Peace & Justice

Photo: Celebrating International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Credit: UN

UN Chief Joins Rwandese to Denounce ‘Deliberate, Systematic’ Use of Genocide

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Speaking by video on the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the world community to choose humanity over hatred; compassion over cruelty; courage over complacency and reconciliation over rage.

If anyone missed the underlying message, the UN chief had quietly linked the horror of the genocide of one million Rwandans to the “sickening violence” now taking place in the Ukraine. While we honour the memory of those who died, he said poignantly, “we must reflect on our failures as an international community”.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Reduced Inequalities; 13 April 2022

Photo: An injured girl rests in a medical ward in Kyiv, Ukraine, after her car was shelled. © WHO/Anastasia Vlasova

Ukraine War: Russian Forces Censored at the Security Council

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — The United Nations Security Council has been told that there is mounting evidence of brutal killings by Russian troops as part of the "special military operation". The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.

Kateryna Cherepakha, President of the organization La Strada-Ukraine, said local human rights groups are currently consolidating efforts to save civilian lives and collect survivor testimonies about the war crimes committed by the Russian Federation.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 12 April 2022

Image: Meeting of the NATO Russia Council, 12 January 2022 | NATO/Flickr

Putin’s Actions in Ukraine are Vile, But Russia was Sorely Provoked by NATO

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

Viewpoint by Ramesh Thakur

CANBERRA, Australia (IDN) — Resorting to what President Barack Obama called the Washington Playbook of militarised response to a foreign policy crisis, Arta Moeini writes, the ruling elites in the West collude with the mainstream media in a Manichean framing that ‘redirects a natural reaction of sympathy felt by all into a moral outrage that insists on certain retaliation’.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 April 2022

Pakistan’s Political Change ‘Won’t Affect Solid Friendship with China’

Close ties with China ‘a consensus shared by all groups in Pakistan’

This article was issued by Global Times.

Viewpoint by Yang Sheng and Liu Caiyu

BEIJING (IDN) — Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted from office in a no-confidence vote in the country's parliament on Sunday (April 10), but such a major political upheaval in Islamabad will not affect the solid friendship between China and Pakistan. Experts from both China and Pakistan are confident in the future of the China-Pakistan ties, as they believe the new government will continue to uphold the country's long-standing tradition to make sure the friendship with China and all China-Pakistan cooperation projects will be unaffected.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 10 April 2022

Kenyan President's Bid to Rewrite Nation’s Laws Rebuffed

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — While political leaders around the world jockey for comebacks, to extend their terms in office or merely to ignore a no-confidence vote, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was scheming to make sweeping changes to the constitution which, critics say, would have expanded his powers and create a ‘super presidency’.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 09 April 2022

Photo: A woman rummages through a pile of clothes at the Polish border as migrants from Africa, the Middle East and India flee to Poland and other neighbouring countries. Source: NEW FRAME | Wojtek Radwanski

Racial Bias Against Blacks Fleeing Ukraine

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — As the US prepares to welcome tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing war, scores of African and Caribbean refugees are being sent back to unstable and violent homelands where they face rape, torture, arbitrary arrest and other abuses. Racial bias? An African refugee thinks so.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 09 April 2022

Sri Lanka’s Civil Unrest Should Trigger Alarm Bells Across Asia

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne *

SYDNEY (IDN) — Civil unrest spreading across Sri Lanka in the past few weeks resembles the beginnings of the Arab Spring uprising by youth frustrated with corrupt political systems which left the Middle East in utter chaos, and the youth at the mercy of human traffickers and European governments.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 08 April 2022

Image: Montage of an inert test of a United States Trident SLBM (submarine launched ballistic missile), from submerged to the terminal, or re-entry phase, of the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The End Of (Human) History?

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is Ambassador, former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affair, and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — Roughly three decades have gone by since the publication of Francis Fukuyama’s essay “The End of History?”. The interrogation mark makes clear that the social scientist and philosopher was not announcing an end to contradiction and conflict among nations. He was mainly asking whether Western liberal democracy could be considered as the final stage of human sociocultural evolution and the final form of governance that would endure.

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 08 April 2022

Putin's Aggression Against Ukraine Has Changed the World

This article was issued by the Wall Street International and is being republished with their permission.

Viewpoint by Franz Baumann

NEW YORK (IDN) — Wars teach about geography. In mid-February, the autocorrect on my phone did not recognize, and few people in Western Europe or America could have located on a map Mariupol, Charkiv, Bucha, Kherson, Chernihiv or Irpin. Now we know, tutored by the shocking images of Putin’s 'spetz operatsiya’.

: Franz Baumann; OPINION; 07 April 2022

Russian Invasion of Ukraine Triggers a Rise in Military Spending in Europe

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The Russian invasion of Ukraine is forcing most European countries to increase defence spending, boost military capabilities and secure their territorial borders.

The attack against Ukraine, which began February 24 and has continued despite international condemnations, has resulted in thousands of civilian killings, along with the devastation of a country of 44 million people, triggering charges of war crimes.