IDN-InDepthNews

SYNDICATION, UNITED NATIONS2017-01-242023-07-12

Outcome of Syria Meeting a Feather in Kazakhstan’s Cap

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | ASTANA (IDN) – UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has commended Russia, Turkey and Iran for their decision to establish a trilateral mechanism to observe and ensure full compliance with the ceasefire in crisis-torn Syria endorsed by the UN Security Council on December 31, 2016.

This is “a concrete step” towards further implementation of Security Council Resolution (SCR) 2236, he said. “The UN stands ready to assist the parties to the trilateral mechanism, develop it, and ensure that it helps strengthen the quality of the ceasefire,” De Mistura added, commenting the two-day ‘International Meeting on Syrian Settlement’ in the Kazakh capital Astana on January 23-24, 2017.

OPINION2017-01-242023-07-10

The Last Chance To Get Russian-U.S. Relationship Right

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The great flaw in ex-president Barack Obama’s record was his policy towards Russia. Going against everything he had said and written about before he became president, one action after another antagonised the Russians.

His early proclamation that he wanted Georgia and Ukraine in NATO, his de facto coalition of convenience for a crucial couple of days with the anti-democratic, anti-Russian, neo-fascist, demonstrators in Ukraine, the further expansion of NATO, despite an earlier promise not to, made by President H.W. Bush, to the Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his inability to cooperate with the Russians and Iranians over Syria.

UN INSIDER2017-01-232023-07-10

The Importance of the UN as a Moral Compass

By Jayantha Dhanapala*

COLOMBO (IDN) – Throughout my life I have had an abiding faith in the United Nations Organization which, three years hence, will celebrate its 75th anniversary. The foundation document of that unique world body – the Charter – is not only the bedrock of international law, but also the most inspiring document that can hold the international community together amidst its diversity and conflict.

Individual countries and Governments are dominated by their separate concepts of national security whereas the UN has to weave 193 of these national security concepts of member states into a tapestry that will serve the common security of the global community in a co-operative and credible manner.

UN INSIDER2017-01-232023-07-10

Nikki Haley Tells U.S. Congress: The UN Does Matter

By Barbara Crossette* | Reproduced courtesy of PassBlue

NEW YORK (IDN | Passblue) – Nikki Haley, President Donald Trump’s nominee to become the United States ambassador to the United Nations, appeared in a confirmation hearing on January 18 lasting more than three hours in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She introduced herself in an address to members that was both autobiographical — the daughter of immigrants — and political.

Acknowledging her neophyte standing in international affairs, she announced at the outset: “Like most government agencies, the United Nations could benefit from a fresh set of eyes. I will take an outsider’s look at the institution as I have in every challenge in my life, I will come to the UN to work and to work smart.”

Africa2017-01-222023-07-10

Southern Africa’s Women Wrestle Climate Change On Their Own

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (ACP-IDN) – From planting maize to trying tobacco and cotton on her fields, 44-year-old mother of four Silvia Hungwe says she has seen it all as she wrestles with effects of climate change which have caused her crops to fail each farming season.

Seated under a tree as she talks to IDN in Mbudzi on the outskirts of Harare, an area that has turned into a hive of goat trading activity over the years, Hungwe – who has now turned to keeping goats – is on the lookout for customers.

A number of other women like Hungwe are strolling nearby with their goats, eagerly approaching each passer-by in the hope of doing business.

ARMAMENTS2017-01-212023-07-10

U.S. Moves into Age of Nuclear Uncertainty – and Ignorance

By Rodney Reynolds

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – With the inauguration of Donald Trump as the new President on January 20, the United States moves into an age of nuclear uncertainty – and perhaps ignorance.

The frightening prospects took a bizarre turn when a day earlier Trump’s nominee for Energy Secretary, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, apparently was not aware that his department is in charge of America’s nuclear weapons.

According to an editorial in the New York Times on January 20, Perry knew only recently that “his biggest responsibilities would, in fact, involve overseeing a vast nuclear security complex that he knows almost nothing about”.

Gender Equality2017-01-202023-07-10

Something is Rotten in the State of Social Equality

By Phil Harris

ROME (IDN) – Amid persistent strong uncertainty about the global employment scenario, working poverty – particularly in emerging countries – is expected to increase as unemployment rises and the gender gap in the labour force increases.

So much for the optimism expressed when the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched in September 2015 to promote “sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all” and achieve “gender equality and empower all women and girls”.

UN INSIDER2017-01-202023-07-10

Conflict Prevention Needs UN Reform and Much More

By António Guterres, UN Secretary-General

“The best prevention for conflict and the best prevention for other negative impacts on societies is, of course, sustainable and inclusive development,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres in remarks at the special session on “Cooperation for Peace: Tackling the Root Causes of Global Crises” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 19. He also urged the need for “a new generation of partnerships, partnerships not only with governments, not only with civil society and academia but equally partnerships with the business community”. Following are detailed excerpts from his remarks.

DAVOS (IDN-INPS) – We live in a dangerous world. We see a proliferation of new conflicts; old conflicts seem never to die. Conflicts are becoming more and more interlinked, more linked with the new threat of global terrorism.

OPINION2017-01-192023-07-10

Chinese President Xi Claims Global Leadership – Discreetly

Excerpts From Speech at World Economic Forum

Following are detailed excerpts from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s historic 45-minute speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 18, 2017 in which he calls for a world free of all nuclear weapons, and a global governance system based on equality among countries. The full text appeared on https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2017

Xi’s mission apparently is to make China great by following the advice of Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese author of the legendary Art of War: “Superior strategies avoid conflict. They overcome hurdles without attacking these and quickly appropriate what is foreign to them. They are totally open towards everything under the heavens.”

UN INSIDER2017-01-192023-07-10

Harnessing the Data Revolution for Achieving SDGs

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | CAPE TOWN (IDN) – The unprecedented scope of the UN’s 2030 Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), calls for reliable data without which progress in implementing those goals cannot be tracked. “We cannot achieve what we cannot measure,” said Dr Pali Lehohla, South Africa’s Statistician-General and head of Statistics South Africa (STATS SA).

STATS SA hosted the first ever United Nations World Data Forum in Cape Town from January 15 to 18, with support from the Statistics Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), under the guidance of the United Nations Statistical Commission and the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.