United Nations

Indian Officials Critique UNSC Debate on Climate Change

January 30, 2019

The Economic Times reports that Indian diplomats used the recent UN Security Council (UNSC) debate on global security impacts of climate change to point out that the UNSC is not the appropriate institution to address global warming and that security-based action on the phenomenon could be counterproductive.
UN Rights Chief Seeks Record Funding to Pursue Broad Agenda

January 25, 2019

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has called for national governments to provide the “record” 2019 funding she needs to undertake “the most ambitious programme of work ever” pursued by her office, including rights related to migration, inequality, and climate change.
UN Observer Issues Global Principles on Economic Rights Impacts

January 22, 2019

UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky has published a set of “Guiding Principles” requiring governments at all levels and international financial institutions to perform human rights impact assessments when they make any policies implementing economic reforms.
UNHRC Seeks to Embed Rights Agenda in SDGs

January 16, 2019

Demonstrating the body’s commitment to advancing a broad range of economic, social, and cultural “rights,” the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has scheduled a meeting to discuss “synergies between the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and human rights.”
Palestine Lobbies UNSC for Vote on UN Membership

January 16, 2019

Al Jazeera reports that Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki has announced his country is submitting a bid for full membership at the UN and that he will lobby members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to permit a vote on the application.
UN Celebrates Handover of G77 Chairmanship to Palestine

January 16, 2019

Senior UN officials, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres, participated this week in an event celebrating the handover of the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 (G77) coalition of developing countries at the UN to Palestine, officially a “non-member Observer State” at the international organization.
UNESCO Seeks Social Protection Goals in Climate Plans

January 16, 2019

A joint report with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences highlights how the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is pushing countries to broaden the reach of their “national action plans” on adaptation to the impacts of climate change, including by extending such plans to advance social protection policies.
UN Official Pushes More Ambitious Action on Climate

January 16, 2019

In recent remarks, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Patricia Espinosa indicated that achieving the goals of the UN’s Paris climate accord will require more ambitious action, across a broad range of actors, than that agreed at the recent UN summit in Katowice, Poland.
NGO Report Documents Ongoing Abuse of UNHRC

January 16, 2019

Spotlighting the reasons why the US withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), an article from Human Rights Watch documents the ongoing selection of countries routinely accused of widespread human rights violations to the UNHRC with the aim of shielding their conduct from scrutiny.
Law Professor Calls for UN Chief to Investigate Khashoggi Murder

January 15, 2019

Professor Steven Ratner of the University of Michigan Law School calls for UN Secretary-General António Guterres to launch an investigation of the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, arguing that a UN report on the murder could lead to appropriate sanctions of senior-level officials suspected of involvement in the murder plot.