Speaking Out for People, Planet and Peace

Viewpoint by Anita Nayar and Aishu Balaji

Anita Nayar is Director and Aishu Balaji Program Coordinator of Regions Refocus. This article is based on the civil society statement delivered at the opening of CSW64/Beijing+25 by Anita Nayar, also Co-Chair of the Gender and Trade Coalition.

NEW YORK (IDN) – On March 9, 2020, New York-based government delegates met at the United Nations (UN) under very different circumstances than originally imagined: with a reduced interim program that excluded global civil society and country-based government representatives due to the postponement of the 64th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW64) under threat of COVID-19.

By J W Jackie

RENO, Nevada, USA (IDN) – Facebook and Google play an important role in the lives of people across the globe – too big a role, according to Amnesty International. The pro-human rights organization recently published a report entitled, Surveillance Giants, which critiques the "insidious" surveillance exercised by these two digital giants.

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — Zimbabwe is experimenting with a bold attempt to make parents prioritize education and bring down drop-out rates.

Harare has amended its laws to make the first 12 years of schooling compulsory. Children are now required by law to stay in school for an extra five years to 16 years of age.

It is also now an offence to expel children on the grounds of pregnancy or non-payment of fees.

By UN Women

GENEVA | NEW YORK (IDN) — Women's representation in political decision-making continues to increase but at a dragging pace, with three-quarters of parliamentary seats still held by men, according to new data presented in the 2020 edition of the IPU‑UN Women map of Women in Politics. The data's publication coincides with the 25-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, which remains the world's most comprehensive agenda for gender equality.

By J Nastranis with UN News in Brief

NEW YORK (IDN)— As the coronavirus continues to spread globally, the UN's top human rights official Michelle Bachelet appealed on March 6 to countries and businesses to put rights "front and centre" to protect their most vulnerable citizens. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that although the virus would likely have an impact on greenhouse gas emissions because of the expected global economic slowdown, it was too soon to say how great that impact might be.

Viewpoint by Archana Atmakuri

The writer is a Research Analyst at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) at the National University of Singapore. This opinion piece first appeared on East Asia Forum on 6 March 2020.

SINGAPORE (IDN) — Over 60 countries are now fighting confirmed and suspected cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), with the highest number of cases outside China recorded in South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan as of today. Singapore has 117 confirmed cases but 80 patients have recovered as of 5 March.

Viewpoint 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) — Historically, the West has always had an equivocal attitude towards China, not to mention the non-white world. A fear, a suspicion, a fascination, an uncertainty, a sense of superiority and even a loathing reserved for an undeserving competitor pervaded its dealings.

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) — In an avalanche of reporting we are now assaulted with information about how the world is urgently attempting to batten down the hatches to avoid the possibility of deathly consequences from the broadly publicized outbreak of the coronavirus, causing the possibility of postponing or perhaps downsizing the upcoming five year mandatory Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS | PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (IDN) – Former secretary general of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group, Dr. Patrick I. Gomes whose five-year tenure concluded end of February, has called on "all political leaders to let the rule of law prevail and the country remain calm".

He told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC): "Guyana has always been held in high regard for good governance and respected by the 79-member countries of the ACP family of nations, so it is expected that this will continue in the interest of the good of all, Guyana and the Caribbean."

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — Australia hasn't had a recession for 29 years. Economists are now warning that the coronavirus (COVID-19) is almost certainly driving the country towards it and thus exposing Australia's heavy dependence on China for its economic prosperity.

Until the mid-1970s Australians were paranoid about a 'yellow peril' (the Chinese takeover) and practiced a 'White Australia' policy that kept Asians away from migrating to the vast continent.

Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) – March 8 is the International Day of Women and thus a time to highlight the specific role of women in local, national and world society. International Women's Day was first proposed by Clara Zetlin (1857-1933) at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1911.

Later, she served as a socialist-communist member of the German Parliament during the Weimar Republic which existed from 1920 to 1933 when Hitler came to power. Zetlin went into exile in the Soviet Union shortly after Hitler came to power. She died there several months later in 1933.

By Reinhard Jacobsen

VIENNA (IDN) — The quarterly report on Iran released by UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on March 3 has revealed a significant increase in the country's stockpile of enriched uranium since its last report. The stockpile stood at 1,020.9 kg in February, up from 372.3 kg in November 2019, reports Jane's Defence Weekly.

This 648.6 kg increase is raising international concern as it marks a significant breach of the 300 kg stockpile limit imposed on Iran by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and the P5+1— China France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — on July 14, 2015. The nuclear deal was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, adopted on July 20, 2015.

By Kizito Makoye

IRINGA, Tanzania (IDN) – When Osmund Ueland met a group of farmers to pitch his idea about starting a goat milk project at a village in Tanzania's southern highlands to help poor families improve nutrition and boost incomes, he elicited loud applause from the crowd.

Huddled in a dimly lit mud-walled house in wind-swept Masukanzi village, Kilolo district, Iringa region, local farmers unanimously approved the idea saying it was a good step to take for curbing malnutrition and fighting poverty.

Viewpoint by Kelsey Davenport and Daryl K. Kimball

This article first appeared as Issue Brief of the Arms Control Association on 5 March 2020. Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy, and Daryl G. Kimball, executive director, Arms Control Association.

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) — More than a decade ago, the United States and its partners secured UN Security Council support for a series of resolutions imposing increasingly tough sanctions on Iran as part of an effort to pressure Tehran into multilateral talks to curb its nuclear program and block its pathways to nuclear weapons.

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) —While a new UN Women report warns that progress towards gender equality is faltering and hard-won advances are being reversed, the 64th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) has fallen prey to concerns regarding coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

CSW is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. A functional commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), it was established by ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946.