IDN InDepthNews

Viewpoint by John Scales Avery* A new report, published on March 14, 2021 in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ journal Ambio [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-021-01544-8] points out that humanity is hurtling towards destruction unless we have the collective wisdom to change course quickly. The article was written as part of the… »

By Jaya Ramachandran Under the leadership of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the Pre-Summit of the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit from July 19 to July 21 will bring together worldwide efforts and contributions aiming at transforming global food systems. Youth, smallholder farmers, indigenous… »

By Devinder Kumar Disarmament is at the heart of the collective security system set out in the United Nations Charter, with its goal to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. In commemoration of the United Nation’s 75th anniversaries and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the… »

Viewpoint by Robert Muggah* It was once fashionable to describe Brazil as the country of the future. What a difference half a decade makes. In recent years, a democratically elected president was stripped of power and ultimately replaced by an authoritarian strongman. Today, Latin America’s largest country is suffering from… »

By Ramu Damodaran The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd first appeared in the #WhyWeCare, @ImpactUN on February 5. “Nostalgia for the present“ is a phrase I once heard (or think I have), and it came to… »

On the eve of the Communist Party of China’s centenary in July 2021, the story of the country’s first women’s military brigade in the 1930s continues to find life in popular culture and the imagination of the Chinese people. Viewpoint by Tings Chak * “Are you a proletarian?” asks the… »

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network A call to action endorsed by over 500 organizations and individuals in South Africa is aiming to unite millions of the nation’s citizens in order to acquire 40 to 80 million doses of vaccine to defeat the coronavirus pandemic. “The pandemic is wreaking havoc,”… »

Viewpoint by Azu Ishiekwene The writer is the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of The Interview magazine based in Abuja, Nigeria. US President Donald Trump may have lost re-election but he would be escorted out of the White House on January 19 night with a special prize: Africa’s worst friend in modern times. Not that… »

By Bernhard Schell The upcoming Review Conference (postponed to August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is expected to be characterised by deep divisions among the nuclear-weapon states (NWS), and between them and the non-nuclear-weapon states (NNWS), which are deeply disappointed with the lack of… »

The following is the text of 2021 United Nations New Year’s message delivered by Secretary-General António Guterres. 2020 has been a year of trials, tragedies and tears. COVID-19 upended our lives and plunged the world into suffering and grief. So many loved ones have been lost – and the pandemic… »