United Nations

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.
Yemen Receives Post on UN Women’s Board

January 15, 2019

Patrick Goodenough reports that Yemen was elected Vice President of an executive board managing the UN Women agency for “gender equality and women’s empowerment,” even though a recent World Economic Forum report ranked the country last out of 149 countries in gender equality.
World Bank Launches SDG-Linked Bonds for Asian Investors

January 15, 2019

The World Bank, in partnership with French bank BNP Paribas, recently introduced new bonds for investors in Hong Kong and Singapore that link investment returns with corporate contributions to the comprehensive social and environmental targets contained in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
UNESCO Promotes Curricula on “Sustainability” in Japan, Morocco

January 11, 2019

A joint project of Japanese and Moroccan foundations with the aim of “twinning” schools in these countries to promote the UN’s “sustainable development” agenda highlights the global nature of projects at the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to embed its Education for Sustainable Development initiative in school curricula.
UNESCO Pushes Schools to Teach “Ocean Literacy”

January 11, 2019

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Office in San José, Costa Rica, recently hosted a training workshop for teachers on “ocean literacy,” as the global organization seeks to include in school curricula portions of the UN’s ambitious “sustainable development” agenda related to protection of the oceans.
UN Project Seeks National Coordination on Environmental SDGs

January 10, 2019

The UN Environment Programme has produced a fact sheet on its program pushing for “coherent and integrated implementation and monitoring” by national institutions in four developing countries of environment-related action toward achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).