Peace & Justice

Photo: A view of the Secretariat Building, with Members States’ flags flying in the foreground, at United Nations headquarters in New York. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

The UN at 75: A Glass Half Full or One Draining Through the Cracks – Part One

Viewpoint by Dr Palitha Kohona

This is the first of a two-part article by Dr Palitha Kohona, Former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, Former Chair of the UNGA Sixth Committee and the Former Co-Chair of the UN Ad Hoc Committee on BBNJ.

COLOMBO (IDN) – As the United Nations enters its 75th year, faded photographs stare down at corridors emptied by Covid 19 and ageless memorabilia faintly glisten in the semi darkness. Almost a sad reflection of the lofty dreams and aspirations of its founders not fully realised.

: Dr. Palitha Kohona; OPINION; 12 August 2020

Photo: Thousands of protestors march on newly named “Black Lives Matter Plaza” in Downtown DC on June 7.

Spreading the Seeds of Multiculturalism: A Moroccan Perspective

By Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts

VIRGINIA, USA (IDN) – Since early June, an estimated 15 to 26 million people across the United States have participated in protests against the death of George Floyd and the persistence of systematic racism in America, making it one of the largest movements in the country’s history.

Recent trends have shown that support for the Black Lives Matter movement—now more than 67%— has doubled since 2016, and the majority of Americans favour working directly with Black Americans to solve local issues.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 August 2020

Collage of pictures of President Alassane Ouattara of Ivory Coast and President Alpha Conde of Guinea from Wikimedia Commons.

Democracy-Seeking Opposition Prepares To Fight ‘Coups’ In Two African States

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Citizen activists in two West African countries, Ivory Coast and Guinea, are rallying their troops on social media to defend the constitutional limit of two terms which current office-holding presidents seem determined to defy.

In Abidjan, the Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, police have been firing teargas to disperse opponents of President Alassane Ouattara, who says he was asked to run for a third term of five years by the ruling party after the sudden demise of his hand-picked successor Amadou Gon Coulibaly from a heart attack in July.

The constitution limits presidents to two five-year terms.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 August 2020

Photo: Mahinda Rajapaksa takes oath as the new Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. Source: Newsfirst Sri Lanka.

Powerful Rajapaksa Brothers' Landslide in Sri Lanka Election Should Get "Liberals" Thinking

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – The landslide victory of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP – Sri Lanka Peoples’ Front) led by the Rajapaksa brothers throws a challenge to so-called “liberals” everywhere whose ideology may not be in sync when a huge portion of the electorate vote for a “strong” government rather than a coalition representing various segments of the community that may not provide political and economic stability at a time of a crisis.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 09 August 2020

Photo: Side view of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.5

Looking Back at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Nuclear Attacks on 75th Anniversary

Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf

The writer is former Head of Nuclear Verification and Security Policy at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, former Alternate Head of the IAEA Delegation to the nuclear non-proliferation Treaty (NPT); Senior Advisor on nuclear disarmament to the Chairs at the 2015 NPT Review Conference and 2014 NPT PrepCom; long time Expert with Canada's NPT delegation until 2000. Personal views are expressed here. The following is an expanded version of comments made at the event, 'The 75th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing and the United Nations In the Time of COVID-19: Where Do We Stand and What Can Be Done for a Nuclear-Free World?', organized by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Hiroshima.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 August 2020

Photo: Hiroshima Ruins, October 5, 1945. Photo by Shigoo Rayashi

75th Anniversary of the Bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The author is Ambassador, President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, Former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) –Seventy-five years ago, on August 6, 1945, a nuclear attack razed the city of Hiroshima. Three days later, Nakgasaki suffered identical fate. More than 200,000 men, women and children suddenly lost their lives, and many others perished from the effects of radiation during the next decades. Some survivors, known as hibakusha in Japan, whose average age is 82, still struggle to make their bitter experience known to the remainder of humanity, under the motto "no one should suffer what we have suffered".

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 06 August 2020

Image: Peace cranes. Credit: ICAN | Ari-Beser

The Elders Urge World Leaders to Take Action or Risk Nuclear Catastrophe

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN | LONDON (IDN) – A group of eminent world leaders, comprising The Elders, has called on the heads of states of five permanent members (P5) of the UN Security Council to use the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki "as a moment to reflect on the lives lost and begin substantive steps towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons".

The atomic bombing of the two cities on August 6 and 9, 1945 led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, laying bare the true horror of nuclear weapons. Today, over 13,000 nuclear warheads are in existence.

: Jutta Wolf; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 05 August 2020

Photo: Rep. John Lewis, Washington DC, January 31, 2017. Credit: Flickr/Lorie Shaull. CC BY-SA 2.0

Warfare or Community-Building: Which Way Forward?

Viewpoint by Michael Edwards*

This article was originally published on openDemocracy. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of IDN-InDepth News

NEW YORK (IDN) – "Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.”

I cried my eyes out reading the final words of the great John Lewis that were published in the New York Times the day after he died, their quiet magnificence landing a powerful punch to my solar plexus. If you haven’t read them, please do.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 04 August 2020

Bronx Zoo Issues Apology for Displaying African Man In Cage

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – 'Black Lives Matter' can take credit for the scores of apologies from around the world for racist statues, discriminatory corporate policies and now from the Bronx Zoo for its cruel and racist display of an African man in a cage in 1906.

“In the name of equality, transparency, and accountability, we must confront our organization’s historic role in promoting racial injustice as we advance our mission to save wildlife and wild places,” officials with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said a statement released to the press on July 29.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 03 August 2020

Photo: Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa talks with Nick Swanepol, former president of Commercial Farmers Union after the signing ceremony at State House in Harare, Zimbabwe, on July 29, 2020. (Xinhua/Wanda)

Zimbabwe To Pay White Farmers for Lands Taken Under Mugabe

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – "The compensation of land is a settled issue, and we are not revisiting it." Those were the words of government spokesman Nick Mangwana defending a $3.5 billion agreement to compensate white farmers whose properties were confiscated by the Mugabe regime to be redistributed to the majority Black population left landless by British colonial policies.

According to the agreement just signed at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s State House offices in Harare, white farmers would be compensated only for infrastructure on the farms and not the land itself, as per the national constitution.