Reduced Inequalities

Photo: Kant with friends, including Christian Jakob Kraus, Johann Georg Hamann, Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel and Karl Gottfried Hagen. Public Domain | Wikimedia Commons

What Is Morally Wrong With Discrimination? A Kantian Analysis

Viewpoint by Dr Sam Ben-Meir

Dr Sam Ben-Meir is a professor of philosophy and world religions at Mercy College in New York City.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Supreme Court decided on June 15 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination. Discrimination ‘because of sex’ is unlawful. But what is it that makes discrimination morally wrong? It is useful to examine this from a Kantian standpoint because Immanuel Kant lays the foundation for recognizing the inherent dignity of every individual – and discrimination is indeed an affront to human dignity.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 29 July 2020

Photo: UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivers the annual Nelson Mandela Lecture. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

UN Chief Makes a Passionate Plea for Discarding Fallacies and Falsehoods

The Rich and Poor are Not Sailing in the Same Boat

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Secretary-General António Guterres has in a surprise dramatic move, castigated a series of "fallacies and falsehoods" perpetrated particularly on the deprived of the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed all lies such as the lie that free markets can deliver healthcare for all; the fiction that unpaid care work is not work; the delusion that we live in a post-racist world; the myth that we are all in the same boat".

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 19 July 2020

The Pandemic of Racism in America

Viewpoint by Dr Alon Ben-Meir

The writer is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU). He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The rage, desperation, and determination which continue to bring tens of thousands of Americans to the streets in protest against racism and injustice hopefully will be just the beginning.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 16 July 2020

Photo: Interfaith efforts between Chilkur Balaji Temple in Hyderabad and the Helping Hand Foundation help achieve shared community health goals. Credit: WNV/Helping Hand Foundation

Long Before COVID-19, Muslim Communities in India Built Solidarity Through Mutual Aid

Viewpoint by Z. Fareen Parvez*

This article was originally published on Waging Nonviolence and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

AMHERST, Massachusetts (IDN) – For generations, Muslims in India have drawn on mutual aid networks for solidarity and support amid government neglect and social discrimination. Now, as India faces a humanitarian disaster during the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, these networks are more important than ever.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 16 July 2020

Photo: Law students of USMBA, university named after Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, a 18th century Sultan of Morocco, participate in skills-building workshops in preparation for opening a law clinic. February 2020, High Atlas Foundation.

The Forgotten Victims of COVID-19 Amid Migration Crisis

By Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts

As the Coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, closing cities and shutting borders, migrants fleeing violence, persecution, and seeking a new life are stuck in the midst of a health and economic crisis. In this article, Jacqueline Skalski-Fouts investigates how current conditions could affect the future of migrants impacted by the pandemic and what NGOs and governments can do to help. She is a Global Studies undergraduate student at the University of Virginia.

: Europe Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Reduced Inequalities; 14 July 2020

Photo: Cape Coast Castle's 'Door of No Return' that slaves would pass through right before they were put on ships to the Americas and elsewhere. Source, Wikimedia Commons.

'Black Lives Matter' Continues to Spur Changes in Africa

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – As Americans explore the renaming of army bases, statues, streets, and schools that honour racist slave-holders or portray demeaning relationships between whites and Black, Brown and Latinx citizens, similar efforts are underway in Senegal and Liberia most recently.

Goree, an island in Senegal linked closely with slave trade, has decided to rename one of its main squares in response to the anti-racist movements around the world.

: THE WORLD; Africa; 07 July 2020

Collage: Backdrop population and environment image from Kullabs with photo of Malthus from Brittanica.

Malthus Revisited: Close Relationship between Population and Environment

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*

COPENHAGEN (IDN) – The total human population and economy have imposed excessive weight on the global environment, as discussed in my new book circulated and freely downloadable from http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Malthus-Revisited-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf

Thomas Rpbert Malthus' "Essay on The Principle of Population", the first edition of which was published in 1798, was one of the first systematic studies of the problem of population in relation to resources. Earlier discussions of the problem had been published by Boterro in Italy, Robert Wallace in England, and Benjamin Franklin in America.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 05 July 2020

Photo: Anthony Quintano | Black Lives Matter Protest Times Square New York City June 7 2020. CC License via Flickr. Source: UN Dispatch Podcast.

How the Black Lives Matter Movement Went Global

By Mark Leon Goldberg, UN Dispatch Podcasts

NEW YORK (IDN ) – The Black Lives Matter movement has spread quickly around the world. Over the last several weeks, there have been BLM demonstrations in nearly every major city in Europe. Tens of thousands of people showed up for protests in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, and London, just to name a few. There were also many protests across Latin America, Australia – even Asian cities like Seoul and Tokyo saw Black Lives Matter protests.

So how did the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota spark an anti-racism and civil rights movement that extends far beyond the United States?

: UN Bureau; HUMAN RIGHTS; Racism; 18 June 2020

Photo: Protests in New York on killing of George Floyd. Credit: Anadolu Agency of Turkey.

US Protests Unmask The 'Torch-Bearer' Of Human Rights

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – "The United States (US) has always taken pride in calling itself the 'Land of the Free' and appointed itself to be the global cop to punish others who violate human rights. … It has poked its nose in the affairs of almost all countries, all the time presenting itself as the torch-bearer of human rights", noted India's WIONEWS TV.

In addition to the murder of African-American George Floyd by the police in broad daylight, police cars have been shown to ram into unarmed protestors.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Reduced Inequalities; 12 June 2020

Photo: Northern end of The Centre, Bristol, showing Cenotaph and statue of slave trader Edward Colston following MetroBus-fCC BY-SA 4.0 under public realm improvements, March 2018. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Capping Week of Protests, UK Activists Topple Slave Trader's Statue

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Years of inaction over the fate of an 18-foot statue of Edward Colston, a 17th century slave trader with the Royal African Company (RAC) was decided on June 7 with the toppling of Colston’s bronze statue in Bristol, England.

The statue was pulled down by a group of protestors at a demonstration in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and George Floyd. The figure was dragged to the Bristol harbour and flung into the River Avon.