United Nations

UNHCR Endorses "Climate Refugee" Agreement

October 30, 2015

A recent meeting, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees ("UNHCR") supported an agreement that sets out necessary practices in identifying the needs of refugees fleeing their home countries due to global warming.
UN Pushes Higher-Education Involvement in Climate Agenda

October 30, 2015

The Higher Education Sustainability Initiative, a partnership of UN agencies, recently held a conference on how to advance action on global warming, including through innovations on climate-change mitigation and adaptation and the creation of new climate policies, prior to a major UN climate conference to be held in Paris at the end of the year.
UN Seeks Trade Policies Aligned with Environmental Agenda

October 30, 2015

The UN Environment Programme's International Resource Panel has produced a report that countries around the world to adjust their natural-resource trade policies to ensure that international trade contributes to a "healthier global environment."
South African Official Compares Draft Climate Deal to Apartheid

October 29, 2015

As countries continue their negotiation over a global pact on climate change, a delegate from South Africa criticized a draft climate deal for failing to require enough action from developed countries and enough redistribution from these countries to less wealthy nations to deal with global warming, likening the draft deal to her country's former racist apartheid system.
Bolton: US Should Move to "Voluntary" UN Funding

October 28, 2015

Former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton has called on the US to treat all funding to the UN as voluntary, rather than "assessed," to ensure that the US only funds UN operations that correspond with US interests and to make it more likely that the operations it funds are effective.
UN Event Pushes Countries to Tackle "Bullying"

October 28, 2015

At a recent side event of the UN General Assembly, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children Marta Santos Pais and other officials urged countries to address the phenomenon of bullying, particularly "cyberbullying," through measures such as guidance to schools on how to prevent and respond to bullying incidents.
UN Agency Adopts Global Food Framework

October 28, 2015

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization has launched a Framework for Action on Food Security and Nutrition in Protracted Crises to coordinate "comprehensive and effective policies and action" on food aid around the world.
Article Seeks Strengthened UN Governance Institutions

October 27, 2015

An editorial in The National Catholic Review supports calls from the Catholic Church and others to strengthen UN institutions of global governance in order to facilitate international action on climate change, security, and other issues relating to the promotion of a "just world."
Indian Official Pushes for Representative Global Governance

October 27, 2015

Referring to the UN Security Council as a "grotesque example of global power oligopoly," Counsellor in India's Permanent Mission to the UN Amit Narang has called for more representative global-governance structures that permit developing countries to take advantage of globalization.
UN Official Seeks Global Compact on Refugee Sharing

October 21, 2015

In recent remarks, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees' Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Volker Türk called for countries to develop a "global compact" in which they agree to share the responsibility of taking in refugees.