By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Hundreds of thousands of Haitians lost their lives, including 102 UN personnel, and millions were gravely affected by the devastating earthquake that struck the Caribbean nation ten years ago on January 12.

The incident ranks among the top 10 deadliest earthquakes in human history, according to a recent OCHA report. Nevertheless, $126 million humanitarian plan for Haiti, launched in February, was only 32 per cent funded. (P26) CHINESE | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE
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Viewpoint by Roberto Savio*

ROME (IDN) – In a world in which the institutions that govern us are rapidly losing their moral compass, it is difficult not to realise that in 2020 we are now entering – or have already entered – a new low point in the history of humankind.

Today, for example, we face an unprecedented existential threat brought about by the climate crisis. According to scientists, we have until 2030 to stop climate change, after which the writing is on the wall for the planet. Yet, we have just had a world conference in Madrid on climate change, which ended in nothing. (P25) FRENCH | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
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By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK (IDN) – In the run-up to 2020, the UN has warned that despite remarkable progress on laying a solid foundation for human development, Thailand, like many other countries, is facing challenges in tackling inequality. This is also a theme on which the 2019 Human Development Report (HDR) from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) focuses. (P24) FRENCH | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH
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By Katsuhiro Asagiri

TOKYO (IDN) – An international conference “No Justice Without Life” has called on Japan to halt all executions next year, the year of the Olympic Games. Japan is one of the 56 nations which retains capital punishment, also known as the death penalty or death sentence for capital crimes. In fact, Japan, the United States and South Korea are the only nations in the group of developed economies that mete out death penalty. (P23) GERMAN | ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF
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By Justus Wanzala

NAIRBI (IDN) – ICPD25, held in the Kenyan capital Nairobi from November 12-14 and marking the 25th anniversary of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt, ended with bold commitments towards attainment of the rights of women and girls.

The conference, attended by more than 6,000 world leaders, scholars, rights advocates and faith leaders saw partners announce commitments to end all maternal deaths, satisfy unmet need for family planning and tackle gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls by 2030. (P22) JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SWAHILI | TAGALOG
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By Sean Buchanan

NEW YOK (IDN) – Pneumonia, an entirely preventable disease, claimed the lives of 800,000 children – or one child every 39 seconds – under the age of five last year, but funding to improve survival rates continues to lag, according to a new analysis.

Most deaths occurred among children under the age of two, and almost 153,000 within the first month of life, says a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) analysis produced in September 2019, based on estimates from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Maternal and Child Epidemiology Estimation Group (MCEE) and the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. (P21) INDONESIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE | SPANISH
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Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

“Ending poverty in all its forms everywhere” is the first of 17 Goals of the United Nations. The latest data indicate that it would cost only $78 billion a year – less than 0.1% of Global GDP – to abolish extreme poverty. Indeed, there is an argument for giving the abolition of the worst poverty priority over funding the combating of global warming. It’s a much, much cheaper cause than what is being estimated as necessary for stalling global warming – $2.5 trillion each year on the energy issue, overwhelmingly targeted on renewables. (P20) CHINESE | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH
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Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow, President, Association of World Citizens

GENEVA (IDN) – The entry of Turkish troops into what they call a “safe zone” on the frontier of Turkey and northeast Syria and especially the actions of Turkish-backed Syrian militias has raised in a dramatic way the issue of respect of international humanitarian law. Regular military personnel of all countries are theoretically informed of the rules of the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 and the Protocol Additional adopted in 1977. (P19) GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | TURKISH…

Viewpoint by Manish Uprety F.R.A.S. and Jainendra Karn *

NEW DELHI (IDN) – Dealing with numbers can take a toll and might make one seek fulfillment in other spheres. No wonder the most influential poet of the last Century penned The Waste Land in 1922 when he was dutifully employed with the foreign transactions department of Lloyd’s, an austere English bank in London. (P18) HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN
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