Peace & Justice

Photo: The 383rd meeting of the Committee took place on 8 August 2017. Over 36 Committee Members/Observers were in attendance in addition to several civil society organizations.

UN Committee Highlights Activities Marking 50 Years of Israeli Occupation of Palestine

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - Fifty years after Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, it continues to control these areas through repression, institutionalized discrimination, and systematic abuses of the Palestinian population’s rights.

Many of Israel’s abusive practices have been carried out in the name of security. Palestinian armed groups have carried out scores of lethal attacks on civilians and launched thousands of rocket attacks on Israeli civilian areas, also in violation of international humanitarian law.

But activities to mark 50 years of Israeli occupation of Palestine and support the two-State solution took the centre stage in recent efforts to quell tensions, especially in Jerusalem, and create conditions for mutual respect, the Palestinian Rights Committee heard on August 8, 2017.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 21 August 2017

UN Chief Calls For The Protection of Civilians In Conflicts

By Santo D. Banerjee

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Around the world, conflict is exacting a massive toll on people’s lives. Trapped in wars that are not of their making, millions of civilians are forced to hide or run for their lives. Children are taken out of school, families are displaced from their homes, and communities are torn apart, while the world is not doing enough to stop their suffering. At the same time, health and aid workers – who risk their lives to care for people affected by violence – are increasingly being targeted.

For the World Humanitarian Day 2017 on August 19, humanitarian partners came together to reaffirm that civilians caught in conflict are #NotATarget. Through a global online campaign featuring an innovative partnership with Facebook Live, together with events held around the world, voices were raised to advocate for those most vulnerable in war zones, and demand that world leaders do everything in their power to protect civilians in conflict.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 19 August 2017

Photo: Horst Köhler, newly-appointed Personal Envoy for Western Sahara (file). UN Photo/Mark Garten

Former German President Tasked With Bringing Peace To Western Sahara

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Nearly 26 years after a ceasefire was signed between Morocco and the Polisario Front on Western Sahara, the United Nations is hoping that Horst Köhler, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany, can help achieve a peaceful solution to the conflict. France and the Polisario Front share Secretary-General António Guterres' expectation.

Guterres announced on August 16 Köhler's appointment as his Personal Envoy for Western Sahara – located on the north-west coast of Africa bordered by Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria – which has been disputed since 1976, when fighting broke out between Morocco and the Polisario Front after the Spanish colonial administration of the territory ended.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 18 August 2017

Photo: Monument at the atomic bomb hypocenter in Nagasaki. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Despite 'Fire and Fury' Milestones Toward A Nuclear-Weapons-Free World

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Considering the "fire and fury" characterizing the heated exchanges between the U.S. and North Korea, July 7 appears to be light years ago. That was the day when 122 member states of the United Nations voted to adopt a legally binding global Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that may eventually lead towards their total elimination.

The Treaty that opens for signature on September 20, was adopted four weeks ahead of the 72nd anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945 – giving cause for hope, as Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue said in the Nagasaki Peace Declaration, that "all the efforts of the hibakusha over the years" would finally take shape.

: J Nastranis; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 14 August 2017

Photo: Final session of SAMVAD meeting with Yogi Adinath (fourth from left) seated among Buddhist and Hindu priests. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS

Eastern Spirituality Could Help Sustainable Development

By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 18th in a series of joint productions of Lotus News Features and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate.

YANGON, Myanmar (IDN) – “The desire for peace exists everywhere, but the majority of people are not in a position to enjoy peace, stability and security they desire,” noted venerable Dr Ashin Nyanissara, spiritual head of the Sitagu International Buddhist University (SIBU), in opening a two-day gathering of spiritual leaders and scholars at the university here on August 5.

The event was the second Global Initiative for Conflict Avoidance and Environmental Consciousness (SAMVAD) conference, following the first held in New Delhi in September 2015.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 14 August 2017

Photo Credit: Minority Rights Group International | Mirza Arif Beg.

International Law is a Powerful Tool to Reduce Ethnic Disputes

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - It’s not that many years ago that Warren Christopher, the U.S. Secretary of State, commenting on the outbreak of separatist ethnic strife in the 1990s in countries such as Somalia, Zaire, Rwanda, East Timor and ex-Yugoslavia, asked. “Where will it end? Will it end with 5,000 countries?”

It was a serious misjudgement. Separatist wars have fallen sharply. Minorities are not fighting for their own patch of territory at the rate they were. Since 1993 the number of wars of self-determination has been halved.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 08 August 2017

Photo: Peter Thomson, President of the 71st session of the General Assembly (centre), Rafael Darío Ramírez Carreño, Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the UN and Chair of the Special Committee on Decolonization (left); and Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs; at the opening of the exhibition entitled Commemoration of the 56th anniversary of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples on 16 December 2016 at the United Nations, New York. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Colonialism Very Much Alive on UN Agenda

By Shanta Rao

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – There has been a longstanding myth that colonialism has been long dead – and was unceremoniously buried in the 1950s and 1960s.

But not so fast, says the United Nations.

A 29-member UN Special Committee on Decolonization, which was established by the General Assembly back in 1961, is very much alive and remains fully engaged.

But it is fighting a near-losing battle with a fistful of Western colonial powers who are determined to hold onto their colonies – euphemistically called “non-self-governing territories.”

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 07 August 2017

Photo: The UN Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the intercontinental ballistic missile programme (ICBM) by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). UN Photo/Kim Haughton

Security Council Debates Effectiveness of UN Sanctions

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - While the UN Security Council unanimously moved on August 5 to expand sanctions against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) in response to the launches of ballistic missiles of possible intercontinental range, the Council discussed two days earlier the spirit and purpose of resorting to the restrictive instrument of sanctions.

The Security Council is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations, charged with the maintenance of international peace and security as well as approving any changes to the UN Charter. Its powers include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of international sanctions, and the authorization of military action.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 05 August 2017

Humanities to the Rescue of Sustainability

By A.D. McKenzie

PARIS (IDN) – If you suggest studying the humanities to some college-bound young people, you might be met with loud, pitying laughter. What is the value of a degree in literature, philosophy or history, they may ask.

An ambitious conference in Liège, Belgium, aims to provide an attitude-changing response to that question and, at the same time, draw up a programme to keep the humanities from becoming more “marginalised” at universities.

The event, titled the “World Humanities Conference: Challenges and Responsibilities for a Planet in Transition”, will take place from August 6 to 12.

: A.D. McKenzie; UN INSIDER; 04 August 2017

Show More Peace and Less Conflict

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - The most peaceful countries in the world are Iceland, Portugal, Austria, New Zealand and Denmark, according to the new Global Peace Index, in a new 136-page report, published by the Institute for Economics and Peace in Sydney, Australia. The most violent are Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and South Sudan.

Seen from a spaceship the most violent ones appear more or less clustered in a corner of the earth. It’s not that the rest of the globe is at peace but even where there is fighting there is not the wholesale destruction of cities that we see every day on TV, as, for example, when the cameras follow the multi-sided civil war in Syria. Indeed, violence away from these five countries is localised. Nowhere else does it consume whole societies. The fickle eye of television needs to show more peace and less conflict if it is to project a balanced picture.