United Nations

Schaefer: US Must Force UN to Improve Whistleblower Rules

July 13, 2017

Brett Schaefer of the Heritage Foundation has called on the Trump Administration to use US laws providing for the withdrawal of funding from international organizations that fail to meet best practices in protecting whistleblowers to pressure UN officials to issue new standards effectively defending whistleblowers from retaliation.
UNGA Approves Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons

July 12, 2017

Despite a boycott of negotiations by nuclear-armed states and their allies, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has approved a treaty banning state signatories from developing, testing, manufacturing, and possessing nuclear weapons and from storing them on their territory.
UNESCO: Achievement of SDGs Requires "Sexuality Education"

July 12, 2017

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has released a paper pushing governments and schools to use "comprehensive sexuality education" to discourage marriage and pregnancy before adulthood and achieve the UN's comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
UN Agents Focus on Economic, Social Rights in Turkish Purge

July 11, 2017

In response to the purge by Turkey's Islamist government of officials, educators, and others from a broad swath of society following the attempted coup in the country, a group of UN human rights mandate holders have issued a statement condemning the impacts of the purge on the "economic, social, and cultural human rights" of the Turkish people.
UN Agent: Focus on Inequality in Treating Depression

July 10, 2017

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dainius Pūras, has called on societies to reconsider the use of biomedical approaches to mental health and place greater focus on redressing factors such as "unequal power relationships" in treating depression in line with the health targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Activist Seeks Independent Court for UN Sex Abuse Claims

June 29, 2017

Paula Donovan of the advocacy organization AIDS-Free World writes that the UN must create an independent court, outside the apparatus of the UN Secretary-General, to try cases of alleged sexual abuse committed by non-military UN officials.
AP Report Shows Long-running UN Sex Abuse Problems

June 23, 2017

An Associated Press report on a child sex ring maintained by over 100 UN peacekeepers in Haiti between 2004 and 2007, and the uncertainty regarding whether their home countries have held them accountable for their crimes, highlights the long-time lack of institutional will to ensure sex abusers in UN peacekeeping forces face punishment.
Haley Pushes for UNHRC Reforms

June 21, 2017

Brett Schaefer of the Heritage Foundation describes the two major UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) reforms demanded by US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley to restore legitimacy to the controversial body: hold competitive elections for seats and eliminate the UNHRC's disproportionate focus on Israel's human rights record.
UN Group: Climate Policies Must Focus on Child Rights

June 15, 2017

Illuminating the UN's expanding agenda to develop a legal category for people who flee the forces of global warming as "climate refugees," UNICEF United Kingdom has published a report calling on governments to consider child rights in developing climate change mitigation strategies and migration policies.
UN Body Monitors Education Systems on SDG Progress

June 14, 2017

UNESCO's Global Alliance to Monitor Learning recently met in Mexico City to decide on a "roadmap" toward building "national strategies for learning assessment" and pushing for international reporting on the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to education.