NGO Watch®

AI: Hungary Security Proposals Threaten Human Rights

May 17, 2016

Amnesty International has published a statement warning that the Hungarian government's proposed constitutional amendment that would grant the executive branch expansive powers to confront "terror threat situations" violates international human rights standards requiring strict controls on such emergency powers.
AI Calls for Global Compact on Sharing Refugees

May 17, 2016

Amnesty International has called on governments participating in various international meetings in 2016 to address the global migration crisis to agree to a "Global Compact" that would establish a permanent system of distributing refugees, including through "expedited" routes in the case of refugee emergencies, based in international human rights and refugee law.
ICRC Rejects "Systematic" Detention of Illegal Migrants

May 04, 2016

The International Committee of the Red Cross ("ICRC") has published a policy paper calling for strict limits on government use of detention of "irregular migrants" and asserting that the "systematic" detention of such migrants contravenes international human rights law.
NGO, China Committee Push Global "Green Finance" Mechanisms

April 25, 2016

The nongovernmental organization Paulson Institute and a committee affiliated with the People's Bank of China are developing recommendations to the G20 Green Finance Study Group on how to promote "robust global green finance mechanisms" in order to fund the "green transformation" of the world's economy.
HRW: UN Climate Deal Requires "Urgent" Human Rights Action

April 20, 2016

Katharina Rall of Human Rights Watch ("HRW") warns that nongovernmental organizations will be ramping up pressure on governments to "urgently" implement portions of the UN deal on climate change that call on governments to "respect, promote and consider" human rights in addressing global warming.
Groves Counters Proposed Global Ban on Autonomous Weapons

April 14, 2016

Steven Groves of the Heritage Foundation has published a report calling for the US to resist demands from nongovernmental organizations and other governments to ban the development of so-called "lethal autonomous weapons systems" ("LAWS") and to instead develop a manual on how countries should apply international laws on warfare to the development of LAWS.
HRW: US Information Sharing Could Violate Rights

April 14, 2016

Human Rights Watch ("HRW") asserts that the international human rights agenda may prevent US domestic law-enforcement agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation from accessing information obtained by the National Security Agency through warrantless surveillance techniques.
NGOs Outline Agenda for Next UN Secretary-General

April 14, 2016

A group of nongovernmental organizations, including Amnesty International, has produced an eight-point agenda for the next UN Secretary-General, who will be nominated by the end of 2016, including a "new global approach to refugees" and strengthening the UN's human rights agenda.
NGOs Hold Meeting on Global Nuclear Weapons Prohibition

April 11, 2016

The nongovernmental organizations Institute for Security Studies, International Law and Policy Institute, and International Committee of the Red Cross recently held a meeting in South Africa with representatives of African governments to discuss paths toward the development of an international, legally binding instrument that would prohibit nuclear weapons.
NGO Seeks Action from Climate Fund After UN Paris Deal

March 29, 2016

Sven Harmeling from CARE International has called for more and urgent action from the UN's Green Climate Fund to fund the mitigation of climate change impacts in line with the December 2015 UN agreement in Paris on combating global warming.