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The Volatile Triangular Situation in South Asia

News briefs compiled by Suresh Jaura*

TORONTO | NEW DELHI (IDN) – These news briefs deal with: the unstable situation in Afghanistan; Pakistan's continued support for the Taliban; the deployment of military tracking technology to hunt COVID-19 patients; continued India-Pak tension on the alleged role of Islamabad in terror attacks in India-administered Jammu and Kashmir; and tearing down of Hindu homes in Bhawalpur, located in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Other topics are related to India's relations with China; the U.S. offer to mediate and Pakistan's resentment over hostile U.S. comments on its ties with China.

: Suresh Jaura; THE WORLD; South Asia; 14 June 2020

Image: Legal systems of the world map. Source: Wikimedia Commons

US Abating the Slow Growth of Much-Needed World Law

Viewpoint by René Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) — "For nearly a half a century — almost as long as the United Nations has been in existence — the General Assembly has recognized the need to establish such a court to prosecute and punish persons responsible for crimes such as genocide. Many thought that the horrors of the Second World War — the camps, the cruelty, the exterminations, the Holocaust — could never happen again. And yet they have.

"In Cambodia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Rwanda. Our time — this decade even— has shown us that man’s capacity for evil knows no limits. Genocide is now a word of our time too, a heinous reality that calls for a historic response." — Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General from January 1997 to December 2006.

: Rene Wadlow; OPINION; 14 June 2020

Photo: U.S. President Donald J. Trump addresses the general debate of the General Assembly's seventy-fourth session. 24 September 2019. United Nations, New York. Credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak

Global Governance From The Perspective Of US President Trump

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Ritesh Tandon*

Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. is an ex-diplomat, and Ritesh Tandon is the Republican Party Candidate for the U.S. Congress from 17th Dist. California.

CALIFORNIA (IDN) – Pursuit of Peace and Development has been cherished both by nations and the international community. The U.S. under the Trump administration, in particular, has made it a specific policy and manifested a synergy of both in the government's many decisions.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 13 June 2020

Photo: Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. Source: Kazakh Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.

Kazakhstan Concludes One Year of Transition With President Tokayev

Viewpoint by Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (IDN) – On June 12, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev completed the first year of his term as President of Kazakhstan, traversing a road to multifarious reforms at home, reflecting the maturity and stable political transition in Central Asia's biggest nation-state. At the same time, he has been strengthening bilateral and multilateral relations, building on Kazakhstan's rich experience in negotiating peaceful ways out of conflictive situations.

: Ramesh Jaura; THE WORLD; Central Asia; 13 June 2020

Photo: Margaret with one of her granddaughters. Credit: Brian Hodges for African Women Rising.

African Women Respond to Covid-19 Hunger Emergency

Viewpoint by Linda Eckerbom Cole

The writer is Director/Founder, African Women Rising, shuttles between Santa Barbara, California and Gulu, Uganda.

SANTA BARBARA, California (IDN) – African Women Rising (AWR) has created a campaign to build 2,000 new Permagardens, which will help feed 15,000 at-risk people who are experiencing food scarcity due to COVID-19. Permagardens empower communities to meet their own food needs and are a long-term solution to hunger.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 13 June 2020

Photo: Some 300 drivers, including motorcycle taxi drivers, in Bangui, Central African Republic, received information about preventive measures to fight the Coronavirus. Credit: MINUSCA/Biliaminou A. Alao

COVID-19 in Africa: WHO Urges Constant Vigilance as Cases Top 200,000

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) – At present, Africa has an only small fraction of more than 7.5 million COVID-19 affected people, nearly 423,000 of whom have died because of the Coronavirus worldwide. The virus has affected about 200,000 people on the 54-nation continent and killed 5,600.

"Swift and early action by African countries has helped to keep numbers low but constant vigilance is needed to stop COVID-19 from overwhelming health facilities," Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, has warned.

: Jamshed Baruah; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 June 2020

Photo: Rose David of Wusi Village in West Coast Santo, Vanuatu stands next to her home that was destroyed by Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Harold in April 2020. Credit: UN Women/Betty Zinner-Toa.

Women in The Pacific Confront the Dual Impact of a Pandemic and A Tropical Cyclone

By UN Women

NEW YORK (IDN) – Although the Pacific has largely been spared by the spread of the disease relative to other regions around the world – with Fiji hardest hit of the six countries the UN Women’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls programme works in, at 18 confirmed cases – all of which have since been cleared, and several countries without a recorded a case so far – the economic and social consequences have been deep.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 12 June 2020

Photo: Protests in New York on killing of George Floyd. Credit: Anadolu Agency of Turkey.

US Protests Unmask The 'Torch-Bearer' Of Human Rights

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) – "The United States (US) has always taken pride in calling itself the 'Land of the Free' and appointed itself to be the global cop to punish others who violate human rights. … It has poked its nose in the affairs of almost all countries, all the time presenting itself as the torch-bearer of human rights", noted India's WIONEWS TV.

In addition to the murder of African-American George Floyd by the police in broad daylight, police cars have been shown to ram into unarmed protestors.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Reduced Inequalities; 12 June 2020

Crisis Means Danger and Opportunity

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*

COPENHAGEN (IDN) – In written Chinese, the word “crisis” is represented by two characters. One of these, taken alone, means “danger”. The other, by itself, means “opportunity”. A crisis nearly always leads to great change. There is a danger that this will be a change for the worse. But there also is the opportunity to change society for the better – to reform and improve it. Both paths are present in a crisis like our present one. We must strive with all our strength to make society take the right path.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 June 2020

Photo: ECOSOC's 2020 Operational Activities Segment (OAS) on development issues took place through a series of virtual meetings from 19 to 22 May and on 27 May 2020, under the chairmanship of the Deputy Permanent Representative of Mexico, as ECOSOC Vice-President. Credit: UN

COVID-19 Puts to Test the UN Development System

By Elena Marmo, Global Policy Watch (GPW)

This article first appeared in the GPW's blog.

NEW YORK (IDN) – Across the UN System, all hands are on deck to address the impact of COVID-19 from immediate humanitarian and health needs, to medium and longer-term socio-economic policy. Various initiatives are circling one another, raising issues of governance, reporting and accountability. Member States in the ECOSOC Operational Activities Segment explored some of these questions as they related to the UN Development System (UNDS). At the same time, in the 28 May and 2 June meetings on Financing for Development, they also explored policy ideas, with an emphasis on accounting for vulnerability in macroeconomic analysis.