NGOs & CSOs

Photo shows Kisao Hattori addressing the SGI Youth Summit in Yokohama, Japan, on September 2, 2017. Credit: Soka Gakkai.

A 91-Year Old Witness of Hiroshima Bombing Explains Why Nuclear Weapons Should be Banned

By Kisao Hattori

Following are extensive excerpts from the remarks by 91-year old Kisao Hattori at the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Youth Summit for the Renunciation of War on September 2, 2017 at the SGI Kanagawa Culture Center in Yokohama, Japan. The gathering was convened to mark the 60th anniversary of second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda’s 'Declaration Calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons'. The summit was held 18 days before the UN treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons opened for signature in New York. – The Editor

YOKOHAMA (IDN-INPS) - I was exposed to the atomic bomb radiation in Hiroshima as a visiting soldier and joined Soka Gakkai (SG) after the war. I am 91 years old now. I was a witness to President Josei Toda calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons here in Yokohama.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; OPINION; 21 September 2017

Ensuring EU Development Cooperation Is Sustainable

By Seamus Jeffreson

Following is a slightly abridged text of the presentation by Seamus Jeffreson, Director of Brussels-based CONCORD, at the high-level Conference – titled 'Sixty Years and Beyond: Contributing to Development Cooperation' – in Rome on 27 April 2017 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. CONCORD is the European Association of NGOs for relief and development, advocating sustainable development based on human rights, justice and gender equality.

ROME (IDN-INPS) - Before looking to the future, it is instructive to recall the origins of EU cooperation – enshrined unexpectedly and at the last minute in the Treaty of Rome.

Reading the memoires of Dieter Frisch – one of the doyens of EU cooperation over the years – it is striking how the concept of working together characterized the relationship between the African Caribbean and Pacific partners and the European Community from the beginning.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 04 May 2017

It's Not Just About Demonetisation of 500 and 1000 Bank Notes

By Satya Sagar*

NEW DELHI (IDN-INPS) - The abrupt demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes by the Narendra Modi regime is a drastic move that is staggering in its scale, ambition and repercussions. The only other figures in modern history one can think of, devious or stupid enough to attempt something similar, are the likes of Marcos, Suharto, Idi Amin and Pol Pot.

For all its audacity however, the decision could go down also as the grandest of blunders made by anyone in Indian political history. Poorly planned and implemented it is likely to prove disastrous not only for the country’s economy but – ironically enough – for the BJP’s own electoral fortunes.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 27 November 2016

Photo: An overview of the UNGA First Committee. Credit: ICAN

NATO Shores Up Hegemonial Power Through Nuke Deterrence

By Xanthe Hall, IPPNW and ICAN Germany

Note: This article first appeared in the IPPNW Peace and Health Blog on November 3, 2016.

BERLIN (IDN-INPS) - For once, the United States, France and the United Kingdom are in agreement with Russia: plans to negotiate a nuclear weapons ban need to be stopped. Before the vote on October 27 in the UN First Committee, they pulled out all the stops to pressurise other states to vote against or abstain on a draft resolution co-sponsored by 57 states for a conference to be convened in 2017 to negotiate a nuclear ban.

: Xanthe Hall; ARMAMENTS; 07 November 2016

Image credit: Cinema for Peace Foundation.

Light Installation and Cinema for Peace Screenings in Rio

By Courtesy of Cinema for Peace Foundation

RIO DE JANEIRO (IDN-INPS) - The Olympics should have been a time of peace, but the world was at war. There were 19 wars and 16 war-like conflicts in the world during the Olympic Games. Overall, there are 409 conflicts, of which 223 are violent.

To shine a light on conflicts and to endorse the peaceful ideals of Olympic Games the initiative Sports for Peace, who hosted at the London Olympics Muhammad Ali's farewell, presented the 'Olympic Ideal of Peace' light installation in the Santa Marta Favela in Rio.

: Global Cooperation Council; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 21 August 2016

Photo: Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Social Business a Way Out of Misery for World's 3 Billion

Viewpoint by Prof Muhammad Yunus*

DHAKA (IDN-INPS) - We are living in a time of unparalleled prosperity, fuelled in part by revolutions in knowledge, science, and technology, particularly information technology. This prosperity has changed the lives of many, yet billions of people still suffer from poverty, hunger, and disease. And now, food, oil price and financial crises have combined forces to bring even greater misery and frustration to the world bottom 3 billion people.

Sadly, however, we saw headlines reporting news of a sort many people assumed we would never experience again: skyrocketing prices for staple foodstuffs like grains and vegetables (wheat alone having risen in price by 200 percent since the year 2000); food shortages in many countries; rising rates of death from malnutrition and undernourishment; environmental threats to agricultural production; even food riots threatening the stability of countries around the globe.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; OPINION; 19 August 2016

Photo: Prosecution and Defence benches at the Tribunal. Credit: UnfoldZero

People's Tribunal on Nuclear Weapons Convicts Leaders

BERLIN | SYDNEY (IDN | UNFOLDZERO) - An International Peoples’ Tribunal on Nuclear Weapons and the Destruction of Human Civilisation held in Sydney handed down its judgement on August 16 affirming the illegality of any use or threat to use nuclear weapons and convicting the leaders of the nine nuclear-armed States of war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against peace and crimes of threatening, planning and preparing acts which would constitute genocide, ecocide and omnicide (the destruction of humanity as a species).

The tribunal also considered a test case against Malcolm Turnbull, the leader of Australia, which is one of the states under extended nuclear deterrence relationship with the United States. Turnbull was convicted for complicity, i.e. aiding and abetting the planning and preparation for the use of nuclear weapons, which would constitute a crime, and for making illegal threats to facilitate and support the use nuclear weapons.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; SYNDICATION; NGOs & CSOs; 17 August 2016

Photo: China has released a road map on genetically modified organisms and crops, giving priority to the development of non-edible cash crops. Source: GRAIN

Asia Trade Deal RCEP Will Undercut Farmers’ Control Over Seeds

Viewpoint by GRAIN

BARCELONA (IDN-INPS) - Ever since the ink dried on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), people have become aware of another mega-trade deal being negotiated behind closed doors in the Asia-Pacific region. Like the TPP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) threatens to increase corporate power in member countries, leaving ordinary people with little recourse to assert their rights to things like land, safe food, life-saving medicines and seeds.

RCEP is being negotiated between the ten countries that form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their six biggest trading partners in the region: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

According to the latest leaked draft of the RCEP agreement, dated October 15, 2015 and published by Knowledge Ecology International, the negotiating countries fall into two camps when it comes to legal rights over biodiversity and traditional knowledge useful for food production and medicine.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 24 May 2016

Interview: Human Rights for All in an Equal World

Following is the text of an interview Milena Rampoldi of a German NGO, ProMosaik e.V. conducted with Ramesh Jaura, Director-General and Editor-in-Chief of the International Press Syndicate with headquarters in Berlin and associate headquarters in Tokyo and Toronto. Jaura is also co-founder and President of the Global Cooperation Council established in 1983. This interview was carried by Pro Mosaik on 24 January 2016.

: Opinion Editor; SYNDICATION; NGOs & CSOs; 29 January 2016

EU Approached Canada to Rework ‘Investor Protection’ in Free Trade Deal

By Global Justice Now

LONDON - The Canadian broadcaster CBC reported on January 21 that the “EU quietly asks Canada to rework trade deal's thorny investment clause.” The CBC report speculates that the free trade deal "risks a humiliating defeat on a ratification vote expected at the EU's parliament in Brussels this fall, unless a compromise can be reached to appease moderate opponents."