Stories written by Thalif Deen
Thalif Deen, Senior Editor & Director, UN Bureau, Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency has been covering the United Nations since the late 1970s. Beginning with the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, he has covered virtually every major U.N. conference: on population, human rights, the environment, sustainable development, food security, humanitarian aid, arms control and nuclear disarmament.   As the former UN Bureau Chief for IPS, he was cited twice for excellence in U.N. reporting at the annual awards presentation of the U.N. Correspondents' Association (UNCA). In November 2012, he was on the IPS team which won the prestigious gold medal for reporting on the global environment-- and in 2013, he shared the gold, this time with the UN Bureau Chief of Reuters news agency, for his reporting on the humanitarian and development work of the United Nations.   A former information officer at the U.N. Secretariat, he served twice as a member of the Sri Lanka delegation to the UN General Assembly sessions. His track record includes a stint as deputy news editor of the Sri Lanka Daily News and senior editorial writer on the Hong Kong Standard. As military analyst, he was also Director, Foreign Military Markets at Defense Marketing Services; Senior Defense Analyst at Forecast International; and military editor Middle East/Africa at Jane’s Information Group. He was a longstanding columnist for the Sri Lanka Sunday Times, U.N. correspondent for Asiaweek, Hong Kong and Jane's Defence Weekly, London. A Fulbright scholar with a Master’s Degree (MSc) in Journalism from Columbia University, New York, he is co-author of the 1981 book on “How to Survive a Nuclear Disaster” and author of the 2021 book on the United Nations titled “No Comment – and Don’t Quote me on That”— and subtitled ‘from the Sublime to the Hilarious’, both of which are available on Amazon

DEVELOPMENT: Doubts Over Financing Country Projects

By Thalif Deen
Joseph Stiglitz, a top official at the World Bank, admits he isn't sure whether development aid would work more effectively if donors were given the option of selecting the country and the projects they intend to finance.

DISARMAMENT: UN-Iraq Move Closer on Demilitarisation

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations and Iraq have agreed on a mid-August deadline to complete the ongoing process of disarmament that could eventually lead to the lifting of U.N. sanctions against Baghdad.

DRUGS-UN: New Five Billion Dollar Anti-Drug Plan

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations wrapped up a high-level strategy session Thursday by approving a new plan to fight the world's spreading drug problem.

DISARMAMENT-UN: Move to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

By Thalif Deen
Ireland and Sweden are spearheading a move at the United Nations for a resolution calling for measures leading to the total elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide.

DISARMAMENT: India Won’t be Forced to Sign Test-Ban Treaty

By Thalif Deen
India, one of the world's newest nuclear powers, says it will not sign any treaty under duress.

DRUGS-US: Concern Over Drug Legalisation

By Thalif Deen
The United States admits it is concernedbut not alarmedby the growing new demand for the legalisation of drugs in the country.

DRUGS: Global Coalition Attacks U.N.’s Failed Drug Policies

By Thalif Deen
A former U.N. Secretary-General has joined an international coalition of some 500 academics, scientists and political leaders in urging the world body to call off its "failed and futile" anti-drug policies.

DRUGS: U.N. Seeks to Crack Down on Money Laundering

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations wants the international community to crack down on offshore banks and tax havens which facilitate the underground movement of billions of dollars by drug traffickers worldwide.

DRUGS: U.N. Lacks Resources and Mandate for Global Drug War

By Thalif Deen
The U.N.'s highest ranking crime fighter says the world body does not have a mandate, nor the necessary financial resources, to fight a global war against the 400-billion-dollar-a-year drug trade.

CHILDREN: Sierra Leone Nurtures Limbless Community

By Thalif Deen
The battle-scarred nation of Sierra Leone is nurturing a community of persons without limbs, says a senior U.N. official after a four-day tour of West Africa.

POPULATION: Women Live Longer in Rich Industrial Nations

By Thalif Deen
Women in rich industrial nations live longer, averaging more than 80 years, according to new U.N. statistics released here.

DISARMAMENT: Defiant Pakistan Explodes Another Nuclear Device

By Thalif Deen
Pakistan stepped up the pace of the arms race in South Asia by exploding another nuclear device Saturday in defiance of appeals from the U.N. Security Council, the United Statess and other nations.

DISARMAMENT: UN Urges Restraint Over Nuclear Muscle-Flexing

By Thalif Deen
The 15-member U.N. Security Council Friday urged the world's two newly-anointed nuclear powers - India and Pakistan - to resume bilateral talks to resolve the long- festering dispute over Kashmir.

POLITICS-UN: Treaties Find an Audience in Cyberspace

By Thalif Deen
The public generally perceives of treaties as remote and musty documents for diplomats' eyes only - but thanks to the United Nations, thousands of treaties are now accessible through the click of a computer.

DISARMAMENT: South Asian Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone in Jeopardy

By Thalif Deen
India's five underground nuclear tests this week, and the threat of a matching response from Pakistan, have all but ended a longstanding U.N. proposal for a nuclear-weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in South Asia.

DISARMAMENT: Indian Military Geared to Brave U.S. Sanctions

By Thalif Deen
The U.S. decision to impose sanctions on India - the world's newest nuclear power - is expected to have only a minimal impact on the country's 1.3 million-strong armed forces.

DRUGS: Globalisation Aids Money Laundering, Warns U.N.

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations says the laundering of drug money - one of the world's most insidious businesses - is being made relatively easy these days by the growing globalisation of the marketplace.

ENVIRONMENT: Post-Rio Failures Make World Less Safe

By Thalif Deen
The world would be an ecologically safer place today if recommendations made at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro had been implemented by now, according to the head of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).

ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN-UKRAINE: Chernobyl Fund Evokes Little Donor Sympathy

By Thalif Deen
The international community has offered little sympathy - and hardly any funds - to the United Nations in its efforts to help victims of the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl.

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-GROUP OF 77: Globalisation Marginalising the South

By Thalif Deen
The growing trend toward globalisation and liberalisation has further marginalised developing countries from the mainstream of the world economy, says the of head the Third World coalition 'Group of 77.'

DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN-UNITED NATIONS: Third World Needs To Assert Itself, Says Activist

By Thalif Deen
A leading environmental and women's activist says that developing nations need to assert themselves politically at the United Nations, where the United States and other western nations still call the shots.
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