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Photo: Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, India's Permanent Representative to the UN. Source: International House, New York

India Faults UN Security Council's Legitimacy and Credibility

By Santo D. Banerjee

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – A non‑representative United Nations Security Council, designed long ago to maintain a balance of power between rival States, is unable to handle challenges which have changed beyond recognition over the decades, Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, India's Permanent Representative to the UN has warned.

"An instrument that is no longer considered legitimate and has lost its credibility cannot be our hope for salvation," adding that "speech acts" would have little impact, he said in the Security Council's Open Debate on "complex contemporary challenges to International Peace and Security".

: Santo D. Banerjee; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 14 January 2018

Photo: Shashi Tharoor and Malavika Banerjee at Taj Bengal on December 28, 2017 for the second meeting of Kalam Club, a subscription-based book club that offers its members an opportunity to meet authors. Credit: Pabitra Das

Eminent Writer-MP Tharoor Shreds Indians' Colonial Mindset

By Chandreyee Ghose, The Telegraph India

Photo: Lynda Carter, star of the TV show “Wonder Woman” from 1975 to 1979, at the launch of a campaign for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Credirt: AMANDA VOISARD/UN PHOTO

Sexual Harassment at the UN Is Alive and Persistent

By Laura E. Kirkpatrick, Passblue

BUFFALO (IDN) - As its people of the year, Time magazine recently named the Silence Breakers -- people who have spoken against sexual harassment and launched the hashtag #MeToo into an international phenomenon with more than seven million hits on social media.

Just before the announcement, more than 230 women who work in national security for the United States, from former ambassadors to military personnel, signed a public letter protesting sexual harassment, under the hashtag #MeTooNatSec.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 13 January 2018

U.S. Decision to Respect Iran Deal Obligations Averts Self-Made Crisis But Uncertainty Persists

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (IDN) – One day after the European Union reiterated its commitment to support "the full and effective implementation of the agreement" with Iran, the Trump Administration announced on January 12 that it will continue to waive sanctions on the Islamic Republic in accordance with U.S. commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.

The agreement between the P5+1 countries (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and Iran is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

: J C Suresh; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 12 January 2018

Photo: The children of Namokanda community in West Bengal who have formed the ‘Shishu Panchayat' consisting of school-going children. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS

Sustainability Is Developing Community From Within

By Kalinga Seneviratne

NAMOKANDA, West Bengal, India (IDN) – Six years ago this remote village of 130 households about 80 km from Santiniketan – the hometown of famous Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore – was a small picturesque village community surrounded by paddy fields, but without a sustainable development concept.

Today it is a confident community with most households having access to water and sanitation, and most of its children in school aspiring to go to university. One of the community leaders is even doing research in development communication at the famous Visva-Bharati University, India’s first ‘institute of national importance’, set up by Tagore.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 12 January 2018

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres (centre) delivers his report entitled “Making Migration Work for All” to the UN General Assembly on 11 January 2017. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN Chief Pleads For 'Making Migration Work for All'

By António Guterres

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the launch of the report 'Making Migration Work for All', in New York on 11 January. – The Editor

UNITED NATIONS (IDN-INPS) – I am very pleased to be with all of you to present the report “Making Migration Work for All”. This serves as my principal input to the zero draft of the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. The adoption of this compact stands as one of our most important collective priorities for 2018.

As we look forward to the zero draft, I would like to commend your efforts to date under the wise stewardship of Mexico and Switzerland, aided by the President of the General Assembly and my Special Representative, Louise Arbour. Allow me to express a very deep gratitude to Louise Arbour and her team — your extraordinary contribution was absolutely vital for me to be able to present a report that, I hope, you will find both bold and constructive.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 11 January 2018

Photo: Avenue des Cocotiers, Douala, the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. The city is primarily francophone. Credit: Kayhan ERTUGRUL | Wikimedia Commons.

Cameroon’s Catholic Bishops Fail to See Eye to Eye on ‘Anglophone Problem’

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

YAOUNDE (IDN) – “It was like I was watching a horror movie” is how the bishop of Mamfe diocese in Cameroon’s South West Region described the scene he saw in the village of Kembong village.

Mgr Andrew Nkea had visited the village in the wake of the deaths of four soldiers late December, killed by unknown assailants (although the government claimed they were secessionists). In a retaliatory move, Cameroonian soldiers had incinerated the whole village.

“I saw more than 20 houses burnt down by soldiers and one dead body still lying there, being fed on by dogs and chicken,” said Nkea. Of the village’s 5,000 or so residents, only 30 remained, all huddled in the house of the area’s priest because “they had nowhere else to go.”

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 January 2018

Chinese peacekeepers marking International Women’s Day in Gao, a base in the UN mission in Mali. China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has presented a policy paper on UN reform that suggests a leap forward on the world stage as the US, by contrast, recedes. MARCO DORMINO/MINUSMA

China Strives for UN Reform by Filling the Growing Vacuum Left by the US

By Kacie Candela, PassBlue

NEW YORK (IDN) - China has presented its position on United Nations reform, and it aligns with Secretary-General António Guterres's own agenda. It pushes for practicalities, such as a transparent process, a stronger peace and security pillar, streamlined internal management and more geographic diversity in hiring practices in peacekeeping and the UN Secretariat.

"The world is undergoing major developments, transformation and adjustment, but peace and security remain the call of our day," the position paper begins, alluding to the upset of the Western-dominated global order. "The trends of global multi-polarity, economic globalization, IT application and cultural diversity are surging forward; and countries are becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent."

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 09 January 2018

Image: Principally practiced in antiquity, it is one of the most well-known execution methods due to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Credit: list25.com

Torture Begets More Brutality

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Looking for a good cause for 2018? Something you can do while sitting in your arm chair. Something that needs to be done if we are to live in a “clean” planet. Campaigning against torture is what it is. It can be done by e-mail, s-mail, phone, text and petition signing. In the past, water dripping on a stone has worked and can be made to work again.

“Torture works. OK, folks? Believe me, it works…..And waterboarding is your minor form, but we should go much stronger than waterboarding,” said Donald Trump while campaigning to be president.

At the moment, as far as I know, the U.S. is not torturing anyone. President Barack Obama put a stop to the practice of it by the administration of President George W. Bush. Even Trump says that since the Secretary of Defence, General James Mattis, is against re-introducing it it probably won’t happen. But one day Mattis can be sacked and someone more pliant installed in his place.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 09 January 2018

Photo: A view down the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt (October 2004). Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Let’s Put Order in Tourism and Tourism in Order

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio

The writer is publisher of Other News, an eminent proponent of "information that markets eliminate" and founder of IPS-Inter Press Service News Agency. This article is being reproduced courtesy of Other News with the writer's permission. He can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and his articles and comments can be read on Facebook @robertosavioutopia

ROME (IDN) – We are living a paradox in which two parallel worlds coexist: the (real) world of places of poverty and violence that we (occasionally) read about in newspapers or see on TV and the other world featuring the same places which exists only for tourists, the world of beautiful beaches, wonderful nature and fantastic hotels.

Behind this paradox lies a fundamental question: how many tourists travelling the world this year will consider the social, cultural and environmental impact of their activity? Probably very few, and this is a serious issue with tourism having become a mass phenomenon driven (as usual) by money.