IDN-InDepthNews

News Media, SYNDICATION2016-01-092023-07-12

FORUM ASIA Celebrates 25th Anniversary

By Marte Hellema*

This year the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) celebrates its 25th anniversary: 25 years of promoting and protecting human rights. This is both a reason for celebration and reflection. To reflect on what we have done, what lessons we have learnt, and what we see as priorities for the future.

To commemorate this milestone FORUM-ASIA launched an anniversary campaign during an event on January 8, 2016 at the Pridi Banomyong Institute in Bangkok, Thailand. As part of the campaign a new publication was composed, ‘Our Struggle for Human Rights – 25 Years of FORUM-ASIA’. An online version of this publication can be found on http://25.forum-asia.org.

News Media, SYNDICATION2016-01-092023-07-12

North Korea’s Defiance Underlines the Urgency to Eradicate All Nuclear Weapons

NEW YORK (IDN) – North Korea defied world powers, on January 6, by announcing that it had successfully tested a miniaturized hydrogen nuclear device – in contravention of the international norm against nuclear testing.

The miniaturizing allows the device to be placed on a missile thereby significantly increasing its strike capabilities not only against Japan and South Korea but also against the United States.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “This test, once again, violates numerous Security Council resolutions despite the united call by the international community to cease such activities.”

GLOBAL ISSUES2016-01-082023-07-10

North Korea’s Defiance Underlines The Urgency To Eradicate All Nuclear Weapons

By Somar Wijayadasa* | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

The miniaturizing allows the device to be placed on a missile thereby significantly increasing its strike capabilities not only against Japan and South Korea but also against the United States.

Individual Journalists, SYNDICATION2016-01-082023-07-12

Will Donald’s Capacity To Titilate Turn Out To Be His Trump Card?

Donald Trump at a presidential campaign rally, September 3, 2015 | Wikimedia Commons

TORONTO – Trump’s latest TV ad says it all, even before you listen. The caption is: Paid for by Donald J Trump, Inc., Approved by Donald Trump. It’s almost as if he’s running his campaign as a send-up of the other hopefuls, beholden to lobbyists and the mainstream media.

The only one with name recognition is Jeb Bush, and that, only because his brother was president (disastrously) eight years ago. Think of Trump as The Joker in the film “The Dark Knight” (2008): “I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.”

NGOs & CSOs, SYNDICATION2016-01-082023-07-12

Yemen in Dire Need of a Political Solution

SANA’A (INPS | ICRC) – The International Committee of the Red Cross is calling for an urgent political solution to alleviate the suffering of millions of people in the country. The ICRC’s Regional Director for the Near and Middle East, Robert Mardini, says Yemen is fast-becoming one of the world’s ‘forgotten conflicts’.

The people of Yemen have suffered conflict for nine long months. Since fighting began in March 2015 more than five thousand people have been killed and more than thirty-thousand injured. Over two million have fled their homes in search of safety. Even for those who can still live at home, normal life has become virtually impossible.

Press Freedom2016-01-072023-07-10

‘Dissenting Voices Must be Protected’

On the anniversary of the brutal attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, PEN and journalists’ associations from around the world reaffirmed their commitment to the defence of the right to freedom of expression, even when that right is being used to express views that some may consider offensive.

INPS reproduces the statement web posted by PEN International on January 7, 2016:

SYNDICATION, UNITED NATIONS2016-01-072023-07-12

Kazakhstan Condemns North Korea, Urges Complete Ban On Nuke Tests

NEW YORK | ASTANA – As co-chair, along with Japan, of the Conference to facilitate entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), Kazakhstan has condemned North Korea’s hydrogen bomb test on January 6 and declared “such actions” of DPRK as “unacceptable” and “in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013) and 2094 (2013)”.

In a statement, the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “Kazakhstan believes the actions of DPRK seriously undermine the international community’s efforts along the path of nuclear disarmament and strengthening the non-proliferation regime and global security in general, as well as the efforts of the majority of the countries in the world to ensure the early entry into force of the CTBT.“

Kazakhstan, as a country whose people have directly experienced the deadly effects of nuclear weapons, voluntarily renounced the possession of a nuclear arsenal and initiated the adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution proclaiming August 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests, the statement added.

“We stand for the complete ban on nuclear tests in the world,” declared the statement, and call upon North Korea to abandon nuclear weapon ambitions and resume negotiations in the six-party format involving China, Russia, the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan.

News Media, SYNDICATION2016-01-062023-07-12

North Korea’s Nuclear Test Escalates Military Tensions

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – As military tensions continue to rise between two of the world’s major nuclear powers – the United States and Russia – the United Nations remains strongly committed towards one of its longstanding goals: a world without nuclear weapons. READ IN JAPANESE

But North Korea’s announcement of its first hydrogen bomb – tested January 6 – is threatening to escalate the nuclear challenge even further.

SYNDICATION, UNITED NATIONS2016-01-062023-07-12

UN Condemns North Korea For Violating Ban on Nuclear Testing

The United Nations condemned on January 6 the underground nuclear test announced by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calling it “deeply troubling” and the UN Security Council vowing to immediately begin considering the “significant measures” it had vowed to take in the event of another nuclear test by the country.

GLOBAL ISSUES2016-01-062023-07-10

North Korea’s Nuclear Test Escalates Military Tensions

By Rodney Reynolds | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis

But North Korea’s announcement of its first hydrogen bomb – tested January 6 – is threatening to escalate the nuclear challenge even further.

The 193-member General Assembly wrapped up its 2015 sessions in December adopting 57 draft resolutions on arms control and disarmament – 23 of which were on nuclear weapons.