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A joint media project of the global news agency Inter Press Service (IPS) and the lay Buddhist network Soka Gakkai International (SGI) aimed to promote a vision of global citizenship which has the potentiality to confront the global challenges calling for global solutions, by providing in-depth news and analyses from around the world.
Please note that this website is part of a project that has been successfully concluded on 31 March 2016.
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By J C Suresh
TORONTO | NEW YORK (IDN) - UN member states committed themselves to the gender-responsive implementation of
(CSW60) concluded on March 24 agreeing on a set conclusions, calling for stronger laws, policies and institutions, better data and scaled-up financing. [P42]
By Rita Joshi
BERLIN | VIENNA (IDN) - The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation () and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization () are determined to undertake necessary steps to make “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality”, the theme of the International Women’s Day 2016, a reality.
By Nelsy Lizarazo
QUITO (IDN) - Universal or global citizenship is, according to
a principle, category or condition thanks to which anyone in any part of the world may be recognised as a subject with rights.
It’s an established and accepted concept, at least in an international sphere, which is directly linked to the universality of Human Rights. The concept of Universal citizenship fundamentally means that human rights are not related to which particular state an individual may come from and therefore must be protected and respected anywhere a person may find themselves.
By Valentina Ieri
NEW YORK (IDN | INPS) - North Korea's nuclear ambition has not been checked effectively even though there were four resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. And North Korea's alleged hydrogen bomb test and a successive rocket launch early February culminated their die-hard ambition to have a substantial nuclear capability together with delivery means.
Against this backdrop, the Republic of Korea (ROK,South Korea) is certainly putting its foot down and stepping up as a key player in the global arena, particularly on North Korean issue. [P39]
By Jaya Ramachandran
PARIS (IDN) - While the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization () has signed an agreement with the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement () to measure global citizenship and sustainable development education, the persistent marginalization of mother languages worldwide is threatening Goal 4 of the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development. [P38] J
By Monzurul Huq
TOKYO (IDN) - Religious identity, which in a broader context is perceived as belonging to a certain faith, is a topic of heated debate these days, mainly because a religious sense of belonging is directed toward achieving a certain goal by inflicting harm on others. The ongoing debate has been intensified in recent years with the concept of a clash of civilizations winning support among a group of Western academics and intellectuals. [P37]
By Kalinga Senevratne*
SINGAPORE (IDN) - Government statistics show that in this affluent Southeast Asian nation, one in three workers are migrants.
They build the modern infrastructure, clean the buildings, cook and serve in restaurants, look after the children and elderly at home, while often being paid very poorly and treated shabbily and looked at suspiciously by the locals. [P36]
By Rita Joshi
BERLIN | DAVOS (IDN) - Declaring that theempowerment of the world’s women is “a global imperative”, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced the first-ever High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment.
The establishment of the Panel, backed by the United Kingdom, the World Bank Group and , was proclaimed in Davos, Switzerland, the venue of the annual World Economic Forum (), on January 21. [P35]
“The ISIS’ allure is that it is fighting these Arab tyrants across the region, even as it fulfils the longing of its adherents to participate in a cause that is founded on their own history and traditions”
Last year, as he addressed the congregation from the pulpit of the mosque in Mosul, the self-styled caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi invited all Muslims to migrate to the Islamic State “because hijra to the land of Islam is obligatory”.
By Bernard Schell
MUMBAI (IDN) - As the international community starts to implement the UN Agenda 2030 for sustainable development, funds from countries that are not members of the Paris-based 29-nation Development Assistance Committee () have “an increasingly important role in financing development co-operation”, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (). [P34]
By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia (IPS) - Women leaders in the Pacific Islands have acclaimed the agreement on reducing global warming achieved at the United Nations (COP21) Climate Change conference in Paris as an unprecedented moment of world solidarity on an issue which has been marked to date by division between the developing and industrialized world. But for Pacific small island developing states, which name climate change as the single greatest threat to their survival, it will only be a success if inspirational words are followed by real action.
By Kalinga Seneviratne*
News media and journalists play a crucial role in creating conditions conducive to fostering global citizenship. With this in view, a UNESCO approved and funded an event on December 14-15 in Bangkok in which a group of Asian scholars and media practitioners participated. They examined how the traditional Asian way of communication could be adopted to train 21st century journalists to create a media that would promote harmony rather than conflict and thus help foster global citizenship. [P32]
By J Nastranis
NEW YORK (IDN) - The United Nations Security Council has adopted a resolution on youth, peace and security, which for the first time in its history focuses entirely on the role of young men and women in peace-building and countering violent extremism. [P31]
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Newsletter
April 2015-March 2016
April 2014-March 2015
By Francesca Dziadek
BERLIN (IDN) - A leap of faith is on the agenda in Berlin where a visionary project for interfaith dialogue, launched as the House of One, hopes to bring Christians, Jews and Muslims to worship under one roof from 2018. [P]
By Kalinga Seneviratne*
BANGKOK (IDN) - 2015 is expected to become a watershed year for shaping the global development agenda with the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals, Sustainable Development models and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) frameworks, all coming up for review at major UN conferences during the year. [P]
By Baher Kamal*
CAIRO (IDN) - One does need to think back half a century ago, to remember how much harmony and peaceful coexistence reigned in Arab countries between Muslims, Christians and Jewish. Nor does one need to recall how hundreds of Muslims gathered to protect Christians praying in their churches in Egypt during and after the 2011 popular upraising. Or how organised groups of Copts acted as a human shield to save Muslims praying in Cairo's Tahrir Square from extremists' attacks during the successive waves of popular protests. [P]
By Michelle Tullo
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The future of religion in U.S. politics lies not with conservatives but rather with religious progressives, social scientists here are suggesting, with a faith-based movement potentially able to provide momentum to a new movement for social justice.
According to a new report from the Brookings Institute, a think tank here, the current religious social justice movement can be compared to the period of civil rights activism in the mid-20th century. [P]
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - For peace to be embedded in culture and society, it starts with childhood education which leads to the creation of global citizens, according to a panel of experts.
Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the U.N. Anwarul Chowdhury said fostering global citizens is important in achieving peace. [P]& Our mission
Information is an agent of change. Since its inception, back in 1964, IPS has
believed in the role of information as a precondition for lifting communities
out of poverty and marginalization. This belief is reflected in our historic
“giving a voice to the voiceless” – acting as a communication channel
that privileges the voices and the concerns of the poorest and creates a climate
of understanding, accountability and participation around development, promoting
a new international information order between the South and the North.
provide a formal organisational framework for carrying out our mission.
To fulfil this very important mission, IPS has developed a three-pronged strategy
that is reflected in its three main areas of work:
: producing stories and analyses, which explain
how events and global processes affect individuals and communities, especially
the marginalised and voiceless.
empowering journalists, media organisations and civil society to be better able
to communicate effectively by leveraging IPS’ unique character as a Southern-focused
news agency, offering a different kind of training and follow-up.
: building an information bridge linking civil society,
international institutions, policy-makers, donors and individual readers, to
promote an ongoing dialogue about communication and development for a better
Because of its mission and conceptual approach, IPS has grown together with
and systematically covered , particularly its increasing international impact. Recognising
the is another crucial
insight that influences the way we report, build capacity and disseminate our
news. This has made IPS a relevant actor within the overall development process
and the main international news provider of organised civil society worldwide.
What's New and Relevant
Copyright & 2018 IPS – Inter Press Service News Agency. All rights reserved.Gender | IPS Inter Press Service | News Agency | Journalism & Communication for Global Change
News and Views from the Global South & & & & & & & & &
Countries do not have to be economically prosperous to move from a situation of high birth and death rates to low fertility and mortality rates.Education, social security, environments conducive to economic development and good value systems are what promote this, as evidenced by the recorded experiences of Asian countries as far apart as Japan and India.
At more than 3,300 m above sea level, in the department of Cuzco, women are beating infertile soil and frost to grow organic food and revive community work practices that date back to the days of the Inca empire in Peru such as the "ayni" and "minka".
Rapes of minors surged from 16 per day in 2001 to 46 per day in 2016. As if this was not horrendous enough, their savagery adds to it.In % of the total female rape victims were minors. Around 13% of the minor female victims were of age 11 and below. The deceased victim in the Kathua rape case from a nomadic Muslim community was barely eight years old. Her crumpled body was found in a blood-smeared dress in January, 2018. A group of Hindu men lured her into a forest, kidnapped her, drugged her, locked her in a Hindu temple, gang-raped her and then strangled her.
Something historic was initiated at the European Development Days (EDD) in early June: the EDD placed women and girls at the forefront of Sustainable Development. Since its inception in 2006, EDD has become a barometer for ideas in global development.
The United States’ move to withdraw from the Human Rights Council will have “reverberations” throughout the world in years to come, say human rights groups.This week, the U.S. announced its intention to withdraw from the 47-member Human Rights Council, accusing it of bias against Israel.
We worry about how we can continue to pu and yet one-third of food is never eaten, instead being lost or wasted.We worry about eating properly, and yet in many countries, poor nutrition, obesity and micronutrient deficiencies are increasingly common. This trend is taking place in the Americas, Oceania, Asia, Africa and in Europe.
Fertility health is an incredibly personal – and often vulnerable – topic. Fertility, infertility, and fertility preservation have gained increased public interest over the past few years. Infertility is formally defined as the inability to achieve pregnancy after one year of unprotected intercourse.
Faced with growing allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in the UN system, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last year announced a “zero-tolerance” policy to fight harassment in the world body.But UN Women, which was created in July 2010 and dedicated to gender empowerment, has moved one step further-- and appointed an Executive Coordinator and Spokesperson on Sexual Harassment and Discrimination, perhaps one of the few UN bodies to do so.
I am the daughter of a formidable campaigner for women’s reproductive rights in Nepal. Decades ago, when such issues were not part of the playbook for development activists, my mother, a medical doctor, started setting up family planning programs after seeing women die in childbirth, shifting from hospital work into public health.
On 12 June every year is the . In the world's poorest countries, around one in four children are engaged in work that is potentially harmful to their health.
For most people, the annual G7 meeting may just seem like an expensive photo-op that doesn’t connect with any concrete change in people’s lives. But for us, appointed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sit on his G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council, it was a unique opportunity to push for strong commitments for girls’ and women’s rights.
When allegations of sexual harassment were made against a senior UN official—holding the rank of Under-Secretary-General at the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC)-- the United Nations admitted that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has no jurisdiction over a UN body created by the General Assembly and answerable only to member states.
“Sometimes when I’m alone, I still get flashes of the grisly images I saw in the desert. I feared I was going to die out there. The people transporting us were ready to get rid of any of us where necessary,” Njoya Danialo recalled as he narrated the ordeal he endured traveling through the Sahara in search of greener pastures.
The numbers are shocking: at least one in three women on the planet has suffered physical or sexual violence, usually at the hands of a family member or intimate partner. More than 700 million women alive today were married as children.
Up to 250 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation.
Michelle Bachelet ended her second term as president of Chile on March 11, 2018. Her first term, from 2006 to 2010, was marked by an ambitious social and economic agenda advancing women’s rights and better health care. Her cabinet of ministers, for example, was composed of an equal number of men and women, as she vowed to do during her campaign.
As the world becomes increasingly aware of the growing demands being made of our planet, more and more of us are making lifestyle choices to reduce our negative environmental impact and carbon footprint.
The battle between two candidates for the presidency of the 193-member General Assembly next week harks back to the day when the president of the highest policy making body at the United Nations was elected on the luck of a draw --following a dead heat.
Zimbabwe goes to the polls in July for the first general election since the departure of Robert Mugabe, and the jockeying over who will represent the country’s major political parties is in full throttle.
Africa is rising. But at the same time, Africa is the continent with the largest number of people, (390 million) .
The usual big-name directors were absent this year from the Cannes Film Festival in southern France, creating space for cutting-edge films from Asia, Africa, small European states, and the Middle East.
Promoting the widespread use of innovative technologies will be critical to combat the hostile effects of climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and many African countries are already leading the way with science-based solutions.
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- X & & & &You have the Power to Make a DifferenceWould you consider a $20.00 contribution today that will help to keep the IPS news wire active? Your contribution will make a huge difference.Gov't 'Insensitive' to Asia's Religious Tensions
By Kalinga Seneviratne, IPS, 23 June 2000
SYDNEY, Jun 23 (IPS) - The Howard government has come under renewed
attacks by critics after it agreed to sell a government-owned radio
transmitter to a Christian fundamentalist group to broadcast
propaganda programmes to Asia.
Earlier this month, the government of conservative Prime Minister John
Howard announced that the powerful Radio Australia shortwave
transmitter in the northern Australian city of Darwin will be leased
for 10 years to the British-based Christian Vision for an undisclosed
The Christian fundamentalist group has a worldwide radio network
headed by Bob Edmiston, described as Britain's 85th richest man with a
car sales and property business estimated to be worth 470 million U.S.
dollars. He set up the evangelical group 12 years ago and has already
invested more than 65 million dollars of his own wealth in the
The Howard government's decision has come under heavy attack in the
media here during the last two weeks, with some critics lashing out at
what they called its neo-colonialist attitude toward its Asian
neighbours.
Some foreign policy analysts and opposition politicians
view it as an insensitive decision at a time of high religious tension
in the region.
Edmiston has made it clear that he will be using the former Radio
Australia transmitter to broadcast programmes to Indonesia, Malaysia,
India and China. All these countries are currently facing a high
degree of religious tension that has already led to violence.
Especially in Indonesia and India, for instance, there is deep
resentment against Christians who are seen to be supported by outside
forces, especially western.
Australia's relationship with Indonesia is currently on a knife edge,
with deep resentments across the archipelago about Australian
interference in its domestic affairs, after Canberra's
intervention in East Timor last year. Only last week, the Indonesian
Parliament basically banned President Wahid from making an official
visit to Australia.
Nothing could better illustrate the incomprehension which permeates
the view the Howard Government has of our region than the sorry saga
of Radio Australia, notes the 'Sun Herald' political analyst Peter
Parts of Indonesia are already ablaze in sectarian violence,
pitting Christians against Muslims, who make up an overwhelming
majority of the Indonesian population. Hundreds of deaths have already
occurred and the toll is rising, he points out. Surely the last
thing Australia should be doing at this moment is to lend its
imprimatur -- however indirect -- to a powerful radio voice
propagandising the Christian religion.
Broadcasting evangelical Christian messages into countries such as
Indonesia will do little to ease tension between Christian and Islamic
communities, says opposition Democrats foreign affairs spokeswoman
Vicki Bourne.
I'm particularly concerned that we risk Australia being seen as
responsible for inflaming such tensions if they result from signals
originating from radio bands once occupied by Radio Australia, she
Shadow Foreign Minister, Labour party's Laurie Brereton, describes the
deal as a bad foreign policy decision by a government with little
commitment to positive engagement with Australia's neighbours.
In an interview with 'The Australian' newspaper, Edmiston has vowed
that his service will respect religious and cultural differences when
broadcasting to countries such as Indonesia, the largest Islamic
country in the world.
But he also hinted that the radio service will be used to mobilise
Christians in the region. There are many Christians in East Timor,
Indonesia and India, and the underground Christian church in China is
reputed have anything between 50 and 100 million members. We think
these people also deserve encouragement and support, says
Sensing political and economic fallout from the federal government
decision, all political parties in the Northern Territory (where
Darwin is located) have lodged a strong protest to Canberra. They
called on Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to reconsider the
The issue is particularly sensitive for the Northern Territory, whose
economy is heavily dependent on its strong economic ties with
Indonesia.
A private radio giving encouragement and support to religious
minorities may not be a bad idea, but many foreign policy analysts say
giving it through a foreign government-owned radio transmitter is
another thing. They add that this may send Australia's relationship
with its Asian neighbours from bad to worse.
For many years Radio Australia was the voice of a nation,
observes Robert Macklin of the 'Canberra Times'. Its replacement by
a 'repent or be damned' Christian broadcaster is an act of spiritual
aggression to the millions of Muslims in Indonesia, Malaysia, Mindanao
(in the Philippines) and elsewhere. It is hard to conceive of a
development better calculated to alienate Australia from its
neighbours.
In a column in the newspaper's forum page last week, Macklin argued
that the Howard government has shown Christian fundamentalist
tendencies since it came to power.
The Radio Australia saga is an interesting merger of the Howard
government's cost-cutting exercises stemming from free-market oriented
policies and its religious affliliations, in a country where the
constitution bars the government from indulging in religious
broadcasting.
In 1997 the government stopped funding the operations of the Radio
Australia transmitter at Darwin to save 1.6 million Australian dollars
(970,000 U.S. dollars) a year. This although the previous Labour
government had invested 13.5 millon Australian dollars (8.18 million
dollars) on it since 1993, to provide a stronger voice for
Australia in the Asian region.
Since 1997, a private operator has taken over the transmission of
Radio Australia programmes via a transmitter in Shepperton in central
Australia, saving the government some 3 million Australian dollars
(1.8 million U.S.
dollars) a year. This signal however is mainly
transmitted to the South Pacific. Last year, it was forced to rent a
transmitter in Taiwan to broadcast programmes to East Timor.
Radio Australia's boss, Donald McDonald, says that it has approached
Christian Vision with a proposal to lease back airtime on the
transmitter.
Government critics are aghast at this suggestion, saying it will
further align the Australian government with the religious
broadcaster.
Analysts here say many listeners in Asia may not be able
to distinguish the government broadcasts from that of the Christian
fundamentalist ones.
Perhaps the crucial question is the right of a government that is
constitutionally banned from establishing any religion, to be
facilitating Christian evangelism in a region where we need to tread
softly, says James Murray, the religious affairs editor of 'The
Australian'.}