Peace & Justice

Photo: A group of journalists from 12 countries. Credit: Kazakh Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Journalists Get to Know the Rich Culture of Kazakhstan

By Yukie Asagiri

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (IDN) – Journalists from Asia and Europe who joined a weeklong cultural press tour of the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan in August broadly concurred that "this country has something to offer even to the well-travelled tourist".

The week-long press tour was purported to showcase the rich culture and history of Kazakhstan as part of the project “Contemporary Culture of Kazakhstan in the Global World”. Participants came from Austria, Australia, China, South Korea, France, Japan, Switzerland, India, Italy, Germany, Poland, and Sweden.

: Asia Editor; CENTRAL ASIA; 24 August 2019

Photo: Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressing a mass audience. Source: IISG/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

How the Kashmir Debate in India Is Being Fuelled by Falsehoods

Viewpoint by A.G. Noorani

India’s Union Home Minister Amit Shah claims that if it wasn't for the country’s first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir would have been in India’s possession. The truth is, if Kashmir is a part of India, it is almost entirely because of Nehru, writes A. G. Noorani, an Indian lawyer, constitutional expert and political commentator. This article first appeared in The Wire on 9 August 2019.

MUMBAI (IDN-INPS) – The Sangh parivar’s hatred of Jawaharlal Nehru is perfectly understandable. At the time of the Partition of India, he stood by Gandhi and bravely fought back the rising surge of hate fostered by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The RSS supremo, M.S. Golwalkar’s plans to exterminate Muslims were detected, as the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh, Rajeshwar Dayal revealed in his memoir A Life in Our Time.

: Suresh Jaura; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 23 August 2019

Photo: Code Pink anti-war activists protest U.S. Senators supporting Saudi-U.S. arms deals, December 2017. Source: Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0

UN Forced to Close Down Life-Saving Aid Operations in Yemen

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – Because money pledged by Member States has “failed to materialize”, the United Nations is being forced to cease several relief operations in Yemen, which is embroiled in the worst humanitarian crisis triggered by a long-drawn conflict.

“All of us are ashamed by the situation,” Lise Grande, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, said on August 21. “It’s heart-breaking to look a family in the eye and say we have no money to help.” She added: “We are desperate for the funds that were promised. When money doesn’t come, people die.”

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 21 August 2019

Photo: Amaury and Andrew Razafitrimo from Madagascar next to their deceased mother's portrait. Credit: UN

Remembering and Paying Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism

UN Chief Calls for Long-Term, Multi-Faceted Support

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In the run-up to the second International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has underlined that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations remains a global challenge. "It causes lasting damage to individuals, families and communities. These scars run deep, and while they may fade with time, they never disappear." No matter how long ago an attack happened, victims continue to struggle with its legacy.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 17 August 2019

Image credit: UN | Photo Credit: Mitsu (Eric) Kimura, SUA Archivist

UN To Commemorate 20th Anniversary of the Culture of Peace Declaration

Interview with Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury*

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted, by consensus and without reservation, its pioneering and norm-setting resolution 53/243 on the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace in 1990. The forthcoming UNGA is convening on September 13 the High-Level Forum on the Culture of Peace underlining the importance the world body attaches to full and effective implementation of these forward-looking decisions which are universally applicable and respond to the yearnings of every people for progress. Ambassador Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Founder of the Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP), explains the origin and profound significance of the concept.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 16 August 2019

Photo (L-R): Ambassador of Equatorial Guinea in Brussels, Carmelo Nvono-Ncá preparing trip modalities for the signing with ACP Group Secretary General Dr. Patrick I. Gomes. Credit: ACP Press

ACP Information Centre for South-South and Triangular Cooperation Established in Equatorial Guinea

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – The African, Caribbean and Pacific Information Centre for South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SS&TrC) has been formally established in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea. The Centre is a gift of President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the government and the people of the country in Central Africa, to the people and the ACP Group of 79 member states.

When the Centre was established on August 9, less than a year after it was unveiled on October 4, 2018, President Obiang referred to this inauguration as "historical" and "the most salient token of Southern peoples and countries’ solidarity that is aimed at enhancing their respective autonomy and support their efforts to achieve the international Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) foreseen in the 2030 Agenda.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 15 August 2019

Photo: "Against the dark background of the atomic bomb, the United States does not wish merely to present strength, but also the desire and the hope for peace. The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions… may they be the decisions which will lead this world out of fear and into peace." (U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in an address to the 470th United Nations General Assembly on 8 December 1953) Credit: UN Photo/MB

The Devastating Arms Race Rages Unabated

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." – U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in 'The Chance for Peace' address in April 1953.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The arms race has reached a new dimension as the United States President Donald Trump withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

: Somar Wijayadasa; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 10 August 2019

Photo: Interpol protecting Gendama land border.

ACP Group and INTERPOL Plan to Strengthen Cooperation

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States have expressed interest in strengthening the cooperation between the two organizations.

This was underlined by the INTERPOL special representative to the European Union Pierre St. Hilaire’s meeting with the ACP Secretary General Dr. Patrick Gomes and the ACP Committee of Ambassadors on July 18, 2019 at ACP House in Brussels.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 09 August 2019

Photo: Joan Nyanyuki, feminist critic of President Musevini. Credit: Amnesty International

Uganda Detains Feminist for ‘Cyberharassment’ of President

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – A prominent university lecturer, poet and gender rights activist has been ordered to serve nine more months in prison for the 'crime' of criticizing President Yoweri Museveni on Facebook.

The sentence outraged rights activists. Joan Nyanyuki, director for East Africa at Amnesty International said: “This verdict flies in the face of Uganda’s obligations to uphold the right to freedom of expression. It demonstrates the depths of the government’s intolerance of criticism.”

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 06 August 2019

Photo: Internet has replaced the ‘Gutenberg era’, promising the horizontal system of information instead of the vertical. But that hope has been belied. Picture shows Gutenberg statue at the Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz. Credit: BR-Bavaria Radio.

The World Is on a Breakneck Course Towards Barbarisation

Viewpoint by Roberto Savio*

ROME (IDN | OtherNews) – When all is said and done, it appears that Thomas Hobbes, the 17th century English philosopher who had a dire vision of man, was not totally wrong. From the frivolous to the serious, in just a week we have had four items of news which would not happen in a normal world.

An English porn beauty with 86,000 followers on social media has put bottles of the water she bathes in on sale at 30 pounds a bottle and has sold several thousand bottles.