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Ambassador: UN Israel-Palestine Resolution Is No Path to Peace
April 29, 2016
Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, writes that UN and US officials should deny calls for a UN Security Council resolution that outlines a final agreement between Israel and Palestine, as he argues that such a resolution is not an effective substitute for direct negotiations and will not lead to peace.
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UN Agents: Australia Must Provide Support to Deaf Jurors
April 29, 2016
The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has found that Australian authorities violated international human rights law by failing to provide deaf people sign-language interpretation or real-time captioning to permit them to participate on juries, concluding that the government's rationale of protecting the confidentiality of deliberations was insufficient.
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UN Committee Links Migrant Deaths to EU Restrictions
April 29, 2016
A UN Committee on the protection of the rights of migrants has published a press release linking the recent deaths of approximately 500 migrants from African countries in the Mediterranean Sea to the lack of safe migratory routes and calling on EU countries to reverse measures that "restrict and criminalize" the ability of migrants to cross their borders.
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EU-Canada Deal Faces Obstacles in Romania, Belgium
April 29, 2016
Economy Watch reports that the governments of Romania, due to visa waiver restrictions on Romanian nationals, and Wallonia, a region in Belgium that is seeking further "guarantees" under the agreement, have refused to give their consent to the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement ("CETA") agreed among negotiators in 2014.
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UN Agent Fears Narrowing "Civil Society" Space in UK
April 28, 2016
UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association Maina Kiai has issued a report following his monitoring visit to the UK on his apprehension that the country, through laws ranging from those countering "extremist" groups to those decreasing government money in lobbying, is seeking to narrow the operational space for civil society.