News Media

Photo: Paul Dewar, newly elected NDP MP for the riding of Ottawa-Centre at his victory party on January 23, 2006. Source: Wikimedia Commons | Photographer: Thorfinn Stainforth

Leadership in Disarmament Will Benefit Canada at UN

* This article is being reproduced courtesy of The Toronto Star. The writer is a fellow at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. He was the New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Ottawa Centre. He served as the Official Opposition Critic for Foreign Affairs, until he left the post in October 2011 to run for the leadership of the NDP.

OTTAWA - If Canada is to win a seat on the UN Security Council, we need a campaign that is bold, global and pertinent. Leading a global effort on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament should be a cornerstone of that campaign, and the upcoming G7 meetings in Japan represent a perfect opportunity to set the table for serious progress on the issue.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 19 May 2016

Photo: United Nations Headquarters in New York City, view from Roosevelt Island

A Tale of UN Bureaucracy

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: UN Bureaucracy? No, Thanks.

NEW YORK - After more than 30 years of service, I retired from the United Nations as an assistant secretary-general, Special Adviser on Environment and Peace Operations, at the end of 2015, but to officially conclude my tenure with the UN, there was bureaucratic paperwork to contend with, to which Bartleby the Scrivener, Melville’s reluctant clerk, might have said, “I would prefer not to.”

During my last week in the office, between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and despite the new information-technology system, Umoja, I had to fill out by hand myriad forms. Originals of my marriage certificate (from 1987) and our daughter’s birth certificate (2000) needed to be submitted, even though the UN had moved us as a family across oceans a few times.

: Franz Baumann; UN INSIDER; 16 May 2016

Photo: David Nabarro. Credit: Africa Renewal

UN Special Adviser Determined to Implement SDGs for All

Masimba Tafirenyika interviews David Nabarro

David Nabarro is the new special adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on sustainable development goals (SDGs), a plan of action for ending poverty adopted by UN member states in September 2015 to replace the Millennium Development Goals. Dr. Nabarro will work with member states to implement SDGs by 2030. The following are excerpts of his interview with Masimba Tafirenyika for Africa Renewal. IDN-InDepthNews is republishing the interview by arrangement with Africa Renewal.

Your main task will be to work with member states and other stakeholders to implement the 2030 Agenda. What does this involve?

Most of the work to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is going to be done by the member states themselves —governments and the different institutions within countries. We’re already seeing signs that countries are moving fast to get their national plans aligned with this agenda. They’ll be supported by the UN and backed by a big movement of civil society, business, faith organizations, academic groups, the media and others. My job is to help the secretary-general keep an eye on who’s doing what and where he can put his energy to try and advance the process.

: Africa Renewal; UN INSIDER; 27 April 2016

Photo: Downtown Kigali, Rwanda in October 2012. | Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Rwandan Government Implements an Ambitious Development Master Plan

By Busani Bafana

KIGALI (IDN | Africa Renewal) - Rwanda’s moniker, “land of a thousand hills,” not only attests to the country’s unique geography but also suggests the trajectory of Kigali through its many crises to become a model sustainable city.

Kigali is one of Africa’s rising cities: it is clean and organised and, thanks to an ambitious national development plan, the city has become an ultramodern metropolis that boasts recognizable social, economic and environmental successes. It is a city under construction, in which new buildings are fast replacing outdated ones. Tarred, dual-carriage roads crisscross Kigali, providing a seamless connection between urban settlements and the fog-covered countryside uplands. The city is now a preferred destination for many organizers of international conferences.

It is easy to understand why Kigali sparkles. Among other impressive environmental measures, city government banned the importation of non-biodegradable plastics and designated a day each month for the residents to clean the city and spruce up the surroundings. It is difficult to find litter on Kigali streets.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 17 April 2016

Photo: Ordination of Thein Sein into the Sangha. By IwaizumiOikawa HajimeTooru - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Myanmar's General Thein Sein Becomes a Monk

By Special Arrangement with The Buddhist Channel*

YANGON - Myanmar's retired junta General Thein Sein has become a monk. He has been ordained as U Thandi Dhamma. According to reliable sources, it was the well known Dhamma teacher Dr. Ashin Nyanissara or better known as Sitagu Sayadaw who implored him to take up monkhood.

Thein Sein is widely regarded as the junta head who opened up Myanmar. After taking over from military dictator Senior General Than Shwe in 2011, he was expected to carry on as an opaque and isolationist ruler, much like his feared predecessor. After all, in 1998 he was personally named by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar for directly ordering his soldiers to commit human rights abuses.

Records have indicated that his history in brutality was no less than previous junta heads, such as Ne Win and Than Shwe.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SYNDICATION; News Media; 07 April 2016

The Battle of Mogadishu. | Credit: The Little Atoms

Boutros Boutros-Ghali: A Different Perspective

The Egyptian's time as Secretary General was marked by a casual indifference to genocide.

By Pádraig Belton*

Scion of a distinguished Coptic family, grandson of an assassinated Egyptian prime minister, a Fulbright scholar with a doctorate from the Sorbonne — there’s no doubt you’d have done well to have Boutros-Ghali sat beside you at a dinner party.

He took office as Secretary General of the UN on the first day of 1992. The Soviet Union had dissolved on 25 December 1991.

: Opinion Editor; SYNDICATION; News Media; 20 February 2016

In Memoriam: UN Chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali Whose 2nd Term was Blocked by the U.S.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali at Naela Chohan's art exhibition for the 2002 International Women's Day at UNESCO in Paris | Credit Wikimedia Commons. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who passed away on February 16 at the age of 93, was the only UN Secretary-General (1992-1996) to be denied a second term in office because of a US veto in the 15-member Security Council.

The U.S., which preaches the concept of majority rule to the outside world, exercised its veto even though Boutros-Ghali had 14 of the 15 votes in the Security Council, including the votes of the other four permanent members of the Council, namely the UK, France, Russia and China.

: Opinion Editor; SYNDICATION; News Media; 17 February 2016

WHO in Decline

By Arif Azad*

The international health landscape is transforming at a dizzying speed, leading to the recalibration of power among different actors. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the changing role of the World Health Organisation.

In 1948, WHO was formed to coordinate and direct international health work. The goal was to achieve the highest possible level of health. The formalisation of WHO’s role rose out of long-standing efforts to coordinate international health which began with the convening of regular international sanitary conferences in the mid-19th century. This practice was to lead to the first known international treaty on cholera which expanded to cover plague and yellow fever.

: Opinion Editor; SYNDICATION; News Media; 07 February 2016

Chabahar, Focus of Afghan CEO Abdullah’s early January visit to Iran | Credit: Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA).

Iran's Chabahar Port - New Gateway for India and Afghanistan

TEHRAN - “Mistreatment of Afghan businesspeople by Pakistanis has made them complain.” This story has been covered by Afghan media time and time again, but they have no choice. Afghanistan is a landlocked country with no access to free waters and Karachi port in Pakistan is the sole route for Afghans through which they can engage in trade with the rest of the world.

Therefore, Afghan officials have reached the conclusion that in cooperation with India, they must go for Iran's south-eastern Chabahar port, which can offer a good substitute for Karachi port. This issue was one of the main reasons behind a three-day trip to Iran early January by Afghanistan’s chief executive officer, Abdullah Abdullah.

: Iran Review; SYNDICATION; News Media; 21 January 2016

‘Iranophobia’ Gives Way to a New Era for Iran's Soft Power

By Mahmoud Reza Golshanpazhooh*

TEHRAN - Finally, after about two years of negotiations and talks, the nuclear marathon between Iran and six big powers of the world reached its finishing point with the announcement of the Implementation Day of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and official announcement of the lifting of the European Union’s sanctions along with an important part of U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Of course, any smart analyst and politician knows that this good ending is also a beginning for foreign obstructionist efforts, domestic conflicts, doubts on the part of trade partners about the volume and extent to which economic relations should be developed as well as magnification of any weakness by governments and media that were opposed to this process from the very beginning.