By Mirjam van Reisen and Gilad Liberman BRUSSELS (IDN) – The previous two days have been rather turbulent in Israel’s policy towards African refugees seeking asylum. On April 2, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a halt to deportations to Rwanda, believed to be the “third-country” he had mentioned for the first time, while announcing […]
No Easy Answer To The Knife That Killed Arnaud Beltrame
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Personally I’m a coward. I’m unlikely ever to be a hero. (I have rescued on different occasions three young children from drowning, but I didn’t risk my life.) I certainly would never have done what Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, the French policeman, did. He asked the terrorist who […]
Surprise at Netanyahu’s Rejection of Asylum for Africans
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Thousands of African asylum seekers who reached Israel after dangerous voyages may have lost their last best hope to be released and sent to western countries or resettled in Israel after members of the Israeli coalition government trashed a negotiated asylum plan. A landmark agreement […]
Pain And Shock At Passing Of Winnie Madikizela Mandela
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – Tributes to anti-apartheid icon Winnie Madikizela Mandela have been filling the South African radio air waves as news of her untimely passing on April 2 reached the far corners of the nation and the continent. Heart-rending classics from the American songbook – from The Song […]
UN Focuses Yet Again on Protecting Indigenous Peoples’ Rights
By UNDESA Note: The following Feature appeared in April 2018 issue UN DESA VOICE, the newsletter published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. It is being reproduced with slight modifications. – The Editor NEW YORK (IDN) – Indigenous communities play a vital role as custodians of our planet, possessing vital knowledge […]
Caribbean States Share Common Values & Interests with Other ACP Countries
By Reinhardt Jacobsen BRUSSELS (IDN) – As the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) girds up its loins for talks on future relations with the European Union (EU) after the Cotonou Agreement expires in February 2020, the Caribbean Forum of the ACP States (CARIFORUM) has resolved that a new pact must take into […]
Experts Stress Importance of UN High-Level Conference on Nuclear Disarmament
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – The increasing fragility of international peace and security is accentuating the critical need for persistent dialogue and relentless diplomacy to deter multiple conflicts triggering nuclear confrontation, disarmament experts and campaigners say. Conflicts related to nuclear weapons, including in Northeast Asia, between the U.S. and NATO on the […]
Realising the SDGs Will Require Action in Five Key Areas
By Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations This article first appeared in Sustainable Development Goals: Delivering Change, UNA-UK publication providing analysis and recommendations in achieving Sustainable Development Goals on 19 March 2018. – The Editor LONDON (IDN-INPS) – In this third year of global efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, there […]
Trump Ends Deportation Protection for Liberians in the U.S.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | MONROVIA (IDN) – Liberians living in the U.S. since a devastating civil war that took 250,000 lives from 1989 until 1997 are now in the crosshairs of the current Trump administration which has terminated their protected status with effect from March 31, 2019. Some five thousand […]
The Importance of Global Citizenship in Multilateral Diplomacy
By Hahn Choonghee Hahn Choonghee was Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea (ROK) to the United Nations in New York for four years until early 2018. He is now Special Advisor to the Speaker of the National Assembly for Foreign Affairs, ROK. This article first appeared in UN Chronicle, Vol. LIV […]