United Nations

UN Agents Seek Link Between Human Rights, Urban Agendas

October 25, 2016

Prior to the UN's "Habitat III" Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development in Ecuador, a group of UN human rights mandate holders issued a statement calling on conference participants to integrate the UN's agenda on the promotion of economic, social, and cultural rights into their plans for "sustainable" urban development.
UN Agency Warns of Climate Impacts on Farming

October 24, 2016

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has published a report calling for policymakers around the world to provide for the "rapid transformation" of agricultural systems to reduce poverty while combating the catastrophic effects of global warming.
Governments Tighten Global Controls on Greenhouse Gases

October 20, 2016

Government officials meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, have agreed to amend the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer to tighten restrictions on hydrofluorocarbons, greenhouse gas emissions produced by chemicals in air conditioners and refrigerators, with "developed" countries responsible for much of the early reduction.
Schaefer: UNESCO Rewrites Israel's History

October 20, 2016

Brett Schaefer of the Heritage Foundation writes that the US should suspend its cooperation with the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in response to a recently adopted UNESCO resolution referring to Israel as an "occupying power" and ignoring historical Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Montanari: UN Panel Ignores Benefits of Strong IP Rights

October 20, 2016

Lorenzo Montanari of the Property Rights Alliance writes that the UN High Level Panel on Access to Medicines ignored substantial evidence regarding the beneficial impacts of intellectual property rights on innovation when it issued a recent opinion asserting that such rights stand in the way of access to medicine in poor countries.
Schaefer: New Chief Must Improve UN Management

October 19, 2016

Brett Schaefer of the Heritage Foundation writes that the next UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a previous head of Socialist International and the UN High Commission for Refugees who will take over the post in January 2017, must break from his past management problems to streamline and provide more accountability within the UN bureaucracy.
UN Rights Chief Expands on US Election Intervention

October 19, 2016

Calling some of the US presidential candidates' comments “deeply unsettling and disturbing," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein doubled down on recent comments comparing the tactics of "populist" politicians to those of the genocidal Islamic State by asserting that, if elected, Donald Trump would be "dangerous from an international point of view."
UN Agency Advances Agenda on Income Inequality

October 19, 2016

Researchers from the UN's International Labour Organization have published a blog post blaming income inequality for "trapping" people around the world in poverty and recommending measures including social protection systems to combat persisting inequality.
UN Launches Platform for SDG Funding

October 19, 2016

At a recent meeting of government finance and foreign affairs officials, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the launch of a Financial Innovation Platform that would steer trillions of dollars in the financial sector toward fulfillment of the UN's comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals.
UN Climate Deal Crosses Approval Threshold

October 19, 2016

Reuters reports that, following formal approval by the EU, Canada, Bolivia, and Nepal, the UN's Paris climate pact has crossed the threshold of supporting countries needed to enter into force and will take effect beginning on November 4, at which point it will become more difficult for countries that have agreed to the deal to extricate themselves from the agreement.