IDN-InDepthNews

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – The choice of former Portuguese Prime Minister António Guterres as the next United Nations Secretary-General is profoundly historic, though it has not come as a surprise.

Guterres has not only gathered valuable experience as head of the UN Refugee Agency for ten years until December 2015, and as prime minister of his country in critical times, but also as president of the Socialist International.

This global social democratic organisation played a significant role at the height of the Cold War and in the Middle East under the stewardship of the late Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky and Nobel Laureate and (West) German Chancellor Willy Brandt.

By Kalinga Seneviratne

VIENTIANE (IDN) – U.S. President Barack Obama’s early September visit to Laos helped to focus attention on one of the most horrendous war crimes in history, the bombing of the small landlocked Southeast Asian country during the Indochina War in the 1960s and 1970s, and its massive human and development costs.

The Laotians made use of the visit of both Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for the ASEAN and East Asia Summits to launch their own Sustainable Development Goal 18 to reduce the impact of unexploded ordnance (UXO) on development and economic activities.

By IDN-INPS UN Bureau

GENEVA (IDN) – Keen to provide strategic support and boost efforts for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls worldwide, the New York based UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, has opened its Geneva Liaison Office.

Explaining the decision to open the Office on October 6, UN Women said in a media release: “Serving as a gateway to development stakeholders, Geneva is host to over 40 United Nations (UN) entities, more than 400 non-governmental organizations, some 35 international organizations as well as renowned academic institutions, several of which support the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality.”

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Over the past decade, Ban Ki-moon has worked ceaselessly to bring countries together to accelerate the global response to climate change. As he is fond of saying, he has visited communities on the climate frontlines, from the Arctic to the Amazon, and has witnessed how climate impacts are already devastating lives, livelihoods and prospects for a better future.

Some two months ahead of relinquishing his post as UN Secretary-General on completion of the second five-year term on December 31, he will have his efforts rewarded, allowing him to leave behind a valuable legacy.

BANGKOK (IDN) – The United Nations is implementing a new project to help close the online gender gap in Asia and the Pacific. The project entitled ‘E-Government for Women’s Empowerment’ is the first of its kind in the region to address the gender dimension of e-government.

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), in partnership with the UN Project Office on Governance (UNPOG) of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management, and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), have joined hands to provide new tools to assist governments to design, develop and implement e-services that can respond to the needs of women.

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg Tribunal decisions, which Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says, “cautions against forgetting the WWII lessons, reminds us of catastrophic consequences of the attempts to determine the fate of the world by suppressing legitimate interests of other States and peoples”.

In a statement to the UN General Assembly’s 71st session on September 23, Lavrov said: “The freedom of expression or peaceful assembly should not be used as a cover for condoning radical movements that profess the Nazi ideology and support the glorification of the Nazi and their accomplices.”

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change by India at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, has brought the treaty’s entry into force “tantalisingly” close.

The Agreement, which calls on countries to combat climate change and limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius, will take effect 30 days only after at least 55 countries, responsible for 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, deposit their instruments of ratification.

With October 2 action by India, which accounts for 4.1 per cent of the emissions, the Agreement only needs slightly more than 3 percentage points to reach the “55 per cent” threshold. The “55 countries” requirement had already been met.