By Sameer Unhale, Dr Simi Mehta, Dr Arjun Kumar and Kushgara Khatri NEW DELHI (IDN) — World Toilet Day is held every year on November 19. It has been an annual United Nations observance since 2013, which celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the 3.6 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. It […]
UN Military Intervention in Haiti Offers No Added Value but Added Chaos
Viewpoint by P.I. Gomes The writer is the former Secretary-General of The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad & Tobago (IDN) — Haiti’s history of horror and resolute self-determination is once again a subject of controversy and confusion in much of the world’s media.
Growing Urbanization Chewing Away Forests in Southern Africa
By Jeffrey Moyo HARARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — In Harare, the Zimbabwean capital’s medium-density suburb known as Glaudina, where a thick forest used to exist, homes under construction have emerged instead, with the trees vanishing. North-West of Zimbabwe, just outside Lusaka, the Zambian capital, slums and shacks have also, over the decades, replaced the once flourishing […]
Bahrain Dialogue Forum Urges Action for Peaceful Coexistence
By Katsuhiro Asagiri Manama (IDN) — “Our world today is facing unprecedented challenges where conflicts are multiplying, and people whose identities are defined by religion, culture, or ethnicity continue to be besieged by hatred. Social and cultural divides are deepening; tribalism, ethnic violence, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, hate speech and ultra-nationalism are in full swing.” said […]
Geopolitical Interests Dictate China’s Global Aid Exports
By Kiel Institute for the World Economy BERLIN | KIEL, Germany (IDN) — China has been exporting aid goods worth around USD 835 million annually since 2017. These material resources are distributed by China primarily according to geopolitical interests and increasingly to Asia and Africa. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 meant that […]
An Attack on Journalists is an Attack on Democracy, Emphasises a UN Conference
A Special Report by Aurora Weiss VIENNA (IDN) — United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs (BMEIA) joined in early November to mark the 10th anniversary of the UN Plan of Action on […]
Community-Driven Decentralization and Reconciliation in Palestine
By Yossef Ben-Meir The writer Dr Yossef Ben-Meir is a sociologist and President of the High Atlas Foundation in Morocco. MARRAKESCH (IDN) — A decentralized governance administration, whose procedures and functioning are defined from implementing a wide range of local development projects across a country, generates results that appeal to a broad spectrum of social […]
The Climate Dispossessed are not Refugees
Viewpoint by Teall Crossen * This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. WELLINGTON, New Zealand (IDN) — Let’s be clear, people displaced by climate breakdown are not climate refugees under international law. They are not being forced from their countries because of persecution by their own […]
Building Security in the Korean Peninsula
Pursue Fresh Diplomatic Approaches Not Military-Nuclear Posturing Viewpoint by Dr Rebecca Johnson LONDON (IDN) — Nuclear fears have been increasing in North-East Asia in recent months. From early November, North Korea ratcheted up its usual sabre rattling with more direct threats, ‘tactical nuclear drills’, apparent preparations for more nuclear tests, and by firing around 25 […]
The US Is Making a Mess of the Concept of Democracy
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) — It should take a long time before America can again strut the world stage and lecture about the values of democracy, poking its finger in the eye of every authoritarian or dictatorial government it has the desire to show up. A former president, about to announce he […]