Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

By Nikolaos Gavalakis
BERLIN, Germany, May 28 2024 (IPS)

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, last week requested arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders as well as for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Galant. They are accused of various war crimes and crimes against humanity. But what does this mean and where do things go from here?

This is a very significant first step towards being able to bring political and military leaders to court for the most serious crimes against humanity. For some time now, the office of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has also been conducting investigations in Israel and Gaza with the support of highly qualified external experts in international law.

Brenda J. Hollis, an exceptional US lawyer with extensive military experience, is leading the investigations at the chief prosecutor’s office. And, also in this case, she is just as qualified as in the investigation against Vladimir Putin, which led to an arrest warrant from the court.

The chief prosecutor has forwarded the results of his investigation to the competent judicial preliminary chamber of the International Criminal Court. This is staffed by judges who carefully examine all the evidence submitted and then assess it in full independence and in accordance with the applicable criminal law before deciding whether to issue an arrest warrant.

The procedure is therefore the same as the one used for the arrest warrant against the Russian president. But why is the International Criminal Court needed? Isn’t the Israeli judiciary responsible for a possible trial?

Of course, the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court must be clarified. In this case, this includes whether – if the terrible allegations of crime are confirmed – the Israeli prime minister and his defence minister would also be charged before Israeli courts and convicted by them. This is not entirely out of the question, despite Netanyahu’s attempts to strengthen his political power by weakening the judiciary.

We all remember the huge demonstrations by courageous Israeli citizens against these plans. To this day, the ‘battle for the rule of law and the separation of powers’ in Israel is not yet over. All of this will have to be recognised and evaluated by the judges of the competent preliminary chamber.

The chief prosecutor’s request concerns the leadership of Hamas as well as the leadership of Israel. Does this not lead to an inappropriate equation between those who are members of an EU terror-listed organisation and elected representatives of a democratic government?

The claim of equivalence is an inaccurate, political accusation — and the International Criminal Court is not concerned with politics. It is verifiably about international law. Everyone – including government statements – should take this into account, unless they want to weaken the International Criminal Court.

The chief prosecutor has, of course, submitted different applications with various justifications relating to different facts and allegations of crimes. In these, there is no recognisable legal equivalence between the leaders of Hamas, in other words a highly organised non-state terrorist group, and the elected officials of Israel.

Some commentators evidently take the view that only terrorists can commit the most serious crimes against humanity, but not democratically elected officials. Unfortunately, numerous examples from the recent past show that this is not the case.

As Germany recognises the International Criminal Court, Netanyahu and Galant would theoretically have to be arrested upon entering the country if they were charged. How realistic do you think this is?

Anyone wanted by the International Criminal Court on the basis of an arrest warrant must be arrested if they enter a member state, because the Rome Statute clearly stipulates that arrest warrants must be executed by the member states. Of course, not every government that is pursuing its own political agenda likes this.

As we all know, the Chinese government’s criticism of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Putin and its demand for his immunity on the grounds that he is a public official were met with astonishment. However, there can be no special status for public officials.

The Rome Statute rules this out and we in Germany – as well as around two thirds of UN member states – should recognise and support the independent International Criminal Court with good reason.

As a constitutional democracy, we should also be wary of double standards. On the contrary, we should help to dispel the suspicions fuelled by political interests about the qualifications, integrity and independence of the International Criminal Court, the chief prosecutor and the judges.

The International Criminal Court has frequently demonstrated its high level of qualification and its necessity. It is infuriating that the US, Russia, but also China and India, among others, acknowledge the Court as a ‘court for others, but not for themselves’.

This weakens international law, on which we Germans particularly rely. As is well known, the International Criminal Court has already recognised its jurisdiction to prosecute crimes against humanity in Palestine and Gaza in 2021 following multiple resolutions and recommendations by the UN General Assembly.

The International Criminal Court is based on the Rome Statute of 1998, which was adopted during your time as minister of justice and against immense pressure from the US. What impact would a disregard of the proceedings by Germany and other signatory states have on the international legal system?

It is indeed a great disappointment, even a nuisance, that states such as the US are evading membership and downright fighting the International Criminal Court. Especially as very good US lawyers work in the office of the chief prosecutor.

I would like to repeat: strengthening international law and supporting the International Criminal Court go hand in hand. In Germany, we have not only ratified the Rome Statute, but have also created the German International Criminal Code, which today, in accordance with the Rome Statute, relieves the International Criminal Court in appropriate proceedings. We rely on international law and should continue to do so. And this support has to prove itself time and again.

The fight against the most serious crimes against humanity is more important today than ever before. It is also high time to assign the prohibition of aggressive war to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in its entirety, even if ‘only’ the invaded state, but not the aggressor itself, is a member state of the International Criminal Court.

Source: International Politics and Society (IPS)-Journal published by the International Political Analysis Unit of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Hiroshimastrasse 28, D-10785 Berlin

IPS UN Bureau

Excerpt:

King Charles III of Britain addresses the opening ceremony of the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States, May 27, 2024. Credit: Alison Kentish/IPS

By Alison Kentish
ANTIGUA, May 27 2024 (IPS)

“This year has been the hottest in history in practically every corner of the globe, foretelling severe impacts on our ecosystems and starkly underscoring the urgency of our predicament. We are gathered here not merely to reiterate our challenges, but to demand and enact solutions,” declared Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Brown at the opening of the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States on May 27.

The world’s 39 small island developing states are meeting on the Caribbean island this week. It is a pivotal, once-a-decade meeting for small states that contribute little to global warming, but are disproportionately impacted by climate change. The Caribbean leader reminded the world that SIDS are being forced to survive crises that they did not create.

“The scales of equity and justice are unevenly balanced against us. The large-scale polluters whose CO2 emissions have fuelled these catastrophic climate changes bear a responsibility—an obligation of compensation to aid in our quest to build resilience,” he said.

“The Global North must honor its commitments, including the pivotal pledge of one hundred billion dollars in climate financing to assist with adaptation and mitigation as well as the effective capitalization and operationalization of the loss and damage fund. These are imperative investments in humanity, in justice, and in the equitable future of humanity.”

Urgent Support Needed from the International Community

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the gathering that the previous ten years have presented significant challenges to SIDS and hindered development. These include extreme weather events and the COVID-19 pandemic. He says SIDS, islands that are “exceptionally beautiful, exceptionally resilient, but exceptionally vulnerable,” need urgent support from the international community, led by the nations that are both responsible for the challenges they face and have the capacity to deal with them.

“The idea that an entire island state could become collateral damage for profiteering by the fossil fuel industry, or competition between major economies, is simply obscene,” the Secretary General said, adding, “Small Island Developing States have every right and reason to insist that developed economies fulfill their pledge to double adaptation financing by 2025. And we must hold them to this commitment as a bare minimum. Many SIDS desperately need adaptation measures to protect agriculture, fisheries, water resources and infrastructure from extreme climate impacts you did virtually nothing to create.”

Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS)

The theme for SIDS4 is Charting the Course Toward Resilient Prosperity and the small islands have been praised for collective action in the face of crippling crises. Their voices were crucial to the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement.

Out of this conference will come the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS). President of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis, says that programme of action will guide SIDS on a path to resilience and prosperity for the next decade.

“ The next ten years will be critical in making sustained concrete progress on the SIDS agenda – and we must make full use of this opportunity to supercharge our efforts around sustainability,” he said.

The SIDS4 conference grounds in Antigua and Barbuda will be a flurry of activity over the next four days. Apart from plenaries, there are over 170 side events hosted by youth, civil society organizations, non-governmental organizations, and universities, covering a range of issues from renewable energy to climate financing.

They have been reminded by Prime Minister Gaston Browne that this is a crucial juncture in the history of small island developing states, where “actions, or failure to act, will dictate the fate of SIDS and the legacy left for future generations.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

• Countdown to Critical Conference for Small Island Developing States
• Latin America and the Caribbean Hit with Record-Breaking Heat and Other Climate Effects in 2023

Excerpt:

A still shot of Robert Wilson's Star and Stone: a kind of love...some say, picture by AM/SWAN

By SWAN
NORMANDY, France, May 27 2024 (IPS)

On a clear, chilly evening, the words of African American poet Maya Angelou filled the air in the centre of Rouen, as a vivid light show played across the façade of the French town’s imposing cathedral, and as a bright full moon rose in the sky.

Images of explosions, falling debris, a cheetah fleeing in the darkness – all sent a message that the world is in a precarious situation on many fronts and that urgent restorative action is needed.

Yet, along with the tangible sense of angst, the show seemed to call for hope, with the intoning of Angelou’s famous line: “But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”

The 25-minute projection, by Texas-born experimental theatre artist Robert Wilson, forms part of the massive Normandie Impressionniste festival, now in its 5th incarnation and this year celebrating the 150th anniversary of impressionism, the art movement that scandalized critics when it emerged in the late 1800s.

Running until Sept. 22, and with a head-spinning 150 events taking place throughout Normandy – the region most closely associated with famous impressionist artists such as Claude Monet – the festival comprises exhibitions, installations, theatre pieces, concerts, and other shows.

Running until Sept. 22, and with a head-spinning 150 events taking place throughout Normandy - the region most closely associated with famous impressionist artists such as Claude Monet - the festival comprises exhibitions, installations, theatre pieces, concerts, and other shows
It features both renowned and emerging artists, from across France as well as from countries including India, Japan, China, South Africa, the United States and Britain … all “in dialogue” with impressionism, and history, according to festival director Philippe Platel.

“We wish to show what’s happening now, to update the view of art, even as Normandy remains central,” Platel said in an interview.

The 1874 Paris exhibition that sparked the term impressionism (from the Monet painting Impression, soleil levant) was met mostly with disdain as conventional painters and critics opposed the breaking of academic rules. But the movement, with its focus on a different way of seeing and capturing light, would go on to have global impact.

Still, while the impressionists were seen as radicals, their first shows featured just one woman artist, Berthe Morisot. Now, the festival has made it a point to include almost as many contemporary women artists (47 percent) as men, said Platel – although it’s clear that the “blockbuster” exhibitions centre on male painters.

The Wilson / Angelou show, titled Star and Stone: a kind of love…some say” is presented as one of the highlights of the festival, and Platel emphasises that Angelou (who died in 2014) was an “immense feminist poet”.

Her words are transmitted in the original English and in French translation (read by French actress Isabelle Huppert), alongside music by composer Philip Glass. (Wilson and Glass have previously collaborated, most notably for the opera Einstein on the Beach.)

With its moving, intense images, Star and Stone evokes historical atrocities, including slavery and two world wars. It recalls the damage inflicted on Normandy during World War II, but it also reflects current brutal conflicts. (During the projection on May 22, a woman strode past, and, obviously angered by the visuals, or mistaking the show for a demonstration, shouted out the word “anti-Semitic” several times, to the apparent bafflement of spectators.)

Some of the projected scenes, especially against the full-moon backdrop on this particular night, conjured Monet’s iconic paintings of the Rouen Cathedral, works that themselves hang in an exhibition opening May 25 in Le Havre.

The harbour town, which saw entire neighbourhoods flattened in World War II bombardments, has over the past decades embarked on a cultural and architectural renaissance, and it hosts an impressive museum of modern art (MuMa) which is showcasing 19th-century photography in Normandy, as part of the festival.

Photographier en Normandie: 1840-1890 juxtaposes photographs and impressionist paintings, giving an idea of the medium’s development and the concerns of artists at the time: the rapidly changing landscapes caused by the industrial revolution, for instance.

It pulls together several iconic paintings of landmarks and the sea, while the photographs too capture marine scenes, daily life, and environmental transformations brought on by the building of railway lines during the 19th century. The show caters to both painting and photography buffs, or anyone interested in early picture-taking processes and their global impact, not least on artists.

Back in Rouen, another highlight of the festival is an exhibition by 86-year-old English artist David Hockney, who has been living and working in Normandy since the Covid-19 pandemic. His show Normandism at Rouen’s Musée des Beaux-Arts offers a different kind of impressionism, mixing pop art with the quality of light so important to his predecessors.

Here, vibrant greens, yellows and blues pull spectators into the landscapes for which rainy Normandy is famous, and the exhibition also features striking portraits as well as paintings that Hockney has created via iPads.

The latter record his individual technique and take viewers on a journey from the first line traced to the colourful completed work.

In the “dialogue” between contemporary artists and the impressionists, a main theme is water – the sea, ponds, rain – with echoes of climate change. In one standout show, Oliver Beer, a British painter and musician, reinterprets Monet’s famous Water Lilies series, transforming soundwaves into visual depiction on huge azure canvases.

In another, renowned French artist Marc Desgrandchamps incorporates human forms into his portrayal of water and landscapes, suggesting fragility as well as the need for environmental protection.

While these artists have consciously accepted the call to use impressionism in their shows, the impressionists themselves drew from others, especially from Japanese artists, whose work Monet collected. The festival highlights these international links with an exhibition set to begin June 22 in Deauville: Mondes flottants: du japonisme à l’art contemporain / Floating Worlds: from “Japonism” to Contemporary Art.

Meanwhile, Tokyo-born, France-based artist Reiji Hiramatsu will hold a solo show, Symphonie des Nymphéas / Water Lilies Symphony in Giverny, the town where Monet lived, painted and created his water gardens. The exhibition starting July 12 will comprise 14 screens, inspired by certain Monet works… which themselves were inspired by Japan.

Other international artists include Shanta Rao (Indian-French), with an exhibition titled Les yeux turbides / Turbid Eyes in the commune Grand Quevilly, where she invites viewers to see how objects change with light; and South African Bianca Bondi who uses mounds of salt to create luminous landscapes for a show in Le Havre.

With the emphasis on light and dialogue across the festival, the words of Maya Angelou almost seem to form a refrain, calling out from Rouen, to rebut oppression and exclusion: “Leaving behind nights of terror and fear / I rise / into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear“. – 

Children in Rafah city queue to receive a bowl of food for their families from charity organizations, in Rafah, Gaza on May 3 2024. Credit: UNICEF

By IPS Correspondent
THE HAGUE, May 24 2024 (IPS)

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to immediately halt its military offense in Rafah.

“In conformity with obligations under the Genocide Convention, Israel must immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah Governorate which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” the court said in it’s revised order, which was passed by 13 votes to 2.

South Africa approached the court on May 10, 2024 for a modification of provisional measures as prescribed by the court.

The court also ordered that Israel must take effective measures to ensure the unimpeded access to the Gaza Strip of any commission of inquiry, fact-finding mission, or other investigative body mandated by competent organs of the United Nations to investigate allegations of genocide.

Israel was also ordered to ensure that humanitarian aid should be “unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance,” and that Israel should maintain open land crossing points, in particular the Rafah crossing.

The full order can be read here.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Media in Slovakia are under attack following the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Fico.

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, May 24 2024 (IPS)

Fears for the safety of journalists in Slovakia are growing in the wake of an assassination attempt on the country’s prime minister, which some politicians are blaming in part on local independent media.

Relations between some media and members of the governing coalition, led by Prime Minister Robert Fico’s Smer party, have become increasingly tense since the government came to power in October last year.

And immediately after Fico was shot and seriously injured on May 15, as he greeted members of the public after a government meeting, senior members of coalition parties linked the attack to critical coverage of Fico and accused outlets of spreading hate against him.

The 71-year-old man who shot the prime minister is thought to have had a political motive for his attack.

Since then, there have been calls from some other politicians and heads of media organizations to stop trying to apportion blame for the attack on any group so as to defuse tensions in society.

But senior figures from governing coalition parties have continued to attack the media for what they see as their role in fomenting anger towards the government and provoking the tragedy.

Journalists in Slovakia, and press freedom watchdogs, worry this is increasing the risk reporters could also become targets of a violent attack.

“Journalists are in no way responsible for this, and blaming them is only fueling the fires and increasing the likelihood of another violent incident,” Oliver Money-Kyrle, Head of European Advocacy and Programmes at the International Press Institute (IPI), told IPS.

For many years, Fico and his Smer party, who have been in power for much of the last 18 years in Slovakia, have publicly attacked individual media, and specific journalists in some cases, for their critical reporting of the various governments he has led.

When Jan Kuciak, a reporter investigating alleged corruption by people close to Fico’s government, and his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova, were murdered in 2018, critics said Fico’s rhetoric towards journalists had contributed to creating an atmosphere in society in which those behind the killings believed they could act with impunity.

Fico was forced to step down as PM not long after the murders, following massive public protests against his government.

But since returning to power, he and other members of the ruling coalition have repeatedly attacked journalists they see as critical of the government and his party has refused to communicate with certain newspapers and broadcasters.

The government has also pushed through legislation which media freedom organizations and members of the European Commission have warned could severely restrict independent media and press freedom.

Some journalists at major news outlets have been regularly receiving death threats and facing horrific online harassment for years, but others have said they have become increasingly worried for their safety in recent months, and that those concerns have been exacerbated now in the wake of Fico’s shooting.

Many believe that years of aggressive, derogatory rhetoric against them has made them a target for hate among some parts of a society with widespread distrust of media—a recent survey showed only 37 percent of Slovaks trust the media.

Since the assassination attempt, some newsrooms have taken extra security measures and the government has said it will also be providing extra protection for groups which could be facing an elevated safety risk, including media.

While this has been welcomed by media rights organizations, they have said politicians must take the lead in reducing tensions in society and lessening immediate safety risks for journalists.

“The way to de-escalate the situation is that political hate speech against media must stop,” Pavol Szalai, head of the EU/Balkans desk at RSF at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told IPS.

In the immediate hours after the shooting, some ministers appeared to be pushing to calm the situation.  At a press conference, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok, appealed “to the public, to journalists and to all politicians to stop spreading hatred”.

Meanwhile, dozens of editors from print and broadcast media issued a joint statement publicly condemning the attack on the prime minister and calling for politicians and media to come together to calm tensions.

However, even days after the shooting, senior government figures continued to attack specific media or play down the seriousness  of comments made by colleagues just after the shooting, including  labelling media as “disgusting pigs”.

The Slovak government did not respond to questions on journalists’ safety from IPS.

But beyond putting journalists at increased risk, it is feared that the assassination attempt may also worsen what research has shown is significantly worsening media freedom in the country.

The government recently approved legislation – which is expected to be passed in parliament within weeks that will see the country’s public broadcaster, RTVS, completely overhauled and, critics say, effectively under control of the government.

Ominously, the leader of the governing coalition Slovak National Party (SNS), Andrej Danko, warned after Fico was shot that there would “be changes to the media” now.

And on May 19, speaking on the TA3 private news channel, he said he was planning to propose legislation that would set new regulations governing journalistic ethics, relations between journalists and politicians, and what politicians would be obliged to “put up with” from journalists.

Beata Balogova, Editor in Chief of the Sme daily newspaper, one of the news outlets in the country regularly criticized by government politicians, told international media that the government could now introduce “brutal measures against the media.”

Local journalists say any repressive measures would make an already difficult job even harder.

“I haven’t thought about how things could get more difficult for us to do our work in the future because it’s already very hard. It’s so difficult to gather news with political parties refusing to speak to us. [More restrictions] certainly wouldn’t make things easier,” Michaela Terenzani, an editor at Sme, told IPS.

She added, though, that it was difficult to predict what would happen in the coming days and weeks.

“At the moment, we are all just getting over the shock and trying to get on with our work as best we can. This is a major moment in Slovakia’s history and we will have to see what happens with relations between the media and politicians. Everyone is calling for calm, and I hope that is what we get,” she said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

• International Community Urged to End Impunity for Violence Against Healthcare in Conflicts
• Media Freedom Declining Across Europe, With Implications for Rule of Law
• International Women’s Day, 2024 Rural Tajik Woman’s Road to Empowering Women Living with HIV

Soka Gakkai International representative and member of the organizing committee for the Future Action Festival, Tadashi Nagai, stressed the importance of coalition and movement building and youth engagement to escalate progress towards attainment of the SDGs. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
NAIROBI, May 23 2024 (IPS)

The world has crossed the halfway point to the end of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era amid multiple, unprecedented, and significantly destructive global shocks. Two of the most pressing global challenges are the climate crisis and the threat of nuclear armament. Of serious concern is a severe lack of youth engagement on issues of critical global importance.

Speaking to IPS during the 2024 UN Civil Society Conference, the outcome of which will inform high-level discussions when the UN hosts hundreds of world leaders, policymakers, experts, and advocates in September at the Summit of the Future in New York, Tadashi Nagai stressed the importance of coalition and movement building and youth engagement to escalate progress towards attainment of the SDGs. 

“In March 2024, the Future Action Festival took place in Tokyo, attended by approximately 66,000 people and over half a million viewers via live streaming. The event was a collaborative effort by youth and citizen groups to foster a deeper understanding and proactive stance among young people on nuclear disarmament and climate change solutions as two issues of global concern,” said Nagai, a representative of the Soka Gakkai International organization and the organizing committee of the Future Action Festival at the Nairobi conference.

The organizing committee comprised representatives from six organizations, including GeNuine, Greenpeace Japan, Japan Youth Council, Kakuwaka Hiroshima, Youth for TPNW, and Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Youth. Nagai said the high impact committee is reflective of a tangible, impactful coalition and movement building towards resolving issues of global, national, and local concern in the two major existential threats today—nuclear weapons and the climate crisis.

Nagai spoke of the inalienable link between youth engagement and the delivery of the promise of a peaceful world—a requisite for the attainment of the SDGs and other related global and national commitments. In the lead-up to the Future Action Festival, a youth awareness survey was conducted across Japan from November 2023 to February 2024, targeting individuals ranging from their 10s to their 40s. The survey focused on thematic areas such as society, climate change, nuclear weapons, youth and social systems, and the United Nations.

The survey results were illuminating, providing insights into how the youth perceive these issues and their possible role in resolving them. On the realization of a world free from nuclear weapons for instance, survey results showed that 82 percent of the respondents said nuclear weapons are not needed. Based on a sample size of 119,925 respondents, nuclear abolition is a widely shared vision among young people in Japan.

“We come with lessons from Japan on how civil society organizations represented at the Nairobi conference can build impactful, informative, and life-transforming coalitions and movements to address the most existential threats facing humanity today. This particular conference is unique, historic, and highly critical as it comes ahead of the UN Summit of the Future. The Future Action Festival was an opportunity to collect the voices of young people on issues of critical importance to the global community, in the same way that the outcome of the Nairobi conference will inform the UN Summit later on in September,” Nagai said.

Through the festival, the committee was determined to contribute to UN initiatives and endorse the newly-established UN Youth Office. Additionally, it aims to create momentum to strengthen international cooperation and solidarity toward a peaceful and sustainable future.

With this in mind, a joint declaration from the Future Action Festival was submitted to the UN to inform, influence, and shape high-level discussions at the Summit towards the production of three international frameworks: the Pact for the Future (available as a zero draft), the Global Digital Compact, and the Declaration on Future Generations. Nagai said that the Pact for the Future must be ambitious, inclusive, and innovative.

Under the theme, Summit of the Future: Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow, the summit aims to forge a new global consensus on what a collective future should look like and what can be done today to secure it. Enhancing cooperation on critical challenges and addressing gaps in global governance, reaffirming existing commitments, including to the SDGs, towards a reinvigorated multilateral system better placed to positively impact lives. The Summit of the Future will create conditions to help fast-track implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development be more readily attained.

Affirming the critical role of young people in sustainable development, the position of world leaders in the 2030 Agenda is that SDGs would only be attained if they were of the people, by the people, and for the people. The 2030 Agenda invites citizen engagement, especially from young people, to “channel their infinite capacities for activism into the creation of a better world,” Nagai said.

Hence the link between the civil society conference, the summit, and other events such as the Future Action Festival—all geared towards effectively addressing issues of global concern such as climate change, war, and worsening inequalities. Every proposal offered by the UN Secretary-General for consideration at the UN Summit of the Future will have demonstrable impacts on the achievement of the SDGs.

Ultimately, the Nairobi conference was a process of renewal of trust and solidarity at all levels—between peoples, countries, and generations. Making a case for a fundamental rethink of political, economic, and social systems so that they deliver more fairly and effectively for everyone.

At the closing of the conference, Mithika Mwenda, of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, emphasized the need for “boldness and honest conversations” to achieve the radical transformations needed to ensure sustainable development for all, poverty alleviation, and ultimately, an action-oriented Pact for the Future (one of the expected outcomes of the Summit).

Civil society groups and organizations also recommended a corresponding renewal of the multilateral system, with the Summit of the Future as a defining moment to agree on the most critical improvements necessary to deliver a future defined by equality, fairness, and shared prosperity.

Secretary-General António Guterres and Kenyan President William Ruto praised the efforts of civil society and underscored their “indispensable contributions.”

In his address, Guterres said time and again that he had witnessed the enormous impact of civil society in every corner of the world; easing suffering, pushing for peace and justice, standing for truth, and advancing gender equality and sustainable development, with many working at great personal risk.

Regarding current conflicts, including Gaza, Sudan, and ongoing crises in the Sahel, Great Lakes, and Horn of Africa regions, he said that the UN would give up on the “push for peace, justice, and human rights.

He recognized that civil society was crucial to addressing many issues in the world, including closing digital divides and revitalizing the collective approach to peace and security.

“We need to be informed by your frontline know-how; We need your can-do attitude to overcome obstacles and find innovative solutions,” said Guterres. “We need you to use your networks, knowledge, and contacts to implement solutions and to persuade governments to act.”

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

• Choose Hope: Standing at the Crossroads of the Future
• WHO Africa Advances African Science by Promoting Peer-Reviewed Research
• A Russian Veto Threatens to Trigger a Nuclear Arms Race in Outer Space

Forus General Assembly in Gaborone, Botswana. Credit: Forus

By Sarah Strack
GABORONE, Botswana, May 23 2024 (IPS)

During the Forus network’s General Assembly which took place in Gaborone, Botswana, civil society organisations from across 65 countries highlighted the challenges facing them globally in an increasingly polarised and crisis-hit world.

Participants discussed strategic foresight, policy demands and capacity strengthening – scanning the horizon for emerging and chronic issues affecting civil society, activists, journalists and human rights defenders worldwide.

Solidarity and local power

Year after year, civil society organisations have witnessed growing violence particularly directed against those defending human rights and the environment, as well as leaders of indigenous groups.

“Democracy, civic space and fundamental freedoms are under attack in various countries across the globe. Socio-economic disparities and gender based violence are on the rise in most geographies. The world is again failing to achieve its commitments made under various developmental, environmental and financial frameworks. It’s time for global civil society and human rights actors to reflect jointly and strategise on our future course of action,” says Zia ur Rehman, Regional Coordinator of the Asia Development Alliance who joined the Forus network in Botswana for the General Assembly.

The event also pointed to other conflicts and challenges – from the “chronic” humanitarian crises to conflicts and the impacts of climate change and migration patterns. Civil society from all continents crafted a collective way forward, informed by local realities.

Forus General Assembly in Gaborone, Botswana. Credit: Forus

Local civil society from Botswana shared their journey in fighting gender-based violence.

“Gender-based violence is a national pandemic, a violation of grand magnitude of human rights. Civil society organisations in Botswana continue to do such a commendable job in trying to help the country to overcome this scourge. As BOCONGO, we remain committed to support and advance the work of our members in this regard,” says Kagiso Molatlhwa, BOCONGO Executive Director. A message echoed by Gender Links an organisation working across the Southern African region, who says, “ending gender-based violence starts with empowering women”.

A year that could set the tone for the future

In terms of civic engagement, this year has been called the ‘super election’ year, with billions of people voting while navigating “the geopolitical disinformation maze”. The potential repercussions of such a pivotal year pushed civil society to reflect on how to preserve fundamental freedoms and civic participation in turbulent times.

According to research, elections in many jurisdictions have been affected by violence and arbitrary arrests, targeting opposition candidates and political leaders, as well as civil society, human rights defenders, journalists, media workers and election observers. At the same time political misrepresentation and manipulation online is a known concern.

The Forus network emphasized the strength of collective action and care in achieving local and global goals. From mutual support and “regenerative activism” to the protection of democratic values, alternative models and innovative approaches to address democratic challenges, civil society is calling for renewed international solidarity and shared visions to protect one another.

“We are concerned about the closure of civic spaces that are becoming stronger every day, but the search for alliances allows us to strengthen and recognize the important work of civil society, promoting sustainable development to build a more just and equitable society,” says Francisco Garcia of the national civil society platform in Honduras, ASONOG.

After a major UN civil society conference wrapped up in Nairobi earlier this month in preparation for the “summit of the future” coming up this September, civil society globally calls for “bold and honest” conversations among governments and civil society to drive forward a shared vision for reinvigorated and inclusive multilateralism.

The power of the network

The Forus General Assembly was organised in partnership with the national civil society platform BOCONGO and the regional coalition Southern African Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (SAf-CNGO) with support from the European Union and the Agence Francaise de Developpement.

“Our gathering was a wonderful opportunity to reiterate our resolve to continue our struggles against inequalities to make this world a better place to live where everyone enjoys rightful spaces and choices of life,” says Zia ur Rehman, Regional Coordinator of the Asia Development Alliance.

“Your current life is a result of your thought life,” says Moses Isooba, Executive Director of the Uganda National NGO Forum, highlighting the importance of spending time together to “exude deep conceptual clarity” of where the Forus network wants to go.

ANONG, the national civil society platform in Uruguay, highlighted the importance of civil society meeting across countries, for exchange and community-building. Transforming actions are born from these spaces of construction and reflection which represent an impulse to continue our work for the defense of human rights”.

Monametsi Sokwe from the Southern African Council of Non-Governmental Organisations, concluded by highlighting the importance of continuing to innovate to address emerging challenges, fighting for sustainable development, and creating a resilient and inclusive society.

“Civil society organisations are essential throughout the world, providing humanitarian aid, supporting community resilience, fighting for human rights, justice, equity, democracy and peace. They fight for the creation and animation of spaces where we can all learn from each other, and even from our differences, to act for the collective well-being. Such spaces are precious, and dialogue is crucial to making progress. Together, we can overcome the challenges of our time, by opening to the rich diversity that the world has to offer, while respecting our values. This will help us to find new solutions to the aspirations of our peoples and to safeguard our planet,” said civil society leader Mavalow Christelle Kalhoule, Forus Chair and President of SPONG, the Burkina Faso NGO network.

IPS UN Bureau

Excerpt:

Credit: Robert Atanasovski/AFP via Getty Images

By Andrew Firmin
LONDON, May 23 2024 (IPS)

The old guard is back in North Macedonia, as the former ruling party – the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) – returns to parliamentary and presidential power.

Long the country’s dominant political force, the right-wing VMRO-DPMNE had been out of power since 2016. But this month, the political alliance it leads came first in the parliamentary election, taking 58 of 120 seats. In the presidential election runoff, its candidate triumphed with 61 per cent of the vote. In both cases the centre-left, pro-Europe Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), which had led the governing coalition and held the presidency, came a distant second. In parliament, its political alliance lost 28 of its 46 seats with only 14 per cent of the vote.

VMRO-DPMNE made its way back to office by harnessing widespread public frustration over the country’s attempt to join the European Union (EU), which has moved slowly, been dogged by controversy and forced the government to make numerous compromises. SDSM stood on a platform of rapid constitutional reform to accelerate progress, but VMRO-DPMNE, while claiming to support EU membership, opposes further changes. Its return signals a turn away from Europe, and a likely worsening of civil society conditions.

Rocky road towards the EU

North Macedonia has been an official candidate to join the EU since 2005. Negotiations are always lengthy, but North Macedonia’s road has been particularly bumpy. Before it could begin formal negotiations, it had to change the country’s name. Any existing EU member can block a non-member’s accession, and Greece stood in the way. The country shared its name with a region of Greece, which the Greek government saw as implying a territorial claim.

The hugely controversial issue brought extensive protests as name-change negotiations reached their conclusion in 2018. A referendum intended to approve the change failed when a boycott left turnout well below the level required; VMRO-DPMNE urged its supporters to reject the deal. The referendum was non-binding, and parliament went on to change the constitution regardless in January 2019.

Then Bulgaria intervened. The Bulgarian government insists its North Macedonian counterpart must do more to prevent the spread of anti-Bulgarian sentiments and protect the rights of the country’s Bulgarian minority. This heated issue, inflamed by much disinformation, helped force a political crisis in Bulgaria in 2022 when the government collapsed.

The two sides finally struck a deal to allow North Macedonia to begin EU negotiations in July 2022, but disputes still flare. In 2023 Bulgaria’s parliament warned it could halt the process again. North Macedonia’s outgoing government failed to win the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to change the constitution to recognise the Bulgarian minority.

Relations with Bulgaria played their part in the campaign. Some think the government has gone too far in compromising, and VMRO-DPMNE characterised the SDSM-led government’s actions as a surrender.

As a consequence of all the delays and compromises, public support for joining the EU has fallen.

A troubling return

VMRO-DPMNE led the government for a decade from 2006 to 2016, with Nikola Gruevski prime minister throughout. The party also held the presidency, a less powerful role, from 2009 to 2019.

Gruevski and his party fell from grace in 2016 amid allegations that he and many more of his party’s politicians were involved in a wiretapping scandal affecting over 20,000 people. Mass protests followed. VMRO-DPMNE still came first in the 2016 parliamentary election but couldn’t form a coalition, so power passed to an SDSM-led government. SDSM retained power in the 2020 election, and its candidate won the presidency in 2019.

Gruevski’s fall was swift. In 2018, he was sentenced to two years in prison for corruption, but he fled to Hungary, where the government of his authoritarian friend Viktor Orbán granted him political asylum. Further convictions followed, including a seven-year sentence for money laundering and illegal acquisition of property.

From exile, Gruevski has continued to criticise the government that replaced him. And while relations with VMRO-DPMNE’s current leader are hostile, ideologically VMRO-DPMNE still carries his fingerprints and the networks Gruevski developed among supportive media, the private sector and criminal groups remain. Under Gruevski, the party took a nationalist, pro-Russia and anti-west direction, promoting identity politics that hark back to the ancient Macedonian Empire.

For civil society, this makes the results concerning news. Conditions deteriorated during VMRO-DPMNE’s decade in power. The party’s identity politics fuelled a polarised environment. Nationalist groups physically attacked several journalists. Civil society leaders were among those subjected to illegal surveillance. Using the same tactics as Orbán, the government hurled abuse at civil society groups receiving funding from Open Society Foundations, accusing them of colluding with foreign governments. It subjected critical organisations to financial audits and raided their offices.

The election was held in an atmosphere of intense polarisation and proliferating disinformation, some originating in Russia, which doesn’t want any more countries joining the EU. There’s now a risk of a return to the politics of division, which would bring a resumption of attacks on civil society and independent media. VMRO-DPMNE has already made clear it’s looking for confrontation. New president Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova upset Greece by using North Macedonia’s old name during her inauguration ceremony.

The EU impasse wasn’t the only reason voters were unhappy. People haven’t seen any progress in combating corruption or improving economic conditions and public services. In country after country, there’s a broader pattern of electoral volatility as voters, unhappy with the performance of incumbents in difficult economic conditions, shop around for anything that looks different. Populist and nationalist parties – even long-established ones such as VMRO-DPMNE – are doing best at making an emotional connection with voters’ anger, offering deceptively simple answers and promising change.

For civil society, that means there’s now work to be done in depolarising the debate, building consensus and defending civic freedoms: a tall order, but a vital one, for which it’ll need a lot of support.

Andrew Firmin is CIVICUS Editor-in-Chief, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

Credit: IMF

By Kohei Asao, TengTeng Xu and Xin Cindy Xu
WASHINGTON DC, May 23 2024 (IPS)

Women in Japan and Korea face especially tough challenges juggling career and family. Many young women witness their peers encountering promotion delays after marriage and childbirth, dealing with problems splitting housework responsibilities, and having difficulty finding adequate childcare.

The financial burden associated with raising children, including the costs of larger living spaces and ensuring a competitive education for their offspring, is an additional factor affecting couples’ decisions on whether to expand their families.

Consequently, later marriages and childbirth have become increasingly more common, contributing significantly to declining fertility in these two countries. At 0.72 and 1.26, respectively, the latest fertility rates in Korea and Japan are among the lowest in the world.

Meanwhile, large gaps between men and women still exist in employment and wages, particularly for leadership positions. Representation of women in senior management roles is less than 15 percent in both Japan and Korea, among the lowest in G20 countries.

What are some of the conditions in and outside the workplace that contribute to low fertility and large gender gaps for both countries?

Social norms in these two countries place a heavy burden on women. Women in Japan and Korea perform approximately five times more unpaid housework and caregiving than men, more than double the OECD average for gaps between men and women in unpaid work.

Fathers in these two economies take less paternity leave compared with those in peer economies, despite more generous benefits.

Furthermore, something known among economists as “labor market duality” disproportionately affects women. In both countries, this means that a large share of women workers hold temporary, part-time, or other types of “non-regular” positions with low wages and limited opportunities for skill development and career advancement.

Some women who left the labor force (departing jobs with regular hours and benefits) during the early years of their kids’ childhood could only return to “non-regular” positions. Seniority-based promotion systems further penalize mothers who return to work.

Finally, working arrangements in these countries are often not family-friendly. Long working hours, inflexible schedules, and limited use of telework in Japan and Korea make balancing career and childcare responsibilities extremely challenging for women.

The governments of Japan and Korea have acted to support women, including through enhanced childcare and maternity leave policies, but more efforts are needed from these governments, business communities, and society at large:

First, reducing “non-regular” employment conditions, encouraging merit-based promotions, and facilitating more job mobility can help support more employment and career growth opportunities for women.

A recent IMF analysis on Korea estimates that reducing severance payments for regular workers (which eases dismissals and facilitates labor reallocation for both men and women) by 30 percent alone can significantly increase labor force participation among women and productivity growth (by 0.9 and up to 0.5 percentage point, respectively).

The productivity gains could be further increased if complemented with measures to support career development and facilitate job mobility for women. The net impact on male workers is also positive due to a more effective allocation of labor.

Recent IMF research on Japan suggests that various distortions in Japan’s tax and social security system discourage second-income earners—a large portion of employed women in the country—from working more.

Second, further expanding childcare facilities and facilitating fathers’ contributions to home and childcare, including establishing stronger incentive mechanisms for paternity leave use, are crucial.

Japan’s fertility rate mostly stabilized after the country expanded childcare facilities over a decade ago, and recent IMF studies on Japan confirm that increasing such facilities further would have a positive impact both on fertility and women’s career advancement.

Third, facilitating a cultural shift in the workplace by expanding the use of telework and flexible working-time arrangements could support increased women labor participation, while also allowing men to share more responsibilities at home.

Rising female labor force participation has already contributed to the post-pandemic growth recovery in Japan and Korea, while significant gains would result from further closing the gender gap.

IMF analysis suggests that policies that reduce Korea’s gap between men and women in hours worked in to the OECD average by 2035 can boost the country’s per capita GDP by 18 percent compared with no change.

Another IMF study shows that bridging Japan’s large gap in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields can boost the country’s total factor productivity growth by 20 percent and social welfare by 4 percent.

In Japan and Korea, policies aimed at closing gender gaps and progressively shifting cultural norms will help increase the growth potential, despite demographic headwinds.

They also can help gradually reverse declining trends in fertility, allowing women in Japan and Korea to manage having a family while pursuing fulfilling careers, and, in turn, to contribute significantly to their economies and societies.

Kohei Asao, TengTeng Xu and Xin Cindy Xu are economists in the IMF’s Asia-Pacific Department. For more information, see recent selected issues papers on Structural Barriers to Wage Income Growth in Japan, Women in STEM Fields in Japan, Japan’s Fertility: More Children Please, and Why So Few Women in Leadership Positions in Japan?

IPS UN Bureau

By External Source
May 22 2024 (IPS-Partners)

 
Bruno Maes is the UNICEF Representative in Haiti. He officially took office in August 2020. A Belgian national, Mr. Maes previously served as UNICEF Representative in Madagascar from 2007 to 2012, in Chad from 2012 to 2015, and recently in Egypt from September 2015 to 2020.

Mr. Maes joined UNICEF in 2000 and served as Deputy Representative in Burundi and Ethiopia. Before joining UNICEF, he served as Representation of the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Department (ECHO) for Angola.

Mr. Maes holds a Master’s Degree in development economics from the University of Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.

ECW: Armed groups reportedly now control 80-90% of Port-au-Prince and over 360,000 people – the majority of them children – have been displaced. The country seems to be mired in a culture of violence. How can Education Cannot Wait, UNICEF and other local partners work together to provide these girls and boys with the safety and protection of quality, holistic learning environments?

Bruno Maes: UNICEF expresses grave concern over the swift deterioration of the security situation countrywide, particularly in multiple neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince and in the Artibonite Department. Recent weeks have seen a disturbing trend of violence targeting public institutions and vital social infrastructures, including schools. The violence has led to the temporary closure of hundreds of schools, depriving children of their right to education.

The instability in Haiti continues to undermine education. Frequent disruptions in educational services have posed significant challenges in accessing schools. Occupation of classrooms by armed groups and by internally displaced persons (IDPs) has further reduced access, leaving children vulnerable to the increased risk of recruitment into armed groups or to being the victim of social exclusion, sexual and physical abuse, and socioeconomic discrimination.

As of the end of January, a total of 900 schools had temporarily closed, depriving approximately 200,000 children of their right to education. In a country facing increasingly complex conflicts and instability, education can never be considered merely an option. It must be acknowledged as a necessity, a matter of survival, and a key to social stability.

In Haiti, UNICEF is ensuring access to inclusive and relevant quality education, in a safe and protective learning environment, for all students in public school, including children living with disabilities, affected by a situation of violence, armed conflict or natural disaster.

Support from Education Cannot Wait (ECW) helps UNICEF in assisting families affected by violence and displacement to reintegrate children into formal education. Where integration into formal schools is not feasible, UNICEF collaborates with partners to establish alternative, safe, and temporary learning environments for children. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to ECW for its invaluable support in our efforts to sustain education in emergencies (EiE).

Regarding our expectations of ECW, UNICEF, and other local partners on issues of safety and the protection of a holistic, quality learning environment, we believe that the best way to work together will be to ensure capacity building of teachers on key issues. These include protection, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) for children through protection mechanisms combined with social-emotional learning (SEL) activities in targeted schools. This action must be carried out through a strong partnership with the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP in French).

In connection with ongoing initiatives to strengthen psychosocial support and social cohesion in the response, we need to mobilize for the integration of MHPSS into teaching, the strengthening of the code of conduct recently validated by the MENFP to reinforce social cohesion in the school environment, the implementation of school referral mechanisms to other sectors such as hild protection, health, nutrition, the promotion of the Safe Schools Declaration, and, finally, the adoption of gender-based violence risk mitigation measures and school safety plans in the face of attacks on education.

ECW: The education in emergencies response in Haiti – and indeed across the world – is underfunded. Why should donors scale-up funding through multilateral funds such as Education Cannot Wait to respond to this forgotten crisis and deliver on the promises outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?

Bruno Maes: There are many reasons why donors should increase funding through multilateral funds such as ECW. I can mention two:

Firstly, ECW is a structure that has considerable influence at global and even national levels, due to the funds it has already granted to Haiti. These include ECW’s First Emergency Response from 2021 to 2022 in response to the Great South earthquake, and then the Multi-Year Resilience Programme for the period 2022-2025). ECW’s technical expertise, direct relations with UN agencies in Haiti (WFP, UNICEF, the Office of the Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator), transparent fiduciary management and long experience of working with different countries and regions are major assets to support this argument. Like the United Nations, ECW as a multilateral fund plays a very important role in low-income countries, including in emergency situations.

Secondly, the purpose of these funds – financed by multiple countries – is the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4, which is our collective goal, in line with the 2030 agenda. And as the fund’s name suggests, education cannot wait in Haiti. The current situation has led to an increase in the number of internally displaced persons, and has created huge gaps in terms of access to basic social services such as education and health. As I speak, almost 4,000 schools are temporarily unable to function in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area (this situation would affect nearly 1.2 million students). Speaking in Washington DC in April on “Linking Education and National Security, Competitiveness and Global Stability” as part of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ “Quality Education for Security and Economic Growth” initiative, Haiti’s Minister of Education, Nesmy Manigat, described the educational response to the current situation as “a race against time, not only to guarantee the right to education for thousands of children affected by the crisis, but also to prevent some of them from unwittingly becoming child bandits or child soldiers.”

ECW: #RightHereRightNow, climate change, environmental degradation, soaring temperatures, natural disasters and extreme weather events create a clear and present risk for the children of Haiti. How can we connect education action with climate action in Haiti and beyond?

Bruno Maes: It’s worth remembering that among island countries, Haiti ranks 3rd in terms of vulnerability to climate change. It is also well known that extreme weather events are becoming increasingly severe, occurring almost five times more frequently than 40 years ago, disrupting the education of nearly 40 million children worldwide every year.

In Haiti, the consequences of the most recent earthquake caused enormous damage to infrastructure, with 1,250 basic schools in the three hardest-hit areas (Cayes, Camp-Perrin and Sant-Louis-du-Sud/South department) damaged or destroyed. This situation has directly or indirectly affected 307,359 pupils, whose educational continuity has been disrupted. Nearly 7,512 teachers and more than 1,000 school principals were affected by the earthquake.

There are several ways of connecting education action with climate action in Haiti and beyond, including the promotion of key related themes in new curricula. These would include: the management of household waste and plastic waste; the fight against deforestation and its main consequences; the fight against the unhealthy school environment and the living environment of the learner; the fight against the consequences of certain human activities harmful to the environment (industrial waste, greenhouse gas emissions); the rational management of water resources in a context of climate change; and the management of energy sources in a context of global warming. The unpredictability of the consequences of climate change is likely to exacerbate the climatic impacts on already sensitive sectors, such as education, and limit the country’s economic growth.

ECW: This is arguably the most pressing humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere; how can education promote peace, stability, and economic resilience in a context like Haiti?

Bruno Maes: In the Haitian context, and in line with the aforementioned speech by Haiti’s Minister of Education, I believe that education can promote peace, stability and economic resilience through curriculum transformation. This is the most important step in meeting the challenges of an unstable world undergoing rapid social, economic, technological and climatic change.

As the Minister of Education suggested in the same statement quoted above this, to achieve this:

o Efforts must be made to ensure that curriculum transformation is integrated throughout the education system, including curricula and textbooks, teacher preparation and pedagogy, assessment and school climate etc.
o Education systems must equip young people with the life skills and knowledge they need to make a successful transition from the classroom to the world of work. Indeed, it has been shown that there is a positive link between increased human capital and economic outcomes such as higher wages, increased labor market participation rates and economic growth.
o The modalities of the offer or its curriculum must lead to inclusion and equity. Otherwise, education could turn out to be a double-edged sword, leading to or exacerbating conflict. At this level, the country needs to develop and implement public policies to ensure that educational services are a public good that is equitably shared and promotes peace and social justice.
o One of MENFP’s priority advocacy issues for Haiti’s next constitutional revision will be to raise awareness of the need for a consensus to integrate the percentage of minimum public spending per year for the education sector.

ECW: We all know that ‘leaders are readers.’ What are three books that have most influenced you personally and/or professionally, and why would you recommend them to others?

Bruno Maes: The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell. Based on a true story, this book follows a young teacher, Erin Gruwell, who transforms the lives of her at-risk students through the power of education and writing. In the face of adversity and societal expectations, Erin encourages her students to express themselves through writing, helping them find their voices and realize their potential. The book is a compilation of diary entries written by the students themselves, chronicling their personal struggles, triumphs, and growth over the course of their high school years. The Freedom Writers Diary illustrates the profound effect that a dedicated teacher and a supportive educational environment can have on students, especially those facing significant challenges. It’s a testament to the transformative power of education in empowering young people to overcome obstacles and create a better future for themselves.

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. This powerful memoir tells the story of Tara’s journey from growing up in a strict and isolated household in rural Idaho, where education was undervalued and often inaccessible, to ultimately pursuing higher education at prestigious universities like Harvard and Cambridge. Through her compelling narrative, Tara highlights the transformative power of education in breaking free from the constraints of her upbringing and shaping her identity.

And finally, The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.” This passage beautifully captures perspective on the unique essence and individuality of children, emphasizing the importance of nurturing their growth and allowing them to pursue their own paths in life. It invites stakeholders to support children’s education not to mold them into replicas of themselves, but to empower them to discover and fulfill their own potential.

Every Crisis-Affected Girl and Boy has the Right to Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education

By External Source
May 22 2024 (IPS-Partners)

In the lead up to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ Summit of the Future, taking place on 22-23 September 2024, Education Cannot Wait is supporting the global #ActNow Campaign with an urgent call to increase funding for the +226 million crisis-impacted children worldwide urgently in need of an education through ECW’s global #ShareTheirVoices campaign.

According to the United Nations, without additional resources, 84 million children and youth will be out of school by 2030, 300 million will lack basic numeracy and literacy skills, and only one out of six nations worldwide will achieve our promise of universal secondary education. Low- and lower-middle income countries face a US$100 billion annual financing gap to reach their education targets.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW), as the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, has mobilized US$900 million towards its US$1.5 billion funding target required to deliver on our 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. ECW urgently appeals to donors for US$600 million to close the funding gap so we can reach 20 million crisis-affected children and adolescents with the safety, hope and opportunity of quality education.

ECW’s #ShareTheirVoices campaign brings together the words of crisis-affected girls and boys from places like Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gaza, North-East Nigeria, Sudan, Haiti, Cox’s Bazaar, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine, where the converging challenges of armed conflict, forced displacement, climate change and other protracted crises are derailing development gains and putting girls’ and boys’ lives at grave risk.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are officially, and unacceptably, banned from secondary and tertiary education. One Afghan girl says, “I may have been denied the right to learn, but my hunger for knowledge will not be extinguished. I will find a way to educate myself and inspire others to do the same.” Afghans girls deserve no less than an equal opportunity to develop their potential, thrive and pursue their dreams. We must continue to share their voices.

In Gaza, the education system has collapsed. Innocent children are bearing the brutal brunt of a catastrophic humanitarian situation unfolding before our eyes. Since early October, 625,000 children enrolled in schools across Gaza have had no access to education, and approximately 86% of school buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Despite the destruction and devastation that surrounds them, children are still grasping on to the hope of a brighter future where they can live and learn in peace and protection. A school-aged girl in Gaza says, “I love school, I don’t like war at all. I miss my teacher very much. I miss my friends, and I miss playing with them.”

From within the world’s largest refugee camp, Cox’s Bazaar, located in Bangladesh, 11-year-old Zawad, a Rohingya refugee, says, “Educated people have the knowledge to define right and wrong, which will help them lead a better life. I ask world leaders to provide more support for education.”

The deadly armed conflict in Ukraine continues to rage on with millions of girls and boys heavily affected – suffering trauma, shelling, displacement, injury and death. School is an important place for 16-year-old Anastasia but the piercing siren signaling possible rocket attacks is all-too familiar. “When we go to the shelter, it’s harder to sit in class. It’s hard to hear, it’s hot and it’s harder to memorize information – but I feel safe at school,” says Anastasia, who dreams of one day becoming a doctor.

Aisha, 13, is in a wheelchair, and was denied education for most of her life as a result of her disability and ongoing conflict and insecurity in North-East Nigeria. “Before I came to this school, I was not doing anything – no education at all. Now, I am able to learn and, when I grow up, I want to become a teacher so I can teach other kids,” says Aisha. She is just one of 20 million children out of school in Nigeria.

If we don’t #ShareTheirVoices, if we don’t act, what chance do these crisis-affected – yet full of potential and hope – children have? And what hope does humanity have if a quarter of a billion children and adolescents never access a school and only experience brutal violence and trauma? For Aisha, Anastasia, and millions of other girls and boys caught in crises across the world, education is not just life-changing, it is also lifesaving.

We must #ShareTheirVoices as we come together as a global community to #ActNow for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and for universal human rights. We know that quality education is an essential support in delivering on all of the other SDGs, from ending famine, starvation and extreme poverty, to gender equality and addressing the climate crisis.

Education Cannot Wait for any crisis-affected child – no matter who or where they are. Let’s #ShareTheirVoices and #ActNow: every girl and boy has the right to the safety, hope and opportunity of a quality education.

There are over 2 million incarcerated people in the United States of America alone, the highest number of prisoners in the world per country. Credit: Bigstock

By Oswald Newbold II
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, US, May 22 2024 (IPS)

This month, non-governmental actors from across the world recently convened in Nairobi for the UN Civil Society Conference in Support of the Summit of the Future to demand that their issues are prioritized in the Pact for the Future – which is envisaged to turbocharge the sustainable development goals.

This was a crucial moment for civil society to influence country positions towards the adoption of this Pact and its annexes – the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations.

An often-sidelined constituency in global development discourse are incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people who are relegated to the periphery of international global development discourse. Where included, they are combined with a wide range of ‘marginalized groups’ which does not address their unique issues. Instead, it perpetuates their exclusion.

United Nations members in their ongoing negotiations on the Pact for the Future, must consider criminal justice reform and its implication to development and human rights. Until then, we will fail in the promise of leaving no one behind towards our collective goals for people and the planet

Consider that there are over 2 million incarcerated people in the United States of America alone. Those most at risk of this discrimination are poor people, people using drugs and racial minorities.

This is the highest number of prisoners in the world per country. It is larger than the population of Bahrain or Djibouti. In fact this statistic is higher than the combined population of the world’s 10 least populated countries.

Notwithstanding, crime rates have reduced over the past 3 decades, yet imprisonment and sentences continue to become higher and longer.

Ironically, the United States’ national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, expresses the country to be the land of the free.

To accelerate our development goals including our aspirations on peace, justice, and strong institutions; and those of reducing inequalities, it is imperative that the scourge of mass incarceration in America is mitigated and ultimately ended.

There have been relative national efforts towards this. Since 2017, April is designated as Second Chance Month in the United States, to raise awareness about the challenges faced by individuals with a criminal justice history.

Additionally, the enactment of policies provides opportunities for second chances, such as workforce training, education opportunities, and wraparound reentry services. Nonetheless, it is not enough as there is need for more political will in harnessing the potential of this opportunity.

Moreover, while it is crucial for breaking stigma and supporting systemic-impacted persons with their reintegration to society, it is important to recognize that some individuals do not even get first chances in life.

Significant correlations exist between mass incarceration and the dispossession of first chances; disproportionately impacting many who have never had genuine opportunities in life.

Poverty, in its various manifestations including access – or lack thereof, to education; and income inequalities among others often forces individuals into desperate situations for survival.

Furthermore, cycles of drug use which many are born into, are harder for poor people to break due to lack of health insurance and proper support systems.

Prisoner’s statistics from the Bureau of Justice shows that every state incarcerates black residents in its prisons at a higher rate than white residents. These racial biases are also present in sentencing, upsurging the disparities in the criminal justice system.

It could additionally be argued that there is an economic incentive to maintaining mass incarceration. The free labor by prisoners evidenced by the “convict leasing program” that started in America in 1908, is still mimicked to date in a modified form.

Essentially, jails and prisons have become the legalized slavery system afforded by the 13th Amendment, of the United States Constitution.

The repercussions of mass incarceration are deleterious. These include mental health deterioration, declining physical well-being, the spread of diseases and sexual violence.

Economically, upon release, formerly incarcerated individuals face systemic obstacles in obtaining sustainable incomes, affordable housing, and societal acceptance.

Post-incarceration life is burdened with collateral consequences rooted in stigmatization and marginalization, leading to social ostracization. Failing to reintegrate successfully, some individuals succumb to recidivism.

While society operates under a social contract defined by laws and regulations that governs order, there must be consequences for contravention. Nonetheless, these should not solely focus on punishment but also on rehabilitation, never resorting to destruction.

As the world envisions a new global governance system and a post-2030 development agenda, it is imperative that these reforms are reflected at regional, national, and grassroots levels, towards a just and equitable world.

United Nations members in their ongoing negotiations on the Pact for the Future, must consider criminal justice reform and its implication to development and human rights. Until then, we will fail in the promise of leaving no one behind towards our collective goals for people and the planet.

Oswald Newbold is the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Reentry Professionals Inc. He also holds the position of Reentry Coordinator at The Reentry Center of Riviera Beach. He is reachable at contact@oswaldnewbold.com—

A health worker in Gaza continues with an inoculation campaign. The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition has called for international action to end violence against or obstruction of health care in conflicts. Credit: UNWRA/Twitter

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, May 22 2024 (IPS)

Governments and international agencies must do more to end impunity for violence against healthcare, campaigners have urged, as a new report shows that attacks on healthcare during conflicts reached a new high last year.

The report from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC), an umbrella organisation of health and human rights groups, documented 2,562 incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care in conflicts across 30 countries—over 500 more than in 2022.

The group pointed out that the 25 percent rise on the previous year came as tens of millions of people in conflict-affected countries were already suffering from war, massive displacement, and staggering deprivation of food and other basic needs.

But beyond the inevitable suffering such violence against healthcare causes, the report’s authors highlighted that one consistent feature of the attacks was the continued impunity for those perpetrating them.

They say that despite repeated commitments, governments have failed to reform their military practices, cease arms transfers to perpetrators, and bring those responsible for crimes to justice.

And they have now called on national leaders and heads of international bodies, including UN agencies, to take strong action to ensure violence against healthcare is ended.

“There has to be a change in how we ensure accountability for violations of international humanitarian law when the protection of health care and health workers is not respected because current mechanisms do not provide adequate protection. We need to ask some hard questions,” Christina Wille, Director of the Insecurity Insight humanitarian association, who helped produce the report, told IPS.

Attacks on healthcare have become a prominent feature of recent conflicts—the SHCC report states that the rise in attacks in 2023 was in part a product of intense and persistent violence against health care in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), Myanmar, Sudan, and Ukraine.

And human rights groups have increasingly drawn attention to the deliberate targeting of healthcare facilities and medical staff by attacking forces.

Hospitals and other medical facilities are designated as protected civilian objects under international humanitarian law and it is illegal to attack them or obstruct their provision of care. Ambulances also have the same status. This designation does not apply if the hospital or facility is used by combatants for purposes deemed harmful to an enemy, but even then, an attacking force must give warning of its attack and allow for an evacuation.

But in many conflicts, forces seem to be increasingly ignoring this.

The SHCC report highlights that right from the start of two new wars in 2023, in Sudan and the conflict between Israel and Hamas, warring parties killed health workers, attacked facilities, and destroyed health care systems. Meanwhile, attacks on health care in Myanmar and Ukraine continued unabated, in each case exceeding 1,000 since the start of the conflicts in 2021 and 2022, respectively, while in many other chronic conflicts, fighting forces continued to kidnap and kill health workers and loot health facilities.

At the same time, the report identified a disturbing new trend of combatants violently entering hospitals or occupying them as sites from which to conduct military operations, leading to injuries to and the deaths of patients and staff.

SHCC Chair Len Rubenstein said that in many conflicts, the conduct of combatants revealed “open contempt for their duty to protect civilians and health care under international humanitarian law (IHL)” and specifically highlighted how Israel, “while purporting to abide by IHL, promoted a view of its obligations that, if accepted, would undermine the fundamental protections that IHL puts in place for civilians and health care in war.”

“The report highlighted a lot of disturbing trends—there seemed to be no restraint on attacking hospitals right from the start of conflicts, we also saw for instance, a rise in hospitals being taken for military use, and it was also very disturbing to see children’s medical facilities being deliberately targeted,” he told IPS.

“These trends highlight the need for leadership [on increasing accountability]. Accountability for attacks on healthcare is not a silver bullet—accountability for murder does not stop all murders, for instance – but no consequences are a guarantee of further violations,” he added.

Christian de Vos, Director of Research and Investigations at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), which is a member of the SHCC, suggested a lack of accountability for attacks on healthcare in previous conflicts had emboldened certain forces to do the same in new wars.

“This goes back to the historical evolution of attacks on healthcare and the consequences of impunity. The patterns of attacks on healthcare that Russian forces, together with the Syrian government, perpetrated in the Syria conflict have a lot of links to how Russia has fought its full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” he told IPS.

In its report, the SHCC has made a number of recommendations to help end attacks on healthcare and hold those behind them accountable.

These include UN and national authorities and the International Criminal Court (ICC) taking new measures to end impunity, strengthening prevention of conflicts, improving data collection on attacks at global and national levels, bolstering global, regional, and domestic leadership—especially through the WHO and UN—on protecting healthcare, and supporting and safeguarding health workers.

Some of these plans would also see a key role played by local actors, including NGOs and other groups active in healthcare and human rights.

SHCC admits, though, that some of these are likely to be hard to implement.

“Our recommendations are aspirational and we accept that their implementation could be difficult in the context of the inherent difficulties of conflicts, but there are some areas where we think definite change could be achieved,” said Wille.

She explained that developing capacity for local health programmes to be more security and acceptance conscious could be strengthened.

“There is a need for training for the healthcare sector on how to understand, approach, and manage security and risk in conflict. Such support should be given to those responsible for overseeing plans for healthcare provision in conflicts so that services continue to be provided but with as much safety as possible,” she said.

She added that governments could also make a real difference by pushing to ensure ‘deconfliction’—the process by which a health agency announces to all parties who they are, where they work and what they are doing, and how it can be recognized and which in return receive assurances that they will not be targeted is adhered to by all sides in a conflict.

“Such mechanisms exist, however, at the moment, far too often they are not respected or applied in several conflicts. Governments can insist on the implementation of de-confliction, and this would also be a great help,” she said.

However, if significant change is to be made in ensuring accountability for attacks on healthcare, experts agree that it can only be done with strong political commitment on the issue.

“We have seen over the years that there hasn’t been this commitment and what we need is a strong commitment that will go beyond just words and statements condemning these attacks to real concrete action,” Rubenstein said.

He stressed that the massive, targeted destruction of healthcare seen in some recent conflicts had changed the wider political perception of the effects of such attacks.

“What has changed is the knowledge of the magnitude of these attacks and the enormous suffering they bring, not just directly at the time of the attacks but long after as well. This knowledge can stimulate the kind of leadership we need on this,” he said.

De Vos said that especially the Israel-Hamas war and the prominence of attacks on healthcare in that conflict had “shown clearly the devastation and suffering such attacks cause.”

“This might bring about the change [in will to ensure accountability] that we would like to see,” he said.

But while there may be optimism among experts around the chance for such change, they are less positive about the prospects for any reduction in the volume of attacks on healthcare in the immediate future.

“Unfortunately, the trajectory is not a positive one—there’s no ceasefire in Gaza, the war continues in Ukraine, and conflict is ongoing in the places where we have seen the most of these attacks on healthcare. It’s a pretty grim state,” said De Vos.

IPS UN Bureau Report

• Media Freedom Declining Across Europe, With Implications for Rule of Law
• Conditions Worsen for Belarus Migrants Stuck in ‘Death Zone’ on EU Border
• Rural Tajik Woman’s Road to Empowering Women Living with HIV

Results of the General Assembly's vote on the resolution on the status of Palestine. May 2024. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías

By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, May 22 2024 (IPS)

It is ironic how Prime Minister Netanyahu, who vehemently opposed the establishment of a Palestinian state, made it all but irreversible because of his misguided policies and extreme ideological bent.

The way he conducted the Gaza war has not only sealed the prospect of a Palestinian state but his political demise

The recent recognition of a Palestinian state by Spain, Ireland, and Norway is the latest blow to Netanyahu’s horribly misguided policy toward the Palestinians, which he pursued throughout his political career to prevent them from ever establishing their own state under his watch, as he stated time and gain.

This recognition is in addition to the overwhelming majority of United Nations General Assembly member states that have recognized Palestinian statehood. In truth, none of the above should come as a surprise, as the writing was on the wall for decades, and it was only a question of time before this inevitability unfolded.

The recent decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against Netanyahu, charging him with war crimes, was another degrading rebuke of Netanyahu for his ruthlessness in the way he is conducting the Gaza war.

The horrific death and destruction that has been inflicted on Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza as a result of Hamas’ October 2023 attack that resulted in the slaughter of 1,200 Israelis and the ongoing and unprecedented war against Hamas that killed 35,000 Palestinians, and the unspeakable human suffering has created a new paradigm.

The establishment of a Palestinian state, which has been particularly resisted by Netanyahu for the past 16 years, has become front and center in the search for a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide could not have put it clearer when he stated: “The fact that this Israeli government, led by Netanyahu, has been so clear that it has no intention to negotiate with the Palestinian side and has been so accepting and even supportive of new illegal settlements, all that has contributed to the recognition decision. In some sense, it’s a reaction to that.”

The tragic dimension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that a majority of Israelis bought into Netanyahu’s false argument that a Palestinian state will pose an existential danger to Israel, and hence, the continuing occupation is necessary to prevent the Palestinians from realizing their aspiration for statehood. But what is the alternative to a two-state solution? After 57 years of occupation, even a fool would have concluded that the occupation is not sustainable.

How much more death and destruction must both peoples endure before Netanyahu and his blindly misguided followers come to understand that if it takes a hundred more years and the deaths of a million Palestinians, they will never give up or give in on establishing a state of their own.

What is further baffling is that the multitude of right-wing Israelis keep complaining about Palestinian violence. They ignore the elementary understanding that any people who have been living in servitude for decades under the harshest conditions would rise against the occupier, especially when they have a legitimate right to have their own state, enshrined by the same 1947 UNSC Resolution 194 that granted the Jews the right to establish their independent state.

For 80 percent of all Israelis (those born after 1967), the occupation is a normal state of existence irrespective of the daily suffering and often inhumane mistreatment of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, to which they have been and continue to be subjected.

On January 10, 2024, I wrote: “Sadly, it took the Israel-Hamas war to awaken both sides to their tragic reality. They must now realize there will be no return to the status quo ante. The circumstances that led to the Israel-Hamas war only reinforced the inescapable requirement for a two-state solution. Simply put, there is no other viable option other than continuing the bloody conflict for decades to come.”

But then, what would it take for Netanyahu and his messianic ministers, especially Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, to wake up and realize that every day that passes without a solution, not only will more Israelis and Palestinians be killed in vain, but the conflict will become ever more intractable.

It will exact a mounting price in blood and treasure from both sides without any prospect of changing the inescapable requirement for a Palestinian state to reach a sustainable, peaceful coexistence.

The hurdles to reaching this noble goal are massive; there is the psychological dimension to the conflict that must be mitigated, territorial claims and counterclaims, the dispute over the administration of the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif), mutual concerns over security, the final status of Jerusalem, and more. But then, regardless of how obdurate these conflicting issues may be, they will become far more daunting and perilous short of peace based on a two-state solution.

US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby recently stated: “The president still believes in the promise and the possibility of a two-state solution. He recognizes that it’s going to take a lot of hard work. It’s going to take a lot of leadership there in the region, particularly on both sides of the issue, and the United States stands firmly committed to eventually seeing that outcome.”

Whereas I applaud President Biden’s position and sentiment regarding the requisite of a Palestinian state, he needs to move the needle further and warn Netanyahu that he can no longer take for granted the US position that the creation of a Palestinian state must emerge from direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

While Biden may choose, for political reasons, not to follow the footsteps of the prime ministers of Spain, Ireland, and Norway by recognizing the Palestinian state, he should, at a minimum, permit the Palestinian Authority to reestablish its mission in DC, and reopen the American consulate in East Jerusalem.

That is, if Biden is truly committed to that outcome, then he must demonstrate that by taking real action on the ground. This is the time when leadership is truly needed, and no head of state worldwide can demonstrate that more at this crucial hour than President Biden to bring closer the two-state solution to reality.

Surely, Biden believes in what Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stated: “This recognition is not against anyone; it is not against the Israeli people. It is an act in favor of peace, justice and moral consistency.” And I might add, it is a moral imperative on which Israel itself was founded.

It is time for Netanyahu to pay the price for dragging Israel into this perilous morass. But then again, he who has resisted the creation of a Palestinian state with all his might made it now more likely than ever before.

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU). He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

IPS UN Bureau

Credit: UNDP Pacific Office
 
In the low-lying small island state of Tuvalu, the government's National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) – administered and implemented by UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji and the Tuvalu government and supported by Global Environment Facility (GEF) – has been addressing marine-based livelihoods and disaster preparedness in the face of rising sea levels.
 
Meanwhile, the 4th International Conference on Small Island Developing States is scheduled to take place in Antigua and Barbuda from 27-30 May.

By Achim Steiner and Carlos Manuel Rodriguez
UNITED NATIONS, May 22 2024 (IPS)

Small island developing states (SIDS) are scattered across the globe, dotting the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean, the west and east coasts of Africa and the Indian Ocean.

These low-lying highly indebted countries are on the frontlines of climate change and natural resource scarcity, already facing the extremes of sea level rise, unpredictable weather events, and environmental degradation that millions more will face tomorrow.

https://www.un.org/ohrlls/content/list-sids

Yet they also are pioneers, innovating and demonstrating what is possible in a shift to a nature-positive future. Emerging technologies and solutions are re-setting economic and societal priorities to value and optimize natural resources and setting forth a path of thriving resilience.

In three decades of working together supporting small islands states, these are the three critical success factors we see emerging from these trailblazing island states as the world looks to transition to a nature-positive future.

One: Nature sits at the heart of this effort.

Nature is the most effective solution to our interconnected planetary crisis and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. It can unlock new and quickly felt benefits of sustainable development.

Ecosystem services underpin key economic sectors in all vulnerable small island states, from fisheries to agriculture to tourism, but these same sectors have historically imposed serious environmental costs. Transitioning these sectors from ‘highly damaging’ to ‘sustainable’, in ways that are investable and profitable while benefiting communities, sits at the heart of our work together.

The new Blue and Green Islands Programme, for example, mainstreams the central role of nature and scales nature-based solutions to address environmental degradation across three target sectors—urban, food, and tourism—for nature-positive shifts in fifteen island states.

Small islands are especially well positioned to benefit from nature-positive economies, counting among them some of the most diverse and unique ecosystems in the world. For them, a nature-positive economy is important not just to stabilize the security of their natural resources and ensure resilient and thriving futures; it assures their role as irreplaceable hosts to many of the world’s migratory and endemic species that make up our global planetary safety net.

Two: Successful solutions touch all aspects of life and livelihoods.

Tackling sea level rise isn’t separate from restoring protective coastal ecosystems, which isn’t separate from rapidly expanding new opportunities in sustainable tourism and sustainable fishing. These expanding opportunities drive sustainable development, bringing jobs, economic prosperity, and resilience.

‘Whole of island’ approaches are now tackling the conservation of land, water, and ocean resources as interconnected issues. These approaches are championing decarbonization and sustainable livelihoods, increasing access to sustainable energy, increasing the ability of communities to adapt to unpredictable or extreme weather, creating jobs, improving opportunities and wellbeing, and achieving sustainable development goals.

The logic of integrated approaches is clear: our lives are deeply interconnected with our environment and our opportunities the world over. The challenge is adapting and shifting systemic norms that are out of step and out of date for the collective future we want. Whole of island issues demands ‘whole-of-society’ inclusion and coordination, across ministries and sectors, building on locally owned and existing structures and initiatives, and seeking private sector engagement and community empowerment at every level.

Today, all our projects undertaken with island states promote integration and inclusion and are designed to ensure that multiple challenges can be addressed at scale and pace simultaneously.

Early efforts through the Integrating Watershed and Coastal Areas Management (IWCAM), the Integrating Water, Land and Ecosystems Management in Caribbean Small Island Developing States (IWEco Project) and the Pacific Ridge to Reef Programme in Pacific SIDS, for example, helped to pioneer the integrated approaches we are seeing today under the global programs in SIDS.

Three: Innovation is the accelerator.

Successful projects demonstrate the disproportionate importance of innovation to turn our most urgent challenges into opportunities for sustainable development. Representing nearly 20% of the world’s exclusive economic zones, many of these islands are incubating new and investable nature-based solutions that can be scaled up to support successful transitions to nature-positive economic sectors and centres of excellence, both in the islands themselves and to the benefit of countries beyond.

For example, with UNDP and GEF support, Seychelles issued the world’s first ‘blue bond’; Cuba mainstreamed nature into policies and practices to reverse degradation of the Sabana-Camagüey ecosystem driven by agriculture, livestock, fisheries, and tourism; and the GEF’s Small Grants Programme supported local communities to ban single-use plastics in the Maldives.

New initiatives with innovative partners such as the Global Fund for Coral Reefs also seek to attract and de-risk private sector investment into local businesses to protect and restore important coral reef ecosystems. These initiatives offer opportunities for integration that are now inspiring similar examples across other islands.

Nothing without partnerships.

A broad and inclusive coalition of government, private sector, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and other partners is critical to further accelerate nature-positive transformation and increase impact.

New partnerships with the private sector to identify and deploy new business models and instruments to support nature-positive outcomes are also a major part of this effort.

Small Island Developing States have in front of them an opportunity to scale and replicate their successes and make outsized contributions to the implementation of environmental conventions including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (The Biodiversity Plan), the Paris Agreement and the UNCCD Strategic Framework, as well as progress towards their sustainable development goals.

In responding to the most pressing development needs of small island states, the nature-positive economic transitions that are emerging, sector by sector, taking an integrated, innovative and community-informed approach, offer answers to development challenges with applications far beyond their precarious and precious coastlines.

Achim Steiner is Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Carlos Manuel Rodriguez is CEO and Chairperson, Global Environment Facility (GEF)

IPS UN Bureau

Air strikes continue in Gaza. Credit: WHO

By Mouin Rabbani
AMMAN, Jordan, May 22 2024 (IPS)

The ICC Prosecutor’s applications for arrest warrants regarding the Situation in Palestine represent a milestone. But they are of little credit to Prosecutor Karim Khan.

It is abundantly clear that Khan has been sitting on this file for years, hoping it would simply disappear. Two matters forced his hand.

First, his 2023 indictments of senior Russian officials despite a previous pledge that he would only pursue cases referred to his office by the United Nations Security Council and ignore the rest – particularly the investigations concerning Afghanistan and Palestine that were opposed by the US and UK.

Having gone back on his commitment, the hypocrisy associated with continuing to ignore the Palestine investigation initiated in 2021 became simply too overwhelming, particular as Israel’s genocidal onslaught against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip intensified in 2024.

Second, the global outcry against his inertia became too loud to ignore. Much as Khan would have preferred to pursue the policy preferences of the US, UK, and Israel, the main sponsors of his campaign for ICC prosecutor, his inaction became untenable.

According to Khan. his office been investigating the Situation in Palestine since early 2021, and is examining all violations of the Rome Statute as since 2014. Yet in his case too, history appears to have commenced on 7 October 2023.

His applications wholly ignore, any and all, issues unconnected with the current situation in the Gaza Strip. Nothing about the crime against humanity that is apartheid, nothing about the war crime of illegal settlement, nothing about Israel’s previous onslaughts against the Gaza Strip, or its systematic sniper attacks against demonstrators during the 2018 Great March of Return.

Ever the careful politician attentive to those who got him elected, he pointedly indicted three Hamas leaders but only two Israeli officials. This raises numerous questions: why did he seek an arrest warrant for the head of Hamas, who according to available reports was not involved in the planning or execution of the 7 October 2023 attacks, but not Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who has explicitly identified Palestinian civilians as legitimate military targets?

Why did Khan decline to apply for arrest warrants for the Israeli military’s chief of the general staff, or any of the senior Israeli military commanders directly responsible for perpetrating the crimes he has enumerated, or other members of Israel’s war cabinet who share full responsibility for its decisions?

Why did he pointedly ignore the crime of genocide, which is explicitly identified in the Rome Statute? It may well be the case that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is also considering Israel’s responsibility for genocide, but unlike the ICJ the ICC does not deal with individual criminal responsibility.

It seems indisputable that Khan is once again playing politics. His problem is that his efforts to curry favour in Washington will gain him nothing, and he is already being attacked from across the US political spectrum for violating the sacrosanct principle Israeli impunity. Washington will now stop at nothing to ensure that only Khan and Hamas are held to account.

US attempts to interfere with ICC procedures themselves constitute crimes under the Rome Statute. Will Khan seek to hold the raving lunatics who have taken over the Washington asylum to account, or look the other way in the hope of achieving absolution?

The flaws of Khan’s conduct notwithstanding this remains an enormously significant development. Together with the ICJ genocide case, it has now become impossible for Israel to maintain its state of exceptionalism.

It is increasingly being judged both legally and politically on the basis of its actual conduct rather than through the sordid prism of twentieth-century European history. For Israel this represents a defeat of strategic proportions.

Mouin Rabbani is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya, Non-Resident Fellow with the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS), and Non-Resident Fellow at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

IPS UN Bureau

Credit: Johan Ordoñez/AFP via Getty Images

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, May 21 2024 (IPS)

Regional experts called it Panama’s most important election since the 1989 US invasion that deposed de facto president General Manuel Noriega. Panamanians went to the polls amid high inflation and unemployment, with a stagnating economy. Endemic corruption was also high on their long list of concerns, along with access to water, education and a collapsing social security system.

The winner, conservative lawyer José Raúl Mulino, was a stand-in for former president Ricardo Martinelli, disqualified from running due to a money laundering conviction. Martinelli remains popular regardless and managed to transfer his popularity to his less charismatic substitute. For those who backed Mulino, nostalgia for the economic stability and growth that marked Martinelli’s pro-business administration seemed to outweigh his proven record of corruption.

On the face of it, the election results seemed to demonstrate the primacy of economic considerations in voters’ minds, with hopes for growth trumping corruption fatigue. But that’s not the whole story.

Free, fair and uncertain

On 5 May, Panamanians went to the polls to elect a president and vice-president, 71 National Assembly members, 20 Central American Parliament deputies and local representatives.

The elections were undoubtedly clean and transparent, with integrity guaranteed by the participation of civil society in the National Scrutiny Board. Results were announced quickly and all losing candidates accepted them. But the pre-voting context was far less straightforward. Until the very last minute the now president-elect wasn’t sure he’d be allowed to run.

Mulino served as security minister in Martinelli’s government between 2009 and 2014. Ten years later, largely unknown to the electorate, he entered the race as Martinelli’s running mate for Achieving Goals (Realizando Metas, RM), a party Martinelli founded in 2021.

In July 2023, Martinelli was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to 10 years in prison, making him ineligible to run. He appealed, but the Electoral Tribunal didn’t make a final decision on his disqualification until March. To avoid jail, he sought asylum in the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama City. Mulino took his place, but his presidential candidacy was also challenged. For two months, he became the centre of attention as the Electoral Tribunal and Supreme Court debated whether he could ran. The positive court ruling came on 3 May, just two days before voting. Mulino also received a lot of help from Martinelli, who campaigned for him online while holed up in the Nicaraguan embassy.

A fragmented vote

Eight candidates contested the presidency, a five-year position with no possibility of a second consecutive term. With no runoff, a fragmented vote was likely to produce a winner with far less than half the vote. Mulino’s winning total of 34.2 per cent wasn’t unusual: two previous presidents received similarly low shares, including the outgoing centre-left president, Laurentino Cortizo of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Democrático, PRD).

Mulino’s closest competitor, on 24.6 per cent, was Ricardo Lombana, a centre-right anti-corruption outsider. In third place was Martin Torrijos, another former president and Martinelli’s immediate predecessor, now distanced from his original party, the PRD, and running on the ticket of the Christian democratic People’s Party (Partido Popular, PP). Fourth was Rómulo Roux, of the centre-right Democratic Change (Cambio Democrático, CD), the party Martinelli founded and used as a vehicle for the presidency, but which he abandoned in 2020 amid leadership disputes.

The parties that once dominated the political landscape fared badly. The Panameñista Party didn’t even have a presidential candidate; instead, its leader joined Roux as his running mate. The PRD, which led three of the last six governments, fell below six per cent.

Independents on the rise

In 1998, Martinelli’s CD was the first to challenge the dominance of traditional parties. Later changes to the electoral law allowed independent candidates to stand. Their growing prominence reflects widespread dissatisfaction with traditional parties and the political class.

In the 5 May congressional elections, independent candidates won more seats than any political party – 20, up from just five. Mulino’s new RM party took 14 seats. The PRD lost a whopping 22, retaining only 13. The new composition of the National Assembly speaks of a thirst for renewal that doesn’t match the choice for corruption and impunity the presidential results might suggest.

Spotlight on the economy

For the three decades before the pandemic, the Panamanian economy grew by around six per cent a year, helped by income from the Panama Canal and construction and mining booms. But then challenges started piling up. The economy slowed down. Jobs disappeared. Inflation rose.

Activity in the Panama Canal has been severely affected by the impacts of climate change, with a drop in water levels. Drought has also reduced access to drinking water in some regions. Meanwhile an unprecedented rise in the numbers of migrants travelling through the Darién Gap, the treacherous stretch of jungle at the border with Colombia, has stretched the resources of the humanitarian assistance system.

Mulino campaigned on promises to improve the economy by attracting investment, developing infrastructure and creating jobs. He pledged to improve access to safe water and promised to ‘shut down’ the Darién Gap.

Mulino’s voters may have accepted the bargain he appeared to offer – prosperity in exchange for impunity – but many more people voted against him than for. He was able to win because the vote against was so fragmented. The number of independents who entered Congress is just one of many indicators of widespread dissatisfaction with politicians like him.

Mulino will have to deliver on his promises to attract investment and create jobs. He’ll need to reduce inequalities and deal with growing insecurity, the situation in the Darién Gap and a pensions system on the brink of insolvency. Last but not least, he’ll need to strengthen institutions and tackle corruption – which begs the question of what he’ll do about Martinelli.

The challenges are many and great, and Mulino won’t have anything close to a legislative majority. The National Assembly is so fragmented that a high-level deal with one or two parties won’t be enough. Mulino seemed to recognise this on election night when he called for national unity and said he was open to dialogue and consensus. This was a first step in the direction he should keep following.

Inés M. Pousadela is CIVICUS Senior Research Specialist, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.