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Viewpoint by Jacqueline Cabasso
The writer is the Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation.
OAKLAND, California (IDN) — The year 2022 has been a nightmare for nuclear disarmament. The year started out with a mildly reassuring Joint Statement by the five original nuclear-armed states, issued on January 3, 2022, declaring:
UNICEF Warns of Funding Shortfall in The Face of Drought
By Devendra Kamarajan
NAIROBI (IDN) — UN Children's Agency UNICEF has urged the international community to "commit to responding now for what might hit the Horn of Africa" in 2023, "and in the years to come".
UNICEF Deputy Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Lieke van de Weil said on December 22: “We need a global effort to mobilize resources urgently to reduce further devastating and irreversible damage to children in the Horn of Africa. We must act now to save children’s lives, preserve their dignity and protect their futures.”
Former Coup leaders Change Roles in Parliamentary Vote
By Ravindra Singh Prasad
SUVA (IDN) — In a parliamentary vote on December 24, former coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka was elected the new Prime Minister by a slim majority of one after a hung parliament. He replaces another former coup leader and twice democracy-elected Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama.
A Special Report by Aurora Weiss
VIENNA (IDN) — Austria's capital is home to 20 international United Nations offices and organisations seated at the Vienna International Centre. But law enforcement in this country falls short of the UN's requirements.
The United Nations Convention against Corruption, for example, calls for independent bodies or persons specialized in combating corruption through law enforcement that can “carry out their functions effectively and without any undue influence”.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has never ceased to warn about the impending hazards of climate change worldwide. “We are on a fast track to climate disaster,” he has predicted rather ominously and pointed out that some of the world’s major cities are under water.
“There are unprecedented heatwaves, terrifying storms and widespread water shortages. And the extinction of a million species of plants and animals.”
Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene
The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP newspaper based in Abuja, Nigeria.
ABUJA (IDN) — The shenanigans were always there, but until FIFA president Infantino Giovanni called them out in his down-to-earth press conference in Qatar, they remained the elephant in the room.
The hint of displeasure goes back 12 years ago when Qatar won the bid, defeating Australia, Japan, South Korea and the United States. That outcome was unexpected.
Viewpoint by Tobias Ide*
This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.
PERTH, Australia (IDN) — When following the news over the past three years, one might get the impression that the world is living through a permanent state of crisis. While climate change is arguably the most important challenge of our time, headlines were frequently dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, and more recently skyrocketing energy and food prices.
By Roopa Dhatt & Samiratou Ouedraogo
Roopa Dhatt is Executive Director and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health. Samiratou Ouedraogo is the Coordinator and Co-Founder of Women in Global Health, Francophone West Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
WASHINGTON DC (IDN) — If there was a Harvey Weinstein in health, we probably wouldn’t know about it. Not because sexual harassment in the health workforce isn’t widespread—we know that it is and not because women don’t want to report their experiences of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (SEAH) at work—we know that they do; but because across much of the world’s health systems, there are simply no feasible reporting or legal mechanisms in place that women health workers can use with confidence.
By J C Suresh
TORONTO (IDN) — Countries around the world have agreed on a historic package of measures aimed at addressing the dangerous loss of biodiversity and restoring natural ecosystems. The agreement was achieved after a two-week-long 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity on December 19.
Convened under UN auspices, chaired by China, and hosted by Canada in Montreal, COP15 adopted the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), including four goals and 23 targets for achievement by 2030.
By Robert Johnson
PARIS (IDN) — Though ODA-official development assistance from members of the OECD’s DAC-Development Assistance Committee rose to a new high last year, it amounted to the equivalent of only 0.33 per cent of their combined GNI-gross national income, thus falling short of a United Nations goal to reach an ODA/GNI ratio of 0.7%.
The biggest ODA givers by volume in 2021 were the United States (USD 47.8 billion), Germany (USD 33.3 billion), Japan (USD 17.6 billion), the United Kingdom (USD 15.7 billion), and France (USD 15.5 billion).
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.