THE WORLD

Photo: Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov addressing a conference on central Asia under UN auspices. Credit: The Astana Times.

Kazakhstan Committed to Sustainable Development and Mutual Prosperity in Central Asia

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In the run-up to Kazakhstan assuming the UN Security Council's rotating presidency for January 2018, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov has accentuated that the Central Asian country stands for the creation of a model of a regional zone of peace, security and cooperation in Central Asia and Afghanistan.

Kazakhstan is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018, and it chairs the Council's Committees 1988 on the Taliban movement and 1267 on ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 03 December 2017

Photo: Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., asks about the president's nuclear authority at November 14 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Credit: PBS Newshour

Reducing the Risk of Nuclear Miscalculation

By Daryl G. Kimball

Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared with the caption 'Step Back From the Nuclear Brink'.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) - Over the past year, cavalier and reckless statements from President Donald Trump about nuclear weapons and his threat to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea have heightened fears about Cold War-era policies and procedures that put the authority to launch nuclear weapons in his hands alone.

Partially in response, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for the first time since 1976, held a hearing on the “executive’s authority to use nuclear weapons.” The November 14 hearing should be just the start of a process that leads to changes that reduce the risk of nuclear miscalculation and establishes that the United States will not be the first to use nuclear weapons.

: Arms Control Association; OPINION; 02 December 2017

Photo: Miroslav Lajvak, President of the General Assembly at the special meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. UN Photo/Kim Haughton

UNGA Adopts Six Resolutions on Palestine, Middle East

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Seventy years since the United Nations adopted the Partition Plan for Palestine as Resolution 181 (1947) on November 29, 1947 a hectic debate in the General Assembly has reaffirmed that peace in the Middle East is nowhere on the horizon.

In fact, several delegates voiced concern that the texts of six resolutions the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted on November 30 "perpetuated a one-sided view that isolated and targeted a single Member State," Israel. Two of the resolutions declared Israel’s actions in the Syrian Golan and East Jerusalem "null and void."

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 01 December 2017

Photo: WANG Shouwen, China’s Vice-Minister of Commerce. Credit: The Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

China and UNIDO Have Engaged in Substantial Cooperation

By WANG Shouwen

WANG Shouwen is China’s Vice-Minister of Commerce. Following are extensive excerpts from his address at the 17th session of the UNIDO General Conference 'Partnering for Impact: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals' in Vienna on November 27, 2017 – after Li Yong was re-appointed for a second term (2017-2021) as the Director General of the Organization. – The Editor

VIENNA (IDN) – China appreciates the significant achievements UNIDO has made during the past 4 years under the guidance of DG Li Yong. ISID [Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development] was incorporated into 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. PCP [the Programme for Country Partnership] received full recognition of member countries. UNIDO becomes the leading agency in UN System of implementing the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa. With its active participation in mechanisms such as G20 and the BRICS, UNIDO has remarkably increased its influence and visibility.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 29 November 2017

From Arizona to Bangkok, Determined to Help Thailand

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN | BANGKOK (IDN) - There is something exceptional about Dr. Thanawan Bhookphan who was born in Min Buri, one of the 50 districts of Bangkok, the capital city of Bangkok, and spent over 30 years in the United States.

He received Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of Arizona, and Master’s Degree and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the Faculty of Industrial Engineering – and gained expertise in several fields of engineering and international business management.

As a university student, he worked with many big and reputed companies as an apprentice. After graduation, he joined Motorola USA and worked in the engineering section, which supports the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), contributing his share to the success of Apollo 14 and 15 lunar missions.

: Jutta Wolf; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 29 November 2017

Photo: General Ratko Mladic, convicted after 22 years, in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in June 2011

Mladic Verdict After 22 Years Cries for Shake-up of the UN Court

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Timing is everything. Dear Reader you’re right. If I was going to write on the conviction in a UN court of General Ratko Mladic I should have done it last week when the court sentenced him to life imprisonment for the mass murder of a significant part of Bosnia’s Muslim population during the civil wars in ex-Yugoslavia.

But does a week here or a week there matter when it has taken the ridiculous time of 22 years from the horrific event in Srebrenica, when 7,000 Muslim men were rounded up and slaughtered, to conviction? It was 16 years from the end of the war and 6 years from the date of his capture. The trial in Nuremberg of ex-Nazi leaders took only a year and took place immediately after the end of the Second World War.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 28 November 2017

Photo: Sri Lanka's Foreign Secretary Prasad Kariyawasam. Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka, Development Begins with Reconciliation

By Prasad Kariyawasam

Prasad Kariyawasam is Sri Lanka's Foreign Secretary. Following are extensive excerpts from his address to the UN's Peacebuilding Commission at the UN Headquarters in New York on November 20, 2017. – The Editor

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Sri Lanka is known, perhaps mostly, as the place where Ceylon Tea originates from, or as the land which was torn by conflict for several years, or the country where the famous science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke lived.

But, we are also so much more, and our history also has a bearing on current peacebuilding in our country.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 28 November 2017

Photo: Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta on a state visit to Ghana in July 2017. Credit: Malta President's Website

Need to Perceive Africa from an African Point of View

By Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta

Following are extensive extracts from the speech delivered by Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta, at the 17th session of the UNIDO General Conference 'Partnering for Impact: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals' in Vienna on November 27, 2017. Li Yong was re-appointed for a second term (2017-2021) as the Director General of the Organization at the opening of the session. – The Editor

VIENNA (IDN) – Two years have passed since the adoption of the United Nations’ Agenda 2030. Its seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are still the main benchmark for the international community, to work for the aspirations of humanity, for effective global development in a holistic and an integrated way.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 27 November 2017

10 to 12 million young people join the African labour force each year, yet the continent creates only 3.7 million jobs annually. Credit: Adapted from “Promulgation,” courtesy of flickr user ActionPixs (Maruko), Kenya.

The Challenge of Making Africa's 830 Million Young People 'Effective Citizens'

By John Dramani Mahama and Siddharth Chatterjee

John Dramani Mahama is the former President of the Republic of Ghana. (Follow him on twitter.) Siddharth Chatterjee is the UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya. (Follow him on twitter.)

ACCCRA | NAIROBI (IDN-INPS) - In July 2017, Spanish charity workers rescued 167 migrants arriving from Africa aboard a small boat.

2016 was the deadliest for migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, with at least 3800 deaths recorded. Most know the dangers they face on the route, yet still choose the possibility of death in overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels over the hopelessness of life in areas they reside.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 25 November 2017

Photo: Emmerson Mnangagwa. Credit: NewsDay Zimbabwe

Military's Role Crucial in Post-Mugabe Zimbabwe

Viewpoint by Alemayehu G. Mariam

The writer is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, a constitutional lawyer and Senior Editor of the International Journal of Ethiopian Studies. The source of this article is Pambazuka News, which republished it on November 23. It first appeared in The Hill. The views in the following article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of IDN-INPS editorial team. – The Editor

SAN BERNARDINO, California, USA (IDN-INPS) – Despite its apparently new interest in preserving democracy, for 37 years the military was an indispensable part of a fossilized oligarchy which betrayed the "revolution" and bankrupted Zimbabwe. Sadly, any post-Mugabe civilian government could only exist if it makes a Faustian bargain with the military.