SUSTAINABILITY

Photo: Izumi Nakamitsu, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs United Nations (UNODA), addressing the Non-proliferation Studies students on the joint programme between Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), and PIR Center, on 19 October 2017 in Moscow. Credit: MGIMO

Disarmament, Non-proliferation Vital for Conflict Prevention

By Izumi Nakamitsu

The author is High Representative for Disarmament Affairs United Nations (UNODA). The following are extensive excerpts from her address to Non-proliferation Studies students on the joint programme between Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), and PIR Center, on 19 October 2017 in Moscow. – The Editor.

MOSCOW (IDN) - Historically speaking, the concepts of disarmament and non-proliferation date back centuries. The international efforts to strengthen the law of war are one of the important origins of disarmament work. Our work today is largely rooted in the terrible human consequences that resulted from two world wars, including the first and thankfully only uses of nuclear weapons in conflict at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We work to ensure the people of this world never have to endure such devastation again.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 October 2017

Photo: Local authorities and community members collaborate to provide relief in Salybia, Dominica after back-to-back, category 5 hurricanes struck the region. UN Photo/Rick Bajorna

Climate Change Spares Neither the Rich nor the Poor

By Achim Steiner, Patricia Espinosa and Robert Glasser*

BONN (IDN) - From Miami and Puerto Rico to Barbuda and Havana, the devastation of this year’s hurricane season across Latin America and the Caribbean serves as a reminder that the impacts of climate change know no borders.

In recent weeks, Category 5 hurricanes have brought normal life to a standstill for millions in the Caribbean and on the American mainland. Harvey, Irma and Maria have been particularly damaging. The 3.4 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico have been scrambling for basic necessities including food and water, the island of Barbuda has been rendered uninhabitable, and dozens of people are missing or dead on the UNESCO world heritage island of Dominica.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 22 October 2017

Photo: General Assembly President Miroslav Lajčák addressing the Assembly’s annual joint debate on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the ‘2001-2010: Decade to Roll Back Malaria in Developing Countries, Particularly in Africa.’ UN Photo/Cia Pak

NEPAD Critical to Africa's Development, Peace and Security

By Ronald Joshua

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Despite instability and security challenges, ranging from human and drug trafficking to terrorism and the illicit flow of resources away from the continent, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development – now fully embedded in the development paradigms of both the United Nations and the African Union – remains the "rallying point" in Africa’s pursuit of growth.

The partnership, known as NEPAD, is particularly critical in the areas of social and economic development. The recent finalization of the Tripartite Free Trade Area agreement is an important step that would harmonize three sub‑regional blocs, which previously had their own rules and models for trade.

: Ronald Joshua; UN INSIDER; 21 October 2017

Photo: Saad Alfarargi, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development delivering his first report at the 36th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva last 14 September 2017. Credit: OHCHR/Pierre Albouy

UN Rapporteur Stresses Everyone's Right to Development

By Kanaga Raja

The author is the editor of the South North Development Monitor (SUNS). This article was published in the SUNS #8540 dated 27 September 2017.

GENEVA (IDN) - More than 30 years after the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development, business-as-usual will not be sufficient to achieve progress, a United Nations human rights expert has said.

In his first report to the Human Rights Council since being appointed to the new mandate of Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Saad Alfarargi (of Egypt) said that in order to ensure the implementation of the Declaration, there is need to re-invigorate the advocacy process.

In a landmark resolution adopted at its thirty-third session in September 2016, the Council decided to establish the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to development for a period of three years.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 20 October 2017

Photo: UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Credit: Marco Grob.

Bringing an End to Impunity Through Shared Outcry

Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

The writer is UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women.

UNITED NATIONS (IDN | UN Women) - The pain and anger of more than a million people who tweeted #MeToo in the last week have crowded social media with personal stories of sexual harassment or assault. This virtual march of solidarity marks both the urgency of finding a shared voice and the hidden scale of assault that did not previously have a register. When women are almost invisible, when they are not really seen, it seems that people do not have to care what happens to them.

This online outcry is important because it is giving voice to acts that are public, but that are silenced and neutralized by convention. It is a cruel privilege to be able to harass a girl or a woman with impunity, but in so many cases this is the norm.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 19 October 2017

Photo (left to right): ACP SG Dr Gomes; Sierra Leone Parliamentarina Bundu, President of the ACP Parliamentary Assembly; and Amb. Chanaka of Ethiopia. Credit: ACP Press

79 ACP Countries Keen to Remove 'Imbalances' in Ties with EU

By Jaya Ramachandran

BRUSSELS (IDN) - Members of Parliament from 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries want a "radical departure" from the traditional relationship with the European Union (EU), which in their view has been marked by an "imbalance" between the two blocs in terms of economic might and levels of technology and capacity.

The ACP developing countries wish to achieve a level of sustainable development that enables them to progress from being dependent exporters of raw materials to being able to add value to their own products.

: Jaya Ramachandran; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 18 October 2017

Cuban Youth Mastering the Art of Economic Improvisation

By Julia Rainer

TRINIDAD, Cuba (IDN) – Trinidad, one of the most popular cities in Cuba, is a place where time seems to stand still. At least that is what the thousands of tourists who come here every year from all over the world are made to believe.

Colonial cathedrals and majestic houses have been guarding the city for hundreds of years and are beautifully restored as if time had never passed. Indeed, the picturesque city – together with the marvellous surrounding sugarcane plantations – were declared UNESCO world cultural heritage in 1988.

It is part of Trinidad’s unique charm that nothing is supposed to change – a concept that can be transferred to Cuba’s tourism strategy as a whole.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 15 October 2017

Photo: (left to right): Austria's Permanent Representative to the UN, Jan Kickert (standing); Brazil's Permanent Representative to the UN Mauro Luiz Iecker Vieira; ICAN Asia-Pacific Director Tim Wright; ICAN Executive Director Beatrice Fihn; ICAN Steering Group member Ray Acheson: and Costa Rica's Permanent Representative to the UN, Juan Carlos Mendoza. Credit: UN

Nuclear Nightmare Persists As UN Treaty Awaits Ratification

By Ramesh Jaura

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – "They will continue to be guided by their solemn conviction that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," says the historic Joint Statement U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his counterpart from the then Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, signed on December 10, 1987 in Washington.

Thirty years on, Gorbachev – who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1990 "for his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community" – is "deeply concerned about the fact that military doctrines once again allow for the use of nuclear weapons".

With this in view, he has welcomed the announcement of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize 2017 to the Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 14 October 2017

Photo: In the Harat Al-Masna’a slum in Sana’a, Yemen, a man walks with his three-year-old daughter. On the left is a former textile factory which hosts 231 families of former factory workers. Photo: Giles Clarke for UNOCHA

UN Worried about Persistent Humanitarian Disaster in Yemen

By Santo D. Banerjee

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – As Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, enters the third year of a cruel military conflict with no end in sight to the suffering of the people caused by a humanitarian catastrophe, a senior UN official has urged the Security Council members to use their political and economic powers to pressure warring sides to commit to a path of peace.

7,600 people have been killed and 42,000 injured since March 2015. According to the UN, more than 60% of civilian deaths have been the result of air strikes by a Saudi-led multinational coalition that backs President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi against the Houthi rebel movement.

: Santo D. Banerjee; UN INSIDER; 12 October 2017

Photo: The United Nations Complex in NYC. Photo via Outlook

Sudanese Diplomat at the UN Accused of Sexual Harassment

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights organization, has called for the removal of the Sudanese diplomat Hassan Salih, who in May was elected vice-chair of the UN committee that oversees the work of 4,500 human rights NGOs.

Salih grabbed a 23-year-old woman's buttocks and breast while dancing at Third Avenue’s Bar None around 2:25 a.m., the New York Post reported. While police were interviewing him and the woman, he tried to escape. The police chased and handcuffed Salih and put him in a police cruiser, according to media reports. But Salih invoked diplomatic immunity, and was allowed to go free after police confirmed his credentials as a diplomat at the United Nations.