Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “United Nations”
The main crisis of human rights is not about perceptions, but about its complicity with domination. When Israel is criticized about its rights-abusive policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the refrain most often heard among local politicians is that the government’s hasbara–the Israeli propaganda machine–is inadequate. The problem, in other words, is not what Israel actually does to the …
The most extreme government in Israel’s history is wasting no time getting down to business. One of its first acts is targeting Palestinian freedom of expression. In June, Naftali Bennett, the Israeli education minister (who once boasted [3] of killing “lots of Arabs”), announced he was pulling state funding [4] from a play created by Palestinians. He claimed the play glorified terrorism, though an Israeli committee that …
The chemicals that we’re exposed to in our daily lives are often approved by the government under the assumption that they’re safe in small doses, even over a long period of time. For years, regulators relied on the old adage “the dose makes the poison” to try to explain their logic. While that might have appeared true for certain chemicals for …
“Nothing less than a systemic transformation of our societies, our economies, and our world will suffice to solve the climate crisis and close the ever-increasing inequality gap.” That is the key message of a new document—titled The People’s Test on Climate 2015—endorsed by an unprecedented coalition of civil society organizations from around the world and sent Friday to world leaders ahead …
The report into Israel’s war on Gaza last summer by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) found that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel’s war on Gaza last summer. But while some newspaper headlines may give the impression of equal blame, the UNHRC’s commission of inquiry nevertheless highlighted the disproportionate nature of the killings—2,251 Palestinians of …
Three prisoners—Melvin Ray, James Pleasant and Robert Earl Council—who led work stoppages in Alabama prisons in January 2014 as part of the Free Alabama Movementhave spent the last 18 months in solitary confinement. Authorities, unnerved by the protests that engulfed three prisons in the state, as well as by videos and pictures of abusive conditions smuggled out by the movement, say …
The High Level International Military Group—a UN-commissioned group made up of 11 former chiefs of staff, generals, senior officers, and political leaders from the U.S., Germany, Spain, Holland, the U.K., Italy, Australia, and Colombia—dismissed all charges and allegations of Israel’s war crimes after investigating last summer’s attack on Gaza. The report was issued on Saturday following the group’s five-day trip to the region …
The state news agency of North Korea announced Tuesday that the country is experiencing its worst drought in a century, exacerbating chronic food shortages and drying up rice paddies—imperiling a major sustenance crop in a country where one third of children under five are already stunted due to malnourishment . “The worst drought in 100 years continues in the DPRK, …
Pope Francis has endorsed the science behind global warming and denounced the world’s political leaders for putting national self-interest ahead of action. Now, Catholic priests are gearing up to spread the word. The 192-page leaked draft of a papal encyclical, published Monday by the Italian magazine L’Espresso, is an attempt to influence the debate before United Nations climate talks scheduled …
In what is being called the most definitive assessment yet of national emissions pledges aimed at meeting global climate goals, the International Energy Agency on Monday released a major report showing that without “learning to live within its means,” the world is set to miss a critical target. In its World Energy Outlook Special Report 2015: Energy and Climate Change (pdf), the Paris-based agency states that …
