IDEALS

UNITED NATIONS, (Aug. 12, 2009) IPS/GIN – When U.S. President
Barack Obama presides over a meeting of world leaders in the
Security Council on Sep. 24, he will provide a high profile
political platform for two of the most sensitive issues at the
United Nations: nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.

“This is the time for the Security Council to plan together a route
to international security in a nuclear weapons-free world,”
Jonathan Granoff, president of the Global Security Institute, told
IPS.

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UNITED NATIONS, (Aug. 10, 2009) IPS/GIN – When human rights groups
accused the United States of violating the Geneva Conventions
governing the treatment of prisoners-of-war (PoWs) in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the administration of former President George W. Bush
either displayed arrogance or feigned ignorance of the implications
of abusing humanitarian laws.

When Bush was told that his administration was in violation of
international human rights treaties, he reportedly shot back -
according to a joke circulating in Washington at that time – “What
Geneva Conventions? I thought we invaded Iraq, not Switzerland?” Read the rest of this entry →

NEW YORK, (Jun. 2, 2010) IPS/GIN – Targeted killings, including
those using drones, are increasingly being applied in ways that
violate international law, according to a report issued Wednesday
by a United Nations expert on extrajudicial killings.

The report by special rapporteur Philip Alston will be presented
to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday. It says
that while targeted killings may be permitted in armed conflict
situations when used against combatants, fighters or civilians who
directly engage in combat-like activities, they are increasingly
being used far from any battlefield.
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UNITED NATIONS, (Aug. 13, 2009) IPS/GIN – The United Nations has
realised that if it wants to achieve the Millennium Development
Goals, it will have to partner with like-minded faith-based
organisations (FBOs).

“It is important to invite religious leaders and faith-based
organisations and other secular organisations and work together.
It’s the only way,” Gladys Melo-Pinzon of the FBO Catholics for
Choice told IPS. Read the rest of this entry →

UNITED NATIONS, (Aug. 17, 2009) IPS/GIN – Despite longstanding
promises by world leaders to halve, by 2015, the number of people
without basic sanitation, 2.5 billion still lack access to basic
sanitation, and 1.2 billion don’t have any form of sanitation at
all.

“I don’t think that the MDG (the U.N.’s Millennium Development
Goals) sanitation target can be achieved,” says Duncan Mara, a
professor of civil engineering at University of Leeds who has been
working on low-cost sanitation in developing countries since the
mid-1970s, and also on low-cost wastewater treatment and reuse.
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UNITED NATIONS, (Aug. 14, 2009) IPS/GIN – U.S. President Barack
Obama’s pledge to take concrete steps towards “a world without
nuclear weapons” has garnered overwhelming support from peace
activists worldwide.

But at the same time he has given no indication of any similar
cutbacks on conventional arms sales – at least judging by rising
U.S. weapons exports this year. Read the rest of this entry →

NAIROBI, (May 24, 2010) IPS/GIN – Scientists announced the creation
of first self-replicating synthetic life form last Friday, and a
few hours later, a United Nations science advisory body meeting
here urged countries to take a strong precautionary approach to
avoid release of such entities into the environment.

Acting as the world’s guardian on biodiversity, it also expressed
deep concern about the potential impacts of geoengineering schemes
to combat climate change on the Earth’s ecosystems.

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With only five years left to
meet the Millennium Development Goals’ 2015 deadline for reducing
child mortality, progress toward that goal may be coming faster
than was previously thought.

Past studies have indicated many countries are not moving quickly
enough toward the goal of a two-thirds reduction in deaths of
children under five years old, but a new study sees an acceleration
of this reduction in several low-income countries.

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UNITED NATIONS, (Aug. 17, 2009) IPS/GIN – The U.N.’s Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), already undermined by the global
financial crisis, are expected to take another hit – this time from
rising population growth.

The goal of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty
and hunger by 2015 could be jeopardised by soaring population
growth, mostly in the developing world. Read the rest of this entry →

UNITED NATIONS, (Apr. 30, 2010) IPS/GIN – Ten years after a United
Nations Security Council resolution aimed at re-evaluating women’s
roles in U.N.-brokered peacekeeping efforts, women are still
underrepresented in the peacekeeping process.

According to Human Rights Watch’s Marianne Mollman, many U.N.
negotiating teams do not include a single female member, while
there is only one all-female division of peacekeepers in the entire
U.N. system. Mollman urged the U.N. to hold itself to the
benchmarks for women’s participation set forth in resolution 1325
and to give women a larger role in peacekeeping. Read the rest of this entry →