United Nations

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.
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.