United Nations

UN Agent: US Should Reform Policies Toward Protests

July 28, 2016

Arguing that the US Supreme Court's allowance of "time, place, and manner restrictions" on public demonstrations does "not necessarily conform with international law," the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, has called for US authorities to open up their process of permitting protests.
UN Partners with IOM on Global Migration Governance

July 28, 2016

The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution making the International Organization for Migration a "related organization" within the UN system as the UN and IOM move toward a consolidated approach on the global governance of mass migration.
UNICEF Warns of Legalized "Family Work" in India

July 28, 2016

The UN Children's Fund has called on India to remove from its new child labor laws an exception that permits children to work "where the child helps his family or family enterprises" after school or during vacations, arguing that the provision will cause the exploitation of children and drive them to drop out of school.
G-20 Advances UN's "Green Finance" Agenda

July 28, 2016

At a recent meeting of the G-20 group of countries in Chengdu, China, finance ministers and central bank governors adopted a communication supporting initiatives from the G-20 Green Finance Study Group and backed by the UN Environment Programme to scale up the use of financial instruments to promote renewable energy and counter global warming.
Governments Plan New Hydrofluorocarbon Clampdown

July 27, 2016

National and UN representatives meeting in Vienna have prepared an amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, likely to be agreed at a conference in Rwanda in October, that will "phase down" global use of hydrofluorocarbons in an effort to limit climate change.
UN Agencies Call for End to Fishing Subsidies

July 27, 2016

UN Environment Executive Director Erik Solheim has issued a statement of support for calls from the UN Commission on Trade and Development and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization for governments to help realize the UN Sustainable Development Goals by halting fishing subsidies.
Schaefer Highlights UN Funding in Repressive Countries

July 27, 2016

Brett Schaefer of the Heritage Foundation writes that, as an internal UN watchdog report warns of a "state of near denial" on fraud in UN activities, recently released figures show vendors from a number of human rights-violating countries - including Sudan, Syria, and Zimbabwe - are among the biggest beneficiaries of UN procurement practices.
ILO Official Points to Labor Policies for Growth

July 26, 2016

At a recent meeting in Beijing, Director-General of the International Labour Organization Guy Ryder called on countries to focus on government action in support of the labor market, including minimum wage increases, to support global economic growth.
Mediterranean Countries Agree to Climate Action

July 26, 2016

The EU Committee of the Regions has released an article describing its support of the recent Tangier Declaration, an agreement on a regional approach to countering global warming in the Mediterranean region adopted in the run-up to the November 2016 COP22 global climate meeting in Marrakech.
UNCTAD Framework Focuses on SDGs

July 25, 2016

The outcome document from a recent worldwide summit hosted by the UN Conference on Trade and Development is "largely focused" on how UNCTAD will work to achieve the UN's comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals over the course of the coming four years.