United Nations

UN Office Tweet Questions Value of Free Markets

September 13, 2016

The Telegraph reports that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights recently deleted a tweet asking whether "free market fundamentalism," which it defined as "the belief in the infallibility of free market economic policies," poses an "urgent threat."
UNESCO Plans Ethical Principles on Global Warming

September 13, 2016

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and the Kingdom of Morocco have signed an agreement to work toward the development of a global "Declaration on ethical principles in relation to climate change" through an "expert group" that will hold its first meeting in Rabat, Morocco, in September 2016.
UN Official Predicts 2016 Entry into Force of Climate Deal

September 09, 2016

EFE reports that the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa, has predicted that enough countries will ratify the UN deal on reducing greenhouse gas emissions agreed in Paris last year that the pact will officially enter into force by the end of 2016.
World Bank Pushes African Countries on Climate

September 07, 2016

At a conference on "ocean economies and climate change" in Mauritius, the World Bank and governments from African coastal and island countries published a communiqué in which the countries pledged to consider the UN's climate agenda and perform impact assessments when developing ocean and coastal areas.
Report: UN Body Accredits Anti-Israel NGOs

September 01, 2016

A report from watchdog organizations Human Rights Voices and the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust finds numerous instances in which nongovernmental organizations accredited by the UN Economic and Social Council's NGO Committee have issued false and misleading material with the purpose of inciting hatred and violence against Israel.
Reports Find Unsanitary UN Peacekeeping Practices

August 31, 2016

George Russell writes that, as the latest wave of a cholera epidemic generally attributed to sanitation practices at a UN peacekeeper camp strikes Haiti, internal UN reports have spotlighted numerous examples of unsanitary practices in UN peacekeeping operations that may have contaminated water in conflict zones around the world.
UN Seeks Massive Infusion of Sustainability Funding

August 31, 2016

President-elect of the UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson, called on governments to "be creative in mobilizing finance," in the amount of $5 to $7 trillion per year, toward fulfilling the UN's comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals and transforming the global financial system to promote the organization's social and environmental agenda.
Key Details Remain Unresolved in UN Climate Deal

August 31, 2016

As the UN climate deal agreed in Paris last year nears the threshold of signatures required to enter into force, an article on the website Climate Home makes clear that several key details of the agreement, including how the review mechanism of national climate plans will work and how much support poor countries will receive to counter global warming, must still be negotiated.
UN Peacekeepers Refuse to Intervene in South Sudan Attack

August 31, 2016

The Guardian reports that UN peacekeeping forces refused to intervene in an attack by South Sudanese forces on a hotel complex less than a mile from their operations center that included assaults and rapes of foreigners and aid workers and the execution of a local journalist.
UN Agents Seek Rights-Based Conservation

August 30, 2016

Arguing that "a healthy ecosystem is important for the full enjoyment of a wide range of human rights," two UN human rights mandate holders have issued a statement calling for countries to base their policies on biodiversity and environmental conservation on the global human rights agenda.