United Nations

UN Commission Pushes Asia on SDG Contributions

June 05, 2019

The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, which the UN “informally” refers to as a “regional parliament,” focused its recent conference on the vast region’s contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and responses to the global “climate emergency.”
US Protests Venezuelan Leadership of UN Body

June 05, 2019

Fox News reports that US delegates recently left a meeting of the UN Conference on Disarmament to protest the assumption of the presidency of the body by Venezuela’s Maduro regime, arguing that “there is something fundamentally wrong” with conference procedures that allow such rights-violating governments to preside over UN business.
Schaefer Warns of Impact of US Bill on UN Funding

June 04, 2019

Brett Schaefer of the Heritage Foundation warns that a funding bill under consideration in the US Congress that, among other policies, overrides a cap on US payments for UN peacekeeping operations will undermine attempts by lawmakers and executive officials to reduce the US share of UN spending and save taxpayer dollars.
US Prompts UNSC Change in Sexual Violence Resolution

May 30, 2019

Stefano Gennarini of the Center for Family & Human Rights reports on the recent US veto threat at the UN Security Council (UNSC) that prompted the removal from a resolution on sexual violence in conflict of references to abortion and “sexual and reproductive health” rights.
UN Launches Youth Alliance to Further Environmental Agenda

May 30, 2019

The UN Environment Programme has launched a Youth and Education Alliance (YEA!) that includes an initiative “to integrate environmental education into university curricula around the world” and to work with “youth movements” to inculcate environmentally friendly values in children.
Governments Commit to Contribute Further to UN Climate Action

May 29, 2019

According to the UN Secretary-General’s envoy on climate change Luis Alfonso de Alba, 80 countries currently signed up to the UN’s Paris climate accord have agreed to ramp up their pledges to clamp down on greenhouse gas emissions to fulfill the goals of the UN’s agenda on global warming.
UN Chief: Carbon Subsidies “Destroy the World”

May 29, 2019

At a recent forum for action on global warming, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an end to worldwide fossil fuel subsidies, through which, he said, officials were spending taxpayer money “to destroy the world.”
Trump Announces Withdrawal from UN Arms Trade Treaty

May 01, 2019

NPR reports that US President Donald Trump has announced his Administration’s withdrawal from the UN Arms Trade Treaty, signed by the Obama Administration but never ratified by the US Senate, characterizing the move as taking back US policymaking from an “unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy."
UNICEF Warns of Climate Impacts on Bangladeshi Children

April 29, 2019

Showing the expanding focus of UN agencies on the impacts of climate change, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has published a report seeking “urgent action” to protect children in Bangladesh from the catastrophic results of global warming and warning of an increasing number of “climate migrants” in the country.
UN Chief Calls for Autonomous Weapons Ban

April 26, 2019

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on a Group of Governmental Experts meeting under the auspices of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons to propose an absolute ban of “fully autonomous” weapons systems that can kill human beings, saying such weapons must be prohibited under international law.