United Nations

Report Calls for Drastic Scale-up in "Green" Technology

February 14, 2017

Researchers at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment have produced a study warning that, for countries to achieve the goal of the UN's Paris deal agreed in 2015 to limit global warming to at most two degrees celsius, the current adoption of clean energy technology must increase by a factor of 10.
UN Agent: Enforce Israeli Settlement Resolution

February 08, 2017

The UN Special Rapporteur for human rights "in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967," Michael Lynk, has called on the UN Security Council to flex its muscles in enforcing a resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
World Bank: Inequality Prevents Good Governance

February 03, 2017

In its 2017 World Development Report, the World Bank calls for governance changes to overcome problems posed by the "unequal distribution of power" to policy implementation and proposes, in part, influence from the international community in national contexts to spur "meaningful" policy reforms.
Group Proposes "Democratic" Replacement for UN

February 03, 2017

Journalist and author Edwin Black explains how, in response to the UN Security Council's recent resolution on Israeli settlements, an international group of legislators and civil society members is seeking to replace the UN with a "Covenant of Democratic Nations" that only admits democratically elected governments.
UN Observer Opposes Trump Waterboarding Comments

February 03, 2017

Responding to comments made by US President Donald Trump supporting the practice of waterboarding of terror suspects, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer has asserted that waterboarding, "without any doubt," is a violation of global human rights law and is "an ultimate disgrace for all of humanity."
UN Agents Criticize Dominican Abortion Legislation

February 03, 2017

A set of UN human rights mandate holders has published a statement calling for legislators in the Dominican Republic to reject "regressive amendments" restricting abortions in the country that the agents argue would violate the international human rights of women to "sexual and reproductive health."
UN Agent: Brexit Threatens UK Environment

February 03, 2017

Following the completion of his two-week mission to the UK, UN Special Rapporteur Baskut Tuncak has argued that the British Government is not fulfilling its global human rights obligations on limiting air pollution and warned that Brexit will threaten environmental protection in the country.
UN Chief Speaks Against Trump Migration Order

February 01, 2017

Disagreeing with US President Donald Trump's executive order subjecting migrants from seven countries to substantial barriers to entry, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that raising barriers to migration on the basis of factors including nationality "is against the fundamental principles and values on which our societies are based."
UN Official Consults on "Women's Empowerment" Agenda

January 31, 2017

At a consultation preparing for a session of the UN's Commission on Status of Women, Lakshmi Puri of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women discussed the best methods for the Commission to prepare global recommendations on "women's economic empowerment" in line with the UN's comprehensive sustainable development agenda.
Article Warns of Impacts of Defunding UN

January 30, 2017

In response to growing calls in the US Congress and White House for a reduction in the US funding of and engagement in the UN, former UN Security Council official Howard Stoffer writes that, while the UN is "overdue for serious internal changes," such a US withdrawal would have a destabilizing impact and would not be in the interest of the American people.