United Nations

UNESCO Seeks Empowered Role in Global Education Policy

January 07, 2016

A recent publication from the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") entitled "Rethinking Education" calls for UNESCO to bring stakeholders together to determine the future of global education on "citizenship" and "sustainability" and calls for the establishment of a "permanent observatory mechanism" to monitor trends in education around the world.
Former Abbott Adviser Condemns UN Climate Deal

January 07, 2016

Former business advisory council chairman to ousted Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has criticized world leaders at the recent UN climate summit in Paris for abandoning science and common sense in favor of "collectivist visions," including by transferring hundreds of billions of dollars to developing countries to help them meet their "intended national contributions."
World Bank Expands Urban Climate Finance

January 07, 2016

In the wake of the recent UN deal on climate-change measures agreed in Paris, the World Bank has issued a press release detailing how it plans to expand its funding of urban initiatives to combat the effects of global warming on cities and how it will pressure national government to ease municipal borrowing to pay for such development.
US Seeks to Decrease Share of UN Dues

January 07, 2016

George Russell writes that the US is privately negotiating with countries at the UN to reduce, at least marginally, its large share of dues to the international organization, which total over one-fifth of the UN's "regular" budget and over a quarter of the UN's peacekeeping budget.
UN Chief Expresses Concern over Decreased Biannual Budget

January 07, 2016

The US Government praised as a "great step forward" a marginally decreased 2016/2017 UN budget that reduces staff, some salaries, and funding for supplies, while the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon lamented in a speech to the General Assembly that "funding continues to shrink while demands on the United Nations grow."
UNESCO Hosts French Forum on "Citizenship Education"

January 07, 2016

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") recently hosted a seminar in Paris for teachers, students, and school administrators on how to incorporate into French classrooms UNESCO's model of "Global Citizenship Education," which seeks to "empower" students "to be responsible global citizens."
UN Introduces Climate-Change Course for French Teachers

January 07, 2016

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") has released the French version of its course for secondary-school teachers on how to insert lessons on climate change and the UN's "sustainable development" agenda into their curricula.
UN Agent: WTO Must Be Subordinated to Rights Agenda

January 06, 2016

Arguing that the World Trade Organization's ("WTO") current policies in support of global trade benefit rich countries at the expense of the "right to development" of poor countries, UN Independent Expert Alfred de Zayas has called on the UN system to subjugate the WTO and all international trade agreements to the human-rights provisions of the UN Charter.
Abrams Calls on US Congress Not to Fund UNESCO

January 06, 2016

Elliott Abrams writes in The Weekly Standard that the US Congress must show resolve in upholding US policy not to fund any UN organization that admits Palestine as a member by denying the Obama Administration's request for a waiver permitting the President to "re-fund" the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO").
UN Agents Seek Scale-up of EU Refugee Program

January 06, 2016

UN agents have increased pressure on EU authorities to increase drastically the number of refugees it is resettling in Europe, with the head of the UN refugee agency Antonio Guterres calling the current effort "not enough" and the UN's special envoy for migration Peter Sutherland labeling the EU's inability to deal with the "manageable number" of migrants "absurd."