IDN-InDepthNews

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-03-092023-07-10

Caribbean Gearing Up for Marine Resources Treaty

By Desmond Brown

BELMOPAN, Belize (IDN) – The countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have been fine-tuning their positions ahead of the next United Nations preparatory meeting to establish an international legally-binding agreement on sustainable use of marine resources.

The UN meeting is scheduled for March 27 to April 7 and senior environment experts from CARICOM held a two-day workshop here from February 20-22 to discuss the issue.

United Nations negotiations for the new treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological resources in the world’s oceans – nearly 64 percent of which lie beyond national jurisdictions – began in 2016.

OPINION2017-03-082023-07-10

Populism – The Morbid Symptom of a Political Crisis

By Franz Baumann*

NEW YORK (IDN) – Carnage in Syria, millions (dozens of millions actually) of forcibly displaced people, fast-tracking global warming, crises in South Sudan, Venezuela, Brazil, Turkey, the Philippines and elsewhere, terrorist attacks in Europe, the UK Brexit vote and the US presidential election. What a list! Was 2016 an unusually ghastly year, or was it rather the new normal?

Hoping against hope that it was an outlier, these reflections highlight several macro trends that feed chauvinistic outbursts in many countries, yet that will not likely be reversed by anti-globalism, protectionism or militarism: rising inequality, jobless growth, terrorist attacks, the influx of migrants, corruption.

OPINION2017-03-082023-07-10

Being Anti-Russia Will Take The West Nowhere

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The state of being vigorously anti the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is becoming out of control. It is in danger of becoming pathological and self-destructive. What does the West gain in the long run if it sees nothing ahead but being anti-Russia? The West is in danger of having embarked on a journey to nowhere. Russia is not going to change significantly in the near future. The very close Putin/ Dimitri Medvedev team are going to remain in the saddle for a long time.

We are not yet in a second Cold War. Those who say we are don’t know their history. The Cold War was years of military confrontation, not least with nuclear arms. It was a competition for influence that stretched right around the globe and it was done with guns. There was the Cuban missile crisis when nuclear weapons were nearly used.

ARMAMENTS2017-03-082023-07-10

US 9th Circuit Court To Hear Marshall Islands Lawsuit Appeal

SAN FRANCISCO (IDN) – On March 15, 2017 at 9:00 AM, the appeal of the dismissal of the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ case in the U.S. Federal District Court will be heard in the Ninth District Court of Appeals.

The case, initially filed on April 24, 2014, alleges that the United States failed to uphold its legal obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and customary international law to begin negotiations “in good faith” for an end to the nuclear arms race “at an early date” and for nuclear disarmament.

OPINION2017-03-072023-07-10

Sri Lanka: Multi-Ethnic East Cannot Meet Tamil-Majority North

By Sugeeswara Senadhira*

COLOMBO (IDN) – Immediately after announcing the temporary merger of the North and East in July 1987, the then Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayewardene, in a surprising policy dichotomy, declared that he would canvass against the merger during the proposed referendum to be held in the East by December 31, 1987. Fortunately or unfortunately, the said referendum was never held, and it was routinely postponed annually by gazette notifications.

The issue of merger of the Northern Province and Eastern Province surfaced once again in February 2017 when Indian Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reportedly rejected the suggestion made by the Sri Lankan Tamil politician Suresh Premachandran of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for Indian intervention in re-merging the two provinces.

Gender Equality2017-03-062023-07-10

The Shameful Epidemic That Is Rape

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – Do legal systems around the world give women and girls true protection from rape and other forms of sexual violence? Do the victims of rape and sexual violence have access to real justice if violence is perpetrated?

The answer is ‘no’, says a report issued March 6 by Equality Now, an international human rights organisation working to protect and promote the rights of women and girls.

Are governments ensuring that adequate laws dealing with sexual violence are enacted, developed and enforced? Are governments living up their commitments to end all forms of violence – including sexual violence – against women and girls?

UN INSIDER2017-03-052023-07-10

Kazakhstan Offers Astana As Venue For Resolving Conflicts

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Kazakhstan fully supports the agenda and priorities of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and has offered Astana as venue to assist in transforming conflicts into peace, advance security and development, protect human rights, and promote the rule of law, according to Roman Vassilenko, the Central Republic’s deputy minister of foreign affairs.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev had spelt out that approach in his address to the 70th session of the UN General Assembly in 2015, he said.

Vassilenko was speaking at the UN Security Council ministerial open debate on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Conflicts in Europe” on February 21, less than two months after joining as the Council’s non-permanent member for 2017-2018.

Africa2017-03-052023-07-10

Southern Africa’s Khoisan Tribe Victimised by War on Climate Change

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (ACP-IDN) – Ndliso-Ndliso Sibanda, a descendant of Southern Africa’s ancient Khoisan tribe, still practises a semi-nomadic life style in Zimbabwe despite his 75 years, and is constantly on the move looking for wood to construct shelter, and wild fruits and tubers when they are in season.

Ndliso-Ndliso, who lives with his family in Tsholotsho, a district in Matabeleland North Province, has continued his life style despite the stringent rules enacted by the government country to protect the environment as it wages war against the impact of climate change.

UN INSIDER2017-03-042023-07-10

UN’s 1st ‘Playable’ Policy Conference on Global Development

By Rita Joshi

BERLIN | BONN (IDN) – Inspired by innovative and forward-looking concepts, the Global Festival of Ideas for Sustainable Development, the first in a series of annual forums to help achieve the United Nations-led Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) wrapped up in the German city of Bonn after intensive debates and ‘game playing’ on March 3.

The UN conference aiming to chart a new way of thinking on addressing some of the world’s most complex development challenges was hosted by the UN SDG Action Campaign in partnership with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) with the support of the German Government. It was the world body’s first ever ‘playable’ policy conference.

UN INSIDER2017-03-032023-07-10

Listen to the People, UN Urged

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – Civil society advocates from around the world are urging newly-appointed UN Secretary-General António Guterres to be a “champion for civil society and take concrete steps to build a more inclusive United Nations”.

In a new report entitled Strengthening Civil Society Engagement with the United Nations, four of the founding members of the 1 for 7 Billion campaign – which led calls for the United Nations to reform the selection process for one of the world’s most important jobs – have collected a range of proposals from its global network of civil society organisations on how this could be achieved.