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By Phil Harris
ROME | PARIS (IDN) – Signalling a major achievement for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Arab world, Sharjah has been named World Book Capital 2019 by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
The honour is recognition of the emirate's pioneering role in supporting and expanding the local and regional publishing industries, promoting reading to become an intrinsic cultural practice, as well as embracing intercultural, knowledge-based dialogue.
GENEVA IDN) – The World Health Organization (WHO), a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health, "decided to hide a positive report on Israel from the public eye" under pressure from Syria's Assad regime, reports UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights organization.
The report has been published three days after the WHO Member States elected the first African, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia, as the new Director-General, who will begin his five-year term on July 1, 2017.
WASHINGTON, D.C.(IDN | NAPF) – The U.S. Department of Energy released Trump’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget request on May 23. The budget includes a $54 billion increase in defence spending, including $10.2 billion for supposed “Weapons activities to maintain and enhance the safety, security and effectiveness of our nuclear weapons enterprise.” Details of exactly what is included in the $10.2 billion increase have not yet been released.
While the overall budget includes significant increases to defence spending, it also includes significant cuts to scientific research, medical research, disease prevention and health insurance for children of the working poor. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current funding would be cut by more than 30 percent. Planned Parenthood would not receive any Health and Human Services Funding.
NEW DELHI (IDN) – India was one of the eminent absentees from high-level spate of events organised by China as part of its efforts to help revive the ancient trade routes from Asia to Europe and Africa.
Responding to a query on participation of India in OBOR/BRI Forum, the official spokesperson of India's Ministry of External Affairs said that connectivity projects such as the one launched by China must be pursued in a manner that respects sovereignty and territorial integrity.
BONN (IDN) – The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), based in Vienna, has officially opened an Investment and Technology Promotion Office (ITPO) in Bonn, which hosts nearly 20 UN secretariats, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
The office was opened on May 3, nearly six months after the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Gerd Müller, and the UNIDO Director General,LI Yong concluded an agreement in November 2016 on the margins of UNIDO's 50th Anniversary celebrations at the Vienna International Centre.
By Katherine Prizeman | UN Office for Disarmament Affairs
This report by Katherine Prizeman first appeared on April 24, 2017 on the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) website under the title 'UN Disarmament Commission adopts by consensus “Practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional weapons', – The Editor
GENEVA (IDN-INPS) - For the first time since 1999, the United Nations Disarmament Commission adopted consensus recommendations for transmittal to the General Assembly. The final report of the 2017 Commission contains recommendations on practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional arms.
The 2017 substantive session of the Commission was chaired by Argentina's Gabriela Martinic.
By Global Information Network
NEW YORK | PARIS (IDN) – Fifty years after over a million Africans fought and thousands died for France during the ferocious battles against the Hitler regime in World War II (1939-1945), French President Francois Hollande has given citizenship and full pensions to African survivors of that war and other conflicts.
In a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris on April 18, the veterans – aged between 79 and 90 – received their new certificates of citizenship. Hollande said France owed them "a debt of blood".
"France is proud to welcome you, just as you were proud to carry its flag, the flag of freedom," the President told a group of 28 surviving vets.
NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) - Nearly 20 leading global banks and investors, totalling $6.6 trillion in assets, have launched a United Nations-backed global framework aimed at channelling the money they manage towards clean, low carbon and inclusive projects, according to UN News.
The Principles for Positive Impact Finance – a first of its kind set of criteria for investments to be considered sustainable – provide financiers and investors with a global framework applicable across their different business lines, including retail and wholesale lending, corporate and investment lending and asset management.
NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – A new Convention purported to fight against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in small arms and light weapons in Central Africa entered into force on March 8, according to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) / Department of Political Affairs (UNDPA).
Known as the Central African Convention for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, their Ammunition and all Parts and Components that can be used for their Manufacture, Repair and Assembly (Kinshasa Convention), it complements and reinforces the existing regional and global framework comprising, among others, the Arms Trade Treaty, the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), and its Firearms Protocol.
SAN FRANCISCO (IDN) – On March 15, 2017 at 9:00 AM, the appeal of the dismissal of the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ case in the U.S. Federal District Court will be heard in the Ninth District Court of Appeals.
The case, initially filed on April 24, 2014, alleges that the United States failed to uphold its legal obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and customary international law to begin negotiations “in good faith” for an end to the nuclear arms race “at an early date” and for nuclear disarmament.
