AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! — The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We turn to Gaza, where aid groups say famine is imminent after five months of US-backed attacks by Israel.

This is in spite of the historic UN Security Council resolution yesterday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Fourteen countries voted in favour of the resolution — while the US, Israel’s main ally, abstained.

• READ MORE: Israel’s war on Gaza live: World welcomes UN ceasefire resolution
• UN Security Council demands immediate Gaza ceasefire as US abstains
• Other War on Gaza reports

The head of the UN Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, says Israel is now denying access to all UNRWA food convoys to northern Gaza, even though the region is on the brink of famine.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X, quote, “This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity.”

On Saturday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres travelled to the Rafah border crossing.

SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES: A long line of blocked relief trucks on one side of the gates, the long shadow of starvation on the other. That is more than tragic. It is a moral outrage. …

It’s time to truly flood Gaza with lifesaving aid. The choice is clear: either surge or starvation.

Let’s choose the side of help, the side of hope and the right side of history.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined by Alex de Waal, the executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University and author of Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine. His new piece for The Guardian, “We are about to witness in Gaza the most intense famine since the Second World War.”

Alex, welcome back to Democracy Now! Describe what’s happening, at a time when Israel is now preventing the largest aid umbrella in Gaza, UNRWA, from delivering aid to northern Gaza, where famine is the most intense.

As Israel blocks more aid, protests mount for a free independent state. Video: Gaza famine

ALEX DE WAAL: Let’s make no mistake: We talk about imminent famine or being at the brink of famine. When a population is in this extreme cataclysmic food emergency, already children are dying in significant numbers of hunger and needless disease, the two interacting in a vicious spiral that is killing them, likely in thousands already. It’s very arbitrary to say we’re at the brink of famine. It is a particular measure of the utter extremity of threat to human survival.

And we have never actually — since the metrics for measuring acute food crisis were developed some 20 years ago, we have never seen a situation either in which an entire population, the entire population of Gaza, is in food crisis, food emergency or famine, or such simple large numbers of people descending into starvation simply hasn’t happened before in our lifetimes.

AMY GOODMAN: How can it be prevented?

ALEX DE WAAL: Well, it’s been very clear. Back in December, the Famine Review Committee of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system — and that is the sort of the ultimate arbiter, the high court, if you like, of humanitarian assessments — made it absolutely clear — and I can quote — “The cessation of hostilities in conjunction with the sustained restoration of humanitarian access to the entire Gaza Strip remain the essential prerequisites for preventing famine.”

It said that in December. It reiterated it again last week. There is no way that this disaster can be prevented without a ceasefire and without a full spectrum of humanitarian relief and restoring essential services.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain what the IPC is? And also talk about the effects of famine for the rest of the lives of those who survive, of children.

ALEX DE WAAL: So, the IPC, which is short for the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system, is the system that the international humanitarian agencies adopted some 20 years ago to try and come to a standardised metric. And it uses a five fold classification of food insecurity.

And it comes out in very clearly colour-coded maps, which are very easy to understand. So, green is phase one, which is normal. Yellow is phase two, which is stressed. Orangey brown is phase three, that is crisis.

Red is four, that is emergency.

And in the very first prototype, actually, of the IPC, this was called famine, but they reclassified it as emergency. And dark blood red is catastrophe or famine. And this measures the intensity.

There’s also the question of the magnitude, the sheer numbers involved, which in the case of Gaza means, essentially, the entire population of more than 2 million.

Now, starvation is not just something that is experienced and from which people can recover. We have long-standing evidence — and the best evidence, actually, is from Holland, where the Dutch population suffered what they called the Hunger Winter back in 1944 at the end of the Second World War.

And the Dutch have been able to track the lifelong effects of starvation of young children and children who were not yet born, in utero. And they find that those children, when they grow up, are shorter. They are stunted.

And they have lower cognitive capacities than their elder or younger siblings. And this actually even goes on to the next generation, so that when little girls who are exposed to this grow and become mothers, their own children also suffer those effects, albeit at a lesser scale. So, this will be a calamity that will be felt for generations.

Today I saw long lines of blocked relief trucks waiting to be let into Gaza.

It’s time to truly flood Gaza with life-saving aid.

The choice is clear: surge or starvation.

Let’s choose the side of help, the side of hope & the right side of history.

I will not give up. pic.twitter.com/TTTcnR01bU

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) March 23, 2024

AMY GOODMAN: What are you calling for, Alex de Waal? I mean, in a moment we’re going to talk about what’s happening in Sudan. It’s horrifying to go from one famine to another. But the idea that we’re talking about a completely man-made situation here.

ALEX DE WAAL: Indeed. It is not only man-made, and therefore, it is men who will stop it. And sadly, of course, even if [with a] ceasefire and humanitarian assistance, it will be too late to save the lives of hundreds, probably thousands, of children who are at the brink now and are living in these terrible, overcrowded situations without basic water, sanitation and services.

A crisis like this cannot be stopped overnight. And it is a crisis that is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is fundamentally a political crisis, a crisis of an abrogation of essentially agreed international humanitarian law, and indeed international criminal law.

There is overwhelming evidence that this is the war crime of starvation being perpetrated at scale.

AMY GOODMAN: Alex de Waal, we’re going to turn now from what’s happening in Gaza. We’ll link to your piece, “We are about to witness in Gaza the most intense famine since the Second World War.”

The original content of this programme is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States Licence.

Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark has joined a chorus of global development and political figures defending the United Nations “lifeline” for more than two million Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip enclave.

Declaring New Zealand should stick to its three-year funding agreement with the UN relief agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), Clark joined the pleas by the agency chief executive Philippe Lazzarini — who condemned the US action to suspend funding as “collective punishment” — and Secretary-General António Guterres.

New Zealand is due to fund the agency $1 million this year.

• READ MORE:  Israel’s war on Gaza live: Aid cuts are ‘collective punishment’ – UNRWA
• More countries pause funds for UN Palestinian agency

Protesters at an Auckland solidarity rally for Palestine demanding an immediate unconditional ceasefire also condemned the countries suspending UNRWA funding amid reports of serious flooding of Gaza refugee camps.

Suspension of funding by 9 countries to @UNRWA amounts to further collective punishment of besieged #Gaza population. #UNRWA is largest UN humanitarian & development service provider there. Staff accused of crimes have been dismissed. Do donors want relief operation to collapse? https://t.co/xU5jAfqm7T

— Helen Clark (@HelenClarkNZ) January 27, 2024

Other political leaders to voice concerns as eight countries joined the US in announcing they were suspending their funding for UNRWA include Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf and former leader of the UK Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn.

Two countries — Ireland and Norway — declared they they would continue funding the agency and Lazzarini said: “It is shocking to see a suspension of funds to the agency in reaction to allegations against a small group of staff.”

Cuts one day after ICJ ruling
The cuts to funding were announced by the US a day after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had ordered Israel to take steps to prevent genocidal acts and to punish those who committed such acts in its war on Gaza, and to immediately facilitate aid to the victims of the war.

Israel had alleged that about a dozen of the agency’s 13,000 employees had been involved in the deadly Hamas raid on southern Israel on October 7.

UNRWA is the primary humanitarian agency in #Gaza, with over 2 million people depending on it for their sheer survival.

93% of displaced families in southern governorates of#Gaza have reported inadequate food consumption.

People are desperate, hunger stalks everyone. pic.twitter.com/WLr0JYNRb2

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) January 27, 2024

The eight other countries that have joined the US in suspending funding are Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland.

“Serious as allegations around a tiny percentage of now former UNRWA staff may be, this isn’t the time to suspend funding to UN’s largest relief and development agency in Gaza,” said Clark, who is also the former head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), in a post on social media.

Secretary-General Guterres said in a statement that the UN had taken “swift actions” following the “serious allegations” against UNRWA staff members, terminating most of the suspects and activating an investigation.

“Of the 12 people implicated, nine were immediately identified and terminated by the Commissioner General of UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini, one is confirmed dead, and the identity of the two others is being clarified,” he said.

“Any UN employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.

‘Ready to cooperate’
“The secretariat is ready to cooperate with a competent authority able to prosecute the individuals in line with the secretariat’s normal procedures for such cooperation.

“Meanwhile, 2 million civilians in Gaza depend on critical aid from UNRWA for daily survival, but UNRWA’s current funding will not allow it to meet all requirements to support them in February.”

The day after @ICJ concluded that Israel is plausibly committing Genocide in Gaza, some states decided to defund UNRWA, collectively punishing millions of Palestinians at the most critical time, and most likely violating their obligations under the Genocide Convention. https://t.co/fl32DrDeFs

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) January 27, 2024

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said that states cutting funding to UNRWA could be “violating their obligations under the Genocide Convention”.

“The day after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza, some states decided to defund UNRWA,” Albanese said in a post on social media.

Albanese also described the decision taken by several UNWRA donors as “collectively punishing millions of Palestinians at the most critical time”.

Noting the irony, lawyer and social media content producer Rosy Pirani said in a post on Instagram: “The US stopped funding UNHRA over an unverified claim that some of its employees may have been involved in 10/7, but continues to fund Israel despite actual evidence [before the ICJ] that it is committing genocide.”

Meanwhile, the largest hospital in besieged Khan Younis city remained crippled and faced collapse as Israel’s offensive continued nearby. Doctors described it as a “dangerous situation”.

Footage showed people in the crowded facility being treated on blood-smeared floors as frantic loved ones shouted and jostled. Cats scavenged on a mound of medical waste.

Democracy! We may differ in how we understand and value democracy. But what is the essence of democracy?

On this special day, when we are reminded about democracy, perhaps it is apt that we should hear out the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

This day — September 15 — is listed by the United Nations as the International Day of Democracy.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific democracy reports

Whatever your take is on this special day, whatever it means to you, and whether there is value in it, perhaps we need the space and time to understand it. Perhaps we may then place appropriate value on democracy, understand it, and appreciate what it stands for.

The UN states this day “provides an opportunity to review the state of democracy in the world”.

In his speech for the 15th anniversary of the day, Guterres said: “Yet across the world, democracy is backsliding. Civic space is shrinking.

“Distrust and disinformation are growing. And polarisation is undermining democratic institutions.”

Raising the alarm
Now, he said, was the time to raise the alarm.

He said it was time to reaffirm that democracy, development, and human rights are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. He said it was time to stand up for the democratic principles of equality, inclusion, and solidarity. He spoke about the media and its place in society.

“This year, we focus on a cornerstone of democratic societies – free, independent, and pluralistic media,” he said.

“Attempts to silence journalists are growing more brazen by the day – from verbal assault to online surveillance and legal harassment – especially against women journalists.

“Media workers face censorship, detention, physical violence, and even killings – often with impunity.

“Such dark paths inevitably lead to instability, injustice and worse.

“Without a free press, democracy cannot survive. Without freedom of expression, there is no freedom.

Joining forces for freedom
“On Democracy Day and every day, let us join forces to secure freedom and protect the rights of all people, everywhere.”

In the face of all that, we remind ourselves of our role as a newspaper company.

We are sure about where we want to be, and the role we can play to move our beautiful country, Fiji, forward. We are comforted by the fact that thousands of people place great value on democracy and on information.

We know we can be a forum where issues that are relevant to our multiracial mix of people can be raised, discussed and debated.

We appreciate the fact that there must be value placed on the dissemination of information that is fair, credible and balanced.

That would mean placing on a very high pedestal the importance of news that will inform, educate, and create awareness of issues pertinent to our various communities, and ultimately nurture or trigger important discussions, irrespective of where it is you sit on the political divide.

Democracy! How important is it in the greater scheme of things? Do we understand it? How much value do we place on it? Today is a special day!

This Fiji Times editorial under the title “Value on democracy” was published on 15 September 2022. Republished with permission.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has spoken to media to demonstrate to the US market that New Zealand is “open for business”, having arrived in the US yesterday.

Her trip includes meeting members of Congress and the UN Secretary-General, attending a launch event for sustainable meat exports, delivering the Harvard Commencement speech, meeting with California governor Gavin Newsom, and meeting with executives of tech giants like Twitter and Microsoft.

With US President Joe Biden in Japan for the launch, and Ardern having only just recovered from covid-19, the hoped-for meeting between the two is still up in the air, but there is optimism from the New Zealand side it will happen.

• READ MORE: Other PM Ardern visit to US reports

Ardern’s first event was a sit down with major American tourism media, as part of the drive to update the US market about New Zealand, and she will later meet meet with representatives of US multinational investment management firm BlackRock.

Ardern said the message of New Zealand being open for business and open for travel was really important at this time.

Travelling with a business delegation and doing as much as possible to open doors on their behalf is important, she said.

“Our high level meeting with BlackRock enabled our business delegation to sit face-to-face with a number of influential individuals in their investor sector from the United States. A really thoughtful, interesting discussion and dialogue which all of our business representatives had the chance to participate in.”

Ardern said the dominant issue discussed was sustainability.

Watch the PM speaking

One-on-one with UN chief
Ardern also had a one-on-one with the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, where Ukraine was top of the agenda.

Ardern was keen to hear the secretary-general’s perspective on the war in Ukraine and to offer New Zealand’s support in the ongoing diplomatic work.

She said it was a chance to “discuss everything from the conflict in Ukraine to climate change and more broadly, the role that New Zealand can play in UN reform which we’ve long been an advocate and supporter of”.

“A really fruitful discussion but really useful to hear the secretary general’s reflections on the current conflict,” she said.

Ardern said that predominately the focus was on issues of climate sustainability and the war on Ukraine.

“Any reflection on the relationship between China and the United States whilst ultimately that is a matter for them, what we will continue to advocate is for peace and stability in our region, including any discussions around increasing tensions around Taiwan.”

Ardern said NZ would continue to be strong advocates of the US using the CPTPP as its port of call for a meaningful trade option.

‘An alternate framework’
“They have proposed an alternate framework, our mission as a country needs to be to keep our aspirations high but also work with what’s on the table,” she said.

“Ultimately the CPTPP is an existing framework that offers a significant amount from New Zealand’s perspective. However we will also engage with what’s currently on the table.”

Ardern does not yet have an update on a meeting with Biden.

Ardern said that having an independent foreign policy meant New Zealand had been very consistent in maintaining its values of peace, stability, the use of dialogue and the importance of multilateral institutions like the UN as an honest broker in difficult situations.

“There is tension in our region, we have our various periods of time seen escalation in language, we will constantly call, on New Zealand’s behalf and ours, on peace and stability in our region.”

The Chinese foreign minister is doing a tour of a number of Pacific nations. Ardern is not surprised by this.

“It’s not necessarily just presence, it’s the nature of that presence and the intention around it,” she said.

‘We want collaboration’
“From our perspective within our region, we’re very firm that yes, of course, we want collaboration in areas where we have shared concern, issues like climate adaptation and mitigation, we want quality investment and infrastructure in our region, we don’t want militarisation, we don’t want an escalation of tension.

“We want peace and stability so we will remain firm in our values.”

She said the question would continue to be whether some of those engagements were necessary.

Ardern’s day will be rounded off with a repeat appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Just before departing New Zealand, she virtually attended the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, an alliance of 13 countries including New Zealand that proposes joint efforts on climate change and digital issues but is widely considered a US attempt to limit China’s economic influence.

The IPEF also includes the members of “the Quad” – the US, Australia, India and Japan – who have been meeting in Tokyo, along with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

Together, the grouping represents 40 percent of the world’s GDP.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres argues that inequality starts at the top and has called for a new global deal.

Not everyone is in the same boat. The 26 richest people in the world hold as much wealth as half its population, reports Al Jazeera’s Inside Story.

Life chances depend on gender, race and whether a person has a disability. These global inequalities are being made worse by the coronavirus pandemic, and the world is reaching its “breaking point”.

That is the bleak reality laid bare by Guterres, who delivered one of his most hard-hitting messages on Saturday.

He said disparities start with the biggest institutions and they should be eradicated under a new model of global governance that guarantees a fair share of wealth, opportunity and power.

But how is that possible? And does the pandemic offer a chance for change?

Presenter: Sami Zeidan
Guests:
Max Lawson – head of inequality policy at Oxfam
Jayati Ghosh – international development economist and professor
Alexander Deane – former chief of staff to ex-UK Prime Minister David Cameron

By Dan McGarry in Port Vila

During his visit to Port Vila last weekend, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was confronted with questions about West Papua – but he waffled in his responses.

The matter was on the agenda during a bilateral meeting held between Guterres and key government officials, including Prime Minister Charlot Salwai and Foreign Affairs Minister Ralph Regenvanu.

In a joint press conference, Salwai was unequivocal about Vanuatu’s continued commitment to support and help drive the decolonisation process globally, and especially in West Papua.

READ MORE: Boycott of 2019 Indonesian election successful

The UN head did little more than acknowledge the PM’s words in his own prepared remarks.

Guterres also responded to questions on the topic from the media. The following exchange occurred during a pooled interview with Agence France Presse’s Ben Bohane. He had little more to offer there.

The most serious deforestation, the most serious ecological trouble, as well as the most serious human rights abuses in the whole Pacific are happening in West Papua, Bohane said.

Shouldn’t the UN be doing more to try and stop the human right abuses, and the ecological disaster that is unfolding there?

UN ‘doing its job’
Guterres did little to raise expectations of a resolution to this crisis any time soon.

“There is a framework in the institutions, namely the human rights council… there are special procedures, there was a panel, that recently made a report on those issues, a report that was then presented internationally. Indonesia also responded,” he said.

“So the UN is doing its job, with a major concern that there and everywhere, human rights are respected.”

The problem is, he was told, that Indonesia is blocking Pacific island delegations, and they also appear to be blocking the UN Human Rights Commission from visiting West Papua.

At the moment, all international media is banned. Again, shouldn’t the UN be doing more to open up West Papua?

The Secretary-General appeared to grant that there were indeed concerns about access to the area.

“The Human Rights High Commissioner has reaffirmed availability to visit the territory, and that remains our concern, and our objective.”

So, if Indonesia says no, he was asked, is there nothing anyone can do, even the UN?

“As I said, we had the institutions working, we have a panel of experts, but there are also from our side strong commitments there and everywhere.”

Little evidence of those commitments was on display in Port Vila.

• Dan McGarry is the media director of the Vanuatu Daily Post group. This article is republished with permission.