United Nations

UN Agency Prioritizes "Sexual and Reproductive" Rights

August 28, 2017

The Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) reports that a draft, three-year strategic plan from UN Women focuses in part on combating "structural barriers" to women's equality that include the denial of "sexual and reproductive health" rights, a term often interpreted to include access to abortion.
UN Group Warns of "Backlash" on Women's Rights

August 28, 2017

A group of UN human rights mandate holders recently issued a warning that "fundamentalist groups" are leading a "backlash" against women's rights, based on the "misuse" of principles such as the importance of family and national sovereignty, and called for the UN and governments to maintain efforts toward the recognition of "sexual and reproductive health" rights.
UN Agent: US Violates Data Privacy Rights

August 28, 2017

After his first official visit to the US, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy Joe Cannataci warned that mass surveillance and looser safeguards for the protection of privacy rights for non-citizens violated America's international human rights obligations and called on the country to review and reform its data privacy laws to conform with global standards.
UN Raises Awareness of Global Asteroid Policies

August 28, 2017

The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs sought to use the first observance of International Asteroid Day in June to "raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard and inform the public about the crisis communication actions to be taken at the global level in case of a credible near-Earth object threat."
UNSC Cuts Darfur Peacekeepers in Budget Move

August 25, 2017

The New York Times reports that, as part of efforts to cut the UN peacekeeping budget to fulfill demands from the Trump Administration on reducing US funding for the international organization, the UN Security Council (UNSC) has agreed to reduce by more than a third the number of UN peacekeepers stationed in Darfur, Sudan.
UN Rights Chief Attacks May's ECtHR Criticism

August 25, 2017

The Guardian reports that, in a speech in June, UN High Commission for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein criticized as "highly regrettable" remarks from UK Prime Minister Theresa May asserting that rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) have stymied measures to prevent terror attacks in Britain.
German Body Adopts Plan for "Sustainability" Education

August 25, 2017

A press release from the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization celebrates the adoption by Germany's National Platform on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), a "steering body" that includes government officials, of a "National Action Plan" for the implementation of ESD in education settings throughout Germany.
UNESCO Advances "Sustainability" Education in Japan

August 25, 2017

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has announced the establishment of the Japanese Society of Education for Sustainable Development to help promote UNESCO's global agenda on including teaching on the UN's comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals in school curricula throughout Japan.
UN Agency Partners with Newspapers on SDG Promotion

August 25, 2017

The UN Development Programme recently announced a partnership with 50 newspapers around the world to promote the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by publishing stories on efforts by "ordinary people" to fulfill the UN's comprehensive social and environmental targets by the year 2030.
UN Agent Criticizes EU, Italian Migrant Policy

August 24, 2017

UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Agnes Callamard has called on the Italian government and the EU to fulfill international human rights obligations to rescue migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean Sea and prevent their return to "appalling" conditions in Africa.