Home - IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

Photo: Sinharaja Forest Reserve © Ko Hon Chiu Vincent

The Destruction of the World Heritage Sinharaja Forest

An OPEN LETTER to UNESCO, IUCN and WCPA

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) — As a former staff member of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 1978 to 1995, and as a Sri Lankan, I write this OPEN LETTER to UNESCO, to the International Union for the Conservation of Forests (IUCN) and to the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) to point out the plight of the Sinharaja Forest in Sri Lanka—declared as a World Heritage site.

Sri Lankans are grateful to UNESCO and its World Heritage Centre (WHC) for including six of our cultural sites and two natural sites in the World Heritage list—in accordance with the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

: Somar Wijayadasa; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 08 April 2021

Photo: Sri Lankan boat intercepted by India.

Taking Lessons from LTTE New Narco-Terrorism Network Takes Shape in South Asia

By Sugeeswara Senadhira

The writer is Director (International Media), Presidential Secretariat, Colombo.

COLOMBO (IDN) — Indian security officials believe the interception of a Sri Lankan boat carrying 300 kilograms of heroin, five AK-47 guns and ammunition off the coast of Vizhinjam in Kerala in South India on March 25 points to a network of narco-terrorism with strong links to a group in Sri Lanka. The Indian officials told the Media the network of narco-terrorism has created sleeper cells in Sri Lanka and other neighbouring countries, and exports drugs to foment trouble. They added that the drug income is then used to fund illegal activities, including extremist activities.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; South Asia; 08 April 2021

Image: Ushering in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Source: UNCTAD.

Nepal Is Closely Following the Fourth Industrial Revolution Under Way

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Jainendra Karn*

KATHMANDU (IDN) — In December 2020, Dr. Leonel Fernández Reyna, former president of the Dominican Republic and President of Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo, presented his vision about “The global and regional challenges of the 4.0 world,” where he highlighted the need to facilitate access to technology for all citizens.

His observations are a clarion call to the international community as the world stands on the precipice of a great tectonic shift caused by the Fourth Industrial Revolution currently underway.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Sustainable Industrialisation; 08 April 2021

Image Copyright © 2014 Province of British Columbia.

The Menace of Human Trafficking—A Canadian Perspective

Viewpoint by Anusha Jaura-Sindhwani*

Human trafficking is one of the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets endorsed by the international community in 2015. Goal 8.7 aims at "immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms". Anusha's Canadian perspective is based on 20 years of experience in the child welfare sector. She is also on the Human Trafficking Committee which looks at prevention and supporting youth at risk of trafficking.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Decent Work & Economic Growth; 07 April 2021

Image: Ecological economics views the economy as a subset of the larger ecological environment. Source: ResearchGate

ECOLOGY & ECONOMICS: Humanity Has Reached A Critical Decade

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery*

COPENHAGEN (IDN) — A new report, published on March 14, 2021 in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' journal Ambio [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-021-01544-8] points out that humanity is hurtling towards destruction unless we have the collective wisdom to change course quickly.

The article was written as part of the preparation of a meeting of Nobel Prize winners to discuss the state of the planet. The virtual meeting will be held on April 26-28, 2021.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 07 April 2021

Photo: Dr Wim Naudé, Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics with the Cork University Business School in Ireland with the image of AfCFTA from African Union website.

African Free Trade Area Expected to Lift Millions out of Extreme Poverty and Boost Growth

By Busani Bafana

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (IDN) — The long-awaited African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)—set to be the world’s biggest free trade zone by size—which entered into force on January 1, 2021, promises a new era for African trade.

An Africa-wide free-trade pact could bolster the region’s income by $450 billion and lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035, if accompanied by significant policy reforms and trade-facilitation measures, according to the World Bank. When fully operational, the Free Trade area will create a market of 1.2 billion and drive a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 06 April 2021

The West Should Declare It Has No Strategic Interest in Israel

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Yesterday morning [April 5] I watched on BBC News the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, walking into the courtroom where he is to be tried for corruption. He is impossible to read—his mask makes it even more difficult. In repose his intentions and personality are inscrutable.

On the most important political issue of all—whether to support a two-state solution—sometimes he has said he is for it, but now he says he doesn’t. He prefers, it seems, to keep to the status quo, which means expanding Jewish settlements on Arab Palestinian land and refusing any political life to the occupied Palestinians. But we don’t really know what his inner thoughts are.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 06 April 2021

Photo: Two women walk at an IDP camp in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, after brutal attacks in northern Mozambique. Credit: UNICEF/Mauricio Bisol.

Experts Urge US to End Military Solutions for African Problems

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Three noted Africa experts, at a Roundtable with the BBC, are warning of endless “forever wars” if Africa continues to rely on military solutions with weapons and training from the U.S. and the international community instead of addressing local grievances.

The group spotlighted the case of Mozambique where a small ragtag movement demanding religious freedom and a share in the region’s economic wealth morphed into a deadly armed movement of Islamist militants controlling the area called Cabo Delgado.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 April 2021

Photo: Ngũgĩ reading at the Library of Congress in 2019. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Noted Kenyan African 'Gikuyu' Writer Listed for Literary Prize

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Some two decades ago, Ngugi wa Thiong’o challenged African writers to break their colonial chains and write in African languages.

He then shocked the literary world and took on the challenge himself. Although he continued to write nonfiction in English, Ngugi wrote his novels and plays in Gikuyu and translated some of his works into other African languages.

: Global Information Network; ARTS & CULTURE; 05 April 2021

Photo: Older adults are amongst the first Peruvians to receive COVID-19 vaccines at a vaccination site in Lima, Peru. © UNICEF/Jose Vilca

COVAX Programme — US Decision to Lift Sanctions Against ICC — Four Peacekeepers Killed

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN | UN News) — The UN-backed COVAX scheme aims to get two billion vaccine doses into the arms of around a quarter of the population of poorer countries by the end of 2021. Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the United States decision to lift sanctions and visa restrictions against officials with the International Criminal Court (ICC). Furthermore. he has strongly condemned a deadly attack on April 2 against peacekeepers serving with the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA.