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Image: International Monitoring System with 337 Facilities – 90%+ complete. Source: CTBTO.

CTBTO Must Credibly Confirm Dismantling & Closure of DPRK Nuclear-Weapon Test Site

By Tariq Rauf *

While North Korea has invited journalists from a handful of countries to witness the dismantling and closure of its nuclear-weapon test site at Punggye Ri, only the Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) has the required expertise, verification technology and credibility to confirm the closure of the Punggye Ri test site.

Contrary to popular belief, the highly competent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has expertise only in monitoring and verification of civilian nuclear programmes, but not in the areas of dismantling of nuclear weapons and dismantling of nuclear-weapon test sites.

The IAEA monitors the “upstream” dimension of nuclear weapons development while the CTBT is intended to monitor the “downstream” final proof of a State's intention to develop nuclear weapons – that is, the actual nuclear test explosion.

: UN Bureau; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; CTBTO; 13 May 2018

Photo: UN Climate Talks in Bonn from April 30-May 10. Credit: UNFCCC

The Road to Climate Summit in Poland Leads Through Bangkok

By Jaya Ramachandran

BONN (IDN) – Since the climate negotiations in Bonn failed to pave the way for a successful United Nations climate summit COP24 in Poland in December, an extra round is being convened from September 3-8 in Bangkok.

Commenting the negotiations in Bonn, concluded on May 10, the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group Chair Gebru Jember Endalew expressed concern at "the lack of urgency" to move the negotiations forward, despite the fact that "it is time to look at the bigger picture, see the severe impacts that climate change is having across the world, and rise to the challenge."

: Jaya Ramachandran; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 12 May 2018

Photo credit: The Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe

European Development Fund Comes to Rescue as Backyard Schools Swamp Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (ACP-IDN) – Enrolment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91 per cent but 57 million children remain out of school. More than half of children that have not enrolled in school live in 48 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, which are members of the 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). An estimated 50 per cent of out-of-school children of primary school age live in conflict-affected areas.

Sub Saharan Africa is home to 17 of the 33 countries and territories the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank Group classifies as 'fragile or conflict affected'. The IFC Conflict Affected States in Africa Initiative (CASA) is active in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan.

: Jeffrey Moyo; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 12 May 2018

Image: Mural by Diego Rivera showing the Karl Marx. In the National Palace in Mexico City. CC BY-SA 3.0

In A Sense, We Are All Marxists

Viewpoint by Peter Singer*

MELBOURNE (IDN) – It is not far-fetched to suggest that the predictions of Karl Marx – whose 200th anniversary fell on May 5, 1818 – have been falsified, his theories discredited, and his ideas rendered obsolete. So why should we care about his legacy in the twenty-first century?

From 1949, when Mao Zedong’s communists triumphed in China’s civil war, until the collapse of the Berlin Wall 40 years later, the historical significance of Marx was unsurpassed. Nearly four out of every ten people on earth lived under governments that claimed to be Marxist, and in many other countries Marxism was the dominant ideology of the left, while the policies of the right were often based on how to counter Marxism.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 11 May 2018

Photo: The ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development follow-up (FfD Forum) in New York on Day 1 (23 April 2018). Credit: UN

Finance for Development Should Focus on Poverty Eradication

By Sahar Nasr, on Behalf of the Group of 77 and China

Following are extensive excerpts from the Statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China by Ms. Sahar Nasr, Minister of Investment and International Cooperation of Egypt, at the general debate of the Forum on Financing for Development Follow-up on the follow-up and review of the financing for development outcomes and the means of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in New York on 23 April 2018. – The Editor.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – The Group of 77 and China has engaged constructively throughout the negotiations over the draft text of agreed conclusions and recommendations with a view to reaching a consensus-based outcome document encompassing all action areas of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Global Partnerships; 11 May 2018

Photo: Overgrazing by livestock can lead to land degradation. Credit: The United States Department of Agriculture.

UN Predicts Loss Of $43 Trillion Through Land Degradation

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN | BONN (IDN) – Land degradation has reached staggering proportions. If the current pace continues unabated, a gargantuan amount of $43,000,000,000,000 ($43 trillion) will be lost to the world economy by the year 2050, warns the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

But the anticipated colossal loss can be avoided by spending $4.6 trillion on addressing a combination of human-induced processes adversely affecting the biophysical environment and huge stretches of fertile lands.

: Jutta Wolf; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 10 May 2018

Pugwash, UN and ICAN Warn of Ramifications of US Quitting Iran Nuclear Deal

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The announcement by President Donald Trump to abandon the Iran nuclear deal is "a costly mistake that can hold wide-ranging ramifications beyond its strictly nuclear parameters," the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize winner Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs have warned.

The decision undoes many years of constructive and patient diplomacy between Iran and the P5+1, which produced a landmark agreement in non-proliferation, said Pugwash president Sergio Duarte and Secretary-General Paolo Cotta Ramusino in a statement on May 9.

: J Nastranis; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 10 May 2018

Photo: President Donald Trump meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House in February 2017. Credit: Office of the President of the United States.

Canada Slams U.S. Decision to Quit Iran Nuclear Accord

By Suresh Jaura

TORONTO (IDN) – In 2012, Canada abandoned diplomatic ties with Iran and closed its embassy in Tehran. Former Canadian minister of foreign affairs, John Baird, cited Iran’s support for the Assad regime during the Syrian Civil War and non-compliance with United Nations resolutions on its nuclear program, recalls Katie Dangerfield writing in Global News.

When the Iran nuclear deal was created in July 2015, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was skeptical of the agreement between Iran and the P5+1 nations (US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany). However, after Prime Minister Trudeau was elected in October 2015, he promised to restore ties between Iran and Canada, Dangerfield adds.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 10 May 2018

Access to End-Use Technologies Key to Catalysing Development in Africa

By Joshua Masinde

NAIROBI (IDN) – Productive use of energy holds the key to livelihood transformation in Africa’s rural areas. Small industries could improve their production processes and efficiency if they had better access to electricity and technologies.

Without electricity, rural micro-enterprises make do with labour intensive and time-consuming manual tools, and often pass up many opportunities for value addition or product diversification.

Satisfying the need for power of commercial enterprises presents an opportunity for private sector players such as JUMEME, a Tanzanian company that develops solar-powered mini-grids to connect businesses and households in remote areas.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Africa; 09 May 2018

Photo: Trump ending U.S. participation in Iran Nuclear Deal. Credit: White House.

Experts Denounce U.S. Withdrawal From Iran Nuclear Deal

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Experts have deplored President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Iran Nuclear Deal. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) called it "a dangerous move" that "will have major international consequences". Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the independent Arms Control Association said the decision was "an irresponsible act of foreign policy malpractice".

The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation based in Santa Barbara warned in a statement: "The decision to withdraw from the treaty: 1. Makes it more likely Iran will pursue nuclear weapons. 2. Makes war between the U.S. and Iran more likely. 3. Separates the U.S. from its major allies. 4. Shows U.S. commitments are not reliable. 5. Further reinforces lack of U.S. leadership in the world. 6. Will likely have adverse effects on achieving nuclear deal with N. Korea."