By Aleksandra Gadzinski KATOWICE (IDN) – “We can’t afford to fail in Katowice,” declared UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his opening remarks to the two-week-long 24th session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in southern Poland. The political will to fight climate change had faded since the Paris Agreement three years ago. The […]
Conference Calls for Mainstreaming Human Rights Education
By Neena Bhandari SYDNEY (IDN) – More investment is needed in human rights education and strengthening of civil society to address inequality and sustainability – the main objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This was the key message from the Ninth International Conference on Human Rights Education (ICHRE) held in Sydney, Australia. Drawing […]
Towards an Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States
By Reinhard Jacobsen BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – As negotiators inch towards updating the most comprehensive but 20-year old partnership agreement between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, they have a broad array of issues on their plate. These include the name change to the ‘Organisation of African, Caribbean and […]
G20 Leaders Keep the Multilateralism Torch Alive
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK | BUENOS AIRES (IDN) – Going by the 31-point G20 Leaders’ declaration titled ‘Building consensus for fair and sustainable development’, a plenty more drew the focus of the November 30-December 1 summit than preoccupation with shadow-boxing between the champion of ‘America First ‘ and the rest of the world. […]
ACP Steps in to Rescue Africa from Climate Change Impacts
By Jeffrey Moyo MASERU (ACP-IDN) – Three years ago, Lesotho, Southern Africa’s small mountain kingdom surrounded by South Africa, was hit hard by the drought that led to the driest season in the region in 35 years. In the tiny dynastic nation, the El Niño driven-phenomenon resulted in a fall in maize production, the country’s staple […]
A Moment of Reckoning for Decentralisation in Morocco
Viewpoint by Yossef Ben-Meir Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is a sociologist and Founder President of the High Atlas Foundation, based in Marrakech, Morocco, working to establish livelihood advancement projects – all of which are identified and managed by local communities, in partnership with the public, private and civil sectors. MARRAKECH (IDN) – Morocco’s parliament is currently […]
U.S. Senate Vote on Yemen Rebukes Trump and Saudis
Viewpoint by Mark Weisbrot This article was published by The Guardian on November 30, 2018. Mark Weisbrot is Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., and the president of Just Foreign Policy. He is also the author of “Failed: What the ‘Experts’ Got Wrong About the Global Economy” (2015, Oxford University Press). You can […]
AEWA – International Environmental Cooperation At Its Best
Viewpoint by Jacques Trouvilliez Internationalism seems to be falling out of vogue, but Jacques Trouvilliez, Executive Secretary of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), holds his organization up as an example of how conservation objectives are being effectively achieved through cross-continental cooperation. BONN (IDN) – The Agreement on the Conservation of […]
Saudi Arabia’s Long-Term Goal of Going Nuclear – With U.S. Backing
By Shanta Roy NEW YORK (IDN) – The Trump administration’s increasingly cozy relationship with Saudi Arabia has led to widespread speculation that the United States may be assisting the Saudis – directly or indirectly – to achieve their long term goal of acquiring nuclear weapons. The speculation has been triggered by ongoing secret negotiations between […]
Ensuring Energy Sustainability for Future Generations in Saudi Arabia
By K A CARE The following is sourced from the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy website. RIYADH (IDN-INPS) – Saudi Arabia is a dynamic nation facing high rates of demand for energy and desalinated water as the nation’s population grows and the utilization of low-priced electricity and desalinated water accelerates. According to […]