SUSTAINABILITY

Photo (left to right): ACP Secretary General Dr Patrick I Gomes; ICC Prosecutor Dr Fatou Bensouda; and Ambassador Ammo Aziza Baroud of Chad, Chair of the ACP Committee of Ambassadors. Credit: ACP Press.

ICC Prosecutor Acclaims African, Caribbean and Pacific States' Support For The Contentious Court

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Dr Fatou Bensouda has expressed her profound gratitude for the ACP Group's contributions to the work of the ICC that has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. 51 out of 79 ACP States have ratified the ICC Rome Statute. Altogether 123 states are party to the Rome Statute and therefore members of the ICC.

Dr Bensouda was addressing the Committee of Ambassadors of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States on January 24. Chaired by Ambassador Ammo Aziza Baroud of Chad, the session provided an opportunity for the Prosecutor to present the activities of the ICC Prosecutor's Office and to highlight the important historical contributions of the ACP regions in the creation of the ICC, which interacts with communities affected by crime.

: Robert Johnson; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 26 January 2019

Photo: Refugee students in a classroom in Uganda. UN Photo/Mark Garten

Uganda Hosts Africa's Largest Refugee Population

By Sulaiman Momodu

The writer is a public information officer with the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR. This article first appeared on Africa Renewal, December 2018-March 2019 issue.

KAMPALA (IDN-INPS) – As thousands of desperate men, women and children flee conflicts and natural disasters in search of a place of refuge, some countries are debating whether to accept or reject asylum seekers. But Uganda has opened its doors to refugees in record numbers.

Thirteen-year-old Robert Yatta was living with his aunt and going to school in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, when fighting broke out in early 2017.

: Africa Renewal; THE WORLD; Africa; 23 January 2019

Photo credit: India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

India To Host UN Conference On Land Degradation

By Jutta Wolf

BONN (IDN) – India will host the global Conference on desertification, land degradation and drought from October 7 to 18, 2019 in New Delhi. Participants from 197 Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will have access, for the first time, to a wealth of vital new scientific data, says the Convention secretariat.

Desertification, along with climate change and the loss of biodiversity were identified as the greatest challenges to sustainable development during the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, which also endorsed the climate change (UNFCCC) and biodiversity (CBD) conventions.

: Jutta Wolf; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 23 January 2019

Photo: A group of demobilized child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2000-2007). Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

DR Congo Is Rotting From Within

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The Algerian philosopher and revolutionary writer, Frantz Fanon, wrote: “Africa is shaped like a gun, and Congo is its trigger. If that explosive trigger bursts, the whole of Africa will explode.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s largest country, is now caught up in the aftermath of its first proper election since independence from Belgium in 1960. Towards the end of last year one could say, after years of non-stop wars and massive carnage, the country was 90 percent bereft of fighting.

The authoritarian regime of President Joseph Kabila was still in power but at last it had been pressured to call an election by the African Union, the Western aid-givers, some of the big Western businesses that mine in the mineral-rich country and, not least, the Catholic Church.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 22 January 2019

Photo: Voters look for their names in the lists during Presidential and Legislative elections in in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (30 December 2018). Credit: MONUSCO/Alain Likota

Congo's Constitutional Court Declares Tshisekedi Presidential Election Winner

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Democratic Republic of Congo finally has a president. Opposition figure Felix Tshisekedi was declared winner of the presidential race by the DR Congo’s top court on January 20.

The Constitutional Court said Tshisekedi had won by a simple majority, paving the way for him to take over from the current president, Joseph Kabila.

The outcome was challenged by runner-up Martin Fayulu who claimed that the election had been stolen and called on the international community to reject the results.

Election data leaked to some news organizations suggested that he won the vote.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 January 2019

Photo: IOM transit centres in Niger. Credit: IOM | Amanda Nero 2016

Cooperation Key To Confronting Migration Challenges In West And Central Africa

Viewpoint by Richard Danzinger

The writer is regional director for West and Central Africa of International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN migration agency. This article first appeared on Africa Renewal, December 2018-March 2019 issue.

DAKAR (IDN-INPS) – Without a doubt, migration is a defining issue of this century. One billion people, one-seventh of the world’s population, are migrants. Some 244 million people are international migrants, 40 million are internally displaced and 24 million are refugees or asylum seekers. In 2018, there is no longer a single state that can claim to be untouched by human mobility.

About 423 million people are living in the Economic Community of West African States, a 15-member grouping whose aim is to promote economic integration in a region where the unemployment rate is sometimes 20 percent – inevitably leading to migration.

: Africa Renewal; OPINION; 21 January 2019

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres makes remarks during the handover ceremony of the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 from Egypt to the State of Palestine. 15 January 2019. New York. UN Photo/Manuel Elias.

'Group of 77' Shows Multilateralism 'Only Way to Address Shared Challenges'

Palestine And Its Citizens Have First-Hand Experience Of Some Of The Most Challenging And Dramatic Global Issues We Face

By António Guterres

The following are extensive extracts from UN Secretary-General António Guterres' remarks at the handover ceremony of the chairmanship of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, in New York on January 15, as the United Nations embarked on "another critical year of work".

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – The Group of 77 and China has demonstrated strong leadership throughout 2018 and proved once again to be a central force in demonstrating that multilateralism is the only way to address our shared challenges.

: Ramesh Jaura; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; The Group of 77; 20 January 2019

Photo: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (left) receives U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad on January 18. Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

A Crumbling 'Pax Americana' in Afghanistan

Viewpoint by Chayanika Saxena

This article is the first in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. The writer is President's Graduate Fellow & PhD Candidate (Political Geography), Dep. of Geography, National University of Singapore. This article first appeared on the New Delhi based South Asia Terrorism Portal on 19 January 2019. – The Editor

SINGAPORE (IDN-INPS) – Amongst the diverse on-going negotiations on Afghanistan, the one led by the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been making the most noise. Reflecting both the urgency and the desperation with which the United States, if not the entire coalition, wants its 'boys back home', the intensity and extensity of talks that are being conducted are telling in their own ways.

: Suresh Jaura; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 20 January 2019

Photo: The IAEA has assisted Sudan in using nuclear technologies to combat the effects of climate change. Credit: N. Jawerth/IAEA

UN Nuclear Watchdog Helps Countries Combat Climate Change

By Noah Mayhew, IAEA

VIENNA (IDN) – Climate change is one of the biggest environmental challenges affecting humanity today, causing a dangerous rise in sea levels and disturbances to the water cycle and leading to more frequent extreme weather events. The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) helps Member States combat climate change on a variety of fronts: mitigating the production and release of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and monitoring and adapting to their negative effects.

To further support these efforts, the Agency will host an International Conference on Climate Change and the Role of Nuclear Power from October 7-11 in Vienna.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 19 January 2019

Photo: Mediterranean forest area is on the rise but increasingly in jeopardy. Credit: CC Klodio70 @Flickr.com.

Expanding Mediterranean Forest Area Increasingly In Peril

By Jaya Ramachandran

ROME (IDN) – The Mediterranean forest area has expanded by two percent resulting in a rise of 1.8 million hectares – about the size of Slovenia, says a joint report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Plan Bleu, Regional Activity Center of UN Environment/Mediterranean Action Plan.

But the report titled The State of Mediterranean Forests 2018 warns that in the period 2010-2015 forests in the Mediterranean have also been considerably affected by degradation and are increasingly in jeopardy from climate change, population rise, wildfires and water scarcity.