-
UN Agency: "Ageist" Policies Harm Health
October 18, 2016
The UN's World Health Organization has released a new study blaming discrimination against people based on their age - including by "depicting older people as frail, dependent, and out of touch in the media" and mandatory retirement ages - for health problems in older adults.
-
Academics Warn of "Flexible" Language in UN Climate Deal
October 18, 2016
Reporting the findings of their study on the impacts of "flexible" versus "firm" language in international treaties, academics Katerina Linos and Tom Pegram warn of the absence of firm language in the UN climate pact set to enter into force this year on "climate resilience" in developing countries.
-
World Bank Links Economic Equality Agenda with SDGs
October 18, 2016
A recently published World Bank study targets economic inequality as an obstacle to the reduction of extreme poverty around the world and proposes policies such as cash redistribution and progressive taxation to "boost shared prosperity" as part of efforts to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals for the year 2030.
-
Rhodes Points to Risks of Multilateral Rights Institutions
October 17, 2016
Aaron Rhodes of the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe warns that the "bureaucratization of human rights" at the regional and global level permits authoritarian governments to water down traditional human rights standards and stands in the way of a more effective "unilateral" approach to promoting rights among national governments and civil society.
-
UN Rights Chief: Restrict UNSC Veto on Syria
October 17, 2016
In response to the expanding humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has called upon the UN Security Council to restrict the use of the veto by its permanent members under certain circumstances in order to permit the referral of the Syrian conflict to the International Criminal Court.