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US Charges Nonprofit Employee in UN Corruption Scheme
April 01, 2016
AP reports that US prosecutors have charged an officer at a humanitarian organization for laundering money through the organization's accounts from China through the US to pay for a diplomatic post for her husband in a scheme hatched by former UN General Assembly President John Ashe and UN ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda Francis Lorenzo.
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Former UN Official Seeks Comprehensive Reforms
March 31, 2016
Arguing that in spite of its positive aspirations the UN is mired in bureaucracy and incompetence, former UN Assistant Secretary General Anthony Banbury has called for substantial reforms in the international organization's infrastructure, including shielding budget allocation decisions from politics and appointing an external panel to review the UN's personnel system.
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UN Report Forces Logging Policy Shift in Tasmania
March 31, 2016
While arguing that the review of conditions in a Tasmanian region designated as a World Heritage Area ("WHA") by the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") contained "critical mistakes," the Tasmanian Government has accepted a UNESCO report calling for a ban on logging of special timber in the WHA and "strict conditions" on tourism development.
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UN Head Seeks Greater Impact from HRC
March 31, 2016
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently called on the UN Human Rights Council ("HRC") to increase its on-the-ground impact on human rights around the world and to do more to advance the link between the UN's human rights and "sustainable development" agendas.
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UN Rights Chief Calls for More "Humane" EU Migrant Policy
March 31, 2016
In recent remarks to the UN Human Rights Council, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has called for European countries to implement "a much more rights-compliant and humane" policy on migrants that opens avenues for greater legal immigration by people from the Middle East.