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Wednesday, October 28, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
POLITICS: U.N. Summit on Climate Change Under Fire
A much-ballyhooed U.N. summit on climate change, scheduled to take place on Sep. 22 in New York, is mired in controversy even before it gets off the ground.
Q&A: "Safe Drinking Water for Astronauts, Not Slum Dwellers"
"We can provide astronauts with a safe supply of drinking water when they travel to the moon, but we cannot provide the same service to slum dwellers in Kibera, Nairobi or Dharavi, Mumbai," Anders Berntell, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), told a gathering of over 2,400 participants at the annual World Water Week concluding Friday.
DEVELOPMENT: Soaring Population May Swamp Anti-Poverty Goals
The U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), already undermined by the global financial crisis, are expected to take another hit - this time from rising population growth.DISARMAMENT: U.S. Says No to Nukes, Yes to Conventional Arms
U.S. President Barack Obama’s pledge to take concrete steps towards "a world without nuclear weapons" has garnered overwhelming support from peace activists worldwide.DEVELOPMENT: Should Water Be Legislated as a Human Right?
The growing commercialisation of water - and the widespread influence of the bottling industry worldwide - is triggering a rising demand for the legal classification of one of the basic necessities of life as a human right.POLITICS: Obama to Bolster Nuclear Disarmament at U.N.
When U.S. President Barack Obama presides over a meeting of world leaders in the Security Council on Sep. 24, he will provide a high profile political platform for two of the most sensitive issues at the United Nations: nuclear non- proliferation and nuclear disarmament.RIGHTS: Big Powers Faulted for Abuse of Geneva Conventions
When human rights groups accused the United States of violating the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of prisoners-of-war (PoWs) in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration of former President George W. Bush either displayed arrogance or feigned ignorance of the implications of abusing humanitarian laws.POLITICS: Security Council Reform Remains Deadlocked
After 15 long years of closed-door bickering, the United Nations remains irrevocably deadlocked on how to revamp the most powerful political body in the Organisation: the 15-member Security Council.RIGHTS: U.N. Body Relentlessly Pursues Women's Equality
The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is known to publicly castigate countries accused of gender discrimination or violating international conventions governing women's rights.POLITICS: U.N. Calls for "Green Zone" in Strife-Torn Somalia
Somalia, a perpetually violence-prone country described as one of the world's failed states, may go the way of Iraq.ENVIRONMENT: Rich Nations Vulnerable to Water Disasters
The growing shortage of water - a perennial problem in the world's poorer nations - is expected to eventually reach the rich nations in the Western world.POLITICS: U.N. to Live or Die by Its Policy Ideas
The United Nations has long been described - rather contemptuously - as one of the world's biggest talking shops.
Q&A: Sanitation No Longer a Dirty Word in India
In India, many moons ago, nobody dared talk about toilets - a subject that was taboo, particularly at mealtime.DEVELOPMENT: India, China Fight Poverty, Population Growth
The world's two most populous nations - India and China - are placing a high priority on reproductive health and poverty alleviation as part of their efforts to meet the U.N.'s much-touted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and its 2015 deadline.POLITICS: Is the Non-Aligned Movement Still Relevant?
When the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) holds its triennial summit meeting in the Red Sea coastal town of Sharm el-Sheikh next week, Cuba will formally hand over the chairmanship of one of the world's largest single political groups to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.HEALTH: Private Sector Boosts Public Toilets in Poorer Nations
The United Nations is disappointed that most governments in the developing world have made relatively little progress in providing basic sanitation facilities to nearly 2.5 billion people who still have no access to toilets.RIGHTS: Muslims Under Scrutiny Despite Waning of ‘Terror War’
When the administration of President Barack Obama formally abandoned the longstanding U.S. "war on terror" - perceived by some as a codeword for "war against Islam" - there were hopes of a new relationship between the United States and the Muslim world after eight long years of political friction.POLITICS: U.N. Decries Aid Shortfall in Afghanistan
The United Nations, which has expressed disappointment over the slow disbursement of development aid to crisis-stricken Afghanistan, has hurled one of its biggest political insults at Western donors: threatening to turn to a U.S. philanthropist for financial assistance.POLITICS: U.N. Plan for Financial Crisis Derided as Weak
When the General Assembly adopted a proposed plan of action aimed at overcoming the global financial crisis, one of the political surprises was that all 192 member states gave their blessings to the wide range of proposals spelled out in an "outcome document".DEVELOPMENT: Western Aid Declines, Financial Bailouts Mount
As the world's poorer nations warn about the gravity of the global financial crisis on their fragile economies, the United Nations has exposed the hypocrisy of Western donors who cry poverty even while they raise trillions of dollars to rescue their beleaguered financial institutions.
Q&A: U.N.’s Enormous Potential Being Marginalised
An international conference on the global financial crisis - hosted by the United Nations - is being marginalised by Western countries which have refused to send any of their political leaders to the meeting.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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