IDN-InDepthNews – Page 712 – News for a Sustainable World, Peace and Security

Asia-Pacific2016-08-072023-07-10

Sri Lanka: Multiculturalism May Hinder Reconciliation

Viewpoint by Shenali Waduge *

COLOMBO (IDN-INPS) – Since the fall of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government in January 2015, reconciliation has propelled to the top of the political agenda with Western governments pushing Sri Lanka to be accountable for alleged war crimes committed at the end of the 30-year war with terror group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The new government led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been currying favour with its new allies in the West and has been uncritically entertaining their demands for accountability, even to the extent of possibly allowing foreign (i.e. Western) judges to sit in judgement of war crime cases that may be brought against Sri Lanka’s war heroes in the army and the former government.

Africa2016-08-062023-07-10

Africa’s Great Green Wall a New World Wonder in the Making

By Rodrigo Pérez

RIO DE JANEIRO (IDN-INPS) – Beneath the glitz and glamour, the Samba and Rio’s Carnival-like atmosphere, this year’s Olympic Games Opening Ceremony showcased the most impossible sounding dream of all – Africa’s Great Green Wall.

The initiative started a decade ago. Once completed it will be the largest man-made structure on Earth and a new Wonder of the World.

The progress made shows that land restoration efforts on a mass scale are both possible and offer hope. Senegal has already planted 12 million trees, Ethiopia has restored 15 million hectares of degraded land and Nigeria has created 20,000 jobs in rural areas.

Gender Equality2016-08-062023-07-10

One Win Leads to Another in Sports and Gender Equality

UN Women, IOC and Always join to celebrate the community-based sports programme to build leadership skills and confidence of adolescent girls as part of the 2016 Rio Olympic legacy.

Rio de Janeiro (IDN-INPS) – Coinciding with the beginning of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, UN Women, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Always/Whisper celebrated on August 6 the ‘One Win Leads to Another’ initiative, a programme that empowers women and girls through sport.

UN INSIDER2016-08-062023-07-10

2017 Int’l Year to End Israeli Occupation of Palestine?

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The UN General Assembly is coming under strong pressure to declare 2017 as the International Year to End Israeli Occupation of Palestine, particularly in the aftermath of the July 2016 report by the Middle East Quartet – comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

Ambassador Feda Abdelhady-Nasser, Deputy Permanent Observer at the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations, told the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) on August 4 that Gaza would be uninhabitable by 2020 if its humanitarian situation was not addressed.

UN INSIDER2016-08-052023-07-10

Waiting for the UN Secretariat to Pursue Climate-Neutrality

By Franz Baumann * | Reproduced courtesy of PassBlue

The author is a former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and special adviser on environment and peace operations. This article originally appeared with the headline: A Sorry State of Affairs: The UN Secretariat Has No Climate Plan.

NEW YORK (IDN | Passblue) – How green is the United Nations’ own environmental policy?

Shepherding the Paris climate agreement to conclusion in December 2015 has been a major achievement of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The agreement got more than 190 states to commit to hold the increase in the global average temperature to below 2 degrees centigrade, above pre-industrial levels.

Africa2016-08-052023-07-10

Britain’s Exit from EU Threatens African Economies

Analysis by Amelia Tan

NEW YORK (IDN | Africa Renewal) – By 6:30 a.m. on June 24, less than 12 hours after a successful referendum on Brexit (Britain’s exit from the European Union), South Africa’s currency, the rand, took the first blow. It plunged by almost 8% from R14.33 to R15.45 against the U.S. dollar, its steepest single-day decline since the 2008 financial crisis.

Brexit sent shock waves through the global markets, including those in Africa.

Investors in African markets panicked because many economies (such as Angola, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia) were already reeling from low commodity prices exacerbated by a sluggish global demand. In these countries, Brexit added salt to the wounds of injured economies.

UN INSIDER2016-08-052023-07-10

NEWSBRIEF: Kazakhstan Takes Paris Climate Agreement Forward

TORONTO | NEW YORK (IDN) – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has commended Kazakhstan for signing the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The signing comes as Kazakhstan prepares to host EXPO 2017, which will focus on sustainable energy for the future.

In a meeting with Kazakhstan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Erlan Idrissov, Ban congratulated the Central Asian country on its June 28 election as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.

UN INSIDER2016-08-042023-07-10

UN in Desperate Need of Contributions to Peacebuilding Fund

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is concerned about the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) facing “a desperate funding shortfall” and has asked Governments to help achieve a funding target of $300 million at its pledging conference in September.

The Fund was established in 2005 through resolutions of the General Assembly and Security Council to stand alongside the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) and Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) and “support activities, actions, programmes and organizations that seek to build a lasting peace in countries emerging from conflict”.

Asia-Pacific2016-08-042023-07-10

A Young Mayor Upholds the Legacy of Japan’s ‘Holy City’

Feature by Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN-INPS) – Kennichi Suzuki is the Mayor of Ise, a city home to the Ise Grand Shrine – the most sacred Shintō shrine in Japan, dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu – where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union on the occasion of the 2016 annual G7 summit in May.

The city – some 460 kilometres away from Tokyo – was the constituency of the late Yukio Ozaki with the pseudonym ‘Gakudo’, who served in the House of Representatives of the Japanese Diet for 63 years (1890–1953), and is still revered as the “God of constitutional politics” and the “Father of the Japanese Constitutional Democracy“.

UN INSIDER2016-08-042023-07-10

NEWSBRIEF: Kazakhstan Ready as Mediator in Africa

NEW YORK (IDN) – “Kazakhstan always stands ready to build peace in Africa as a steady and trusted mediator and partner”, the country’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Barlybay Sadykov told the Security Council during an open debate on ‘Peacebuilding in Africa’.

Kazakhstan was elected on June 28 as non-permanent member of the Security Council for 2017 and 2018.

In a statement on July 28, Sadykov urged the international community to develop and implement a coherent assistance strategy to rebuild Africa and declared that as a Member-Observer of the African Union and strong supporter of Africa’s revival, “Kazakhstan fully supports the vision of Africa 2063 to make the region conflict-free”.