United Nations

Despite Ruling, US Presses Forward with Climate Goals

February 19, 2016

Reuters reports that, despite the unusual order from the US Supreme Court to delay the implementation of President Obama's executive action seeking to lower US carbon emissions, the President remains committed to implementing the UN climate deal agreed in Paris in December.
UN Agent Seeks Compliance with Finding on Assange

February 17, 2016

Arguing that a "just and sustainable international order" depends on deference to human rights bodies, UN Independent Expert Alfred de Zayas called for the UK and Sweden to follow a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention "ruling" that Wikileaks founder and alleged sex offender Julian Assange must be given freedom of movement.
UN Group Criticizes Australian Proposal on Protests

February 17, 2016

A group of UN human rights mandate holders has called on the State Parliament of Western Australia to reject a proposal to criminalize the tactic of environmental activists of binding themselves to "equipment, trees, and other objects" to prevent development activities, arguing that these tactics are protected as free expression.
UN Creates Citizenship Education Chair at UCLA

February 12, 2016

The University of California at Los Angeles ("UCLA") hosted the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") Irina Bokova to celebrate the establishment at UCLA of the first UNESCO Chair on Global Citizenship Education, which seeks to further the teaching of the UN's social and environmental agenda to students around the world.
UN Forms "Sustainability" Network in Kenyan Universities

February 11, 2016

The UN Environment Programme has announced the launch of the Kenya Green University Network, which will seek to promote the UN's social and environmental agenda in the curricula of institutions of higher education and will push Kenyan universities to "play their part" in advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
UN Panel Proposes Limits on Airplane Emissions

February 10, 2016

The UN's International Civil Aviation Organization has followed up the Paris climate deal agreed in December by proposing for adoption by a civil aviation council of 36 countries the world's first-ever standards for the reduction of carbon-dioxide emissions from airplanes.
Groves: US Congress Should Resist Paris Climate Deal

February 10, 2016

In testimony to a committee of the US House of Representatives, Steven Groves of the Heritage Foundation argued that because the Obama Administration ignored its obligation to submit the recent Paris climate deal to the US Senate for ratification as a treaty, Congress should withhold funding from actions carrying out the deal and from the UN agency that helped negotiate it.
UN Staff Seeks Deal to Loosen Aid Funding

February 10, 2016

C-FAM reports that UN staff is seeking a deal to break down Western safeguards on funding that might be used for terrorism, which they view as obstacles to humanitarian aid funding, in exchange for "greater transparency and accountability" regarding the use of this funding.
Activists Seek UN Investigation of US Water Contamination

February 09, 2016

The nongovernmental organization Detroit Water Brigade has called for the UN Special Rapporteur on the management of hazardous materials Baskut Tuncak to visit Flint, Michigan, to investigate whether water contamination in that city violates international treaties.
UN Official: Zika Virus Shows Need for "Reproductive Health" Rights

February 09, 2016

Responding to government warnings in countries affected by the Zika virus to delay pregnancies, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has called for increased access to "sexual and reproductive health services," including emergency contraception and abortion, in these countries.