United Nations

Indigenous Working Group Charts Action Plan in UN Climate Talks

July 23, 2019

The Facilitative Working Group of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform recently held its first meeting in Bonn, Germany, to create a two-year work plan on advancing indigenous people’s interests in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change process.
US Diplomats Counter UN Promotion of Abortion Rights

July 23, 2019

Stefano Gennarini of the Center for Family & Human Rights describes how the Trump Administration has been working in UN fora to counter language in humanitarian-related resolutions promoting “sexual and reproductive health rights,” frequently interpreted to include the right to abortion access.
China Expands Influence at UN

July 17, 2019

Fox News reports that US diplomats and other observers are warning of China’s growing influence within the UN system to promote its “self-serving interests and authoritarian model,” as demonstrated most recently with the election of a Chinese official as the next head of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Governments Agree to UN Initiative on Climate Education

July 10, 2019

Governments meeting at a recent UN climate conference agreed to a draft document supporting an Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) initiative, which aims to increase public awareness of climate change and to encourage lessons on global warming in schools around the world.
WHO Report Weighs in on Abortion-Inducing Drugs

July 10, 2019

The Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM) spotlights portions of a report from the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) endorsing, in some circumstances, the sidelining of doctors in women’s decisions to induce abortion through pills in the first trimester of their pregnancy.
UNICEF Chief Criticizes US Response to Child Migration

July 03, 2019

UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Henrietta Fore has criticized the US government for failing to provide the necessary “essential services and support” to migrant children at the US-Mexico border and called for more funding to be directed to border facilities.
UN Observer: “Political Realism” Threatens US Peace Plan

July 03, 2019

As the Trump Administration prepares to release its Israel-Palestine peace plan, the UN Special Rapporteur assigned to critique alleged rights violations in Israel’s “occupied” territories has warned that any such plan that is not rooted in the UN’s view of Palestinian’s territorial rights will “crash upon the shoals of political realism.”
UN Spokesperson: Criminalizing Sea Rescues Violates Law

July 02, 2019

Deutsche Welle reports that the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General António Guterres has criticized Italy’s arrest of the captain of a boat carrying African migrants into the port of Lampedusa, warning that the criminalization of the rescue of passengers of boats in distress contravenes international law.
UN Chief: Paris Accord Will Not Prevent Climate “Catastrophe”

July 01, 2019

AP reports that UN Secretary-General António Guterres has concluded that the government pledges under the UN’s Paris climate accord will not be sufficient to prevent “catastrophic” global warming impacts by the end of the century.
UNESCO Publishes Global Guidelines on AI in Education

June 26, 2019

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has published a “consensus” on artificial intelligence and education, crafted in Beijing, that offers global guidance on the introduction of AI technologies in education and seeks to use UNESCO as a “support system” for implementing the guidance.