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A Revolutionary Change is Sweeping Across Southern Africa

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – It’s been an odd couple of months for southern Africa. No one predicted last year that in almost the same breath the long-serving dictator of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, and the super-corrupt president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, would be soon overthrown – and non-violently to boot.

In Zimbabwe the army did trigger Mugabe's demise, but it was a sort of passive coup, a non-violent withdrawal of support. In South Africa Zuma was compelled to stand down as leader of the African National Congress because of a majority vote against him in an assembly of the ANC, the party of black protest against former minority white-led rule. Again, all done non-violently.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 February 2018

Equal Rights to Economic Resources Vital to Gender Equality

By Heather Wokusch*

This is the eighth and last in a series of reports on the Vienna UN Conference from January 10-12, 2018, which discussed actions and challenges linked to the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) and in the spirit of SDG 17. The Vienna Liaison Office of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) organized this Conference co-ordinated by Heather Wokusch. – The Editor

VIENNA (IDN) – Women across the world face discrimination in accessing economic resources. As the resulting disparity hinders a range of development goals, such as reducing poverty and improving the welfare of children, a multidisciplinary conference at the United Nations Vienna recently explored possible solutions.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 20 February 2018

Photo: President Barack Obama and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea with their wives in the Blue Room during a U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit dinner at the White House, August 5, 2014. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Obiang Restores Death Penalty in Bid to Save Unpopular Regime

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Central African Equatorial Guinea, under President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is reviving the odious death penalty against 147 opposition activists accused of "rebellion, attacks on authority and public disorder".

The activists include leaders of Citizens for Innovation (CI), many of whom were rounded up after a purported coup plot discovered near the country's border with Cameroon. Malabo's security minister accused citizens of Chad, Sudan and the Central African Republic of taking part in the attempted putsch but his version of events could not be confirmed.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 20 February 2018

Photo: It has received little attention internationally but is the biggest political crisis to hit Ethiopia since the 2005 elections. Source: Human Rights Watch.

Ethiopian Resignation Triggers Anxiety, Anger and Emergency

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – The Ethiopian government has given itself sweeping new powers – from restrictions on freedom of assembly and free expression to the deployment of combat-ready troops in civilian centers. The newly imposed state of emergency is expected to last six months.

The harsh new limits on democratic expression – strongly criticised by the U.S. and the European Union – may have blindsided those in the international community who were expecting an opening for reforms with the surprise resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 20 February 2018

UN Turns To 'Unite Ideas' In Support Of The Global Goals

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations is on way to improving tools available for designing sustainable development policies, and building a search engine for people working on solutions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for accessing relevant knowledge on science, technology and innovation.

The UN Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT) announced on February 12 that a team from the University of Southampton, a public research university in the United Kingdom, had won the Unite Ideas #SDGInsights challenge for its methodology to identify drinking water service in Liberia.

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Clean Water & Sanitation; 19 February 2018

Photo: UN Secretary-General António Guterres addressing opening ceremony of the Munich Security Conference 2018 on 16 February. Credit: MSC / Kuhlmann

UN Chief Warns of a Repeat of the League of Nations' Fate

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | MUNICH (IDN) – UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned against a repeat of what happened with the League of Nations and the threat of a nuclear conflict, stressed the need for breaking the Gordian knot in the "broader Middle East", called for establishing an international legal framework for "cyberwars between States", and asked the international community to build a consensus on regulating the "so‑called Internet of things."

Guterres was speaking at the opening ceremony of the three-day Munich Security Conference that concluded on February 18. Its motto "To the Brink – and Back?" seemed an apt description of the situation confronting today's world.

: Ramesh Jaura; UN INSIDER; 19 February 2018

Photo: UN Secretary-General António Guterres (second from right) at the 2018 opening session of the General Assembly's Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on 5 February 2018. Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs (left at the table) attended the meeting. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Palestine President to Address Security Council Amid 'Eroding' Consensus on Two-State Solution

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – In the run-up to Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, addressing the Security Council on February 20, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has warned that global consensus on the question of Palestine "could be eroding, making effective concerted action more difficult to achieve, at a time when it is more important than ever."

In remarks at the opening of the 2018 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in New York on February 5, Guterres said: "Negative trends on the ground have the potential to create an irreversible one-State reality that is incompatible with realizing the legitimate national, historic and democratic aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians."

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 18 February 2018

Photo: Kazakh President Nazarbayev. Credit: KazInform

Kazakh President Lauds China's Silk Road Initiative

By KazInform

ASTANA (IDN) – China's plans to establish the Silk Road Economic Belt, also known as the One Belt and One Road Initiative, are "great", according to President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan, reports Kazinform international news agency.

In an interview aired by China's CCTV-13 channel, Nazarbayev stressed the importance of the state visit to Kazakhstan by Xi Jinping in 2013. It was then that the Chinese leader, in a speech at the Nazarbayev University, for the first time announced the global initiative to create the Silk Road Economic Belt.

: Asia Editor; NEWSBRIEFS; 18 February 2018

Photo: Commemorating the 51st anniversary of the Treaty of Tlatelolco on 14 February 2018. Credit: OPANAL

From Tlatelolco to the UN Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty

By Jorge Alberto López Lechuga

Jorge Alberto López Lechuga is Research and Communication Officer of the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL). The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of OPANAL and its Member States. – The Editor

MEXICO (IDN) – On February 2, the Government of the U.S. published the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which includes the strategy to increase the role of nuclear weapons in national security. The NPR considers the need to double the military budget from 3% to 6.4% in order to modernize the U.S. arsenal. This would mean an investment of 1 trillion USD over the next 30 years. It also states that expanding "flexible U.S. nuclear options now, to include low-yield options, is important for the preservation of credible deterrence against regional aggression", a strategy that will raise "the nuclear threshold".

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 17 February 2018

Photo: Regional meeting of religious leaders, Treviso, Italy. Credit: UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

Religious Leaders Plan Action Against Inciting Atrocity Crimes

By Jaya Ramachandran

VIENNA (IDN) – The United Nations has taken an important step towards preventing incitement to violence that could lead to atrocity crimes. More than 150 religious leaders from around the world, member states and UN officials, gathered in Vienna to discuss the implementation of the Plan of Action launched by Secretary-General António Guterres in July 2017 at a meeting of the world body's Headquarters in New York.

Guterres said: "All religions teach respect for life and recognize human beings as fundamentally equal. These principles summon us to show respect for all human beings, even those with whom we might profoundly disagree or whose cultures might seem alien."