UN Insider

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What Do We Know About Climate Change, Peace and Conflict?

Viewpoint by Tobias Ide

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

PERTH, Australia (IDN) — The impacts of climate change on peace and conflict are high on the agenda of policy makers and the general public. From UN Security Council debates about climate change and security to comics about the impact of drought on the Syrian civil war, interest in the topic has grown immensely in recent years. If challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic have taught us anything, it is the importance of science in addressing global problems. So, what is the scientific evidence on climate change, peace and conflict?

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 29 March 2022

Triple Threat of Climate Crises, Conflict, and Gender Inequality Highlighted

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) — At a side event of the 66th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW66) that concluded on March 25, UN leaders, policy makers, and civil society activists highlighted the impacts of climate shocks and environmental hazards on women and girls in humanitarian settings.

: Caroline Mwanga; UN INSIDER; 27 March 2022

Does Russia No Longer Qualify as a Member of the Global Trade Group WTO?

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW | PARIS (IDN) — Russia joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in April 2011 after almost 18 years of persistent efforts and multiple negotiations, to fulfil stringent membership requirements, apparently because the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and replaced by the Russian Federation. Average accession period is five to seven years.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 27 March 2022

Photo: In Mongolia, women herders are stepping up participation in community-based monitoring of environmental and human rights challenges brought by mining, with support from the joint Swedish Environmental Protection Agency-UNDP Environmental Governance Programme (EGP-Mining). Photo: iStock.com/Hadynyah.

Time Has Come for Women & Girls in The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Viewpoint by Claudia Ituarte-Lima

Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima is a public international lawyer and scholar. She is senior researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and is also affiliated to Stockholm University and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia. Ituarte-Lima holds a PhD from the University College London and a MPhil from the University of Cambridge. Twitter: CItuarteLima.

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s resumed sessions of the twenty-fourth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 24) is taking place in Geneva March 14-29.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 25 March 2022

Photo: Laser Weapon System (LaWS) on USS Ponce. Credit: US Navy

The Ultimate Winners in Ukraine are the World’s Arms Merchants

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The war in Ukraine may not be a head-on conflict between Russia and the United States but it is certainly a battle between the heavily-stocked military arsenals of two of the world’s major military and nuclear powers.

At a press briefing March 22, UN Secretary-General António Guterres was forcefully explicit when he said the war in Ukraine “is unwinnable”.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 March 2022

Growing Number of Corporations Against Investing in Nuclear Weapons

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) — "The nuclear weapons narrative is changing. The implicit permission to make weapons of mass destruction is getting revoked by governments, parliamentarians, cities and the financial sector," says a new report, released ahead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which marks a turning point in post-Cold War history. Significantly, the Russian invasion has also triggered the fear of a third world war, which would involve nuclear weapons.

: Jaya Ramachandran; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 21 March 2022

Photo: A woman holds her new born baby in a makeshift ward at a perinatal centre in Kyiv, Ukraine. © UNICEF/Oleksandr Ratushniak

Ukraine: UN Official Calls in Security Council for Full Investigation of Civilian Death Toll

By UN News

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The magnitude of civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine cannot be denied, the UN political chief told the Security Council on March 17, demanding a thorough investigation and accountability.

“Civilians are entitled to protection against the dangers arising from military operations,” insisted Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, as she briefed the Council on the latest events.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 20 March 2022

Image: Sri Lanka is strategically located as an important island in the heart of the Indian Ocean. The country has been in the middle of international attention as a crucial destination between the East and West shipping routes that attracted three maritime superpowers trading in that route for economic benefits to the said motherlands. Source: Daily News, Sri Lanka.

Should Sri Lanka De-Dollarize? Beyond Bananas, Beaches, Bases and Dependent Development

Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

The writer, Dr Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, is a Sociocultural and Medical Anthropologist based in Colombo. Her latest publication is 'Multi-religiosity on Contemporary Sri Lanka: Innovation, Shared Spaces, Contestation".(Routledge 2022)

COLOMBO (IDN) — Necessity is the mother of invention: Protests are mounting by people from all walks of life in all parts of Sri Lanka against the soaring cost of living, food and fuel shortages, black outs, lockdowns, forced Covid injections, and the sale of national assets by the ruling dual US citizen Rajapaksa led regime in Colombo.

: Asia Editor; OPINION; 20 March 2022

Photo: A group of school children walk hand in hand after school in rural Nepal. © World Bank/Aisha Faquir

Ukraine War Threatens Development Aid to World’s Poorer Nations

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that the current devastating war in Ukraine has an equally destructive impact on the outside world: an assault on the world’s most vulnerable people and countries.

The worst affected are the world’s poor as food, fuel and fertilizer prices are skyrocketing while one of the world’s major bread baskets, Ukraine, is being bombed—a country which alone provided more than half of the World Food Programme’s (WFP) wheat supply.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Global Partnerships; 18 March 2022

Photo: UN General Assembly. Source: The Daily Star

Bangladesh’s Abstention from The UN Resolution on The Ukraine War Is Justified

Viewpoint by M Rafiqul Islam

The writer is Emeritus Professor of Law, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. This article was issued by The Daily Star of Bangladesh and is being republished with their permission.

SYDNEY (IDN) — The UN General Assembly emergency session adopted a resolution against Russia's aggression in Ukraine on 2 March 2022. It was adopted by 141 votes of total 193 members with 5 negative votes and 35 abstentions of which Bangladesh was one. Given the highly polarised geopolitical orientation of current international relations and UN operational narratives, this write-up argues that the pragmatic decision of Bangladesh was justified.