OPINION

Photo: Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (left) with the governor of Paraíba, João Azevedo (right). Credit: Divulgação

Brazil’s Lula Remerges—in a Very Different Political World

Viewpoint by Sonali Kolhatkar

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations.

LOS ANGELES (IDN) — Brazil’s first round of elections, held on October 2, yielded a major victory for the man who held the presidency from 2003 to 2010, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Winning 48 per cent of the vote in a multicandidate race, Lula now heads to a runoff against incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro, who won 43 per cent.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 October 2022

Image credit: Geneva Environment Network.

The West Is Exposing Itself to Double Standards by Weaponizing Human Rights

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) — The recently concluded 51st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva exposed once again the double standards of the global human rights agenda.

West’s failure to get a resolution adopted at the UNHRC on October 6 on further investigation into the violation of human rights of the Muslim Uighurs in the north-western region of Xinjiang province in China reflects the international community’s scepticism of weaponizing human rights.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 10 October 2022

Photo: Ukrainian troops pose with a captured Russian tank. Credit: Ukraine Defense Ministry.

Putin’s War in Ukraine Even More Senseless Than World War I

Viewpoint by Paul Goble

Eurasia Review issued this article.

OREGON, USA (IDN) — There is nearly universal consensus that World War I was the most senseless conflict in modern times, Yury Yarym-Agayev says; but in fact, Putin’s war in Ukraine is even more senseless than that war of a century ago in that none of its proclaimed goals are real and its real goals are not achievable.

The former member of the Moscow Helsinki Group who emigrated to the United States in 1980 and has worked as a physicist at Stanford and MIT has avoided making comments about Russia until now. But the war in Ukraine has compelled him to end his silence, he says (wow-press.com/u-vojny-net-celi-tolko-putin/?amp=1).

: Europe Editor; OPINION; 09 October 2022

Ukrainian Organization Does Not Deserve a Nobel Peace Prize

Viewpoint by Ariel Gold and Medea Benjamin*

COUNTERCURRENTS issued this article on October 7, 2022.

NEW YORK (IDN) — In what was described as a harsh rebuke of Russia, the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Ukrainian human rights organization 'Center for Civil Liberties', along with Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski and the Russian human rights organization Memorial. While at first glance, the Ukrainian 'Center for Civil Liberties' might sound like a group that is well deserving of this honor, Ukrainian peace leader Yurii Sheliazhenko wrote a stinging critique.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 08 October 2022

Pacific Leaders Urge Re-Focus on Climate Emergency

Viewpoint by Volker Boege

Toda Peace Institute issued this article, and it is being republished with their permission.

BRISBANE, Australia (IDN) — At the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2022, the leaders of the small island—or ‘big ocean’—countries in the Pacific called for a re-focus on the global climate emergency. Using their moral authority, which is grounded in the fact that their countries are the ones most affected by this emergency while contributing hardly anything to its causes, Pacific leaders demanded more decisive climate action and put forward new proposals and initiatives.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 07 October 2022

Photo: Army Officers appear on Burkina Faso TV, declaring new coup, dismissing Junta leader Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

Africa Would Do Well to Stop Playing with Fire

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene

The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ABUJA (IDN) — There is a fire in Ouagadougou. And who’s to say where it’s catching next? For the second time in eight months, the military in Burkina Faso struck in a palace coup that removed military leader Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

The coup leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, cited the same excuses Damiba gave for seizing power in January as reasons for his removal; namely, that the government has proved incompetent in containing the spread of Islamic insurgency, leading to increasing loss of lives among military and civilian populations.

: Africa & ME Editor; OPINION; 06 October 2022

Photo: Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Credit: Screenshot video Kremlin.ru

Doubts Whether Putin Can Defeat Ukraine and Maintain Power in Moscow

Viewpoint by John Feffer

Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF), a project of the Institute for Policy Studies, issued this article on September 28, 2022.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — When a country starts casting around for 60-year-old veterans to send to the front, you know something’s wrong. All hands don’t go on deck unless the ship is foundering. It’s not yet clear whether the Russian ship of state is taking on water. But its military effort in Ukraine is obviously at the SOS stage.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 05 October 2022

Photo: Nuon Chea (left) and Khieu Samphan in the Trial Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). (file) © ECCC/Sok Heng Nhet.

Lessons of the Cambodian-UN War Crimes Trials

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Finally, finally, the over-long, fifteen-year-long trials of the leaders of the murderous Khmer Rouge leadership of Cambodia are concluded. It has been water on stone, but the conclusion is the stone has cracked.

The New York Times reported on September 22: “The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia—a United Nations-backed tribunal charged with prosecuting the crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime—held its final hearing. It rejected an appeal by the ninety-one years old Khieu Samphan, the fanatical communist movement’s last surviving leader, upholding his conviction and life sentence for genocide.”

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 04 October 2022

Photo: Sri Lanka's new Foreign Minister Mohamed-Ali-Sabry. Source: Asian Affairs.

Sri Lanka: Nation Struggles as Noose Tightens

This article was issued by Asian Affairs (London).

Viewpoint by Neville de Silva*

LONDON (IDN) — Time is running out. Even as this is written, Sri Lanka is desperately canvassing support from within the 47-member UN Human Rights Council (HRC) now meeting in Geneva, to stave off a tougher and hard-hitting resolution that castigates the island-nation for its democratic regression, rising militarisation and official corruption.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 02 October 2022

Image credit: International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination & Liberation (IPMSDL)

Indigenous Women Fighting Back for A Future Free of Violence

By Romeo Jara*

MANILA (IDN) — Fifteen years and almost nothing much has changed. This is the result of an Amnesty International (AI) report titled “The Never-Ending Maze” about sexual violence towards Indigenous women in the United States as shared by AI USA’s Tarah Demant.

On September 14, the International IPMSDL hosted the online discussion “In Search of a Safer Future” which highlighted government failures in keeping Indigenous women safe.