Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf* “And so … ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country”, President John Kennedy, 20 January 1961. VIENNA (IDN) — For the better part of a year, diplomats from more than 180 countries have been feuding over the appointment of the […]
Put People Before Runaway Military Spending
Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Izumi Nakamitsu Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka Executive Director of UN Women and Ms Nakamitsu is UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. This OpEd was first published on May 6. NEW YORK (IDN) — For all of us, but especially women, the pandemic is a reminder that traditional notions of “security” that fuel […]
Education For Sustainable Development as Overarching Framework to Achieve the SDGs
Viewpoint by Simone Galimberti The writer is Co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not-for-profit in Nepal. He writes on volunteerism, social inclusion, youth development, and regional integration as an engine to improve people’s lives. He can be reached at simone_engage@yahoo.com KATHMANDU, Nepal (IDN) — A life insurance policy for humanity, this is how Audrey Azoulay, the UNESCO […]
COVID-19: Africa Needs to Break the Circle of Dependency
Interview by Kester Kenn Klomegah* MOSCOW (IDN) — Africa Vaccine Manufacturing Initiative (AVMI) primarily aims at promoting the establishment of sustainable human vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa. Since its establishment, AVMI together with multiple and different partners, have been advocating for the establishment of vaccine development and manufacturing in Africa. With the outbreak of coronavirus, […]
Canada’s LTTE-Inspired Myopic View On ‘Genocide’
By Sugeeswara Senadhira The writer is Media Advisor at the Presidential secretariat. COLOMBO (IDN) — Genocide is the intentional destruction of a particular group through killing, serious physical or mental harm, preventing births and/or forcibly transferring children to another group and this term has been applied to the experiences of Indigenous peoples in Canada, particularly […]
UN Experts Call on Myanmar Businesses ‘To Take a Stand’ Against Military Junta
By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK (IDN | UN News) — Independent rights experts of the United Nations have urged businesses in Myanmar to fulfill their human rights responsibilities and pressure the military junta to halt grave human rights violations against its own people. According to UN News, some businesses have reiterated their public support for […]
Widespread Frustration in Nigeria Would Not Justify a Coup
The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria. ABUJA (IDN) — These days, it seems all right to play with fire. The blaze started as a solitary spark in Mali in August when the streets, the elite, and jihadists banded to remove President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. The former president had […]
NATO Plans to Focus on Russia and China
By Robert Johnson BRUSSELS (IDN) — “What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO,” French President Emmanuel Macron declared in a blunt interview with The Economist in November 2019. Europe stands on “the edge of a precipice”, he said, and needs to start thinking of itself strategically as a geopolitical power; otherwise, […]
The Nuclear Threat in the New Information Age
Viewpoint by Daryl G. Kimball The writer is the executive director of Arms Control Association and publisher of Arms Control Today since 2001. The following is the text of Mr Kimball’s Foreword to 2021 Joint Media Project Report of the Non-Profit International Press Syndicate Group with IDN as flagship agency in partnership with Soka Gakkai […]
Biden Should Return Quickly to the Obama-led Iran Nuclear Deal
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN) — It was the Americans who helped the long-ago-deposed Shah of Iran start Iran’s nuclear power research. He wanted a bomb. The Americans seemed insouciant about where this might lead. After the revolution, the research was bequeathed from the wrong pair of hands to another wrong pair of […]