By Kacie Candela, PassBlue NEW YORK (IDN) – China has presented its position on United Nations reform, and it aligns with Secretary-General António Guterres’s own agenda. It pushes for practicalities, such as a transparent process, a stronger peace and security pillar, streamlined internal management and more geographic diversity in hiring practices in peacekeeping and the […]
Torture Begets More Brutality
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Looking for a good cause for 2018? Something you can do while sitting in your arm chair. Something that needs to be done if we are to live in a “clean” planet. Campaigning against torture is what it is. It can be done by e-mail, s-mail, phone, […]
Let’s Put Order in Tourism and Tourism in Order
Viewpoint by Roberto Savio The writer is publisher of Other News, an eminent proponent of “information that markets eliminate” and founder of IPS-Inter Press Service News Agency. This article is being reproduced courtesy of Other News with the writer’s permission. He can be contacted at utopia@robertosavio.info and his articles and comments can be read on […]
Tribute to Sir Peter Sutherland (April 25, 1946 – January 7, 2018)
By Dr. Purnaka L. de Silva The author is Director, Institute for Strategic Studies and Democracy (ISSD) Malta. VALETTA (IDN) – Humanitarians across the world are mourning the passing of one of the greatest champions for the rights and freedoms of migrants and refugees, Sir Peter Sutherland, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International […]
Donald Trump’s Nuclear Posture Rather Menacing
By Daryl G. Kimball Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared with the caption ‘Trump’s More Dangerous Nuclear Posture’. WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Just one year ago, Vice President Joe Biden delivered an address touting the progress achieved during the Obama years to reduce the salience and […]
UN Experts Censure Saudi Arabia for Human Rights Violations
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) – Despite being elected as member of the Human Rights Council at the end of 2016, Saudi Arabia has “continued its practice of silencing, arbitrarily arresting, detaining and persecuting human rights defenders and critics,” according to a group of top United Nations human rights experts. “We are also seeking the […]
UN Asks Iranian Authorities to Address Legitimate Concerns of the Population
By Tayé-Brook Zerihoun Tayé-Brook Zerihoun is the Assistant Secretary-General for United Nations Department of Political Affairs. The following are extensive excerpts from his ‘briefing’ to the Security Council on ‘The Situation in the Middle East’ on 5 January 2018. UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – The protests in the Islamic Republic of Iran started on 28 December […]
EU and 79 ACP Countries Plan a ‘Modernised Partnership’
By Reinhardt Jacobsen BRUSSELS (IDN) – As the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) gear up for talks on future relations between the two groupings after the Cotonou Agreement expires in February 2020, some areas of agreement on their respective stances have emerged. The agreement that was signed […]
India Looks Forward to Hectic Diplomacy in 2018
By Shastri Ramachandaran* NEW DELHI (IDN) – The world could be too much with us in 2018, in a sense that Wordsworth may never have foreseen. In fact, the New Year would begin with a lot of the world in India when leaders of 10 ASEAN (The Association of Southeast Asian Nations), governments come as […]
Landmark Vatican Conference on Nuclear Disarmament Brings a Breeze of Expectation
By Ramesh Jaura The following article is based on an interview with Hirotsugu Terasaki, the Director General of Peace and Global Issues of the lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International (SGI), in Tokyo, Japan. SGI was the sole Buddhist organization that participated in the Vatican Conference on nuclear disarmament on November 10-11, 2017. BERLIN | […]