Category World News

The leader of Nepal’s recent youth-led protests, which quickly overthrew the government, has declared he will run for president in the March general elections, declaring that his party will “fight till the end” to establish a people’s government.

Sudan Gurung claimed in an exclusive interview with Sandra Gathmann of Start Here that her organization is already mobilizing supporters nationwide to form a “movement for change” rather than a traditional political party.

He criticized the former government for its “selfish” and “corrupt” politicians, saying, “They have dragged us into politics.” They will receive whatever they want if it’s the political party they want. Because we won’t be reversing our position right away, we will be running for the next election.

Gurung, 36, rose to prominence as the face of a Gen Z-dominated, largely, grassroots uprising.

After the government canceled access to Facebook, X, and YouTube on social media, protests broke out, claiming the businesses had failed to register and submit to the government’s oversight.

However, the protests quickly turned into broader unrest, which was fueled by anger over alleged corruption, state violence, and impunity. Young demonstrators were killed, and thousands more were hurt, in addition.

Through platforms like Discord, which was used to mobilise during the protests, and Instagram, Gurung believes his movement is prepared to govern, with volunteers forming legal and communications committees and gathering policy demands from across the nation.

He claimed that his team is “working to make sure every voice of the Nepalese people is heard.”

Not afraid,

Gurung intends to run “as a group,” but it’s unlikely to do so as an independent.

He claimed that we wouldn’t have this generation of youths if I only ran as an independent candidate. We are stronger as a whole.

Beyond anticorruption, the movement has pledged to pursue a broad range of goals. It intends to promote Nepal’s tourism industry without resorting to “external interference” by strengthening ties with its neighbors, China and India.

According to Gurung, “We need to respect them, and they need to respect us.”

He urged interim prime minister Sushila Karki to expedite investigations into corruption and the killings of protesters and warned against the old political guard from contesting the March election.

Gurung said, “We’ll make sure the investigation is completed on time so that they won’t be able to participate in the elections.”

When asked if he wanted to become the next prime minister, Gurung responded, “I won’t say I’m the right person right now, but I’m going to run if the people choose me.”

He also mentioned how many people have tried to silence him, saying they have been trying to intimidate me and have [been] trying to scare me.

He spoke in a defiant voice despite the intimidation.

In a letter to Brazil’s COP30 climate conference, dozens of environmental and human rights organizations and activists have urged the UN to place justice and reparations at the forefront of discussions.

The signatories, which include Brazil’s Instituto Luiz Gama and the Caribbean Pan African Network (CPAN), pleaded with the meeting’s organisers on Friday to “centre the voices of Africans, people of African descent, and Indigenous Peoples” from November 10 to November 21.

The activists’ letter calls for justice for the nations and people of the world that have historically contributed the least to climate change but are frequently among the hardest hit by it.

They urged Brazil to “highlight” how climate justice is related to reparations “for the histories and legacies of colonialism and enslavement,” noting that Brazil has “one of the largest populations of indigenous peoples in the world” and that it is the host country of the meeting along with other organisers.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ recent advisory opinions on climate justice “highlighted the vulnerabilities of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities,” according to the letter.

Due to their greater historical responsibility for emissions, the ICJ argued that industrialized countries are legally obligated to lead the fight against climate change.

In a 2015 agreement reached at COP talks in Paris, rich nations pledged to assist developing nations in resolving the growing climate crisis, but commitments lag significantly behind what developing nations claim is needed to cover damage and loss brought on by increasingly extreme weather.

At the COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan last year, participants in talks agreed to set a target of $300 billion in loss and damage funding to assist developing nations in adjusting to climate change.

That figure increased from the previous $100 billion pledge from wealthy nations, but it was still $200 billion less than the $ 134 billion COP meeting’s demand of 134 developing nations.

As more and more nations around the world continue to experience increasingly severe weather events, this is the latest example of reparations.

Pakistan, one of the developing nations grappling with climate change, is facing additional flooding this year after devastating floods that cost $ 14. 8 billion in damage and $ 15.2 billion in economic losses in 2022. According to the Climate Rate Index report, they pushed about 9 million people into poverty.

Recent price increases for Brazilian coffee and Ghanaian cocoa have also been linked to climate change, according to recent research from European organizations and the European Central Bank.

The Global Afro-Descendant Climate Collaboration for Climate Justice, Resilient 40, the Emancipation Support Committee of Trinidad and Tobago, and the HBCU Green Fund in the United States are also included in the letter’s address to COP organizers.

The letter, which will be sent to Brazil’s government and the UN the following week, has also been supported by Colombia’s environment minister.

The demand for reparations for colonial exploitation and slavery has grown in popularity around the world, but critics claim that modern governments and institutions should not compensate for historical wrongs or make other reparations.