United Nations

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.
Singapore, World Bank Use Geospatial Data to Fulfill SDGs

July 30, 2018

The Singapore Land Authority has signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to provide expertise to the World Bank to develop “geospatial data infrastructure” in the Asia-Pacific region with the aim of fulfilling city-related targets in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Kontorovich: US Must Cease Funding UN Bodies with PA as Member

July 30, 2018

Professor Eugene Kontorovich of Northwestern University School of Law writes that the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) acceptance in four UN-affiliated organizations in the past two years means US law prohibits these organizations from receiving federal funding.
UNHCR Criticizes Migrant Family Separation in Australia

July 30, 2018

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has criticized the decision by Australian authorities to deport the husband of a recognized refugee to his home country of Sri Lanka, warning that the deportation “contravenes the basic right of family unity” and was not in the best interest of their 11-month-old child.
Draft UN Global Migration Compact Promotes Migratory Rights

July 30, 2018

The New York Times reports that negotiations at the UN for a Global Compact on Migration have concluded with a draft deal under which countries would agree to 23 objectives, including “providing basic services for migrants,” only detaining them “as a measure of last resort,” and prohibiting blanket policies for turning back migrants at the border.