By AD McKenzie
PARIS, Sep 27 2024 – In any discussion of world peace and the future of humanity, the issue of nuclear arms must be addressed, and now.

That was the message from a range of delegates at the “Imaginer la Paix / Imagine Peace” conference, held in Paris September 22 to 24, and organized by the Sant’Egidio Community, a Christian organization founded in Rome in 1968 and now based in 70 countries.

Describing its tenets as “Prayer, service to the Poor and work for Peace,” the community has hosted 38 international, multi-faith peace meetings, bringing together activists from around the world. This is the first time the conference has been held in Paris, with hundreds traveling to France, itself a nuclear-weapon state.

Occurring against the backdrop of brutal, on-going conflicts in different regions and a new race by some countries to “upgrade” their arsenal, the gathering had a sense of urgency, with growing fears that nuclear weapons might be used by warlords. Participants highlighted current and past atrocities and called upon world leaders to learn from the past.

“After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we have been blessed with many who have said ‘no’—’no’ a million times, creating movements and treaties, (and) awareness… that the only reasonable insight to learn from the conception and use of nuclear weapons is to say ‘no’,” said Andrea Bartoli, president of the Sant’Egidio Foundation for Peace and Dialogue, based in New York.

Participating in a conference forum Monday titled “Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Imagining a World Without Nuclear Weapons,”  Bartoli and other speakers drew stark pictures of what living in a world with nuclear weapons entails, and they highlighted developments since World War II.

“After the two bombs were used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, humans built more than 70,000 nuclear weapons and performed more than 2,000 tests. Still today we have more than 12,500, each of them with power greatly superior to the two used in August 1945,” Bartoli said.

Despite awareness of the catastrophic potential of these weapons and despite a UN treaty prohibiting their use, some governments argue that possessing nuclear arms is a deterrent—an argument that is deceptive, according to the forum speakers.

Anna Ikeda, program coordinator for disarmament at the UN Office of Soka Gakkai International. Credit: AD McKenzie/IPS

Jean-Marie Collin, director of ICAN (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a movement launched in the early 2000s in Australia and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017), said that leaders who cite deterrence “accept the possibility of violating” international human rights.

“Nuclear weapons are designed to destroy cities and kill and maim entire populations, which means that all presidents and heads of government who implement a defense policy based on nuclear deterrence and who are therefore responsible for giving this order, are aware of this,” Collin told the forum.

ICAN campaigned for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that was adopted at the United Nations in 2017, entering into force in 2021. The adoption came nearly five decades after the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which entered into force in 1970.

The terms of the NPT consider five countries to be nuclear weapons states: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China. Four other countries also possess nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel.

According to a 2024 ICAN report, these nine states jointly spent €85 billion (USD 94,6 billion) on their atomic weapon arsenals last year, an expenditure ICAN has called “obscene” and “unacceptable.” France, whose president Emmanuel Macron spoke about peace in broad, general terms at the opening of the conference, spent around €5,3 billion (about USD 5,9 billion) in 2023 on its nuclear weapons, said the report.

The policy of “deterrence” and “reciprocity,”  which essentially means “we’ll get rid of our weapons if you get rid of yours,”  has been slammed by ICAN and fellow disarmament activists.

“With the constant flow of information, we often tend to lose sight of the reality of figures,” Collin said at the peace conference. “I hope this one will hold your attention: it is estimated that more than 38,000 children were killed in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Children!”

All those killed—an estimated 210,000 people by the end of 1945—died in horrific ways, as survivors and others have testified. Delegates said that this knowledge should be the real “deterrent.”

At the forum, Anna Ikeda, program coordinator for disarmament at the UN Office of Soka Gakkai International, a global Buddhist movement, described testimony from a Hiroshima a-bomb survivor, Reiko Yamada, as one she would never forget.

“She (Yamada) stated, ‘A good friend of mine in the neighbourhood was waiting for her mother to return home with her four brothers and sisters. Later, she told me that on the second day after the bombing, a moving black lump crawled into the house. They first thought it was a black dog, but they soon realized it was their mother; she collapsed and died when she finally got to her children. They cremated her body in the yard,” Ikeda told the audience with emotion.

“Who deserves to die such a death? Nobody!” she continued. “Yet our world continues to spend billions of dollars to upkeep our nuclear arsenals, and our leaders at times imply readiness to use them. It is utterly unacceptable.”

Ikeda said that survivors, known as the “hibakusha” in Japan, have a fundamental answer to why nuclear weapons must be abolished—it is that “no one else should ever suffer what we did.”

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

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By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 27 2024 – Yesterday, India’s Federal Health Ministry reported the nation’s first documented case of mpox. The infected individual was reported to have contracted the clade Ib strain of the virus, which is a far deadlier variant than the more common clade II. This development has raised considerable concern among health officials around the world as the mpox epidemic had been contained in the Democratic Republic of Congo until recently.

In August, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the emerging mpox epidemic to be a “global health emergency”. In the early stages of the epidemic, around 90 percent of all cases had been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the following weeks, infections were reported in neighbouring states, including Kenya, Burundi, and Rwanda. The virus had also spread to non-African countries, such as Pakistan, Thailand, and Sweden.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC) reported a 160 percent rise in cases from the previous year, adding that most of these cases are from the deadlier clade I variant. Additionally, in the past few weeks, there have been a considerable uptick in cases in Kinshasa, the capital city of Congo. According to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ministry of Health, Kinshasa had only seen 525 cases of transmission as of September 15. However, 10 percent of those cases had been reported in the final week of that testing period, indicating to analysts that rates of transmission are on the rise.

Although there have been few cases of the clade Ib strain detected, as well as zero fatalities, outside of Congo, health officials around the world have set up processes to track the spread and isolate infected individuals. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) urged for continued vigilance surrounding this epidemic, stating, “The size of these outbreaks could be larger than reported due to under-ascertainment and under-reporting”. It is estimated by the Congolese Health Ministry that only 20 percent of mpox cases are confirmed, with most never seeking care or having their symptoms brushed off as chickenpox.

Congolese health officials have long advocated for a strong mpox vaccination campaign to be conducted, believing that it is paramount to eradicating this health crisis. “The expanding outbreak and the ongoing difficulties controlling it using traditional public health measures highlight the clear role of vaccines as part of the comprehensive response. A strong, well-coordinated mpox vaccine rollout, built on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 and Ebola vaccine rollouts, among others, is essential”, stated WHO Regional Office of Africa.

On September 13th, WHO approved its first prequalification for a vaccine against mpox.

Dr Yukiko Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines and Health Products, states, “The WHO prequalification of the MVA-BN vaccine will help accelerate ongoing procurement of the mpox vaccines by governments and international agencies such as Gavi and Unicef to help communities on the frontlines of the ongoing emergency in Africa and beyond”.

The MVA-BN vaccine is currently only licensed for people who are over 18 years of age and not pregnant or immunocompromised. Patients are given two doses of injections, delivered four weeks apart.

The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization states that off-label use of the MVA-BN vaccine for all patients may be permitted as the benefits of widespread vaccination far outweigh potential risks. Studies show that one dose of the vaccine prior to infection boasts 76 percent immunization, while 2 doses yield 86 percent immunization. WHO is currently in the process of facilitating widespread vaccine rollouts and urges donor contributions so initiatives can be scaled up.

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By Danny Bradlow, Kevin P. Gallagher and Marina Zucker-Marques
PRETORIA. South Africa / CAMBRIDGE, USA, Sep 27 2024 – The statistics are stark: 54 governments, of which 25 are African, are spending at least 10% of their revenues on servicing their debts; 48 countries, home to 3.3 billion people, are spending more on debt service than on health or education.

Among them, 23 African countries are spending more on debt service than on health or education. While the international community stands by, these countries are servicing their debts and defaulting on their development goals.

The Group of 20’s current approach for dealing with the debts of low income countries is the Common Framework.

It requires the debtor to first discuss its problems with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and obtain its assessment of how much debt relief it needs. Then it must negotiate with its official creditors – international organisations, governments and government agencies – over how much debt relief they will provide. Only then can the debtor reach an agreement – on comparable terms to the official creditors – with its commercial creditors.

Unfortunately, this process has been sub-optimal.

One reason is that it works too slowly to meet the urgent needs of distressed borrowers. As a result, it condemns debtor countries to financial limbo. The resulting uncertainty is not in anyone’s interest.

For example, Zambia has been working through the G20’s cumbersome process for more than three and a half years and has not yet finalised agreements with all its creditors.

The need for a new approach is overwhelmingly evident. Although the current crisis has not yet become the “systemic” threat it was in the 1980s when multiple countries defaulted on their debt, it is a “silent” sovereign debt crisis.

We propose a two-part approach that would improve the situation of sovereign debtors and their creditors. This proposal is based on the lessons we have learned from our work on the legal and economic aspects of developing country debt, particularly African debt.

First, we suggest that official creditors and the IMF create a strategic buyer of “last resort” that can purchase the bonds of debt distressed countries and refinance them on better terms.

Second, we recommend that all parties involved in sovereign debt restructurings adopt a set of principles that they can use to guide the debtor and its creditors in reaching an optimal agreement and monitoring its implementation.

The current approach fails to deal effectively and fairly with both the concerns of the creditors and all the debtor’s legal obligations and responsibilities. Our proposed solution would offer debtors debt relief that does not undermine their ability to meet their other legal obligations and responsibilities, while also accommodating private creditors’ preference for cash payments.

Our proposal is not risk-free. And buybacks are not appropriate for all debtors. Nevertheless, it offers a principled and feasible approach to dealing with a silent debt crisis that threatens to undermine international efforts to address global challenges such as climate, poverty and inequality.

It uses the IMF’s existing resources to meet both the bondholders’ preferences for immediate cash and the developing countries’ need to reduce their debt burdens in a transparent and principled way.

It also helps the international community avoid a widespread default on debt and development.

Bondholders are a major problem

Foreign bondholders, who are the major creditors of many developing countries, have proven to be particularly challenging in providing substantive debt relief in a timely manner. In theory, they should be more flexible than official creditors.

Developing countries have been paying bondholders a premium to compensate them for providing financing to borrowers that are perceived to be risky. As a result, bondholders have already received larger payouts than official creditors. Therefore, they should be better placed than official creditors to assist the debtor in the restructuring processes.

However, despite having received large returns from defaulted bonds, bondholders have remained obstinate in debt restructurings. Our proposal seeks to overcome this hurdle in a way that is fair to debtors, creditors and their respective stakeholders.

How it would work

First, the official creditors and the IMF should create and fund a strategic buyer “of last resort” who can purchase distressed (and expensive) debt at a discount from bondholders. The buyer, now the creditor of the country in distress, can repackage the debt and sell it to the debtor country on more manageable terms.

The net result is that the bondholders receive cash for their bonds, while the debtor country benefits from substantial debt relief. In addition, the debtor and its remaining official creditors benefit from a simplified debt restructuring process.

This concept has precedent. In 1989, as part of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, the international community’s effort to deal with the then existing debt burdens of poor countries, the World Bank Group established the Debt Reduction Facility, which helped eligible governments repurchase their external commercial debts at deep discounts. It completed 25 transactions which helped erase approximately US$10.3 billion in debt principal and over US$3.5 billion in interest arrears.

Some individual countries have also bought back their own debt. In 2009, Ecuador repurchased 93% of its defaulted debt at a deep discount. This enabled the government to reduce its debt stock by 27% and promote economic growth in subsequent years.

Unfortunately, the countries currently in debt distress lack sufficient foreign reserves to pursue such a strategy. Hence, they need to find a “friendly” buyer of last resort.

The IMF is well positioned to play this role. It has the mandate to support countries during financial crises. It also has the resources to fund such a facility. It can use a mix of its own resources, including its gold reserves, and donor funding, such as a portion of the US$100 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the IMF’s own reserve currency, which rich economies committed to reallocate for development purposes.

Such a facility, for example, would have enabled Kenya to refinance its debts at the SDR interest rate, currently at 3.75% per year, rather than at the 10.375% rate it paid in the financial markets.

It is noteworthy that the 47 low-income countries identified as in need of debt relief have just US$60 billion in outstanding debts owed to bondholders. Our proposed buyer of last resort would help reduce the burden of these countries to manageable levels.

Second, we propose that both debtors and creditors should commit to the following set of shared principles, based on internationally accepted norms and standards for debt restructurings.

Guiding principles

1. Guiding norms: Sovereign debt restructurings should be guided by six norms: credibility, responsibility, good faith, optimality, inclusiveness and effectiveness.

Optimality means that the negotiating parties should aim to achieve an outcome that, considering the circumstances in which the parties are negotiating and their respective rights, obligations and responsibilities, offers each of them the best possible mix of economic, financial, environmental, social, human rights and governance benefits.

2. Transparency: All parties should have access to the information that they need to make informed decisions.

3. Due diligence: The sovereign debtor and its creditors should each undertake appropriate due diligence before concluding a sovereign debt restructuring process.

4. Optimal outcome assessment: The parties should publicly disclose why they expect their restructuring agreement to result in an optimal outcome.

5. Monitoring: There should be credible mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of the restructuring agreement.

6. Inter-creditor comparability: All creditors should make a comparable contribution to the restructuring of debt.

7. Fair burden sharing: The burden of the restructuring should be fairly allocated between the negotiating parties.

8. Maintaining market access: The process should be designed to facilitate future market access for the borrower at affordable rates.

The G20’s current efforts to address the silent debt crisis are failing. They are contributing to the likely failure of low-income countries in Africa and the rest of the global south to offer all their residents the possibility of leading lives of dignity and opportunity.

Danny Bradlow is Professor/Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria; Kevin P. Gallagher is Professor of Global Development Policy and Director, Global Development Policy Center, Boston University; Marina Zucker-Marques is Senior Academic Researcher, Boston University Global Development Policy Center, Boston University.

Boston University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US; University of Pretoria provides funding as a partner of The Conversation AFRICA.

Source: The Conversation, based in Johannesburg South Africa, is a nonprofit, independent news organization dedicated to unlocking the knowledge of experts for the public good.

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By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 27 2024 – In his first major address at the United Nations, the Chief Advisor of Bangladesh’s interim government, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, appealed to the international community to engage with a ‘new Bangladesh’ in the shared efforts to cooperate on global issues.

Yunus arrived earlier in the week to attend the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. In the four days he was here, Yunus held meetings with a range of world leaders, notably UN Secretary-General António Guterres and US President Joe Biden. This would indicate there is good support for him and what he represents. On Friday, Yunus addressed the General Assembly, speaking in his native language, Bangla.

“I stand in this parliament of nations thanks to an epochal transformation that Bangladesh witnessed this July and August,” said Yunus. “The ‘power of the ordinary people’, in particular our youth, presented to our nation an opportunity to overhaul many of our systems and institutions.”

Bangladesh is currently in a period of significant transition since the anti-government protests broke out in July earlier this year, which led to the ousting of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. The protest movement began with calls for government reform before it transformed into a wider movement that spoke out against the government’s retaliatory tactics and deeper corruption within the administration and law enforcement.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Chief Advisor of Bangladesh’s interim government, arrived earlier in the week to attend the 79th United Nations General Assembly. Credit: Naureen Hossain/IPS

Shortly after Hasina’s departure on August 5, it was announced that an interim government would be instated with an agenda to implement sweeping reforms on law enforcement and government administration, among other matters. Yunus received an invitation from the protest movement to head the interim government thanks to his decades-long career in economics and civil society, his distinction as a Nobel laureate, and his recognition by the international community. He took office in Dhaka on August 12, 2024.

Yunus remarked that the new government would be committed to promoting and protecting fundamental rights and ensuring good governance across all sectors. Since its formation, this new government, Yunus said, has already launched independent commissions into the electoral process, the judicial system and the legal sectors.

“I wish to assure that our government shall adhere to all international, regional and bilateral instruments that Bangladesh is party to. Bangladesh will continue to remain an active proponent of multilateralism, with the UN at the core,” he said.

As the unrest in Bangladesh unfolded over several weeks, the United Nations offered to support Bangladesh in its efforts towards reform and to seek accountability and justice for the lives impacted during the protests.

Notably, UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk deployed a team on a fact-finding mission to Bangladesh to investigate human rights violations that occurred over the protest movement in July, for which Yunus offered his gratitude.

This year marks 50 years of Bangladesh as a member of the United Nations. Yunus remarked on Bangladesh’s involvement with the UN through its work with the peacekeeping forces. Bangladesh is the third-largest contributor of peacekeepers among the member states. Yunus also noted the Culture of Peace resolution passed by the General Assembly in 20021 and the Microcredit Resolution in 1999.

In his address, Yunus also referred to the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis, where Bangladesh has hosted over 1.2 million refugees over seven years. He called for the continued support from the international community on humanitarian operations for the refugee community, adding that the community and Bangladesh would need to work together to ensure the “dignified and sustainable return” to the Rakhine State in Myanmar.

Yunus called for new forms of collaboration between all stakeholders. He noted that this could be achieved through countries uniting and sharing resources and capacity to “leverage collective strength.”

“Time demands new attitudes, new values, new compact(s), across communities and countries, across developed and developing countries alike, across all actors and stakeholders,” he said.

Yunus also noted that through cooperation, developing countries such as those in the Global South were empowered to work towards innovative solutions. “It is also a growing necessity for the global South to make our voices heard. In shaping and steering the global agenda, the global South merits equal space and focus,” he noted.

Yunus concluded his address, reiterating his call for the world to pool its resources and solutions in working together to address the complex and interconnected issues the world must address, and in doing so, to uphold the rights and dignities of all people.

“Let us work together to end all forms of inequality and discrimination, within and among nations, especially in advancing the proposition of social business in our economic interactions.”
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