IDN InDepthNews

By Brian Trautman, Gerry Condon, Samantha Ferguson On July 7 2017, the United Nations, in a historic decision, approved a legally binding instrument to ban nuclear weapons, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Months of negotiations involving over 130 countries began in March 2017, culminating in a… »

By Baher Kamal Every single day, print and online media and TV broadcasters show images and footage of migrants and refugees adrift, salvage teams rescuing their corpses–alive or dead, from fragile boats that are often deliberately sunk by human traffickers near the coasts of a… »

As the delegations prepared to reconvene the Conference on Cyprus on June 28 in Switzerland, the United Nations envoy Espen Barth Eide said the reconvening of the deliberations was “not the last chance” but the “the best chance” of reaching an agreement between Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots. The talks are taking… »

“Climate action is not just a necessity but an opportunity to forge a peaceful and sustainable future on a healthy planet,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told a gathering of students, business leaders and academics at the New York University Stern School of Business on May 30. Amidst reports that… »

Evelyn Mbiza struggles with a wheelbarrow laden with multiple five litre containers filled with water while her eight-year-old child follows behind carrying another container as the two head home after spending several hours queuing for the precious liquid at a local borehole in Malbereign, a medium-income suburb in Harare, the… »

By Jeffrey Moyo As soon as dusk falls, Petina Dube emerges from her house balancing a sack full of garbage which has been lying uncollected in her yard amid reports that the municipal garbage collectors have no fuel to carry out their job across many residential areas in the Zimbabwean… »

By Daryl G. Kimball The coming nuclear weapons prohibition treaty is not an all-in-one solution, but it promises to be a historic and valuable leap forward, writes Daryl G. Kimball is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA). This appears in June 2017 issue of the ACA’s… »

By Sergio Duarte, Ambassador, former High Representative of the UN for Disarmament Affairs* The timely release of the draft Convention on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by President Elayne Whyte-Gómez well in advance of the start of the second part of the negotiations will permit delegations from Member States and… »

By Somar Wijayadasa* Foreign policies – an integral part of any national strategy – command the highest priority of all nations. Since World War II, several foreign policies of super powers did not yield expected results even though all policies and concomitant interventions came with guarantees of peace, prosperity and… »

Viewpoint by LI Hong LI Hong is Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand. BANGKOK (IDN) – The Silk Road, which is a route linking several major world civilizations 2000 years ago, is invigorated by… »