By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK (IDN) – While significant progress in eliminating the practice has been made in the last 30 years, approximately 200 million girls and women alive today have had their genitals mutilated. This can lead to long-term physical, psychological and social consequences, warns a joint statement by UN Women, UNFPA, UNICEF and […]
The UN at 75 Moving From a Talking Shop to a Listening Post
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – Bob Dylan in “Blowin’ in the Wind”, one of the ‘Greatest Songs of All Time’, poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war, and freedom. The refrain “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind” has been described as “impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer […]
2020 Priorities and the Work of the United Nations
Viewpoint by António Guterres The following are extensive excerpts from the UN Secretary-General’s remarks to the General Assembly on 22 January on his priorities in 2020. NEW YORK (IDN) – 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the United Nations. I draw tremendous strength from all that we represent and all that we have achieved together. […]
WHO Initiates a Two-Pronged Move to Combat Coronavirus
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) – Two important steps have been taken to combat further spread of the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak in China and globally. On the one hand, the international community has launched a US$675 million preparedness and response plan covering the months of February through to April 2020. On the other, the […]
Climate Change Means Lifestyle Change
Viewpoint by John Scales Avery * COPENHAGEN (IDN) – I would like to announce the publication of a book, which deals with the world’s failure to adequately address the existential danger of catastrophic climate change. The book consists mainly of book chapters and articles that I have previously published, although a considerable amount of new […]
Nigerians Seeking Visas to Settle in the US Face New Hurdles
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – She’s your pediatrician. He’s your surgeon. She’s a civil engineer. He has a doctorate. She’s an Emmy Award winner. He was a Chicago Bear. They’re Nigerian-Americans who have set down roots in Dallas, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, Phoenix and Houston – the latter of which has […]
More Offers Needed to Resettle Refugees Around the World
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – A continuing shortage of offers of sanctuary from governments across the world is a vital impediment to the resettlement of refugees. Nearly 1.4 million refugees are estimated to be in urgent need of resettlement worldwide, but only 63,696 or 4.5 per cent were relocated through the UN refugee […]
Pan-Islamic OIC Rejects Trump’s Israeli-Palestine Plan
By Jessica Corbett * WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – Joining global critics of a plan that President Donald Trump unveiled on January 28 to address the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on February 3 rejected the “biased” proposal and urged members states not to cooperate with U.S. efforts to enforce it. At a […]
The World as A Whole Is Getting Happier
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Can we be happier? All of us probably experience grave unhappiness at some point in our lives – a bereavement of someone close, a job loss, a bad illness, a vindictive boss, a drop in income or status, a loss of love for or from one’s partner, […]
A ‘Green’ Message Shakes Up the Industry at Mining Confab
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – After years of defending dirty extractive industries such as the mining of coal, large mining companies seemed to have switched sides and joined the Greens, or so it seemed at the African Mining Indaba held from February 3-6 in South Africa. At the Indaba, the […]