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United Nations

Securing Our Common Future: An Agenda For Disarmament

May 29, 2018 Peace Movement Aotearoa, Popularresistance.org , ,
“The United Nations was created with the goal of eliminating war as an instrument of foreign policy. But seven decades on, our world is as dangerous as it has ever been. Disarmament prevents and ends violence. Disarmament supports sustainable development. And disarmament is true to our values and principles.” The UN Secretary General (UNSG) launched 'Securing our common future: an agenda for disarmament' last night in Geneva, a comprehensive agenda with three priorities: disarmament to save humanity, disarmament that saves lives, and disarmament for future generations. The agenda covers all areas of disarmament, and extracts from the UNSG's speech on each priority are included below, along with links to further information. “First: disarmament to save humanity aims to reduce and eliminate weapons of mass destruction: nuclear, chemical and biological.

Scourging Yemen

May 23, 2018 By Kathy Kelly, Counterpunch.org , ,
On May 10, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia informed the UN Security Council and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that Saudi Air Defenses intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles launched from inside Yemeni territory targeting densely populated civilian areas in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. No one was killed, but an earlier attack, on March 26, 2018, killed one Egyptian worker in Riyadh and an April 28 attack killed a Saudi man. Unlike the unnumbered victims of the Saudis’ own ongoing bombardment of Yemen, these two precious, irreplaceable lives are easy to document and count. Death tolls have become notoriously difficult to count accurately in Yemen. Three years of U.S.-supported blockades and bombardments have plunged the country into immiseration and chaos.

Gaza: United Nations Votes To Launch War Crimes Investigation Into Israeli Army’s ‘Use Of Force’

May 19, 2018 Staff, Telesurtv.net , , , ,
The resolution, which was debated Friday during the Council's 28th special session to discuss international law violations during protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. The resolution, which sort to “urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry,” was supported by 29 members. Only the United States and Australia voted against the resolution, 14 nations abstained. The Great March of Return began on March 30, Palestinian Land Day. Since then, Palestinian have protested every Friday to demand their right to return to the towns and villages they were expelled from during and after the creation of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948.

At The Local And State Level, New Campaign Aims To Generate National Support For UN Treaty To Ban Nuclear Weapons

May 16, 2018 By Jon Queally, Commondreams.org , ,
The newly-launched 'Treaty Compliance Campaign' is targeted at gaining national support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted by 122 nations at the United Nation's in July of last year. While the U.S. remains the world's largest nuclear power—and numerous past presidents past have said they believe in the goal of a nuclear-free world—lawmakers in Washington, D.C. have steadfastly refused to endorse the treaty that would bar all signatories from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, acquiring, possessing, or stockpiling nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. Not only has the U.S. not signed the treaty, it has so far boycotted the negotiations and actively lobbied other countries not to sign it. With that in mind, the anti-nuke coalition's new campaign wants cities and states governments—as well as businesses, universities, faith communities, and individuals—to comply with the treaty nevertheless.

Palestine Files Complaint To UN Over Israel’s Breach Of Anti-Racism Treaty

April 25, 2018 Staff, Maannews.com , , ,
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Palestinian diplomats have filed an official complaint against Israel, alleging breaches of Israel’s obligations of the United Nations’ anti-racism treaty. The 350-page document was handed to the Geneva office of the United Nations that is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the UN Convention.  Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Ibrahim Khraishi accused Israel of being in breach of the Convention, stating that Israel’s policies illustrate a “common aim of displacing and replacing the Palestinian people, for the purpose of maintaining a colonial occupation.” The document mentions specific breaches of the convention, contributing to “apartheid” in Gaza, as well as the the occupied West Bank, and East Jerusalem, with the sole purpose of maintaining “a Jewish demographic majority in the entirety of historic Palestine.”

UN Agency Fails To Substantiate Claims Of Russian Use Of “Military Grade Nerve Agent” In Skripal Poisoning

April 14, 2018 Julie Hyland, Wsws.org , , ,
Russia said that it had proof that the alleged chemical attack was staged by the UK. RT reports: “The Russian Defense Ministry has presented what it says is proof that the reported chemical weapons attack in Syria was staged. It also accused the British government of pressuring the perpetrators to speed up the ‘provocation.’ . . . “Konashenkov said Russia hoped that international monitors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is due to investigate the circumstances of the incident, will help establish the truth. He added Eastern Ghouta is currently trying to return to peaceful life after being liberated from militant groups by Syrian government forces. He called on other nations and international organizations to provide humanitarian aid, which is badly needed in the area.

International Lawyers: Strike Against Syria Would Be Illegal

April 13, 2018 Staff, Consortiumnews.com , ,
We are practitioners and professors of international law. Under international law, military strikes by the United States of America and its allies against the Syrian Arab Republic, unless conducted in self-defense or with United Nations Security Council approval, are illegal and constitute acts of aggression. The unlawful killing of any human being without legal justification, under every legal system, is murder. And an act of violence committed by one government against another government, without lawful justification, amounts to the crime of aggression: the supreme international crime which carries with it the evil of every other international crime, as noted by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946. The use of military force by a state can be used in self-defense after an armed attack by another state, or, with the approval of the United Nations Security Council.

Syria: UN Expert Urges Pause-No Rush To Judgment

April 13, 2018 Staff, Ohchr.org , ,
On 29 September 2011, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution18/6 on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order. The resolution affirmed that a democratic and equitable international order fosters the full realization of all human rights for all, and that everyone is entitled to it. The resolution sees democracy as a universal value based on the freely expressed will of people to determine their own political, economic, social and cultural systems and their full participation in all aspects of their lives and reaffirmed the need for universal adherence to and implementation of the rule of law at both the national and international levels. In this connection, the principle of the will of the people, as expressed in periodic and genuine elections, shall be the basis of government authority.

‘Caravan Of Insurrection’ Protests Election Fraud

February 25, 2018 TeleSurTV. , ,
Honduras - Supporters of former Honduran presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla went back to the streets Friday as part of what they called "Caravan of insurrection", to continue their protests against fraud during the November elections which handed President Juan Orlando Hernandez a second term in office. The caravan of hundreds of vehicles, organized by the Opposition Alliance against Dictatorship coalition, denounced the electoral fraud and demanded the resignation of Hernandez.

NGO Crimes Go Far Beyond Oxfam

February 17, 2018 By Cristel Amiss, Andaiye, Margaret Busby, Sara Callaway, Luke Daniels, Jocelyn Dow, Selma James, Pierre Labossiere, Emma Lewis, Dr Altheia Le Cointe, Eddie LeCointe, Nina Lopez, Ian Macdonald QC, Rose Okello, Margaret Prescod, Lawrence Renee, Sidney Ross-Risden, Becky Titah, Sam Karl Weinstein, and Nichola Markus, Theguardian.com , , ,
In 2008 some of us had written to Barbara Stocking, then Oxfam chief executive, objecting to a report that it sponsored, Rule of Rapists in Haiti, which labelled Haitians as rapists while hiding rapes by occupying UN forces. The year before, 114 soldiers had been sent home for raping women and girls, some as young as 11. No one was prosecuted. We wrote: “NGOs like Oxfam have known about rapes by UN forces, as well as by aid and charity workers, for decades. It’s the pressure of victims, women and [children] in the most impoverished communities, who had the courage to speak out that finally won … public acknowledgement.” There was no reply. The latest revelations of sexual abuse by major charities (Report, 13 February), are but one facet of NGO corruption.

2017 Human Rights Status Report: Advancing Human Rights

January 18, 2018 the U.S. Human Rights Network. ,
The United States has a complicated and paradoxical relationship to human rights law.  2018 marks 70 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. The US played a leadership role in the drafting the UDHR which set out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected. While the US played a leadership role in the drafting of the UDHR, it has ratified several of them with reservations that limit the enforceability of the conventions through domestic law and in some cases, failed to ratify them at all.

Chinese Leadership On U.N. Reform

January 10, 2018 Rene Wadlow, Transcend.org , ,
6 Jan 2017 – There have been a number of periods when proposals for new or different United Nations structures were proposed and discussed. The first was in the 1944-1945 period when the Charter was being drafted. Some who had lived through the decline and then death of the League of Nations wanted a stronger world institution, able to move more quickly and effectively in times of crisis or the start of armed conflict. In practice, the League of Nations was reincarnated in 1945 in the U.N. Charter but the names of some of the bodies were changed and new Specialized Agencies such as UNESCO were added. There was some dissatisfaction during the San Francisco negotiations, and an article was added indicating that 10 years after the coming into force of the Charter a proposal to hold a U.N. Charter Review Conference would be placed on the Agenda – thus for 1955.

US Rebuffed By UN Security Council On Iran

January 6, 2018 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance ,
The United States took the Iran protests to the UN Security Council this week, but was rebuffed and told the protests were an inappropriate issue for the Council. Reuters described the meeting as one where the US was criticized for abusing its power.  Multiple countries claimed the small protests were not worthy of the Security Council's consideration as they did not threaten peace and security but were a domestic issue that the UN should not intrude on. This was another of a growing list of examples of the US losing influence on the global stage. U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council, but the attempt to turn the UN against Iran backfired. US ally, France warned against the United States using internal matters for its personal benefit.

Ending War Now

January 3, 2018 Jerry Alatalo, Transcend.org , ,
1 Jan 2018 – Given the massive shift of world collective consciousness emergent after, among other astonishing developments, U.S. President Donald Trump’s arguably intended to provoke and dangerous Jerusalem announcement – and especially considering the dramatic response by member states at the United Nations (UN), now would seem the perfect storm, confluence-of-events time for the world’s genuine peacemakers to conduct an energetic push towards long-overdue reform of the UN, and making wars of aggression punishable. Or, in plain-speak, now is the opportune time to end forever in all its dimensions impunity for war criminals. In the United States, for example, the Constitution allows for adjustments by the people as time goes by and societal conditions evolve, and the supreme U.S. law-of-the-land document has been amended a number of times when deemed necessary.

Washington’s Pre-War Demonization Formula Is Targeting Iran, Again

December 27, 2017 By Darius Shahtahmasebi, Mintpressnews.com , , ,
WASHINGTON (Analysis) — The United States has had Iran in its crosshairs for decades and current media coverage indicates that US-Iranian relations are only getting worse. In 1953, the CIA overthrew Iran’s democratically elected leader, Mohammed Mossadegh, and replaced him with a brutal U.S.- and U.K.-backed dictator, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. As is typically the case with covert CIA operations, the U.S. had other concerns when it made the decision to lead a coup against Iran’s democratically elected government and opted for a dictatorship instead.
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