United Nations

UN Warns Climate Pledges Are Insufficient

December 01, 2015

The head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres has warned that pledges by countries around the world to limit their greenhouse gas emissions in preparation for a UN climate summit in Paris will not be sufficient to keep global temperature increases under the UN's "danger threshold" of two degrees Celsius.
UN Rapporteur Seeks Urban "Right to Housing" Discussion

November 30, 2015

UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing Leilani Farha has called on governments, in the lead-up to a major UN conference on housing and urban development in 2016, to include the "right to adequate housing" as a pillar in discussions regarding urban planning in order to make the growth of cities "sustainable."
WHO Lauds Health Benefits of UN Climate Agenda

November 30, 2015

A report from the World Health Organization ("WHO") praises the potential benefits of government implementation of the UN's agenda on countering climate change and calculates the number of lives per year that will be saved by 2050 by reducing climate pollutants.
Publication Continues UN Push for "Global Citizenship Education"

November 30, 2015

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") and other international organizations have released a publication calling for countries to include "global citizenship" and human-rights education in children's curricula in order to achieve "peaceful, sustainable and inclusive societies."
UN Launches Global Rice Management Standard

November 25, 2015

The Sustainable Rice Platform, a group convened by the UN Environment Programme in partnership with a nongovernmental organization, has released a global Standard for Sustainable Rice Cultivation, which aims for "environmentally sustainable and socially responsible rice production."
Developing Countries Demand Funding in UN Climate Deal

November 25, 2015

Reuters reports that demands from developing countries for increased funding from developed countries to help them adapt to the effects of global warming are a growing sticking point in negotiations over a UN deal on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change to be concluded in Paris at the end of 2015.
UN Plans Human Rights "Hub" in Washington

November 20, 2015

George Russell reports that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights plans to create a "regional hub" in Washington, DC, to promote various objectives of the UN's human rights agenda, including the abolition of the death penalty, ratification of various international treaties, and establishment of a national human rights institution in the US.
Gregory and Kelly Call for UN to Embrace School Choice

November 18, 2015

Archbishop Wilton Gregory of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and Jim Kelly of Solidarity Center for Law and Justice, P.C., write that the UN human rights system should embrace the school choice movement, including Catholic education options, as a way to advance the education of minority children and children from low- to middle-income families.
UN Lauds Global Deal on "Land Degradation"

November 18, 2015

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification has praised its recent deal limiting countries' infrastructural, agricultural, and other development of land, seeking "land degradation neutrality" by the year 2030, arguing that the deal will help counter global warming and sends a "strong message" to negotiators of a UN climate agreement later this year.
World Bank Official Promotes Cash Redistribution Programs

November 06, 2015

In a recent World Bank Policy Research Talk, a Senior Economist from the organization Berk Özler argued in favor of the benefits of unconditional cash transfer programs in providing a national social safety net.