IDN-InDepthNews

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-01-162023-07-10

Caribbean Setting Ambitious Renewable Energy Targets

By Desmond L. Brown

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (ACP-IDN) – As cash-strapped Caribbean nations push towards renewable energy development, the Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Adnan Z. Amin, has pointed to the challenges they face in matching ambition with reality and the need for international support.

Caribbean countries join a growing list of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) which have set ambitious targets to switch to renewables.

In October 2016, Barbados set a new target of generating 65 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2030 following IRENA’s support in developing a national energy road map.

Asia-Pacific2017-01-162023-07-10

Kashmiri Community Propagates Peace Amid Simmering Violence

By Stella Paul

KULGAM/KASHMIR, India (IDN) – Travelling along the roads of South Kashmir, you are constantly greeted by pro-liberation and anti-India slogans. They are written on the tar roads, house walls, little signboards hanging from tree branches and even lamp posts.

“Go India Go Back” and “We Want Freedom” read some; others proclaim “Burhan is Alive” or “Burhan Zindabad” – in reference to Burhan Wani, a young militant gunned down by the security forces in July 2016.

But suddenly, the slogans begin to change. Signposts and walls appear adorned with messages like “Welcome” and “Love for All, Hatred for None”. That is when you know you are in a village of the Ahmadiyya community.

UN INSIDER2017-01-152023-07-10

UN Reform Vital To Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace

By Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin

Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin is India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York. Following are excerpts from his statement to the Security Council in an open debate on January 10 on ‘Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace’ in connection with the agenda item ‘Maintenance of International Peace and Security’- an agenda that relates to one of the first purposes of the UN’s charter and one which is listed in the first article.

UNITED NATIONS (IDN-INPS) – The wisdom of the age-old adage, “Prevention is better than Cure” is self-evident . . . Dag Hammarskjöld is said to have first introduced the term “preventive diplomacy” more than 50 years ago into the lexicon. Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s “Agenda for Peace” unveiled in the 1990s comes to mind as another milestone in this saga.

UN INSIDER2017-01-152023-07-10

Plea For Proactive Link Between Security Council and UN Chief

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Kazakhstan has made a strong plea for a close and proactive working relationship between the United Nations Secretary-General and the Security Council. In doing so, Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan – which began its two-year term as non-permanent member of the Security Council on January 1 – concurred among others with Sweden’s Foreign Minister and Security Council President for January, Margot Wallström.

She said such a relationship “is the cornerstone of this Organization’s ability to deliver lasting peace and security” – “not least to improve the UN’s capacity to take early action to prevent violent conflict”. Though conflict prevention had been discussed “many times before . . . progress is meager”.

UN INSIDER2017-01-152023-07-10

UN Prepares for Global Compact on Migration with UNU Backing

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Member States will engage in broad consultations throughout 2017 to inform negotiations on a global compact on safe, regular, and orderly migration in 2018. In this, the Global Migration Group (GMG), headed by United Nations University (UNU) Rector and UN Under-Secretary-General Dr David M. Malone since January 1 will play a crucial role.

GMG, a forum of 21 agencies and entities from the United Nations system, promotes norms relating to international migration so as to work towards improved global governance of this issue. UNU formally joined the GMG in 2014, placing UNU’s expertise on migration at its service.

NEWSBRIEFS2017-01-142023-07-10

Six Asian Nations Agree To Expand Trade at UN Forum

BANGKOK (IDN) – At a United Nations forum, Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, South Korea and Sri Lanka have agreed to more than double the number of products under preferential tariff treatment in order to expand trade and boost growth in the region.

The six countries are party to the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), previously named the Bangkok Agreement, signed in 1975 as an initiative of United Nations Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), which functions as the APTA secretariat.

ARMAMENTS2017-01-142023-07-10

‘Nuke Generation Far More Brutal Than Past Conquerors’

By Jamshed Baruah

STOCKHOLM (IDN-INPS) – “It is said that previous conquerors like Attila and Jenghiz Khan used to proclaim that not even a dog or cat or mouse would be left alive when they destroyed the cities which defied them. Our generation with the nuclear weapon in its hand is far more brutal and primitive than any of those conquerors of the past, however barbaric they might have been,” declared Justice Christopher Gregory Weeramantry in an interview in 2007, some ten years before he passed away in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on January 5, aged 90.

ARMAMENTS2017-01-142023-07-10

Tributes To Justice Weeramantry As He Passes Away at 90

By Jaya Ramachandran

BERLIN (IDN) – Justice Christopher Gregory Weeramantry, legal luminary, distinguished author, and renowned pacifist, who played a crucial role in strengthening and expanding the rule of international law to usher in a nuclear-weapons free world, died in Colombo, Sri Lanka on January 5, aged 90.

He was a former judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka (1967-1972), an Emeritus Professor at Monash University in Melbourne (until 1991), a Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from 1991 to 2000 and its Vice-President from 1997 to 2000, Honorary Councillor of the World Future Council, and President of the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms (IALANA).

OPINION2017-01-132023-07-10

Trump Presidency Might Herald Reality Check On ‘Liberal’ Media

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BANGKOK (IDN) – Donald Trump calls the so-called ‘liberal media’ the “bad guys” and since he was elected President two months ago – in fact even before that with the Brexit vote in June 2016 – the “Liberals” in the West have been chest-beating complaining about misleading social media messages to unfairness of the electoral systems as their preferred candidates or platforms are defeated by grassroots voter revolts.

It is interesting that the ‘liberal’ media has made such a big issue of Trump having lost the popular vote but winning the Presidency, without looking at how the so-called Westminster system of democracy, which many former British colonies have inherited, often reflects such results as it is grounded on an electorate based first-past-the-post system not dissimilar to the U.S. Electoral College system.

UN INSIDER2017-01-132023-07-10

New UN Chief Takes Landmark Step To Build and Sustain Peace

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – Within days of taking up the post of the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres has urged the influential Security Council to undertake new, strengthened efforts to build and sustain peace ranging from prevention, conflict resolution and peacekeeping to peacebuilding and sustainable development.

Supporting Guterres, Sweden’s Foreign Minister and Security Council President for January, Margot Wallström emphasized that a close and proactive working relationship between the Council and the Secretary-General was the cornerstone of the Organization’s ability to deliver lasting peace and security.