Goal 16 - SDGs for All

Photo: Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the Security Council meeting on the situation in Myanmar, commemorating the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the Rohingya crisis in 2017. UN Photo/Evan Schneider.

Guterres Urges Security Council to Work with Myanmar, Says Rohingya Refugees Lack Life-Saving Assistance

By António Guterres

A report released on August 27 by UN investigators accused Myanmar's military of carrying out mass killings and gang rapes of the Rohingya with "genocidal intent" and called for prosecution of the country's commander-in-chief, senior General Ming Aung Hlaing, and five generals. On August 28, UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke "with a heavy heart" to the Security Council meeting on Myanmar asking for those behind the Rohingya crisis to be held accountable. – The Editor

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – […] The massive refugee emergency that began one year ago in Rakhine State, Myanmar, has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian and human rights crises.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 16; 29 August 2018

Photo: Rohingya refugees in Kutupalong settlement in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, hold a sign demanding their repatriation to their homeland in Myanmar. Credit: Caroline Gluck/UNHCR

The Rohingya are Subject to Genocide, International Community Must Act

Viewpoint by Razia Sultana

The author is a Rohingya lawyer, researcher and educator specializing in trauma, mass rape and trafficking of Rohingya girls and women. She has been working with Rohingya women and girls in the refugee camps in Bangladesh documenting the stories of women and girls who fled Myanmar, and has published two reports: in 2017 and in February 2018. She is coordinator of the Free Rohingya Coalition, Director of Arakan Rohingya National Organization’s (ARNO) women section, and the founder of Rohingya Women Welfare (ROWW). – The Editor

DHAKA (IDN) – One year ago, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people arrived in Bangladesh from Myanmar with only the clothes on their back and stories of terror, rape, and murder. The UK, the U.S. and others have described the events as ethnic cleansing but I describe them without hesitation as genocide.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 16; 26 August 2018

UN Determined to Protect Civilians, Humanitarian Aid Workers

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Fifteen years ago, a bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Iraq's capital Baghdad killed 22 humanitarian aid workers, including the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. The Brazilian United Nations diplomat had been working for the world body's humanitarian and political programs for more than 34 years.

"The Canal Hotel bombing was," according to Secretary-General António Guterres, "a massive loss for the United Nations and the humanitarian community, and it marked a turning point for the need to increase the protection of humanitarian operations in Iraq and worldwide."

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 16; 18 August 2018

Photo: Casa Rosada, executive mansion and office of the President of Argentina, viewed from Plaza de Mayo. CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

G20 Anti-Corruption Commitments At Risk

By Sean Buchanan

LONDON (IDN) – As governments across the globe crack down on citizen groups, stifling their ability to speak out and hold governments to account, the role of civil society is more important now than ever.

With his in mind, activists from more than 600 civil society organisations and more than 45 countries worldwide gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from August 6 to 7 for the sixth annual Civil 20 summit. The meeting came at a critical time prior to the meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20) in November.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 16; 12 August 2018

Photo: Uniformed children in class in Ha Nqabeni primary school, Lesotho. CC BY-SA 2.0

UN Supports Comprehensive Reform Process in Lesotho

By Ntsoaki Nkoe

MASERU (IDN) – Lesotho has launched a landmark project with the European Union willing to provide Euros 12.5 million (approx. USD14.4 million) and the United Nations USD 2 million. Known as the Lesotho National Dialogue and Stabilization Project (LNDSP), the initiative aims to stimulate a comprehensive national reforms process the southern African country is undertaking.

Explaining the genesis of the project, UN Resident Coordinator Salvator Niyonzima said the launch of the project was the result of several months of consultations, project formulation and fund raising going back to September 2017 when Prime Minister Thomas Thabane wrote to the UN Secretary-General requesting UN support to Lesotho’s long-anticipated national reforms.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 16; 12 August 2018

Photo credit: Lesotho's MMN Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Thirteen-Year-Old Defies Family, Escapes Forced Marriage

By Billy Ntaote

This report is part of a series on Human Trafficking by MNN Centre for Investigative Journalism in Lesotho.

MASERU (IDN) – For people living in the rural parts of the country, early child marriage doesn't exist – but when a teenager is impregnated, families rush to organise a traditional wedding ceremony and it's a deal done.

This common, yet cruel practice perpetrated on the girl child continues in rural parts of Lesotho with the unsuspecting victims – socialised to believe it is their only way out of poverty and hunger – married-off in exchange for either a herd of cattle or cash in bride-wealth. It remains a generally common practice that girls below the age of 18 are wedded-off with the consent of parents though such practices laws protecting children rights like Children’s Protection and Welfare Act of 2011 and Sexual Offences Act.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 16; 11 August 2018

Photo: Michelle Bachelet of Chile, newly-appointed as the next UN High Commissioner for Human Rights by Secretary-General António Guterres. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre.

Kudos and Criticism for New UN Human Rights Chief

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Moments after the UN General Assembly unanimously agreed on August 10 to appoint Chile's former President Michelle Bachelet as the seventh UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Secretary-General António Guterres tweeted: "Ms. Bachelet is a pioneer, a visionary, a woman of principle, and a great human rights leader for these troubled times." He had had put forward her candidacy to the General Assembly on August 8.

The United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK) Executive Director, Natalie Samarasinghe, agreed: she is "certainly a strong choice", and added: "She has experience at the highest level of government in Chile, at the highest level of administration within the UN system as the first head of UN Women, and of working with civil society under the shadow of oppression." (P11) GERMAN | JAPANESE TEXT VERSION PDF | PORTUGUESE

: IDN-INPS Editor; Project Articles; 10 August 2018

Photo: Izumi Nakamitsu, United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, briefs the Security Council as it considers the situation in the Middle East. 5 February 2018. © UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Advancing Disarmament Within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Viewpoint by Izumi Nakamitsu

The author is Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. This article first appeared in UN Chronicle, Vol. LV No. 2 2018 | August 2018.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – The idea that disarmament and arms control are connected to development is not new. Article 26 of the Charter of the United Nations recognizes disarmament as a precondition for durable peace, security and development by calling for the maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion of the world’s economic and human resources for arms.

For a long time, however, disarmament has largely slipped off the development agenda. This is despite overwhelming evidence that excessive arms accumulation diverts needed resources from development and fuels armed conflict and violence, leading to unnecessary death and suffering, social inequality and environmental degradation.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 16; 10 August 2018

Photo credit: Transparency International

Stakes High in Returning Nigerians' Stolen Millions

By Kwame Buist

LONDON (IDN) – Of the estimated 20-40 billion dollars stolen annually from developing countries and hidden abroad every year, a small proportion is sometimes successfully confiscated and returned to the country it came from.

However, where institutions of accountability do not work well, this poses a complex problem: how to make sure that the money is not embezzled again, and actually benefits the real victims of corruption – the ordinary people whose state finances were plundered.

Take one case, Nigeria, where plans are under way to distribute 322 million dollars recovered in Switzerland from the late General Sani Abacha, the country’s former military ruler who is suspected of looting between three and five billion dollars in public money.

: IDN-INPS Editor; Goal 16; 07 August 2018

Photo: A Palestinian girl inside her family’s partially destroyed home, looks at the destruction outside, in the Shejaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City. Credit: UNICEF.

Palestinian Peoples' Fundamental Rights Under Assault, Concern Over Lurking Dangers

By Ramesh Jaura

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – The outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, has expressed "acute concerns" over the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the situation in the occupied Gaza Strip, which in recent months has escalated dramatically, with the potential to generate threats to peace across a far broader region.

His concerns were affirmed when UN News reported on July 24 that intense diplomatic efforts by the United Nations and Egypt had helped avoid another Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza that appeared just "minutes away" over the previous weekend.