'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
Development cannot be sustainable if it does not address the challenge of climate change, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 29 June 2015 told Member States as he opened a High-Level Event on Climate Change convened in New York by the President of the UN General Assembly, Sam Kutesa.
Climate change is a growing cause of displacement in Africa, where some areas have been devastated by drought. Photo: UNHCR/B. Bannon
From left to right: President Juncker, Prime Minister Li and President Tusk [European Commission]
In a move to calm down European financial markets panicking at the growing risk of Greece leaving the euro, China promised it would hold on to its eurozone debt, saying the Greek debt crisis was Beijing’s problem too.
“Even though Greece is an internal EU affair, the issue concerns China, as a key EU trading partner, but also because it affects the world’s financial stability and economic recovery,” he said during a press conference following the EU-China summit in Brussels.
By Belal Darder*
27 June 2015, Middle East Eye – Since Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi rose to power, officially one year ago but in practice since the armed forces’ declaration of 3 July, it was clear that his policy towards Islamic political movements was different from former presidents Hosni Mubarak or Anwar Sadat.
Ibrahim Abdo Ibrahim, a leading member of the Brotherhood is now a fugitive, as he was sentenced three years in absentia (MEE/Belal Darder)
Sisi’s policy is closer to that of Gamal Abdel Nasser – total and complete obliteration of Islamic movements, with a particular focus on the Muslim Brotherhood. One of the main tools to execute this policy was the use of the media – government-backed media specifically – to terrorise the Islamic political movements which seized the political initiative after the 25 January revolution.
By Faiza Oulahsen*
Today [25 June 2015], something incredible happened in the Netherlands. In a landmark court case, in which NGO Urgenda along with 900 concerned Dutch citizens sued the government for failing to act on climate change, the Dutch court ruled in their favour. It was a brave and necessary verdict.
Source: Greenpeace
The Netherlands is widely known for being progressive on social issues (gay marriage, soft drugs etc) but we are unfortunately far from that when it comes to tackling climate change.
The wet and soggy lowlands have been lagging behind on renewables, with only 4% – one of the lowest in Europe.
But today’s verdict is a game-changer in the fight against climate change.
By Uri Avnery*
27 June 2015
Uri Avnery
“WAR IS HELL!” the US general George Patton famously exclaimed.
War is the business of killing the “enemy”, in order to impose your will on them.
Therefore, “humane war” is an oxymoron.
War itself is a crime. There are few exceptions. I would exempt the war against Nazi Germany, since it was conducted against a regime of mass murderers, led by a psychopathic dictator, who could not be brought to heel by any other means.
This being so, the concept of “war crimes” is dubious. The biggest crime is starting the war in the first place. This is not the business of soldiers, but of political leaders. Yet they are rarely indicted.
THESE PHILOSOPHICAL musings came to me in the wake of the recent UN report on the last Gaza war.
The investigation committee bent over backwards to be “balanced”, and accused both the Israeli army and Hamas in almost equal terms. That, in itself, is problematic.
By Sufyan bin Uzayr*
25 June 2015, Political Periscope – Nowadays, if there is one part of the world that repeatedly finds itself in the midst of some conflict or the other, it has to be Western Asia, which is more commonly known as Middle East.
Source: Political Periscope
Looking at the present-day map of Middle East is a confusing and heart-breaking experience. There are random boundaries separating one state from another, and issues such as terrorism, political strife, corruption, etc. are rampant.
However, it was not always this way. Not so long ago, Middle East was the pinnacle of peace and prosperity. So what went wrong? In this rather long essay, I will try to explain the root causes of the ongoing strife in the Middle East.
**View of St. Peter’s Square from the top of Michelangelo’s dome | Author: Diliff | “Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0” | This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. | Wikimedia Commons
The treaty first announced in May concerns the activities of the Church in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
The Vatican hopes the treaty could be a “stimulus to bringing a definitive end to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which continues to cause suffering for both parties,” Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister, said.
26 June 2015 – Marking the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, top United Nations officials focused on the need for alternative development for farmers who cultivate illicit crops and for leaders to address drug trafficking and drug abuse that pose as obstacles to sustainable development for the world.
Haitian National Police watch the smoke as illegal drugs, including marijuana and cocaine, seized in Port-au-Prince, are burned in Ganthier. UN Photo/Victoria Hazou
Also today, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its 2015 World Drug Report, which estimated that 246 million people – slightly over 5 per cent of those aged 15 to 64 years worldwide – used an illicit drug in 2013.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has renewed his call for Member States to repudiate the use of torture amid the international community’s ongoing fight against terrorism and provide victims of the inhumane practice with support critical in helping them rebuild their lives.
Singers wearing hats advocating “No Torture” line up before performing at a Human Rights Day event outside of Mogadishu Central Prison in Somalia on 10 December 2013. UN Photo/Tobin Jones
Marking the 2015 edition of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, observed annually on 26 June, the Secretary-General today reminded governments around the world of the “absolute prohibition on the use of torture at any time and under any circumstances under international law,” adding that when used in a systematic manner, torture can even constitute a crime against humanity.
26 June 2015 – Last year saw more children killed or maimed in Afghanistan since monitoring of those statistics began in 2007, reflecting that “children are bearing the brunt of the conflict,” according to United Nations UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report on children and armed conflict in that strife-torn country.
Bamiyan, Afghanistan: children make a long journey to continue their education. Photo: UNICEF/AFGA2012-00090/Abdul Aziz Froutan
“The killing and maiming of children from the indiscriminate use of IEDs [improvised explosive devices] in populated areas, and the use of children as suicide bombers, can only be condemned as flagrant violations of international human rights and humanitarian law,” said Leila Zerrougui, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 