NGO Watch®

Red Cross Urges Adoption of Nuclear Ban Treaty

September 21, 2017

The International Committee of the Red Cross President Peter Maurer urged diplomats at the UN General Assembly to support and carry out the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as a way to “delegitimize” nuclear weapons and deter proliferation.
NGO Criticizes Refugee Resettlement Efforts

September 21, 2017

The nongovernmental organization Amnesty International has criticized the UN and Western governments for failing to take sufficient action to resettle refugees displaced by the ongoing crisis in Myanmar, despite the pledges made by many governments at an international summit on refugees in 2016.
Observer: UN Promotes Biased Rights Agenda

September 21, 2017

Rebecca Oas of the Center for Family and Human Rights has argued that a small group of wealthy countries within the UN system has worked to "redefine" the universal human rights agenda by promoting an understanding of human rights that includes those related to abortion, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
NGO Produces Global Toolkit on Human Rights in Education

September 21, 2017

Amnesty International has published a Human Rights Friendly Schools Toolkit that guides school administrators, teachers, and others on how to respect the global human rights agenda at their institutions and how to teach students about "universal" human rights standards - including UN-promoted, nontraditional economic, social, and cultural rights.
NGO: Chilean Abortion Restrictions Violate Rights

September 21, 2017

A press release from Amnesty International highlights the foreign pressure placed on Latin American countries to loosen their abortion restrictions, calling on Chile's Chamber of Deputies "to put the country on the right side" of the global human rights agenda by passing a measure allowing abortion in certain circumstances.
NGOs Criticize EU Relationship with Azerbaijan

September 19, 2017

As part of increasing scrutiny by activist organizations on corporate relationships with authoritarian regimes and their impacts on the business and human rights agenda, an alliance of nongovernmental groups called the CEE Bankwatch Network has criticized the EU's economic relationships with Azerbaijan in light of allegations of corruption and rights violations in the country.
NGO Creates Tool on Harms Caused by Hydropower

September 15, 2017

Highlighting the complications faced by energy companies seeking to comply with the global climate change agenda by shifting from fossil fuel projects to hydro-electric power, a nongovernmental organization has produced an online "Hydrocalculator" tool assessing the social and environmental costs of large hydropower projects around the world.
NGO Pushes for “Environmental Justice” in Global South

September 14, 2017

The Colombian nongovernmental organization Dejusticia has released a compilation of stories on environmental controversies in the Global South as part of its effort to help environmental activists more effectively influence global public opinion on business and human rights through storytelling.
NGO Calls for UN Body to Oversee Corporate Taxes

September 14, 2017

The Association for Women's Rights in Development has released a policy brief on global corporate tax evasion and avoidance, arguing that its negative effects on women’s rights warrant the creation of a “United Nations intergovernmental tax body” to ensure corporate compliance with tax laws.
Opinion: Global Governance Can Implement “Universal” SDGs

September 14, 2017

Emilie Poisson of the nongovernmental organization Convergences has argued that the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a “universal agenda” around which partnership-based global governance can develop in furtherance of an idealized global future.