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WTO Rules Against US Meat-Labeling Regulations
January 08, 2016
The World Trade Organization ("WTO") has found that US regulations requiring meat packaging to list the country or countries where the animal was born, raised, and slaughtered violates US trade obligations and places an unfair burden on meat producers.
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Saudi Arabia Wields Influence on UNHRC Panel
January 08, 2016
Highlighting the fact that a recent mass execution in Saudi Arabia occurred as the country sits on a panel of the UN Human Rights Council ("UNHRC") that selects human-rights observers, journalist Charlotte Alfred writes that Saudi Arabia has already wielded influence on the panel by suppressing a proposal for an inquiry into alleged rights violations in the country's war in Yemen.
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UNGA Recognizes New "Right to Sanitation"
January 08, 2016
As the UN system continues to identify new "human rights" that veer from traditional and universal civil and political rights, and whose achievement typically requires the redistribution of funds, the UN General Assembly ("UNGA") has adopted a resolution recognizing a "right to sanitation" that is distinct from the right it previously recognized to safe drinking water.
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UN Uses "Unusual" Weather to Push Climate-Change Measures
January 08, 2016
The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has blamed climate change and "increased urbanization" for recent "weather-related disasters," including tornadoes in the US, snowfall in Mexico, and flooding in South America, and has called for countries to take into account the predictions of UN agencies in establishing "preventive measures" for such phenomena.
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UNESCO Seeks Empowered Role in Global Education Policy
January 07, 2016
A recent publication from the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") entitled "Rethinking Education" calls for UNESCO to bring stakeholders together to determine the future of global education on "citizenship" and "sustainability" and calls for the establishment of a "permanent observatory mechanism" to monitor trends in education around the world.