By Delia Paul, IISD FUNAFUTI, Tuvalu (IDN) – Pacific leaders sounded an urgent call to world leaders to maintain security in the Pacific region by seeking to limit global warming to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels and meeting their global climate finance commitment of USD 100 billion per year by 2020. The ‘Kainaki II Declaration,’ a […]
Diamonds Leave Sierra Leone Villagers Poor and Sick
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Since the first diamonds were found in the 1930s, the villagers of Kono, in the eastern region of Sierra Leone, have seen the wealth under their feet make others rich. Instead of joy, the shiny stones have left a trail of contaminated water, pockmarked mud […]
In Hong Kong the Two Sides Must Meet Each Other Half Way
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In 1995 in a little remembered event Li Ruthuan, a member of the Chinese Politiburo (containing the top seven in the government), made a speech likening the Chinese take-over of Hong Kong to the case of a lady who had agreed to sell a 100-year-old Yi-Xiang teapot […]
New UNAIDS Chief Winnie Byanyima Has an Ambitious Target
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) – “The end of AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 is a goal that is within the world’s reach, but I do not underestimate the scale of the challenge ahead,” says Winnie Byanyima, the new Executive Director of UNAIDS. Working with all UNAIDS partners, she will continue to […]
Chinese Mining Company in Kyrgyzstan Suspected of Playing Havoc with Ecology
By Bagymdat Atabaeva SOLTON SARY, Kyrgyzstan (IDN) – On August 5 about 300 villagers from Solton Sary area, about 200 km from capital Bishkek, gathered at the Chinese owned Zhong Ji mining company’s office here to protest against gold mining works, which they claimed were killing their cattle. Thus, another mining scandal has erupted in […]
DR Congo Violence Survivors Highlight Armed Militia Brutality
By Kwame Buist GENEVA (IDN) – Two months since hundreds of thousands of people fled violence in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), UN humanitarians have warned that armed militia continue to make their safe return impossible. Briefing journalists in Geneva on August 16, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Babar Baloch said that staff […]
Rohingya Refugee Children Want to Learn, Says UNICEF
By Sean Buchanan NEW YORK (IDN) – The daily struggle to survive for Myanmar’s Rohingya people in some of the world’s largest refugee settlements has caused overwhelming despair and jeopardised the hopes of an entire generation, according to the head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Henrietta Fore. In a report marking two years since […]
Remembering and Paying Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism
UN Chief Calls for Long-Term, Multi-Faceted Support By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – In the run-up to the second International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has underlined that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations remains a global challenge. “It causes lasting damage to […]
Women and Girls Severely Impacted by Crises
Many Work in Some of the Most Dangerous Corners of the Globe By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – An unprecedented number of people are living through humanitarian crises today. Armed conflict, natural disaster, disease and violent persecution have forced more than 70 million people from their homes, notes UN Women. While women and […]
UN To Commemorate 20th Anniversary of the Culture of Peace Declaration
Interview with Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury* NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted, by consensus and without reservation, its pioneering and norm-setting resolution 53/243 on the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace in 1990. The forthcoming UNGA is convening on September 13 the High-Level Forum on the […]