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United Nations

The Climate Talks In Paris Will Fail: Why?

November 18, 2015 Robert J. Burrowes, www.countercurrents.org , ,
By Robert J. Burrowes for Counter Current News - As expectations build for a global consensus to emerge from the United Nations climate conference in Paris, starting on 30 November 2015, that could agree to taking action to limit any rise in global temperature to 2 degrees celsius, I would like to explain why these expectations are misplaced. And what we can do about it. The essence of the problem is that most people and organisations are asking elites to take action on their behalf rather than taking action themselves.

60 Million Displaced By War, UN & Red Cross Issue Warning

November 1, 2015 UN and Red Cross, www.icrc.org , , ,
By UN and Red Cross - The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, have issued an unprecedented joint warning about the impact of today's conflicts on civilians and appealed for urgent and concrete action to address human suffering and insecurity. The two leaders stressed the importance of respect for international humanitarian law in order to stem the chaos and prevent further instability. Some sixty million people around the world have been displaced from their homes because of conflict and violence – the highest figure since the Second World War. Conflicts have become more protracted, meaning that many displaced people face years away from their homes, communities and livelihoods. "In the face of blatant inhumanity, the world has responded with disturbing paralysis," said the Secretary-General. "This flouts the very raison d'être of the United Nations. The world must reaffirm its humanity and uphold its commitments under international humanitarian law. Today we speak with one voice to urge all States to take immediate, concrete steps to ease the plight of civilians."

UN Calls For Greater Protection Of Whistleblowers

October 24, 2015 Staff, www.ohchr.org ,
By Staff of OHCHR - The Special Rapporteur’s report to the UN General Assembly in 2015 is now online. This report, the latest among several produced by the mandate over the past twenty years to consider rights of access to information, focuses on the protection of sources and whistleblowers around the world. It reviews national and international laws and practices and provides recommendations to improve available protections. As part of the preparations for this report, the Special Rapporteur issued calls for submissions from Governments and Civil Society. The Special Rapporteur is pleased to acknowledge the many States and NGOs that responded to this call, which may be found below.

UN Attempt To Decriminalise Drugs Foiled

October 20, 2015 Mark Easton, www.bbc.com ,
By Mark Easton for BBC News - A paper from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has been withdrawn after pressure from at least one country. The document, which was leaked, recommends that UN members consider "decriminalising drug and possession for personal consumption". It argued "arrest and incarceration are disproportionate measures". The document was drawn up by Dr Monica Beg, chief of the HIV/AIDs section of the UNODC in Vienna. It was prepared for an international harm reduction conference currently being held in Kuala Lumpur.

It Is Acceptable To Slaughter Children

October 10, 2015 Jack Balkwill, www.dissidentvoice.org ,
By Jack Balkwill for Dissident Voice, As U.S. bombs and gunfire continue to fall on the Middle East, Southwest Asia, many nations in Africa and across much of the third world, corporate media remind us that Halloween is just ahead, and after that, the “holiday season,” so we should ignore anything but our primary purpose as consumers, to buy stuff, throw it away and replace it with new stuff. This consumer job makes the rich richer, which is what America is primarily about. After all, the rich own most of the elections, mass media, and investments. This includes shares of stock in weapons, the primary reason we make “defense” arms, so the bountiful wars will go on as long as they are profitable, and little is ever done about domestic gun violence, the worst in the industrialized world.

The Fight Against Mass Incarceration Goes Global

September 28, 2015 Jennifer Turner, www.aclu.org ,
By Jennifer Turner in ACLU - Next week, the U.N. Human Rights Council will formally adopt the first-ever U.N. report on mass incarceration. In this groundbreaking report, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights brings global attention to the root causes of overincarceration and overcrowding in prisons. A draft resolution that is expected to be adopted by the council will express concern about the “negative impact of over-incarceration and over-crowding on the enjoyment of human rights.” The ACLU worked with other groups to bring this issue to the attention of the Human Rights Council. With considerable movement for criminal justice reform right now, it is the perfect time for the U.N. to issue recommendations on how to reduce the prison and jail population worldwide taking into account human rights obligations and commitments. In the report, the high commissioner outlines a human rights-based approach for criminal justice reform that puts the human dignity of the person at the forefront.

Sustainable Development Goals: A Siren & Lullaby For Our Times

September 26, 2015 Thomas Pogge and Alnoor Ladha, www.occupy.com ,
By Thomas Pogge and Alnoor Ladha in Occupy - Most people haven’t heard about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And if you have, there’s probably a rosy halo emanating from the deep recesses of your subconscious. If so, the UN, the World Bank, the Gates Foundation, ONE.org, Save the Children and other counterparts of the charitable-industrial complex have done their job well. On the eve of the Sept. 25 UN summit – when the new SDGs, a set of 17 goals and 169 targets, will replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – there is a battle for mindshare over the merits of this plan. The SDGs are important because they are a once-in-a-generation declaration of what the world’s power elites are willing to publicly commit. In fact, they are the only shared international agreement to address global poverty. As such, they capture many of the central assumptions and norms that underpin the global political economy.

Let Us Again Be Inspired To Ban Nuclear Weapons

September 26, 2015 Alice Slater, www.PopularResistance.org , , ,
By Alice Slater in Common Dreams - The stirring condemnation of nuclear weapons by Pope Francis today at the United Nations and his call for their prohibition and complete elimination in compliance with promises made in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), signed by the U.S. in 1970, 45 years ago, should give new momentum to the current campaign to start negotiations on a ban treaty. This initiative endorsed by 117 non-nuclear weapons states to sign the Humanitarian Pledge being circulated initially by Austria, to "fill the legal gap" for nuclear disarmament and ban the bomb just as the world has banned chemical and biological weapons would create a new legal norm, which was not established in the NPT which provided that the five nuclear weapons states (US, Russia, UK, France, China) would make "good faith" efforts for nuclear disarmament, but didn’t prohibit their possession, in return for a promise from all the other nations not to acquire nuclear weapons.

Pissed-Off UN Interns Protest Unpaid Internships Outside UN HQs

September 24, 2015 Samuel Oakford, www.news.vice.com ,
By Samuel Oakford in Vice - More than two dozen current and former United Nations interns formed a human chain outside of the organization's Secretariat building in New York on Tuesday, protesting against the UN's largely unpaid internship program, which they said limited opportunities to the wealthy and well-connected. The question of the UN's policy of not paying interns has been under intense scrutiny since a 22-year old from New Zealand was reportedly found living in a tent in Geneva, unable to afford rent in the Swiss city. Though the intern, David Hyde, later admitted to partially staging the encounter, the flurry of press coverage that followed has reinvigorated efforts among interns to organize around the issue.

UN Plan Is ‘Fig Leaf’ For Big Business, Insiders

September 11, 2015 Nafeez Ahmed, www.medium.com , ,
By Nafeez Ahmed in Medium - At the end of this month, the UN will launch its new 2030 Sustainable Development agenda for “people, planet and prosperity” in New York, where it will be formally adopted by over 150 world leaders. The culmination of years of consultations between governments, communities and businesses all over the world, there is no doubt that the agenda’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer an unprecedented vision of the interdependence of global social, economic and environmental issues. But records from the SDG process reveal that insiders at the heart of the UN’s intergovernment engagement negotiations have criticised the international body for pandering to the interests of big business and ignoring recommendations from grassroots stakeholders representing the world’s poor.

Gaza Could Soon Become Uninhabitable, UN Report Predicts

September 7, 2015 Peter Beaumont, www.theguardian.com , ,
By Peter Beaumont in The Guardian - A hard-hitting new United Nations report says Gaza could become uninhabitable in less than five years if current economic and population trends continue. It cites what it describes as the “de-development” of the blockaded coastal strip, which is at present home to some 1.8 million Palestinians but is expected to grow to 2.1 million by 2020. “De-development” describes a process where development is not only hindered but actually reversed. Findings by the UN conference on trade and development point to the eight-year economic blockade of Gaza as well as the three wars between Israel and the Palestinians over the past six years.

Advocates Rally To Keep Solitary Confinement In Spotlight

September 4, 2015 David Howard King, www.gothamgazette.com , ,
By David Howard King in Gotham Gazette - Last November he United Nations committee on torture found that the United States was not in compliance with its Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment because of excessive use of solitary confinement in prisons across the country. The UN found that use of solitary confinement of over 15 days amounts to torture. Nearly a year later New York state has no limit on how long an inmate can be held in solitary--some have served decades. With increasing focus on the conditions in prisons, New York is struggling to address flaws in its prison system that has led to deaths and that advocates say does irreversible mental and physical damage to inmates.

Senate Confirms First Native American Ambassador

August 31, 2015 David McCabe, www.huffingtonpost.com , ,
By David McCabe in The Huffington Post - The Senate confirmed Keith Harper as ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council Tuesday, making him the first Native American to ever become a U.S. ambassador. Harper is an attorney who was one of the lawyers behind a landmark class action lawsuit brought by Native Americans against the federal government. President Barack Obama first nominated him in June 2013. "I’m pleased that my colleagues have voted to appoint another historic first for Indian Country," said Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Chairman Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in a statement. "As a longtime advocate for the civil rights of Native Americans, Keith will be a great Ambassador for our country.” A member of the Cherokee Nation, Harper helped represent around 500,000 Native Americans who brought a class-action suit -- Cobell v. Salazar -- against the United States in the 1990s over alleged federal mismanagement of revenue from mines and oil wells owned by Native Americans.

Making The World’s Indigenous Visible

August 10, 2015 Aruna Dutt, www.ipsnews.net , , ,
By Aruna Dutt for IPS News - As the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples approaches on Sunday, Aug. 9, concerns are growing that they will not fully benefit from the newly drafted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In a policy brief on the SDGs and the Post-2015 Agenda, the Indigenous Peoples Major Group said that there was a failure to recognise indigenous peoples as distinct groups under the expiring Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which resulted in the absence of targeted measures to address their specific situations related to poverty and severely limited favorable outcomes. “Any project not including the participation of Indigenous Peoples is making their needs invisible. The lack of dialogue with Indigenous Peoples and their participation in any process constitutes the main barrier,” Sandra del Pino, Regional Advisor on Cultural Diversity at the World Health Organization (WHO) for The Americas.

UN HRC Slams Canada’s Record On Women

July 24, 2015 CBC News, www.cbc.ca , , , ,
By CBC News - The UN human rights committee is accusing the Canadian government of failing to act on missing and murdered aboriginal women, violence against women generally, and numerous other matters, ranging from refugees to Bill C-51, the new anti-terror law. The UN's first report card on Canada in 10 years was released Thursday, and measures whether the country has met its human rights obligations. At least 26 human rights organizations, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Amnesty International Canada and Human Rights Watch, submitted their own separate reports to the 18-member independent committee on the various issues. Overall, the report took exception to Canada's failure to set up a way to implement some of the committee's recommendations. "It should take all necessary measures to establish mechanisms and appropriate procedures to give full effect to the committee's views so as to guarantee an effective remedy when there has been a violation of the covenant," the report said.
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