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INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - March 2016

Mar 2016

Mar 11, 2020

Pakistan Tops in Holding Biases against Women: UN Report

As per a United Nations report, Pakistan tops a list of countries of people holding prejudiced views against women.
According to the findings of the Gender Social Norms Index report, released recently by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the percentage of those holding at least one sexist bias was the most in Pakistan, at 99.81%. Qatar and Nigeria followed with 99.73%.
The index measured how social beliefs act as a hindrance to gender equality in areas like politics, work and education, and the study surveyed 75 countries, or around 80% of the world's population.

Ashraf Ghani Takes Oath for a Second Term

Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the President of Afghanistan for the second term at a ceremony held at the Presidential Palace in Kabul.
The ceremony was attended by US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, US Charge d'Affaires Ross Wilson, and US, NATO forces commander Gen. Scott Miller, along with the ambassadors from the EU, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Germany and Norway.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah, who too claimed to have won the Presidential election, also held a swearing-ceremony for himself.
Ghani was declared to have won a second term in February, nearly five months after the polls were held in September amid a record number of Taliban attacks intended to destabalise the election.
The preliminary results of the September votes were announced in December 2019. Ghani was narrowly declared the winner while Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah got 39 per cent of a total of over 1.8 million votes. However, opposition parties immediately protested the result, threatening a full-blown political crisis on the cusp of a United States peace deal with the Taliban. The IEC conducted the assessments of votes and announced the results in February 2020, declaring Ghani as the winner.

Netanyahu Rivals to Cooperate on Forming New Government

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's chief rival said that he has agreed with a smaller party to work together to form a new government following national elections last week.
The announcement by Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White Party, dealt a new setback to Netanyahu as he struggles to hold on to power ahead of his upcoming trial on corruption charges.
In last week's election, Israel's third in under a year, Netanyahu's Likud Party emerged as the largest party. But with his smaller religious and nationalist allies, he secured only 58 seats in parliament, three short of the required 61-seat majority needed to form a new government.

UN Adopts Political Declaration on Women's Rights

The United Nations (UN), an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, adopted a stripped-down political declaration on women's rights that sought to protect the benefits under threat but does not recommend new ways to ensure progress toward equality.
A UN declaration on women is approved every 5 years.
The declaration was adopted during the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held in New York, US (United States), that was compressed to just one day meet from a normal 2-week meet due to the global coronavirus outbreak.

Inclusive Internet Index 2020

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) released the 4th iteration of the Inclusive Internet Index 2020 for 100 countries where India is overall ranked in 46th place and Sweden in 1st place. The index aimed to measure the extent to which the Internet is not only accessible & affordable, but also relevant to all, allowing usage that enables positive social & economic outcomes at the individual & group level. It is commissioned by Facebook.
Among South Asian countries India ranked first followed by Srilanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The 1st country ranked is Sweden, followed by New Zealand (2nd) and the US (3rd). Australia & Denmark both ranked (4th), followed by South Korea (6th), Canada (7th), the United Kingdom (8th), France (9th), Spain (10th) & Pakistan (76th).

Mar 09, 2020

India Joins Indian Ocean Commission as Observer

India was admitted to the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC: Commission de l'Océan Indien, COI) on Friday as an observer after it applied last month to be considered for observer status.
The Indian Ocean Commission is a five nation grouping in the Western Indian Ocean, which includes Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles, Mauritius and French Reunion.
The decision to join the IOC marks a part of the government's push for greater salience in the whole Indian Ocean Region (IOR), including what is called the Western or African Indian Ocean.

BRAC Retains its Position as the Top NGO of the World for the 5th Consecutive Year

Bangladesh-based international development organization BRAC has retained its position as the top NGO of the world for the 5th consecutive year.
The rankings for 2020 were announced by the Geneva-based organization NGO Adviser which publishes the rankings every year based on publicly available data for the top 500 global NGOs.
In drawing the rankings the Public Adviser focuses on the impact, innovation, governance and sustainability of the NGO.
BRAC was founded by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 immediately after Bangladesh came into existence as an independent nation in 1971 to help the returning war refugees with small-scale relief and rehabilitation project.
Fazle Hasan Abed died in 2019. Presently, it works in Bangladesh and 11 countries in Asia and Africa.
BRAC recently announced a new 2030 strategy with the goal to make lives of 250 million people self-sustainabe.

Mar 08, 2020

Senate Passes $8.3 billion Emergency Coronavirus Package

The Senate passed a multibillion-dollar spending package to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The bill will now head to the White House, where President Donald Trump is expected to sign it.
Only one senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the supplemental aid bill.
The $8.3 billion emergency funding plan sailed through the House a day earlier in a 415-2 vote, just hours after it was unveiled by Senate and House appropriations leaders.
The bill, which includes more than $3 billion in vaccine research and $2.2 billion in prevention and preparedness efforts, far exceeds the $2.5 billion proposal that the White House put forward last week.

Elizabeth Warren Ends White House Bid

Elizabeth Warren ended her presidential campaign after concluding she had no realistic path to the Democratic nomination, leaving behind a two-man battle between former Vice-President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders.
Warren, a liberal senator who won plaudits for her robust policy plans and focused her campaign on fighting the corrupting influence of money on politics, finished well behind the two front-runners on Tuesday in contests in 14 states, including her home, Massachusetts.
Her exit meant that what was once hailed as the most diverse field of candidates in U.S. history narrowed to a race between two white, septuagenarian men for the nomination to face Republican President Donald Trump in November.

EU Hails Syria Truce, Migrant Rush Continues

EU countries gave a cautious welcome to a Russian-Turkish ceasefire in Syria as a sign of goodwill but urged the warring parties to allow in more humanitarian aid.
Foreign Ministers from the 27 EU states are meeting for talks in Zagreb on the crisis in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, where Ankara is battling Moscow-backed government forces.
Meanwhile, migrants stuck on the Turkish side of the border with Greece tried to dodge tear gas canisters as a tense standoff between Greek and Turkish security forces.
About a quarter of the migrants at the border are Syrians.

Mar 07, 2020

Trump Replaces White House Chief of Staff

US President Donald Trump replaced his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, whose departure had long been rumoured.
North Carolina lawmaker Mark Meadows would take over the job.
Mr. Trump said that Mr. Mulvaney would become US special envoy to Northern Ireland.
Mr. Mulvaney was perceived to have implicated the President in last year's impeachment inquiry in an off-the-cuff remark at the White House podium.

Brazil Recalls All Diplomats, Foreign Service Officials from Venezuela

Brazil recalled its entire corps of diplomats and Foreign Service officials from Venezuela while ordering the government of Nicolas Maduro to pull out its representatives in Brazil, further hardening ties between the two.
Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had already branded the government of radical leftist Maduro a dictatorship and he, in return, has called Bolsonaro a fascist.

Mar 06, 2020

Russia and Turkey Declare Syria Ceasefire

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that they have reached agreements that could end fighting in northwestern Syria.
They said that a ceasefire will come into force in Idlib at midnight. Putin also voiced hope that the deal would end civilian suffering and help contain a humanitarian crisis.
The two countries' Foreign Ministers said that the agreement involves a cease-fire that must be enforced starting at midnight along the existing battle lines.
The deal also envisages setting up a 12km-wide security corridor along the M4 highway. The corridor will be jointly patrolled by Russian and Turkish troops, starting March 15.

TIME Magazine Names 100 Powerful Women who Defined the Last Century

Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and freedom fighter Amrit Kaur were named by the TIME magazine among world's 100 powerful women who defined the last century in a new project that "spotlights influential women who were often overshadowed."
TIME named Kaur as 'Women of the Year' for 1947 and Gandhi for 1976 in special covers recreated by the publication.
Daughter of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi was "as ruthless as she was charismatic," the profile said, adding that by 1975, as a result of economic instability, Gandhi's government was "swamped by an avalanche of street protests, and after her election was deemed invalid, she declared an emergency."
Kaur's profile said that the young princess returned to India in 1918 after studying at Oxford and soon became fascinated by Mahatma Gandhi's teachings. Born into the royal family of Kapurthala, Rajkumari Kaur "decided her life's mission was to help India break free from its colonial ties and oppressive societal norms."
She tackled social issues, pushing for women's education and the right to vote and to divorce, and speaking out against child marriage.
After India got independence in 1947, Kaur became the first woman to join the Cabinet, serving as Health Minister for 10 years. In that position, she founded the Indian Council for Child Welfare; helped establish the country's top hospital and medical college; and campaigned to prevent malaria, likely saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

Singapore's Daren Tang New Director General of Geneva-based WIPO

Singapore's intellectual property chief is poised to head the global intellectual property office, after becoming the first Singaporean to be nominated to helm a United Nations agency.
Mr. Daren Tang received the nomination to become the next director-general of the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), which shapes global rules for intellectual property and oversees patents.
He was selected by the agency's 83-member coordination committee from a slate which originally comprised 10 candidates. In the final round of voting, he garnered 55 votes against China's candidate, lawyer Wang Binying, who received 28 votes.
The nomination of Mr. Tang, who is chief executive of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), will have to be confirmed by the WIPO general assembly when it convenes on May 7 and 8, 2020.
WIPO's general assembly has the final say, and has never rejected a committee nominee since the agency was created in 1967.

Netanyahu Falls Short of Majority

The final results from Israel's election have confirmed that PM Benjamin Netanyahu has fallen short of a majority with his hardline allies. The results signal further political deadlock. Monday's election was the country's third in less than a year. Previous elections in April and September 2019 also ended in deadlocks. Exit polls had indicated that Netanyahu's Likud Party, along with his religious and nationalist allies, had captured 60 seats, putting them on the cusp of a 61-seat majority.

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