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Bangladesh in Crisis: Which way out?

Mon, 12/16/2024 - 20:36

By Anis Chowdhury
SYDNEY, Dec 16 2024 (IPS)

This piece is not about the crisis or the chaos that the country is now facing after successfully toppling the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina. Rather, it is about the crisis of confidence and social capital or trust — interlinked, nonetheless.

Anis Chowdhury

The thread that binds a nation together is trust or social capital. There could be many factors that contribute to social capital, but one that stands out is equity or fairness. Social capital or trust is low in a country where income and wealth gaps are high, and the general people feel unfairly treated or deprived.

The fallen autocratic regime prided itself on rapid economic growth, averaging approximately 6 per cent a year. However, the regime’s kleptocratic system of ruling by plunder and favour to its cronies has contributed to accelerated wealth and income gaps as well as relative deprivation; thus, it has caused fissures in the social fabric.

Rising relative deprivation

Income and wealth gaps have yawned wide, turning a reasonably equitable society at the time of independence into one of the most unequal societies. The Gini coefficient, a common measure of income inequality, has increased from 0.36 in 1973 to 0.499 in 2022, according to the latest (2022) Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

The Gini coefficient was 0.39 in 1990–1991, marginally above the 1973 value (0.36), accelerating to 0.46 in 2010. Income inequality in Bangladesh has deepened since 2016. The 2022 survey reveals that about 30 per cent of the income generated in the country is concentrated within the top 5 per cent of household. This proportion was 27.82 per cent in the 2016 Household Income and Expenditure Survey.

Furthermore, the top 10 per cent of the wealthiest households in Bangladesh hold about 41 per cent of total income. This proportion was about 38 per cent in 2016. Concurrently, the income share for the bottom 50 per cent of households decreased to about 19 per cent in 2022 from 20.23 per cent in 2016.

Disturbingly, there has been a secular transfer of income from the lowest quintile of the households to the highest quintile. The average annual loss of the bottom 1st quintile’s share in the national income has been -0.71 per cent as opposed to the average annual gain of 0.46 per cent for the highest (top) quintile during 1973–2010. The middle-class also lost; income shares of 2nd, 3rd and 4th quintiles declined since 1973.

This does not augur well for our democracy. Nor can we celebrate this development in a country where one of the founding principles is socialism.

Suppression of democracy driving growing disparities

PROFESSOR MG Quibria of Morgan State University and ADB’s former Senior Advisor pointed out, ‘possession of political capital opens up myriad economic opportunities, including preferential access to finance and business, restructuring and loan default options, lucrative employment, access to privileged information, tax evasion or even outright corruption’.

The link between corruption and economic growth could be debated, but it is a method of plunder and primitive capital accumulation by the lumpen bourgeoisie that exacerbates inequality of wealth.

An environment conducive to unchecked corruption emerges when democracy is suppressed and the institutions that ensure accountability, transparency and the separation of powers between various branches of the government are weakened. Where democratic institutions are weak, political capital is a powerful instrument for advancing one’s economic and social position.

Unfortunately, suppression of democracy in Bangladesh began as soon as it emerged as an independent nation with the rigging of its first parliamentary elections in 1973. It is ironic that a country, where democracy is one of its founding principles, turned into a one-party state in 1975 within four years of its independence, shutting down most of the news media and allowing only state-run ones.

Sadly, instead of trust — built through accountability and transparency — election manipulations became the norm for all political parties to gain power and then retain it. Therefore, each successive government became more repressive, more lacking in accountability and more vigorous in election rigging.

However, such regimes suffer from legitimacy deficits — both legal and moral; they can only survive by allowing corruption and distributing favour. Thus, a vicious circle develops — a regime that resorts to more election manipulations becomes more beholden to its cronies, allowing them to plunder the state.

Undoubtedly, this process reached its zenith during Sheikh Hasina’s rule. Unchecked corruption, tax evasions and financial crimes such as defrauding bank loans enabled Bangladesh to become the global leader in wealth growth during 2010–2019. New York-based research firm Wealth-X, reported a remarkable 14.3 per cent annual increase in the number of individuals with a net worth exceeding $5 million, surpassing Vietnam, which ranked second with a 13.2 per cent growth rate.

Neoliberalism and the demise of democracy

BANGLADESH is not alone in witnessing widening income and wealth gaps and consequently democratic backslides. This is a global phenomenon coincided with the embrace of the neoliberal economic philosophy of privatisation, liberalisation, deregulation and globalisation dictated by the interests of the corporate power.

In the process of multinational corporations-driven globalisation, the civil society simply became apolitical NGOs, happy to receive crumbs from the donors to engage in so-called development activities. Citizens became ‘stake-holders’ together with the large corporations and donors, instead of ‘right-holders’.

Bereft of rights and no longer an end itself of development, citizens are now ‘human resources’, an epitaph cleverly designed to hide that they are simply fodder for the profit machines of corporations. In a deregulated economy, workers are dehumanised, constrained to socialise and participate in political activities.

Should one be surprised in the falling share of wages in the national income, stagnating or falling real wages and tragedies like the ‘Rana Plaza incident’?

Under the corporate globalisation, schools and universities — both public and private — are no longer places of learning where youths are transformed into enlightened citizens and agents of change, and where visionary future social-political leaders are produced. They are simply factories for mass-producing so-called ‘job-ready’ certificate or diploma holders, apathetic to social, economic and political issues.

An additional boost to accelerating inequality in Bangladesh comes from a three-stream education system (Bengali-medium national curriculum, traditional religious curriculum and English-medium overseas curriculum). It perpetuates inter-generational inequality.

Which way out?

ONE can get some cue in AK Sen’s observation that ‘a country becomes fit through democracy,’ and democracy versus development is a false dichotomy. Sen defines development as freedom — freedom from hunger and poverty; freedom from fear and persecution; and freedom to express, associate and participate. In sum, freedom to enhance one’s capabilities to attain one’s full potential as a human being.

Sen insists that political and civil rights are ends in themselves. Their denial cannot be acceptable even if it promotes economic growth and some well-being as such a development path is not sustainable. Suppression of political and civil rights results in growing income and wealth inequalities, where obnoxious, luxurious living by the few coexists with a large populous struggling to survive. This fuels a sense of relative deprivation contributing to violent social conflict.

Therefore, the first step is strengthening democratic institutions or consolidation of democracy. This requires the depoliticisation of administration and civic associations.

There exists a large volume of research findings showing that the politicisation of administration and the organisation of civic associations along party lines not only boost corruption but also accelerate social cleavage.

Civic associations where members hold different political views help build trust among political parties. They can agree on critical national issues while still disagreeing on details.

A depoliticised public administration serves a wider citizenry. In the process, the government, even though led by the winning party, governs for all and becomes inclusive, thus strengthening the trust between the state and the governed.

As for the political parties, they need to practise democracy themselves. That is, all party posts should be open for contest and there should be transparent rules for elections. As the primary organisational vehicles of electoral democracy, political parties are themselves judged in terms of their democratic character.

The most engaging models of internal party democracy are inclusive, participatory, deliberative and accountable and include fair distribution of power. It involves non-discriminatory open memberships and the inclusion of all party members in decision-making processes, leadership selection, policy formulation, as well as ensuring accountability of party leadership to its members. In short, internal rules of political parties should be guided by inclusiveness, clarity, transparency, accountability and independence. Their interaction with society should be based on dialogue, interdependence and cooperation.

In the economic arena, there is an urgency for reorienting to pursue strategies for growth with equity. This is an imperative if Bangladesh is serious about its state principle of socialism. The state has to recapture its lost leverage over the corporate sector to protect the interest of the wider community and to ensure decent jobs and a fair living wage.

It has to give priority to citizens’ well-being over balancing the budget and be bold enough to use its fiscal power to redistribute the growing wealth by using progressive taxation and widening public provisions of basic services, such as healthcare, education, housing and universal social protection. There is ample evidence of a close negative association between the tax-GDP ratio and inequality as well as between public social expenditure and inequality, clearly indicating the redistributive role of the government.

State actions are needed to smoothen the rough edges of the market forces that manifest in exclusion and inequality, which are found to fuel social and political unrest harming growth in the long run. Equity of access, opportunities and outcomes are fundamental aspects of socialism. They enhance both economic and political freedom, essential for rights-based development that empowers citizens and expands their capabilities.

Weakened democratic institutions and rising inequality create a vicious circle that leads to diminished trust — among citizens and between the state and citizens — which chips away social capital, the glue that binds society.

Bangladesh has to find the solution to its woes in its founding principles — a democratic polity and a socialist economic construct. Both are critical in rebuilding trust and social capital, needed to overcome the current national crisis.

Anis Chowdhury is emeritus professor, Western Sydney University, Australia. He held senior United Nations positions (economic and Social affairs) in New York and Bangkok.

IPS UN Bureau

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Categories: Africa

How an African Bioeconomy Can Strengthen Agrifood Systems in the Context of a Changing Climate

Mon, 12/16/2024 - 19:45

A scientist analyses a sapling in a lab.

By Ousmane Badiane
DAKAR, Senegal, Dec 16 2024 (IPS)

From increased pests and diseases to lower crop yields and extreme weather events, the adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture in Africa cannot be overstated.

Climate shocks will present major roadblocks to the continent’s rapidly growing population, especially if global temperatures remain on their upward trajectory. Urgent and effective action is therefore needed to mitigate these threats to food security and livelihoods.

Despite the growing stresses on Africa’s agrifood systems, the bioeconomy offers opportunities to improve food security, tackle climate change, and support development goals. The solution lies in sustainably leveraging Africa’s natural resources.

While the continent is highly vulnerable to climate change, its rich biodiversity offers tangible opportunities to address multiple challenges simultaneously. New evidence shows that Africa can leverage a much broader and more systemic approach to addressing the impacts of climate change on agrifood systems and beyond through its bioeconomy.

Characterized by sustainable production and use of biological resources to create innovative products, processes, and services for all economic sectors, bioeconomy involves the use of scientific knowledge to add social and economic value to biological resources in an environmentally sustainable way.

The latest ReSAKSS Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR) makes a case for converging the two pressing agendas of climate change and the bioeconomy toward building resilient agrifood systems in Africa. Harnessing Africa’s ecological wealth and investing in the continent’s bioeconomy can yield multiple development benefits across various sectors while contributing to climate resilience, sustainable agriculture, and economic growth.

Science and technology offer a viable pathway for the development of bioeconomy solutions. African countries will benefit from establishing robust science, research, and technology systems to leverage opportunities offered by the bioeconomy. Research initiatives to develop climate-resilient tools for farmers can go a long way in protecting food security and livelihoods from climate shocks.

A successful example is the redesign of Uganda’s research system through the National Agricultural Advisory Services program. This program focused on rebuilding relationships across the country’s agrifood system value chain, from the farm level all the way to regional chiefs, district coordinators, and private or semi-private service delivery companies.

Through this approach, farmers defined demand and had their research and innovation needs addressed through a national coordination network combined with the private sector. This has improved the availability and quality of advisory services provided to farmers and promoted the adoption and use of modern production technologies and practices.

Furthermore, Africa’s bioeconomy can create rural and agriculture-adjacent jobs for its youthful population while enabling economic diversification and growth. Leveraging Africa’s vast untapped potential will open up new industries and value chains that can drive job creation and livelihoods across the continent, especially for rural youth and other marginalized groups.

Emerging innovations like biological waste conversion using black soldier flies (BSF), and earthworms have opened up new markets and, consequently, new job opportunities. At the same time, these circular solutions benefit natural ecosystems, in turn supporting better conditions for crop and livestock production systems.

Domestic and cross-border trade also plays a vital role in facilitating economic growth through the bioeconomy. Increasing food demand can drive specialization and intensification of the agrifood sector and bioeconomy, ultimately incentivizing productivity, supply, and income increases. Existing policy tools such as the AfCFTA can reduce trade barriers across the continent’s bioeconomy and deliver better economic outcomes.

Recent research argues for a nutrition-sensitive circular bioeconomy that can be adopted to drive food security and nutrition outcomes while tackling waste management. For example, converting biowaste to vermicompost, biofertilizers, and biopesticides can reduce the costs and environmental burdens of synthetic chemicals while simultaneously improving agricultural productivity and food availability.

Strengthening the bioscience environment across sectors is critical. Under the Advanced Agriculture and Food cluster, South Africa’s Council for Scientiﬁc and Industrial Research (CSIR) aims to increase the output of high-value foods, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, and traditional African medical products. The Biomanufacturing Industry Development Centre (BIDC) has advanced over 100 bioproducts in cosmetics, nutrition, and biotechnology. A key success story from this case study is VIDA Pharmaceuticals, which produces accessible and affordable nutritious food products from baobab and maize.

In the wake of COP29, channeling more climate finance toward Africa’s bioeconomy is critical. Increasing investments in innovative financing models such as blended finance – which leverages concessional capital from public and philanthropic sources to de-risk private investments – can support climate goals in Africa’s agrifood systems.

There is political momentum for Africa’s converging climate change and bioeconomy agendas. South Africa was the first African country to develop a dedicated bioeconomy strategy in 2013, followed by Namibia, which published its national bioeconomy strategy in 2024. The East African Community (EAC) is the first regional economic bloc to develop a dedicated regional bioeconomy strategy in 2022.

The global shift toward sustainability and the green economy presents new opportunities for Africa to position itself as a leader in the bioeconomy. Policy action to embrace an African bioeconomy would entail the ability to deploy tailored and contextualized interventions to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity while advancing sustainable growth.

Increased investments in Africa’s resilience and green growth agendas from the continent’s leaders, private sectors, and other stakeholders are the first steps towards realizing this potential. The promise of a robust bioeconomy offers a viable growth and development pathway that can contribute to lower carbon emissions, better preservation of biodiversity, and greater prospects for decent jobs and livelihoods.

Dr. Ousmane Badiane, Executive Chairperson, AKADEMIYA2063

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

Bridging the Gap in Africa’s Surgical Care Crisis

Mon, 12/16/2024 - 13:07

Credit: Antonio Jaén Osuna

By Eric O'Flynn
DUBLIN, Ireland, Dec 16 2024 (IPS)

For decades, preventable deaths, lifelong disabilities, and disfigurements presented devastating consequences for over 90% of the population in Africa, where surgical care remains largely out of reach.

Simple, affordable procedures like skin grafts for burns, bone fracture repair, and hernia procedures routinely go untreated, causing needless suffering and often driving families into abject poverty due to loss of livelihood.

Consider a young man in his 20s in rural Zambia, electrocuted by a low-hanging power cable while riding on the back of a lorry, whose exposed skull and severely damaged scalp were repaired during a 16-hour procedure, allowing him to make a full recovery; a 19-year-old woman with a deep-seated tumor that caused her to lose her sight and whose surgery was made possible by a resourceful clinician using magnifying glasses in the absence of a microscope, removing the tumor in full and allowing her to regain her vision; a 32-year-old mother of two in rural Zambia, run over by a truck and left with devastating injuries who underwent eight months of intensive treatment and rehabilitation putting her on a path to recovery.

Cases like these are the everyday reality faced by surgeons Dr. Peter Mushenya from Zambia and Dr. Nathalie Umugwaneza from Rwanda, both recent graduates of the College of Surgeons of East, Central, and Southern Africa (COSECSA), which celebrates its 25th anniversary this December.

Since its founding, COSECSA has grown from graduating just six surgeons in 2010 to an impressive 152 in 2023. This growth reflects the organization’s commitment to equipping surgeons with the skills to meet the urgent needs of communities across the region. Over the course of their careers, COSECSA-trained surgeons are projected to perform nearly 9.5 million surgeries, a stunning demonstration of the impact of successful surgical training programmes.

Qualified just a year, Dr Mushenya is a specialist neurosurgeon working at Maxcare hospital in Lusaka, where patients often travel over 1000 kilometres to receive care from the only neurosurgical team in the country.

On average, he and his team perform 70 surgeries a month. He describes challenges such as a shortage of surgical supplies, long waiting lists and needless complications arising from untreated simple infections that worsen due to a delay in care. Common, he explains, are untreated coughs in children that escalate into meningitis and later abnormal swelling of the head due to excess fluid on the brain.

“Many patients are two years down the line without a CT scan and come to us in critical condition in need of urgent surgical attention. In many cases, we often have to use our own money to buy drills, sutures, shunts – not just the expensive equipment like microscopes, but even the little things are not there. Instead, we rely on well-wishers. A lot of the conditions we see are simple to treat, yet we don’t get the support we need,” says Dr Mushenya.

It is an all too familiar scene in Rwanda, according to Dr. Umugwaneza, who counts road traffic accidents and falls among her most common surgeries, “Patients often wait up to six months for surgeries that are not considered acute, resulting in improperly consolidated fractures that cause life-long disability.” She emphasizes the need to strengthen the entire surgical system, from training surgeons to strengthening entire surgical teams across a range of disciplines from nurses to anesthetists.

The situation experienced in Zambia and Rwanda matches the broader challenges faced in the region. In many countries of the Global South, the surgeon-to-patient ratio is alarmingly low, with just one trained surgeon for every 2.5 million people. This neglect persists even though surgically treatable conditions cause more deaths and disabilities than AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.

Despite a 2015 World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution urging the inclusion of global surgery within primary healthcare as a critical component of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), surgical care remains strikingly absent from policymakers’ agendas.

This lack of priority has contributed to minimal progress in strengthening emergency and essential surgical and anesthesia services. As a result, 16 million people worldwide die annually from conditions that could be treated surgically.

In response to the urgent demand for surgical care, COSECSA, supported by Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland has trained 910 surgeons through its intensive five-year programme, achieving this at an astonishingly low cost of just $600 per surgeon per year. Prof. Juan Carlos Puyana, Chair of Global Surgery at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dublin, has witnessed firsthand the impact of the programme and is a passionate advocate for further investment in global surgery.

An experienced surgeon himself, he worked for decades in low resource settings, and emphasises the scalability and cost-effectiveness of the initiative, underlining the importance of changing perceptions about surgical care: “There’s a misconception that surgical care is prohibitively expensive, but simple procedures don’t require large investments in infrastructure and expensive equipment.

Our approach is grounded in evidence that safe surgery is not an expense but a critical investment in health infrastructure and in promoting economic development.”

Dr Puyana’s views are echoed in the findings of the 2015 Lancet Commission on Global Surgery, which underscored that billions of people lack access to safe surgery. The report highlighted that investing in surgical services is not only affordable but essential to saving lives and securing safe health systems.

Closing the gap to ensure that surgical services are more readily accessible in lower- and middle-income countries, will not only save lives but also restore patients’ ability to work and lead productive lives, generating economic benefits that far outweigh their costs. The programme stands as a powerful testament to how targeted, cost-effective interventions can make a lasting impact.

In recent years, it has broadened its scope beyond surgical training. Recognizing that effective surgical care relies on multidisciplinary teams, it now supports the development of colleges in anesthesiology, obstetrics and gynecology, and nursing across the region.

This expansion builds on a proven model for rapidly scaling up training in the sub-Saharan context that involves a blend of virtual classrooms, mentorship, and a support network for isolated health workers. In some countries like Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi, particularly in rural hospitals, non-specialist and non-physician surgeons also play a key role in delivering essential procedures.

Further, at a time when trained health workers from the Global South are increasingly migrating to the Global North in search of better opportunities, the programme has proven to be a game-changer in stemming the exodus of health workers in the region.

A 2024 study reveals a significant shift, with an impressive 98.5% retention rate of specialist surgeons within Africa, addressing the chronic shortage of skilled health professionals. This shift represents not only a major achievement for the programme, but also an important step toward the sustainability of local healthcare systems.

Addressing the crisis in global surgery demands a fundamental shift in global health priorities: surgery is not a luxury intervention, but an essential component of any functioning health system. This requires policymakers to prioritize investments in training, infrastructure, and system-wide support, ensuring that surgical care is within reach for the millions who still don’t have access.

As the network of skilled practitioners expands, communities are themselves laying the groundwork for resilient health systems. In doing so, surgeons like Dr Mushenya and Dr Umugwaneza are safeguarding future generations from the preventable suffering that has long plagued the world’s poorest regions.

Eric O’Flynn is Programme Director — Education, Training and Advocacy, Institute of Global Surgery, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin.

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

Camps of Death, Terror: Syrian Survivors Face Long Road To Recovery

Mon, 12/16/2024 - 07:49

The people walk to Saydnaya prison to search for the detainees. Credit: Abdul Karem al-Mohammad/IPS

By Sonia Al Ali
IDLIB, Syria, Dec 16 2024 (IPS)

Detained without trial for over three years for trial for allegedly treating “terrorists” (as opponents of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were deemed), Alaa al-Khalil, a 33-year-old nurse from the Syrian city of Hama, recounts the agony of her time in a prison cell she shared with at least 35 women.

She was released from Aydnaya prison on December 8 after the fall of the Assad regime.

Following the fall of Assad’s regime and his escape to Moscow on December 8, armed opposition factions managed to open the doors of prisons, freeing hundreds of detainees who had endured the most horrific forms of torture for opposing Assad’s rule and demanding his removal from power. Many lost their lives within the prisons and were buried in mass graves, while the families of the detainees continue to search for their missing loved ones in the prisons of tyranny.

Years of Torture

“I was arrested at a security checkpoint belonging to the former Syrian regime and transferred to the Political Security Branch in Damascus—my hands were cuffed, and my eyes were blindfolded. In prison, we were 35 women in a small, cramped room with the toilet in the same room, without any privacy,” Khalil told IPS. “The marks of severe torture were clearly visible on some of the women. As for sleep, we would lie on the floor and take turns sleeping due to the very small size of the room. The most painful thing was that there were many pregnant women who gave birth to children who grew up inside the prison.”

The search for survivors in Sednaya prison. Credit: Abdul Karem al-Mohammad/IPS

During that time, she said the prisoners suffered from “hunger, cold, and all forms of torture, including beatings, burning with cigarettes, and nail pulling.”

Many of the female detainees were raped and exposed to sexual violence as a form of punishment. After midnight, the guards would come to the detainees’ room to select the most beautiful girls to take them to the officers’ rooms.

“We preferred torture and even death to rape. When a girl refused to have sex or confess to the charges against her during interrogation, she would be killed by the guards or interrogators, and her body would be thrown into the salt room, which was prepared in advance to preserve the bodies of the dead for as long as possible,” she said, tearfully remembering the daily trauma.

Khalil confirms that prisoners were not allowed to look at the guards, talk, or make any noise, even during torture. They were punished by being deprived of water or forced to sleep naked without covers in the freezing cold. The meals consisted of a few bites of spoilt food, and many people contracted serious infections, diseases, and mental disorders.

Now released, Khalil hopes to enjoy safety, stability, and peace in this country after years of oppression and injustice.

Adnan al-Ibrahim, 46, from the southern Syrian city of Daraa, was also released a few days ago from Adra prison on the outskirts of Damascus after spending over 10 years there on charges of defecting from Bashar al-Assad’s army and seeking asylum in Lebanon.

“I feel like I’m dreaming after being released from prison. They accused me of terrorism, subjected me to torture, and I was never brought before a court during my imprisonment. I’m still traumatized by what I endured,” Ibrahim says.

“We were subjected to the worst treatment imaginable in prisons. All we want now is the right to live a decent life, far from injustice, arbitrary arrests, and the ongoing killing in Syria.”

He is now emaciated and weak—his weight drastically reduced due to malnutrition and poor diet. Most of his fellow inmates suffered from life-threatening illnesses as a result of the torture they endured. Many inmates lost their memory due to being beaten on the head during interrogations, and the bodies of the dead remained for long periods before being removed. Many of these bodies were disposed of by burning.

Burdened by Psychological Prauma

Samah Barakat, a 33-year-old mental health specialist, says the survivors of Syrian detention centres will need help to overcome their traumas.

‘The experience of imprisonment and torture in prisons is painful and traumatic for survivors. Imprisonment is not limited to physical torture; the mental state is also affected. Prisoners were subjected to various forms of torture and oppression, leading to a significant deterioration in their mental health. These effects include a range of psychological disorders such as psychosis, memory loss, and speech impediments, in addition to the spread of diseases due to their deprivation of basic medical care.”

Barakat confirms that some detainees are likely to suffer from physical, psychological, and behavioural effects, accompanied by constant anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal.

She explains that survivors of detention need psychological support, which varies depending on the impact of the detention experience. Some need psychological counseling or therapy sessions with specialists, while others require medication prescribed by a psychiatrist due to depression or other mental illnesses.

An Unknown Fate

For some, the uncertainty of the fates of their loved ones means the trauma of the Asad regime lives on.

Alaa al-Omar, 52, from the northern Syrian city of Idlib, went to Saydnaya prison and the Palestine Branch in Damascus after the fall of the Assad regime, hoping to find his son, who had disappeared in the prison’s depths.

“I went to the prison with great longing, but I found no trace of my son. I think he died as a result of torture.”

Omar affirms that his son was arrested by the Assad regime forces in 2015 while studying at a university in Aleppo, accused of participating in demonstrations, carrying weapons, and joining the opposition factions.

Omar indicates he heard nothing from his son or about his son since his arrest, and his fate remains unknown even now.

Human Rights Violations

Human rights activist Salim Al-Najjar (41), from Aleppo, speaks about the suffering of survivors of detention and told IPS that the history of building prisons and expanding detention centers in Syria dated back to the rule of Hafez al-Assad, whose regime in the 1980s exercised excessive force against its opponents, turning the country into a “large slaughterhouse.”

“In the regime’s prisons, lives are as equal as stones in the hands of a sculptor, killed and discarded without regard or importance. In them, a person becomes a mere number, with their history, feelings, and even dreams that haunted them until the last moment of their lives ignored,” Najjar says.

Al-Najjar confirms the existence of many prisons in Syria, but the Saydnaya prison, located north of the Syrian capital Damascus, is known as the most prominent political detention center in Syria and was notorious for its horrific reputation as a site of torture and mass executions, especially after the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011. Saydnaya prison was where Assad’s detained opponents or defectors from his army or those who rejected his “killing policy.”

He points out that few detainees were released through family connections or bribes, while the detainees were left to die from their untreated wounds and diseases in “dirty, overcrowded” cells.

He notes that many detainees emerged from behind bars suffering from a loss of their mental faculties, unable to remember their names or identify themselves, and due to the severe changes caused by malnutrition and brutal torture, their features had changed to the point that their families did not recognize them at first.

Najjar hopes to achieve justice for the victims by presenting evidence and documents to international courts and holding Assad and all perpetrators of violations in Syria accountable.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said in a statement on December 11 that Assad is accused of killing at least 202,000 Syrian civilians, including 15,000 killed under torture, the disappearance of 96,000 others, and the forced displacement of nearly 13 million Syrian citizens, as well as other heinous violations, including the use of chemical weapons.

“Syrian detention centers and torture chambers symbolize the agony, oppression, and suffering that Syrians have endured for decades. Survivors of detention continue to heal their wounds and strive to return to their normal lives and reintegrate into society. Sadly, a significant number of them have perished under torture.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa

Afghan Women Vow To Resist Taliban Oppression Until Freedom Is Achieved

Fri, 12/13/2024 - 18:43

Though silenced in public, Afghan women continue their resistance in secret. Credit: Learning Together

By External Source
Dec 13 2024 (IPS)

Three years after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, women continue to face oppressive laws and systemic marginalization.

The Taliban have imposed draconian rules: women must cover their entire body from head to toe, they must not raise their voices in public, they must not pray or read the Koran aloud to each other. They have long been banned from taking up jobs outside the home or have education

Despite this, Afghan women are determined to resist. “We will continue our protests and struggles until we achieve freedom,” defiantly declares Farzana, a member of the Afghan Women Movement.

Over the past 20 years, women in Afghanistan had achieved higher education and professional skills, but are now under greater threat from the Taliban. They have suddenly been marginalized by Taliban rule.

“During the first two years,” says Farzana, “we took to the streets to protest for our rights. Unfortunately, during these demonstrations, the Taliban arrested the protesting women, imprisoned and punished them, and there was no one to defend these women.”

Women could no longer tolerate this situation and took to the streets to demand their rights, but lately, despite the introduction of new and strict laws by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice of the Taliban, which even banned women’s voices, no street protests have been seen. It seems that silence has also plagued Afghan women.

Based on my interviews with female prisoners after their release, they were even whipped naked, raped, and their family members mysteriously murdered.

“We are secretly active in protest groups,” Farzana explains. “We are not allowed to roam the streets. We have been sharing our protests with the media individually from home for some time now. The Taliban cannot silence our voices. We will continue our protests and struggles until we reach freedom”.

Malalai, another female protester, says: “The Taliban even send spies to our homes under various pretexts, with masked faces, claiming they are people on routine government duties. They have our photos and videos with them, and they identify and arrest us.”

Though silenced in public, Afghan women continue their resistance in secret. Credit: Learning Together

Malalai also says that the Taliban have installed cameras on top of every high building, supposedly for security cameras, but their real purpose is to monitor women. Recently, several women have been unexpectedly arrested and imprisoned.

“The Taliban are afraid of us because we expose the oppression on the people, women, and ethnic minorities”, says Malalai adding: “The Taliban have imposed pressure and strict rules on women. Women cannot even go on the streets without a Mahram – a male family member. We are interrogated if a few of us are seen standing together on the streets. They check our cell phones and punish us”.

“The Taliban have a strangle-choke on us. They are shamelessly violating our human rights, the rights of ethnic minorities and that of our families in full view of the United Nations and other countries.

“We women will continue our struggle despite the pressures and oppression of a world-known terrorist group. We will act on our slogans of bread-work-freedom”.

Sabera, another female protester, highlights the Taliban’s tactics of intimidation and control. “Taliban’s intelligence agents are arresting women who are against them. Through phone calls and photos that they gather from the demonstrations, they identify the women protesters during house-to-house searches. Also, they forcibly collect copies of people’s identity cards and passports to identify the women protesters – their declared opponents.”

Although we protested for our rights, many women protesters, both single and married, are currently imprisoned by the Taliban and are facing severe punishment, with no one following up on their situation.

Currently, due to many challenges, we are holding protests in secret locations with our faces covered, and then we must flee to another country.

The Taliban commit a lot more atrocities and oppression in the distant provinces further away from the cities. They forcibly tax the people twice their annual income.

If people do not obey the dictate of the Taliban, they forcibly enter their homes and snatch away their daughters. They also rape their wives and daughters and force them to move out of their residential areas.

“We can no longer tolerate this oppression. We will continue our fight,” says Sabera.

Those interviewed say the women in Afghanistan are fighting bravely against the tyranny and harsh laws of the Taliban, but they do not have any support.

“In spite of poverty and unemployment, we continue our journey at our own expense,” says Sabera.

The women are appealing to the United Nations and human rights organizations to stop supporting and to not recognize the Taliban regime.

“We are very disappointed that our voices do not reach the world from this dark pit,” says Sabera.

The European Union is shocked at the laws passed by the Taliban that limits women’s freedom of speech and, essentially restricts women’s life to within the house.

“Possible recognition would require that the Taliban comply in all respects with both its obligations towards the citizens of Afghanistan and Afghanistan’s international obligations,” an European Council press release states.

The EU continues to support Afghan women and girls and all those threatened by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, on the other hand, also refuse to cooperate with the UN-supported UNAMA aid operation

Excerpt:

The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons

Categories: Africa

Small Island States Put Faith in International Court’s ‘Wayfinding’ Advisory Opinion

Fri, 12/13/2024 - 17:10

Protest for climate justice. Two hundred 200 women gathered at Mt. Yasur, an active volcano on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. Credit: Greenpeace & Ben Bohane

By Umar Manzoor Shah
THE HAGUE, Dec 13 2024 (IPS)

The “crazy, weird and at some point (what seemed like) insurmountable” plan to ask the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on the obligations of UN member states regarding climate change was a success, Vishal Prasad, a representative for the. Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC) said at a post-hearing press conference today (December 13).

“We have taken the world’s biggest problem to the world’s highest court,” Prasad said, and this should be a source of inspiration to young people who may find what’s happening about them depressing.

He said he was moved by the experience of telling the ICJ their story from a youth’s perspective.

Yet, Cristelle Pratt, Assistant Secretary-General, Organization of African Caribbean and Pacific States, said some of the testimony that was presented in court was dubious.

“Despite the overwhelming consensus that the relevant conduct is unlawful, a small minority of participants have had the audacity to double down on the limb of their innocence. They have done this in two ways. First, they have argued that the legal question being asked to the court is strictly forward-looking in nature and does not concern itself with historical emissions,” Pratt said.

“Second, they have argued that the only legal obligations binding on them do not, in fact, require them to account for their historical emissions, including by reparations, let alone oblige them to stop emitting beyond their pitiful privileges. In essence, these states have invited the court to absolve them of a moral responsibility.”

During a fortnight of hearings, countries and organizations have given their arguments in a case that was initiated at the request of Vanuatu in which the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion on the obligations of UN member states in preventing climate change and ensuring the protection of the environment for present and future generations.

During the final day of hearing, the court continued to hear testimony of the impact of climate change, particularly on small island states.

Tuvalu’s Attorney-General, Eselealofa Apinelum, speaking on behalf of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), reminded the court that there was still time.

“There is still time to avert the worst impacts if only states can make the necessary cuts to their greenhouse gas emissions. The court can, and indeed must, provide specific and pivotal guidance on states’ obligations in this regard.”

Speaking on behalf of COSIS, an intergovernmental organization with a mandate to clarify the rules and principles of international law concerning climate change, Professor Payam Akhavan reminded the court that “significant harm has already occurred, and without decisive action, it will only get worse. These impacts touch on every aspect of island life. The major polluters are destroying the future of our people.”

He continued, “The court can provide the critical guidance needed to align international law with the best available science and ensure accountability for the harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions.”

Dr. Stuart Minchin, Director-General of the Pacific Community (SPC), said the court could provide a solid foundation for the future.

“Pacific leaders aptly describe our region as the Blue Pacific Continent. It’s 98 percent ocean—it contains 30 percent of the world’s exclusive economic zones and over 60 percent of the world’s tuna stocks.”

Climate change posed a particular risk to these islands, as half of the population lived 5 km from the coastline, which highlights the consequence of extreme sea-level events in the region.

“The science is clear: Climate change is already causing existential impacts to the peoples and communities of our vast Pacific region, and meaningful action is required to reduce its impacts as a matter of urgency,” Minchin said.

“Under no scientific scenarios can we continue to pursue a future underpinned by fossil fuels and still expect to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. We need to act now to ensure the livelihoods and self-determination of Pacific people and cultures are protected for future generations.”

Coral Pasisi, Director of Climate Change at SPC, said the loss and damage were economic, cultural and social.

“The loss and damage already experienced, together with the associated impacts on culture, traditional practice, and knowledge, have both extreme economic and non-economic implications,” Pasisi said. “Cyclone Heta in 2004 caused economic damages in Niue alone, equating to five times the GDP of our country, an unimaginable and irreparable loss, including the destruction of our only museum and over 90 percent of our cultural artifacts.”

Prasad had earlier told the court that, “In the Pacific, we have always looked to the stars. Our ancestors navigated the vastness of the ocean and traveled immense distances. Today, the world needs wayfinders, those who can guide us towards a path that protects our homes, upholds our rights, and preserves our dignity.”

Now was the time for the reinvention of this time-honored tradition.

“This practice, wayfinding, is more than just a method of navigation. It is a relationship. It connects those who came before with those who will follow. Every decision mattered, not only for the journey in that moment but for the future that it shaped.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Excerpt:

Hearings on states' legal obligations to combat climate wrapped up today at the International Court of Justice. An opinion is expected next year. While wealthy countries argued that the existing climate frameworks are enough, the small island states in the Pacific, Africa and the Caribbean have pleaded with the court to consider the human rights of those affected and those who will be affected in the future.

Categories: Africa

Standing Up for Science with Science Communication

Fri, 12/13/2024 - 16:35

Most scientists lack training in effective science communication, and their use of jargon often hinders public understanding and trust in scientific papers and findings. Credit: Shutterstock

By Esther Ngumbi
URBANA, Illinois, US, Dec 13 2024 (IPS)

New research shows that AI-generated summaries of scientific writing made the information more approachable and easier to understand, and thus created more public engagement with the information. This is notable because most scientists aren’t trained in science communication tactics and so their jargon affects many people’s ability to understand and trust scientific papers and findings.

Science communication has always been an important part of the scientific process because discoveries, solutions and findings that can help solve our world’s greatest challenges cannot be adopted or understood by the public without clear communication. Communicating science well also can shape and inform public policy.

Scientists, therefore, have a responsibility to make sure that they communicate their knowledge and findings in a way that the public and policymakers can understand, but too often that is not happening.

Scientists have a responsibility to make sure that they communicate their knowledge and findings in a way that the public and policymakers can understand, but too often that is not happening

Due to the importance of science communication, it is necessary for scientists to be trained in science communication. That is why I started a science communications course at my university.

I have taught it for over 4 years and cover topics like the art of writing opinion pieces and creating science stories, communicating science to different audiences through careful use of metaphors and minimal use of jargon.

Additionally, the class covers topics such as communicating science using social media and communicating with politicians and creating visual science stories. Students who have taken the class have continued to use the skills learned in class in their careers while others went on to become science communicators

The people who need to learn these skills include recent PhD graduates, post-doctoral fellows, assistant professors, newly tenured and full professors.

There are several resources including textbooks, science communication workshops, and many trusted organizations and institutions to which scientists can turn. Science communication newbies can also turn to social media including Bluesky social and Instagram to meet other science communication enthusiasts.

Notably, there are institutions and organizations to which scientists can turn. The American Association for the Advancement of Science, for example has developed a communication toolkit to help science communication newbies.

The OpED project has programs to help people learn how to write OpEds and a few times a year, they offer science communication workshops. Moreover, most universities also have webpages listing science communication resources.

For example, Duke University has a webpage listing the resources available including science communication workshops, events and classes.

Communicating science effectively via OpEds, blogs, and social media outlets is not only important for reaching the public and policy makers, but it can help scientists themselves, too.

First, through public publishing and engagement, scientists can establish their own reputation. Journalists and policymakers will often reach out to whatever expert they can easily find, and being active on social media and op-ed pages will make a person easier to find.

Being a consistent public voice – backed up by good work – can help establish someone as an expert in their field. Moreover, scientists that regularly and consistently participate in science communication can track its impact and include that on tenure promotion packages.

This happened to me. Being consistent with writing over 150 OpEds, since 2015, for example has helped to advance my career.

Second, communicating science publicly help a person build a professional network, which can lead to peers reaching out for collaborations and co-writing of grant proposals.

It can lead to people recommending each other for awards or invitations to speak on panels, workshops or to give plenary talks.

This has been my experience, and I’ve received a few invitations thanks to my public writing. For instance, I was invited to give a plenary talk at the annual 2019 British Ecological Society, and I’ve been invited to speak at various universities.

In 2021, I was awarded the American Association for the Advancement of Science Mani L. Bhaumik Award for Public Engagement with Science.

Third, communicating science can help a scientist grow their skills and become better at speaking and writing in publicly accessible language. And it can help scientists learn to become better at capitalizing on newsworthy moments. In addition, this can also facilitate the building of trust among different communities and the public.

Fourth, it can allow scientists to offer a public service and provide accurate information about their discoveries and recent scientific and technological advancements to reporters and policymakers.

Of course, for new beginners, it can be overwhelming to join the science communication bandwagon. Not only may it be unfamiliar and a new skill to develop, but there are concerns like being unable to control what happens to your writing or how it is used once it’s published, or the fact that science is ever evolving, and new information may agree or disagree with previously held truths. But the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Science communication is critical for conveying important scientific information. Scientists must stand up for science. When scientists become better science communicators, the public, society, and scientists benefit.

Esther Ngumbi, PhD is Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology, African American Studies Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Categories: Africa

Intra-Regional Relations the Key To Sustainable Development in the Horn of Africa

Fri, 12/13/2024 - 11:13

In Somalia, water infrastructure projects are building climate resilience and reducing emissions by using solar panels to provide energy. A new report calls for recognizing and establishing a nexus between the water, energy and food sectors in the Horn of Africa. Credit: UNDP/Tobin Jones

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 13 2024 (IPS)

The Horn of Africa holds the resources and potential for lasting development and resilience. The countries in the subregion and development partners need to come together to invest in regional cooperation and resource management.

On December 12, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched the first-ever Human Development Report on the Horn of Africa subregion, which includes Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.

Horn of Africa Human Development Report 2024: Enhancing Prospects for Human Development through regional Integration, explores the key challenges that the eight countries and the subregion are experiencing in

In the Arab states and the African region, low productivity in economic activity will only continue in a “vicious cycle,” one that perpetuates poverty for the population. Abdallah Al Dardari, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for the Arab States, remarked that the countries in the subregion have been taking what he described as a “siloed approach” to state affairs, even as its neighbors are dealing with the same issues. This is evident in how the region engages with the water and food sectors.

The report calls for recognizing and establishing a nexus between the water, energy and food sectors. Over 50 percent of the population across the Horn of Africa experience moderate to severe food insecurity and only 56 percent have access to electricity. Less than 56 percent have access to clean drinking water, yet the report indicates that this is not a consistent experience among the countries, given their geographical locations.

Conflict and disasters have also been persistent factors that have limited development in the Horn of Africa, as over 23.4 million people have been displaced in the wake of major conflicts in Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and internal conflicts like in Ethiopia.

The report presents three priorities that will help to accelerate human development and build resilience: build on increasing intra-regional trade, enhance collaboration in the water, energy and food sectors, and promote governance and peace.

The region could see a GDP increase of 3.9 percent by 2030 through liberalizing trade and reducing tariffs. The African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) agreement would also boost trade were it fully implemented; the countries in the ACFTA need to ratify the agreement for them to benefit. Regional integration through collaboration on resource management can help foster sustainable growth and climate resilience, as the report suggests. This could be seen in improved access to electricity and shared food value systems. This could be valuable in a subregion that holds a high share of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydro and yet faces significant energy gaps.

“What we’ve attempted to do with this report is see if we can begin to see a shift in the narrative on this region,” said Ahunna Eziakonwa, the UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Africa. In working towards integration in economic and political relations, she argued, partnerships need to be established within the subregion that is built on finding commonalities and shared purposes. Changing the narrative is key towards achieving sustainable development.

At the report’s launch, Eziakonwa remarked that certain demographics needed to be brought into the fold when discussing development, requiring a re-examination of the narratives associated with them. Young people make up a significant percentage of the population across the region, yet they have been characterized as the problem rather than the solution. Involving young people and recognizing the skills and perspectives they can bring to the table is critical, which will involve expanding socio-economic opportunities for the youth population that are not employed or in education. Investing in women’s participation in the development sector is also needed, for they have been largely left out of decision-making spaces and policy discussions.

Through this report, UNDP is calling on governments and development partners to invest in infrastructure and policy frameworks that build up human development and resilience in the Horn of Africa.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa

The Fall of The Assad Regime: The Rebels’ Prospect for Success or Failure

Fri, 12/13/2024 - 10:42

People gather to celebrate freedom in Damascus. UN News Credit: Gaith Sabbagh

By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Dec 13 2024 (IPS)

The fall of the Assad regime is a historic watershed event that will have significant regional and international ramifications. The question is, will the rebels fulfill their promise to be inclusive and lift the Syrian people out of their misery, and what can the US and Israel do to help shape the trajectory of the new regime?

It is hard to exaggerate the jubilation of the Syrian people when they heard the news about the fall of Bashar al-Assad, which ended a 52-year-old ‘dynasty’ that will be remembered as the darkest chapter of the country’s existence.

How long the public’s jubilation will last, and whether normalcy will be restored to a shattered country, will depend on whether the new government fulfills its promise to be inclusive, focusing on rebuilding the country and seeking peace and reconciliation, or simply replaces one ruthless dictatorship with a new one.

Perhaps it is premature to determine whether or not the rebels will keep their word with respect to their promises to be inclusive and treat every citizen, regardless of their ethnicity, equally before the law.

However, there are important and positive signs that the new leaders are likely to follow what they have been saying to demonstrate that they are committed to establishing responsible and legitimate governance.

To that end, they called for national unity and a peaceful transfer of power. The rebels’ leader, Abu Mohammed al-Golani, met with the outgoing prime minister Mohammed al-Jalali to discuss the transition of power to demonstrate his desire to work with experienced officials to ensure a smoother power transfer and temporarily supervise the bureaucracy.

Hadi al-Bahra, president of the Syrian National Coalition, outlined plans for an 18-month transitional period and extended his hand to help draft a new constitution and hold elections as desired by the rebel leaders.

To show the rebels’ leaders’ commitment to justice, they swore to hold accountable many army officers who were involved in torture and commit themselves to establishing “a state of freedom, equality, rule of law and democracy,” as Syria’s UN ambassador Koussay Aldahhak stated.

They instructed their followers to preserve the state’s institutions, restore essential services, and reopen banks to ensure economic stability. They further directed their rank and file to prevent the desecration of shrines and cultural centers of many ethnic groups, including the pro-Assad Alawites, making them feel reassured and optimistic that they would not be excluded from joining the political transitional process.

Given the reign of horror that was inflicted on the Syrian people, the new leaders appear to be committed to a new beginning that the public is yearning for, not simply replacing the ruthless Assad dictatorship with a new one.

They want to write a new chapter that would end the public’s pain, suffering, and despair, especially over the past 14 years since the outbreak of the Arab Spring, and bring hope for a better and promising future. On the whole, it appears as though a new era has dawned on Syria.

The above positive signs, however, are not free from the many challenges in regime change, which include integrating the armed groups into a unified structure and preserving all state institutions, as well as laborious negotiations between the numerous opposition groups with different ideologies and loyalties.

There are also concerns that hasty changes might invite other militant groups to emerge and plunge the country once again into a civil war and destroy what was left under Assad.

Finally, the more troubling concern is about the Islamic roots of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and the question is raised as to whether or not its leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, formerly affiliated with al-Qaida, would revert to extremism. To alleviate these concerns, he clarified that his severing of ties to al-Qaeda goes back several years and pledged to pursue pluralism, ethnic equality, and religious tolerance.

What transpires domestically will affect foreign powers, especially Turkey, Iran, and Russia, which have vested geostrategic interests in Syria. How the rebel leaders navigate between these rival powers will have significant repercussions for Syria and its place in an unstable region ladened with conflicts and competition for greater sway with the new leaders in Damascus.

Setting this aside, for now, the most urgent matter is for the US and Israel, in particular, to take several actions to encourage the new Syrian leadership to pursue what they have publicly promised and maintain the initial social, economic, and political steps they have taken.

The US should first remove HTS from the terrorist list to send a clear message that the US is willing to demonstrate its initial trust that the new leadership will indeed follow what they have promised. Since legitimacy is critical to the new leadership, the US should offer diplomatic recognition, conditional upon the rebels’ commitment to democracy and the rule of law.

In addition, the US should engage in back-channel diplomacy to discuss regional security and offer cooperation. The US could provide economic assistance by first removing the sanctions that date back to 2012, assisting in the efforts to recover funds stolen by Assad himself and his government, and supporting reconstruction efforts, which can significantly help improve living conditions and stabilize the country.

Finally, the US could offer technical know-how and training for civil society organizations and help promote independent media and democratic institutions.

By taking these and other measures, the US can demonstrate its commitment to supporting the Syrian peoples’ aspiration for democracy and the prospect of growth and prosperity while addressing the US’ concerns over regional stability.

To prevent any potential conflagration with the new Syrian government, Israel has established three red lines for the rebels, daring them not to cross. These include: 1) not letting chemical weapons fall into the hands of Jihadist rebels; 2) preventing Iran from deploying Iranian troops to rebuild any military installations on Syrian territory; and 3) no hostile forces deployed near the Israeli border.

Israel has already taken several precautionary measures to prevent any misunderstanding, which include temporarily seizing control of a demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, bombing suspected chemical weapons sites, and implementing a curfew in several villages within the buffer zone.

Having conveyed that those are preventive measures, Israel can take several steps to encourage peaceful relationships with the new government while mitigating the rebels’ traditional hostilities toward Israel. To begin with, Israel should establish a line of communication with the rebels and extend humanitarian aid to develop goodwill.

In addition, Israel can offer economic incentives and demonstrate its interest in addressing Syria’s security concerns. By combining diplomatic outreach, strategic security measures, and financial incentives, Israel can develop a stable relationship with the new Syrian government while maintaining its security.

There are and will be several other critical issues that separate Israel and the rebels; chief among them is the future of the Golan Heights. However, whether or not the new government accepts Israel’s gestures, by taking these measures, Israel can create a positive atmosphere that can facilitate constructive negotiations about any conflicting issue in the future.

The stunning victory of the Syrian rebels opens up new possibilities for a more peaceful Middle East, or it can set the stage for even more intense violence, death, and destruction. The new Syrian authority must decide which way they choose to go. One thing, however, is certain.

Although other powers, especially Turkey, Russia, and Iran, have a unique interest in Syria’s future, what the US and Israel do will have the greatest impact on the path the new regime in Damascus will choose to travel.

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.
alon@alonben-meir.com Web: www.alonben-meir.com

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

Mahrang Baloch—Feted Worldwide, Persecuted at Home

Fri, 12/13/2024 - 10:15

Mahrang Baloch recently was acknowledged by the BBC as one of the most inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2024. Credit: Baloch Yakjehti Committee

By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI, Dec 13 2024 (IPS)

“This recognition by a media outlet highlights the painful stories of abductions, torture, and the genocide of the Baloch people,” said 31-year-old political activist Mahrang Baloch, speaking with IPS over the phone from Quetta, Balochistan, in reference to her inclusion on the BBC’s annual list of 100 most inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2024.

“BBC 100 Women acknowledges the toll this year has taken on women by celebrating those who—through their resilience—are pushing for change as the world changes around them,” stated the media organization.

This is the second award that Mahrang received this year. In October, she was among Time magazine’s ‘2024 Time100 Next’ list of young individuals to recognize for “advocating peacefully for Baloch rights.”

She was invited by the magazine to attend a ceremony in New York, but she was stopped at the airport from boarding the plane on October 7 “without giving me a reason” why. She stated that she was termed a “terrorist” and a “suicide bomber,” with multiple cases filed against her. “And if this were not enough, now I and my brother have been placed on the Fourth Schedule list,” she said. Introduced in 1997, the Fourth Schedule aimed to combat sectarian violence, militancy, and terrorism. Almost 4,000 Baloch have been placed in the Fourth Schedule list.

Being placed on the Fourth Schedule under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) is a serious matter, resulting in restrictions such as travel bans, frozen bank accounts, prohibitions on financial support, arms license embargoes, and employment clearance limitations.

A trained medical doctor, Mahrang began protesting against the alleged abductions and killings of innocent Baloch by Pakistani security forces in 2006, well before her father, a political activist, forcibly disappeared in 2009. His tortured body was discovered in 2011.

In 2017, her brother was abducted, and though he was released in 2018, Mahrang continued to advocate for justice for all the disappeared, despite facing threats and intimidation. In 2019, she founded the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a human rights movement dedicated to raising awareness and seeking justice for the Baloch people.

Balochistan’s history of resistance against the Pakistan government began in 1948 and continues. Pakistan’s military, paramilitary and intelligence forces have responded with kidnapping, torturing and killing tens of thousands of Baloch men.

The Voice for the Baloch Missing Persons, a non-profit organisation representing family members of those who disappeared in Balochistan, has registered approximately 7,000 cases since 2000.

“We have been fighting for our families now for over two decades, on every platform. I have appeared in courts, even the Supreme Court of Pakistan, presented our cause at every commission and committee that the government or the judiciary has set up but so far there has been no progress. In fact, in the last three months of this year alone, more Baloch individuals are being picked than in any other time,” said Nasrullah Baloch, chairman of the VBMP, speaking to IPS over the phone.

“We have no confidence in any government institution, especially the government-constituted Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CoIED), anymore to resolve our issue,” he rued.

But neither does the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). In 2020, Ian Seiderman, ICJ’s Legal and Policy Director, stated the commission (established in 2011) had failed to hold even a single perpetrator of enforced disappearance responsible.

“A commission that does not address impunity nor facilitate justice for victims and their families can certainly not be considered effective,” he said.

Since the ICJ’s policy brief, not much seems to have changed. Indeed, Mahrang asserts that the situation has deteriorated. In the past three months, “over 300 Baloch have been abducted, and seven cases of extrajudicial killings have been reported.” On the other hand, the CoIED reported that it had resolved 8,015 of the 10,285 cases it had investigated from 2011 to June 2024.

In 2021 and then again in 2022, Pakistan’s parliament tried passing a bill to criminalize enforced disappearances but it has not yet come into force. Pakistan has refused to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Media’s Dismal Role

While the international media has given Baloch activists like Mahrang “hope” by amplifying their voices and bringing “visibility” to their “genuine” cause, she said it has failed to ignite the Pakistani media.

“Our national media has failed us,” she lamented, adding that they never supported their “genuine” cause. In such circumstances, the recognition by the international media gives her some “hope.”

Prominent journalist and author Mohammad Hanif, who has consistently highlighted the issue of missing Baloch, described Mahrang as “articulate, clearheaded, and inspirational.” He admitted that the media in Pakistan has not given the issue adequate coverage, revealing, “There were standing instructions to newsrooms not to cover it.” Furthermore, he pointed out a “clear bias among mainstream journalists against Baloch issues.”

Talat Hussain, political commentator and journalist, agreed that media coverage of enforced disappearances had been “limited and partially blacked out” but added it was not entirely absent in its coverage.

He acknowledged he had not covered the issue extensively, not because he had been asked to avoid it, but because the overwhelming news flow in Islamabad, driven by political unrest, protests, rising terrorism, and economic challenges, eclipsed everything.

However, Hussain noted that what was considered a human rights issue had become deeply politicized, increasingly intertwined with Baloch separatism. Many now view the activists as opponents of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects. “This complicates efforts to recognize Mahrang solely as a human rights campaigner,” he remarked.

Farah Zia, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, declined to equate the BYC with the separatist movement. She described women like Mahrang, who “come out to protest and even lead them,” as a refreshing phenomenon. “This completely unarmed, non-violent resistance movement makes these young women leaders extremely powerful.” Moreover, said Zia, “Even her followers are young, educated Baloch who have defied their traditional power centres, including their tribal elders.”

“They have broken many stereotypes associated with Baloch women,” agreed Zohra Yusuf, a rights activist. In 2023, Mahrang led hundreds of women on a 1,000-mile (1,600 km) march to the capital Islamabad to demand information on the whereabouts of their family members. She was arrested twice during the journey. The BBC highlighted her December 2023 march to Islamabad, where she and hundreds of women marched for “justice for their husbands, sons, and brothers.”

“The people of Balochistan see Mahrang and the BYC as a beacon of hope because they have completely lost faith in the politicians,” pointed out Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur, who has been associated with the Baloch rights struggle since 1971 and wrote about violations of their rights in newspapers till 2015, after which he said the “media stopped publishing my pieces due to state pressure.”

“There are no consequences for those implementing disappear, kill and dump policies,” said Hanif. “The state believes in its own brute colonial power.”

“Enforced disappearances will continue as there is total impunity for the perpetrators. Those associated with the intelligence and security agencies have no regard for the rule of law,” pointed out Yusuf. She said the young doctor had exhibited “positive leadership qualities by being firm on her demands without creating hatred towards anyone.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

IPS UN Bureau, IPS UN Bureau Report, Pakistan

Categories: Africa

‘We Will Not Go Quietly Into the Rising Sea,’ Tuvalu Tells International Court of Justice

Fri, 12/13/2024 - 09:19

Water floods in, showing how nature and people are at risk. Trees can't grow because of salt, leaving no protection. This photo warns about climate change's effect on our islands and atolls. It's a clear sign we need to act to keep our world safe. Credit: Gitty Keziah Yee/Tuvalu

By Tanka Dhakal
THE HAGUE, Dec 13 2024 (IPS)

Rising sea level caused by greenhouse gas emission-fueled climate change is threatening existence in coastal communities and island nations. At the International Court of Justice (ICJ), on Thursday, December 12, 2024, small island states, including Tuvalu and a Pacific-based fisheries agency detailed their ongoing existential threats caused by the climate change-induced sea level rise and impacts on fishery-based livelihood.

Tuvalu, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) both focused their oral presentations before the court on highlighting added and exacerbated struggles faced by people in the region through visual evidence and testimony of the frontline community.

At the request of Vanuatu, the UN General Assembly asked the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion on the obligations of UN member states in preventing climate change and ensuring the protection of the environment for present and future generations. While its advisory opinion will not be enforceable, the court will advise on the legal consequences for member states who have caused significant harm, particularly to small island developing states. So far, more than 100 countries and agencies have presented their case before the court.

On Thursday, island states stressed the disproportionate effects of climate change on small islands, urging the court to recognize the duty of cooperation, the stability of maritime zones, and the principle of continuity of statehood.

Climate Crisis Can not be Solved in Isolation—Tuvalu

Tuvalu, a small island nation in the South Pacific with over 11,000 people, emphasized its right to self-determination and territorial integrity at a time when it is facing an existential threat from climate change-induced sea level rise.

The low-lying island nation of Tuvalu is fighting for its existence; according to scientists, much of their land area, along with critical infrastructure, will be under water by 2050. Tuvalu urged the ICJ to issue a strong advisory opinion on states’ obligations to combat climate change and protect small island states.

Furthering the submission, Laingane Italeli Talia, Attorney General of Tuvalu, said climate change is the single greatest threat the country is facing. “It cannot be that in the face of such unprecedented and irreversible harm, international law is silent.

“Tuvalu, accordingly, asks the court to keep the unprecedented infringement on our people’s right to self-determination at the very center of his critical advisory opinion in order to help chart the pathway forward for our very survival.”

‘Annihilation Posed By Nuclear Weapons’

Professor Phillipa Webb, representing Tuvulu, used the analogy that the threat of disappearance faced by states like Tuvalu is like the potential annihilation posed by nuclear weapons.

“This extreme circumstance triggers all the tools that international law provides for respecting statehood, ensuring territorial integrity and protecting sovereignty over natural resources,” Webb said.

“Tuvalu’s constitution affirms that its statehood will remain in perpetuity, notwithstanding any loss to its physical territory. In the same way that the right to survival requires state continuity, the right also compels respect for territorial integrity, which encompasses a state’s permanent sovereignty over its natural resources,” Webb said, drawing on the drawing on the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States.

“Respect for territorial integrity and territorial sovereignty is an essential foundation of international relations in the context of climate change. This obliges States to prevent and mitigate transboundary environmental harm. It requires that States facilitate adaptation to climate change impacts, and these measures should not be limited to the preservation and restoration of coasts and islands but also to protecting the rights of peoples to self-determination.”

The right to self-determination includes aspects other than physical land, and the court should take this into account.

“Territorial integrity, a corollary of the right to self-determination, is not limited to physical land territory. It must be conceived as a historical and cultural norm linked to the vitality, dignity and identity of the people holding the right to self-determination to ensure respect for territorial integrity goes beyond ensuring the maintenance of physical land boundaries. Like other concepts in international law, such as cultural heritage, biodiversity and intellectual property, it covers tangible and intangible assets.”

Quoting Tuvaluan climate activist Grace Malie, Webb told the court, “Tuvalu will not go quietly into the rising sea.”

Statehood Should be Ensured—AOSIS

AOSIS submitted its case on behalf of the 39 small island and low-lying coastal developing states and urged it to consider the existential threat posed by climate change-induced sea level rise and the possibility that some states may not even have dry land in the near future.

It emphasizes the importance of equity and self-determination in the context of climate change and the need for international law to support the continuity of statehood and sovereignty.

Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Dr. Pa’olelei Luteru, Chair of AOSIS and Permanent Representative of Samoa to the United Nations, focused on the impact of the climate crisis on states defined by the ocean’s limited resources and geographic vulnerability.

“Small island developing states rely heavily on coastal and marine resources as key drivers of our economies,” he said. “However, climate change is disrupting the fishery sector because of warming waters and an altered marine environment.”

The AOSIS asked the court to uphold the principle of continuity of statehood as established in international law, ensuring that statehood and sovereignty endure despite physical changes to land territory.

Luteru added, “In this era of unprecedented and relentless sea level rise, international law must evolve to meet the climate crisis and the disproportionate effect that it has on states.”

Focus on Sustainability of Tuna Fisheries—FFA

Rising sea level and ocean warming are not only threatening the existence of island nations but they are also hammering a major way of livelihood, fishing. Representing the fishing community at the ICJ, FFA highlighted the state of loss of fisheries, including tuna.

Tuna fisheries are crucial for the economic, social, and cultural development of Pacific Island communities, with 47 percent of households depending on fishing as a primary or secondary source of income.

FFA, an intergovernmental agency, focuses on sustainable use of offshore fisheries resources, particularly tuna, which are facing threats to climate change impacts.

“Damage to fisheries and loss of fish stocks will have a significant negative impact on the income, livelihoods, food security and economies of Pacific small island developing states, as well as social and cultural impacts,” Pio Manoa, Deputy Director General of FFA, said.

“Climate change is driving tuna further to the east and outside of members, exclusive economic zones into the high seas, threatening the loss of economic and food security of Pacific small and developing states.”

Studies show climate change-driven redistribution of commercial tuna species will cause an economic blow to the small island states of the Western and Central Pacific, ultimately threatening the sustainability of the world’s largest tuna fishery.

By 2050, under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, the total biomass of three tuna species in the waters of 10 of the Pacific small islands developing states members of the agency could decline by an average of 13 percent.

“The adverse consequences for the livelihood and well-being of coastal communities are profound, including their very security and survival impacts on marine resources, including offshore fisheries such as tuna,” Manoa said. “It is therefore incumbent upon the international community to take necessary action to deal with anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and their consequences.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Excerpt:

Territorial integrity is not limited to physical land territory. It must be conceived as of a historical and cultural norm linked to the vitality, dignity and identity of the people holding the right to self-determination to ensure respect for territorial integrity goes beyond ensuring the maintenance of physical land boundaries—Professor Phillipa Webb

Categories: Africa

Escalation of Violence in Sudan Raises Concern of Nationwide Collapse

Thu, 12/12/2024 - 19:46

Four-year-old Walaa, a displaced Sudanese child, peers through the door in her new home in Al Karama, a gathering point for displaced people in Kassala state. Credit: UNICEF/Ahmed Mohamdeen Elfatih

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 12 2024 (IPS)

On December 9, a wave of bombardments hit a market district in Sudan, killing at least 127 people. Over eight barrel bombs were launched on the North Darfur town Kabkabiya, marking the latest attacks on densely populated areas that occurred throughout the course of the Sudanese Civil War. Both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have received immense criticism from humanitarian organizations for committing abuses against civilians that constitute violations of international humanitarian law.

According to figures from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, 61,000 people have died in the Khartoum state alone in the wake of hostilities in Sudan. The United Nations (UN) adds that conflict has displaced over 11 million people, making this the biggest displacement crisis in the world. Additionally, there has been considerable damage on critical civilian infrastructure over the course of the war.

On December 11, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) released a report which declared that the 20-month civil war in Sudan has generated “the biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded”. Despite Sudan only containing approximately 1 percent of the global population, the nation contains over 10 percent of people in need of humanitarian assistance globally.

The SAF issued a statement on December 11 in which they denied responsibility for the recent attack, describing the accusations levied against it as “lies”. They further added that they believed they had the right to target any regions that are occupied by the RSF. The RSF has not responded as of yet.

On December 10, the RSF committed a heavy artillery shelling in a neighborhood in Omdurman, the largest city in the Khartoum state. According to the state government, this attack killed over 65 civilians and wounded hundreds of others. The RSF, described by the government as a “terrorist militia”, committed the “largest human massacre by shelling civilians in Karari locality.” The shelling also hit the Sabreen market and neighboring districts, as well a public transportation vehicle in the 17th district, killing all passengers on board.

The Director-General of Sudan’s Ministry of Health Fath al-Rahman Muhammad al-Amin informed reporters that casualties continue to be documented and that healthcare personnel are struggling to save lives in the midst of an influx of injured persons.

Mohamed Abdiladif, the interim country director for Save the Children in Sudan, described the two attacks as “unacceptable” as they took place in densely populated areas where families shopped for food with their children. Abdalif urged the warring parties to refrain from targeting markets, schools, healthcare facilities, and other integral public infrastructure not just as a moral obligation, he said, “but a vital step towards ensuring a stable, peaceful, and prosperous future for Sudan.”

“All wars are brutal, but the toll of this one is particularly horrifying. Indiscriminate attacks are killing civilians, including young children, some of the areas of most severe need remain cut off entirely, with no access to humanitarian aid,” warned Amy Pope, Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Amnesty International reports that gender-based violence, mass killings, and blockages of humanitarian aid are regular occurrences in Sudan. Furthermore, there has been a new wave of hostilities in west Darfur, with reports of ethnic cleansing of the Masalit community on the rise.

Additionally, hostilities have continued to escalate in the Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur. Thousands of refugees have been faced with sporadic bombardments from the RSF since December 1, causing them to flee in hordes from their makeshift homes. The camp’s spokesperson, Mohammed Khamis Doda, confirmed that renewed artillery shelling in the camp resulted in at least 9 civilian casualties on December 9. Numerous witnesses described the RSF using long-range missiles, which destroyed several housing units in the camp.

As a result of extended warfare, living conditions for millions of Sudanese civilians have deteriorated significantly. In August of this year, the Famine Review Committee (FRC) determined the presence of famine within the Zamzam camp. On December 6, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, reported a total of 737 cases of cholera, indicating the presence of a deepening outbreak.

The situation in Malakal remains critical, and we are concerned that the outbreak is spreading to neighbouring areas such as Tonga and Kodok,” said Zakaria Mwatia, MSF’s head of mission in the country.

The Sudanese government has urged humanitarian organizations to scale up responses as the scale of needs grows by the day. Additionally, Sudanese civilians have urgently requested an increase in protections.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report in which they indicated a host of violations of international humanitarian law occurring in Sudan. “The Rapid Support Forces’ abuse of civilians in South Kordofan is emblematic of continuing atrocities across Sudan. These new findings underscore the urgent need for the deployment of a mission to protect civilians in Sudan,” said Jean-Baptiste Gallopin, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa

New Law in Cuba Makes Investing in Renewable Energy Sources Mandatory

Thu, 12/12/2024 - 15:27

Félix Morfis, next to photovoltaic panels installed on his house in Regla municipality, Havana. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños /IPS

By Dariel Pradas
HAVANA, Dec 12 2024 (IPS)

With Decree 110, published on 26 November, Cuba made it mandatory for major consumers, whether they are state or private entities, to invest in the use of renewable energy sources, while the energy crisis facing the country worsens.

According to the decree, state and private economic actors, representations of foreign institutions and associations must guarantee in new investments regarded as “major consumers of energy carriers” that half of the electricity they consume during daylight hours comes from renewable energy sources.

If they cannot install solar panels, due to the infrastructure of their premises, these entities must enter into contracts with the state-owned Unión Eléctrica – the guarantor of the generation, transmission and commercialisation of electricity – and connect to photovoltaic parks.

Breaking these provisions can lead to fines, interruption of electricity service for up to 72 hours and other sanctions.

“The measure reflects a failure in the policy of incentives for investment in renewable energy sources. It may favour the general population, but it doesn’t change the fact that the change in the energy matrix is being imposed with an iron fist,” Daniel López, a self-employed Havana resident, told IPS.

Entities considered major consumers – those that, in the last 12 months, have an average consumption of 30,000 kilowatts (KW) or 50,000 litres of fuel – will have three years to make investments to cover the 50% daytime use requirement.

Reactions on social media immediately followed the news: many internet users celebrated the decree, some were sceptical about its implementation, and a significant number feared for the impact it could have on the private sector.

“Is it viable providing a better service or increasing my production to have to pay more (by investing in solar panels), and not just in taxes? How many businesses are we going to lose because of this decree? Investment in Cuba is increasingly difficult,” commented user Horus in an article on the subject, published in Cubadebate, the most widely read state-run news website in the country.

Indeed, the law could discourage entrepreneurship in mini-industries or productive areas that normally consume a lot of electricity, or even cause businesses to raise the prices of some products and services to recoup investment costs.

Since 2020, this Caribbean island nation with 10 million people has been facing great difficulties in meeting its domestic electricity demand with its production plants.

The instability of the electro-energy system has been so evident that, in less than two months, Cuba has suffered three general power cuts – the latest on Wednesday 4 December – that have left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity for days.

Workers inside a private lathe workshop in Havana’s Patio El Triunfo, whose electricity supply comes from renewable sources. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

In the absence of incentives

The Patio El Triunfo project, located in the capital’s Regla municipality, is an example of a private business that is self-sufficient in renewable energy sources. It has installed photovoltaic panels with a generation of 10 kilowatts (KW), as well as solar heaters and dryers, and a 0.5 KW wind turbine.

This “clean” energy covers the daytime demand of the house and four businesses that are leased on the premises, including an auto mechanic’s workshop and a lathe shop.

Although the workshops have been in existence since 2010, in 2018 the project began the autonomous production of electricity, the surplus of which it sells to Unión Eléctrica.

The leader of the project, Félix Morfis, who is also the Regla representative of Cubasolar, a non-governmental organisation that has been promoting the use of renewable energy sources in Cuba since 1994 to replace polluting ones, criticises the prices of solar panels and the bureaucratic obstacles to accessing credit and buying them.

“It seems that the Cuban government has no interest whatsoever in people putting up solar panels. They advertise it, they hype it a lot, but actually there is nothing in hand,” he told IPS.

In the retail markets of the state-owned company Copextel, a basic one-kW generation module costs 2,551 MLC, the freely convertible currency, which is virtual and whose reference value is the dollar.

The average wage in Cuba is 4,648 pesos, about US$38.7, according to the official exchange rate of 120 pesos to one dollar.

In 2021, the Ministry of Finance and Prices issued Resolution 359,, which set the price for energy – from renewable sources – delivered to the National Electricity System (SEN) by independent producers in the residential sector: 3 pesos per kilowatt hour (kWh), about 0.025 dollars at the official exchange rate.

In October 2023, the same ministry approved Resolution 238, which doubled that amount.

“They are paying us 6 pesos (US$ 0.05) per kWh, but what I spend, they charge me through the normal system. They sell it to me at a high price and pay me cheaply. There is no incentive,” Morfis added.

The “normal system” that Morfis mentions is a progressive tariff that applies to the residential sector, which after exceeding 450 KWh of accumulated consumption, starts to cost more than six pesos per KWh, until it reaches 20 pesos per KWh (about US$ 0.17).

In any case, it is a subsidised price, according to the authorities, so that the cost of paying for electricity through the national electricity system is only marginally lower than importing or buying solar panels in foreign currency. In the end, it is more profitable not to invest in renewable energy sources.

Even so, more and more people are investing in solar panels with batteries, and private businesses that commercialise these devices have multiplied due to recurrent power outages and fuel shortages.

With no new cards in hand, the government imposed investment in renewable energy sources through Decree 110.

“The most difficult thing is how to make it easier for all the companies to pay for these panels,” Néstor Pérez, a member of the Patio El Triunfo project, told IPS.

Basic module for the production of electricity from solar sources, inside a market in Havana, specialised in the sale of equipment for the use of renewable energy sources, belonging to the state-owned company Copextel. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

Overview of renewable energy sources

In addition to decentralised energy generation and reducing the burden on the state, the new decree aims to reduce on imported-fuel dependency.

Since 2019, when the government issued Decree-Law 345 on the “development of renewable sources and the efficient use of energy”, this policy has been a priority.

Cuba aims for renewable energy sources to account for 24% of its energy matrix by 2030.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced on 27 November that more than 2,000 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic energy, equivalent to two million KW, is planned for the next three years.

However, of the 19,825 gigawatt hours (GWh) produced in 2023, 46% came from thermoelectric plants and 12.6% from using thermal energy from oil-fired natural gas, according to data from the National Statistics and Information Office (Onei).

Likewise, 13.8% was produced by gensets, electricity generators interconnected to the system that run on diesel and fuel oil, and 22.7% from the six floating plants contracted to the Turkish company Karpowership.

Only 0.5% came from hydroelectric plants and 1.2% from wind and photovoltaic power.

Categories: Africa

Nobel Peace Prize Forum Breaks Down Nuclear Risks and Solutions

Thu, 12/12/2024 - 12:58

The Nobel Peace Prize Forum with leading experts on global nuclear politics, including three former Nobel laureates, convened to discuss the continued risk of nuclear weapons. Credit: Soka Gakkai mInternational.

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS & OSLO, Dec 12 2024 (IPS)

The existential threat that nuclear weapons present remains as pertinent as ever, even when they have not been deployed in war for nearly 80 years. As some countries seek out nuclear weapons or to upgrade and modernize their existing warheads, global voices in nuclear politics and disarmament warn of the potential risk of a new nuclear arms race amid the weakening of nuclear treaties that prohibit the proliferation and use of nuclear arms.

At this year’s Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Oslo, Norway, leading experts on global nuclear politics, including three former Nobel laureates, convened to discuss the risk of growing nuclear arsenals and what must be done to mitigate these risks. The forum ‘NUKES: How to Counter the Threat’ was hosted on December 11 at University Aula with the support of the city of Oslo, the International Forum for Understanding, and Soka Gakkai International.

The Nobel Institute has awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on 13 occasions to individuals and groups whose work was in service to the argument for the prohibition of nuclear weapons. This was seen up to the present day with Japanese grassroots organization Nihon Hidankyo, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10. When accepting the award, co-chair Terumi Tanaka called for the world to listen to the testimonies of A-bomb survivors and to feel the “deep inhumanity of nuclear weapons.”

The forum began with the testimonies from two Hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Keiko Ogura was eight years old in Hiroshima. She recalled the trauma she carried with her in the aftermath of the bombing, as she saw people die around her, not yet knowing that they were suffering due to radiation. She and other Hibakusha came forward years later to share their experiences and the direct costs of deploying nuclear weapons.

“Before I die, we want to see this planet free of nuclear weapons,” said Ogura. “For us, discounting the number of nuclear weapons is nonsense. A single nuclear weapon means destruction of this world.”

Masao Tomonaga was two years old when Nagasaki was bombed, and his memories of that time are based on his mother’s recollections of that day. He followed in his father’s footsteps to become a doctor, who oversaw Hibakusha care at Nagasaki University and conducted research into the medical consequences of radiation from nuclear fallout. In his own research, Tomonaga found that the stem cells in the survivors’ bodies contained genetic abnormalities due to radiation, which made them vulnerable to leukemia and cancer. As one of the few cells that accumulates and survives across generations, he noted, they also accumulate “genetic errors” that could occur randomly across a lifetime. He hypothesized that the Hibakusha likely held pre-cancerous cells within them.

In the past decade, there have been efforts to reduce the number of nuclear warheads among the countries that held them. Yet in recent years, the attitude has started to shift in the opposite direction. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, remarked that this shift is marked by military nuclear doctrines that were previously respected and are now being questioned or overstepped.

“We are seeing a normalization of discourse of use of nuclear weapons,” Grossi warned, remarking on how these doctrines are being revisited to allow for some concession for the possession and use of nuclear weapons.

In such times, Grossi remarked, world leaders have an “irrevocable responsibility” to make the critical steps forward to nuclear disarmament. “It’s time that we are reminded at the right level of the necessity of this decision at the top, whether we like it or not,” he said. “We hope that this determination of the world leadership to tackle the issue of nuclear weapons, especially in a world so fragmented as the one we have.”

Yet in the debate of nuclear disarmament, countries seem split on their thinking of nuclear weapons. Experts also warned that the more ‘casual’ discussions of nuclear weapons by major parties also demonstrates an undermining of nuclear treaties. Although 191 member states joined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), critics have pointed out that this has not been enforced to the extent that it is intended to, especially among the major players.

Speaking during a panel discussion on the risks of nuclear activity, Manpreet Sethi of the Centre for Air Power Studies in New Delhi, India, reflected on how certain countries—nuclear powers—held different perceptions of the risk of nuclear warfare.

“There is no shared sense of risk like there was during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962,” Sethi said. “Everyone is perceiving risk differently.” Sethi also remarked that countries were pushing the boundaries on the ‘nuclear envelope’—the limits on nuclear deployment, evident in the language used in discussing nuclear arms and proliferation.

The threat of nuclear warfare is also heightened when considering the advances made in technology and the impact of modernization and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. Wilfred Wan, Director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme in SIPRI, noted that disruptive technologies such as AI and automation would only “increase the vulnerabilities in nuclear weapons.” The relative unknown factors that remain with AI would also bring an “aura of instability [and] unpredictability to nuclear weapons.” “The only way to eliminate risk… is to eliminate nuclear weapons,” said Wan.

What are the measures then to mitigate the risks of nuclear arsenals in the present day? For one, dialogue between nuclear states and non-nuclear states is one possible step forward for non-nuclear states to call for nuclear states to cease their activities and work towards reduction. Tong Zhao, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, stated that the Global South is in a position to make these demands, especially as many of these countries are also signatories to the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

Melissa Parke, Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), has said that one step forward would be for all countries, including nuclear powers, to sign the TPNW. The United Nations recently approved a new study on the effects of nuclear warfare for the modern age, a study that would be more comprehensive and update the understanding of nuclear warfare for the 21st century.

“The new UN study will be looking at things like the latest scientific confirmation from the 2022 Nature Food Journal that… even a limited nuclear war would not only kill millions of people outright, but it would cause global climate disruption, massive amounts of soot going into the stratosphere, circling the globe, blocking out sunlight, causing agricultural collapse, and the death by starvation of more than 2 billion people in a nuclear winter,” said Parke.

“I expect the new study will confirm what the Hibakusha have been telling us—have been warning us about. That the risks are real, immediate, and immense. Confronting them now is not a matter of choice but of necessity,” she said. “And that the necessary action is not just no-use but total nuclear disarmament, as that is the only way of eliminating the existential threat of nuclear weapons.”

A concerted, collective effort will be needed to put pressure on nuclear states to move towards non-proliferation and disarmament. That effort can begin on the individual level.

Ogura remarked that the world held a collective responsibility to prohibit nuclear weapons, from world leaders to the youth of the next generation. This could be achieved if the experiences of the Hibakusha and the survivors of nuclear fallout and testing are shared and never forgotten. With a hint of optimism, she said, “We are more than just a single drop.” Water spreads the word—through the ocean, the tide, through the continent. I have a belief—someday we can make it.”

Note: This article is brought to you by IPS Noram in collaboration with INPS Japan and Soka Gakkai International in consultative status with ECOSOC.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa

COP29: Advancing work for Climate Finance and for Climate-Adapted Agri-Food Systems

Thu, 12/12/2024 - 08:12

By David Nabarro
GENEVA, Dec 12 2024 (IPS)

Frustrations over the pace of climate action and the size of the finance target agreed in Baku are valid from the perspective of low-income countries, especially Small-Island Developing States (SIDS). It is also important to recognize that there has been real progress in some countries at the agri-food-nutrition-climate-water-nature-livelihoods intersection, and this seems to be particularly the case in some countries in the Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation (ACF).

David Nabarro

The finance negotiations at COP29: Climate negotiations become harder as the stakes get higher. The focus of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan was on climate finance. The intention was to increase the target for finance to go to developing countries to help them protect their people and economies against climate disasters and invest into clean energy. This would come in the form of a new goal for global climate finance. Negotiating a finance goal was never going to be straightforward. It is challenging for nations to agree an amount that is fair for everyone and, at the same time, politically feasible for those that are asked to provide the cash. The last hours of COP29 in Baku were difficult and many participants felt dissatisfied when they left.

Solid floor on which to build: But the outcome – a new global goal of $1.3 trillion annually by 2035, from public, private and innovative sources, with developed nations committing $300 billion per year – is a real increase on the previous target of $100bn a year. It is a solid floor on which to build. Is the amount big enough? Will it be made available to those who need it soon enough? I cannot say at this stage. Securing a sustainable future for all requires continued goodwill, engagement and collaboration. This is only possible if all concerned ensure the transparent provision, effective delivery and efficient use of promised funds. This will pave the way for greater confidence among donors and further increases in available resources.

Growing momentum on the agri-food-nutrition-climate + intersection: I sensed a greater recognition that those who produce food are affected first, and worst, by climate change, and that the numbers of people at risk of food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition are on the rise with the most affected being women and children. Agri-food systems contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions while, at the same time, having the potential to sequester carbon dioxide. That makes them quite special within climate discussions though – for now – it appears hard to bring them into the negotiations.

What is the basis for this? The contacts I have had with national food systems convenors and climate focal points, during the last two years, suggest that several governments are seeking ways to transform food systems in ways that converge their agri-food systems with climate action. They do this in ways that reflect the aspirations in the COP28 UAE declaration on Sustainable agriculture, Resilient food systems and Climate action endorsed by 160 Heads of Government last year. Some countries have come together in an ambitious Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation. There is backing available through different entities in the UN system, the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub, the Technical Cooperation Collaborative, the COP29 Baku Harmoniya Climate Initiative for Farmers, as well as different elements of a wide ecosystem of support which is constantly inspired by the Climate Champions, regional organizations and more. There is a lot of effort being invested in streamlining and connecting these efforts.

Younger people: In COP29 there was greater engagement of younger people who were systematically welcomed and actively engaged in many events. With their consistent focus on inclusion, governance, and accountability, their participation greatly adds to the ambition and potential impact of the different processes underway.

A will to work together: COP29 was a massive and complex event involving around 60,000 people from nearly 200 countries. I saw how the different groups that were there engaged in constructive ways and I appreciated the contributions of the organizers, volunteers, participants of all ages (especially younger people), governments, local authorities, farmers, advocates, businesses, civil society, media, and others. Despite their different perspectives they engaged in constructive dialogue, all are working for sustainable and just futures. The work on food and agriculture advances well and all those I met in Baku were doing their best to work together harmoniously. Many wanted greater ambition. Some are acutely frustrated because they fear for their future and sense underlying injustice. Not all agree on what to prioritize. But overall, though, I sense remarkable momentum which is paving the way for more substantive action even if the international geopolitical context is very difficult.

Looking ahead: Climate change is an exponential and existential challenge with increasingly severe consequences for many millions of people. The work ahead is immense and increasingly ambitious and innovative actions will be required. The journey ahead requires skilfully chosen investments that foster convergent ways of working: these will be needed more than ever in the years to come. Going further and faster requires everyone to focus on maintaining connections, fostering dialogue, nurturing respect, sharing energy and sustaining trust. The interactions in Baku showed me what might be possible, and I am impatient for more. Our 4SD Foundation will continue to contribute with its focus on sustaining cross-sector, interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder convergence through structured dialogues.

David Nabarro, Strategic Director 4SD Foundation, Geneva

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

Breaking Latin America’s Cycle of Low Growth and Violence

Thu, 12/12/2024 - 07:40

Credit: Syldavia/iStock by Getty Images via IMF

By Ilan Goldfajn and Rodrigo Valdés
WASHINGTON DC, Dec 12 2024 (IPS)

Violent crime and insecurity have a disproportionate impact on Latin America and the Caribbean, with severe consequences for socioeconomic development.

Despite representing just 8% of the world’s population, the region accounts for nearly one-third of global homicides. This as well as other alarming statistics highlight the urgent need for comprehensive strategies to address the far-reaching effects of crime and violence.

New research by the IDB and IMF highlights how crime, insecurity and low growth reinforce each other in a vicious cycle that stifles investment, reduces tourism, and accelerates emigration.

Macroeconomic instability—recessions, inflation spikes, and rising inequality—is associated with increased violence. Easily available firearms and organized crime amplify these effects, undermining institutions and the rule of law.

Quantifying the Costs of Crime

A recent IDB paper quantifies the direct losses, estimating that crime and violence cost the region 3.4 percent of GDP annually. These costs stem from productivity losses due to lives lost, injuries, and imprisonment; private-sector expenditures on security; and public spending on police, justice, and prisons.

This is equivalent to 80 percent of the region’s public education budgets and double its social assistance spending. But the impact of crime doesn’t end there. It discourages investment, reduces tourism, and drives emigration, further weakening economic resilience and constraining the region’s future growth.

IMF research reveals that crime hampers innovation and reduces firm productivity, compounding economic stagnation over time. Leveraging geo-localized data on nightlights, the study finds that halving homicide rates in violent municipalities could increase their economic output by up to 30 percent.

At the regional level, as shown in last year’s IMF research, reducing homicide rates to the global average could boost Latin America and the Caribbean’s annual GDP growth by 0.5 percentage points.

Conversely, macroeconomic instability often fuels spikes in violence: a recession in LAC is associated with a 6 percent increase in homicides the following year, while inflation spikes above 10 percent are linked to a 10 percent rise in homicides the year after. Growing inequality further exacerbates the link between economic stagnation and crime.

How can policymakers help break the cycle?

Breaking this vicious circle requires a deeper understanding of its root causes and impacts. Rigorous research and better data are essential for designing public policies that effectively reduce crime. Institutions like the IDB and IMF can generate evidence, monitor crime dynamics, advise member countries, and facilitate discussions.

As the topic has become macro critical in the region, the institutions brought together experts and policymakers in a joint conference a few weeks back.

First, sound economic policy plays a preventive role. Stability, low inflation, robust social safety nets, and opportunities that reduce inequality and expand access to education and employment are critical to breaking the cycle of violence and stagnation.

Financial authorities are also uniquely positioned to weaken criminal networks by addressing illicit markets, curtailing financial flows, and tackling money laundering—cutting off resources that sustain organized crime.

Second, because the impact of crime extends far beyond direct economic costs, economic policymakers must adopt a broader role by targeting high-risk groups, improving crime monitoring, and enhancing interagency coordination.

Effective interventions can deliver transformative results. With IMF support, Jamaica implemented reforms that protected public investment and social spending while successfully halving debt between 2012 and 2022. Community-based interventions supported by the IDB reduced gang violence in 68% of affected neighborhoods.

In Rosario province, Argentina implemented a comprehensive strategy to combat crime, including territorial control of high-risk neighborhoods by the Federal Police, stricter prison systems for high-profile offenders, and collective prosecution of criminal groups under new legislation like the anti-mafia law.

These efforts, alongside progress on a juvenile penal code to deter drug traffickers from recruiting minors, have led to 65% reduction homicides in 11 months. In Honduras, strategic security reforms contributed to a 14% decline in the homicide rate and an 8% increase in public confidence in law enforcement.

Policymakers must prioritize using resources effectively, given the scope of the challenge. Public spending on security in the region is already high—around 1.9 percent of GDP, or 7.4 percent of total public expenditure—and may be even greater where the military and subnational governments are involved.

Finance ministers and fiscal authorities need a full understanding of these costs, covering police, courts, prisons, and related institutions, to ensure funds are allocated efficiently to areas with the highest impact. They also need to monitor them in the same way they surveil other large spending tickets, evaluating their impact and pressing for results.

Transnational Crime Demands Regional Cooperation

Tackling crime solely at the national level isn’t sufficient. Criminal groups operate across borders, making isolated responses ineffective and fragmented. To address this shared challenge, countries must collaborate more closely to develop stronger, more coordinated solutions.

Recognizing the transnational nature of crime, the IDB’s Alliance for Security, Justice, and Development seeks to unite governments, civil society, and private-sector actors. This alliance not only aims to strengthen institutions and enhance cooperation but also supports public policies and mobilizes resources to implement evidence-based solutions that effectively combat organized crime and violence.

Regional collaboration is crucial for disrupting the sophisticated, interconnected networks of organized crime that undermine the rule of law and economic stability. By fostering unified efforts, institutions like the IMF and IDB alongside governments and civil society, have a critical role to play in this effort.

With people’s lives on the line, the true impact of these efforts must be felt on the ground—by creating safer streets, restoring hope in communities, and offering individuals a real chance to thrive economically in a future free from violence.

Ilan Goldfajn was elected president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on November 20, 2022, and took office on December 19, 2022. He previously served as director of the Western Hemisphere Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2022, where he supported countries in implementing IMF programs and contributed to climate change policy dialogue. Earlier, he was an economist at the IMF from 1996 to 1999.

Rodrigo Valdés, a national of Chile, is director of the Western Hemisphere Department since May 2023. Prior to this, Rodrigo was a professor of economics in the School of Government at the Catholic University of Chile. He also held the position of Chile’s Minister of Finance from 2015 to 2017. At the IMF, he also was a deputy director of the IMF European and WHD departments.

Source: IMF Blog

IPS UN Bureau

Categories: Africa

When Ousted Leaders Seek Safe Havens to Escape Jail Time & Hangman’s Noose..

Thu, 12/12/2024 - 07:23

View of Aleppo, December 2024, a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous governorate of Syria. Credit: UN OCHA

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 12 2024 (IPS)

When some of the leaders in the Middle East and Asia are dethroned and driven into exile, the cynics jokingly ask: Is he politically dead or is he dead and buried?

The distinction between the two seems significant because the fluctuating political fortunes of some leaders– and their will to survive against heavy odds– have always defied Western logic.

In a bygone era, two of the authoritarian Middle Eastern leaders —Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammar el-Gaddafi—were hunted down before being executed.

Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of crimes against humanity by an Iraqi Special Tribunal while Gaddafi was severely beaten up by rebel forces before being shot to death.

Still, some Arab rulers who were deposed but survived included Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia in 2011, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 2011, and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen in 2012.

But there was one rare exception—in Asia.

Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was driven into exile—first, seeking refuge in the Maldives, then in Singapore and finally in Thailand. When he ran out of safe havens, or so the story goes, he returned to his home country –but not to his lost presidency.

In Asia, there were several other political leaders who were ousted from power and went into exile, including Nawaz Sharif, Pervez Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, Yingluck Shinawatra of Thailand and most recently Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh.

When the Taliban captured power back in 1996, one of its first political acts was to hang the Afghan President Mohammed Najibullah in Ariana Square in Kabul.

And, when it assumed power a second time, it ousted the US-backed government of Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank official, armed with a doctorate in anthropology from one of the most prestigious Ivy League educational institutions in the US: Columbia University.

In a Facebook posting, Ghani said he fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seeking safe haven because he “was going to be hanged” by the Taliban.

If that did happen, the Taliban would have earned the dubious distinction of being the only government in the world to hang two presidents. But mercifully, it did not.

Last week, as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad lost his battle for survival against a 14-year-old civil war in his country, he went into exile in Russia, one of his strongest political and military allies.

At a press conference December 10, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said: “We saw (in Syria) a regime driven from power following decades of brutal repression, and after nearly 14 years of relentless conflict.”

Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost during this time, more than 100,000 people disappeared, and some 14 million were driven from their homes, often in the most atrocious circumstances, he said.

“I’ve met many of them over the years, witnessed their despair and trauma as they bore testimony to the most serious human rights violations committed against them, including torture and the use of chemical weapons,” declared Turk.

But Assad, now under Russian protection, is not expected to pay for any of his crimes against humanity.

Recounting his personal experience, Dr James E. Jennings, President of Conscience International and Executive Director of US Academics for Peace, told IPS: “I met Bashar al-Assad only once, at his grand palace in Damascus before the war, as head of a delegation of US Academics for Peace. We thought that young Bashar, Western educated and impeccably mannered, might lead Syria away from his father’s cruel repression.”

Assad, like Israel’s Netanyahu, already under indictment by the ICC, is responsible for the conduct of the war and could reasonably be tried for crimes against humanity. That would certainly serve the interests of justice, and might help restrain some of the last half-century of unending bloodshed across the Middle East, he pointed out.

But the reality is that international institutions, largely invented after WW II, have very little capability to implement judgments even if an individual is found guilty. Under the prevailing system of national governments, there is a certain amount of impunity for the head of a government acting for “reasons of state,” said Dr Jennings.

The rebels have no such protection until they become a government. The coalition from Idlib now in control in Damascus is headed by Islamists. At this point, by no stretch of imagination can the Ba’ath Party and Assad himself regain power. Russia, where Assad has fled for refuge, is unlikely to surrender him in any case, he said.

Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and Director of Middle Eastern Studies, University of San Francisco, told IPS it would certainly appear that Assad and other top Syrian officials would be liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Part of the delay, he said, has been the difficulty in accessing the necessary evidence, but that should be a lot easier now.

“There were hardly any real battles in those final days. Without Hezbollah ground support or Russian air support, Assad had to rely on unwilling conscripts who were not ready to fight and die to keep him in power”.

This was not a military defeat. It was a political collapse. A government is only as strong as its people’s willingness to recognize its legitimacy, said Zunes.

Asked whether Assad should be held accountable for his crimes, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “I think the violations of human rights in Syria have been well documented by various independent commissions. Anyone involved in the commissioning of these violations needs to be held to account, without a doubt.”

In a statement released December 10, Human Rights Watch said: Assad’s government committed countless atrocities, crimes against humanity, and other abuses during his 24-year presidency.

These include widespread and systematic arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances and deaths in detention, use of chemical weapons, starvation as a weapon of war, and indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against civilians and civilian objects. 

Non-state armed groups operating in Syria, including Hay’et Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and factions of the Syrian National Army that launched the offensive on November 27, are also responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes.

Lama Fakih, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch said: “The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government offers Syrians an unprecedented opportunity to chart a new future built on justice, accountability, and respect for human rights.”

For Syrians scattered across the globe, the dream of accountability for years of crimes and brutality is closer to becoming a reality. Whoever emerges as Syria’s new leadership should make a full and determined break from the repression and impunity of the past and establish a system that respects the human rights and dignity of all Syrians regardless of background or political views, Fakih said

“They should swiftly move to preserve and protect evidence of crimes and abuses by the former government and ensure fair, impartial justice going forward. Armed opposition groups should send a strong and unequivocal message to factions and fighters that unlawful attacks, including those targeting individuals based on perceived ties to the former government, will not be tolerated.

They should commit to ensuring the humane treatment of all individuals, including former government officials and soldiers, affiliated fighters, and loyalists.”

Elaborating further, Dr Jennings said the accusations against Assad are well-deserved, but the rebels are also to blame. Where were all the cries of outrage when the war in Syria was taking its long and incredibly bloody toll month after month, year after year, for almost 14 years?

Where and when will the proxy governments that supplied arms, money, and fighters for this hellish war be held to account? Should not the sponsors of the war be charged with war crimes too? he asked.

“Who funded the war? Russia, Turkey, and Iran. Who has been bombing sites in Syria with impunity for years? The US and Israel. Who is burdened with endless, hopeless tides of refugees? Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Jordan, and the European Union. Why have they not done more to assist the IDPs and refugees, of which there were a combined 13.2 million?”

One answer is that since it was a proxy war to begin with, with many countries and interests playing out on the battlefield, none of the participants really wanted it to end—or at least were content to let it continue, he argued.

“That Bashar ordered–or allowed—the campaign of repression against the protestors in 2011—a part of the “Arab Spring” protests at the beginning of the war, was in itself unforgivable. Killing and torturing young people for writing graffiti, imprisoning people by the thousands and throwing away the key is so inhumane that it cannot be whitewashed, and scarcely imagined”.

To borrow a phrase from earlier Middle Eastern diplomacy, Assad “Never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Repeatedly in the past 25 years he was urged to change course, to envision a different outcome than simply clinging to power for its own sake. He could not do it—or he chose not to—which amounts to the same thing, declared Dr Jennings.

IPS UN Bureau Report

Categories: Africa

It’s the Greed, Stupid!

Wed, 12/11/2024 - 19:28

Human activity has degraded over 70% of Earth’s land, with 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil lost annually. It takes up to 1,000 years to produce just 2-3 cm of soil. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

By Baher Kamal
MADRID, Dec 11 2024 (IPS)

The available data is self-explanatory: business-prompted human activities have already altered over 70% of the Earth’s lands, with 24 billion tonnes of fertile soil lost due to industrial agriculture, the excessive use of chemicals, overgrazing, deforestation, pollution and other major threats.

Human-caused extreme weather events, such as heavy rains followed by drought, accelerate soil degradation, while deforestation and overgrazing reduce soil quality by compacting it and depleting essential nutrients.

Much so that the United Nations system has identified that more than 40% of all fertile soils are already degraded.

This consequence is alarming enough if you learn that “it can take up to 1.000 years to produce just 2-3 cm of soil,” as explained by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and other specialised bodies like the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The case of Africa

In the specific case of Africa, which is home to 1.3 billion people, this vast continent is responsable for barely 2-3% of global warming, yet falls prey to over 80% of its devastating consequences.

Add to this that African fertile soils are highly ambitioned by the international commercial business of massive food production and trade, which are generated through land grabbing, which leads to loss of fertility and water scarcity.

Consequently, Africa is usually associated with severe droughts, land degradation, hunger and famine, let alone the exploitation of its mineral resources, and dozens of armed conflicts.

The five major threats:

According to the UN, these are the five biggest causes and effects of the human-made disastrous situation:

1. Drought

Over one-third of the world’s population lives in water-scarce regions, according to the UNCCD’s Global Land Outlook report.

As land degrades, soil loses its ability to retain water, leading to vegetation loss and creating a vicious cycle of drought and erosion.

“This issue, exacerbated by climate change, is particularly severe in Sub-Saharan Africa, contributing to food insecurity and famine.”

Add to this that African fertile soils are highly ambitioned by the international commercial business of massive food production and trade, generated through land grabbing.

2. Land degradation

Human activity has altered more than 70% of the Earth’s land, causing widespread degradation of forests, peatlands, and grasslands to name a few ecosystems. This diminishes soil fertility, reduces crop yields and threatens food security.

3. Industrial farming

While industrial farming produces large volumes of food, it significantly harms soil health.

The use of heavy machinery, tilling, monocropping, and excessive pesticide and fertilizer use degrades soil quality, pollutes water sources and contributes to biodiversity loss.

Industrial agriculture also accounts for about 22% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

4. Chemicals and pollution

Soil pollution, often invisible, harms plant, animal and human health. Industrial processes, mining, poor waste management and unsustainable farming practices introduce chemicals, like synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and heavy metals, into the soil.

Excessive fertilizer use disrupts nutrient balance, while pesticides harm beneficial soil organisms, like earthworms and fungi. Heavy metals, like lead and mercury, accumulate in the soil, interfering with microbial activity and plant nutrient uptake.

5. Diet and nutrition

The world’s current diet and nutritional choices significantly affect soil health through the agricultural practices used to produce food. Diets reliant on staple crops, like wheat, corn and rice, often promote intensive monoculture farming.

This practice depletes soil nutrients, reduces organic matter, and leads to compaction and erosion.

Similarly, diets high in animal products, particularly beef, increase land use for grazing and feed crops. Overgrazing by livestock exacerbates soil compaction and erosion.

With these facts in hand, no wonder that the UN declared the years 2021 through 2030  the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

Any way out?

There are too many factors to justify the pressing need to act.

“Our planet’s survival depends on the precious link with soil. Over 95 percent of our food comes from soils. Besides, they supply 15 of the 18 naturally occurring chemical elements essential to plants,” the UN reminds.

The world body also reminds that there are solutions through feasible sustainable soil management practices, such as minimum tillage, crop rotation, organic matter addition, and cover cropping, improve soil health, reduce erosion and pollution, and enhance water infiltration and storage.

These practices also preserve soil biodiversity, improve fertility, and contribute to carbon sequestration, playing a crucial role in the fight against climate change.

Up to 58% more food could be produced through sustainable soil management, the UN unveils, and warns that agricultural production will have to increase by 60% to meet the global food demand in 2050.

The obscene greed…

Despite all the above, and no matter how many summits are held, greed standing behind such depletion remains unaltered.

In fact, giant industrial corporations – mostly originating in Western countries – seem to have no limits in their practices of making more and more profits, at any cost, including poisoning human, fauna and flora, in short, the whole natural system.

Much so that “big business’ windfall profits rocket to “obscene” $1 trillion a year amid cost-of-living crisis,” according to Oxfam, a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice, and ActionAid, a global federation working for a world free from poverty and injustice.

“722 mega-corporations raked in $1 trillion a year in windfall profits each year for the past two years amid soaring prices and interest rates, while billions of people are having to cut back or go hungry,” unveil the two big civil society coalitions.

Only business matters?

A small tax on just seven of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies could grow the UN Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage by more than 2000%, as shown in an analysis by environmental organisations Greenpeace International and Stamp Out Poverty.

“Taxing ExxonMobil’s 2023 extraction could pay for half the cost of Hurricane Beryl, which ravaged large parts of the Caribbean, Mexico and the USA…

… Taxing Shell’s 2023 extraction could cover much of Typhoon Carina’s damages, one of the worst that the Philippines experienced this year. Taxing TotalEnergies’ 2023 extraction could cover over 30 times Kenya’s 2024 floods.”

What appears to matter most is that the business of global trade is poised to hit a record 33 trillion USD in 2024, marking a 1 trillion USD increase over 2023, according to the UN trade and development body (UNCTAD)’s Global Trade Update.

Categories: Africa

Once Scattered by Colonialism, Today United in Urgent Pursuit of Climate Justice

Wed, 12/11/2024 - 19:10

Ramatoulaye Ba Faye, ambassador of Senegal in the Netherlands, gives testimony at the ICJ. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

By Joyce Chimbi
THE HAGUE & NAIROBI, Dec 11 2024 (IPS)

The Seychelles consider the ongoing public hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) both timely and critical “for the people of the small island developing state in the middle of the Indian Ocean,” Flavien Joubert, Minister for Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment of the Seychelles, told the court today.

With a population of only 100,000, a territory that is 99.99 percent ocean and 0.01 percent land. Seychelles was first settled by French colonists and African slaves in the 18th century.

“We are today a proud Creole people, with big aspirations gathered from the five corners of this earth We are considered one of the most successful examples of racial integration, living in one of the most exotic spots in the world, with majestic mountains, green forests, pristine beaches, and a clear blue sea. But we face special vulnerabilities to climate change.”

Joubert made Seychelle’s submissions at the ongoing ICJ public hearings, where climate-vulnerable nations continue to make statements to demonstrate violations of the right to self-determination, human rights and historical polluter States’ legal responsibilities. The public hearings started on December 2, 2024 and will conclude on Friday, December 13.

Unjust, Unfair Consequences of Massive Emissions—Seychelles

He spoke of what was at stake in the Seychelles, home to 115 islands and two UNESCO World Heritage sites. He said the small island state was significantly impacted by the consequences of the massive anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, despite contributing less than 0.003 percent of the world’s cumulative emissions.

“This is unfair. This is unjust. We ask the Court to consider that the loss of ecosystems within the multiple island states scattered throughout our oceans will irreversibly and negatively impact the entire world’s ecosystem. Seychelles expects that this Court’s advisory opinion will ensure that states are reminded of their obligations and are held accountable for their actions and their inactions,” Joubert said.

“We pray the court to duly confirm that, as already clarified by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in relation to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), States have a legal obligation to take urgent action to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This is essential for the very survival of small island states like the Seychelles.”

Precautionary Principal Crucial—Senegal

In her submissions today, Ramatoulaye Ba Faye, ambassador of Senegal in the Netherlands, highlighted the precautionary principle that enables decision-makers to adopt precautionary measures when scientific evidence about an environmental or human health hazard is uncertain and the stakes are high.

“It may then lead states to not delay the adoption of measures to mitigate serious or irreversible damage to the environment,” she said, adding that the “principle is upgraded into a legally binding obligation incumbent on all states in a number of international conventions.”

Faye raised concerns that in some international courtrooms, the precautionary principle had not always been seen as a legal obligation.

“However, we feel the scope and urgency of the climate threat should help us overcome this reluctance. We feel we are indeed faced with a textbook example of a need to change the law to adapt to new circumstances fraught with danger.”

Marwan A. M. Khier, Chargé d’affaires, Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan in the Netherlands, told the ICJ that Sudan is among the nations most severely affected by the adverse consequences of climate change. The country had experienced several natural disasters, including unprecedented floods and torrential rains that have caused imminent damage to livelihoods, infrastructure, and lives.

“Date crops vital for local subsistence have been destroyed,” Khier said. He elaborated on the impact on the Nile, Red Sea, and Qasr which had been devastated by unusual flooding, turning parts of these regions into disaster zones with significant loss of lives and livelihoods.

“Furthermore, rising temperatures, droughts, land degradation, and water scarcity have worsened food shortages and forced widespread displacement,” Khier said.

Conflict Driven By Climate Change—Sudan

Stressing that the Darfur crisis in Sudan, which began in 2003, is closely linked to climate change. Prolonged droughts and reduced rainfall have made access to water and arable land increasingly scarce, leading to conflicts among communities competing for limited resources. The resulting food and income shortage has aggravated tensions, exacerbating the conflict. Many people have been forced to leave their homes and endure challenging conditions in camps.

“Aligning with the voice of the African continent and the least developed countries, Sudan calls for the urgent and effective implementation of the Paris Agreement. However, ongoing economic and political sanctions that restrict access to bilateral climate finance—a critical source of funding for climate action in developing nations—have left Sudan increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Despite these challenges, Sudan remains actively engaged in global, regional and national efforts to fight climate change,” Khier emphasised.

He said Sudan holds great hope for the success of the Paris Agreement despite the significant challenges it faces and called for the necessary financial support to implement national climate-related projects. Moreover, Sudan has urged developed nations to fulfill their financial commitments and transfer technologies to enhance international cooperation in addressing climate change, particularly for the most vulnerable countries.

“My country co-sponsored General Assembly Resolution No. 77-276 and supported the request for the advisory opinion that led to these proceedings. We believe that the court’s opinion could significantly contribute to the legal perspective on addressing the global issue of climate change,” Khier said.

Cristelle Pratt, Assistant Secretary-General for Environment and Climate Action for the Organization of African Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), stressed in a statement that ongoing public hearings should be considered a landmark, as presentations from its members representing some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries across African, Caribbean and Pacific regions painted a picture of climate catastrophe and the violation of international laws.

Pratt lauded OACPS members, noting they were relatively new states and with many sharing “colonial histories with the major historical polluters.”

She continued that it was the first time for many to appear before the ICJ to advocate for their rights, with some members making very compelling arguments that this fight for climate justice was a fight “once again for their self-determination.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

Excerpt:

Conflict and climate change are closely linked, the International Court of Justice heard. The Darfur crisis in Sudan is one such conflict where prolonged droughts and reduced rainfall have made access to water and arable land increasingly scarce, leading to friction between communities competing for limited resources.

Categories: Africa

Nature Can Help Africa Make the Most of COP29 Outcomes

Wed, 12/11/2024 - 14:52

Africa can leapfrog to clean energy, reducing emissions while expanding access to affordable electricity. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Ademola Ajagbe
NAIROBI, Dec 11 2024 (IPS)

Despite mixed reactions to the outcomes of COP29, Africa has the opportunity to take the lead in harnessing nature to tackle the effects of climate change and secure a resilient future.

As countries craft climate plans for tapping into the secured goal of US$300 billion in carbon finance annually by 2035, nature has to be at the core. Integrating nature-based solutions into national climate strategies will ensure that ecosystems thrive while contributing to economic and social resilience.

Reforestation, restoration of coastal wetlands and mangroves, coral reef protection, clean energy generation and regenerative farming are all pathways for enhancing climate resilience while bolstering food security, water availability, and economic development

This benefits nature and communities, in the continent, and the rest of the world. With its vast natural wealth, the growing appreciation of the intersection of climate change, biodiversity loss, and development grants the continent the mantle.

Nature has the potential to contribute about a third of the cost-effective climate solutions needed to deliver global climate goals.

This will enable the continent that is currently among the most vulnerable to effects of climate change to effectively tackle impacts of climate change and enhance resilience.

From prolonged droughts in the Horn of Africa to catastrophic flooding in Southern Africa, communities are on the frontlines of climate disaster yet often depend on healthy ecosystems for their livelihoods and well-being.

Nature-based solutions can bridge the gap between conserving biodiversity and delivering climate goals. Reforestation, restoration of coastal wetlands and mangroves, coral reef protection, clean energy generation and regenerative farming are all pathways for enhancing climate resilience while bolstering food security, water availability, and economic development.

Africa can leapfrog to clean energy, for instance, reducing emissions while expanding access to affordable electricity. While parts of the continent rely on fossil fuel revenues, the economic and environmental benefits of accelerating adoption of renewables are clear.

It is laudable that several African countries have signed to the goal of tripling renewable energy by 2030, as part of their national climate commitments.

For African nations, financing remains one of the biggest hurdles for scaling these climate actions. Closing the finance gap is essential if we are to attain the ambitious climate targets for substantial allocations to nature-positive projects and developing sustainable infrastructure.

African countries can leverage innovative financial instruments, such as green bonds and blended finance models, to unlock private sector investment in nature-based solutions. By doing so, we can drive economic growth while protecting our natural heritage.

Ademola Ajagbe, Regional Managing Director, Africa at The Nature Conservancy.

Carbon markets present a significant opportunity. Without protecting and restoring nature at scale, it is impossible to meet global climate goals.

These natural assets store carbon, provide livelihoods for millions of people, and can channel revenue from global markets into local conservation and development initiatives.

Natural climate solutions, like reforestation, stopping deforestation, and improving management of grasslands, constitute almost 50 per cent of today’s supply of carbon credits, with much room for growth.

The newly secured consensus at COP29 is expected to fully unleash the financial and nature-positive power of well-regulated carbon markets by protecting Africa’s carbon-rich ecosystems.

There is a clear path forward for others to emulate from pioneering efforts like Gabon’s innovative financial transaction, in the form of a blue bond to refinance US$500 million of its national debt and generate up to US$163 million in new funding for ocean conservation.

The continent has the opportunity to make nature a foundational pillar in all climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. Investments in ecosystem restoration and sustainable land use can help safeguard rural communities from extreme weather events, reduce the risks of climate-induced displacement, and protect vital ecosystems that underpin Africa’s economy.

Fundamentally, the goal must be promoting evidence-based solutions that solve real climate challenges while reducing emissions, supporting local organizations and grassroots advocacy, and raising local awareness to create better understanding of sustainability practices.

The future of Africa’s development is tied to how its natural resources are managed in the face of climate change. Given its abundant natural resources, Africa requires the necessary investments in its energy sector easily serving as a template for successful clean energy.

The continent holds the solutions the world needs, from rich biodiversity to vast renewable energy potential. It is time to harness these strengths, ensuring that nature is at the heart of climate strategies. By doing so, we can secure a future where Africa not only survives but thrives.

The writer is the Regional Managing Director, Africa at The Nature Conservancy.

Categories: Africa

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