Articles by UN
We found 3811 results.
Donald Trump’s Space Force: The Dangerous Militarisation of Outer Space
Gbenga Oduntan – The Conversation,
2 Jul 2018
25 Jun 2018 – Trump’s new policy could lead to the militarisation of outer space and the beginning of a new space arms race. As ever, the policy announcement was full of glittering ideas but short on detail, largely unspecific and even inaccurate. What we do know is that this would be a new and separate military command, “equal” to the American Airforce. But like much of Trumpian vision, superlative expressions shroud reality and do great injustice to the serious issues at stake.
→ read full articleSyria and the Diseased, Lying, Condition of America’s ‘News’ Media
Eric Zuesse | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
21 Jun 2018 – Both President Trump and former President Obama are commonly said in America’s ‘news’ media to be or to have been “ceding Syria to Russia” or “ceding Syria to Russia and Iran,” or similar allegations. They imply that ‘we’ own (or have some right to control) Syria. That’s not only a lie; it is a very evil and harmful one.
→ read full article
What the Battle for Hodeidah Means for Yemen’s Children: 8 Things You Need to Know
UNICEF – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
21 Jun 2018 – Yemen is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. More than 22 million Yemenis – that’s three-quarters of the population – need humanitarian assistance and protection. More than 11 million of them are children. The conflict has made Yemen a living hell for its children.
→ read full article
Veteran Socialist Public Official from Portugal Elected to Lead UN Migration Agency
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
29 Jun 2018 – A lawyer and politician from Portugal, with an extensive career in public service, has been elected to head the United Nations migration agency.
→ read full articleMeanwhile, around the World
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
There are many summit meetings, usually with Trump. “Good chemistry” is not sufficient, nor is it necessary. Peace may come about in spite of, not because of, the summits. Summiteers might come further focusing on “how can we be good to each other” than on “how can we stop being bad”. Positive approach.
→ read full article
A Plea to TMS Readers for Peace Journalism-Peace by Peaceful Means
Dr. Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
In most cases of realities that involve blood, invasion, genocides, war crimes, exploitation, systematic acts of state propaganda, “all sides” and “balance” in journalism, are not simply acts of moral cowardice, but the total absence of intellectual substance. Peace, nonviolence, social justice, are TMS ideologies rooted on basic human rights and needs, non negotiable principles. Think about it and Please Act making your financial contribution TODAY! Thank you.
→ read full article
[Nobel Peace Laureate] Suu Kyi’s Lies, Distortions Hinder International Accountability
Dr. Maung Zarni | Anadolu Agency – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
24 Jun 2018 – Myanmar’s leader is at it again: using her Office’s Facebook, she is peddling lies that are easily exposed. Her growing list of provable distortions and denials must not go unchallenged.
→ read full article
Myanmar/UN Memorandum of Understanding on Rohingya Repatriation
The United Nations – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
Secret MOU endorsed by UN Secretary General putting Myanmar wolves in charge of Rohingya chickens. This document belongs to 1 million Rohingyas. CIRCULATE it wide and far. Study it closely. Write about it publicly.
→ read full article
Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee Brings UN Human Rights Council Up to Date on Human Rights in Myanmar
UN High Commissioner on Human Rights – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
27 Jun 2018 – Mr. President, I note the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently signed between the Myanmar Government, UNHCR and UNDP in early June to assist the process of repatriation from Bangladesh. It is disconcerting that the MoU remains not publicly available and there has not been transparency about its terms. I am dismayed about the fact that the parties to the MoU, including the United Nations agencies involved in this process, have apparently failed to recognise Rohingya living in Bangladesh as refugees and as Rohingya. Most frightful still is the fact that the Rohingya refugees have not been included in any of the discussions around this MoU nor consulted in relation to the repatriation process as a whole. I would like to ask your Excellencies, how can the process of repatriation be voluntary with the people who the process is for excluded from it? How can you be sure that any return is based on individual informed consent? Let’s stop for a moment and ask ourselves what “voluntary, dignified, safe, and sustainable” returns really mean, and whether that is achievable in the current framework.
→ read full article
AI-Supported Global Governance through Bottom-Up Deliberation
Soushiant Zanganehpour | Global Challenges Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jul 2018
Introducing new technologies and institutions in order to decentralize global governance to participatory and deliberative models. Recognizing the limitations of nation-states in creating solutions to adequately govern global commons, which are often perceived as counter-productive to national interests, this proposal suggests combining a blockchain based global identity system with an AI-based collaboration platform to fuel citizen collaboration and ideation around policies and budget suggestions, as the entry point for decentralized citizen participation in governance.
→ read full article
UN Chief Calls for ‘Solidarity, Compassion and Action’ on World Refugee Day
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jun 2018
20 Jun 2018 – With more than 68 million people worldwide displaced due to conflict or persecution — roughly equivalent to the population of Thailand— the head of the United Nations has called for unity and solidarity as a first step to support them.
→ read full article
UN and the Four-Word Mantra for Myanmar Genocide Survivors
Maung Zarni – Prothom Alo [Bangladesh],
25 Jun 2018
19 Jun 2018 – “Political language… is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind,” George Orwell observed, in the middle of the 20th century. Let’s take a look at the four adjectives that have come to be the pillars of UN policy mantra.
→ read full article
Helen Keller (27 Jun 1880 – 1 Jun 1968)
American Foundation for the Blind – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Jun 2018
American educator Helen Keller overcame the adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century’s leading humanitarians, as well as co-founder of the ACLU.
→ read full articleUN General Assembly Adopts Text Urging Greater Protection for Palestinians and Deploring Israel’s ‘Excessive’ Use of Force
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2018
13 Jun 2018 – In an emergency meeting today the UNGA adopted an Arab-sponsored resolution calling for greater protection for Palestinians and deploring any use of “excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate” force by the Israeli military against Palestinian civilians, particularly in Gaza.
→ read full article
‘True’ Peace Requires Standing Up for Human Rights, Says UN Chief Guterres
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Jun 2018
13 June 2018 – Achieving peace involves more than “laying down weapons”, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said today, calling for intensified efforts to address the root causes of conflict.
→ read full article
New Secretive Deal between UN, Myanmar Smells Foul
Maung Zarni and Natalie Brinham - Andalou Post [Turkey],
20 Jun 2018
Newly-organized UN in Myanmar has shelved organization’s own governing principles of transparency and inclusivity, as evidenced by freshly-inked MOU with Myanmar.
→ read full article
Nobel Peace Laureate Suu Kyi Actively Attempting to Manipulate UN
Dr. Maung Zarni – Anadolu Post,
20 Jun 2018
16 Jun 2018 – No political regime, civilian or military, that commissions international crimes against its own national minorities should be given the benefit of the doubt when its smooth-talking Oxford-educated politician says it is on the path towards incremental liberalization and constructive resolution of the crisis confronting a people whose existence she herself denies.
→ read full article
South Sudan Suffering on ‘Almost Unimaginable Scale’, Warns UN Relief Chief
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2018
People are suffering “on an almost unimaginable scale” in South Sudan, the United Nations emergency relief chief said on Monday [4 Jun], adding that he welcomed the announcement by the United States that it is to review the amount of assistance it provides to the war-torn country.
→ read full article
A Rohingya’s Perspective
Tun Khin – The Daily Star [Bangladesh],
11 Jun 2018
7 Jun 2018 – Bangladesh’s ICC Cooperation Is Crucial for Rohingya Justice – Since August last year, the world has witnessed how hundreds of thousands of desperate Rohingyas have fled across the border into Bangladesh, bringing with them tales of unimaginable horror.
→ read full article
A Truly Global Partnership – Helping the UN to Do Itself Out of a Job
Natalie Samarasinghe | Global Challenges Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2018
The model proposed brings businesses, NGOs and young people into UN governance structures. Concurrently, the UN would transfer its development-related tasks to these stakeholders, who would bid competitively for contracts. As a result, the UN could redirect its limited resources to crucial tasks such as conflict resolution, which cannot be easily performed by others.
→ read full article
UN Agencies Express Outrage over Killing of Palestinian Volunteer Medic in Gaza
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
11 Jun 2018
United Nations officials have expressed their outrage over Friday’s [1 Jun] killing by Israeli security forces of 21-year-old Razan al-Najjar, a Palestinian volunteer medic who was helping the injured along the Gaza border.
→ read full article
How and Why the US Government Perpetrated the 2014 Coup in Ukraine
Eric Zuesse | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2018
3 Jun 2018 – This will document that the ‘new Cold War’ between the US and Russia did not start, as the Western myth has it, with Russia’s involvement in the breakaway of Crimea and Donbass from Ukraine, after Ukraine — next door to Russia — had suddenly turned rabidly hostile toward Russia in February 2014.
→ read full article
Kiev Murder Stunt Was Absurd, but Even More So Was Western Media’s Reaction to It
Editorial | Strategic Culture Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2018
1 Jun 2018 – The credibility of the Kiev regime imploded emphatically this week; but so too of Western governments and news media. Western propaganda as peddled by governments, their secret services and dutiful corporate media should be in the spotlight of world scrutiny. Not further perverse allegations against Russia.
→ read full articleMeanwhile, Around the World
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
4 Jun 2018
The world may be losing a peace opportunity in the USA-North Korea conflict. With NK nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching mainland USA something close to “balance of power” had been obtained, by many seen as the key to peace via “mutual and balanced” disarmament even to “general and complete disarmament”.
→ read full article
The Rohingya’s Hope for Justice Lies with the ICC
Tun Khin- Al Jazeera,
28 May 2018
The UN Security Council must refer the Rohingya’s case to the International Criminal Court.
→ read full article
Operazione Colomba
Nonviolent Peace Corps of the Association Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 May 2018
Descriptive Document on the Phenomenon of “Hakmarrja” and “Gjakmarrja” to Raise Awareness among Albanian and International Institutions
→ read full article
12 Features Zionist Israel Shares with Nazi Germany
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
The souls of the nearly 6-millions Jewish victims of the Holocaust must not be at rest, I can imagine, as long as the Zionists continue on with its version of Final Solution with respect the Palestinians. They would feel extremely pained that the State built on their ashes, tales of pains and horrors has morphed into, or simply conceived along the lines of the Third Reich of Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler and Eichman.
→ read full article
Minuteman III Missile Test Launched Prior to USA-North Korea Summit
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation- TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
14 May 2018 – The U.S. tested a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a mock nuclear warhead early morning today from Vandenberg Air Force Base. What kind of message is the U.S. sending to North Korea with this latest launch when these are the same class of missiles for which the U.S. has been highly critical of the North Koreans for developing and testing?
→ read full article
70th Anniversary of Apartheid Israel: History of Violent Invasion. Chronology of Palestinian Genocide
Gideon Polya | Countercurrents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
14 May 2018 marks the 70th anniversary of the Israeli Declaration of Independence by Zionist terrorist David Ben Gurion, the foundation of an invasion-, violence-, racism- , genocide- and theft-based Apartheid Israel. US Alliance backers of Apartheid Israel will mark the occasion with lying praise for this evil rogue state, but decent Humanity will tell the truth and demand “Free Palestine”, an end to Israeli Apartheid, return of all refugees and a democratic, multi-ethnic Unitary State in Palestine.
→ read full article
Trump Withdraws U.S. from Iran Nuclear Deal: There Will Be Negative Consequences
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
The decision to withdraw from the treaty:
* Makes it more likely Iran will pursue nuclear weapons.
* Makes war between the U.S. and Iran more likely.
* Separates the U.S. from its major allies.
* Shows U.S. commitments are not reliable.
* Further reinforces lack of U.S. leadership in the world.
* Will likely have adverse effects on achieving nuclear deal with N. Korea.
The Purpose of Nonviolent Communication
Sustainable Human | The Center for Nonviolent Communication – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
Nonviolent Communication is based on the principles of nonviolence– the natural state of compassion when no violence is present in the heart. People who practice NVC have found greater authenticity in their communication, increased understanding, deepening connection and conflict resolution.
→ read full article
Palestine: The Last Chapter?
Jafar M Ramini - Countercurrents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
15 May 2018 – There have been many setbacks for us Palestinians in the last 100 years. First, the British unjustly and illegally imposed on us the Balfour Declaration in 1917. We stood fast and said ‘no.’ Then the same British tried to impose on us the partition of the Peel Report in 1937. We stood fast and said ‘no’. Then came the unfair UN partition plan of 1947 and we stood fast and said ‘no’. Then they allowed the creation of Israel in 1948. We stood fast and we said ‘no’. Still the Israeli Apartheid fascist regime ethnically cleansed our land and murdered our people. We took the blows, we stood fast and we said ‘no’.
→ read full articleFactsheet on the Rohingya: Group Identity, Citizenship, Persecution
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
17 May 2018 – Rohingyas are a native, pre-colonial ethnic minority group of Rakhine State of Western Myanmar (formerly Burma), which shares 170 miles of long modern-day borders with Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan). Rohingya people view Myanmar as the country to which they belong.
→ read full article
Jerusalem Can Never Be Taken Off the Table
Wasan Abu-Baker | Countercurrents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
15 May 2018 – Ben Gurion in 1948 said, “We must do everything to insure the Palestinians never do return. The old will die and the young will forget”. How long will the international community remain silent about the escalating Israeli occupation of Jerusalem, Hebron and the West Bank, and policies of Judaization of Jerusalem, Hebron, and the West Bank? For how long will the confiscation of land, demolition of homes, and the enactment of laws that deprive the Palestinians of their rights and their land continue?
→ read full article
Ralph Waldo Emerson (25 May 1803 – 27 Apr 1882)
Ann Woodlief | Virginia Commonwealth University – TRANSCEND Media Service,
21 May 2018
He had become quite famous, a major figure in the American literary landscape, a celebrity which brought both adulation and satire. He had been a profound inspiration for many writers, especially Henry Thoreau and Walt Whitman.
→ read full article
Violating the Iran Deal: Playing with Nuclear Fire
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
9 May 2018 – President Trump has demonstrated yet again why he lacks the understanding, intelligence and temperament to be president of the United States. By violating the Iran nuclear deal, he is undermining the security of the U.S., our allies and the world. He has just fired another serious warning shot across the bow of democracy, one that bodes ill for the nuclear non-proliferation regime, for peace and for the future of our democratic institutions.
→ read full article
(Português) Um Jornalismo de Paz Não É um “Jornalismo Bonzinho”, e É por Ele que Francisco Quer Lutar
Alexandra Antunes | Sapo 24 – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
13 maio 2018 – Dia Mundial das Comunicações Sociais, proposto pelo Papa Francisco e celebrado hoje. É preciso “um jornalismo que não se limite a queimar notícias, mas se comprometa com a procura das causas reais dos conflitos, para favorecer a sua compreensão e a sua superação através de processos virtuosos; um jornalismo empenhado a indicar soluções alternativas ao aumento do clamor e da violência verbal”, disse o Papa Francisco [aludindo ao Prof. Johan Galtung].
→ read full article
The CIA Black Sites Program and the Gina Haspel Nomination
George Washington University, National Security Archive – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
9 May 2018—Today’s nomination hearing for Gina Haspel to be CIA director provides an opportunity for the agency and Haspel to fill in the blanks on the CIA “black sites” and interrogation program. The National Security Archive has already identified key questions about Haspel’s record [see box below]. Today, the Archive provides the basis for an evidence-based review of the Rendition, Detention and Interrogation program, posting a selection of the most recent versions of declassified documents that reveal the RDI’s background.
→ read full article
Iran Deal Represents ‘Significant Verification Gain’ – UN Atomic Energy Chief
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
9 May 2018 – Speaking the day after the United States withdrew from an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency made it clear that Iran has consistently stuck to its commitments.
→ read full articleFor Rohingya Refugees, Imminent Surge in Births Is Traumatic Legacy of Sexual Violence – Special Report
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
11 May 2018 – Late last year, as violent repression in Myanmar sent Rohingyas fleeing to safety in Bangladesh, women from the mainly Muslim minority were subjected to what a United Nations official called “a frenzy of sexual violence”.
→ read full article
Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution
Countercurrents - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
In a world fraught with violence, misuse of power, corruption and complex conflicts endangering human security and global peace, the book offers an outstanding contribution to rational thinking envisaging intellectual excellence and proactive vision for change and adaptability to the futuristic challenges in global affairs.
→ read full article
A Bomber Pilot Speaks
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
The stain of death spreads below,
but from my cockpit I see none of it.
I only drop bombs as I have been trained
The Skripals Will Most Likely Never Be Allowed to Talk
The Unz Review – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
11 May 2018 – It has been two months already since the Skripals are held in total secrecy by the UK authorities. What I see is this: on substance, the Skripal false flag has crashed and burned, just like MH17 or the Douma chemical attack, but unlike MH17 or Douma, the Skripals are two witnesses whose testimony has the potential to result in a gigantic scandal, not just for the May government, but for all those spineless Europeans who showed “solidarity” with Britain.
→ read full article
Achieving Peace
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
Inter-University Center, Dubrovnik – University of Oslo, Norway 1975
→ read full article
News from Burma/Myanmar’s Rohingya Genocide
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
11 May 2018 – Travels and intense activist work, and observing INGOs, old and new, treating the ongoing Rohingya genocide as if it were a business item among rivals, have drained me tremendously… Everyone remotely familiar with international justice–if at all–knows that by the time the lawyers arrive and the Court set up, the targets are all dead, their villages bulldozed in the case of Rohingyas, and they have nowhere to go or no place they can call ‘home’ or their homeland.
→ read full article
Military, a Most Sordid Profession
Fred Reed | The Unz Review – TRANSCEND Media Service,
14 May 2018
A few thoughts on our disastrous trillion-dollar military: It is unnecessary. It does not defend the United States. The US has no military enemies. No nation has anything even close to the forces necessary to invade America, and probably none the desire. “Our boys” are not noble warriors protecting democracy, rescuing maidens, and righting wrongs. They are, like all soldiers, obedient and amoral killers. Pilots bombing Iraq or Syria know they are killing civilians.
→ read full article
Gaza Now Has a Toxic ‘Biosphere of War’ That No One Can Escape
Mark Zeitoun and Ghassan Abu Sitta – The Conversation,
7 May 2018
27 Apr 2018 – Undrinkable drinking water is just one example of how blockades and war have permeated an entire ecosystem. A combination of repeated Israeli attacks and the sealing of its borders by Israel and Egypt have left the territory unable to process its water or waste.
→ read full article
Declaration on the Right to Peace (2)
United Nations General Assembly – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2018
Resolution 71/189 adopted by the General Assembly on 19 Dec 2016
→ read full article
Jake Lynch on Peace Journalism
Leeds Beckett University – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2018
Dr Jake Lynch, former BBC newsreader, Political Correspondent for Sky News and Sydney Correspondent for the Independent. Jake is now the Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney and is one of the most published authors in the field of Peace Journalism.
→ read full articleMeanwhile, Around the World
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2018
The violence pandemic continues, unabated, particularly in the USA. There is interest in peace but not much in doing anything about it. And even less in what this column recommends with 60 years experience: identify and solve underlying conflicts, concile underlying traumas. Not easy. But feasible, if the will is there. A 2-point agenda.
→ read full article
Peace Journalism and Conflict Transformation: The Importance of Training
Abbas Aroua | Cordoba Foundation of Geneva – TRANSCEND Media Service,
7 May 2018
Training journalists in the concepts and techniques of peace journalism, is to promote access to properly established information, to make people understand the causes and issues of conflict, and finally to encourage the participation of society in the peaceful transformation of these conflicts.
→ read full article
“Creating Wealth” through Debt: The West’s Finance-Capitalist Road
Michael Hudson – CounterPunch,
7 May 2018
Speech at Peking University’s School of Marxist Studies, May 5-6, 2018 – Volumes II and III of Marx’s Capital describe how debt grows exponentially, burdening the economy with carrying charges.
→ read full article
May the Korean Peace Deal Trigger Anti-Militarist, Anti-Fascist Movements in Asia–and Globally
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2018
Today–27 April 2018–will likely be chronicled in history as the day that gave little people like us, grassroots activists, to feel that PEACE is possible and that PEACE is the way. I hope Western mass media will stop its demonization of N. Korea which has, with good historical reasons, lived with the fear of being genocided by the United States.
→ read full articleNorth Korea’s Suspension of Missile Tests Should Lead to ‘Irreversible’ Commitment to Ban Nuclear Testing – UN-Backed Treaty Body
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2018
25 Apr 2018 – The world’s nuclear proliferation watchdog has welcomed the announcement by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to suspend its nuclear and missile tests and shut down its Punggye-ri atomic test site.
→ read full article
The Empire Turns Its Sights on Nicaragua – Again!
Dan Kovalik - CounterPunch,
30 Apr 2018
25 Apr 2018 – It was only a matter of time before the US government and its compliant media would once again put Nicaragua in their sights. As Noam Chomsky has opined, the US shall never forgive the Nicaraguan people for overthrowing the US-backed Somoza dictatorship in 1979, for militarily defeating the Contras and for then voting back in the Sandinistas in 2007. We must stand with Nicaragua now in opposing continued US hostilities in the form of the NICA Act.
→ read full articleDeclaration on the Right to Peace (1)
UN Human Rights Council – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2018
Resolution 32/28 adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on 1 July 2016
→ read full articleMinuteman III Missile Test Launched from California in Cloud of Secrecy
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2018
25 Apr 2018 – Poor Timing and Lack of Transparency Send Wrong Message – The United States launched a Minuteman III Ballistic Missile this morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base. This is the same class of missiles for which the U.S. has been highly critical of the North Koreans for developing and testing. It is particularly disappointing because it was conducted just over a day in advance of the planned summit of the leaders of North and South Korea.
→ read full articleJake Lynch on Peace Journalism
Leeds Beckett University – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2018
Dr Jake Lynch, former BBC newsreader, Political Correspondent for Sky News and Sydney Correspondent for the Independent. Jake is now the Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney and is one of the most published authors in the field of Peace Journalism.
→ read full article
ETA Statement to the Basque Country: Declaration on Harm Caused
Euskadi Ta Askatasuna – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2018
8 Apr 2018 – We are aware that we have caused great pain throughout this long period of armed struggle. We know much of this harm cannot be mended. We wish to express our respect to all the victims of ETA’s actions, in that they were harmed as a consequence of the conflict, whether they were killed, injured or harmed in any other way. We are truly sorry.
→ read full articleA Plea for Peace Journalism — Peace by Peaceful Means
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
30 Apr 2018
TRANSCEND Media Service is having a fund drive to keep its valuable service tailored to those of us who want in-depth critical analyses not sensationalist corporate media reportage. I’d rather throw TRANSCEND a lifeline than watch BBC, for example, and pay the license fee. Who in their right mind would pay to be brainwashed by yet another military-industrial complex?
→ read full articleConfronting Islamophobia
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2018
They are up against emirs and pashas not gladly ceding privileges to a carpet dotted with imams. IS–not ISIS, ISL, DAESH–the Islamic State, backing politically-militarily the Islamic Caliphate (IC), understands this, and relates directly to imams. The West got lost in the image of Syria as a Western colony, which it also was from 1916 (Sykes-Picot).
→ read full articleStructural Analysis and Chemical Models
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2018
1974 – The goal of this very simple exploration has been not to lose contact with the socially relevant. One socially relevant factor is what might be called structural imagination, where a look at a textbook of organic chemistry and a textbook of, say, sociology, gives a clear indication of where this factor is more developed. Social scientists talk about human and social variety, the specialists in organic chemistry not only talk about it, but present it and produce it. In this there is much to learn, but there is also much to learn from the way chemistry has managed to integrate empirical and constructive approaches.
→ read full articleUN Hails Release of More Than 200 Child Soldiers in South Sudan
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2018
Two hundred and seven child soldiers have been released by armed groups in South Sudan, part of a series of planned discharges that should see nearly 1,000 children return home over the coming months.
→ read full article
Facebook, Myanmar Genocide and Its Dehumanizingly Sexualized Discourses
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2018
19 Apr 2018 – But whatever, whoever is shaping the public opinion in today’s Myanmar anyone monitoring genocidal discourses in the public domains in Burmese language cannot fail to notice the Nazi parallel: Myanmar public, in my assessment, is in the mental world of the Nazis. I don’t use this word lightly – and for the effect. The paradox of a genocidal system: the system creates the problem which it cannot itself resolve.
→ read full article
Google’s Delisting and Censorship of Information
Julian Vigo - CounterPunch,
23 Apr 2018
20 Apr 2018 – In early January, numerous websites discovered that they were suddenly removed from the directory of Google News, a process known as “delisting.” Google has been criticized for its monopoly of free speech since it is a company extremely powerful, even more herculean than most countries on the planet.
→ read full article
Weaning African Leaders off Addiction to Power Is an Ongoing Struggle
Kealeboga J Maphunye – The Conversation,
23 Apr 2018
16 Apr 2018 – Some African leaders continue to disregard their countries’ own constitutions and laws governing presidential tenure. Their refusal to step down at the appointed time flies in the face of governance blueprints adopted from liberation politics to the new post independence struggle for democracy in the early 2000s. What, then, is the solution?
→ read full article
Why Not Emphasize Assad Had No MOTIVE to Use Gas! He Had Defeated the Terrorists Sent by USA
Jay Janson | Countercurrents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2018
Why Not Emphasize That Assad Had No MOTIVE to Use Gas When He Already Defeated the Terrorists Sent and Armed by USA and Saudi Arabia, while Assad’s Enemies Had a Reason to Stage a Gas Attack to Give USA a Pretext to Bomb yet Again?
→ read full article
Where on Earth is the Just Economy That Works for All, Including Afghan Children?
Dr Hakim Young | Voices for Creative Nonviolence – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Apr 2018
14 Apr 2018 – How can Afghan youngsters living in a war zone survive violence, an unjust economy, hunger and displacement? Who can help them?
→ read full article
A Tale of Two Atrocities: Douma and Gaza
Doug Noble - CounterPunch,
23 Apr 2018
20 Apr 2018 – Compare this intense media coverage of the alleged Syrian chemical attacks to the near silence accorded the horrific civilian massacre perpetrated by Israeli soldiers in Gaza, at the very same time. The US media’s almost total neglect of the brutal murders of innocent Palestinian men, women and children leads to the inescapable conclusion that, in contrast to Syrian victims, Palestinian victims don’t matter. How do we account for this discrepancy?
→ read full article
Ending the Agony: Access to Morphine as Ethical & Human Rights Imperative
UN Human Rights Council | Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2018
The Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering is a Swiss think-and-do tank putting compassion at the heart of the society of the future. OPIS promotes the ethical principle that nothing matters more than preventing or relieving the physical or emotional suffering of sentient beings, both humans and non-humans, with highest priority given to those suffering most intensely.
→ read full article
A Grassroots Initiative to Adopt 25 Aug as Rohingya Remembrance Day
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2018
Sharing a Few Updates: 12 Apr 2018 – I was in Ireland. The Irish supporters of Rohingya’s needs for protected homeland in collaboration with Irish Rohingya community had packed meetings with educators, religious leaders, activists, parliamentarians, media interviews, and two public talks.
→ read full articleAt Security Council, UN Chief Pushes for Creation of Body to Determine Perpetrators of Chemical Attacks in Syria
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2018
13 April 2018 – António Guterres today again called for the creation of an independent panel that could determine who used chemical weapons in Syria, as the absence of such a body increases the risks of a military escalation in a country already riven by “confrontations and proxy wars.”
→ read full article
The Tragic Farce in Myanmar
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
16 Apr 2018
Belfast, 12 Apr 2018 – Last night, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire’s Peace People hosted a Burma talk. I spoke on the urgent need to inform and mobilize grassroots communities about Myanmar genocide in order to build pressure on respective EU governments, as well as others to help end the genocide and support the Rohingyas’ NEED–not simply RIGHT–to a protected homeland. Plus: Saudi Gazette Editorial
→ read full article
Lula’s Conviction Turns Brazil into Model of Regional Control
Bruno Sgarzini – teleSUR,
9 Apr 2018
6 Apr 2018 – It is becoming less of a secret that operation Car Wash was brought about under the auspices of the U.S. State and Justice Departments via links with Sergio Moro, the Attorney General’s office and the federal police in charge of the investigation. Its most self-evident result has been to isolate the main political threat to the United States, namely the coalition of politicians – supported by the Workers’ Party – who favored strengthening Brazil’s multinational companies as global competitors. The following categorical example sums this up.
→ read full article
Brazil: World Social Forum Concludes in Salvador, Bahia
Comunicação CUT no Fórum | CPNN – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2018
18 Mar 2018 – The thirteenth edition of the World Social Forum came to an end on Sat 17 Mar, attracting more than 60,000 people to the various activities and debates held during the five-day event.
→ read full article
Yemen the World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis, Says UN Chief
António Guterres | The United Nations – Inter Press Service-IPS,
9 Apr 2018
4 Apr 2018 – Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. As the conflict enters its fourth year, more than 22 million people – three-quarters of the population – need humanitarian aid and protection. Some 18 million people are food insecure. And a horrifying 8.4 million of these people do not know how they will obtain their next meal. Millions of Yemenis do not have access to safe drinking water. Last year, 1 million people suffered from watery diarrhea and cholera. Half of all health facilities are shut or not working properly, meaning there is a high risk of another cholera epidemic.
→ read full article
Johan Galtung: Breaking the Cycle of Violent Conflict
University of California Television – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2018
A noted pioneer in the field of Peace Studies, Johan Galtung makes the case for incorporating human rights as key to successful peace building around the world.
→ read full article
Rohingya People Need Protected Homeland in Myanmar’s Northern Arakan
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
9 Apr 2018
3 Apr 2018 – By all means maintain the current talks of economic sanctions, as well as international justice and accountability regarding Myanmar perpetrators including Suu Kyi and her military partners in power. But what Rohingyas need and want more than anything is a homeland where they can live in peace and rebuild their scorch-earthed communities under international protection. The solution to Myanmar genocide will not come from the perpetrators.
→ read full article
A Note on Mathematics and Curricula
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
A study is going on comparing mathematics curricula in various countries. Interesting to see ‘what’ they have picked up, and ‘why.’ What follows is some reasoning about the what and the why.
→ read full article
Oh Rohingya, Who Art Thou? Where Art Thy Homeland?
Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
30 March 2018 – In deep disgust, I wrote the poetry this afternoon after feeling rather outraged and dismayed at what I have been observing everyday about the “Rohingya crisis” over the last 6 years. Ultimately, it is the crisis of Humanity itself, the crisis that exposes this deeply inhumane and immoral world run by those with neither the intellectual vision nor human compassion.
→ read full article
Russian Exodus from the West
Peter Koenig — Countercurrents,
2 Apr 2018
31 Mar 2018 – What if the current UK virulent and violent Russia slandering campaign is but a dry-run for much worse to come? – By now the mental state of western society is at the level of Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Goebbels’, statement – “Let me control the media, and I will turn any Nation into a herd of Pigs”. Yes, that’s what the west has become, a herd of pigs.
→ read full articleMeanwhile, Around the World
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
As usual, many truths emerge, very much worth knowing. A world trying to substitute economic for military power should try to use better cultural power, also as spiritual power: “Pope Francis offers a different model of power”, with very very concrete proposals. May he reach the corridors of power; they are fortunate enough to co-exist in time with this giant.
→ read full article
At Security Council, UN Middle East Peace Envoy Reports on Israel’s Troubling Settlement Expansion
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
Reporting that over the past three months, Israel has advanced 22 plans for some 1,200 housing units for one area of the West Bank, a United Nations envoy warned Monday [26 Mar] that such ongoing settlement expansion is eroding the prospect of a two-state solution to the long-standing Middle East conflict.
→ read full article
Insect Decimation Upstages Global Warming
Robert Hunziker - CounterPunch,
2 Apr 2018
27 Mar 2018 – Everybody’s heard about global warming. It is one of the most advertised existential events of all time. However, there’s a new kid on the block. An alarming loss of insects will likely take down humanity before global warming hits maximum velocity.
→ read full article
Brazil’s Marielle Franco Denounced Three Murders [by Military Police] in the Days before Her Assassination. These Are the Stories.
Leandro Demori, Bruna de Lara, Carolina Moura, Juliana Gonçalves, Yuri Eiras – The Intercept,
2 Apr 2018
21 Mar 2018 – Marielle Franco’s assassins wanted to silence her cause.
→ read full article
Shifting Systems with Nonviolent Strategy
Rivera Sun | PeaceVoice – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
The old adage, we have more power than we think, is true. Our opportunities for successful and effective struggle are numerous. But to access them, we need to use wise analysis and careful strategic planning. We need to understand what the destructive systems require to operate and then we must deny them those resources until the demand for change is met. Simple. Complex. Effective.
→ read full articleThe World after Trump, Netanyahu and Rajoy
Johan Galtung - TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
Easter 2018 – We may soon be witnessing those powerful politicians fizzling out. Trump is seen as “unleveled”, “incompetent”; Netanyahu is framed as “corrupt”; and Rajoy for pillaging the state to support his party. However, true or not, the real reasons are their failed policies.
→ read full articleUN Appeals for Support to Tackle ‘Massive’ Health Needs of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
29 Mar 2018 -With relief agencies in Bangladesh struggling to assist more than a million vulnerable Rohingya refugees crowded into makeshift camps, the World Health Organization today appealed for international support to help the cash strapped health sector.
→ read full article
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
United Nations – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Apr 2018
The UDHR is a milestone document. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the UNGA in Paris on 10 Dec 1948 as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages.
→ read full article
Johan Galtung’s Positive Peace Concept
Hanno Heynitz | Galtung Institut Germany – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2018
“Positive Peace” as defined by Prof. Johan Galtung in over 50 years of uninterrupted research, refers to a very specific ‘fait social’ that requires equally specific political measures. This presentation is an effort to make the concepts and specificities underpinning the notion of Positive Peace more widely understood.
→ read full article
The Living and the Disappeared: The Unending Battle for Justice in Sri Lanka
Nirmanusan Balasundaram | Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka - TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2018
19 March 2018 – The signing of Memorandum of Understanding between Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam engineered many prospects, promises and hopes about the fate of political prisoners, prisoners of war and the disappeared. For the families of the disappeared, despite darkening clouds, there is a glimpse of hope that their sons and daughters are alive somewhere and they will return home one day.
→ read full article
Australia and Singapore Prime Ministers Help Whitewash Myanmar Genocide
Dr. Maung Zarni – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2018
20 Mar 2018 – I just returned from Paris where I had a quite intense 2-day meeting with other fellow activists deeply concerned with the plight of the Rohingyas, a small number of Rohingyas who have resettled there, as well as a very progressive deputee de Paris at the Assemble Nationale and her assistant… “Intense public attention makes it difficult to solve” (Myanmar genocide), so says Singapore Prime Minister.
→ read full article
Analog/Digital International Relations and Global Politics
Oliver P. Richmond | Global Dynamics, Univ. California Santa Barbara – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Mar 2018
25 Jan 2018 – This essay outlines a new, preliminary perspective of global studies resting on analog and digital processes, and discusses their implications for longstanding key debates in the discipline about war and peace, sovereignty, order, and legitimacy. Digital phenomena were initially thought to be a breakthrough for global civil society and rights. However, a brewing ‘counter-revolution’ of what might be now called the ‘ancien regime’ instead points to digital forms of governmentality closely connected to older, analog hierarchies.
→ read full article
Burma: Yearlong Preaching Ban on “Face of Buddhist Terror” Monk U Wirathu almost Up
Htun Htun - The Irrawaddy,
26 Mar 2018
U Wirathu, the firebrand nationalist monk who in 2017 was banned from preaching for one year, will be free to resume his sermons on Saturday [10 Mar 2018]. Notorious for his anti-Muslim rhetoric, he has made the cover of Time Magazine as the “Face of Buddhist Terror.”
→ read full article
(Italiano) Non guerra al terrorismo ma dialogo per delle soluzioni
Johan Galtung | Centro Studi Sereno Regis – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2018
9 marzo 2018 – Sono seduto a un tavolo da qualche parte in Afghanistan. Al tavolo ci sono tre taliban; pashtun come la gran parte dei taliban. La mia domanda iniziale è quella standard: “Come sarebbe l’Afghanistan dove vi piacerebbe vivere?”, con domande successive altrettanto standard: “Che cos’è il peggio che vi è capitato?” e “C’è stato un periodo buono in passato?”
→ read full article
March 16, the Blackest Day in Kashmir History
Mohamad Ashraf Khwaja | Countercurrents – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2018
The 16th of March is the blackest day for all Kashmiris. On this day in 1846, an inhuman sale of Kashmir and Kashmiris was made with a person (Gulab Singh) whom Lord Hardinge called ‘the greatest rascal of Asia’ by a nation (Britain) to which Napoleon called ‘the country of shopkeepers’. Ironically, this sordid sale of the transaction was erroneously termed as ‘The treaty of Amritsar’.
→ read full article
Preventing War and Promoting Peace – A Guide for Health Professionals
Cambridge University Press – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2018
Preventing War and Promoting Peace: A Guide for Health Professionals is an interdisciplinary study of how pervasive militarism creates a propensity for war through the influence of academia, economic policy, the defense industry, and the news media.
→ read full article
The Season for Nonviolence 2018
Mahatma Gandhi Canadian Foundation for World Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2018
The Season for Nonviolence is a global grassroots campaign dedicated to raising awareness about the transformative power of nonviolence. It was established by Arun Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, as a yearly event celebrating the philosophies and lives of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Since 1998, the Season has marked the 64 calendar days between the assassination of Gandhi on January 30 and that of King on April 4.
→ read full article“Decline and Fall” of the US Empire – Introduction to the American Edition
Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2018
America itself may look at the map and discover that they are located in North America, with two neighbors, big in population and in land, and conclude that MEX-US-CAN, Mexuscan, makes a lot of sense. At least worth contemplating. Making USA not America First as somebody proclaims while producing America Last. But America Normal.
→ read full article
Statement by the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide about Rohingya Refugees from Myanmar
Office of the UN Secretary-General – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Mar 2018
12 March 2018 – “Let us be clear: international crimes were committed in Myanmar. Rohingya Muslims have been killed, tortured, raped, burnt alive and humiliated, solely because of who they are. All the information I have received indicates that the intent of the perpetrators was to cleanse northern Rakhine state of their existence, possibly even to destroy the Rohingya as such, which, if proven, would constitute the crime of genocide.” — Adama Dieng, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide
→ read full article