SUSTAINABILITY

Photo: UN Secretary-General addressing Global Refugee Forum. Screenshot UN WebTV.

Build A More Equitable Response to Refugee

Viewpoint by António Guterres

The following are extensive excerpts from the UN Secretary-General’s opening remarks at the first Global Refugee Forum (17-18 December 2019). It came at the end of a tumultuous decade in which the number of refugees has risen to over 25 million people worldwide. Guided by the Global Compact on Refugees, the Forum was an opportunity to translate the principle of international responsibility-sharing into concrete action.

GENEVA (IDN-INPS) – I have been fortunate to have had many formative experiences in my life: as a social volunteer in the poor neighbourhoods of Lisbon; being part of a democratic revolution in my country; public service in parliament and government.

: Jamshed Baruah; OPINION; 19 December 2019

Photo: More than 100 US-built missiles having the capability to strike Moscow with nuclear warheads were deployed in Italy and Turkey in 1961. In August 1963, the US joined the Soviet Union and United Kingdom in agreeing to ban nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, outer space, or under water, and places significant restrictions on detonating nuclear devices underground. The Limited Test Ban Treaty reflects concerns about the dangers of nuclear fallout. A high-speed “hotline” connecting the leaders of the Soviet and U.S. governments is established to mitigate the risk of accidental warfare. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Rising Concern in Russia About Spiralling Arms Race

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Russia is convinced that proliferation risks and threats that are rampant today can be eliminated by the strict observance of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), while respecting and ensuring the balance between its three components: nonproliferation, disarmament and peaceful use of nuclear energy.

The NPT will be reviewed in May 2020 at an international conference at the UN Headquarters in New York. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov considers it crucial that the upcoming conference is held “as non-confrontationally as possible and not repeat the sad experience of the 2015 conference, when in fact, the participants refused to talk to each other and even to listen to each other, and each stated their position independently of what the others were saying”.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 18 December 2019

Photo: Child labor in the mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Credit: UNICEF

Five Tech Giants Linked To ‘Cruel and Brutal Use of Children’ In Congo Mines

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Do kids work in coal mines?

In 1910, an estimated 2 million American children under the age of 15 were working in factories and mines for low wages and long shifts. Photographs by Lewis Hine of New York revealed the depraved exploitation of children, some as young as 8 years of age, in fields and in mines. Child labor was finally outlawed in 1938.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 17 December 2019

Photo Mary Mubaiwa Off To Remand. Credit: zimtrending.co.zw

Multiple Charges Against Ex-Wife of Zimbabwe's Vice President

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Marry Mubaiwa, estranged wife of Zimbabwe’s Vice President, faces a battery of charges – from fraud, money laundering to attempted murder – in a case that has startled even the most battle-hardened citizens.

Ms. Mubaiwa, 38, is accused of unlawfully transferring $919,000 to South Africa under the guise of importing goods, according to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) which, they believe, may have involved buying a home in the neighboring country.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 17 December 2019

South African Leader Sees End to Racism and Bigotry

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – President Cyril Ramaphosa struck a note of optimism in his message on December 16 – the Day of Reconciliation and the anniversary of two major historical events, now celebrated as a public holiday.

Since the nation attained democracy, he said, citizens have showed the capacity to look beyond their differences “in the quest to achieve true nationhood”.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 17 December 2019

Photo: African Island States. Credit: AfDB.

Helping Island States Build Resilience to Extreme Weather

By Ronald Joshua

JOHANNESEBURG | MADRID (IDN) – Fewer lives were being lost as a result of natural disasters, because of advanced early warning systems. However, many cash-strapped African countries – including the small island states, bearing the brunt of climate change – are not benefiting from new technologies to develop early warning systems, said the climate expert John Harding at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

: Ronald Joshua; THE WORLD; Africa; 16 December 2019

From Protecting Nature to Greenand's Raid Melt and Australia's Bushfires

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – A young environmentalist in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has invented robots to help protect nature, reports the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Asked about the role of children in creating a positive impact on the environment in the UAE, 11-year-old Sainath Manikandan said: “The backbone of a nation is its youth.”

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 16 December 2019

Photo: ACP Secretary General Dr. Patrick I. Gomes with President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya at the 9th ACP Summit in Nairobi. Credit: Robert Kibet | IDN-INPS.

79 ACP States Resolve to Combat Terrorism and Climate Crisis

By Robert Kibet

NAIROBI (IDN) – Threats of terrorism to global peace as an evolving transnational menace, coupled with the growing threat of climate change and the disruption it continues to cause among member states of the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) requires them to lead from the front in providing recommendations on how the global community can counter terrorism and extremism as well as impact of climate change.

: Robert Kibet; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 15 December 2019

Photo: Manikandan at the "INNOVATOR 2018" event in Abu Dhabi, UAE in February 2018. His innovation, the Marine Robot Cleaner, won the first place as Best Technology Project. Credit: UN Environment.

News Briefs on Climate Action and Climate Emergency

By J Nastranis

: J Nastranis; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 14 December 2019

79-Nation ACP & the EU Call for Implementing the Paris Accord

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS | MADRID (IDN) – The 79-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union, which together make up more than half of the signatories to the Paris Agreement on climate change, have called for increased ambition at global level to close the gap between the commitments made so far and what would be necessary to meet the long-term global temperature goal of the Agreement.