United Nations

UN Forces in South Sudan Fail to Protect Civilians

October 19, 2016

A report from the US-based Center for Civilians in Conflict says that UN peacekeepers in South Sudan abandoned their posts and refused to come to the aid of nearby civilians, including aid workers, whom military forces targeted with physical and sexual assault.
UN Identifies Right to Housing in City Centers

October 18, 2016

In advance of the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development in Ecuador, a group of UN officials affirmed their view that "adequate housing" is a "universal human right" and that national and municipal urban development policies should focus on providing affordable housing in the physical center of cities.
UN Agency: "Ageist" Policies Harm Health

October 18, 2016

The UN's World Health Organization has released a new study blaming discrimination against people based on their age - including by "depicting older people as frail, dependent, and out of touch in the media" and mandatory retirement ages - for health problems in older adults.
Academics Warn of "Flexible" Language in UN Climate Deal

October 18, 2016

Reporting the findings of their study on the impacts of "flexible" versus "firm" language in international treaties, academics Katerina Linos and Tom Pegram warn of the absence of firm language in the UN climate pact set to enter into force this year on "climate resilience" in developing countries.
World Bank Links Economic Equality Agenda with SDGs

October 18, 2016

A recently published World Bank study targets economic inequality as an obstacle to the reduction of extreme poverty around the world and proposes policies such as cash redistribution and progressive taxation to "boost shared prosperity" as part of efforts to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals for the year 2030.
Rhodes Points to Risks of Multilateral Rights Institutions

October 17, 2016

Aaron Rhodes of the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe warns that the "bureaucratization of human rights" at the regional and global level permits authoritarian governments to water down traditional human rights standards and stands in the way of a more effective "unilateral" approach to promoting rights among national governments and civil society.
UN Rights Chief: Restrict UNSC Veto on Syria

October 17, 2016

In response to the expanding humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has called upon the UN Security Council to restrict the use of the veto by its permanent members under certain circumstances in order to permit the referral of the Syrian conflict to the International Criminal Court.
UN Links Global Warming with Inequality Agenda

October 17, 2016

Asserting that poorer populations are at greater risk from the future catastrophic effects of climate change, a new report from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs calls on countries to link their actions combating global warming with the reduction of economic inequality within their territories.
UN Agents Seek Permissive Abortion Laws

October 17, 2016

Marking the Global Day of Action for Access to Safe and Legal Abortion, a group of UN human rights mandate holders identified the failure to provide abortion services for unwanted pregnancies as a human rights violation and called for countries to remove restrictions for abortions "on request" during the first trimester of pregnancy.
UN Migrant Deal Challenges Notions of Sovereignty

October 14, 2016

Pamela Falk writes that, while several nongovernmental organizations objected to the recent New York Declaration for failing to establish a UN-based migrant resettlement mechanism, the deal broke new ground in challenging traditional notions of sovereignty in the area of migration, particularly in provisions on "internally displaced persons."