IDN-InDepthNews

UN INSIDER2017-03-172023-07-10

Challenges and Opportunities for the Next WHO Chief

By Germán Velásquez*

GENEVA (IDN-INPS) – The World Health Organization (WHO) is in the most critical crossroad of its history but actions can and should be taken, to ensure its public health mission. This is the challenge for the new Director-General to be elected in May 2017.

This year is the last year of the mandate of the current Director-General, Margaret Chan, who fought for 9 years, to maintain a public agenda for the organization, that a small group of industrialized countries and philanthropic foundations had difficulty in accepting and supporting.

UN INSIDER2017-03-162023-07-10

UN Is Committed to Reform But Warns of Abrupt Funding Cuts

By J Nastranis

This is the first in a series of reports analysing U.S. policy towards multilateralism in general and the UN in particular. – The Editor

NEW YORK (IDN) – While United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed strong disapproval of President Donald Trump’s plans to slash funding to the world Organization, an eminent Jewish leader has warned that the budget proposal embodies “dangerous bias against diplomacy, hurts Americans and Israelis”.

The scathing criticism comes from Jeremy Ben-Ami, President of ‘J Street’, “the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who want Israel to be secure, democratic and the national home of the Jewish people”.

UN INSIDER2017-03-162023-07-10

Global Meeting Decides to Protect Sea Cows and their Habitats

By Jaya Ramachandran

BERLIN | ABU DHABI (IDN) – There is a glimmer of hope for Dugongs, also known as sea cows, and their seagrass habitats. The endangered species, which has been under threat by human activity such as entanglement in fishing gear, collision with boats and habitat loss, occurs across the East coast of Africa, South-East Asia, Pacific Islands and Australia.

Governments of 23 out of the 40 countries that are home to the Dugong have agreed in Abu Dhabi to work with the Dugong and seagrass research and conservation community to undertake more standardized research and monitoring activities as a prerequisite for devising tailored conservation measures in their own countries. They were guided by the conviction that better coordination of surveys and data exchange on Dugong populations between countries will improve transboundary protection.

EU & Europe2017-03-152023-07-10

The Erosion of International Law – Who Cares?

By Julia Rainer

VIENNA (IDN) – “In Syria we have an attack on hospitals every 17 hours, in fact we say the most dangerous place in the country to be in is a hospital. So I ask you, does anyone still believe there is something like international humanitarian law?”

With these sobering words, Zedoun Al-Zoubi, CEO of the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations (UOSSM International) which operates in Syria, addressed the audience during a panel discussion at the fourth Humanitarian Congress held on March 3 in the Austrian capital.

ARMAMENTS2017-03-142023-07-10

China Should Keep Squeezing North Korea

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Rocket launches galore in North Korea. Colours and flames in the sky. It’s all a bit like a peacock spreading his tail.

Murders abound. Is this a butcher’s shop – an uncle, a half-brother and a couple of high-placed generals and no doubt others?

Kim Jong-Un, the president, is no Hamlet and murder seems not to give him doubts. The day after he is photographed at some event, smiling the smile of a psychopath who ditched his conscience somewhere at the top of the Alps when he was out for a hike organised by the school in Switzerland he was sent to.

UN INSIDER2017-03-142023-07-10

Sub-Saharan Africans Sceptical About UN’s Conflict Prevention Priority

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (IDN) – Earlier this year, addressing a ministerial-level open debate of the UN Security Council on conflict prevention and sustaining peace, newly-elected UN Secretary-General António Guterres outlined his intention to pursue diplomacy for peace, saying “prevention is not merely a priority, but the priority”.

“The best prevention for conflict and the best prevention for other negative impacts on societies is, of course, sustainable and inclusive development,” Guterres said on January 19 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Africa2017-03-142023-07-10

Digital Era Aids Human Trafficking of Eritrean Refugees

By Klara Smits

LEIDEN, The Netherlands (IDN) – The digital era brings opportunities for international cooperation and development, such as e-health and large-scale data sharing, but it also brings dangers. One of the prime examples of such dangers is the billion-dollar human trafficking business of Eritrean refugees by their own regime.

Modern technologies such as mobile money and mobile phones play a crucial role in this trade, according to a new book titled ‘Human Trafficking in the Digital Era: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Trade in Refugees from Eritrea’, edited by Prof. Mirjam van Reisen and Prof. Munyaradzi Mawere.

OPINION2017-03-142023-07-10

Wanted Constructive Impatience for Change in Women’s Status

By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

Following are excerpts from the opening statement on March 13 by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women for the 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – The Commission concerns itself with the status of women. It reviews the progress made by women and girls, and assesses the remaining challenges. It is a barometer of the progress we are making on achieving a world that is free of gender discrimination and inequality, a world that leaves no-one behind. It will help us measure achievement of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It also helps us to pursue action in priority areas and benefits from the Commission’s Agreed Conclusions.

UN INSIDER2017-03-132023-07-10

UN Urges Afghan-Pak Cooperation in Combating Terrorism

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – While Afghanistan is accusing Pakistan of launching an “undeclared war” through proxy forces and more than 20 terrorist networks, with Pakistan rejecting this as a “baseless” claim, Security Council delegates are concerned about the recent surge in “abhorrent” terrorist attacks across Afghanistan – including one that killed 30 people at a Kabul military hospital on March 8, 2017.

As the Security Council, United Nations’ most powerful body, held its quarterly debate on the long-troubled nation on March 10, many speakers urged that country’s international partners to deepen their cooperation, target terrorist sanctuaries and help to build up the capacity of the National Unity Government.

USA and Canada2017-03-132023-07-10

Trump Administration May Downgrade Human Rights Issues

By Rodney Reynolds

WASHINGTON DC (IDN) – There is widespread speculation in the U.S. capital that the Trump administration may play down human rights violations worldwide and even withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The speculation has been prompted by several factors, including a proposed 37 percent cut in the annual State Department budget, a low-profiled release of the annual U.S. human Rights Report on March 3 (with no briefings, breaking traditions, by the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson) and his refusal to condemn the civilian killings ordered by the Philippine President Rodrigo Duarte, during Senate confirmation hearings.