United Nations

Leadership Network Seeks Urgent Climate Efforts

November 21, 2017

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has announced the creation of a Climate Action Leadership Network by national governments seeking to encourage countries around the world to urgently ramp up their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of the UN's Paris climate deal.
State Governors Reject US Rejection of Paris Deal

November 21, 2017

An article in The New York Times reporting the participation by governors of some US states in meetings with global leaders on climate change at a recent session of the UN General Assembly illustrates how some state leaders are sidestepping official US foreign policy to commit to the UN climate agreement rejected by the Trump Administration.
UN Report Blames Climate Change for Growing Hunger

November 20, 2017

Indicating the lock-step nature in which the UN system is pushing the organization's agenda on global warming, a recent report on food security and nutrition from a group of UN agencies blames climate change as a "major driver" of an increase in "hunger" around the world.
Bolton: UN Reform Resolution Is Mere "Rhetoric"

November 20, 2017

In an interview with Fox News, former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton dismissed a US-sponsored resolution on UN reform as "just the usual rhetoric" and called for countries to move to a system of purely voluntary contributions to the UN to further significant changes and create accountability within the international organization.
Bolton Calls for Closure of UNRWA

November 20, 2017

Deeming the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) - the agency charged with assisting Palestinian refugees - to be "highly politicized," former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton has called for the US to withhold funding from UNRWA until the UN folds its functions into the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
US Criticizes UNFPA Praise of Chinese Birth Limitation

November 20, 2017

Dr. Susan Yoshihara of the Center for Family and Human Rights reports that, at the presentation of a strategic plan from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in September that included provisions encouraging "sexual and reproductive health rights," the US delegation criticized the plan's praise for China's four-decade "coercive birth limitation" policy.
UN Rights Observer Criticizes UK on Air Pollution

November 20, 2017

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights related to toxic waste Baskut Tuncak has criticized the UK for "flouting" its obligations to protect the rights of its citizens to life, health, and adequate housing by permitting what he deems to be an unsafe level of air pollution in its towns and cities and has warned that Brexit could further reduce pollution restrictions in the country.
Officials Push Schools to Promote UN Agenda

November 15, 2017

At an event in September, UN officials, including UN General Assembly President Peter Thomson, called for governments to use their education systems as vehicles to promote the values of "non-violence, equality and mutual respect" among the children in their countries to create "peaceful and just societies."
UN Chief Seeks Practical Use of R2P

November 15, 2017

Raising questions concerning limits on the use of global "collective action" to interfere in national sovereignty to prevent human rights violations, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on UN members to move past a theoretical version of the "responsibility to protect" doctrine (R2P) and to apply a practical version to prevent and halt atrocities around the world.
UN Escalates Use of Drones

November 15, 2017

In a recent interview, adviser to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Christopher Fabian explains how UNICEF and a wide array of other UN agencies are seeking to ramp up their use of drones as key elements in "humanitarian, development and peacekeeping operations."