International Organizations

UN System Approves Funding for Enhanced "Climate Resilience"

March 23, 2018

Highlighting the growing embrace by UN agencies of the climate agenda in development funding, the UN Development Programme's Green Climate Fund has approved over $80 million for "climate change adaptation projects" in Bangladesh, Georgia, and Zambia, focused on improving the population's "climate resilience" in the face of increasingly catastrophic weather events.
UN Report Documents Sex Abuse in Syrian Refugee Camps

March 23, 2018

The Telegraph reports that, in the latest development in a line of sex scandals involving UN operations around the world, the UN Population Fund has published an account documenting the widespread exchange of UN humanitarian assistance for sexual acts in Syrian refugee camps.
NGO Calls for More Aggressive ICC Prosecutions

March 22, 2018

Amnesty International has issued a press release lamenting that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has yet to fulfill its purpose of becoming "a powerful mechanism to hold abuse of power in check," calling for more aggressive prosecutions even in "the most politically challenging investigations and cases" and even against non-state actors.
NGO Identifies Broad State Obligations on Housing

March 22, 2018

Amnesty International has applauded a report of a UN human rights mandate holder containing "practical guidance" to governments on their obligation to ensure that everyone in their territory has access to adequate housing, identifying a positive obligation on countries to prevent homelessness in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
NGO Paints Broad Picture of Environmental Obligations

March 22, 2018

The nongovernmental organization Amnesty International has submitted a statement to the UN Human Rights Council welcoming the release by a UN human rights mandate holder of a set of broad "framework principles" on the right to a healthy environment and warning that countries must not withdraw from any global treaty seeking to protect against environmental harm.