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Reporting the underreported about the plan of action for People, Planet and Prosperity, and efforts to make the promise of the SDGs a reality.
A project of the Non-profit International Press Syndicate Group with IDN as the Flagship Agency in partnership with Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.


SGI Soka Gakkai International

 

Photo: Pope Francis delivering his inaugural keynote speech at the Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in the Kazakh capital on September 14. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | INPS-IDN Multimedia Director

By Kalinga Seneviratne

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (IDN) — Pope Francis has raised the prospect of Kazakhstan becoming the centre of a new route connecting the East and West, but this time a route that builds on human relations and respect.

Kazakhstan was once the meeting place of traders and travellers travelling from the East to the West, known as the Silk Route. In the 21st century, the Chinese are trying to revive these routes via railways and highways to promote trade across the world known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). (P16) ARABIC | HINDI | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | TURKISH

Goal 16

Photo: Pope Francis addressing the Inter-religious conference in Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan. Credit: Katsuhiro Asagiri | Multimedia Director

By Kalinga Seneviratne

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (IDN) — "The whole world is experiencing the ongoing impact of the pandemic, conflicts, sanctions, climatic change and other global issues. We all see the increase in geopolitical tensions and conflicts across the globe," said Maulen Ashimbayev, head of the Secretariat of the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions on September 13. He was addressing a meeting of the Secretariat. (P15) CHINESE | FRENCH | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | SPANISH | TURKISH

Project Articles

Image credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – A High-Level Forum on the Culture of Peace, which took place on September 6, had an explicit message to the world at large.

The Forum underlined the importance of peace at a time when Ukraine, a sovereign nation-state, is being annihilated by Russia, one of the world’s major nuclear powers and a permanent member of the Security Council. (P14) ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN | TURKISH

Goal 16

mage credit: Happiness SDG Pyramid

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — High moments aside, do we know what happiness is? Is the world becoming a happier place? Are we happier than our parents' or grandparents’ generations? What could give us a little more happiness?

"Homo Sapiens has been around for about 8,000 generations, and for most of that time, life has been rather unpleasant. Most humans who have ever lived have done so under despotic regimes," wrote Stephen Krasner in Foreign Affairs in March 2020. Life expectancy, he points out, didn’t begin to increase until 1850, just seven generations ago, and accelerated only after 1900. It is still accelerating.

Goal 16

Image credit: UN

Time for a National Forum or Assembly

By Simone Galimberti

The writer is the Co-Founder of ENGAGE, a not-for-profit NGO in Nepal. He writes on volunteerism, social inclusion, youth development and regional integration as an engine to improve people's lives.

KATHMANDU (IDN) — One of the pillars of Our Common Agenda, the UN Secretary-General's global blueprint on delivering a better future based on cooperation and multilateralism, is a strong focus on inclusion, protection and participation.

Goal 16

Photo: eyeWitness has helped expose atrocities in countries such as DRC, Ukraine, Senegal, and Palestine. ©Original photos captured by Anastasia Taylor-Lind and TRIAL International

Viewpoint by Dr Márcia Balisciano

The writer is the Global Head of Corporate Responsibility, RELX. She is also Chair of the UN Global Compact Network UK; Chair of the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Council of the Conference Board; and a founding member of the Board of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens.

LONDON (IDN) — The goal in 2015 was to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. We should have been more than halfway there, but given the tumultuous state of global affairs, we are off track.

We must do more to realise progress.

Goal 16

Image: A collage of Tim Peake, an astronaut of the International Space Station by the British/European Space Agency (timpeake.com), with a special apple tree grown from seeds taken into space. The tree was planted on the Vienna International Centre (VIC) grounds on 26 September 2021 to inspire future generations of space scientists.

A new UNOOSA head is to be appointed soon

By Aurora Weiss

VIENNA (IDN) — Legend has it that a young Isaac Newton was sitting beneath an apple tree contemplating the mysterious universe. Suddenly —"boink!''—an apple unexpectedly hit him on the head. He experienced his "aha moment!". In a flash of light, he understood that the same force that brought the apple crashing toward the ground also keeps the moon falling toward the Earth and the Earth falling toward the sun: gravity. We are talking about real space Affairs in practice, which debuted in his book Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1869). (P13) CHINESE | ITALIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | KOREAN | SPANISH

Goal 16

Photo: Levuka's historic street. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne

By Kalinga Seneviratne

LEVUKA, Fiji (IDN) — This rugged island of Ovalau covered with greenery is only 13 km long and 10 km wide and is situated off the eastern coast of the main Fijian island of Viti Levu. Its only town, the port settlement of Levuka with about 1500 population is Fiji’s only UNESCO Heritage Listed site and a local community leader says that it could well be de-listed if the Fijian government does not pay enough attention to its heritage value. (P08) CHINESE | INDONESIAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF

Project Articles

Image: Irpin, Ukraine, Kutsenko Volodymyr/Shutterstock

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness
It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair — A Tale of Two Cities 1859

Viewpoint by Joseph Camilleri

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

MELBOURNE, Australia (IDN) — These opening lines of Charles Dickens’s great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution, offer us a remarkable insight into humanity’s current predicament.

Goal 16

Photo: Protestors at a February 2022 rally against Russia's invasion of Ukraine march past the statue of Tsar Alexander II in Senate Square in Helsinki. CC BY 2.0

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

The writer is an Ambassador, former United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affair, and President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

NEW YORK (IDN) — The Charter of the United Nations consolidated important norms of international law. Its Preamble affirms the decision to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind”. At the time of its adoption, the world was deeply shocked by two successive wars that directly involved Europe and other regions. In spite of the lofty purposes expressed in the Charter, several armed conflicts in many parts of the globe have marked the seventy-seven years of the United Nations’ existence. (P04) GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE

Goal 16

  1. Double Standards
  2. Putin’s Actions in Ukraine are Vile, But Russia was Sorely Provoked by NATO
  3. Drought and Hunger Stalk the Horn of Africa While the Continent Is in the Grip of Coups
  4. US, Russia Stall Attempts to Ban Killer Robots
  5. The Nobel Peace Prize to Julian Assange Would Have Given Hope for Saving Global Democracy

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Newsletter

Newsletter April 2023

SDGs FOR ALL - Issue 1 April 2023

Striving

Striving for People Planet and Peace 2022

Mapting

MAPTING

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