United Nations

UN Rights Observer Weighs Against Restrictive Migration Policies

August 03, 2018

A statement from UN human rights mandate holder Maria Grazia Giammarinaro pushes governments to end the “misuse” of anti-trafficking considerations to justify restrictive migration policies and warns of the potential impacts of “the current poisonous anti-migration political atmosphere.”
UN, CoE Anti-Torture Bodies Enhance Collaboration

August 03, 2018

A UN Subcommittee and Council of Europe (CoE) Committee on torture prevention have agreed to strengthen cooperation and prevent duplication in their efforts to serve as international mechanisms for the enforcement of global standards on the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
US Class Action Illustrates Risks of Disputed UN Findings

August 03, 2018

An article by Frank Lucas, member of the US House of Representatives, warning of the potential economic impacts of a US class-action ruling against agricultural company Monsanto illustrates the risks related to deference in domestic legal systems to disputed findings of unaccountable UN bodies, in this case the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
India Disputes UN Findings on Anti-Trafficking Bill

August 03, 2018

Indian officials have rejected demands of UN human rights mandate holders for the revision of national legislation aiming to counter human trafficking, arguing that the legislation does not criminalize the actions of people who are unwillingly trafficked and only targets the trafficker with prosecution.
UN Rights Chief Condemns Israeli “Assaults” on Palestinian Rights

August 03, 2018

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has added his voice to the barrage of UN criticism of Israeli action in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory” in recent weeks, blaming Israel for Palestinian living conditions, “inherent discrimination” through its adoption of the Nation-State Basic Law, and other “assaults on fundamental rights.”
UN Official Seeks G20 Focus on Inequality, Global Taxation

August 03, 2018

In a speech to Group of 20 (G20) finance ministers in Buenos Aires, UN Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner called for national financial policies that aim to achieve key UN social and environmental objectives, including reducing economic inequality and introducing “a coherent set of international tax rules.”
US Resists IP Flexibilities Statement in Tuberculosis Declaration

August 03, 2018

Intellectual Property Watch reports that, due to opposition from the US delegation, a recently finalized UN Political Declaration on the Fight Against Tuberculosis contains no operative statement encouraging countries to exercise WTO-recognized IP flexibilities in licensing the manufacture of low-cost drugs to combat the disease.
UN Officials Promote Global Human Right to Abortion

August 02, 2018

Stefano Gennarini of the Center for Family & Human Rights reports that the chiefs of the World Health Organization and the UN Population Fund recently published an article arguing that internationally agreed standards on the protection of “sexual and reproductive health rights” include a right to abortion access.
UN Agent Warns of Israeli “War Crime” Against Bedouin Village

August 02, 2018

UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Palestinian territories Michael Lynk has warned Israel that the planned demolition of a Palestinian Bedouin village near Jerusalem would amount to a “war crime” and called for Israeli leaders to be held “legally and diplomatically accountable” if it proceeds with these “clearly unjust” plans.
US Sees Signs of Change in UNGA on Israel

August 02, 2018

Members of the Trump Administration’s foreign policy team write that a vote on an Algerian resolution at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) blaming Israel for violence in Gaza, in which more nations voted for a US amendment to condemn extremist group Hamas than voted against it, is a positive sign of change at the normally anti-Israel UNGA.