United Nations

US Memo: Base Foreign Funding on UN Votes

April 17, 2018

Foreign Policy reports that, according to a confidential memo drafted by her staff, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley is calling for the Trump Administration to condition foreign aid on alignment of governments' voting records with the US's at the UN General Assembly.
UN Rights Chief Condemns "Intolerant" Politics

April 17, 2018

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein used a recent address to the UN Human Rights Council to promote the "sexual and reproductive rights" agenda, criticize national policies that restrict migration, and condemn as a recipe for "self-destruction" political leaders who base their rise on "fear and intolerance."
UN Agency Seeks Transformed Food Habits in Latin America

April 16, 2018

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has called for the "radical transformation" of food systems and nutritional habits in Latin American and Caribbean countries to reduce the number of overweight people in this region and adapt agriculture to the effects of global warming.
SDG Steering Group Launches Global Guidelines on Education

April 16, 2018

The global, multi-stakeholder Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) - Education 2030 Steering Committee has produced a set of international recommendations guiding national governments toward increasing financing and generating more data focused on meeting UN targets on educating their citizens.
UN Conference Calls for Data to Make Cities "Climate-Smart"

April 16, 2018

The UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently hosted, with partners, a conference in Edmonton focused on ramping up the gathering of scientific data and use of technology to help "transform the world’s cities into climate-smart, equitable and sustainable homes for all."
UNHRC Prioritizes "Right to Development" Through SDGs

April 11, 2018

Maria Smirnova of the University of Manchester outlines how the apparatus of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is pushing for the "mainstreaming" of the human rights agenda in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), based on a growing institutional prioritization of the "human right to development."
German Official Calls for Bolstered UN Role

April 09, 2018

Deutsche Welle reports on statements from German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas as his government lobbies for a seat on the UN Security Council (UNSC), calling for "more United Nations" as the world deals with dangerous crises and telling Caribbean representatives that a major German priority on the UNSC will be limiting climate change.
US Plans Limits to UN Peacekeeping Contributions

April 09, 2018

AP reports that US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley has informed the UN Security Council the US will no longer pay more than 25% of the UN peacekeeping budget, pushing for all other countries to help shoulder the burden of the international organization's peacekeeping responsibilities.
UN Chief Prioritizes Climate as "Most Systemic" Global Threat

April 03, 2018

The New York Times reports that, in recent remarks, UN Secretary-General António Guterres identified climate change as "the most systemic threat to humankind" and referred to plans to host a 2019 summit to press governments to raise the emissions reduction targets they pledged in the 2015 UN Paris climate accord.
Australia Pledges to Improve Rights Situation

March 30, 2018

The Guardian reports that, upon taking its seat at the UN Human Rights Council, the Government of Australia pledged to improve its human rights situation "in a spirit of self-reflection" in light of a litany of criticisms from UN rights observers over Australia's refugee-processing policies and treatment of Indigenous peoples.