By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – In its more than seven-decades-long history, the UN General Assembly has elected only the fourth woman to helm the 193-member organ. Ecuador’s María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, a former Minister for National Defence, is President of the 73rd session of the General Assembly, which opens on September 18. Her […]
Kazakhstan Reaffirms Willingness to Assist in the Maintenance of Peace and Security
By Marat Beketayev, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan The UN Security Council organized on 17 May 2018 a High-Level Open Debate on “Maintenance of international peace and security: Upholding international law within the context of the maintenance of international peace and security,” reflecting the purposes of United Nations as spelt out in […]
UN Chief Lauds India for Deepening South-South Cooperation
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Secretary‑General António Guterres has commended India’s “very important role in shaping the Sustainable Development Goals“. He was speaking at an event marking the first anniversary of the India‑United Nations Development Partnership Fund in New York. The Fund aims at supporting sustainable development for low-income nations with […]
Security Council Backs Dutch Sanctions Against Eritrean and Libyan Traffickers
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – For the first time ever, the UN Security Council has put human traffickers on an international sanctions list by imposing sanctions on six leaders operating networks in Libya. Four are Libyans, including the head of a regional coast guard unit, and two Eritrean nationals. By resolution 1970 […]
Paving the Way to Denuclearization and Peace with North Korea
By Daryl G. Kimball The author is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. Following is the text of an Issue Brief analyzing the prospects beyond the U.S.-North Korean Summit on June 12 in Singapore. WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – The South Korean-brokered diplomatic opening between leaders from the United States and the Democratic Peoples’ Republic […]
The Alphabet Soup NPT, CTBT, NBT
By Paolo Cotta-Ramusino The writer is Secretary-General of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (Pugwash), an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. Joseph Rotblat and Bertrand Russell founded it in 1957 in Pugwash, […]
CTBTO Symposium Underlines Importance of Youth and Women
By Reinhardt Jacobsen VIENNA (IDN) – “Now more than ever, this type of diplomacy has a particular importance,” said Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya, Minister of Science, Technology and Environment of Cuba, in a high-level session of the 2nd CTBT Science Diplomacy Symposium at the Vienna International Centre. “The challenges that define the 21st century such […]
UN Chief’s Disarmament Agenda Faces Rough Waters
By Jayantha Dhanapala The UN Secretary-General’s new Disarmament Agenda entitled, Securing Our Common Future, “seems unlikely to secure our common future with the present actors,” writes Jayantha Dhanapala, a retired Ambassador of Sri Lanka and a former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament. “We will either have to wait for a change of actors or search among […]
Climate Change Is The Central Challenge For Humanity
Viewpoint by Franz Baumann This article is based on Talk given to the UN Association of New York 23 May 2018. Dr. Franz Baumann joined the UN Development Program in 1980 and began working in the UN Secretariat in 1985. He retired in 2015 as an assistant secretary-general, special adviser on environment and peace operations, […]
A Reasonable Case To Convict US of War Crimes in Afghanistan
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – There is a clock ticking – towards July 20. That is when the International Criminal Court (ICC) for War Crimes, based in The Hague, goes into its summer recess. The question is: Will it be able, in the six weeks that remain, to start proceedings against the US […]