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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: An Indian Agni-II intermediate range ballistic missile on a road-mobile launcher, displayed at the Republic Day Parade on New Delhi's Rajpath, January 26, 2004. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

India Ready to Work with Signatories of the Nuclear Ban Treaty in Multilateral Forums

By Amandeep Singh Gill

Ambassador Amandeep Singh Gill is Permanent Representative of India to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. Following are extensive excerpts from his remarks at the Thematic Debate on Nuclear Weapons in the First Committee, 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly on 12 October 2017. – The Editor.

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) –India remains committed to universal, non-discriminatory and verifiable nuclear disarmament and to multilateralism in pursuit of that goal. Our position has been firm and consistent over the years.

We support the proposal for the negotiation of a Comprehensive Nuclear Weapons Convention in the Conference on Disarmament (CD). Without prejudice to the priority we attach to nuclear disarmament, we also support the immediate commencement of negotiations in the CD of a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty on the basis of CD/1299 and the mandate contained therein.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 19 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

Cambodian Economy on the Rise, Democracy on the Wane

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Cambodia is no longer going forward, it is slipping backwards, as it has many times before. Earlier this month the government asked the Supreme Court to dissolve the main opposition coalition. One opposition leader, Kem Sokha, was sent to prison in September and the other, Sam Rainsy, is in exile. The English-language newspaper, The Cambodia Daily, has been closed and the relatively free radio stations leant on and a number closed. The decades-long Prime Minister, Hun Sen, talks about rebels in the capital, Phnom Penh, plotting to overthrow the government.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 17 October 2017

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres addresses a high-level event inaugurating Africa Week on 16 October 2017 at the UN headquarters in New York. UN Photo/Cia Pak

Strategic Alignment of Global, African Agendas a Must

By António Guterres

Note: Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the high-level event inaugurating the Africa Week (October 16-20) at the UN on the theme: “Supporting an Integrated, Prosperous, People-Centred and Peaceful Africa: Towards the Implementation of Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. – The Editor

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - In recent years, the continent has made headway in reducing poverty, diversifying economies, building the middle class and nurturing growth in a variety of growing sectors such as banking, telecom and retail. More children – and especially girls – are in primary school. More women are serving in parliaments. Child and maternal deaths have been reduced – as has the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 16 October 2017

Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office

Will U.S. Congress Legally Restrain a Nuclear World War III?

By Shanta Roy

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – U.S. President Donald Trump's highly erratic behavior on nuclear weapons – and his public threats to "totally destroy" North Korea – have triggered a strong political backlash from anti-nuclear and anti-war activists.

"A central problem is that Donald Trump seems ignorant about what nuclear weapons really are, and the humanitarian catastrophe that would be unleashed if he fired even one at North Korea – or anywhere," said Dr. Rebecca Johnson of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, a founding co-Chair of the International Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Laureate.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 16 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: Since the Nobel Committee painstakingly scrutinizes the words and deeds of all nominees, it was cognizant of President Sirisena's failure to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. UN Photo/Cia Pak.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2017 Finally for a Legitimate Cause

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) - “Commiserations, Mr. President” in the Sunday Times of October 8 noted that President Maithripala Sirisena was “nominated and short listed” but missed the coveted Nobel peace prize.

The article provided an impressive historical perspective of our democracy – a must read by all who love our country. Bravo! to the writer. It is unfortunate that we, Sri Lankans, lost a jubilant moment.

Though no small feat to hit the short list, we are unable to know the details and opinions related to the award as the statutes of the Nobel Foundation restrict disclosure of information about the nominees for 50 years.

: Somar Wijayadasa; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 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).