IDN-InDepthNews – Page 675 – News for a Sustainable World, Peace and Security

UN INSIDER2017-02-162023-07-10

UN Expert Group on People of African Descent Visits Germany

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – The United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent will undertake its first official visit to Germany from February 20 to 27 to study the human rights situation of people of African descent in the country.

The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent was established on April 25, 2002 by the then Commission on Human Rights, following the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban in 2001. It is composed of five independent experts: Ricardo A. Sunga III (the Philippines), current Chair-Rapporteur; Michal Balcerzak (Poland); Mireille Fanon Mendes-France (France), Sabelo Gumedze (South Africa) and Ahmed Reid (Jamaica).

UN INSIDER2017-02-162023-07-10

Action Plan Under UN Aegis to Save Vulture Species

BONN (IDN) – Population declines of 95 percent in Africa and Asia in recent decades, are threatening most vulture species in Africa, Asia and Europe with extinction. With this in view, an overarching international Action Plan applicable throughout the ranges of all species is being developed at an expert meeting convened by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) from February 16 to 19 in Toledo, Spain.

The plan aims to prevent the further decline of vultures – nature’s primary scavengers – providing indispensable ecological services as carrion feeders and disposers of disease-carrying carcasses.

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-02-152023-07-10

Caribbean Faith Leaders United to End HIV-AIDS

By Desmond Brown

KINGSTON, Jamaica (ACP-IDN) – Efforts to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean by 2030, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), received a much-needed boost from faith leaders across the region when they met from Feb. 1-2 in Port of Spain, Trinidad, to find ways to reduce and eliminate spread of the virus.

The Caribbean is one of the most heavily affected regions in the world, with adult HIV prevalence about one percent higher than in any other region outside sub-Saharan Africa.

UN INSIDER2017-02-142023-07-10

Security Council Favours Dialogue While Condemning DPRK

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The 15-member Security Council, including the veto-wielding USA, Russia, China, Britain and France, are keen to “reduce tensions in the Korean Peninsula and beyond” and “maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in North-East Asia at large”.

With this in view, they have in a Press Statement on February 13, expressed their “commitment to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation”. They also welcome “efforts by Council members, as well as other States, to facilitate a peaceful and comprehensive solution through dialogue”.

OPINION2017-02-142023-07-10

Time to Reduce U.S. Military Presence in the Middle East

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Reporting on President Donald Trump’s new energy policy which plans for a big increase in domestically produced oil and gas, the Financial Times reported: “Exports of gas have begun, with the first shipments of Liquefied Natural Gas leaving the Sabine Pass facility on the border between Texas and Louisiana a year ago. Since then trade has grown and the U.S. now supplies a dozen different gas markets around the world.” The U.S. is all set to speed this up.

ARMAMENTS2017-02-142023-07-10

Fifty Years of Success of Landmark Treaty of Tlatelolco

By Sergio Duarte and Jenifer Mackby*

On February 14, 2017 the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean – Treaty of Tlatelolco – celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Treaty prohibits the testing, use, manufacture, production or acquisition of nuclear weapons. All 33 countries in the region are party to it. This article casts a close look at the vital importance of the treaty.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS | TRANSCEND Media Service) – As the first of its kind in a populated area, the Treaty made a fundamental contribution to both global and regional disarmament, peace and security. It includes a number of innovative provisions, such as indefinite duration, prohibition of reservations, a definition of nuclear weapon, a commitment by nuclear-weapon States to respect the militarily denuclearized status of the Zone through negative security assurances and the engagement of its Parties to utilize nuclear energy exclusively for peaceful purposes.

UN INSIDER2017-02-132023-07-10

Kazakhstan Joins UN & Nuclear Powers to Condemn North Korea

By Jamshed Baruah

NEW YORK (IDN) – Taking its mandate as non-permanent member of the Security Council for 2017-2018 seriously, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on February 12 said that it “strongly condemns” the ballistic missile launch conducted by DPRK-Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) the same day.

The launch was “a blatant violation of the relevant UN Security Council resolution”. North Korea is barred under United Nations resolutions from using ballistic missile technology, but six sets of UN sanctions since Pyongyang’s first nuclear test in 2006 have failed to rein in its drive for atomic weapons.

UN INSIDER2017-02-122023-07-10

UN Pleads for Highlighting Achievements of Women Scientists

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Stories about women who have excelled in subjects like science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) can help overcome bias against girls and create new role models, UN officials said on the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on February 11.

A recent study, ‘Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence children’s interests’, shows that by the age of 6, girls are already less likely than boys to describe their own gender as ‘brilliant’, and less likely to join an activity labelled for ‘very, very smart’ kids.

UN INSIDER2017-02-112023-07-10

UNIDO Focuses on Africa and LDCs in 2017

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | VIENNA (IDN) – “Africa is by no means destined to lag behind the rest of the world economy. On the contrary, it could easily become a global economic powerhouse – and within the next decade. But, to fulfil its economic potential, Africa must industrialize,” says Director General LI Yong of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

This has been stressed repeatedly at recent international forums, including the Sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI) in August 2016, and the G20 summit in Hangzhou, China, the following month, he adds. For the first time, the G20 placed industrialization in Africa – and all of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) – on its agenda. The African Union’s Agenda 2063 also supports this drive.

UN INSIDER2017-02-112023-07-10

UN Launches Campaign to Invest in Degraded Lands

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – The number of international migrants worldwide has continued to grow rapidly over the past fifteen years – reaching 244 million in 2015, up from 222 million in 2010 and 173 million in 2000.

Behind these numbers, says the Secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), are the links between migration and development challenges, in particular, the consequences of environmental degradation, political instability, food insecurity and poverty.