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Credit: UNAMA. UN Missions.org

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 23 2022 (IPS)

The widening political crisis in Ukraine, which has taken a turn for the worse with the declaration of two new independent states—the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic — is likely to prove once again the ineffectiveness of the 15-member UN Security Council (UNSC).

The UN’s most powerful political body, whose primary mandate is the maintenance of international peace and security, has remained paralyzed because of the threat of a double veto by Russia and its new found ally China against any possible sanctions or resolutions condemning Russia for an attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity – and a resulting violation of the UN charter.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who abruptly cut short an overseas trip, declared: “Let me be clear: the decision of the Russian Federation to recognize the so-called “independence” of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.”

“Our world is facing the biggest global peace and security crisis in recent years – certainly in my tenure as Secretary-General. The principles of the UN Charter are not an a la carte menu. They cannot be applied selectively”.

He said the UN’s 193 Member States have “accepted them all and they must apply them all”.

“I am also concerned about the perversion of the concept of peacekeeping,” he said, criticizing the Russians, who claimed that any troop movements in and around Ukraine were meant for purposes of “peacekeeping.”

Andreas Bummel, Executive Director, Democracy Without Borders, told IPS the Russian invasion of Donetsk and Luhansk is a blatant military aggression and a clear violation of the UN Charter.

President Putin, he pointed out, has put into question the existence of Ukraine as an independent state. “Russia’s actions obviously represent a breach of international peace and security which must trigger international sanctions.”

It is not acceptable, he argued, that Russia can use its veto right in the Security Council to stop an effective response of the UN or even a condemnation. As Russia is acting only in its own interest, the use of the veto in this case is a misuse of this privilege, he noted.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague should be called upon to examine whether such a
misuse can be reconciled with the UN Charter, said Bummel.

“In addition, given the Security Council’s impotence in this situation, the UN General Assembly needs to assume its subsidiary competence as the UN’s highest body”.

Under the principle of “Uniting for Peace”, he pointed out, an emergency meeting of the General Assembly should be held that overrules a Russian veto in the Security Council and which mandates sanctions or other measures it deems necessary.

Speaking from the White House, US President Joe Biden condemned President Putin for his aggression against Ukraine, saying that Russian action is “a flagrant violation of international law and demands a firm response from the international community.

The US imposed a set of new sanctions—particularly against Russian oligarchies, their families and Russian banks.

“Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors? Biden asked.

Putin, in an address to the nation, claimed that all of Ukraine was “created by Russia” and described the country’s pro-Western government as a threat to Russia.

James Paul, former Executive Director the New York based Global Policy Forum and author of “Of Foxes and Chickens”—Oligarchy and Global Power in the UN Security Council” told IPS the veto power certainly tends to freeze Security Council action whenever the core interests of the five Permanent Members are in conflict.

“This has always been a deep problem of the Council and prevented it from being effective, not only when vetoes are cast but also when they lurk in the background and sabotage action”.

In the case of Ukraine, he argued, the problem is not just in the present moment of high danger but in the whole long build-up that has centered on the post-Soviet security architecture in Europe and the eastward expansion of NATO.

In theory, he pointed out, this might have been managed by the Council and a security system for Europe built that would have included Russia. “Instead, we saw a whole series of moves by the United States that the Russians saw, not unreasonably, as threatening”.

Activities in the Council and veto-use have exacerbated US-Russian hostility rather than easing it, said Paul, a prominent figure in the NGO advocacy community at the United Nations and a well-known speaker and writer on the UN and global policy issues.

Meanwhile, the UNSC has remained politically impotent because the veto powers of the big five, namely the US, UK, Russia, China and France (P5), have always been a major obstacle in resolving some of the world’s ongoing military conflicts and civil wars – whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya or Yemen.

Asked about the deadlock and the potential veto by Russia, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said: “We get things done by engaging every single day with other countries, because sometimes the veto power isn’t as powerful as you might think when other countries are unified in expressing their concerns”

Mandeep S. Tiwana, Chief Programmes Officer at CIVICUS, a global alliance of over 9,00 civil society organisations in more than 175 countries, told IPS the veto power of the permanent members of the Security Council has been a major impediment to saving future generations from the scourge of war as promised in the UN Charter.

Selective invocation of outrage by the P5 over military aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity is a major impediment to achieving peace in our times. Civil Society groups, he said, have lobbied hard for many years to get the P5 to voluntarily give up their arbitrary veto powers to no avail.

Ironically, the P5 who are supposed to maintain international peace and security continue to be major producers and proliferators of weapons of war which fuel major conflicts, he declared.

Elaborating further, Paul said the Council has been a wrestling ring, a stage for enacting battles and for staging arguments to win over public opinion and media coverage.

The US has been able to count on the UK and France much of the time and whip many elected members of the Council into line as part of this drama.

“So, what we see today is a Council that is (as so often in the past) sidelined while other initiatives like the Franco-German effort take place beyond the UN. We see Germany acting more robustly than in the past, as the most powerful European state. The Europeans can’t use the Council, so they are using other means”.

“The veto is and always has been the Council’s political disease”, declared Paul.

In the 76-year history of the UN, the US has exercised an estimated 82 vetoes, and USSR 91, and its successor state, the Russian Federation about 28 vetoes.

US Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield, speaking at a Security Council Emergency Meeting on Ukraine, told delegates, that President Putin asserted that Russia today has a rightful claim to all territories – all territories – from the Russian Empire; the same Russian Empire from before the Soviet Union, from over 100 years ago.

“That includes all of Ukraine. It includes Finland. It includes Belarus and Georgia and Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. It includes parts of Poland and Turkey,” she said.

In essence, Putin wants the world to travel back in time. To a time before the United Nations. To a time when empires ruled the world. But the rest of the world has moved forward. It is not 1919. It is 2022, she added.

“The United Nations was founded on the principle of decolonization, not recolonization. And we believe the vast majority of UN Member States and the UN Security Council are committed to moving forward – not going back in time”.

“We must all stand with Ukraine in the face of this brazen attempt to usurp Ukraine’s sovereign territory. There can be no fence-sitters in this crisis,” she declared.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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A Kenyan proposal hopes to cut the airplay time for foreign music to allow local artists to thrive.

‘My fellow Russians’: Vladimir Putin makes his case to the Russian people. Credit: The Kremlin, Moscow.

By External Source
BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom, Feb 22 2022 (IPS)

Vladimir Putin’s recognition of the independence of the two breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk followed a surreal live broadcast of a security council meeting in the Kremlin. Sitting facing the 13-member council, Putin cajoled and argued as, one by one, his most senior officials – including Dmitry Medvedev, a former president and prime minister, and the country’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov – took to the lectern to provide their boss with “reasons” for the formal recognition of the two republics in the country’s east as independent states.

He followed this decision by authorising Russian troops to cross into the republics in a “peacekeeping” capacity. It was also reported that the recognition treaties give Russia the right to establish military camps there.

Blaming the decision entirely on Ukraine and those governments in the west – above all the United States – which “control” Ukraine, Putin questioned more than once the very legitimacy of the existence Ukraine as a nation-state. He put forward an argument that was very similar in language to an essay he published on the Kremlin’s website in July 2021, On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.

Putin portrayed recognition as a decisive step by a true “great power” asserting its interests and protecting vulnerable “kin” communities. But the gambit raises more questions than it answers. The most obvious among them is whether this is the end of the current crisis, or at least the beginning of the end of it.

An optimistic reading would be that the recognition offers a way out for everyone. Putin saves face by humiliating Ukraine and the west but avoids full-scale war and the human and economic costs that would impose on Russia.

If you take this at face value – that Putin is only interested in protecting the rights of the two pro-Russian republics – then accepting recognition would spare Ukraine a major military confrontation with Russia. It would also mean that Kyiv would avoid the domestic political difficulties and socio-economic costs that an implementation of the deeply unpopular 2015 Minsk agreement would mean for the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi and his government.

 

Open wounds: the two breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. Dmitriy Samorodinov via Shutterstock

As in Georgia after the invasion of 2008 – and with Crimea after its annexation by Russia in 2014 – recognition could lead to a gradual stabilisation in the regions. Neither side has to argue about the implementation of the Minsk agreement anymore. The deadlock that had been reached in this process would no longer constitute a source of tension and mutual recrimination.

But this is a very optimistic assumption. It would be a mistaken reading of perhaps the most dangerous moment of European and global security since the end of the cold war.

No matter how desperately one might long for a silver lining in the current situation, the fact remains that Russia’s recognition of the two breakaway republics is yet another major violation of international law. Western sanctions are now being introduced and may include full and most punitive measures. Previous disagreements between the EU, US and UK on the scale of sanctions seem to have been overcome.

Russian actions have, if anything, strengthened western resolve, as is clear from the immediate responses from countries like the UK and Germany, which has announced it won’t certify Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

 

Dangerous new beginning?

The current crisis is about more than the status of “certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions”, as the territories are referred to in the Minsk agreement. It does not resolve the broader tensions between Russia and the west over the future European security order.

It is obvious that Putin has become convinced that the continuing status of Donetsk and Luhansk as de facto states within Ukraine – and thus as an instrument of leverage over Ukraine and, by extension, over its western partners – had ceased to serve Russia’s purposes. But his hour-long televised speech has given little cause for optimism that their recognition has put an end to the “Ukrainian issue”.

Significantly, Putin’s speech focused much more on the wider problems of Russian-Ukrainian relations than the problem of the two Donbas republics. The Russian president reiterated a much broader agenda that links the situation in Ukraine clearly to his overall challenge to the international order. Various snippets are worth looking at more closely in this regard.

According to Putin, Ukraine – as a result of Soviet boundary drawing in the 1920s, 1940s and 1950s – became an “artificial” territorial construct. After the collapse of the USSR, it ended up with “historically Russian territories” inhabited by ethnic Russians whose rights are violated in contemporary Ukraine.

Putin also asserted that these violations have in large part been due to Ukraine being a failed state in which decisions are being made by corrupt authorities that are under the control of “western capitals”. But, perhaps most importantly, he repeated that Ukraine, by moving closer to Nato, has already created threats to Russia – to which Russia must respond.

Taken together with the signing and immediate ratification of “friendship treaties” between Russia and the now recognised breakaway republics and the decision to move Russian troops into the newly recognised republics, Putin’s recognition speech and its tone make it much more likely, therefore, that this is at best a brief interlude in a continuing and deepening crisis.

More realistically, the recognition and the actions taken in its immediate aftermath signal a dramatic escalation on the part of Russia. Putin’s track record since 2008 should not leave anyone in doubt about the fact that this crisis is far from over.

Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham and Tatyana Malyarenko, Professor of International Relations, National University Odesa Law Academy

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

As Kenyans take to social media to lament rising costs, we look at what is behind the rising cost of living.

The Peñasquito mine, owned by U.S. company Newmont Goldcorp and located in the state of Zacatecas in northern Mexico, produces gold, silver, lead and zinc, the latter two of which are essential for the energy transition. CREDIT: Courtesy of Lucía Vergara

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Feb 22 2022 (IPS)

The debate in Mexico and at an international level is focused on certain minerals that are fundamental to the energy transition, such as cobalt, lithium and nickel. But there are other indispensable minerals that remain in the background.

In addition to lithium deposits, Mexico has proven resources of bismuth, copper, fluorspar, graphite, molybdenum and zinc, involved in one way or another in the different processes of the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Beatriz Olivera, founder of the non-governmental organization Energy, Gender and Environment, stressed that Latin America’s second largest economy has the mining potential to make this transition possible.

“But we have an extractive model, the mineral is extracted and developed elsewhere,” she said, criticizing Mexico’s current mining policies, and in particular the elements that take on special value on the path towards energy decarbonization, a formula to contain global warming.

“If these minerals are extracted, where is the value chain, the benefit for countries like Mexico? We are only going to be left with the negative consequences and sacrifice zones are going to be created to satisfy technologies in other parts of the world,” she said in an interview with IPS.

Olivera is co-author of a forthcoming report on Mexico’s strategic transition metals that identifies 23 minerals for applications such as electrical installations, solar and wind power plants, as well as energy storage devices such as batteries.

The group identified 803 mining projects, of which 237 have a mineral granted in concession that is usable in the transition, most of them inactive, but still in force.

Almost half are in the initial stage, nearly a third in exploration, 13 percent in pre-production and the rest are in pre-feasibility, expansion or closed.

Meanwhile, 58 of the ventures belong to companies from Canada, 29 from Mexico, 26 from the U.S., seven from Australia, three from the United Kingdom, one from China, and in 113 cases the origin of the company is unknown.

Only 10 percent of Mexico’s territory has been granted in concession for mining activities, but these resources are present almost everywhere in the country. Several of these minerals play a vital role in the energy transition to a low-carbon economy. Map: Mexican Ministry of Economy

Mexico’s mining portfolio

Mexico is currently the world’s leading silver producer and is also a major player in the 12 minerals market.

In 2020, the country ranked second in world fluorspar production, fifth in bismuth, molybdenum and lead, sixth in zinc, ninth in copper and tenth in manganese.

In 2020, Mexican deposits produced 1.07 million tons of fluorspar, 732,863 tons of copper, 688,461 tons of zinc, 260,390 tons of lead, 198,448 tons of manganese, 18,562 tons of molybdenum and 1844 tons of graphite, according to the official Statistical Yearbook of Mexican Mining.

The country has 38 clay deposits containing lithium, potassium, magnesium and sodium, of which at least 10 contain five billion tons of these minerals, although their extractive and economic viability has yet to be analyzed, independent expert José Parga told IPS.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that Mexico has lithium reserves of 1.7 million tons.

Part of the government’s electricity reform proposal for the public sector to regain control of this industry includes the nationalization of lithium and the creation of a state-owned company to mine it.

Mexico has reserves of 53,000 tons of copper, 68,000 tons of fluorspar, 5,000 tons of manganese, 5,600 tons of lead and 19,000 tons of zinc, according to the USGS.

The mining law in force in Mexico since 1992 prohibits state-owned entities from mining discovered minerals, which in practice means the privatization of the sector, since the activity remains in their hands and the State merely regulates it.

Although there is no exploitation of cerium, dysprosium, erbium, scandium, europium, gadolinium, holmium, ytterbium, yttrium, lanthanum, lutetium, neodymium, praseodymium, promethium, samarium, terbium and thulium – the so-called rare earths, the set of 17 elements that have become fundamental for the transition – exploration is advancing for a project in the northern state of Coahuila.

In addition, zinc deposits could provide indium, gallium and germanium – other important elements for the energy transition that Mexico does not currently produce.

Most of the veins are located in the northern part of the country.

The manufacture of electric vehicles requires the use of several minerals that are abundant in Mexico. In the photo, an electric cab recharges its battery at a public station in a neighborhood on the south side of Mexico City. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS

Partially harnessed potential

Parga underscored Mexico’s potential, which has been only partially tapped.

“There is certainty that the materials are there, but they have not actually been the subject of an evaluation that would allow us to really know their potential and the eventual technical-economic viability of their exploitation,” he stated in his dialogue with IPS.

The expert said, “the first step to take advantage of the country’s mineral resources is to investigate their existence, quantify and classify them to make the best possible use.”

For at least a decade, international organizations have been warning about the consumption of raw materials for the energy transition, which could lead to their depletion or “peak consumption”.

In addition, the mining industry has triggered protests and resistance in communities throughout the country where it operates, due to the environmental damage caused, the low number of local jobs generated and its small contribution to the Mexican economy.

In fact, there are currently more than 50 conflicts between local populations and mining companies in the country.

In Mexico, the energy transition has been at a standstill since 2019 due to the policies of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who favors support for fossil fuels and hydroelectric power plants, to the detriment of renewable sources such as wind and solar.

Furthermore, this Latin American country, with a territory of 1.96 million square kilometers, 10 percent of which has been granted in concession to mining companies, lacks a national industry linked to the transition or a strategy for its development.

As a result, there is no production of wind turbines, solar cells or electric cars, as the raw material is exported and returns in the form of components to assemble solar panels or electric vehicles.

At a slow pace

However, there are already some attempts in the Mexican market, such as the assembly of electric units in the central state of Puebla, neighboring Mexico City.

In addition, the foreign ministry, with support from the University of California, launched on Feb. 8 the U.S.-Mexico Electrification Working Group, which seeks “to ensure a coordinated and strategic transition towards electromobility.”

In 2022, the parties will design a binational roadmap, which includes a diagnosis of the automotive sector in both countries and their opportunities in the electric transition. Electromobility refers to the introduction of vehicles that use electricity, instead of fossil fuels, and whose manufacture requires the so-called transition minerals.

But Mexico is undertaking this initiative without the National Electromobility Strategy, ready since 2018 but halted for “review” by the environment ministry under the López Obrador administration after it took office in December of that year.

Although some cities such as Mexico City have introduced electric urban transport vehicles, it is not yet a national trend. Moreover, the energy supply for these units still comes from fossil fuels.

Since 2016, the marketing of new hybrid and electric cars has increased fivefold in Mexico, according to the private consulting firm TResearch Mexico. In 2021, those sales exceeded 39,000 units, representing four percent of the total.

During the Glasgow Climate Summit in December, Mexico signed the Glasgow Agreement on Zero Emission Vehicles, signed by 37 countries, 46 metropolitan and regional governments, as well as 11 vehicle manufacturers, 28 fleet owners, 13 institutional investors in the automotive sector, two financial entities and 21 signatories from other segments, to eliminate the production of internal combustion vehicles between 2035 and 2040.

In January, fossil fuel-based generation in Mexico accounted for 76 percent of the total, followed by wind energy (seven percent), hydroelectric (6.67 percent), solar (4.4 percent), nuclear energy (3.87 percent), geothermal (1.55 percent) and biomass (0.07 percent), according to data from the non-governmental Observatory of the Energy Transition in Mexico.

Olivera and Parga highlighted the concerns about the role of minerals in the energy transition, both at the Mexican and global level.

“They are not necessarily going to be enough to make the transition to 100 percent renewable, we have to take it with a certain amount of moderation. But neither can we continue burning fossil fuels left and right,” said Olivera.

In her view, “there must be benefits for the people, with environmental and social controls, respect for the collective rights of peoples, mitigation measures for socio-environmental impacts and a fairer and more equitable distribution of benefits.”

For his part, Parga suggested building a value chain in Mexico that leads to the production of finished products, such as lithium batteries, and the participation of local communities in mining regions in the different stages of the production process.

“Apart from taking care of the ecological balance, preserving the environment and the cultural environment of the people and communities, it must also ensure that they obtain an economic benefit that allows them to raise their standard of living,” he argued.

The dilemma revolves around internal combustion vehicles, whose economic, environmental and health costs are high, and electric vehicles, whose footprint is also significant.

Dozens more are injured after sticks of dynamite in a market near the mine blew up, officials say.

Residents survey the damage after Cyclone Ana triggered winds and floods in Malawi. There has been a call following the latest flooding for climate-resilient approaches to WASH because damaged infrastructure, especially water infrastructure, has serious health consequences. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS

By Charles Mpaka
Blantyre, Malawi, Feb 22 2022 (IPS)

On the night of January 24, 2022, as Cyclone Ana-triggered rains incessantly rattled on the rusty roof of her house, amid intervals of gusty winds, a thud woke up Josephine Kumwanje from her sleep.

Her heart leapt as she thought thieves had broken into the house.

She summoned some courage, tiptoed to the door of her bedroom, and peered into the dark. She did not see any evidence that the house had been burgled. The windows and the main door were intact.

But she could not sleep because the rain poured down in torrents – until the early hours of the morning when it reduced to a drizzle.

“In a long time, I haven’t seen a combination of heavy rains and strong winds in one night,” she recalls.

In the morning, she saw what that thud was all about: The pit latrine behind her house had collapsed, the slab caving into the hole so that the toilet was no longer usable.

Kumwanje’s latrine was one of the five that had collapsed in the neighbourhood that night. The storm had ripped off the roofs of three houses, and gullies were gorged into areas. The residents could not imagine that such damage was possible.

The tropical depression that formed to the northeast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean around January 21 and swept into the Mozambique Channel caused heavy and incessant rainfall in Malawi on January 24 and 25, resulting in heavy flooding and destruction.

Two cities and 16 of the country’s 28 districts, mainly in the Southern region, had been affected.

The Department of Disaster Management Affairs said in a situation report that between January 24 and February 12, 2022, shows close to one million people had been affected, 190,000 displaced, 46 people killed, and 18 people still missing.

Among the sectors severely hit was water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), including the five latrines in Makhetha Township in Blantyre City – even though they were far away from the ‘eye of the storm’.

A rapid assessment by the WASH cluster of the response team, co-led by UNICEF, has found that over 1,000 boreholes, the primary source of potable water in most rural areas in Malawi, have been destroyed.

Residents walk past storm damage from Cyclone Ana. The storm impacted one million people with 190,000 displaced, 46 people killed, and 18 people still missing. Credit: Charles Mpaka/IPS

Countless more have been contaminated, while 20 piped water schemes have been damaged, leaving an estimated 300,000 people with no or limited access to safe water. A total of 53,962 latrines collapsed.

According to UNICEF, the destruction of the WASH infrastructure could have far-reaching health consequences.

“These conditions entail significant risks of health outbreaks (cholera) with medium to long-term impacts on the health status of children,” Michele Paba, UNICEF Malawi Chief of WASH, tells IPS.

Worse still, the current floods compounded the damages from other recent floods and have reversed progress on recovery.

In March 2019, Malawi was one of the three countries – together with Zimbabwe and Mozambique – through which Cyclone Idai related flooding swept, destroying infrastructure, and affecting more than one million people in the three countries.

In January 2015, Malawi also suffered devastating floods, which killed 106 people, displaced more than 200,000 and affected more than one million people.

The floods also hit twelve of the 17 districts affected by floods in January 2015.

Five of the districts affected this year were the worst hit by Cyclone Idai in 2019 and were among those hardest hits by the 2015 floods.

Details in the Malawi 2015 Floods Post Disaster Needs Assessment Report show the floods had destroyed water facilities such as intake structures, water treatment plants, water supply pipelines, dams, and shallow wells.

The government pegged the recovery and reconstruction budget following the 2015 disaster for the WASH sector alone at 60 million US dollars.

But, as Charles Kalemba, Commissioner for the Department of Disaster Management Affairs, which is in the Office of President and Cabinet, indicates, Malawi has never recovered from these disasters.

“Floods have happened in this country several times in the past few years. In recent times, we had one in 2015. We had another in 2019, and now these. They happen, they attract our attention, and we forget soon afterwards. We have not been good at recovery and resilience at all,” Kalemba says.

Back in Blantyre, Kumwanje rebuilt her latrine in a week.

“I have children. For dignity and hygiene, I could not count on neighbours’ toilets,” says the mother of three, who earns a living selling second-hand clothes.

But the structure, made of plastic sheets, is temporary. It cannot withstand a similar storm.

Kalemba says the country needs serious work in preparedness and resilience, adding that the department is now eyeing a radical shift in strategy.

“We need to relook at financing. The money should not just be used to buy top-of-the-range vehicles for offices. We need to tackle real issues affecting people in the long term.

“Besides, we leave our response in the hands of development partners, but we can see people in these affected areas are becoming poorer. That shows us that the strategy we are using is not working. We need to take full control of the recovery processes, including finding our own resources, instead of waiting for donors,” he says.

In terms of WASH, according to UNICEF, the sector is “aggressively moving towards climate-resilient approaches to improve the sustainability of water and sanitation services and ensure value for money of investments made.”

“The main bottleneck at the moment,” says Paba, “is the lack of financial resources to address the needs because official development assistance has drastically declined over the past years and government allocations are limited.”

A February 2020 UNICEF analysis of public expenditure on the WASH sector in Malawi says that despite limited fiscal space, the government has increased budget allocations to the sector since 2017-18.

Between 2014 and 2019, the government funding averaged 0.39 percent of total expenditure, or just under 0.1 percent of GDP – with much of it heavily tilted towards water.

However, the report notes that Malawi’s budget allocations to WASH as a proportion of GDP is low compared to other countries in the region.

Apart from proposing the government adjusts to reductions in external funding and fixing the frontline staff deficit, the report recommends increased government financing towards WASH, especially for operations.

Paba tells IPS that the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, with support from UNICEF, is developing a climate-resilient financing strategy to help mobilise fresh investments to address sector needs and create a climate risk-informed investment plan.

The government, through the National Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy (2018 – 2024), is targeting increasing the number of households with improved sanitation access from 13.8 percent as it was in 2018 to 75 percent by 2030 and increasing the number of people accessing safe water supply from 83 percent to 90 percent by 2030.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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The Palestinian Flag in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Credit: UN News

By Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Feb 22 2022 (IPS)

No people have ever risen from the ashes of near-extinction to form a country and achieve the height of development in every walk of life like Israel. These magnificent accomplishments are now tragically marred with domestically charged struggles which ominously undermine its very existence.

Righting the Wrong

Israel’s achievements since its establishment are remarkable. In science, cybertechnology, medicine, agronomy, military innovation, aviation, and entrepreneurship, Israel has excelled while reaching the pinnacle of military prowess unmatched by any other regional power.

In spite of these impressive achievements, Israel failed to become the country that millions of Jews envisioned it to be. Although Israel is threatened by extremist Palestinians, radical Islamic groups, and Iran, it is powerful enough militarily to tackle such threats and prevail. The real danger Israel faces is largely self-made, emanating from multiple fronts which successive governments failed to address.

These failures include the continuing occupation, unending discrimination, rampant poverty, growing social discord, and the frictional relations with American Jewry; together they point to a gloomy reality and pose a grave danger to Israel’s survival as we know it.

Human rights violations in the occupied territories

Other than the thirst for annexing more Palestinian land and stern opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state, the continuing occupation is designed to keep the conflict simmering and to provide the rationale behind Israeli “concerns” over national security.

It is sad to admit that the Jews who suffered from the horrors of persistent discrimination, segregation, and persecution culminating with the Holocaust, which led to the establishment of Israel, would violate the Palestinians’ human rights to such a degree.

How can any Israeli justify the terrible abuses of the Palestinians’ human rights to which they are subjected daily? Prolonged incarcerations, demolished homes, forced evictions, night raids, segregation, and denial of economic and social rights, not to speak of the relentless attacks on and harassment of innocent Palestinians by settlers forcing them to leave their land and property.

As Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin stated in Hannah Arendt in Jerusalem, “… we have to observe that in the Israeli public debate, the term ‘peace’ still does not mean primarily the fulfillment of Palestinian rights, including the rights of the refugees, but rather the principle of separation…”

In January 2021, B’Tselem stated that “A regime that uses laws, practices and organized violence to cement the supremacy of one group over another is an apartheid regime.” The same sentiment was precisely echoed earlier this month by Amnesty International.

Try as it may to defend itself, the reality on the ground in the territories speaks volumes about the brutal mistreatment of Palestinians by Israel. According to B’Tselem, last year Israel killed more than 300 Palestinians, over one-fifth of whom were children—the deadliest year since 2014.

It should shame every Israeli Jew who has become complacent regarding the ugly occupation, which savagely erodes Israel’s moral standing in the eyes of the international community. Although antisemitism has been in play from time immemorial, can anyone suggest that the treatment of the Palestinians by Israel is not contributing to the rise of antisemitism?

It is crucial that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved because as long as the occupation continues, it will not only further undermine the Palestinians’ right but will further intensify Israel’s domestic problems.

Economic disparity

Over the past two decades Israel’s economy has consistently grown, making it one of the most stable economies in and outside the region. The average per capita earning is on par with most EU countries and the US.

For this reason, it is hard to grasp why successive Israeli governments would fail miserably to address the debilitating economic disparities among the Israeli population, Jews, and Arabs alike. As Thomas Jefferson eloquently stated, “Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.”

According to a December 2021 survey, over 2.5 million Israelis—including over 1 million children—live in poverty, with 932,000 households living in a state of economic distress. The country that spends billions on building settlements and massive infrastructure in the West Bank, in addition to the billions more spent on security, allows over one million children to go hungry, especially at the early stages of their cognitive development.

This is not only unconscionable but criminal. To think that this is happening to a people that have been yearning to live with dignity among their fellow Jews defies the very reason behind Israel’s creation.

Social disconnect

After more than seven decades of existence Israel dangerously lacks social cohesiveness, which is the hallmark of a viable and strong community. Although significant improvement has taken place between Jews of different cultural and racial backgrounds, there is still a huge social cleavage between Sephardic (Middle Eastern and North African) Jews and Ashkenazi Jews who are of European origin, and discrimination against and scorn for Israeli Arabs.

In addition, there is a clear social schism between secular and Orthodox Jews, between Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox, as well as between reform and conservative Jews. Just think, 40 percent of secular Israeli Jews said they hate Haredim, and nearly 20 percent of traditionalists stated that they dislike Haredi Jews.

That the Jews who finally established an independent state would show this much intolerance and contempt for their fellow Jews is nothing less than disgraceful. The ingathering of the Jews from all corners of the world—regardless of skin color, religious affiliation, cultural or political background—was first and foremost the very foundation for Israel’s creation.

Many of Israel’s political leaders are sadly preoccupied with their petty politics. They lack the moral courage and the fortitude to speak out against this socially ugly phenomenon and foster the continuing estrangement between different segments of Israeli Jews. This has an even greater effect on the Israeli Arabs, which only deepens their alienation from the Jewish population.

Political fragmentation

Even after more than seven decades of existence Israel remains deeply divided politically, with scores of political parties each claiming they have the answer to the country’s multiple challenges. In every election over 20 political parties compete; new parties with colorful names are created and the leader of every party wants to be the prime minister.

Not once has a single party been able to form a government on its own, settling instead to form coalition governments which by their very nature require compromises and often settle on the lowest denominator. The current Bennett-Lapid coalition government exemplifies that to perfection.

By way of example, since all the parties could not reach a consensus on a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they agreed NOT to deal with it, albeit it is the most critical issue facing the nation.

It is understandable that Jews who immigrated to Israel from various countries will have different political views. But one would think that after 73 years, new generations of Israelis would settle on fewer political parties representing the mainstream of the political spectrum—left, right, center, and religious.

This would allow for the formation of a coalition government that enjoys a significant majority and can get things done. Instead, political bickering and party and personal interests are consistently placed above the nation’s interests.

As James Madison explained, the problem is that when political factions obtain power, they put their interests above the common good, “both the public good and the rights of other citizens.” Netanyahu and his party epitomized this horrible reality.

Relation with US Jewry

The American Jewish community is unlike others in Europe; it is the second pillar that sustains and enriches Jewish life in and outside Israel. Although American Jews largely oppose the occupation, they have always stood fast in support of Israel both financially and politically. Not once have they shirked that allegiance, which they consider central to the well-being of world Jewry.

For these and many other reasons, for Israel not to fully embrace the American Jews with all its might is outrageous. One glaring example says it all. Why on earth would both the Netanyahu and now Bennett governments revoke a plan for an egalitarian prayer plaza at the Western Wall—promised to Reform and American Jewish leaders—to allow Jews to pray however they choose?

The CEO of the Israel Reform Movement Anna Kislanski put it succinctly when she said: “It is both infuriating and upsetting when the Prime Minister of a ‘change government’… yields to extremist factions that object to the Agreement and its implementation…[and] capitulate[s] shamefully to bullying and violence…”

Such an “extremist faction” was on full display on IDF’s radio station, where Army Radio Talk show host Irit Linur despicably uttered about Reform Jews, “…. you weren’t accepted here. Go away – go, go, go. Put up a wall somewhere else…. Your place isn’t here…. You don’t belong, you only ruin things.”

I for one, cannot fathom how a country that was born to provide a welcoming and safe haven for all Jews, could so callously betray that central premise. It seems to me that for Israel, the American Jewish community is there to be milked financially and used as nothing more than a tool to influence American policy in support of Israel.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recently said that Israel is “the greatest political achievement of the 20th century,” with which I concur. But as I survey the Israeli scene, I feel despair. No, this is not the country that I and millions of other Jews envisioned. Israel was meant to be a model democracy—free, fair, judicious, and just, where equality and social equity is a right, where everyone is treated decently and with dignity.

This is where Israel’s ultimate strength and security lies. Ignoring that will devour it from within and pose a greater danger to the country than its worst enemy.

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at New York University (NYU) who taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies for over 20 years.

 

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By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 2022 (IPS)

COVID-19 has exposed major long-term economic vulnerabilities. This malaise – including declining productivity growth – can be traced to the greater influence of finance in the real economy.

The deep-seated causes of the current resurgence of inflation, inequalities and contractionary tendencies have not been addressed. Meanwhile, reform proposals after the 2008-2009 global financial crisis (GFC) have been largely forgotten.

Anis Chowdhury

Declining productivity
Productivity growth has been declining in major economies since the early 1970s. As the World Bank noted, well “before the … pandemic, the global economy featured a broad-based decline in productivity growth”.

World labour productivity growth slowed from its 2007 peak of 2.8% to a post-GFC nadir of 1.4% in 2016, remaining under 2.0% in 2017-2018. This slowdown has hurt over two-thirds of advanced, emerging market and developing economies.

Except for a brief productivity spike in some countries around the turn of the century, labour productivity growth in developed Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries was declining, with trends low, but stable after the GFC.

Why the slowdown?
For Robert Gordon, this was mainly due to declining total factor productivity growth (TFP) – or slower technical innovation, organizational improvements and labour skill growth – in recent decades, particularly in industrial nations.

For the World Bank, reduced investment and TFP growth deceleration have been roughly equally responsible for the productivity slowdown. Slowing working age population growth and limited education progress have also contributed.

The United Nations noted, “as firms around the globe have become more reluctant to invest, productivity growth has continued to decelerate”. It blamed the slowdown on reduced investments in machinery, technology, etc.

Slower transitions to more diverse and complex production have also delayed progress. Some supply shocks due to ‘natural causes’ – of which 70% were climate change related – have also hurt productivity growth.

Growing inequality has weakened demand, slowing economic and productivity growth. As workers’ spending declined with labour’s income share, demand has been sustained by more public and private borrowing.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s April 2017 World Economic Outlook confirmed this trend. Productivity growth declines have lowered real incomes, reducing consumer spending, demand and growth.

A joint report of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), OECD and IMF also blamed unconventional monetary policies – very low, even negative real interest rates, and corporate bond purchases. Thus, corporate financial fragilities have weakened investment and productivity growth, especially since the GFC.

Deeper malaise
More sustainable and inclusive growth policies can help increase productivity. But blind faith in ‘market solutions’ since the 1980s has worsened resource misallocations, sectoral imbalances and job-skill mismatches.

One-sided demand stimuli – through more deficit spending or monetary expansion, without complementary supply-side measures – have only made limited impact. Also, supply-side measures to enhance growth need appropriate regulatory reforms – not wholesale deregulation.

Deregulation has often strengthened product market oligopolies while labour’s bargaining strength has generally declined. Growing corporate power has reduced labour income shares as executive salaries have risen since the 1980s.

Paranoia viz deficits and debt has cut public spending. Public investment remained flat during the early 2000s, rising slightly after the GFC, before declining until the pandemic. Worse, public spending cuts have not been offset by more private investment.

Slower capital stock increases cut potential growth in advanced economies from the 1980s. Debt and deficit paranoia has cut public services, social protection, public education and healthcare – hurting the vulnerable most.

Negative externalities
Markets have also failed the environment, undermining sustainability. Inadequate investments in renewable energy and sustainable agriculture have resulted in food and energy shortages – now exacerbating inflationary pressures.

Financialization, tax cuts and deregulation have also encouraged speculative activities, share buybacks and other portfolio purchases. Unconventional monetary policies have also enabled unviable ‘zombie’ firms to survive.

Thus, there has been rising protectionism and harmful beggar-thy- neighbour policies – such as competing corporate income tax rate cuts while weakening environmental protection and labour rights.

Meanwhile, much needed productive investments, especially in infrastructure, technology and innovation, remain underfunded. National problems have been worsened by failure to improve multilateral economic governance.

Financialization
Declining productivity growth was due to finance’s creeping dominance over the real economy from the 1970s. With banking more internationalized and concentrated, traditional financial intermediation by commercial banks has been undermined by market allocation and ‘universal banking’, combining both commercial and investment banking services.

Financialization has thus subverted economic motives, markets and institutions, adversely affecting progress, balanced development and long-term productivity growth in various ways:

• Corporate decision-making and firm behaviour are increasingly influenced by short-term financial market indicators, e.g., share market prices, rather than medium- and long-term prospects;
• Non-financial corporations increasingly profit from financial, rather than productive activities;
• ‘Non-traditional’ financial activities (e.g., stock market investments) of commercial banks have increased their exposure to systemic, including external risks;
• The distinction between short-term speculation and patient long-term investment has become blurred;
• Executive and even managerial remuneration has been increasingly linked to short-term profitability, as measured by share prices, not longer-term considerations.

Such features have adversely affected real investments and innovation, due to finance pursuing short-term returns. Thus, financialization has negatively affected investment, technology adoption and skill upgrading, with adverse consequences for productivity and decent jobs.

Misallocation
The financial system has also undermined the real economy by syphoning talent from it, with attractive inducements. Thus, talent has gone to finance at the expense of the real economy, especially harming technological progress.

James Tobin challenged “throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to the social productivity.”

Then American Finance Association president Luigi Zingales showed financial growth in the last four decades has basically been rent seeking, i.e., securing profits without adding any value.

Finance has captured rents “through a variety of mechanisms including anticompetitive practices, the marketing of excessively complex and risky products, government subsidies such as financial bailouts, and even fraudulent activities… By overcharging for products and services, financial firms grab a bigger slice of the economic pie at the expense of their customers and taxpayers”.

Banking abuses have been innovative, ranging from collusion, abusive practices, market manipulation, rigging interest, exchange and other rates, passing risk to unsuspecting customers, aiding and abetting tax evasion and money laundering.

Real economy drag
Finance has thus retarded development of the real economy in various ways. First, financial development has not been conducive to intermediating between savings and real investments. Markets allocate funds by criteria other than promoting investment in the real economy.

Second, financial markets and speculation do not generate or otherwise add real value. Third, financialization and regulatory failure have generated more frequent and damaging financial crises.

Seeking to maximize returns, fund managers and their ilk mainly invest in response to short-term financial trends. Presumed to be best left to markets, actual capital formation – increasing economic output – and productivity growth have slowed, to the detriment of most.

 

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By Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
SINGAPORE, Feb 21 2022 (IPS-Partners)

What happens in Europe cannot be expected to remain in Europe, particularly in this interconnected world. As war clouds gather in that continent with Russo-Western relations deteriorating by the day over Ukraine, ripples, indeed waves, are expected in consequence on the waters of faraway Asia. There, despite the onslaught of the Covid pandemic, nations appeared till recently to be devoting themselves to economy-boosting efforts, regionally expanding trade (ASEAN), or domestically sharing prosperity (China). Now suddenly, as Russia and the West try to tap the reservoir of till-now vocal support from their respective camp-followers in that region, these countries feel trapped between Scylla and Charybdis. Slowly but surely, given the imperatives of geo-politics, they may be constrained to take sides, albeit in the case of some, most reluctantly.

Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury

Take China, for instance. Between the US and Russia, China faced a Hobson’s choice, for given its burgeoning fierce rivalry with the former, its rational pick would most certainly be the latter. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are political besties on the global scene who have met numerous times proclaiming mutual support. But on the current issue, initially, the involvement of Ukraine posed a modicum of problem for China. China relied substantially on Ukraine’s military manufacturing know-how and China itself was Ukraine’s largest trading partner. So, making a choice on this would have been something China would be happy to pass. But alas that was not to be! Even though US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had called his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to help rein in Russia, and China had initially urged calm equally upon both Moscow and Washington, Moscow’s pleadings and pressures on Beijing ultimately prevailed.

Already, Sino-US relations were reaching their nadir. The Biden Administration was relentless in its efforts to contain the spread of Chinese influence in every possible way. Now as China was preparing to host the winter Olympics seeking to dazzle the world with its pomp and performance, the US led a campaign for its diplomatic boycott. Putin chose that moment of Chinese angst to fly to Beijing and clasp Xi in a strong bearish hug. The result was a 5300-word joint statement describing the friendship between the two countries as having “no limits”. For the first time China came out unequivocally in support of Russia in opposing NATO’s eastward expansion, and Russia in turn endorsed China’s position in clearly opposing any kind of independence for Taiwan. Never before Russia and China’s declaration of mutual support was so unambiguous. The Russian Bear and the Chinese dragon were now locked in a tight embrace with nary a sunlight between them. Russia and China were now in the same camp pitted against the US and the West in this dangerous dichotomy in global politics.

India was another Asian power that is perhaps also forced to make a choice it would have been happier to avoid. Washington’s confrontation with Moscow could not have come at a worse time for New Delhi. Even normally India would be reluctant to choose between the two protagonists, because it seemed to want to link itself strategically to both, increasingly a difficult endeavour. At this point in time India is poised to procure five S-400 air defence missile systems from Russia and badly requires a waiver from the US in terms of sanctions, which for the same reason had earlier been slapped on Turkey. Now was obviously not the time for India to show any thickening of camaraderie with the US. Even with China, India is often unwilling to throw down the gauntlet in any definitive manner, as New Delhi well knows if push comes to shove, and a shooting conflict with China does occur, significant actual US support in men and materiel might be wanting. But India’s options were shrinking. Its Quad partners the US, Australia and Japan thought it the appropriate time to flex Quad muscles and try and link the contests in the two theatres, Europe and Asia. Australia hosted a Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Melbourne. India’s diplomatic skills might have avoided critically unfriendly references to Beijing or Moscow, but the outcome of the meeting left no doubt as to India’s choice of camps- Euro- American or Sino-Russian. For India, getting together of China and Russia is not good news. Also because at the Olympics in Beijing, Putin invited Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to visit Russia soon. Moscow had held back on hosting a Pakistani Head of Government for over twenty years , mainly perhaps not to give New Delhi any cause for umbrage.

The upshot of all this would be that if because of the tensions, war breaks out in Europe, Asia is unlikely to remain unique for long.

In the meantime, in the main politico-diplomatic battleground of Europe the situation was hotting up. The flurry of activities, such as visits back and forth of leaders to various capitals, were coming to naught. Within the western camp, Continental Europeans such as France and Germany were as cautious as the Anglo-Saxons, the US and the UK were gung-ho, predicting the imminence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This, of course, was being denied by Putin and the Russians. Nevertheless, Moscow does not deny that the situation is serious, nor would it specifically rule out war, not because they would invade Ukraine, but because the West was intent on the eastward expansion of NATO! In the meantime, the Ukrainians, at the very eye in the storm are calling for calm, with their President, Volodymyr Zelensky warning that “panic is our enemy’s best friend”.

There are fears therefore that should war, which has been described as ‘imminent’ for a remarkably long time, already actually come about, it would be the result of a tragic self-fulfilling prophecy! Even if there not be war, and diplomacy manages to avert it for now, the world will be divided into two distinct camps, the US and its Western allies on one side and Russia and China on the other. The Communique in Beijing is most significant as it portrays not just two camps pitted against each other, but two different socio-political models offered to the rest of the world. The neutrals and the non-aligneds of the past are being forced by circumstances to make choices. The US and its allies picking up India, Sweden and Finland for instance, and Russia and China roping in Pakistan, Iran, perhaps Turkey, and most certainly, North Korea. It might become a battle of two political paradigms, each seeking to shape future human destiny.

Now a footnote to the crisis in Ukraine. It is tempting to recall that it was that region that in October 1864 witnessed a disastrously suicidal failed action of the British cavalry. It has been glorified for its valour in poetry by Alfred Lord Tennyson as the “Charge of the Light Brigade”. In a more sobre assessment a French Marshal described it as “magnificent, but not war”.

Must history repeat itself in such predictable fashion?

Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury is the Honorary Fellow at the Institute of South Asia Studies, NUS. He is a former Foreign Advisor (Foreign Minister) of Bangladesh and President and Distinguished Fellow of Cosmos Foundation. The views addressed in the article are his own. He can be reached at: isasiac @nus.edu.sg

This story was originally published by Dhaka Courier.

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Mayan indigenous communities in eastern Guatemala are waging an ongoing struggle for the defense of their lands and resources, in the face of encroachment by mining, power and oil corporations. These struggles have resulted in protests on behalf of the affected communities and against the Guatemalan government's repression of activists and indigenous inhabitants, and have now reached the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. CREDIT: Courtesy of Raúl Ico Pacham/FB

By Edgardo Ayala
SAN SALVADOR, Feb 21 2022 (IPS)

A struggle for the defense of their territories waged by indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ communities in eastern Guatemala could set a historic precedent for Latin America’s native peoples because it would ensure not only their right to control their lands but also their natural resources, denied for centuries.

This could happen if the Inter-American Court of Human Rights based in San José, Costa Rica rules in favor of these communities involved in litigation for the defense of their ancestral territories and for control over their own future and development.

The struggle is against a nickel mine operated since 2011 by the Switzerland-based transnational Solway Investment Group on lands in Guatemala that these communities consider their own, in the municipality of El Estor near Lake Izabal, in the department of the same name in eastern Guatemala."We hope it will be a historic decision, that the Court can decide for the first time on the permanent sovereignty of indigenous peoples over their natural resources.” -- Leonardo Crippa

The mine is a private venture over which the local indigenous communities had no say. Furthermore, they argue that there is evidence that it is contaminating the area’s natural resources, lawyers and activists told IPS.

The mine “pollutes the rivers, destroys the hills, without regard for the lives of the people in the municipality,” said activist Abelino Chub of the Maíz de Vida Association, in an interview with IPS from El Estor.

Chub, of the Mayan Q’eqchi indigenous people, lives in El Estor and has worked for years in defense of indigenous territories in Izabal, in the face of inroads made by international consortiums in the production of nickel, bananas, electricity and oil, he said.

Because of his involvement in that struggle he was arrested and imprisoned in February 2017, as part of a pattern of persecution that other people who have fought against the transnationals have also experienced firsthand.

Solway Investment has been operating the mine since 2011, after purchasing it from the Canadian corporation Hudbay Minerals, which obtained the exploration permit in 2004 and the mining permit in 2006.

However, work on the mine came to a halt when Guatemala’s Constitutional Court accepted an appeal for legal protection from a union of fishermen from Izabal, who alleged that fishing had been hurt by pollution from the mine.

In addition to Guatemala, Solway Investment operates in Ukraine, Russia, Macedonia and Indonesia, and in 2019 reported more than one billion dollars in total assets, according to its official website.

Abelino Chub, a Mayan Q’eqchi’ activist from the Maíz de Vida Association, who is part of the struggle in defense of the Mayan territories located in the area of El Estor and surrounding municipalities in the eastern Guatemalan department of Izabal, was arrested and imprisoned in February 2017 for opposing extractivist projects granted concessions by the Guatemalan government in the area. CREDIT: Courtesy of Abelino Chub/FB

In the hands of the Court

Since 1974, more than a dozen Q’eqchi’ Mayan communities have been trying to obtain a collective land title from the government’s National Land Fund (Fontierras).

But the government of that time and subsequent administrations denied them that right, despite the fact that since that year they have met all the legal requirements.

In 1985 they even obtained a provisional collective agrarian title, attorney Leonardo Crippa of the Washington-based Indian Law Resource Center (ILRC) told IPS.

In 2002 the communities met the last of the requirements: the payment to Fontierras of a quota on the value of the land, Crippa said from the U.S. capital.

But they were denied their right to collective title as a result of obscure legal maneuvering.

The General Property Registry claimed that documentation on the provisional title had been lost, and demanded that the communities themselves make the effort to replace it, despite the fact that by law it was the responsibility of the government agency.

“The Registry allowed a page from a document to be extracted that made the registry entry disappear and that prevented the land titling agency from granting the definitive title in due time and form,” Crippa said.

As a result, the communities were not only denied their right to collective ownership of their land. In addition, extractive industry projects were imposed on them in their territory, and in other indigenous communities in the country, without carrying out the consultations required by law, or without conducting them properly.

In the case of the nickel mine, “they never asked the communities, they only asked the workers to sign some forms in support of the supposed consultation,” said Chub, 39.

The mining activities are carried out on overlapping lands, i.e., the boundaries are unclear and intermingle with those of the indigenous villages, due to problems in the land registry, and to date the discrepancy is still in place.

Following the struggles of the Mayan communities to defend their territories, which included the seizure of land in eastern Guatemala, the Guatemalan government authorized evictions that turned violent. Now the Maya Q’eqchi’ communities await an Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling. CREDIT: Courtesy of Raúl Ico Pacham/FB

These indigenous communities, where the majority of the population speaks only their ancestral Mayan language, Q’eqchi’, did not stand idly by.

In August 2018, following legal action in Guatemala, they brought the case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), based in Washington.

The ILRC had been working with them since 2005 and three years later they had a clear strategy: to focus on one of the 16 communities, known as Agua Caliente, because it best represented the indigenous cause.

Agua Caliente is home to some 400 people, according to a 2014 census.

In a March 2020 report, the IACHR recognized the responsibility of the State of Guatemala for the violation of the indigenous community’s right to property, and violation of due process, among other rights protected by the American Convention on Human Rights.

Furthermore, the IACHR added that the State does not have a law that recognizes the right of indigenous peoples in Guatemala to collective ownership or dominion of their lands and the resources under their possession, as guaranteed by international agreements to which the country is a signatory.

The IACHR also said that the titling procedure to which Agua Caliente was subjected for more than 45 years had not been effective because it did not grant a definitive title within a reasonable period of time.

As the basis of the litigation still remains, regarding the overlapping of the Agua Caliente and mine lands, the case has been referred to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which together with the IACHR make up the inter-American human rights system created by the Organization of American States (OAS).

In a Feb. 9 hearing the parties were heard, and final arguments will be presented in writing on Mar. 11.

“We hope it will be a historic decision, that the Court can decide for the first time on the permanent sovereignty of indigenous peoples over their natural resources,” said Crippa. As an Inter-American Court verdict, this would have regional effects, especially since its rulings are not subject to appeal and set a legal precedent.

Raúl Ico Pacham, a Mayan Q’eqchi’ native of the Chab’ilch’och’ community in the municipality of Livingston, in the eastern Guatemalan department of Izabal, had to flee the country following the persecution of activists in defense of their ancestral territories. He is now living as an undocumented immigrant in New York and has applied for political asylum in the United States. CREDIT: Courtesy of Raúl Ico Pacham/FB

Government persecution of activists

In the midst of this struggle, in October 2021, the State of Guatemala, through the Public Prosecutor’s Office and police forces, persecuted people who led protests against the government for granting the concession, and against the mine.

The government also declared a one-month state of siege in the area.

“They did that to scare people,” said Chub, who had to flee because he feared for his life, mainly because of his involvement in the fight against banana companies in the area.

He added, however, that in this area there are several major companies that band together to persecute activists regardless of whether they are fighting against mining, oil or banana companies.

Chub’s home was raided on Oct. 26, during the state of siege. But he had already fled to another part of the country.

“They broke the lock with a sledgehammer and entered. The only thing they found there was water, corn and beans,” he said.

Raúl Ico Pacham, who also belongs to the Q’eqchi’ Mayan people, had to leave Guatemala, fleeing persecution by the State. He is a native of Livingston, one of the municipalities in the department of Izabal, and has been an activist with the Guatemalan Comité Campesino del Altiplano (CCDA).

“My struggle was, more than anything, for the recovery of our ancestral lands that had been taken from us long ago by landowners and the military,” Pacham, 35, told IPS in an interview from New York, where he arrived without documents in April 2021 and has requested political asylum.

In 2016 the activist participated with other members of the affected indigenous communities in a takeover of ancestral lands. But the government ordered their eviction, a process that turned violent in October 2017.

In August of that year they broke into his house and stole, he said, documents from investigations they were carrying out on the land that had been taken from the indigenous people.

“In 2021 I was almost killed, I was stabbed and I had to leave the country,” he said.

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Nujeen Mustafa addresses the Global Disability Summit with a message that the world should stop seeing children with disabilities as burdens when they are assets. Credit: @NujeenMustafa/Twitter

By Joyce Chimbi
Nairobi, Kenya, Feb 21 2022 (IPS)

Struggling with stigma and discrimination in an unaccommodating environment, Nujeen Mustafa knows all too well the difficulties children with disabilities face in emergency and protracted crises.

Struggling with stigma and discrimination in an unaccommodating environment, Nujeen Mustafa knows all too well the difficulties children with disabilities face in emergency and protracted crises.

Born in Syria 23 years ago with cerebral palsy, Mustafa had never seen the inside of a classroom until she made a 3,500-mile journey from Syria to Germany in a wheelchair aged 16 years. She entered the German education system in Grade 8 and completed her GCSE at 21. Her compelling story is captured in the book ‘Nujeen, One Girl’s Incredible Journey from War-Torn Syria in a Wheelchair’.

“Back in Syria, I was homeschooled by my older siblings because the infrastructure was not accessible for people with disabilities. My siblings taught me how to read and write. I read books on my own and watched television to compensate for the lack of formal education,” Mustafa tells IPS.

Mustafa addressed the recent Global Disability Summit in a session with Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif. The Government of Norway, the Government of Ghana, and the International Disability Alliance co-chaired the summit during which participants committed to “eliminating stigma, barriers, and discrimination against persons with disabilities through legislation, policies and advocacy work done together with organizations of persons with disabilities.”

“Nujeen’s incredible journey is an inspiring story of hope. However, for a majority of children with disabilities in the midst of armed conflict and crises, their stories, unfortunately, don’t end as positively as Nujeen’s,” says Sherif. “We can no longer leave these children, among those left furthest behind, in the shadows.”

Children with disabilities can flourish to their full potential if given access to education, says Nujeen Mustafa. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

According to UNHCR registration data, an estimated 11.7 million Syrians are displaced. Three percent of the registered Syrian refugee population lives with disabilities.

Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics show that approximately 20 million out of the 135 million people in need of humanitarian assistance live with some form of disability and lack rehabilitation support and assistive technology.

The WHO says this figure does not include people with conflict-caused disabilities. Within this context, Mustafa says invisible disability is a most pressing issue for people with disabilities and more so children in conflict and crises.

“People in conflict situations or those fleeing conflict are likely to have acquired a disability. Perhaps they lost a leg, an arm, sight, or hearing due to conflict. Of concern, data on refugees or internally displaced persons are not filtered or seen through the disability lens,” she observes.

“Often hidden from society, children with disabilities are, more often than not, much more invisible. Even in rehabilitation or a country’s reconstruction processes, accessibility and inclusion of children with disabilities are not taken into account.”

Research by WHO confirms that volatile and unpredictable safety and security situations in emergency and protracted crises create significant and critical protection gaps.

“Children with disabilities are being left behind the education system because, in crisis situations, there are many competing priorities. I do not believe that enough organizations have the necessary data concerning people, and more so children, with disabilities in emergency and conflict situations,” Mustafa says.

There is, therefore, a great and urgent need to work on mechanisms that could detect invisible disability, which requires significant concerted efforts from individuals, families, humanitarian organizations, and governments.

“We need to prioritize systematic awareness-raising of the specific needs of children with disabilities at the high-level decision-making process. People that can make a difference in the lives of these children do not see them,” she cautions.

“Education is the building block towards a proper future, but children with disabilities are not seen as people worth investing in. There is a perception that education or training will be of no value to these children because there will be no opportunity for them to utilize acquired knowledge.”

As such, UNICEF’s most recent data shows one in every ten children globally have a disability, and nearly half of all children with disabilities are likely to have never attended school.

“My siblings bought me books every school year so that I consume the same content as my peers. This was of high value to me. It helped me cope and come to the realization that perhaps there were some alternative ways for me to get an education similar or close to what my peers had,” Mustafa recalls.

This family support built her confidence and drove her to explore her potential. Today, Mustafa is an author and a disability rights advocate on a global platform, becoming the first Syrian person with a disability to brief the United Nations Security Council in 2019.

Families or caregivers of every child with a disability need to be educated to recognize the potential in their child. To fan this potential, not despite the disability, but because of it.

Education, she emphasizes, is a vital part of building a confident and self-assured individual who is ready to go out, face the world and fulfill their potential.

Mustafa says social barriers and stigma surrounding disability within current education systems must be broken down. This calls for a more comprehensive understanding of who is at school, who is not, and why.

Nujeen Mustafa, a UNHCR Supporter who, at 16, traveled 3,500 miles from Syria to Germany in a steel wheelchair says active participation of children with disabilities is “not a favor but a right”.
Credit: Education Cannot Wait

Placing children with disabilities at the heart of humanitarian crisis response requires the systematic documentation of existing protection gaps.

“We are dealing with a multilayered problem that includes factors such as logistics, management, planning, and implementation of crisis response as well as social barriers,” she says.

Against this backdrop, Mustafa spoke of the frequently unmet needs of vulnerable children with disabilities in conflict and emergencies. She painted the harsh reality of lack of and, at best, great difficulties in accessing safe, quality, and disability-inclusive education.

“I am a firm believer in disability-inclusive education because this is how we eliminate stigma towards people with disability. If people from all walks of life know and interact with one person with a disability and especially at a very young age, perceptions around what is considered the norm will change,” she says.

Mustafa’s own experience with Germany’s education system affirms her belief that under the right conditions, children with disabilities can flourish to their fullest potential to become agents of positive social change.

“Whether it be individual, societies or organizations, we should stop perceiving children with disabilities as burdens – because they are assets. Children with disabilities are not problems to solve.”

Mustafa called upon humanitarian agencies to raise awareness of the importance of education. To ensure that when countries in protracted conflict and emergency crises or fragile peace resume some semblance of education, children with disabilities are not left further behind.

Credit: @LailaOnMars, Twitter

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: Religions for Peace

By Azza Karam
NEW YORK, Feb 21 2022 (IPS)

A “Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, issued on February 4, 2020 on International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development”, contains laudable and strong language about commitment to democracy and human rights:

“The sides [the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China] call on all States to pursue well-being for all and, with these ends, to build dialogue and mutual trust, strengthen mutual understanding, champion such universal human values as peace, development, equality, justice, democracy and freedom, respect the rights of peoples to independently determine the development paths of their countries and the sovereignty and the security and development interests of States, to protect the United Nations-driven international architecture and the international law-based world order, seek genuine multipolarity with the United Nations and its Security Council playing a central and coordinating role, promote more democratic international relations, and ensure peace, stability and sustainable development across the world… The sides share the understanding that democracy is a universal human value, rather than a privilege of a limited number of States, and that its promotion and protection is a common responsibility of the entire world community.”

The fact that these are the words from one country that is amassing thousands of troops on the borders of a sovereign nation (threatening to enter it and ‘protect’ its people at any moment as of the writing of this), together with another country which is denying the existence of camps housing over a million people of one particular religion and ethnicity, within its borders, is interesting – eerily so.

And yet it was not so long ago, that ‘noblesse oblige’, ‘la mission civilisatrice’ and ‘white man’s burden’ were being articulated as pretexts for territorial takeover and the oppression and subordination of people, land, and dignity.

The colonial missions (mandates, protectorates, etc.) created a fundamental imbalance in the power of man over (others’) resources, and the power of some (men) over others, and a continuing legacy of interference in others’ affairs ostensibly to help (hence presumably the reference to sovereignty in the above statement), and usually – and here is part of the vexing reality – at the behest of nationals who ask for the ‘assistance’.

And it is still the case, that the very ideologies of supremacy of one people over another, including of one race and/or one sex or one religion over another, the refusal to be held accountable to centuries of discrimination now part of the DNA of almost all institutions; the insistence on subjugation of nature to man; and the perpetuation of misogyny – all continue to define our present broken world.

But today we have an awareness among esteemed politicians, academics, and several governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental institutions, that religion matters. Indeed, that in various forms of ‘engagement’ with (usually specific and selective) religious institutions, religious NGOs, and/or religious leaders, good things come about.

Salvation may be imminent. “Faith for [insert the wording here]” or “religion and [insert appropriate term here] is the new formula for overcoming most difficulties, from vaccine hesitancy to gender discrimination, from electoral gerrymandering to racism, and everything in between.

And why not? After all, religious institutions (churches, mosques, temples, etc.) actually are the original development and humanitarian actors, and are still critical service providers in countries where governments are increasingly struggling to serve basic needs of many of their populations.

The very first schools and hospitals known to societies all around the world originated in and through religious bodies. Today, Catholic Churches alone manage significant public health infrastructures from North America to Sub-Saharan Africa. Caritas Internationalis for instance, is one of the largest (Catholic) humanitarian and development NGOs in the world.

If we begin to look at other religiously inspired NGOs, we will find a significant number of them delivering much needed refuge and support to the largest refugee and displaced populations ever recorded in human history, as well as health, education, sanitation, nutrition and humanitarian relief services, to hundreds of millions, in all corners of the world.

Furthermore, ‘Islamic finance’ is a source of funding for major United Nations entities’ development and relief efforts (e.g. UNHCR, UNDP, UNICEF) around the world – and more of that is being sought after, with various Muslim entities rushing to provide fatwas (religious edicts) and justifications for why this is good Islamic practice.

Increasing ‘faith investments’ in and for sustainable development are being strongly advocated for by some, with new initiatives emerging in that advocacy space to ‘help and encourage… ethical religious investments’. Private sector interest is focusing on how ‘faith-based actors’ are facilitators of emerging markets – and possibly multipliers of profits, for some pharmaceuticals, among other companies.

Just as in the 1990s, we started to learn how investing in women’s rights makes economic sense. Today, we are hearing how investing in faith actors makes that kind of sense too. In fact, some humanitarian and development religious NGOs (mostly with a Christian background, many Evangelical) are being actively mobilised to run initiatives to champion freedom of religion and belief, and/or to facilitate strategic ‘advocacy’ for major faith-based NGOs – ostensibly as part of their learning and wisdom acquired defending other human rights (albeit sometimes with an underdeveloped track record).

Yet, while they touched on almost every single aspect in their strong statement, neither the Russian Federation nor China reference ‘faith’, or ‘religion’ in their Joint Statement. Indeed, not once is ‘civil society’ mentioned. For these powerful states, as with others like them, religions, and any aspect of civic engagement, are either non-existent, or totally subservient to their own will, as to be unworthy of singling out.

Instead, an appropriation of the language of human rights, of democracy, of “cultural diversity”, “balance, harmony and inclusiveness” and even “moral principles” is de rigeur. But you see, this is the other side of using religion. You can overemphasize its value, or you can eclipse it.

Religious institutions, faith leaders and faith-based NGOs, have a responsibility to protect civil society. Instead of seeking to earn a celebrity status with some governments or political parties, or trying to leverage their own influence as Catholic/Protestant/Orthodox/Evangelical/Jewish/Muslim/Hindu/Buddhist/etc., all faith actors need to learn to come together as a collective power that is part of their secular civil brethren.

In doing so, their combined moral, economic, financial, political, cultural, and social weight, will dwarf the most authoritarian of structures. At the very least, in coming together to serve all, religious communities can hold all decision makers accountable to a collective justice – of gender, of environment, of voice, of representation, and ultimately, of dignity.

Civil societies are the barometers of collective planetary wellbeing. As we dismember and silence civil societies, by using/focusing on (some) religions at a time, and serving piecemeal selective interests, we ensure that the arc of history remains mired in the abuse of indivisible and interdependent human rights, which are central to vibrant and healthy democracies.

To the tyranny of states and religious institutions alike, I would say: stop using your power to gain political and financial expediency. Instead, work with all religions on a level playing field, with the rest of civil society, to hold one another accountable, and thereby, to ensure peace and security for all times.

Prof. Azza Karam, PhD, is Secretary General, Religions for Peace International.

 

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At least 43% of the estimated 6000 languages spoken in the world are endangered. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are used in the digital world. Credit: Danilo Valladares/IPS

By Baher Kamal
MADRID, Feb 21 2022 (IPS)

“Every two weeks a language disappears taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage. At least 43% of the estimated 6000 languages spoken in the world are endangered. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are used in the digital world.”

This shocking fact has been highlighted by the United Nations on the occasion of International Mother Language Day, marked 21 February

Over the past three centuries, languages have died out and disappeared at a dramatic and steadily increasing pace, especially in the Americas and Australia. About half of the 6,000 or so languages spoken in the world are under threat

Languages, with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development, are of strategic importance for people and the planet, says the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

“Yet, due to globalisation processes, they are increasingly under threat, or disappearing altogether. When languages fade, so does the world’s rich tapestry of cultural diversity. Opportunities, traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking and expression — valuable resources for ensuring a better future — are also lost.”

 

Mother tongues in education

The International Mother Language Day recognises that languages and multilingualism can advance inclusion, and the Sustainable Development Goals’ focus on leaving no one behind.

UNESCO believes education, based on the first language or mother tongue, must begin from the early years as early childhood care and education is the foundation of learning.

This year’s observance is a call on policymakers, educators and teachers, parents and families to scale up their commitment to multilingual education, and inclusion in education to advance education recovery in the context of COVID-19.

 

A full decade for indigenous peoples’ languages

This effort also contributes to the United Nations International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032), for which UNESCO is the lead agency, and which places multilingualism at the heart of indigenous peoples’ development.

Participants at the High-level event, “Making a decade of action for indigenous languages,” on 28 February 2020 issued a strategic roadmap for the Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) prioritising the empowerment indigenous language users, UNESCO reported.

More than 500 participants from 50 countries, including government ministers, indigenous leaders, researchers, public and private partners, and other stakeholders and experts, adopted the Los Pinos Declaration, at the end of the two-day event in Mexico City, which was organised by UNESCO and Mexico.

 

“Nothing for us without us”

The Declaration places indigenous peoples at the centre of its recommendations under the slogan “Nothing for us without us.”

The Declaration, designed to inspire a global plan of action for the Decade, calls for the implementation of the internationally recognized rights of indigenous peoples, expressed notably in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2007, the UN System-wide Action Plan (SWAP) on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of 2017, among several others.

 

On the verge of extinction

In its strategic recommendations for the Decade, the Los Pinos Declaration emphasises indigenous peoples’ rights to “freedom of expression, to an education in their mother tongue and to participation in public life using their languages, as prerequisites for the survival of indigenous languages many of which are currently on the verge of extinction.”

With regard to participation in public life, the Declaration highlights the importance of enabling the use of indigenous languages in justice systems, the media, labour and health programmes. It also points to the potential of digital technologies in supporting the use and preservation of those languages.

Building on the lessons learnt during the International Year of Indigenous Languages (2019), the Declaration recognises the importance of indigenous languages to social cohesion and inclusion, cultural rights, health and justice and highlights their relevance to sustainable development and the preservation of biodiversity as they maintain ancient and traditional knowledge that binds humanity with nature.

 

But, what is a “mother tongue”?

According to the United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK), Your ‘mother language’, or ‘mother tongue’, is the language you spoke from earliest childhood. For most people, this is just one language but children in multilingual families may learn two simultaneously.

UNESCO considers mother languages to be an essential part of culture and identity, and carriers of values and knowledge.

They are vital to the preservation and transmission of traditions, expressions, songs, jokes and rituals, which make all our lives richer, adds the Association, which was founded in 1945, advocating for UK action at the UN; and is the UK’s leading source of analysis on the UN; with a vibrant grassroots movement of 20,000 people from all walks of life.

UNESCO recommends that countries that have a bilingual or multilingual education system (where they use one or more official languages) give its school students the opportunity to use their mother tongue as their language of instruction.

Research shows that particularly in early years education, use of a child’s mother tongue helps to create a strong foundation for learning.

“However, in some countries, a particular language might be preferred for political or cultural reasons. This can result in the domination of one language in education and other public services.”

People that don’t speak the dominant language or speak it poorly can thus be disadvantaged and in the worst cases, it can lead to discrimination in daily life, exclusion from jobs or services and even oppression, says UNA-UK. “It can also result in other languages becoming endangered and ultimately extinct.”

 

Key facts:

According to the United Nations Association – UK:

• Just like endangered animal species, some languages are rapidly dying out and shared commitment and interest is needed to help keep them alive. At one time, there were between 7,000 and 8,000 distinct languages worldwide.

• Over the past three centuries, languages have died out and disappeared at a dramatic and steadily increasing pace, especially in the Americas and Australia. Now, very few people speak most of the 6,000 known languages around the world.

• About half of the 6,000 or so languages spoken in the world are under threat.

Isn’t all that alarming?

What it is like trying to do a job in a culture where women traditionally take second place to men.

A child walks past a damaged building in eastern Ukraine. Around 1.5 million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes since fighting in the far east of the country began in 2014. The UN and other humanitarian organizations are supporting those who have been displaced, as they try to adjust to their new lives. 3 February 2022. Credit: UNICEF/Ashley Gilbertson V

By John Burroughs
NEW YORK, Feb 21 2022 (IPS)

If the Ukraine crisis erupts into war – even intensified limited war in Eastern Ukraine with overt Russian intervention – the consequences will be severe and far-reaching.

A non-comprehensive list includes: vastly greater loss of life due to armed conflict in Ukraine; destabilization of global peace and security, not least the always urgent pursuit of nuclear arms control and disarmament; and impairment of the will and capability for cooperation on climate protection, public health, and other vital matters.

The proximate cause of the crisis is Russia’s menacing behavior, including deployment of troops and equipment near the border with eastern Ukraine and in Crimea and Belarus, and conducting a nuclear forces exercise in Belarus.

Especially in context and combined with Putin’s at times bellicose rhetoric, these actions are unlawful threats under the fundamental UN Charter prohibition of the “threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”.

In the case of the exercise, it is also an unlawful threat because it is contrary to general international law to threaten the commission of an illegal act – here the use of nuclear weapons.

Longer-term causes of the crisis are the utterly reckless declaration, made in 2008, the last year of the second George W Bush term, that NATO membership is in principle open to Ukraine and Georgia; and more broadly the long history since the mid-1990s of US and NATO disregard of Russian security interests and proposals.

To take just one example, when the first GW Bush administration determined that the US would withdraw from the ABM Treaty, Russia proposed renegotiation of the treaty. The US answer was simple: No.

The United States then proceeded to establish missile defense facilities in Romania and Poland that Russia, with some reason, regarded as destabilizing.

The only rational path is diplomacy. At two Security Council meetings on Ukraine, on January 31 and February 17, this was the refrain of all Council members, including Russia.

Diplomacy is indeed mandated by the UN Charter, which requires member states to “settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.”

As the Russian response to a US proposal conveyed, there is some common ground for negotiation on such matters as limits on military deployments and regional arms control, conventional and nuclear. Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Michael McFaul surveys possible topics in this recent Foreign Affairs article.

However, as Russia has been insisting, what is lacking above all is US interest in addressing Russia’s categorical opposition to even the possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine. Instead, the United States has been mechanically saying that foreclosing that possibility is a “non-starter”.

This displays a lack of the creativity and imagination that diplomats on occasion are quite capable of putting to good use. Among possible courses of action: neutrality for Ukraine; an alternative European security arrangement; a long-term moratorium on NATO expansion; or some combination of the foregoing and other measures.

Also, a resolution of the status of eastern Ukraine will have to be reached, with the people of that region having a voice in the outcome. Similarly, the status of Crimea will have to be addressed or the issue deferred.

The stakes are very high. Energetic, creative, and determined problem solving is imperative.

For civil society commentary, see:
No war in Ukraine, then no war anywhere, United for Peace and Justice
The Ukraine crisis: commentary, responses, and background, United for Peace and Justice
Appeal: Diplomacy instead of preparation for war, IPPNW Germany and IALANA Germany (in German)

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Senior Analyst, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, New York City

The children were killed by accident in an air strike by neighbouring Nigeria, local officials said.