NGO Watch®

FIFA Creates Human Rights Complaint Mechanism

May 30, 2018

Acting on recommendations from nongovernmental organizations and its Human Rights Advisory Board, the International Federation for Association Football (FIFA) has created a complaints mechanism through which "human rights defenders" and media representatives can anonymously report rights violations related to FIFA's activities.
NGO: Global Compact Must "Transform" Refugee System

May 23, 2018

Amnesty International has called on negotiators of a Global Compact on Refugees at the UN to "transform the way the world responds to refugees" by mandating "fair" responsibility-sharing among countries, the recognition of corporate responsibilities to protect refugees, and recognizing the role of global warming in driving "refugee" movements.
NGO Laments Lack of Progress on "Killer Robot" Ban

May 23, 2018

Bonnie Docherty of Human Rights Watch has published a piece warning that world actors will not be able to stop "killer robot weapons" - systems that identify and engage targets without human input - without urgently adopting an international instrument preemptively prohibiting their deployment.
Council Urges Transformation of Global Refugee Governance

May 22, 2018

The World Refugee Council, a global body that includes politicians, policy advisers, academics, and nongovernmental organizations, has issued an interim report describing how governments and international organizations must "transform" the global governance system for refugees through greater accountability and imposing "collective responsibility" in refugee sharing.
Paper Seeks Accountability System for Refugee Admittance

May 22, 2018

The Centre for International Governance Innovation has published a paper exploring the introduction of various international "accountability mechanisms" forcing governments to uphold treaty commitments and "moral obligations" to accept refugees from other countries.
Oxfam Criticizes World Bank for Reliance on Private Finance

May 21, 2018

The nongovernmental organization Oxfam has critiqued the World Bank's practice of encouraging private spending and support for the private sector as part of its development efforts, pushing the institution instead to convince countries to use "progressive taxation and spending" policies to create more revenue for development programs.
Global Governance Advocates Call for World Parliament

May 21, 2018

Jo Leinen of the European Parliament and Andreas Bummel of the nongovernmental organization Democracy without Borders have published a book calling for the establishment of a "democratically elected world parliament," beginning with a "consultative body composed of national or regional parliamentarians" to be created by the UN General Assembly.
ICRC Seeks Limits to Autonomy in Weapons

May 15, 2018

In a recent presentation to the Group of Governmental Experts on "Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems," the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) calls for a "human-centred" international approach to limiting the autonomy of weapons and asserts that a fully autonomous weapons system would, by its nature, violate international humanitarian law.
NGO Seeks Pressure on Companies to Deliver SDGs

May 08, 2018

An article from Christen Dobson and Phil Bloomer of the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre calls for a combination of government regulation, civil society scrutiny, and voluntary business action in spurring private-sector contributions to help fulfill the UN's comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
NGOs Seek Mandatory "Due Diligence" in Luxembourg

May 07, 2018

A group of nongovernmental organizations in Luxembourg has called on lawmakers in the country to create a "due diligence" law that would require multinational companies based in Luxembourg to review and address the impacts of their operations, their subsidiaries, and their supply chains on human rights and the environment anywhere in the world.