Issue Preview: 57th International Whaling Commission Meets May 30

What was originally intended in 1986 to be a 5-year “pause” in commercial whaling for the purpose of assessing scientific data and improving sustainable whaling management practices is now nearing its 20th anniversary as a de facto ban. In less than two weeks, an expected 600 participants from 61 countries will confer on the fate […]

Burundians Vote “Yes”

More than 90 percent of Burundians said “yes” to the new constitution ! Locally, you would hear “oui” in French and “ego” in Kirundi, the two official languages. Hopefully, many Burundians are also saying “AMAHORO”, the word for peace in this worn-torn country currently stricken by drought, famine, and U.N. scandal. The new constitution will […]

UN Adopts Nuclear Terrorism Treaty

International Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism On April 13 and after more than seven years of negotiations, the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus the 28-article International Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. The Convention obliges nations to extradite or prosecute potential terrorists, to criminalize within domestic laws […]

The White Smoke Not Seen…Nuclear Shutdown

One week after the adoption by UN General Assembly of the International Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, satellite photos confirm that there is no flume of smoke arising from the cooling tower of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor in North Korea, an indication that the reactor has been shut down. Possible reasons […]

Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty – RevCon

The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference (NPT RevCon) being held at the UN headquarters in New York began without an agenda because member states could not reach agreement on which substantive issues to discuss and the rules of procedure. The treaty members could not even agree on whether to discuss the major events which have […]

Status of the World’s Women

Dressed entirely in black and wearing a black hijab, Nancy Rubin, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (1997-2000), began her talk on the status of the world’s women with a rather bleak overview of a global landscape which still marginalizes half the world’s population.