United Nations

UN Agent Warns of Climate-Change Impact on "Right to Food"

December 16, 2015

As the UN conference on global warming in Paris approached, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Hilal Elver joined a chorus of UN and activist voices calling for protection of "human rights" in any global climate pact by warning of the "severe and distinct" threat of global warming to the human right to food and to nutrition around the world.
UN Conference Adopts Global Museum Guidelines

December 16, 2015

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") General Conference has adopted a "standard-setting" recommendation on the protection and promotion of museums, which UNESCO says will help promote the UN's goals of "sustainable development and intercultural dialogue."
UN Promotes "Global Citizenship Education" in Sudan

December 16, 2015

A regional office of the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") has organized a Conference on Global Citizenship Education in Khartoum, Sudan, as part of its push for curricula on the UN agendas of sustainable development and tolerance among national education systems around the world.
UN Pushes SDG Agenda Through Journalists

December 16, 2015

Following the adoption of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals ("SDGs") for 2030, an office of the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") organized a workshop in which it called for journalists to "popularize" the SDGs, including provisions pushing a "living wage" and "sexual reproductive rights."
UN Releases Guide to National Teacher Policies

December 16, 2015

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") has published a Teacher Policy Development Guide that seeks to advance the development and review of teacher policies among national governments.
UN, INTERPOL Seek Clampdown on Climate Change

December 16, 2015

At the 2nd Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Conference, hosted by the UN Environment Programme and global organization INTERPOL, representatives from government and law enforcement discussed potential law-enforcement responses to global warming and worked toward a global roadmap on "tackling environmental crime."
OSCE, UN Train Kazakh Officials on Nontraditional Rights

December 16, 2015

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe ("OSCE") and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights recently offered training for authorities and civil society activists in Kazakhstan on how to respect and implement the UN's economic, social, and cultural human-rights agenda.
World Bank Pledges Support to Chinese Social Protection

December 16, 2015

World Bank Country Director for China Bert Hofman spotlights the impact of social protection measures in China as the "key" to the alleviation of poverty among the Chinese people, including only a brief mention of the massive economic growth the country has experienced in recent years as a "factor."
World Bank Warns of Widespread Climate-Induced Poverty

December 15, 2015

The World Bank has published an article warning that, without a massive effort to limit global warming and reduce its effects on people in developing countries, the phenomenon will drive over 100 million people into poverty, increase malnutrition, and spread disease by the year 2030.
Commission Offers Lower Bar for "Customary" Law

December 15, 2015

C-FAM reports that new guidelines offered to the UN General Assembly by the International Law Commission would lower the bar for what constitutes "customary international law," used by attorneys and judges to determine a country's international legal obligations, by looking to conduct that is "sufficiently widespread and representative" rather than universal.