United Nations

UNHRC Hosts Panel on Human Rights and Climate Change

March 09, 2016

The UN Human Rights Council ("UNHRC") recently hosted a panel discussion during which speakers called on governments to act to counter climate change to prevent violations of human rights, particularly of nontraditional economic, social, and cultural rights.
UN Signals Bureaucratic Obstacles to Justice for Sex Abuse

March 09, 2016

George Russell writes that civil society observers are criticizing a new report from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon publicizing more allegations of sex abuse made against UN-affiliated peacekeepers and indicating that bureaucratic obstacles at the UN and in member states are slowing justice for victims of this abuse.
UN Observers Seek Rights-focused Response to Flint Water Crisis

March 09, 2016

A group of UN human rights mandate holders have called on the US to respond to lead contamination in the water supply in Flint, Michigan, by focusing on the human rights aspects of the situation and by ratifying more UN rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
UN Agent: Homelessness Is a Human Rights Violation

March 09, 2016

Blaming homelessness on factors including "persistent inequality" and the "unfair distribution of land and property," UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing Leilani Farha has called on countries to stop treating housing as a "commodity" and instead to treat it as a human right.
UN Rights Chief Calls on States to Reduce Economic Inequality

March 04, 2016

Calling the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights an "International Bill of Rights," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called for wider implementation of these instruments to reduce "deepening" economic inequality.
UN Sets up Migrant "Hubs" in Europe

March 04, 2016

The UN High Commissioner on Refugees and the UN Children's Fund are cooperating to open approximately twenty Child and Family Support Hubs in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Serbia, and Slovenia to identify and support "vulnerable families" and children making the journey to Western Europe.
UN Meeting Seeks Sustainability Through "Ocean Governance"

March 04, 2016

At a meeting in Flanders organized by the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO"), government and other representatives discussed how governance of coastal and marine areas could contribute to the advancement of the UN's sustainability agenda.
UN Chief Calls for Open Borders for Migrants in Balkans

March 03, 2016

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has indicated that international law requires that countries along the "Balkan land route" between Greece and Western Europe keep borders open to migrants from the Middle East and "expand legal pathways" to accessing asylum.
UN Plans Convention on "Higher Education Qualifications"

March 03, 2016

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") has announced plans to convene a committee to develop a Global Convention on the Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications to "improve academic mobility" and further global cooperation on issues related to higher education.
UNOHCHR Criticizes Countries for Shutting off Migrant Routes

March 02, 2016

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ("UNOHCHR") has criticized an agreement among police forces in Austria, Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia to limit the entry provide for the removal of migrants from North Africa and the Middle East as potential violations of international human rights and refugee law.