USG), has been in office since December 2013.