United Nations

UN Rights Office Targets “Hate Speech” over Mass Shootings

August 07, 2019

Reuters reports that a spokesman for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has responded to the two mass shootings that occurred in El Paso and Dayton over the past weekend by voicing his office’s support for stricter gun laws and calling for the regulation of discriminatory “hate speech.”
UN Agency Seeks Protection of “Climate Migrants”

August 07, 2019

Dina Ionesco of the UN International Organization for Migration highlights her mandate to study how global migration patterns will change as a result of the catastrophic impacts of climate change and to advocate for government measures providing legal protections to “climate migrants.”
UN Expands Partnership for Promotion of Green Technology

August 07, 2019

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has signed an agreement with the International Renewable Energy Agency to expand their partnership in seeking to promote renewable-energy technology around the world to supplant fossil-fuel energy and help achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord.
UN’s Palestinian Agency Faces Range of Employee Allegations

August 07, 2019

Fox News reports that the UN has launched an investigation into the leadership of the UN Relief and Works Agency, charged with supporting Palestinian refugees and from which the Trump Administration cut off funding last year, based on credible allegations of nepotism, retaliation, discrimination, and sexual misconduct.
NGOs Target Overseas Finance by Export Credit Agencies

August 07, 2019

The Bankwatch Network has published a blog entry calling for greater government oversight of export credit agencies, which the NGO coalition warns are stepping into spaces left by global development banks by facilitating investments in infrastructure projects in “politically volatile countries.”
UNESCO Project Builds Education Around Climate Change

August 01, 2019

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has released a video highlighting its global pilot project encouraging schools “to make climate change a priority in every part of school life.”
US Envoy: UNSC Is Avoiding Real Debate on Mideast Peace

July 31, 2019

In remarks to the UN Security Council, the US President's Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt criticized the Council’s history of “heavily negotiated, purposely ambiguously worded resolutions” as a way for the body “to avoid substantive debate” about a realistic resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
UN Body Targets Israel as “Obstacle” to Women’s Rights

July 29, 2019

The Times of Israel reports that members of the UN Economic and Social Council - including Saudi Arabia and Iran - have targeted Israel and no other country over alleged violations of women’s rights, adopting a resolution citing the “Israeli occupation” as a “major obstacle” to the fulfillment of the rights of Palestinian women.
US Blocks UNSC Resolution on Israeli Demolition of Buildings

July 26, 2019

Reuters reports that US officials have blocked the introduction of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution condemning Israel’s destruction of apartment buildings, most of which are still under construction, which Israeli authorities argued were built illegally and too close to the West Bank security barrier.
UN Officials: Climate Change Threatens “Sustainability” Agenda

July 26, 2019

The recent UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development included calls by UN officials for governments to treat climate change as a “threat multiplier” that must be tackled for the UN to achieve the targets contained in the organization’s comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals.