Home - IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

Photo: Human Rights Watch (HRW) at the UNCA press conference on 14 January 2020 (from left to right) Louis Charbonneau, UN director at HRW; Emma Daly, media director, HRW; Kenneth Roth, executive director, HRW and Sophie Richardson, China director, at HRW presenting HRW 2020 Annual Report focusing on China. Credit: Erol Avdović - Webpublicapress New York 2020.

UN Chief Urged to Name and Shame Perpetrators of Human Rights Violations

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Informed East River diplomats characterize the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as a “tough nut”. Perhaps because he feels he is ‘untouchable’ and believes he is above everybody? But others maintain that he is a man of least resistance – in fear of the mightier above him. In fact, the knowledgeable encourage the latter view. The World Report 2020: Human Rights Trends Around the Globe focusing on China and presented at the UN affirms that Mr. Guterres does not want to offend the countries that HRW calls grave human rights abusers.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 18 January 2020

Photo: A health worker administers a vaccination against cholera to a young boy in Yemen. Credit: UNICEF/Saleh Bahless

Urgent Health Challenges Facing the World

By Sean Buchanan

GENEVA (IDN) – A list of urgent, global health challenges released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the beginning of 2020 reflects deep concern that leaders are failing to invest sufficient resources in core health priorities and systems. This, says the Geneva-based UN agency, is putting lives, livelihoods and economies in jeopardy.

Recommending that countries spend one percent of their gross domestic product on primary health care, to give more people access to the quality essential services they need, close to where they live, WHO has identified a series of priorities for the decade, covering a wide range of issues affecting people across the planet.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 17 January 2020

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump withe Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. Source: The While House.

US-China Trade Deal – The Show Isn't Over Yet

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Dr. Yiyong Liang*

NEW DELHI | BEIJING (IDN) – Trade wars are fascinating where not only the outcomes but also the tactics and strategy matter. Sun Tzu said: “All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”

The world was waiting with a baited breath for easing out of tensions between the U.S. and China during the meeting of President Donald Trump with Vice Premier Liu He. The ongoing China-U.S. trade war resulted in profound consequences including contributing to conditions pushing the entire global economy to the edge of a possible recession in 2020. The accompanying contortions including contradictory reports and veiled criticisms alongside high rhetoric from both sides was not of much help either.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 17 January 2020

Photo: Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses to the Federal Assembly on 15 January 2020. Credit: Kremlin website.

Putin Promises Incentives to Boost Russia’s Population

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – “We need to address large-scale social, economic and technological tasks facing the country more quickly and, without delay. Our society is clearly calling for change. People want development,” President Vladimir Putin said in his wide-ranging address on January 15 to the Federal Assembly at the Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, a few metres away from the Kremlin.

Putin emphasised that this year Russia will celebrate the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War – World War 2. He said: “For Russia, May 9 is the greatest and sacred holiday. We are proud of the generation of victors and honour their feat, and our memory is not only a tribute to our heroic past, but it also serves our future, inspires us and strengthens our unity.”

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 16 January 2020

Photo: After the police pouncing on People Power leader Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu aka Bobi Wine at the start of his countrywide consultations on January 6, his supporters are devising new ways to go past the police. Source: The Independent.

Militant Youth Pin Hopes on Uganda’s ‘New Nightmare’

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – He’s elusive. He escapes, he hides. Police keep chasing him like a video game character or a superhero in a movie.

But despite their best efforts, authorities have been unable to stop Robert Kyagulanyi – a member of parliament and a popular reggae singer who records under the stage name Bobi Wine. He plans to seize the seat held by aging President Yoweri Museveni when elections are held in 2021.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 January 2020

Image: People with Sinhalese ancestry as a percentage of the population in Sydney, divided geographically by postal area, as of the 2011 census. CC BY-SA 3.0 au

Australia Burns Furiously but Still Remains an Attractive Destination to Sri Lankans

By Dr Palitha Kohona

The writer is former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, and former Foreign Secretary.

COLOMBO (IDN) – Summer temperatures continue to establish new records. The capital clocks up an unprecedented 44 degrees Celsius, a more familiar figure in Middle Eastern cities. Bush fires have continued to burn for months, destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of forest and farmland (an area bigger than Scotland has been consumed by the fires so far) and thousands of houses.

: Dr. Palitha Kohona; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 15 January 2020

Ghana’s Year of Return Brings Call to Broaden Scope

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – When Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo pronounced 2019 as the Year of Return, his words resounded with warmth and joy to all people of African descent.

So began a year-long calendar of events including concerts, art shows, visits to heritage sites, fashion shows, movie premieres and creative economy and trade conferences, organized on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of African slaves in America.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 15 January 2020

Photo: Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike. Credit: All Naija Media

Passing of Acclaimed Nigerian Novelist Grieved

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Vincent Chukwuemeka Ike, novelist extraordinaire, passed this month into eternity, writes Nigerian author Okey Ndibe.

Born April 28, 1931, he had a rich life as an academic, bureaucrat, father to an only son, Osita Ike (who preceded him in death), husband (to Adebimpe Olurinsola Ike, nee Abimbolu, who survives him), and traditional leader of his community, Ndikelionwu.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 15 January 2020

Photo: Ukrainian troops in Donbass, March 2015. CC BY 2.0

Breaking the Impasse on Donbass

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – The struggle for the Donbass region in the eastern and southern Ukraine goes on, seemingly never endingly. It’s now six years since dissident militias threw off the yoke of the central government in Kiev and declared their de-facto independence.

They were supported by Russian troops which at first president Vladimir Putin denied and then later admitted. It was the Russians who supplied the missile launcher that accidentally shot down a Malaysian airlines passenger jet. Altogether 17,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in this conflict.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 14 January 2020

Photo: The ministers of foreign affairs of the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, France, China, the European Union and Iran meeting in Lausanne in March 2015, a few weeks ahead of the nuclear deal was struck in Vienna. Credit: U.S. Department of State.

Experts Plead for Foiling Collapse of the Iran Nuclear Deal

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) – Since U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the JCPOA, also known as the "Iran nuclear deal", in May 2018, a widespread view is that the regime in Tehran is yearning for an atomic bomb.

Washington experts, however, maintain that while Iran’s violations of the JCPOA “are serious, they are reversible and they do not suggest, as some have alleged, that Iran is dashing to acquire a nuclear bomb“.