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Photo: A boy watches the shore from a boat near Sirajganj, a community affected by severe erosion that has left many displaced. Sirajganj, Bangladesh. October 2016. Credit: IOM/Amanda Nero.

New Study Calls for USD 2.3 Billion Support to ACP Countries

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – A new study finds that the 79-nation African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group of States can boost climate action with technical and financial support amounting to a minimum of USD 2,317 billion. Capacity building, an important aspect of efforts to halt climate catastrophe, is expected to draw considerable attention at the forthcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in Katowice, Poland.

The urgency of climate action is underlined also by the new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It shows that global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rose again during 2017 after a three-year break, highlighting the imperative for countries to deliver on the historic Paris Agreement to keep global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 29 November 2018

Photo: Prime Minister Imran Khan and Premier Li Keqiang signed important MOUs during the former's first visit to China early November. Credit: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Baloch Separatists' Attack on Chinese Consulate Has a Message

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandran*

Balochistan – the largest of the four provinces of Pakistan in terms of land area, forming the southwestern region of the country – is aggrieved at not getting its due share of development out of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative. This has caused resentment and, combined with the suppression of Baloch rights and aspirations, is a powder keg.

NEW DELHI (IDN) – The storming of the Chinese consulate in Karachi on November 24 by three heavily armed suicide squad members of a Baloch separatist group is loaded with meaning and message. It should be read correctly for understanding what gave rise to the attack and how the conditions that caused it may be eliminated.

: Shastri Ramachandran; OPINION; 29 November 2018

Photo: 2018 Right Livelihood Award Laureates (from left to right): Thelma Aldana (Guatemala), Tony Rinaudo (Australia) , Yacouba Sawadogo (Burkina Faso), and Iván Velásquez (Colombia). They are holding a picture showing the three jailed Laureates from Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Al-Hamid, Waleed Abu Al-Khair and Mohammad Fahad Al-Qahtani. Credit: Right Livelihood Award Foundation/Wolfgang Schmidt.

'Right Livelihood' Awards to Visionary Global Citizens

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | STOCKHOLM (IDN) - The laureates of the 2018 Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’, received their prizes on November 23 at the award presentation in Stockholm, Sweden. Regrettably, three Saudi laureates were prevented from attending due to lengthy prison sentences for their work promoting justice and equality.

The awards recognize the outstanding contributions of global citizens in the areas of the environment, human rights, peace, democracy, and law. The Saudi laureates, sharing an award for 2018, were civil and human rights activists Abdullah al-Hamid, Mohammad Fahad al-Qahtani, and Waleed Abu al-Khair.

: Global Information Network; GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP; 28 November 2018

Photo: Oilrig in the sea. Source: Public Domain

New Scrutiny of Nigerian Billions Swiped in Massive Fraud

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – It’s been called one of the biggest corruption cases in corporate history which has escaped the attention of much of the media and few have even heard about it.

In the drama, playing out in an Italian court, two middlemen have been convicted for their role in the scheme involving one of Africa’s most promising oil fields and its sale – allegedly engineered by oil giants Italian-owned Eni and Royal Dutch Shell – that deprived the people of Nigeria of an estimated $6 billion in future revenues.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 28 November 2018

Photo: The picture shows two women from Lesotho trafficked in South Africa. Credit: Sunday Times.

ACP Fights Human Trafficking, Migrant Smuggling in Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

BEITBRIDGE (ACP-IDN) – At the age of 39, Ndikonyaga Muleya hailing from Beitbridge, Zimbabwe’s border town with South Africa, has found illegal crossing into South Africa convenient.

Over the years he became experienced crossing into the neighboring country looking for casual jobs in Musina, also a South African border town with Zimbabwe, which he now frequents as an illegal transporter of undocumented Zimbabweans itching to cross into South Africa fleeing from this country’s mounting economic woes.

“I earn money from transporting people through unmanned crossing points into South Africa. I was also helped before when I started crossing to SA,” Muleya told IDN.

: Jeffrey Moyo; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 28 November 2018

Photo: UN Human Rights Committee. Credit: Australian Human Rights Commission

The Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons Violates the Right to Life, Warns a UN Committee

By Alyn Ware

The author is Coordinator of the World Future Council Peace and Disarmament Program, Global Coordinator of Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, and International Representative of Aotearoa Lawyers for Peace (the New Zealand affiliate of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms).

GENEVA (IDN) – The threat or use of nuclear weapons is "incompatible with respect for the right to life" and "may amount to a crime under international law," warns the UN Human Rights Committee's new General comment No. 36 (2018) on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), on the right to life, adopted on October 30, 2018.

: Alyn Ware; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 27 November 2018

Photo: After over 1,000 days into the Saudi bombing of Yemen, which is almost entirely UK/US equipped and supported, the first large protest took place in London in Match 2018 outside Downing Street. CC BY-SA 2.0

Let Saudi Arabia Suffer Until bin Salman is Brought to Justice

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – How can Saudi Arabia be brought low? If the King won’t remove from power his 33-year old son, Prince Mohammad bin Salman, there may be no alternative but to do battle (non-violently) with its regime.

There seems to be no doubt that it was bin Salman who gave the order to murder Saudi Arabia’s dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.

This is not the only reason to take up (non-violent) arms against Saudi Arabia. Others are its massive buying of Western military hardware. Another is its war in Yemen where it has killed tens of thousands of civilians. Another is that it still follows the intolerant strictures of the Wahabi sect of Islam.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 27 November 2018

Photo: Russian President Vladimir with Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong. Credit: en.kremlin.ru

Behind Russian President Putin's First Visit to Singapore

By Chris Cheang

The author is a Senior Fellow with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He served three tours of duty in the Singapore Embassy in Moscow between 1994 and 2013. A version of this article was first published on RSIS and then reproduced by the EastAsiaForum on 23 November 2018.

SINGAPORE (IDN-INPS) – Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first-ever state visit to Singapore on November 13, 2018. Coinciding with the 33rd ASEAN summit, 3rd ASEAN–Russia summit, 13th East Asia Summit (EAS), and 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Singapore, the visit marks an important step in Russia’s efforts to broaden its pivot to the East.

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 27 November 2018

Asia-Pacific Reviews Ambitious Targets of 1994 Cairo Conference

Viewpoint by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana and Natalia Kanem

Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Dr. Natalia Kanem is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

BANGKOK (IDN) – Ministers and senior policymakers across Asia and the Pacific are gathered in Bangkok up to November 28 to focus on population dynamics at a crucial time for the region. Their goal: to keep people and rights at the heart of the region’s push for sustainable development. They will be considering how successful we have been in balancing economic growth with social imperatives, underpinned by rights and choices for all as enshrined in the landmark Programme of Action stemming from the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, or ICPD.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 27 November 2018

Photo: Dr. Hassan Rouhani, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, paid his first State Visit to India at the invitation of Prime Minister of the Republic of India, Narendra Modi, from 15-17 February 2018. Credit: pmindia.gov.in

Iran Looks East in the Face of Crippling U.S. Sanctions

Viewpoint by Micha’el Tanchum

The author is a Fellow at the Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University and an affiliated scholar with the Center for Strategic Studies at Başkent University in Ankara, Turkey (Başkent-SAM). This article first appeared in EastAsiaForum on 22 November 2018.

ANKARA (IDN-INPS) – Tehran has taken a significant step toward creating a multilateral framework for Eurasian security cooperation by convening its first ‘Regional Security Dialogue’ summit in late September 2018 with deputy national security advisers from Russia, China and India. In the face of U.S.-led international sanctions, Tehran’s efforts to develop multilateral security cooperation are providing a framework for Asia’s giants to partner with Iran.