IDN-InDepthNews – Page 670 – News for a Sustainable World, Peace and Security

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.

Conventional Arms2017-03-132023-07-10

Central African Convention on Small Arms Enters into Force

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – A new Convention purported to fight against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in small arms and light weapons in Central Africa entered into force on March 8, according to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) / Department of Political Affairs (UNDPA).

Known as the Central African Convention for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons, their Ammunition and all Parts and Components that can be used for their Manufacture, Repair and Assembly (Kinshasa Convention), it complements and reinforces the existing regional and global framework comprising, among others, the Arms Trade Treaty, the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), and its Firearms Protocol.

OPINION2017-03-132023-07-10

Loss of Seagrass Meadows Threatens their Dugong Denizens

By Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi and Dr. Bradnee Chambers

Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi is the Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the United Arab Emirates and Dr. Bradnee Chambers is the Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.

Note: This article is an updated version of the one published on 9 March 2017. – Editor

BONN (IDN) – The on-going bleaching of coral in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef continues to generate great concern worldwide. Islands of plastic waste in the oceans contaminating the food chain make the headlines. So why then is there a deafening silence on the deteriorating condition of the world’s seagrasses?