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Photo: Health workers demonstrate proper handwashing to a child at a community health centre in Central Java, Indonesia. © UNICEF/Fauzan Ijazah © UNICEF/Fauzan Ijazah

"Target Women in All Aspects of Economic Recovery and Stimulus Plans in Southeast Asia"

Viewpoint by António Guterres

Following is the text of remarks by UN Secretary-General on the occasion of his latest policy brief titled The Impact of COVID-19 on South-East Asia. It examines how the eleven countries of South-East Asia are addressing the immediate impacts of COVID-19, focusing on the subregion’s socio-economic response.

NEW YORK (IDN) – As in other parts of the world, the health, economic and political impact of COVID-19 has been significant across Southeast Asia — hitting the most vulnerable the hardest.

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 30 July 2020

Photo: Collage of pictures of writers, Ritesh Tandon and Manish Uprety F.R.A.S.

The Risk of Democracy Compromising Democracy

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Ritesh Tandon

Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. is an ex-diplomat and Ritesh Tandon is the Republican Party candidate for the US Congress from California’s 17th District.

CALIFORNIA (IDN) – Politics makes strange bedfellows where one snores aloud and the other one turns a blind eye to it. The paradox goes beyond the marriage of convenience, and oft political parties and people involved in democratic processes tend to undermine the very process.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 30 July 2020

Photo: A cyclist in Wonsan City, in DPRK | OCHA/David Ohana

'Heart-Breaking' Accounts of Women Detained in DPRK

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | SEOUL (IDN) – A new UN report says that women forcibly returned to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are subjected to torture, ill treatment, sexual abuse, and other violations.

The report published by the UN Human Rights office (OHCHR) on July 28 is based on 100 first-hand accounts by North Korean women who said they were beaten or suffered other individual or collective punishment while in detention between 2009 and 2019.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 30 July 2020

Photo: Dr Medhin Tsehaiu, who has worked with UNAIDS since 2011, and is UNAIDS Country Director based in Nairobi, Kenya. Credit: UNAIDS.

HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 Require Global Solidarity

Kester Kenn Klomegah* Talks to UNAIDS Expert

MOSCOW (IDN) – For over three decades, Africa has fought HIV/AIDS and is now battling another pandemic, COVID-19, that has shattered the continent's economies. While adequate measures have been taken to halt the spread of the pandemic, Coronavirus has increased the financial burden. But HIV/AIDS experts say strengthening health institutions and commitment by political leaders (African governments) as well as development and international institutions could help to achieve adequate solutions especially in developing countries such as those in Africa.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; OPINION; 29 July 2020

Photo: Kant with friends, including Christian Jakob Kraus, Johann Georg Hamann, Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel and Karl Gottfried Hagen. Public Domain | Wikimedia Commons

What Is Morally Wrong With Discrimination? A Kantian Analysis

Viewpoint by Dr Sam Ben-Meir

Dr Sam Ben-Meir is a professor of philosophy and world religions at Mercy College in New York City.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Supreme Court decided on June 15 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects gay and transgender workers from workplace discrimination. Discrimination ‘because of sex’ is unlawful. But what is it that makes discrimination morally wrong? It is useful to examine this from a Kantian standpoint because Immanuel Kant lays the foundation for recognizing the inherent dignity of every individual – and discrimination is indeed an affront to human dignity.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 29 July 2020

Photo: Bruce Blair. Credit: Matt Stanley, mattstanleyphoto.com

A Warrior for Nuclear Peace Dies But His Message Reverberates

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Bruce Blair, one of the great unsung heroes of the nuclear bomb age, died on July 19 at the age of 72. In his twenties he had been an intercontinental nuclear rocket launch officer, spending his days or nights deep down in a below-ground bunker waiting for the signal to fire and obliterate the cities and their people, the workers of all classes, pensioners and the totally innocent children of western Russia.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 28 July 2020

Photo: Iwokrama forest in Guyana. Credit: Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development.

Indigenous Communities of Guyana and Women in Togo Fight Forest Degradation

Viewpoint by P.I. Gomes*

The writer, Dr Patrick I Gomes, was Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States for five years until February 29, 2020. The 79-nation inter-regional body officially became the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) on April 5, 2020. Dr Gomes was previously Ambassador of the Republic of Guyana, to the EU in Brussels.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (IDN) – The discussion on “Income Opportunities for Women" in the Togolese Republic in West Africa, reported in IDN on July 6, provides an opportunity to share some aspects of the experiences by Indigenous women and community loggers in the Iwokrama Forest area in Guyana, where sustainable forest management and income-generating activities are being pursued.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 28 July 2020

Photo: Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapa (left) meets with the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan during the special session of the General Assembly for the overall review and appraisal of the implementation of Agenda 21 since the 1992 Earth Summit. Credit: UN Photo/Milton Grant.

Former President Mkapa Embodied Tanzanians' Humility, Commitment to Peace

Viewpoint by Salim Lone

The writer is former Director of Communications under Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Spokesman for Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga for more than a decade and currently working on a book on Kenya in the Global Context with a focus on the UN.

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY (IDN) – Former President Ben Mkapa was at the ceremony where Tanzanian President John Magufuli presented nomination papers for his candidacy in October’s presidential election; the two other former presidents Hassan Ali Mwinyi and Jakaya Kikwete were there too.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 27 July 2020

Photo: Benjamin William Mkapa, who served as president for 10 years from 1995 to 2005, passes away in early hours of July 24. Source: Anadolu News Agency.

Tanzania's Ex-President and Peacemaker Mkapa Dies of Malaria

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) – Flags are being flown at half-mast for the former Tanzanian president, Benjamin William Mkapa, who passed away on July 24 after a bout of malaria. He was 81. He died in the early hours of July 24 while receiving treatment at a hospital in Dar es Salaam.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame and other leaders paid tribute to Mkapa who was a renowned Pan-Africanist. John Magufuli, current president of Tanzania, declared a seven-day mourning period during which flags will be flown at half-mast.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 27 July 2020

Photo: Collage of images of ESCAP Executive Secretary, Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana; UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau's Director, Kanni Wignaraja; and ADB Vice-President Bambang Susantono.

ESCAP, UNDP and ADB Determined to Achieve SDGs in 2030 Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana (ESCAP), Kanni Wignaraja (UNDP) and Bambang Susantono (ADB)*

BANGKOK (IDN) – As lockdowns ease in countries across Asia and the Pacific in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is clear—a return to business as usual is unimaginable in a region that was already off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The virtual High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development recently convened governments and stakeholders across the globe to focus on the imperative to build back better while keeping an eye on the Global Goals.