Home - IDN-InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

Photo: St Kitts and Nevis' Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris wants urgent action to reduce the economic burden on Caribbean countries posed by chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Credit: St Kitts and Nevis Government Information Service.

Caribbean Calls for Reducing Economic Burden of NCDs

By Desmond Brown

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada (ACP-IDN) – Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) make a significant contribution to mortality and morbidity in the Caribbean and continue to represent an economic burden for most of the region's countries.

Addressing the latest meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) held here from July 4-6, St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris – who has responsibility for health in the organisation's Quasi-Cabinet – called for urgent action to reverse the situation.

Citing the findings of a 2016 study on the economic dimensions of NCDs in Trinidad and Tobago, Harris noted that an estimated 5 percent of that country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is being lost through the impact of preventable diabetes, hypertension and cancer.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 15 July 2017

Photo: Ambassador Kairat Umarov, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the UN in New York. Credit: Kazakh Permanent Mission to the UN.

Kazakhstan Leads Discussion on Agenda 2030 in North and Central Asia

By Joan Erakit

NEW YORK (IDN) – The implementation of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development is slowly building momentum around the United Nations and amongst member states who see its success as vital to their work.

During the High-Level Political Forum July 10-19, many are gathered at the Headquarters in New York to not only review action plans and offer recommendations but also to continue a dialogue on implementation.

Kazakhstan, a country keen to promote its growing economy and energy sector, is part of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESACP) -- a group of 53 member nations and 9 associate member states -- one of the UN’s most comprehensive regional commissions.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 14 July 2017

Photo: Prime Minister Netanyahu thanks Modi for Israel visit. Credit: www.narendramodi.in

Terrorism Hinders Hailing Modi's Israel Visit Climaxing 25 Years

By Shastri Ramachandaran*

NEW DELHI (IDN-INPS) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to Israel from July 4 to 6, the first ever by an Indian Prime Minister, is a historic departure with ramifications that may have been missed in the euphoric aftermath of the moment.

This was also the first time that a high-level Indian dignitary visiting Israel did not travel to Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority. Usually, visiting dignitaries are at pains to emphasise, at least, optical equality between Israel and Palestine, and make it a point to visit Ramallah. This act of omission – or is it commission? -- alone, it is observed, takes India-Israel relations to a new level.

: Shastri Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Middle East & North Africa; 13 July 2017

Photo: Returnees pose for the press at the Cameroon Diaspora Forum organised by the Cameroon government from June 26 to 30. Credit: Ngala Killian Chimtom

Cameroon Looks to Its Diaspora to Save Troubled Economy

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

YAOUNDE (ACP-IDN) – “You are welcome back home”, said Cameroon Prime Minister Philemon Yang, setting the tone for a five-day event intended to woo the Cameroonian diaspora to invest in its country of origin.

With eyes set on 2035 as the year Cameroon should attain emergence status, public authorities are doing what they can to fast track the country’s economic growth, constrained as it is by a draining battle against terrorist group Boko Haram and falling oil prices on the international market.

As a result, Cameroon is now turning to its diaspora to help the troubled economy of the Central African country.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Africa; 13 July 2017

Photo: The remains of the Prefectural Industry Promotion Building, later preserved as a monument - known as the Genbaku Dome - at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. UN Photo

Finally, Nuclear Weapons Are Outlawed

By Jayantha Dhanapala*

KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN) – On July 7 2017, seventy two years after the most inhumanely destructive weapon was invented and used on hapless Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a Conference of the majority of member states in the United Nations decided – by a vote of 122 for; one abstention: and one against – to adopt a Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

It had been a long journey from January 1946 when the newly established United Nations Organization, located temporarily in London, adopted its very first resolution calling for nuclear disarmament signifying the undisputed priority of this issue. Since then, at every session of the UN General Assembly, resolutions with various nuances on nuclear disarmament were adopted with varying majorities.

: Jayantha Dhanapala; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 12 July 2017

The Royal Usurpation of Kaaba

Viewpoinrt by Esad Duraković

Professor Esad Duraković is a well-known academic and a member of three Arab Academies of Art and Science.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (IDN) - In late June 2017, four Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain) adopted a decision to isolate the “brotherly” Qatar for several reasons, the main being “Qatar’s support for terrorism”.

In the subsequent ultimatum, they demanded of Qatar to close down Al-Jazeera, which, without doubt, embodies the greatest value of the Arab world in general today, and as such poses a threat to totalitarian regimes that want to rule in media darkness.

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; OPINION; 12 July 2017

Photo: The G20 summit kicked off with the traditional family photo. Credit: Bundesregierung/Güngör

G20 Summit Unlikely to Change the World for the Better

By Samantha Sen

HAMBURG (IDN) - The moment said almost all at the G20 summit in Hamburg July 7-8. The heads of government were gathered in a hall, they were requested to turn around towards a presentation. All looked in the direction required – except for U.S. President Donald Trump. And so everyone was looking one way, the U.S. President another. He turned around after a nudge.

Which is where the ‘almost’ comes in. Momentary symbolism on offer like this has to stop somewhere. Trump was given that nudge by British Prime Minister Teresa May. It isn’t May trying to turn Trump towards a consensus with other leaders; she’s looking her own other way herself. And she refused to raise climate change with Trump in the course of a 50-minute bilateral meeting; she only raised it informally after that meeting had ended.

: Samantha Sen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; The Group of Twenty (G20); 11 July 2017

Whose Heart Doesn't Beat on the Left?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - It goes back to the French revolution of 1789. At the Revolutionary Convention the most radical of the insurgents decided to seat themselves on the left side. “Why not on the other side, the right side, the place of rectitude, where law and the higher rights resided, when man’s best hand could be raised in righteous honour?” wrote Melvin Lasky in what was then Britain’s most influential intellectual monthly, Encounter. “Anyway they went left, and man’s political passions have never been the same since.”

When Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister, broke with Chancellor Gerhard Schroder in March 1999, the early days of the last Social Democratic government, he explained it was “because my heart beats on the left.” The right could never say that, even the liberal-inclined, ex-prime minister of the UK, David Cameron. When Humpty-Dumpty insisted on his own “master-meanings” he reassured Alice, “When I make a word do a lot of work like that, I always pay it extra.”

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 11 July 2017

Photo: Moment of UN nuclear ban treaty adoption 7th July 2017. Credit: Clare Conboy | ICAN.

A Landmark Achievement for Nuclear Disarmament

By Sergio Duarte, Ambassador, former High Representative of the UN for Disarmament Affairs*

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - A large majority of the international community, together with governmental and non-governmental organizations and institutions, achieved an important milestone in the treatment of disarmament questions by concluding a landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The instrument was adopted on July 7, 2017 by 122 votes in favor, 1 against (Netherlands) and 1 abstention (Singapore).

Between March 15 to 31 and June 17 to July 7 the United Nations Conference negotiated a legally binding instrument for the prohibition of nuclear weapons leading to their elimination, in accordance with the mandate contained in General Assembly Resolution 71/278 of December 23 2017. Participants benefitted from several years of studies, proposals and initiatives taken by States, academic institutions and organizations of the civil society on means to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

: Sergio Duarte; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 10 July 2017

Photo: Civil Society Applauds UN nuclear ban treaty adoption 7th July 2017. Credit: Clare Conboy | ICAN.

Civil Society Rejoices at the New UN Treaty Marking the Beginning of the End of Nuclear Age

By Ramesh Jaura

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – When the United Nations member states adopted on July 7, 2017 a legally-binding treaty banning nuclear weapons and prohibiting a full range of related activities, it was a historic and highly emotional moment not only for Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gómez of Costa Rica, president of the UN conference. It was also a moment of profound rejoicing for a diverse range of civil society organisations (CSOs).

Twenty-five years after UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali opened the doors for the CSOs and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to contribute to the success of the Earth Summit in June 1992 that stressed the inexorable link between environment and development, the CSOs have successfully exercised their 'soft power' to help usher in a world free of nuclear weapons.