Peace & Justice

Commonwealth Joins the UN in Combating Corruption in Africa

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW l KIGALI (IDN) — The 12th Regional Conference of Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Commonwealth Africa convened in Kigali, Rwanda, from May 3-7 under the theme: ‘Combating Corruption for Good Governance and Sustainable Development in Africa’.

The Conference was jointly organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Government of Rwanda and brought together members of the Association of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Commonwealth Africa, senior government officials, relevant international organisations, policymakers, and development partners to address key priorities toward the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 16.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 15 May 2022

Photo: Bongbong Marcos presidential campaign in Makati. CC BY-SA 4.0

Philippines: Marcos Win Exposes Weakness of Democratic Processes

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — The landslide victory in the May 9 presidential polls in the Philippines by Ferdinand Marcos jr the son of the former dictator of the same name who was forced to flee the country with his family (that includes his young son) in 1986 by a “peoples’ power” revolution throws another spanner into the adage that democracy gives people a voice to choose people to serve them and the nation.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 14 May 2022

Photo: The World Food Programme (WFP) resumed its operations in the Tigray region of Ethiopia after fighting had halted its emergency response. WFP/Rein Skullerud

European Union Sued for Not Responding to Eritrea’s Rights Violations

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS (IDN) — The Foundation Human Rights for Eritreans, a Netherlands based organization, has decided to sue the European Union and international bodies for failing to respond to human rights abuses by the Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki and his associates.

At the press conference on May 10, the Foundation’s lawyer, Emiel Jurjens from Kennedy van der Laan made the announcement of legal action by the Foundation on the Responsibility of Eritrea for Grave Human Rights Violations, the details of which can be found here.

: Robert Johnson; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 13 May 2022

Photo: A dead person inside a destroyed car in Bucha, 2 April 2022. CC BY 4.0

Ending the War of Attrition in Ukraine

Viewpoint by Jeffrey D. Sachs

This article was issued by Project Syndicate and is being republished with the author's permission.

NEW YORK (IDN) — Wars often erupt and persist because of the two sides’ miscalculations regarding their relative power. In the case of Ukraine, Russia blundered badly by underestimating the resolve of Ukrainians to fight and the effectiveness of NATO-supplied weaponry. Yet Ukraine and NATO are also overestimating their capacity to defeat Russia on the battlefield. The result is a war of attrition that each side believes it will win, but that both sides will lose.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 May 2022

Image: Irpin, Ukraine, Kutsenko Volodymyr/Shutterstock

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness
It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair — A Tale of Two Cities 1859

Viewpoint by Joseph Camilleri

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

MELBOURNE, Australia (IDN) — These opening lines of Charles Dickens’s great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution, offer us a remarkable insight into humanity’s current predicament.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 May 2022

Image: The Opium wars. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Legacy of The Opium Trade in Hong Kong

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — During the difficult years that preceded the British handover of Hong Kong to China the Chinese government's intense antipathy to opium and the still-fresh memories of the evil that eighteenth-century buccaneering Britain had inflicted on China and Hong Kong added an extra emotional charge to what, anyway, was a most complicated transition.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 10 May 2022

Photo: Displaced children in Roe, a temporary site for internally displaced people in DRC's province of Ituri (file photo). UN / Eskinder Debebe

UN Chief Calls for Probe into Deadly Armed Attacks on DRC Mining Site

NEW YORK (IDN | UN News) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to investigate the deadly armed group attacks in Djugu Territory, Ituri Province, on May 8.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 10 May 2022

Photo: A landscape view of El Geneina town, the capital of West Darfur, Sudan. UNAMID/Hamid Abdulsalam

Renewed Violence in Darfur Leaves Behind an Unstable Sudan

Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) — 24 April 2022 saw renewed violence in the Darfur Provence of Sudan between Arab militias and the indigenous tribes of the area, the Masalit and the Fur. The violence began in 2003 and has caused some 300,000 deaths and some three million displaced. While most of the fighting was when General Omar al-Bashir was President, his overthrow by new military leadership has not fundamentally improved the situation.

: Rene Wadlow; OPINION; 09 May 2022

Image: French President Emmanuel Macron looks at Beninese art during a ceremony for the return of 26 works to Benin, with Benin Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, at the Quai Branly Museum-Jacques Chirac, Paris, October 27, 2021. Source: WPR.

Africa’s Plundered Artifacts Are Coming Home, Though Gradually

This article was issued by World Politics Review (WPR) and is being re-published with their permission.

By Ayodeji Rotinwa

COTONOU, Benin (IDN) — During a February press conference announcing a new exhibition of newly repatriated treasures, Jean-Michel Abimbola, Benin’s minister of culture, was asked by a British journalist to address the common claim that European museums are better able to care for African artifacts than African ones. He responded curtly.

: Africa & ME Editor; ARTS & CULTURE; 07 May 2022

Image Credit: Australian Broadcasting Corporation ID

Australia’s Looming ‘Independent Day’

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — On May 21 when Australians go to the polls to elect a new government, the vast continent which was stolen from the indigenous people in 1788 and annexed to the British crown may have its ‘independent day’—not one that would declare itself a republic, but a day when ‘independent’ members of parliament may hold the balance of power in the lower house in Canberra.