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.
By Rodney Reynolds | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis
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.
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.
By Lee Fang and Zaid Jilani
Saudi Arabia’s well-funded public relations apparatus moved quickly after Saturday’s (January 2) explosive execution of Shiite political dissident Nimr al-Nimr to shape how the news is covered in the United States.
The execution led protestors in Shiite-run Iran to set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, precipitating a major diplomatic crisis between the two major powers already fighting proxy wars across the Middle East.
The Saudi side of the story is getting a particularly effective boost in the American media through pundits who are quoted justifying the execution, in many cases without mention of their funding or close affiliation with the Saudi Arabian government.
By Shastri Ramachandran* | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis
NEW DELHI (IDN) – The release of a convicted rapist, who committed the crime when he was just 17, on December 20, 2015 amid high drama in Indian capital has triggered public outcry and revived debate over issues of juvenile justice.
One outcome of the protests against the release of the juvenile convict is that two days later, on December 22, India’s Parliament passed the Juvenile Justice Bill, under which minors from 16 to 18 can be tried as adults for heinous crimes such as rape, murder and terror-related acts. As political parties were divided over this legislation, it took the public outrage to push it through.
LONDON – The year’s first major atrocity is Saudi Arabia’s execution by beheading on January 2 of 47 people, including an important Shia ayatollah who led Shia protests against discrimination by the Sunni majority but never committed an act of violence.
Even the Islamic State doesn’t behead 47 in one day. Although beheading is swift it strikes most of us as being grotesque as well as medieval. The Saudis are aware of their image in the outside world but nevertheless persist, as if they want to tell the rest of the world: “Back off. Our Wahhabi (ultra puritanical) morality is our morality. We are a belief system unto ourselves.”
They exported the political convictions that have evolved out of Wahhabism to Afghanistan (with money for guns along with the theology), first to fight the Russians, then to arm the Taliban and later to allow them to “ignore” that the Taliban was giving refuge to Al-Qaeda.
Over the last three years rich Saudis, for lack of policing, have been allowed, in effect, to fund IS.
By Bernhard Schell | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis
MUMBAI (IDN) – As the international community starts to implement the UN Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, funds from countries that are not members of the Paris-based 29-nation Development Assistance Committee (DAC) have “an increasingly important role in financing development co-operation”, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
NEW YORK (INPS) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian territories is resigning due to Israel’s failure to grant him access to the areas he is tasked with monitoring, according to the UN News Service.
“Unfortunately, my efforts to help improve the lives of Palestinian victims of violations under the Israeli occupation have been frustrated every step of the way,” Makarim Wibisono said of his resignation, which he submitted to the President of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council on January 4, to become effective as of March 31.
By James Taylor Ranney* | IDN-InDepthNews Viewpoint
WILMINGTON, USA (IDN) – For some time now, the movement for abolition of nuclear weapons has been proceeding on the assumption that we can secure an abolition treaty without fundamentally altering global security arrangements. Understandably, very little if any attention has been focused upon the much larger issue of abolishing war. But it may turn out that we cannot abolish nuclear weapons without abolishing war.
Nothing logically requires this. But as a practical matter, the two things may be inextricably linked. For one thing, the Russians will demand, if not general and complete disarmament, at least serious reductions in conventional forces. And once we agree to that, we are halfway to a new security system – international alternative dispute resolution.
One of the people who recognized this is Mikhail Gorbachev, who said this in an interview: “We will never be able to solve the nuclear question unless at the same time we develop a system of international organizations…and effective systems of regional security….[T]he international organization should have certain decision-making powers and mechanisms for enforcement.” Jonathan Schell, The Gift of Time: The Case for Abolishing Nuclear Weapons Now, at 165 (1998).
By Ramesh Jaura | IDN-InDepthNews Analysis
BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Seretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s successor will not be elected by a secret ballot by the 193 member states of the United Nations. But the General Assembly and the Security Council presidents have agreed on a selection process that might mark a watershed.
According to the UN Charter, the Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly following the recommendation of the Security Council. The format agreed by the General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft and the President of the Security Council Samantha Power does not axe the powers exercised particularly by the Council.
By J Nastranis | IDN-InDepthNews Report
NEW YORK (IDN) – Nearly one-and-a-half years ago, the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein’s predecessor, Navi Pillay, expressed profound regret that Japan had not provided effective redress to Korean victims of wartime sexual slavery leading back to the end of the Second World War.
The agreement reached on December 28 after protracted negotiations between Japan and South Korea – with support by UN human rights experts – seeks to redress the international community has been asking for. According to UN News, the accord reportedly involves an official apology from Japan and a promised payment of $8.3 million for the victims.
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