IDN-InDepthNews

Nuclear Weapons2017-10-222023-07-10

Disarmament, Non-proliferation Vital for Conflict Prevention

By Izumi Nakamitsu

The author is High Representative for Disarmament Affairs United Nations (UNODA). The following are extensive excerpts from her address to Non-proliferation Studies students on the joint programme between Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), and PIR Center, on 19 October 2017 in Moscow. – The Editor.

MOSCOW (IDN) – Historically speaking, the concepts of disarmament and non-proliferation date back centuries. The international efforts to strengthen the law of war are one of the important origins of disarmament work. Our work today is largely rooted in the terrible human consequences that resulted from two world wars, including the first and thankfully only uses of nuclear weapons in conflict at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We work to ensure the people of this world never have to endure such devastation again.

UN INSIDER2017-10-222023-07-10

Climate Change Spares Neither the Rich nor the Poor

By Achim Steiner, Patricia Espinosa and Robert Glasser*

BONN (IDN) – From Miami and Puerto Rico to Barbuda and Havana, the devastation of this year’s hurricane season across Latin America and the Caribbean serves as a reminder that the impacts of climate change know no borders.

In recent weeks, Category 5 hurricanes have brought normal life to a standstill for millions in the Caribbean and on the American mainland. Harvey, Irma and Maria have been particularly damaging. The 3.4 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico have been scrambling for basic necessities including food and water, the island of Barbuda has been rendered uninhabitable, and dozens of people are missing or dead on the UNESCO world heritage island of Dominica.

UN INSIDER2017-10-212023-07-10

NEPAD Critical to Africa’s Development, Peace and Security

By Ronald Joshua

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Despite instability and security challenges, ranging from human and drug trafficking to terrorism and the illicit flow of resources away from the continent, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development – now fully embedded in the development paradigms of both the United Nations and the African Union – remains the “rallying point” in Africa’s pursuit of growth.

The partnership, known as NEPAD, is particularly critical in the areas of social and economic development. The recent finalization of the Tripartite Free Trade Area agreement is an important step that would harmonize three sub‑regional blocs, which previously had their own rules and models for trade.

UN INSIDER2017-10-202023-07-10

UN Rapporteur Stresses Everyone’s Right to Development

By Kanaga Raja

The author is the editor of the South North Development Monitor (SUNS). This article was published in the SUNS #8540 dated 27 September 2017.

GENEVA (IDN) – More than 30 years after the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development, business-as-usual will not be sufficient to achieve progress, a United Nations human rights expert has said.

In his first report to the Human Rights Council since being appointed to the new mandate of Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Saad Alfarargi (of Egypt) said that in order to ensure the implementation of the Declaration, there is need to re-invigorate the advocacy process.

In a landmark resolution adopted at its thirty-third session in September 2016, the Council decided to establish the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to development for a period of three years.

Nuclear Weapons2017-10-192023-07-10

India Ready to Work with Signatories of the Nuclear Ban Treaty in Multilateral Forums

By Amandeep Singh Gill

Ambassador Amandeep Singh Gill is Permanent Representative of India to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. Following are extensive excerpts from his remarks at the Thematic Debate on Nuclear Weapons in the First Committee, 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly on 12 October 2017. – The Editor.

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) –India remains committed to universal, non-discriminatory and verifiable nuclear disarmament and to multilateralism in pursuit of that goal. Our position has been firm and consistent over the years.

We support the proposal for the negotiation of a Comprehensive Nuclear Weapons Convention in the Conference on Disarmament (CD). Without prejudice to the priority we attach to nuclear disarmament, we also support the immediate commencement of negotiations in the CD of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty on the basis of CD/1299 and the mandate contained therein.

UN INSIDER2017-10-192023-07-10

Bringing an End to Impunity Through Shared Outcry

Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

The writer is UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women.

UNITED NATIONS (IDN | UN Women) – The pain and anger of more than a million people who tweeted #MeToo in the last week have crowded social media with personal stories of sexual harassment or assault. This virtual march of solidarity marks both the urgency of finding a shared voice and the hidden scale of assault that did not previously have a register. When women are almost invisible, when they are not really seen, it seems that people do not have to care what happens to them.

This online outcry is important because it is giving voice to acts that are public, but that are silenced and neutralized by convention. It is a cruel privilege to be able to harass a girl or a woman with impunity, but in so many cases this is the norm.

EU & Europe2017-10-182023-07-10

79 ACP Countries Keen to Remove ‘Imbalances’ in Ties with EU

By Jaya Ramachandran

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Members of Parliament from 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries want a “radical departure” from the traditional relationship with the European Union (EU), which in their view has been marked by an “imbalance” between the two blocs in terms of economic might and levels of technology and capacity.

The ACP developing countries wish to achieve a level of sustainable development that enables them to progress from being dependent exporters of raw materials to being able to add value to their own products.

OPINION2017-10-172023-07-10

Cambodian Economy on the Rise, Democracy on the Wane

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Cambodia is no longer going forward, it is slipping backwards, as it has many times before. Earlier this month the government asked the Supreme Court to dissolve the main opposition coalition. One opposition leader, Kem Sokha, was sent to prison in September and the other, Sam Rainsy, is in exile. The English-language newspaper, The Cambodia Daily, has been closed and the relatively free radio stations leant on and a number closed. The decades-long Prime Minister, Hun Sen, talks about rebels in the capital, Phnom Penh, plotting to overthrow the government.

OPINION2017-10-162023-07-10

Strategic Alignment of Global, African Agendas a Must

By António Guterres

Note: Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the high-level event inaugurating the Africa Week (October 16-20) at the UN on the theme: “Supporting an Integrated, Prosperous, People-Centred and Peaceful Africa: Towards the Implementation of Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. – The Editor

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – In recent years, the continent has made headway in reducing poverty, diversifying economies, building the middle class and nurturing growth in a variety of growing sectors such as banking, telecom and retail. More children – and especially girls – are in primary school. More women are serving in parliaments. Child and maternal deaths have been reduced – as has the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

Nuclear Weapons2017-10-162023-07-10

Will U.S. Congress Legally Restrain a Nuclear World War III?

By Shanta Roy

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s highly erratic behavior on nuclear weapons – and his public threats to “totally destroy” North Korea – have triggered a strong political backlash from anti-nuclear and anti-war activists.

“A central problem is that Donald Trump seems ignorant about what nuclear weapons really are, and the humanitarian catastrophe that would be unleashed if he fired even one at North Korea – or anywhere,” said Dr. Rebecca Johnson of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, a founding co-Chair of the International Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Laureate.