United Nations

UN Launches Youth Alliance to Further Environmental Agenda

May 30, 2019

The UN Environment Programme has launched a Youth and Education Alliance (YEA!) that includes an initiative “to integrate environmental education into university curricula around the world” and to work with “youth movements” to inculcate environmentally friendly values in children.
Luxembourg Supports UN Network on SDG Finance

May 30, 2019

The Government of Luxembourg has agreed with the UN Environment Programme to fund an International Network of Financial Centres for Sustainability that seeks to funnel investments into projects aimed at achieving the comprehensive UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Corporations Participate in NGO Labor Reporting Initiative

May 30, 2019

The nongovernmental organization ShareAction, through its Workforce Disclosure Initiative, has analyzed data reported from 90 companies on their labor forces and supply chains in a push for investors to consider social impacts when deciding where to place their money.
Governments Commit to Contribute Further to UN Climate Action

May 29, 2019

According to the UN Secretary-General’s envoy on climate change Luis Alfonso de Alba, 80 countries currently signed up to the UN’s Paris climate accord have agreed to ramp up their pledges to clamp down on greenhouse gas emissions to fulfill the goals of the UN’s agenda on global warming.
UN Chief: Carbon Subsidies “Destroy the World”

May 29, 2019

At a recent forum for action on global warming, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an end to worldwide fossil fuel subsidies, through which, he said, officials were spending taxpayer money “to destroy the world.”
Trump Announces Withdrawal from UN Arms Trade Treaty

May 01, 2019

NPR reports that US President Donald Trump has announced his Administration’s withdrawal from the UN Arms Trade Treaty, signed by the Obama Administration but never ratified by the US Senate, characterizing the move as taking back US policymaking from an “unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy."
UNICEF Warns of Climate Impacts on Bangladeshi Children

April 29, 2019

Showing the expanding focus of UN agencies on the impacts of climate change, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has published a report seeking “urgent action” to protect children in Bangladesh from the catastrophic results of global warming and warning of an increasing number of “climate migrants” in the country.
UN Chief Calls for Autonomous Weapons Ban

April 26, 2019

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on a Group of Governmental Experts meeting under the auspices of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons to propose an absolute ban of “fully autonomous” weapons systems that can kill human beings, saying such weapons must be prohibited under international law.
IAAF Criticizes UNHRC Statement on Rules for Female Athletes

April 26, 2019

The BBC reports that the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has criticized as “inaccurate” a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution characterizing rules restricting the participation of female athletes with high testosterone levels in certain competitions as a violation of international human rights standards.
UNESCO Report Illustrates Challenges with Water, Sanitation “Rights”

April 25, 2019

A UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report warning of the ongoing global violation of the right to “access to water and sanitation” illustrates challenges in the UN system’s approach of classifying what are traditionally policy goals within the broad legal framework of the international human rights agenda.