UN Insider

Photo: The U.S. Mai Lai napalm chemical attacks on Vietnamese women and children is just one example of human rights violations by the U.S. and Britain. Credit: Greenlane.com

West’s Double Standards on Human Rights Undermines UN Human Rights Council

Viewpoint by Sugeeswara Senadhira

COLOMBO (IDN) — The United States, Britain, Canada and a few other Western so-called champions of human rights will press their unreasonable demand at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) next month to initiate an international probe into alleged human rights violations in the last phase of the separatist war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorists 13 years ago.

The 49th Regular Sessions of the UNHRC are due to begin on February 25, 2022.

: Asia Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 12 February 2022

Photo: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) agreed in April 2021 to continue to work together, in cooperation with Ukrainian authorities, towards safe and cost-effective solutions to decommission the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and manage radioactive waste in the Exclusion Zone. Photo: M. Klingenboeck/IAEA

If You Want to Deter a Military Invasion, Should You Go Nuclear?

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — North Korea, whose economy has been severely undermined by rigid sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the United States, in retaliation for its active nuclear weapons program, has long justified its growing military arsenal on sheer political and ideological grounds.

The invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the ouster of Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi, were perhaps facilitated by one fact: none of these countries either had nuclear weapons or had given up developing them.

: Thalif Deen; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 10 February 2022

Photo: Rosemary A. DiCarlo is the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs addressing the Security Council on February 7, 2022.

UN Sanctions “A Vital Tool” Available to the Security Council

 By Rosemary A. DiCarlo

Ms DiCarlo is the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — United Nations Security Council sanctions are no longer the “blunt instrument” they once were, having transformed since the 1990s into “a vital tool” that minimizes negative consequences for civilians, and States that are not directly being targeted.

That was the main message the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary A. DiCarlo, conveyed to the Security Council on February 7 during a debate on sanctions, focused on the unintended consequences that stem from them, especially in the humanitarian context.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 08 February 2022

Two UN Agencies Working Together to Ensure Safe Delivery of Cancer Treatment

By Reinhard Jacobsen

VIENNA (IDN) — The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have a long-standing collaboration to support Member States to address their cancer burdens. The two specialized agencies of the United Nations work together to help countries improve cancer control planning, ensure safe delivery of cancer treatment through a dose audit service to achieve and maintain accurate dosimetry for radiotherapy, and to provide joint guidance on important topics relating to cancer, among others.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 08 February 2022

Photo: The Commonwealth Secretary-General Ms Patricia Scotland and the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Source: The Commonwealth.

WHO and the Commonwealth To Reinforce Cooperation on Equitable Access to Vaccines

By Jamshed Baruah

GENEVA (IDN) — The World Health Organization (WHO) and the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that focuses on ending the COVID-19 pandemic, advancing Universal Health Coverage, addressing vaccine equity, strengthening digital health systems and working towards global health security

: Jamshed Baruah; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 07 February 2022

A Push to Further Bolster the Global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime

By Reinhard Jacobsen

VIENNA (IDN) — The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, has launched an initiative to convince more countries to join the majority of states in giving Agency inspectors wider access to locations and information as part of a push to further bolster the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

The Director General's move is intended to support the full implementation of a long-standing annual resolution adopted by IAEA Member States on strengthening Agency safeguards activities carried out to verify that nuclear material is not used for weapons purposes.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; Nuclear Weapoms; 04 February 2022

Photo Bethlehem: part of the barrier between Israel and the West Bank. UN News/Reem Abaza

Amnesty International, In A Landmark Report, Accuses Israel of Apartheid

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The term “apartheid”, describing institutionalized racial discrimination, was widely prevalent both in white-ruled South Africa and in Southwest Africa (now Namibia), beginning in 1948 until it ended with the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994 in Pretoria.

But elsewhere it was treated as a four-letter word—and largely shunned both by the United States and the United Nations—particularly when it was tagged onto Israel to describe its treatment of Palestinians.

: Thalif Deen; THE WORLD; Middle East; 02 February 2022

Photo: This photo provided by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's government shows what it says a test launch of a hypersonic missile on Jan 11, 2022 in DPRK. (KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY / KOREA NEWS SERVICE VIA AP)

North Korea, Perpetual Victim of the US Military-Industrial Complex

Viewpoint by Alice Slater

The writer is a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. She is also the UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. www.warbeyondwar.org

NEW YORK (IDN) — It seems hard to believe that in these possible end times in the midst of a global pandemic with an endless succession of catastrophic climate disasters and thousands of nuclear weapons poised and pointed in the US and Russia, ready to destroy life on earth, we are beset by a bought, corrupted mainstream media that assaults us with the “wrongdoings” of Russia and China, and most recently North Korea, with barely a mention in their assaultive reporting of how the US might be a cause.

: Opinion Editor; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 31 January 2022

Photo: North Korean farmers in a field. Wikimedia Commons.

A Politically Isolated North Korea Garners Support from two Nuclear Powers at the UN

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — North Korea, long described as a “hermit kingdom”, apparently isn’t living in total political isolation or is cut off from the rest of the world.

Or so it seems, judging by the failure of the US and some of its UN allies to impose sanctions on five North Korean officials—sanctions really aimed at a country that continues to defy the West with its multiple ballistic nuclear tests.

: Thalif Deen; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 30 January 2022

Photo: A young woman carries water in a camp for displaced people in Tillaberi region, Niger. © UNOCHA/Michele Cattani

UN Warns of Food Insecurity in 20 Countries and Regions

By Jaya Ramachandran

ROME (IDN) — A new report by two UN agencies has identified "hunger hotspots" across 20 countries and regions where parts of the population are expected to face a significant deterioration of acute food insecurity in the coming months that will put their lives and livelihoods at risk. This warning of spiralling uncertainty relates to areas where conflict, economic shocks, natural hazards, political instability, and limited humanitarian access, are hard-hitting.