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Photo: OSCE parliamentarians voting in plenary session in Berlin on10 July 2018. Credit: OSCEPA.

300 Parliamentarians Call For Commitment To UN Charter

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN (IDN) – More than 300 parliamentarians representing the collective voice of one billion people from Vancouver to Vladivostok adopted a 76-page declaration on July 11 expressing deep concern about unresolved conflicts and nuclear weapons threats, and proposing measures that should be taken to rebuild peace and security in Europe.

The members of 53 participating States and four partners for co-operation were in Berlin for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which was held in the Reichstag building, the seat of the German Bundestag, from July 7-11, in the run-up to the NATO Summit in Brussels and the Trump-Putin Summit in Helsinki.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 12 July 2018

Photo: The United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Development, Bonn. Credit: UNSSC

UN Summer Academy Brings 2030 Development Agenda To Life

By Rita Joshi

BONN (IDN) – In 2015, countries from around the world adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. In November 2016, the Paris Agreement on climate change entered into force, addressing the need to limit the rise of global temperatures.

Since January 2016, governments, businesses and civil society together with the United Nations have been mobilizing efforts to achieve the SDGs. Meanwhile 12 years are left for the 2030 Agenda goals to become a reality. The UN Summer Academy in Bonn is offering an engaging five-day programme from August 27 to August 31, 2018 aimed at 'Bringing the 2030 Agenda to life'.

: Rita Joshi; UN INSIDER; 11 July 2018

Photo: Eritrean Prime Minister Afwerki (left) and his Ethiopian counterpart Ahmed in Asmara. Credit: africanews.

Eritrea and Ethiopia End Two Decade Long War

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ASMARA (IDN) – “And into ploughshares beat their swords. Nations shall learn war no more.”

With those words of Isaiah, Ethiopia and Eritrea announced the end of a futile war and agreed to normalize ties, drawing the curtain on a 20-year military standoff on the Horn of Africa that cost over 70,000 lives and hundreds of millions of dollars.

This was 10 years after the Security Council decided to end the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) terminating the mandate of the eight-year-old peacekeeping force monitoring the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea in response to lack of fuel supplies following Eritrean government restrictions.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 July 2018

Photo: 2017-18 protests in Tehran. Credit: Fars News Agency | Wikimedia Commons.

Iran Sandwiched Between 'Regime Change' Threat and Menacing Discontent Within

By Mortezagholi Raissi

BERLIN (IDN) – Plagued by domestic turmoil and the Trump Administration threatening regime change, not only the government in Iran but the entire theocratic regime too are faced with a far from envious situation, according to political observers.

What started off as protests spurred on by the deteriorating economic conditions in Iran and the inflation in prices of basic necessities beginning of 2017 partly turned into "riots". These prompted Iran government spokesmen Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht declare that the government recognizes the people's right to protest within the framework of citizens' rights and the Constitution. However "rioters and protestors are not the same".

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East & North Africa; 09 July 2018

Worldwide Shipping Could Jeopardise Climate Goals

By Sean Buchanan

LONDON (IDN) – Worldwide, shipping contributes an estimated 2.5 percent of global emissions, but left unchecked this could grow to 17 percent by 2050, warns Transparency International – an international non-governmental organisation based in Berlin.

Failure to dramatically reduce the sector’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, says the NGO, will jeopardise the pledges signed by 195 states in the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit planetary warming to “well below” 2°C, and ideally to no more than 1.5°C.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 08 July 2018

Photo: Alice Slater | Credit: channel.tv

Trump-Putin Summit A New Opportunity To Ban The Bomb

By Alice Slater, World BEYOND War

The writer serves on the Coordinating Committee of World Beyond War. Following is the text of her article first published with the caption Watch Out World: Peace May be Breaking Out!! https://worldbeyondwar.org/watch-out-world-peace-may-be-breaking-out/

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Less than a week or so before Donald Trump's groundbreaking meeting planned with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, to take place after the July 11-12 NATO summit, the new Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons celebrated its first birthday on July 7 when 122 nations voted a year ago in the UN General Assembly to ban the bomb, just as we have banned biological and chemical weapons.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 08 July 2018

Photo: UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed. UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN Will Continue Support Of Africa's Transformation Under Way

By Amina Mohammed

Following are extensive excerpts from UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed's remarks to the 31st ordinary session of the African Union in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on July 1, 2018. – The Editor.

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania (IDN-INPS) – The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, places great importance on our long-standing but new-found strategic partnership with the African Union. Sustainable development is at the centre of that work. Africa's Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development share a common vision and, together, they provide the basis for the African Union-United Nations Partnership framework for development informing the action plan to be launched in Addis Ababa in the coming days.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 July 2018

Photo: The UN General Assembly agreed May 10 to take the first step toward considering whether a new international instrument was needed to address gaps between international environmental agreements. Credit: UN

Unrestricted Economic Welfare Menaces Human Well Being

By Rita Joshi

BERLIN (IDN) – The Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate agreement set the target of prosperous development for people and our planet. Yet, it remains challenging to translate these aims into concrete policy implementations without risking human welfare and the Earth ecosystem.

A new climate study argues that optimizing economic welfare without constraints might put human well being at risk. While being successful in bringing down costs of greenhouse gas reductions for instance, the concept of profit maximization alone does not suffice to avoid the tipping of critical elements in the Earth system, which could lead to dramatic changes of our livelihoods.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 07 July 2018

The Poverty Trap Has Deadly Consequences

By J W Jackie

RENO, Nevada, United States (IDN) – The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out a global pathway to end inequality and improve the health of the world. The SDG agenda sets out the case very clearly that trade, healthcare, gender inequality, poverty, disease, environmental protection and a range of other key goals are all inextricably linked.

Therefore, those seeking to deliver the SDG agenda by reducing trade inequalities and boosting regional development will do well to keep in mind just how interconnected and far-reaching the SDGs are.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 06 July 2018

Photo: Inauguration Ceremony of Women's Farm Cooperative in Nielle, Côte d'Ivoire. UN Photo/Abdul Fatai Adegboye

Sham Organisations Pose A Serious Threat To Cooperatives

Viewpoint by Amy Zhang*

MARRAKECH (IDN) – The United Nations International Day of Cooperatives, commemorated every year on the first Saturday of July, underlines the role of cooperatives in sustainable development, wealth creation, and poverty alleviation, giving the hope for an equitable future. But what led to the creation of cooperatives and how do they function.

Today's cooperatives can be traced back to the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, founded in 1844. Although other cooperatives preceded them, the Rochdale Pioneers' co-operative became the prototype for societies in Great Britain.