Race to Zero in Asia and Pacific: Our Hopes in the Climate Fight

The latest synthesis report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes for grim reading: Every fraction of a degree of warming comes with escalated threats, from deadly heatwaves to severe hurricanes and droughts, affecting all economies and communities.

The Privilege of Making a Choice

A civilian student named Saber was caught in the crossfire in Khartoum. He had two choices: either flee and lose everything; or die. But within a moment his option to choose was violently denied: he died.

Statement on the G7 Hiroshima Summit, the Ukraine Crisis and “No First Use” of Nuclear Weapons

The Ukraine crisis, which in addition to bringing devastation to the people of that country has had severe impacts on a global scale—even giving rise to the specter of nuclear weapons use—has entered its second year. Against this backdrop and amid urgent calls for its resolution, the G7 Summit of leading industrial nations will be held in Hiroshima, Japan, from May 19 to 21.

A “New” Saudi Arabia? Changes on the Screen and in Reality

The World changes, though prejudices and misconceptions remain. In 1996, political scientist Samuel Huntington published The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, in which he predicted that people’s cultural and religious identities would become the primary source of conflict in a Post–Cold War World. Huntington’s allegations have been contradicted by a number of critics, among them American Palestinian professor Edward Said, who lamented their extreme cultural determinism, which omitted the dynamic interdependency and interaction of cultures. Said’s own Orientalism depicted a generalised “Western view” of Arab cultures as “static and undeveloped”, while European culture was considered to be “developed, rational, flexible, and superior.” Literature and movies have depicted Arabs as exotic men riding camels and horses through the desert, and their women as dangerously seductive objects of male desire. Eventually, the exotic men turned in to being terrorists, and/or depraved oil-rich magnates, while Muslim women were presented as veiled, enigmatic, and oppressed.

Can a Pledge to End TB Stick This Time Around?

This week, the United Nations will host two days (May 8-9) of preliminary talks to plan a larger conference on tuberculosis (TB) in September. These preliminary talks will be held in New York City, the epicenter of the last significant surge of TB cases in the United States (U.S.) thirty years ago.

Charles Can Help Undo a Colonial Crime

In 2022, Charles III became king not just of the United Kingdom, but of 14 other states, and Head of the Commonwealth. He now heads a monarchy that is starting to face questions about its role in British imperial atrocities, such as slavery, and, as he has said, concerning which  it is time to "acknowledge the wrongs that have shaped our past."

Uzbekistan: A President for Life?

Where will you be in 2040? For Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the answer is: in the Kuksaroy Presidential Palace. That’s the chief consequence of the referendum held in the Central Asian country on 30 April. With dissent tightly controlled in conditions of closed civic space, there was no prospect of genuine debate, a campaign against, or a no vote.

Reshaping Multilateralism in Times of Crises

The world is in permanent crisis mode. In addition to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, the war in Ukraine and other violent conflicts, a worldwide cost of living crisis and an intensified debt crisis in more and more countries of the global South are affecting large parts of humanity.

An Afghan Appeal to UN Leadership

We are a group of Afghans living in the country and working across sectors including peace, civil society, humanitarian aid, human rights, media, and the private sector, and are working to promote dialogue and seek long-term solutions for our country.

A Letter from Kabul

I am writing from Kabul where I have been living for this past 11 months. I consider myself a friend of Afghanistan, a country full of contrasts that I know since 1986; I have lived here for a little over 12 years.

America’s Illegal Immigration Predicament

Approximately 225 million people from around the world would like to migrate permanently to the United States. But given America’s current policies, relatively few of them will be able to do so legally.

How the Rise of Timor-Leste’s Aquaculture Sector Is a Blueprint for Other Small Island Nations

For Timor-Leste, as with most other islands in the Pacific, fortunes are to be found in fish – an equity food available to all regardless of status.

To Confront Our Current Crises, It’s Time to Put Our Money Where Our Mouth Is

The finance sector’s role in the current global crises – notably climate, biodiversity, and food security – is significant. Polluting activities and environmentally-destructive practices for short-term economic gains have catapulted us to our current untenable situation. We're ‘sawing off the branch we’re sitting on’ by sacrificing life-giving ecosystem services for profit, and that branch is sagging and splitting under our weight.

Safeguarding the Future of Independent Media – & Our Democracies

There’s a now familiar groan every time the lights go out in South Africa. Due to a critical shortage of electricity, the national power utility institutes a daily regimen of scheduled power cuts.

UN Plan of Action on Safety of Journalists

Freedom of the press is the cornerstone of democratic society. Without a debate of ideas, without verified facts, without diversity of perspectives, democracy is a shadow of itself; and World Press Freedom Day was established to remind us of this.

Empowering Women is Key to Breaking the Devastating Cycle of Poverty & Food Insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa

Studies consistently show that women have lower rates of agricultural productivity compared to men in the region, but it’s not because they’re less efficient farmers.

Media Freedom is Vital but have we Passed Peak Press?

Peak oil was first up, followed by peak gas, gold and others, as if the world was draining natural resources like toilet roll panic buying in a lockdown supermarket. But should we now be worried about Peak Press?

Fiji: Deeper Democracy or Continuing Danger?

It’s been a time of significant change in Fiji following the country’s December 2022 election. A close vote was followed by the formation of a new coalition government. Frank Bainimarama was out as prime minister after 16 years, replaced by Sitiveni Rabuka.

Afghanistan Special Envoys Should Hold Firm Line on Rights

On May 1, United Nations member states’ special envoys on Afghanistan will meet in Doha, Qatar to discuss how to address the Taliban’s latest restrictions on humanitarian operations.

Rising to the Challenge: The UN Road Safety Fund in a Polycrises World

Crises may be a centuries-old phenomenon, but so too is human resilience.

Gender Gap in Academia: Glass Ceilings & Sticky Floors

Over the last decades, the global share of women among teaching staff in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has increased from nearly 35% in 1990 to close to 45% in 2020.