IDN-InDepthNews – Page 672 – News for a Sustainable World, Peace and Security

UN INSIDER2017-04-012023-07-10

Women NGOs Warn of UN’s Loss of Credibility in the Middle East

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN (IDN) – While warning UN Secretary-General António Guterres of a growing lack of trust in the Security Council throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a group of Women Civil Society Organisations has proposed far-reaching measures “to advance women’s rights and set the UN back on track as an Organization that works for the common interests of our shared humanity.”

In an open letter, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and 25 MENA Women Civil Society Organisations state that popular feeling in the Middle East and North Africa “is one characterised by a lack of faith in the United Nations’ ability to implement its mandate in line with the principles of the Charter.”

OPINION2017-04-012023-07-10

Peace Is Possible Without Perpetuating Militarization

Viewpoint by Veterans For Peace

Veterans for Peace, an international organization made up of military veterans, military family members, and allies, calls for a reduction in the Pentagon budget and an increase in spending to meet human needs at home and abroad. This statement originally appeared on the organization’s website.

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (IDN-INPS) – As military veterans from WWII to the current era of conflicts, who have trained for, and in many cases, fought in U.S. wars, we know that current U.S. policies have not only failed to bring peace but are morally bankrupt.

Veterans For Peace has called for a different approach than war to demonstrate power and strength and prevent and end violent conflict. For the past thirty-two years, we have called for the abolishment of war as an instrument of national policy.

UN INSIDER2017-03-312023-07-10

Kazakhstan Aims at a Global Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – Both Japan and Kazakhstan have suffered from nuclear weapons: Japan through the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and Kazakhstan through the fallout from 456 nuclear test explosions conducted at the Semipalatinsk, the former Soviet nuclear test site near what is now the village of Semey.

The two countries are therefore committed to realizing a world free of nuclear weapons – for example through entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) – and consider it a main goal of humanity in the 21st century. This was reaffirmed during the first session of the UN conference to negotiate a nuclear weapons prohibition treaty, from March 27 to 31 at the UN headquarters in New York. The second session is scheduled for June 15 through July 7.

UN INSIDER2017-03-312023-07-10

UN Takes First Major Step Towards a Nuclear Ban Treaty

By Rodney Reynolds

NEW YORK (IDN) – Despite an organized boycott by over 40 countries, including four major nuclear powers, a UN conference aimed at negotiating an international treaty to ban nuclear weapons made a significant breakthrough in its first-ever attempt at a legally-binding instrument to eliminate one of the world’s deadliest weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

Even without the participation of nuclear states, the ban treaty will have a powerful impact, predicted the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). “Treaties often change the behavior of non-party States, including the ban on WMDs and Law of the Sea”.

ARMAMENTS2017-03-312023-07-10

A Shift in the Public Conversation to Ban the Bomb

Viewpoint by Alice Slater

Alice Slater is New York Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, who serves on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War.

NEW YORK (IDN) – This week (March 27-31) the UN General Assembly held the opening session of a ground-breaking conference “to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination” just as the world has already done to ban biological and chemical weapons as well as landmines and cluster bombs.

The historic conference began with a bizarre Trumpian boycott on its first day, when Nikki Haley, Trump’s newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to the UN , flanked by the ambassadors from the UK and France stationed in front of the closed doors to the UN General Assembly, where 132 nations were about to start negotiations, staged a press event, with no questions permitted.

UN INSIDER2017-03-312023-07-10

Nakamitsu’s Choice As UN Disarmament Chief Is Significant

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Izumi Nakamitsu, whose appointment UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced on March 29 as the world body’s next disarmament chief is the second woman and third Japanese to be nominated for the post. A veteran UN official, she will succeed Kim Won-soo of the Republic of Korea as Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA).

Kim Won-soo, whom Ban Ki-moon appointed in June 2015, took over as Angela Kane of Germany (2012-2015) vacated the chair. Her predecessors were: Brazil’s Sergio Duarte (2007-2012); Japan’s Nobuaki Tanaka (2006-2007), Japan’s Nobuyasu Abe (2003-2006), and Sri Lanka’s Jayantha Dhanapala (1998-2003).

Asia-Pacific2017-03-302023-07-10

Education & Jobs Crucial As Cambodia Records Pro-Poor Growth

By Neena Bhandari

SIEM REAP/BATTAMBANG, Cambodia (IDN) – The once conflict ridden, impoverished country of Cambodia has made significant strides towards stability and progress, but it is still facing several socio-economic development challenges.

In 2016, it became a lower middle-income country after recording an annual average economic growth of seven percent over the past decade. “The country’s economy has trebled and the number of people living in poverty has halved in the last 15 years. We have to set development issues in the context of those successes,” says Nick Beresford, United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Cambodia Country Director.

Middle East & North Africa2017-03-302023-07-10

Yemen, a Hushed Up Imperialist War

By Pier Francesco Zarcone*

ROME (IDN) – The US government intends to increase military aid to Saudi Arabia in its war against Yemen, according to recent reports. For the vast majority of the general public the news may be surprising, given that the ongoing conflict in Yemen is almost “non-news” as a result of the almost complete silence of the mainstream media. More importantly, most people probably do not know the causes.

From monarchy to republic

A summary reconstruction of the troubled and bloody history of Yemen can start in 1962, when a military coup backed by Egypt deposed the last monarch, Zaydi Shiite Muhhammad al-Badr, and the Republic was proclaimed.

UN INSIDER2017-03-292023-07-10

Nuclear Weapons Contradict Aspirations For Peace and Security

By Kim Won-soo

Following are excerpts from remarks by UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Kim Won-soo at the opening of the United Nations Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination on March 27, 2017. He represented Secretary-General António Guterres who was travelling on official business.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – This conference is taking place against a backdrop of rising international tension, renewed arms competition and an absence of results in disarmament bodies.

The Secretary-General recognized these developments when he recently described our world as one of “new and old conflicts woven in a complex, interconnected web” where “global tensions are rising, sabres have been rattled and dangerous words spoken about the use of nuclear weapons.”

UN INSIDER2017-03-292023-07-10

Faith Communities Call For Banning Nuclear Weapons

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK (IDN) – Faith communities have called for heeding the voices of the world’s Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) and stressed the need for the five-day United Nations Conference at the UN headquarters in New York to negotiate “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination”.

A statement on March 28, second day of the conference, endorsed by more than 20 organizations and individuals, pleaded for developing “a treaty text that clearly and explicitly” prohibits the use, possession, development, production, acquisition, transfer and deployment of nuclear weapons, as well as any inducement, encouragement, investment or assistance with those prohibited acts. “The new instrument should also provide for an obligation for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons, and a framework to achieve it.”