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OSCE Official Criticizes Media Trespassing Case
January 07, 2016
Following an Austrian court ruling punishing reporters for violating trespassing laws at an asylum center, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's ("OSCE") Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic argued that the court could not justify the use of property rights to punish journalists for covering stories of "high public interest."
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World Bank Expands Urban Climate Finance
January 07, 2016
In the wake of the recent UN deal on climate-change measures agreed in Paris, the World Bank has issued a press release detailing how it plans to expand its funding of urban initiatives to combat the effects of global warming on cities and how it will pressure national government to ease municipal borrowing to pay for such development.
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US Seeks to Decrease Share of UN Dues
January 07, 2016
George Russell writes that the US is privately negotiating with countries at the UN to reduce, at least marginally, its large share of dues to the international organization, which total over one-fifth of the UN's "regular" budget and over a quarter of the UN's peacekeeping budget.
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UN Chief Expresses Concern over Decreased Biannual Budget
January 07, 2016
The US Government praised as a "great step forward" a marginally decreased 2016/2017 UN budget that reduces staff, some salaries, and funding for supplies, while the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon lamented in a speech to the General Assembly that "funding continues to shrink while demands on the United Nations grow."
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UNESCO Hosts French Forum on "Citizenship Education"
January 07, 2016
The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO") recently hosted a seminar in Paris for teachers, students, and school administrators on how to incorporate into French classrooms UNESCO's model of "Global Citizenship Education," which seeks to "empower" students "to be responsible global citizens."