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IDN-InDepthNews

 

CENTRAL ASIA

   

 

Acronym of the Year

    

UN INSIDER
Photo: Izumi Nakamitsu, United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, briefs the Security Council as it considers the situation in the Middle East. 5 February 2018. © UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu

The author is Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. This article first appeared in UN Chronicle, Vol. LV No. 2 2018 | August 2018.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – The idea that disarmament and arms control are connected to development is not new. Article 26 of the Charter of the United Nations recognizes disarmament as a precondition for durable peace, security and development by calling for the maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion of the world’s economic and human resources for arms.

For a long time, however, disarmament has largely slipped off the development agenda. This is despite overwhelming evidence that excessive arms accumulation diverts needed resources from development and fuels armed conflict and violence, leading to unnecessary death and suffering, social inequality and environmental degradation. Hence, the failure to establish effective disarmament and arms control systems is devastating to socioeconomic development, peace and security, and human well-being.

OPINION

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres folds origami cranes with young Japanese leaders at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial. Credit: Dan Powell | UN Photo.

Viewpoint by António Guterres

The survivors of the atomic bombings, known in Japanese as the hibakusha, have become global "leaders for peace and disarmament", United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said at the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony in Japan on 9 August 2018, commemorating the 73rd anniversary of that devastating day. Following are extensive extracts from Guterres' remarks. – The Editor

NAGASAKI (IDN-INPS) – I am humbled, as Secretary-General of the United Nations, to be here with you to commemorate the women, men and children killed by the nuclear attack on Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.  I convey my deepest respect and condolences to everyone here today, and to all the victims and survivors of the atomic bombs.

OPINION

Photo: Vladimir Putin (right) and Donald Trump (left) at a news conference after their summit meeting in Helsinki on July 16, 2018. Credit: en.kremlin.ru

Viewpoint by Thomas M. Countryman, Kingston A. Reif and Daryl G. Kimball

The following analysis is the Arms Control Association's latest Issue Brief with the caption Can Trump and Putin Head Off a Nuclear Arms Race? authored by Thomas M. Countryman, former Acting Under Secretary Of State for Arms Control and International Security and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association, Kingston A. Reif, Director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy, and Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director. It is being reproduced by arrangement with the Association. – The Editor.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – The much-anticipated July 16 summit meeting in Helsinki between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin did not go well for the United States.

OPINION

Image credit: UN Women.

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) - August 9 is International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. On this occasion, UN Women calls on each of us to commit to making the voices of indigenous peoples, and indigenous women, louder and more impactful than ever before: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2018/8/statement-un-women-international-day-of-the-worlds-indigenous-peoples.

At a time of unprecedented human mobility, indigenous women are on the move too, often fleeing violence, environmental disasters and land encroachments that have eaten into their sources of food, water and way of life. The positive economic spin-offs of migration don’t always reach them. Theirs is a move also for justice, as they mobilize to make their voices heard, demand punishment for perpetrators and reparations to restore their dignity.

SUSTAINABILITY
Gender Equality

Image Credit: European Commission

By Phil Pascal

The writer is a Caribbean journalist and Commentator on development issues. This is the second article in a two-part Series on the next stage of ACP-EU relations in the Post-Cotonou Agreement with the EU. In the earlier commentary the writer explained the principles and processes by which the ACP Group has set about establishing the inclusive and participatory inter-governmental framework for negotiations of a Post-Cotonou Partnership Agreement (PCPA).

BRIDGETOWN (ACP-IDN) –The single undertaking of the new Agreement builds on the successes of the present one signed in Cotonou, Benin in West Africa for a 20-year period. But it also shows evidence of being ready to critique weaknesses and adapt seriously to the changing circumstances – political, economic and cultural – of the 21st century.

OPINION

Image source: caribbeannewsnow.com

By Phil Pascal

The writer is a Caribbean journalist and Commentator on development issues. This is the first article in a two-part Series on the next stage of ACP-EU relations in the Post-Cotonou Agreement with the EU.

BRIDGETOWN (ACP-IDN) – The historic partnership agreement between 107 industrialized and developing nations – known as the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) and the European Union – will expire on February 29, 2020. Negotiations on a successor agreement impacting more than 1.5 billion people of states constituting more than half of the UN membership are set to officially begin on October 1, 2018, according to reliable EU sources.

OPINION

Photo: A dried cornfield is pictured on August 6, 2018 in Mitschdorf, eastern France, as a heatwave sweeps across Europe. Credit: phys.org

By Rita Joshi

BERLIN (IDN) – Planet Earth is inching towards crossing the Rubicon by passing a tipping point and entering an irresistible "Hothouse" state. Rivers would flood, coasts would vanish, storms would wreak havoc on coastal communities, coral reefs would be eliminated, and numerous people would perish because of food scarcity and inescapable lethal heat.

All this by century's end or even earlier, even if the carbon emission reductions called for in the Paris Agreement are met, scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, University of Copenhagen, and Australian National University have warned.

SUSTAINABILITY
Climate Action

Image: Moses's army in the land now called Palestine attacked its resident tribes including the Midianites. Following their defeat, Moses told his victorious generals, God was ordering him to kill all the women and their young sons. The watercolor by James Tissot at the Jewish Museum, New York, shows 'The Women of Midian Led Captive by the Hebrews'. Credit; Wikimedia Commons.

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Recall Shakespeare's great work of dramatic art, the Merchant of Venice, where Shylock was treated as an unpleasant Jew (with a lovely, self-effacing daughter) who dealt mainly in shady usury.

His speech to the court is one of Shakespeare’s most remembered:

“Hath not a Jew eyes? / Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? /If you prick us, do we not bleed? /If you tickle us do we not laugh? /If you poison us, do we not die? /And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

But what if we substitute Palestinian for Jew? Viz: "Hath not a Palestinian eyes?" and so on. …

OPINION

Photo credit: senatormccarter.com

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Democrats are challenging President Trump’s nominee from the Midwestern state of Illinois for the post of U.S. ambassador to Kenya. State Sen. Kyle McCarter’s conservative views run the gamut from opposition to gay rights, restrictions on immigration and locking up former Senator Hillary Clinton.

A White House media release said McCarter would be "Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Kenya."

The post requires Senate confirmation. State Sen. McCarter was questioned by members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

THE WORLD
Africa

Photo: #TheTotalShutdown organisers said they were seeking legal advice after they were instructed to hand themselves over to the police. Credit: Alaister Russel | Times Live, South Africa's news website.

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | PRETORIA (IDN) – Thousands of women and gender activists joined together on the first day of Women's Month to protest the rising incidence of gender-based violence across the country.

The movement's Brenda Madumise said the marchers, under the banner #TheTotalShutdown, were taking control of their destiny.

"We are saying that we had enough,” said Patience Mpani from the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria. “We are dying every day and we cannot continue to live like this. It can't be business as usual in South Africa when women are dying every day."

THE WORLD
Africa

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  3. UN Chief Begins To Walk The Talk For Promised Reforms
  4. The Philippines Cautiously Support U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy to Counter China
  5. Tanzania's Indigenous Communities Racing to Secure Land Eyed by Investors

About IDN

IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.

IDN-InDepthNews serves as flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate and its partner, the Global Cooperation Council, established in February 1983.

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