UN Treaty Watch

UN Committee Warns UK on Disability Rights

October 19, 2017

Providing fodder for opposition politicians in the country to warn of the detriments of "austerity," the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recently issued a report accusing the UK government of mistreating disabled people in a range of contexts including the education system and welfare benefits.
Diamond: Gard Case Exposes Global Rights Failure

October 06, 2017

UK barrister Paul Diamond explains how a British court's denial of an application submitted by the parents of Charlie Gard to take their infant son to the US to receive medical treatment identifies a "gaping hole" in global human rights law that permits countries to deny the rights of parents to make health decisions on behalf of their children.
UN Chief Urges Ratification of Nuclear Test Ban

August 31, 2017

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on countries, including the US and Israel, to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which would prohibit all nuclear weapons testing and still requires ratification by eight more states to enter into force.
UN Body: Irish Abortion Laws Violated Woman's Rights

August 16, 2017

The Independent reports that the UN Human Rights Committee ruled in June that Ireland had violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights through national laws denying a woman the right to abort her fetus due to a fatal abnormality, arguing that this denial violated the woman's right against "cruel, inhuman and discriminatory treatment."
UN Agent Identifies Legal Obligations to Protect "Biodiversity"

August 14, 2017

UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment John Knox has called on countries around the world to fulfill their "existent obligations to protect the world’s biological diversity from extinction" and thereby defend the global rights to life, health, food, and water.
UN Body Criticizes Australia’s Divorce Policy

August 09, 2017

The UN Human Rights Committee has opined that Australia must allow gay couples married overseas to obtain a divorce in the country, even though the country does not allow same-sex marriage, to comply with a provision of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guaranteeing equal protection under the law.
UN Agents Call for Abortion Access in Honduras

July 24, 2017

A group of UN human rights mandate holders has called on a commission charged with reforming the penal code of Honduras to include in their recommendations policies implementing "international human rights standards" ensuring that "women and girls can enjoy their full human rights to sexual and reproductive health" by permitting them access to abortion.
Kelly: UN Must "Recalibrate" Human Rights Movement

July 05, 2017

Jim Kelly of Solidarity Center for Law and Justice writes that the UN human rights system must shift its focus away from its broad "catechism" of economic, social, and cultural rights and toward the promotion of the fundamental rights that form the basis of America's Declaration of Independence.
US Joins UNHRC Resolution on Climate-related Rights

June 28, 2017

The website Climate Home reports that the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has passed, with US support, a resolution calling for the examination of countries' international obligations to protect the human rights of "climate-induced migrants" fleeing the impacts of global warming in their home countries.
UN Body Criticizes Hungarian Detention Policies

May 03, 2017

At the end of a recent visit to Hungary, the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture issued a statement calling on the country to address its "excessive use of detention" and communicating the group's opposition to the government's practice of automatically detaining asylum seekers for extended periods.