Peace & Justice

Photo: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (left) receives U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad on January 18. Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

A Crumbling 'Pax Americana' in Afghanistan

Viewpoint by Chayanika Saxena

This article is the first in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. The writer is President's Graduate Fellow & PhD Candidate (Political Geography), Dep. of Geography, National University of Singapore. This article first appeared on the New Delhi based South Asia Terrorism Portal on 19 January 2019. – The Editor

SINGAPORE (IDN-INPS) – Amongst the diverse on-going negotiations on Afghanistan, the one led by the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been making the most noise. Reflecting both the urgency and the desperation with which the United States, if not the entire coalition, wants its 'boys back home', the intensity and extensity of talks that are being conducted are telling in their own ways.

: Suresh Jaura; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 20 January 2019

Photo: The index highlights the relationship between gender-based violence and child sexual abuse, says Dr. Joanna Rubinstein, President and CEO of the World Childhood Foundation USA, top left with children in the collage by IDN-INPS.

New Study Highlights Efforts To End Child Sexual Abuse And Exploitation

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In Out of the Shadows 2017 thriller, a newly married detective and his pregnant wife move into their dream home unaware of its dark history. When his wife claims their baby is being tormented by a supernatural force and seeks the help of a renegade demonologist, he must investigate the past to save his family.

Out of the Shadows, released by the World Childhood Foundation USA (WCF) on January 15, is a thriller with a difference. Shining light on the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation, it declares: Sexual violence against children takes place mostly in the shadows, but it is happening everywhere, regardless of a country’s economic status or its citizens’ quality of life.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 17 January 2019

Photo: One of the "organisations of world public heritage", proposed by The Agora of the Earth's Inhabitants, held at the Monastery of the Common Good in the village of Sezano, is the UN Security Council for Common Goods. Credit: UN University | Paulo Filgueiras.

Toward Building Organisations of World Public Heritage

By Sean Buchanan

This is the second of a two-part report on 'The Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth', organised to find a new paradigm that overcomes the political and ideal gap in which we are living. Read Part 1: 'In Quest Of A Charter Of Humanity' here.

ROME (IDN) – The seventh report presented at The Agora of the Earth's Inhabitants, held at the Monastery of the Common Good in the village of Sezano, near Verona in northern Italy, from December 14-16, 2018, was entitled “Organisations of World Public Heritage”.

Based on the premise that rights to life are the foundation of common rights, it argued that the concept of efficiency today is in stark contrast with the concept of humanity, and it condemned the utilitarian vision of life, which is dominated by the concept of profitability.

: Phil Harris; UN INSIDER; 17 January 2019

Collage: Monastery of Common Good with images from Italiani.net

In Quest Of A Charter Of Humanity

By Sean Buchanan

This is the first of a two-part report on 'The Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth', organised to find a new paradigm that overcomes the political and ideal gap in which we are living.

ROME (IDN) – Some years ago, Riccardo Petrella, an Italian economist, political scientist and a leading figure in the anti-globalisation movement, wrote a book entitled Au nom de l'humanité – L'audace mondiale (Audacity, in the Name of Humanity).

The book analysed how we have come to lose the meaning of life, with a progressive idealisation of productivity and efficiency as the only values and with the speculation of uncontrolled finance. Petrella argued that the old policies that reign have led us to a system that is exhausted, with loss of the real and universal values of social justice, cooperation and peace.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 17 January 2019

Photo: DR Congo President Kabila casts his vote during Presidential and Legislative elections in Kinshasa. Credit: MONUSCO/John Bopengo.

South Africa Calls For Solidarity With DR Congo As Security Council Debates Early Election Results

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – South Africa has called on the international community in general and the UN Security Council in particular to provide the necessary support to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the aftermath of the December 30 provincial and presidential elections that will be the first democratic transfer of power in the country’s history.

"The DRC has come a long way in its quest for peace and security," Ambassador Jerry Matthews Matjila, South Africa's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York told the Security Council during a three-hour debate on January 11 on preliminary results announced one day earlier, which put Félix Tshisekedi in first place for President, and the swift and varied reactions of some stakeholders.

: Santo D. Banerjee; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 January 2019

Photo: ACP Secretary-General Dr. Patrick I. Gomes addressing the United Nations Summit for the adoption of Agenda 2030 for global development on 26 September 2015, United Nations, New York. Credit: UN Photo/Amanda Voisard.

ACP Group Chief Calls For Strengthening The UN System

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – In the face of burgeoning unilateralism and generally "turbulent" global environment, the 79-nation African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States has urged “vigorous support” for the United Nations.

”Vigorous support for the United Nations to advance multilateralism will loom large in all the programmes and projects of the ACP in 2019,” according to ACP Secretary General, Dr. P. I. Gomes.

The Guyana-born Secretary General said that in a turbulent global environment and increasing violence of regional and civil conflicts, “strong and unequivocal action by the UN system is needed now more than ever."

: Robert Johnson; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 12 January 2019

Photo: The Sule Pagoda and Bengali Sunni Central Mosque located side by side in Central Yangon. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS

Myanmar Buddhists Say International Media Is 'Unfair'

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 26th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

YANGON, Myanmar (IDN) – When I checked into a hotel at 10.00 pm in Central Yangon near the iconic Sule Pagoda, seeing a lot of South Asian Muslims around the place, I asked the hotel reception if it was safe to walk up the road to get some dinner. The receptionist laughed and said: "It is very safe here, sir."

For the next eight days in December, I lived in the heart of a Muslim Bengali/Indian community. I walked around the place late at night and early mornings and found that it is a very peaceful community where the Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Christians interact well.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 09 January 2019

Photo: Anti-government protests have rattled Sudan after the government tripled the price of a loaf of bread. Credit: nileinternational.net

African Leaders Confront A 'Blue Wave' Demanding Change

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – When Democrats captured one House seat after another in the U.S. midterm elections, observers brushed it off as a "blue trickle". Later they had to admit: it was a giant blue wave.

Africans are also yearning for change and their frustration is erupting across the continent with a new crop of activists challenging the old order.

In Ethiopia, reforms are already underway since the installation last year of 42-year-old Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Women have been named to some of the government’s key positions – president, chief justice and half of all ministers. Thousands of political prisoners and journalists have been freed while senior officials accused of human rights abuses and corruption no longer enjoy immunity.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 08 January 2019

Photo: Obtaining a quality education is the foundation to creating sustainable development. Credit: UNIC Tunis.

UN Keen To Progress Towards 17 Global Development Goals

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – A series of events, including two High-level Political Forums (HLPFs) and the UN Secretary-General's Climate Summit on the margins of the 74th General Assembly underline the vital importance of 2019 that marks the fourth year of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on September 25, 2015.

The first HLPF in July will be held under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), completing its first cycle, and the other in September at the summit level during the General Assembly.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 04 January 2019

UN Security Council Reform Back On The Table Again

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of Germany, which takes up its seat as a non-permanent member of the 15-nation United Nations Security Council on January 1, says the current composition of the Council is "outdated" and that it needs be reformed.

He told the German news agency DPA that "the balance of power in the world needs to be reflected much more adequately than is currently the case," and insisted that Germany should hold a permanent seat.

The Council currently has five permanent members, the U.S., the UK, France, China and Russia. Germany, along with Brazil, Japan and India has been pushing for an expansion of the UN body for years.