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Viewpoint by Alyn Ware
The author is Director of the World Future Council Peace and Disarmament Program. He is also the International Representative of the Aotearoa Lawyers for Peace.
PRAGUE (IDN) – January 22 was a historic day for the global campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons, with the entry-into-force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). According to promoters of the TPNW, nuclear weapons "are now illegal under international law".
Viewpoint by P. I. Gomes*
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago (IDN) – The “catastrophic moral failure” into which the world is seen as heading, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, can readily be understood as having its ideological basis in the callous principle of “profits before people for optimum shareholder-value”.
Our 21st century world of increasing gross inequality need not sound so “catastrophic”. Its origin lies in the historically dominant practice of large multinational pharmaceutical corporations delivering well-researched products, supposedly, to improve/save the plant, animal or human life.
By Ramu Damodaran
The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd first appeared in this week’s #WhyWeCare, @ImpactUN on January 22.
NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) – Memory, more than modesty, made me miss mention last week of the single exclusive conversation I was privileged to have with Brian Urquhart and which lasted all of ninety seconds.
Viewpoint by Tariq Rauf
The writer is the former Head of Verification and Security Policy at the International Atomic Energy Agency and was a member of the Group of Eminent Persons for Substantive Advancement of Nuclear Disarmament established by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
VIENNA (IDN) – As the day broke today, 22 January 2021, a new era dawned in which nuclear weapons now are prohibited – finally banned – 75 years after the invention and use of nuclear weapons.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
SYDNEY (IDN) – Asian newspapers have welcomed the new American President Biden’s “engaging with the world” message in his inauguration speech to that of his predecessor Trump’s “America First” rhetoric. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has welcomed President Biden’s “engaging” tone in his speech on January 20.
NEW YORK (IDN) – Amanda S. C. Gorman is an American poet and activist from Los Angeles. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. She was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book "The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough" in 2015. In 2021, she delivered her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of Joe Biden.
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene
The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria.
ABUJA (IDN) – Whether Jean-Jacques Rousseau miscredited the words to Marie Antoinette in Confessions or not, Nigeria is happy to supply a modern-day princess who has earned the title of Her Royal Spite-tress without controversy.
And unlike Antoinette reputed to have tossed the infamous pate, “Let them eat cake”, out her window when the mass of ordinary people in France was dying for breadcrumbs, her Nigerian cousin travelled thousands of miles to find her groove.
Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*
NEW YORK (IDN) – January 20 was a historically momentous day as Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States of America, and Kamala Harris, a person of colour was sworn in as the first woman Vice President – and now the highest-ranking woman in US history.
After taking the oath of office, President Biden said he wants “to restore the soul of America, bringing America together, uniting our people, and uniting our nation”.
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warmly welcomed President Joe Biden’s "steps to re-enter the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and join the growing coalition of governments, cities, states, businesses and people taking ambitious action to confront the climate crisis". Biden signed an executive order accepting the Paris accord "and every article and clause thereof on behalf of the United States of America" on January 20 after he and Vice President Kamal Harris were sworn in as America's new leaders.
Viewpoint by Thomas Hajnoczi
The writer is the outgoing Director of Arms Control at the Austrian Foreign Ministry. He negotiated the TPNW*
VIENNA (IDN) – With its entry into force on January 22 the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will become binding international law for the growing number of State Parties, for the moment 51 countries. Moreover, it is also having an effect on those states that do not intend to join it.
The nuclear weapon states themselves testify to the TPNW's effectiveness by their campaign against it. They could have ignored it instead of pressuring countries not to sign and ratify.
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