By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – Applauding the landmark rapprochement between Ethiopia and Eritrea, ending two decades of hostility, the UN Security Council has called for providing all necessary support to build peace in the Horn of Africa. The appeal came in the briefing on July 30 on the Council’s recent visit to the […]
Asia’s Evolving ‘Free’ Trade Deal May Not Benefit Workers
By Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE (IDN) – A Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – a “free” trade agreement between the 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and its major trading partners in the region – is expected to be signed later this year. But labour unions and workers’ rights advocates in the region fear that […]
ACP Group Striving for Interrelated Sustainable Development
By Reinhard Jacobsen BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit opens a new era for a repositioned African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP Group) to continue and deepen its decisive role in supporting all 79 […]
Can Pakistan’s New PM Resolve The Kashmir Issue?
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – I haven’t played cricket with Imran Khan, the newly elected prime minister of Pakistan, but I did interview him back in 2005 when only a rare foreign journalist was interested in him despite his fame as having been the world’s best cricketer. Now he has won a […]
Ethiopian PM Sparks Euphoria In A Whirlwind U.S. Trip
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – It’s been called ‘Abiy-mania’ – an impulse to reach out and hug the young new Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, who brought an end to his country’s two-decade-long war with Eritrea and other sweeping changes in the Horn of Africa. The 41-year old Ethiopian […]
Astana’s 20th Anniversary Highlights Kazakh Achievements as Security Council Member
By Jaya Ramachandran NEW YORK (IDN) – Since Astana was established as the capital city of Kazakhstan twenty years ago, it has become a symbol of international peace and security. Its 20th anniversary has come to highlight the Central Asian republic’s achievements as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for 2017-2018. It was befitting […]
AIDS 2018 Concludes Underlining $6 Billion Gap In Funding
By Reinhard Jacobsen AMSTERDAM (IDN) – Since the first cases of HIV were reported more than 35 years ago, 78 million people have become infected with HIV and 35 million have died from AIDS-related illnesses, says UNAIDS, a United Nations organization that is leading the global effort since1996 to end AIDS as a public health […]
Governments, Partners Asked To Provide Funds, Incentives For Sustainable Development Targets
By Amina Mohammed Following are extensive extracts from UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the informal briefing on the Secretary-General’s meeting on financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in New York on July 27, 2018. – The Editor UNITED NATIONS (IDN-INPS) – As we look ahead together, our focus is clear: to advance […]
African Experts Decry Information Gap on Climate Change
By Justus Wanzala NAIROBI (IDN) – Climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in Africa are being undermined by lack of information on climate issues among the public, policy-makers and leaders in Africa, leading to poor and delayed decision making as well as untimely undertaking of remedial actions. This emerged during a Regional Climate Change Dialogue […]
Peace as Form of Life
Viewpoint by Tito Alvarado MONTREAL (IDN) – Of the world’s more than six thousand extant languages, three thousand have little chance of continuing to be used in the next century. This tragic fact represents a terrible finding: we will lose three thousand ways to approach life and humanity from the perspective of others in their […]