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Photo: Agricultural programs seek to achieve the value-chain with communities of small landholders. Source: High Atlas Foundation.

A Framework to Achieve the Model for Development in Morocco

Viewpoint by Yossef Ben-Mei *

MARRAKECH (IDN) – There may be irony in Morocco now reconsidering and revamping its development model, which is its national guiding frameworks for social and environmental fulfilment. I have long been and remain a believer in Morocco's existing structures for people's development.

There is, after all, a lot to like. Municipalities are to create development plans made from the participation of all communities and groups. Environmental management is understood to integrate the local people. Agricultural programs seek to achieve the value-chain with communities of small landholders.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 18 June 2020

Photo: Anthony Quintano | Black Lives Matter Protest Times Square New York City June 7 2020. CC License via Flickr. Source: UN Dispatch Podcast.

How the Black Lives Matter Movement Went Global

By Mark Leon Goldberg, UN Dispatch Podcasts

NEW YORK (IDN ) – The Black Lives Matter movement has spread quickly around the world. Over the last several weeks, there have been BLM demonstrations in nearly every major city in Europe. Tens of thousands of people showed up for protests in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, and London, just to name a few. There were also many protests across Latin America, Australia – even Asian cities like Seoul and Tokyo saw Black Lives Matter protests.

So how did the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota spark an anti-racism and civil rights movement that extends far beyond the United States?

: UN Bureau; HUMAN RIGHTS; Racism; 18 June 2020

Photo: Peacekeepers exemplify ‘service, sacrifice and selflessness’, in face of pandemic. Source: United Nations Peacekeping.

Why COVID-19 Offers A Chance to Transform UN Peacekeeping

Viewpoint by Charles T. Hunt and Adam Day *

LONDON (IDN | The Conversation) – United Nations Peacekeeping may be entering a period of major change. Over the past four years, there has been a steady decline in the number of peacekeepers deployed worldwide. And two of the largest peacekeeping missions in history are beginning to draw down.

These two developments hint at the fact that UN peacekeeping may appear poised to shrink further. There are a number of factors driving this. They include budgetary pressures and a contested track record. Added to this have been the more recent financial and practical challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 18 June 2020

Photo: A bronze statue of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, The Long March to Freedom, at Maropeng, 480 kilometres from Johannesburg. Mandela said: "To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity." Source: Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0

UN Senior African Officials 'Outraged' at Systemic Racism and Police Brutality

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – Twenty-two United Nations senior African officials who hold the rank of Under-Secretary-General have in their "personal capacity" signed "Joint Reflections" on the last few weeks of protests at the killing of George Floyd in the hands of police, which they say in no uncertain terms have left them all "outraged at the injustice of racism that continues to be pervasive in our host country and across the world".

: Caroline Mwanga; THE WORLD; Africa; 17 June 2020

UN Helps Conserve Migratory Waterbirds and Protect Biodiversity in 119 Countries

"Now Is the Time to Invest in and Step Up Action for Nature"

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – At least 40 per cent of the world’s economy and 80 per cent of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources. These include diversity within species, between species, and between ecosystems. The richer the diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical discoveries, economic development, and adaptive responses to such new challenges as climate change and disastrous viruses such as the COVID-19.

: Rita Joshi; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 17 June 2020

Photo and credit: The Supreme Court of India.

Supreme Court Against India's Name Change to 'Bharat'

Important Rulings on Migrant Workers and the Coronavirus Dead

News briefs compiled by Suresh Jaura*

TORONTO | NEW DELHI (IDN) – Indian news media have been reporting on a wide range of events and ongoing developments, including on the economy becoming "self-reliant" – an age-old but not yet achieved objective – without having an alternative national economic policy. Also, the often tabooed issue of mental health has come up in the aftermath of the rising Hindi filmstar Sushant Singh Rajput. This edition of news briefs focuses on several other equally important topics such as putting an end to racism and showing concern about the dead killed by the Coronavirus.

: Suresh Jaura; THE WORLD; South Asia; 17 June 2020

Looking Beyond the COVID-19 'Pandemic of Fear'

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) – Perspective and proportion are everything in this Pandemic of Fear that now consumes our attention and our daily lives. With very rare exceptions the media ignores this. As I write there have been world-wide 436,005 deaths from Coronavirus. But a remarkable, barely noticed, 4,137,712 have recovered.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 16 June 2020

Photo: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses demonstrators protesting against gender-based violence outside Parliament. Source: The Coversation/Nic Bothma

South African Leader Condemns Latest Surge of Violence Against Women

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Calling it a “dark and shameful week,” South African president Cyril Ramaphosa denounced the latest surge in violence against women, including the murder of a woman eight months pregnant.

"Gender-based violence thrives in a climate of silence,” he said. “By looking the other way because we believe it is a personal or family matter, we become complicit in this most insidious of crimes," the President said.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 16 June 2020

Photo: Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda. Credit: ICC

Human Rights Watch Supports ICC, Trump Attempts to Block Investigation of Possible U.S. War Crimes

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A world court designed to investigate allegations of human rights violations has found itself in the crosshairs of the President of the United States.

A new Trump executive order threatening the court’s operations has been condemned by prominent global institutions and individuals as it appears to give cover to human rights abuses committed in the course of U.S. foreign wars while demanding accountability from foreign countries in similar circumstances.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 16 June 2020

Photo: Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., speaking against the Vietnam War, St. Paul Campus, the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, April 27, 1967. CC BY-SA 2.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Time to Act on Dr King’s Call to Tackle Evils of Racism, Economic Exploitation, and War

Viewpoint by Alice Slater

The writer serves on the Board of 'World Beyond War', and represents the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation at the United Nations.

NEW YORK (IDN) –The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) just issued its 2020 Yearbook, reporting on developments in armaments, disarmament, and international security. In light of the drumbeat of frightening news about growing hostility between the dominant nuclear-armed states vying for power, SIPRI describes a bleak outlook for arms control. It notes ongoing nuclear weapons modernization and new weapons development, space weaponization moving forward, without check or controls, and a disturbing increase in geopolitical tensions together with a rapid deterioration in practices and possibilities for cooperation and monitoring between the great powers.