Peace & Justice

Photo: Religious Leaders from Israel and Palestine pose with UN Secretary-General António Guterres (6th from left) and UNAOC High Representative Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser (6th from right). Credit UN Photo

Inter-Religious Coalition Aims For Peace in the Middle East

By Joan Erakit

NEW YORK (IDN) - There is a famous bible passage that alludes to the unfortunate kinship between siblings; a child is questioned by God about his brother and he, at the time having killed his brother, denies allegiance by asking: “Am I my brothers keeper?”

Some may interpret the parable about Cain and Abel as follows: being humans, we are brothers by birth meant to look out for one another, yet circumstances have arisen that have turned us against each other. In the end, it is religion that is called upon to solidify bonds, bringing people from various backgrounds and points of view, together on the same page.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 21 July 2017

Photo (left to right): Commander Robert Green (UK Royal Navy, retired), Bill Kidd (Member of the Scottish Parliament and PNND Co-President), Alyn Ware (PNND Global Coordinator), and Jonathan Granoff (President of the Global Security Institute) at the press conference at the UN on July 5 at which the Parliamentary Action Plan was released.

The Ban Treaty and the Nuclear-Armed States: From Irrelevance to a Game-Changer

By Alyn Ware

Alyn Ware, Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (PNND), examines how to use the ban treaty to impact on the policies and practices of the nuclear-armed States and their nuclear allies.

NEW YORK (IDN) - When the gavel came down at the United Nations on July 7 to confirm the adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a cheer arose amongst the negotiating countries and civil society observers. 122 countries had voted in favour of the treaty, demonstrating a clear and unequivocal acceptance of the majority of UN members never to use, threaten to use, produce, possess, acquire, transfer, test or deploy nuclear weapons.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 20 July 2017

NATO, OSCE Asked to Pursue Nuclear Disarmament in Europe

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN (IDN | PNND) - Fifty Parliamentarians from 13 European countries have sent a letter today NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Chair of the OSCE Minister Sebastian Kurz, urging these two key European security organizations to pursue dialogue, détente and nuclear risk reduction in Europe.

The letter on July 14 also calls on NATO and OSCE (the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) to support the multilateral process for nuclear disarmament through the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the United Nations. OSCE is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, promotion of human rights, freedom of the press, and fair elections.

: Jutta Wolf; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 15 July 2017

Photo: The remains of the Prefectural Industry Promotion Building, later preserved as a monument - known as the Genbaku Dome - at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. UN Photo

Finally, Nuclear Weapons Are Outlawed

By Jayantha Dhanapala*

KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN) – On July 7 2017, seventy two years after the most inhumanely destructive weapon was invented and used on hapless Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a Conference of the majority of member states in the United Nations decided – by a vote of 122 for; one abstention: and one against – to adopt a Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

It had been a long journey from January 1946 when the newly established United Nations Organization, located temporarily in London, adopted its very first resolution calling for nuclear disarmament signifying the undisputed priority of this issue. Since then, at every session of the UN General Assembly, resolutions with various nuances on nuclear disarmament were adopted with varying majorities.

: Jayantha Dhanapala; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 12 July 2017

Photo: Conference President Elayne Whyte Gómez of Costa Rica has tears in her eyes as the conference spontaneously rises to its feet in applause for consensus adoption. Afterwards, Netherlands called for a vote. Photo: Xanthe Hall | ICAN

'Combination of Reason and Heart' Results in UN Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons

By Ramesh Jaura

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – In what was a “historic” and a highly emotional moment at the United Nations, member states adopted on July 7, 2107 a legally-binding treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons.

"The world has been waiting for this legal norm for 70 years," since the use of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 at the end of World War II, said Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gómez of Costa Rica, president of the UN conference to negotiate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons.

"We feel emotional," she told a news conference at the UN Headquarters in New York, "because we are responding to the hopes and dreams of the present and future generations."

: Ramesh Jaura; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 07 July 2017

Conference Pleads for Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Becoming Law

By Ramesh Jaura

This is the second in a series of two reports on the Science and Technology Conference of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) from June 26 to June 30, 2017 in Austria's capital Vienna. The first article appeared on July 4. – The Editor

NEW YORK | VIENNA (IDN) – At a crucial point in time when the United Nations Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination has submitted a draft treaty and the international community is focussed on the North Korean ICBM threat, an international conference has underlined the need for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) becoming law without any further dithering.

: Ramesh Jaura; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; CTBTO; 05 July 2017

Photo: UNESCO DG Irina Bokova. Credit; UNESCO

UNESCO Crucial to Achieving the SDGs in their Totality

By Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO

Following is the text of the Foreword the UNESCO Director-General wrote for the '2017 Report of the Joint Media Project' of the International Press Syndicate Group, with IDN-InDepthNews as its flagship agency and the Soka Gakkai Internationa (SGI). The Report can be accessed on line at http://www.sdgsforall.net/documents/Striving_for_People_Planet_and_Peace_2017.pdf. - The Editor

PARIS (IDN-INPS) - The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), charts a new vision for cooperation over the next 15 years, to ensure prosperity and well-being for all societies, while protecting the planet and strengthening peace. Inclusivity, integration, and universality. These are three hallmarks of the SDGs, and they represent the most ambitious and comprehensive agenda ever seen – to leave no one behind.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 02 July 2017

Photo: President Juan Manuel Santos; Special Representative of the Secretary-General Jean Arnault; and head of the FARC-EP Secretariat Timoleon Jimenez at a ceremony for the final laying down of weapons in Colombia. Photo: UN Mission in Colombia

Security Council Pledges Support to Colombia in Transition

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Security Council has greeted the handover of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army’s (FARC-EP) remaining weapons to a United Nations-backed team as a “true example” of courage and commitment to peace, and pledged to support Colombia as it transitions out of its five-decades-long civil conflict.

Briefing the Council on those recent developments, Jean Arnault, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission in Colombia, said on June 30 that, with the June 27 handover of its remaining weapons, the FARC‑EP had officially met its obligations under the May 29 road map.

: Santo D. Banerjee; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 01 July 2017

Photo: Espen Barth Eide, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Cyprus during press conference ahead of the Cyprus talks in Geneva. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré.

UN Hopes for Success as Cyprus Talks Enter a New Phase

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – As the delegations prepared to reconvene the Conference on Cyprus on June 28 in Switzerland, the United Nations envoy Espen Barth Eide said the reconvening of the deliberations was “not the last chance” but the “the best chance” of reaching an agreement between Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots.

The talks are taking place following a meeting between the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders early June, when the UN Chief announced that they had agreed on the need to reconvene the Conference on Cyprus in June, in line with the January 12 statement of the conference.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 27 June 2017

Photo: ASEAN members' flags in their headquarters in Jakarta. Credit; Wikimedia Commons.

Culture of Peace is the Lynchpin of ASEAN’s Strategic Diplomacy

By Kishore Mahbubani

The author is dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and co-author of The ASEAN Miracle. This article first appeared in EASTASIAFORUM on June 18. An extended version of this article appeared in the most recent edition of East Asia Forum Quarterly, ‘Strategic diplomacy in Asia’. – Editor.

SINGAPORE (IDN | INPS) - Try imagining a world where the Middle East is at peace. The thought seems almost inconceivable. Imagine a world where Israel and Palestine, two nations splintered from one piece of territory, live harmoniously. Impossible? This is what Malaysia and Singapore accomplished. After an acrimonious divorce in 1965, they live together in peace.