IDN-InDepthNews

ARMAMENTS2016-06-182023-07-10

The Worst Acts of the Nuclear Age

Viewpoint by David Krieger *

SANTA BARBARA | USA (IDN) – The ten worst acts of the Nuclear Age described below have set the tone for our time. They have caused immense death and suffering; been tremendously expensive; have encouraged nuclear proliferation; have opened the door to nuclear terrorism, nuclear accidents and nuclear war; and are leading the world back into a second Cold War.

These “ten worst acts” are important information for anyone attempting to understand the time in which we live, and how the nuclear dangers that confront us have been intensified by the leadership and policy choices made by the United States and the other eight nuclear-armed countries.

EU & Europe2016-06-182023-07-10

Fear vs Greed – the Real Candidates in the Brexit Referendum

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio *

ROME (IDN) – The campaign around the so-called Brexit – the withdrawal of Great Britain from the European Union – is only the insular British version of the current implosion of the world fuelled by fear and greed.

There is little if no debate on the vision or values of identity of Europe in the campaign pro or con Brexit which will peak with the referendum on June 23. In England – and I stress England – the debate is one of fear against greed. The Brexit camp has launched a campaign based on fear. Fear of immigrants, fear of losing control of borders, fear of being subject to the whims of Brussels (widely seen as those of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and therefore of Germany).

OPINION2016-06-182023-07-10

The Right to Development: 30 Years On

Viewpoint by Marin Khor *

This article is based on the text of a speech at a panel discussion at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 15 June 2016.

GENEVA (IDN | South Centre) – The Declaration on the Right to Development, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1986 (as Document 41/128) is 30 years old. It is appropriate to celebrate this anniversary. For the right to development has had great resonance among people all over the world, including in developing and poor countries. Even the term itself “the right to development” carries a great sense and weight of meaning and of hope.

Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity2016-06-172023-07-10

UNESCO and China Support UNCCD in Combating Desertification

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI | BEIJING (IDN) – Aware that 2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture, but 52 per cent of the farm land is affected by soil degradation, not only UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the specialised agency UNCCD but also UNESCO have stressed the compelling need to rehabilitate every year at least 12 million hectares of degraded land.

At the same time, during the global observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification – this year in Beijing – China and the UNCCD launched the Joint Action Initiative to combat desertification, rehabilitate degraded land and mitigate the effects of drought (JAI).

UN INSIDER2016-06-172023-07-10

Progress in Achieving Gender Equality No Cause for Complacency

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Women, United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, has drawn attention to three “historic firsts” achieved this year in combatting sexual violence in conflict. At the same time, the organisation’s Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri has stressed that “realizing gender equality has a deadline, and it is 2030”.

In run-up to the first International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict on June 19, UN Women said all three historic firsts were “long overdue and all had one thing in common: the unstoppable force of women’s voice and leadership”.

UN INSIDER2016-06-162023-07-10

UN-Backed Strategy to Mobilize Sustainable Energy for All

By Jaya Ramachandran

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Over 1.2 billion people – one in five of the world’s population – do not have access to electricity. The majority are concentrated in about a dozen countries in Africa and Asia. Another 2.8 billion rely on wood, charcoal, dung and coal for cooking and heating, which results in over four million premature deaths a year due to indoor air pollution.

Without electricity, women and girls have to spend hours fetching water, clinics cannot store vaccines for children, many schoolchildren cannot do homework at night, and people cannot run competitive businesses.

UN INSIDER2016-06-152023-07-10

Climate Change Top Priority of General Assembly’s Fijian President

Analysis By J. Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Fiji’s man at the UN, who has been elected as President of the 71st of Session the General Assembly in “a rare secret ballot”, plans to be particularly vocal on the issue of climate change.

It is the first time that a representative of a Pacific small island developing State will serve as head of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the world body.

The selection of its President follows a geographical rotation system, with respective regional groups putting forward a consensus candidate each year. In this case Asia-Pacific States could not reach consensus on a single nominee.

Subsequently, on June 13, Peter Thomson was pitted against Andreas Mavroyiannis of Cyprus, who was defeated by a secret-ballot vote of 94 to 90, with one abstention.

Africa2016-06-142023-07-10

NEWSBRIEF: ‘Naive’ Libyan Fund Sues Goldman Sachs for ‘Abuse’

NEW YORK (IDN | GIN) – Over a four-month period, complex and unsuitable trades made by Goldman Sachs bankers ate up nearly the entire investment of a Libyan sovereign-wealth fund – an amount Libya is suing to recoup, according to a case now before a UK High Court.

The fund, set up under the regime of the then Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, was intended to invest the country’s oil wealth just as sanctions against it were being lifted. Due to the fund’s limited experience with so-called “jumbo and elephant trades”, unwise trades nearly bankrupted the fund.

Goldman Sachs, on the other hand, reaped huge profits from only nine trades – including one larger than the bank had undertaken in a single stock – earning more than $200 million for the company, it was alleged.

Africa2016-06-142023-07-10

NEWSBRIEF: U.S. Grants Asylum to Gambian President’s Nephew

NEW YORK (IDN | GIN) – The nephew of Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, threatened with the loss of his government scholarship over a pro-LGBT Facebook post, has been granted asylum in the U.S., local media reports.

Alagie Jammeh confirmed the story to the Washington Blade, an LGBT news source, in a telephone interview. Jammeh, who is due to graduate next week from the University of California, Santa Barbara, told the Blade that he wrote the post after he became friends with a gay man.

Alagie Jammeh had learned on May 17 – the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia – that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had recommended him for approval. He told the Blade that his lawyer called him two days later and said his asylum request had been granted after passing a background check.

Individual Journalists, SYNDICATION2016-06-142023-07-12

Democracy Reaches Plateau After a Great Climb

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Is there a democratic recession? No, not an economic one. Rather one of the voting kind. In other words: Is democracy going backwards? It is not. Democracy remains resilient. Authoritarianism is being held at bay, despite recession in Russia, Turkey and China.

“Democracy may be receding somewhat in practice, but it is still globally ascendant in people’s values and aspirations,” writes Larry Diamond in a new book, “Democracy in Decline”. In fact, Diamond’s positive conclusion is less positive than I believe the facts say. By and large democracy is not receding.