Peace & Justice

Photo: The leader of the opposition armed forces, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO), Riek Machar, shaking hands with his chief military and political opponent, the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir to make a fresh joint commitment to peace for the sake of their people. Credit: UNMISS

South Sudan Moves from Despair to Hope after New Peace Deal

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – South Sudan, caught in brutal civil conflict for years, has engaged the United Nations three times since the South Sudan government and opposition groups signed a Revitalized Peace Agreement on September 13.

The country gained its independence from the Republic of the Sudan in 2011, after two civil wars – in 1955, four months before Sudan achieved independence and in the wake of President of Sudan Gaafar Nimeiry in 1983 declaring all Sudan an Islamic state under Shari'a law, including the non-Islamic majority southern region.

: J Nastranis; THE WORLD; Africa; 18 September 2018

Photo (left to right): North Korea's Kim Jong-Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

A Rapper Accompanies South Korean President to Pyongyang

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | SEOUL (IDN) – South Korean President Moon Jae-in will visit Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea from September 18-20, 2018 with a view to encouraging Kim Jong-Un to break the deadlock in nuclear talks between North Korea and the United States. Moon played a crucial role in President Donald Trump and Kim coming together for the summit meeting in June.

Moon's office said on September 16 that the President will be accompanied by 52 government officials, politicians, business leaders and selected representatives from various other fields, according to the South Korean Yonhap News Agency.

: J Nastranis; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 17 September 2018

Photo: UNGA73 President María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe.

Upcoming UN General Assembly Promises a Whiff of History

Fourth Woman President in 73 years – 18-year-old Female Activist to Speak at High Level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly opening on September 18 promises to be historic. Not only because its President, María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, the Foreign Minister of Ecuador, is the fourth woman on the top in the history of the UN’s main deliberative and policy-making body.

But also because on September 26, the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, 18-year-old environmental and children's rights activist Kehkashan Basu will address the General Assembly. Espinosa has selected her to speak as one of the two representatives of global civil society.

: Santo D. Banerjee; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 16 September 2018

Photo: The UN Human Rights Council meeting room in Geneva. Credit: ohchr.org

Sri Lanka Apparently Target of an Undeclared War

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) - In June this year, announcing U.S. withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Ambassador Niki Haley said, "We take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organisation that makes a mockery of human rights."

U.S. is leaving because the council members voted to probe Israeli killing of scores of protestors in the Gaza Strip. However, its labeling of the UNHRC as "hypocritical" and "making a mockery of human rights" would ring a bell in many Asian and African countries.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 15 September 2018

Photo: Killer robot. Credit: ploughshares.ca

Global Ban on Killer Robots Vital for Ensuring Human Control over Weapons of War

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The widespread deployment of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) – commonly known as "killer robots" – capable of operating with minimal human oversight, is likely to transform the future battlefield, accelerating the pace of fighting and delegating many critical battle decisions to machines, the Arms Control Association (ACA) has warned.

According to the ACA Executive Director Daryl G. Kimball, the unregulated deployment of LAWS could in fact lead to violations of the Law of War and international humanitarian law and increase the risk of uncontrolled escalation in a major-power crisis.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 07 September 2018

Photo: Ambassador A.L.A Azeez, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva, addressing the Eighth Meeting of Convention on Cluster Munition, accompanied by his team. Credit: Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva.

Sri Lanka Takes Over Presidency of a Landmark Convention Calling for 'A World Free of Cluster Munition'

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – Sri Lanka has taken over the Presidency of the landmark Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) ten years after it was adopted, at the end of the Eighth Meeting of States Parties (8MSP) in Geneva from September 3-5, 2018. CCM is a legally binding international treaty that prohibits all use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster bombs, a type of explosive weapon which scatters 'bomblets' over an area.

Sri Lanka's presidency will run through till September 2019 when the Ninth Meeting of States Parties (9MSP) will take place. The South Asian country's Ambassador A.L.A Azeez, Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, will preside over 9MSP that, he said, "is an important turning point for my country in its move towards humanitarian disarmament".

: Jamshed Baruah; UN INSIDER; 06 September 2018

Photo: Protests for freedom of Bobi Wine. Credit: Facebook Bobi Wine

Ugandan Leader Tarnished by Torture of Reggae Star Bobi Wine

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | KAMPALA (IDN) – Images of a popular reggae music star in a wheel chair holding crutches have raised questions of whether Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ordered the arrest and torture of the star-turned-parliamentarian, Bobi Wine, who attended a rally of the opposition in the town of Arua.

Museveni was forced to release the star for treatment in the U.S. after an outcry by Wine's supporters.

Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, known professionally as Bobi Wine, arrived on September 2 in Boston. Initially blocked from boarding his flight, he was briefly held in a government-owned hospital before finally being released.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 04 September 2018

Photo: View of the ICJ courtroom on the opening day of the hearings. Credit: ICJ

Mauritius Approaches UN Court for Return of Diego Garcia

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – When colonial powers redrew borders in Africa and picked choice lands for themselves and less desirable land for everyone else, some of those deals remained through this century. Few were undone.

A case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will decide if colonial deals that redrew African borders can be declared illegal and, if so, if islands taken by the United Kingdom from the nation of Mauritius can be rejoined to Mauritius as before.

Mauritius says it was illegally stripped by Britain of the Chagos Islands, now home to a major U.S. air base.

: Global Information Network; UN INSIDER; 04 September 2018

Photo: UN Chief addressing the Security Council on 29 August 2018, Snapshot UN WebTV.

UN Chief Urges Greater Investment in Diplomacy for Peace

By António Guterres

Inclusive mediation requires paying greater attention to the gender dimensions of conflict, including conflict-related sexual violence and the gendered impact of decisions around post-war reconstruction, says UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Following are his remarks, as delivered to the Security Council, to the open debate on the maintenance of international peace and security: mediation and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, in New York on August 29. – The Editor

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – War is becoming increasingly complex — and so is mediating peace.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 03 September 2018

Photo: The closing ceremony marks the end of the quadrennial multisport event held from August 18 until September 2 in Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra. Credit: Asian Games 2018.

Out of Africa into Asian Games Arena – 'Shameful', Critics Say

By Kalinga Seneviratne

NEW DELHI (IDN) – It has been simmering since the Doha Asian Games of 2006, which is now perhaps coming to a boil, about whether Arab Gulf States flushed with petrodollars should be allowed to import athletes from Africa merely to win medals at Asian Games. There is a lot of resentment in India because it deprived India of a historic achievement of topping the gold medal table in athletics at the just concluded 18th Asian Games from August 18 to September 2 in Jakarta.

Tiny Arab Gulf States of Bahrain and Qatar stood out with African born athletes sweeping the medals. Bahrain in particular stood out, with all of their 25 medals at the Games having come in track and field, largely from athletes that only recently gained Bahrain nationality.