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Les ressources naturelles sont utilisées dans de nombreuses industries, notamment pour la production de batteries pour les voitures et de composants électroniques. Quels sont donc les minéraux dont dispose l'Ukraine, et les contrôle-t-elle encore après que la Russie s'est emparée de pans entiers de son territoire ?

À la Une : de Kiev à Washington, les Européens en ordre de marche pour soutenir l'Ukraine, l’Espagne annonce une aide militaire d’un milliard d’euros par an à l’Ukraine au cours de la prochaine décennie.

EU-Kommissionspräsidentin Ursula von der Leyen wird am Mittwoch den lang erwarteten "Clean Industrial Deal" vorstellen. Mit dem Plan soll die industrielle Produktion in Europa gerettet werden und europäische Hoffnungen auf grünes Wachstum neu entfachen.

Avec cet engagement de 40 milliards de dollars, les Émirats arabes unis renforcent leurs liens stratégiques avec l’Italie, qui signe ainsi l’un de ses plus importants investissements étrangers. L’Italie devient également le premier partenaire commercial non pétrolier des Émirats arabes unis en Europe.

L’Espagne fera don d’un milliard d’euros de matériel militaire à l’Ukraine par an au cours de la prochaine décennie, a annoncé lundi le Premier ministre espagnol Pedro Sánchez à Kiev, alors qu’il assistait aux côtés d’autres dirigeants occidentaux à un événement commémorant le troisième anniversaire de l’invasion de l’Ukraine par la Russie.

Die tschechische Polizei hat am Montag eine groß angelegte Anti-Korruptions-Operation gestartet. Im Fokus der Ermittlungen steht das Prager Universitätskrankenhaus Motol, die größte medizinische Einrichtung des Landes.

The former President of the United States Joe Biden addresses the 79th Session of General Assembly debate in September 2024. Credit: UN Photo/Laura Jarriel

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 25 2025 (IPS)

On February 24, the human rights organization Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate former U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, among other U.S. government officials, for aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes that deliberately infringed on human rights in the Gaza Strip. This poses significant implications for the future of U.S. foreign policy and the role of impunity in world conflicts.

“There are solid grounds to investigate Joe Biden, Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin for complicity in Israel’s crimes. The bombs dropped on Palestinian hospitals, schools and homes are American bombs, the campaign of murder and persecution has been carried out with American support. US officials have been aware of exactly what Israel is doing, and yet their support never stopped,” said Reed Brody, a human rights lawyer and DAWN board member.

This recent action marks the first time that a U.S. organization has submitted a referral for members of the U.S. government for alleged complicity in war crimes. According to DAWN’s communication to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan on January 19, U.S. officials have contributed over 17.9 billion dollars in funding the transfer of weapons, intelligence, and the diplomatic protection of Israel, despite being aware of the possibility of Israel using these funds to facilitate abuse in Gaza.

“Not only did Biden, Blinken and Secretary Austin ignore and justify the overwhelming evidence of Israel’s grotesque and deliberate crimes, overruling their own staff recommendations to halt weapons transfers to Israel, they doubled down by providing Israel with unconditional military and political support to ensure it could carry out its atrocities. They provided Israel with not only essential military support but equally essential political support by vetoing multiple ceasefire resolutions at the UN Security Council to ensure Israel could continue its crimes,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN.

Figures from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) show that Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since 1948, receiving approximately 310 billion dollars in funding, the majority of which has been allocated for Israel’s military. Prior to the eruption of the Israel-Hamas War in 2023, the U.S. has supplied Israel with roughly 3.9 billion in military assistance. This number has skyrocketed to 12.5 billion dollars in 2024. However, funding for Israel’s economic sector has gradually decreased since 2008, falling to 453.9 thousand dollars in 2024.

Additionally, the U.S. has provided diplomatic support for Israeli officials. According to a spokesperson for DAWN, the U.S. government vetoed seven United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions that would have issued sanctions on Israeli conduct in the Gaza Strip. The U.S.’s public support of Israel has also generated worldwide sympathy for Israeli war crimes, including indiscriminate bombardment and blockages of essential humanitarian aid.

Leahy Law is a U.S. statutory provision on the Departments of State and Defense that prohibits the U.S. from supplying security assistance to nations that are likely to commit serious war crimes. Despite this, Israel has never been denied funding. “What the (U.S.) state department is asking the world to believe is that no Israeli unit has ever committed a gross violation of human rights. This flies in the face of mountains of human rights reports and journalistic investigations. It flies in the face of the state department’s own human rights reports,” said Whitson in December 2024.

DAWN’s call for an ICC investigation comes after President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order that would prosecute ICC officials for investigating Israel’s actions in Gaza. Though the U.S. is not a member of the ICC, Palestine falls under ICC jurisdiction and perpetrators can be prosecuted regardless of nationality.

DAWN is claiming that this order constitutes obstruction of justice under Article 70 of the Rome Statute and could entail Trump being held criminally accountable. Trump’s proposed plans to evacuate the Gaza Strip and forcibly displace 2.2 million Palestinians could also cause Trump to be charged with orchestrating war crimes and crimes of aggression under Article 8 of the Rome Salute.

“Trump isn’t just obstructing justice; he’s trying to burn down the courthouse to prevent anyone from holding Israeli criminals accountable. His plan to forcibly displace all Palestinians from Gaza should also merit ICC investigation—not just for aiding and abetting Israeli crimes but for ordering forcible transfer, a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute,” said Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director.

The measures to investigate high ranking U.S. officials has been described as “historical” by DAWN and sets a new precedent surrounding accountability and U.S. foreign policy. Whitson told an IPS correspondent that “government officials at all levels around the world should be on notice that they too can be prosecuted by the court for aiding and abetting odious crimes. No one should be above the law, least of all officials from the powerful governments of the world who think they can get away with anything”.

Whitson adds that DAWN’s call for an investigation has significant implications for the ICC. If the ICC fails to ensure accountability for war crimes in Gaza, it stands to lose legitimacy and trust from the international community. Additionally, an end to impunity for U.S. crimes can prevent further suffering in Gaza and discourage other world leaders, particularly Trump, from committing violations.

“While our referral to the ICC focuses on President Biden and his top officials, we hope that the Trump administration sees this as a wake-up call that they, too, may face individual criminal liability for their role in aiding and abetting Israel’s crimes in Gaza. The pursuit of justice does not end with one administration—any U.S. official who has contributed to these atrocities must be held accountable under international law,” said Jarrar.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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À l’occasion des trois ans de l’invasion de l’Ukraine par la Russie, les huit pays nordiques et baltes, Nordic-Baltic Eight ou NB8 — Danemark, Estonie, Finlande, Islande, Lettonie, Lituanie, Norvège et Suède — ont publié une déclaration commune à Kiev.

Lors de sa rencontre avec le président américain Donald Trump prévue jeudi, le Premier ministre britannique Keir Starmer devrait longuement s'attarder sur l’importance d’impliquer l’Ukraine dans les pourparlers de paix, face à la décision controversée de Donald Trump d’exclure le pays des discussions avec la Russie.

Das Konzept des sicheren Drittstaats soll nach Wunsch der EU-Kommission überprüft werden. Laut einem Dokument, das Euractiv vorliegt, möchte man den Termin dafür auf März vorziehen.

A new era of crisis for children, as global conflicts intensify and inequality worsens. Credit: UNICEF/Diego Ibarra Sánchez
 
A five-year-old walks amongst the ruins of houses in southern Lebanon. An increasingly turbulent geopolitical and financial landscape mean systems for protecting children must be stronger than ever.

By Jasmina Byrne
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 25 2025 (IPS)

In 2025, the world is facing a new and intensifying era of crisis for children. Climate change, economic instability, and conflict are hitting harder and more often, intersecting in ways that make the challenges of addressing them even more severe.

These developments reflect a world of rising geopolitical tensions and competition among nations that is delaying global action we desperately need.

For children, the stakes couldn’t be higher. To uphold children’s rights and well-being, we need to rethink how to strengthen the very systems that provide key services for children. These systems must be equipped to meet immediate needs, withstand growing pressures, and adapt to the uncertainties of the future.

Resilience has to be built into every part of these systems, ensuring they can protect children at scale, no matter the crisis.

When it comes to geopolitics, conflicts and war will continue to be among the most serious threat to children’s lives and wellbeing. Over 473 million children – more than one in six globally – now live in areas affected by conflict, with the world experiencing the highest number of conflicts since World War II.

In these settings, systems for protecting children must be stronger than ever. Clear rules of engagement for military forces, measures to address violations by non-state actors, and effective monitoring and reporting systems are all crucial to safeguarding children’s lives and rights in conflict zones.

Squeezed from all sides

The economic landscape is no less alarming. Right now, governments’ coffers are being hit by a mix of weak tax revenues, declining aid and rising debt. Rising debt, in particular, is creating unprecedented budget pressures. Nearly 400 million children live in countries facing debt distress, where the financial squeeze is cutting into investments in education, healthcare, and safety nets.

In 2025, we face crucial decisions about reforms to the framework of institutions, policies, rules and practices that govern the global financial system – decisions that could reshape the financial landscape to prioritize sustainable development, intergenerational equity and investment in children.

Climate change, of course, is a crisis that touches every aspect of children’s lives. From extreme weather destroying schools to diseases spreading in its wake, children are disproportionately affected.

In 2025, we must focus on ensuring that climate governance and accountability mechanisms work for children – from incorporation of child rights into national mitigation and adaptation policies to providing necessary finance to implement these plans. Strengthening legally backed climate reporting and monitoring are key to effective climate action for children.

Securing the digital future

When it comes to technological trends, we see clear benefits but also potential risks for children – a reality of the past several years that will continue in 2025. Rapid adoption of digital public infrastructure is one of the trends that can enable systemic changes and fundamentally shift how governments engage with citizens.

But what is digital public infrastructure (DPI)? Sometimes compared to physical infrastructure, digital infrastructure can allow citizens to access digital public services and take part in digital economy through use of digital IDs, data sharing and digital payment systems.

DPI can play a crucial role in advancing children’s well-being by ensuring equitable access to essential services such as education, health care and social protection.

However, DPI it is not inherently inclusive, and too often children in lower income settings are left behind. So, we must prioritize children’s rights and enable seamless, safe and secure data exchange between health, education, and social services to create a holistic support system for child development.

In 2025 and beyond, progress for children demands stronger alignment between global and national priorities. Strengthening national systems and ensuring they are aligned vertically (from global to local) and nationally (across sectors) is critical to achieving our shared goals in health, education, safety, poverty eradication and climate adaptation.

Getting it right creates a foundation of resilience. After all, children and young people are looking to us to ensure their futures today.

Jasmina Byrne is Chief, Foresight & Policy, UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight.

Source: UNICEF

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Die EU hat am Montag die Sanktionen gegen Syriens Energie-, Transport- und Bankensektor ausgesetzt. Damit will Brüssel die Beziehungen zur neuen Regierung in Damaskus stabilisieren und Investitionen ankurbeln.

In today’s edition of The Capitals, learn more about Macron’s visit to Washington to reposition Europe at the heart of Ukraine peace talks, Eastern EU farm ministers calling for tougher trade terms with Ukraine, and so much more.

In today’s edition of The Capitals, learn more about Macron’s visit to Washington to reposition Europe at the heart of Ukraine peace talks, Eastern EU farm ministers calling for tougher trade terms with Ukraine, and so much more.

Polens Präsident Andrzej Duda kritisierte seine Regierung dafür, dass keine der jüngsten Gipfeltreffen zur Ukraine in Warschau abgehalten wurden. Zuvor war er selbst wegen seines kurzen, improvisierten Treffens mit dem US-Präsidenten in die Kritik geraten.

Trump made it clear throughout the day that his goodwill was contingent on securing an agreement with Ukraine regarding critical minerals and rare earths.

Trump made it clear throughout the day that his goodwill was contingent on securing an agreement with Ukraine regarding critical minerals and rare earths.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 25 2025 (IPS)

Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) appeal captured US mass discontent against globalisation. In recent decades, variations of America First have reflected growing ethnonationalism in the world’s presumptive hegemon.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Deglobalisation?
Trade liberalisation probably peaked at the end of the 20th century with the creation of the multilateral World Trade Organization (WTO), which the West kept outside the UN system.

With deindustrialisation in the North blamed on globalisation, their governments gradually abandoned trade liberalisation, especially after the 2008 global financial crisis.

Free trade mahaguru Jagdish Bhagwati has long complained of the weak commitment to multilateral trade liberalisation. Most recent supposed free trade agreements (FTAs) have been plurilateral or bilateral, undermining multilateralism while promoting non-trade measures.

The new geoeconomics and geopolitics have undermined the rules and norms supporting multilateralism. This has undermined confidence in the rules of the game, encouraging individualistic opportunism and subverting collective action.

Policymaking has become more problematic as it can no longer count on agreed-shared rules and norms, undermining sustained international cooperation. Biased and often inappropriate economic policies and institutions have only made things worse.

Successive Washington administrations’ unilateral changes in policies, rules and conventions have also undermined confidence in US-dominated international economic arrangements, including the Bretton Woods institutions.

Deliberate contraction
Although recent inflation has been mainly due to supply-side disruptions, Western central banks have imposed contractionary demand-side macroeconomic policies by raising interest rates and pursuing fiscal austerity.

US Federal Reserve interest rate hikes from early 2022 have been unnecessary and inappropriate. Squeezing consumption and investment demand with higher interest rates cannot and does not address supply-side disruptions and contractions.

After earlier ‘quantitative easing’ encouraged much more commercial borrowing, higher Western central bank interest rates were contractionary and regressive. Hence, much of world economic stagnation now is due to Western policies.

Developing countries have long known that international economic institutions and arrangements are biased against them. Believing they have no opportunity for wide-ranging reform, most authorities are resigned to only using available macroeconomic policy space.

Nevertheless, national authorities have become more willing to undertake previously unacceptable measures. For example, several conservative central banks deployed ‘monetary financing’ of government spending to cope with the pandemic, lending directly to government treasuries without market intermediation.

More recently, central banks in Japan, China, and some Southeast Asian countries refused to raise interest rates in concert with the West. Instead, they sought and found new policy space, helping to mitigate contractionary international economic pressures.

Nonetheless, many economists piously urged central banks worldwide to raise interest rates until mid-2024. Meanwhile, policy pressures for fiscal austerity continue, worsening conditions for billions.

Neoliberal?
To secure support for neoliberal reforms from the late 20th century, the Global North promised developing countries greater market access and export opportunities.

However, trade liberalisation has slowly reversed since the World Trade Organization (WTO) creation in 1995. Policy reversals have become more blatant since the 2008 global financial crisis with geopolitically driven sanctions and weaponisation of trade.

But ‘neoliberal’ globalisation was a misnomer, as there was little liberal about it beyond selective trade liberalisation. Instead, FTAs have mainly strengthened and extended property and contract rights, i.e., selectively interpreting and enforcing international law.

Trade liberalisation undermined earlier selective protectionism, which promoted food security and industrialisation in developing countries. Tariffs have also been crucial revenue sources, especially for the poorest countries.

Intellectual property
Strengthening the rule of law has rarely fostered liberal markets. Even 19th-century economic liberals recognise the inevitable wealth concentration due to selective and partial neoliberalism.

Property rights invariably strengthen monopoly privileges under various pretexts. Global North governments now believe control of technology is key to world dominance. The WTO’s trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) have greatly strengthened IP enforcement.

With IP more lucrative, corporations have less incentive to share or transfer technology. With TRIPS enforced from 1995, technology transfer to developing countries has declined, further undermining development prospects.

The 2001 public health exception to TRIPS could not overcome IP obstacles to ensure affordable COVID-19 tests, protective equipment, vaccines and therapies during the COVID-19 pandemic, even triggering criticisms of ‘vaccine apartheid’.

Weaponising economics
The West has increasingly deployed economic sanctions, which are illegal without UN Security Council mandates. Meanwhile, access to trade, investment, finance and technology has become increasingly weaponised.

Foreign direct investment was supposed to sustain growth in developing countries. Intensifying Obama-initiated efforts to undermine China, then-President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo urged ‘reshoring’, i.e., investing in investors’ own countries instead.

Initial attempts to invest in their own economies instead of China largely failed. However, later efforts to undermine China have been more successful, notably ‘friend-shoring’, which urges companies to invest in politically allied or friendly countries instead.

With more economic stagnation, geopolitical strategic considerations and weaponisation of economic policies, cooperation and institutions, fewer resources are available for growth, equity and sustainability. Thus, the new geopolitics has jeopardised prospects for sustainable development.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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The Bulgarian MEPs insist that the recently announced Clean Industrial Deal should be transformed into a Security and Industry Deal.

The Bulgarian MEPs insist that the recently announced Clean Industrial Deal should be transformed into a Security and Industry Deal.