IDN-InDepthNews – Page 660 – News for a Sustainable World, Peace and Security

Nuclear Weapons2017-04-292023-07-10

Preparing for 2020 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – The States party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) convene every five years to review the implementation of this nuclear disarmament regime in three sessions. In run-up to the 2020 NPT Review Conference, the first session of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) will meet from May 2-12 in Vienna.

The Austrian capital, which serves as the associate headquarters of the UN, has come to play a historic role in the world body’s efforts for a legal treaty aimed at ushering in a nuclear-weapons-free world. In December 2014, it was the venue of the third Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons – after Nayarit (Mexico) in February 2014 and Oslo in March 2013 – which paved the path to the ‘Austrian Pledge’, also known as the ‘Humanitarian Pledge’, to “stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons”.

OPINION2017-04-292023-07-10

Korean Peninsula: Conflict Prevention ‘Our Collective Priority’ But ‘the Onus Is on the DPRK

By António Guterres

Following are excerpts from UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council on Non-Proliferation/DPRK on April 28, 2017. – The Editor

NEW YORK (IDN) – The situation on the Korean Peninsula is one of the longest-standing and most serious issues before the United Nations. The Security Council first adopted a resolution on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) nuclear issue in 1993, when it urged the DPRK not to withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Twenty-four years later, and despite extensive efforts, the challenge has defied resolution.

In response to the DPRK’s accelerated nuclear and ballistic missile activities, the Security Council has adopted two sanctions resolutions and met eleven times in emergency consultations since January 2016.

Asia-Pacific2017-04-292023-07-10

Asian-Fuelled Heritage Tourism Could Be An SDG Enabler

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit, held for the first time in Southeast Asia, pivoted on how Asia-fuelled tourism would impact the industry worldwide. The discussions also centred around whether tourism could be an enabler of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) if it were heritage-focused offering community experiences – rather than “exotic” sites – so that significant leakages of tourism revenue could be tapped.

Financial leakages in tourism occur when revenues arising from tourism-related economic activities in destination countries are not available for re-investment or consumption of goods and services in the same countries. Financial resources ‘leak away’ from the destination country to another country, particularly when a tourism company is based abroad and when tourism-related goods and services are being imported to the destination country.

UN INSIDER2017-04-282023-07-10

UN Peacekeeping Missions Face Threats of Cuts – and Extinction

By Shanta Rao

NEW YORK (IDN) – The UN’s 16 peacekeeping operations (PKOs), funded by a hefty $7.9 billion budget for the current 2016-2017 biennium, are in jeopardy facing threats of drastic cuts – and in some cases, even extinction.

The United States, the largest single contributor accounting for about 28% of that budget, has not only threatened to reduce funding, possibly down to 25%, but is also calling for a downgrading – or even the total elimination– of some of the ongoing missions.

Addressing the Council on Foreign Relations in March, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley gave an advance warning when she challenged the current state of peacekeeping operations.

OPINION2017-04-282023-07-10

Financing for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future in Asia-Pacific

By Shamshad Akhtar

Dr. Shamshad Akhtar is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) and the Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). – The Editor

BANGKOK (IDN) – Two years after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by world leaders in New York, the ongoing practical question is how to finance the needs of such an ambitious and universal agenda.

It has been estimated that if the world’s developing countries are to achieve the targets set out in the global development blueprint, an additional public investment of at least $1.4 trillion per year will be needed.

Nuclear Weapons2017-04-282023-07-10

In Memoriam: Remembering Miguel Marin Bosch*

Pugwash President Jayantha Dhanapala reflects on the life of Pugwash Council Member Miguel Marin Bosch.

KANDY – I am personally grieved to learn of the death of Ambassador Miguel Marin Bosch, a redoubtable champion of disarmament throughout his distinguished career as Mexico’s Disarmament Ambassador in Geneva and other multilateral fora.

Miguel Marin Bosch was closely associated with me in several Review Conferences of the Treaty for the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) where he stood steadfast against any compromise on fundamental principles. With his prodigious expertise and mordant wit, he was the bane of some of the nuclear weapon states who shamelessly lobbied to silence him, especially at the NPT Review and Extension Conference of 1995.

Asia-Pacific2017-04-272023-07-10

Gender Equality Will Be Key to Achieving SDGs in Viet Nam

By Neena Bhandari

Ha Noi/Hoi An, Viet Nam (IDN) – Pham Thi Kim Viet is up before the rooster heralds the crack of dawn.The rice on the cooker is beginning to boil as she tosses freshly chopped vegetables and fish in a wok. She then hurries to wake her two daughters, 12 and four-years-old. At 7 a.m., dressed in laundered uniforms, she takes them to school on her trusted old scooter and proceeds to Hoi An, 30 km from her home in the mountains of Dai Loc district in central Vietnam, to report for work as a freelance tour guide.

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-04-272023-07-10

Barbados Takes Legal Stride on Gender Equality

By Desmond Brown

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (ACP-IDN) – The tiny Caribbean island of Barbados has taken a major step towards ensuring gender equality in its judicial system with the development of a draft gender equality protocol for magistrates and judges.

The document, being hailed as the first of its kind within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), will support the judiciary in using gender analysis to ensure that both women and men have equal access to justice.

“If gender stereotypes are unconsciously held, if they are not the product of a deliberate intention to discriminate, how can we as judges avoid falling prey to them? This is where the establishment of this protocol is so important,” said Justice Adrian Saunders, a judge at the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Conventional Arms2017-04-262023-07-10

UN Commission Adopts Measures on Conventional Weapons

By Katherine Prizeman | UN Office for Disarmament Affairs

This report by Katherine Prizeman first appeared on April 24, 2017 on the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) website under the title ‘UN Disarmament Commission adopts by consensus “Practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional weapons’, – The Editor

GENEVA (IDN-INPS) – For the first time since 1999, the United Nations Disarmament Commission adopted consensus recommendations for transmittal to the General Assembly. The final report of the 2017 Commission contains recommendations on practical confidence-building measures in the field of conventional arms.

The 2017 substantive session of the Commission was chaired by Argentina’s Gabriela Martinic.

OPINION2017-04-262023-07-10

We Must be Serious About Untying Aid for the Sake of Credibility and Private Sector Engagement

By Charlotte Petri Gornitzka

Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, a former Director General of the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (Sida), is chair of the Development Assistance Committee of the 35-nation Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) since July 2016..- The Editor

PARIS (IDN) – New analysis of foreign aid flows from members of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), which I chair, reveals a worrying trend. The share of Official Development Assistance (ODA) that is tied to companies in donor countries is on the rise again.

The latest OECD report on aid untying, released this month (April 2017), shows that the share of aid that is “untied” – in other words where the legal and regulatory barriers to open competition for aid-funded procurement have been removed – has declined for two years in a row.