HUMAN RIGHTS

Image: The ethical application of artificial intelligence is one of the pressing questions of our time. Credit: Information Age

Let's Train Humans First … Before We Train Machines

Viewpoint by Hazel Henderson*

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (IDN) – We humans are at the absurd stage in our technological evolution when we seem to have abandoned our common sense.

Billions are spent by governments, corporations and investors in training computer-based algorithms (i.e. computer programs) in today’s mindless rush to create so-called “artificial” intelligence, widely advertised as AI.

Meanwhile, training our children and their brains (already superior to computer algorithms) is under-funded, schools are dilapidated, sited in run-down, often polluted areas while our teachers are poorly paid and need greater respect. How did our national priorities get so skewed?

: Phil Harris; SYNDICATION; Think-Tanks; 06 December 2018

ICC Leaders Join in Global Initiative to Break Down Gender Barriers

By Robert Johnson

THE HAGUE (IDN) – Top officials of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or "the Court") – President Chile Eboe-Osuji, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and Registrar Peter Lewis – have joined the International Gender Champions network, an important initiative to break down gender barriers at all levels.

This global leadership network brings together decision-makers determined to break down gender barriers and make gender equality a working reality in their spheres of influence.

The network was launched in July 2015 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva and hubs have been established in New York, Vienna, and Nairobi. It counts over 200 active Champions and Alumni worldwide, including the UN Secretary General, heads of UN offices and organizations, ministers, ambassadors and permanent representatives, and NGO, academic and business leaders.

: Robert Johnson; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 04 December 2018

Stop Preventable Scourge of Violence Against Women

By UN Women

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – To commemorate this year's International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Secretary-General's UNiTE Campaign is calling upon us to stand in solidarity with survivors and survivor advocates and women's human rights defenders who are working to prevent and end violence against women and girls. Our duty is not only to stand in solidarity with them but also to intensify our efforts to find solutions and measures to stop this preventable global scourge with a detrimental impact on women's and girls' lives and health.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 25 November 2018

Photo: (L-R) Moderator, news anchor Richard Lui; Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, President of the General Assembly; António Guterres, UN Secretary-General; and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women Executive Director participate in a panel discussion during the UN . Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown

UN Kicks Off 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – Worldwide movements and corporate walk-outs have exposed the magnitude of violence against women and girls and highlighted how often such violence is normalized. Research shows that violence against women and girls affects one in three women worldwide and that no country is immune to this pandemic. Yet instead of holding perpetrators accountable, women and girls who experience violence are often blamed and their testimonies systematically called into question.

: UN Bureau; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; United Nations; 19 November 2018

Photo: The first migrants from the Aquarius ship arrive at the port of Valencia on an Italian ship, the Dattilo, June 2018. Credit: UNHCR

Migration a Major Issue in EU's Relations with 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific States

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – As the United Nations Global Compact fractures, migration has become a key issue in negotiations between the European Union (EU) and 79 countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) which kicked off in September 2018 to hammer out a successor to the Cotonou Partnership Agreement set to expire in 2020.

The ACP-EU Partnership Agreement, signed in Cotonou, Benin, on June 23, 2000, was concluded for a 20-year period from 2000 to 2020. It is the most comprehensive partnership agreement between developing countries and the EU. In 2010, ACP-EU cooperation was adapted to new challenges such as climate change, food security, regional integration, State fragility and aid effectiveness.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; UN INSIDER; 09 November 2018

Photo: Protests in Pakistan. Source: Times of India.

Protests As Pakistan Blasphemy Death Sentence Is Overturned

Viewpoint by René Wadlow

The author is representative to the United Nations, Geneva, of the Association of World Citizens (AWC)*. This blog was carried by AWC on November 1, 2018. Since then, Asia Bibi remains in prison, and it is her lawyer who has had to flee the country. There are demonstrations against the Supreme Court decision in the larger cities of Pakistan, and Islamist groups have focused on the case. – The Editor

GENEVA (IDN-INPS) – On October 29, 2018, the Supreme Court of Pakistan reversed the decision of lower courts sentencing to death Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of four for blasphemy. After 3,422 days of imprisonment in solitary confinement, the Supreme Court reversed a 2010 lower court verdict. Asia Bibi is now in seclusion and will probably leave the country as some 60 persons in Pakistan have been murdered since 1990, accused of blasphemy.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 04 November 2018

Photo: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena with his political foe of recent years, Mahinda Rajapakse. Source: Colombo Telegraph.

West's 'Democracy' Clash With Peoples' Concerns in Sri Lanka

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – After Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's shock decision on October 26 to appoint his political foe of recent years Mahinda Rajapakse as Prime Minister, Western diplomats and the international media have expressed outrage at what they perceive as "lack of respect for democratic institutions" such as the Parliament.

But, within an hour of the announcement, Sri Lankan media broadcast images of people lighting celebratory fire crackers across the country including in Tamil-dominated Jaffna.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 02 November 2018

Photo: UN Secretary-General António Guterres (left) meets with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on 12 February 2017 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Will UN Chief Explore the Truth Behind Khashoggi Slaughter?

By Erol Avdovic

NEW YORK (IDN) – Pressure is mounting on the United Nations to set up an independent commission to investigate apparently premeditated and the barbaric killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul on October 2. And UN Secretary-General António Guterres faces growing public chorus pushing him in that direction.

The civil society is increasingly frustrated why the UN chief doesn’t use the moral authority bestowed on him by the UN Charter. He could report the matter to the UN Security Council where Saudi Arabia could face serious diplomatic scorn and even sanctions if found complicit in the journalist’s murder as the Kingdom has confessed.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 02 November 2018

Photo credit: Human Rights Defenders World Summit.

World Summit Pledges To Protect Human Rights Defenders

By Jamshed Baruah

PARIS (IDN) – A diverse group of 150 human rights defenders from around the world, who gathered for a three-day summit in Paris, have agreed on a landmark action plan which will be presented to the United Nations in December.

The plan focuses on how to protect and promote the work of activists fighting for rights, 20 years on from the first UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

: Jamshed Baruah; SUSTAINABILITY; Reduced Inequalities; 01 November 2018

Photo: David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Credit: UN

UN Expert Reiterates Call for Investigation of Khashoggi's Murder

NEW YORK (IDN) – David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, has reiterated the call for an "independent investigative body" to examine the case of the late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was reportedly killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. He stressed the need for a "credible statement about what actually happened."