Category: India

UN Security Counsil: global response needed to counter rising security threats at sea.

Despite an overall decrease in maritime traffic due to the COVID-19 pandemic, piracy and armed robbery of ships rose by nearly 20 per cent during the first half of last year, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Monday. 

Addressing a high-level debate on enhancing security for seafarers, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, the UN Secretary-General’s Chef de Cabinet, highlighted the need for stronger international cooperation. 

Incidents in Asia have nearly doubled, while West Africa, the Straits of Malacca,Singapore, and the South China Sea, were the most affected areas, she said. 

The “unprecedented” levels of insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea, and more recently in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, were also particularly concerning. 

The open debate was organized by India, which holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council this month. 

For the country’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, oceans are “our shared global commons” and the “lifeline” of international trade.  

The UN estimates that more than three billion people worldwide, mainly in developing countries, depend on the ocean for their livelihood and well-being. 

“However, today this common maritime heritage of ours faces various types of threats,” said Mr. Modi.

“Maritime routes are being misused for piracy and terrorism.

There are maritime disputes between several countries.

And climate change and natural disasters are also challenges to the maritime domain.”  

Ms. Viotti highlighted legal instruments that uphold maritime security, such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. 

“But this framework is only as strong as countries’ commitment to full and effective implementation,” she stressed.

“We need to translate commitment into action.” 

The UN has welcomed moves by the international community to strengthen cooperation on maritime security.  

The Organization also supports regional initiatives, including to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia and to try and cut down on the armed robbery of ships in Asia, according UN News.

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United Nations: ‘Lack of global solidarity’, slow vaccination rates put Indonesia in COVID glare.

A “lack of global solidarity” including the hoarding of vaccines by richer nations as well as slow vaccination rate has contributed to Indonesia becoming the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in Asia, according to the UN’s top official in the country.

Indonesia, like many of countries in South East Asia, had until recently been successful in mitigating the worst health impacts of COVID-19; some form of physical distancing measures have long been in place.

Since taking up my post here in Indonesia in October 2020, I’ve only met most of my colleagues on screen and have almost entirely avoided Jakarta’s notorious traffic jams.

Still, the non-health impacts of the pandemic are stark.

Indonesia has made remarkable progress in alleviating poverty over the past decade, but COVID-19 has set back some of those vital gains.

As elsewhere, COVID-19’s economic burden has fallen disproportionately on women, and other marginalized groups.

Since May, however, the health crisis has become increasingly urgent. New COVID-19 cases have risen five-fold over the past month.

On July 17, Indonesia reported more new daily infections than both India and Brazil, causing multiple news outlets to dub it Asia’s new COVID-epicentre.

And on July 21, the UN’s World Health Organization there had been more than 77,500 deaths in the country.

Indonesia’s total of some 3 million confirmed cases is still far below the more than 31 million India has recorded since the start of the pandemic.

But comparisons have inevitably been made with India’s tragic spring surge. In some areas, overflowing hospitals have been forced to turn away patients and volunteer groups have mobilized to locate oxygen tanks and build coffins.

How did things get so bad so quickly?

It’s down to several factors. The surge is being driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant and we’re also seeing rising case numbers across the region and in many other countries. But on a deeper level, there just hasn’t been a sense of collective wisdom during the pandemic.

The same oversights that occurred in one country were repeated in another. Global experience has demonstrated that strict enforcement of public health measures is critical to containing outbreaks, and that these measures must be guided by accurate surveillance of the transmission of the virus. That didn’t happen in India. What we are seeing here in Indonesia is also in part a result of mass gatherings and travel when the rate of infection was still high.

On top of that, vaccinations haven’t been rolled out quickly enough. As of July 17, six out of every hundred people among Indonesia’s population of 270 million had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with low coverage among the elderly and other vulnerable groups.

Indonesia has secured a relatively good supply of vaccinations, including from the COVAX facility—which is supported by organizations such as WHO and UNICEF—and is ahead of other countries in the region.

But there has been a global lack of solidarity despite the UN Secretary-General’s calls for equitable vaccine access.

Rich countries hoarded vaccines.

As sad as it is, Indonesia is certainly not the worst off; only 1.1 per cent of people in low-income countries have received at least one vaccination dose according UN News.

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Protests across Brazil as President Jair Bolsonaro is investigated for corruption over COVID-19 vaccines.

Protests against President Jair Bolsonaro have spread across Brazil, after a Supreme Court justice authorised a criminal investigation into his response to allegations of potential corruption involving a vaccine deal.

Demonstrators gathered by the thousands in more than 40 cities to demand Mr Bolsonaro’s impeachment or greater access to vaccines against COVID-19.

Bolsonaro has been accused of not acting on suspicions of wrongdoing after a whistleblower at the Ministry of Health claimed to have personally raised with him concerns about a R$1.6bn ($320m) deal to acquire 20m jabs of Covaxin produced by Bharat Biotech from India.

Flag of Brazil

With more than half a million lives lost to Covid-19 in Latin America’s most populous nation, the controversy has become a political headache for the Bolsonaro administration.

The return of protesters to the streets of Brazil’s big cities raises the pressure on the president ahead of his re-election campaign next year.

Many claim the populist leader, who has railed against lockdowns and disparaged the use of masks, has been negligent in his handling of the pandemic.

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