Peace & Justice

Photo: María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, President of the seventy-third session of the General Assembly, gavels to a close the General Assembly’s annual general debate. UN Photo | Cia Pak

Except A Few Dissenters World Leaders Pledge To Bolster Multilateralism

By Ramesh Jaura

NEW YORK (IDN) – As the new year unfolds, UN Secretary-General António Guterres' appeal for addressing the "trust deficit disorder" plaguing the world, and General Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés' plea for stressing the need to enshrine the General Assembly as the "chief peacebuilding organization in the world" will serve as a clarion call to urgent action by the international community. All the more so because the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2018 was held against the backdrop of burgeoning unilateralism and large-scale migration.

: Ramesh Jaura; UN INSIDER; 28 December 2018

Photo: Colombo City, Sri Lana. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Wickremasinghe's Reappointment As Sri Lanka PM Opens Door To The 'Indo-Pacific'

By Kalinga Seneviratne

COLOMBO (IDN) – For the past two months Sri Lanka’s deeply divided political community has been fighting to protect democracy in one of the oldest democracies in Asia. One side wants a general election to elect a new parliament claiming the current one is corrupt and wants to divide the country. The other is fighting to evade going for a general election before it is due in mid-2020.

Interestingly the U.S. and its European allies have been openly supporting the latter – the camp that does not want an election. They claim this is to “restore” democracy in the country!

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 27 December 2018

Photo: President Joseph Kabila Kabange of the Democratic Republic of the Congo addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2018. UN Photo/Cia Pak

UN Intervention In The Congo Appears To Be Successful

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The general election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) has been postponed yet again – to December 30. Will this country, the largest and potentially the richest in Africa, ever escape from its continuous dictatorship, and its propensity to civil war? It’s not so long ago that Susan Rice, then the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, was talking about the Congo as the site of “Africa’s First World War”.

Has the UN at long last really pacified this country that has been continuously in a state of unrest since the Belgian colonisers, after effectively looting the country, fled in 1960, turning the country over to a hastily improvised African government?

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; Africa; 25 December 2018

Photo: Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has been in power since a 1989 coup.

Sudan Leader Faces Calls For Removal As Price Of Bread Spikes

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | KHARTOUM (IDN) – In the face of a growing movement of Sudanese opposition, protesting rising costs of bread and other essentials, security forces of the government of President Omar al-Bashir moved forcefully on December 25 to end the demonstrations using tear gas, night sticks and live ammunition, according to witnesses.

States of emergency and curfews have been declared in several of the northeast African country's protesting cities. The protesters – organized by a group of professional unions including doctors, lawyers, teachers and students and supported by two of the largest opposition parties – are calling for President Omar al-Bashir to step down.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Middle East & North Africa; 25 December 2018

Photo: Kazakh Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, Ambassador Umarov (2nd from right on the right of the table), discusses with NGOs at the Kazakh UN Mission the Central Asian country's achievements as non-permanent Security Council member for 2017-2018. Credit: Kazakh Mission to the UN in New Yok.

Kazakhstan Ends Successful Security Council Membership

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – As Kazakhstan ends its two-year tenure as non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo has "appreciated the leadership" the Central Asian country "has brought to the world stage on regional security and development issues, particularly with respect to Afghanistan."

He also expressed "appreciation to the Government of Kazakhstan for deploying its first peacekeeping force to assist the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon." In press remarks on the occasion of the country's 27 years of independence on December 16, Pompeo said: "Kazakhstan has assumed a key role on the global stage as a partner in ensuring peace and stability, and in promoting economic development and connectivity in Central Asia and beyond."

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 24 December 2018

Photo: Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev (left) and President Reagan (right) signing the INF Treaty in the East Room of the White House in December 1987. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

UN Rejects Resolution Calling for Russian-U.S. Compliance with Nuclear Treaty

By Ramesh Jaura

NEW YORK (IDN) – In a tug of war between two nuclear giants, the UN General Assembly has rejected a resolution calling for U.S.-Russian compliance with and strengthening of the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. And this within months of President Donald Trump's October announcement to "terminate" the 1987 Treaty "in response to Russian violations of the agreement".

By a recorded vote of 46 against to 43 in favour, with 78 abstentions, the General Assembly rejected the draft resolution titled 'Preservation of and compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty' (document A/73/L.70), which would have also called on the U.S. and Russia to resume a constructive dialogue on strategic issues premised on openness, mutual confidence and real opportunities for cooperation.

: Ramesh Jaura; UN INSIDER; 24 December 2018

Photo: Tadamichi Yamamoto, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, briefing the Security Council. Credit: unama.unmissions.org

Possibility of Peace in Afghanistan Was Never More Real Than It's Now – UN Envoy

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The possibility of a negotiated end to the conflict in Afghanistan has never been more real in the past 17 years than it is now, according to the United Nations top envoy in Afghanistan.

Tadamichi Yamamoto told the Security Council on December 17 he is encouraged by several recent developments, including the appointment of a team to negotiate with the Taliban, the announcement of a peace advisory board representing a broad set of Afghan politicians and recent initiatives by key international partners.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 17 December 2018

Photo: Tadamichi Yamamoto, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan (left), and Ambassador Kairat Umarov, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Nations (centre). Credit: Kazakh Mission to the UN in New York.

Kazakhstan Continues Discussions on Cooperation Between Afghanistan and Central Asia States

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – Ambassadors from Central Asia and UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Tadamichi Yamamoto met at Kazakhstan's Permanent Mission to the United Nations on December 14, two weeks ahead of the Central Asian state's non-permanent membership of the Council coming to an end.

They discussed the outcomes of the Geneva Conference on Afghanistan on November 27-28, 2018, and contribution of the Central Asian states to ensuring security and promoting development in the country.

: Santo D. Banerjee; CENTRAL ASIA; 17 December 2018

Photo: Youth Forum in Tokyo. Credit: Yukie Asagiri | IDN-INPS

Japan Shines with a Youth Forum to Commemorate Universal Human Rights Declaration

By Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – When the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in Paris on December 10, 1948, it came up with a milestone document in the history of human rights that took into account the horrendous experiences of the Second World War.

With the end of that war, and the creation of the United Nations, the international community vowed never again to allow atrocities like those of the Second World War happen again. It pledged, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.

: Katsuhiro Asagiri; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 16 December 2018

Photo: Chief Fortune Charumbira. Credit: Brigitte Meuwissen

EU Should Speak Against the Ill-Treatment of Eritreans

Viewpoint by Chief Fortune Charumbira

The author is from Vice President of the Pan African Parliament (PAP), and President of the Chief Council in his home country Zimbabwe He gave an opening speech to the Conference titled 'We the People: Peace in the Horn & the Safety and Future of the Eritrean People' 12-14 December 2018. He noted that the success of the conference has "the potential to transform" the lives of millions of Eritreans "who have been suffering for several years". The EU that preaches the respect for human rights as enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "must be louder in calling for the end of ill treatment of migrants". The following are extensive excerpts from his address.