 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
By Santo D. Banerjee
NEW YORK (IDN) – As the decade 2011–2020 draws to an end and a growing number of world's most vulnerable countries are increasing national earning power and improved access to health care and education, making them eligible to exit the group of least developed countries (LDCs), the United Nations has accentuated the importance of paying increased attention to smooth transition processes, thus ensuring sustainable development and the irreversibility of graduation.
By Mortezagholi Raissi
BERLIN (IDN) – With new sanctions, the U.S. wants to make breathing difficult, if not impossible, for Iranians. The sanctions were threatened in May, when President Donald Trump announced that the United States was withdrawing from a 2015 deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), aimed at limiting Iran's nuclear programme.
The sanctions that existed before the nuclear deal were affirmed three days ahead of a long-announced November 5 deadline for nations to cease importing Iranian goods, particularly oil or face financial penalties. Washington wants countries not to buy a drop of oil from Iran. To ensure that this happens, the Trump Administration will be closely monitoring the first week of November onward.
Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne
SINGAPORE (IDN) – After Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's shock decision on October 26 to appoint his political foe of recent years Mahinda Rajapakse as Prime Minister, Western diplomats and the international media have expressed outrage at what they perceive as "lack of respect for democratic institutions" such as the Parliament.
But, within an hour of the announcement, Sri Lankan media broadcast images of people lighting celebratory fire crackers across the country including in Tamil-dominated Jaffna.
By Erol Avdovic
NEW YORK (IDN) – Pressure is mounting on the United Nations to set up an independent commission to investigate apparently premeditated and the barbaric killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul on October 2. And UN Secretary-General António Guterres faces growing public chorus pushing him in that direction.
The civil society is increasingly frustrated why the UN chief doesn’t use the moral authority bestowed on him by the UN Charter. He could report the matter to the UN Security Council where Saudi Arabia could face serious diplomatic scorn and even sanctions if found complicit in the journalist’s murder as the Kingdom has confessed.
Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball
The author is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. This article appeared on 1 November 2018, and is being reproduced by courtesy of the think-tank. – The Editor
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Earlier this year, President Donald Trump told reporters that he wanted to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin "to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control." He characterized the costly nuclear weapons upgrade programs being pursued by each side as "a very, very bad policy."
By Jamshed Baruah
PARIS (IDN) – A diverse group of 150 human rights defenders from around the world, who gathered for a three-day summit in Paris, have agreed on a landmark action plan which will be presented to the United Nations in December.
The plan focuses on how to protect and promote the work of activists fighting for rights, 20 years on from the first UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.
By Jaya Ramachandran
NEW YORK | BALI (IDN) – The Government of the Republic of Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 granite and coral islands in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa, has been acclaimed for showing "the leadership to create the world's first sustainable Blue Bond".
The pioneering financial instrument was launched within four weeks of the High-Level Forum the government of Seychelles organised together with the 79-member African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States at the United Nations headquarters in New York focusing on the emerging new "blue economy" underlining the protection and preservation of the world's heavily-exploited oceans.
By Katharine Pulvermacher*
The author is Executive Director of Microinsurance Network.
LUXEMBOURG (IDN) – Life is hard enough for small-scale farmers, businesses, families and communities who live with the daily threat of losing everything to natural disasters, extreme weather or other catastrophes. Even if you are insured, it can be tough to start again after drought has taken your cattle, pests have destroyed your crop or the main breadwinner has died in an accident. But for the four billion people around the world who have no access to financial services, insurance remains a distant dream.
Viewpoint by Ben Good*
The author is CEO of Energy 4 Impact, a London-based non-profit organisation working with local businesses to extend access to energy in Africa, particularly East and West Africa.
LONDON (IDN) – Digital technologies are helping sub-Saharan African countries tap new sources of capital as they seek ways to close the energy access gap.
Last year, the Tanzania-based social enterprise Simusolar raised 50,000 dollars to finance its work selling solar powered systems to farmers and fishermen in rural areas traditionally excluded from mainstream energy provision.
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*
LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – At first I was a bit surprised to find that the English admonition, “Good fences makes for good neighbours” exists in many other languages. I shouldn’t have been taken aback. A moment’s reflection should have told me that fences and walls to divide off peoples have been going on for millennia.
There’s nothing in particular new about the fence between the U.S. and Mexico, the Cold War wall between East and West Germany or the one between Israel and the Palestinian West Bank. Look at the Great Wall of China.
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.