NGO Watch®

NGO: Spain Violated Health Rights Through "Austerity"

June 05, 2018

In a recent report, Amnesty International accused the Spanish government of violations of the international human rights agenda by pushing through "austerity" measures making access to healthcare more expensive and called on government authorities to perform a human rights impact assessment to determine how health policy reforms had affected the right to health.
NGO Welcomes World Bank Donors' Sustainability Push

June 04, 2018

The nongovernmental organization Oxfam has welcomed a communique from World Bank donors tying an increase in the development institution's capital with its promotion of the climate and sustainability agenda but warned against the use of private-sector resources to accomplish such aims.
NGO Seeks UN Criticism of Alleged Racism in US Justice System

June 04, 2018

The nongovernmental organization The Sentencing Project recently submitted a report to the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism accusing the US of violating its international human-rights obligations by failing to address systemic racial disparities in the country's criminal-justice system.
NGO Releases Tool Linking SDGs, Rights Agenda

June 01, 2018

As activist groups seek to ground the UN social and environmental agenda in a pre-existing set of global human rights commitments, the Danish Institute for Human Rights recently released a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) - Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Data Explorer as a way to support links between the SDGs and the UPR rights review process.
NGO: Global Compact Must "Transform" Refugee System

May 23, 2018

Amnesty International has called on negotiators of a Global Compact on Refugees at the UN to "transform the way the world responds to refugees" by mandating "fair" responsibility-sharing among countries, the recognition of corporate responsibilities to protect refugees, and recognizing the role of global warming in driving "refugee" movements.
NGO Laments Lack of Progress on "Killer Robot" Ban

May 23, 2018

Bonnie Docherty of Human Rights Watch has published a piece warning that world actors will not be able to stop "killer robot weapons" - systems that identify and engage targets without human input - without urgently adopting an international instrument preemptively prohibiting their deployment.
Council Urges Transformation of Global Refugee Governance

May 22, 2018

The World Refugee Council, a global body that includes politicians, policy advisers, academics, and nongovernmental organizations, has issued an interim report describing how governments and international organizations must "transform" the global governance system for refugees through greater accountability and imposing "collective responsibility" in refugee sharing.
Paper Seeks Accountability System for Refugee Admittance

May 22, 2018

The Centre for International Governance Innovation has published a paper exploring the introduction of various international "accountability mechanisms" forcing governments to uphold treaty commitments and "moral obligations" to accept refugees from other countries.
Oxfam Criticizes World Bank for Reliance on Private Finance

May 21, 2018

The nongovernmental organization Oxfam has critiqued the World Bank's practice of encouraging private spending and support for the private sector as part of its development efforts, pushing the institution instead to convince countries to use "progressive taxation and spending" policies to create more revenue for development programs.
Global Governance Advocates Call for World Parliament

May 21, 2018

Jo Leinen of the European Parliament and Andreas Bummel of the nongovernmental organization Democracy without Borders have published a book calling for the establishment of a "democratically elected world parliament," beginning with a "consultative body composed of national or regional parliamentarians" to be created by the UN General Assembly.