United Nations

UN's Comprehensive SDGs Take Effect

January 08, 2016

Noting the mixed success of its previous, more-limited development agenda, the UN has issued a press release celebrating the official launch of its Sustainable Development Goals ("SDGs"), which it describes as "an ambitious set of goals to banish a whole host of social ills" in the coming 15 years.
UN Hosts Events on Climate-Focused Redesign of Finance

January 08, 2016

The UN Environment Programme has announced that it will hold events in London and Washington, DC, focused on the agency's policy proposals for countries to reform the design of their financial systems in order to provide for funding of climate-related projects.
Saudi Arabia Wields Influence on UNHRC Panel

January 08, 2016

Highlighting the fact that a recent mass execution in Saudi Arabia occurred as the country sits on a panel of the UN Human Rights Council ("UNHRC") that selects human-rights observers, journalist Charlotte Alfred writes that Saudi Arabia has already wielded influence on the panel by suppressing a proposal for an inquiry into alleged rights violations in the country's war in Yemen.
UNGA Recognizes New "Right to Sanitation"

January 08, 2016

As the UN system continues to identify new "human rights" that veer from traditional and universal civil and political rights, and whose achievement typically requires the redistribution of funds, the UN General Assembly ("UNGA") has adopted a resolution recognizing a "right to sanitation" that is distinct from the right it previously recognized to safe drinking water.
UN Uses "Unusual" Weather to Push Climate-Change Measures

January 08, 2016

The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has blamed climate change and "increased urbanization" for recent "weather-related disasters," including tornadoes in the US, snowfall in Mexico, and flooding in South America, and has called for countries to take into account the predictions of UN agencies in establishing "preventive measures" for such phenomena.
UNESCO Seeks Empowered Role in Global Education Policy

January 07, 2016

A recent publication from the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") entitled "Rethinking Education" calls for UNESCO to bring stakeholders together to determine the future of global education on "citizenship" and "sustainability" and calls for the establishment of a "permanent observatory mechanism" to monitor trends in education around the world.
Former Abbott Adviser Condemns UN Climate Deal

January 07, 2016

Former business advisory council chairman to ousted Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has criticized world leaders at the recent UN climate summit in Paris for abandoning science and common sense in favor of "collectivist visions," including by transferring hundreds of billions of dollars to developing countries to help them meet their "intended national contributions."
World Bank Expands Urban Climate Finance

January 07, 2016

In the wake of the recent UN deal on climate-change measures agreed in Paris, the World Bank has issued a press release detailing how it plans to expand its funding of urban initiatives to combat the effects of global warming on cities and how it will pressure national government to ease municipal borrowing to pay for such development.
US Seeks to Decrease Share of UN Dues

January 07, 2016

George Russell writes that the US is privately negotiating with countries at the UN to reduce, at least marginally, its large share of dues to the international organization, which total over one-fifth of the UN's "regular" budget and over a quarter of the UN's peacekeeping budget.
UN Chief Expresses Concern over Decreased Biannual Budget

January 07, 2016

The US Government praised as a "great step forward" a marginally decreased 2016/2017 UN budget that reduces staff, some salaries, and funding for supplies, while the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon lamented in a speech to the General Assembly that "funding continues to shrink while demands on the United Nations grow."