By Daniel Johnson of UN News GENEVA (IDN) – United Nations agencies are working round the clock to provide all the necessary aid to vulnerable sections of the society to combat the Coronavirus pandemic at diverse levels: ensuring meals to millions of children affected by the closure of schools, airlifting relief to Sudanese refugees in […]
New UN Report Warns of Adverse Impacts of Climate Change
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) – A new UN study has warned of accelerating climate change on land, sea and in the atmosphere. Compiled by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), parented by the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the report documents impacts of weather and climate events on socio-economic development, human health, migration and […]
Colombia’s Conflict Victims Await 16 ‘Seats for Peace’ in Congress
Viewpoint by Hobeth Martinez Carrillo* LONDON (IDN) – Four years after the UN-monitored peace agreement that was intended to end more than five decades of civil war in Colombia, the communities that suffered most during the armed conflict may finally be gaining places at the political table. The members of the UN Security Council welcomed […]
The World’s Response to COVID-19 Has Slashed CO2 Emissions
Viewpoint by Simone Abram* DURHAM, UK (IDN) – How do you respond to a crisis? It’s obvious that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been dramatically different to anything provoked by repeated scientific warnings about climate change. The many organisations that declared climate emergencies throughout 2019 and 2020 have so far enacted nothing like […]
Hawaiian Culture and Native Plant: The ‘Inseparable Bond’
By UN News KAUAI, Hawaii (IDN) – The 17 goals agreed by the global community to reduce poverty and crate a sustainable planet are the responsibility of all people, wherever they are in the world, according to the United Nations. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a boundary-pushing blueprint for the future of the Earth […]
COVID-19: Resources Needed for Gender and Social Inclusion
Women Front and Centre Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director. NEW YORK (IDN) – One thing is clear about the COVID-19 pandemic, as stock markets tumble, schools and universities close, people stockpile supplies and home becomes a different and crowded space: this is not just a health issue. It is […]
How to Think Positively about Isolation during Coronavirus Lockdown
Viewpoint by Silvia Panizza* PIEDMONT, Italy (IDN) – “They say when trouble comes, close ranks.” So begins Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea. When the new coronavirus started spreading in Europe, my first impulse was to travel home, to Italy, to be with my family. Lesson number one learned from the virus: you remember what […]
Bernie Sanders Pushes Democratic Party to the Left
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Is Bernie Sanders still in with a chance? It is a slim one, but in these primary elections one never knows. There have been a number of surprising upsets. Even if Joe Biden comes out on top and has to face Donald Trump for the presidency the […]
Iran Should Demonstrate That Its Nuclear Program Is Peaceful
By Kelsey Davenport and Julia Masterson This article first appeared on Arms Control Association Website. Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy, and Julia Masterson research assistant WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi raised concerns earlier in March about Tehran’s failure to cooperate with an agency investigation into possible […]
China Shows Novel Coronavirus Can Be ‘Stopped in Its Tracks’
By UN News BEIJING (IDN) – China’s experience in containing the spread of the new coronavirus could serve as a lesson for other countries now facing the COVID-19 pandemic, a senior official with the World Health Organization (WHO) has told UN News in an in-depth interview. While more than 153,00 cases of the respiratory illness […]