United Nations

UNESCO Report Illustrates Challenges with Water, Sanitation “Rights”

April 25, 2019

A UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) report warning of the ongoing global violation of the right to “access to water and sanitation” illustrates challenges in the UN system’s approach of classifying what are traditionally policy goals within the broad legal framework of the international human rights agenda.
UN “Roadmap” Pushes Gender Dimension in Social Policy

April 25, 2019

The March meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women concluded with the adoption by diplomats of a set of commitments to take a “gender-responsive” approach to a broad array of social-protection, public-services, and other policies.
UN Report Pursues Global “Gender-Environment” Data

April 25, 2019

Highlighting the UN system’s commitment to the “economic, social, and cultural rights” agenda and to pursuing ambitious action on global warming, the UN Environment Programme has published a report calling on governments to provide a broad set of data on the nexus between women’s rights and environmental policies.
WHO Body Calls for Genome Editing Registry

April 23, 2019

An international committee convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for governments to create a global registry publicly listing all experiments related to human genome editing and announced future efforts to create a “strong international governance framework” for such technology.
Schaefer: US Must Push UN to Reform Budget Assessments

April 23, 2019

In a recent piece for the Heritage Foundation, Brett Schaefer calls on the US government to ramp up pressure on the UN to reform its scale of assessments to reduce the US’s disproportionate share of contributions to the UN budget and encourage fiscal responsibility and oversight by other UN members.
Philippines Withdraws from ICC

April 04, 2019

The Philippines recently withdrew from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the midst of a preliminary ICC investigation regarding extrajudicial killings in the Southeast Asian country.
UN Presents Climate Action, SDGs as Comprehensive Agenda

April 03, 2019

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change recently hosted a conference in Copenhagen to brainstorm ways in which governments can combine policies advancing the UN’s Paris climate goals and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of a single, global, social and environmental agenda.
UK Opposes UNHRC Agenda Item Targeting Israel

March 27, 2019

UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced that the UK government will vote against the targeting of Israel under the standing “item 7” of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) agenda, warning such anti-Israel bias “obstructs the quest for peace in the Middle East” and “undermines the credibility” of the UNHRC.
US Official Outlines Visa Ban for ICC Investigators

March 18, 2019

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has announced that the US government will ban visas for personnel from the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking to enter the country to investigate “war crimes” allegedly committed by members of the US armed forces in Afghanistan.
UN Guidelines Demand Rights-Focused Drug Control

March 18, 2019

The UN Development Programme, in partnership with governments and nongovernmental organizations, has launched a set of International Guidelines on Human Rights and Drug Policy, seeking to persuade states to place “human dignity and sustainable development at the heart of their drug control policy.”