Asia-Pacific

Photo: UN General Assembly First Committee in session. Credit: ICAN | 28 October 2016.

Australia's No to Prohibit-Nukes Resolution Triggers Debate

By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY (IDN) - As the curtain falls on 2016, the year that marked the fifth anniversary of Fukushima and the 30th anniversary of Chernobyl nuclear disasters, sending a sombre reminder of the devastating humanitarian and environmental consequences of these weapons of mass destruction, the resolve to free the world of nuclear weapons is stronger than ever before.

The United Nations Resolution A/C.1/71/L.41, which calls for negotiations on a “legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading toward their total elimination”, was adopted at the 71st session of the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on October 27, 2016 with 123 members, including nuclear North Korea, voting in favour of taking forward the multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations, 38 voted against and 16 abstained.

: Neena Bhandari; ARMAMENTS; 15 December 2016

Image: Three of the major groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

South Pacific: ‘Sea-Level Rise’ Migrants Posing a Problem

By Henry Oritimae and Sonal Shivangani*

This is the second in a series of features on the South Pacific produced in collaboration with Wansolwara, an independent student newspaper of the University of the South Pacific.

SUVA, Fiji (IDN) - With sea levels rising rapidly across the South Pacific and the resulting movement of people within and across countries, the region is facing a new problem of a lack of proper migration policies to address the issue, according to experts.

Inhabitants of artificial islands in the Soloman Islands are migrating to settle in the bigger islands because of sea-level rise and coastal inundation.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; HUMAN RIGHTS; Migration; 15 December 2016

Photo: China's President Xi Jinping and Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou face a gaggle of media before their closed-door talks in November 2015 in Singapore. Credit: The Straits Times. Kua Chee Siong.

Trump's Phone Call to Taiwan Pokes China in the Eye

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - President-elect Donald Trump has decided to poke China in the eye. He has phoned the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, assuring her of America’s support. Yes, the US has always supported Taiwan but usually behind the scenes, apart from its arms supplies. It does not recognize it diplomatically. China was angry. After Sunday's (December 11) news that Trump was reconsidering the US’s long-held “One China” policy Beijing is furious.

When, last November, President Xi Jinping met Ma Ying-jeou, then Taiwan’s president and leader of the Kuomintang Party, I observed that if China continues to play its hand quietly it can, if it is shrewd, in the end win re-unification. But perhaps it will be over Trump’s dead body.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 13 December 2016

Photo: Jan Eliasson, Deputy Secretary-General, addresses the Security Council meeting on the human rights situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Rights Situation in North Korea Worries UN Security Council

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) - Two days after the United Nations human rights wing drew attention to more than 60 years of "involuntary" separation between families from the two Koreas and called for steps to encourage reunion and alleviate suffering, senior UN officials have highlighted the need for the Security Council to pay attention to human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) adding that the situation is “of great concern”.

“History teaches us that serious human rights violations are warning signs of instability and conflict,” Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said in a briefing requested by nine of the Council’s 15 members: France, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 12 December 2016

Photo: Dili harbour with ferry Berlin Nekroma at the left. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Oil Price Decline Might Force Timor-Leste Stay Put as LDC

By UNCTAD

GENEVA (IDN-INPS) - Covered in steep hills and tropical forest, the tiny almost-island nation of Timor-Leste (East Timor) faced an uncertain future when it became independent from Indonesia in 2002.

But using its newly discovered oil for the benefit of its 1.2 million population, the fledgling democracy halved its infant and child mortality rates, boosted literacy, and saw national income rise from $810 per capita at independence to $3,940 in 2012.

The nation might have been eligible to graduate from its least developed country (LDC) status – a UN designation – by late 2021. But it depends heavily on its oil and gas exports, and tumbling oil prices have halved national income to $1,920 per capita in 2015, putting graduation into doubt.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 10 December 2016

Image credit: Ellen MacArthur Foundation

New Report Says 'Circular Economy' Will Fetch India Billions

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | GENEVA (IDN) - As India takes a prominent place in the globalised economy, it can choose its development path, and look beyond a linear 'take, make and dispose' model of growth by embarking on a circular economy transformation, and thus create economic, environmental and social value for its businesses and population, says a new report.

All the more so because "in an interconnected world predicated largely on a linear economic model, India’s development faces resource challenges and negative externalities – yet this scenario is not inevitable, and many opportunities can be derived from adopting a value-preserving model", says the report produced by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in association with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

: Devinder Kumar; UN INSIDER; 09 December 2016

Photo: President Pranab Mukherjee credit: Buddhist Channe

Nalanda University's New Chance for a 'True' Revival

By Kooi F Lim*

KUALA LUMPUR (IDN-INPS) - The Nalanda University website introduces the institution as the University that is "inspired by and aspires to match the ancient Nalanda which was an undisputed seat of learning for 800 years till the twelfth century, CE".

But not all is well with the reincarnation of this famous ancient university.

On November 23, Nobel laureate Prof Amartya Sen resigned from the governing board. He was the inaugural chairman of the Nalanda Mentor Group (NMG), which governed the establishment of Nalanda University.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; OPINION; 08 December 2016

Photo: OHCHR examines the issue of involuntary separation of Korean families from a human rights perspective. Photo: OHCHR

UN Focuses on 60 Years of Separation on Korean Peninsula

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) - In the midst of mounting political tension on the Korean peninsula, a new report from the United Nations human rights wing has drawn attention to more than 60 years of "involuntary" separation between families from the two Koreas and called for multifaceted steps in order to encourage reunion and alleviate the suffering of families.

The report, published on December 7 by the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR), documents the experiences of families who have been torn apart since the 1950-1953 Korean War through displacement, forced disappearance and abductions, and as a result of those fleeing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), official name of North Korea.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 07 December 2016

Photo: The Pearl Globe, which had its pride of place in Kokichi Mikimoto's office. When guests would come to see him, he would often spin the globe and say, "I go around the world everyday!'' Credit: Mikimoto Company.

An Island Where World's First Cultured Pearls Were Created

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) - To adorn the necks of all women in the world with pearls: this was the "humble ambition" of Kokichi Mikimoto, who died in September 1954 at the age of 96, says Noboru Shibahara, Manager of the Mikimoto Pearl Island, as we stand in front of a bronze statue of the man after whom Japan's famous island is named.

Mikimoto was fully aware that "in order to realize his ambition, peace and trusted relations among nations have to exist based on democratic principles as advocated by Yukio Ozaki", adds Shibahara.

Also remembered with his pseudonym 'Gakudo', Ozaki served in the House of Representatives of the Japanese Diet for 63 years (1890–1953), and is still revered as the "God of constitutional politics" and the "Father of the Japanese Constitutional Democracy".

: Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 02 December 2016

Photo: NPO Gakudo Kofu President Takako Doi (front row, 3rd from right) and her colleagues standing in front of late Gakudo Ozaki's statue together with a U.S. delegation headed by Rachel Bohn, the 68th United States Cherry Blossom Queen (2nd row, 5th from right) which was in Ise City last May for a goodwill visit. Credit: NPO Gakudo Kofu.

A Japanese NGO Keeps Yuki Ozaki's Spirit Alive

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

ISE | TOKYO (IDN) - Takako Doi is a warm-hearted, youthful and dynamic woman in her late sixties wedded to the cause of promoting educational and exchange programmes to foster international cooperation and friendship. She is deeply rooted in Japanese culture, and her mind, ears and eyes are open to the global community.

Doi is President of Gakudo Kofu, a not-for-profit organisation (NPO) launched in 2006 and tasked since 2010 with administration of the historic Ozaki Gakudo Memorial House supported by the Ise City, known as the 'Holy City' because it hosts Ise Jingu, the Grand Shrine, a Shinto shrine complex centered on two main shrines, Naikū and Gekū, dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Read in Japanese