Skip to content

United Nations

US Blocks UNSC Draft Resolution Denouncing Paramilitary Incursion Into Venezuela

May 23, 2020 By Ricardo Vaz, Venezuela Analysis. , ,
Russia, China and other countries criticized violations of Venezuelan sovereignty. The United States rejected a Russia-proposed UN Security Council (UNSC) draft condemning a recent coup attempt in Venezuela. During a virtual session of the UNSC on Wednesday, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy presented a resolution calling on member states to reject the “use of force… terrorism in all its forms and manifestations… [and] the use of mercenaries.” On May 3 and 4, Venezuelan forces neutralized two speedboats carrying armed groups off the country’s Caribbean coast. US special forces veteran Jordan Goudreau claimed to have orchestrated the 60-man incursion together with retired Venezuelan Major General Cliver Alcala, which was aimed at overthrowing the Maduro government.

US Blocks Vote On UN’s Bid For Global Ceasefire

May 10, 2020 Telesur English. , , ,
International diplomats were stunned and frustrated Friday after the United States again blocked a United Nations resolution to call for a global ceasefire during the COVID-19 pandemic, only because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization (WHO). The Security Council has been wrangling for more than six weeks over the resolution, which was intended to demonstrate global support for the call for a ceasefire by the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. However, the main source for the delay was the U.S. refusal to endorse a resolution that urged support for the WHO’s operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. objected to any mention of the WHO in the resolution.

What Trump’s Funding Cuts To WHO Mean For World

April 19, 2020 By Adam Kamradt-Scott, Consortium News. , , ,
US President Donald Trump has announced the U.S. is cutting its funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO) – a decision that will have major implications for the global health response to the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. contributes more than $400 million to the WHO per year, though it is already $200 million in arrears. It is the organization’s largest donor and gives about 10 times what China does per year. Trump has accused the organization of mishandling and covering up the initial spread of Covid-19 in China, and of generally failing to take a harsher stance toward China. What will Trump’s decision to cut funding mean for the organization?

The Wrong Side Of History: America’s ‘Veto’ And ‘Abstention-Imperialism’

April 18, 2020 Maj. Danny Sjursen USA (ret.), Popular Resistance. , , ,
On Tuesday, March 17, 1970, Charles Woodruff Yost, America’s ambassador to the United Nations, entered the international body’s headquarters building on the far east side of Midtown Manhattan.  He was about to make history.  The UN was already 25 years old, but nonetheless, the organization’s top superpower had yet to exercise its profound Security Council veto power.  Within a few hours, Yost was set to change all that.  In the interest of what greater good would this patrician, cultivated, career diplomat-scholar wield the veto: Freedom? Liberty? Human dignity? Or the rights of small nations?  Hardly.  No, this day America’s global ambassador brandished the voting "nuclear option" to protect from censure an illegal, racist, white-settler-minority regime - Rhodesia (today’s Zimbabwe) - that even then waged war, and maintained a state of emergency, to disenfranchise its black majority (some 95% of the populace).

What Does U.N. Secretary General’s Call For Ceasefire Mean For Countries In Conflict?

April 18, 2020 By Samira Sadeque, Inter Press Service. , , ,
United Nations (March 25, 2020) - Conflict experts are concerned the global ceasefire called for by the United Nations amid the coronavirus outbreak may not work and could lead to a rise in violence. Coronavirus or COVID-19 continues spreading, having passed 400,000 cases globally and claiming more than 17,000 deaths. Countries around the world are putting in measures to ensure they can contain the disease. Many countries such as Canada, United States, and Kenya have closed their borders to non-citizens and/or non-essential travels. On Monday, the U.N. secretary general António Guterres appealed for a global ceasefire. “This is crucial,” he said, “to help create corridors for life-saving aid, to open precious windows for diplomacy, to bring hope to places among the most vulnerable to COVID-19.”

We Need Solidarity, Not Sanctions

April 16, 2020 John Scales Avery, Transcend Media Service. , , ,
According to the United Nations Charter, only the Security Council may impose sanctions. No individual nation may do so. Nevertheless, the United States currently imposes economic sanctions on Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Cuba, Venezuela, Belarus, Burundi, Central African Republic, China, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe. Besides violating the United Nations Charter, these unilaterally imposed sanctions also violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, under which collective punishment is a war crime. Article 33 states that “No protected person may be punished for an offence that he or she did not personally commit.”

The Economic Benefits Of A Global Ceasefire

April 14, 2020 David Swanson. , , ,
There doesn’t seem to be any dispute with the findings of various studies, that investing public dollars in most other things (education, green energy, infrastructure, healthcare, etc.), or not taxing the money from working people in the first place, produces more jobs than military spending. In a generally wonderful new book by Clifford Conner called The Tragedy of American Science, the author claims that if a government produces more jobs through non-military spending, private capital will produce fewer jobs, more than eliminating the benefit. Only military spending, he claims, produces jobs nobody else would produce, because military spending – like Great Depression-era jobs digging and then re-filling ditches – produces nothing useful.

UN Ceasefire Defines War As A Non-Essential Activity

April 11, 2020 By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J S Davies, Pressenza.com. , , ,
At least 70 countries have signed on to the March 23 call by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a worldwide ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic. Like non-essential business and spectator sports, war is a luxury that the Secretary General says we must manage without for a while. After U.S. leaders have told Americans for years that war is a necessary evil or even a solution to many of our problems, Mr. Guterres is reminding us that war is really the most non-essential evil and an indulgence that the world cannot afford—especially during a pandemic. The UN Secretary General and the European Union have also both called for a suspension of the economic warfare that the U.S. wages against other countries through unilateral coercive sanctions.

Global Ceasefire: List Of Countries Committed

April 2, 2020 World Beyond War. , , ,
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres proposed this global ceasefire: Our world faces a common enemy: COVID-19. The virus does not care about nationality or ethnicity, faction or faith.  It attacks all, relentlessly. Meanwhile, armed conflict rages on around the world. The most vulnerable — women and children, people with disabilities, the marginalized and the displaced — pay the highest price. They are also at the highest risk of suffering devastating losses from COVID-19. Let’s not forget that in war-ravaged countries, health systems have collapsed. Health professionals, already few in number, have often been targeted. Refugees and others displaced by violent conflict are doubly vulnerable. The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war. That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world.

Eight Countries Under Unilateral Sanctions Ask UN Chief For Help

March 28, 2020 Edith M. Lederer, Apnews.com , , ,
United Nations — Eight countries under unilateral sanctions, mainly from the United States and European Union, urged U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday to request the immediate and complete lifting of those measures to enable the nations to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. In a joint letter obtained by The Associated Press, the ambassadors from China, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria and Venezuela urged the U.N. chief to “reject the politicization of such a pandemic.” The ambassadors, who said they were under instructions from their foreign ministers, did not name any countries responsible for what they called “illegal, coercive measures of economic pressure.” But the United States has imposed sanctions on all of the nations except China and the European Union has imposed sanctions on all but Cuba.

Israel Violating Law When It Comes To Coronavirus And Palestinian People

March 24, 2020 Staff, Middleeastmonitor.com , , , ,
Israel is legally responsible for providing health services to ensure the safety of Palestinians in the occupied territories during the fight against the coronavirus, a senior United Nations official has announced. “The legal duty, anchored in Article 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, requires that Israel, the occupying power...

Former UN Climate Chief Calls For Civil Disobedience

March 3, 2020 Jeff McMahon, Forbes.com , ,
In a book out tomorrow, the woman who led the negotiations for the Paris Agreement calls for civil disobedience to force institutions to respond to the climate crisis. “It’s time to participate in non-violent political movements wherever possible,” Christiana Figueres writes in “The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis,” which will be released tomorrow by Knopf.

Pompeo: US Rejects UN Database Of Israeli Settlement Companies

February 19, 2020 Staff, Aljazeera.com , , ,
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday said the US government would not furnish any information for a database of companies operating in the occupied West Bank that the United Nations' human rights office released, and said the compilation hurts efforts in the Middle East. "The United States has long opposed the creation or release of this database," he said in a statement.

UN Releases List Of Companies With Ties To Jewish Settlements

February 13, 2020 Staff ,  Telesurenglish.net , ,
Among the companies listed were Airbnb, eDreams, TripAdvisor, and Motorola. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a report Wednesday listing all the 112 companies with business ties to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The report identified 112 firms which it has reasonable grounds to conclude that have ties with illegal Israeli settlements...

UN Ruling Could Be A Game-Changer For Climate Refugees And Climate Action

February 11, 2020 By Yvonne Su,  Theconversation.com , ,
The recent ruling by the United Nations that governments cannot return people to countries where their lives might be threatened by climate change is a potential game-changer — not just for climate refugees, but also for global climate action. The UN Human Rights Committee’s landmark ruling made clear that “without robust national and international efforts, the effects of climate change in receiving states may expose individuals to violations of their rights … thereby triggering the non-refoulementobligations of sending states.”
«12345678910»
assetto corsa mods

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.