IDN-InDepthNews

UN INSIDER2017-05-232023-07-10

Fijian ‘Bula Spirit’ To Ensure Consensus at UN Climate Summit

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – The Fijian Prime Minister and incoming President of COP 23, Frank Bainimarama, has vowed to advance the work of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and “preserve the multilateral consensus for decisive action to address the underlying causes of climate change, respecting climate science.”

Bainimarama made the pledge in an address to delegates at the start of the closing plenary of May 18 at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn held some six months ahead of the 23rd annual session of parties to the UNFCCC.

EU & Europe2017-05-232023-07-10

Uzbekistan Shows the Way for Dealing with Cultural Legacy

By Shastri Ramachandaran

TASHKENT | SAMARKAND (IDN) – Cultural legacies, with their inevitable potential for controversies compounded by competing claims between contending nations, can be fraught affairs. Disputes over art works and artefacts of one country being found in another are legion. The UNESCO convention, which mandates return of illegally acquired objects to country of origin when provenance is established beyond doubt, is actually an acknowledgement that disputes are bound to persist and, therefore, require a basis to be addressed.

Although there are numerous instances where countries have resolved disputes over cultural objects in an amicable manner, many a long-running controversial case remains unresolved. One of the best-known cases is that of India’s fabled Kohinoor diamond.

OPINION2017-05-232023-07-10

Donald Trump Does Not Know Leadership

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Donald Trump is the antithesis of leadership. Walking into the cauldron of the Middle East and denouncing Iran when it had just – almost at the same moment – re-elected as president a man who presided over the deal that de-fanged his country’s nuclear program and whose support is badly needed in fashioning an end to the Syrian war, stabilising Iraq and beheading ISIS was a show of how not to make friends and win people over.

In Saudi Arabia he seemed to act as if enormous amounts of military hardware would be enough to convince its leadership that he was a changed man – as a presidential candidate he had said many harsh words about the country. I doubt if the Saudi Arabians were so quickly convinced that he is a sophisticated leader capable of untangling the criss-crossing of alliances and interests that bedevil parts of the Middle East. The lack of loud applause when he gave his “big” speech tells it all.

Asia-Pacific2017-05-232023-07-10

Global Development Through China’s New ‘Silk Routes’

Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – When China hosted a two-day conference in May to help revive the ancient trade routes from Asia to Europe and Africa it was greeted with scepticism by most of the western media. But in much of Asia the mood was more of optimism and opportunity.

CNN reported that “some countries raised concerns over the project seen as boosting Beijing’s global clout on trade and geopolitics” – a reoccurring theme in many of the western media reports. While pointing out that the U.S., Japan, India and most of the European leaders had boycotted the meeting BBC described it as a Chinese bid for global leadership. Australia’s ABC said that China wants its ‘new Silk Routes’ to dominate world trade.

OPINION2017-05-222023-07-10

Towards Peace by Pursuing Live and Let Live Policies

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) – Foreign policies – an integral part of any national strategy – command the highest priority of all nations.

Since World War II, several foreign policies of super powers did not yield expected results even though all policies and concomitant interventions came with guarantees of peace, prosperity and democracy that never materialized.

As we know, the policies in the Far East led to devastation of Vietnam, North Korea and Laos, the policy of containment of communism, and the 45-year Cold War Policy ended the East European bloc and dismantled the Soviet Union, and the policies of pre-emptive strikes and of regime change destroyed the lives of millions of people in the Middle East.

OPINION2017-05-212023-07-10

Critical Next Steps in Enhancing Women’s Equality and Empowerment

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

“I am proud to be a feminist … all of us need to be. That is how we make our planet a better place to live for all,” writes Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations. He is an internationally recognized initiator of the UNSCR 1325 as the President of the UN Security Council in March 2000. He is the Founder of the Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP), a civil society entity promoting the UN Declaration and Programme Action on Culture of Peace.

UN INSIDER2017-05-212023-07-10

The World’s Poorest and Most Vulnerable Want Climate Action

By Ramesh Jaura

BONN (IDN) – The world’s 48 poorest countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change are profoundly concerned whether “substantive progress” will be made in the months ahead on implementing the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement in all its aspects.

This was emphasised by Chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) group, Gebru Jember Endalew of Ethiopia, as delegates from 140 countries closed the two-week session of the United Nations climate change negotiations on May 18 in Bonn.

The LDCs are a group of countries that have been classified by the UN as “least developed” in terms of their low gross national income (GNI), their weak human assets and their high degree of economic vulnerability.

UN INSIDER2017-05-202023-07-10

UN Finds Fault With India’s Human Rights Record

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda

GENEVA (IDN) – India says it implements universal human rights as it reckons the world is one family – “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – in which it is imperative to comply with the existing international rules governing civil, political, economic, and social rights.

But reports prepared by several special rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council and civil society groups paint a grim picture of continued violations of the fundamental human rights that India had agreed to in various international conventions and treaties.During the recent third cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of India under the auspices of the Council on May 4, 2017, these two clashing narratives came under scrutiny, according to several participants in the meeting.

UN INSIDER2017-05-202023-07-10

Whales Benefit the Environment as Ecosystem Engineers

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – One of the arguments for commercial whaling is that whales compete with humans for fish – they eat fish that would otherwise be available for human consumption.

According to Gísli Víkingsson from the Icelandic Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, whales eat around six million tonnes off Iceland, which is four to six times the amount taken by the Icelandic fishing fleet. “But of course it’s not all fish. Maybe a third is fish, though little is known for most species,” he says.

UN INSIDER2017-05-192023-07-10

Connecting the Dots Between Climate and Land

By Jaya Ramachandran

BONN (IDN) – Two important United Nations conventions and civil society representatives availed of the climate conference in Bonn to get together and reflect on how to connect the dots between the challenging agendas on climate and land by deliberating on: “Why land degradation neutrality matters for climate?”

The two conventions with headquarters in Bonn, the capital of post-war West Germany until reunification of two German states in 1990, are the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The city hosts some 20 UN agencies and secretariats meanwhile.