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UN Agent Finds Rights Violations in Assange Treatment
June 04, 2019
The New York Times reports that the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and ill treatment Nils Melzer has determined that Britain, the US, and Sweden are exposing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to “psychological torture” and demanded that he not be extradited to the US on espionage charges due to the conditions in which he would be held.
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US Foreign Policy Officials Announce Natural Law Commission
June 04, 2019
The US State Department has announced plans to launch a Commission on Unalienable Rights that “will provide fresh thinking about human rights discourse” and whether it has diverged from US founding principles and natural law.
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UN Tribunal Orders Russia’s Release of Ukrainian Sailors
June 04, 2019
The UN International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea has ordered Russia to release Ukrainian sailors it captured last November in the Kerch Strait.
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UN Rights Office Criticizes US State Abortion Restrictions
May 22, 2019
Wading into a domestic political debate over abortion policies, spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has criticized as “inherently discriminatory” and dangerous laws recently passed in US states restricting abortion access.
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Australians File Rights Complaint with UN on Climate Change
May 15, 2019
Indigenous Australians living on the Torres Strait Islands have filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee alleging that the Australian government has violated their rights by failing to clamp down on greenhouse gas emissions and thus allowing rising sea levels caused by global warming to encroach on their communities.
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UN Body Seeks Release of Assange over "Disproportionate" Sentencing
May 08, 2019
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called on the UK government to release Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from prison due to what it deems to be his “disproportionate sentence” for the “minor violation” of the terms of his bail over sexual assault and rape charges in 2012.
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UN Agent Criticizes Canada on Respect of Disability Rights
May 01, 2019
UN Special Rapporteur Catalina Devandas has alleged “significant shortcomings” in Canada’s approach to respecting the rights of persons with disabilities, criticizing the need for “lengthy and onerous” legal procedures to challenge discrimination and pointing to “living independently in the community” as a human right.
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UN Agent: France Is Violating “Human Right” to Housing
April 30, 2019
UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing Leilani Farha has criticized France for the “crisis proportions” of its homelessness problems, calling the government’s solution of providing hotel rooms to homeless families “completely incompatible with human rights standards.”
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US Declines to Appoint Envoy to UN Body on Discrimination
April 30, 2019
Politico reports that the Trump Administration has decided not to appoint a representative to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a human rights treaty body charged with reviewing the global impacts of racial discrimination on rights.
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UN Observers Point to Right to Social “Safety Nets”
April 29, 2019
Expressing alarm regarding the impacts of the country’s tightening monetary policy on economic, social, and cultural “rights,” a group of UN human rights mandate holders has called on the government of Zimbabwe to perform “human rights impact assessments” of any future economic reforms, in line with international standards.
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