United Nations

US Sees Signs of Change in UNGA on Israel

August 02, 2018

Members of the Trump Administration’s foreign policy team write that a vote on an Algerian resolution at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) blaming Israel for violence in Gaza, in which more nations voted for a US amendment to condemn extremist group Hamas than voted against it, is a positive sign of change at the normally anti-Israel UNGA.
UN Faces Accountability Questions over Sex Abuse

August 01, 2018

Raising new questions of accountability within the international organization, The Daily Mail reports on over 1700 allegations of sexual abuse committed by civilian and military personnel of UN peacekeeping operations, with only 54 perpetrators sent to prison for such offenses.
UN Agencies Demand Compliance with Mexican Abortion Ruling

August 01, 2018

Stefano Gennarini of the Center for Family & Human Rights reports that a group of UN agencies have called on the Mexican state of Veracruz to comply with a federal ruling, made in line with “international standards on human rights,” ordering the state’s legislature to decriminalize abortion.
UN Agency Promotes Agricultural Climate “Resilience”

August 01, 2018

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Agency has launched the second stage of the Forest and Farm Facility Initiative, to be rolled out over the next five years, to support forest and farm producer organizations in helping to make lands resilient to the negative impacts of global warming.
Hungary Announces Opposition to UN Migration Compact

August 01, 2018

Reuters reports that the Hungarian government has announced it will not sign the UN’s Global Compact on Migration, recently approved by all UN member states except for the US and set for formal acceptance in December, because the instrument “is entirely against Hungary’s security interests.”
UN Chief Seeks Embedding of SDGs Across Policy Spectrum

July 31, 2018

Closing the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, at which UN members present their progress toward achieving the UN’s wide-ranging Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighted the scope of the SDGs by calling on states to “embed the essence of the 2030 Agenda into everything that we do.”
Haley: “Corruption” at UNHRC Prevents Positive Reform

July 31, 2018

Voice of America reports that, following the US decision to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley called the UNHRC the UN’s “greatest failure,” as “political corruption” at the body has crowded out positive efforts to hold regimes accountable for human rights abuses.
UN Coordinator Criticizes Israeli Import Restrictions

July 31, 2018

Adding to a chorus of UN criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for the “occupied Palestinian territory” Jamie McGoldrick warned that Israeli restrictions on supplies moving across the border of the Gaza Strip threatened to “trigger a dramatic deterioration in an already fragile situation.”
UN Officials Warn of Insufficient Progress on SDGs

July 31, 2018

Speaking at the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, at which UN members gather to present their efforts to fulfill the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN officials warned that progress on the comprehensive goals is currently insufficient to achieve them by the target year 2030.
UNESCO Plans Future of “Sustainability” Education

July 30, 2018

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) hosted a summit in Thailand to prepare its new Education for Sustainable Development program, planning to integrate the initiative for inserting lessons on “sustainability” into school curricula into broader efforts toward fulfilling the UN Sustainable Development Goals.