United Nations

UNHRC Resolution Identifies Climate Change as Human Rights Issue

July 13, 2015

The website Responding to Climate Change has published an article praising the UN Human Rights Council's ("UNHRC") adoption of a resolution identifying global warming as an issue of human rights and calling for UNHRC consideration next year how climate change affects the human rights to "physical and mental health."
Article: UN Gaza Report Omits Law of War Principles

July 13, 2015

Professor Laurie Blank writes that by failing to point out in its report on the 2014 Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza that Palestinian militants have the duty under the law of war to distinguish themselves from civilians and remove civilians from the vicinity of military objectives, the UN has given Hamas a "free pass" to use such tactics in future conflicts with Israel.
Cruz Calls for US to Withdraw from UNHRC

July 10, 2015

Following a vote in which the UN Human Rights Council ("UNHRC") criticized Israel for civilian deaths in the 2014 Gaza conflict, US Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz has called on the US to "stop ceding moral authority" to the UNHRC and withdraw from the institution.
UN Agent Pushes US to Lift Trade Embargo Against Cuba

July 10, 2015

Praising the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and international sanctions Idriss Jazairy has called for the US to end the "adverse social, economic and humanitarian consequences" besetting the population of Cuba by ending its trade embargo on the country.
UN Official Highlights Ambitious "Sustainability" Agenda

July 09, 2015

Opening the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, President of the UN Economic and Social Council Martin Sajdik demonstrated the ambitious nature of the proposed UN Sustainable Development Goals, which include targets focused on the rule of law and "protection of the planet."
Economist Criticizes Proliferation of UN Development Goals

July 08, 2015

Economist Bibek Debroy has expressed concern that the UN's proposed Sustainable Development Goals, which will seek to guide global development policies for the next 15 years, are too broad and vague to be implemented and would be impossible to measure.
Report Outlines Shortcomings of WHO Ebola Response

July 08, 2015

An independent panel has issued a report detailing the shortcomings of the response of the UN's World Health Organization ("WHO") to the recent ebola outbreak in West Africa and calling for an increase in WHO funding and an overhaul of the organization's emergency apparatus.
Legal Expert Questions Basis of UN Gaza Report

July 08, 2015

In a recent statement to the UN Human Rights Council, law professor and senior law of war adviser for the US Army Geoffrey Corn rejected the foundations of a UN report on the 2014 conflict in Gaza, arguing in part that the report "is not based on credible military operational exercise."
UN Agents Criticize Creditors for Greece Bailout Conditions

July 08, 2015

In a recent statement, two UN Independent Experts on human rights issues criticized the EU and IMF for demanding "retrogressive austerity measures" from Greece in return for further bailout funds.
UN Agents Relaunch Calls for US Death Penalty Abolition

July 07, 2015

In response to the recent sentencing of 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death, two UN observers have called on the US to outlaw the death penalty and argued that the sovereign authority of the states under the US federal system provides no excuse for the continuation of capital punishment.