Maritime dispute and social divide in advanced economies
Plus, ‘pacifist’ Japan’s ruling party wants to spend 2 percent of the GDP on defence for the first time
Hello! I hope you have an exciting weekend ahead. This week, we’re diving into the growing social divide in advanced economies, taking a step towards securing a sustainable environment as a human right and watching a long maritime dispute escalate further, among other things.
This day that year
1993: Anti-apartheid revolutionary Nelson Mandela and then South African state president FW de Klerk were named recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize for their work towards “peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.”
De Klerk remains a controversial figure. Anti-apartheid activists criticise him for ignoring human rights abuses by the regime’s security forces and for offering only an apology for apartheid.
1959: Final conference on the Antarctic Treaty convened in Washington DC. Twelve countries signed the pact banning military activity on the continent. The treaty also provides for the preservation of the continent – only one without native human population – for free scientific study.
Maritime delimitation
In a triadic dispute resolution to a decades-long tussle, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) this week drew a new maritime boundary between Kenya and Somalia. The court rejected Kenya’s claim of a pre-existing agreement with Somalia on a parallel boundary. But it also junked Somalia’s claim that Kenya had violated international law.
The ruling places the new boundary in such a way that the demarcation splits the disputed triangular maritime area between the two African nations. International media reported this judgement as siding mostly with Somalia.
However, Kenya has refused to recognise the verdict by the international court, which doesn’t have the power to ensure compliance. Last week, Nairobi said it had revoked recognition of the court's jurisdiction. Kenyan officials were not present when the verdict was pronounced.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a statement that his country was rejecting the verdict “in totality and does not recognise the findings in the decision”.
In a televised address after the ruling, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo urged Kenya to “respect international law” and said its neighbour should view the ruling as an opportunity to strengthen ties.
The dispute is not about 100,000 square kilometres of water or navigation space. It’s about what lies beneath. Both sides want to control the area as it supposedly has large deposits of oil and gas. It’s unclear as to what will happen next.
Survey highlights social divide in advanced economies
Majority of the people in 17 advanced economies say that individuals from different backgrounds improve their society, a Pew Research Center survey result published this week said.
In Greece and Japan, the share of respondents who think diversity makes their country better has increased by double digits since Pew asked the same question four years ago. Most other countries also reported a significant increase in this trend.
But many respondents also said that racial or ethnic discrimination is a serious problem in their society. About 66 percent or more who have this view are in France, Italy, Sweden, the United States and Germany. The US is the country with the largest share of respondents saying there is racial or ethnic conflict, according to the survey.
About 90 percent of the respondents in the US and South Korea said there is a strong/very strong conflict between people who support different political parties. This was evident in the 2020 US presidential election and its aftermath. In Taiwan and France, the number is 69 percent, and just about 50 percent in the United Kingdom and France.
In nations like Japan and Singapore, where a single political party has dominated for long periods of time, the number of people who say there's a strong/very strong conflict between people backing different political parties is as low as 39 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
Interestingly, 61 percent of the respondents in South Korea and 46 percent in Belgium said these strong/very strong conflicts are between people who practice different religions.
About half or more respondents in Greece, Belgium and Sweden said there's a strong/very strong conflict between people with different ethnic or racial backgrounds, according to the survey. That number was 71 percent in the US, 64 percent in France and 55 percent in Germany. The figures were in the 40-49 percent bracket for Anglosphere nations of Australia, Canada and the UK.
The key pattern evident from these findings is that advanced economies are embracing diversity, but they are also seeing conflict between racial, ethnic and partisan groups.
More data and details of think tank Pew Research Center’s survey methodology can be found here.
Battle of our lives
Clean environment a human right: UN council
The United Nations’ Human Rights Council has voted to recognise the right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right.
The sustainable environment resolution was adopted with 43 members voting in favour, none against and four abstentions (China, India, Japan and Russia).
“The impact of climate change, the unsustainable management and use of natural resources, the pollution of air, land and water, the unsound management of chemicals and waste, the resulting loss of biodiversity” impede enjoyment of a healthy and sustainable environment, the resolution noted.
Environmental damage has negative implications for the effective enjoyment of all human rights, members agreed.
The council also appointed a Special Rapporteur to monitor human rights in the context of climate change.
What does this mean?
Katharina Rall, a senior environment researcher at Human Rights Watch, wrote on Twitter that the UN Human Rights Council’s recognition of the right to a healthy environment “sends an important signal to many communities around the world already hard-hit by environmental degradation”.
Talking about appointment of a special rapporteur to monitor human rights in the climate change context, Rall said the new post “will help increase accountability” for rights abuses linked to the climate crisis and “guide governments on how to uphold their rights obligations to address climate change”.
What else?
Japan's ruling party makes big defence spending promise
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) led by newly appointed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has made an unprecedented general election promise. The political party, which has dominated the country’s politics since the end of World War II, says it’ll double the country’s defence expenditure.
The LDP wants to spend 2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence for the first time. That’s about $100 billion.
This is important because Japan, for the most part since the Second World War ended, had opted to remain pacifist – believing that war is unjustifiable. As per settlements following the war, Japan was not legally allowed to maintain a military. Instead, it has a military-like self-defence force. Previous Japanese governments had, however, taken steps to move away from pacifism.
But this development highlights Japan’s need to procure modern weapons – including missiles, stealth fighter jets, drones among other weapons – quickly. The country, to be protected by the United States in the event of a third-party attack, wants to counter the Chinese military’s growing influence in the disputed East China Sea.
Some opinion surveys suggest that Japanese are increasingly concerned about a potential Chinese threat and North Korea developing nuclear weapons.
Xi’s softer tone on Taiwan
Remember we discussed the cross-strait tensions in last week’s newsletter? A day after we sent out the edition, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to achieve “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan.
Last week’s newsletter:
“Taiwan independence separatism is the biggest obstacle to achieving the reunification of the motherland, and the most serious hidden danger to national rejuvenation,” Xi said on the anniversary of the revolution that overthrew China’s last imperial dynasty.
It’s interesting because he refrained from talking about the possible use of military force to meet the mainland’s long-standing objective. In July, the Chinese president had vowed to “smash” any attempts made by Taiwan to secure formal independence (though Taipei already considers itself a sovereign state). Earlier in 2019, Xi had threatened to use force to bring Taiwan under Chinese control.
In response, Taipei's Mainland Affairs Council (equivalent to a China affairs ministry) urged Beijing to stop its “provocative steps of intrusion, harassment and destruction” and return to negotiations. Addressing the nation on National Day, President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan won’t bow to pressure from the mainland and will defend its democratic way of life.
ASEAN ramps up pressure on Myanmar
Foreign ministers belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are likely to discuss excluding Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing from an upcoming summit, Reuters reported citing sources. The Southeast Asian economic union is trying to ramp up pressure on Myanmar’s powerful military to walk the talk on an agreed peace plan that includes an end to hostilities, a dialogue among all parties and humanitarian access.
The country, already struggling to come out of economic distress after decades of military-led rule, has fallen back into crises in the last eight months as the elected government was overthrown in the February coup d'etat by the junta.
Myanmar’s military leadership recently decided not to allow ASEAN’s special envoy to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, the former state counsellor (equivalent to a prime minister), who has been put on trial. Immensely popular among the populace, Aung San Suu Kyi is seen as having played a key role in moving the country from military rule to partial democracy in the last decade.
Interesting stuff
In this piece published in The New York Times, Abdi Latif Dahir explains how drinking milk has been intrinsic to Rwanda’s culture, modern identity and economy. A large number of milk bars had popped up across the country, especially in large cities like Kigali, in the past decade. But one of the most stringent lockdowns in Africa triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, competition from expanding corporate chains and climate change have challenged these milk bars in recent years.
If emissions keep rising even after 2050, the planet’s average temperature could reach 3 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial era as early as the 2060s or 2070s. Sea level will continue to rise for decades after that. A new study by non-profit research group Climate Central suggests that around 50 major cities will require “unprecedented” adaptation measures to prevent flooding caused by rising sea level. This ‘Picturing our Future’ feature shows projected sea levels at landmarks across cities like Mumbai, Sydney, Dhaka, Shanghai, Dubai, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. The results are shocking.
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