UN Treaty Watch

UN Criticizes Hungarian Migrant Detention Plan

March 17, 2017

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has criticized a law recently passed by the Hungarian Parliament, arguing that it could lead to the mandatory detention of asylum seekers in violation of UN human rights treaties and European human rights law.
UN Agent: Brazil Budget Freeze Would Violate Rights

December 14, 2016

UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, has warned that Brazil's planned constitutional amendment freezing social spending over the next 20 years to rein in the country's spending "clearly violates" Brazil's international obligation to protect economic, social, and cultural rights.
Australian Official Links Gay Marriage, International Rights

December 02, 2016

The Guardian reports that Australian Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow has found a "broad emerging consensus" among international bodies and other jurisdictions urging recognition of same-sex marriage as a human right under international law and has asserted that such a right should not be subject to a "majoritarian" referendum in Australia.
UK Counters UN Disability Report

November 16, 2016

The BBC reports that British Work and Pensions Secretary Damian Green has criticized the findings of the UN Committee on the Rights of Disabled Persons, which claimed that UK government welfare and benefits cuts violated the country's rights obligations under a UN disability treaty, for using a "patronizing and offensive" view of disability.
UN Group Criticizes Handling of French "Jungle" Camp

November 07, 2016

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has asserted that the UK and France have "completely disregarded" their global human rights obligations by failing to abide by the Committee's "precise recommendations" for dealing with child migrants while dismantling the Calais "Jungle" migrant camp in France.
Paper: UN Climate Deal Includes Rights Obligations

November 02, 2016

Patrícia Galvão Ferreira of the Centre for International Governance Innovation argues that the combination of provisions referring to human rights in the UN's Paris climate deal and Sustainable Development Goals means that many countries have accepted an obligation to integrate the global human rights agenda in their efforts to combat global warming.
Article Considers Indigenous Rights in International Deals

October 25, 2016

Risa Schwartz of the Centre for International Governance Innovation writes that judicial recognition that Canada's support for global instruments on indigenous rights means the country must consult with indigenous peoples when forming international environmental agreements could "transform," and complicate, the formation of such international deals.
UN Committee Criticizes Detention of Mentally Disabled Defendant

October 11, 2016

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has found that the state of Western Australia violated international law by detaining a mentally disabled man accused of child abuse indefinitely without trial and called on the state to amend the law that permits such detention when a defendant is deemed unable to understand the notion of criminal responsibility.
UN Agent Pinpoints Worldwide Age of Criminal Responsibility

August 26, 2016

UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan Méndez has called on Brazilian legislators to reject a constitutional amendment that would lower the age at which the state would consider people fully responsible for committing "heinous crimes" from 18 to 16, arguing that prosecuting 16-year-olds as adults would violate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
UN Body: UK Religious Assemblies Violate Child Rights

June 21, 2016

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has found that the UK violates the human rights of children to “freedom of thought, conscience and religion” by requiring their attendance at Christian school assemblies.